the word 'sensation' talking about, particularly when he mentions visual sensations? I read the whole book without feeling sure. Mr Hamlyn was not talking about the sense-organs; in any case, he holds that their operation is of little interest to the philosopher. It was apparent that he was not talking about sensation in at least one ordinary sense of the word, i.e., about sensations of disgust, or fear, or giddiness, or exaltation, or eye-strain. Was he sometimes thinking of patches of colour? This was something which ought to have been made much clearer than it was. If he were talking about sense-data I should have understood him better, but he rejects the sense-datum theory; perhaps the trouble was that some of the arguments which he so ably marshals against the sense-datum theory cut the ground from under his own feet, for he is in fact much more conservatively minded than he seems. After 'sensation', perhaps the next most difficult words were 'active' and 'passive', as used to formulate the problem, to which Mr Hamlyn gives great prominence, but which I never felt I understood, whether sensation or perception were the one or the other. 'Judgment' (as used in the question whether perception is or is not judgment) is another example of the sort of thing I am complaining about. Incidentally, I cannot forbear from protesting at the frequent use of 'the having of, as, for example, in 'the having of experiences'.


An increasing shortening of product life cycles, as well as the trend towards highly individualized food products, force manufacturers to digitize their own production chains. Especially the collection, monitoring, and evaluation of food data will have a major impact in the future on how the manufacturers will satisfy constantly growing customer demands. For this purpose, an automated system for collecting and analyzing food data was set up to promote advanced production technologies in the food industry. Based on the technique of laser triangulation, various types of food were measured three-dimensionally and examined for their chromatic composition. The raw data can be divided into individual data groups using clustering technologies. Subsequent indexing of the data in a big data architecture set the ground for setting up real-time data visualizations. The cluster-based back-end system for data processing can also be used as an organization-wide communication network for more efficient monitoring of companies' production data flows. The results not only describe the procedure for digitization of food data, they also provide deep insights into the practical application of big data analytics while helping especially small- and medium-sized enterprises to find a good introduction to this field of research.


At low concentrations (6 and 12%), seawater increased the growth and yield of ragi in pots of infertile sandy Bris soil receiving uniform NP treatment. Concentrations of 48 and 72% seawater were harmful. Application of 0.25 cwt K/A further increased yields. The effects of the treatments on yield components were determined


This paper investigates the commonly used methods for measurement of the intentional signal levels emitted by Part 15 radio frequency (RF) devices operating above 2400 MHz, and that have built-in antennas that are soldered directly to a printed circuit (PC) board and are not normally removable. In this paper, we look at what the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) rules really require, and the extent of the possible errors involved in the different ways of measuring the intentional signal fundamental and harmonics. The reliability of the measurements for preventing interference to licensed radio services maybe improved by making radiated emission measurements whenever possible to compare the maximum field strengths to the FCC field-strength limits; determine the transmitter output from the EIRP at the higher frequencies; and, apply the FCC guidance on measurements for direct sequence spread spectrum systems only to direct sequence spread spectrum transmitters.


Thank you very much for reading elementary mechanics of plastic flow in metal forming. Maybe you have knowledge that, people have look numerous times for their chosen readings like this elementary mechanics of plastic flow in metal forming, but end up in infectious downloads. Rather than reading a good book with a cup of coffee in the afternoon, instead they cope with some malicious bugs inside their desktop computer.


The impact behavior of aggregated particles subjected to projectile impact at velocities less than 20 m/s is investigated experimentally. The aggregated particles consist of nylon spheres arranged randomly in a rectangular parallelepiped container. A steel sphere strikes obliquely several nylon spheres on the top of aggregated particles. The motion of aggregated particles and steel projectile is recorded by two high-speed video cameras. The effects of the impact velocity and impact angle of steel projectile on the motion of steel projectile and aggregated particles after impact are discussed in detail.


The association of celiac disease with chronic hepatitis C virus infection was intensely debated. We aimed to study the prevalence of celiac disease in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus infection.


Background: Dental interns and postgraduates were predisposed to a number of occupational hazards, these includes exposure to infections, percutaneous exposure events, dental materials, radiation, and noise, musculoskeletal disorders, psychological problems and dermatitis, respiratory disorders, and eye problems. Aim of work: To assess the level of occupational hazards awareness and preventive practices among dental interns versus dental postgraduates in Riyadh Elm University. Subject and methods: 100 participants were subjected to a questionnaire that included demographic data, awareness of occupational hazards and safety measures practiced by the study participants. Assessment tools were conducted through calculation of the three rates (accident incidence rate, accident frequency rate and accident severity rate), in addition to, calculation of frequency of each question, scoring degree and grading from weak, moderate to excellent. Results: Out of the 100 participants, 85% were males and 15% were females; 87% of participants were excellent in applying the term preventive practices and the rest of participants were moderate but the difference between the two groups was statistically insignificant (P= 0.103) and nearly equal to each other. However, the majority of participants awareness about occupational hazards and preventive practices were weak and the difference between the two groups was statistically significant (P=0.000). Conclusion: Dentists were exposed to many occupational risks hazarded during work and need more education programs to overcome these occupational hazards.


PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a design method of a power module which prevents abnormality such as cracks from occurring in a connection conductor and also prevents the damage of a semiconductor chip that is caused by thermal fatigue.SOLUTION: A design method of a sandwich type power module 1 comprises: a first step where a relational expression which indicates a relation between the elasticity modulus Eand the thermal expansion coefficient αof a filling resin 11 filling a space between substrates 2, 4, is obtained; a second step where an expression which indicates the increase and the decrease of resin stress σper unit temperature change and is expressed by the thermal expansion coefficient αof a material forming the substrates 2 and 4 and the elasticity modulus Eand the thermal expansion coefficient αof the filling resin 11, is obtained; and a third step where the thermal expansion coefficient αor the elasticity modulus Ewhich maximizes the resin stress σis obtained on the basis of the expression obtained in the second step and the relational expression obtained in the first step. In the design method, the thermal expansion coefficient αor the elasticity modulus E, which is preferable for preventing the damage of a semiconductor chip 6, is determined by carrying out the first, second and third steps.


ABSTRACT Food insecurity has been associated with chronic disease. Low economic status is one of the primary predictors of food insecurity and American Indian communities have some of the highest rates of poverty and unemployment in the nation. This project collected data on sociodemographic attributes, food insecurity and environment, and health status among Northern Plains Indian household members. Forty-four percent of the households surveyed (n = 187) reported food insecurity and prevalence of food insecurity significantly decreased with increasing household income. After adjustment for income, food insecurity was significantly associated with poor general health (odds ratio (OR) 2.77, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.39–5.54) and bodily pain (OR and 95% CI = 2.14 (1.12–4.10)). Programs that decrease the prevalence of food insecurity and health disparities in this population are urgently needed.


Energy-based device-assisted drug delivery is a growing trend in dermatology, building on the concept of laser-assisted drug delivery to achieve enhanced passive diffusion of topically applied compounds through laser channels.1,2 Much like an ablative fractional laser, fractional radiofrequency (FRF) creates grids ofmicrothermal zones (MTZ) consisting of ablative craters surrounded by coagulation zones.2,3 FRFdevices have been successfully used in the treatment of various skin conditions including scars, rhytids, and hyperpigmentation.4–6 In this descriptive proof-of-concept investigation,we sought to visualize FRF-induced tissue interactions and provide the first pre-clinical findings on FRF-assisted delivery of fluorescent tracer dyes in skin. The experimental study set-up included ex vivo porcine skin and healthy in vivohumanskin.A commercially availableFRF-device,Venus VivaMD (Venus Concept Inc, Toronto, Canada), was used. For both the ex vivo and the in vivomodels, the device's maximal combined ablation and coagulation (271 V, 30 ms) settings were used with its standard high-energy applicator tip (80-pin tip; 124mJ/pin). For ex vivo interventions, nine skin sites were examined. Immediately after FRF-treatment, the treated skin (n = 6) and the untreated control skin (n = 3) samples were placed in a Franz-cell setup (PermeGear Inc.). The setup consisted of a receiver chamber with 5.5 ml phosphate buffered saline (PBS), a donor chamber with 0.5 ml solution containing ATTO-647N, a fluorescent dye (carboxylic acid, λex = 646 nm, λem = 664 nm; ATTO-TEC), and distilled water (0.05% dimethyl sulfoxide) to a 10 μM concentration. After 20 hours incubation, 8 mm punch biopsies for 100 μm vertical cryosections were mounted on a bimodal ex vivo confocal microscope (EVCM; Vivascope2500, MAVIG GmbH) for combined reflectance (RCM, λem = 638 nm) and fluorescence microscopy (FCM, λem = 638 nm for ATTO-647N). For improved visualization of FRF-tissue interactions, acridine orange (AO) was applied for digital HE-staining (RCM: 638 nm, AO-FCM: 488 nm).7 In the experimental investigation of in vivo human skin, after informed consent, 30 skin sites were examined, including incubated FRF-treated (n = 19) and untreated control (n = 7) samples, as well as nonincubated FRF-treated autofluorescence controls (n = 4). Incubation was performed with an aqueous sodium fluorescein (NaFl, Combiflure, MW = 376.27 Da, 300 μl) solution for 2.5 hours in a


Due to its unsafety and high price, computed to-mography (CT) technology is difficult to be widely used in breast cancer screening. This paper proposes a time-domain microwave system based on ultra-broadband pulses for breast cancer screening. The system is mainly composed of several antennas, a pulse generator, an oscilloscope, a turntable, and a computer. Acrylic cylinders with different specifications are used to simulate breast tissue. Data collection is automatically completed under the control of the computer. Finally, the dummy tissues are imaged based on the delay-multiply-and-sum (DMAS) algorithm. The experimental results show that tumors can be roughly localized by the proposed system, which means that the time-domain microwave system can serve as a promising candidate for breast cancer screening.


In January, Magnavox announced a GPS upgrade to
the MX 4102 Transit Navigator. This upgrade con-
sists of a GPS Navigation Sensor and Antenna.
The Navigation Sensor is the first of a new gen-
eration of Magnavox GPS equipment. It is a six-
channel continuous tracking navigation sensor
that weighs less than two pounds and consumes
less than 3.5 watts and retails for just over
$3,000.
In order to achieve these remarkable results
Magnavox re-invented and re-engineered every
function of a GPS receiver. From the antenna, to
the receiver architecture and digital signal
processing, to the navigation algorithms, all are
new.
This paper describes this new technology and presents performance results of the first product to employ this technology, the MX 4200.


The flaring horn has traditionally been modeled in one dimension using piecewise conical or cylindrical elements. Acoustic properties within each element are known, and scattering between the elements is computed. Under the piecewise model, a shape for the wavefront of the acoustic disturbance within the horn is implicitly assumed (planar for cylindrical elements, spherical for conical elements). For horns of significant flare, the true wavefront shape will be neither planar nor spherical. A more general model is thus desirable. Here an alternate model is presented: The flaring horn is modeled according to Webster's equation. A change of variables transforms the equation into the form of the Schrodinger wave equation using in one‐dimensional particle scattering. Boundary conditions can be derived directly from the physical dimensions of the horn, and the solution of the equation gives estimates of acoustic properties in terms of frequency dependent reflection and transmission coefficients. Here, Webster's...


The uncertainty of long-term bonding strength of flue gas desulfurization building gypsum and cement based construction materials is the major issue impeding the application of flue gas desulfurization building gypsum in construction. A polymer cement mortar is suggested to get high bonding quality with flue gas desulfurization building gypsum. Long-term bonding observation has been carried out to verify the bonding performance of suggested polymer cement mortar with flue gas desulfurization gypsum. The results show that the bonding strength is up to 3.0MPa, and the bonding between them is durable.


This paper presents a novel frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radar response simulation method with a focus on human gesture detection. Through use of 3D motion captured by an infrared (IR) camera system and data processing, a realistic and computationally efficient simulation is produced. The gestures considered are a hand raise (up-down), right-left arm sweep, and push forward. The high efficiency in simulation is due to a simplified yet effective approach to radar cross section (RCS) calculation and radar-detected signal integration. This allows for the simulation to run smoothly while still resulting in realistic approximations of both range profile and doppler response of gestures. The simulated results are validated with experimental results detected by an Infineon 60-GHz radar.


textabstractIn this section of the special issue on computer graphics,the ISO/IEC computer graphics standards are being reviewed, both the published and the future standards.


Growing research has found that when employees experience customer mistreatment, they can engage in sabotage toward the customer who mistreated them. The present study explored whether two factors,...


Ironically, procrastination helped me kick off this overdue editorial. As it does every year, EJP's editorial team is presenting a Wiley Award for the best publication by a student that is based on a PhD or Master/Diploma thesis—and as I am every year, I was a bit late in gathering, re-reading, and ranking all the eligible papers (no less than 15 in 2018) and asking the associate editors for their independent ranks. Finally completing all of this in a very brief amount of time was a dense and extremely difficult but also extremely gratifying task. The conceptual and methodological quality of all the papers, the straightforward implementation of transparency standards, and the rich variety of phenomena and questions they focused on simply made me happy—they showcase what we at EJP would like to publish. I would like to congratulate Elien Mabbe, who won the 2018 Wiley Award for her co-authored article titled 'The Role of Child Personality in Effects of Psychologically Controlling Parenting: An Examination at the Level of Daily Fluctuations' (Mabbe et al., 2018). Young researchers are strongly represented in our journal, and I am delighted to see the quality of their work. Another case of procrastination—opening the emails that were popping up in my inbox while I should have been focusing on writing (this editorial)—reinforced this positive mood (and thereby helped me keep on writing). When the latest entry in our EJP blog popped up, I ended up re-reading interview after interview, many of which were with authors of papers I had just read for the Wiley Award selection. To experience how much enthusiasm and genuine intellectual curiosity our authors have when they tackle their work and to learn about the background of this work from a very personal perspective were again very gratifying and offered much insight. I want to thank Joanne Chung and Lisanne de Moor for their excellent work with the EJP blog (https:// www.ejp-blog.com/). It is a worthwhile source of information for anyone who is interested in personal views on how personality psychologists approach their work, what aspects of their work they are most excited about, where they are heading next, and how they experience publishing in EJP and pursuing a scientific career more generally. Both recent experiences strengthened my confidence in the potential of our field, in its ability to self-correct and improve, and in the value of expert-based feedback that focuses on increasing scientific rigour. Personality science might be ready to sustainably increase its conceptual, methodological, and reporting standards as well as its heterogeneity, breadth, and crosstalk with other fields. Scientific journals can contribute more or less to this development depending on whether and how they set the respective quality standards, evaluate and help to increase the quality of the papers accordingly, and welcome the whole variety of relevant contributions. In this editorial, I will reflect on EJP's criteria for deriving editorial evaluations and recommendations and on the various shapes and forms of valuable contributions to EJP. I will also report on some recent developments and planned highlights. As always, my biggest thanks go to EJP's wonderful team of associate editors: Erika Carlson, Malgorzata Fajkowska, Christian Kandler, Odilia Laceulle, Jan-Erik Lönnqvist (who joined the team in 2018), René Mõttus, and Cornelia Wrzus. They all ensure that our high standards for scientific quality also apply to the editorial and review process. Our goal as editors is to help the authors realize their best possible products, and we invest a lot of time and intellectual resources in carefully digesting each paper, in pinpointing critical issues and those that can be optimized, and in providing detailed and constructive feedback. This policy is, obviously, something reviewers of our journal are well aware of. Since the beginning of my editorial term, I have not seen a single review of the 'lazy', 'meaningless', or 'unfair' types that seem to lead many of our colleagues to describe the peer-review process in general as erratic, arbitrary, or hopelessly unreliable. This is not at all what we experience at EJP. I am deeply grateful for the quality feedback our reviewers provide: They really help our authors produce better science. Citation-wise, the numbers stayed high with a 2-year impact factor (IF) of 3.5. The 5-year IF (which one might regard as the more robust developmental indicator given the publication speed of our field) went up for the fourth time in the row and is now at 4.2 (2.9 in 2013, 3.4 in 2014, 3.6 in 2015, and 3.7 in 2016). For both IF variants, EJP secured its position as the second highest empirical journal in the social-personality field (after JPSP) and as the journal with the highest impact factor among all journals that are exclusively devoted to the science of personality. We have a stable overall rejection rate of around 85%, and roughly 55% of submitted papers are desk-rejected. Although the introduction of this editorial might indicate otherwise, we do not tend to procrastinate and are comparatively fast with an average time to first decision of 25 days. In 2018, we continued to foster the transparency of work published in EJP, and successfully so. Ever since we introduced a new policy that was geared toward increasing Open Science practices in manuscripts submitted to and published in the journal in 2017, we have seen a steady increase in transparency. One way of quantifying this trend is to look at the number of papers with one or more open science badges that are awarded to papers that meet the standards for Open material, Open data, and/or Preregistration (see European Journal of Personality, Eur. J. Pers. 33: 3–6 (2019) Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/per.2192


ABSTRACT The nature and amount of genetic variability, genetic associations, co-heritability, and path coefficients were studied in the eight quantitative traits of 37 genotypes of fennel. The highest genotypic and phenotypic coefficient of variations was recorded for umbels/plant followed by seed yield/plot and lowest for plant height. All the traits showed high heritability in broad sense (∧h2 BS), the highest being for seed yield/plot (99.96%) and lowest for plant height (97.50%). Genetic advance as percentage of mean was the highest for umbels/plant (99.19) followed by seed yield/plot (89.86) and oil content (51.22). Seed yield/ plot was significantly and positively correlated with oil content at both genotypic and phenotypic level. Seed yield was negatively correlated with days to flower 50%. But only diameter of main stem and oil content made the highest amount of direct and indirect contribution to t-anethole content. The diameter of main stem and seed yield/plant exhibited high co-heritability with plant height and umbels on main stalk, and hence it may form a good selection criterion for valuable economic traits but no trait is as dependable as the t-anethole content per se. Seed yield/plant showed the largest heritability in broad sense (∧h2 BS), genetic advance (GA), and co-heritability with t-anethole content than the other traits. Therefore, seed yield and oil content could serve as better selection criteria to improve t-anethole content in fennel.


Hypertension is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease and dietary salt is a contributing factor to high blood pressure. Increased salt intake in the elderly has been shown to impair relaxation of resistance vessels. Therefore, we examined whether a high salt (HS) diet alters the function of KATP channels in mesenteric arteries (MAs) from young and old rats. Young (7 mo) and old (29 mo) F‐344xBN rats were fed a control or HS diet (8% NaCl) for 12 days and 2nd order MAs were used for vascular measurements. Acetylcholine (Ach)‐induced relaxation was significantly reduced with age. Relaxation to Ach was 92 ± 2% in young vs. 81 ± 4% in old arteries. Pretreatment with the KATP channel blocker glibenclamide only reduced relaxation to Ach in young MAs. On a HS diet, dilation to Ach was reduced in old salt MAs (60 ± 3%) when compared with old control arteries (81 ± 4%; P<0.001). Glibenclamide reduced Ach‐induced dilation in young salt MAs but had no effect on old salt MAs. Cromakalim (KATP channel opener) dilation was reduced in old salt MAs when compared with old control arteries. Maximal relaxation to cromakalim was 99 ± 1% in old control vs. 85 ± 5% in old salt arteries (P<0.05). These findings demonstrate that age impairs endothelium‐dependent dilation in MAs. Furthermore, a HS diet alters the function of KATP channels in isolated MAs and affects the mediation of dilator stimuli.


BLEVINS, WENDY M., Ph.D., June 2008, Counselor Education Factors Related to the Outcomes of a Residential Substance Abuse Treatment Program for Women (119 pp.) Director of Dissertation: Jerry Olsheski This study investigated certain demographic and treatment variables. The sample used included 125 successful completers of a residential substance abuse program with an average length of stay of 60 days. The program is located in Athens County, OH and serves adult women and allows them the opportunity to participate in treatment with their children. The research question asked in this study was: Is there a relationship between or among residential substance abuse treatment outcomes and selected demographic and treatment variables (i.e., housing status, education level, income level, single substance abuse diagnosis versus dual diagnosis, parent/child/pregnant participation/residence in treatment and employment status at the time of residential substance abuse treatment admission)? The results of this study indicated that pretreatment employment status was the only significant variable of those included in this study that is significant to treatment


Based on the electric circuit theory, this paper analyzed the characteristics of power distribution of the controlled source network from the aspect of power injection decomposition, and it found the multi-power source current component's power analytic expressions on arbitrary network nodes and branch circuits. Different power forms provided by the power source can be decomposed into the algebraic sum of different power sources' power components, and each component describes the coupling relationship between two power sources, and the branch circuit power in the power network is the algebraic sum of all the power components with different distribution coefficients. At the meantime, the power of the controlled source network expresses the sum of basic power and additional power. The basic power is the corresponding power in the symmetrical network, and the additional power is the power relevant to the dominant coefficient of the controlled source. At the end of the paper, thyristor-controlled series compensation (TCSC) was used for an instance, and the accuracy of the algorithm was certified by using the IEEE-9 example.


This paper examines the identification and estimation of the structural function in fuzzy regression discontinuity (RD) designs with a continuous treatment variable. Under a dual monotonicity condition, we show that the nonlinear and nonseparable structural function can be nonparametrically identified at the RD cutoff. The dual monotonicity condition requires that the structural function and the treatment choice be strictly increasing in the unobserved causal factor. This condition is satisfied by standard parametric models used in practice. The identification result contrasts with the local average treatment effect literature, where only a certain weighted average of the structural function is identified. We propose a three-step semiparametric estimation procedure and derive the asymptotic distribution of the estimator. The semiparametric estimator achieves the same convergence rate as in the case of a binary treatment variable. As an application of the method, we estimate the causal effect of sleep time on health status by the discontinuity in natural light timing at time-zone boundaries.


Universities maintain many systems that help order activities. Among these are the systems that provide financial support for research activity. One frequently occurring system is a university level committee that reviews the merits of research funding requests. In this study. Interpretive Structural Modeling is used to generate the hierarchy of criteria employed by a university research committee to evaluate and fund proposals from faculty in the arts, music, mathematics, science, and the applied disciplines. Thirty-four elements and 20 levels are developed. The resulting hierarchy is a preference list suitable for judging proposals that lend themselves to formal research design. The existing system using the current project evaluation framework to simultaneously encourage creative work in art and music along with traditional research in other disciplines is deemed unsatisfactory. A separate allocation system for the arts and music is under study.


The invention discloses a pressure sensor of a packaging structure and a preparation method thereof. A lightly boron-doped region and a heavily boron-doped region are prepared by doping on the front of a silicon wafer. A groove is arranged on the back of the silicon wafer through etching. A silicon pressure film is formed between the bottom of the groove and the lightly boron-doped region. An insulating layer is laid on the front of the silicon wafer. A metal lead is arranged on the top of the insulating layer, and is connected with the lightly boron-doped region and the heavily boron-doped region. Four piezoresistive strips are formed in the lightly boron-doped region. The piezoresistive strips and the metal lead form a Wheatstone full-bridge structure. The front of the silicon wafer is bonded to a piece of front bonding glass through a middle layer. A piece of back bonding glass is bonded to the back of the silicon wafer, and the side, directly facing the silicon pressure film, of the back bonding glass is provided with an air guide hole. The part, directly facing the silicon pressure film, of the front bonding glass is provided with a cavity. The packaging structure of the invention is simple and compact, and highly reliable. The manufacturing process is simple, wafer level packaging can be realized, and low-cost mass production is facilitated.


This work investigates the thermal stability of W-contacted pn junction diodes, in which the tungsten contact was formed by selective chemical vapor deposition (CVD) or sputtering process. Reaction of Al and CVD-W at elevated temperature leads to the formation of WA112, and the barrier capability of CVD-W film was dependent on the consumption of W. The sputter-W film has a colunmar structure and contains a higher content of oxygen. The presence of oxygen


Activities of acidic gibberellin(GA)-like substances in shoots of Salix pentandra trees growing under natural conditions (69°39′ N, 18°37′ E) were studied in relation to shoot elongation and tip abscission. Bioassay after separation on SiO2 partition columns was accomplished with the lettuce hypocotyl and dwarf rice 'Tan-ginbozu' assays. The GA-like activity in the apical part of the shoot greatly decreased before cessation of growth and shoot tip abscission. In the basal part of the shoot the marked reduction of GA-like substances occurred well before shoot tip abscission and even before shoot elongation had ceased. Low GA-like activity in the shoot may be a prerequisite for apical growth cessation and for the development of lateral flower buds.


Consider an oligopolistic industry where production is time-consuming, so that each firm needs to make quantity commitment by producing before the market opens. If demand uncertainty resolves some time before the market arrives, then those firms who produce early behave as simultaneous leaders (co-leaders), whilst those who wait until demand becomes observable will be followers. We discover that, in an n-firm oligopoly, the equilibrium number of co-leaders tends to be in excess of their socially optimal number, albeit both numbers monotonically decrease in the magnitude of demand uncertainty relative to the expected level of demand. We also find that, with demand uncertainty and the possibility of Stackelberg behaviour, whether the excess entry theorem applies depends upon the number of existing followers. Copyright 2000 by Blackwell Publishers Ltd/University of Adelaide and Flinders University of South Australia


. Let i ≥ 2, ∆ ≥ 0, 1 ≤ a ≤ b − ∆, n > ( a + b )( ib +2 m − 2) a + n (cid:48) and δ ( G ) ≥ b 2 a + n (cid:48) + 2 m , and let g,f be two integer-valued functions defined on V ( G ) such that a ≤ g ( x ) ≤ f ( x ) − ∆ ≤ b − ∆ for each x ∈ V ( G ). In this article, it is determined that G is a fractional ( g,f,n (cid:48) ,m )-critical deleted graph if max { d 1 ,d 2 , ··· ,d i } ≥ b ( n + n (cid:48) ) a + b for any independent subset { x 1 ,x 2 ,...,x i } ⊆ V ( G ). The result is tight on independent set degree condition.


In this work, an elastic registration technique is implemented to align different radiographic images to track the movement of gas and determine the colonic response to food in patients with functional abdominal bloating. The registration transformation is made of two components: i) an affine transformation parameterized in terms of 5 parameters (1 rotation, 2 magnification and 2 translation parameters) and ii) an elastic component expressed in terms of radial functions representing the smoothing term. Then, a chi2 function defined in terms of the sum of the squared residual distances of corresponding internal point landmarks after they are transformed to the same coordinate system, is formed. Thus, the registration can be achieved by "tuning" the parameters until the residuals become simultaneously small (minimum). Since the parameters of the transformation are related in a non-linear fashion, they are estimated iteratively using a non-linear optimization technique, namely, the Simplex method developed by Nelder and Mead. Finally, the results are evaluated visually and quantitatively to study the precision of the registration.


BOOK REVIEW: Book title: Modernization, Tradition and Identity; The Kompilasi Hukum Islam and Legal Practice in the Indonesian Religious Courts Author: Euis Nurlaelawati No. of Pages: 297 Year: 2010 Publisher: ICAS/ Amsterdam University Press


The research paper aims to show the relationship between corporate governance (CG) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure in Nepalese commercial banks. In simple terms corporate governance is the system by which companies are governed. It is a set of rules and behaviors according to which companies are managed and controlled. Corporate social responsibility or sustainability is an important feature in contemporary business addresses different aspects like business ethics, stakeholder's management and social performance. Effective corporate governance is expected to support effective and efficient corporate social responsibility within commercial banks. The content analysis of 10 commercial banks composing 5 Joint Venture (JV) Banks and 5 Non Joint Venture (NJV) Banks though judgmental sampling method based on stratified sampling technique was used to extract CSR disclosure items and corporate governance factors from secondary data specifically annual report for the period of one year. T-test was employed to test the level of significance. Regression analysis was used to examine the relationship between corporate social responsibility disclosure and independent variables associated with corporate governance practices. The study reveals that different variables associated with corporate governance practices are positively and significantly correlated with the level of corporate social responsibility initiatives based on all three models. The paper is useful to organization and statutory bodies to take consideration of corporate governance practices which will enhance corporate social responsibility initiatives. Journal of Nepalese Business Studies Vol. 9, No. 1, 2015 pp.137-144


Teacher change is at the heart of school reform. The research on teacher change has been primarily focused on teacher change from an individualistic perspective and has identified three possible paths of teacher change: beliefs precede change, change precedes beliefs, or change is nonlinear and recursive. This study looked at teacher change within a middle school during a time the school was undergoing a districtdriven change in student grouping practices. The study was conducted during the 2009-2010 school year and included ten teachers of science, social studies, and English in a grade 6-8 middle school. A qualitative study approach was used and data was collected from individual interviews, field notes and classroom observations. Wenger's (1998) Community of Practice model was used as a framework that allowed the data collected to be viewed from both an individual and community perspective. Two levels of data analysis were completed. The first data review was conducted to assist in answering the questions that were identified at the outset of the study. The second review extended analysis and examined the dialectics of teacher change. Qualitative analysis conducted found that participants were more positive the longer they experienced the change in grouping practices, participants felt that the change in grouping practices benefited struggling learners, and participants relied on each other to understand and effectively assimilate to the changes in practices demanded by the grouping change. The examination of teacher change during this study also found that teacher change was recursive and non-linear. Williams Middle School was also confirmed to meet the criteria of a Community of Practice (Wenger, 1998). Additionally, Williams Middle School, at the time of the study exhibited the characteristics of a Community of Innovation (Coakes and Smith, 2007). Finally, an adaptation of Wenger's (1998) Community of Practice model is offered to provide a possible framework to apply the model to schools.


One of the biggest obstacles to our full understanding of the global dynamics in Milky Way and other spiral galaxies is uncertainty with respect to the form of baryonic dark matter in galactic haloes. Two basic forms discussed recently are MACHOs and various states of halo gas. We investigate constraints which could be obtained from the empirical microlensing optical depth on combined MACHO + gas models, and show that improved statistics will certainly be able to discriminate between various such models. This has profound consequences not only for galactic dynamics and baryonic budget, but for investigation of the low-redshift Ly$\alpha$ absorption systems and general cosmological distribution of gas.


Abstract Using a simple home built apparatus, the surface contamination of various samples maintained at high vacuum conditions is investigated by means of SIMS technique. On a polycrystalline copper surface, at a sample temperature of about 140 K, residual water vapour condensation occurs and ions H+(H2O)n with 1≦n≦11 appear in the positive ion spectrum. On the contrary, on a LiF crystal no water contamination is observed down to 120 K; moreover, on a KI sample, one of the most hygroscopic salts among the alkali halides, only at 130 K an appreciable H2O contamination is detected.


The earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan in March blew a large hole in the country's power supply. Japan's grid managers are now hatching plans to beef up the country's west-to-east power flow capabilities. As it stands, just three small installations, are able to squeeze power across Japan's AC frequency frontier. These pull alternating current off one grid, convert the power to high-voltage direct current (H VDC), and then synthesize a novel AC wave to add the power to the other grid. Together these three facilities can push up to 1.2-GW of power east or west. The fastest way to add conversion capacity, is voltage-source converter (VSC) technology. VSC-based HVDC uses relatively advanced switches, such as insulated-gate bipolar transistors, to simultaneously transmit DC power and regulate the voltage of neighboring AC lines. VSC costs about 25 percent more than traditional HVDC, but it's quicker to install.


Background. Transitional justice is an important framework that addresses the ongoing impact of human rights violations and systemic injustice during significant political transitions.
Purpose. From the results of this study, it was found that the reality or facts that exist in transitional justice have several existing challenges, besides that there are also several ideal concepts in implementing transitional justice.
Method. This research examines the reality and the actual concept of Transitional Justice. In fixing the problem, the researcher uses normative (doctrine) research methods with library data sources as secondary data.
Results. includes a comprehensive, victim-centered, and transformative approach. The advice obtained for this research is that it is important to find innovative solutions and involve all stakeholders.
Conclusion. includes a comprehensive, victim-centered, and transformative approach. The advice obtained for this research is that it is important to find innovative solutions and involve all stakeholders.


The finite-element method (FEM) has been used to numerically investigate the effect of work roll configuration on the leveling effectiveness of tail-up bent plates. Leveling is a process used to minimize shape defects, including flatness imperfections and uniformity of internal stresses in shape-critical applications. Leveling plays an important role in delivering the desired plate shape and meeting the required product standards. To simulate the roller leveling effectiveness of tail-up bent plates, an initially flat plate was plastically bent prior to leveling and was passed through the leveling rolls. Leveling effectiveness was estimated by the vertical displacements of tail-up bent plates with two different roll configurations. One configuration adopts a gradually increasing roll gap, while the other configuration maintains the same roll gap in the first two sets of rolls and gradually increases the roll gap for the later rolls. For comparison purposes, the entry and exit roll gaps of the two roll configurations are set to the same roll gap. To verify the accuracy of the numerical simulations, actual leveling experiments were performed using tail-up bent plates. The results show that the roll configuration significantly influences the leveling effectiveness of the tail-up bent plates. Higher leveling effectiveness is obtained for a leveling configuration that imparts more severe deformation at the earlier leveling stages. Through the analysis, the work roll configuration is determined to be essential to increase leveling effectiveness of tail-up bent plates.


BackgroundAt the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the care of 16 and 17 year old patients in the Emergency Department (ED) at St Thomas' Hospital was moved from adult ED to the adjacent paediatric ED in order to reduce the pressure on the adult department. Paediatric emergency clinical staff work with an embedded safeguarding team, hold a weekly psychosocial review meeting and so comprehensive adolescent assessment may be improved in paediatric ED.ObjectivesThe objective of this study was to compare the psychosocial care of 16 and 17 year old patients in the adult and paediatric emergency departments.MethodsSettingThe Emergency Department at Guys and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust is a large (>140,000 attendances/annum) inner city department. The adult and children's (part of Evelina London Children's Hospital) departments are physically adjacent. There is separate Paediatric Emergency Medicine staffing.MethodsAttendances of 16 and 17 year old patients were retrospectively observed. ED notes from 100 random patients from both September 2019 and September 2020 were reviewed.September 2019 was before the COVID-19 pandemic, and September 2020 after the first wave of COVID-19 in the UK. In September 2020 the majority of schools were open and despite no national lockdown there were still significant restraints on socialising/recreational activity in London.Expected standard of care was that a HEADSS (psychosocial history) assessment was completed for each attendance.Presenting complaint, completion of HEADSS questionnaires and need for referral to psychosocial services were assessed. Quality of HEADSS questionnaire was also scored using a grading system agreed amongst the team.ResultsPrimary mental health presentations had increased from 3% of total presentations in 2019 to 6% in 2020. Alcohol/recreational drug presentations increased from 1% to 4%.HEADSS questionnaire completion increased from 20% to 53% between 2019 & 2020. Comprehensive completion increased from 7% to 40%.Subsequent referral to psychosocial services (CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service), social care or liaison youth worker service)) increased from 8% to 18% of all 16 and 17 year old presentations between the two periods.Individual case reviews during the observed period showed that comprehensive completion of HEADSS questionnaires identified psychosocial issues which would not have been identifiable from presenting complaint or basic history alone.ConclusionsThe departmental change brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic enabled a comparison between the care of 16 and 17 year old patients in adult ED and paediatric ED and how this might impact their psychosocial care.In paediatric ED young people of 16 and 17 years old had a higher completion of comprehensive HEADSS questionnaires, there had been an increase in referrals to psychosocial services and we have seen evidence of psychosocial issues being identified and managed in paediatric ED when HEADSS questionnaires have been completed.With an increase in mental health and drugs/alcohol presentations, a comprehensive psychosocial assessment is vital to ensure safeguarding and social needs are met.


The invention relates to an assembly line analog-digital converter (ADC) which converts an analog input voltage signal Vin into a digital output value Dout. The ADC comprises a level sequence including a first calibration level, wherein the first calibration level comprises an ADC submodule, a DAC submodule, a first difference evaluation module and an artificial noise insertion module, wherein the ADC submodule receives the Vin, and provides an ADC submodule digital output value based on the Vin; the DAC submodule receives the ADC submodule digital output value, and outputs a corresponding analog voltage signal V ; the first difference evaluation module generates an analog residual voltage signal based on difference between the Vin and the V ; and the artificial noise insertion module inserts an analog artificial noise voltage signal into the analog residual voltage signal, so as to generate an analog combined voltage signal. The analog combined voltage signal is used for calibrating the first calibration level. The artificial noise insertion module generates polarities of the artificial noise voltage signal based on polarities of the corresponding residual voltage signal.


One of the biggest challenges related to mixing tanks is the heat exchange. Several studies have been developed to obtain Nusselt number correlations that represent the heat transfer coefficient by convection. This correlation is usually obtained by experimental methods and is valid only for a set of specific conditions. The experimental studies allow the analysis of different aspects and parameters giving an accurate scenario and easy understanding of the phenomenon. However, it is time consuming, expensive and demands a wide variety of equipment to get the results. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is an alternative that delivers faster, clearer, lower-cost results, and provides a broad understanding of all phenomena occurring inside the tank such as flow and heat transfer patterns. In this research, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) was applied for the determination a Nusselt number correlation in a jacketed stirred tank equipped with Rushton turbine impeller. For the simulation of the phenomena involved in the stirring process, the tank geometry was constructed using hexahedral mesh and Multiple Reference Frame approach (MRF). The Shear Stress Transport k-ω turbulence model and the Upwind discretization scheme were employed to solve conservation equations and to obtain accurate results. Since a model validation is essential for CFD modeling, the simulated results were compared with experimental measures reported by Strek (1963). The Nusselt number correlation obtained from the simulated model satisfactorily agrees with the experimental data providing an accurate representation of the heat transfer in the tank.


The magnetoresistance of current perpendicular to the plane spin-valve sensors with antiparallel coupled pinned layers utilizing Ir as an AP coupling layer was measured as a function of reference layer thickness. Ir-coupled antiparallel pinned structures exhibit extremely high coupling energies in excess of 3ergs∕cm2, allowing for an increase of the thicknesses of both the pinned layer and reference layer to more than 100 A while maintaining both high saturation fields and a moment-balanced antiparallel pinned structure desirable for stable read sensors. The spin valves were patterned into pillars with diameters ranging from 50 to 200 nm by using a combination of electron beam lithography and ion milling. The magnetoresistance increases from 2.2% to 4.0% by increasing the reference layer thickness from 30 to 110 A, which is in agreement with the Valet-Fert model in the long spin-diffusion length limit.


Abstract Demographic composition of the Oraon tribes of North 24 Pgs is considered for the present study .The sex-ratio of Oraons are 103.25.The percentage of literacy is 59.04.most of the literates are studied up to primary classes. Child marriage prevalent among them. None of them are engaged in white colour job and they belonging in the lower income group.


The overly trained animal model is established according to the overload concept and the cardiac structure change and the apoptosis of myocardial cells are observed with the histology,the transmission electron microscopy and TUNEL.The over training can cause swelling,disorder,break and focal shape necrosis of the myocardial fibers as well as the different mitochondria sizes,vacuoles and chromatin change.The apoptosis of the myocardial cells after the over training is more than that of the comparative groups and is different with that of the normal mouses(P0.05).The longer the over training time,the more the apoptosis of the myocardial cells and the results for the 4th,6th and 8th week are different(P0.05).The over training can cause the cardiac structure change and it is related with the over apoptosis of the myocardial cells.The paper proposes to establish the over training animal model on the basis of overload concept.


In this paper, we present results showing the usefulness of multi-wavelength lidar measurements to study the interaction of aerosols in the PBL with long range advected aerosol plumes. In particular, our measurements are used to determine the plume angstrom exponent, which allows us to differentiate smoke events from dust events, as well as partitioning the total aerosol optical depth obtained from a CIMEL sky radiometer between the PBL and the high altitude plumes. Furthermore, we show that only if the optical depth from the upper level plumes is taken into account, the correlation between the lidar derived PBL aerosol optical depth and surface PM2.5 is high. In addition, we also observe the dynamic interaction of high altitude plumes interacting with the PBL, resulting in a dramatic rise in surface PM10 concentrations without a corresponding dramatic rise in PM2.5 concentrations. These observations strongly suggest the deposition of large particulates into the PBL which is consistent with both lidar angstrom coefficient measurements and back-trajectory analysis. Finally, we investigate the correspondence between surface PM2.5 concentrations and optical backscatter coefficients as a function of altitude. To perform this study, our lidar system is replaced by a ceilometer (Vaisala CL-31) which can determine backscatter to near surface level. In particular, we confirm that near surface backscatter within the first 100 meters is a good proxy for PM2.5 but as altitude increases beyond 500 meters, the correlations degrades dramatically. These studies are useful in identifying the vertical length scales in which spaced based lidars such as Calipso can be used to probe surface PM2.5.


An aerobrake for a lunar transfer vehicle was designed through the use of the Taguchi design method, structural finite element analyses, and structural sizing routines. A minimum weight aerobrake structural configuration was the objective of the study. Six design parameters were chosen to represent the aerobrake structural configuration. The design parameters included honeycomb core thickness, diameter-to-depth ratio, shape, material, number of concentric ring frames and number of radial frames. Each parameter had 3 levels. The optimum aerobrake configuration resulting from the study was approximately half the weight of the average of all the other experimental configurations. The parameters having the most significant impact on the aerobrake structural weight were identified.


3-phenyl-benzoic acid was prepared from sodium 3-bromobenzoate and grignard reagent of bromobenzene under palladium-catalyzed,the yield was 88%.The structure of product was characterized by IR and NMR.


Changhu lake tourist area, as one of seven big areas within the scope of world geological park plan in Stone Forest, has fine natural vegetation and landscape. But the tourist value is obstructed to bring into play owning to without scientific and reasonable plan. By means of the inventory of current vegetation and resources, the main layout for the functional botanic landscapes including entrance, hydro-landscape, camping for square, gathering has practically conducted. This not only keeps the original ecological settings and landscapes, but also highlights themselves themes and features to upgrade the tourist values.


MALFORMATION of the hands and feet is common and of many kinds. There are probably more abnormalities of the hands and feet than of any other part of the body. with the exception of the eyes. Many hand-foot anomalies are the result of variation in heredity (Johnston and Davis, 1953). Congenital hypertrophy (gigantism) of the foot is uncommon. It is usually unilateral and is most commonly found in congenital hemihypertrophy (Ringrose et alii, 1965; Panday et alii, 1966). Congenital hypertrophy of both feet is very unusual; its occurrence in a Chinese man is described below.


Aims: The study carried out aimed to evaluate the modes of exploitation of edible frogs.
Place and Duration of Study: The present study was performed during the month of January to February 2022. The survey was conducted in the villages of Kassiapleu, Kouitongouiné and Gbangbégouiné. These villages are located in MAN (West of Côte d'Ivoire).
Methodology: Surveys have been carried out among actors exploiting this animal resource. The study involved 210 consumers and 15 frog harvesters in the locality of MAN. A well-structured questionnaire provided data on fishing techniques and frog consumption patterns.
Results: This study reveals that there are two main fishing methods: arrow fishing (57.1%) and hook and line fishing (42.9%). The catches are made in different humid ecological zones and the exploitation is only intended for local consumption. The smoked form is the most popular with consumers (59.5%). The majority of respondents consume this meat because of the taste (83.3%) compared to that of chicken (44.8%) and fish (31.4%).
Conclusion: In view of these results obtained, the establishment of a rational exploitation strategy must be considered for the conservation of edible frog species.


This study investigated the preparation of nanosized crystalline SiC powders from micro sized Silicon Carbide powder at room temperature through high energy ball milling. Silicon carbide was milled with hardened steel balls and ball milling media under identical conditions of ball mass to powder mass ratio 10:1 and target milling times of 60 h. The sample was taken out after every 20 hours of milling and it was characterized for its crystalline size, lattice strain, and percentage of crystalline by using X-Ray Diffractometer (XRD). It was found that for the 60 hours The size, shape and texture of the fresh as well as nanostructured Silicon carbide powder were studied using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The raw Silicon carbide powder particles were mostly angular in shape. The shape of the 60h milled particles is irregular and the surface morphology is rough.


By experimental investigntions it was shown that in the case of hydrogen determination by the neutron method in organic liquids both the carbon content and the oxygen content must be considered. In the neutron moisture measurements on the other hand usually only the hydrogen content plays the decisive role, since additional light nuclei produce only small contributions to the measurement effects, which are masked by other disturbance parameters. (tr-auth)


Colorectal cancer is one of the most common deadly cancer types in the worldwide (Gholamhoseinian Najar et al., 2013; Li et al., 2015). According to previous studies, the expression levels of heat shock protein 90 (HSP90) is increased in tumors and cancerous cells in comparison with normal tissues. This protein forms 4 to 6 % of total proteins in cancer cells and 1 to 2% of total proteins in normal cells. In addition, it has been specified that the ATPase activity of HSP90 is higher and more complex in tumors, but are in a latent state in normal cells. This results the maintenance of homeostasis as well as growth and survival in counter settings (Cooper, 2011; Dobo et al., 2013; Mamede et al., 2014). Furthermore, this protein plays an significant function in most oncoproteins involved in the survival and growth of cancer cells, such as the serine/ threonine kinase (Akt), expressed protein from v-raf-1, murine leukemia viral oncogene homolog 1 (RAF-1), human growth factor-1, apoptosis induction, and other activities such as angiogenesis, and cell cycle inhibition in cancer cells (Niknejad et al.,2014). Recent data


A theoretical analysis is presented to describe the stiffening of flexible, linear polymer chains due to complexation with oligomeric surfactants. These surfactants might be functionalized protonic acids or possess other types of end groups that exhibit strong, specific interactions with the flexible polymer backbone. The enhancement of the persistence length due to steric interactions between the bound surfactant tails is considered and the possibility of lyotropic behavior at finite polymer concentration is investigated. The results are discussed in the context of recent experiments by Cao and Smith, who reported liquid crystallinity in solutions of polyaniline complexed with camphorsulfonic acid


Psychomotor is undergoing continuous changes in the educational context in recent years. The perception of teachers in the early stages and the mode of intervention is especially relevant in children's education. The aim of the study was to analyze the procedural aspects and perceptions of teachers Children of the Community of Asturias on the psychomotor practice. A final sample of 55 teachers from 12 schools early childhood education were surveyed. The results showed a lack of specific training for teachers, although a high percentage felt sufficiently prepared to teach this discipline. However, they noted the need for a specialist to answer the psychomotor skills required specifically. The average intervention was made primarily two hours a week in the psychomotor room. The greatest difficulties were found in the number of students, lack of real time and the scarcity of material resources. Finally 100% of teachers considered the motor skills is essential for the development of the child in the infant stage and showed a very positive perception towards fundamental questions of psychomotor skills. These results add relevant information and allow us to put into perspective the context of motor skills in different Autonomous Communities within the educational framework.


External intercostal muscle bundles (EIC) from growing sheep (35-45 kg) were used to assess transport of AIB and MeAIB. EIC (20-30 mg, with tendons attached) were incubated free of support in sodium (Na) and choline-based KHB media containing 2 mM glucose, 1 mM acetate and variable AIB or MeAIB concentrations (.15 ..mu..Ci each). Inulin-/sup 14/C was used in replicate incubations to correct for extracellular /sup 14/C. At 7.5, 15, 30, 60 and 120 min rates of transport for AIB and MeAIB (1 mM each) were .115 +/- 0.47, .331 +/- .127, .563 +/- .197, 1.07 +/- .178, 1.81 +/- .48 and .052 +/- .052, .101 +/- .064, .215 +/- .079, .307 +/- .130, .461 +/- .196 respectively. Rates of transport (30 min) for AIB at 1, 2.5, 5, 12.5, 25 and 50 mM were .188 +/- .015, .553 +/- .101, .803 +/- .104, 2.05 +/- .32, 2.78 +/- .28, 3.82 +/- 1.15 in Na-containing media and 0, .209 +/- .074, .467 +/- .092, 1.15 +/- .24, 1.32 +/- .62, 2.71 +/- .105 in choline media, respectively. The difference in AIB transport between Na and choline media showed Michaelis-Menten Kinetics (Vmax = 1.16/sup 1/, Km = 5.8 mM) and may bemore » analogous to cumulative activities of Systems A and ASC-like carriers. The Na-independent component for AIB uptake was large; however, saturation kinetics were evident. Other Na-independent carriers (possibly System L-like) may have activity for AIB as a substrate.« less


Objectives To analyze the role and mechanisms of mast cells in the inflammation and fibrosis of 2 ,4, 6-trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid (TNBS)-induced rat pancreatic fibrosis. Methods Rats were received the aseptic instillation of TNBS in ethanol via bilo-pancreatic duct, and then injected with nedocromil sodium, a mast cell stabilizer, and compound 18/80, a mast cell activator, or saline. Rats were sacrificed respectively on 3, 7, 14, 21 or 28 days. Pancreatic inflammation and fibrosis were assessed by gross and histopathological evaluation. Pancreatic fibrosis were observed by Van Gieson. Pancreatic mast cells distribution, number and their state of activation (toluidine blue) were evaluated. The activation of pancreatic stellate cells (PSCs) were assessed by the expression of a-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) through immunohistochemistry. The expression of angiotensin Ⅱ AT1 and AT2 receptors and transforming growth factor (TGF) β 1 raRNA, which were the factors of fibrogenesis, were also assessed. Results Typical pancreatic fibrosis changes occurred in the model of rats received TNBS at 4th week by morphological evaluation. The positive expression of α-SMA and TGFβ1 in the pancreatic tissues were detected at day 3, especially at 4th week. The expression of angiotensin Ⅱ AT1 and AT2 receptors mRNA increased gradually in all the three groups, also especially at 4th week. Compared to the control group, there were more higher expression of α-SMA, TGFβ1, angiotensin Ⅱ AT1 and AT2 receptor in the compound 48/80 group, while there were lower expression of these proteins in the nedocromil group. Conclusions Mast cells are involved in TNBS-induced pancreatic inflammation and fibrosis in rats. After being activated, mast cells will promote the activation and proliferation of PSCs and upregulate the expression of angiotensin Ⅱ AT1 receptor and AT2 receptor, and then lead to pancreatic fibrosis gradually.


In NFV networks, service functions (SFs) can be deployed on virtual machines (VMs) across multiple domains and then form a service function chain (MSFC) for end-to-end network service provision. However, any software component in a VM-based MSFC must experience software aging issue after a long period of operation. This paper quantitatively investigates the capability of proactive rejuvenation techniques in reducing the damage of software aging on a VM-based MSFC. We develop a semi-Markov model to capture the behaviors of SFs, VMs and virtual machine monitors (VMMs) from software aging to recovery under the condition that failure times and recovery times follow general distributions. We derive the formulas for calculating the steady-state availability and reliability of the VM-based MSFC composed of multiple SFs running on VMs hosted by VMMs. Sensitivity analysis is also conducted to identify potential dependability bottlenecks.


In the times of the knowledge-based economy, various knowledge are growing rapidly. As the carrier of spreading and issuing the sci-tech achievements, the competition among the sci-tech periodicals is very drastic. How to strive for the existence and development on such a background and how to increase the academic reputation of the sci-tech periodicals is the problem that is taken into the consideration by each editorial board. This paper puts forward some suggestions on increasing the academic reputation of the sci-tech periodicals from the purpose of running the periodical, the guiding thought, the quality of the contributions, and the service consciousness of the personnel, etc.


1 1. Becoming the Focal Point ofa Privileged Gaze: The Birth of a Tourist Destination 2. Mobile Curiosity: Tourism and Travel 3. Tourist Resources and Tourist Development 4. Constructed Resources: From Natural Resources to Information Resources 5. Guidebooks as Information for Promoting Tourist Resources 6. Information Battles: Strategies for Attracting Tourists : : ; : : : : : : : : : : L-------..-.-----.------.-..--------...-------+---..-.-..-----..-----.--..-.---..-..-.--.---.--..-..-...--.J


A study was made to determine the effect of heat dissipation from drinking water (8 kg at 10, 20, or 30¦C) on the heat balance and thermoregulatory responses of 4 dairy heifers housed at 24, 29, and 34¦C. No effect of drinking-water temperature on heat production or heart rate was found. Respiration rate, mean skin-surface temperature, and rectal temperature all decreased with decreasing drinking-water temperature. Rectal temperature reached a minimum 20 min after watering. The respiration rate, skin temperature, and rectal temperature returned to prior-to-watering values 120-180 min after watering. The cooling efficiency of drinking water was about 40%, and decreased at high environmental temperature, because the cooling potential was used initially in depressing heat loss responses. It is suggested that in order to eliminate excessive heat load, chilled drinking water could be effective during the night time when the environmental temperature is lowest.


1"" """ Written in a great hurry, this paper engages in pooled cross-section time-series analysis to test a series of hypotheses concerning the determinants of fiscal policy. Our data cover 19 OECD countries over the period 1980-2010. The dependent variable is the cyclically adjusted primary budget balance of the central government, expressed in percent of GDP. While its consequences for short-term as well as long-term growth is a topic of debate among economists, and likely varies across countries and over time, everyone agrees that deficit spending boosts domestic demand. Using conventional terminology, we refer to deficit spending as "expansionary fiscal policy." Our analysis seeks to identify the effects of political-institutional and economic-structural variables while controlling for the cyclical economic fluctuations (measured by the gap between potential GDP and actual GDP). Thus, we essentially ask: Why do governments adopt more or less expansionary fiscal policy stances over the business cycle?


Over the years COMSIS has developed a number of products related to the census as well as other census-related applications. Working with information from 1970, 1980, and 1990, COMSIS has developed many products that are of direct use to both transportation practitioners and policy makers, including technical reports, training materials, trend and factoring information, and topological geographic information. Through technical committee representation and conference presentations, COMSIS has provided extensive insight into the use of the census data. More specifically, COMSIS has provided guidance in the use of census data as related to transportation planning and travel forecasting. This information is integral to the development of travel models and the understanding of work trip making in a specific region.


1048 radio source positions measured with the Texas Interferometer were searched for optical identifications on glass copies of the Palomar Sky Survey E and O plates, resulting in 242 identifications and 806 blank fields. Finding charts are presented for 124 of the 125 new identifications not previously reported in the literature, and for 73 blank fields containing nearby optical objects which may be real identifications. This brings the cumulative number of Texas radio positions searched to 2015, producing 864 optical identifications and 1151 blank fields.


The hydration of two peculiar unsaturated lipids with phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) and phosphatidylcholine (PC) headgroups, namely dioctadecadienoyl PC (DODPC) and dioleoyl PE (DOPE), has been studied at room temperature by infrared (IR) spectroscopy including the linear dichroism. Oriented films of these lipids subjected to an atmosphere with definite values of relative humidity were investigated. The choice of DODPC and DOPE was motivated by their common property of undergoing a lyotropic phase transition, which, in each case, nearly exclusively affects the polar part of the lipid aggregates and is, thus, termed "solvation-induced" transition. The temperature−RH phase diagrams of both lipids were determined. The headgroups of both lipids form quasi-crystalline structures at small RH. The long axes of the PE and PC moieties orient essentially parallel with respect to the polar interface of the lipid aggregates. Model-based analyses of IR linear-dichroism data are consistent with the idea that about 8−12...


The current study aimed to investigate the hypolipidemic and anti-inflammatory effects of recently used hypoglycemic drugs bromocriptine and sitagliptine alone and combined dosing regimen on induced type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in albino rats. Forty adult male rats divided equally into five groups including four diabetic groups and one non-diabetic representing control negative.


We consider an information system where its throughput deteriorates due to security threats and evaluate information security investment portfolios. We assume that organizations adopt information security countermeasures (or portfolios consisted of countermeasures) to lessen the damage resulted from the productivity (or throughput) deterioration. A probability model is used to derive the system throughput and the average number of repairs according to the occurrence rate of security threats. Considering the revenue from throughput, the repair cost, and the investment for the security system, the net present value for each portfolio is derived. Organizations can compare information security investment portfolios and select the optimal portfolio.


Optical bistability and bright and dark resonator solitons exist in semiconductor resonator at room temperature [C.O. Weis and Ye. Larionova, Rep. Prog. Phys. 70 (2007) 255-335], with the usual semiconductor nonlinearity. At low temperature in the strong coupling regime between quantum well excitons and the optical field in a semiconductor microcavity the nonlinearities are strong and based on "polariton nonlinearity". The strong coupling results in a quasi-particle "exciton-polariton" which gives access to positive and negative reactive and dissipative optical nonlinearities, as opposed to the usual room temperature semiconductor nonlinearities possessing essentially only one sign. The type of nonlinearity and the properties of solitons can be varied widely by the detuning between the photon- and exciton resonances. We show for the first time experimentally the existence of patterns, bright and dark solitons based on polariton nonlinearity. 1. INTRODUCTION Bright and dark spatial solitons were shown to exist in such microresonators with and without population inversion [1-3]. At room temperature the nonlinearity which is at the origin of the soliton existence is the usual mixed absorptive/refractive semiconductor nonlinearity which can have transverse effects (e.g. self-focusing) and longitudinal effects such as nonlinear resonance, both ingredients for soliton stability. At low temperature (or at large exciton binding energies) the exciton, which merges with the absorption band at room temperature, is well separated spectrally from the absorption band so that the nonlinearity becomes that of a 2-level system. If the exciton resonance is strongly coupled with the field inside a resonator the exciton- and the photon resonances mix. At coincidence of the two resonance frequencies, the photon- and the exciton resonances hybridize in an avoided crossing and the two hybrid resonances are ascribed to a quasi-particle, the excitonpolariton. This quasi-particle has unusual optical properties. E.g. is the photon nonlinearity determined by exciton collisions. That the exciton-polariton system has interesting nonlinearities (e.g. induced absorption as opposed to the usual saturable absorption) has been shown previously [4]. It was realized that semiconductor microresonators in the strong field-exciton coupling regime might show optical bistability and first experimental proofs for bistability were given recently [5]. As optical bistability of a resonator is a precondition for the existence of spatial resonator solitons, the question arises whether semiconductor microresonators with polariton nonlinearity can support spatial resonator solitons, which, as a consequence of the large nonlinearity of the polaritons, could be expected to exist at rather small light intensities, as it is of importance for all applications. 2. EXPERIMENTAL ARRANGEMENT AND RESULTS The cooled resonator sample (4 K) is illuminated by light at the polariton resonance wavelengths, and the light reflected from the resonator is observed. The light source is a Ar


The present invention relates to a method for energy conversion, apparatus and system. In order to convert energy by the addition of thermal energy is first converted into a gaseous carrier medium is a non-gaseous carrier medium, whereby the gaseous carrier medium rises and the potential energy is obtained. Then the gaseous carrier medium at a given height converted to non-gaseous carrier medium. The potential energy is then recovered non-gaseous carrier medium into the other, the desired form of energy.


Internet is a new technology that has significant impact on the world and it certainly serves a powerful way for facilitating communication and information. At the same time, increasing problems have been reported due to overuse or abusive use of the Iternet. Pathological Internet Use (PIU), which is also known as Internet Addiction, has been found to affect the mental health of many on-line users. Researches are now paying more attention to the negative impacts of Internet usage. This article reviews the definition, epidemiology, etiology, symptoms and diagnoses of PIU.


Board-level simulation has to consider, at the earliest stage of the conception, the impact of the vicinity of numerous high and medium powered devices. In 1996, the concept of Compact Thermal Model was defined, by the European consortium DELPHI to minimize the computation times, from days to minutes. A CTM resumes an electronic component as a simple cuboid form and a network of resistors that links a single temperature-sensitive node to major surfaces of heat extraction. Unfortunately the DELPHI method is restricted to steady-state model for mono-chip component. More complex issues such as multi-chip module or transient thermal model remain today for worldwide companies a non-trivial challenge. Our latest improvements made to generate steady-state multi-source CTM for System-In-Package devices showed that the number of boundary-condition scenarios is quite prohibitive when several nodes need to be monitored. The present work investigates the use of fractional factorial experiment, such as N-variables Doehlert design. The objective of this study is to define the lowest number of numerical simulations while keeping the highest accuracy level of the derived Boundary-Condition-Independent thermal network.


Introduction: Health literacy evaluation is considered a priority issue in the health literacy research field. The complexity of the multiple definitions of health literacy and the diversity of instruments to evaluate health literacy has become a challenge to the establishment of comparisons across different studies. This work aimed to provide a systematic literature review of the existing measurement instruments adapted or developed for different groups of the Portuguese population. Methods: A comprehensive search of digital databases was conducted to systematize and understand the available knowledge about health literacy measurement in Portugal and to identify assessment tools and studies developed. The selection process was based on PRISMA guidelines. Results: A total of 17 publications were analysed regarding different aspects, which resulted in the identification of 11 different instruments, that were adapted or developed to measure health literacy in different groups of the Portuguese population, mainly adults, adolescents, and young adults. Seven instruments focusing on general health literacy (including e-health), 2 on mental health literacy, and the other 2 on oral health literacy were identified. Discussion/Conclusion: This study presents the first general overview of health literacy measurement in Portugal and clearly shows that to deepen our knowledge of health literacy in the Portuguese population it is essential to broaden the scope and the target of health literacy assessment to have a comprehensive understanding that will allow transforming our reality regarding health and disease.


A parametric study to determine heat-shield weight and thickness requirements for possible range of Venus entries is presented. The 1968 Venus (V-3) model atmosphere was used in calculating convective and radiative entry heating rates. The assumed trajectory matrix covers the entry velocity range of 32,000 to 44,000 ft/s. The lower velocity is representative of an out-of-orbit entry, and the higher velocity of an entry from a Venus-Mercury flyby. A number of available heat-shield charring materials were considered. I t was found that, subject to char shear-strength limitation, lower density materials are satisfactory for low energy entries; for higher energy entries, denser materials with chars of higher shear strength must be used. JPL TECHNICAL REPORT 32-1468 A Parametric Analysis of Venus Entry Heat-Shield Requirements


BIOL 295F – Introductory Quantitative Cellular Biology was first offered at a Midwest US Research I institution during the fall 2004 semester. An online learning module on protein networks was designed and implemented for the second offering of the course during the fall 2005 semester. The overarching design goal was to create an online module to help students develop a large scale mental model of biomolecule interactions as a formal network. The application of network theory to biochemical networks provides a new view on cell function and stands to make a significant contribution to future advances in systems and computational biology. By taking advantage of advances in technology, the online module was developed to provide both visual representations of networks, so as to help engineering students best learn using their preferred learning style, and interactive learning features to engage students in the necessary higher-level critical thinking. This paper will highlight the design, implementation, and assessment of the new online learning module. Student learning gains were assessed using pre-post quiz questions focused on concepts presented in the online learning module. In addition, students' actual use of the tool and their perceptions of the interactive online learning modules versus other modes of instruction were evaluated through the use of an attitudinal survey.


In this paper we analyze whether a firm's return to its R&D stock is affected by seller-buyer interactions. We suggest that firms that are in close contact with their customers will be relatively more sensitive to their customers' needs, and therefore adjust their R&D activities accordingly. This, in turn, will boost sales and increase the return to R&D. To the extent that seller-buyer interactions are costly, large and productive firms will have an advantage in overcoming such costs. We test these hypotheses using a fixed effects quantile regression framework. Results suggest that large firms active in industries characterized by frequent seller-buyer interactions have a higher return to R&D than other firms.


It is now common in health care for a diverse range of professions and disciplines to work together in regular and close contact. Thus, there are now calls in the literature for research that documents insights on the ethical dimension of multidisciplinary relationships. Recent Australian research has responded to this call by examining how a multidisciplinary team of health professionals define and operationalize the notion of ethics in an acute ward hospital setting. This article provides findings from the research study that indicate that, although there is a shared conceptualization of ethics as "patient-centered care," there can be times of conflict and tension in determining what is best for the patient. The discussion begins to build an understanding of how a multidisciplinary mix of health professionals responds to ethical conflict and tension. The authors' hope and expectation is that, by keeping the research focus on what health professionals in a multidisciplinary team (MDT) actually do, rather than exclusively on how they philosophically think about ethical dilemmas, the insights can be translated into practical strategies that can be utilized to strengthen the process of ethical decision making within the health care system.


This article traces the origins and evolution of the federal doctrine of mutually exclusive defenses (sometimes also called antagonistic, mutually antagonistic, or irreconcilable defenses) among all the various federal circuits. The doctrine concerns whether criminal co-defendants must be severed and have separate trials if their defenses are sharply conflicting. Through a process of borrowing and paraphrasing dicta from other circuits, a mandatory severance rule for mutually exclusive defenses was assumed into existence without proper holdings or consideration of the issue in most circuits between 1962, when a federal case was decided partly though not entirely on the basis of antagonistic defenses, and the 1980s. Later, in 1993, the United States Supreme Court in Zafiro v. United States specifically declared that there should be no mandatory severance rule for antagonistic defenses, that the inquiry was entirely fact-specific, and that the controlling question was whether a defendant suffered prejudice at trial, but due to linguistic and terminological confusion - particularly varying names for the same thing - various circuits did not get the high court's message. The article is a study in the improper formation and replication of precedent in a common law system, and how normal court processes inadvertently can serve to entrench and conceal flawed precedent.


Future generation wireless radios (WRs) are expected to dynamically tune their transmission parameters like transmitting frequency and modulation scheme to enhance the spectrum utilization and data rate. To perform this, the base station needs to identify the suitable spectrum resources and determine the modulation schemes of legacy users which are transmitting in the neighboring vacant spectral bands. Since the determination of modulation scheme indicates the presence of a signal, in this paper, we perform automatic modulation classification (AMC) based wideband spectrum sensing (WSS) to reduce the additional overhead caused by WSS. To avoid the need of power and area hungry Nyquist rate analog to digital converter (ADC), we exploit the sparse nature of the wideband spectrum to perform digitization at the sub-Nyquist rate. The proposed sub-Nyquist sampling based AMC (SNS-AMC) employs a long short-term memory neural network to classify various modulation schemes. The performance of the proposed SNSAMC is analyzed for different tapped delay line (TDL) channel models and is also validated on USRP based hardware testbed. It has been shown that the classification accuracy of the proposed SNS-AMC outperforms machine learning SNS-AMC and the accuracy of SNS-AMC approaches to the accuracy of Nyquist sampling based AMC with an increase in signal to noise ratio.


As scaling of silicon CMOS technology continues more challenges emerge in dealing with process variations. In SRAMs process variations directly affect operating margin, subthreshold leakage and speed. Previous schemes were used to address operating margin problems using body bias [1] and adaptive cell biasing [2]. To address variation problems effectively, on-chip power supplies must be separated and individually controlled. In this case the SRAM chip has 4 independent power domains: memory core, periphery logic, analog circuits and I/O's. This paper introduces a manufacturable scheme to control speed distribution while managing leakage current. A similar post silicon tuning technique was used [3] which utilizes body bias trimming to improve parametric yield, but it doesn't address leakage control or speed improvement. The gate density at 65nm makes it possible to design a digital control system embedding a microcontroller without significant die size impact. The scheme utilizes the microcontroller and on-chip test structures to calibrate body bias and supply voltage at wafer sort. The digital system includes a temperature sensor used to adjust body bias levels dynamically in the field to compensate for real time temperature variations. The PVT control system including the temperature sensor and test structures occupies 0.32mm2, which represents 0.4% of the 72Mb die size, this area excludes voltage references and regulators.


A one-dimensional computer simulation of oscillation characteristics has been carried out on 10GHz GaAs Gunn diodes.This paper describes the fundamental equations,boundary conditions and calculation sequence in the computer simulation;and presentsthe influence exerted on the oscillation characteristics of devices by the operating tempe-rature,the thickness and doping distribution of the active layer, as well as the donorconcentration gradient near the boundary surface.


---------------------------------------------------------------------***--------------------------------------------------------------------Abstract Open Source software evolution (OSS) has becoming widely adopted by Commercial, Public and Academic organizations. OSS has increased in abundance in few years due to the success of well known OSS such as VLC, Mozilla, Linux, Apache etc. This paper presents an analysis of the evolution of various open source software's with the help of SDMetric tool that used to obtain the metric and observe the quality change along the evolution of various versions of OSS. In addition, this paper gives a brief literature survey on OSS evolution and Lehman's seven laws of software evolution. SDMetric tool captures the combined effect of multiple influencing factors such as Coupling between components, Size of packages, Complexity of classes in all in one cohesive model and Translates non-interpretable internal quality data to easily interpreted external quality data in form of Metric Data Tables, Histograms, Kiviat Diagrams.The metric data output shows the evolution affect on various released versions of OSS.


This study was conducted to examine the effect of aging treatment for a short time between 6 s and 1.8 ks after cold-rolling on the mechanical properties of the β titanium alloy Ti-20V-4Al-1Sn. Cold-rolling at between 30% and 70% reduction accelerated hardening with aging at 673 K. It was thought that the dislocations introduced during cold-rolling provided suitable places for α fine-phase precipitation. When the alloy was cold-rolled at 70% reduction and then aged at between 673 K and 823 K by induction heating, the α phase precipitation occurred from 6 s and its volume fraction increased with time. As the aging temperature was lower and the aging time was longer, the average distance between the particles of the precipitated α phase became small, so that hardness and tensile strength increase was remarkable. In particular, the tensile strength of the alloy was significantly improved to 1510 MPa by aging for 1.8 ks at 723 K after cold-rolling at 70% reduction although ductility was greatly decreased.


It is analyzing the legal status of human rights treaties in the Brazilian legal system, in view of the changes introduced by the Amendment to the Constitution n. 45/04, known as the Judiciary Reform. Such amendment brought the possibility of the human rights treaties being likened to constitutional amendments and therefore have constitutional legal status. However, he remained silent with regard to approved treated before its enactment. However, the Supreme Court gave supra-legal status to that treaty. Must be examined to what extent this constitutional change brought greater protection of human rights, therefore it closely examines the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, adopted in the form of paragraph 3 of article 5 of the Federal Constitution of 1988.


A novel, efficient and versatile strategy was successfully developed to fabricate a well-designed three dimensional photocatalytic ternary hierarchical coaxial ZnO@ZnS heteroarchitecture decorated electrospun carbon hollow tube nanofibrous mat (ZnO@ZnS/C). Photocatalytic ternary coaxial ZnO@ZnS/C hollow tube mats showed an enhanced performance in the degradation of the pollutant methyl orange (MO), which may be attributed to the remarkable synergistic effect between ZnO, ZnS and graphitic carbon hollow tube fibers with a novel morphology and a unique porosity, where the ZnO and ZnS semiconductors act as improved ultraviolet-light absorbers and charge-transfer carriers, and the graphitic carbon hollow tube nanofibrous mats not only provide an appropriate porous support for the well-dispersed semiconductors, and for trapping of organic pollutants, but also act as an electron acceptor, which prolongs the electron lifetime of the excited semiconductor and decreases the recombination rate of the photo-induced electron–hole pairs. Improved efficiency and reusability in the degradation of MO dye makes the coaxial ZnO@ZnS/C hollow heteroarchitectures a commercially promising candidate for the photocatalytic treatment of dye effluent.


Background: Microtubule targeting compounds are a successful class of anticancer agents in the clinic. Although highly potent, the currently approved antitumor agents targeting tubulin present some drawbacks such as the development of acquired resistances, which remain an obstacle for an effective prolonged anticancer treatment. In this work, we present a novel microtubule destabilizing agent with an optimized interaction for the colchicine site and a novel mechanism of action which confers it a high affinity binding for tubulin.
 Methods and Results: We have determined the X-ray crystallographic structure of the complex T2R-TTL with PM534 at a resolution of 2.45 Å. We unequivocally found PM534 ligand density at the intra-dimer interface between α and β tubulin of both tubulin dimers (the colchicine domain) within the complex. The colchicine domain of tubulin can be divided into three zones: a central pocket and two accessories. Whereas other colchicine site-ligands only bind to two of the zones, we found that PM534 binds extensively along the three zones, making multiple contacts with β-tubulin N terminal domain, central hinge helix, and the intermediate domain. PM534 interaction did not affect the overall curved conformation of tubulin and its mechanism of action consists on precluding the curve-to-straight conformational transition required for tubulin to assemble intro microtubules and thus, to perform its cellular functions. In competition assays we found that the compound displaces a bona fide high-affinity colchicine-probe with a binding affinity of 5.1±0.3 × 107 M−1 at 25̊C. Moreover, PM534 shows potent antineoplastic activity in vitro, with GI50 values in the low nanomolar range, observed in different human tumor cancer cell lines. An in vivo Proof of the Concept (PoC) was performed in athymic nu/nu mice bearing H460 (NSCLC) tumors that were treated (intravenous, on days 0, 7, 14) with different doses (ranging from 0.75 mg/kg to 2.5 mg/kg) of PM534. Results demonstrated strong, dose-related PM534-induced antitumor activity in this in vivo model.
 Conclusions: The mechanism of action of PM534 involves an optimized interaction with the colchicine site, which is reflected in its high affinity for the substrate, being this the ultimate reason for the observed cellular activity. Additionally, PM534 presents a potent antitumor activity in vitro that was translated into a clear positive in vivo PoC that resulted in strong antitumor effect.
 Citation Format: Maria Ángela Oliva, Beatriz Álvarez-Bernad, Daniel Lucena-Agell, Marta Martínez Diez, María José Guillén, Gema Santamaría Nuñez, María José Muñoz-Alonso, Eva M. Garrido-Martin, Pablo Avilés, Carmen Cuevas, J. Fernando Díaz. PM534 is a novel microtubule-destabilizing agent with high affinity and potent antineoplastic properties. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2023; Part 1 (Regular and Invited Abstracts); 2023 Apr 14-19; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(7_Suppl):Abstract nr 6239.


Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to establish a situation evaluation model of the robot and ball in SimuroSot5vs5 platforms and enhance the strength of the team in a SimuroSot5vs5.Design/methodology/approach – This paper presents a mathematical model based on situation evaluations which can improve the strength of the team in SimuroSot5vs5. The situation evaluation focus on four aspects includes scores of both sides, possession of teams on ground, ball strategy, and treat. The statistical analysis of the score can verify validity and stability of current strategy in confrontation. To evaluate the situation more effectively without blindness, possession on both teams is, respectively, evaluated. Ball strategy analyzes coordinate transformation to the ball on the ground and illustrates the circumstance of both teams on the offensive position accurately in length and breadth. To know the circumstance on the field more completely and synthetically, a threat situation evaluation model is built. An effect...


To deal with the challenge of climate change and energy security, renewable energy has been widely regarded as an increasingly important solution leading to a more sustainable future. Given the fact that more than half of all energy is consumed in cities today, designers and academics have sought to integrate renewable energy technologies at small scale into the urban environment. This thesis explores effective ways of combining renewable energy with urban development through analyzing the relationship between urban form and renewable energy production. It focuses on two renewable technologies: solar photovoltaics (PV) and micro-wind turbines, both to produce electricity, at the urban scale. The study starts with a detailed review of the characteristics of both technologies. It then analyzes the energy potential simulation methodologies and examines relevant urban-form indicators qualitatively and quantitatively. A comparison of renewable energy potential in four different neighborhoods in Jinan, China then follows to distill the key urban-form factors. With the simulation results in Jinan, the thesis then studies the implications of the key urban form factors and provides design principles that could improve renewable energy potential in future urban development. The research shows that urban form has quite significant impact on potential neighborhood renewable energy output under a given climate condition. PV would make a much larger contribution to total renewable potential than wind energy in cities with climates similar to Jinan's. Low-rise neighborhoods with high roof coverage provide the best conditions for solar PV integration; whereas the windward open area best accommodates the wind power generation. For future developments, urban renewable energy potential could be increased through existing or innovative urban forms, such as the low-rise courtyard prototype for solar integration and a combination of low-rise blocks and high rise towers that accommodates both sun and wind.


The invention relates to a composite material for rapidly and deeply treating organo-chlorine pesticide wastewater, and preparation and application of the composite material. The composite material comprises 5-20 parts by weight of nano iron and 80-95 parts by weight of carrier, wherein the carrier is an activated carbon fiber felt or a mixture of activated carbon fiber cloth and a carbon-based material from bionts; the weight ratio of the activated carbon fiber cloth to the carbon-based material is 1:9 to 9:1; the diameter of the nano iron is about 100nm. By using the composite material, degradation of organo-chlorine pesticide can be rapidly achieved, and the organo-chlorine pesticide can be generally degraded within 30 minutes.


—High-altitude electromagnetic pulse (HEMP) field tests are conducted in the working volume of HEMP simulators to verify the hardness or HEMP survivability of the systems under test. For HEMP field tests, enough confidence should be provided through certain specific test designs. In this paper, the confidence probability of HEMP field tests is defined through a statistical analysis. Based on this definition, the confidence level of the tests is proposed to address the problem that the probability of a failure or significant upset is unknown. The relation between the number of repeated illuminations in one test status and confidence level is provided after analysis. By balancing cost and confidence level, an appropriate number of the repeated illuminations for each test status can be obtained. The comparison with the definition in another article is also made.