An approach of scattered data processing for passive optical motion capture was proposed.The approach is based on the principle of model matching.Based on rigid construct matching,tracking and topology checking,the parameters of motion could be obtained and the topologic model of human could be constructed according to character markers,local rigid structure and global topologic relation.This method avoids the error of tracking method when two or more markers overlap. Due to the ability of checking and rectifying error,the data processing is in real time and needs no manual works.


As we know, World Wide Web (WWW) has been developing and it's performance growth is increasing since last few years. So, it requires the need of fast and precise method to reach the information. Ranking is playing an important role to achieve the goal of receiving relevant information. Search Engines have an important component as ranking. It helps user to retrieve the pages that relates to his/her query. Semantic Web (SW) is the extension of WWW. It is a great technology, which helps search engines to retrieve most relevant pages. So, the concept of SW approach is satisfied, only if the results of retrieval are extremely related to user query. Than only, we can consider that due to best ranking schemes user expectations are increasing. Because by accurate result as per the query the scope of knowledge searching increases and make user to view the relevant need for query on top most.


The fairly widespread alkaloid d-sparteine has been isolated from two Hovea species. The constants of four salts prepared from it agreed with those previously recorded.


This paper discusses the works of Jerry Buhari, Kuti Usman, Uche Onyishi and George Oshodi, experimental Nigerian artists, who explore different media in constructing mirrors through which the effects of global warming could be viewed as a plausible reality. Like their counterparts elsewhere, they are sensitive to the changing climate. Using historical, technical and stylistic approaches, the paper analyses their thoughts and work processes. It proposes that the body of works created by these artists highlight, in a stark way, the basic concerns on environmental degradation, as well as the need for caution in man's drive for production and consumption. Key words: Jerry Buhari, Kuti Usman, Uche Onyishi, George Osodi, environmental degradation


One of the objectives of the information disciplines is to study the universe of recorded information—that is, to study the documentary products of domains of human activity—and to come to understand such bodies of literature as social and historical phenomena in and of themselves. Beatty discusses the rich history of medical literature from ancient times to the mid-twentieth century. Forms of bibliographic control, such as Index Medicus, are also covered


Objective To explore the observation and care of the patients with craniocerebral trauma.Methods To analyze the nursing process of 80 cases of severe craniocerebral trauma patients.The nursing process included nursing staff observing closely,corresponding nursing measures,actively to prevent complications.Results In 80 patients with craniocerebral trauma,cure 50 cases,13 cases of being better,7 cases of death.Conclusion The patients with craniocerebral trauma are closely observed through science and improved nursing measures,to ensure the rescue of craniocerebral injury patients,and to reduce the complications,improve the quality of life and prognosis,it will have important significance.


The aim of the research is to study and examine the reality of outputs quality education in the University of Duhok, and in order to accomplish the goal of the research and complete its requirements, the researchers started preparing a theoretical frame work, making use of the practical field aspect which included samples of (158) heads of department and teachers in colleges, A questionnaire was developed to collect data, and through some statistical methods, the results were analyzed and hypotheses tested, The research concluded that the reality of quality of the outputs of education in the University of Duhok for the years of study (2014-2017) varied from year to year, some recommendations were also advised which focused on the teaching quality assurance in the University.


For art and art organizations to experience growth and development, a conscious deliberate effort ought to be made towards harnessing resources to create enabling environment for success (Enamhe, 2012) such could be rendered in qualitative education where constant change occurs through critical thinking, reflection and action.


Neuronal inclusions comprised of aggregated alpha-synuclein (αsyn) represent a key histopathological feature of neurological disorders collectively termed "synucleinopathies", which includes Parkinson's disease (PD). Mutations and amplifications in the SNCA gene encoding αsyn cause familial forms of PD and a large body of evidence indicate a correlation between αsyn accumulation and disease. Decreasing αsyn expression is recognized as a valid target for PD therapeutics, with down-regulation of SNCA expression potentially attenuating downstream cascades of pathologic events. Honokiol (HKL) is a polyphenolic compound derived from magnolia tree bark that has demonstrated neuroprotective properties. Here, we describe potential beneficial effects of HKL on αsyn levels in multiple experimental models. Using human neuroglioma cells stably overexpressing αsyn and mouse primary neurons, we demonstrate that HKL treatment results in a significant decrease in αsyn expression at both the protein and mRNA levels. Our data support a mechanism whereby HKL acts by post-transcriptional modulation of SNCA rather than modulating αsyn protein degradation. Additionally, transcriptional profiling of mouse cortical neurons treated with HKL identified several differentially expressed genes (DEG) as potential targets to modulate SNCA expression. Overall, these data highlight a viable strategy to reduce αsyn levels, which represents a promising target to modify disease progression in PD and other synucleinopathies. In addition, HKL acts as a powerful tool for investigating SNCA gene modulation and its downstream effects.


Arithmetic-function modules, which are available in many circuits, can be utilized to generate test patterns and compact test responses. An accumulator-based scheme along with a procedure to find maximum-length nonlinear sequences for bit-serial test-pattern generators is proposed. The proposed scheme achieves good fault coverage with low hardware overhead and short test sequences


In this article, a synthetic sensorless starting scheme, which is based on pulse injection technology, is proposed for switched reluctance motor (SRM) drives to enhance the starting reliability. This scheme consists of a set of sensorless position estimation algorithms for different stages of SRM starting. In order to start the SRM from standstill stage smoothly, the initial driving phase is selected by pairwise comparing of the three-phase inductance. Then, to ensure reliable starting acceleration, a double inductance dynamic thresholds algorithm is developed for estimating the direct phase-driving signals. Meanwhile, to estimate the real-time rotor position, a position index pulse estimation algorithm, which is with phase lacking fault-tolerant capability, is developed based on an idle phase inductance threshold. By seamless switching between the above mentioned two algorithms, higher reliability of the sensorless starting control can be achieved. Furthermore, the performance of three pulse injection methods are compared, and the best one is then selected to reduce the influences of the high-frequency pulse signals in the idle phases. The theoretical analysis and experimental results are provided to verify the feasibility of the proposed control scheme.


The invention discloses an electronic device and a partitioning method for a storage medium of the electronic device. The electronic device comprises at least one storage medium, an input unit and a control unit. The input unit is used for receiving a partitioning instruction. The control unit is used for receiving the partitioning instruction which is transmitted by the input unit, partitioning the storage medium into at least one partition according to the partitioning instruction, generating partitioning information, backing up the partitioning information to generate backup partitioning information and storing the partitioning information and the backup partitioning information on one of the partitions of the storage medium. After the electronic device is restarted, the control unit compares the contents of the partitioning information with the contents of the backup partitioning information, and reads the partitioning information and partitions the storage medium according to the partitioning information if the contents of the partitioning information are later than the contents of the backup partitioning information. By the electronic device and the partitioning method for the storage medium of the electronic device, convenience for the partition planning of a user can be improved, and problems caused by damage to a first sector of a conventional hard disk can be solved.


This paper will test the ADSL2+ broadband access network that support Triple Play Services (voice, video and data) on last mile. Initial applications presented are entertainment video (video on demand VoD and multicast video IPTV), voice (VoIP), and best-effort data (e.g. web browsing, File sharing /downloading). The QoS guidelines and the objective performance recommendations are presented in this paper in the context of an end-to-end delay, jitter, and delay variation. The networks were tested for the cases when the network availability is 85.5%-93% (services is full at each homes at a time, 7-14.5% traffic in core links) and 25% (services is not full at each homes at a time, 75% traffic in core links) and are agnostic to access technology based on ADSL2+, services architecture, and implementation. As result, the advantages of the ADSL2+ can facilitate the local content management and reduce the content access cost by minimizing traffic loading of the outgoing link.


The objective of this study was to compare the changes of acute phase proteins after ketamine, thiopental and propofol anaesthesia in buffalo calves. Five calves were anaesthetized three times with ketamine, thiopental or propofol in random order at 3 weeks intervals. Calves were pre-medicated with xylazine and buterphenol. Propofol resulted in an excellent anaesthetic induction (free of excitement), short recovery times and duration of anaesthesia, whereas ketamine and thiopental produced a good and fair quality of induction respectively. Acute phase proteins showed significant increase in haptoglobin and fibrinogen, whereas albumin was significantly decreased in all groups. Haptoglobin returned to normal values 48 hours after anaesthesia with propofol and thiopental. In conclusion, the anaesthetic quality produced by propofol in buffalo calves was better compared to those of ketamine and thiopental but it has a short


A scientific article is devoted to the study of accounting features of inventories according to Russian Accounting Standards (RAS) and International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). A comparative characteristic is carried out and their differences are described when taking into account the MPZ. The relevance of the study is justified by the period of transition of an increasing number of manufacturing enterprises of the economy of the Russian Federation (RF) to IFRS in order to improve their accounting policies. The conclusion of the article is the conclusion that international financial reporting standards disclose the issue of accounting for inventories more fully and in more detail than Russian accounting standards. In this regard, the desirable transition of Russian manufacturing enterprises to IFRS.


In this paper, we research a virtual card generation system to secure e-commerce. Network security has increased the need to meet rapidly growing trend. And the amount and quality of e-commerce expansion due to the need for secure commerce transactions has increased even more. Instead of exposing the actual credit card number, we expose a virtual card number on the network. It can prevent the risk of hacking. We proved that through various experiments.


In this case study we accompanied a software development project which was performed using the Agile SCRUM method for software development. Subjective parameters of the design and code quality were collected and analyzed and a comparison was performed to an equivalent non-Agile project. We analyzed the software development process from the following aspects: Initial Effort Estimation process compared to the Effort Estimation given for the project by the COCOMO-II model; Control and management process compared to the one suggested by the PERT/CPM and Critical Chain methods. Results and conclusions: The COCOMO II model showed the smallest deviation in its effort estimation from the real required effort; The PERT/CPM method is not recommended as in most cases the real result was out of the PERT/ CPM allowed variance.


A 10-year-old boy with spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy (CP) was admitted into the hospital with a lower respiratory tract infection. His parents complained that he had a problem with excessive drooling of saliva; they had tried different treatments but to no avail. There was no formal guidance on the management of drooling in CP in the hospital. This raised the question regarding the effectiveness and safety of different interventions in the management of drooling in children with CP.

In a child with CP (patient), which is the treatment with maximum effectiveness and minimum adverse effects (intervention) to reduce sialorrhoea (outcome)?

MEDLINE, Embase, PsychINFO, AMED, PubMed, CINAHL, Cochrane Library and Google Scholar were searched from 1 January 1980 to 23 January 2020 and reference lists also scoured. Searches used synonyms of 'drooling' (sialorrhoea, hypersalivation, ptyalism, slobbering), 'cerebral palsy', 'children' and management/intervention/therapy. Two hundred and twenty-one unique records were screened (online supplementary figure 1) and 14 studies with 510 participants were included (table 1). Six studies evaluated the efficacy of botulinum toxin type A (BoNT-A) and one evaluated botulinum toxin type B (BoNT-B). Five trials examined pharmacological interventions: benztropine, glycopyrrolate and hyoscine. Three studies evaluated non-pharmacological non-invasive interventions: kinesio taping, oromotor exercises, functional chewing training and behavioural techniques. One randomised controlled trial (RCT) compared BoNT-A with submandibular duct ligation. No RCTs or controlled clinical trials could be retrieved on acupuncture or intraoral devices.

### Supplementary data

[archdischild-2020-319309supp001.pdf]

View this table:

Table 1
Summary of included studies

CP describes a group of permanent …


This chapter discusses fluids and renal, including acute kidney injury, chronic kidney disease, haematuria, proteinuria, glomerular disease, urological disorders, low urine output, IV fluids, potassium emergencies, and electrolyte imbalance.


Brachytherapy involves the precise placement of short-range radiation sources directly at the target site. While external beam teletherapy may be the dominant modality in radiotherapy, brachytherapy continues to play an important role in cancer treatment, more than a century after its introduction.1 Indeed, brachytherapy is often described as the ultimate conformal technique, delivering radiotherapy treatment from within or very close to the tumour. The pace of change in brachytherapy has been rapid, with continual innovation and progress since its introduction. The current era is presenting a face of brachytherapy that is changing faster than ever,2 including multimodality well-developed image guidance, new dosimetry standards, advanced treatment planning algorithms and methods, fully optimized treatments, three-dimensional prescription and reporting methods, improved radiobiology understanding, technical applicator improvements and treatment equipment developments. As examples, in high-dose-rate prostate brachytherapy, technological advances in real-time ultrasound image guidance and live patient-specific optimization places the treatment modality at the forefront of innovation in radiotherapy.3 In low-dose-rate brachytherapy for the prostate, recent years have seen an evolution from the traditional two-stage technique to a single session with interactive planning and seed delivery in theatre, hence removing a main source of uncertainty.4 In cervical cancer, the past decade has seen a step change from two-dimensional to three-dimensional image-guided brachytherapy, with various uses of fluoroscopy, ultrasound, CT, MRI and positron emission tomography.5 Brachytherapy is an exciting field to practice, with much research in progress, particularly understanding and reducing uncertainties,6 alongside clinical and technical developments, and clinical trials. Brachytherapy is also a compelling modality, by its nature it is a subject in which physics and clinical aspects are closely linked, physicists and doctors (radiologist, oncologist and urologist) often working very closely together.

This brachytherapy special feature includes a broad range of articles that indicate the variety of developments taking place in the field, with a particular focus on the physics aspects of brachytherapy. The first article by Thorsten Sander (doi: 10.1259/bjr.20140176) is a review of recent developments in primary standards for the calibration of brachytherapy sources, a critical first step in the accuracy of brachytherapy treatment. Sander provides a unique and detailed overview of reference dosimetry in brachytherapy, including a discussion of reference air kerma rate, air kerma strength and absorbed dose rate to water. Panagiotis Papagiannis et al (doi: 10.1259/bjr.20140163) then provide a comprehensive review of a subsequent step in the treatment chain, considering state-of-the-art algorithms for brachytherapy treatment planning. The deficiencies of traditional brachytherapy dosimetry are well known, and we are now seeing the realization of the promise of advanced algorithms. It is essential that users, and especially those commissioning such planning systems, understand the concept and limitations, which are provided in the article. Next, Chris Lee (doi: 10.1259/bjr.20140146) reviews progress in brachytherapy treatment planning, an area where recent developments are probably most visible. The article provides a review of best-practice brachytherapy planning, in particular considering how imaging developments have been incorporated into planning techniques. Gustavo Kertzscher (doi: 10.1259/bjr.20140206) then tackles the challenging prospect of in vivo verification of brachytherapy treatment delivery, reviewing trends and prospects for the future. This timely article considers how real-time in vivo dosimetry may detect errors and discusses current capabilities and latest developments. Finally, I have contributed a review of dosimetric audit in brachytherapy (doi: 10.1259/bjr.20140105). Another challenging area, but important to ensure patient safety and aid optimization. My review considers previous audits, those currently in progress and future directions for independent review.

I hope this collection of articles is an interesting update and review for those currently practising brachytherapy, and reminds those outside our "niche area" of the rapid development and future prospects for this specialized treatment modality.


the the conference, Frédérique Spill this in the tradition of close readings that has often been privileged but that Faulkner's unmistakable writing style been an enduring object of both fascination and critical analysis for Faulkner scholars and readers across the world. The aim of the symposium been to focus on particular words whose uncanny re-appearance suggests a singular way of playing with words in the fabric of the text but also the particular entanglement of that text with the "complicated, troubled world that shaped it" (CFP). Benjy Compson's idiosyncratic lexicon as a source of reflection mixed with wonder. In Benjy's monologue, the limited number of words reveals a singular cognitive style: the generic words point to a lost object of love but they also delineate the contours of a perceptive world, with clusters of sensations and affects forming around the images of flower, slipper, tree or fire, creating "a minute poetry of phenomenon." In that sense, although Benjy rarely uses negations, his words have something in common with the terms derived from negative affixation (words in -less , un- or im- ) proliferating in other Faulknerian texts: in a way, sensation, affect and even reality seem to be envisioned as what exceeds the capacity of the nervous system to endure it, the capacity of the mind to comprehend it or the power of language to name it. "Things" always seem to be approached negatively, as the shadows of the words pointing toward them.


In this paper we study the problem of sorting under non-uniform comparison costs, where costs are either 1 or ∞. If comparing a pair has an associated cost of ∞ then we say that such a pair cannot be compared (forbidden pairs). Along with the set of elements V the input to our problem is a graph G(V,E), whose edges represents the pairs that we can compare incurring an unit of cost. Given a graph with n vertices and q forbidden edges we propose the first non-trivial deterministic algorithm which asks O((q + n) log n) comparisons with a total complexity of O(n + q), where ω is the exponent in the complexity of matrix multiplication. We also propose a simple randomized algorithm for the problem. We show that a certain class of random graphs with high probability can decide the order of V with only Õ(n/ √ q + n+n √ q) probes. When the input graph is random we show that Õ(min (n, pn)) probes suffice, where p is the edge probability.


(57) Abstract: Gloves (2), and the palm cover portion, and a plurality of finger cover portion extending from the palm covering portion to accommodate a finger and covers this, in order to form a chamber for accommodating the hand the has a rear portion associated with the palm covering portion, the elastic member (7) extending over and beyond at least one knuckle of each finger from said rear portion, each elastic member is bent fingers when, associated with the finger cover portion to allow expansion and contraction of the finger cover portion.


Due to their outstanding advantages like excellent moisture resistance and compatibility with up-scalable manufacturing processes, carbon (C) electrode hole transport layer (HTL)-free perovskite solar cells (PSCs) represent an excellent solution to the serious limitations caused by the commonly used HTL and expensive noble metal electrode. The C-electrode can be deposited using different techniques from various carbon allotropes and their derivatives. However, the choice of optimal carbon sources is still open to debate, which will certainly have a strong effect on the performance and long-term stability of the resulting PSCs. Here, the modular HTL-free C-PSCs were assembled by the lamination of two independently processed half-stacks of a semi-cell and a charge collector, where the C-electrodes were processed using a simple spray coating technique at low temperature (85 °C). Three typical carbon sources were used, i.e., multiwall carbon nanotube (MWCNT), carbon nanocoil (CNC), and graphene. A comparative study was conducted to determine the best candidate. Results indicated that MWCNT might be more preferable as the back electrode in HTL-free PSCs in terms of well-aligned band alignment, superior ability in extraction and collection of photo-generated holes. As a result, an improved power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 11.2% was achieved for modular MWCNT-based PSCs, and much improved thermal and humidity stabilities were also demonstrated. Our achievement demonstrates the irreplaceable role of tri-functional MWCNT in C-based HTL-free PSCs with integrated function: (i) back electrode; (ii) hole extraction and collection; and (iii) excellent moisture barrier.


In the current study, wear and frictional performances of different metals are investigated under different operating parameters against stainless steel counterface under dry contact conditions. The experiments performed using block on ring machine. Microscopy was used to examine the damage features on the worn surface and categorize the wear mechanism. Thermal imager was used to understand the thermal loading in the interface during the rubbing process. The results revealed that the operating parameters influence the wear and frictional behaviour of all the metals. Brass metal exhibited better wear and frictional behaviour compared to others. Three different wear mechanisms were observed, i.e. two body abrasion (Brass), three body abrasion (Aluminium) and adhesive (Mild Steel).


In this paper we present and compare four different models of implementing a Bandwidth Broker in a DiffServ network. We describe the relevant implementation aspects in the well-known ns-2 simulator and present a number of experiments that were conducted in order to verify our implementation, analyze the performance characteristics of the various alternatives and evaluate the usefulness of the ns-2 simulation environment for similar purposes. We present our experiments that aim at investigating a number of issues related to the operation of Bandwidth Broker modules, and in particular how the acceptance rate, the network overhead and the response time for each Bandwidth Broker model are affected by the network topology, the available buffers for incoming requests and the advance time from the moment a request is submitted to the moment the reservation should take place


In the process of constructing harmonious society and the new socialist rural areas,the radio programs can play a greatly important role on the rural population,but under the impact of local TV and media as well as the short term interests,they don′t get enough focus,which should be emphasized and improved a lot.


Introduction. SSurgical care for patients with fibrous-cavernous and cavernous pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) most often ends with thoracoplasty due to impossibility to use resection methods of treatment.The aim of study was to assess results of application of various upper-posterior thoracoplasty options in the treatment of patients with fibrous-cavernous pulmonary TB.Materials and methods. The author analyzed results of 233 thoracoplasties performed in patients with fibro-cavernous pulmonary TB in 2012-2018. Group 1 (n = 70) consisted of patients with selective extrapleural upper-posterior thoracoplasty with polypropylene mesh; Group 2 (n = 60) consisted of patients with osteoplastic thoracoplasty according to Bjork; Group 3 (n = 103) consisted of patients with traditional selective extrapleural upper-posterior thoracoplasty. The following parameters were analyzed: elimination of the destruction cavity, stabilization of the specific process and termination of the excretion of Mycobacterium tuberculosis during the year. The results were summarized in groups based on good clinical effect, satisfactory clinical effect, worsening, death.Results. Thoracoplasty treatment option with a compression device (mesh) application resulted in the increased degree of compression in the intervention area by 30%, compared with the traditional upper-posterior thoracoplasty option and osteoplasty according to Bjork (p 0.05), and reduced the number of bronchopulmonary complications by 15% (p 0.05).Conclusions. The use of a mesh prosthesis leads to an increased effective compression of the destruction cavity, creates conditions for healing of the pulmonary tissue defect and reduces the risk of developing bronchopulmonary complications


[Objective]To establish the microwave digestion hydride generation-a method for arsenic detection in urine by atomic fluorescence spectrometry.[Methods]The method of digestion by confined microwave digestion system was adopted to conduct digestion and dual channel atomic fluorescence photometer was employed for determination.[Results] The calibration curve for arsenic ranged from 0~100 μg/L.Detection limit was 0.36 μg/L and the recoveries of standard addition was 88.3%~98.7%.[Conclusion]This method is applicable to determination of arsenic in urine for its simple,rapid,sensitive and of reliable results.


The physiological responses of rice seedlings to low temperature stress were tested with four surviving-in-winter(SW)lines or winter lines and four common indica varieties(the controls) as the materials.The results showed that the average seedling survival rate(SSR) of four SW lines under 5 days of low temperature treatment(85.75%) was much higher than that of four control varieties(14.63%) with SW-2 as the highest(95.31%) and Gui 99 as the lowest((1.67)%).Both of the relative conductivity rate(RCR) and the chloroplast pigment degradation rate(CDR) of SW lines were lower than those of the cultivars in control after low temperature stress.The MDA content of rice seedlings would increase under low temperature stress,but the relative increasing amount in the SW lines was much less than that of the control varieties.The SOD relative activity of the SW lines was higher than that of the control varieties in the wake of suffering from chilling stress.Therefore,the winter lines have a very strong cold tolerance.


The objective of this work is to analyze the Brazilian public debt and its composition, between march 2009 and September 2016, using a tax smoothing model, proposed by Robert Barro (1979) and used by Ilan Goldfajn (2000), with a two periods model, in the first period the government choose the debt composition, issuing bonds, which reaches maturity after one period. Although the debt's optimal portfolio composition, administrated by the Treasury, follows a financing costs model, with moderate risks. The public debt is composed by internal and external debt. In the last few years, internal debt participation has grown, being actually the greatest part of the total debt. The debt's optimal portfolio composition estimated by Goldfajns model (2000) will be compared to the Treasury's observed portfolio. The used model could not a find optimal composition of the debt that approaches to that observed, although it manage to hit the observed movement, confirming that the government minimizes the agents losses when hit by a macroeconomic shock. Also, most of the proposed trade-offs could be confirmed. The particular one, that could not be confirmed, was as a consequence of the analyzed period, when the interest rate was downward forced.


STUDY DESIGN
Retrospective study using a national administrative database.

OBJECTIVE
To define the cohort differences in patient characteristics between patients undergoing cervical disc arthroplasty (CDA) and anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) in a large national sample, and to describe the impact of those baseline patient characteristics on analyses of costs and complications.

SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA
CDA was initially studied in high quality, randomized trials with strict inclusion criteria. Recently a number of non-randomized, observational studies have been published an attempt to expand CDA indications. These trials are predisposed to falsely attributing differences in outcomes to an intervention due to selection bias.

METHODS
Adults undergoing ACDF or CDA between 2004 and 2014 were identified using ICD-9-CM diagnosis and procedure codes. Perioperative demographics, comorbidities, complications, and costs were queried. Patient characteristics were compared via chi-square and t-tests. Cost, mortality, and complications were compared between ACDF and CDA cohorts using models that adjusted for demographics and comorbidities, as well as "naïve" models that did not.

RESULTS
A total of 290,419 procedures, 98.2% ACDF and 1.8% CDA, were included in the sample. Compared to ACDF patients, CDA patients were younger, healthier as evidenced by number of comorbidities, and had an improved socioeconomic status as measured by income and insurance. The naïve logistic regression model showed that hospital costs for CDA were $549 lower than ACDF. In the fully specified model, CDA was $574 more expensive. The naïve model for medical complications suggests a protective advantage for CDA over ACDF, odds ratio of 0.627, p < 0.01. No statistically significant difference was found in the fully specified model in terms of complications.

CONCLUSIONS
Patients undergoing CDA were younger and healthier with higher socioeconomic statuses compared to ACDF patients. Accounting for these baseline differences significantly attenuated the apparent benefit for CDR on costs and medical complications.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE
3.


Anna Geifman. Entangled in Terror: The Azef Affair and the Russian Revolution. Wilmington, DE: SR Books, 2000. x, 247 pp. Bibliography. Index. $60, cloth; $19.95, paper. In May 1908 Vladimir Burtsev, a Russian journalist and sometime socialist with unusual sources of information within the tsarist police, accused Evno Azef of being an agent provocateur working for both the Russian police and the Socialist Revolutionary Party (PSR). This charge sent shock waves through the Russian revolutionary movement and contributed to the temporary collapse of the PSR. Azef had been a trusted revolutionary for fifteen years; he was a member of the PSR's Central Committee; and for the last six years had been a leading figure in their Combat Organization (Boevaia organizatsiia) which in turn had been responsible for a number of sensational political assassinations, most notably that of Interior Minister V.K. von Plehve in 1904 and Grand Duke Sergei Aleksandrovich in 1905. If Azef were a provocateur, then this meant that he had been responsible for the arrest of numerous revolutionaries, the failure of other plots against the regime, the revealing of the Socialist Revolutionaries' innermost secrets, and the discrediting of terror as a political weapon. The party's first response was to defend their longtime colleague. Burtsev was accused of slander and brought before a "court of honour." In his defence, he revealed that he obtained confirmation for his suspicions from A.A. Lopukhin, a former Director of the Police Department. After verifying this information with Lopukhin, the incredulous revolutionaries confronted Azef in Paris in January 1909. Realizing that his denials were unconvincing and fearing for his own safety, he promptly fled to Germany where he lived incognito until his death in 1918. The basic outline of the Azef "affair" is well known. Burtsev, to enhance his reputation as "the Sherlock Holmes of the Russian Revolution," published numerous versions of his unmasking of the provocateur. The PSR, to salvage something from the fiasco, sought to embarrass the tsarist government by publicizing the terrorist acts Azef allegedly had been involved in at the behest of the police. The Russian authorities themselves gave credence and publicity to the affair by arresting and exiling Lopukhin for assisting the revolutionary cause. And Boris Nicolaevsky incorporated much of this evidence and made it accessible to a wider audience in his 1934 biography Azeff the Spy: Russian Terrorist and Police Stool. Since then, almost all scholarly accounts of the period have followed Burtsev and Nicolaevsky in seeing Azef as the classic example of an agent provocateur or double agent without bothering to explore either his motives or the appropriateness of these terms. Anna Geifman, an Associate Professor at Boston University, touched on the Azef affair in her Thou Shalt Kill: Revolutionary Terrorism in Russia, 1894-1917 (Princeton, 1993). Now, with the aid of material found in the State Archives of the Russian Federation (GARF), she has provided a much-needed new biography and in doing so has effectively challenged the conventional picture of Russia's "master spy." To Geifinan Azef was neither a "provocateur" nor a "double agent. …


ABSTRACT Around the globe, trans and gender diverse people have a wide range of access to health care, psychological as well as physical, that is unique to their home country's context. Some of the contributing factors are nations' health care systems, laws and policies surrounding discrimination, adequate resources, and under-trained health care professionals. Unfortunately, inability or difficulty in accessing transition related health care and support leads to negative impacts on mental health. In this article, the authors describe the unique contexts related to transgender health care in Canada, Japan, South Africa, and the United States. We focus specifically on the financial cost of transition for trans and gender diverse people, including gender affirming surgeries as well as mental and health care more broadly. We discuss the role of mental health professionals as advocates for gender affirming care and the fundamental human right to health care. We include discussions of therapy, assessment, medical care such as hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and surgeries, and additional invisible costs. We highlight the importance for all mental health professionals to be aware of the impacts to trans and gender diverse people's mental health when their fundamental health care needs are not met. Furthermore, we provide recommendations for how mental health professionals can advocate for their clients' access to transition related care.


Knee arthrodesis with long intramedullary nails is a well known salvage procedure for the failed total knee replacement (TKR).9,14 This especially is true when there is extensive bone loss that does not allow adequate compression to be exerted across broad areas of cancellous bone. However, fatigue fractures of long intramedullary nails may occur if there is delayed union, nonunion, or following trauma, thereby necessitating extraction.2,15 Extraction of long intramedullary nails can be technically demanding and a challenging task. This article presents a surgical technique for extraction of broken long intramedullary nails used in knee arthrodesis.


In this work, we explore a data scheduling strategy for semi-supervised learning (SSL) for acoustic modeling in automatic speech recognition. The conventional approach uses a seed model trained with supervised data to automatically recognize the entire set of unlabeled (auxiliary) data to generate new labels for subsequent acoustic model training. In this paper, we propose an approach in which the unlabelled set is divided into multiple equal-sized subsets. These subsets are processed in an incremental fashion: for each iteration a new subset is added to the data used for SSL, starting from only one subset in the first iteration. The acoustic model from the previous iteration becomes the seed model for the next one. This scheduling strategy is compared to the approach employing all unlabeled data in one-shot for training. Experiments using lattice-free maximum mutual information based acoustic model training on Fisher English gives 80% word error recovery rate. On the multi-genre evaluation sets on Lithuanian and Bulgarian relative improvements of up to 17.2% in word error rate are observed.


Based on the analysis of the main indicators of the standard of living, it is concluded that the agrarian regions of the central part of Russia are significantly lagging behind the average Russian level. Of the regions considered, the best indicators are characteristic of the Belgorod Region (growth in consumer prices, per capita retail trade turnover, the ratio of per capita monetary income to the subsistence minimum, average monthly wages and pensions, as well as the level of poverty. Of particular concern is the socio-economic situation in the Bryansk region, characterized by the worst among the agricultural and industrial centers of the Central Federal District values of most indicators of living standards and the expansion of poverty. A significant lag in the standard of living of the population of the regions that ensure the food security of the state can become a threat to its national security and requires special attention from the government of the country.


The frequency-hopping communication system is widely used because of its good anti-interference characteristics. In this paper, a new design method and structure of the frequency-hopping filter is proposed according to the filtering requirements of the frequency-hopping communication system. The idea of this method is to combine the traditional variable capacitor bank with the switch array, and realize the frequency hopping filter by subsection design; Each section uses a PIN diode to gate different capacitor banks to realize the change of center frequency, to achieve two-way optimization of filter performance and circuit structure. The results of simulation and measurement show that the method is effective and provides support for the effective design of the frequency hopping system.


Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary (1994) defines plethysmography as 'the recording of the changes in the size of a [body] part as modified by the circulation of the blood in it' (p. 1306). This is done by measuring electrical impedance, 'a technique for detecting blood volume changes in a part by measuring changes in electrical resistance'. Impedance changes are detected by a strain gauge, 'a technique for detecting blood volume changes in . . . circumference employing a rubber tube filled with a conductive liquid; as the tube expands and contracts, the resistance in the fluid changes in proportion to the circumference'. A plethysmograph is 'an instrument for determining and registering variations in the volume of an organ' (Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary, 1994, p. 1306, passim). In medicine, plethysmography is primarily used for 'measuring changes in body volume, used especially in measuring pulmonary ventilation' as well as for 'measuring blood volume taking place in a single finger' (Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary, 1994, p. 1306). This description shows that it is a small step from measuring blood volume in a single finger to measuring circumferential change in a penis. This impressive definition lends an aura of scientific respectability to penile plethysmography. There are two general methods for measuring changes in penis size. The first, called the volumetric method, was developed by Freund in the former


The metabolism of diazinon, an organophosphorothionate pesticide, to diazoxon and pyrimidinol has been studied in incubations with hepatic microsomes from control Sprague–Dawley (SD) rats or SD rats treated with different P450‐specific inducers (phenobarbital, dexamethasone, β‐napthoflavone, and pyrazole).


the pericardial fluid lends support to a local mechanism. Fat necrosis has been well documented in subcutaneous tissues in pancreatitis7 but it has not previously been described in the mediastinum. Mediastinal extension of a pancreatic pseudocyst has been described, but in our patient neither contrast studies nor computed tomography showed a fistulous connection. Our case also shows the importance of a multidisciplinary approach, without which our patient would probably not have survived. 1 Auger C. Acinous cell carcinoma of the pancreas with extensive fat necrosis. Arch Pathol 1947;43:400-5. 2 Mitchell CE. Relapsing Pancreatitis with recurrent pericardial and pleural effusion. Ann Intern Med 1964;60:1047. 3 Lipson JD, Stephenson HE. Pancreatitis complicated by pericardial effusion and cardiac tamponade. Arch Surg 1971;103:414. 4 Witherington R, Collins P. Cardiac tamponade in acute pancreatitis. Thorax 1980;35:959-60. 5 Jones B, Haponick EF, Katz R. Fibrinous pericarditis: an uncommon complication ofacute pancreatitis. South Med J 1987;80:377-8. 6 Perry TT. Role oflymphatic vessels in transmission of lipase in disseminated pancreatic necrosis. Arch Pathol 1947; 43:456-65. 7 Wilson HA, Askari AD, Neiderhiser DH, et al. Pancreatitis with arthopathy and subcutaneous fat necrosis. Arthr Rheum 1983;26:121-6.


crease in quadriceps activity found during the subjects' stance phase could have a protective effect on the unstable knee due to the increased activity of muscles that work synergistically with the ACL to control ante rior tibial translation. The reduced activity of antagonist muscles could enhance this effect. Bracing did not alter the relative EMG activity nor did it change firing patterns compared to the unbraced situation. All muscles showed a similar reduction in activity, suggesting that these braces did not have a proprioceptive influence.


This article has as purpose to analyze the degree of the financial managers' perception among small and middle organizations about the capital cost. The data were collected within 27 companies in 10 sections of the Brazilian economy. The method chosen for data collection relies greatly on personal interviews based on route previously elaborated. The interviews demonstrated that most of the interviewees even does not know about the cost of equity. The ones who know about it, in its majority, measure like as the minimum rate of profitability, measured for the cost of lost opportunity. In the regard of the cost of debt, most of them know and were unanimous to confirm that the cost of debt is explicit and it already comes defined by the financial institutions, in its contracts. It was observed that among the managers interviewed which affirmed to know the cost of equity and cost of debt, the great part were in the management position, had college degree in accounting or engineering,, had more than 15 years of experience in these functions, had over 40 years, worked within companies 21 years old and over in the market, and were basically male.

Key-words: Cost of Equity, Cost of Debt, Small and Middle Business.


The present doctoral thesis discusses the design of fault-tolerant distributed systems, placing emphasis in addressing the case where the actions of the nodes or their interactions are stochastic. The main objective is to detect and identify faults to improve the resilience of distributed systems to crash-type faults, as well as detecting the presence of malicious nodes in pursuit of exploiting the network. The proposed analysis considers malicious agents and computational solutions to detect faults. Crash-type faults, where the affected component ceases to perform its task, are tackled in this thesis by introducing stochastic decisions in deterministic distributed algorithms. Prime importance is placed on providing guarantees and rates of convergence for the steady-state solution. The scenarios of a social network (state-dependent example) and consensus (timedependent example) are addressed, proving convergence. The proposed algorithms are capable of dealing with packet drops, delays, medium access competition, and, in particular, nodes failing and/or losing network connectivity. The concept of Set-Valued Observers (SVOs) is used as a tool to detect faults in a worst-case scenario, i.e., when a malicious agent can select the most unfavorable sequence of communications and inject a signal of arbitrary magnitude. For other types of faults, it is introduced the concept of Stochastic Set-Valued Observers (SSVOs) which produce a confidence set where the state is known to belong with at least a pre-specified probability. It is shown how, for an algorithm of consensus, it is possible to exploit the structure of the problem to reduce the computational complexity of the solution. The main result allows discarding interactions in the model that do not contribute to the produced estimates. The main drawback of using classical SVOs for fault detection is their computational burden. By resorting to a left-coprime factorization for Linear Parameter-Varying (LPV) systems, it is shown how to reduce the computational complexity. By appropriately selecting the factorization, it is possible to consider detectable systems (i.e., unobservable systems where the unobservable component is stable). Such a result plays a key role in the domain of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs). These techniques are complemented with Eventand Self-triggered sampling strategies that enable fewer sensor updates. Moreover, the same triggering mechanisms can be used to make decisions of when to run the SVO routine or resort to over-approximations that temporarily compromise accuracy to gain in performance but maintaining the convergence characteristics of the set-valued estimates. A less stringent requirement for network resources that is vital to guarantee the applicability of SVO-based fault detection in the domain of Networked Control


It is found that original ghost fluid method(GFM) did not work consistently and efficiently when applied to a strong shock impacting on a material interface.In this work,as to the numerical simulation of multi-fluid flow,the second-order TVD-WAF scheme with Riemann solver HLLC was applied to solve Euler equations;fifth-order WENO was implemented to solve level set equation;material interface was treated with modified ghost fluid method(MGFM).Numerical results of 1-D and 2-D cases show that the code not only captures material interface accurately but also works well when applied to a strong shock impacting on a material interface with high resolution.


In this paper, we propose a fuzzy adaptive controller design for a class of networked control systems (NCS) with the presence of network induced delay, data packet dropout and unknown time-delay controlled plant. The mathematical model of Smith predictor, which is combined with fuzzy adaptive controller and fuzzy compensator time-delay, is designed to adjust online its parameters according to the changing of the system's output. The results based on TrueTime Beta2.0 simulation platform demonstrate that our design significantly improves the response of system over unknown time-delay.


This paper reports numerical modelling and simulation of carbon dioxide capture from flue gases by aqueous ammonia solution as an absorbent. The simulation of the complex flows is mainly for the low efficiency of the present post-combustion capture technology, which includes a countercurrent two-phase flow considering chemical reaction between CO2 and NH3 solution in representative elementary units (REU) of structured packed column. Then, we compared the CO2 absorption between two REUs model and single REU model, the results show that more contact time means higher absorption rate. Furthermore, the feasibility of the model is checked over different operating parameters in the Part II. Based on the simulation, we can achieve the optimized design to the process parameters.


Abstract Given the solubilities of non-ionic organic solutes in water, their solubilities in seawater are obtained by correlation expressions involving two descriptors for the constituent ions (or salts) of seawater and two descriptors of the solutes. The former are the standard partial molar volumes and the intrinsic molar volumes and the latter are the molar volume (the Le Bas variant of it) and either the Hildebrand solubility parameter δH or the Kamlet–Taft solvatochromic π*.


The effect of polymerization temperature on the melt flow behavior of PVC of varying molecular weights has been studied over a wide shear rate range. For the same molecular weight, higher melt viscosities are observed for polymers prepared at lower temperatures. The shear rate dependence of the viscosity vs molecular weight plot is shown to be nonlinear over the shear rates examined. The inability to achieve a limiting zero-shear viscosity is discussed.


Dura mater repair represents a final and crucial step in cranial surgery: an inadequate dural reconstruction determines dreadful consequences that significantly increase morbidity and mortality rates. Different dural substitutes have been used with poor results. To overcome this issue, in previous studies we proposed a laser-based approach to the bonding of porcine dura mater, evidencing the feasibility of the laser assisted procedure. In this work, we present the optimization of the laser bonding approach ex vivo in porcine dura mater and in vivo in rats. An 810 nm cw laser was used to weld the ICG stained chitosan patch to the dura. The ex vivo tests enabled to optimize the laser parameters, using histology and leak pressure evaluation to study the bonding effect. The in vivo tests were performed on 32 adult Wistar rats: laser bonding was carried out in 16 rats, while a collagen matrix was used for duroplasty in the control group. After the treatment, the animals were left to recover and were observed in a 15 and 90 days follow up study. At sacrifice, the rats were anesthetized for fluid leakage pressure test; treated tissue was harvested and underwent standard histology. The results of this study pointed out that the laser bonding procedure can be used to close the dura mater, both ex vivo and in vivo. The thermal effect is limited and spatially confined. The technique can thus be proposed as a valid alternative to standard method for the closuring of dura mater in cranial surgery.


While industrialized countries (ICs) are responsible for the bulk of historic anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the relative contribution of less developed countries (LDCs) to the atmospheric stock of GHGs is rapidly increasing. Therefore a crucial task – which could not be accomplished at the COP 15 in Copenhage n in 2009 – is to device a fair burden sharing regime among ICs and LDCs to ensure broad cooperation in the mitigation of global warming. We develop a multi‐sector, multi‐ region computable general equilibrium (CGE) model to analyze, whether a climate policy approach limited to ICs will lead to the achiev ement of the +2°C target. Second, we investigate whether financial transfers to induce energy‐efficiency improvements in LDCs, like the envisioned Copenhagen Green Climate Fund, are sufficient to trigger substantial deviations from business‐as‐ usual (BAU) CO2 emissions in LDCs. We find that climate policy agreements which do not limit emissions in LDCs cannot ensure a global mean temperature increase within +2°C compared to pre‐ industrial levels. While ICs do achieve partly substantial emission reductions, LDCs' CO2 emissions tend to grow even stronger until 2020 than under BAU. Moreover, providing financial resources for LDCs, which aim at increasing energy efficiency in the power sector, will not be sufficient unless combined with emission targets for LDCs. From the latter policy, both LDCs and ICs would benefit when taking a combi ned environmental and economic perspective.


Castration, plus or minus amputation of the penis, was a secret rite of the Russian Skoptic sect which originated early in the 18th ccntury and existed for 200 years. The same rite is practiced by the contemporary hijras of India, a sect comprised of men who live as womcn and worship the goddess, Behuchara Mata. The practice of becoming a eunuch is sporadic in the annals of today's medical sexology and sex therapy. It represents a renunciation of sex, with or without a transsexual implication. It is a sexual body-image syndrome with three degrees of severity: fixation, neurosis or psychosis. Its etiology is obscure. It is subject to misdiagnosis, and to treatment that proves ineffectual. Once the status of eunuch has been achieved, the prognosis is from guarded to good. An autobiographical case report of self-castration and partial denervation of the penis illustrates a variant of the syndrome, which has proved to be self-limiting, with a good prognosis.


In this chapter I argue that as a response to the introduction of capital requirements in the form of risk weights investors might potentially choose riskier portfolios than before the regulation – this is, presumably, not what the regulation intends to achieve. That is, while regulation most likely diverts investors from their optimum decision it does not guarantee that the new optimum has a lower risk. The effect of the regulation depends on several things, most importantly the correlation between individual investments, investor preferences and the relative size of risk weights.


Paul Roazen. Erik H. Erikson: The Power and Limits of a Vision. New York: The Free Press, 1976. 246 pp. Erik H. Erikson. Childhood and Society. New York: Norton, 2nd edition, 1963. 445 pp. Erik H. Erikson. Identity: Youth and Crisis. New York: Norton, 1968. 336 pp. Kai T. Erikson, ed. In Search of Common Ground: Conversations with Erik H. Erikson and Huey P. Newton, New York: Norton, 1973. 143 pp. Erik H. Erikson. Dimensions of a a new Identity. New York: Norton, 1974. 125 pp. Erik H. Erikson. Life History and the Historical Moment. New York: Norton, 1975. 283 pp. Over the past ten years Paul Roazen's work on Freud's circle and on psycho- analytic thought has hammered home a theme which continues in his most recent work, Erik H. Erikson: The Power and Limits of A Vision^ Roazen distrusts movements and admires those, who in refusing to follow orthodox dogma, develop an independent basis for their theories of psychoanalysis. Thus, for Roazen, the power of Erikson's vision rests upon the independence of his ...


Calculations were performed for the Si(111)‐7×7 surface reconstruction model proposed by Takayanagi et al. The structure contains dimers, adatoms, and stacking faults (DAS) in the surface layer. The DAS model has 19 dangling bonds and 12 ''top site'' adatoms per 7×7 unit cell. In the tight‐binding based energy‐minimization calculation, Hellmann‐Feynman forces were used to relax adatoms and three layers of a five‐layer 7×7 slab configuration. The surface energy is found to be at least 0.40 eV per 1×1 cell lower than that of an ideal and unrelaxed Si(111) surface, as compared to 0.36 eV for the π‐bonded chain structure for the 2×1 cleaved surface. This is the lowest surface energy calculated for the Si(111) surface. Atomic configurations were obtained for the completely relaxed system. The calculated surface electronic density of states and the atomic origin of the surface electronic structure are in good agreement with experimental data.


The purpose of this study was to develop a simulation of kinesis model to see the concentration area of indian mackerel (Rastrelliger kanagurta) in the west coast waters of south Sulawesi. Kinesis model with a numerical formula of Humston et al. (2000) and Zainuddin (2006) was use in this research. Sea surface temperature (SST) from satellite Aqua/MODIS were used to map the distribution of SST in the area with a resolution of 4 km. In this study the optimum temperature and the standard deviation was used as input to the model kinesis. The results showed that R. kanagurta were generally concentrated at the optimum temperature range and spread evenly in the the West Coast waters of South Sulawesi. Kinesis model and actual field conditions (April 2008) has the same result. These results are shown by maps and histograms of fish concentrations, indicating that mackerel, either by using the simulation model and the actual condition of kinesis has a central field concentration at the same temperature range, 28.5 o C - 29.5 o C.


Some protocols published by WHO during this outbreak are to keep safe distance with minimum 1 meter, wear face masks especially in public places. Other health protocols such as wash hands using soap or hand sanitizer or have shower after being at home from work or other places are also being campaigned by government. However, most information provided used difficult language and hard to understand by children. This study therefore attempts to combine all of those backgrounds by creating a digital game related to Covid-19 which hopefully will provide positive contribution during this hard time. Furthermore, this game attempts to cover the right for children to access online gaming while keep educating them and protecting them from negative influences. This research employed Doppler Interactive Game Design Life Cycle as proposed by Joshua McGracth which basically consists of 6 iterative phases (Ramadan & Widyani, 2013), but here stopped at the testing process. Software used to develop this game were Adobe Flash and Adobe Premiere. The development if this game is also assessed appropriate by parents and English teachers in terms of the layout, the language or terms appropriateness, and the effectiveness.


Quality of life (QoL) and well-being can be described in broad, multidimensional ways that incorporate objective and subjective accounts of personal feelings, social relationships, local environment, societal values, political institutions, economic conditions, and international relations. A Nordic group has recommended the classification in Table I to describe the QoL of an individual; Table II shows indicators of child well-being reported at a national level. In practice, such approaches are too wide-ranging for meaningful quantitative analysis. Recent years have seen the development of ideas about QoL which concern an individual's personal perception of their place in the world and society. It is a person's selfreported view and therefore subjective. This modern meaning of QoL may be confused with other outcomes which could be equally important but different. This paper tries to identify and unravel these varied elements. It is also important to appreciate that various definitions are used to reflect the different stages in the evolution of the concepts and that these operational definitions are likely to change in future. Two important and relatively recent developments in the social sciences are the social model of disability and a new approach to the sociology of childhood. Their implications emphasize the relevance of the environment to participation and the importance of QoL respectively. The 'social model of disability' regards disability as resulting from the interaction between individuals and their respective environments, rather than as something within the individual. This model was developed in the United Kingdom and has been central in the development of disability studies. Originally, the social model took an uncompromising position that all disability is caused by societal and structural barriers – whether they be environmental such as inaccessible buildings, institutional such as segregated schooling, or attitudinal; any failure of society to ensure sufficient environmental adjustment represented discrimination against a minority group and a denial of their human rights. Since then, the model has been modified to indicate that much but not all disability is attributable to the environment. There are two reasons for this. First, physically disabled people themselves say their impairments are relevant to their lives and to their interaction with their environment; second, there are some aspects of participation which a person with severe intellectual impairment could never


Thirty‐eight patients with various stages of mycosis fungoides were treated with oral 8‐meth‐oxypsoralen and longwave ultraviolet radiation (PUVA). The majority responded well to PUVA, especially those with the early stages of the disease. The response in patients with tumours was not as good, with less than half improving slowly and recurrences were frequent.


1. The reflection of light from the surfaces of many kinds of leaves has been measured by means of a direct reading spectrophotometer, the measurements being made normal (that is, at an angle of 90⚬ to the leaf surface. The incident light, falling upon the leaf from the surface of a spherical housing, strikes the leaf at all angles. 2. The amount of reflection varies with the wave length, the maximum reflection falling usually at 540-560 mμ in green leaves. The value of the reflection in this region runs from 6-8 per cent in the darkest green leaves to 20-25 per cent in the lightest green specimens. 3. Hairiness or smoothness of cuticle does not necessarily mean high reflection. Leaves of Verbascum thapsus and Abutilon theophrasti show very little more reflection than leaves of non-hairy plants. The shiny cuticle of Morus rubra adds little to normal reflection. In some cases, however, as in the under surface reflection of Populus alba and Magnolia acuminata leaves, the hairs do increase the reflection. 4. The amount of reflection decreases with the age of the leaf. This is associated with the development of chlorophyll, which increases in amount very rapidly at first, and then more gradually for about two months, until the final depth of green color has been attained. The reflection then remains unchanged until the beginning of chlorophyll destruction at the close of summer. 5. White surfaces reflect almost equally across the spectrum, as seen in the under surface reflection of Populus alba; while albino leaves reflect mainly the longer radiations. There is absorption of the blue rays, corresponding to the yellowish color. The reflection from such surfaces is 40-50 per cent of the incident radiation. 6. The presence of mildew or other whitish superficial organisms increases the reflection of light very noticeably. In lilac the presence of Microsphaera alni increased the reflection more than 100 per cent. 7. Anthocyanin development is accompanied by a shift in the position of maximum reflection to the longer wave lengths. In Psedera the maximum reflection occurred at 640 mμ, while the normal maximum for green leaves is 540-560 mμ. 8. Yellow autumn coloration is much more brilliant than red. The reflection of yellow Betula leaves reached 42 per cent, with the maximum at 660 mμ. A leaf of Populus deltoides, less completely yellowed, reflected as much light, but the maximum reflection was in the yellow, at 580 mμ, instead of in the red. 9. In a considerable number of cases there is a depression of the reflection curve at 680 mμ. This obviously corresponds to the maximum absorption band of chlorophyll. The fact that it is evident is an argument for reflection from internal surfaces, in part. 10. The data presented are valuable in connection with the problem of income and outgo of energy in the leaf processes; but they must be supplemented with measurements in the invisible regions of the spectrum, particularly in the infra-red region, before a complete accounting of the energy utilization can be rendered.


This paper identifies what will be required to secure a practicable replacement for the Kyoto Protocol as the obligations to reduce emissions apply only between 2008 and 2012. The first point of departure is to understand why the Kyoto Protocol has failed. The weaknesses must be addressed in the design of a subsequent instrument if it is to succeed. Its second point is that there is no justification for rushing to negotiate a successor instrument. There is time to get it right and it should be taken.


The human face has enchanted mankind for a very long time. Psychological studies have shown that even as babies we are drawn to faces and that nine minutes after being born, when we can barely focus our eyes, we prefer to gaze at faces than any other object. Our faces forms an integral part of our lives and each face can be considered as "custom made". All faces have two eyes, a nose, two cheeks, a mouth, two ears and a chin, and yet we all manage to somehow look extraordinary different. Our facial features have evolved in response to the environmental changes of different parts of the world and today each of the myriad faces in the word is an expression of subtle genetic mutations.


The economic history of the railroads and the problems faced by them are in many ways unique. However, many of the railroads' problems are the outgrowth of failure to apply pricing principles which have a universal applicability. Faulty pricing practices, including inadequate attention to customer alternatives, pricing improperly related to the railroad's own costs, and failure to use price as a sales incentive to reduce costs explain many of the railroads' present difficulties. Dr. Dean shows how adoption of sound pricing principles could bring about competitive changes with far-reaching effects.


A simple and low cost method was developed and validated for the determination of trace mercury (II) ions in dental-unit wastewater and fertilizer samples. The method was based upon the reaction of mercury (II) ions with the novel reagent 6-hydroxy-3-(2-oxoindolin-3-ylideneamino)-2- thioxo-2H-1,3-thiazin-4(3H)-one, the formed complex shows an absorption maximum at 505nm (λmax) in Britton–Robinson (B–R) buffer (pH 4–6).The corrected absorbance of the formed complex at λmax was obtained employing β-correction spectrophotometric method. Beer's–Lambert law and Ringbom's plots of the colored Hg–reagent complex were obeyed in the concentration range of 0.2–2.0 and 0.32–0.96µgmL−1 mercury (II) ions, respectively with a relative standard deviation in the range of 2.1±1.3%. The limits of detection (LOD) and quantification (LOQ) of the procedure were 0.026 and 0.086µgmL−1 Hg2+, respectively. The proposed method was applied for the analysis of mercury (II) in dental-unit wastewater and fertilizer samples. The validation of the method was tested by comparison with the data obtained by the inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The statistical treatment of data in terms of Student's t-tests and variance ratio f-tests has revealed no significance differences.


Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe a framework developed for assessing Community‐based Enterprises' (CBEs') impacts on poverty reduction at the household level in northern Thailand, in the context of the UN Millennium Development Goals. The focus is on the use of principal component analysis to develop a context‐specific definition of poverty.Design/methodology/approach – The paper explains how business performance measurement, impact assessment of development projects and poverty measurement have been integrated into a single poverty impact assessment framework in relation to CBEs. This framework has two key steps: identification of poverty groups and poverty components; and impact assessment of CBEs and other factors on household poverty.Findings – The framework captures a number of qualitative and quantitative aspects of poverty necessary for an accurate relative measure for differing geographical, economic and cultural contexts.Originality/value – The novelty of this paper's approach l...


The establishment of judicial power is the result of self-restraint of the state which admits of being controlled by the independent court. While executing justice judges are independent of internal and external factors but their independence cannot be absolute as they are subject to the Constitution and the law. The judge will never become indeed independent until they realize and appreciate to the full extent their total dependence on the law.


In this study, we investigated the protective effects of fermented ginseng (FG) on hyperglycemia induced by streptozotocin (STZ) in Sprague Dawley rats. FG was administered orally at dose of 250 (FGL) or 500 mg/kg (FGH) for 20 days starting one week before STZ injection. FG restored the plasma insulin levels by 266% and 334% in FGL and FGH, respectively, and resulting in reduction of plasma glucose concentration. Histological observation indicated that STZ‐induced destruction of pancreatic islets was protected by FG. Consistent with this observation, FG reduced protein and mRNA levels of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and cyclooxygenase‐2 (COX‐2), as determined by Western blotting and RT‐PCR, respectively. The molecular mechanism of FG's inhibition of iNOS and COX‐2 gene expressions appeared to involve the inhibition of nuclear factor‐κB (NF‐κB) activation via prevention of inhibitor κB (IκB) phosphorylation and degradation. The cytoprotective effects of FG were also mediated through suppression of extracelluar signal‐regulated kinase (ERK) and c‐JUN N‐terminal kinase (JNK) pathways. Collectively, these results suggest that FG might be used to preserve functional β‐cell mass. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


In order to Figure out the role of Penning ionization and attachment reaction in changing atmospheric DBD characteristics, a one-dimension fluid model is built based on Ar/NH3 dielectric barrier discharge (DBD). The Penning ionization and attachment reaction rates are multiplied by different coefficient $\eta$ and $\xi$, respectively, to change corresponding reaction intensity. Plasma parameters are investigated, including breakdown threshold, electron temperature, cathode falling thickness, ionization efficiency of Ar/NH3 DBD, different particles density and evolution. Compared with attachment reaction, the absence of Penning ionization will have more remarkable influence on DBD characteristics.


The median age was 45.7 ± 14.7 years and 22 of them were female and 20 were male. Deep venous thrombosis (DVT) and major abdominal surgery were the most frequent risk factors identified, while dispne and pleuretic chest pain were the most common symptoms. Chest roentgenogram was normal in 6 (14.2%) of the patients. The most frequent abnormalities found in X-rays were pleural effusion, elevation of diaphragm and infiltration. Ventilation/perfusion lung scan were obtained in 36 (85.7%) of the patients. In 20 (55.5%) of patients high-probability lung scan defect; in 6 (16.7%) of them intermediate-probability lung scan defect and in 10 (27.8%) of them low probability lung scan defect was found. Initial arterial blood gases analysis could have been performed in 38 (90.5%) patients, in 13 (34.2%) of them hypocap


In this research the relationship between structural variables of pine and spectral data of Landsat 5 TM sensor were evaluated in an area of Durango, Mexico. To determine such relationship multivariate techniques were applied. Using information of the evaluated sites, a prediction model was generated with Landsat TM bands; the better relationships were found for the sensor's spectral data with the variable ERT (m 3 /ha) were found with the band 4, with R 2 = 0.72 and with the band 3, with R 2 = 0.66.


The viscosity change of oil samples in field tests of diesel engine oil for urban bus is described and the reason especially diesel engine oil diluted by diesel oil is presented also.At the same time,the wear augmentation of engine caused by oil viscosity degradation is analyzed.Finally,some proposals on selecting viscosity of diesel engine oil for urban bus are put forward.


The economic growth is a goal for all countries of the world, being also a condition of society's progress. Expressed by the growth rhythm of macroeconomic indicators, the economic growth and, especially, the economic development is a long term process which involves the quantitative and especially qualitative increasing of production factors, especially the human factor and the investments. The Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) are affecting the economic growth in many aspects. It was demonstrated over the years in countless studies that the Foreign Direct Investment are enhancing the growth and economic development of the countries where these are localized, contributing to productivity growth, the wages growth of workforce involved in the production process and its qualification, the volume of exports growth of host countries etc. It is well known also that the international investments have a major role in the transfer of technologies, encouraging research and innovation and generating economic progress. This paper proposes a theoretical growth model taking into account the FDI along with domestic capital. The proposed model analyses the relationship between amount of production, workforce, domestic capital and FDI, demonstrating that the use of national investments and workforce leads to much higher productions in the presence of FDI.


"The Charlemagne Window at Chartres: Visual Chronicle of a Royal Life" contributes to the rich history of interpretation by exploring how the visual cues in the twenty-two historiated panels are reconstructed into a narrative that calls the viewer to action by recalling a specific chronicle. The broad outlines of Charlemagne's legendary voyages to the East and South are clear but details still confound us. Scholarly debates over significant themes and a relationship to other images in the cathedral remain lively. Increasingly however studies analyze only a few panels and ignore others. What has been obscured is the connection between image and word—spoken read or remembered.This study is grounded in image theory as well as textual criticism. It re-focuses attention on narrative to argue that the visual rhetoric of the window prompted the thirteenth century viewer to remember the vernacular (not Latin) version of the Pseudo-Turpin chronicle. The influence of the vernacular text is revealed in the details and sense of chronological order a hallmark of the shift from Latin chronicle to vernacular narrative. It thus clarifies the sequence in which panels should be read and allows us to see the unity of each register where Charlemagne is depicted carrying out a three-part commission from St. Jacques. This essay argues against the prevailing notion that Roland eclipses Charlemagne and identifies the king throughout as the principal Christian warrior saint who returns after Roncevaux to defeat the Saracens. Other legends and texts contribute a new understanding of the motif of the Milky Way and the significance of St. Giles. His presence illustrates the intertwined themes of confession pilgrimage crusade the translatio of relics and the close ties between Chartres and the Albigensian crusades all being depicted through Charlemagne the crusader.


The urban concentrated area is a form of regional organization in the advanced stage of urbanization.It is benefit for clearing national development framework and promoting regional integration to divide and identify the urban concentrated area spatially.Based on the existing research results,according to the level and stage of China's urbanization,this article defines the space identification standards of urban concentrated areas in China,including such aspects as the core city,standard city,other small cities and towns,and boundary identification,then divide Chinese cities into 15 typical urban concentrated areas and 8 quasi-urban concentrated areas based on the traffic accessibility.They present a spatial pattern of "three vertical and two horizontal distributions",which construct a national system of urban concentrated areas.Compared with the main function areas of the national plans,the proposed program of urban concentrated areas is consistent with the strategy pattern of urbanization in the national plans of main function areas on the whole.Under the guidance of the strategy of the national main function areas,the urban concentrated areas should develop in the light of the positions and goals in the plans to select the right path and direction.


We report on recent developments of innovative grazing incidence X-ray optics for laboratory applications. These efforts focus on the developments of grazing incidence micromirrors with ellipsoidal and paraboloidal profiles and apertures well below 1 mm, as well as on the developments of innovative arrangements and approaches such as X-ray collimators based on the Lobster Eye X-ray lenses. The applications of these elements will be indicated and discussed. Moreover, we will discuss the innovative alternative technologies for X-ray optics elements in study and-or under considerations


Abstract : Small/miniature self-excited electrostatic generators (ESG), whose design concept and fundamental characteristics are described, is intended for continuous operation for several hours for active or capacitive load, whose value for this time is changed over the wide limits. However, the results, described are obtained during the relatively short-term modes/conditions of the work of generator and give representation only about the maximum possibilities of generator. In mode/conditions of continuous prolonged operation, fundamental characteristic, determining the possibility of practical use/application of self-excited generator, is stability of output parameters, i.e., degree of change in voltage/stress and current of load in dependence on operating time of generator. purpose of this work is explanation of degree of stability of output parameters in mode/conditions of continuous prolonged operation and reasons, which call their change, which will make it possible to refine recommendations regarding construction of self-excited ESG and to determine optimum mode of their operation. (Russian language, Translations, USSR).


In 2000, the EU set up an energy policy related renewables use for electricity demand up to on the purpose of preventing energy exhaustion and world climate exchange. Technology development and energy production policy on coal, oil and natural gas focus on how to minimize their environmental effects since the world energy system will continue to be dominated by fossil fuels with almost of total energy supply in 2030. In the long run, the EU drives expansion policy of the renewable energy. If related policies and programs will show successful operation in the near future and will be resulted in increase of budget, we could expect the possibility of expansion of renewable energy market in Korea in the future.


Introduction Fear of labor pain is one of the main reasons for cesarean delivery in Iran (1,2) and other communities (3,4). Therefore, pain management is one of the most important goals of labor care. There is a wide range of non-pharmacological methods for managing labor pain. Complementary medicine approaches to relieve pain are the components of midwifery practice that can simply be started in labor prior to pharmacological interventions. Non-pharmacological methods used in pain management are based on some theories including the gate control theory of pain, the neuromatrix theory of pain (mechanical, chemical, thermal receptors) and the release of endorphins (5). Behavioral methods are the most common techniques in pain management. One of the best methods is the use of body relaxation. Body relaxation increases pain endurance through reducing anxiety, decreasing response to catecholamines, increasing pelvic blood flow and creating effective uterine contractions. When it is learned and practiced, body relaxation is often effective as a strategy for pain management during labor (6). Body relaxation techniques with rhythmic breathing patterns and distraction may reduce the pain of labor and increase women's sense of control over themselves as well (7,8). Although most studies have demonstrated beneficial and positive effects of breathing techniques and neuromuscular exercises on labor pain, some reports show that these methods are ineffective (9). For instance, Pugh et al reported that breathing techniques may result in mother's fatigue and postpone the delivery process (10). Therefore, the use of this method in combination with other methods such as aromatherapy seems to have a more favorable effect on pain alleviation. Aromatherapy is the therapeutic consumption of essential oils derived from plants for improving physical and mental health. The essential oils are fat soluble nutrients that are rapidly absorbed when they are applied for external use and breathing. They are excreted through the kidneys or lungs. The essential oils are increasingly used in low dose for massage or as aromatics in health care environments. During labor, oils like lavender or Jasmine in carrier oils can improve relaxation and reduce pain (7). Lavender contains linalool alcohols, ketones, esters and aldehydes. Ketones in lavender effectively decrease pain and improve sleep quality. Esters improve the muscle relaxation and reduce stress and depression (7,11). To the best of our Abstract Objectives: There is a wide range of interventions available for managing labor pain. Complementary medicine and nonpharmacological approaches to relieve pain are the components of midwifery practice that can simply be started by midwives. This study aimed to examine the effect of breathing technique with lavender on labor pain compared to breathing technique alone in an Iranian setting in 2015. Materials and Methods: A single-blind randomized trial was conducted on the pregnant women hospitalized in labor room in Fatemieh maternity hospital. A total of 120 laboring mothers who were eligible for the study were randomly assigned to two groups of breathing technique with lavender and breathing technique with sterile water. The labor pain was measured using the visual analogue scale at different dilatations. Data analysis was done by t test and χ2 using SPSS version 18.0. Results: The mean age of women in the group of breathing technique with lavender and of breathing technique with sterile water were 25.5±4.3 and 26±4.9, respectively (P = 0.6). The mean total pain scores in the experimental and control groups were 6.77±1.89 and 7.44±1.66 (CI: -1.35, 0.014), respectively (P = 0.05). Conclusions: The results of the study indicated that breathing technique with lavender reduced labor pain at the end of labor (i.e. at the cervical dilatation of 9-10 cm) compared to breathing technique without lavender. Further research is needed to confirm the effect of lavender aromatherapy on labor pain.


Employee engagement has arisen as the prevalent executive conception in the current centuries. That is the level of commitment and involvement of a worker to the association and its principles. An engaged employee is conscious of occupational perspective, and workings with co-workers to increase performance inside the employment for the profit of the association. Employee engagement improves optimistic assertiveness between the workers to the association. That paper emphases on several aspects which lead toward employee engagement and whatever would corporation ensure to create the employees engaged. Appropriate consideration on engagement policies will raise the organizational efficiency in relations of sophisticated production, revenues, excellence, buyer gratification, employee preservation and improved adaptableness. Two  hypothesis and also there are two objectives of our study and by using the statistical population of Banking Sector which cover the 150 employees of 12 banks and facts was collected by the standard questionnaire. Correlation coefficient was used through "ANOVA and IBM SPSS" for the data analysis. There are the two independent variables of our study which are rewards and leadership and one dependent variable which is employee engagement. Results presented the Positive relationship between Rewards and Employee engagement and also there is the Positive relationship between Leadership and Employee engagement.


Self-confidence is a positive attitude and behavior of an individual that raises his ability to cultivate and develop a positive assesment, both toward himself and the environment and the situation he is facing. BK teacher and student responses to group guidance service with discussion techniques on student when implementing group guidance service with discussion techniques on the self-confidence of class X / IPA students at SMAN 1 Cipongkor. Qualitative descriptive research methods were collected trough observation, interviews and questinnaires. The scenario steps and their implementation are also in group guidance service with discussion techniques including group formation seen from the students self-confidence problem that have been reviewed by the BK teacher and the results of the AKPD given by the BK teacher, Providing material through video media to stimulate initial confidence for participants. Studen, share opinions about the material provided, conclude, and evaluate the implementation of services. The response of students in self-confidence during the implementation of group guidance services with discussion techniques. Keywords:   Self Confidence, Group Guidance, Discussion Techniques


We report a facile ex situ NaF size/morphology tuning strategy for NaF release rate regulation and successfully used it to achieve controlled solvothermal synthesis of highly monodisperse sub-5 nm β-NaGdF4:Yb/Er. In particular, such a strategy needs neither a long nanocrystal nucleation time nor a low growth temperature, which thus renders the preparation of highly crystalline sub-5 nm β-NaGdF4:Yb/Er time-saving at a high reaction temperature of 300 °C.


Creepage protector is usually used for electro security in the construction of actual.The paper explains the import and work principle and use range and notice proceeding about creepage protector,it also point out develop direction of electric safeguard in the construction for the future.


AbstractThe degradation of synthetic fibers derived from postconsumer wastes and used in fiber-reinforced cement mortars was studied. Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and high-density polyethylene ...


We have discussed about an infant who contracted the disease Chikungunya, a resident of endemic area. He had high grade fever followed by rash. His serum was tested for both Dengue and Chikungunya fever. In this case, child had only a characteristic hyper pigmentation of skin at the time of presentation. Laboratory result revealed positive for Chikungunya IgM on day 5 of illness. Laboratory confirmation is essential to ensure correct diagnosis of Chikungunya. Keywords-chikungunya, fever with rash in infant. Introduction Chikungunya virus (CHIK virus in short) is an RNA virus that belongs to the Alpha virus genus of the Togaviridae, the family that comprises a number of viruses that are mostly transmitted by arthropods. Chikungunya epidemics display cyclical and seasonal trends. There is an inter-epidemic period of 4–8 years (sometimes as long as 20 years). Outbreaks are most likely to occur in post monsoon period when the vector density is very high. India reported CF in 213 districts located in 15 states/ union territories. About 1.39 million suspected cases


Abstract A new taxon of Cretaceous short-necked plesiosaur, Edgarosaurus muddi, gen. et sp. nov., is described. The specimen consists of a complete skull, 34 vertebrae including the entire series of 26 cervicals, and a nearly complete forelimb. The new taxon occurs in marine sediments of the Thermopolis Shale (late Albian), deposited during an early transgression of the Western Interior Seaway. The skull of Edgarosaurus is the oldest, and one of the best preserved plesiosaur specimens from the Cretaceous Western Interior of North America described to date. Edgarosarus differs from the morphologically and stratigraphically close short-necked taxon Plesiopleurodon wellesi in a number of cranial characters. In the absence of an established phylogenetic framework, the new plesiosaur is placed in the Polycotylidae, as recently defined by Carpenter in 1996. It is plesiomorphic with respect to other polycotylids in that it possesses a relatively robust and moderately elongated rostrum, a pineal foramen, caniniform teeth, a shorter mandibular symphysis, and a relatively high number of cervical vertebrae.


With the development of wireless communication technologies, IEEE 802.11 standard has undergone a rapid growth, thanks to low cost and high-speed connectivity. More importantly, the Future wireless networks are expected to have the privilege of ubiquitous connectivity extending its support to several applications. Hence effective mechanisms need to be developed to exploit the diversity across a multiple access points and to provide a uniform load distribution in order to improve the QoS of users and to improve the overall composite capacity. In this paper, we propose a cognitive handoff mechanism that adaptively applies full channel scheme before and First Satisfaction First Reservation Handoff (FSFR-HO) Mechanism after minimum delay limitation time of sensitive application used in MH by considering the current active application in use rather than a single fixed threshold value and dynamically changing the threshold value depending upon the currently active applications. In addition to it, we also propose distributive Load Balancing scheme which completely avoids unnecessary overloading of access points by considering the load at the target access point before associating with it.


Tunnel FET (TFET) is recognized to be one of the most promising candidates for ultra-low power applications due to its ultra-low off current and high compatibility with CMOS process. However, different from the typical features of MOSFET, some electrical characteristics of TFETs caused by asymmetric device structure and special conduction mechanism may make conventional topologies of circuits no longer applicable. In this paper, it is found that the TFETs stacking will result in severe current degradation behavior, which makes traditional topologies of logic gates may be not applicable. To solve this problem, a set of novel hybrid TFET-MOSFET topologies for standard logic cells are proposed. The proposed designs achieve more than 2 times lower hardware cost and intrinsic delay, and realize up to 4 times lower area-power-delay product (APDP) than that of conventional TFET-based logic circuits. Moreover, the proposed topologies can achieve almost 2 orders of magnitude lower power and up to 34 times lower APDP than that of conventional MOSFET-based logic circuits. The proposed standard logic cells show great superiority for power-constraint applications.


The power spectrum of density fluctuations measured from galaxy redshift surveys provides important constraints on models for the formation of large-scale structure. I present new results for a redshift sample of 15,000 galaxies, and review the limitations of current measurements. To span the decade of wavelength between the scales probed by galaxy surveys and COBE, measure the detailed shape of the power spectrum, and accurately examine the dependence of clustering on galaxy species, we require deeper samples with carefully controlled selection criteria and improved techniques for power spectrum estimation. I review plans for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and describe a new method for estimating the power spectrum that optimally treats survey data with arbitrary geometry and sampling.


"The commission adopts new community framework on state aid for research and development"* Article 130f of the EC Treaty outlines the Community objective of strengthening the scientific and…


To the Editor: In the later decades, due to the use of mammogram as an early breast cancer diagnosis technique in the general population, there has been an increase of the number of small breast cancers, among them microinvasive carcinoma. However, the prognosis of microinvasive breast cancer has been confused, or at least controversial, due to its low incidence and the variety of definitions used for its classification. Additionally, in occasions, pathologist must face diagnostic uncertainties, which may cause both, a deficient or an excessive identification of breast cancer pathologies. In spite of the various definitions used, most published series confer an excellent prognosis to


Hum beam power observations using the USArray EarthScope transportable array, combined with infragravity wave observations, show that the dominant source area of the Earth's hum over the 120–400 s period band during winter months is the Pacific coast of North America, with the western coast of Europe a secondary source region. Correlation of hum with model ocean wave heights indicates that the Pacific coast of Central America is an important hum source region when impacted by austral storm waves. Hum is excited by relatively local infragravity wave forcing as ocean swell propagates along coasts, with no indication of significant deep‐ocean hum generation.


A new Monte Carlo (MC) method is used to interpret experimental stress−optical coefficients (C) of polyethylene (PE) networks in uniaxial deformation. The method considers the deformation of individual PE-network chains, whose conformational properties and −CH2− segment orientations are calculated using a rotational-isomeric-state (RIS) model. Individual chains, randomly oriented in three dimensions, are deformed uniaxially and affinely, but only up to the maximum chain-extension, consistent with W(r) = 0, where W(r) is the radial end-to-end distance distribution. The changes in network elastic free-energy, and in the average orientation of −CH2− segment vectors with respect to the deformation axis are evaluated. The MC method gives, in agreement with experiment, values of C that are dependent upon both deformation ratio, λ, and on network-chain length. Furthermore, the method shows that a single equivalent freely jointed chain cannot be used to describe both stress−optical and stress−strain behaviors.


The scission point model has been used to calculate the total kinetic energy (TKE) as a function of fission fragments for photofission reactions. By comparing the calculated TKE values with the available experimental data, the deformation parameters of the fission fragments are obtained in the scission point model. The results show that the deformation parameters of the fission fragments have a large change near the symmetrical region. TKE distribution has been investigated for neutron-induced fission, spontaneous fission, and photofission to predict actinide TKE distribution. This indicates that the TKE distribution depends on the mass and atomic number of compound nuclei and, of course, the excitation energy. The odd-even effect plays an important role in predicting TKE distribution behavior. Also, TKE distribution has a similar trend for all isotopes and the TKE distribution of spontaneous fission is significantly different from the TKE distribution of photofission. At last, the total kinetic energy distributions for the photofission fragments of light actinides are evaluated in the scission point model.


The power system structure of a hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) critically affects the performance of the vehicle. This study presents a power-integrated transmission mechanism that can provide six basic operating modes that can be further classified into 15 sub-modes. Switching clutch conditions helps transmission achieve speed and torque coupling. The proposed mechanism has CVT capability and an extended range capacity, and it is applicable to front-wheel-drive, rear-wheel-drive, or four-wheel-drive HEVs. A performance simulation on power and economy via Matlab and Cruise software demonstrates that the performance of the proposed transmission mechanism meets the target. Therefore, the mechanism is a feasible candidate for use in HEVs.