The invention discloses a super-hydrophobic film for a thermoplastic matrix, which comprises a thermoplastic film matrix and a super-hydrophobic layer. The super-hydrophobic layer consists of micro-scale powder particles and nano-scale powder particles arranged at intervals and embedded into the film matrix, and the micro-scale powder particles and the nano-scale powder particles form micro-scale protrusions and nano-scale protrusions on the surface of the thermoplastic film matrix and have low surface energy or are modified by low surface energy substances. The super-hydrophobic film has the advantages of simple structure, easy preparation and lower cost; a water contact angle of the super-hydrophobic layer is between150 and 165 degrees, and a roll angle is less than 5 degrees; the super-hydrophobic film also has the advantages of stable performance, low cost and excellent mechanical property, and can be applied to the occasions needing water proofing, pollution prevention, mist resistance, snow cover resistance, ice coating resistance, oxidation prevention and the like; when the thermoplastic film matrix is adopted, the super-hydrophobic film can be flexible to use, can be manufactured into an adhesive tape structure to be adhered on the surface of other matrixes, and is convenient and simple to use; and by adopting a hot pressing method for preparation, the thermoplastic film matrix and the super-hydrophobic layer are firmly combined, and the preparation method is simple and easy to operate and has low manufacturing cost.


There appears to be no available expression for the reactive (mass) term in the acoustic impedance of long baffled strip radiators, and the literature contains contradictory graphical data on both the real and the imaginary parts. Reliable data are important for the proper electroacoustic design of ribbon transducers, and also potentially for other long, narrow, low-mass planar radiators, both electrostatic and electromagnetic. Analytical expressions and graphical data are presented for the resistive and reactive parts of the acoustic load on an infinite baffled strip radiator.


It has been known for some time that osmotic diuretics may modify the effect of vasopressin on urine concentration (1, 2). However, it has been generally assumed that urine will remain hypertonic to plasma if sufficient hormone is administered irrespective of the extent of the solute diuresis. This conclusion was based on the thesis that the major action of vasopressin is to promote the elaboration of a hypertonic urine presumably by a process involving active water reabsorption. Smith (3) and Wesson and Anslow (4), on the other hand, have suggested that vasopressin increases permeability of the tubule membrane to water in the distal segment, permitting osmotic equilibration in this area, and thereby diminishing the volume of isosmotic fluid delivered to a hypothetical concentrating site in the collecting duct. The experiments to be reported were designed to reexamine in a quantitative fashion the effect of solute excretion on the renal response to purified arginine vasopressin. The data have been interpreted in the light of present information concerning the probable mode and sites of action of the hormone.


In this autoethnography, the authors try to reconcile knowledge of theory, prose, and poetry with the understandings of Kelly's role as a domestic worker. While focusing on four events in Kelly's tenure as a maid, the authors present literature that mirrors, predicts, and provides an analysis of her experiences and her reactions to/thoughts about them. If all the world truly is a stage, this autoethnography aims to trouble the entire production—from the actors to the audience, from the script to the setting. Above all else, of course, the narrator is to be questioned. Never objective, never omniscient, literature and theory insist on an interrogation of the narrator, who always has a motive for revealing some parts of the story and not others.


The proposed work under this New Directions grant is to find new iron-based catalysts for organic synthesis. The hope is to generate new catalytic systems for the most Earth-abundant transition metal, iron. As part of this research, we begun with understanding the synthesis of Group-8 quinoline structures with possible applications to asymmetric hydrogenation of heterocycles, imines, and related systems. As an extension of the work, we have also examined Group-8 imido complexes and their reactivity and properties. One of the proposals for new Group-8 catalysis is to generate metal quinoline complexes of the type shown below. These complexes are modeled after the Hantzsch ester shown on the right. Hantzsch esters are used in a variety of different organic transformations as surrogates for dihydrogen. The 1,4-dihydropyridine moiety can give up the equivalent of H2 to hydrogenate a substrate (vide infra). The disadvantage of these Hantzsch reagents is that it only acts as an H2 donor in the reactions and the rest of the pyridine is a byproduct. The goal of the project here, is to generate complex like those shown on the left to act as recyclable surrogates for the Hantzsch reagent. The ironcyclopentadienyl group will reside on the aryl-side of the quinoline in the ground state, which gives a structure isoelectronic with ferrocene. On addition of dihydrogen, it is hoped that the iron center will enable hydrogenation of the pyridine ring in a 1,4-fashion. The substituents on the quinoline in the 2,3-positions are there to encourage this 1,4-hydrogenation of the quinoline ring. The product of this hydrogenation is a 1,4-dihydroquinoline with a pendant iron center.


The construction and perfection of the democratic interest expression mechanism are benefit not only for constructing socialism democratic politics,but for maintaining a stable society and developing economy quickly.Its main measures involve improving the public expressing consciousness and ability,fulfilling the organization of interest expression,widening the channel of interest expression and improving government officers' quality and ability.


ARIMA and ANN are very practical forecasting technology in the electric short-term load forecasting fields. ANN is extensively applied to electric load forecasting especially in recent years. Both ARIMA and ANN have different characteristics. ARIMA is suitable for linear prediction and ANN is suitable for nonlinear prediction. Because of the complexity of the historical load data and the randomness of a lot of uncertain factors influence, the observed data include the linear and nonlinear parts. The choice of the forecasting model becomes the important influence factor how to improve load forecasting accuracy. A combined model of ARIMA-ANN is proposed in the text. The linear part of the historical load data can be dealt with ARIMA, and ANN model can deal with the nonlinear part of historical load data. Empirical results indicate that a hybrid ARIMA-ANN model can improve the load forecasting accuracy.


We compared privacy attitudes of knowledge workers from the U.S. and India who were involved in a collaborative software development project distributed across five sites of a multinational corporation. Prior studies on consumer privacy suggest that privacy concerns in India are lower than those in the U.S. While our work largely confirmed these findings, we found unexpectedly that knowledge workers in India expressed higher interpersonal privacy concerns compared with their U.S. colleagues. Our study points to a number of explanatory factors for the elevated privacy concerns in the Indian knowledge workplace: nature of interpersonal relationships, associations with privacy, competition among team members, management style and hierarchy, and differences in the physical characteristics of the workplace. Our findings highlight the challenges in satisfying privacy needs when individuals and teams collaborate with knowledge workers in India. An understanding of these issues is important for building and deploying systems for intercultural collaboration that can accommodate differences in privacy concerns.


Introduction In recent years, action research has become part of teacher education programs across teacher education programs in North America and is helping preservice teachers experience the concept of teacher-as-researcher before they step into their teaching careers. Yet, there has been very little research on preservice teachers' action research experiences. The purpose of this paper is to address the gap that exists in the knowledge base for understanding the repertoire of images that preservice teachers gain as they engage in action research. In this study, image is proposed as a construct to understand preservice teachers' particularistic knowledge of their action research experiences. Participants' images of their action research experiences were derived from the themes and patterns prevalent in participants' metaphors and accompanying narratives, and from other data (journals, action research reports, and focus group interviews) that were collected to provide a "rich picture" (Johnston, 1992, p. 124) of participants' action research experiences. Literature Review A growing body of scholarship has indicated the importance of action research as a component of preservice teacher education (Auger & Wideman, 2000; Chant, Heafner, & Bennett, 2004; Rock & Levin, 2002; Szabo, Scott, & Yellin, 2002). Within this body of scholarship, some studies claim that preservice teachers who engage in action research develop an educational appreciation system (Dinkelman, 1997; Ross, 1987; Woodlinger, 1996). Ross describes the appreciation system of practitioners as one that consists of "their fundamental values and theories and their repertoire of examples, images, understandings and actions" (p. 135). Recent research has provided some knowledge on the "range and variety of the repertoire" (Schon, 1983, p. 140) of understandings (Auger & Wideman, 2000; Chant et al., 2004; Gitlin, Barlow, Burbank, Kauchak, & Stevens, 1999; Rock & Levin, 2002; Szabo et al., 2002) and actions that preservice teachers gain as a result of their action research experience (Auger & Wideman; Duffield & Townsend, 1999; Rock & Levin). Despite the growth of the knowledge base for the repertoire of understandings and actions respectively, very little is known about the contribution of action research to the repertoire of images that also make up preservice teachers' appreciation systems. What little is known about images can be gathered from the studies by Fueyo and Koorland (1997) and Fueyo and Neves (1995). These studies contend that participation in action research projects results in preservice teachers taking up images like inquiry-oriented observers, ethnographers, change agents (Fueyo & Neves) and problem-solvers (Fueyo & Koorland). Most of these images pertain to the four stages of the action research spiral: plan, act, observe, and reflect. So far, the knowledge base for the repertoire of images only conveys preservice teachers' knowledge of techniques (Fueyo & Koorland, 1997; Fueyo & Neves, 1995) that they need to function within the four stages of the action research spiral but does not provide an insider's perspective into the images that evolve as preservice teachers are engaged in the action research process itself. On the other hand, a number of studies indicate the importance of how images play a profound role in teaching, learning, and problem-solving (Bullough, 1991; Bullough & Stokes, 1994; Calderhead & Robson, 1991; Johnston, 1992; Russell & Johnston, 1988; Russell, Munby, Spafford, & Johnston, 1988; Zaltman & Zaltman, 2008). Calderhead and Robson (1991) state that "images, whether representation or reconstructions, provide us with an indicator of teachers' knowledge and enable us to examine the knowledge growth attributable to different training experiences and the relationship between knowledge and observed practice" (p. …


Aimed at requirements in manufacturing process, using the OOM (Object-OrientedMethodology), a study on modeling of PMU from basic information, manufacturing abilityinformation and physical composition proceeds; A new organizing and managing modebased on PMU (Physical Manufacturing Unit, cell and equipment for enterprises manufac-turing resources is proposed; For manufacturing ability information, a modeling based onLMU (Logical Manufacturing Unit) and parts produced by PMU, is given.


Based on a comparison of the internal musculature of the fifth and sixth limbs of the cypridinid ostracode Isocypridina quatuorsetae, it is tentatively concluded that the sixth limbs of members of the Cypridinidae are biramous, each bearing an exopod represented by a cluster of small bristles (setae) and an endopod


This paper describes how transport is a major user of carbon-based fuels, and achievement of the targets set at the Kyoto Protocol means that the European Union (EU) and national governments must reduce CO(2) emissions in all sectors, including transport. This paper reports on the options available to meet a 60% CO(2) reduction target by 2030 in the United Kingdom (UK) transport sector. Two different images of the future (the New Market Economy and Smart Social Policy) have been produced, together with the appropriate key drivers of change and the contextual environment. For the New Market Economy, it is impossible to reach the targets set as a substantial increase in travel is expected, and it is only in the Smart Social Policy alternative that the challenging targets can be reached. But even here, reliance on technology on its own will not achieve the targets. A substantial commitment to hybrid and lean burn technologies, combined with a system of road pricing on the major motorway network, and a range of complementary regulations and soft measures can in combination get close the targets set. Alternatively, behavioral and life style changes together with a national road pricing scheme on all roads and a desire to live in more accessible cities, using technology to reduce the number of trips made and trip lengths can achieve the targets set, when combined with some technological innovations. It is possible for transport to make a substantial contribution to CO2 targets if current levels of travel do not increase, but it is the expected growth in travel over the next 25 years that may create the "impossible challenge".


Pitch-based mesophase carbon fibers prepared at different temperatures were heat-treated at temperatures lower than those of the preparation and the electrochemical Li doping/undoping characteristics were evaluated in relation to the data of IR, mass, etc. Presence of surface hydroxyls were confirmed by FTIR for lower temperature sample which showed poor anode characteristics. Upon oxidative heating, removal of surface hydroxyls took place, resulting in a remarkable improvement of the electrode characteristics. At the same time, surface roughening took place, which was confirmed by SEM and double layer capacity measurements. In situ mass spectra obesrved during the heat-treatments showed gas evolution of H₂O, CO, CO₂, C₂H₄, and/or H₂depending on the conditions. These data together with those of weight loss and conductivity provided us a valuable information in regard to the evaluation of the electrochemical characteristics.


This study aims to describe the effectiveness of TPS (Think-Pair-Square) in terms of mathematical learning activities and the effectiveness of TPS in terms of learning achievement in mathematics. The method in this study was quasi-experimental. The study population was class IX students of SMP Negeri 24 Bandar Lampung Academic Year 2017/2018. The sample was obtained by random class technique and selected class IX D as the control class and class IX E as the experimental class. The research instrument used was a test of student achievement in the form of pre-test and post-test, learning activity questionnaire and observation sheet of learning activities of students. The results showed that the TPS learning model was effective in terms of the learning activities of students with a tcount = 6.604> t table = 2.05553 so that H0 was rejected. In addition, TPS was also effective in terms of the learning achievement of the analysis results. It was found that the p value was 0,000 <α so that H0 was rejected, meaning there were differences in the results of the pre-test and post-test. This means that the Think Pair Square (TPS) learning model is effective in terms of learning achievement.


Elephant in the Room is a speculative ecofeminist fable for the climate crisis. The animation addresses the elephant in the room—the climate emergency—by telling the story of one elephant who takes action to combat environmental injustice and climate change.


A new chromogenic reagent 3,5-bis(4-phenylazophenylaminodiazo) benzoic acid(BPAAD) is synthesized and its color reaction conditions with Ni(Ⅱ) are studied.In the buffer solution of Na2B4O7-NaOH at pH 10.0 and in the presence of TritonX-100,the chromogenic reagent reacts with nickel(Ⅱ) to form a red complex(2∶1).The maximum absorption wavelength of the complex is at 500 nm,and the apparent molar absorptivity is 1.46×105 L·mol-1·cm-1.Beer's law is obeyed in the range of 0~0.8 μg for nickel(Ⅱ) in 25 mL.The conditions for determining nickel and the effects of coexistent ions on the determination are examined.Adding masking reagent,the allowable amounts of Al3+,Fe3+,Cu2+,Hg2+,Cd2+ are increased.This method has been used for the determination of nickel in aluminum alloy samples with RSD of 2.5%-3.8%(n=5) and the results are agreement with those obtained by atomic absorption spectrometry.


The present work aims to investigate the behavior of drying kaffir lime leaves in a swirling solar drying chamber (S-SDC) fitted with an inclined slotted angle air distributor. A distributor plated with inclined slotted angle was located at the air inlet at the bottom of the chamber. Experimental and numerical methods have been applied to analyze the efficiency of developed S-SDC assisted solar drying system based on the moisture content (MC), moisture content ratio (MR) and drying rate (DR) were examined. The experimental results showed that the S-SDC can reduce the moisture content of kaffir lime leaves more rapidly than a conventional solar drying chamber (CSDC). The S-SDC gave a higher DR and decreased drying time compared to that of C-SDC. The results also indicated that operation at higher air velocities resulted in a greater DR, especially at the beginning stage of the drying process. For the S-SDC, the reduced of MC, MR and DR at a high air velocity (v = 2.0 m/s) was better than at low air velocities (v = 0.5 and 1.0 m/s). Drying chamber efficiency is also observed at a higher air velocity of 2 m/s for both SSDC and CSDC. In addition, obtained experimental findings are in line with numerical results. The outcomes of this study present the potential of using the S-SDC compared to the C-SDC to be used in drying crops.


In the present article, the advection–diffusion equation (ADE) having a nonlinear type source/sink term with initial and boundary conditions is solved using finite difference method (FDM). The solution of solute concentration is calculated numerically and also presented graphically for conservative and nonconservative cases. The emphasis is given for the stability analysis, which is an important aspect of the proposed mathematical model. The accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method are validated by comparing the results obtained with existing analytical solutions for a conservative system. The novelty of the article is to show the damping nature of the solution profile due to the presence of the nonlinear reaction term for different particular cases in less computational time by using the reliable and efficient finite difference method.


Eutigoside C, a compound isolated from the leaves of Eurya emarginata, is thought to be an active anti‐inflammatory compound which operates through an unknown mechanism. In the present study we investigated the molecular mechanisms of eutigoside C activity in lipopolysacchardide (LPS)‐stimulated murine macrophage RAW 264.7 cells. Treatment with eutigoside C inhibited LPS‐stimulated production of nitric oxide (NO), prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) and interleukin‐6 (IL‐6). To further elucidate the mechanism of this inhibitory effect of eutigoside C, we studied LPS‐induced nuclear factor (NF)‐κB activation and mitogen‐activated protein (MAP) kinase phosphorylation. Eutigoside C suppressed NF‐κB DNA binding activity, interfering with nuclear translocation of NF‐κB. Eutigoside C suppressed the phosphorylation of three MAP kinases (ERK1/2, JNK and p38). These results suggest that eutigoside C inhibits the production of inflammatory mediators (NO, PGE2 and interleukin‐6) by suppressing the activation and translocation of NF‐κB and the phosphorylation of MAP kinases (ERK1/2, JNK and p38) in LPS‐stimulated murine macrophage RAW 264.7 cells.


To what extent is it important to take the specifics of confessional structures into account when assessing the vectors and dynamics of interstate relations in regional security systems? The author has analyzed the regional systems of Central Europe, the Central Caucasus, and Central Asia to answer this and related questions.


The aerodynamic performance of wind turbine blades is of great significance and value to the power output of wind turbines. Correct evaluation of blade performance is beneficial to the design and design of wind turbines. In the operating environment, the aerodynamic load on the blade is a combination of the aerodynamic pressure of the air and the additional force generated by its own rotation. Under different environmental conditions, the aerodynamic load on the wind turbine blades will be significantly different. Using advanced fluid mechanics, the developed program is used to perform aerodynamic simulation on a certain type of wind turbine blade calculation example to obtain the flow field and blade surface pressure coefficient distribution. The calculated results are in good agreement with the experiment, and the developed program can be used for aerodynamic analysis of engineering wind turbine blades, which is conducive to the development of wind turbine design.


Platforms with liquid cores are extensively explored as cell delivery vehicles for cell‐based therapies and tissue engineering. However, the recurrence of synthetic materials can impair its translation into the clinic. Inspired by the adhesive proteins secreted by mussels, liquefied capsule is developed using gelatin modified with hydroxypyridinones (Gel‐HOPO), a catechol analogue with oxidant‐resistant properties. The protein‐based liquefied macrocapsule permitted the compartmentalization of living cells by an approachable and non‐time‐consuming methodology resorting to i) superhydrophobic surfaces as a processing platform of hydrogel beads, ii) gelation of gelatin at temperatures < 25 °C, iii) iron coordination of the hydroxypyridinone (HOPO) moieties at physiological pH, and iv) core liquefaction at 37 °C. With the design of a proteolytically degradable shell, the possibility of encapsulating human adipose‐derived mesenchymal stem cells (hASC) with and without the presence of polycaprolactone microparticles (μPCL) is evaluated. Showing prevalence toward adhesion to the inner shell wall, hASC formed a monolayer evidencing the biocompatibility and adequate mechanical properties of these platforms for proliferation, diminishing the need for μPCL as a supporting substrate. This new protein‐based liquefied platform can provide biofactories devices of both fundamental and practical importance for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine or in other biotechnology fields.


For more than 35 years, the U.S. Coast Guard has operated vessel traffic services (VTSs) in major ports throughout the United States. During this period of time, VTS capabilities and roles have changed, and the relationship with other aspects of waterways management and maritime operations has matured. The role of VTS is in the midst of an operational revolution, which has become especially evident in the past 10 years. This article discusses how the expansion of advanced sensors and technology, greater recognition of the need for maritime domain awareness in support of all maritime missions, and larger, more numerous vessels plying American's waterways have created the need for an even more modern and technologically advanced U.S. Coast Guard-operated VTS program.


Integration of adeno‐associated virus type 2 (AAV2) DNA into the genome of the human MKr melanoma cell line grossly alters the cellular phenotype of these cells. Cultures derived from AAV DNA‐harboring single cells share various similarities with normal cells in culture, and a considerable number of clones show signs of cellular senescence and terminal differentiation. Medium conditioned by such terminally differentiating cells contains a small cytokine‐like factor (AAV‐induced factor [AIF]). The factor was characterized as peptide, which influences cell adhesion and appears to exist in forms of different activity connected by a trypsin‐like cleavage site. It modulates cell growth in opposite ways: proliferation of tumor‐derived cells is inhibited and fibroblasts are stimulated. The observations suggest that integration of AAV may result in cytokine induction and thus can indirectly affect growth of distant AAV‐free target cells in a paracrine or endocrine manner. This is of interest with regard to anti‐oncogenic properties of AAV and may also imply the possibility of AAV pathogenicity. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


The development of sub-central city of the provincial capital is an important part of urban development strategy. We must scientifically understand the functional orientation of regional center city in economic and social development and have an accurate analysis of basis and advantages that regional center city possesses to blend into the economic circle of city group. Zhangqiu City adheres to the principle of development first and implements industrial connection to build a new industrial city; insists on importance of characteristics and implements city connection to build a livable city; sticks to innovation as its soul and implements management connection to build a dynamic city; upholds the people's livelihood-oriented policy and implements social construction connection to build a city of harmony. By doing so, Zhangqiu has carried out useful exploration of development model of sub-central city of the provincial capital.


A correlation between bonding changes in silicon-rich silicon nitride films, subjected to high temperature annealing under N2 ambient, and the formation of silicon nanocrystals is presented. The postannealing appearance of a shoulder between 1000 and 1100 cm−1 in the Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra of silicon-rich silicon nitride films is attributed to a reordering in the films toward an increased SiN4 bonding configuration resulting from the precipitation of silicon nanocrystals. The FTIR monitoring of bonding changes in these films allows for the indirect verification of silicon nanocrystal formation.


An efficient despeckling method was proposed based on stationary wavelet translation (SWT) for synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images. The statistical model of wavelet coefficients was analyzed and its performance was modeled with a mixture density of two zero-mean Gaussian distributions. A fuzzy shrinkage factor was derived by employing the minimum mean error (MMSE) criteria with bayesian estimation. Furthermore, the ideas of region division and fuzzy shrinkage were adopted according to the interscale dependencies of the wavelet coefficients. The noise-free wavelet coefficients were estimated accurately. Experimental results show that the method is superior to the refined Lee filter,wavelet soft thresholding shrinkage and SWT shrinkage algorithms in terms of smoothing effects and edges preservation.


Introduction: Depression is recognized as one of the most common disabling and recurrent disorders with changes in emotional, cognitive, and neurobiological functions over a twoweekperiod. Aim: The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of cognitive therapy based on mindfulness on positive affect, psychological flexibility and mind-awareness components of people with depression symptoms. Method: The research method was semi-experimental with control and experimental group as pre-test and post-test. 30 students with depression symptoms were selected using purposeful sampling. They were randomly assigned to control and experimental groups. The experimental group received 8 sessions of cognitive therapy based on mind-awareness while the control group received no training at al. Beck Depression Inventory, Acceptance and Practice Questionnaire-II (AAQ-II), Positive and Negative Affect Scale, and Five-Point Mindfulness Questionnaire were used for data collection. Results: The results showed that cognitive therapy based on Mindfulness increases the scores of the experimental group in the positive affection, psychological flexibility and component of mindfulness and decreased levels of negative affect. Conclusion: cognitive therapy based on Mindfulness is effective to enhance positive affec, psychological flexibility and mindfulness components.


Artemisinin, a sesquiterpene lactone endoperoxide isolated from the herb Artemisia annua L. (Asteraceae), is a highly potent antimalarial compound, which is efficient against multidrug-resistant strains of Plasmodium falciparum. The promotion of artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) by the WHO during the past years lead to a strong pressure on the world market of artemisinin. The scarcity of artemisinin caused a price increase that strongly renewed the interest for Artemisia annua culture at a large scale. The use of varieties with high artemisinin content is a key factor for the development of such cultures. The new hybrids recently obtained by Mediplant, with artemisinin contents nearing 2%, are being presented. INTRODUCTION Artemisinin, a sesquiterpene lactone endoperoxid isolated from the herb Artemisia annua L. (Asteraceae), is a highly potent antimalarial compound, which is also efficient against multidrug-resistant strains of Plasmodium falciparum (Alin, 1997). With the support of the WHO, in 2005 over 53 countries have officially adopted artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) as their first line of treatment against malaria (WHO, 2006). The global consumption of ACTs has increased from a few hundred thousands in 2001 and 2002 to tens of millions treatments in 2005. The rapid increase in demand produced a global supply shortage of artemisinin and a price increase. Despite the research of new technologies (Hentschel, 2005), the extraction from A. annua leaves remains the only source of artemisinin. Only the distribution of varieties with a high artemisinin production potential allows making this new culture attractive and this way answer an increasing demand for low cost artemisinin (Ferreira et al., 2005). Research conducted for about 15 years by Mediplant on the biology of A. annua and the breeding on artemisinin allowed to develop cultivars with over 1% artemisinin in the leaves (Delabays et al., 1993, 2001). The breeding work continues to get new cultivars rich in artemisinin and well-suited to the inter-tropical zone. The present paper presents the results obtained with the latest hybrids created. MATERIALS AND METHODS Creation of the Hybrids Plants issued from our breeding program and preserved in vitro (Le and Collet, 1991) are raised in greenhouses with controlled day lengths to ensure floral induction. Since the auto-fertilization being insignificant (Delabays, 1997), the plants are isolated in groups of 2 genotypes to ensure the production of hybrid seeds. Field Evaluation Seeds obtained from the controlled cross were sown in greenhouses during March, the hybrid seedlings were transplanted on field about mid-May in Conthey, Switzerland (46°13'N latitude, 7°17'E longitude and 485 m asl) according to an experimental system with 3 replications of 20 plants per elementary plots (density 1.78 plants/m). Six central plants per elementary plot were harvested around September 20 at vegetative stage and dried at 35°C. The leaves are then separated from the stems and reduced to powder (≤0.5 mm). Proc. XXVII IHC-S2 Asian Plants with Unique Hort. Potential Eds.-in-Chief: Donglin Zhang et al. Acta Hort. 769, ISHS 2008 372 Chemical Analysis The determination of artemisinin content from the dry leaves powder was realised with HPLC at Agroscope Changins-Wadenswil Research Station ACW according to the method described by Delabays (1997) and Zhao and Zeng (1986). RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The results obtained with our reference cultivar 'Artemis' during 5 consecutive years are given in Table 1. The values are stable with an average artemisinin content of the leaves of 1.3%. The mean annual production of artemisinin was about 32 kg/ha artemisinin. For five new hybrids of A. annua, the artemisinin contents in their leaves were very high varying from 1.60 to 1.95% (Table 2). After 4 months of field cultivation in Swiss climatic conditions with the density of 17,800 plants/ha, these hybrids produced 2.1 to 2.85 t/ha dry leaves and 40.5 to 52.0 kg/ha artemisinin. One of the most promising new hybrid, the Hybrid 1, revealed a similar yield in dry leaves, showing 36% higher content of artemisinin in the leaves and 37% higher production of artemisinin compared to the cultivar 'Artemis' in 2001 (Table 3). The breeding work had been conducted by Mediplant since 1989 and was judged to be successful based on the creation of high-yielding clones' hybrids. During the past 9 years, about 45 new hybrids were tested. A continuous breeding for cultivars with a high artemisinin production has allowed this progression of the artemisinin content in the leaves. Although the artemisinin content is the first selection criterion retained, other factors such as the aptitude for in vitro conservation, the strength, the leaves productivity, the flowering earliness and the tolerance to pests and diseases are also considered. In order to validate their production potential, these new promising hybrids will be tested over several years in Switzerland as well as in other various areas of the intertropical zone which appear to the main production sites for artemisinin. CONCLUSION After the registration in 1999 of a first cultivar 'Artemis' with 1.3% artemisinin content in the leaves, the latest results obtained by the cultivar breeding program let foresee at short term the launching of a new cultivar with a productivity gain of more than 30%. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The analysis were realised by the chemistry laboratory of the research station Agroscope Changins-Wadenswil ACW. Literature Cited Alin, M.H. 1997. In vitro susceptibility of Tanzanian wild isolates of Plasmodium falciparum to artemisinin, chloroquine, sulfadoxine/pyrimethamine and mefloquine. Parasitol. 114:503-506. Delabays, N., Benakis, A. and Collet, G. 1993. Selection and breeding for high artemisinin (Qinghaosu) yielding strains of Artemisia annua. Acta Hort. 330:203-207. Delabays, N. 1997. Biologie de la reproduction chez l'Artemisia annua et genetique de la production en artemisinine. These de doctorat: Uni. de Lausanne. Delabays, N., Simonnet, X. and Gaudin, M. 2001. The genetics of artemisinin content in Artemisia annua L. and the breeding of high yielding cultivars. Current Medicinal Chemistry 8:1795-1801. Ferreira, J.F.S., Laughlin J.C., Delabays, N. and Magalhaes, P.M. 2005. Cultivation and genetics of Artemisia annua L. for increased production of the antimalarial artemisinin. Plant Genetic Resources 3:206-229. Hentschel, C. 2005. ACT pipeline & synthetic artemisinins. Coartem Advisory Board Meeting, 10-11 March 2005, Dakar, Senegal. Le, C.L. and Collet, G.F. 1991. The in vitro culture of Artemisia annua L. Schweiz.


This thesis analyses the concept of the 'human being' (ningen) in the philosophies of the two modern Japanese intellectuals Miki Kiyoshi and Watsuji Tetsuro. I demonstrate that their philosophical systems, based on the idea that the creation of a new Japanese human being should have coincided with the establishment of the Japanese empire, colluded with history and were defeated together with Japan in August 1945. Utilizing the religious idea of the escaton, which Miki and Watsuji translated into the 'moral destiny of victory' that Japan should have been entitled to, I prove that it is possible for history and philosophy to simultaneously collapse in a time of crisis such as the one of the Second World War.


In this article, we use bockwise empirical likelihood technique to construct confidence regions for the parameter of the single-index models under negatively associated errors. It is shown that the blockwise empirical likelihood ratio statistic for the parameter of interest is asymptotically χ2-type distributed. The result can be used to obtain confidence regions for the parameter of interest.


We have analyzed the human growth hormone-releasing factor (GHRF) gene by high-resolution restriction mapping of its PCR amplification products. Two intragenic PCR fragment length polymorphisms (PCRFLPs) were detected in introns A and C of the GHRF gene, whose heterozygosities are 40 and 7%, respectively. Linkage analysis using the CEPH panel showed that GHRF is linked to several markers on chromosome 20 and assigned the GHRF locus to a region near the centromere between D20S27 (assigned to 20p12.1-p11.23) and D20S16 (assigned to 20q12). These intragenic PCRFLPs and the tightly linked polymorphisms should provide useful markers for linkage studies of GHRF alleles in familial disorders of growth such as isolated growth hormone deficiency.


The area of information technology (it) has undergone constant changes that, consequently, impact directly on professional and in companies that work with this sector. The aim of this study was to identify the profile and motivational inclination in the career of it professional. This is a field where applied questionnaires closed in professionals. The sample was composed of 27 professionals in companies participating in the CIO of Rio Grande do Sul. The two instruments used were the inventory of Schwartz values (IVS) that offer some perspectives of appreciation of employee matching your goals and interests, and the other instrument was the questionnaire by Edgar Schein on professional inclination, which allows you to identify the relationship and prospects of those with work and their lives. With the results exposed it was found, that it professionals surveyed here are self-determined, individuals value the lifestyle, are benevolent and hedonists, seek well-being and job satisfaction and love challenges. I concluded then that professionals and students are or will be mostly professionals in search of constant challenges and personal and professional satisfaction, adapting the work in the best possible way to your lifestyle.


An experiment was conducted to examine the role of Mn in P fixation through comparing with Al and Fe.Hydroxides and oxides of Al,Fe and Mn were prepared in lab under opened and closed conditions to react with phosphate,The newly formed Mn hydroxide showed the strongest P-fixing ability,even several times higher than Fe hydroxide ,but became the lowest rapidly due to ageing when exposed to air,Mn oxide showed the lowest P-fixing ability,Therefore,a sound consideration on P fixation should be based on both quantities and P-fixing abilities of the compounds of Fe,Al and Mn,The importance of Mn on P availability should receive more attention especially under oxidation-reduction dynamic conditions.


The pyrolytical characteristics of various deteriorated oils were investigated by thermogravimetry(TG), derivative thermogravimetry (DTG)and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). These oils were prepared as follows:soybean oil and lard were heated at 60°C to obtain autoxidized oil and 180°C to obtain thermally oxidized oil, and deteriorated oil was obtained by frying chicken in shortening, The relationship between the pyrolytical characteristics and chemical deterioration was also studied.1) In autoxidized oil, an oxidative reaction occured at 150°C200°C. This reaction could be detected more clearly during heating on TG and DSC curves with the progress of deterioration. In thermally oxidized oil, this reaction was not detected, but pyrolysis after weight started to decrease occured more quickly than that of the unoxidized oil, In the deteriorated oil, the temperature at which weight first started to decrease shifted to a lower region as deterioration proceeded.2) The characteristics found on TG and DSC curves were confirmed to be due to peroxidative products in the autoxidized oil lipid components having carbonyl groups thermally oxidized oil and polar lipids containing free fatty acids, mono-and di-glycerides in deteriorated oil may be useful for determining the conditions for oil deterioration.3) For autoxidized oil, the difference between the temperatures for initial and 25% weight reduction was closely correlated to peroxide, carbonyl value(COV)and p-anisidine values (AnV). For thermally oxidized oil, the decomposition rate between 250°C and 300°C was correlated to COV in the region below 30 and AnV in the region below 120. For deteriorated oil, the initial temperature of pyrolysis was correlated to COV, AnV, and polar lipid content.


Revolution of information technology in general and the World Wide Web in particular has created opportunity of building better relationships with customers. Until recently, simplifying the management and organization of customer information was main focus of Customer Relationship Management software's. Such software, called Customer Relationship Management, mainly focused on creating a database of customer's vital information. However, the sheer volumes of this customer information created need for organizations to look for methods and techniques to automatically and intelligently gain insight into customers and their needs through data analysis. Data Mining is popular means of analyzing large volumes of data in order to extract the valuable information/knowledge hidden in this data. There is an emerging trend of using data mining tools for Customer Relationship Management by the organizations in order to analyze and understand buying behavior of customers and their characteristics, so as to retain existing customers, acquire new potential customers and maximize their value. This paper presents concepts of Customer Relationship Management and Data Mining, framework of Customer Relationship Management and Data Mining, application of various data mining techniques in Customer Relationship Management.


This method for measuring track geometry is based on a light-beam-operated reference system. The determination for lifting and cross leveling is based on a horizontal plane practically floating above the track at a constant distance at all times. The measurement of horizontal track alignment works basically on continuous stringlining with the chord being a light beam. Variations on the automatic system can involve lower levels of automation than possible with the photoelectric sensors and associated controls.


The "only colored player in league ball" in 1905 was William Clarence Matthews, and that season in Vermont's Northern League was his only season in professional baseball.1 At Harvard, he had won fame for his baseball exploits, becoming one of the nation's best college players on the foremost college nine in the country. In the summer of 1905, while playing in Vermont, he became the focus of additional national attention when it was reported by a Boston newspaper that he would soon be breaking the color barrier in major league baseball by joining Fred Tenney's Boston Nationals.Matthews' life is an absorbing document of the African American experience from the end of Reconstruction to the Depression. In his lifetime, Matthews was intimately associated with Booker T. Washington and Marcus Garvey, and he attended the Harvard College of W.E.B. DuBois, William Munroe Trotter, and William Henry Lewis. When he died in 1928, at age 50, more than 1,500 mourners gathered at his funeral in Boston; President Coolidge and Attorney General John Sargent sent telegrams of consolation and celebration of his life. The Evening Transcript, Boston's foremost white newspaper, called him a "leader of his race."I have written more extensively about Matthews' life elsewhere.2 This essay largely focuses on the context of his only foray into professional baseball, the Northern League of Vermont, and describes in detail the organization of that league and the players and controversies that marked this extraordinary baseball enterprise in the summer of Matthews' rumored breakthrough.Matthews was forced to play in an "outlaw" league. The organized minor leagues played under the so-called National Agreement and abided by the same "Gentleman's Agreement" that barred blacks from the majors. Vermont's Northern League was a "fast" league that operated 1901-1906. The Burlington team that Matthews joined was the defending champ and the scourge of the league. Burlington's owner, wealthy senator George Whitney, and his right-hand man, Vermonter Willard "Doc" Hazleton, had put together a formidable outfit of veterans and recent college players for the 1905 season.Unlike so many college boys, Matthews had eschewed professional baseball in the summers in order to retain his amateur eligibility at Harvard. As a black man, he certainly could not have played under an alias and escaped detection. An article in McClure's Magazine in June 1905, identifying Matthews as "Harvard's Best Player," brought him national attention.3 Muckraker Henry Beach Needham praised Matthews extravagantly in McClure's for his decision to play college sports and work his way through school rather than subsidize his education through summer ball. "For seven seasons he could have earned much money by playing with semi-professional teams," Needham observed, "but this he has refused to do."Matthews missed Burlington's first five games and then appeared on July 2 against Plattsburgh. His first night in uniform must have introduced second thoughts about his decision to play in Vermont: The boat ride across Lake Champlain to Plattsburgh was "most hazardous ... with waves washing the gunwales on every roll of the little steamer," as the Burlington Free Press reported the next day. "Life preservers were donned and every preparation made for the possible sinking of the boat."4 He survived that scare, but this close call was perhaps a harbinger of the season to come. He "showed up fast" in the pregame practice and "was liberally applauded" by Burlington fans. Once the game started, the first Plattsburgh hitter "upbounded the ball" to Matthews and "he fairly ate it up."5 This first game proved anticlimactic, called on account of rain with the score tied 0-0. Burlington fans would have to endure an off-day before catching Matthews again in a spectacular home-and-home doubleheader with "deadly rival" Rutland on the Fourth of July.6 In those games, played in a festive atmosphere before thousands of fans traveling by train the 70 miles between cities, he would live up to his billing. …


During the development of product-service systems (PSS), various artifacts are modeled by the different involved disciplines, e.g. mechanics, electrics, electronics, software and services. Each of these artifacts represents different aspects of the PSS as a whole. In order to reuse the respective information that are contained in each artifact but which are represented using different ways of modeling, transformations are needed. In this paper we present a conceptual methodology how the relevant PSS elements and their attributes can be transformed from one specific language to another, in order to facilitate the cross-disciplinary use of model-based information during the development process of mechatronic PSS.


The present invention relates to satellite communication technology, acceleration protocol method, comprising: when an established between Client and Server TCP connection; GWl establish a connection to the parties GW2 XP; between GW2 and Server, to establish a TCP connection; the present invention is implemented based on the distribution type performance proxy satellite network environments TCP (transmission control protocol) acceleration protocol: XP agreement. Specifically designed and optimized for long-latency satellite networks, a high error rate and an asymmetric channel characteristics, mainly used for a transparent alternative end TCP connection via a single hop satellite network TCP protocol. This document and the connection establishment protocol for XP, some key technical data transmission and connection release phases used have been described and analyzed, mainly comprising: a reliable and efficient connection is established two-way handshake algorithm, based on the sender actively requests a delay confirmed algorithm, based on flow control and congestion control window, and based on a two-stage multi-way handshake connection release algorithm.


Virtual reality applications can enhance the education and training of students with learning disabilities, along with their quality of life. Virtual worlds offer opportunities for creating a highly interactive, complex simulation. Modeling and scripting tools can be applied in these worlds. Providing functionalities for managing presentations, administration as well as assessment of coursework in an educational context, virtual learning environments support teaching and learning in schools. Learning disabilities such as "dyslexia, dyscalculia, attention issues (ADHD), and disability in retrieving information", which students need to do physics experiments, are a major source of concern since they impair a person's ability to learn. Traditional teaching methods do not appear to support the same thought in the situation of students with learning disabilities, who normally need a significant investment of time, money, and people for individual tutoring. Students with this problem have difficulty envisioning or visualizing what they are being taught, in addition to breaking down and processing the material. To address the above issues, this paper develops and evaluates a 3D virtual physics laboratory to improve cognitive skills in physics experiments for students with learning disabilities. The environment is created based on specially designed criteria for disabled students. The study proves the effectiveness of the 3D virtual environment in improving the cognitive skills in the physics of students with learning disabilities.


Synchronous Objects is an interactive online dance work that allows audiences to look inside the choreographic structure of William Forsythe's One Flat Thing, reproduced (2000). Ohio State University, in collaboration with Forsythe, created twenty interactive visualizations or "objects" with varying levels of interactivity that present three main choreographic principles: alignments, cueing and movement material. This design allows users to empathize with the movement on multiple levels--shifting attention away from aesthetic biases and highlighting qualities of the movement that may otherwise be missed. We conducted a close reading analysis of the interaction design strategies employed within Synchronous Objects in order to understand what interaction design features support kinesthetic empathy. We suggest categorizing the objects into three types: instructional, exploratory, and translational and claim these interaction categories provide a useful framework for understanding how to design for kinesthetic empathy in computational models of movement. We discuss how these interaction categories represent movement through relatable images that a broader audience can appreciate and connect with. Our analysis contributes to research in movement and computation by including kinesthetic empathy as a design principle within movement representations.


ABSTRACT The aim of the comment is to address the misrepresentations of our work on the Neolithic transitions that are found in a recent article by Manen and coauthors in Radiocarbon. There are a fair number of them as indicated in the comment. The purpose of the comment is (1) to set the record straight, (2) to clarify several misconceptions that have persisted in the literature for some time, and (3) to comment briefly on the convergence between our own recent regional modeling of the spread of early farming along the north coast of the West Mediterranean and the position currently held by Manen and coauthors.


Using thermodynamical formalism, we set up the perturbative approach for the Hausdorff dimension and the dimension spectrum of the Julia set associated with polynomials close to monomials. We extend previous calculations to a more general case where the perturbation is not constant.


Genetic mutations are a primary driving force behind the adaptive evolution of bacterial pathogens. Here, we show that in Pseudomonas aeruginosa, an important human pathogen, the naturally evolved L181P/E376Q missense mutations in the two-component sensor BfmS gene increases the phosphorylation level and thus the regulatory activity of its cognate response regulator BfmR, which in turn directs this pathogen toward a chronic infection state. The elevated phosphorylation of BfmR appears at least in part due to the reduced phosphatase activity of BfmS, which also allows the cross-phosphorylation of BfmR by GtrS, a non-cognate sensor kinase. We documented that not only the L181P/E376Q but also other spontaneous missense mutations in bfmS, such as A42E/G347D, T242R, and R393H, cause a similar _______________________________________________ This is the author's manuscript of the article published in final edited form as: Cao, Q., Yang, N., Wang, Y., Xu, C., Zhang, X., Fan, K., Chen, F., Liang, H., Zhang, Y., Deng, X., Feng, Y., Yang, C.-G., Wu, M., Bae, T., & Lan, L. (2020). Mutation-induced remodeling of the BfmRS two-component system in Pseudomonas aeruginosa clinical isolates. Science Signaling, 13(656), eaaz1529. https://doi.org/10.1126/scisignal.aaz1529 2 / 87 remodeling of the BfmRS two-component system in P. aeruginosa. This study thus exemplifies the plasticity of two-component systems mediated by spontaneous mutations, also suggesting that mutation-induced activation of BfmRS may contribute to the host adaptation of P. aeruginosa during chronic infections.


There are more than 4 million people effected by mitral regurgitation in both the United States and Europe. Prior to the last decade the only options for treatment of MR were medical therapy and open heart surgery which left many high risk patients with little option once medically optimized. However, we saw a flood in innovative transcatheter mitral valve interventions. As the technologies are refined these new approaches are considerably less invasive and for some high risk patients may represent a superior option to conventional open heart surgery. There are three main approaches currently being considered for transcatheter mitral valve repair, edge to edge repair, indirect annuloplasty and direct annuloplasty. There have also been large advancements in recent years in transcatheter replacement of the mitral valve. Although many of these devices are under investigation still, we sought to examine the current state of innovative transcatheter mitral valve technologies.


re to re ghters. It provides a means of presenting size, shape, and geolocation information simultaneously. We describe a novel technique to account for noise in pose estimation of the camera by converting it to the image domain. We also introduce a new concept, a Georeferenced Uncertainty Mosaic (GUM), in which we utilize a Sequential Monte Carlo method (a particle lter) to resolve the noise in the image domain and construct a georeferenced mosaic that simultaneously shows size, shape, geolocation, and uncertainty information about the re.


Several meetings have been held during the past month to discuss the revision of Circular 56 of the Bureau of Standards on Standards for Electronic Service. The Bureau has had the benefit of criticism by members of a committee representing the National Electric Light Association and the Association of Edison Illuminating Companies. A final meeting was held in New York on July 19, and all points have been mutually agreed upon. A new edition of the circular will undoubtedly have the full endorsement of the organizations representing the electric light and power industry.


Bis(2-ethylhexyl)phosphoric acid (HDEHP), a liquid cation exchanger is one of the common extractants employed for the separation of metal ions such as rare earths, fission products and transuranium metal ions! etc. Several methods are available/ -12 for the extraction chromatographic separation of gold, but the use of HDEHP as the extractant for gold 13 -I b is lacking. Presently we have explored extraction chromatographic behaviour of gold using HDEHP as an extractant in various concentrations of hydrochloric acid. The optimum conditions for its extraction have been evaluated and its separation from 20 metal ions have been accomplished. ECIL model GS 866C spectrophotometer provided with matched corex glass cuvetts of 10 mm optical path length was used for measuring absorbance. ECIL model 5651 pH-meter having glass-SCE electrode assembly was used for pH measurements. The chromatographic column (int diam =8 mm and length = 150 mm) was used for chromatographic separation. Stock solution of gold was prepared by dissolving about 0.45 g of gold chloride (Johnson & Mathey) in 0.1 M hydrochloric acid and making the volume to 100 ml with water. It was standardized gravimetrically by hydroquinonel7 and was found to contain 400 Jlg/ml of gold. Dilute solution (40 Jlg/ml of gold) was prepared by appropriate dilution. Bis(2-ethylhexyl)orthophosphoric acid (HDEHP) (Schuchardt, Munchen, Germany) was used as such.


In the present invention, the following are provided: a first connection member delivery device (120) that sequentially positions, at a splicing position LS, first connection members (101) that connect top tapes (Tt1, Tt2) of first and second carrier tapes (Tc1, Tc2) to each other; and a first joining device (100) that joins the first connection members (101) positioned at the splicing position (LS) to the top tapes (Tt1, Tt2) of the first and second carrier tapes (Tc1, Tc2) so as to lay across the top tapes. The top tapes (Tt1, Tt2) have a plurality of width dimensions in accordance with the width dimensions of the carrier tapes (Tc1, Tc2). The first connection members (101) have width dimensions smaller than the width dimensions of the top tapes (Tt1, Tt2) and have a fixed length in the length direction. In accordance with the width dimensions of the top tapes (Tt1, Tt2), the first joining device (100) joins the plurality of first connection members (101) in parallel in the width direction of the top tapes (Tt1, Tt2).


The appropriate role of mental health lawyers representing patient interests has been the subject of vigorous commentary and debate for some time.' Some authors have chastised lawyers opposing commitment proceedings for being too lax,2 while others have asserted that those lawyers are too aggressive and mechanically adversary.3 The role of mental health lawyers in law reform litigation has also been seriously scrutinized.4 Curiously, however, discussions of advocacy in mental health law have rarely touched on the appropriate role of attorneys representing commitment petitioners or state hospitals.5 This necessarily brief article attempts a modest redress of the imbalance by sketching some concerns regarding the appropriate role of state advocacy not in commitment hearings themselves, but in the limited yet important context of post-commitment litigation involving arguably inappropriate patient confinement. "Arguably inappropriate patient confinement" is a rather imprecise designation. Included within it are cases in which, because of a possibly invalid court order or a possibly unconstitutional statutory provision, it may be argued that the specified nature or duration of a patient's confinement is not legally required or permitted. The notion can perhaps best be captured by a series of representative illustrations:


We use a technique of Szankowski to construct operator Hilbert spaces that do not have the operator approximation property, including an example in a noncommutative Lp space for p ¬= 2.


We are in the midst of a revival of interest in the drama and theater of the Romantic period that has brought about new editions, exciting scholarship, and a surprisingly large number of stage productions of Romantic plays. The Romantic period offers us a wide range of interesting dramatic texts including poetic tragedies by canonical authors, innovative plays by women writers, and successful theatrical pieces by long-forgotten playwrights such as the Dibdins. We will best understand these works when we move beyond the notion that the period saw an irrevocable divorce between the stage and the page to see how different kinds of texts offer different kinds of performances. We need to read poetic tragedies alongside harlequinades, patent house comedy of manners alongside the plays offered at the Royal Circus.


The invention discloses a map generation method and system of a geographic information system. The method comprises the following steps: obtaining information of known coordinates of a road in the geographic information system and information of objects at the two sides of the road; according to the information of the known coordinates of the road, carrying out interpolation smooth processing on the road by use of a Bessel curve, and calculating information of a Bessel interpolation point; according to the obtained information of the objects at the two sides of the road, the information of the known coordinates of the road and the information of the Bessel interpolation point, calculating coordinates of the objects; and outputting a map including the information of the road after the interpolation smooth processing, the types of the objects and the calculated coordinates of the objects. The system provided by the invention comprises an information obtaining module, a road interpolation smooth processing module, an object coordinate calculation module and a map generation module. The method and system provided by the invention can effectively improve the accuracy of the map.


Across the Sahel, African mahogany trees are being indiscriminately harvested and the loss of genetic diversity is becoming a reality. The growers of African mahogany in Australia recognise this and are attempting to collect seed from as many localities as possible to preserve the genetic diversity.


The invention relates to an intensive pore distribution nickel-based catalyst and a preparation method thereof, mainly for solving the technical problems in the prior art that the nickel content is low, the active surface is small and the aperture distribution is not intensive. According to the intensive pore distribution nickel-based catalyst, in percentage by weight of the catalyst, the content of metal nickel or an oxide of the metal nickel is 10-70%, the specific surface area of the catalyst is 150-300m /g, the pore volume is 0.3-0.8ml/g, the pore volume of 5-10 nano accounts for 80-90% of the total pore volume, and the most probable aperture is distributed in the position of 6-10 nanometers. Due to adoption of the technical scheme, the problems in the prior art are well solved. The catalyst can be widely applied to industrial production of hydrotreatment of light oil fraction and heavy oil fraction.


This project was funded by the UF Water Institute 2007 Program Initiation Fund In the 1980s, Florida's newly-enacted stormwater regulations set a progressive example for stormwater management. Almost 30 years later many of the State's waters have been declared impaired pursuant to the federal Clean Water Act, due in part to inadequate treatment of stormwater. As a result, regulators and managers have been forced to reexamine Florida's current approach to stormwater management. We first discuss how current regulations fail to achieve adequate treatment, and describe the currently proposed solution in the form of a new statewide stormwater rule, which relies in part on an approach referred to as "low impact development" or "LID." LID presents unique implementation challenges in terms of the legal and regulatory framework, operation and maintenance of LID systems and acceptance by the public. We present the results of a quantitative and qualitative investigation of barriers to LID due to perceptions of stakeholders in the regulated and regulatory community in Florida. We find a lack of acceptance by the regulatory community mainly due to concerns about long-term operation and maintenance of LID systems, particularly when proposed for use on individual private parcels. Finally, we present some conceptual legal models for LID to help maximize the assurances of proper long-term functioning of LID.


3 Abstract Research has shown that economic decision makers often do not behave according to the prescriptions of rationality, but instead show systematic deviations from rational behavior (e.g., Starmer, 2000). One approach to explain these deviations is taking a dualprocess perspective (see Evans, 2008; Sanfey & Chang, 2008; Weber & Johnson, 2009) in which a distinction is made between deliberate, resource-consuming controlled processes and fast, effortless automatic processes. In many cases, deviations from rationality such as violations of Bayesian updating (e.g., Fujikawa & Oda, 2005; Ouwersloot, Nijkamp, & Rietveld, 1998; Zizzo, Stolarz-Fantino, Wen, & Fantino, 2000) may be ascribed to rather automatic, intuitive processes. Conflicts between such intuitive strategies and Bayesian updating can be assumed to affect decision outcomes and response times, as well as electrocortical activity. Moreover, it is suggested that personality characteristics such as faith in intuition (Epstein, Pacini, Denes-Raj, & Heier, 1996) and event-related potentials of the EEG can explain much of the variance in decision behavior across participants. In order to shed light on these issues, the present dissertation investigated decision behavior and corresponding electrocortical activity in posterior probability tasks in which participants had to update prior probabilities on the basis of new evidence to maximize payoff, and in which an intuitive strategy sometimes conflicted with Bayesian calculations. In Study 1a the reinforcement heuristic (Charness & Levin, 2005) led to a high rate of decision errors, especially for people who trusted their intuitive feelings. Participants" proneness to this rather automatic heuristic was significantly positively associated with the amplitude of the FRN. When the reinforcement heuristic was not available (Study 1b), participants were better able to apply the controlled process of Bayesian updating. Interindividual heterogeneity was again reflected in the amplitude of the FRN. In Study 2, conflicts between the representativeness heuristic (Grether, 1980, 1992) and Bayesian calculations led to a high error rate and long response times and were associated with a strongly pronounced N2 amplitude. Individual N2 amplitudes reflected the extent to which participants were able to detect this conflict and consequently to suppress the automatic response. Further, the conservatism heuristic (Edwards, 1968) was positively associated with participants" LRP amplitude and with faith in intuition. On the whole, results of the studies support the relevance of the dual-process perspective to economic decision making. Moreover, findings strongly suggest that interindividual differences are highly relevant within this context, and prove that neuroscientific methods can provide a better understanding of the physiological basis of (boundely) rational decision making.Research has shown that economic decision makers often do not behave according to the prescriptions of rationality, but instead show systematic deviations from rational behavior (e.g., Starmer, 2000). One approach to explain these deviations is taking a dualprocess perspective (see Evans, 2008; Sanfey & Chang, 2008; Weber & Johnson, 2009) in which a distinction is made between deliberate, resource-consuming controlled processes and fast, effortless automatic processes. In many cases, deviations from rationality such as violations of Bayesian updating (e.g., Fujikawa & Oda, 2005; Ouwersloot, Nijkamp, & Rietveld, 1998; Zizzo, Stolarz-Fantino, Wen, & Fantino, 2000) may be ascribed to rather automatic, intuitive processes. Conflicts between such intuitive strategies and Bayesian updating can be assumed to affect decision outcomes and response times, as well as electrocortical activity. Moreover, it is suggested that personality characteristics such as faith in intuition (Epstein, Pacini, Denes-Raj, & Heier, 1996) and event-related potentials of the EEG can explain much of the variance in decision behavior across participants. In order to shed light on these issues, the present dissertation investigated decision behavior and corresponding electrocortical activity in posterior probability tasks in which participants had to update prior probabilities on the basis of new evidence to maximize payoff, and in which an intuitive strategy sometimes conflicted with Bayesian calculations. In Study 1a the reinforcement heuristic (Charness & Levin, 2005) led to a high rate of decision errors, especially for people who trusted their intuitive feelings. Participants" proneness to this rather automatic heuristic was significantly positively associated with the amplitude of the FRN. When the reinforcement heuristic was not available (Study 1b), participants were better able to apply the controlled process of Bayesian updating. Interindividual heterogeneity was again reflected in the amplitude of the FRN. In Study 2, conflicts between the representativeness heuristic (Grether, 1980, 1992) and Bayesian calculations led to a high error rate and long response times and were associated with a strongly pronounced N2 amplitude. Individual N2 amplitudes reflected the extent to which participants were able to detect this conflict and consequently to suppress the automatic response. Further, the conservatism heuristic (Edwards, 1968) was positively associated with participants" LRP amplitude and with faith in intuition. On the whole, results of the studies support the relevance of the dual-process perspective to economic decision making. Moreover, findings strongly suggest that interindividual differences are highly relevant within this context, and prove that neuroscientific methods can provide a better understanding of the physiological basis of (boundely) rational decision making.


The potential for significant MOSA benefits appears unachieved to date. Recently, the requirement to use a MOSA has been made statutory and regulatory (Ref. 1-5). Previous work (Ref. 6) suggested that a customer-controlled component architecture is a necessary activity to achieve MOSA technical and business benefits across multiple programs. This paper extends that premise while previewing the concept of an Enterprise Product Architecture (EPA) for use in an acquisition environment where there is a requirements organization is contractually separated from the development organization. The requirements organization is composed of an enterprise that is responsible for multiple subordinate programs, and each subordinate program is responsible for developing major systems with their suppliers. Industry product line approaches developed the concept of an EPA (Ref. 7). This paper explores how an EPA can be used to set an enterpriselevel MOSA to increase opportunities to achieve expected MOSA benefits in the context of a multi-tiered acquirer with multiple programs using different contracts with different suppliers. This paper is a preview for a more detailed version of this concept planned for a future publication.

The technical approach previewed in this paper leads to a product line strategy for the enterprise focused on software and data. This paper defines key terms used for the development and application of an Enterprise Product Architecture (EPA). Products to be acquired would be accomplished through the interaction of the subordinate programs and their supplier(s). The development of the EPA begins with the establishment of functional boundaries. Interfaces between functional boundaries will be defined as a result of operational analysis that recognizes how different functional groupings interact to accomplish operational behaviors. Interfaces between functional groupings will be defined at a logical level to enable the incorporation of diverse products to accomplish requirements in the functional grouping.

This paper previews the use of three independent categories of functional product groupings: Mission, Utility, and Infrastructure. EPA development includes the establishment of functional groupings that enable capabilities to be agnostic of the underlying infrastructure, hence the reason for the separately categorized Infrastructure functional groupings. Utility functional groupings represent a class of applications that provide operational functionality used by more than one Mission functional grouping. The Utility functional groupings facilitate integration and orchestration of Mission functions. Mission functional groupings represent the rest of the non-infrastructure capabilities needed for the programs to accomplish their operations.


Adaptive groupware systems support changes in users' locations, devices, roles and collaborative structure. Developing such systems is difficult due to the complex distributed systems programming involved. In this paper, we introduce Fiia, a novel architectural style for groupware. Fiia is user-centered, in that it allows easy specification of groupware structured around users' settings, devices and applications, and where adaptations are specified at a high level similar to scenarios. The Fiia.Net toolkit automatically maps Fiia architectures to a wide range of possible distributed systems, under control of an annotation language. Together, these allow developers to work at a high level, while retaining control over distribution choices.


To clarify the Ni species of NiO/SiO2-Al2O3 catalysts that are active for ethylene oligomerization, 18 types of NiO/SiO2-Al2O3 were prepared using three Ni-loading methods (i.e., ion-exchange, impregnation, and homogeneous precipitation), with different Ni-loadings (1–20 wt%), and examined with respect to their structure and catalytic activity for ethylene oligomerization. Characterized by N2 adsorption, powder XRD, FE-SEM, H2-TPR, NH3-TPD, and C2H4-TPD showed that Ni species in the catalysts prepared by ion-exchange were mainly ion-exchanged Ni cations. In contrast, Ni species in the catalysts prepared by impregnation were a mixture of ion-exchanged Ni cations and NiO particles, and those in the catalysts prepared by homogeneous precipitation were all NiSiO3 particles. Catalytic-reaction tests at 300 °C and 0.1 MPa revealed the following: the ion-exchanged Ni cations showed the highest C2H4 conversion rate; the NiSiO3 particles showed a moderate reaction rate; and the NiO particles were not active for ethylene oligomerization. We concluded that the high catalytic activity of the ion-exchanged Ni cations was a result of their high dispersion and medium-strength acidity, which together promoted the adsorption and activation of ethylene on, and the desorption of oligomerization products from, the catalyst.


Gamma irradiation is one of the most important physical mutagen used for inducing beneficial as well as harmful cytogenetic effects in many crop plants. The cytogenetic changes occurring due to the storage of Lathyrus sativus L. seeds after gamma irradiation were examined during the present study. Mitotic index showed a dose dependant decrease while the dose and duration of treatments increased. The effect of ageing accompanied with gamma irradiation was found to be more deleterious as compared to that of individual treatments of the two. Various chromosomal abnormalities viz. fragmentation, scattering, bridges, laggards, stickiness, etc. were found at all the three treatment sets. A significant reduction in moisture content, germination percentage and increase in the percentage of chromosomal anomalies was recorded maximum in the stored gamma irradiated seeds which ultimately ensures the fact that immediate sowing of the irradiated seeds is of prime importance and it may adversely affect the survivability of the seeds as well as plant when sowing is delayed.


We investigate the Andreev reflection across a uniaxial strained graphene-based superconducting junction. Compared with pristine graphene-based superconducting junction, three opposite properties are found. Firstly, in the regime of the interband conversion of electron–hole, the Andreev retro-reflection happens. Secondly, in the regime of the intraband conversion of electron–hole, the specular Andreev reflection happens. Thirdly, the perfect Andreev reflection, electron–hole conversion with unit efficiency, happens at a nonzero incident angle of electron. These three exotic properties arise from the strain-induced anisotropic band structure of graphene, which breaks up the original relation between the direction of velocity of particle and the direction of the corresponding wavevector. Our finding gives an insight into the understanding of Andreev reflection and provides an alternative method to modulate the Andreev reflection.


Introduction: Treatment of Wastewater due to product and consumption of material cleaning with special physicochemical characteristics is difficult, and therefore can cause significant environmental problems such as eutrification, toxicity, algae bloom and etc.To stop these consequences, assessing the quality characteristics of this wastewaters is necessary. To investigate about the appropriate method of treatment, Paksan Factory producing 30 percent of Iran detergents was selected. Materials& Methods: This study was a descriptive-cross-sectional one in which 30 wastewater composite samples24 hr (obtained by combining portions of 720 grab samples) were taken during a five month period. The samples were properly preserved with acid and kept under 4 ◦ C during experimentation and transported to laboratory. The chemical characteristics were determined. Data analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results: The results of the samples showed that the wastewater temperature was 40.84±12.31 and the pH was 10.56±2.96. It also showed that the concentrations of the organic loading of wastewater were very high, expressed as COD, ranging from 6254-13040 mg/l, concentration of BOD was 2459-3200mg/l and concentration of MABS ranging from 245-1120mg/l.The results indicated that the BOD 5 /COD ratio was 0.34±0.09 and the mean of phosphorus was 88.13 mg/l. Conclusion: temperature and pH in wastewater of this factory have ringed with very changes and organic load was high. In most of samples BOD 5 /COD ratio was proper for biological treatment but in the samples that were not proper for biological treatment this problem would be solved with combination treatment of industrial wastewater and domestic one This wastewater has high concentration of foaming that prohibit of oxygen infiltration in wastewater and nonbiodgredable material. These results indicated that the wastewater is not easily subjected to conventional system of biological treatment; therefore such wastewater can cause some environmental problems.


Josephson logic devices exhibit, before switching from superconducting to voltage state, a turn-on delay which depends on current overdrive and damping coefficient. A novel expression describing turn-on delay for heavily damped circuits is proposed. A comparison with numerical calculation is made. As an example of application for this expression, the turn-on delay appearing in the simulation of a damped logic gate switching is discussed.


The present invention includes a first electrode, a MEMS resonator comprising a movable element (48) comprising a second electrode, said movable element (48) is movable in the direction of the first electrode There relates MEMS resonator are separated by a gap (46, 47) said first electrode and said movable element (48) has a side wall. In the present invention, the dielectric layer (60) is provided on at least one side wall of the gap (46, 47).


Laminar pulvini of bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) contain numerous chloroplasts in cells of their motor tissue. The quantitative relationships of the chloroplast pigments, chlorophyll a and b, β-carotene, lutein, neo-xanthin as well as the xanthophyll cycle carotenoids (violaxanthin, antheraxanthin and zeaxanthin) were similar to those of mesophyll chloroplasts from leaflet laminae. Exposure of pulvinules to light caused de-epoxidation of violaxanthin to zeaxanthin, showing that the xanthophyll cycle is functioning. Chlorophyll fluorescence analysis of pulvinules confirmed that their chloroplasts are capable of both photosynthetic electron transport and non-photochemical fluorescence quenching, showing that they build up a considerable transthylakoid proton gradient in the light. Application of DCMU to excised pulvinules and laminar discs, as well as to pulvinules of intact, attached terminal leaflets blocked electron transport and fluorescence quenching. Application of the uncoupler CCCP to intact pulvinules also prevented non-photochemical fluorescence quenching. The rate of movement of the low-light-adapted terminal leaflet in response to exposure of its pulvinule to overhead red light (500 μmol m -2 s -1 ) was reduced when the pulvinule was pretreated with DCMU. The pulvinar response to overhead blue light (50 μmol m -2 s -1 ), which is more pronounced than to red light, was not affected by similar pretreatment with DCMU. Pretreatment with CCCP caused a short lag in the response to red light, but did not affect its subsequent rate. The results suggest that the pulvinar response to red, but not to blue light, requires non-cyclic electron transport and the resulting generation of ATP.


The effect of finite geometry on the interaction of a hot low-density beam with a uniform plasma filling a circular waveguide is studied. An expression is derived for the growth rate of the instabilities developing at the harmonic of the beam gyrofrequency, taking the finite beam gyroradius into account. The calculations are done in the quasistatic approximation.


ABSTRACT In learning management systems, tools for online homework assessments include a number of alternatives for the assessment settings, including the ability to permit students to attempt an assessment multiple times, with options for how the multiple attempts are administered. A specific implementation of online assessments in an introductory operations management course, where students were allowed up to two attempts, found that assessment performance was better for students who attempted only once, even when comparing between students of similar ability in the course. A discussion of why this may have been, and how minor modifications to specific assessment settings could change student behaviors, is provided.


Quasicrystals are long-range ordered, yet not periodic, and thereby present a fascinating challenge for condensed matter physics, as one cannot resort to the usual toolbox based on Bloch's theorem. Here, we present a numerical method for constructing the Hubbard Hamiltonian of non-periodic potentials without making use of Bloch's theorem and apply it to the case of an eightfold rotationally symmetric 2D optical quasicrystal that was recently realized using cold atoms. We construct maximally localised Wannier functions and use them to extract on-site energies, tunneling amplitudes, and interaction energies. In addition, we introduce a configuration-space representation, where sites are ordered in terms of shape and local environment, that leads to a compact description of the infinite-size quasicrystal in which all Hamiltonian parameters can be expressed as smooth functions. This configuration-space picture allows one to construct arbitrarily large tight-binding graphs for numerical many-body calculations and enables new analytic arguments on the topological structure and many-body physics of these models, for instance the conclusion that this quasicrystal will host unit-filling Mott insulators in the thermodynamic limit.


Intravascular optical coherence tomography-fluorescence lifetime imaging (OCT-FLIm) provides co-registered structural and biochemical information of atherosclerotic plaques in a label-free manner. For intuitive image interpretation of OCT-FLIm, herein, we present a machine learning classifier where key biochemical components (lipids, lipids+macrophages, macrophages, fibrotic, and normal) related to plaque destabilization are characterized based on the combination of multispectral FLIm parameters and convolutional OCT features. Using dataset from in vivo atheromatous swine models, the classification accuracy was >92% for each plaque component according the five-fold cross validation. This highly translatable imaging strategy will open a new avenue for clinical intracoronary assessment of high-risk plaques.


EHRs can be as specialized as the doctors who use them. That's why the CCHIT will begin putting its stamp of approval on programs geared toward child health and cardiovascular disease.


We use Iran's national census data, covering the period 1996-2011, to empirically examine the existence and robustness of a relationship between inter-province migration and province-level climate, proxied by average levels of annual temperature and precipitation. Using a gravity equation and allowing for spatial correlation, we find that migration flows are significantly affected by both. This effect consistently persists over different specifications and implies that a rise in temperature and a drop in precipitation act as significant push factors. That (i) we focus our analyses on internal migration in a single county which excludes other major types of migration; (ii) the country has become increasingly vulnerable to climate change and has had a recent history of significant internal migration; and (iii) all the other relevant explanatory variables which are jointly included with climate variables turn out to have the expected impacts on migration flows, render our evidence robust and call for policy intervention.


The seaward migration of juvenile salmonids was monitored by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) at Bonneville and John Day Dams on the Columbia river in 1995. The NMFS Smolt Monitoring Project is part of a larger Smolt Monitoring Program (SMP) coordinated by the Fish Passage Center (FPC) for the Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Authority. This program focuses on protecting, mitigating, and enhancing fish populations affected by the development and operation of hydroelectric power plants on the Columbia River. The purpose of the SMP is to monitor the migration of the juvenile salmonid stocks in the Columbia basin and make flow and spill recommendations designed to facilitate fish passage. Data are also used for travel time, migration timing, and relative run size analysis. The purpose of the NMFS portion of the program is to provide FPC with species and project specific real time data from John Day and Bonneville Dams.


Radical-driven fragmentation approaches present an alternative to the well-established collisional cleavage approaches that have dominated proteomic research up until now. With the recent availability of electron transfer dissociation (ETD) in commercial quadrupole ion trap and hybrid instruments, this technology is now accessible to many researchers. It has been described as a complementary approach to CID, and decision tree approaches have been employed where a choice between CID or ETD is made depending on the precursor m/z and charge. In this presentation I will discuss the performance of ETD for peptide identification, drawing heavily on data acquired as part of the 2011 iPRG study 'Identification of Electron Transfer Dissocation (ETD) Mass Spectra'. Results will be compared to analyses of the same sample using CID and HCD, decision tree approaches and the difference in measuring data in the ion trap versus in the orbitrap detector. A comparison of search engine performance will be presented and methods for improving database search engine analysis of ETD data will also be discussed.


Among the most common ways of dissipating industrial waste heat is with a cooling tower. Properly design and installed, these simple heat exchangers can provide cooling for a process system fluid or air conditioning system. And as concern for energy efficiency and the need for water conservation has grown, their popularity has increased. This paper reviews the basic types of evaporative cooling towers and examines the latest developments in construction materials and types of fill. How to select and size a tower also is discussed.


Abstract Pulsed laser irradiation of solid potassium cyanide (KCN) produces, besides free nitrogen and carbon atoms, the molecular species KN and KC which are potential candidates for interstellar species of potassium. Additionally, N3, N3 −, KN3, C3, C3 −, and KC3 are produced and isolated in solid noble gases as well as in solid N2. Molecular potassium nitrene (KN) reacts with dinitrogen in neon and argon matrices after photochemical excitation (λ=470 nm) forming molecular end‐on (C ∞v) and side‐on (C 2v) potassium azide isomers. The side‐on isomer (C 2v) is thermodynamically favored at the CCSD(T)/ma‐def2‐TZVP level of theory. It can be obtained from the end‐on isomer by UV‐irradiation (λ=273 nm).


Two new Mexican species of Compositae-Eupatorieae are described and illustrated. Brickellia leonis, from Michoacan, belongs to the group formerly recognized as a separate genus Kuhnia, in accordance with its plumose pappus bristles, and seems to be related to B. adenolepis (B. L. Rob.) Shinners. Oxylobus juarezensis, known from a single collection from the Sierra de Juarez of Oaxaca, is more closely related to O. oaxacanus Blake.


A decade has passed since the findings of the Project on the Status and Education of Women were published. The report suggested that the college climate is "chilly" for women, especially in male dominated fields such as criminal justice. Textbooks are an integral part of the classroom experience. If women and black students fail to see themselves represented or if they see themselves in a negative light, the "chilling" effect may deter entry into the field. A content analysis of 22 introductory texts in print in 1989 revealed that women and blacks were underrepresented in photographs as authorities; women were overrepresented as victims; and blacks were over-represented as offenders.


In this study, we analyzed the anti-fungal activity against Malassezia furfur , anti-oxidative activity and antiinflammatoryactivity of Forsythia viridissima extracts. The ethanol extract of F. viridissima was sequentiallyfractionated with hexane, ethyl acetate, butanol and water. The cell viability...


The 1904 entente has cast a long shadow across the twentieth century. As a political "myth," the notion of an entente cordiale between the two longstanding European enemies and overseas rivals France and Britain has overtaken the event itself, in so far as its historical importance is concerned. In this way, the notion of the entente has tended to obscure important aspects of a more complex and ambiguous history of cross-Channel relations. Using a range of British and French diplomatic, naval and private papers, this chapter examines the tensions in Anglo-French relations, caused by balance-of-power considerations in Europe and overseas imperial competition, between the "War-in-Sight" crisis of 1875 and the 1898 Fashoda stand-off.


Introduction: Limited validated tools exist for measuring Quality of Life (QoL) among children with foot and ankle conditions especially for Low and Middle Income Countries (LMIC) such as Nepal. We aim Nepalese translation of Oxford Ankle Foot Questionnaire (OAFQ) – a patient-reported outcome measure for 5-16 years old by performing …


Abstract Thirty-one samples of baked-salt products used in commercial food additives were analyzed for the presence of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs) and dibenzofurans (PCDFs). Dioxins were highly detected in 12 samples of baked salts. The amount of dioxins found in the samples ranged from 12.47 pg/g to 406.56 pg/g (0.71 pg TEQ/g to 23.51 pg TEQ/g, respectively). The most abundant congeners, as TEQ values, were 2,3,4,7,8-PeCDF; 1,2,3,7,8-PeCDF; and 1,2,3,4,7,8-HxCDF in PCDF congeners and 1,2,3,7,8-PeCDD; 1,2,3,6,7,8-HxCDD; and 1,2,3,7,8,9-HxCDD in PCDD congeners. Meanwhile, PCDDs/PCDFs were analyzed in high-temperature-treated samples of natural sea salt alone and natural sea salt to which di-(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (DEHP) had been added. In the former case, PCDD/PCDF formation was most evident at temperatures near 450°C, the total amount of dioxins was 90.07 pg/g (6.07 pg TEQ/g), and PCDD congeners comprised less than 50% of the total PCDDs/PCDFs. However, when the latter samples were heated, the total PCDD/PCDF concentration was 512.30 pg/g (21.53 pg TEQ/g), with PCDD congeners comprising over 87% of the total PCDDs/PCDFs.


Teens are managing more money each year and more of it is money they've earned, not family money. According to Teen Research Unlimited (1991), adolescents in the United States spent $82 billion in 1991. However, the Consumer Federation of America and American Express documented the fact that teens are not well prepared to function effectively in the marketplace (Brobeck, undated). In the Consumer Knowledge test, teens correctly answered an average of only 42 % of the questions on consumer credit, checking/savings, automobile insurance, housing rental, food purchase and automobile purchase. The lowest scores (average 36%) were on financial services and the highest (average 50%) were on automobile purchases. Stampfl (1978) identified adolescence as the stage in the consumer life cycle when basic consumer decision making and comparison shopping are learned. Effective consumers must be able to decide what product or service they need, determine what constraints they have (e.g., money), obtain and evaluate information, and make decisions. A teachable moment occurs when teens achieve greater access to financial resources and become more active in the marketplace. Cooperative Extension in several states has capitalized on this situation and developed consumer judging contests designed to teach consumer decision making and comparison shopping (Koonce, J., Marlowe, J., & Hall, D. N., 1990). Porter (1993) described consumer judging as an effective educational strategy through which Cooperative Extension and secondary educators can collaborate to help teens become better prepared consumers. The purpose of this paper is to describe Consumerama, a Virginia 4-H program, designed to help youth gain: (a) life skills, including decision making and public speaking; (b) knowledge concerning the consumer marketplace, factors affecting consumer decisions, rights and responsibilities of consumers, and knowledge about specific products; and (c) perspectives that will help them participate in the marketplace effectively. This paper discusses the processes involved in the event, 9 ______----tf l ~


Calibration is a crucial issue in laser vision robotic welding systems (LVRWSs). Traditional calibration methods rely on complex manual teaching and fixed pattern of robot end-effector poses, which are time-consuming and will occasionally fall into local optimal solution. To address these issues, a fast calibration method based on automatic path planning is proposed in this article. By ensuring that the camera's optical axis coincides with the center of the calibration board regardless of the robot end-effector's attitude, images covering all feature points will be collected. Based on the camera optical axis constraint, we establish the robot end-effector motion constraint equation. Then, an automatic path planning method based on optical axis constraint equation, rotation constraint, and motion selection strategy is proposed, which improves the diversity of the calibration data. During data acquisition, a hand–eye parameters optimization process is performed simultaneously by minimizing the reprojection error of visual feature points. The actual calibration tests show that the proposed method can significantly improve the calibration efficiency and robustness. In addition, a variety of weld measurement experiments, such as S-type and C-type welds and filet weld, were conducted under arbitrary welding torch's attitude to evaluate the accuracy and robustness of the method. The mean absolute error (MAE) and root mean square error (RMSE) of the position are within 0.2 mm.


Learning model is standardization for developing the one's skill and in the interpersonal situations. This study aims to determine the effect of learning models to the test results of the students' writing skill of the explanation text in class VIII grade at junior high school. This research is an ex-post-facto research. The population of this research is all students of VIII grade at SMP of the 2019/2020 academic year. The sample in this study were students of class VIIIA and VIIIB SMP N 22 Semarang with the amount of 64 students who were taken by cluster random sampling, namely by choosing two classes randomly. Data collection techniques were questionnaires for student learning model data and tests to obtain data on the results of the skill to write explanation text for class VIIIA and VIIIB students. The results showed that (1) students with auditory learning models had the highest average score rather than the others who use visual and other learning models. (2) the learning model in this study has a significant effect on the results of the students; skill to write explanation text. (3) The learning model in this study gives e a large effective contribution 89.9% to the results of the students' writing skill of explanation text; this proved that the learning model is one of the important factors for the students' achievement in writing skill of explanation text.