A grazing experiment on a barley grass (Hordeum leporium Link) dominant pasture at Deniliquin, New South Wales, was carried out from May to November 1964. Monthly grazing of this pasture resulted in a greater dry matter yield of both green and total barley grass, and of crude protein, than when grazing occurred less frequently. The greatest stimulus to production was achieved when grazing occurred in August or September when the plants were approaching flowering. Rat's-tail fescue (Vulpia myuros (L.) K.C. Gmel), the other main component of the pasture, was not stimulated to greater total dry matter production by increasing the frequency of grazing. However, significantly more green fescue was harvested from areas grazed most frequently. The quality of both species, as estimated by nitrogen content and in vitro digestibility of barley grass and nitrogen content of fescue, was higher late in the season on the monthly grazed areas than on areas grazed less frequently.


Objective To observe the effects of curcumin on expression of yeast autophage-associated Beclin1 gene and production of amyloid Aβ42 in the hippocampus of APP / PS1 double transgenic mouse model. Methods APP / PS1 double transgenic mice were randomly divided into two test and one control groups,ten for each. The mice in test groups 1and 2 were fed with diet containing curcumin at dosages of 1 000 and 160 mg / kg respectively,while those in control group with normal diet. The expression of Beclin1 and production of Aβ42 in hippocampus of mice were determined by immunohistochemical assay and Western blot respectively. Results As compared with those in control group,both the Beclin1-positive cell counts and Beclin1 expression levels in two test groups increased significantly(P 0. 05),while the expression level was not dose-dependent. However,the expression level of Aβ42 decreased significantly with the increasing dose of curcumin(P 0. 05). Conclusion Curcumin induced the expression of Beclin1 in hippocampus of APP /PS1 double transgenic mouse models,of which the mechanism might be that curcumin inhibited the production of Aβ42by enhancing autophagy.


The firstobjective of this article is to highlight the main features of the Black Sea environmentfrom the perspective of the military littoral operations.Variousoceanographic data, especially wind and wave data coming from observations or numericalmodelswere analyzed in order to find out the aspects which impact on the military littoral operations as a whole, as also the equipment, sensors, personnel or tactics. The present paper also gives some tactical guidance regarding planning and executing such operations and draw a comparison between the littoral battle space and open-sea warfare.


In this paper, we study a novel problem Collective Active Learning, in which we aim to select a batch set of "informative" instances from a networking data set to query the user in order to improve the accuracy of the learned classification model. We perform a theoretical investigation of the problem and present three criteria (i.e., minimum redundancy, maximum uncertainty and maximum impact) to quantify the informativeness of a set of selected instances. We define an objective function based on the three criteria and present an efficient algorithm to optimize the objective function with a bounded approximation rate. Experimental results on a real-world data sets demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed approach.


In a previous paper, we investigated the Hopf algebra structure in string theory and gave a unified formulation of the quantization of the string and the space-time symmetry. In this paper, this formulation is applied to the case with a nonzero B-field background, and the twist of the Poincare symmetry is studied. The Drinfeld twist accompanied by the B-field background gives an alternative quantization scheme, which requires a new normal ordering. In order to obtain a physical interpretation of this twisted Hopf algebra structure, we propose a method to decompose the twist into two successive twists and we give two different possibilities of decomposition. The first is a natural decomposition from the viewpoint of the twist quantization, leading to a new type of twisted Poincare symmetry. The second decomposition reveals the relation of our formulation to the twisted Poincare symmetry on the Moyal type noncommutative space.


A 53‐year‐old man presented with a 2‐year history of a painless mass on the right cheek. On physical examination, the lump was a solitary, well‐demarcated, mobile lesion. There was no abnormality in the surrounding skin. Ultrasonography demonstrated a single, cystic, well‐defined, subcutaneous cyst, measuring 20 mm in diameter. Laboratory tests, including sex hormones, were within the normal range. The tumor was resected surgically under local anesthesia. The cyst had a slightly yellow wall and contained clear, watery fluid. The patient had no other medical problems and no history of other skin disease.


present essay attempts to explore the role of gender-based language differences and of certain markers that reveal the status accorded to women in Discrimination against women, in its various forms, is endemic in communities and around the world, cutting across class, race, age, and religious and national boundaries. One cannot understand the problems of gender discrimination by to the relationship of power or authority between men and women. Rather one to consider by relating it to the specific social formation in which the image of masculinity and femininity is constructed and of in of social


Nitrile-containing mixture to a reactor containing a catalyst and supplying hydrogen. Nitrile-containing mixture includes nitrile dissolved in a higher alcohol solvent. The nitrile was dissolved in higher alcohol solvent to produce the amine by hydrogenation. In a preferred embodiment, the reactor further comprises a caustic solution. Preferred nitrile containing mixture comprises a octadecandioyl nitrile (ODDN) and hexanol, by hydrogenation, to produce the preferred octadecane diamines (ODDA).


p. 53 line 24 "But by early 1909" should read "But by early 1901" p. 58 line 48 "After the triumph of the Mao" should read "After the triumph of Mao" p. 59 line 24 "the Russian presence" should read "the Tsarist Russian presence"


With the progress in intelligent transportation systems in smartcities, vision-based vehicle detection is becoming an important issuein the vision-based surveillance systems. With the advent ofthe big data era, deep learning methods have been increasinglyemployed in the detection, classification, and recognition applicationsdue to their performance accuracy, however, there are stillmajor concerns regarding deployment of such methods in embeddedapplications. This paper offers an efficient process leveragingthe idea of evolutionary deep intelligence on a state-of-the-art deepneural network. Using this approach, the deep neural network isevolved towards a highly sparse set of synaptic weights and clusters.Experimental results for the task of vehicle detection demonstratethat the evolved deep neural network can achieve a substantialimprovement in architecture efficiency adapting for GPUacceleratedapplications without significant sacrifices in detectionaccuracy. The architectural efficiency of ~4X-fold and ~2X-folddecrease is obtained in synaptic weights and clusters, respectively,while the accuracy of 92.8% (drop of less than 4% compared to theoriginal network model) is achieved. Detection results and networkefficiency for the vehicular application are promising, and opensthe door to a wider range of applications in deep learning.


It has been a long-standing tradition of European studies of paid domestic labor to consider the former socialist countries as a source of cheap, predominantly female, domestic labor for the countries of Western Europe. As an allusion to the Iron Curtain, which separated two different worlds, the concept of the Care Curtain of Europehas been actively developed. This curtain draws an imaginary boundary or global division of labor between the postsocialist and the rest of Europe, where the former donates care and the latter receives it. For many, this model of movement of carefrom East to West has been the only possible research subject in the realm of paiddomestic labor.


Yarn-Dyed fabric defect detection is an important part of the textile production process, in which rapid and accurate detection is the main challenge in textile industry. However, the performance of defect detection largely depends on whether the manually designed features can properly represent the features of the defects. In this paper, a new detection algorithm for automatic fabric defect detection using the deep convolutional neural network (CNN) is put forward. Our defect detection algorithm is based on three main steps. In the first step, a preprocessing stage decomposes the fabric image into local patches and labels each local patch accordingly. In the second step, labeled fabric samples are transmitted to deep CNN for pre-training. Finally, defects are detected during image inspection that trained classifier slides over the entire fabric image and returns the category and position of each local patches to achieve defect detection. The proposed method was validated on two public and one self-made fabric databases. By comparing manually designed image processing solutions with other deep CNN networks for feature extraction methods, the experiments show that the proposed method can inspect defects at a higher accuracy compared with some existing methods.


OBJECTIVES
To identify client priorities prior to wellness coaching, and examine motivational improvements for health behaviors on follow-up.

METHODS
Clients completed a wellness questionnaire at baseline (before coaching) and at a 3-month follow-up. Overall, 177 participants (92% female, average age 42.9 (SD 11.2) years) were included in the analysis. Clients indicated priorities for coaching, and levels of importance, confidence, and readiness to change within each domain were compared between baseline and follow-up.

RESULTS
Participants identified weight management as their top priority and successfully reduced their BMI. Participants also demonstrated significant improvements in motivation and confidence in most health behavior domains.

CONCLUSIONS
These results provide further support for the effectiveness of wellness coaching for weight management and for improving motivational readiness for behavior change.


For several decades, artificial neural networks have assisted in data reduction processes through classifications applied to a wide spectrum of aspects—from traffic solutions and medicinal purposes to geophysical interpretations. Here we use an unsupervised approach where the neural network is free to search, to recognize, and to classify structural patterns in an n-dimensional vector field spanning the entire 3D input seismic attribute data set (Taner et al., 2001; Walls et al., 2002). Within the data set, each data sample is defined by a unique combination of physical, geometric, and hybrid attributes and is treated as an n-dimensional vector (Carr et al., 2001). Data classification occurs when similar data are captured with a Euclidean distance of a neural node, thus providing data clusters or classes as an output data set. In this paper, an unsupervised artificial neural network using four different suites of poststack seismic attributes is employed to classify a 3D seismic data volume from Lafourche ...


Usability" addresses the relationship between tools and their users. Such a relationship is generally considered as independent of any contextual, social or cultural aspects: Usability criteria relate to "human factors" taken as universal. But users do not live or act in an abstract world in which they are alone with the tool they are using. Users, as human beings, live and act in a world which is at the same time social and material. This paper provides some clues on how teacher's or trainer's epistemological stance, learner's motivation, organisational learning culture and environmental factors interact to produce conditions determining the use of online learning programs. As a consequence, usability has to take into account the user's social and material environment. This is why, according to the author, usability has to be "situated." INTRODUCTION In its broad sense, "usability" addresses the relationship between tools and their users. Usability depends on a number of factors measuring how well the functionality of the tool fits user needs. For software, this may include how well the flow through This chapter appears in the book, Usability Evaluation of Online Learning Programs, edited by Claude Ghaoui. Copyright © 2003, Idea Group Publishing. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of Idea Group Inc. is prohibited. 701 E. Chocolate Avenue, Hershey PA 17033, USA Tel: 717/533-8845; Fax 717/533-8661; URL-http://www.idea-group.com INFORMATION SCIENCE PUBLISHING


Language teaching knowledge includes explicit teaching knowledge and tacit teaching knowledge.Tacit teaching knowledge precedes explicit teaching knowledge in the logical order,for what controls the teaching conduct is personal tacit teaching knowledge.If we consider the actuality of Chinese language teaching,and construct the language teaching knowledge according to the characteristic of the tacit teaching knowledge,we should pay attention to the following: founding problem situation to activate the tacit knowledge;inducting communication and consideration to advance the tacit knowledge;enriching practice and drilling to internalize the explicit knowledge;optimizing teaching estimation system to consummate the language teaching knowledge.


Objective To verify the anticancer and antibacterial activity of extracts from Chinese marine algae. Methods methanol extracts of 39 species belonging to the classes Phaeo-phyceae, Rhodophyceae and Chlorophyceae were assayed. Results The results showed that the extracts of Gelidium amansii, Scytosiphon lomentarius and Leathesia nana show more than 80% inhibition against both cancer cells, esp. the extracts of Ccramium kondoi and Chorda filum with 90% inhibition higher; while the MIC of all extracts were over 20mg · L-1. Conclusion Chinese algae merit further investigation in anticancer activity.


With the imminent digitalisation of the manufacturing processes of gas turbine components, a large volume of geometric data of as-manufactured parts is being generated. This geometric data can be used in aerodynamic simulations to predict component performance. Both the cost and accuracy of these simulations increase with their fidelity. To efficiently exploit Digital Twin technology, one must therefore understand how realistic the aerodynamic simulations need to be to give useful performance predictions.
This paper considers this issue for a sample of scrapped high-pressure turbine rotor blades from a civil aero engine. The measured geometric data was used to build aerodynamic models of varying degrees of realism, ranging from quasi-three-dimensional blade sections for an Euler solver to three-dimensional, multi-passage and multi-stage Reynolds-Averaged-Navier-Stokes models. The flow near the tip of these shrouded blades is sensitive to manufacturing variability and can switch between two quasi-stable horseshoe vortex modes. In general, capacity and exit flow angle can be adequately predicted by three-dimensional, single-passage calculations: averaging single-passage calculations gives a good prediction of the multi-passage behaviour. For efficiency and stage loading, the approach of averaging single-passage calculations is less accurate as the multi-passage behaviour requires an accurate prediction of the horseshoe vortex modes.


In the paper, a new motion attention temporal spatial fusion model is constructed for motion object detection and extraction in view of the limitations of target detection and extraction method under global motion scene according to motion attention formation mechanism. In the algorithm, motion vector fields undergo superposition, filtering and other pretreatment firstly. Then, a motion attention fusion model is defined according to temporal - spatial change characteristics of motion vector. The model is adopted for detecting the motion object region. Finally, morphology and boundary following method are utilized for accurate extraction of the object region. The test results of many different global motion video scenes show that the algorithm has better accuracy and real - time performance than other similar algorithms.


Objective:To explore the relations between freshmen's self-identity status,personality characteristics and mental health status.Methods:188 new students were asked to complete the questionnaires of mental health scale and personality scale from the China college students mental health evaluation system,and eollnge students self- identity status scale.Results:①the most status of identity is achievement(43.1%),then the identity diffusion (30.9%);②male students in compare with female,were more likely in achievement status(60.7±13.8/53.9±11.4,P0.001),more tough-minded,accommodating(45.2±6.2/43.1±6.0,23.1±5.6/20.2±5.7,27.4±3.4/26.2±3.3,P≤0.01),and have more compulsive symptoms(16.7±5.7/15.1±4.8,P=0.025).The sin- gletons were more likely in achievement status(59.2±12.1/54.5±14.0,P=0.017),more active(53.0±8.8/ 49.3±10.0,P=0.005),but had no difference with the non-singletons in symptoms(P0.406);③the achieve- ment status had obvious negative correlation with depression,dependency(r=-0.17~-0.24),the diffusion status had obvious positive correlation with depression,social-withdrawal,and impulsion(r=0.15~0.34);④active,ac- commodating,tough-minded personality characteristics had obviously negative correlation with mental symptoms(r= -0.16~-0.56).Conclusions:encourage college students to form the achievement ego-identity status,to be ac- tive,accommodating and tough-minded,will be helpful for their psychological health.


Nine of 350 house sparrows caught in Reed City, Michigan, had malaria parasites detectable on Giemsa-staincd thin films. All of the infected birds were juveniles, Parasitemias were too low to permit identification f the Plasmodium present. Collection of potential vector mosquitoes showed that Culex pipiens and restuans were present, but in low numbers. The parasite causing malaria n birds was first described nearly 100 years ago by Danilewsky (1891) and, since that time, this organism has been the subject of numerous laboratory studies. Although early investigations involved the cultivation of the avian Plasmodium by direct blood passage from bird to bird, it was not until Ross's (1897) discovery of mosquito transmission that the full life cycle of avian malaria could be realized. For many years, studies have employed avian malaria as a model system for experimental work that might provide information relevant to the problems associated with human malaria. Investigations concentrating on the field aspects of avian malaria have been few in comparison with the number of laboratory studies conducted. Many of the early field studies were aimed at determining the seasonal incidence and geographic distribution of these parasites. However, most field studies have generally not taken into consideration the role of mosquito vectors in the natural maintenance of avian malaria in endemic foci; therefore, determination of field infection rates among mosquitoes vectors was seldom attempted. The species of Plasmodium that cause avian malaria have been divided into four subgenera; however, only those involving birds in the order Passeriformes will be discussed in this report, Malaria among passerine birds is widely distributed throughout the tropical, subtropical, and temperate regions of the world< It is found on every continent and in nearly every country of the world (Garnham 1966). Migratory flights of birds have helped to bring about this cosmopolitan distribution< I North America, nine species of Plasmodium have been described from natural infections of birds. These are p, c ther meriurn, P. circumflexum, P. elongatum, P. hexamerium, P. nUcleophilum, P. polare, P. relictum, P. row:i, and P. vaughani, However, only P. relictum, P. elongatum, and P. circurnflexum have been reported in passerine birds from Michigan (Stuht 1979). Once the parasite has been introduced into an area, the establishment of a transmission cycle depends on the presence of a suitable vector. The species of Plasmodium found in Michigan are all transmitted by culicine mosquitoes of the genus Culex. Species of Culex lDepartment of Biology, Central Michigan University, ML Pleasant, MJ 48858. Present address: Department of Biological Sciences, Ferris State College, Big Rapids, MI 49307. 2Department of Biological Sciences, Ferris State College, Big Rapids, Michigan 49307. Present address: Yale Arbovirus Research Unit, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Yale University School of Medicine, P.O, Box 3333, New Haven, CT 06510, 1 Gogolin and Freier: Avian Malaria Among House Sparrows: a Survey of Disease and Mosqu Published by ValpoScholar, 1986 44 THE GREAT LAKES ENTOMOLOGIST Vol. 19, No.1 mosquitoes found in Michigan include Cx. pipiens, Cx. restuans, Cx. salinarills, Cx. tarsalis, Cs. territans, Cx. erraticlls, and Cx. peccator (Cassani and Newson 1980). The first six of these species are known natural vectors of at least one or more species of avian malaria (Garnham 1966). In addition, natural avian hosts for passerine malaria are extensive; 109 species of birds have been found naturally infected with P. relictllm alone. Thus, it is likely that many migratory and nonmigratory birds in Michigan might sen'e as suitable hosts for locally occurring species of Plasmodium. The purpose of the present study was to determine the overall prevalence and seasonal incidence of avian malaria in a small town in west-central Michigan. We wished to observe the population dynamics of avian malaria parasites among a nonmigratory bird population in relation to the species composition and population density of mosquitoes that may be acting as vectors. The house sparrow, Passer domesticlls, was selected for study because it is nonmigratory and has been shown to be an excellent reservoir host for avian malaria parasites (Herman et al. 1954). Also, house sparrows and Clilex mosquitoes have been shown to be associated with the maintenance cycle of St. Louis encephalitis virus (McLean and Bowen 1980, Mitchell, et al. 1980). It was hoped that information from this study in the form of a field infection rate for parasites among vector mosquitoes and the incidence rate of this disease among house sparrows might be developed as a relative measure of mosquito vector competence. Such a factor could then be applied. in a predictive way, to those components of the natural transmission cycle of St. Louis encephalitis virus that relate to vector efficiency. MATERIALS AND METHODS


Fucoidan extracts may have beneficial effects in age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Over-the-counter fucoidan preparations are generally undefined, crude extracts. In this study, we investigated the effect of a crude fucoidan extract from Fucus distichus subspecies evanescens (Fe) on the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE). Fe extract was investigated for chemical composition and molar mass. It was tested in primary RPE and RPE cell line ARPE19. Oxidative stress was induced with tert-butyl hydroperoxide, cell viability evaluated with MTT assay, VEGF secretion assessed in ELISA. Phagocytosis was evaluated in a fluorescence microscopic assay. Wound healing ability was tested in a scratch assay. Additionally, the inhibition of elastase and complement system by Fe extract was studied. The Fe extract contained about 61.9% fucose and high amounts of uronic acids (26.2%). The sulfate content was not as high as expected (6.9%). It was not toxic and not protective against oxidative stress. However, Fe extract was able to reduce VEGF secretion in ARPE19. Phagocytosis was also reduced. Concerning wound healing, a delay could be observed in higher concentrations. While some beneficial effects could be found, it seems to interfere with RPE function, which may reduce its beneficial effects in AMD treatment.


Flights often experience large delays when they are routed around weather. Multi-flight common route advisories provide delay recovery by suggesting time-saving re-routes for groups of flights whose current weather-avoidance routes have become outdated because the weather has dissipated and/or moved away. A laboratory evaluation of these advisories was conducted by four subject matter experts having extensive experience in traffic flow management operations. These experts provided a total of 120 data points in the airspace of Houston Center. The multi-flight common route tool provides time-saving route change advisories taking into account flight plans, wind fields, and the spatio-temporal evolution of predicted convective weather. It is not designed to account for complex operational factors such as non-standard sector traversal and interactions with local traffic management initiatives; hence a relatively low percentage (37%) of advisories generated by the tool were rated as acceptable. However, a high percentage (81%) of advisories were rated as acceptable after the subject matter experts used the tool's user interface to make route modifications that accounted for relevant operational factors not considered by the tool. The workload associated with using the tool, as measured by the NASA Task Load Index, was quite low (1.1 on a scale of 0 to 10). The results of this evaluation make a good case for human-automation teaming to design operationally valid weather re-routes for delay recovery.


A large number of studies show elevated levels of nitric oxide (NO) in infective syndromes, but there is an insufficient number of studies which have investigated serum levels of NO in patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), especially in relation to survival. Hence, we created a study with the aim of determining the NO levels in relation to ARDS survival. Serum levels of NO were measured by Griess reaction in 29 patients [16 men (55%), mean age years 52.72±18]. All data were statistically analyzed using one way ANOVA. Our results show significantly higher serum NO levels in ARDS survivors compared to ARDS non-survivors, (p < 0.05). We conclude that higher serum levels of NO are strongly associated with better clinical outcomes, including increased survival.


Abstract Social media in China has not only become a popular means of communication, but also expanded the interaction between the government and online citizens. Why have some charitable crowdfunding campaigns had agenda-setting influence on public policy, while others have had limited or no impact? Based on an original database of 188 charitable crowdfunding projects currently active on Sina Weibo, we observe that over 80 per cent of long-term campaigns do not have explicit policy aspirations. Among those pursuing policy objectives, however, nearly two-thirds have had either agenda-setting influence or contributed to policy change. Such campaigns complement, rather than challenge existing government priorities. Based on field interviews (listed in Appendix A), case studies of four micro-charities – Free Lunch for Children, Love Save Pneumoconiosis, Support Relief of Rare Diseases, and Water Safety Program of China – are presented to highlight factors that contributed to their variation in public outcomes at the national level. The study suggests that charitable crowdfunding may be viewed as an "input institution" in the context of responsive authoritarianism in China, albeit within closely monitored parameters. 摘要 在中国,社交媒体不仅逐渐成为一种广泛使用的交流工具,而且还在不断扩展着政府和网民之间的互动联系。为什么社交媒体上有些公益众筹项目对于公共政策能够具有政策议程设置的作用,而另一些项目的作用有限甚至没有呢?基于新浪微博上正在进行的188个公益众筹项目,我们观察到超过80%的项目没有具体的政策诉求。而对于有政策目标的那些公益众筹项目来说,三分之二的项目推动了政策议程的设置,或者带来了具体的政策改变,但这些项目满足而不是挑战了政府目前的优先考虑。同时,在田野访谈中,我们用免费午餐,大爱清尘,助力罕见病和中国水安全计划这四个项目来详细分析造成国家层面上政策影响力差异的原因。这项研究表明,在回应型威权主义中国这个语境中,尽管有着严格监管的边界,公益众筹项目仍然可以被看做是一种 "输入机制"。


Objective: To investigate the risk factors for the incidence of placental abruption and establish a model for placental abruption prediction. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of 303 placental abruption patients who were hospitalized and delivered in the Department of Maternity of Fujian Maternal and Child Health Hospital from January 2017 to December 2017. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to analyze the risk factors for placental abruption. The multivariate logistic regression OR method was used to preliminarily establish the "placental abruption prediction model". Results: (1) The multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that advanced maternal age, multigravida, irregular prenatal care, hypertensive disorder complicating pregnancy (HDCP), premature rupture of membranes (PROM), fetal growth restriction (FGR) and anemia are independent risk factors for the incidence of placental abruption. (2) The "placental abruption prediction model" predicted that the AUC of the placental abruption under the ROC curve is 0.777. When the total score reached the critical value of 5 points, the prediction of placental abruption sensitivity was 67.3%, and the specificity was 74.3%. Conclusions: Placental abruption is closely related to advanced maternal age, multigravida, irregular prenatal care, HDCP, PROM, FGR and anemia. The "placental abruption prediction model" has a certain predictive value for the incidence of placental abruption.


Objective To investigate the expression of survivin and its relationship with the clinicopathologic feature of hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC),and the correlation between the expression of survivin and c-myc.Methods In 59 specimens of HCC tissues and non-cancerous adjacent liver tissues,the expression of survivin and c-myc was detected by using immunhischemistry and Western-blotting.Results Of the 36(61.0%) cases of HCC expression survivin in 59 cases of HCC,29 were positive for the expression of c-myc and 7 were slightly positive or negative;of the 23 cases without expressing survivin or slightly positive,5 cases were positive for c-myc and 18 negative or slightly positive.Survivin was not detected in non-cancerous adjacent liver tissues.The expression of survivin in HCC had no association with tumor size,capsule status,the classification of cirrhosis and TNM stage(P0.05),but with portal vein tumor thrombus and local recurrence(P0.05). The expression of survivin was significantly correlated with the expression of c-myc in HCC(P0.05).Conclusion Survivin probably promotes the metastasis of HCC by enhancing the function of c-myc,and survivin could be a new diagnostic/therapeutic target in HCC.


High-frequency welded pipes the fastest and most efficient tube method,but high-frequency welding pipe process will produce a variety of defects. Analysis of inclusions,Lack of fusion,stick welding,porosity,skip welding defects and other common causes in high frequency welded pipe production and appropriate preventive measures.


We derive an upper bound on the reliability function of mismatched decoding for zero-rate codes. The bound is based on a result by Komlós that shows the existence of a subcode with certain symmetry properties. The bound is shown to coincide with the expurgated exponent at rate zero for a broad family of channel and decoding metric pairs. A full version of this paper is accessible at: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2101.10238.pdf


A mixture of 2-(2-aminoethylamine)ethanol (AEEA) with benzyl alcohol (BP) as absorbent was developed to reduce energy consumption in an amine-based CO2 capture process. The solubility of CO2 in the AEEA + BP solution was compared with AEEA + diethylene glycol (DEG), AEEA + triethylene glycol (TEG), and AEEA + H2O. The CO2 loading (mol CO2/kg amine) at the same CO2 partial pressure was in the order AEEA + H2O > AEEA + BP > AEEA + TEG > AEEA + DEG, and CO2 loading of all these solutions increased with increasing vapor pressure of CO2. Besides, the CO2 loading in AEEA + BP solution significantly decreased with increasing reaction temperature. The desorption rate of AEEA + BP solution was about 1.3 times faster than that of aqueous AEEA solution at the same desorption temperature, and AEEA + BP solution needed 30% time less than AEEA + H2O solution to reach reaction end point. The AEEA + BP solution showed stable repeatability in four cycles of absorption–desorption tests.


The purpose of the article is to reveal the method of using elements of environmental knowledge based on the principle of local history in teaching some topics of the school chemistry course. The article establishes that environmentalization of educational subjects can be carried out by: introduction of elements of ecological knowledge when teaching some topics of various educational subjects; use of tasks, questions, problems of ecological content; carrying out interdisciplinary environmental activities; introduction of electives and optional courses in specialized classes; teaching ecology as a separate academic discipline. Chemistry, as an educational discipline, makes it possible to use the means of its subject to carry out environmental education of students directly in the learning process, provided that environmental knowledge becomes a function of chemical education. Since the school chemistry course has its own research subject, content, goal, tasks and learning methods, it is subject to both general didactic and specific learning principles. The principle of regionality, or local lore, belongs to the specific principles of teaching chemistry. The principle of local history involves introducing into the educational material information about the locality in which schoolchildren live, about the natural conditions, economy, ecological state of the native region with cognitive, scientific, educational, educational and practical purposes. The use of local history material in chemistry lessons helps to reveal general laws and phenomena that are studied, improves the depth of understanding of the educational material, increases interest in it, enriches students with knowledge about their native region, promotes the development of creative thinking and leads to an understanding of the main problems of their area. Тhe use of ecological material in the school chemistry course based on the principle of local history makes it possible to carry out environmental education of schoolchildren, which contributes to the awareness of students of the need for a careful attitude and rational use of natural resources.


The excitation condition for ion-temperature-gradient (ITG) instabilities in linear devices is investigated using a gyro-fluid equation. The finite-Larmor-radius effect is included in the model, which helps to stabilize ITG instabilities. The critical values of η, which is the ratio of the lengths of the density gradient to the temperature gradient, are obtained. Although the modenumbers of the most unstable modes are different with different discharge gases, their critical values have almost the same η level close to 1.0. The results are compared with those from the Hamaguchi–Horton model numerically and analytically.


The mortality rate is one of the important aspects in determining insurance premiums. The mortality rates have influenced by several factors, i.e., air quality. Therefore, we consider Deep Neural Network (DNN) model for prediction of the air quality-based mortality rate. In this paper, we examine two DNN architectures. The first architecture consists of five layers including an input layer, a hidden layer, two hidden dropout layers, and an output layer. The second architecture consists of four layers including an input layer, a hidden layer, a hidden dropout layer, and an output layer. We optimize dropout rates and activation functions to obtain the optimal accuracies. Our simulations show that the first DNN architecture produces a slightly better performance. The DNN architecture uses ReLu as activation function and applies a 40% dropout rate for both dropout hidden layers. This DNN architecture also gives slightly better accuracy than the standard one hidden layer Neural Networks.


Rates of sexual violence are high, and several studies have suggested that rates are particularly high among HIV-positive women. Experience of sexual violence can lead to numerous physical and psychological co-morbidities as well as a wide range of social problems. On both a Scottish Government and an international level it has been suggested that routine questioning about sexual violence in vulnerable populations can help to ensure access to appropriate services. This study aimed to assess the level of engagement around sexual violence in one HIV centre looking specifically at how often it was discussed, rate of disclosure, advice given and the demographics of the population disclosing sexual violence. Through this the aim was to assess the prevalence of disclosed sexual violence, and how it was being dealt with, in order to improve service provision. This was achieved by undertaking a case note review of 50 female patients of X number being cared for by the genito-urinary physicians. Sexual violence was discussed at least once in 63% of cases, most commonly at time of diagnosis in a GUM clinic or other centre. 50% of those women disclosed experience of sexual violence, of while 60% (n=28) were from sub-Saharan Africa and 44% (n=21) had entered the country as asylum seekers or refugees. These results show that a large number of HIV-positive women within this city have experienced sexual violence, in particular in the asylum seeking population. As such, if services for HIV-positive women are to take account of the psychological and social needs of their service users they will need to be aware of this and make appropriate provisions. This could take the form of routine questioning around gender-based violence and/or providing good information about internal and external support services. (Published: 11 November 2012) Citation: Abstracts of the Eleventh International Congress on Drug Therapy in HIV Infection Manners R. Journal of the International AIDS Society 2012, 15 (Suppl 4):18162 http://www.jiasociety.org/index.php/jias/article/view/18162 | http://dx.doi.org/10.7448/IAS.15.6.18162


The Objectives: The purpose of this study is to identify the factors related to management of DM in Korea. Methods: The subjects selected by using data of National Health and Nutrition Survey(NHANS) in 2005 were 415 adults, aged 20 and older, and diagnosed with DM. This study used data mining algorithms. This study validated the predictive power of data mining algorithms by comparing the performance of logistic regression, decision tree, and Neural Network on the basic of validation, it was found that the model performance of decision tree was the best among the above three techniques. Result: First, awareness of DM was positively associated with age, residential area, and job. The most important factor of DM awareness is age. Awareness rate of DM with 52 age over is 76.1%. Among the ≥52 age group, an important factor is family history. Among patients who are 52 years or over with family history of DM, an important factor is job. The awareness rate of patients who are 52 age over, family, history of DM, and professionals is 95.0%. Second, treatment of DM was also positively associated with awareness, region, and job. The most important factor of DM treatment is DM awareness. Treatment rate of patients who are aware of DM is 84.8%. Among patients who have awareness of DM, an important factor is region. The awareness rate of patients who are aware of DM in rural area is 10.4%. Conclusion: Finally, the result of analysis suggest that DM management programs should consider group characteristic of DM patients.


The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a fuel tank from plastic material, the method steps of: - inserting a plastic parison (1) into the open mold containing the mold cavity (3, 4) .; - introducing at least one obstacle element between the mold cavity; And - advance of the parison-in order to introduce a pressurized fluid into the parison to execute the blowing, and prevent the portion of the parison is clamped between the mold cavity, the obstruction element (5, 6) for a step of applying the portion of the parison.


Background: The type 1 interferons (INF-α and INF-β) are potent antiviral agents. Albumin-INF-α and albumin-INF-β are novel recombinant proteins consisting of IFN-α or IFN-β genetically fused to human albumin. Methods: The in vitro antiviral activity of albumin-IFN-α was evaluated against representative bioterrorism viral agents and the severe acute respiratory syndrome virus. Antiviral activity was assessed using inhibition of cytopathic effect and neutral red staining. Results: EC50 values for albumin-IFN-α ranged from <0.1 ng/ml for Punta Toro virus to 65 ng/ml for Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus in the neutral red assay. Albumin-IFN-β showed 75- and 360-fold greater in vitro activity than albumin-IFN-α against Ebola virus and severe acute respiratory syndrome, respectively. Conclusion: Further evaluation of these long-acting albumin-IFN fusion proteins as prophylactic or therapeutic agents against these viral agents of bioterrorism in relevant primate models is warranted.


Mass Disasters have always occurred and now with more frequency by the action of man. Thus, we consider important the inclusion of this topic, both by the multidisciplinary aspect of the work that follows the disasters, in which professionals from fields of health, justice and civil defense are involved, as well as to be of interest of the whole society. The scope of this paper is to present some of the main mass disasters in recent years published in the literature focusing on the issues in which professionals in these situations are involved, as well as the scientific advances and their significance for human identification. We present: a) the difficulties found in identifying victims of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 at the World Trade Center; b) the use of techniques for identifying victims of wars, genocides; c) the use of techniques for identifying victims of natural disasters, as the tsunami in South Asia on December 26, 2004; d) the identification of the responsible of a mass disaster, in a bombing in Jakarta in 2004 and e) the Internet as a tool for monitoring the health in Georgia in Victims of Hurricane Katrina, occurred on August 29, 2005, and the event consequences. As the final consideration we present some recommendations, described after experiences in occurred events.


Objective: To supply you conference for Mycoplasuee pneumoniae pneumoia,s(MPP)treatment in diagnosis Methods we didgnose MPP lases through testing MP-DNA positive by pcR and positive MP-IgM(titer≥32)by IHA then use Aiithromycin and ITF-r por trcatment Reasults we use Aziithromycin and ITF-r por terating MPP cases with remarkable eppect and less recurring cases Conclusion Aziithromycin and IFN-r por MPP,s treatment make airway symptom mitlgate quicRly and hare short course of trcatment sicR children are willing to acceyt this method with less recurring cases and iess medcine side effect.


A GIS−based decision support model was developed for On-farm Water Management (GIS-OWM). The model includes three modules for water requirements calculations; crops manipulation and On-farm Water Allocation. The model was verified in an area located between Dakahlia and Kafr Elsheikh governorates, Egypt during (1/10/2013 to 1/10/2014). The ETo values which were estimated using GIS-OWM were highly significantly correlated with the ETo values estimated using FAO CROPWAT. The consumed time to reach the selected gates on Bahr Elbeshma canal using the GIS-OWM model were also highly significantly correlated with the actual consumed time to reach the same gates. The forecasting gross irrigation requirements for the pattern distributed using GIS-OWM (m3) was compared to the canals available water (m3) and the gross irrigation requirements for the actual pattern (m3). The saved water amount during summer season when GIS-OWM is verified is (1.22×107) m3 for 11795 Feddans.This amount represents about 34.6% of total water available during this period. GIS-OWM is able to generate maps for On-farm Water Allocation and field irrigation status.


Nipagin Ester is a new anti-mildew and antiseptic agent with the best inhibiting effect on aflatoxin in food ,drink,cosmetics and medicine.It features low cost in production and safety in application. Recent methods of Nipagin Ester synthesis were reviewed in this paper. It was also proposed that the experiment and selection of promising catalysts developed in the recent years should be enhanced.


Silver nanoparticles (NPs) stored in pore-arrays (pa) SU-8 photoresist layer were utilized as an antibacterial nanocomposition against E. coli bacteria. The pa-SU-8 matrix was fabricated by an optical interference lithography method resulting in small pores with a diameter of ∼50 nm and a depth of ∼100 nm. The Ag NPs were deposited on the soft polymeric matrix at different drying temperatures of 50 and 90 °C. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy showed that the deposited silver NPs were substantially in the metallic state, independent from the drying condition. However, the concentration of the immobilized Ag NPs on the film surface increased (by a factor of 2.5) at the higher drying temperature. This increase was consistently observed in the strengthening of the surface plasmon resonance absorption peak of the Ag NPs. The size of the Ag NPs released from the Ag NPs/pa-SU-8 film was found to be in the range 7–15 nm. Antibacterial activity of the Ag NPs/pa-SU-8 films was investigated at different temperatures (37, 55 and 75 °C) of the solution containing the film. The relative rate of reduction of the viable bacteria was calculated to be 4.5 × 10−2 (2.8 × 10−2) min−1 at 37 °C, for the film dried at 90 (50) °C. By increasing the temperature to 75 °C, the rate of reduction increased to 8.4 × 10−2 (4.1 × 10−2) min−1, corresponding to 60 (120) min required time to kill all the bacteria. Silver ion release measurements showed that the higher drying temperature (90 °C) provided more diffusion of Ag NPs in the porous soft matrix to store a considerable amount of Ag NPs in it, resulting in a lasting antibacterial activity. The amount of silver released from the Ag NPs/pa-SU-8 film, and thus its antibacterial activity, can be controlled by small variation (∼20 °C) of the environmental temperature.


Abstract One frequently sees suggestions that all surveys for title purposes should be connected to the geodetic framework. These come most frequently from geodesists, and the utility of a geodetic control for land-titles surveys is sometimes used as an additional argument in favour of the institution of such work in areas not yet subject to accurate control. I think few surveyors will be found in opposition, certainly not the writer.


In temperate grasslands, intensive land use threatens the diversity of arthropod communities. In this thesis, the effect of land-use intensity on both the diversity and community structure of arthropods is evaluated. Main findings are that effects are mediated by changes in resources; that the most abundant species become more dominant; that communities shift towards more disturbance-tolerant species and that land-use intensity affects stability over time. It is concluded that future management needs to conserve extensively used grasslands in order to protect arthropod diversity.


Abstract : This research can be categorized in terms of the following inter- related concepts: 1) Non-monotonic reasoning and circumscription; 2) Belief systems and deductive databases (in which we take account of models of an intelligent agent's belief set, especially with regard to intelligent answers to queries in deductive databases; 3) Resource-limited non-monotonic belief systems (a special case of the above, in which the non-monotonic nature of beliefs is studied); and 4) Parallelism in non-monotonic belief systems (in which parallel methods of computation are exploited with regard to the above.


This paper investigates the flow issue of wet natural gas transmission pipeline. According to the formulas such as mass conservation,momentum conservation and conservation of energy,steady state and transient state calculated model for wet natural gas pipelines are discussed deeply. The solution of the model is studied and concrete explanation is also provided with calculation example.


7 days 14 days 21 days Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes Grown from Anodized Titanium for Sensing New Bone Growth Sirinrath Sirivisoot and Thomas J. Webster Division of Engineering, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, USA Statement of Purpose: Metallic titanium widely used in orthopedic applications is biocompatible due to its oxide layer, which forms to reduce its surface free energy. However, titanium implant failure has occurred due to loosening or infection. Typically, the biological interactiveness of biomaterials relates to their critical surface tension [1]. Surface roughness, topography, composition, and energy influences osseointegration and thus induces osteoblast differentiation in vitro. These surface properties mediate different initial protein interactions (absorption and bioactivity) to influence osteoblast adhesion. Therefore, multiwalled carbon nanotubes grown out of anodized titanium (MWCNT-Ti) [2] were evaluated by using contact angle measurements to find the critical surface tension/surface energy of this novel material in this study. Cyclic voltammetry of redox reactions were also conducted to compare the electrochemical responses of Ti, anodized Ti, and MWCNT-Ti electrodes necessary for the continued evaluation of MWCNT-Ti as in situ devices that can sense new bone growth next to implant surfaces. Methods: Multiwalled carbon nanotubes were grown out of anodized Ti by chemical vapor deposition [2]. Cytocompatibility test procedures used with osteoblasts can be found elsewhere [2]. Electrochemical workstation and Digisim software (Bioanalytical) performed the cyclic voltammetry experiments in this study. The Ti, anodized Ti, and MWCNT-Ti substrates were used as working electrodes. A silver/silver chloride and platinum wire were used as reference and counter electrodes, respectively. All electrodes were immersed in an electrolyte solution of the extracellular matrix components secreted from osteoblasts after they were cultured on conventional Ti for 7, 14, and 21 days. Cyclic voltammetry experiments were performed by applying a linear sweep potential. Contact angle measurements using the sessile drop method were recorded and analyzed using an easy drop model system (Kruess). The contact angle was immediately measured within 10 seconds after dropping 10 μl of each liquid, consisting of deionized water, glycerol, and polyethylene glycol. Results: Multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were successfully grown out of anodized Ti nanopores as shown in Figure 1. We performed these experiments with a solution of osteoblast secreted extracelluar matrix components after 7, 14, and 21 days of culture. Results showed that redox reactions were observed only when using MWCNT-Ti, not when using anodized Ti and conventional Ti. The peaks have higher faradic currents with respect to the extracellular matrix solution collected after 7, 14, and 21 days of osteoblast culture. Surface energy was calculated from advancing contact angles by using three liquids with Ti, anodized Ti, and MWCNT-Ti. The surface energy from the four methods (Zisman, Equation of States, Owen-Wendt, and Acid-Base approaches) was completed with calculation software DSA (Drop Shape Analysis; version 220.127.116.11; Kruess; Germany). MWCNT-Ti had the highest critical surface tension, following the Zisman approach, and the greatest osteoblast differentiation. From the Owens-Wendt model, which related surface energy via an interaction parameter (such as polarizabilities and ionization potential), anodized Ti was shown to have the highest polar component (1/3 of the total surface energy approximately), while Ti and MWCNT-Ti had major contributions from the dispersive component. From the Acid-Base approach, results showed that the dispersive component of Ti and MWCNT-Ti mainly contributed to the Lifshitz-van der Waals component.


More than half the variance in length of school session in a cross section of 329 localities in Massachusetts in 1855 can be explained by the share of Irish in.the town's population, the family per dwelling ratio, and a proxy for the share of male merchants over 15 in the population, all of which enter regression equations with strong positive coefficients. This paper considers what these results may tell us about a number of hypotheses that link industrialization and educational revitalization in antebellum Massachusetts, discusses independent confirmation of these basic relationships, and concludes with a more general discussion of the implications of this Massachusetts evidence.


Although the text-to-image synthesis task has shown significant progress, it still remains a challenge in generating high-quality images. In this article, we first propose an attention-driven, cycle-refinement generative adversarial network, AGAN-v1, to bridge the domain gap between visual contents and semantic concepts by constructing spatial configurations of objects. The generation of image contours is the core component, in which an attention mechanism is developed to refine local details of images by focusing on the objects that complement one subregion. Second, an advanced class-balanced generative adversarial network, AGAN-v2, is proposed to address the problem of long-tailed data distribution. Importantly, it is the first method to solve this problem in the text-to-image synthesis task. Our AGAN-v2 introduces a reweighting scheme, which adopts the effective number of samples for each class to rebalance the generative loss. Extensive quantitative and qualitative experiments on CUB and MS-COCO datasets demonstrate that the proposed AGAN-v2 significantly outperforms the state-of-the-art methods.


Viewport prediction is a crucial aspect of tile-based 360° video streaming system. However, existing trajectory based methods lack of robustness, also oversimplify the process of information construction and fusion between different modality inputs, leading to the error accumulation problem. In this paper, we propose a tile classification based viewport prediction method with Multi-modal Fusion Transformer, namely MFTR. Specifically, MFTR utilizes transformer-based networks to extract the long-range dependencies within each modality, then mine intra- and inter-modality relations to capture the combined impact of user historical inputs and video contents on future viewport selection. In addition, MFTR categorizes future tiles into two categories: user interested or not, and selects future viewport as the region that contains most user interested tiles. Comparing with predicting head trajectories, choosing future viewport based on tile's binary classification results exhibits better robustness and interpretability. To evaluate our proposed MFTR, we conduct extensive experiments on two widely used PVS-HM and Xu-Gaze dataset. MFTR shows superior performance over state-of-the-art methods in terms of average prediction accuracy and overlap ratio, also presents competitive computation efficiency.


We show the fundamental passive decomposition property of general mechanical systems on a n -dim. configuration manifold M, i.e., when endowed with a submersion h:M→N , where N is a m -dim. manifold (m ≤ n), their Lagrangian dynamics with the kinetic energy as the Lagrangian can always be decomposed into: 1) shape system, describing the m-dim. dynamics of h(q) on N ; 2) locked system, representing the (n-m)-dim. dynamics along the level set of h; and 3) energetically-conservative coupling between them. The locked and shape systems also individually inherit the Lagrangian structure and passivity of the original dynamics. We exhibit and analyze geometric and energetic properties of the passive decomposition in a coordinate-free manner. An illustrative example on SO(3) is also provided.


Until now, advanced model-based control techniques have been predominantly employed to control problems that are relatively straightforward to model. Many systems with complex dynamics or containing sophisticated sensing and actuation elements can be controlled if the corresponding mathematical models are available, even if there is uncertainty in this information. Consequently, the application of model-based control strategies has flourished in numerous areas, including industrial applications [1]-[3].


The utility model belongs to the technical field of electronic communication, relates to a decoder, in particular to an IRIG-B code decoder. The IRIG-B code decoder comprises a DC code decoding module, an AC code decoding module, and an FPGA chip; wherein the DC code decoding module includes a DC code interface and a level conversion circuit. The DC code is input to a level conversion module through the DC code interface and converted and then input to the FPGA chip to be decoded; the AC code decoding module comprises a sample clock generation module, a signal sample process module and an isolation transformer for performing the isolation protection of the input AC code. The IRIG-B code decoder has the following advantages that the IRIG-B(AC) code and the IRIG-B(DC) code are simultaneously decoded, in order to solve the speed of the decoded signal and the time accuracy and reduce the decoding error, a single-chip microcomputer and an FPGA are combined to perform the decoding analysis and calculation.


Cold, dark, and snowy mornings greet you as you wake up, and dark and chilly evenings welcome you home during December in the United Kingdom.


The aim of the paper is to confront Husserl's interpretation of Galilean physics from his Krisis with the content and historical context of Galileo's scientific works. From such a confrontation it turns out on one hand, that Husserl's basic ideas, which he presented in rather general and loose terms, can be filled with historical content and in that way developed into a systematic and detailed account of the first phases of the scientific revolution. On the other hand, the confrontation of Husserl's interpretations with actual history of science reveals also some of their problematic moments. The most important of them is, that Husserl, despite his opposition to the positivist account of science, unwittingly overtook from the positivists the general framework, in which they discussed science. This is visible first of all in Husserl's omission of Cartesian physics in his analyses and in his rather questionable connecting Descartes' metaphysics directly with Galilean science.


An approach for multiple sensor faults diagnosis is presented. Fully-decoupled parity equations and parameters estimation are combined in this method. The residual generated from a fully-decoupled parity equation is sensitive to a special sensor fault and decoupled from all other sensor faults. The faults in sensors are represented as biases and changes in scale factor. A parameter estimator based on a Kalman filter is designed to identify biases and changes in scale factor from the information contained in the residuals. The fully-decoupled parity vectors, which are designed to detect and isolate sensor faults, are generated in various conditions, and their existence condition is given. A simulation example on a linear airplane model is given for illustration.


The objective of the study was to determine the preferred treatment strategy for elderly patients with chronic nonvalvular atrial fibrillation (CNVAF). A Markov decision-analytic model was used to compare three treatment strategies for CNVAF: 1) warfarin; 2) aspirin; and 3) no treatment. Five-year quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) were calculated for male and female cohorts aged 70 and 75 years. In the baseline analysis (effectiveness of warfarin = 0.70, effectiveness of aspirin = 0.45, utility of warfarin = 0.99, and utility of aspirin = 0.999) the quality-adjusted survival rates for 70-year-old males were 4.03 QALYs on warfarin, 4.02 QALYs on aspirin, and 3.95 QALYs on no treatment. Results were similar for all age and sex cohorts. Sensitivity analyses revealed that the results were very sensitive to the effec tiveness of aspirin and the disutility of warfarin. The authors conclude that the optimal strategy for the treatment of CNVAF in elderly patients varies with the disutility assigned to warfarin therapy and the effectiveness value for aspirin therapy. Key words: chronic atrial fibrillation; elderly; anticoagulation; warfarin; aspirin; decision analysis; Markov analysis; quality of life. (Med Decis Making 1992;12:239-249)


In this paper, we research and compare different implementations of cyclic reduction and sweep algorithms on a graphics processing unit (GPU) using different types of device memory. As a result of the work, it was found that the algorithm of the run should be used to solve the set of the tridiagonal linear system. However, the best results are shown by a parallel version of the cyclic reduction algorithm with partial use of shared memory, when solving a single linear system on the GPU.


The presence of inorganic moieties in polymers greatly expands the range of their properties and applications and at the same time overcomes some of the disadvantages of conventional polymer chemistry, such as low temperature hardness and brittleness, photochemical instability, or low electric conductivity. In this framework, the cluster Zr4O2(OMc)12 (OMc = methacrylate) (Zr4), was prepared starting from zirconium butoxide and an excess of methacrylic acid. Inorganic–organic hybrid materials were then synthesized by radical-initiated copolymerization of Zr4 and methylmethacrylate in benzene with different molar ratios. Glassy, highly transparent hybrid polymers were obtained. The thermal behavior, the composition and the structure of the polymers were investigated by elemental analysis, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), infrared spectroscopy (IR), 13C MAS NMR, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES). The spectroscopic data show thatthe clusters crosslink the poly(methylmethacrylate) (PMMA) chains and that the oxometallate complexes are completely incorporated into the hybrid materials. Compared with the undoped polymer, the hybrid polymers have enhanced thermal properties and a characteristic dielectric behavior. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Recognizing human daily activities with motion sensors data, specifically, modes of locomotion and transportation provides important contextual information that enhances the effectiveness of mobile applications. For instance, in assisted living or sports monitoring it is essential to log driving or running episodes. Previous studies in this field have utilized a fixed-size windowing technique for segmenting the sequential data of sensors. While segmenting signals into larger windows provides more information about the signal for classifiers, it increases misclassification rate when a transition occurs between the activities (i.e., multi-class windows). This will lead to inaccurate detection and logging of the activities of interest. To identify the exact time of transition from one to another activity as precisely as possible, this article proposes a fast and efficient hierarchical search algorithm that finds the exact sample at which transition occurs. This search algorithm can be applied to any activity recognition model with various lengths of segmentation window. To further improve the performance, we propose a new structure of 2D signal inputs to be used with 2D convolutional neural networks (CNN), which improves the ability of the CNN in capturing patterns underlying in inter-axes correlations. Experimental results show that the proposed transition detection method improves the F1-score by 28% compared to using fixed-size windowing approach for multi-class windows. In addition, the proposed method is 20 times faster than the naïve search.


This paper presents research motivated by industrial demand for using power semiconductor devices based on SiC (Silicon Carbide). The paper deals with possibility of SiC devices application in traction vehicles. The main attention has been given to the topology of 3-phase voltage-source inverter with free- wheeling SiC schottky diode and 1-phase traction converter with middle frequency converter for auxiliary drives. The theoretical conclusions and simulation results are compared with experimental measurements on laboratory model with rated power of 2kVA


Silicon carbide (SiC) is a wide bandgap semiconductor and SiC power devices are expected to be operated under high temperature conditions. SiC is stable at over 250°C, but the other materials used in power devices must be improved to achieve high temperature operation. Recently, reliable packaging techniques for SiC power devices have been studied such as low-temperature sintering die-attach materials, and high heat resistance mold resin [1] - [5] . The residual stress in transistors should be controlled for reliable operation, because changes in the threshold voltage can result from residual stress [6] . Because power devices are operated at a wide range of temperatures and are composed of various materials, thermal stress is also caused by the differences in the coefficients of thermal expansion (CTEs). Thermal stress may lead to unintended defects, cracks, delamination, and so on. Therefore, reducing the residual and thermal stress in power devices leads to an improvement in device reliability. There have been far fewer examples of stress measurements of devices compared with theoretical calculations, owing to the devices' complex structures.


In which we propose neural network architecture (dune neural network) for recognizing general noisy image without adding any artificial noise in the training data. By representing each free parameter of the network as an uncertainty interval, and applying a linear transformation to each input element, we show that the resulting architecture achieves decent noise robustness when faced with input data with white noise. We apply simple dune neural networks for MNIST dataset and demonstrate that even for very noisy input images which are hard for human to recognize, our approach achieved better test set accuracy than human without dataset augmentation. We also find that our method is robust for many other examples with various background patterns added.


A new design of aperiodic As2Se3-based chalcogenide photonic crystal fibers (PCF) is proposed in order to obtain broadband, mid-IR, and coherent supercontinuum (SC) sources. The proposed fibers possess an ultra-flattened dispersion curve over a wide wavelength range. The significance of this work is that it provides a new type of midinfrared SC source with flat shape, broadband and high coherence properties by femtosecond pumping the As2Se3-based PCF. The generated SC in the designed fibers cover a broadband range extending from 2 μm to more than 8 μm with a low input energy of 120 pJ and a short fiber length of 16 mm. In this context, many applications can be performed such as fiber lasers, pulse compression and multi-wavelength optical sources in the mid-infrared region.


The purpose of this paper is to analyze the influence of exchange rate volatility to macroeconomics performance before and during floating exchange rate system. The monthly data for about fifteen years will be separated into managed floating periode (1990.1 – 199717) and free floating periode (199719 – 2005-3).

We apply unit root test, lag length criteria using VAR estimates and Johansen-Joselius cointegrating test before applying cointegrating vector error correction models (VECM) that explain VECM estimates including impulse response function and variance decomposition analysis.

VECM estimates suggest that in the long run, there is no significant relationship between exchange rate volatility and macroeconomics variables for both exchange rate system. But in the short run, VECM estimates a short run cointegrating relationship between exchange rate volaility and export, Generelized impulse response function are estimated to investigate the response of macroeconomics variables to shock from exchange rate volatility. Variance decomposition analyzes the contribution of exchange rate volatility to macroeconomics variables.


Purpose: To determine the prevalence of hematologic abnormalities in patients with retinal vein occlusion (RVO) less than 55 years of age. Methods: Medical records of twenty-three patients with RVO less than 55 years old were reviewed to evaluate the results of CBC, ESR, homocysteine, Protein C, Protein S, antithrombin III, anticardiolipin antibody, lupus anticoagulant and lipid profile. Patients were considered to have a positive test if the results were outside the laboratory's established range. Results: Four patients had ischemic central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO), 8 non-ischemic CRVO, and 11 branch retinal vein occlusion (BRVO). The prevalence of AT III and protein S deficiency were 4.3% and 13.0% respectively. The prevalence of homocystinemia, lupus anticoagulant, hyperlipidemia were 8.7%, 4.3% and 26.1% respectively. There was no positive finding in anticardiolipin antibody or protein C deficiency. Conclusions: Hypercoagulability may play a role in the pathogenesis of RVO in patients less than 55 years old, especially in those who had no systemic risk factors. The authors recommend examining systemic risk factor evaluation and hematologic evaluation to rule out thrombophilia. Those who show positive findings should be given a consultation with a hematologist for the proper management.


BACKGROUND To investigate the accuracy of diagnosis for the tubal occlusion by HSG and laparoscopy.CASE REPORTS The diagnose accordance rate of distal tubal occlusion was compared HSG to laparoscopy in 48 patients who accepted the HSG and laparoscopy.Out 91 cases of distal occlusion tubes examined and diagnosed by HSG,76 cases were cinsistent with the results of laproscopy and the diagnose accordance rate was 83.5%.DISCUSSION The laparoscopy is the best diagnostic method for tubal occlusion,HSG can be used for the first step for laparoscopy to diagnose the tubal distal occlusion,and it is advantage of diagnosing the exact parts of occlusion.


The research results of the dependence of the average district winter wheat yield on satellite and ground meteorological information for the subjects of the North Caucasian and Volga UGMS are presented. The following satellite indices were used in the work: NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index), VCI (Vegetation Condition Index) and LAI (Leaf Area Index). The method of interpolation of inverse weighted squares of distances for obtain a set of meteorological parameters for districts there were no weather stations was used. Districts for taking into account agroclimatic conditions were combined into groups using Shashko's Agroclimatic Regionalization method. The selection of parameters that have the greatest impact on the yield was carried out using the correlation-regression analysis method. The corresponding regression models were obtained for the researched regions of the Russian Federation. Verification of the obtained models on dependent and independent information showed a fairly good result. Keywords: NDVI, LAI, interpolation, Shashko's Agroclimatic Regionalization, average district yield, meteorological information Tab. 5. Fig. 7. Ref. 20.


A method is described which allows separate determination of charge injection from an electrode into a semiconductor or insulator and separate determination of charge production in the bulk or at surfaces by thermal or radiative means. A basic part of the method is the use of a barrier layer of very high resistance at one or two surfaces of a material such as a crystal of CdS or anthracene. These barriers serve in this way as collecting capacitors for the charges. The amount of charge collected can be determined by quickly discharging these capacitors by light. By this method, in addition to determining very small rates of charge production, the total amount of charge made available in the sample by thermal charge production can be found. Radiative charge production in the presence or absence of external fields can also be determined.


A successful use case of cognitive networking consists in the reconfiguration of core virtual network topologies (VNTs) based on traffic predictive models obtained by applying data analytics to monitored traffic data. This use case entails long times (several days) to collect enough traffic monitoring samples data at core nodes to allow traffic modelling algorithms (usually at the core controller) to produce accurate models. Notwithstanding, that requirement could not be achieved in the case that metro controllers re-route metro-flows for metro-scope re-optimization purposes. In that case, some metro-flows suddenly change its node entering the core VNT, which drastically impacts on core traffic behaviour. In this paper, we present core-flow traffic models based on the aggregation of metro-flow traffic models. We consider that metro controllers generate traffic models based on monitoring the traffic of the metro-flows and those models are available in a shared repository for the core controller to access them. Moreover, the announcement of metro-flows re-routing from metro controllers to the core controller is assumed to allow fast core-flows models adaptation. Such aggregated models are then used to generate inputs for cognitive core VNT re-optimization purposes.


Space-borne satellites provide a unique, un-obscured vantage point for observing atmospheric properties. The active remote sensing lidar instrument on-board the CALIPSO satellite provides a three-dimensional view of cloud structures as well as information regarding the formation and evolution of aerosols and clouds. Preliminary results from the implementation of the Cloud Feedback Model Intercomparison Project's 'CloudSat and CALIPSO Simulator' (COSP) within the ECHAM5 global atmospheric general circulation model will be presented. More specifically, results from the lidar simulator, which mimics CALIPSO signals within the model, will be analyzed. Modeled atmospheric profiles are taken from ECHAM5 and used to diagnose the attenuated back-scatter lidar signals which would be observed by CALISPO passing over a similar atmosphere. The lidar profiles are then used to derive cloud fractions, thus allowing for a direct comparison between modeled clouds and satellite observations. COSP is a valuable tool for evaluating the representation of clouds in ECHAM5. Initial evaluation of ECHAM5's zonally averaged cloud fraction reveals an underestimation of mid-level clouds and overestimation of low-level clouds when compared to CALIPSO satellite data. A substantially altered picture arises when COSP was used in conjunction with ECHAM5. Simulations showed the lack of mid-level clouds became even more apparent, as well as the lack in low-latitude low-level clouds, which may be due to the excessive amount of high-level clouds.


The main goal of the paper is to evaluate Northeast and North Constitutional Financing Fund´s loans using Propensity Score estimates of firms that have received loans and of others that have not. The main results, showed in every evaluation of the loans, indicate a positive impact on the growth rate of employee number and no impact on the growth rate of wages paid from firms. When we considered only micro and small firms, it is possible to demonstrate a bigger (positive) impact on the growth rate of employee number than that obtained with all firms sample.


Abstract Toxicities of bisphenol A (BPA) and nonylphenol (NP) to the neotropical freshwater cladocerans Ceriodaphnia silvestrii and Daphnia similis were studied under laboratory conditions. Acute exposures to BPA generated mean 48-h EC50 values of 14.44 (6.02–22.85) mg L−1 for C. silvestrii and 12.05 (1.73–22.37) mg L−1 for D. similis. When the organisms were exposed to acute doses of NP, mean 48-h EC50 values were 0.055 (0.047–0.064) mg L−1 (C. silvestrii) and 0.133 (0.067–0.200) mg L−1 (D. similis). Ceriodaphnia silvestrii was also tested in chronic bioassays, which resulted in mean 8-d IC25 values of 2.43 (2.16–2.69) mg L−1 BPA [no observed effect concentration (NOEC): 1.38 mg L−1] and 0.020 (0.015–0.026) mg L−1 NP (NOEC: 0.015 mg L−1). These laboratory tests are valuable to broaden the understanding of the environmental threat posed by BPA and NP in aquatic ecosystems, and to increase the knowledge about the sensitivity of neotropical indigenous species to these contaminants. In addition to the laboratory bioassays, species sensitivity distributions were used to suggest protective concentrations of BPA and NP to prevent adverse effects on freshwater organisms. According to the obtained results, concentrations lower than 36.47 µg L−1 BPA and 1.39 µg L−1 NP are not expected to adversely impact aquatic organisms in natural ecosystems.


Promising new research measuring the properties of series photodiode circuits has shown that they may be suitable for retinal prosthesis [1]. Photodiode arrays, in order to be effective in this capacity, must be pulsed with infrared light (∼900nm) at a much higher intensity than ambient light. The light must be infrared for this particular application because light in the visible spectrum may damage existing photoreceptors in the retina at the high intensities required to stimulate the needed currents.


ABSTRACT The CoViD-19 pandemic has led to a resurgence of health diplomacy in international relations. Especially the great powers and middle powers have provided different kinds of assistance to countries in need and utilized health diplomacy as an opportunity to construct, reconstruct or consolidate their role in regional and global politics. Turkey was no exception with its assertive and ambitious health diplomacy, of which the Balkans were central. Crisis periods have proved critical junctures for Turkish decision-makers to assert their ambitions in the Balkans. This article examines Turkish diplomacy towards the Balkan countries during the CoViD-19 pandemic and examines how Turkish decision-makers reconstructed a 'regional power' identity. Informed by the constructivist theory, the paper critically investigates how Justice and Development Party tried to consolidate Turkey's identity as a regional power in the Balkans. It delves into the following questions: What are the main reasons for Turkey's coronavirus diplomacy towards the Balkans? How are Turkish decision-makers trying to reconstruct Turkey's role as a regional power during the pandemic? What does the Turkish case tell us about the coronavirus diplomacy of the middle powers in general?.


The utility model belongs to the technical field of air conditioners, and particularly relates to an automatic cleaning device of a filter of an air conditioning unit. The automatic cleaning device of the filter of the air conditioning unit comprises an automatic cleaning device body and a water tank, wherein the automatic cleaning device body is arranged at the upper end of the filter inside a box body of the air conditioning unit, the water tank is arranged at the lower end of the filter inside the box body of the air conditioning unit, the automatic cleaning device body comprises a water spraying mechanism and a transmission mechanism, the water spraying mechanism is used for cleaning the front lateral side of the filter, and the transmission mechanism is connected with the water spraying mechanism in a matched mode and is capable of driving the water spraying mechanism to move horizontally along the front lateral side of the filter. According to the automatic cleaning device of the filter of the air conditioning unit, the filter of the air conditioning unit can be cleaned without the need of dismounting peripheral equipment of the air conditioning unit due to the fact that the transmission mechanism and the water spraying mechanism are arranged above the surface of the filter; furthermore, full-automatic cleaning of the filter can be achieved through the matching of the water spraying mechanism, the transmission mechanism, a limiting switch and a water supplying switch, and therefore labor and material resources are saved. The automatic cleaning device of the filter of the air conditioning unit is simple in structure and convenient to operate and install.


We give a description of the construction of a class of dynamical systems on a two-dimensional torus which are universally observable, i.e., systems which are observable by every continuous nonconstant real-valued function on the torus. We are motivated by the work of McMahon (1987) who proved that a class of three-dimensional manifolds with horocycle flow have this property. We examine this example and are able to give sufficient conditions for a flow to be universally observable and then construct a flow on the torus which satisfies these conditions. The proofs involve techniques and concepts from topological dynamics, dynamical systems on the torus and number theory.


Introduction ▼ Juvenile ossifying fi broma is a benign fi broosseous neoplasm that arises at an early age. Most of these patients are diagnosed in the fi rst or second decade. 79 % of aff ected children are under the age of 15 years [ 1 ] . The tumour constitutes 2 % of all oral neoplasms in children and adolescents [ 5 ] . Its growth is locally aggressive and it occurs frequently in the facial bones (85 %), calvarium (12 %), and mandibular region (10 %). 2 types of juvenile ossifying fi broma can be distinguished: psammomatoid juvenile ossifying fi broma (PsJOF), which is characterized by small uniform spherical ossicles resembling psammoma bodies, and trabecular juvenile ossifying fi broma, with trabeculae of fi brillary osteoid and woven bone [ 4 ] . PsJOF occurs predominantly in the sinonasal and orbital bones. Case series by Johnson et al. [ 6 ] and Makek [ 7 ] found that 70 % of PsJOFs occur in the paranasal sinuses, 20 % in the maxilla, and approximately 10 % in the mandible. Because the incidence of juvenile ossifying fi broma is still unknown [ 3 ] , it is not possible to give epidemiological data for PsJOF. PsJOFs have the potential to proliferate, and to invade and destroy tissue. Penetration of the eye, pterygopalatine fossa, and cerebrospinal space are dreaded complications. Recurrence as high as 30–56 % has been reported [ 6 – 8 ] . The aggressive behaviour and the strong tendency to recur justify radical surgical treatment [ 1 ] .


Hydrogenation of the α,β-Unsaturated Aldehydes Acrolein, Crotonaldehyde, and Prenal over Pt Single Crystals: A Kinetic and Sum-Frequency Generation Vibrational Spectroscopy Study Christopher J. Kliewer and Gabor A. Somorjai* Department of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, and Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720 E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com TITLE RUNNING HEAD: Hydrogenation of α,β-unsaturated aldehydes over Pt(111)/Pt(100) CORRESPONDING AUTHOR FOOTNOTE: Gabor A. Somorjai, Tel: 510-642-4053. Fax: 510-643-9668. E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com. To be submitted to the Journal of the American Chemical Society


Analysis has shown that the limiting factor in achieving 1 μ technology in optical lithography is mainly due to nonideal operating conditions such as surface topography, reflectivity, defocusing, etc. By using a multilayer resist process to eliminate these extraneous factors, we have demonstrated that optical lithography can be pushed beyond 1 μ into the submicron range. The advantages and problems encountered with the bilayer DUV flood exposure process were pointed out. One of the most serious problems, due to reflected light from surface topography, was corrected by using an antireflecting coating between the PMMA and AZ resist layers. This antireflection coating layer also eliminates the interface mixing between PMMA and AZ resists. A trilayer resist process was developed based on the highly directional RIE process. A new barrier film based on spin‐on‐glass was optimized to obtain defect free films. This spin‐on barrier layer greatly simplifies the work flow and provides significant cost savings over t...


The incorporation of green manures of grain crops including wheat and sudangrass have been shown to reduce root rot diseases and their damage to beans and other vegetables. In addition, it was recently demonstrated that the incorporation of green manures of sudangrass suppresses the root-knot nematode and its damage to vegetables. The mechanism of nematode suppression was determined to be due to the production of toxic metabilites, including the hydrogen cyanide gas produced during decomposition of sudangrass tissues. Thus, this 2-year project was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of green manures of sudangrass and wheat with and without a surface seal against root rot pathogens and their damage to beans. The test was conducted in a research field with a history of continuous bean production and heavy infestation with root rot pathogens. Results obtained did not show a benefit from the incorporation of green manures of sudangrass or wheat as compared to the check treatments in reducing root rot severity or increasing yield. Also, sealing the soil immediately after the incorporation of the green manures did not result in better yield or reduced root rot severity. Additional cycle(s) of green manures application might be required before reduction in root rot severity and an increase in bean yield is realized in such heavy-textured soil and with high pathogen infestation. Background and justification: Root rot diseases of beans and vegetables in general are of common occurrence and often cause significant yield losses, although the occurrence of these diseases vary from year to year and among fields within one production area. Root diseases are generally of a complex etiology, as they can be caused by a single pathogen or by various combinations of pathogens. For example, the major pathogens on beans include the pathogenic fungi Rhizoctonia, Fusarium, Pythium, and Thielaviopsis. The lesion nematode (Pratylenchus) is also an important pathogen of beans and many other vegetables. General damage symptoms of root diseases such as beans include poor seedling establishment, damping-off, stunted and uneven growth, premature defoliation, death of severely infected plants; thus reduced yield. Specific and diagnostic symptoms will depend on the pathogen(s) involved. The involvement of multiple pathogens with diverse biology in causing root rots of beans and other crops has made it difficult to effectively control these diseases with the application of a single and practical management option. Thus, effective management of these diseases is possible only through the use of a combination of compatible and appropriate control options (cultural, biological and/or chemical) utilizing the principals and strategies of IPM (Soil-IPM). The incidence and damage of root pathogens are generally high when vegetables are grown in short or inappropriate rotations and in poor soils (compacted, low content of organic matter, etc.). It is well known that increasing the levels of organic matter in soil results in improved soil structure, improved drainage, increased nutrient availability, and increased microbial diversity and activity. The addition of fresh organic materials in the form of green manures has been also shown to generally suppress root pathogens, both nematodes and fungi. Thus, soil organic matter and its replenishment has become a major component of soil health management programs, and especially in the strictly organic production systems. Results of numerous field and greenhouse tests in New York have demonstrated that the incorporation of green manures of grain crops such as ryegrass, wheat, oats, ryegrain, barley, and others have generally reduced root rot severity and increased bean yield. However, cover crops differed significantly in their effects on various root pathogens. In addition, a cover crop of hairy vetch was found to increase the population of the lesion nematode, increase the root rot severity ratings and to lower bean yield. Most recently, we have documented that several crops including wheat, corn, barley, sudangrass and others are non-hosts to the root-knot nematode. However, only sudangrass hybrids and selected white clovers and flax were effective in reducing the population of the root-knot nematode when incorporated as green manures in muck soils. We have recently documented that the mechanism involved in the observed suppression of nematodes by a green manure of sudangrass is due to the production of decomposition toxic products (including hydrogen cyanide) in soil. It was also found that immature nematode eggs are 10 times more sensitive to the toxic compounds than larvae of the same nematode. These toxic products interfered with egg maturation and hatching The various green manures tested were incorporated by first cutting the foliage and then disking the green tissues. Since these antagonistic green manures were found to produce toxic gaseous compounds, it will be interesting to evaluate them with a soil surface seal in order to keep the effective gases longer in the soil and/or increase their concentration in soil. As mentioned above, nematode life stages are differentially sensitive to hydrogen cyanide and other products released by decomposing sudangrass tissues, and the same may be true with other nematodes and fungal pathogens. Thus, improving the efficacy of these antagonistic crops with a soil surface seal will increase their utility as a biologically based root disease control strategy. This control strategy of root pathogens is applicable to many crops, it is practical and compatible to environmental health issues and to organic production needs.


The paper presents the review of the methods of remote probing of the lower atmosphere by using the acoustic sounders. Sodar's constructions, their possibilities and usefulness are also presented. By leading to an understanding of the mechanisms underlying the origin of acoustic echoes, sodars provide new insight into the physical processes affecting the lower atmosphere.


This resource provides an overview of the diagnosis and management of cancer. It covers basic topics of interest including the aetiology, biology, genetics, and epidemiology of cancer, symptom management of cancer patients, oncologic emergencies, the use of tumour markers, and the management of paraneoplastic syndromes. New approaches in cancer management and unproven methods of cancer treatment are also discussed.


The objective of this paper is to present a framework that can facilitate the university level learning process in the Project Management of different students who are enrolled in different universities in different locations and attending their own Project Management courses, but running a virtual experience in executing and managing projects. The framework includes both information systems and methodological procedures that are integrated in the information system, making it possible to assess learning performance.


Changes in politics, the economy and the social sphere directly or indirectly affect the social value system. The change of society values is mainly attributed to changes in value structures at work. The Protestant work ethic, which places the meaning of life at work, sees moral value as an end in itself, and puts the fulfilment of duty above the enjoyment of existence, gradually loses its relevance. To the same extent that work loses its function and value, sport experiences a fundamental revaluation. Sport becomes an integral part of every person's role. With the sportization of living conditions, sport becomes a social model. The ultimate goal of this research is to examine the causes of changes in society values and their effects on sports / mass sports. The method adopted for the study was a literature review. On the occasion of the present study, it is found that the changing value of sports in society has created new "directorial forms" in sports. So, for example, in leisure time modern sports also serve as a presentation of the independent lifestyle. This impulse finds its expression through an additional gain of aesthetic dimension, which is externally observed in athletic shoes, sports sweaters, sports bags, sports accessories, etc. The expression of individualized values in sports is closely related to the reduction of access routes for sports. This is not only due to the growing number of opportunistic and active athletes, but also to the development of new sport types. New sports such as Windsurfing, paragliding, free climbing or Bungee jumping are in line with the new orientations of values and try to match individualized hedonistic desires in sports. Sport types are multiplying, and leading the sports system, as already described, to an unprecedented complexity. The overall sports system basically becomes more open. This creates completely new access to sports. Sports forms are multiplying and leading the sports system, as already described, to an unprecedented complexity. The overall sports system basically becomes more open. This creates completely new access to sports. The initial selectivity of sports is increasingly losing its importance, so new groups of people such as the elderly, overweight, women or the disabled have more access to leisure sports and widespread sports. Due to the qualitative changes in sports socialization, strong new sport roles have become possible. With the isolation and selection of certain incentives, sport is now more easily accessible. The motivation that previously prevailed in leisure sports and in widespread sports is losing its charm, so some writers talk about the unathleticism of sports or the non-athletic sports. Instead, in sports / mass sports, one seeks pleasure, spontaneity and social contacts.


Single-walled carbon nanotubes were dispersed in an aqueous medium using surfactants and filtered to make entangled networks, called buckypaper (BP), and the Raman spectra of BP samples revealed the degree of entanglement and residual surfactant content. The temperature dependence of the G-band peak shift in the BP was found to depend on the reduction in residual surfactant and nanotube oxidation. The electrical conductivity was improved after removing the surfactant and increasing the nanotube alignment, although the temperature dependence of electrical resistivity still followed a variable range hopping conduction behavior. The mechanical properties were affected by the degree of entanglement, alignment, and residual surfactant content, and tensile properties were found to improve with the reduction in surfactant and enhancement of alignment.


The occurrence of suicide and suicidal attempts in the Bahamas should be a major public health concern. In the past decade, there has been a fluctuating trend in the number of suicides. For instance, there were six suicides that occurred in 2011, eleven (11) in 2012 and six in 2013. In regards to suicidal attempts, there were 207 people admitted to the government mental health facilities for attempting suicide in 2010. In 2011, there were 194 persons admitted and in 2012, there were 250 persons admitted for suicidal attempts (Figures 1 and 2). To understand whether this is a developing trend in our country, we need to collect accurate data for the next three years. The occurrence of suicide is not just a concern in the Bahamas. Suicide is now the tenth leading cause of death in the United States (Drexler, 2013). There are now more deaths from suicides than car accidents (Parker-Pope, 2013). In its first report on suicide, the World Health Organization (WHO) advised that one person commits suicide every 40 seconds. In fact, each year, suicides account for 800,000 of the 1.5 million violent deaths. Guyana, North and South Korea have the highest suicide rates (44.2, 38.5 and 28.9, respectively). The UN proposes to cut the national suicide rates by 10% by 2020 (Organization, 2014).


The scalar two-dimensional finite difference time domain (FDTD) method is applied to the simulation of light field distribution of waveguide grating couplers. The mode patterns of TE0, TE1, TE2 and TE3 are obtained by using planar optical source as a stimulin. A few important problems are studied carefully, such as: the effect on field distribution with different grating parameters and waveguide structures, the absorbing boundary conditions, etc. The procedure for calculating is compiled in MATLAB. The calculating results are analyzed carefully.


Investment management on the capital market is a complex and multifarious process and the accuracy of decisions is an indispensable condition that an investor needs to fulfill if the expected economic results are to be achieved. The paper presents the concept of the optimization of investment portfolio on the capital market of shares. The maximum value of portfolio quality measure was used as an optimization criterion. It is expressed by the index of variability R/σ of the rate of return for each share in the portfolio. The cumulation of values of R/σ index in the successive years of the investigated period allowed for an econometric estimation of the continuous functions and their maximum. The indexes of asymmetry of rate of return for particular shares in the portfolio were introduced into the functions, which enabled to increase the efficiency of the selection of shares for the portfolio. This, in turn, allowed to achieve the optimum structure of shares in the portfolio


Intellectual Property (IP) in the form of issued patents is a critical and very desirable element of innovation in high-tech. In this position paper, we explore the possibility of automating the legal task of Claim Construction in patent applications via Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Machine Learning (ML). To this end, we first create a large dataset known as CMUmine™and then demonstrate that, using NLP and ML techniques the Claim Construction in patent applications, a crucial legal task currently performed by IP attorneys, can be automated. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first public patent application dataset. Our results look very promising in automating the patent application process.