Most existing project assessment relies on expert scoring, whose precision can be deteriorated by personal subjectivity. This paper presents an assessment method to compare the advantages and disadvantages of three cohesion patterns between suburban and urban rail transit network, which reduces the influence of subjective score. A modified rough set – grey correlation model is developed as a core of this assessment, based on the integration of rough set theory and grey correlational analysis, where an index system is set up for model calculation. A case study using the network in Ningbo is applied to demonstrate the effectiveness of the method, the results show that the method is more effective using discretely distributed data sensitive to sample size. The consistency of the results in comparison with marginal cost analysis can be a preliminary verification of the model.


This paper describes the rsig remote process signaling system. It operates in a heterogeneous network of Unix workstations and provides users the ability to issue signals across machine boundaries. Some of the efficiency and all the conceptual and practical convenience of signals are afforded, in a manner similar to remote procedure calls.


Initial allocation of water rights is a complex system engineering.According to its characteristic;based on the principles of actuality,impartiality,efficiency and sustainability, an initial allocation model of water rights is built,including construction of index system,confirmation of index weight and choice of allocation proportion's accounting method.Finally,the model is applied to the Yellow River basin to verify its effectiveness and feasibility.


Chemical conjugation of (cid:1) F508-CFTR corrector deoxyspergualin to transporter human serum albumin enhances its ability to rescue Cl (cid:2) channel functions. Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol 295: L336–L347, 2008. 2008; doi:10.1152/ajplung.00059.2008.—The most common mutation of the cystic fibrosis (CF) gene, the deletion of Phe508, encodes a protein ( (cid:1) F508-CFTR) that fails to fold properly, thus mutated (cid:1) F508-cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) is recognized and degraded via the ubiquitin-proteasome endoplasmic reticulum-associated degradation pathway. Chemical and pharmacological chaperones and ligand-induced transport open options for designing specific drugs to control protein (mis)folding or transport. A class of compounds that has been proposed as having potential utility in (cid:1) F508-CFTR is that which targets the molecular chaperone and proteasome systems. In this study, we have selected deoxyspergualin (DSG) as a reference molecule for this class of compounds and for ease of cross-linking to human serum albumin (HSA) as a protein transporter. Chemical cross-linking of DSG to HSA via a disulfide-based cross-linker and its administration to cells carrying (cid:1) F508-CFTR resulted in a greater enhancement of (cid:1) F508-CFTR function than when free DSG was used. Function of the selenium-dependent oxidoreductase system was required to allow intracellular activation of HSA-DSG conjugates. The principle that carrier proteins can deliver pharmacological chaperones to cells leading to correction of defective CFTR functions is therefore proven and warrants further investigations.


This paper briefly gives an overview about the Systems Engineering application in a multi‐national and multi‐lingual project. At least 6 nations, Airbus and other companies, are developing in one partnership this new military transport aircraft. Based on the contractual, cost, quality and time constraints the engineers have to design the best possible solution for this aircraft. The aim is to give an overview about the practical experience developing a system in an IPT (integrated project team), a multi cultural environment, different historical experience and knowledge of each partner and to show the added value to work with a defined and agreed view of developing a complex system.


After several attempts, a contractor has managed to successfully field test posttensioning strands up to 3,600 ft (1,097 m) long that will ultimately be used to rehabilitate the Evergreen Point pontoon bridge in Lake Washington, east of Seattle, Washington. Never before have posttensioning tendons of this length been installed. Plans call for 16 tendons of 15 strands, each 0.6 in (15.2 mm) in diameter, to be installed on each half of the bridge and four more through each of its four cross-sectioned cells. Initially, more than 4,000 6-in (152-mm) holes will be drilled through interior walls of the pontoon's cells, through which conduit will be installed.


This article examines how the Innovation department store fire in Brussels (1967) influenced thepolitics of risk management in Belgium. To do this, I rely on the combination of disaster and riskstu ...


As it has been demonstrated earlier, different types of re-coding of nucleotide sequences to gene-based speckle-patterns (GB-speckles) can be used. In this paper the advanced study, devoted to optimization of the basic algorithm, is presented. Investigations of statistical properties of GB-speckles, generated on nucleotide sequences of omp1 gene of Chlamydia trachomatis, has been performed. Part II of the present paper is dedicated to analysis of first- and second-order statistics of phase fluctuations in GB-speckles with purpose of optimization of algorithm of re-coding.


New symmetrical 1:2 supramolecular H-bonded liquid crystals (SMHBLCs) interactions, A/2Bn, were formed between adipic acid and 4-(4′–pyridylazophenyl) 4″-alkoxybenzoates. Optical and mesomorphic behaviors of the prepared SMHBLC complexes were investigated using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), polarizing optical microscopy (POM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). FT-IR spectroscopy was carried out to confirm the H-bond interactions of the prepared complexes via Fermi bands formation. Their photo-physical properties were investigated by UV-spectroscopy and the observed absorbance values were found to be mainly dependent on the length of the terminal alkoxy chain. Mesomorphic behaviour for all A/2Bn complexes revealed that all complexes are dimorphic-exhibiting enantiotropic mesophases with induced nematic phases, except for the long chain terminal complex which exhibits only a monomorphic smectic A phase. In order to investigate the effect of mesogenic core geometry on the mesophase properties, a comparison was established between the mesomeric behaviors of the present complexes and previously reported rigid core acid complexes. Finally, the XRD pattern confirmed the POM and DSC results.


The simultaneous effect of silver nanoparticles on the antibacterial, mechanical, and physical properties of polyethylene (PE) films is evaluated. For this aim, uniaxial tensile, film rupture, and permeability tests and X-ray diffraction analysis were conducted. The biocidal performance against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus bacteria was also assessed. The results show that reinforcements with as little as 1 wt% nanosilver provided absolute antibacterial performance, while generally maintaining the mechanical properties. The reinforcement causes noticeable alterations in the crystallization behavior, which is manifested in the variations of gas permeability of the PE films.


The invention provides a method for indicating MTC (Machine Type Communication) system information updating as well as a BS (Base Station) and UE (User Equipment) both supporting MTC. The MTC system information comprises required system information of first type MTC UE and required system information of second type MTC UE. The method comprises the steps of when updating of the required system information of the first type MTC UE occurs and/or when updating of the required system information of the second type MTC UE occurs, generating indication information including a related MTC system information updating indication identifier; and sending the generated indication information. According to the embodiment, the number of times for reading the system information by the MTC UE can be reduced, and energy consumption of the MTC UE is saved.


An adaptive supervisory switching control scheme for nonlinear uncertain systems is developed. Such a scheme comprises: a family of nonlinear candidate controllers, designed using a convex control design methodology; and a Lyapunov-based switching criterion that orchestrates which of the candidate controllers should be put in feedback with the uncertain plant. The family of candidate controllers is designed in such a way that, for every portion of the uncertainty set there is one Lyapunov function whose derivative is decreasing with a prescribed rate. Such Lyapunov functions are used by the switching logic to assess which is the most suitable controller to be put in feedback. The resulting scheme guarantees semi-global stability with desired transient performance, in terms of decaying rate of the derivative of the Lyapunov function.


Emulsification property of whey soy protein was studied, the result indicated that emulsifies stability of whey soy protein is better than soybean separation protein, and its emulsifying property have approximates value with soybean separate protein. The result of orthogonal test analysis showed that the optimized conditions for whey soy protein to emulsify stability: the concentration is 20%, the temperature is 40℃, pH9, time 25min. For the whey soy protein emulsifying: the concentration is 25%, the temperature is 40℃, the pH9, time 25min. The influence of ion to emulsification and emulsifies stability of the whey soy protein: Na+K+, and the function of Na+ is obvious. For emulsify stability of whey soy protein, ion condition Na+ 0.01mol/L, and whey soy protein emulsification function choose ion condition Na+ 0.05 mol/L.


This qualitative and descriptive study, aims to understand the concepts of sustainability and identify how they are included in the action planning of Higher Education Institutions (HEI) of Santa Catarina. Therefore, a brief literature review on the topic of sustainability was held and on the relationship of sustainability with education and later with the HEI. The problem of this study consists in identify how the surveyed HEIs are inserting sustainability in a practical way, in the institution´s activities. The disclosed results showed that HEI adopt attitudes that meet the global context, both in its institutional actions, including the practice of the courses offered to its target audience, and in its image in the community. Thus, through the printed documents analysis and information available in the corporate website of the HEIs studied - National Service of Commercial Education (SENAC/SC) and Educational Society of Santa Catarina (SOCIESC), it was possible to identify that both organizations adopt actions and practices for the inclusion of sustainability in its institutional activities, which responds readily to the general purpose of this study.


Periodontitis is characterized by increased levels of proinflammatory factors, such as interleukin‐17 (IL‐17) and IL‐35. In this study, the expression of microRNA‐146a (miRNA‐146a), IL‐17, and IL‐35 in the plasma of patients with periodontitis and healthy controls were detected by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction and enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay, respectively. miRNA‐146a mimic was transfected into periodontal ligament stem cells (PDLSCs) isolated from periodontitis‐affected teeth and healthy teeth. Cell proliferation and expression of IL‐17 and IL‐35 were detected by cell counting kit‐8 assay and Western blot analysis, respectively. It was observed that miRNA‐146a was downregulated but IL‐17 and IL‐35 were upregulated in the plasma of patients with periodontitis than in healthy controls. miRNA‐146a was inversely correlated with IL‐17 and IL‐35 in patients with periodontitis. miRNA‐146a overexpression inhibited proliferation of PDLSCs derived from both periodontitis‐affected teeth and healthy teeth. miRNA‐146a overexpression led to downregulated IL‐17 and IL‐35 expression in PDLSCs isolated from periodontitis‐affected teeth. We, therefore, conclude that miRNA‐146a may improve periodontitis by downregulating IL‐17 and IL‐35 expression and inhibiting proliferation of human PDLSCs.


This paper presents a kind of Minkowski fractal reader antenna composed of three layers which is designed for handheld RFID reader systems. By using simulation software HFSS, the return loss, radiation patterns and gains of the Minkowski antenna composed of three-layer are computed. The simulation results show that it operates at 2.425 GHz with a return loss of −30.22 dB and a bandwidth of 100MHz, the size of the Minkowski is much smaller than a convention rectangular patch antenna. it has medium bandwidth, small size, low power loss, which is more satisfactory to the requirement of handheld RFID reader systems.


Social and emotional learning (SEL) has been defined as "the process through which children and adults acquire the knowledge, attitudes, and skills to: recognize and manage their emotions, set and achieve positive goals, demonstrate caring and concern for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, make responsible decisions, and handle interpersonal situations effectively" (Payton et al., 2008, pp. 5–6). The term social and emotional learning was first introduced at a 1994 meeting hosted by the Fetzer Institute for the purpose of discussing the ineffectiveness of so many prevention and health promotion interventions for children and youth (Greenberg et al., 2003). SEL was proposed as a conceptual framework that could address the underlying causes of many individual and social problems that were previously targeted by a wide variety of different programs.

Keywords:

social and emotional learning;
social skills;
social development;
emotional literacy;
self-regulation;
social intelligence;
emotional intelligence;
social competencies;
peace education


The increasing participation of retail investors — generally having limited risk bearing ability — in mutual funds, has surprisingly not motivated rigorous examination of downside risks-forward return relationship of these funds, which this study aims to accomplish. We use a survivorship-bias free database of returns and portfolio holdings of Indian equity mutual funds covering the period April 2008–November 2018 with Cornish–Fisher expansion of Value-at-Risk (VaR) as a measure of downside risk to examine downside risk-forward return relationship controlling for the fund characteristics such as age, size and style. To complete the story, we also test for the presence of Downside Risk Timing (DRT) ability of fund managers. We find that downside risk does predict future returns of mutual funds and the result holds across different fund sizes, age and styles, particularly strongly in large and midcap style. We also find that the fund manager of the median fund exhibits positive DRT at the 1- and 6-month horizons and negative at the 3- and 12-month horizons. The mixed evidence on DRT suggests that fund managers either did not possess the requisite risk-timing ability or had failed in its application. Findings have important implications for both investors and fund managers.


Abstract : Work continued on the process items scheduled in the program, and progress was made in the following areas: (l) planar production diffusion processes are being optimized quite satisfactorily, and mesa diffusion process specifications have been tightened to take full advantage of improved capabilities; (2) contact window stains have been minimized and the quality and control of the evaporated contacts have been greatly improved; (3) ultrasonic cold bonding of aluminum wire to evaporated aluminum contacts and aluminum wire welded to gold plated header posts are passing all tests satisfactorily; and (4) the planar device is being placed into production and yields and quality are good. (Author)


Accelerated improvement of eco-friendly technology together with renewable electricity, smart grids, and electric transportation will form the future of electrical power generation and supply. Accordingly, the strength intake traits of present day power systems are designed to be bendier, which impact the device sizing. However, integrating these concerns into the design stage can be complicated. Under these terms, this paper offers a singular model based on combined integer linear programming for the optimization of a hybrid renewable powergad get with a battery energy storage gadget in residential microgrids in which the call for reaction of available controllable appliances is coherently taken into consideration inside the proposed optimization problem with decreased calculation burdens. The version takes into account the intrinsic stochastic behavior of renewable power and the uncertainty concerning electric load prediction.


Web applications are the public-facing components of information systems, which makes them an easy entry point for various types of attacks. While it is often the responsibility of web developers to implement the proper security controls, it remains a challenge for them to develop a good understanding of the whole attack surface.This paper aims to understand developers' familiarity with a number of web attack and defense mechanisms. In particular, we conducted two different experiments: First, we employed a questionnaire to understand the perceived attack surface and the types of security controls that are often considered. Second, we designed a Capture the Flag challenge aiming to push participants to discover as many attack points as possible on a given web application. We found that one third of developers are not aware of the clients' ability to intercept and modify all parts of an HTTP request. Moreover, developers' attack awareness focuses on a limited set of attacks (such as Cross-site scripting and SQL injection), overlooking a large part of the attack surface.


A novel guidance law is designed in this paper for intercepting a maneuvering target using zero-effort-miss with a reinforcement learning algorithm. After establishing the engagement scenario of the missile and the target in the vertical plane, the expressions of variables during relative motion are derived. Then the line-of-sight rate and the zero-effort-miss are selected as the basis for the Q-learning algorithm. Combining the relative motion variables with Q-learning, the guidance command for decreasing the zero-effort-miss is generated. Finally, the numerical simulation is carried out for validating the effectiveness of the proposed method. The history of reward value and miss distance demonstrate the performance of the provided guidance algorithm.


Chronic disease self-management support can be described more as a philosophy or approach to working with people who have a chronic disease rather than an intervention. One form or model of self-management support may not be appropriate for everyone or meet all of the needs of any one person. However, there are a number of self-management support models and training programs which are well-researched and evidence-based, and which provide a good underlying understanding of chronic disease self-management support theory and principles.


AbstractWayang Klithik Wonosoco is classified as rare because it is only performedonce a year as a means of bersih desa ritual. However, the show still comeswith a new paradigm. The results of the study show that the wayang KlithikWonosoco Village has undergone a paradigm shift since puppeteer and severalmusicians studied at the Surakarta Kasunanan Palace. This research appliedbasic research method by applying the theory of change to enrich the basicknowledge. The basic understanding of the values of the cultural practices ofwayang shows in the Surakarta Kasunanan Palace is converted to WonosocoVillage after going through an adaptation process. This article is expectedto be an inspiration for the development of science and practice in the fieldof puppet art. The paradigm of Wayang Klithik Wonosoco has changed; as aresult, it becomes new. The changes involve the concepts, methods, forms andstructures of the staging which consists of jejer, babak unjal, paseban jawi,perang gagal, goro-goro, pertapan, perang brubuh, and tancep kayon. Likewisesulukan (puppeteer singing) is enriched with several cengkok sulukan of shadowpuppet and pocapan (monologue) as signs of changing scenes in each pathet.The adaptation process has change the form and structure of Wayang KlithikWonosoco show; it becomes new.Keywords: Wayang Klithik; Wonosoco


This study was conducted to identify the negative effects of sports sponsorships on consumer attitudes towards sports celebrities and the products advertised by them. The results of this study verified the main effects of sports celebrities' responsibility level on consumer attitudes toward the sports celebrity and his/her products in cases of negative incidents. Furthermore, the moderating roles of sports celebrities' response strategies were identified. Data were collected from 135 undergraduate students in the Republic of Korea using a questionnaire. The data from nine participants were discarded because of disingenuous answers to the questionnaire; thus, the final sample consisted of 126 participants. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) of the obtained data revealed that a sports celebrity's responsibility level has negative effects on consumer attitude toward the sports celebrity and the product. The moderating effects of the sports celebrity's response strategies were also significant.


Objective To evaluate the effects of remifentanil preconditioning on the renal injury induced by limb ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) in rats.Methods Twenty-seven healthy male Sprague-Dawley rats,weighing 200-250 g,were randomly assigned into 3 groups (n =9 each):sham operation group (Sham group),I/R group and remifentanil preconditioning group (RPC group).Limb ischemia was induced by clamping bilateral femoral arteries and veins for 2 h,followed by 24 h reperfusion in I/R and RPC groups.Remifentanil 1.0 μg· kg-1 · min-1 was infused via the caudal vein for 30 min before ischemia in RPC group,while the equal volume of normal saline was given in Sham and I/R groups.Blood sample was taken from the inferior vena cava at 24 h of reperfusion to measure blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and creatinine (Cr) concentrations in serum.The rats were sacrificed and the left kidney was removed for determination of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) contents,cell apoptosis and microscopic examination of pathological changes.Apoptosis index was calculated.Results Apoptosis index and concentrations of BUN and Cr in serum,TNF-α and IL-6 contents,and apoptosis index were significantly higher,and the pathological changes were more severe in I/R and RPC groups than in Sham group.Compared with group I/R,concentrations of BUN and Cr in serum,TNF-α and IL-6 contents,and apoptosis index were significantly decreased,and the pathological changes were attenuated in RPC group.Conclusion Remifentanil preconditioning can attenuate renal injury induced by limb I/R in rats,and inhibition of inflammatory responses and cell apoptosis in kidney may be involved in the mechanism.

Key words:
Piperidines ;  Reperfusion injury ;  Extremities ;  Kidney


Potential performances of tele-presence mobile platforms and service robots can be greatly enhanced by improving their mobility. So, to maximize mobility becomes a very important subject for indoor mobile platform research. Many mechanisms and control methodologies are suggested, but mobility of indoor mobile platforms are still need to be improved. A stair is the most representative obstacle in indoor circumstances so that if a mobile platform freely negates a stair, this will accelerate various autonomous driving technology researches. To achieve this, a hybrid link mechanism for mobile platforms is suggested in the previous research. The hybrid link mechanism combines a passive revolute joint with an active prismatic joint and as a result, joint position and center of mass can be freely changed appropriately for a given step. In this paper, a prototype of new hybrid link mobile platform for stair climbing is manufactured based on an optimized kinematic design. Basic performance test on a plain surface and staircases are performed successfully, including climbing a stair of a 315(W) × 130(H) with active movement of slide. As the final process, stair climbing algorithm as well as position recognition process are proposed.


In this paper we discuss a novel micro optical wall shear stress sensor concept based on whispering gallery mode (WGM) shifts of dielectric resonators. The optical resonator, which is a sphere with a diameter of several hundred microns, serves as the sensing element. The wall shear force acting on a moveable plate is transmitted mechanically to the microsphere. As a result of the applied force, the morphology (both shape and refractive index) of the resonator is perturbed leading to a shift of the optical resonance (WGM). By monitoring the shifts to WGMs, measurement of the wall shear stress is accomplished. Shape perturbations of the order of a nanometer can be detected with this optical method. Therefore, the whole sensor system is essentially rigid. Preliminary experiments using a prototype sensor design show promise.


Demo Abstract. Nowadays, the automation of business processes not only spans classical business domains (e.g., banks and governmental agencies), but also new settings such as healthcare, smart manufacturing, domotics and emergency management [2]. Such domains are characterized by the presence of a Cyber-Physical System (CPS) coordinating heterogeneous ICT components with a large variety of architectures, sensors, actuators, computing and communication capabilities, and involving real world entities that perform complex tasks in the "physical" real world to achieve a common goal. In this context, Process Management Systems (PMSs) are used to manage the life cycle of the processes that coordinate the services offered by the CPS to the real world entities, on the basis of the contextual information collected from the specific cyber-physical domain of interest. The physical world, however, is not entirely predictable. CPSs do not necessarily and always operate in a controlled environment, and their processes must be robust to unexpected conditions and adaptable to exceptions and external exogenous events. In this paper, we tackle the above issue by introducing the SmartPM System (http://www.dis.uniroma1.it/ smartpm) an adaptive PMS which combines process execution monitoring, unanticipated exception detection (without requiring an explicit definition of exception handlers), and automated resolution strategies on the basis of well-established Artificial Intelligence techniques, including the Situation Calculus and IndiGolog [1], and classical planning [3]. Significance to the BPM field. Exception handling is one of the most important tasks that process designers undertake during process modelling and execution [5]. In cyberphysical domains, the fact is that the number of possible anticipated exceptions is often too large, and traditional manual implementation of exception handlers at design-time is not feasible for the process designer, who has to anticipate all potential problems and ways to overcome them in advance. Furthermore, in such domains many unanticipated exceptional circumstances may arise during the process execution, requiring to adapt running process instances in a situationand context-dependent way. While most PMSs of today shy away from dealing with the inherent dynamic nature of cyber-physical domains by providing manual or semi-automated techniques to deal with unanticipated exceptions, the management of processes enacted in such domains requires a PMS providing real-time monitoring and automated adaptation features during process execution. In this direction, SmartPM allows (i) the continuous screening of real-world objects performed by the physical sensors disseminated in the cyber-physical domain of interest, by transforming the "continuous" knowledge extracted from the domain in its digital counterpart; and (ii) the formalization of explicit mechanisms to model world changes and responding to anomalous situations, exceptions, exogenous events in an


Urban areas produce large amounts of organic waste, among others at eateries and residential locations. Methane fermentation can be used to turn these wastes into a valuable substrate for biogas production. Malopolska region (Poland), in 2010, produced 547,796 Mg of biodegradable waste. The estimated volume of biogas from this amount of waste is 62,449,000 m3. The composition of biogas produced from the fermentation of the municipal waste is about 45 vol% CH4, 35 vol% CO2 and other gases (H2O, O2, N2). This paper presents the results of modeling the kinetics of the biogas combustion process. For this purpose the program Chemked II was used, implementing the combustion mechanism created by the Gas Research Institute called the GRI-Mech version 3.0. The software enables thorough analysis of 325 reactions. Concentrations of CO, CO2, NO, N2 and O2 in flue gases were calculated.


Example embodiments provide a method for establishing an inter-home network, and a network connection device of the present invention, wherein establishing a connection between a home network comprising: a home network using the second and third, respectively, to establish a home network or a home network and a first remote device the ability to access remote server supports remote access connection, acquire a second home network remote access server support capabilities and third home network; remote access capabilities according to the second home network remote access server support and the third home network capability supported by the server, remote access server to determine the second home network connection configuration parameters sent to the remote access server in the second home network, remote access server to determine the third home network connection configuration parameters sent to the third home network the remote access server. The present invention is the use of the technical solutions provided in the embodiments, can easily establish a connection between the home network.


This article examines the stereotypes of women found in six recent marriage and familty texts. All were written by male sociologists; all had an original publication date of 1960 or later. Unproved or value-laden statements about the female were placed in four broad categories: sexual attitudes and behavior; sex roles and socialization; mate selection, marriage, and divorce; and the economics of being female. The paper demonstrates that so-called "value-free" social science is full of myths and folklore about the female, which are presented as factual, and are used to justify her subordinate status.


Photographs taken by Norman E Junge including images of Reefton, Black's Point, Lewis Pass, Stevenson's Flat, Keep-It-Dark mine, Inangahua River, Inangahua Junction, Buller Gorge, Rahu Saddle, railways, gold and coal mining
Source of title - Title supplied by Library
Prints from these negatives also deposited in the Black Point Museum. Their accession numbers are noted in the ATL negative register.
Arrangement: Negatives accessioned at F 22917 1/4 to 23023 1/4 and F 23165 1/4 to 23174 1/4. No negatives at F 22962, 23006, 23011 to 23015
Quantity: 89 b&w original negative(s). 94 b&w original photographic print(s).
Physical Description: Film ¼ plate negatives, silver gelatin prints


The aqueous polymerization of tetrafluoroethylene initiated with ammonium persulfate in neutral or relatively weak acid solutions leads to polymer containing carboxyl end groups. The conversion of this endgroup to the sodium salt and its pyrolysis to the terminal olefin was followed, using infrared absorption technique.


Background: Potash (sodium carbonate) is a lake salt that is white in appearance and may be found in form of powder or granules. In Africa, especially in Northern Nigeria, it is the second most popularly used salt, especially by pregnant women in their second trimesters in an attempt to reduce the weight of their babies to ensure an easier vaginal delivery. This study was undertaken to determine the effect of potash when consumed by maternal rat during its gestation period on the birth weight of pups. Material and methods : Twenty four (24) pregnant female rats were grouped into four of six (6) rats each. Three experimental groups (E 1-3 ) were administered 200,400 and 800mg/kg body weight which was equivalent to 0.34ml, 0.68ml and 1.236ml respectively per day of stock solution of potash via orogastric intubation from the first day of conception till term, the forth group served as control (C), and received distilled water at equivalent dosage level with the experimental group three (E 3 ). The six pregnant rats in each group were allowed to undergo spontaneous vaginal delivery and themean corresponding birth weight of litter in each experimental group was statistically analyzed and compared with that of the control group where p>0.05 was considered not significant at concentration up to 400mg/kg but at a dosage of 800mg/kg, P 0.05 was considered not significant. It may be concluded that potash does not affect litter birth weight at concentration of up to 400mg/kg body weight Conclusion: Consumption of potash especially in large quantity led to a reduction in birth weight in albino rats probably due to the fact that increased sodium administration leads to increased calcium excretion. Keywords: Albino rats, Birth weight, Cervical plug test, Rat pup and Potash.


In this paper, we suggest a mouse-type integrated tactile display system that provides kinesthetic force, distributed pressure, vibration and skin stretch. The system consists of two parts: a 2-DOF force feedback mechanism for kinesthetic force display and a tactile display part for providing normal stimulation to the skin and the lateral skin stretch. A tactile display device, using eight piezoelectric bimorphs and a linear actuator, is fabricated and attached to a 2-DOF translational force feedback device to simultaneously simulate the texture and stiffness of the object. The developed system was adopted as a test bed to study the factors affecting perception of surface properties. We investigate three things: effective stimulating methods, limitation of surface discrimination based on kinesthetic force and the effectiveness of combining kinesthetic force feedback with tactile feedback. Seven kinds of stimulating methods are investigated to study effective methods in simulating texture. In addition, in order to find out the role of skin stretch during perceiving texture, the discernment abilities of active touch (rubbing), laterally-active-display and moving-wave-form have been compared.


This radiograph exhibits multiple areas of sclerosis in the right ilium and the right proximal femur with no cortical break or obvious soft tissue component. Common possible causes for this appearance include metastases (from breast carcinoma in females, prostate carcinoma in males and lung carcinoma), Paget's disease and lymphoma [1]. In an elderly gentleman with history of AUR with multiple sclerotic bone lesions, prostate carcinoma is highly suggestive. Prostate carcinoma is the second most common malignancy in males after lung carcinoma [2]. Risk factors include advancing age with increased incidence in first degree relatives [1]. Eighty percent of these tumours are located within the peripheral zone followed by the transitional and the central zones [1]. Although non-specific, an elevated serum PSA should raise the possibility of prostate carcinoma, which can be confirmed by histopathological examination [3].


This is the second edition of the most authoritative work encompassing the greater part of palliative care. As such, and as the editors point out in the preface, the title is something of a misnomer: where there is a choice, the emphasis is on palliative care rather than on palliative medicine. There is material here for all disciplines. To start with the statistics: this edition is just over half as long again as its predecessor, containing 1283 pages as compared with 845, although the price has only risen from £95 to £110. (Obsessional neurotics will note a US list price of $139.50 with an exchange rate of $1.65 to the pound; it is unclear how this arithmetic works.) Around 10% of the overall growth seems to be attributable to changes in layout: the rather cramped 1993 volume has been given valuable breathing space. Three completely new sections have been added, on the measurement of symptoms, the principles of drug use and interventional radiology; the section on ethical issues has new authors. The paediatric section has also been substantially enlarged, and there are new chapters on asthenia and on pruritus and sweating. On the other hand, an apparent fourth new section, on communication, appeared as a chapter in the first edition, and many chapters are essentially unchanged. In comparison with the first edition, the overall balance of the book seems to have been improved, and several authors have substantially strengthened their citations of the original evidence. As a single example, the chapter on adjuvant analgesics now has 454 references, compared with 275 in 1993. The new edition thus admirably fulfils its role as a source of evidence-based practice in palliative care; as a manual of what measures might help when specific problems arise it is understandably of less valuable, since the book aims to deal with evidence rather than with anecdote. In short, this edition strengthens the Oxford textbook's position as the definitive overview of the field and practitioners will want to have it available to them, either in their libraries or on their own bookshelves. The editors are to be congratulated on having drawn together all of this material from over 100 contributors, drawn from many nations and writing for a global audience. Being no stranger to the editor's problems, I would find this an impossibly daunting task. At some stage though they may have to persuade their contributors to distinguish even more precisely the need to be authoritative from the wish to be comprehensive, lest the book become impossibly unwieldy.


In order to improve the effect of teaching and learning,Flash animation is usually called in making course ware,In this paper,many methods are detailedly discussed in making course ware with Authorware and powerpoint.


Energy consumption is one of the most crucial issues in wireless sensor networks since sensor nodes are commonly battery-driven. Recently, several aggregation methods have been proposed to save energy by reducing the number of transmissions from source to the sink. They assumed a single sink for aggregation of data. In this paper, we propose an aggregation scheme for wireless sensor networks with multiple sinks. In our scheme, each node caches the gradient information collected from its local neighbors to determine the aggregation point for merging data to be delivered to multiple sinks. The experimental results show that our scheme can reduce the number of transmissions and thus save the energy more than the greedy incremental tree scheme and the shortest path scheme.


The article is devoted to the investigation of psychological aspects of translation. Contemporary linguistics traces an active interest in issues of psychological nature, connected with emotional sphere. In particular, notions of «fascination», «empathy» are closely correlated with the psychology of communication. Fascination serves the means of optimizing information process whereas empathy – the means of regulating interpersonal relations in the communicative interaction. Empathy demonstrates a translator's ability to react to events in the text. Such interpretation of empathy emphasizes its dynamic character in the phases of empathetic understanding, empathetic expression and empathetic communication.


Cardiovascular system diseases are the major causes of mortality in the world. The most important and widely used tool for assessing the heart state is echocard iography (also abbreviated as ECHO). ECHO images are used e.g. for location of any damage of heart tissues, i n calculation of cardiac tissue displacement at any arb itrary point and to derive useful heart parameters like si ze and shape, cardiac output, ejection fraction, pu mping capacity. In this paper, a robust algorithm for hea rt shape estimation (segmentation) in ECHO images is proposed. It is based on the recently introduced variant of the level set method called level set without edges. This variant takes advantage of the intensity value of area information instead of module of gradient which is typically used. Such approach guarantees stability and correctness of algorithm working on the border between object and background with small absolute value of image gradient. To reassure meaningful results, the image segmentation is proceeded with automatic Region of Interest (ROI) calculation. The main idea of ROI calculations is to receive a triangle- like part of the acquired ECHO image, using linear Hough transform, thresholding and simple mathematics. Additionally, in order to improve the images quality, an anisotro pic diffusion filter, before ROI calculation, was used . The proposed method has been tested on real echocardiographic image sequences. Derived results confirm the effectiveness of the presented method.


This study aims to describe the character of students received from the zoning system and to find out the teacher's efforts in dealing with the heterogeneous character of students as the impact of the zoning system at UPT SMPN 5 Gresik and to provide an understanding for the teacher to appropriate the efforts used to deal with the heterogeneous character of students as a impact of the zoning system. The theory used is the theory of good character foarmation by Thomas Lickona. The concept of this theory shows that character is formed into three interrelated parts, namely moral knowledge, moral feelings, and moral behavior. The research method used is a qualitative approach with an exploratory design. Data collection techniques using observation, in-depth interviews, and documentation. The selection of informants as the source of the research data was selected by using purposive sampling technique. The informants of this study include Pancasila & Citizenship Education Teachers, Counseling Guidance Teachers, Islamic Religious Education Teachers and Deputy Principals for Student Affairs. The results of the research carried out revealed that the character of the zoning system students was considered poor brcause they do not have enough tolerance, discipline, responsible, and the efforts made by the teacher, namely by implementing 5S habits in learning at school so that students were more polite towards teachers and peers. The teacher gives punishment to students with poor character. The teacher will conduct individual counseling and provide group guidance and provide reinforcement through religious activities.
Keywords: Teachers, Character, Zoning


Most of the Turkish origin families living in Belgium marry their children to a person from Turkey. Therefore, the number of the brides and grooms coming from Turkey to Belgium through migration reaches a few thousands every year. It is observed that the spouses coming from Turkey experience mostly language, communication and rapport problems. Recently, an increase has been seen in the rate of the divorces among the brides coming to Belgium through marriage. There do not exist enough studies about the brides and their lives. In this regard, we carried out two qualitative studies to be familiar with the brides coming from Turkey to Belgium through marriage. The first study has enabled us to define the profiles of the brides coming from Turkey and analyse their marriage and how they experienced the migration. As to the second study, it has given us the opportunity to examine the marriage, migration, divorce and post-divorce living conditions of the brides who could not have gone on their marriage and divorced, and has helped us to bring forward some proposals to similar brides depending on their experiences. The most important finding we specified in this study is that mostly the personal problems of the husband who has been grown up in Belgium gave way to divorce. In addition, it has been observed that divorced brides are dependent on others, and have the feeling of loneliness and desperation in this process. Key words: Belgium, marriage migration, bride, groom, therapy marriage, divorce problem, violence, psychological help.


Most states have adopted assessment and accountability systems that involve common measures of student performance. A state assessment system that allows school districts to choose the specific strategies they use to measure student performance on state-adopted content standards presents a unique state accountability challenge. The authors propose an accountability model that addresses this challenge using a combination of student performance, technical quality, and noncognitive indicators of performance. They also describe a study that evaluated the proposed model using data from all school districts in a southern state.


In stormy weather due to typhoon approaching the Izu Islands, I have observed sea and weather clutter containing a target (ship) using an S‐band radar with a frequency of 3.05 GHz, a beamwidth of 1.8°, a pulsewidth of 0.5 μs, and a pulse‐repetition frequency of 1600 Hz. To analyze such clutter amplitude statistics, I have used partial Q–Q plot, which is more rigorous fit of the distribution to the data than conventional Q–Q plot. It has been found that the sea and weather clutter amplitudes obey the Weibull distribution with the shape parameters of c = 6.23 for entire data and c = 5.83 to 8.78 for small data within the beamwidth of an antenna. I have applied Weibull/CFAR (constant false alarm rate) circuit configured by modifying cell‐averaging (CA) LOG/CFAR circuit to the observed data. It has been found that ship is detected, and sea and weather clutter is suppressed with improvement of 33.61 dB by Weibull/CFAR. © 2021 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.


"This report discusses data collected in the Yaquina Estuary from July 1976 through December 1977 at 6-8 week intervals. Also summarized are recording salinometer, runoff and precipitation data from September 1967 through July 1968. Station names and locations for the 76-77 field data are shown in Figure 1. Figure 2 shows 67-68 recording station locations.
After a brief description of the setting of the Yaquina Estuary, estuarine dynamics and classification, and estuarine chemistry are presented. Then, temperature-salinity relations are reviewed using the Rattray-Officer model in simulating variable distributions reported by Callaway and Specht (1982) and Callaway (1991). Finally, the numerical models DynHyd and WASP are reviewed, some output for each model are shown and the results discussed."

Description quoted directly from the introduction of this document.


A new species of Kiotina, K. yexiaohani sp. nov. is described from Zhejiang Province of southeastern China. The male of the new species is characterized by the V-shaped epiproct sclerite with thick, out-curved arms and a fusiform base. The apical half of subgenital plate sub-trapezoidal with a slightly notched apex distinguishes the female of the new species. Information on the types and available descriptions of Chinese Kiotina species are summarized. Additionally, an unassociated female of a Kiotina species is described and illustrated.


Chapter 2 examines restorative practices within schools, in conjunction with the underlying foundations of the Social Discipline Window, emphasizing doing things with people, rather than to people. Doing things with people, not to people, combined with the premise of holding people to the highest level of accountability while simultaneously providing high levels of support will be emphasized in this chapter. Additionally, restorative circles, restorative questions, using affective statements, and the use of problem-solving groups to promote a restorative dialogue will be explored.


The current work reports on a comparison of high-fidelity 3D Navier-Stokes simulations of SD7003 airfoil interacting with canonical upstream flow disturbances against previous high-accuracy 2D simulations conducted for transitional flow regime. Three forms of upstream flow disturbance are considered including 1D and 2D time-harmonic gust, sharp-edge gust, and the Taylor vortex models. Results obtained for the airfoil unsteady aerodynamic responses to time-harmonic and sharp-edge gust perturbations with variable gust amplitude are discussed in comparison with linearized inviscid, incompressible unsteady aerodynamic theory. In addition, analysis of unsteady aerodynamic response for a large highamplitude Taylor vortex impinging on the airfoil is examined. It is shown that the less computationally expensive 2D simulations provide a sufficiently accurate analysis of the unsteady lift responses but fall short in drag and moment predictions.


Coating system for a metallic substrate includes a strengthened bond coat including a bond coat inner layer and an aluminum-containing layer overlying the bond coat inner layer. The bond coat inner layer is formed by deposition of a bond coat composition including, in weight percent, 14-20% Cr, 5-8% Al, 8-12% Co, 3-7% Ta, 0.1-0.6% Hf, 0.1-0.5% Y, up to about 1% Si, 0.005-0.020% Zr, 0.04-0.08% C, 0.01-0.02% B, with a remainder including Ni and incidental impurities, wherein the bond coat composition is substantially free of rhenium. The coating system includes an optional thermal barrier coating which may be a yttria-stabilized zirconia.


When in forensic casework or empirical research in‐person assessment of human decomposition is not possible, the sensible substitution is color photographic images. To date, no research has confirmed the utility of color photographic images as a proxy for in situ observation of the level of decomposition. Sixteen observers scored photographs of 13 human cadavers in varying decomposition stages (PMI 2–186 days) using the Total Body Score system (total n = 929 observations). The on‐site TBS was compared with recorded observations from digital color images using a paired samples t‐test. The average difference between on‐site and photographic observations was −0.20 (t = −1.679, df = 928, p = 0.094). Individually, only two observers, both students with <1 year of experience, demonstrated TBS statistically significantly different than the on‐site value, suggesting that with experience, observations of human decomposition based on digital images can be substituted for assessments based on observation of the corpse in situ, when necessary.


: In the development of future passenger cars, the statutory regulations on defossilization of the exhaust emissions must be reconciled with customer requirements. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the complex interactions within powertrain systems at the earliest possible stage of development, to exploit their full potential. Thus, this paper presents a holistic methodology for optimizing the operation of all powertrain components exemplified by a hybrid powertrain. The methodology enables the full potential of all powertrain components to be exploited. For this purpose, a requirements catalog focused on the powertrain was derived using a top-down systems engineering approach. This requirements catalog is necessary for the identification of all limiting factors of the powertrain system. The development and application of the methodology and the system optimization were carried out via extensive simulation studies. Thereby, an optimal design of the hybrid powertrain was derived for a defined target application. Based on this


A rectangular dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) is proposed over a metasurface for achieving wideband circularly polarized radiation. The antenna consists of a rectangular DR, a metasurface, and a coaxial probe. The metasurface-based ground plane has improved the 3-dB axial ratio bandwidth and gain of the rectangular DRA. This DRA over the metasurface, which consists of an array of "+" shaped unit cells, exhibits a wideband 3-dB axial ratio bandwidth of 19% (4.45 GHz-5.39 GHz) with less than 2-VSWR and a realized gain of more than 6.0 dBic across a frequency range from 4 GHz to 5. 25 GHz.


The Retinal image analysis has received significant attention from researchers due to the compelling need of early detection systems that aid in the screening and treatment of diseases. Several automated retinal disease detection studies are carried out as part of retinal image processing. Heren an Improved Ensemble Deep Learning (IEDL) model has been proposed to detect the various retinal diseases with a higher rate of accuracy, having multiclass classification on various stages of deep learning algorithms. This model incorporates deep learning algorithms which automatically extract the properties from training data, that lacks in traditional machine learning approaches. Here, Retinal Fundus Multi-Disease Image Dataset (RFMiD) is considered for evaluation. First, image augmentation is performed for manipulating the existing images followed by upsampling and normalization. The proposed IEDL model then process the normalized images which is computationally intensive with several ensemble learning strategies like heterogeneous deep learning models, bagging through 5-fold cross-validation which consists of four deep learning models like ResNet, Bagging, DenseNet, EfficientNet and a stacked logistic regression for predicting purpose. The accuracy rate achieved by this method is 97.78%, with a specificity rate of 97.23%, sensitivity of 96.45%, precision of 96.45%, and recall of 94.23%. The model is capable of achieving a greater accuracy rate of 1.7% than the traditional machine learning methods.


Objective: We report the case of a patient with a previously implanted spinal cord stimulator (SCS) who presented for a cochlear implant. The patient was successfully implanted with a Nucleus CI422 Slim Straight Electrode from Cochlear Company. Methods: The authors conducted a case report and literature review. Results: Successful hookup and mapping of the device was performed 1 month and 6 months after implantation with no evidence of aberrant activity of the spinal cord stimulator. Conclusion: To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of the successful implantation of a cochlear implant in a recipient already implanted with a spinal cord stimulator.


: Iatrogenic injuries of the superior vena cava (SVC) are infrequent but could bring severe complications. Perforation of the SVC may result in massive hemorrhage and hemodynamic instability. We report the case of a 58-year-old female with a right hemothorax after left subclavian central venous catheter (CVC) placement. Penetration of the SVC can be managed by coil embolization through left subclavian CVC. As a result, this injury was successfully managed. To our knowledge, this is the first report of management of SVC penetration using coil embolization.


New analytical representations for the truncated spectral characteristics of the four-point coherence function of a laser beam propagating in a turbulent medium are obtained. These representations are valid for any level of fluctuation of the refractive index in air. They turn into exact analytical representations previously derived for two particular cases by using an integral-functional equation for truncated spectral characteristics of the four-point coherence function. A constructive procedure for obtaining approximate analytical expressions for the four-point coherence function of a laser beam propagating in a turbulent medium is proposed.


The transverse relaxation of F19 nuclei in Teflon in the rotating frame at exact resonance has been studied by using rf fields large compared to the local field in this solid. Various pulse sequences are explored which serve to trace out the decay of the magnetization in the rotating frame and, further, to recover the magnetization lost under the action of secular dipolar terms and of the inhomogeneity of the rf magnetic field. It is found theoretically, and partially confirmed experimentally, that the rotary free-induction decay can be refocussed even after the spin system has presumably attained a steady state in the rotating frame, contrary to the assumption of the spin-temperature approximation.


. We introduce F -gauges over a prism, construct syntomic cycle classes, and prove the prismatic Poincar´e duality for proper smooth schemes.


Catastrophes and the News Media How Events Become News: The Search for Truth "This is What's Left of Yellowstone Tonight": Urban Reporters and Wilderness Fire The Unthinkable Happens: Oil in Prince William Sound A Prediction Comes True: The 1989 "World Series" Earthquake News Practices and Catastrophes: Reporters, Symbols and Public Myths Reporters and Experts: Strategies for Better Journalism Appendix: Details of the Research Methods Bibliography Index


This paper discusses the evaluation practices implemented in Brazilian higher education during Fernando Henrique Cardoso's administration, especially at the undergraduate level, trying to unravel the hidden conceptions of evaluations which undergird this program. The paper identifies and discusses five evaluation underpinnings which explain the understanding of the curriculum as it relates to a systemic, functionalistic, and cybernetic conception of evaluation. It also presents a prologue as it transforms these underpinnings into law, creating a National Education Agency (ANE) for maintaining and developing the system.


The global positioning system(GPS) has been applied as a land survey technique in recent years. GPS has many advantages compared to the traditional survey techniques. The RTK(real time kinematic) technical questions are discussed according to the practice of land survey in Yongkang City, Zhejiang Province by RTK technique. The result shows that RTK technique is a good tool to heighten survey efficiency,especially in the difficult watching areas.


Log plays an important role in the system daily operation,audit and intrusion detection,and the mode of the remote centralized management is an effective means for log management. Because of the different log formats for different operation system,traditionally,it is difficult to gather the log of each system,and transmit them to remote log server in large- scale network. The nxlog is a multi- platform supported and powerful log collection tool,which can easily deploy to collect steadily the log on the target system,and send them to the remote log server with multiple log formats and transmission modes. Moreover,the Syslog as an industrial protocol has been supported by more and more systems. Therefore,based on nxlog and mature log server,the flexible and reliable remote log collection solution can be built easily. The actual operation result shows that this solution can effectively solve the problem of the remote system logs collection in large- scale network.


Background: Vascular anomalies, classified as hemangiomas and arteriovenous   malformations (AVMs), were analyzed for the presence of mast cells. Hemangiomas in the proliferative phase contained large numbers of mast cells (53.12 ± 27.83 cells/mm 2 )  in comparison with hemangiomas in the involuting phase (11.43 ± 7.9 cells/mm 2 ), and AVM (25.31 ± 27.3 cells/mm 2 ). Considering the fact that hemangiomas are characterized by endothelial proliferation and increased numbers of mast cells, these data raise the possibility that mast cells may have an important role in the formation and/or maintenance of these lesions. Aim: This study aimed at evaluation of presence of mast cells in hemangiomas proliferating, involuting ones and AVMs. Methods: A total of 120 cases of benign vascular lesions were retrieved from 12 years period. A total of 94 cases, where complete clinical details and representative paraffin sections were available, were included in this study. Hematoxylin and eosin (H and E) stain and Mast cell density in all lesions was calculated from toluidine blue stained sections. Results:  Mean mast cell density was significantly higher in proliferating hemangiomas (53.12 ± 27.83 cells/mm 2 ) compared to involuting hemangiomas (11.43 ± 7.9 cells/mm 2 ) and AVM (25.31 ± 27.3 cells/mm 2 ) Conclusions: The significantly higher mast cell density seen in proliferating hemangiomas compared with involuting ones, seem to suggest that mast cells play an important role in the natural history of these lesions.


In this study a coaxial line was used to connect a microwave-frequency Network Analyzer and a base moving sample holder for dielectric characterization of ferroelectric materials in the microwave range. The main innovation of the technique is the introduction of a special sample holder that eliminates the air gap effect by pressing sample using a fine pressure system control. The device was preliminary tested with alumina (Al2O3) ceramics and validated up to 2 GHz. Dielectric measurements of lanthanum and manganese modified lead titanate (PLTM) ceramics were carried out in order to evaluate the technique for a high permittivity material in the microwave range. Results showed that such method is very useful for materials with high dielectric permittivities, which is generally a limiting factor of other techniques in the frequency range from 50 MHz to 2 GHz.


Objective To explore the diagnostic value of ultrasound elastography(UE) scoring method in small breast lumps.Methods Select 99 patients that accept routine breast examination(102 breast lumps,≤2 cm in diameter). A total of 102 breast lumps were divided into group Ⅰ(breast lumps 1-≤ 2 cm in diameter,n=60) and group Ⅱ(breast lumps ≤1 cm in diameter,n=42).The elastographic examination was performed after routine ultrasound examination in all lumps. Application of UE scoring method(5 points scoring method) to score all the breast lumps.Calculate the sensitivity,specificity,accuracy,positive predictive value and negative predictive value of all the breast lumps ≤2 cm in diameter and group Ⅰ,groupⅡ by UE scoring method. Results Among the 102 breast lumps ≤2 cm,pathological results were benign in 53 and malignant in 49.The sensitivity,specificity,accuracy,positive predictive value and negative predictive value of UE scoring method for the diagnosis of breast lumps(≤2 cm in diameter) were 83.67%,88.68%,86.27%,87.23% and 85.45%,respectively.Compared with group Ⅰ,the sensitivity,specificity,accuracy,positive predictive value and negative predictive value of UE scoring method were significantly increased in group Ⅱ(80.00%,86.67%,83.33%,85.71% and 81.25% vs 89.47%,91.30%,90.48%,89.47% and 91.30%,respectively;all P0.05).Conclusion UE scoring method has a high diagnostic value in small breast lumps and can contribute to the diagnosis of early breast cancer.


Digital holography microscopy (DHM) allows fast, nondestructive, high resolution and full-field 3D shape measurement of micro-objects. However, a drawback of many experimental arrangements of DHM is the requirement for a separate reference wave, which results in a measurement stability and interference fringe contrast decrease. In this paper, a common-path DHM (CDHM) is explored which only requires a single object illumination wave. Due to the fact that conventional phase unwrapping algorithms are not suitable for the complex and step surface of object, the dual wavelength linear regression phase unwrapping algorithm is introduced. By comparing two wrapped phase maps reconstructed at different wavelengths, the maps can be accurately unwrapped with straightforward and less timeconsuming. From the CDHM system and the phase unwrapping algorithm introduced, we experimentally obtained high quality depth profiles of micro-objects.


To the Editor: —The September, 1954, issue of the A. M. A.Archives of Internal Medicineincludes a paper by Feldman and others on the controversial subject of Dicumarol [bishydroxycoumarin] therapy in moycardial infarction. May I take the liberty of pointing out an error of omission in the text which I believe results in an "editorialized" presentation of the data. The concluding summary of the paper very properly quotes the number of thromboembolic complications in the control versus the treated group but makes no references to the mortality figures in each group. Likewise, the text quotes a total mortality of 15.6% but gives no figure for the mortality in the control versus treated groups other than to state that "There was no significant difference in the mortality rate." However, on examination of the detailed tables, which are broken down in several ways, one discovers that the mortality in the treated


It is possible to produce polypyrrole films on mild steel by electropolymerization from aqueous solutions. The present study compares the characteristics of films obtained from various solutions (Na2SO4, H2C2O4, Na2C2O4 or H3BO3) on mild steel. Films are studied by Scanning Electron Microscopy, Optical Microscopy, Auger Electron Microscopy, X‐Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy. Other studies are under way on galvanized steel and zinc.


: Biochemical and molecular basis of bacterial bioluminescence and its effect on pollutants is of great importance. As the ill-effects of environmental pollution increases, there is an utmost need for developing reliable tools for rapid assessment of the potential toxic and genotoxic effects of environmental samples. Bioluminescence can be used as a reliable reporter for the assessment or monitoring of various aquatic samples containing toxicants such as pesticides, PCBs, aromatic hydrocarbons, fuels, alkanes, alcohols and heavy metals because of its high degree of response and low cost of performance. This review intends to investigate the physiological, biochemical as well as genetic diversity and relationships among bioluminescent bacterial strains isolated from various beaches of India. Present analysis is also targeting to explain the potential use of newly isolated strains in construction of heavy metal bioassay or biosensor to monitor the heavy metal contaminants in water samples.


By George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart Paul Sycamore: Jonathan Sorocki Jonathan has been cast in several high school plays and is enthusiastic about performing with PAC. Most of you have seen him around campus sitting on top of the Metrotech directory or lounging in the lounge. Jonathan is an avid swimmer for the Brooklyn Sports Club Aquatics Team Swordefish. Jonathan is a first year Mechanical Engineering major. Donald: Justin King This is Justin's debut in theatre. He was always interested in the arts but never had the guts to go through with it. Justin is very excited about creating an acting lifetsyle along with his major. During his spare time, Justin works with the athletics department doing "athletic stuff" but thinks that the theatre is much more worth it. Justin is a first year Technical Communication major. WHO'S WHO: THE PLAYERS


FIELD: communication. SUBSTANCE: invention relates to wireless communication system, and more specifically to method and apparatus for channel access via null data packet frame in wireless LAN system. Method for channel access from station (STA) in wireless communication system according to one embodiment of the present invention comprises steps of: receiving, from access point (AP), configuration information for one or more slots for channel access; receiving first frame, from AP, from particular slot from among one or more slots; and starting channel access after receiving first frame, wherein first frame can be null data packet (NDP) frame. EFFECT: technical result consists in minimizing power consumption. 10 cl, 25 dwg


Magnesium oxide containing up to 8 atom % iron oxide, with and without lithium oxide, prepared at 1273 K in reducing (CO + CO2) and oxidizing (air) atmospheres, has been investigated by means of lattice parameter measurements, chemical analyses and magnetic susceptibility measurements (98–293 K).Iron oxide and magnesium oxide form MgFe2O4 in air. Addition of lithium enables iron ions to enter into solid solution as Fe3+. In a reducing atmosphere (oxygen partial pressure = 1.013 × 10–7 N m–2= 10–12 atm) the iron is incorporated in MgO as Fe2+. The MgO lattice stabilizes the 2+ oxidation state of iron in solid solution. The effect of the combined action of outgassing and N2O decomposition is discussed.


Influenza vaccination is recommended for children aged 6 months or older. Despite this recommendation and the well-publicized morbidity and mortality of influenza infection, vaccination rates for children hover around 50%–60%. Strategies to improve vaccination rates in adults include administering vaccine outside of healthcare provider offices, such as in pharmacies and places of employment. …


The article is devoted to the problem of formation and development of entrepreneurship in Ukraine. The author shows historical conditionality of modern features of entrepreneurial activity and reveals the causes and factors of the deformation of the institution of entrepreneurship. The importance of private enterprise for economic development is explored, and the roles of innovation and competition are underlined. The author uses the methods of evolutionary economic theory and institutional history, carries out a retrospective review of the origin, formation and development of entrepreneurship and reveals the importance of primary forms of entrepreneurship in the Middle Ages. The economy and trade were of a high level and progressive character on the Ukrainian lands. Institutional norms contributed to the development of private entrepreneurship. Kievan Rus was an economic leader of Europe. Further disintegration of the state had negative consequences. Political, social and religious barriers arose for the entrepreneurial activity of the Ukrainian population. In the article, the reverse character of institutional evolution is justified. The author reveals the role of the Ukrainian Cossack State and the policy of Bohdan Khmelnitsky in economic democratization and shows the dependence between the processes of formation of the national state and the formation of the national market. The myth of the primacy of state and landowner manufactories is refuted. In mid-17th century, manufactories developed on the basis of private crafts, being the private property and hired labor at the heart of entrepreneurship. Institutional scrapping occurred later, when the Russian empire planted state-owned manufactories and factories. The concentration of power and property in the hands of the landlords and the state hindered the development of capitalism. Reforms of the second half of the 19 - early 20th centuries strengthened the integration of the Ukrainian economy into the Russian market, though numerous features of the feudal system were preserved. The asymmetry of access to economic resources aggravated. The policy of "internal protectionism" contributed to the rapid development of new industries and monopolization of the economy. A merge between business and state took place. At the same time, the unevenness of economic development intensified social contradictions. Another institutional breakdown in the history of entrepreneurship in Ukraine occurred during the Soviet period. Mental and behavioral archetypes of economic activity were undermined, and the institutional foundations of private enterprise were destroyed. Privatization and liberalization of the economy during the years of Ukraine's Independence have failed to overcome the historical trajectory of the development of economic institutions. Competition and private enterprise are inferior to monopoly and bureaucracy. The formation of a new entrepreneurship paradigm requires inclusion and social responsibility. Creation and dissemination of new innovative forms of entrepreneurship in Ukraine according to the network model corresponds to global trends. Reliance on social capital and IT technologies indicates the prospects for the development of entrepreneurship, and overcoming institutional barriers requires a proper transformation of the system of extractive institutions into a system of incentives and mechanisms of social inclusion.


Poly(methylsilanes) produced by sodium coupling of methyldichlorosilane (2:1 molar ratio) contain residual chlorine which can be removed by reduction with LiAlH4 at low temperature. Following this reduction, the polymers contain catalytically active centers (presumed to be silyl anions) which, in THF solution, further polymerize and crosslink the polymer at room temperature, while in toluene solution they are inactive. The reduced polymethylsilane gives high yields (ca 75%) of ceramic product on pyrolysis, but the composition is rich in silicon, compared with pure silicon carbide (SiC). Addition of catalytic amounts of dimethylzirconocene (DMZ) to this polymer gives a product which pyrolyzes to a product with stoichiometry close to that of SiC. It is concluded that the DMZ has an important influence in promoting Si–C bond formation, relative to Si–Si bond formation, during the pyrolysis.


It is now established that mortality and excess mortality from COVID-19 differed across racial and ethnic groups in 2020. Less is known about educational differences in mortality during the pandemic. We examine mortality rates by BA status within sex, age, and race/ethnic groups comparing 2020 with 2019. Mortality rates have increasingly differed by BA status in the US in recent years and there are good reasons to expect the gap to have widened further during the pandemic. Using publicly available provisional data from the National Center for Health Statistics we find that mortality rates increased in 2020 over 2019 for those with and without a BA, irrespective of age, sex, or race/ethnicity. Although mortality rates increased by more for those without a BA, the ratio of mortality rates for those with and without a BA changed surprisingly little from 2019 to 2020. The BA was protective against mortality prior to the pandemic, and it was equally protective during the pandemic. Among 60 groups (sex by race/ ethnicity by age) that are available in the data, the ratio of mortality rates of those without a BA to those with a BA fell for more than half of the groups. Our results suggest that differences in the risk of infection were less important in structuring mortality by education than differences in the risk of death conditional on infection. Anne Case School of Public and International Affairs 129 Julis Romo Rabinowitz Building Princeton University Princeton, NJ 08544 and NBER email@example.com Angus Deaton School of Public and International Affairs 127 Julis Romo Rabinowitz Building Princeton University Princeton, NJ 08544-1013 and NBER email@example.com


T. Meulemans and M. Van der Linden (1997) presented evidence for 2 distinct mechanisms involved in artificial grammar learning. They suggested that after training on 32 letter strings (Experiment 2A), participants classify test strings using knowledge of the distributional statistics of letter chunks, whereas after training on 125 letter strings (Experiment 2B) they classify on the basis of knowledge of the rules of the grammar This article offers an alternative unitary account of Meulemans and Van der Linden's findings. The authors show that information about grammatical rules and chunk locations was confounded in the test strings used in Experiment 2B and then present evidence that all of the data can be explained in terms of distributional knowledge, provided this includes knowledge of the positional constraints on chunks. Finally, the authors question the utility of traditional finite-state grammars for investigating abstraction processes, and suggest alternative methods.


Provided is a collector for substances to be detected (1), wherein a carrier (5) that collects microbes is arranged in sections that can be divided into a plurality of subsections. The carrier (5) comprises a count analysis carrier (5a) and an identification analysis carrier (5b) arranged in sections in a first dish half (4a) and a second dish half (4b) which are obtained by dividing a collection dish (4).


Abstract : Operators of military flight vehicles are often required to attend to more than one source of communications signal. Previous research has shown that the intelligibility of a speech message in a background of speech distractors is improved if the signals are presented using a 3-dimensional (3-D) audio display rather than the traditional diotic configuration. However, whether infrequent target messages (e.g., callsigns) are more reliably detected in a continuous monitoring task with high temporal uncertainty when using a 3-D audio display has not been examined. This study examined participants' ability to detect a target callsign and identify a color/number combination associated with it while engaged in a 20-minute, simulated formation-flying task. Participants were required to monitor five communications channels, each of which presented messages at random intervals. On average, 2.4 channels were simultaneously active. Thirty targets were presented over the 20-minute period. There were three audio display conditions: diotic, all channels in front, and channels separated in azimuth (3-D). Results show that the detection of target callsigns was significantly higher in the 3-D condition compared to the other conditions. Detections and false alarms were combined to calculate sensitivity and criterion measures using signal detection theory. Sensitivity was significantly higher in the 3-D condition compared with the other conditions, but there were no differences in criterion. Also, consistent with previous results, correct identification of the target number/color combination was significantly higher in the 3-D condition compared with the other conditions.


This thesis contains the results of a biocultural conservation research conducted between 2008 and 2011 in home gardens in Vall Fosca, Catalan Pyrenees, northeastern Spain. Vall Fosca is a valley where traditional agroecosystems still survive, but whose inhabitants are divided in defining the most suitable development model for the region. This dissertation examines the existence of landraces and knowledge associated with them in a rural area in an industrialized country. It shows who preserves landraces and why they do so. It also estimates the association between individual centrality in the network of seed exchange and conservation of landraces and associated knowledge. This thesis also discusses the ecosystem services provided by home gardens, as well as the differences between men and women when assessing these ecosystem services. The results establish the existence of landraces and knowledge associated with them in a rural area in an industrialized country. Specifically, my results show the existence of 39 landraces belonging to 31 species, in home gardens with a variety of 148 different species. Women, people over 65 years of age, experienced gardeners and people who grow the garden with organic techniques conserve more landraces than people without these characteristics. Also people who have a more active role in the seed exchange network and have higher levels of intermediation in the network retain more landraces and traditional knowledge than people who have a more passive role in social networks of seed exchange. Home gardens provide a wide range of services, often not very prominent in the literature on ecosystem services. Among these, cultural services are the most appreciated. In this regard, an interesting contribution of this work is that the most valued home garden ecosystem services differ significantly from the services provided by other farming systems. Another interesting contribution of this work is that women value the ecosystem services more than men. The explanation for this finding is part of the socialization theory that assigns women roles on family care and protection. My analysis provides new data that facilitate the understanding of the relationship between pro-environmental attitudes and gender socialization. This thesis has found that home gardens and landraces are symbols of cultural identity in the valley and that both permanent residents and visitors consider that home gardens are key elements in the landscape of the valley and should be preserved as part of biocultural heritage. In addition, the ecosystem services provided by the home gardens, particularly the cultural services, can help develop relations between people, relations that might contribute to strengthening cultural identity and to create bonds of respect with the environment. The results of this thesis can contribute to make biocultural diversity visible in the valley and generate endogenous rural development models based on the sustainable exploitation of ecosystem services generated by traditional agroecosystems. Key words: ecosystem services; landraces; rural development; socialization theory; Spain; traditional ecological knowledge.


Depression is the most common psychiatric disorder reported in every next person in today"s lifestyle. Depression has become the third leading cause of global disease burden, and is accounting for 4.3% of total disability-adjusted life years. If this continues for long it will become the leading cause of disease burden by the year 2030. According to a community survey the prevalence rate of depression amongst the adolescents is between 1.8%-7.8%. The several forms of depressive disorders are found amongst, which the most common are major depressive disorder and dysthymic disorder. Amitryptyline along with a Selective Serrotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI), i.e. fluoxetine is the treatment option for depression, as per the list of essential medicines issued by the WHO. But because of the certain side-effects of SSRI"s, it became necessary to switch on the bupropion to treat the condition of major depression. Bupropion was discovered in 1985 & is the fourth most prescribed antidepressant in the United States. The Bupropion was firstly discovered to treat the Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and is frequently used for smoking- cessation. Bupropion is the much demanded drug among the youth. In general, youth undergoing through the phase of depression may notice an improvement in various symptoms like improved mood, improved concentration, more energy and better sleep after taking this medication.


This monograph traces the emergence of the domestic kitchen as a distinctive space that helped make houses homes from the 17th century through to the middle of the 19th, and explores how the kitchen and its contents from the hearth to the contents of the dresser drawer -- became a site of specialised activity, sociability and strife. Drawing upon texts, images, surviving structures and objects, The Birth of the English Kitchen, 1600-1850 opens up the early modern English kitchen as an important historical site in the construction of domestic relations between husband and wife, masters, mistresses and servants and householders and outsiders; and as a crucial resource in contemporary heritage landscapes.


The purpose of this paper is to prove irrationality results from Jacobi's triple product identity, which can be written, for x∈[Copf ]*, y∈[Copf ], [mid ]y[mid ]<1: formula here There are various proofs of this identity; the classical one rests on the theory of theta functions ([3], theorem 6, p. 69). An alternative proof uses Heine's summation formula ([10], p. 12). An elementary, self-contained proof, can be found in [9], p. 227. In this paper, we will use the same elementary methods as in [5] and [6], and prove the following theorems.


The six chapters of this compact volume provide an economical introduction to the symptomology, assessment, and treatment approaches to visuospatial neglect. Neglect researchers may find themselves slightly disappointed by the scant attention devoted to theoretical issues regarding neural mechanisms or etiology. To be fair, however, the authors acknowledge that theoretical synthesis is not the purpose of the book,which is aimed primarily at an audience of clinicians and therapists. As such, this monograph admirably fulfills its mission, which is to provide a succinct but comprehensive overview of the clinical assessment and rehabilitation of neglect disorders.


This research work entitled "NON-CRIMINALIZATION AND PUNISHMENT OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT STREET VIOLATES CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS" responds to a problem by that society is being affected daily and that does not have a legal regulation that allows control and sanction.
Through this research we study one of the most common social problems and unnoticed that currently is taking place in the public spaces of our country as street sexual harassment, which is considered a form of violence that is running acts of nature or sexual nature against one or more persons in public spaces and violates constitutional rights such as the right to freedom of movement, right to security, right to integrity.
Street harassment is a problem invisible in society and practice goes unnoticed because those who perform such acts considered to be a form of flattery to the people who receive it, but do not consider the damage that their actions may result in the victim as psychological and emotional condition or feeling of insecurity when transiting public spaces as the fear of encountering potential aggressors, etc.
Sexual Harassment Street can be exercised in several ways, verbally and nonverbally, by capturing pictures or video recording, with physical contact
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such as grabs the private parts without physical contact such as exhibitionism, public masturbation and persistent persecution of the individual concerned.
In Ecuador is currently regulated sexual harassment as unlawful conduct but such conduct is punishable only when it is the result of power relations, that is, when there is a relationship of hierarchical superiority between the stalker and the victim not when the harassment is conducted in public spaces by persons unknown to him or affected, which is why it is necessary to submit a proposal for legal reform to the Organic Code Integral Criminal considering that this kind of harassment violates rights guaranteed in the Constitution of the Republic of Ecuador .
This research aims to incorporate a penalty in criminal law for persons making the shares of the street sexual harassment and for victims when reporting these actions feel backed by a rule that allows them to base their conplait


The Gas Liquid Separator (GLS) has been widely used by petroleum industry, chemical engineering, the area of environmental protection, etc. A large quantity of works on the GLS available in literature includes experimental data, numerical simulations and field applications. However, previous studies on the GLS were based on gas incompressible circumstances. In fact, the gas flows from high to low pressure area that it lead to the density fluctuations of gas in separator, the changes of density cause volume expansion of gas, so that separation performance of the GLS is reduced. Numerical simulation for the GLS was developed based on compressible and incompressible flow. Research results show that flow field of two ways and separation performance were different.Copyright © 2010 by ASME


The use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to monitor large colonies of seabirds avoids challenges associated with conventional methods, but manual image processing is expensive. Development of semi-automated analytical methods rely on high image spatial resolution, which requires a trade-off between securing low area coverage and high spatial resolution flying at low altitude vs high area coverage but low spatial resolution flying at higher altitudes. Increasing individual bird detection probabilities requires maximizing contrast between target and background, which can be enhanced using thermal sensors. We applied a semi-automatic analytical method to multispectral UAV derived imagery to count a mixed breeding colony of Herring Gulls (Larus argentatus) and Lesser Blackbacked Gulls (L. fuscus). We trained the computer to detect different image classes by their spectral signature in several orthomosaics obtained from UAV flights at different altitudes using different cameras. Highest agreement with the manual counts was achieved by low flying (20 m) using the highest camera resolution (97.7 ± 1.1% for the Herring Gulls, omission error 2.6%, commission error 0.5%; 94.8 ± 1.8% for Lesser Black-backed Gulls, omission error 6.5%, commission error 1.6%). Method precision varied between trials, confirming the importance of low altitude flying with high quality cameras, and a 40% reduction in detection noise from adding a thermal sensor. Counting breeding gulls with unmanned aerial vehicles: camera quality and flying height affects precision of a semi-automatic counting method


Angioedema (AE) is a sudden localized, subcutaneous or submucosal, swelling due to one of two major possible mechanisms: mast cell induced (MC-AE) or bradykinin mediated (BkAE). MC-AE may be allergic or non-allergic (mast cell degranulation non-specific to the antigen). BkAE may be hereditary, with (C1-INH-HAE) or without C1 inhibitor (C1-INH) deficiency. BkAE may also be acquired with C1-INH deficiency (C1-INH-AAE), complicating some blood diseases, dysimmunities or be iatrogenic, mainly due to angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEi). This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.


Abstract A new feature at the PATRAM 2010 symposium was the introduction of 'rapporteurs' to provide summaries of the oral presentations and panel discussions. At the beginning of each morning plenary session, from Tuesday through Friday, a different rapporteur presented brief highlights from the sessions and panels taking place on the previous day. These reports are summarised below.


In order to solve the problem of path tracking of mobile robot, a sliding mode control strategy is proposed. Firstly, a sliding mode controller based on the inversion algorithm is designed, and the low-pass filter is used to reduce the interference in the control process. On this basis, for solving the problem that the dynamic performance of the previous controller is not ideal, the bounded input constraint is used to improve the control law. The simulation results show that the improved controller not only has good tracking effect and fast dynamic response, but also ensures the global asymptotically stability.


Objective To discuss the effect of bidirectional evaluation in teaching management in central sterile supply department.Methods In the teaching management in central sterile supply department,96 nursing interns in 2009 were considered as experimental group,bidirectional evaluation on teaching was used;114 nursing interns in 2008 were considered as control group,and traditional evaluation method was used.The examination scores were compared between the two groups.Results The examination score in the experimental group was 11.31 points higher than that in the control group(P0.001),and the clinical teachers scored 9.05 more than the last year.Conclusions The bidirectional evaluation on teaching can improve students' practice effect and clinical teachers' knowledge level and professional qualities,therefore promote the standardization of teaching management.


Moderate wine consumption has been shown to lower cardiovascular risk when part of a healthy life style. Red wine compounds, especially polyphenols, might play a role in preventing the development and progression of atherosclerosis, through different modalities of action, including inhibition of lipid peroxidation, metal chelation, free radical scavenging, inhibition of platelet aggregation, anti-inflammatory and estrogenic activity, improvement of endothelial function, lowering of blood pressure and modulation of lipoprotein metabolism. The attenuation of the postprandial oxidative stress could be another mechanism involved in protection by wine phenols, as the absorption of prooxidant/oxidized species with a meal can induce physiological events, such as the formation of mildly oxidized lipoprotein or endothelial dysfunction and inflammatory responses, all linked to the development of cardiovascular disease. As regards oxidizable/oxidized dietary fats, the typical Western diet contains substantial quantities of oxidized lipids. In view of the health implications of their absorption from food, we studied the effect of wine consumption with a meal on modulation of oxidative stress and postprandial increase of plasma oxidized lipids in humans.


The paucity of vitiligo animal models limits the understanding of vitiligo pathogenesis and the development of therapies for the skin disorder. In this study, we developed a new mouse model of vitiligo by topically applying the skin‐depigmenting agent monobenzone on mice. We demonstrated that monobenzone‐induced skin depigmentation on the non‐exposed sites and that the severity of lesions depended on drug dosage. The result of the histological examination of the depigmented skin indicated loss of epidermal melanocytes and perilesional accumulation of CD8+ T cells. Furthermore, the monobenzone‐induced depigmentation of the Rag1 gene knockout did not appear on the non‐exposed sites, supporting the involvement of infiltrating CD8+ T cells in melanocyte destruction. Resemblance in histological characteristics and pathogenesis between monobenzone‐induced depigmentation and active human vitiligo suggests good potential of our mouse model for use in vitiligo research.


Objective:To study the nosocomial infectious bacteria and their resistances in the patients with liver diseases.Methods:A prospective survey of 82 strains was carried out in our hospital since 1999.Results:Gram negative bacteria were 78.05% and gram positive bacteria were 21.95% in 82 strains respectively.The resistant percentage of these bacteria to commonly used antibiotics increased significantly.The resistant percentages of these bacteria to Ampicillin,Piperacillin, Norfloxacin, Gentamycin and cefazolin were 76.78%,42.37%,38.09%,28.89%,24.13% respectively.But the average sensitive percentages of these bacteria to the third cephlosporins were high.Conclusion:The patients with liver diseases, especially hepatitis gravis,liver cirrhosis and carcinoma of liver were easy to infect nosocomial infectious bacteria and their resistant percentages to antibiotic were high.So we should choice sensitive antibiotic,such as the third cephlosporins and trend the resistance of bacteria.


Modern cultural integration derived from deferent opinions upon Western-Eastern cultural relationship is also called western learning of the three East-Asia countries.China adopts the mode of "Chinese culture and Western science and technology",Korea adopts the mode of "Eastern Learning and Western science and technology",and Japan adopts the mode of "Japanese ethics and Western civilization".Although there are many resemblances in the formation of Western learning of the three countries,there are still many different characteristics in the contents in each country,which mainly showed in their reflections upon tradition and Western culture.


Abstract Using a sample of Chinese listed private firms selected from the period of 1999–2007 before the financial crisis, we investigate that the role of regional institutional environment (RIE) in the relationship between political participation (POLP) and effective tax rates (ETR). We find that the correlation between POLP and ETR depends on RIE, which can be characterized in two ways: marketization and corruption levels; and in particular, a statistically significant positive relation is shown to exist between POLP and ETR among firms located in regions with low corruption levels, and so does a statistically significant negative correlation among firms located in regions with high corruption levels. Correlations of opposite nature exist if the marketization level is concerned, but the relations are not as strong as in the case of corruption level.


In this paper, we consider the problem of decentralized suboptimal H/sub 2/-filtering which guarantees the asymptotic stability of the filtering error. We derive a necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of a decentralized H/sub 2/-filter. It is proposed how a decentralized H/sub 2/-filter can be constructed using invariance subspaces from geometric control theory. It is shown that the McMillan degree of each local filter is less than or equal to that of the plant.


As part of the Advanced Shield Phenomenology Program, conducted from 1987 to 1989, a study of the effects of oblique impact on hypervelocity shield damage was performed. The specific threat used was an aluminum cylinder with a mass of 1.75 grams and a length to diameter ratio of one. Incidence angles of 30{degree}, 60{degree}, and 90{degree} were studied. The same layered shield assembly was tested at the different incidence angles. Testing was performed at the Arnold Engineering Development Center, Arnold Air Force Base, Tullahoma, Tennessee. Hydrocode analysis of the interaction of the projectile with the front plate was performed for each of the different incidence angles. 10 refs., 23 figs., 3 tabs.


This monograph examines the field of nonsmooth impact dynamics and its applications to the control of robotic systems. The mathematical foundations of the dynamics of systems of rigid bodies submitted to a set of unilateral constraints are also introduced. Following on from this, the macroscopic physical laws of shocks (restitution roles) are described and commented upon and in, view of the applications to feedback control, stability properties of trajectories of various types of measure differential equations are reviewed.