Experiments begun in 1958 near Boorowa in the south-west slopes of New South Wales, have demonstrated the superiority of the perennials Hunter River lucerne (Medicago sativa L.) and Phalaris tuberosa L. over the annuals, Wimmera ryegrass (Lolium rigidum Gaud.) and subterranean clover (Trifolium subterraneum L.) in reducing establishment and growth of the annual thistle, Silybum marianum (L.) Gaertn. At one harvest (1959) the fresh weights of thistles varied from 0 in lucerne and 1 or 2 tons an acre in Phalaris to about 11 tons an acre in the annual plots. At another harvest (1960) the dry weight of thistles varied from about 0.2 cwt an acre in lucerne and Phalaris to about 5 cwt an acre in ryegrass plots. In the period of the experiment (mid 1958 to early 1967) there was an 85 per cent reduction in the numbers of apparently viable seeds of Silybum present in the soil of plots sown to lucerne and Phalaris.


In accordance with a plan suggested in a memorandum drawn up by Professor Darwin, I have made the following experiments upon this subject, using for the purpose the large whirling machine of 56 feet diameter erected at Hersham. The apparatus was made by Mr. Munro, and the general arrangement is shown in figs. 1, 2, and 3.


Jennifer Logue's critical examination of varied forms of ignorance challenges the widespread assumption that truth seeking is the key to dispelling ignorance at both individual and collective levels. To Logue, transformative pedagogy for social justice cannot dwell on cultivating a strong and unyielding will to truth. Rather, transformative pedagogy must inquire into the complex and dynamic interrelations between the will to truth and the will to ignorance. It is noted that while the cultivation of blissful ignorance can be effortless or even rewarding, unmasking willful ignorance requires scrupulous pedagogical maneuvering. In recognition of the power of willful ignorance, Logue cogently points out that transformative pedagogy can neither hold truth to be self-evident, nor assume that emotionless reasoning will pave the way to "the mountaintop." Instead, she invites us to create "a pedagogical space of dynamic uncertainty wherein the interplay between knowledge and affective investments of forms of ignorance can be explored."


Problem Definition:
The Swedish foresight division, SFD, of Bramble AB is charged with developing concepts for new products and innovations. At the time, this process is generally disjointed from external input from customers about the needs of the target group. Ideas are generated based on hypotheses, proposed by the employees at SFD, after which concepts are developed and tested internally. However, the validity of the hypotheses is rarely tested. This suggests an opportunity for improvement to the innovation process within SFD by including external information from potential customers to more effectively meet the market needs.
As a part of this thesis external information is gathered through personal interviews with potential customers with the purpose of increasing SFD's information base about the domain of business meetings. This method produces qualitative data which can be utilized in the innovation process. However, the information obtained may be differently suited for different phases of the innovation process. As such, an analysis is required to evaluate what type of customer input is suitable in the different phases of the innovation process.
Purpose:
The purpose of this thesis is to explore how external input from the customer can be utilized in different phases of the innovation process at Swedish foresight division of Bramble AB by (1) describing and analyzing the current innovation process and (2) conducting market research about the domain of business meetings as an implementation to include external input in the innovation process. Furthermore, recommendations are made as to iii
how to include external input from the customers in the innovation process at SFD at Bramble AB.
Methodology:
Due to the dual characteristics of the purpose, the methodology is twofold. For the first part of the purpose the innovation process of SFD is described, which corresponds with a descriptive research strategy. The research conforms to a case study. The data used to describe the innovation process at SFD is both gathered through unstructured interviews without specific interview questions, and through semi-structured interviews with three key persons working in three different projects.
For the second part of the purpose a market research is conducted in order to generate knowledge about needs and behaviors of customers, which corresponds with an exploratory research strategy. The chosen method for the market research is personal semi-structured interviews. The primary data collected through the interviews is following an interview guide. Thus, the market research method conforms to a qualitative case study.
Conclusions:
SFD adheres to an innovation process, which combines a supply-push and demand-pull approach and includes feedback loops and iterations of phases. New products and solutions are developed with a focus on the customer. However, external input from the customer is currently limited throughout the innovation process.
Analysis of the empirical findings revealed the need for different types of knowledge in the different phases of the innovation process. Through the application of theory, suitable modes and methods of customer involvement could be assigned to the phases of the innovation process at SFD. Methods where customers take a passive role are suitable for the early phases of the innovation process. As the process progresses the customer may take on a more active role


In this article a laboratory stand for measuring the impact of temperature on the electrical parameters of a photovoltaic panel is presented. For this purpose, the original program in LabVIEW for temperature, electric current and voltage acquisition in real time had to be created. Data acquisition was done automatically. On the basis of the results, the current-voltage characteristics were created. Moreover, the temperature coefficients and efficiency of a photovoltaic panel were calculated. The parameter values of a polycrystalline photovoltaic panel decreased with the rise of temperature. The short-circuit current, which increased slightly, was the exception. With the temperature increase, the efficiency of the tested panel decreased by approximately 0.5% per Kelvin.


An unprecedented ozone loss occurred in the Arctic in spring 2011. The details of the event are re-visited from the twice-daily total ozone and NO2 columns measurements of the eight SAOZ/NDACC (Systeme d'Analyse par Observation Zenitale/Network for Detection of Atmospheric Composition Changes) stations in the Arctic. It is shown that the total ozone depletion in the polar vortex reached 38% (approx. 170 DU) by the end of March that is larger than the 30% of the previous record in 1996. Asides from the long extension of the cold stratospheric NAT PSC period, the amplitude of the event is shown to be resulting from a record daily total ozone loss rate of 0.7% day−1 after mid-February, never seen before in the Arctic but similar to that observed in the Antarctic over the last 20 yr. This high loss rate is attributed to the absence of NOx in the vortex until the final warming, in contrast to all previous winters where, as shown by the early increase of NO2 diurnal increase, partial renoxification is occurring by import of NOx or HNO3 from the outside after minor warming episodes, leading to partial chlorine deactivation. The cause of the absence of renoxification and thus of high loss rate, is attributed to a vortex strength similar to that of the Antarctic but never seen before in the Arctic. The total ozone reduction on 20 March was identical to that of the 2002 Antarctic winter, which ended around 20 September, and a 15-day extension of the cold period would have been enough to reach the mean yearly amplitude of the Antarctic ozone hole. However there is no sign of trend since 1994, neither in PSC volume, early winter denitrification, late vortex renoxification, and vortex strength nor in total ozone loss. The unprecedented large Arctic ozone loss in 2011 appears to resulting from an extreme meteorological event and there is no indication of possible strengthening related to climate change.


Video-based analysis of facial expressions has been increasingly applied to infer health states of individuals, such as depression and pain. Among the existing approaches, deep learning models composed of structures for multiscale spatiotemporal processing have shown strong potential for encoding facial dynamics. However, such models have high computational complexity, making for a difficult deployment of these solutions. To address this issue, we introduce a new technique to decompose the extraction of multiscale spatiotemporal features. Particularly, a building block structure called Decomposed Multiscale Spatiotemporal Network (DMSN) is presented along with three variants: DMSN-A, DMSN-B, and DMSN-C blocks. The DMSN-A block generates multiscale representations by analyzing spatiotemporal features at multiple temporal ranges, while the DMSN-B block analyzes spatiotemporal features at multiple ranges, and the DMSN-C block analyzes spatiotemporal features at multiple spatial sizes. Using these variants, we design our DMSN architecture which has the ability to explore a variety of multiscale spatiotemporal features, favoring the adaptation to different facial behaviors. Our extensive experiments on challenging datasets show that the DMSN-C block is effective for depression detection, whereas the DMSN-A block is efficient for pain estimation. Results also indicate that our DMSN architecture provides a cost-effective solution for expressions that range from fewer facial variations over time, as in depression detection, to greater variations, as in pain estimation.


Image sequence prediction is widely used in image compression and transmission schemes such as differential pulse code modulation. In traditional predictive coding, linear predictors are usually adopted for simplicity. The nonlinear Volterra predictor can be employed as an alternative to linear predictors to compensate for the nonstationary and non-Gaussian nature of image sequences. Although the Volterra predictor avoids the smoothing effects introduced by linear predictors, it generally amplifies noise contamination present in the images. In this letter, we propose a nonlinear polynomial weighted median (PWM) predictor for image sequence. The proposed PWM predictor is more robust to noise, while still retaining the information of higher order statistics of pixel values. Experimental results illustrate that the PWM predictor yields good results in both high and low motion video. It is especially suitable for high motion sequence in noisy case. The proposed scheme can be incorporated in new predictive coding systems.


This paper proposes a novel reversible data hiding scheme based on a Vector Quantization (VQ) codebook. The proposed scheme uses the principle component analysis (PCA) algorithm to sort the codebook and to find two similar codewords of an image block. According to the secret to be embedded and the difference between those two similar codewords, the original image block is transformed into a difference number table. Finally, this table is compressed by entropy coding and sent to the receiver. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed scheme can achieve greater hiding capacity, about five bits per index, with an acceptable bit rate. At the receiver end, after the compressed code has been decoded, the image can be recovered to a VQ compressed image.


The present study investigated the mechanism(s) of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis-related hepatocellular carcinoma (NASH-HCC) developed from diabetes. Streptozotocin and a high-fat diet (STZ-HFD) were used to induce NASH-HCC in ApoE−/− mice. Mouse liver functions were evaluated by H&E staining, liver/body weight and serum biochemical analysis. The expression levels of inflammation-associated factors were determined by RT-qPCR. Gene expression profiles related to molecular functions and pathways of NASH-HCC were examined by principal component analysis, heatmap, gene ontology and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in tumor tissues were confirmed by RT-qPCR. The expression of Asxl2 in human NASH-HCC, other HCC tissues and HCC cells was measured by western blot (WB analysis) and RT-qPCR. For SNU-182 cells transfected with siAsxl2 or Hep3B cells with Asxl2 overexpression, cell proliferation, cell cycle, migration and invasion were respectively determined by CCK-8 assays, flow cytometry, wounding healing and Transwell assays. The expression levels of cell metastasis- and cycle-related proteins were determined by WB analysis and RT-qPCR. NASH-HCC model mice exhibited tumor protrusion with severe steatosis. The blood glucose concentration, serum levels of alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and low-density lipoprotein (LDL), total bile acid (TBA) and the levels of interleukin (IL)-6, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, glypican 3 (GPC3) and transforming growth factor (TGF)-β were all increased in NASH-HCC model mice. DEGs were mainly related to chromosome organization, the cell cycle and the mitogen-activated kinase (MAPK) pathway. Asxl2 was significantly downregulated in HCC tissues and cells, and this regulated cell growth, migration and invasion. The gene expression pattern, related molecular functions and signaling pathways of NASH-HCC differed from those of normal liver tissues. Additionally, the downregulation of Asxl2 may play a potential role in development of NASH-HCC in patients with diabetes.


A multidisciplinary investigation has been carried out in order to study sculpture materials, the state of preservation and provenance of a marble statue representing a Tritone Barbato , together with that is believed to be its base. Both items were recovered from underwater environment in the 60s from the Grotta Azzurra , Capri, Italy. Together with other statues, these archaeological finds were a decorating element of the nymphaeum (grotto) of a maritime imperial villa dating back to the Roman period, attributed to Emperor Tiberius.  Diagnostic analysis represents an essential tool for the choice of the proper cleaning procedure, since it is an irreversible process. For this reason, a study of the nature and the extension of degradation forms has been conducted by means of optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy.  Moreover, petrographic analysis, oxygen and strontium isotopic ratios, evaluation of maximum grain size (MGS) and determination of Mn content made it possible to determine textural characteristics, and formulate some hypotheses about the marble's provenance.  Results suggest Carrara as raw material source and provide an indication that the two marble items belong to the same artefact.


Salvador Dali is perhaps the most universally famous and popular artist of the twentieth century. On the occasion of the centenary of his birth comes the definitive retrospective of the artist's work from his early years. Dali explores the development of the artist's technique and style, his relationship with the Surrealists, and his exploitation of Freudian ideas, as well as the image Dali created of himself as the mad genius artist. This catalogue will be the major reference work for Dali for decades to come. It includes illustrations of all the works loaned to the exhibition, as well as comparative illustrations and photographs. The volume contains an introductory essay by Dawn Ades, with scholarly research incorporated in a 'Dali Dictionary' in the entries on individual works, and in the chronology, which includes a quantity of new material. The guide draws upon the best scholarship available on Dali, including that of Hank Hine, Director of the Salvador Dali Museum, Jennifer Mundy, Senior Curator at the Tate, and Michael Taylor, Acting Chief Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.


Picosecond solid-state lasers are attractive for many industrial and scientific applications, such as precision material processing (Dausinger et al., 2003; Breitling et al., 2004), nonlinear optics (McCarthy & Hanna 1993; Ruffling et al., 2001; Sun et al., 2007) and laser spectroscopy (Mani et al., 2001). In contrast with traditional laser processing performed with 10-100 ns multi-kHz sources, picosecond laser-matter interaction is basically non-thermal, relying on multi-photon ionisation and photo-ablation processes that allow cleaner and much higher spatial definition in laser marking, drilling and cutting. Femtosecond pulses would perform even better in principle, but at the expense of a significant increase in complexity of the laser system that most often is unwelcome in industrial environments. Furthermore, the multi-kW peak-power levels allowed by cw mode-locked picosecond lasers with average power of at least few watts are already sufficient to produce efficient frequency conversion by harmonic, sumor difference-mixing and parametric generation. Semiconductor saturable absorber mirrors (SESAMs) are widely employed for the passive mode-locking of picosecond solid-state lasers (Keller, 2003). SESAMs are very effective and highly reliable when used in low-power oscillators; however, when employed in highpower oscillators, they require a special design as their thermal management becomes a very important issue (Burns et al., 2000; Neuhaus et al., 2008). Indeed, the intense intracavity radiation of this particular operating regime may induce significant optical and thermomechanic stress effects, leading to rapid degradation of their performance. An alternative (and not new) approach to powerful cw picosecond sources is to use a master-oscillator power-amplifier (MOPA) system, in which a seed from a low-power, robust picosecond laser is amplified to the required average power levels through extracavity diode-pumped amplifiers. Some recent results have pointed out the great potential of this approach (Snell et al., 2000; Agnesi et al., 2006a; Nawata et al., 2006; Farrell & Damzen, 2007; McDonagh et al., 2007). To our knowledge, the most powerful cw picosecond source reported to date was a Nd:YVO4 MOPA system longitudinally-pumped with 216 W at 888 nm, where a 60-W cw picosecond mode-locked laser was amplified to 111 W, with 53% amplifier extraction efficiency (McDonagh et al., 2007). Though the master oscillator of this example could be well


System maintenance is a general term required to keep a system running properly. The system could be a computer system, mechanical system, or other system. The maintenance in this sense is related to the deterioration of the system due to its usage and age. This context of maintenance does not apply to software, where the deterioration due to the usage and age don't make sense. Conventionally, the maintenance of software is concerned with modifications related to software system. These modifications come from the user needs, error correction, improvement of performance, adapt to a changed environment, and optimization. DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-0089-8.ch004 On the Improvement of Cost-Effectiveness 69 Selection and Automation test, in addition to the development of a new technique to ameliorate the cost-effectiveness of the regression testing. The proposed technique is applied to an insurance system in the SNA-Soft Company, the evaluation and a comparison with other techniques is given. NEED FOR MAINTENANCE AND COST As software systems age, it becomes more and more difficult to satisfy user requirements and to keep them 'up and running' without maintenance. Maintenance is applicable to software developed using any software life cycle model (waterfall, spiral, etc). Maintenance must be performed in order to: • Interface with other systems • Correct faults • Migrate legacy software • Implement enhancements • Adapt programs so that different hardware, software, system features, and telecommunications facilities can be used • Improve the design • Retire software Figure 1. Costs of software development stages (Bell, 2005) 19 more pages are available in the full version of this document, which may be purchased using the "Add to Cart" button on the product's webpage: www.igi-global.com/chapter/improvement-costeffectiveness/62151?camid=4v1 This title is available in InfoSci-Books, InfoSci-Software Technologies, Science, Engineering, and Information Technology, InfoSci-Select, InfoSci-Computer Science and Information Technology, InfoSci-Select, InfoSci-Select. Recommend this product to your librarian: www.igi-global.com/e-resources/libraryrecommendation/?id=1


This annual survey of top 100 transit operators in the U.S. reveals that in 2005, transportation security was once again a widespread concern, with 75% of the agencies having reported implementing new security initiatives. 67% of the agencies reported an increase in police and security patrols. The top 100 agencies reported an operating fleet of 59,992 vehicles, reflecting a decrease of 363 buses from 2004. MTA New York City Transit once again held the top spot with a fleet total of 4,484 buses. New Jersey Transit came in second with 2,982 vehicles, while the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority occupied position number 3 with 2,727 buses. Agencies plan on purchasing 4,980 vehicles in 2006. which is close to 3% more than last year. The survey revealed that 75% of the buses are longer than 35 feet. Alternative-powered vehicles remain a continued interest for the agencies. CNG is the leading alternative power choice for 5,919 buses (67%). Interest in hybrid-electric vehicles has grown, with 26 agencies reporting a combined 835 units, indicating a 76% increase from the previous year. A chart lists the top 100 operators, giving breakdowns of the number of vehicles by type.


Strangequark m attercould befound in thecoreofneutron starsorform ing strangequark stars. Asiswellknown,these astrophysicalobjectsare endowed with strong m agneticeldswhich aect the m icroscopic properties of m atter and m odify the m acroscopic properties of the system . In this paper we study the role ofa strong m agneticeld in the therm odynam icalproperties ofa m agnetized degenerate strange quark gas,taking into account �-equilibrium and charge neutrality. Q uarks and electrons interact with the m agneticeld via their electric charges and anom alous m agnetic m om ents. In contrast to the m agneticeld value of10 19 G ,obtained when anom alous m agnetic m om entsare nottaken into account,wend the upperbound B. 8:6 � 10 17 G ,forthe stability ofthesystem .A phase transition could be hidden foreldsgreaterthan thisvalue. I. IN T R O D U C T IO N


Objective: The objective of the study was to present a rare clinical case in neonatology, and emphasize the importance of teamwork that involves its clinical care. Effective communication and timely intervention increase patient success and sur-vival rates. Case: Male patient at 37.4 weeks of gestation with a medical record of a mother with a positive rapid HIV test that during her follow-up appointment presented a persistent fetal heart rate above 220 beats/min, with a report of probable atrial fibrillation and restrictive ductus arteriosus. Programming an emergency cesarean section, a newborn was obtained who received electrical cardioversion, presenting a remission of symptoms. Discussion: A timely detection of prenatal atrial fibrillation was made thanks to the perinatologist, and following the recommendations of the literature, electrical cardioversion was performed. If it had not been detected in a timely manner, the patient could have died. Conclusions: It is significant to highlight that the detection of pathologies prenatally is becoming increasingly more important, since many of them require early and multidisciplinary management. It is fundamental, both for its diagnosis and for the success of the treatment, that the entire medical team is aware of the suspected diagnosis, as well as the immediate post-natal confirmation.


The adoption of the Verilog HDLbased pipelining design method for the design of communication system can increase the operation speed of the very system.Examples are given of the application of the pipelining design method,which have verified the feasibility of the proposed method.


Although event history analysis provides a highly developed body of methods for studying the causes of events, there is little consensus on the best ways for studying the consequences of events. This article develops some methods for using multiwave panel data to estimate the effects of either naturally occurring events or planned interventions. It does this by synthesizing the literature on interrupted time series with econometric treatments of pooled time-series, cross-section data. The emphasis is on fixed-effects models and estimators because of their capacity to control for all stable differences across individuals, whether or not those differences are correlated with measured variables. In contrast to earlier treatments of the problem, the models allow for timevarying covariates and for events that can occur at different time periods for different individuals. For continuous dependent variables, the basic estimators are easily obtained with standard OLS regression programs. For dichotomous outcomes, logit models can be estimated by the method of conditional likelihood.


Background: The authors previously published their protocol to treat patients who present with sagittal craniosynostosis after the age of 1 year. The purpose of this article is to present a follow-up and update of this cohort to evaluate outcomes of their treatment protocol. Methods: Patients with isolated sagittal craniosynostosis who presented after the age of 1 year between July of 2013 and April of 2021 were included. Results: A total of 108 patients met inclusion criteria. The average age at presentation was 5.2 ± 3.4 years, and 79 patients (73.1%) were male. The indications for imaging were head shape (54.6%), headache (14.8%), trauma (9.3%), seizure (4.6%), papilledema (2.8%), and other (13.9%). Of the 108 patients, 12 (11.1%) underwent surgery following their initial consultation: five for papilledema, four for elevated intracranial pressure, two for severely scaphocephalic head shapes, and one for abnormal funduscopic findings. Two of these patients underwent additional reconstructive surgery, one for the recurrence of papilledema and headache and the other for progressive scaphocephaly. The average length of time between operations was 4.9 years. Of the 96 patients who were managed conservatively, four (4.2%) underwent surgery at an average of 1.2 ± 0.5 years later (average age, 4.4 ± 1.5 years) for brain growth restriction (n = 2), aesthetic concerns (n = 1), and refractory headaches (n = 1). The average follow-up of all patients with craniofacial surgery was 2.7 ± 2.3 years (median, 2.1 years; interquartile range, 3.7 years). Conclusions: Patients with late-presenting sagittal craniosynostosis require surgical correction less often than younger patients, likely because of milder phenotype. Few patients in the conservative treatment arm ultimately required surgery (4%). CLINICAL QUESTION/LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Therapeutic, IV.


Atherosclerosis shows several features of an inflammatory process.1 There is ubiquitous presence of characteristic cells like monocytes/macrophages, and T cells that produce various mediators involved in local inflammation and these inflammatory molecules (cytokines, chemokines, growth factors) are found at the site of the plaque in the arterial vessel wall through all stages of the process, most pronounced during acute ischemic syndromes.2 Atherosclerosis is also accompanied by a systemic low-grade inflammatory response that can be detected by sensitive assays. Because of the importance of inflammation for the initiation and progression of the atherosclerotic process, and the occurrence of deleterious clinical events, interest has focused on a large number of potential biomarkers that have been tested prospectively in clinical and epidemiological studies. Most of them are part of the acute phase reaction and indeed have been found to predict clinical atherosclerosis end points, even after controlling for a variety of traditional risk factors.3 A particular large database has been build up for C-reactive protein (CRP), a member of the pentraxin family, and an exquisitely sensitive acute phase reactant, documenting its association with various cardiovascular disease (CVD) end points.4 In addition, in vitro studies and animal experiments have suggested a direct contribution of CRP to atherogenesis.5 However, such evidence6 and the issue of an incremental value of CRP and other emerging blood biomarkers to risk …


The effect of different cadmium concentrations (10 and 10 M Cd) on the root structural characteristics and the cadmium content in roots, stems and leaves were examined for poplar clones. Weakly expressed structural changes were recorded for the clones 30-2/95 and B-81. The changes in root cross section areas were caused by a variable number of layers of parenchyma cells in cortex, as well as by changes in the size of central cylinder, because of the development of new vascular elements. Among the examined organs, significantly the highest cadmium concentration was recorded in roots. The amount of cadmium in plant organs was clone specific. The clone I-214 was singled out because of its high cadmium accumulation in the root and significant structural stability.


Due to extensive research efforts within the past thirty years, the mechanisms by which bubbles transfer energy during pool boiling are relatively well understood and have various applications in reactors, rockets, distillation, air separation, refrigeration and power cycles. In this paper, CFD analysis of heat transfer characteristics in nucleate pool boiling of saturated water in atmospheric conditions is performed in order to find out the influence of heat flux intensity on pool boiling dynamics. The investigation is carried out for four cases of different heat flux intensities and obtained results for velocity fields of liquid and void fractions are discussed. Grid independent test is also performed to improve the accuracy of calculation. In this way, complete picture of two-phase mixture behaviour on heated wall is represented.


Recent discussions of psychology's involvement in spaceflight have emphasized its role in enhancing space living conditions and incresing crew productivity. While these goals are central to space missions, behavioral scientists should not lose sight of a more basic flight requirement - that of crew safety. This paper examines some of the processes employed in the American space program in support of crew safety and suggests that behavioral scientists could contribute to flight safety, both through these formal processes and through less formal methods. Various safety areas of relevance to behavioral scientists are discussed.


Aiming at the problems of inaccurate fault detection and error alarm in the process of hot strip mill process, a fault detection scheme of canonical independent component analysis is proposed. The new scheme first uses canonical variable analysis to calculate the canonical variable matrix of observation data, which effectively solves the problem of autocorrelation and cross-correlation. Then the canonical variable matrix is decomposed by independent component analysis to obtain independent elements. Finally, the data are monitored online through constructing statistics. It is proved that the accuracy of the scheme for identifying fault data is reached to 100%, and the misjudgment rate data are reduced to less than 0.6% through the simulation study of the hot strip mill process data.


An analysis is made of diffraction-caused distortions of a special reference wave needed in continuous holographic recording of transient optical fields. It is shown that telescopic systems should be used in order to image the reference wave in the required region in space. Phase distortions appear unavoidably if nontelescopic systems are used. Features of the formation of a reference wave in a two-prism electrooptic cell are considered under quasistatic conditions. It is shown that in this case phase distortions may be compensated by a cylindrical lens.


Saida El Sayed Hassan Ibrahim El-Azzab 1 and Sabah Abo El Fetouh Mohamed 2 . 1. Lecturer of Psychiatric/Mental Health Nursing, Faculty of Nursing, Beni-Suef University, Beni-Suef, Egypt. 2. Assistant professor of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, Faculty of Nursing, Kafrelsheikh University, Egypt. ...................................................................................................................... Manuscript Info Abstract ......................... ........................................................................ Manuscript History Received: 14 December 2018 Final Accepted: 16 January 2019 Published: February 2019


The article describes the phenotypic features of Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS) and their impact on the oral health status of a boy aged 11.7 years. Prader-Willi Syndrome is usually caused by a chromosomal aberration, i.e. a partial deletion of the long arm of the paternal chromosome 15q11-q13. The clinical picture of Prader-Willi Syndrome is complex and alters with age. It is mostly due to impaired hypothalamus function. The characteristic features include short stature; muscular hypotonia; hypopigmentation of the skin and hair; a triangular facies, frequently with a small mouth with a thin upper lip and down-turned corners; and diminished secretion of thick and sticky saliva. The case report focuses on the type of abnormal saliva secretion, injury lesions of the oral mucosa (caused by self-destructive behaviour), bacterial and fungal infection, bruxism and susceptibility to dental caries. The results of an orthodontic assessment are included, and the difficulties in preventative and therapeutic management caused by the behavioral and emotional problems typical of PWS are considered (Dent. Med. Probl. 2011, 48, 1, 103-107).


EU funds are European citizens' money, which, in accordance with certain rules and procedures, is allocated to various beneficiaries for the implementation of projects that should contribute to the achievement of the aforementioned key EU public policies. European public policies are adopted for a period of 7 years and are referred to as the financial perspective. We are currently in the financial perspective 2014-2020. preceded by the 2007-2013 financial perspective The basic objective of the research is to promote culture, heritage and economy, which is presented through the analyzed project "Reconstruction of Stari Grad Museums", where the main result of the process of logical approach to project design is determined through a logical matrix. The EU budget will not finance what can be covered from national budgets, but rather focus on areas where European financial resources bring real added value. It finances what would otherwise not be funded or what would be more expensive to finance from national budgets.


A model is proposed for the polarization dependent nonlinear pulse propagation in multimode fiber. Based on this model, the effects of polarization on the nonlinear modal interaction, including the spatial beam self-cleaning, are analyzed.


According to the current progress of marine safety evaluation,it is considered that the marine safety evaluation should be made based on the combination of quantitative and qualitative evaluation methods.To achieve this,a multi-level fuzzy comprehensive marine safety evaluation model is constructed;the selection of evaluation indexes,the establishment of index system and the determination of index weight are researched for this model.Finally,this model is applied to the marine safety assessment of company "A";the result shows that this company urgently need strengthening the construction of shipping enterprise safety culture,the management and the training of the crew's psychological quality.This study provides a tool and method for the marine safety evaluation of shipping enterprises.


purpose of improving and raising the standards of living, especially in regard to housing, sanitation, health and education, is fully narrated. The chapter on "Religion and the Rural Church" explains the general beliefs and practices and the effects of the anti-church legislation, while that on the "Sinarquista Movement" shows it to be a waning influence. The final chapter of this part provides an account of the governmental organization and its operation in the rural communities, and points out the many practices which are not conducive to the most rapid development of the country.


The invention relates to a standardized cultivation method of a new germplasm of Panus giganteus, and belongs to the technical field of the cultivation of domestic fungi, and concretely relates to a method for cultivating a new germplasm LD-1 of Panus giganteus under an artificial condition. The method is mainly characterized by the formula of a mother seed culture medium, the formulas of stock seeds and cultivation seeds, mycelium culture conditions, fruiting management and the like.


The paper deals with didactical scenarios on the notion of geometric congruence based on previous successful experience with using a specific model T which reflects the relations among structures, activities and intelligences (in the sense of Howard Gardner). The underlying idea is that different representations of the same object of study (Figure 1) enable the learner to use his/her strong intelligences, and to enhance and develop the rest in the intelligence spectrum. ;; Ox S M x y M x y xx yy Figure 1. Various representations of geometric congruence We present a series of problems and the response of students of different age. The learning process is in harmony with the fundamental ideas of the constructionism – it involves computer modeling of artefacts created in the best tradition of the Bulgarian folk art – wood-carved ceilings (Figure 2), painted ceramics, embroidery, crocheting, etc., to be presented and shared within a larger audience.


The accounting informatization course for applied undergraduate accounting majors is to train students into practical accounting talents who can adapt to the current information environment. By analyzing the importance of the construction of accounting informatization course and its teaching status, combined with the training of applied undergraduate accounting professionals in our college, the course system and course content are analyzed. Suggestions such as the integration of disciplines with artificial intelligence and other information technologies. Real-time mapping and real-time interaction between the physical accounting professional entity and the digital accounting professional twin are realized by constructing the accounting professional digital twin model (MDTM). Focusing on the construction goals of the smart accounting profession, focusing on the system construction, optimization and key technologies of the smart accounting profession, digital twins and deep learning methods based on the cyber-physical space of the accounting profession.


1. Probability before Kolmogorov. When Kolmogorov was starting his mathematical career, nonmathematical probability was, as it still is, the study of various not very precisely defined real contexts. Some of these contexts gave rise to mathematical problems, in combinatorics for example, but it was not clear what an overall mathematical probability context would be or indeed whether one was possible. Poincare had written in 1912 [13] "On ne peut donner une definition satisfaisante de la probabilite." It was typical of the writing of that time, and in fact of considerably more recent times, that the reader could not be certain whether the writer was thinking of probability as a nonmathematical or a mathematical subject in his statement. von Mises in 1919 [15] was clearer in what he deplored but was just as pessimistic, although more professorily ponderous: "In der Tat kann man den gegenwirtigen Zustand kaum anders als dahin kennzeichnen, dass die Wahrscheinlichkeitsrechnung heute ein mathematische Disciplin nicht ist." von Mises attempted to create his desired mathematical discipline but his theory of "collectives" was a confused although suggestive mixture of mathematical and nonmathematical contexts. In view of Kolmogorov's high opinion of von Mises a few explanatory remarks are appropriate here. Consider a sequence obtained by sampling a sequence of independent trials with a common distribution. (Note that sampling an infinite sequence is an unrealistic element of this analysis.) There are typical properties associated with such a sequence, as indicated for example by the law of large numbers. von Mises attempted to construct a basis for mathematical as well as nonmathematical probability by a formalization of these typical properties, by constructing an individual sequence with enough of these properties to be a model for a trial sequence. His original definition of such an individual sequence (a "collective") [15], was insightful of what seems to happen in sampling, but was either vacuous or meaningless when applied to an individual sequence, depending on the reader'sinterpretation of von Mises' words. His later definition [16] had too few properties to be useful. In any event such a construction, even if successful, would obviously be too awkward and too limited to be considered seriously as a useful basis for the extraordinary scope of modem probabilistic mathematical analysis. On the other hand, the formalization of such a sequence is an appealing conceptual problem which Kolmogorov discussed on several occasions, most


The article looks at the changing composition of Canada's international trade partners since the start of the 21st century and specifically after the global economic crisis of 2008-2009. The article contains a brief overview of the federal foreign trade strategy aimed at stimulating exports growth, expanding export markets in Europe and Asia, finding new sources of imports. The author analyses the initial outcomes of the implementation of the comprehensive economic and trade agreements between Canada and the European Union (CETA), as well as Canada and 10 countries of the AsiaPacific region (CPTTP). It is shown that during the first two years since their partial ratification Canada's trade exchanges with the EU "economic leaders", notably, Germany, as well as some Asian countries have increased quite substantially. At the same time, the escalation of conflicts between the USA and China has negatively influenced the trade between Canada and China.


PurposeAddressed to the audience of LIS educators at all levels, from full-time and adjunct faculty teaching in LIS programs, to librarians and library consultants delivering professional development training, to practitioners who work with readers in all types of libraries, this article makes a case for replacing the term "readers' advisory" with the term "Reading Experience (RE) librarianship" as a designator of the current professional practice.Design/methodology/approachUsing historical and discursive analysis based on the extensive literature review, this article argues that a number of factors call for the change in terminology: changes in the human factor (i.e., changes in readers and reading behavior; and changes in relationships between readers and librarians) and changes in the library environment (the rise of "experience" in libraries; a greater commitment to outreach and community engagement; and the fact that librarians are already practicing RE librarianship without recognizing it as such). It also examines the role of LIS educators in fostering and supporting RE librarianship.FindingsOn the one hand, the new terminology will be more reflective of the work that reader service librarians currently do, thus doing justice to a wide range of activities and expanded roles of librarians; on the other hand, it will serve as an imperative and a motivator to further transform reader services from in-house interactions with and programs for avid readers into a true community engagement, with much broader goals, scope and reach.Originality/valueThe article stands to coin a new professional term for the transformed library practice, thus recording a radical change in longstanding professional activities and encouraging new community-oriented thinking about the expanded role of librarians in promoting reading in diverse social environments.


THE EXACT OR RIGOROUS DETERMINATION OF STRESSES IN SUSPENSION SPANS IS SOMEWHAT TEDIOUS AND INVOLVED. FOR THIS REASON IT HAS BEEN GENERAL PRACTICE TO MAKE CERTAIN APPROXIMATIONS, PARTICULARLY IN THE DESIGN OF STRUCTURES OF COMPARATIVELY SHORT SPAN. SUCH APPROXIMATIONS, IN CERTAIN CASES, INVOLVE ERRORS OF CONSIDERABLE MAGNITUDE, AND ERRORS WHICH AFFECT DIFFERENT PORTIONS OF THE STRUCTURE IN DIFFERENT DEGREE. BECAUSE OF THIS OREGON HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT IN 1937 INITIATED CERTAIN RESEARCHES LOOKING TOWARD THE DERIVATION OF EXACT AND RATIONAL DESIGN METHODS FOR HIGHWAY SUSPENSION BRIDGES AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF DESIGN GRAPHS WHICH WOULD SHORTEN THE TIME AND LESSEN THE LABOR INVOLVED. THE PRESENT PAPER SUMMARIZES THE MATHEMATICAL THEORY UNDERLYING THE EXACT OR RIGOROUS METHOD OF STRESS ANALYSIS, UTILIZING THE FOURIER-SERIES EXPANSION OF THE DEFLECTION TERM PROPOSED AND DEVELOPED BY TIMOSHENKO AND PRIESTER. A COMPARISON OF THE RESULTS OBTAINED BY THIS METHOD WITH THOSE DERIVED BY THE APPROXIMATE METHOD INDICATES A DEGREE OF DIVERGENCE AMOUNTING, IN CERTAIN CASES, TO OVER 250 PER CENT, AS SHOWN BY TABLE I OF THIS ARTICLE, WHICH TABLE IS BASED ON A COMPARISON OF 24 SEPARATE DESIGNS. THE DEGREE OF ERROR INCREASES WITH THE SPAN LENGTH AND DECREASES AS THE RIGIDITY OF THE STIFFENING FRAME IS INCREASED. THE LARGE DEGREE OF MAXIMUM ERROR, TOGETHER WITH THE VARIATION IN PERCENTAGE OF ERROR FOR DIFFERENT PORTIONS OF THE SAME STRUCTURE WARRANTS THE CONCLUSION THAT THE APPROXIMATE OR "ELASTIC-THEORY" METHOD IS OF QUESTIONABLE VALUE IN ANY CASE. A RECOMMENDED DESIGN PROCEDURE BASED UPON THE RESULTS OF THE OREGON STUDIES IS INDICATED AND CERTAIN DESIGN GRAPHS ARE PRESENTED WHICH MAY BE USED WITH REASONABLE ACCURACY FOR TWO-LANE ROADWAY STRUCTURES DESIGNED FOR STANDARD HIGHWAY LOADINGS. /AUTHOR/


This study aims to determine the effect of flexibility, kinesthetic perception, motivation together on the learning outcomes of butterfly swimming. The method used in this study uses a quantitative approach, survey method with test and measurement techniques. The data analysis technique used a path analysis approach. The population of this research is second semester students in the physical education study program, health and recreation, FKIP-UNSIKA, Karawang Regency. There are 155 second semester students. The sampling technique used the purposive sampling method, so that the number of people studied were 31 people who met the researchers' criteria after the butterfly style swimming test was carried out. Based on statistical analysis, the results of hypothesis testing are obtained that 1) flexibility (X1) has a direct positive effect on motivation (Z) by 6.05%.2) Kinesthetic perception (X2) has a direct positive effect on motivation (Z) by 28.62%. 3) Flexibility (X1) has a direct positive effect on the 50-meter butterfly (Y) swimming of 1.85%. 4) Kinesthetic perception (X2) has a positive direct effect on the 50-meter butterfly (Y) swimming by 2.1%. 5) Flexibility (X1) and kinesthetic perception (X2) affect the learning outcomes of butterfly style swimming (Y) through the motivational intervening variable (Z) oby 58.37%


BACKGROUND
Appropriate pharmacotherapy is one of the most important topics due to demographic development in many industrialised countries. The purpose of our work was to evaluate and adjust a French consensus list for Germany.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
We conducted a thorough literature review with regard to the safety of drugs for the elderly.

RESULTS
Originally, 34 criteria containing drugs or drug classes were classified as inappropriate. From these, we evaluated 12 criteria as appropriate, and all others as potentially inappropriate, too. Frequently, drugs affecting the central nervous system, for example anticholinergics and benzodiazepines, were evaluated as potentially inappropriate medication.

CONCLUSION
Our adapted list may be used as recommendation for appropriate drug prescribing in the elderly in Germany.


Human spaceflight is likely to change in character over the 21st century, shifting from a military/governmental enterprise to one that is more firmly tied to private industry, including businesses devoted to space tourism. For space tourism to become a reality, however, many obstacles have to be overcome, particularly those in finance, technology, and medicine. Ethnographic interviews with astronauts, engineers, NASA doctors, and NewSpace workers reveal that absolute faith in the eventual human occupation of space, based in religious conviction or taking secular forms, is a common source of motivation across different populations working to promote human spaceflight. This paper examines the way faith is expressed in these different contexts and its role in developing a future where space tourism may become commonplace.


Purpose – This article aims to explore the impact of a particular regulatory framework for CDMA and GSM use by fixed‐phone companies in Brazil on access, local‐loop competition and fixed‐mobile convergence.Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on the analysis of the three most significant cases in Brazil and the discussion of recent regulatory changes that facilitate access to radio spectrum on a secondary basis.Findings – Among the findings of the study is that while fixed‐wireless access (FWA) systems using CDMA seem to be more suitable to high‐density, well‐served areas, in which a large operator attempts to address a low‐income market satisfied with restricted mobility – GSM systems deployed on a secondary basis are best fitted to address the digital gap in low‐income, underserved areas, promoting local‐loop competition in markets of little interest to traditional operators.Practical implications – The conclusion outlines regulatory recommendations for promoting competition and the growth o...


Text is now, and will remain, an essential embodiment of information. It is a logical error, not a practical folly, to suppose that in general we can replace a mass of text by an equivalent AI-type propositional knowledge base with accompanying inference engine for search: getting information mostly, because properly, means seeing what someone has said about something. What, therefore, could AI (and especially NLP) techniques contribute to text-based information handling? Specifically, would they be for searching, or for indexing?


Summary.-Results from size and jaggedness judgments of 15 poiygons by 17 Ss indicate that judgments were based on two-feature measures of 8-sided polygons (area and the ratio of perimeter to area, p .05), while being significantly related to two measures reflecting the feature differences of polygons (p < .05). Conclusions from the experiments reaffirm a psychophysics of form where it is assumed that responses from Ss are based on psychological dimensions of form which in their Nrn are based on feature (physical) measures of form.


Architecture of distributed software environment for theoretical studies of chemical systems has been proposed. In accordance with the specific of modeling the structure of chemical compounds the proposed architecture is based on three-tier layer software systems. The requirements for this software are: cross-platform, modularity and availability of web-user interfaces. As a tool for developing the technology of Java EE has been chosen. It is assumed that the software environment will be used in the field of bioinformatics and chemoiformatics.


Based on theoretical investigations and model experiments a special bonding technique was developed and experimental wheel sets were built. The new wheel set was equipped with wheel bodies of light-weight materials or laminated, thin sheet metal.


A tool for Designing an Automated School Bell System Using Voice-Based IOT has been designed. The system of this tool uses a NodeMCU ESP8266 microcontroller where the NodeMCU ESP8266 functions as a data processor, and also a WI-FI network receiver emitted by a WI-FI network system. This tool system uses a control system using an android smartphone to turn on the school bell, namely the entrance bell, the recess bell, and the home bell, this tool uses a WI-FI network communication system so that the device system and android smartphone can be connected, the system of this tool uses the ISD1820 module as an output connected to the speaker and the speaker functions to emit the sound of the bell on the designed tool system. The smart phone application used in the design of this tool is the BLYNK application which can be downloaded on playstore or google.com It is hoped that this tool can help and make it easier for teachers who are on duty in turning on the school bell


Objective:To explore the levels of leptin and it's receptor in serum and peritoneal fluid of patients with endometriosis and their role in the pathogenesis of endometriosis.Methods:The levels of leptin and it's receptor in serum and peritoneal fluid from 42 patients with endometriosis (test group) and 36 patients without endometriosis (control group) were detected by ELISA. Correlation between their levels and disease degree was analyzed.Results:There was no significant difference in the levels of leptin and it's receptor in serum,body mass index (BMI) between test group and control group (P0.05).The levels of leptin and it's receptor in peritoneal fluid in test group were significantly higher than those in control group (P0.01).The levels of leptin and it's receptor in patients with mild endometriosis were significantly higher than those with severe endometriosis (P0.05).Conclusion:The levels of leptin and it's receptor in peritoneal fluid increase,and decrease with the severe degree of endometriosis.The changes of levels of leptin and it's receptor in peritoneal fluid may play a role in the pathogenesis of endometriosis.


A new PDI protocol is presented in this study. C. albicans cells pre-illuminated with a low dose light demonstrated an increase of curcumin uptake when compared to dark incubation, leading to a higher PDI efficacy.


The small angle dependence of the differential cross-section for the elastic scattering of Na by K has been measured at relative velocities from 936 to 1420 m sec–1 using a crossed-beam technique. Quantum undulations in the cross-sections were observed at laboratory angles less than 2° and their origin is discussed. The positions of the observed peaks together with a singlet potential obtained from spectroscopic data yield information on the long-range dispersion forces and the triplet potential. For the triplet potential with an assumed Lennard-Jones 8 : 6 from the best agreement found between observation and forward calculation yielded Iµ= 2 × 10–14 ergs and rm= 5.6 A, though the fit is not perfect.


This exploratory and descriptive study aimed to identify the occurrence and characteristics of work accidents (WA) with exposure to biological material among workers at a hospital in Sao Paulo State. Data were collected through a document survey of WA records at the hospital and further records in the electronic protocol of the Prevention System of work accidents with Biological Material in Brazilian Hospitals (REPAT). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and presented in tables and figures. In 2006, 94 accidents were notified that involved workers' exposure to body fluids at the hospital. Considering the proportions of workers exposed, surgical technicians (18.75%), nursing assistants (7.78%) and biologists (4.76%) were the most affected professionals. Hypodermic needles caused the lesions in 71.62% of the cases. The WA were more frequent during medication administration (32.97%) and blood collection (15.95%). Partial data were available about the use of Individual Protection Equipment and the workers' vaccination situation. The results revealed important indicators of accident characteristics and the gaps in records that are extremely important to elaborate an effective prevention program to minimize accident occurrence.


lace Victoria stands alone amongst Moretti's many buildings. The very fact that it deviates ideologically and formally from the rest of his oeuvre makes the project significant and revelatory of Moretti's architecture and of the man. The project neither follows the architectural principles of his prewar Rationalist period, nor those of his later expressionist phase. This divergence from his lifelong thinking is more the result of circumstances than the outcome of a re-evaluation of a well-defined design approach. The saga of the design process is a fascinating one for it illustrates how Moretti's early ideas for the urban skyscraper changed continuously with his increased knowledge and awareness of the problem. He began by attempting to redefine the form and the use of the modern high-rise, but ended with an elegant landmark rather than a breakthrough. Instead of the heroic sculptural object he had hoped to create, he produced a highly functional and very beautiful tower. By Moretti's earlier (and later) standards, the final version of Place Victoria is a remarkably disciplined and controlled work of architecture in which the usual concerns for selfexpression and visual exhilaration are absent. This new formal clarity and structural logic are in great part attributable to his collaborator, engineer, Pier Luigi Nervi. The concept of Place Victoria is the outcome of a coming together of a radical architect and a conservative engineer.


Hepatic impairment (HI) is a known risk factor for drug safety. The MELD score (Model‐for‐endstage‐liver‐disease), calculated from serum creatinine, bilirubin and International Normalized Ratio (INR), is a promising screening tool corresponding to Child‐Pugh Score (CPS) for drug adjustment. We tested the feasibility of MELD as an automatic screening tool accounting for correct calculation, interfering factors (IF) and detection of patients corresponding to CPS‐B/C potentially requiring drug adjustment.


There are many coastal cities in Indonesia, among them the city of Padang and Pariaman in West Sumatra with the ownership of the grace of coastal resources, such as stunning coastal scenery and wind energy that can be converted to its potential. These two types of resources need to be combined utilization especially in relation to the development of tourism so as to have an impact on the regional development and the cities growth. This paper discusses of information related to the potential of coastal resources used as a parameter development of windmill techno park in the context of educational tourism. The discussion focuses on locational aspects and consideration of the design and modification for the windmill model to the enhancement of tourist attraction. In addition, it is also studying the presence of the windmill techno park as a development center in the context of hinterland in the regional analysis. Through the measurement results obtained average wind speed (2.5 - 6.5) m/s and meet the standards & criteria as a windmill design variables. While the geomorphology of the region, its location has a breathtaking coastal landscape as a tourist destination. Then through gravity analysis, the location of the windmill techno park development provides optimum strength to the growth of the city of Padang, with the value of interaction strength is higher than other regions. This means as a sub-urban area of the city the existence of windshield techno park later can support economic development and growth of cities around the coast.


3-Hydroxy-1,2,3-benzotriazin-4-one, 1, was prepared by diazotization of o-aminob-enz-hydroxamic acid, 2. 3-Methoxy-1,2,3-benzotriazin-4-one, 5a, was obtained by reaction of 1 with dimethyl sulphate and was found to be stable to thermolysis. Acetylation and benzoylation of 1 yielded the N-acetoxy-5b and benzoyloxy-5c derivatives respectively. The N-benzoyloxy derivative 5c is converted into the acetate 5b by a novel 'acyl-exchange' reaction in acetic anhydride. Acid hydrolysis of 1 gives anthranilic acid, and thermolyses of 1 in amyl alcohol and aniline afford amyl anthranilate and N-phenylanthranilamide, respectively. The ketenimine 11 is postulated as an intermediate in the thermal breakdown of 1, and this is confirmed by the isolation of the Diels–Alder adduct 12 from reaction of 1 with phenyl isocyanate. Thermolysis of 1 in inert solvents affords a novel compound, 3-(o-aminobenzoyloxy)-1,2,3-benzotriazin-4-one, 6, which polymerizes when 1 is subjected to prolonged thermolysis in diglyme. 6 resisted met...


Abstract Pigmentation abnormalities in fur or wings membranes have been reported in >100 bat species worldwide. In the case of the Mormoopidae family, abnormalities have been documented in Pteronotus mesoamericanus, Pteronotus quadridens, and Mormoops megalophylla. This work represents the first record of Pteronotus fulvus with a coloration pattern different from the one commonly reported in their entire range.


Most of drugs are metabolized by cytochrome P 450 (CYP) enzyme. Cytochrome P450 3A4 is the cytochrome that is involved in metabolizing more than 60% of all medicine used in human. The variation of this CYP3A4 gene will affect the catalytic activity of this enzyme. Recently, CYP3A4*1G in intron 10 was found in Chinese and Japanese population. There is a substitution of G to A at position 82266 in intron 10. The purpose of this research was to investigate the frequency of allele and genotype CYP3A4*1G . Samples were taken from bloods of the subjects of the research. The examination of CYP3A4*1G was conducted by RTLP-PCR method.As the results of this research, the frequency of CYP3A4*1G in Javanese people is CYP3A4*1/*1 0.25, CYP3A4*1/*1G 0.55 and CYP3A4*1G/*1G 0.20. Frequency of allele G: 0.53, allele A: 0.47. The Fisher's exact- test shows that the allele and genotype frequencyis p. 1.000. The allele and genotype frequency of Javanese people isstill in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium.


Objective To establish a new method for the determination of dimethylamine in imatinib mesylate by ion chromatography.Methods The analysis was performed on IonPac CS12A column(250 mm×4.6 mm) with 20 mmol/L methanesulfonic acid solution as eluent by electrical conductivity detector.The flow rate was 1.0 mL/min,injection volume was 25 μL,the column temperature was 30 ℃,and temperature of conductivity detection pool was 35 ℃.Results The linear relationship of dimethylamine was 0.1-2.5 μg/mL.The average recovery(n=9) was 101.3% with RSD of accuracy at 1.1%.Conclusion The method is accurate and reliable,which could be used for the determination of dimethylamine in imatinib mesylate.


This article documents the paucity of research on Chinese American teachers and discusses how this dearth contributes to the "invisibility" of Asian Americans as frontline participants in the shaping of children, educators, and educational policy. It explores bilingual Chinese American teachers'perceptions of the multicultural course requirement in their teacher preparation program and examines the content and context in which this course is experienced. The following were found to be significant: understanding the reality and complexity of the implementation of multicultural education, questioning personal K-12 experiences, identifying White teacher resistance as the major barrier to implementation of multicultural education, and recognizing the psychological and academic benefits of ethnic studies. Teachers explained that cultural knowledge gained by personal experience and in ethnic studies may be the "content" they perceived to be needed in, yet missing from, multicultural education coursework. They also identified lack of knowledge of other cultural groups and mono-ethnic teaching settings as significant obstacles.


Operation effect of UNITANK process which was used in Phase II of Liede Wastewater Treatment Plant,Guangzhou was analyzed.Results showed that the running effect was quite good,with removal efficiency of BOD5 and COD over 88%,removal efficiency of TN between 40%~60% without internal recycle and removal efficiency of TP over 86% with supplement of chemical phosphorus removal using liquid aluminum sulfate as chemical agent.Final effluent quality well met Grade I standard of GB18918-2002.UNITANK process is feasible to be applied in large scale urban wastewater treatment plant with low influent concentration.


This research examines the interest and self-efficacy of students of Colleges of Agriculture and Education both in Jalingo, Taraba state of Nigeria. A sample size of 186 agricultural students was drawn from the two institutions. The sample was drawn using proportionate stratified random sampling technique from agricultural students who had offered practical agriculture in their previous levels of study. The instrument used to elicit data for the study was a questionnaire termed students' interest and self-efficacy questionnaire (SISEQ). A reliability coefficient of the instrument, Cronbach alpha, of 0.91 was obtained. Descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation were obtained and used. The result of the study revealed that students of agriculture showed strong positive interest in agricultural practical. Furthermore, the result added that students of agriculture were efficacious to agricultural practical. The study recommends that agricultural teachers should develop students' awareness of their self-efficacy to enable them exclaim "I can do it". DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2013.v2n10p137


The purpose of product or process development is to improve the performance characteristics of the product or process relative to customer needs and expectations. Process optimization is the discipline of adjusting a process so as to optimize some specified set of parameters without violating some constraint. The most common goals are minimizing cost and maximizing throughput and/or efficiency. This is one of the major quantitative tools in industrial decision making. When optimizing a process, the goal is to maximize one or more of the process specifications, while keeping all others within their constraints. This can be done by using an optimization tool/technique, discovering the critical activities and bottlenecks, and acting only on them. This paper aims to review the research of the practical use of Taguchi method in the optimization of processing parameters for various manufacturing process. Taguchi method has been employed with great success in experimental designs for problems with multiple parameters due to its practicality and robustness. However, it is realized that there is no single technique that appears to be superior in solving different kinds of problem. Improvements are to be expected by integrating the practical use of the Taguchi method into other optimization approaches to enhance the efficiency of the optimization process. The review will shed light on the standalone Taguchi method and integration of Taguchi method (Hybrid Taguchi) with various other approaches. Keywords— Manufacturing or Machining Optimization, Taguchi Method, Quality Engineering


A region (A) to be treated is irradiated with 1,270-nm laser light (L) while oxygen molecules (11) are kept permeating through the work (10) to thereby generate singlet oxygen. Bonds of the molecular structure of a material located in the region (A) are cleaved with the resultant singlet oxygen to conduct polymerization or replacement reaction. Thus, the molecular weight of the work (10) is changed to produce a desired material. In the process, the properties of a work can be changed by modifying only the region (A) with activated oxygen without the need of a heat treatment.


One of the tasks of the open coordination method is to compare state social security systems and establish common goals. It is not difficult to indicate in which country system is more adequate or sustainable, but it is not described, which of system parameters should be compared for evaluating of efficiency. This problem is more visible in analysis of farmers' pensions, which are different from common system. Moreover, with its own classification system of pension schemes, it could be much easier to identify areas of need for reform, because compared with each other pension schemes identification of weak sides of the system takes less time. The aim of research is to analyze currently existing state social insurance schemes of farmers' pensions in the European Union member states and to provide proposals on how to classify them. The methods of research – literature review, document content analysis, comparative analysis, and good practice analysis. It was defined three criteria of classification of systems of farmers' pensions: integration to common system, type of subsidies and tax burden. JEL codes: H550, Q100.


Seabob shrimp ( Xiphopenaeus kroyeri ) fishery is operated all over the coast off Sao Paulo State. For that reason the management and supervision of those catches is necessary in order to assure the maintenance of the stocks and the stability of that activity. This paper aims to contribute to the management of the resource through the analysis of the landing dynamics of the species caught off the coast of S a o Paulo State from 2000 to 2011. The activity is operated by a fleet considered industrial, that comprises 15% of the productivity units and contributes with 47% of the landing production, and by an artisanal fleet that corresponds to 85% of all the productivity units and 53% of the landed shrimp. The CPUE (Catch per Unit Effort) analysis shows stability through the abundance indicator in the last years. The decrease on the number of units from the industrial fleet, probably due to the fisheries low profitability, was the most probable cause for the CPUE stability, or the fishing effort has not exceeded the sustainability limit of the seabob shrimp stock off Sao Paulo State. The observed stability in the abundance indicator is a very promising factor, and it can modify the vision of the status of the resource in different sectors of the fisheries management. It can also influence management measures that must be established with the participation of the artisanal sector, due to the contribution that the artisanal fleet presents in numbers of productivity units and in the percentage of the total of shrimp landing. That participation, although necessary, has not occurred yet.


A nuclear heating reactor (NHR) is a typical integral pressurized water reactor (iPWR) with advanced design features such as an integral primary circuit, self-pressurization, full-power-range natural circulation, and hydraulic control rods. Through adjusting its electric power output according to the variation of demand, NHR power plants can be adopted to stablize the fluctuation of grid frequency caused by the intermittent nature of renewable generation, which is useful for deepening the penetration of renewables. The flexibility of an NHR power plant relies on the automatic generation control (AGC) function of the plant coordination control system, whose central is the AGC law. In this paper, the plant control system with AGC function is designed for NHR plants, where the AGC is realized based on the stabilizers of grid frequency and main steam pressure. Then, the AGC problem is transferred to the disturbance attenuation problem of a second-order dynamic system, and an active disturbance attenuation control (ADRC), which is just the addition of a feedback control given by a proportional‒integral (PI) law and a feedforward control driven by a disturbance observer (DO), is then proposed. Finally, this ADRC is applied to realize the AGC function for NHR-200II reactor power plant, and numerical simulation results show the implementation feasibility and satisfactory performance.


The aim of the presented thesis relies on the improvement of a tubular chassis for a competition vehicle, based on the model carried out by colleague, Helio Santos. It undergoes in two phases: The first phase consisted on the assemblage of theoretical information, rules and regulations that sustain legal evidence to support the achievement of the proposed goal. Furthermore an additional assemblage was made of updated information in order to develop a chassis that was adequate to the present needs and that would reflect the knowledge acquired so far. The second phase includes the structure's trials, carried out through the work tool SolidWorks®, which consisted on subjecting the chassis to different variables (stresses, displacements and twists) in order to make feasible the approval of the single-seater. Projeto de melhoria de um chassi tubular para um veiculo de competicao single seater iv Agradecimentos Um reconhecido agradecimento ao Professor Jose Luis Soares Esteves, pela disponibilidade incondicional e pelo encorajamento dado nos momentos de maior incerteza. Projeto de melhoria de um chassi tubular para um veiculo de competicao single seater


In recent years many developing countries of Africa and Asia have become very sensitive to the spatial aspects of national development planning. It is no longer considered sufficient for development planning to provide the framework for the overall allocation of resources and Sectoral programmes within that framework. The specific location of projects included in the development programme is considered to be an equally important element in the planning exercise. Consequently, contributions from geographers concerned with the understanding and eventual solution of regional development problems have been increasing recently. The essays contained in this book are designed to emphasise the importance of geographical analysis to regional development planning in the less-developed parts of the world. The book is comprised of essays by 18 authors writing on different aspects of regional development planning in the countries of the developing world. The essays can be classified into five major groups. The first, which is the introductory chapter, presents a review by the editor of the role of geographic methodology in the study of development, and an excellent review of the literature on the spatial aspects of development. The second group of essays which comprise 5 chapters focus on land and water resources. The essays are fairly well written although Antonini et al's essay &dquo;Ecological Modelling of a Tropical Watershed&dquo; is indeed excellent. The third section of the book comprise the essay by M. J. Mortimore, &dquo;The demographic variable in regional planning in Kano State, Nigeria&dquo;. The essay attempts to identify the demographic problems associated with regional development in the Kano State of Nigeria. It also suggests some strategies for the future regional planning of the state. The fourth group of essays comprise those on rural development and migration themes. The essay by D. R. F. Taylor on &dquo;Spatial Aspects of Kenyan's Rural Development Strategy&dquo; is very interesting. Similarly the essay by R. K. Udo on &dquo;Rural Migrations and the Problem of Agricultural Labour in Western Tropical Africa&dquo; is also excellently written. Finally, the fifth group of essays in the book focuses


To provide a method of controlling a turbine equipment and a turbine equipment capable of carrying out a starting operation of controlling a load applied to a speed reducing portion while complying with a restriction imposed on an apparatus provided at a turbine equipment. The invention is characterized in including a speed accelerating step (S1) of increasing a revolution number by driving to rotate a compressing portion and a turbine portion by a motor by way of a speed reducing portion, a load detecting step (S2) of detecting a load applied to the speed reducing portion by a load detecting portion, and a bypass flow rate controlling step (S3) of increasing a flow rate of a working fluid bypassed from a delivery side to a suction side of the compressing portion when an absolute value of the detected load is equal to or smaller than an absolute value of a predetermined value and reducing the flow rate of the bypassed working fluid when equal to or larger than the absolute value of the predetermined value.


The article is aimed at improving the scientific-methodological aspects of assessing the efficiency of management of an innovative enterprise in the context of implementation of sustainable development goals. The role and state of machine-building enterprises as the basis for the development of the national economy in the format of innovative ones is highlighted. For the first time, on the basis of a comprehensive approach, indicators for assessing the efficiency of management of an innovative enterprise (on the example of the machine-building industry) are elaborated in the context of the implementation of sustainable development goals of the 21st century. At the same time, the Conception of sustainable development is positioned as a synthesis of two most important ideas, i.e.: 1) development should be balanced, which involves solving economic, social and environmental problems and achieving an equilibrium between them, and this causes the overall level and quality of life of the population; 2) the current generation has a duty to future generations to leave sufficient reserves of resources (natural, social and economic) in order to ensure their level of welfare, not lower than the current one. It is proposed to supplement the elaborated indicators with three specific indicators of patent-licensing activity as a factor in improving the efficiency of management of the innovative enterprise in the context of economic, environmental and social aspects. In particular: 1) the number of security documents for intellectual property objects, in which the methods that reduce the production of individual goods or services (economic component) are patented; 2) the number of security documents for intellectual property rights, in which the methods of more environmental production of goods or services (ecological component) are patented; 3) the number of security documents for intellectual property rights, which patent ways to improve the efficiency of employees, that is, improving working conditions (social component). On the basis of formalization method and comprehensive approach, a universal format of results of evaluation of the efficiency of management of an innovative enterprise in the context of implementation of sustainable development goals is recommended. The result of its application should be timely elimination of problems, identification of causes and zeroing out consequences of ineffective management of the enterprise, which will lead to increased profits from innovation activities and efficiency of investments in environmental innovations, will form a safe environment, increase the level of satisfaction of vital interests of employees of the enterprise and the population in general.


OBJECTIVE To investigate an outbreak of suspected nosocomial infections in a cardiac surgery department,seek the infection sources,cut off the transmission routes,and put forward targeted prevention and control measures so as to control such outbreak.METHODS An epidemiologic investigation was conducted for 4 cases with suspected surgical incision infections who were treated in the cardiosurgery department from April 27,2013to May 11,2013,and the related risk factors were analyzed,then the comprehensive control measures were taken to prevent the dissemination of nosocomial infections.RESULTS Of totally 4cases of patients with suspected surgical incision infections,there was 1case without such inflammations as fever,swelling incision,and purulent secretions,there was no bacterial growth on the secretion culture,being considered as the poor wound healing;there were 3cases of patients with filamentous fungi cultured from the secretions,while no strains of filamentous fungi were detected through the environmental health surveillance.The hand hygiene compliance of the medical staff was poor,and the possibility of cross infections remained excluded,being considered as the outbreak of suspected nosocomial infections.CONCLUSIONS It is of great significance for the investigation of outbreak of nosocomial infections to conduct the epidemiologic investigation in a timely manner and take targeted control measures so as to effectively control the epidemic and prevent more large-scale outbreak.


An apparent latchup condition was observed in a hi-rel dielectrically isolated integrated circuit. The failure mechanism was analyzed and isolated through the use of nondestructive laboratory and radiation tests, and was found to be caused by a short circuit in one of the component transistors of the integrated circuit. This defect remained undetected throughout one-hundred percent high-reliability, quality control, and screening tests. Upon probing and optically viewing the device, the defect was verified to be a collector-to-base metallization short in the suspect transistor. Removal of this short returned the device to proper operation.


We have studied the problem of particle–antiparticle pair creation from vacuum in external fields considering Schwinger's method. The effective action is calculated respectively for scalar and spinor quantum electrodynamics (QED) in the presence of a constant electromagnetic field plus a Volkov plane wave. It is shown that the plane wave has no influence on the process of pair creation.


Mutually organized enterprise have had a long and snccessful history in American life insurance business. In theory, mutuals, without capital item in its balance-sheet, are owned by and operated for the benefit of the policyowners, and their boards of directors or "trustees" are elected by them, typically exemplified by the original Charter and By-Laws of the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York, the first mutual in the United States. But in practice, officers and directors of mutuals, although claiming democracy of their companies, have completely ignored the sovereignty of policyowners, who have consequently been silent majority for nearly one and a half century.The third president of the Mutual Life usurped the control through proxy contests and established his autocracy, so-called "Winston regime". He and his vice-president held so many proxies, compared to "Children of Israel, " that no one succeded in defeating his rule. Management control were dramatically disclosed by the Armstrong Committee of the New York Legislature in 1905, saying "Notwithstanding their theoretical rights, policyholders have had little or no voice in the management. Entrenched behind proxies, easily collected by subservient agents and running for long periods, unless expressly revoked, the officers of these companies have occupied unassailable positions and have been able to exercise despotic power". With all the drastic revision of the New York Insurance laws, nothing happened in the elections of mutuals except temporary excitement, and management control continued at no stands for more than thirty years later the Temporary National Economic Committee disclosed the fact. "Life Insurance executives and directors constitute a small group that is self-appointing and self-perpetuating". Another thirty years-plus have passed since TNEC, and the situation remains the same. All the while mutual managements have been criticized and refuted in the courts, legislatures of the stastes and journals, it has been desparately impossible to find out an effective means to bring indifferent policyowners to annual elections.


The Ninth International Conference on Computer Ethics: Philosophical Enquiry (CEPE 2011) was held in Milwaukee, WI. Four papers originally presented at that conference are included in this issue of Computers and Society. The selected papers examine a wide range of information/computer-ethics-related issues, and taken together, they show great diversity in the field of information/computer ethics. We are continually negotiating with ethics, law, and policy in our technology-driven activities in the interconnected global arena. As we consider the themes within and among the papers here, we encourage readers to think deeply about fundamental principles such as trust, accountability, anonymity, and human rights. Each of these papers takes us back, philosophically, to seminal and long-standing principles of ethics, broadly speaking, and then, brings us forward, to significant and contemporary challenges in ethics. The authors each weave narratives about our place and space as individuals, as members of cultural collectives, and evolving socio-political-technical norms around us, governing us, defining us.


Four streams in Teesdale (UK) were studied over a period of two years. The biological implications were studied by using the stream temperatures to predict both the times of brown trout eggs to hatching. Intragravel and stream water temperatures were compared for a spawning riffle in Great Eggleshope Beck. The effect of vegetation shading on water temperature was studied at Thorsgill Beck, which runs through deciduous woodland. An analysis was made of the time of day at which the maximum and minimum temperatures occurred in Carl Beck. Methods of calculating mean daily temperatures were examined. Estimations using the mid-point of the maximum/minimum range were usually higher than those from hourly temperature readings. (PDF contains 34 pages)


This paper focuses on Kerr-effect and simultaneous polarization current measurements in a laboratory-scale mineral oil/pressboard arrangement in which one electrode is covered with pressboard in order to simulate real HVDC transformer insulation systems. On those arrangements, the influence of different electrical DC field stresses and oil gap widths on the transient charge carrier transport processes and the corresponding space charge phenomena is investigated. The measurement results are compared with measurements in a bare electrode arrangement with a mineral oil gap in order to examine the impact of an inserted pressboard barrier. The objective of the research is to describe the transient charge carrier transport processes and space charge phenomena in oil and oil-impregnated pressboard insulation systems. Hence, information about both, the electric field distribution and the transient conduction processes within the oil gap can be obtained. With the results, common theories about the field distribution within the insulation system can be verified and the understanding of the transient and steady state behaviour of oil-board layered insulation systems of converter transformers can be increased.


Consider a point on a convex surface in Rd, d≥2 and a plane of support Π to the surface at this point. Draw a plane parallel with Π cutting a part of the surface. We study the limiting behavior of this part of the surface when the plane approaches the point, being always parallel with Π. More precisely, we study the limiting behavior of the normalized surface area measure in Sd−1 induced by this part of the surface. In this paper, we consider two cases: (a) when the point is regular and (b) when it is singular conical, that is the tangent cone at the point does not contain straight lines. In Case (a), the limit is the atom located at the outward normal vector to Π, and in Case (b), the limit is equal to the measure induced by the part of the tangent cone cut off by a plane.


The 1970 Clean Air Car Race was the first annual race from MIT to Cal Tech by college students in vehicles that meet stringent air pollution requirements. There were 45 vehicles entered in five engine classifications: internal combustion (both gaseous and liquid fuels), Rankine cycle, Brayton cycle, electric, and hybrid electric. In addition to measuring the exhaust emissions of these power plants (which will probably become the power plants of the future), the noise generated by the vehicle operating under competitive conditions was measured using the A‐weighted network (1) with the vehicle at idle (at a measurement distance of 10 ft), (2) with the vehicle at 30 mph cruise (at a distance of 50 ft) and (3) with the vehicle at wide open acceleration (at a distance of 50 ft). The rating scheme assigned equal merit to each of the three measurements. This paper presents additional comments on the race and discusses in detail the noise levels of the various vehicles.


The spatial niches and habitat preferences of six sympatric lizard species were studied in two model territories in western Bulgaria. The highest level of species diversity (based on two indices, Simpson and Shannon) was reported in the ecotone between oak forests and meadows. The spatial niche breadth was wider in the wall lizard Podarcis muralis and the eastern green lizard Lacerta viridis, while other species showed more restricted preferences to a particular habitat type. To our knowledge, this is the first purposeful research on the habitat preferences of lizard species of the Balkans, based on quantitative data. The results in the present work could be used in further and more detailed analyses.


We prove that the rational cohomology $H^{i}(\mathcal {T}_{g};\mathbf {Q})$ of the moduli space of trigonal curves of genus $g$ is independent of $g$ in degree $i<\lfloor g/4\rfloor .$ This makes possible to define the stable cohomology ring as $H^{\bullet }(\mathcal {T}_{g};\mathbf {Q})$ for a sufficiently large $g.$ We also compute the stable cohomology ring, which turns out to be isomorphic to the tautological ring. This is done by studying the embedding of trigonal curves in Hirzebruch surfaces and using Gorinov–Vassiliev's method.


At the beginning of section 2, there is a conflation of different concepts of possibility. If we grant that imaginability is conceivability (in the sense of being describable without any logical contradictions), if we pass over "practical" possibility as a non-defined term, and grant that by "physically" possible Zahavi very likely means "nomologically" possible, it still would present a major step to say that something is conceptually or (my emphasis) metaphysically possible. Not everything that is logically or conceptually possible is metaphysically possible as well—metaphysically possible worlds (just like nomologically possible worlds) have to be interpreted as a subset of logically possible worlds. How this can be done is a subject of intense and highly technical debates in current philosophy of mind. We cannot possibly enter this debate here, but let me just point out how, for instance, Zahavi's remarks in the second paragraph of page 4 rest on a conflation between nomological and logical possibility.


This study investigated whether participating in an educational experience in the virtual world called Second Life enhances college student learning of introductory topics in the physical and behavioral sciences. Our research hypotheses were that students who complete a learning module which includes a virtual world experience and a text-based presentation will learn more than students who complete the text-based presentation alone and that they will also find this learning experience more engaging. Ten undergraduate students participated in the study. Five learned about tsunamis, first through a Second Life experience and then through a handout. They learned about schizophrenia through a handout alone. The other five learned about schizophrenia, first through a Second-Life experience and then through the handout. These students learned about tsunamis through the handout alone. Upon completion of each tutorial, participants completed an exam and two surveys. When students completed both a Second Life experience and a handout on a topic, they achieved higher exam scores (p<0.005) and rated the learning experience more engaging (p<0.005) than when they completed the handout alone. Participant ratings of the ease-of-use of the learning modules that included a Second Life experience were slightly lower than those for the modules that involved only a handout, but this difference was not significant. These results suggest that experiences in virtual worlds are a useful instructional supplement to academic readings.


Objective
To explore the expression of minor histocompatibility antigen 13 (HM13) in gastric carcinoma and the relationship with clinicopathological parameters and prognosis.

Methods
The expression of HM13 was detected by immunohistochemistry in a total of 90 pairs of paraffin-embedded gastric cancer tissue specimens and corresponding paraneoplastic tissues. The correlation between clinicopathological parameters and the expression of HM13 in gastric carcinoma were also analyzed. Downstream gene heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) expression was detected by qRT-PCR after HM13 gene was interfered.

Results
High expression of HM13 protein was observed in 47% gastric carcinoma compared with that in 61% corresponding paraneoplastic tissues (χ2=3.78, P=0.052). HM13 expression has positive correlation with pathological TNM stage (χ2=5.022, P=0.025) and distant metastasis (P=0.033), but not with age (χ2=0.832, P=0.362), gender (χ2=0.779, P=0.378), tumor size (χ2=0.804, P=0.370), tumor differentiation (χ2=0.430, P=0.512), gross types (χ2=2.069, P=0.150), tumor stromal invasion (χ2=0.167, P=0.683) and lymph node status (χ2=0.396, P=0.529). The patients with low HM13 expression had worse overall survival [(OS): (30±5) months vs. (47±5) months, χ2=6.456, P=0.011] and progress free survival [(PFS): (29±5) months vs. (46±5) months, χ2=6.742, P=0.009]. Expression of HO-1 was up-regulated after HM13 gene was interfered (0.532±0.013 vs. 0.395±0.011, t=13.93, P<0.05).

Conclusion
The low expression of HM13 is associated closely with advanced stage and distant metastases of gastric carcinoma.

Key words:
Stomach neoplasms; Minor histocompatibility antigens; Heme oxygenase (Decyclizing); Neoplasm metastasis; Prognosis


Learning rate is one of the challenging hyper-parameters during training deep learning model. An optimal model requires proper configuration value of learning rate. Larger learning rate results in rapid changes and makes the model not optimal, whereas smaller learning rate makes the model train slower. Finding a good choice of learning rate can be essential to getting the network to learn at all. In this paper, we proposed to compare the CenterNet model with different backbones and different learning rates. Backbones that we use are ResNet-101 and Deep Layer Aggregation, moreover there are eight experiments in total using different learning rate. CenterNet is a model based on keypoint estimation. In other words, CenterNet tries to find the center point of the object which is then regressed into other object properties such us weight and height of bounding boxes. Furthermore, we focus on detecting aerial images, hence the dataset we use is the VisDrone-2019 dataset. Our result shows that training Deep Layer Aggregation backbone using learning rate of 0.000125 can achieve the highest performances around 18.2 percent.


There is evidence that solar activity variations can affect the cloud cover at Earth. However, it is still unclear which solar driver plays the most important role in the cloud formation. Here we use partial correlations to distinguish between the effects of two solar drivers (cosmic rays and the UV irradiance) and the mutual relations between clouds at different altitudes. We find that the solar influence on cloud cover is not uniquely defined by one solar driver, but both seem to play a role depending on the climatic conditions and altitude. In particular, low clouds are mostly affected by UV irradiance over oceans and dry continental areas and by cosmic rays over some mid‐high latitude oceanic areas and moist lands with high aerosol concentration. High clouds respond more strongly to cosmic ray variations, especially over oceans and moist continental areas. These results provide observational constraints on related climate models.


The buckling behaviour of the 360 × 152 steel H-piles supporting the integral abutments of the Scotch Road Bridge, located in Trenton, New Jersey, has been studied for the cases of single pile and pile bent. Three-dimensional finite-element models for single pile and pile bent have been developed to study the behaviour of these fully embedded piles under axial and lateral loading. An iterative analysis based on extracting the eigenvalues and eigenvectors (mode shapes) that correspond to the pile(s) critical buckling loads has been adopted. The pile(s) and the surrounding sand were modelled using solid continuum elements in the finite-element model. Material non-linearity is accounted for in both the piles and the soil in the base state of the model. A parametric study has been utilized to determine the effect of the geometric and material properties of the pile and the surrounding sand on the predicted critical buckling loads of the piles. The effects of four parameters have been studied: soil stiffness, pile length, type of connection, and combining vertical and lateral loads. The results from the parametric study showed that the variation of the percentage change in the sand stiffness, pile length, and combining vertical and lateral loads with the critical buckling loads of the 360 × 152 H-piles is nonlinear. Furthermore, the parameters studied are more influential in affecting the critical buckling load of a single pile than a pile bent, with the exception of the 'type of connection' parameter.


for rural populations in Sub-Saharan Africa. Since 2013, with the financial support of partners such as ADEME, AfDB, OFID and EIB, CIDR Pamiga (formerly PAMIGA) has been facilitating and supporting partnerships between microfinance institutions (MFIs) and solar equipment distributors to promote access to solar energy for low-income populations in Benin, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar and Senegal. In 2018-2019, in Benin, together with ARESS and MyJouleBox, CIDR Pamiga and its partners have developed and tested innovative approaches to integrate the PAYGO technology in MFIs' credit methodologies in order to increase access to solar energy for rural households and micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). This case study presents the background and characteristics of such approaches, as well as the preliminary results and lessons learned, with the aim of inspiring other players in the sector to build on these experiences to expand energy access around the world.