In light of the increasing interest in research on correctional officers, data are presented concerning the validity, reliability, and factor structure of the Klofas-Toch professional orientation inventory of correctional officer attitudes toward inmates. This 17-item instrument was administered to a heterogeneous sample of southern correctional officers and to a heterogeneous sample of probation/parole officers. The same four factor structure emerged in the correctional officer data as has been reported by Klofas and Toch (1982); however, separate analyses showed differential factor ordering and loading for black and white officers. The factor structure that emerged in the probation officer data differed from the structure found in the correctional officer data. Finally, the professional orientation inventory, while found to be a valid and reliable measure, did not explain much of the variance in correctional officer job burnout.


Experimental apparatus previously used to measure photon counting distributions has been adapted to measure zero-crossing distributions. Results are presented for the case of white noise passed through a fourth-order Butterworth filter.


Educational implications of information and communication technologies are far more reaching than initially expected. Present models of mathematics teaching are quickly becoming obsolete because the new paradigms brought by the Internet enable new modes of mathematical thinking and new contexts of meaning. The structure of mathematical discourse is affected by visualisation and distance interaction, so there is a strong need to reorganise didactic sequences and to define new curriculum objectives taking into account the variety of modes of mathematical thinking that were not feasible in the past but which can now be sustained by the technology.


Gary H. Carlson, who managed the compounding program at Fairview Pharmacy Services in Minneapolis and for more than 40 years taught University of Minnesota pharmacy students how to achieve pharmaceutical elegance in their products, died on June 11 after several years of major health struggles. He


The increasing of oil price forces the industries to alter their fuel from oil into a cheaper fuel. Undoubt- edly, coal is a promising energy alternative in Indonesia. To save the cost, altering the fuel oil into coal in industries may be accomplished just by altering the oil burner with coal burner, therefore the exist- ing equipment still can be used without much modification. The coal combustor employed should have nearly the same characteristic with the oil combustor, so that the performance of the kiln or other equipment served by the combustor is not change significantly. R & D Centre for Mineral and Coal Technology (TekMIRA) has developed cyclone combustor for coal with particle size of less than 30 mesh. The combustion is stable at the rate of 50 – 180 kg/hr coal with excess combustion air of 22 – 26%. The length of cyclones is ranged from 120 up to 220 cm, the internal diameter is 60 up to 80 cm and the combustion temperature is 1200 up to 1325°C. This combustor characteristics are nearly the same with oil combustor such as: the combustion flame may be directed; high intensity combustion, long flame; and it is not difficult to match the energy output of previous oil combustor. In this experiment the cyclone combustor was used to replace the oil combustor in a reverberatory furnace to refine aluminum from aluminum scrap by melting the material at 1000 – 1060°C. For 500 kg aluminum, the oil consumption was 47.5 litre for 2.5 hour or the average was 19 lt/hr and the energy efficiency was 29.2%. Using high ash bituminous coal with cyclone burner, the coal consumption was 129 kg for 1.8 hour or the average was 71.6 kg/hr and the energy efficiency was 17.9%. A higher efficiency was obtained by using low ash sub bituminous coal, that the coal consumption was 82 kg for 81 minutes or the average was 60 kg/hr and the energy efficiency was 29.0%. Therefore it is a good opportunity for coal to substitute fuel oil in this reverberatory furnace and many other oil fuelled processes such as in boiler, lime calcination, mineral drying etc.


By soilless culture pattern we compared the changes of nutrient solution nature in hydroponics pumpkin, the results of study are as follows: There are greater changes in the nature of the nutrient solution in the course of culture. The pH value of nutrient solution increased obviously in one day, rising from pH6.5 to above pH7.2; Dissolving oxygen of nutrient solution reduce notably, dropping from 6mg/L to less than 4mg/L rapidly in one day; The EC value decreased evidently within a nutrition cycle.There is significant linear positive correlation between the EC value and the content of NO 3 --N, P, K in the nutrient solution.


is a revision of the procedures of trial and investigation in which miscarriages of justice occur and the institution and improvement of methods of appeal, review, and redress. Witch trials and kangaroo courts are bad. So are the methods of some authorized forms of investigation. But no broader principle of immunity will make them better. They themselves must be eliminated or set right. The best we can say, then, is that the Fifth Amendment establishes a principle defining explicitly the limits within which the law can make a demand on a guilty man consonant with his dignity as a free agent; and that our system of trials, investigations, provisions for appeal and redress must be constantly revised to make justice more common and injustice more easily rectified. The shortcomings of the first address appear to be at least implicitly acknowledged in the second, on the due process clause as an instrument for the protection of the individual from "the arbitrary application of the collective power of the state." Here it is seen that "it is, in the last analysis, only through procedural rules that the individual is protected against arbitrary governmental action"; and this is claimed to be "of the very essence of liberty." Suggestions then follow recommending proper procedures for congressional committees. But whatever merit the account may have, it is certainly not augmented by this statement, made in the interest of defining "arbitrary": "Such words as 'arbitrary' and 'capricious' are difficult words. They may not in fact mean much more than 'unreasonable,' and that in turn may mean in substance 'not customary' or not what we are accustomed to. Perhaps it may be said that we are accustomed to decent treatment from our public officers, and that our hearts and minds recoil when that custom is broken. It is with this sort of thing that the idea of due process, of 'the law of the land,' is concerned" (pp. 37-38). The third address, delivered to the Connecticut Bar Association, returns to the Fifth Ammendment and the point made earlier concerning the inferring of a man's guilt from his use of the Amendment before a congressional committee. Basically, the point is that questions involving matters of political belief come closer to the area of free speech and privacy, hence may be responsibly evaded (it is not clear why the First Amendment does not serve such cases adequately); and that congressional committees, by their very nature, are seldom disinterested, hence give a man due cause to hesitate in answering their questions. We are then told that the Fifth Amendment is an expression or symbol of the "moral striving of the community," which would appear to be largely a matter of the protection of the individual from government exploitation. And the address concludes with some unexceptionable criticisms of common abuses of civil liberties, such as the third degree, the irresponsibility of the press, the use of informers, etc., and a statement of a merely practical objection to the newly established principle of granting immunity to indispensable witnesses.


In gravity-mediated SUSY breaking models with non-universal gaugino masses, lowering the SU(3) gaugino mass |M3| leads to a reduction in the squark and gluino masses. Lower third generation squark masses, in turn, diminish the effect of a large top quark Yukawa coupling in the running of the higgs mass parameter mHu2, leading to a reduction in the magnitude of the superpotential μ parameter (relative to M1 and M2). A low |μ| parameter gives rise to mixed higgsino dark matter (MHDM), which can efficiently annihilate in the early universe to give a dark matter relic density in accord with WMAP measurements. We explore the phenomenology of the low |M3| scenario, and find for the case of MHDM increased rates for direct and indirect detection of neutralino dark matter relative to the mSUGRA model. The sparticle mass spectrum is characterized by relatively light gluinos, frequently with mtilde g << mtilde q. If scalar masses are large, then gluinos can be very light, with tilde g→tilde zig loop decays dominating the gluino branching fraction. Top squarks can be much lighter than sbottom and first/second generation squarks. The presence of low mass higgsino-like charginos and neutralinos is expected at the CERN LHC. The small mtilde z2-mtilde z1 mass gap should give rise to a visible opposite-sign/same flavor dilepton mass edge. At a TeV scale linear e+e- collider, the region of MHDM will mean that the entire spectrum of charginos and neutralinos are amongst the lightest sparticles, and are most likely to be produced at observable rates, allowing for a complete reconstruction of the gaugino-higgsino sector.


In order to study the operation strategy and daily power distribution of distributed energy system distribution network, this paper puts forward the operation strategy of distributed energy system distribution network, determines 12 operation modes based on preferential electric-hydrogen conversion, and establishes the mathematical model of each module of distributed energy system. Set the operation strategy based on the top and bottom grid simulation platform control logic of the distributed energy system, studies the typical daily load and a family day light intensity on the basis of the distributed energy system of distribution network operation condition, and analyzes the variety electric power distribution and the running status of each module, for the distributed energy system provides a model based on distribution network operation.


thesis presented to the School of Graduate Studies,Addis Ababa University In partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Science in Biology


The transdermal route vied with oral treatment as the most successful innovative research area in drug delivery. The use of lipid vesicles in delivery systems for skin treatment has attracted increasing attention in recent years. Vesicles allow to control the release rate of drug over an extended time, keeping the drug shielded from immune response and would be able to release just the right amount of drug and keep that concentration constant for longer periods of time. One of the major advances in vesicle research was ethosomes. Ethosomes are noninvasive delivery carriers that enable drugs to reach the deep skin layers and/or the systemic circulation. These are soft, malleable vesicles tailored for enhanced delivery of active agents. Ethosomes are soft lipid vesicles containing phospholipids, alcohol in relatively high concentration and water. The size range of ethosomes may vary from tens of nanometers to microns (μ). Hot and cold methods are used for formulation of ethosomes. Evaluation parameters include size, shape, drug content, zeta potential, stability studies, skin permeation studies etc. These carriers open new challenges and opportunities for the development of novel improved therapies.


Nila is a fish that is quite in demand. This fish is widely cultivated by the people of Indonesia, but the cultivation technique still uses traditional methods. The demand for high-protein fish makes farmers have to think about the best way to produce as much fish as possible. Factors to consider are feed, environmental quality and harvesting process. In the care of value fish, it is necessary to have a process of feeding fish. The distribution of feed must be given evenly so that the growth of fish is evenly distributed. The pH level in fish maintenance must be considered so that fish. In terms of harvesting usually requires a lot of manpower, in this study an automatic system for harvesting fish is made. With the help of microcontroller and telecommunications technology can be applied in the cultivation process. Arduino is used as the main processor using two microcontrollers, namely Arduino UNO and NodeMCU directly integrated into smartphones, which makes it easy for farmers to control the quality of their livestock products. Two microcontrollers connected by serial communication. The Blynk application as a user interface for monitoring and controlling so that this tool can make farmers not spend a lot of energy  farming process.


The process of copper scrap treatment using the largest Kaldo furnace in the world at present and the technology of relevant equipment,involving loading dumper,rail car,fugitive gas hood,lance and offtake stack etc.,are introduced in the paper.Kaldo furnace is featured by realization of smelting and converting in one furnace,with copper content in slag generally less than 0.5%.


Both the high altitude physiologist and the intensivist are challenged by the human organism in a hypoxic environment. The variation in barometric pressure which occurs with latitude influences enormously the inspired oxygen concentration at extreme altitudes and can significantly effect performance. The cardio- respiratory changes which take place at high altitude, and in particular the putative control mechanisms increasing ventilation; changes in the oxygen-haemoglobin dissociation curve; diffusion limitation during exercise; cardiac function; the pulmonary circulation; and changes in erythropoiesis and fluid homeostasis are reviewed. © 2000 Harcourt Publishers Ltd


This paper presents a series of experiments aimed at inducing and evaluating domain-specific bilingual lexica from comparable corpora. First, a small English-Slovene comparable corpus from health magazines was manually constructed and then used to compile a large comparable corpus on health-related topics from web corpora. Next, a bilingual lexicon for the domain was extracted from the corpus by comparing context vectors in the two languages. Evaluation of the results shows that a 2-way translation of context vectors significantly improves precision of the extracted translation equivalents. We also show that it is sufficient to increase the corpus for one language in order to obtain a higher recall, and that the increase of the number of new words is linear in the size of the corpus. Finally, we demonstrate that by lowering the frequency threshold for context vectors, the drop in precision is much slower than the increase of recall.


Across the social sciences, a key question is how societies manage to enforce cooperative behavior in social dilemmas such as public goods provision or bilateral trade. According to an influential body of theories in psychology, anthropology, and evolutionary biology, the answer is that humans have evolved moral systems: packages of functional psychological and biological mechanisms that regulate economic behavior, including a belief in moralizing gods; moral values; negative reciprocity; and emotions of shame, guilt, and disgust. Based on a stylized model, this paper empirically studies the structure and evolution of these moral traits as a function of historical heterogeneity in extended kinship relationships. The evidence shows that societies with a historically tightly-knit kinship structure regulate behavior through communal moral values; revenge taking; emotions of external shame; and notions of purity and disgust. In loose kinship societies, on the other hand, cooperation appears to be enforced through universal moral values; internalized guilt; altruistic punishment; and an apparent rise and fall of moralizing religions. These patterns point to the presence of internally consistent, but culturally variable, functional moral systems. Consistent with the model, the relationship between kinship ties, economic development, and the structure of the mediating moral systems amplified over time.


ABSTRACT To know phase diagrams is a time saving approach for developing novel materials. To efficiently construct phase diagrams, a machine learning technique was developed using uncertainty sampling, which is called as PDC (Phase Diagram Construction) package [K. Terayama et al. Phys. Rev. Mater. 3, 033802 (2019).]. In this method, the most uncertain point in the phase diagram was suggested as the next experimental condition. However, owing to recent progress in lab automation techniques and robotics, high-throughput batch experiments can be performed. To benefit from such a high-throughput nature, multiple conditions must be selected simultaneously to effectively construct a phase diagram using a machine learning technique. In this study, we consider some strategies to do so, and their performances were compared when exploring ternary isothermal sections (two-dimensional) and temperature-dependent ternary phase diagrams (three-dimensional). We show that even if the suggestions are explored several instead of one at a time, the performance did not change drastically. Thus, we conclude that PDC with multiple suggestions is suitable for high-throughput batch experiments and can be expected to play an active role in next-generation automated material development. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT


Submerged vegetations(aquatic vegetation) with abundant nutrition is a kind of biotic resources,compared with terrestrial plants,their different physics properties make the drying problem as one of the most difficulties that limite their rational exploitation and utilization.The comparative drying tests were carried out on natural drying condition,using the submerged vegetation(Potamogeton pectinatics in Wuliangsuhai Lake) processed by different means as the test materials,obtaining the relationship among the processing methods of expelling water,spraying potash as well as cutting into pieces and drying velocity.The results obtained from this study established the foundation for the further research and had some guiding significance for practical production.


Uniform field steady state pre-breakdown currents have been measured in oxygen as a function of pressure corrected to 0\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}C, ${p}_{0}$, at constant $\frac{E}{{p}_{0}}$ ($E$ is field strength) and at constant electrode separation $d$ for $32l\frac{E}{{p}_{0}}l100$ V ${(\mathrm{cm}\mathrm{Torr})}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$. Similar currents have been measured in oxygen-helium mixtures for $16l\frac{E}{{p}_{0}}l36$ (here ${p}_{0}$ is the sum of oxygen and helium pressures). Uniform field breakdown potentials have been measured in oxygen for a ${p}_{0}d$ range corresponding to $46l\frac{E}{{p}_{0}}l100$ at breakdown. The currents have been used to evaluate the Townsend ionization coefficients $\frac{\ensuremath{\alpha}}{{p}_{0}}$ (or ${F}_{0}$) and $\ensuremath{\gamma}$, and the electron attachment coefficient $\frac{\ensuremath{\eta}}{{p}_{0}}$ (or ${G}_{0}$). From the currents measured in oxygen, values of ${F}_{0}$ and ${G}_{0}$ were obtained for $32l\frac{E}{{p}_{0}}l60$. For $60l\frac{E}{{p}_{0}}l100$, it was not possible to evaluate ${F}_{0}$ and ${G}_{0}$ separately; however, for this $\frac{E}{{p}_{0}}$ range, values were obtained for ${F}_{0}\ensuremath{-}{G}_{0}$. It was possible to obtain values of ${F}_{0}$ and ${G}_{0}$ for oxygen for $16l\frac{E}{{p}_{0}}l30$ from the currents in the oxygen-helium mixtures. Values of $\ensuremath{\gamma}$ for oxygen were obtained from pre-breakdown currents for $46l\frac{E}{{p}_{0}}l50$ (nickel cathode) and for $50l\frac{E}{{p}_{0}}l60$ (molybdenum cathode). In addition, values of $\ensuremath{\gamma}$ for oxygen were obtained from sparking potential measurements for $46l\frac{E}{{p}_{0}}l100$ (nickel cathode) and for $50l\frac{E}{{p}_{0}}l100$ (molybdenum cathode). The values of $\ensuremath{\gamma}$ obtained by the two methods are in agreement and are independent of cathode material. $\ensuremath{\gamma}\ensuremath{\cong}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}5}$ at $\frac{E}{{p}_{0}}=100$ and decreases to about ${10}^{\ensuremath{-}6}$ at $\frac{E}{{p}_{0}}=46$. The values of ${F}_{0}$ and ${G}_{0}$ obtained in the present work were used in conjunction with previous sparking potential measurements of Kachickas in oxygen (brass cathode) to evaluate $\ensuremath{\gamma}$ for $39l\frac{E}{{p}_{0}}l44$. The results of this analysis indicate that in this $\frac{E}{{p}_{0}}$ range $\ensuremath{\gamma}$ increases very sharply with decreasing $\frac{E}{{p}_{0}}$, reaching a value of about ${10}^{\ensuremath{-}3}$ at $\frac{E}{{p}_{0}}=39$.


In the United States, the remarkable increase in tuberculosis (TB) (54.5%) among young adults 25 to 44 years of age (the prime childbearing and child rearing years) from 1985 to 1992 was paralleled by marked increases in TB among children.1 During the same period, cases of TB among individuals 14 years of age and younger increased 34.1%.2 Increased rates of TB among adults may be from primary infection or disease progression from remote, latent TB infection, but increased rates among children are generally caused by recent transmission of TB, thus representing a primary infection in the child. The occurrence of a recent TB infection in a child should be considered a sentinel event indicating transmission of Mycobacterium tuberculosis from an infectious adult or adolescent to that child and should routinely lead to the investigation of contacts to identify the potential source case or cases as well as other recently infected individuals. Transmission of M. tuberculosis in healthcare facilities has been documented.3-11 The magnitude of such institutional transmission varies considerably by the type of healthcare facility, the prevalence of TB in the community, the patient population served, the healthcare workers' occupational group, the area of the healthcare facility in which the healthcare worker works, and the effectiveness of TB infection control measures.12 The risk of transmission may be higher in areas where patients with TB are provided care before diagnosis and initiation of TB treatment and isolation precautions or where diagnostic or treatment procedures that stimulate cough are performed. Children usually acquire TB from adults or adolescents. Children younger than 10 years are usually not contagious.13,14 TB in young children is rarely infectious, because young children are less likely than adults to have a productive cough, to generate the force needed to aerosolize organisms into droplet nuclei, or to have large numbers of infectious organisms in their sputum. There are case reports of children being implicated as the source of TB transmission to their contacts, however, some of whom developed active TB.15 Therefore, children with evidence of clinical TB, either signs or symptoms or abnormal results on chest radiographs, should be appropriately isolated until they have three serial acid-fast bacillus smears that are negative, receive appropriate treatment, and have decreased cough.12,14 Nosocomial TB infections in children's wards or children's hospitals have frequently originated from a healthcare worker or an adult visitor with unrecognized TB.16 Recommendations for healthcare facilities issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 1994 highlight the need for instituting a hierarchy of control measures consisting of administrative, engineering, and personal protection procedures to decrease the risk of nosocomial transmission of TB.12 In this issue, Munoz et al.17 describe the importance of targeted TB screening of accompanying adults and adult visitors of children hospitalized for suspected TB at a children's hospital in detecting unrecognized pulmonary TB, which may constitute a threat of infection to hospital staff and other patients. They emphasize that infection control procedures in pediatric facilities should take into consideration that TB in a child is a marker of recent transmission of M. tuberculosis from a close contact. Children, particularly during the first 5 years of life, may develop TB after a relatively short incubation period following infection with M. tuberculosis from a source that might not be apparent or previously identified.18,19 As suggested by Munoz et al., this source is often in the child's household. The emphasis of screening procedures should therefore be on the adults accompanying children hospitalized with suspected TB.


New results on singleton rainbow domination numbers of generalized Petersen graphs P(ck,k) are given. Exact values are established for some infinite families, and lower and upper bounds with small gaps are given in all other cases.


Maize, sorghum, and millet monoculture effects on soil properties of a Typic Ustip samment in the semiarid pampa of Argentina were evaluated after 27 years in a plot experiment. A permanent Eragrostis curvula pasture was used as a reference. Millet was the most destructive crop to the soil because it decreased dry aggregate stability by 10%, soil organic matter (OM) by 30%, extractable K by 20%, available P by 44%, inorganic P by 11%, available Fe by 20%, available Zn more than 90%, available Cu by 30%, and available Mn by 26%, and it increased wet aggregate instability by 75%. Grain sorghum was less destructive to the soil than millet because it only decreased OM by 30% and extractable K by 24%. All studied crops decreased the cation exchange capacity of the soil between 20 and 30%, the pH values, and the concentration of soil extractable Mg2+by 38 to 63%. Soil extractable Ca2+ was decreased 30% by the Eragrostis pasture and 40% by maize. The negative effect of millet and grain sorghum on OM was attribut...


The earth's sustainable development is threatened by the energy exhaustion and rising atmospheric concentrations of CO2 linked to global warming. One of the causes of the energy crisis and the increased atmospheric CO2 content could be the imbalance between the rapid consumption of fossil fuels due to anthropogenic activities and the slow formation of fossil fuels. An efficient method for counteracting the imbalance in the carbon cycle and keeping sustainable development should involve CO2 utilization and conversion. This book brings together recent advances in CO2 capture, sequestration, and conversion and consists of 14 peer-reviewed chapters, with emphasis on the photocatalytic conversion of CO2, chemical fixation of CO2, and CO2 reforming of methane. It also includes novel methods of CO2 reduction, such as selective hydrogenation in supercritical carbon dioxide and hydrothermal reduction of CO2, and the recent advances in CO2 capture and storage.


Topic: ASCVD in Special Populations Background/Synopsis: Active Antiretroviral therapy (HAART) suc- cessfully helped the HIV-infected individuals (HIV + ) to live longer, but more are dying from age-related illnesses such as cardiovascular disease (CVD). While well-established studies showed extra-coronary calci fi cation (ECC) is the other indicator of atherosclerosis and it can predict the future cardiovascular disease, little is known about the association between extra-coronary calci fi cation and coronary plaque types in HIV + population. Objective/Purpose: To evaluate the association of extra-coronary calci fi cation and coronary plaque type in HIV Seropositive. Methods: 764 men who have sex with men, including 453 HIV + and 311 HIV-uninfected (HIV-) men in the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study (MACS) were enrolled for this study. All of participant underwent non- contrast computed tomography (CT) and coronary CT angiography (CCTA) from 2010 – 2013. Agatston scores were calculated for Mitral annular calci fi cation (MAC), aortic valve calci fi cation (AVC), aortic valve ring calci fi cation (AVRC), and thoracic aortic calci fi cation (TAC). CCTA images were analyzed using the modi fi ed 15-segment model of the American Heart Association for plaque presence and extent, coronary artery stenosis, and plaque composition. Results: Amongst those with AVC, HIV + and HIV- participants similarly showed an increased odds of calci fi ed plaque, mixed plaque, and stenosis > = 50%. However, HIV + men showed a signi fi cantly higher presence of non-calci fi ed plaque compared with HIV- men (81.3% vs. 52.9%) amongst those with AVC. After adjustment for age and race, HIV + participants with AVC were 2.2 times more likely to have non-calci fi ed plaque than those without AVC. A similar pattern was seen with HIV + and HIV- men between those with AVRC and the presence calci fi ed plaque, mixed plaque, stenosis > = 50%. As with AVC, HIV + men with AVRC had a higher presence of non-calci fi ed plaque (79.8% vs. 50.5%). MAC was not associated with plaque type or extent in HIV- men or after adjustment in HIV + men. Conclusions: While AVC, TAC, and AVRC are associated with calci fi ed and mixed plaques, independent of age and race, and regardless of HIV serostatus; AVC and AVRC are associated with non-calci fi ed plaque only in HIV + men. Our fi ndings suggest that presence of ECC may alert clinicians to possibility of higher risk plaque in HIV + individuals. screened, total cholesterol, LDL, HDL, fasting glucose levels, BMI and waist circumference. fraction and kidney function (eGFR). Conclusions: Urinary concentrations of 11dhTxB2 are strong independent risk factors for all-cause mortality among stable CAD patients on ASA therapy. These results suggest that aspirin resistance re fl ected by 11dhTxB2 may compel the clinician to consider addi-tional antiplatelet therapy in these patients at high risk for death over the next fi ve years. Abstract Topic: ASCVD Prevention – Primary and Secondary for the outcomes from date of the second TMET. A-Fib/Flutter and stroke were ascertained through retrospective chart review, mortality was based on Minnesota Death Index. Proportional hazard regression modeling was done to assess relationship of changes in FAC per year with the outcomes with adjustment for age, sex, baseline FAC, and other relevant clinical risk factors. Results: Final study cohort comprised of 3,096 patients. During an overall median follow-up of 13 (8 to 16) years, 407 (13.1%) patients developed A-Fib/Flutter, 369 patients (11.9%) developed stroke, and 481 (15.5%) patients died. A 10% higher FAC at baseline was associated with 8%, 10%, and 17% lower risk of A-Fib/Flutter, stroke, and mortality, respectively. Similarly, an interval increase of 10% in FAC resulted in 12%, 11%, and 18% A-Fib/Flutter, stroke, and mortality risk reduction, respectively. When using patients with loss in CRF as referent, patient with gain in CRF had 26%, 39%, and 52% A-Fib/ Flutter, stroke, and mortality risk reduction, respectively. Conclusions: Both baselines as well as change in CRF independently predict risk of incident A-Fib/Flutter, stroke, and mortality. MethodsMethods: We screened 2490 asymptomatic subjects, 79% of which (1974 of 2490) were between the ages of 40 and 70, for CVD risk using ECVDRS. ECVDRS consists of 10 tests: large (C1) and small (C2) artery stiffness, BP at rest and post mild exercise (PME), CIMT, abdominal aorta and left ventricle ultrasound, retinal photogra-phy, microalbuminuria, ECG, and pro-BNP. Comorbidities (CM) also measured include abnormal cholesterol, abnormal blood pressure, and obesity, de fi ned by body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference. Results: Only 11% (286 of 2490) of the subjects screened had a 0 risk score. The remaining 89% showed evidence of early CVD. Conclusions: Based on our data, structural and functional CV abnormalities are very prevalent in asymptomatic subjects, given that only 11% of those screened had a 0 risk score. Accordingly, we recommend early screening and timely risk strati fi cation to ensure the application of possible therapeutic interventions and guidance. We fi rmly believe that an ounce of early cardiovascular prevention is better than pounds of late cure. Background/Synopsis: Predicting future coronary heart disease risk by model-based approaches can facilitate to identify high-risk indivi- duals for prevention and management. However, evidence from comparing various prediction models, including clinical and biochemical models, Framingham risk chart, PROCAM chart and three Japanese cohorts, including Hisayama, Shita and NIPPON80 DATA, was scanty. Objective/Purpose: We compared and validated various coronary heart disease prediction models using a national representative cohort in Taiwan. Methods: A total of 3559 participants ( > = 35 years old, 53.5% women) from a Taiwanese national representative cohort were fol- lowed up for a median 9.70 (interquartile range, 9.63-9.74) years, 63 cases were documented as developing coronary heart disease events. Results: The correlation coef fi cients are high, ranging from 0.80 to 0.93. The consistency measures by kappa statistics showed 0.47 for all 8 models, with a higher value for women than for men. The Shita model has the least absolute change of kappa value (1.6%), indicating the reliability of the Shita model was excellent. In addition, the areas under the receiver operating characteristics curves ranged from 0.804 (95% con fi dence interval, 0.758-0.851) for total cholesterol model to 0.850 (95% con fi dence interval, 0.809-0.891) for the Shita model. For calibration measures, the Shita model had the lowest chi-square value (5.2), indicating the Shita model was the best goodness of fi t model. Conclusions: High consistency and predictive performance for the Japanese Shita model for screening and identifying individuals at high risk of coronary artery diseases. Further cross-ethnic validation for the performance is warranted. Background/Synopsis: Early cardiovascular disease risk assessment in asymptomatic subjects has been controversial. Most risk scores have been based on epidemiologic data and not on individualized early struc- tural and functional abnormalities Objective/Purpose: To assess evidence for early cardiovascular structural and functional abnormalities in asymptomatic subjects. Methods: We screened 2,406 asymptomatic subjects, age 20 – 79, for CVD risk using the Early Cardiovascular Disease Risk Scoring System (ECVDRS), which consists of 10 tests: large (C1) and small (C2) artery stiffness, blood pressure (BP) at rest and post mild exercise (PME), Carotid Intima Media Thickness (CIMT), abdominal aorta and left ven- tricle ultrasound (LVUS), retinal photography, micro albuminuria, ECG, and pro-BNP. Abnormal blood pressure rise post mild exercise (BPrisePME) was de fi ned as systolic BP rise > 30mmHg post 3-minute-walk at 7% elevation, 2.5mph. Norm tension (NT), pre-hypertension (pre-HTN), and hypertension (HTN) were de fi ned according to JCN7 criteria Results: Among the 2,490 subjects, 1516 (61%) were not taking any CV medication. Among these subjects, 726 were strati fi ed in the low risk group by the ECVDRS (Low ECVDRS).Total subjects 2,490 no Medications and Low ECVDRS 726 (29%); Hypertension 20 (3%); Abnormal BPrisePME 102 (14%); Abnormal C1 36 (5%), Abnormal C2 64 (9%); Left Ventricular Hypertrophy 39 (5%); Abnormal pro-BNP 59 (8%); Abnormal CIMT 148 (20%) Conclusions: our data, of asymptomatic subjects Background/Synopsis: Early detection of atherosclerosis is crucial since cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a main cause of death world-wide. Aortic pulse wave velocity (PWV) has been established as the gold standard for arterial stiffness measurement. Though, PWV depends on blood pressure (BP). The cardio-ankle vascular index (CAVI) is a recently developed indicator of atherosclerosis to elimi- nate the BP dependency of PWV. We explored the relationship between cardio-ankle vascular index (CAVI) as an indicator of arterial stiffness and CVD by using coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) in an asymptomatic population. Objective/Purpose: calci score (TSSS), which reveals stenosis severity. Total plaque segments score (TPSS) repre- sents the sum of the plaque amount per segment; and segment-involvement score (SIS) re fl ects the number of segments with plaque irrespective of stenosis severity. Results: Participants were at age range of 48.3 ± 14.3 years. The degree of coronary artery calci fi cation and stenosis demonstrated a signi fi cant correlation with CAVI for the CAC score, TSSS, TPSS and SIS all with p < 0.001, moreover, results remained signi fi cant after adjustment for potential confounders, including age, gender, body mass index (BMI), hypertension (HTN), diabetes mellitus (DM), and hyperlipidemia (HL) all with p < 0.05. Conclusions: CAVI positively re fl ects subclinical cardiovascular atherosclerosis, coronary artery calci


The transition phenomenon of few-cycle-pulse optical solitons from a pure modified Korteweg–de Vries (mKdV) to a pure sine-Gordon regime can be described by the nonautonomous mKdV–sinh-Gordon equation with time-dependent coefficients. Based on the Bell polynomials, Hirota method and symbolic computation, bilinear forms and soliton solutions for this equation are obtained. Backlund transformations (BTs) in both the binary Bell polynomial and bilinear forms are obtained. By virtue of the BTs and Ablowitz–Kaup–Newell–Segur system, Lax pair and infinitely many conservation laws for this equation are derived as well.


Fluctuations in pronunciation of the so-called "Variable э (я)" may be observed in a large group of words in Bulgarian language. Due to changes in the phonetic environment and prevailing of the use of "E", in some of the forms the sound is э and in others, the sound is E. Variations are most common in participles – especially past participles and passive voice; in some verbs with the suffix "-na" and with nouns with the suffix"-ost" as well as in regard to the spelling of personal names. Language norms introduced phonetic doublets (oбед и об¾д), which should have reflected the mass use. Deviations from the norm create variants which are the result of dialect habits and ignorance.


Single-nucleotide polymorphism analysis is important in all areas of molecular biology. The causative genes of hereditary cancer syndrome have been isolated. Recently, molecular diagnosis of hereditary cancer syndrome has been performed using methods of single-nucleotide polymorphism analysis and the usefulness has been reported. It is considered that progression of molecular biology will be able to contribute to diagnosis (especially pre-symptomatic diagnosis), prevention and treatment of hereditary cancer syndrome in the future.


Deterministic databases offer several benefits: they ensure serializable execution while avoiding concurrency-control related aborts, and they scale well in distributed environments. Today, most deterministic database designs use partitioning to scale up and avoid contention. However, partitioning requires significant programmer effort, leads to poor performance under skewed workloads, and incurs unnecessary overheads in certain uncontended workloads. We present the design of Caracal, a novel shared-memory, deterministic database that performs well under both skew and contention. Our deterministic scheme batches transactions in epochs and executes the transactions in an epoch in a predetermined order. Our scheme enables reducing contention by batching concurrency control operations. It also allows analyzing the transactions in the epoch to determine contended keys accurately. Certain transactions can then be split into independent contended and uncontended pieces and run deterministically and in parallel, further reducing contention. Based on these ideas, we present two novel optimizations, batch append and split-on-demand, for managing contention. With these optimizations, Caracal scales well and outperforms existing deterministic schemes in most workloads by 1.9x to 9.7x.


In this paper, a new compact quadruple slot antenna is proposed for GPS applications. This antenna has a right hand circular polarization which is suitable for GPS satellite signal reception. The antenna is formed by four similar slot antenna excited with 90 degree phase difference. The antenna dimension is 122424mm 3 which is very compact compared with the references. Moreover, the antenna has a very good right hand polarization in the horizon which increases the GPS accuracy. Also, the antenna gain is 2.44 dB at the GPS frequency which is good enough for signal acquisition. These specifications introduce this antenna as a good candidate for GPS applications.


PAULEY, E. F. AND E. E. C. CLEBSCH (Graduate Program in Ecology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996-1610. Pattems of Abiesfraseri regeneration in a Great Smoky Mountains spruce-fir forest. Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 117: 375-381. 1990.-Abiesfraseri (Pursh) Poir. (Fraser fir) has incurred high mortality from infestation by Adelgespiceae Ratz. (balsam woolly adelgid). Vegetational changes in the spruce-fir forest since Adelges infestation have included a large increase in the density of Rubus canadensis L. (thomless blackberry). Size and age structures, microsite and aspect distributions, and growth of Abies seedlings (stems < 137 cm tall) were quantified on Mt. Collins, Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 1988 to determine pattems of co-occurrence between Abies seedlings and Rubus. The majority (87%) of seedlings were c25 cm tall, and most (62%) were at least five years old. No germinal (< 1 year old) Abies were found. Dead wood substrates and bryophyte-covered surfaces both supported more seedlings than expected by chance. Seedling growth trends showed a recent increase in terminal shoot length and recent decreases in lateral shoot lengths, suggesting a combination of normal growth pattems and recovery from Adelges infestation. Effects of Adelges infestation were noted for 26% of all seedlings and were more frequent among older seedlings. Density of Abies seedlings was low at high Rubus densities, but seedling shoot growth showed no clear relationship with Rubus density. Rubus appeared to interfere with establishment or survival of Abies seedlings but not with annual growth.


We report the energy and angular distribution of electron double differential cross sections (DDCS) in collision of $6\text{\ensuremath{-}}\mathrm{MeV}∕\mathrm{u}\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}{\mathrm{C}}^{6+}$ ions with molecular hydrogen. We explain the observed distributions in terms of the two-center effect and the Young-type interference effect. The secondary electrons having energies between 1 and $1000\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{eV}$ are detected at about 10 different emission angles between $30\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}$ and $150\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}$. The measured data are compared with the state-of-the-art continuum distorted wave-eikonal initial state and the first Born model calculations which use molecular wave function. The single differential cross sections are derived and compared with the theoretical predictions. The oscillations due to the interference effect are derived in the DDCS ratios using theoretical cross sections for the atomic H target. The effect of the atomic parameters on the observed oscillations is discussed. An evidence of interference effect has also been shown in the single differential cross section. The electron energy dependence of the forward-backward asymmetry parameter shows a monotonically increasing behavior for an atomic target, such as He, which could be explained in terms of the two-center effect only. In contrast, for the molecular ${\mathrm{H}}_{2}$ the asymmetry parameter reveals an oscillatory behavior due to the Young-type interference effect superimposed with the two-center effect. The asymmetry parameter technique provides a self-normalized method to reveal the interference oscillation which does not require either a theoretical model or complementary measurements on the atomic H target.


The received power of terrestrial cellular 3G code division multiple access (CDMA) and 4G long-term evolution (LTE) signals on a high altitude aircraft is experimentally characterized. The conducted experiments were performed on a Beechcraft C-12 Huron, a fixed-wing U.S. Air Force aircraft. Two types of flight patterns were performed: (i) teardrop-like patterns to characterize the carrier-to-noise ratio $(C/N_{0})$ versus altitude and (ii) grid-like patterns to characterize $C/N_{0}$ versus the horizontal distance between the aircraft and cellular towers. Flight campaigns in two regions were conducted: (i) a rural region in Edwards, California, USA, and (ii) an urban region in Riverside, California, USA. It was observed that cellular signals are surprisingly powerful at both (i) high altitudes, exhibiting $C/N_{0}$ of 25–55 dB-Hz at altitudes of 2,000-23,000 ft above ground level (AGL) and (ii) faraway horizontal distances, exhibiting $C/N_{0}$ of about 30 dB-Hz for towers as far as 50 km, while flying at about 16,000 ft AGL. In addition, two propagation models were evaluated to describe the behavior of the measured $C/N_{0}$: (i) free-space path loss model and (ii) two-ray model. It was observed that the two-ray model fits the measured $C/N_{0}$ sufficiently well, for towers more than 10 km away, while flying at an altitude of 16,000 ft AGL. For towers closer than 10 km, the antenna radiation pattern should be incorporated into the two-ray model to improve model fitting.


Behavioralneurosciencespentmuchofthetwentiethcentury seeking the fundamental rules of cerebralorganisation. One underlying assumption of muchof that work was that there is constancy in cerebralorganisation and function, both between and withinmammalian species (e.g., Kaas, 2006). One unex-pected principle to emerge, however, was thatalthough there is much constancy in cerebral func-tioning, there is remarkable variability as well. Thisvariability reflects the brain's capacity to alter itsstructure and function in reaction to environmentaldiversity, thus reflecting a capacity that is oftenreferred to as brain plasticity. Although this term isnow commonly used in psychology and neuro-science, it is not easily defined and is used to refer tochangesatmanylevelsinthenervoussystemrangingfrom molecular events, such as changes in geneexpression, to behavior (e.g., Shaw & McEachern,2001).Therelationshipbetweenmolecularorcellularchanges and behavior is by no means clear and isplagued bythe problemsinherentin inferringcausa-tion from correlation. Nonetheless, we believe that itispossibletoidentifysomegeneralprinciplesofbrainplasticityandbehavior.Aswedosowewillattempttolinktheseprinciplestopotentialclinicalimplications.


and its relationship with the pathogenesis of Vitiligo. Tissue expression of JAK/STAT was significantly higher in Vitiligo skin lesions as compared with healthy skin biopsies taken from controls both before and even after exposure to PUVA. Tissue expression of JAK/STAT decreased significantly after exposure to PUVA in Vitiligo skin lesions. Tissue expression of JAK was significantly higher in Vitiligo skin lesions in patients with positive as compared with negative family history. There was a significant linear moderate positive correlation between tissue expression of STAT and patients' age among studied Vitiligo patients. There was a significant linear moderate negative correlation between tissue expression of STAT and duration of last new lesion among studied Vitiligo patients. There was a significant linear moderate positive correlation between tissue expression of STAT and Vitiligo disease activity (VIDA) score among studied Vitiligo patients. JAK and STAT tissue expression showed a significant linear strong positive correlation among studied population. We suggest that JAK/STAT plays an important role in the pathogenesis of the Vitiligo disease. This could also open a new era for treatment of Vitiligo disease by anti-JAK modalities.


Ray-tracing algorithm for predicting radio-wave propagation in urban microcell needs a great deal of computation time. In order to more widely using this algorithm, we need to solve these problems. In this paper, based on previous research of parallel ray-tracing, namely Master/Slaves Model (MSM) and Peer to Peer Model (PPM), present a new method which combines with the capability for parallel processing of GPU, and uses CUDA programming framework. In GEFORCE 9800GT produced by NVIDIA, we conduct some experiments to forecast radio-wave propagation in simple city environment. The results show that this method in the paper which could save communication-time and computation-time is more convenient than that uses several computes.


The top cover condition of railway subgrade may change from evaporation boundary to sealed boundary after frozen in winter time,which will influence the transportation of moisture up from the bottom and its accumulation beneath the frozen surface. The concept of 'time-varying canopy effect' is introduced and a mathematical model is established for its analysis based on the non-isothermal coupled water and heat migration model as well as the rigid ice model. Water migration in one-dimension soil column is simulated considering constant canopy effect and 'time-varying canopy effect' respectively. Simulation results show that the frost heave under time-varying canopy conditions is smaller than that under constant canopy conditions,but it may still be large enough to disturb the normal performance of the railway. The influences of soil type, temperature difference and initial water content on the 'time-varying canopy effect' are also discussed.


from a conference 2017 titled "Resilience in a Multispecies World." Our multidisciplinary conference brought together artists, poets, activists, com-munity members, and scholars from various stages in their careers to think critically about resilience in relation to nonhuman animals. We engaged many different platforms, from traditional panel discussions and keynote speakers to an art exhibit, quick panels based on keywords, hikes, and bird watching trips. We marveled at the resilience of "pests," such as cockroaches and bed bugs, and dived into the collective sadness of extinction and the limited resilience of animals we love. We thought carefully about the animals who live close to us and queried our re-sponsibilities to them. What emerged from this conference was a clear sense that thinking about animals and resilience together— not only in relation to conservation— was urgent, necessary, and a much larger conversation than we could have in three days. The articles collected in this cluster cover a lot of ground but they are just the tip of the iceberg.


last occupation was at the coalface the death rate was substantially lower. The effect of selection in original choice of job and later selective elimination is thus obvious. The limitations of the conventional mortality rate by last occupation as a measure of the specific occupational risk to life thus made plain are emphasized by the Registrar General who confines his discussion largely to the experience of coal-miners as a whole. He also relates present death rates in this occupational group to the history of the industry in the present century. The moribund state of coal-mining in this period was reflected in fewer young men joining the labour force and the drift away from the more depressed areas to other mines or to alternative jobs in other parts of the country. These movements within the industry as new coalfields expanded and others shut down caused low death rates in the new districts which have attracted the younger and fitter men and, conversely, high rates in the derelict areas with an older residual population. Outside the industry, the bringing of new alternative forms of employment to a mining area may also have drawn off the younger and fitter men. It is thus not surprising to find that, when accidents have been dropped from the account, miners' mortality is, relative to that of other men, worse at ages over 55; and the position has deteriorated since the last census. Despite the admitted imperfections of these death rates by occupation, certain hazards to health are still clearly revealed. Accidents among the younger men and the dust diseases of the chest stand out above any likely artifact due to inadequate descriptions of jobs on death certificates or census schedule. As usual, the South Wales anthracite fields have the highest rates in this latter respect. On the other hand, the general tendency towards inflation of death rates underlines the significance of the death rates from lung cancer, vascular lesions of the central nervous system, and coronary thrombosis which, particularly among the underground workers, are well below the national level. Cancer of the stomach seems to be the only malignant disease which causes an excessive death rate among miners. The death rates among miners' wives are doubtless subject to the same sort of bias in reporting of occupation as those of their husbands. To that extent, therefore, their value as a control of the component of social environment in mortality is limited. Nevertheless, the consistency of the pattern of death rates by cause in the two sexes does suggest that some of the excess mortality among miners, e.g., from tuberculosis, bronchitis, or cancer of the stomach, may be socially rather than occupationally determined. But miners' wives also have disabilities not shared by their husbands: an excessive mortality from all causes even in early adult life and from all the cardiovascular-renal group of disorders at all ages. For suicide at least, both miners and their wives have a relatively low rate. Some of the problems of interpretation encountered in the coal-mining industry exist for the death experience in other forms of mining in this country. Tin and copper mining, for example, is a dying craft subject to the selective loss of the younger and fitter men. Even for the period covered by this Occupational Supplement, however, it is difficult to explain 78 deaths from industrial pulmonary disease instead of the one expected except on the basis of a serious and specific occupational risk. For " getters in open quarries " some of these occupational hazards were serious enough, but in general their death rates differed little from the national average.


Kahane [12], and Bennett and Gilbert [2] gave a complete description of closed ideals / of A such that A (/) is finite or countable (see below). Our results, which apply in particular to all closed ideals of A for which h (7) n Γ is contained in the triadic Cantor set, seem to be the first results about ideals / such that h(I) is uncountable. By identifying functions /e <%(D) with their restrictions to Γ, we obtain


Abstract Histochemical analysis of Alzheimer disease (AD) brain tissues indicates that butyrylcholinesterase (BuChE) is present in &bgr;-amyloid (A&bgr;) plaques. The role of BuChE in AD pathology is unknown, but an animal model developing similar BuChE-associated A&bgr; plaques could provide insights. The APPSWE/PSEN1dE9 transgenic mouse (ADTg), which develops A&bgr; plaques, was examined to determine if BuChE associates with these plaques, as in AD. We found that in mature ADTg mice, BuChE activity associated with A&bgr; plaques. The A&bgr;-, thioflavin-S– and BuChE-positive plaques mainly accumulated in the olfactory structures, cerebral cortex, hippocampal formation, amygdala, and cerebellum. No plaques were stained for acetylcholinesterase activity. The distribution and abundance of plaque staining in ADTg closely resembled many aspects of plaque staining in AD. Butyrylcholinesterase staining consistently showed fewer plaques than were detected with A&bgr; immunostaining but a greater number of plaques than were visualized with thioflavin-S. Double-labeling experiments demonstrated that all BuChE-positive plaques were A&bgr; positive, whereas only some BuChE-positive plaques were thioflavin-S positive. These observations suggest that BuChE is associated with a subpopulation of A&bgr; plaques and may play a role in AD plaque maturation. A further study of this animal model could clarify the role of BuChE in AD pathology.


DHF is an infectious disease caused by dengue virus with clinical manifestations of fever, muscle aches and / or joint pain accompanied by leukopenia, rash, lymphodenopathy, thrombocytopenia and haemorrhagic dieses. The entry of dengue virus through the bite of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes can lead to an increase in acute vascular permeability leading to plasma leakage into the extravascular space, resulting in hypovolemia problems. This study aims to determine the description of nursing care dengue hemorrhagic fever with hypovolemia in children in Cilinaya Room Mangusada Badung Hospital 2018. This study is a descriptive study with case study design on two subjects that were observed in depth with documentation method. The data collection tool is an open format with reference to the nursing process.The results showed there is a difference between the assessment of the results of the theory, on the diagnosis there is a difference between subject 1 and subject 2, the intervention there are some differences with theoretical reference of the researcher. Implementation done in accordance with the nursing plan but there are some implementation was not implemented by the nurse. Nursing evaluation using SOAP format. Based on the results of case studies that have been obtained is expected to the nurse room as a health team is expected to add insight and nursing guidelines on the process of nursing and documentation so as to provide a more comprehensive nursing care.
Keywords: dengue hemorrhagic fever, hypovolemia


Overall impression: the paper is well-written in terms of clarity, grammar and intent. I appreciate that the authors lay out their research questions in the introduction and then return to them in the conclusion. I think the methodology is sound and do not see a need to a significant amount of additional work. However, I have some comments about the interpretation of the results and a few questions that will require some extra analysis.


A set of simulation models for use in teaching population dynamics is presented. One advantage of these models is that they are designed specifically for use with a programmable pocket calculator instead of a computer. They can be used to demonstrate growth of populations with discrete or overlapping generations and also to explore the effects of density-dependent and density-independent mortality.


A new approach to collective trust management is offered. Optimum investment portfolios of a pool of investors with various preferences under Markovits's model are treated.


The European Union and the interest representation the decision-making process of the EU institutions: an overview across the principles laid down by the EU treaties. European institutions and the interest representation: lobbying, decision-making procedures and rules applicable to officials of the European Union. Interest group representation and the need for an exhaustive EU set of rules for lobbyists. Rights, duties and the quest for transparency. An analysis of the current "de facto mandatory" framework of rules. Future developments in governing interest representation: the proposal for a mandatory transparency register and the perspectives for a law-based registration system.


We study an anti-symmetric (square) well and barrier potential of depth/height $(V_0)$ placed between two rigid walls. Unlike the usual double-well, here the closely lying sub-barrier doublets need not be the lowest ones in the spectrum. When $V_0$ admits certain calculable values, $E=0$ or $E=V_0$ or both could become energy eigenvalues of the special eigenstate which emerge only if one seeks a linear solution of Schr{o}dinger equation in the appropriate regions.


Gamma Doradus and delta Scuti pulsators cover the transition region between low mass and massive main-sequence stars, and as such, are critical for testing stellar models. When they reside in binary systems, we can combine two independent methods to derive critical information, such as precise fundamental parameters to aid asteroseismic modelling. In the Kepler light curve of KIC10080943, clear signatures of gravity- and pressure-mode pulsations have been found. Ground-based spectroscopy revealed this target to be a double-lined binary system. We present the analysis of four years of Kepler photometry and high-resolution spectroscopy to derive observational constraints with which to evaluate theoretical predictions of the stellar structure and evolution for intermediate-mass stars. We used the method of spectral disentangling to determine atmospheric parameters for both components and derive the orbital elements. With PHOEBE, we modelled the ellipsoidal variation and reflection signal of the binary in the light curve and used classical Fourier techniques to analyse the pulsation modes. We show that the eccentric binary system KIC10080943 contains two hybrid pulsators with masses $M_1=2.0\pm0.1~M_\odot$ and $M_2=1.9\pm0.1~M_\odot$, with radii $R_1=2.9\pm0.1~R_\odot$ and $R_2=2.1\pm0.2~R_\odot$. We detect rotational splitting in the g modes and p modes for both stars and use them to determine a first rough estimate of the core-to-surface rotation rates for the two components, which will be improved by future detailed seismic modelling.


Throughout five chapters, the thesis deals with the issues of international humanitarian and human rights law arising out of the practice of punitive house demolition, that is repetitively utilized in the Occupied Palestinian Territories by the Israeli authorities, in response to the acts of insurgency/terrorism. The first chapter (Introduction) enables the reader to get a glimpse of the precise objective(s) of the thesis, coupled with the reservations regarding the scope of the study, due to the practical necessities of the available space and time. It further presents a relatively detailed legal historical background of punitive house demolitions, ranging from the early years of the British rule in the OPT, throughout the subsequent political vicissitudes and changes in the sovereign powers, till the present moment. The chapter also covers the basic, related facts on prerogatives of the competent judicial system in the OPT, comprising military courts and the Israeli Supreme Court. The second chapter (Contemporary Profile - Factual Analysis) provides a fairly detailed insight into the empirical data of punitive house demolitions, starting with the definition of the phenomenon and the introductory analysis of the regulations vesting the authority to the military commander of the area for ordering the demolitions. It further scratches the patina of the official justifications and a highly varying frequency over the course of time, ending with the brief analytical estimation of its disputed effectiveness, based on the available data. The third chapter (Applicable Law - the Relevant Legal Analysis) is virtually the most important part of the thesis, which fully concentrates on the issue of direct application of the relevant law to the presented facts, aiming at a strictly legal identification of the violations of humanitarian and human rights law. The chapter offers a fairly extensive analysis of the most prominent allegations of the violations of international law, with due respect to the said limitations, condemning the practical omnipotence of the military commander and the uninterrupted pursuance of the punitive practice. The fourth chapter (Monitoring) attempts to reanimate the relevant portions of international law, under the heavy burden of realpolitik. The reader can obtain a succinct picture of the missing and existing possibilities of constructive monitoring aiming to finally introduce the respect for human rights of the OPT population. In certain points, the section reminds of the reality of prevalence of inter-governmental political interest, in contravention of the precisely coined legal obligations of the international community to ensure the respect of international law. However, the hope of contra development persists. The fifth chapter (Conclusion) streamlines the legal argumentation of the previous chapters, with the concrete pointers to the issues previously discussed.


This paper proves that a simultaneously delta-neutral and gamma-neutral position can be established with the underlying asset and two options on the same asset, without any assumption on the underlying process of the asset price. This hedging strategy leads to the same fundamental partial differential equation as derived by Black and Scholes (1973), except that the variance function is the market price of convexity, which is not necessarily the true variance function of the underlying process. This result explains why the implied volatility can be persistently different from the historical volatility of the underlying asset price. In addition, the delta-gamma-neutral strategy indicates that the observed option prices that exhibit volatility smile, smirk, or term structure, are all mispriced.


This essay interrogates the mediation of protest and literature in Chinua Achebe's . It further evaluates the preoccupation of the novel as a veritable record of various forms of protest. Protest and literature are seen to be closely related in the way in which human beings perceive of their society and the actions that they take as a result of those perceptions. Social protest can be said to refer to those mass movements, private initiatives, demonstrations, and other activities which support or oppose specific developments or situations in a given society, with a view to changing it for the better. Literature, for its part, refers to that body of written, verbal, or performed work which exercises the imagination and seeks to offer insights into the nature of the world and the place of humans in it.


Constrictive pericarditis is a form of diastolic heart failure that arises because an inelastic pericardium inhibits cardiac filling. Syncope is a rare initial symptom of constrictive pericarditis.

 A 22-year-old man with previous medical history of viral meningitis when he was 3 months-old but without any family history of cardiac disease or sudden cardiac death, was admitted to the Emergency Department for syncope. During the last year, he had suffered several episodes of intense exercise-related syncope. The patient denied having prodromes, chest pain, palpitations or any other symptoms. The physical exam of the patient was normal with stable vital signs. Normal S1 and S2 heart sounds were present, no murmurs or gallop. There were no signs of heart failure, only a minimal jugular ingurgitation. An electrocardiogram (ECG) revealed sinus rhythm, signs of bi-atrial enlargement (prominent P-wave with P mitral morphology in DI-II leads, with enhanced negative deflection in V1), and negative asymmetric T-waves in inferior (DII-III-aVF) and V6 leads. Chest X-ray showed minimal calcium density in the inferior pericardial silhouette. The patient was admitted in the Cardiology Department for aetiological study. A transthoracic echocardiogram revealed a marked protodiastolic cleft in the interventricular septum, with 40% variations of the transmitral flow with the respiratory changes and dilation of the cava vein, with absent respiratory collapse. A marked thickening and calcification of the inferoposterior pericardium was also seen. Considering these results, the diagnosis of constrictive pericarditis was suggested (Fig. A, B, C). Blood tests for autoimmune disease screening, as well as infectious diseases, including Quantiferon test, HIV, HVC, HVB and other viral serologies were done, with negative results. A cardiac magnetic resonance was requested, which confirmed the echocardiographic findings, with bi-atrial enlargement and markedly thickened pericardium with loss of signal, suggestive of calcification. Left and right ventricle had normal dimensions and contractility. The CT coronary angiography revealed normal coronary anatomy. Extensive calcification and pericardial thickening were shown, with myocardial infiltration in the lateral-basal area (Fig D). It was considered important to rule out any additional arrhythmic aetiology of the exercise syncope. Therefore, a stress test and, an electrophysiologic study were done, both with normal results. The patient remained asymptomatic and a pericardiectomy was indicated given the severe thickening and calcification of the pericardium and frequent syncopal episodes that our patient suffered.

 Syncope as the initial symptom in the absence of significant right heart failure signs is a very unusual form of presentation of idiopathic constrictive pericarditis given the severe thickening and calcification of the pericardium of our patient.
 Abstract 1094 Figure.


A method for measuring the nonequilibrium carrier lifetime τ (of the order of 10–9–10–11 sec) was developed and tested on photoconductors: it is based on measurement of the phase shift of the photoresponse by an optical delay line. Measurements were made of the lifetime in Ge:ZnII samples and the values of τ were found to be in the range 7×10–11–7×10–10 sec. The results obtained were compared with the lifetimes deduced from the amplitude-frequency characteristics of the photoresponse and with the results of a numerical calculation. The errors of the new method were analyzed.


In this paper, we introduce the concept of enhanced probabilistic metric space (briefly EPM-space) as a type of probabilistic metric space. Also, we investigate the existence of fixed points for a (finite or infinite) linear combination of different types of contractive mappings in EPM-spaces. Furthermore, we investigate about the convergence of sequences (generated by a finite or infinite family of contractive mappings) to a common fixed point. The useful application of this research is the study of the stability of switched dynamic systems, where we study the conditions under which the iterative sequences generated by a (finite or infinite) linear combination of mappings (contractive or not), converge to the fixed point. Also, some examples are given to support the obtained results. In the end, a number of figures give us an overview of the examples.


A reliable speech enhancement method is important for speech applications as a pre-processing step to improve their overall performance. In this paper, we propose a novel frequency domain method for single channel speech enhancement. Conventional frequency domain methods usually neglect the correlation between neighboring time-frequency components of the signals. In the proposed method, we take this correlation into account via: 1) considering neighboring correlation for speech signals, we break down the clean speech into two uncorrelated components; 2) considering neighboring correlation for noise, we approximate the noise as a rank-1 component. Then, we design a linearly constrained minimum variance (LCMV) filter which aims at removing the dominant part of the noise, while keeping the speech signal undistorted. Performance of the proposed method is evaluated in terms of output signal to noise ratio (SNR) and speech distortion index under various noise environments. Evaluation results demonstrate that our method yields higher noise reduction and lower speech distortion compared to some recent methods.


A detailed calculation of solar O III EUV line intensities is described, including the process of photoexcitation by He II Lyman-..cap alpha... Excellent agreement with observed intensities is found for a photoexciting radiation field of intensity 9.8 x 10/sup -8/ ergs cm/sup -2/ s/sup -1/ sr/sup -1/ per Hz. The presence of some O III lines in flares is discussed. The process of charge exchange does not appear to be a significant factor in formation of the O III spectrum.


Aquatic-chemistry of the lakes including Poyang Lake, Niushanhu Lake, Liangzihu Lake, East Tangsunhu Lake, Longganhu Lake and Huanghu Lake were analyzed from Nov., 1996 to Nov., 1998. On the bases of water quality mornitoring, the seasonal dynamics of main water quality indices (such as transparency, pH, total-nitrogen, total-phosphorus, ammonia nitrogen and nitrate-nitrogen, etc.) and variance analysis of those indices were determined out. The results showed that the difference of the some indices among several lakes with different exploitation models was quite significant except hardness, alkalinity and T-P. The differences of some indices among seasons were also quite significant except hardness, alkalinity, Ca, Mg and T-P. It is implied that the seasonal dynamics at these lakes were quite unstable.


In present paper, the effectiveness of local mean decomposition (LMD) method to signals of fault gears, which are multi-component amplitude modulated and frequency modulated, is demonstrated. A series of tests on wearing and broken tooth of gears are conducted. And the fault characteristics extracted by Fourier transform, Hilbert transform and LMD are compared. The results validate that LMD method is an effective way to extract the characteristics of fault gears and improve the accuracy of fault diagnosis of gears since it is able to reduce effect of false components.


The purpose of this classroom action research is a.) to improve the learning process carried out in class. b.) to improve teacher performance. c.) to improve student learning outcomes in Civics subjects with the Discovery Learning Learning Model in class VIII.A SMP Negeri 1 Merapi Barat. This study used Classroom Action Research in two cycles. Each cycle consists of four stages, namely: design, activity and observation, reflection, and revision. This research took the subject of class VIII.A SMP Negeri 1 West Merapi as many as 30 students. The results showed that student learning outcomes in Civics subjects with the Discovery Learning Learning Model had increased and the data obtained was in the form of end-of-cycle test results, observation sheets of teaching and learning activities. From the results of the analysis, it was found that the increase in student scores could be seen in cycle I, which obtained a mastery learning score (30.00%) at the first meeting and (46.67%) in the second meeting with an average score of 66.16 and the highest score was 85 and the lowest was 50. And in the second cycle the learning completeness score increased to (70.00%) at the first meeting, and increased to 28 students or (93.33%) at the second meeting with an average score of 80.66 and the highest score was 95 and the lowest was 65 The conclusion from this study is that learning with the Discovery Learning Model can improve student learning outcomes in class VIII.A SMP Negeri 1 Merapi Barat and this learning model can be used as an alternative to Civics learning.
ABSTRAKTujuan penelitian tindakan kelas ini adalah a.) untuk meningkatkan proses pembelajaran yang dilakukan di kelas. b.) untuk meningkatkan kinerja guru. c.) untuk meningkatkan hasil belajar siswa pada mata pelajaran PPKn dengan Model Pembelajaran Discovery Learning di kelas VIII.A SMP Negeri 1 Merapi Barat. Penelitian ini menggunakan Penelitian Tindakan Kelas (Classroom Action Research) sebanyak dua siklus. Setiap siklus terdiri dari empat tahap yaitu: rancangan, kegiatan dan pengamatan, refleksi, dan refisi. Penelitan ini mengambil subjek siswa kelas VIII.A SMP Negeri 1 Merapi Barat sebanyak 30 siswa. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa hasil belajar siswa pada mata pelajaran PPKn dengan Model Pembelajaran Discovery Learning mengalami peningkatan dan data yang diperoleh berupa hasil tes akhir siklus, lembar observasi kegiatan belajar mengajar. Dari hasil analis didapatkan peningkatan nilai siswa dapat dilihat pada siklus I diperoleh nilai ketuntasan belajar (30,00%) pada pertemuan pertama dan (46,67%) pertemuan kedua dengan nilai rata-rata 66,16 dan nilai tertinggi 85 dan terendah 50. Dan pada siklus ke II nilai ketuntasan belajar meningkat menjadi (70,00%) pada pertemuan pertama, dan meningkat menjadi 28 siswa atau (93,33%) pada pertemuan kedua dengan nilai rata-rata 80,66 dan nilai tertinggi 95 dan terendah 65. Kesimpulan dari penelitian ini adalah dengan pembelajaran dengan Model Discovery Learning dapat meningkatkan hasil belajar siswa pada kelas VIII.A SMP Negeri 1 Merapi Barat serta model pembelajaran ini dapat digunakan sebagai salah satu alternatif pembelajaran PPKn.


In this article we argue for an empirical governance approach — the use of public evaluations — as one basis for deciding whether and how to regulate decisions with public consequences. We propose a conceptual framework for evaluating public acceptability, notably that public judgments should be evaluated against five criteria: overall acceptability ex ante; robustness; consensus; procedurality; and their ranking on nonfairness issues such as cost and convenience. In the article we also move beyond theory to implementation by modeling our framework to evaluate public judgments concerning acceptability in the contentious area of land-use decisions in Florida.


Skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs) are among the most common infectious disease diagnoses in both inpatient and outpatient settings. Guidelines on the classification and treatment of SSTIs have been recently updated owing to the increased incidence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections [1]. Daptomycin is indicated for complicated skin and skin structure infections caused by susceptible isolates of the gram-positive microorganism [2]. Challenges arise in the pharmacological treatment of breastfeeding mothers; to prescribe medications for a breastfeeding mother, the benefits and risks must be weighed up for both the woman and the neonate. Food and Drug Administration and European Medicines Agency labelling sheets report limited experience on daptomycin excretion into humanmilk, suggesting that caution should be exercised during breastfeeding until more experience is gained [3, 4]. To our knowledge, there has been only one case report published on daptomycin concentration in humanmilk after parenteral administration to the nursing mother [5]. We report on a case of daptomycin exposure during breastfeeding, and on the results of the analyses performed in the breastfed neonate. A 34-year-old pregnant woman at 39 weeks' gestation first presented with spreading erythema of the second finger extending to the hand and to the entire left arm, associated with swelling, tenderness and warmth, accompanied by lymphangitis and inflammation of the regional lymph nodes, and fever with chills. She had had one previous pregnancy, with spontaneous delivery of a healthy neonate. The current pregnancy was uncomplicated until she was admitted to the hospital. She denied having diabetes mellitus, alcoholism and tobacco use, and her body mass index was 24 kg m. She reported a self-provoked small injury to the second finger caused by a pair of scissors 2 weeks before the evaluation, and had experienced pain and extending oedema ever since. The infectious disease specialist was consulted and a purulent acute soft skin infection was diagnosed, and cultures of purulent drainage were obtained. Owing to her clinical status, labour was induced at 39 weeks' gestation, and a 3270 g healthy male neonate was delivered. There were no complications to either mother or neonate during delivery. The culture results showed an MRSA-related SSTI, and daptomycin 500 mg intravenously once a day (at 18:30 h) was prescribed for 14 days. The maternal postpartum weight was 68 kg. The patient was counselled about the lack of data about drug excretion into breast milk, and about possible risks to the infant. Thus informed, the patient wished to continue breastfeeding, and gave her oral informed consent for the current study. Nine samples of breast milk (hindmilk, collected by electric breast pump expression) and five maternal plasma samples were collected during and at the end of the treatment, to determine the milk/plasma concentration ratio of the drug (Table 1). British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology Br J Clin Pharmacol (2018) 84 394–395 394


The article is devoted to the analysis of process of enlargement of territorial communities and foreign funds and programs participating in this process of which carry out support of reform of decentralization. The conclusion about the enormous volume of forms of external collaboration of public organizations and territorial communities is drawn. Technical, informative, methodological sponsorship of foreign organizations gives to the shove for an internal collaboration with the purpose of realization of the program of the government. It is grounded, that the problem of proofing of efficiency of the strategy of communities association for the sake of increase of them financial possibility and activation of forms of their collaboration remains.


Someone may ask what the reasons are for putting religious experience and transcendence together. My answer is the following. My general philosophical position is empirical by nature. I am of the opinion that everything that is said about reality must in some way or other, in order to be true or probable, be related to or grounded in reality. If God is thought to be real in some sense of the word and if he is said to have the quality of being transcendent, there must be some sort of empirical reasons for it. Experience is generally - at least in its objective variant - a usual way of motivating propositions about reality. There is therefore reason to ask: Is there anything in religious experience that motivates giving God the predicate of transcendence? And on the other hand: What conditions would there have to be in our world of experience to justify a consideration of a theory of Transcendence?


Pedagogical diagnosing is viewed as a component of a pedagogue's professional competence and as such — as an indispensable skill to be developed during university education. The author presents an innovative system of the diagnosing process along with the criteria of the skills monitoring.


AbstractNumerous decision support tools have been developed to assist stormwater managers to understand future scenarios and devise management strategies. This paper presents one such tool, the Vulnerability, Consequences, and Adaptation Planning Scenarios (VCAPS) process, and reports on experiences from its deployment in 10 coastal communities on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. VCAPS helps to elucidate local complexities, couplings, and contextual nuance through dialogue among technical experts and those with detailed contextual knowledge of a community. Participants in the process develop qualitative scenarios of climate change impacts and how different management strategies may prevent or mitigate undesirable consequences. The scenarios help stormwater managers diagnose potential problems that may emerge from climate change and variability, which can then be subject to further detailed analysis. The authors describe five challenges faced by stormwater managers and how insights that emerge from scenario-b...


Introduction: There is evidence that early intervention contributes to improving the prognosis and course of first-episode psychosis (FEP). However, further randomised treatment clinical trials are needed. Objectives: The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy of a combined clinical treatment involving Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) as an adjunctive to treatment-as-usual (TAU) (CBT+TAU) versus TAU alone for FEP. Patients and methods: In this multicentre, single-blind, randomised controlled trial, 177 participants were randomly allocated to either CBT+TAU or TAU. The primary outcome was post-treatment patient functioning. Results: The CBT+TAU group showed a greater improvement in functioning, which was measured using the Global Assessment Functioning (GAF) and Functioning Assessment Short Test (FAST), compared to the TAU group post-treatment. The CBT+TAU participants exhibited a greater decline in depressive, negative, and general psychotic symptoms; a better awareness of the disease and treatment adherence; and a greater increase in brain-derived neurotrophic factor levels than TAU participants. Conclusions: Early intervention based on a combined clinical treatment involving CBT as an adjunctive to standard treatment may improve clinical and functional outcomes in FEP.


Personalized medicine, seen as the solution to address the variability among the individuals, is the movement which proposes customization o f medical procedures based on the need o f the patient during the stages o f prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and follow up. As the technology in medicine expands and newer methods o f diagnosis and treatment are introduced in the clinic, real time data from the procedures is critical to assess the performance at point o f care. Real time feedback, through collection o f data at point o f care would help make informed clinical decisions, potentially improving the efficacy o f the treatment. In this dissertation, the development o f instrumentation and data analysis protocols for rapid feedback during clinical application o f antimalarial quinine, antifungal amphotericin b, and gold nanoparticles are discussed. Nanoparticles have emerged as powerful treatment modality in many biomedical sensing and therapeutic applications. The application o f intravenously delivered nearinfrared absorbing gold nanoparticles for photothermal ablation o f solid tumors has been previously reported. A lot o f research has been devoted to the development and characterization o f gold nanoparticles for clinical applications, and with multiple clinical trials underway, ongoing pre-clinical research continues towards better understanding the in vivo interactions o f these particles. The current need for a set o f best practices in nanomedicine to increase the in vivo treatment efficacy was the rationale for this investigation. In an effort to enable informed decisions at point-of-care applications, within a relevant time frame, instrumentation for real-time plasma concentration (multi wavelength photoplethysmography) and protocols for rapid elemental analysis (energy dispersive X-Ray fluorescence) o f tumor tissue samples have been developed in a murine model. This dissertation describes the implementation and characterization o f the novel pulse photometer in terms o f its sensing application, and outlines the development o f a protocol for quantifying the concentration o f gold in excised tumors in a clinically relevant time frame (< 24 hours) using energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence protocol developed for this specific purpose. In this dissertation, we evaluate the relationship between circulation pharmacokinetics and tumor accumulation using gold nanorods which passively accumulated in a murine subcutaneous colon cancer model. The plasma concentration o f the near-infrared absorbing nanoparticles was monitored in real-time using a novel pulse photometer. The data collected was used to build a bio distribution curve and to calculate circulation half-life as well as the area under the curve (AUC) using an exponential decay model. New research efforts are described, which focus on adjuvant therapies that are employed to modify circulation parameters, including the AUC, o f nanorods and gold nanoshells. Based on the premise that nanoparticles are primarily removed from the blood by the reticuloendothelial system (RES), this dissertation also demonstrates the effects o f RES blockade to prolong the circulation o f gold nanoparticles tested on a murine model via intravenous administration o f A.-carrageenan at a concentration o f 50 mg/kg. Transient RES blockade techniques have the potential to enhance the circulation time o f agents that are cleared by the RES. Preliminary studies demonstrated a greater than 300% increase in average AUC using a reticuloendothelial blockade agent against the control groups. Further expansion o f the application o f the novel pulse photometer was achieved by modification o f the device for in vivo sensing o f other clinically applicable molecular drugs such a quinine and amphotericin b. This dissertation reports the development o f a non-invasive optical system capable o f reporting the in vivo vascular concentration o f these molecular drugs in near real time. APPROVAL FOR SCHOLARLY DISSEMINATION The author grants to the Prescott Memorial Library o f Louisiana Tech University the right to reproduce, by appropriate methods, upon request, any or all portions o f this Dissertation. It is understood that " proper request" consists o f the agreement, on the part o f the requesting party, that said reproduction is for his personal use and that subsequent reproduction w ill not occur without written approval o f the author o f this Dissertation. Further, any portions o f the Dissertation used in books, papers, and other works must be appropriately referenced to this Dissertation. Finally, the author o f this Dissertation reserves the right to publish freely, in the literature, at any time, any or all portions o f this Dissertation.


Actor-critic algorithms that make use of distributional policy evaluation have frequently been shown to outperform their non-distributional counterparts on many challenging control tasks. Examples of this behavior include the D4PG and DMPO algorithms as compared to DDPG and MPO, respectively [Barth-Maron et al., 2018; Hoffman et al., 2020]. However, both agents rely on the C51 critic for value estimation.One major drawback of the C51 approach is its requirement of prior knowledge about the minimum andmaximum values a policy can attain as well as the number of bins used, which fixes the resolution ofthe distributional estimate. While the DeepMind control suite of tasks utilizes standardized rewards and episode lengths, thus enabling the entire suite to be solved with a single setting of these hyperparameters, this is often not the case. This paper revisits a natural alternative that removes this requirement, namelya mixture of Gaussians, and a simple sample-based loss function to train it in an off-policy regime. We empirically evaluate its performance on a broad range of continuous control tasks and demonstrate that it eliminates the need for these distributional hyperparameters and achieves state-of-the-art performance on a variety of challenging tasks (e.g. the humanoid, dog, quadruped, and manipulator domains). Finallywe provide an implementation in the Acme agent repository.


Miyun Reservoir is the main source of drinking water for Beijing.However,it is increasingly threatened by losses of nitrogen and phosphorus from slope farmland in the drinking water source protection catchment.A contour hedgerow intercropping system of forage mulberry(Morus multicaulis Perr.) and medicinal plant was planted to control and mitigate the non-point source contaminants in the catchment.Free-range Beijing Fatty Chickens were raised in the intercropping areas(free-range mode) to feed on mulberry additives in the adjacent areas(feeding mode).Topsoil samples from the two modes were collected for determination of organic matter,nitrogen,phosphorus and potassium contents,and mulberry samples from the free-range mode and its control were collected for determination of nitrogen(N),phosphorus(P) and potassium(K) contents in the plant.The results showed that compared with the controls,the soil organic matter content(OM),total nitrogen(TN),available N,P and K,and nitrate of the two mode areas increased significantly,which promoted the growth of the mulberry and medicinal plant and the nutrient uptake;the soil organic matter,TN and total phosphorus(TP) were greater in the feeding and free-range mode with high density of 60 and low density of 20 chickens per mu,respectively,than those in the free-range mode.However,compared with the upper parts of the slope farmland in the free-range chickens with high density,the soil available N,P and K at the lower parts of the slope farmland were increased by 20.3%,71.9% and 21.9%,respectively.It suggests that the soil nutrient accumulation could be related to the feeding density and runoff.The nitrogen and phosphorus loads from chicken manure in the feeding mode were 189kg/hm2 and 84.8kg/hm2,respectively,which exceeded the EU(European Union) limits of 170kg N/hm2 and 80kg P2O5/ hm2,respectively;it could lead to high N and P losses to the Reservoir.The N and P loads in the free-range mode were 75.6kg/hm2 and 33.9kg/hm2,respectively,much less than the environmental limits,thus resulting in less risk of nutrient losses.Therefore,the decomposition and mineralization of chicken manure in the contour hedgerow intercropping system of forage mulberry and medicinal plant can supply nutrients to the intercropping plants,on the other hand,it can effectively prevent the loss of organic matter and nitrogen and phosphorus,and provide feed to free-range chickens.These results suggest that the intercropping system of forage mulberry/medicinal plant/ low-density free-range chicken is an effective ecological mode for controlling and mitigating water contamination by agricultural non-point source pollution in the catchment.


Abstract The Coefficient Diagram Method (CDM) is a parametric approach to design a controller based on coefficient shaping. It involves two steps; first, characterization of the desired time response in terms of the two specific parameters denoted by (α i , τ), in this paper, that are functions of a characteristic polynomial. Once such a target characteristic polynomial is obtained, the controller parameters are determined accordingly. During the process of the design, both stability and performance of the closed loop system can be considered together. This paper first summarizes the recent results on basic properties of the parameter set (α i , τ) and shows a scheme to construct a target characteristic polynomial that meets a desired transient response characteristic. Finally, we show how to achieve a fixed order controller.


A review of some of the highlights of the modern reproductive sciences as they are currently understood is presented and several points in the chain of reproduction in which interference might prevent conception are discussed. A description of the female reproductive system includes the function of the ovary the pituitary the feedback control of gonadotropins the brain and pregnancy. The male reproductive system is also described including the function of the testes and male hormones. Sperm transport and fertilization also represent areas of interest in the conception process where possible interference might prevent pregnancy. Contraceptive research is currently focusing on antipregnancy vaccines menstrual regulation improvements in the pill action at the level of the brain oviductal regulation female sterilization preventing implantation interfering with early embryonic development blocking spermatogenesis the male pill preventing sperm maturation and preventing fertilization.


We consider the scattering of waves by an obstacle O ⊂ R having a sufficiently smooth boundary Γ. By using a fictitious domain approach, we artificially extend the solution inside the obstacle O. Then we solve the original problem in the simpler domain that includes O and that is artificially bounded by a perfectly transparent boundary B, delimiting the region of interest. We prescribe on B a Non Reflecting Boundary Condition (NRBC) which is based on a space-time integral equation and that defines a relationship that the solution of the differential problem and its normal derivative must satisfy on B (see [2]). Further, we enforce the Dirichlet boundary condition on Γ in a weak sense, by means of Lagrange multipliers. The NRBC is discretized on B by combining a special second order (in time) convolution quadrature and a standard collocation method in space. In the enlarged domain, this discretization is coupled with an unconditionally stable ODE time integrator and a FEM in space. The constraint on Γ is imposed by a matrix Bh that represents a discrete trace operator. A particularly useful application of this approach is the scattering of a wave by rotating rigid bodies. In this case the method avoids the complexity of constructing at each time step a new finite element computational mesh and requires only the construction of the discrete trace operator Bh. We present some results we have obtained for rotating (even multiple) scatterers and non trivial data.


Faculty in the Electrical Engineering Department at UTEP created a new course in communications to complement the preparation of students in advanced technologies. They implemented a cost-effective solution by the construction of a computer-based laboratory for modeling and simulation of communication systems linked with a customized lecture. The course included approaches such as cooperative learning to enhance students' problem-solving and conceptual-thinking skills. The lab assignments required the real construction of a small network and the simulation in a computer system. The virtual part of the lab was implemented by using PC-based computer simulation tools. Students are able to access a variety of software packages for analysis of different communications systems either locally or remotely. In addition there are several physical devices that will be configured by the students creating a real network. In such way they cover the theory, then have real practice assembling a small network, and finally simulate large scale systems. The topics covered in the lab can be divided into three categories: communication signals, fiber optic & wireless links, and communication networks. Senior and graduate students are the primary users of this lab. Typically, this lab can be utilized as a supplement to the existing communication courses or be taken as an elective course.