The possibility of reversing ion implantation damage in SiC using pulsed electron beam annealing is investigated. Using Raman spectroscopy, photo luminescence and infrared reflectance it is shown that good recovery can be obtained for an electron-energy fluence of 1.1 Jcm -2 .


Digital Design Education: Information and Knowledge Management The assessment of architectural design project work, which forms the majority of the work produced by students in schools of architecture, is usually assessed through the process of critical review (otherwise known as a 'crit' or jury). Students present their work to a group of experts and fellow students and in return receive useful formative and summative feedback in terms of both staff and peer assessment. (Anthony 1991) Whilst the traditional methods of presentation in a crit, where work is pinned onto a wall have on the whole been seen by teachers of architecture as successful1, recent developments in C&IT have lead to the generation of a wealth of dynamic new media, such as three-dimensional computer models, virtual reality, animations, slide shows and human interactivity which lend themselves less well to presentation via the printed page. Research by Muriel Cooper's Visible Language Workshop at MIT (Engeli 2000 pp 33-38) gave an early indication of the extent by which this new media could benefit the process of communication beyond that traditionally possible. From Pin-up to Slideshow:


After having defined a 3-strings midpoint-inserted vertex for the bc system, we analyze the relation between gh=0 states (wedge states) and gh=3 midpoint duals. We find explicit and regular relations connecting the two objects. In the case of wedge states this allows us to write down a spectral decomposition for the gh=0 Neumann matrices, despite the fact that they are not commuting with the matrix representation of K1. We thus trace back the origin of this noncommutativity to be a consequence of the imaginary poles of the wedge eigenvalues in the complex ?-plane. With explicit reconstruction formulas at hand for both gh=0 and gh=3, we can finally show how the midpoint vertex avoids this intrinsic noncommutativity at gh=0, making everything as simple as the zero momentum matter sector.


We discovery two new species (Trigonidium nigripes sp. nov. and Pteronemobius luojishanensis sp. nov.) of Trigonidiidae (Orthoptera: Grylloidea) from Sichuan Province, China. T. nigripes sp. nov. is distinct by its tegmen slightly bulging smooth and black, bearing false veins, degraded hindwings and similar wing venation of male and female, and P. luojishanensis sp. nov., is distinguished by its male ectoparamere of genitalia bifurcated and epiphallus relatively short. These species are described and illustrated in this article.


In one embodiment, the method includes generating a key field in a machine-readable medium. Key field has the ontology logic comprising the equivalence of the context and key fields and business class to business class. The method also generates a business class in a machine-readable medium. This business class has the ontology that includes the equivalence of the key fields and business class. .FIELD 1


This research was conducted in order to compare the performance of epoxy coated dowel bars to dowel bars of alternative shapes and materials such as stainless steel and glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP). Research was also done on the effect that dowel bar spacing has on the performance of concrete pavements. The four phases of this research are described in this report. The objectives of the four phases were as follows: to determine the material properties of all the GFRP dowel bars; to investigate the behavioral parameters of aged and unaged GFRP dowel bars under elemental static testing; to investigate the behavior of aged and unaged GFRP dowel bars under elemental fatigue loading; to investigate the fatigue behavior of GFRP dowel bars under an accelerated partial design life number of cycles; to determine the bond characteristics of both aged and unaged GFRP dowel bars; to evaluate the condition of dowel bars placed in actual highway joints; to investigate the failure modes and adequacy of alternate dowel bar parameters; to develop a finite element model of a jointed concrete highway pavement; and to compile the results of the study into a final report and possible standards.


A diluted classical spin chain with competing exchange interactions is studied by the transfer matrix method. It is found that a nonmagnetic impurity perturbs the helical spin structure and leads to a new local equilibrium spin complex. Numerical results for the correlation functions are discussed in connection with this spin complex. A nonmagnetic impurity plays a vital role in a helimagnetic chain. It perturbs the delicate balance of the helical spin structure and leads to the formation of a new local equilibrium spin configuration. (We call it a spin complex.) The purpose of this paper is to study this spin complex in detail and its effect on the thermodynamic properties. We consider a helimagnetic chain described by the following Hamiltonian: where J1 and J2 denote the nearest-neighbor (nn) and the next-nearest-neighbor (nnn) exchange interaction, respectively, and are assumed to be aptiferromapetic (J1, J 2 > 0) . s, is a classical unit vector at the site m, S , = (sin 0, cos a,, sin 8, sin Qm, cos 0,). We assume the periodic boundary condition, s, = s,+N, where N is the number of sites in the chain. Following the transfer matrix method for the pure case [I] we first introduce a dual lattice on which a dual spin is defined as a relative angle between adjacent spins on the real lattice. Then the original spin system can be redescribed by a new spin system: An advantage of this Hamiltonian HD over H is that HD does not contain nnn interactions, and therefore we adopt H~ as a basic Hamiltonian for our calculations of thermodynamic quantities. Now, let us first consider a single nonmagnetic impurity at the zero-th site on the real lattice. The dual spin at the impurity site is defined as a relative angle between nnn spins at both sides of the impurity (see Fig. 1). It is interesting to note that this dual spin is isolated from its nn spins and is in a magnetic field -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 -c.=--=~----.----~----~---.~>-~=real .' .. . : : ., .. .. ? . , I . , , lattice . , . . . . . , . , . . , . . : . . . , . . : ; : . .. : : . . . . . . : . .. ,. . . . ; ' . . . . . , + + + 8 ' dual ++ + -


The Partial Discharge pulse shapes under DC condition in internal discharge models,surface discharge models and corona discharge models were obtained. Then the discharge pulse shapes,Fourier analysis on the discharge pulse shapes and the PD characteristics under DC and AC condition in the three kinds of typical defect models were compared.The experiments indicate that the discharge pulse shapes in the same defect models under DC and AC voltage are similar,but there are differences in the pulse shapes with different defect models.The pulse shape and frequency spectrum are subjected to the types of defect model or the transmission lines of detection system.


Several recent studies concern the differences between L1 and L2 acquisition of Russian. It is known that Russian children never make errors in aspect usage whereas foreigners usually do. However, other types of mistakes look rather similar: form-building neologisms produced by children and L2 students are the same. Both learner types tend to apply productive rules to the verbs belonging to unproductive classes; e.g. *vzjaju, zastrjae? instead of voz'mu, zastrjane?. According to these studies, children demonstrate better results in those grammatical cases that are contextually determined, whereas grown ups are better in the application of rules. Other factors are language aptitude and age of the students. Learning foreign languages before puberty is easier than after that. The analysis of morphological forms shows that most errors are due to the class shift, incorrect use of the reflexive suffix ?sja and rare forms like conditional and participles. Aspect errors are not as numerous as one could expect.


The fatigue analysis of steel cladding and prediction method of lining thickness have been studied. The traditional empirical estimates and operational adjustments are not accurate enough. The finite element strength analysis and fatigue analysis of ladle cladding are carried out. A prediction model for the thickness of ladle lining is established. A BP neural network life prediction model is proposed. Then the model is used to solve the problem. The service life of ladle lining is predicted. The actual use of ladle lining is more accurately understood. The service life of ladle lining is increased and the service life of ladle is prolonged.


Estimating the battery capacity is an efficient way to monitor battery usage in real time. The data-driven capacity estimation methods proposed in the current literature usually require all the voltage, temperature, current data, etc. during the battery operation. However, obtaining such a large amount of data is unrealistic in practical application scenarios. Therefore, in this paper, a convolutional neural network is proposed, which needs only part of the voltage data during the battery discharge process, to estimate the battery capacity. Our model is tested on the Li(NiMnCo)O2 / carbon battery, and experimental results show that the proposed convolutional neural network model can accurately estimate the battery capacity with limited voltage data.


Abstract In this paper we emphasize W. E. B. Du Bois's relevance as a sociological theorist, an aspect of his work that has not received the attention it deserves. We focus specifically on the significance of Du Bois's theory of Double Consciousness. This theory argues that in a racialized society there is no true communication or recognition between the racializing and the racialized. Furthermore, Du Bois's theory of Double Consciousness puts racialization at the center of the analysis of self-formation, linking the macro structure of the racialized world with the lived experiences of racialized subjects. We develop our argument in two stages: The first section locates the theory of Double Consciousness within the field of classical sociological theories of the self. We show how the theory addresses gaps in the theorizing of self-formation of James, Mead, and Cooley. The second section presents an analysis of how Du Bois deploys this theory in his phenomenological analysis of the African American experience. The conclusions point out how the theory of Double Consciousness is relevant to contemporary debates in sociological theory.


The express delivery services (EDS) industry is an important field for Internet of Things (IOT) application. Based on reviews of current research on IOT and current application of IOT, this paper addresses major issues in the application of IOT in EDS industry, analyzes opportunities and threats in the application of IOT in EDS industry, and gives suggestions on how to apply IOT technology in EDS industry.


In existing monostratal phrase structure descriptionsofthe English passive, the construction is derived either by metarule or by lexical rule. Verbs that behave exceptionally with respect to the passive (like resemble and rumor) present dtjiculties for both types ofanalyses, as do passivizedprepositional objects (as in This ocean has been sailed across by many explorers). Analyses using language-particular metarulesshould be avoided in any case, but describing the exceptional behavior ofindividual verbs in the alternative, lexical-rule, framework leads to violations ofthe principle ofmorphologyfree syntax. However, there is a treatment available that. entails no undesirable theoretical consequences and is adequate both for English and on crosslinguistic grounds; it employs a syntactic (not strictly lexical) feature PAS associated with VPs anda SLASHlike 'missing constituent' feature restricted to a single clause. A VP that is +PAS is necessarily missing (in this restrictedsense) an object NP; in English such a VP also has the morphosyntacticfeature VFORM:PSPandpermits the occurrence ofan agent phrase. l. The passive in monostratal phrase structure. syntax Monostratal phrase structure accounts of the English passive derive this construction either by metarule or by lexical rule. The first approach is illustrated in (I), which is slightly adapted from the fonnulation given by Gazdar et al. (1985: 59),' the second in (2), which reformulates the relevant portions of the rule given by Pollard (1985: 141).'


This article proposes a model of development for management of small rural farms in Guatambu (SC). A diagnosis with the data on rural farms surveyed was prepared, identifying their weaknesses and potential applied to matrix Constraints, Potentials and Disabilities (CPD). Finally, it was suggested a management model for small farms. The study was made through descriptive research with qualitative approach. Regarding the methodological procedures it is a case study. It appears that some of the difficulties found in small farms as the poor condition of roads, housing problems, the lack of media such as internet and telephone, a fact that complicates access to information and the permanence of young people in the field. It was felt the need to diversify production, and aimed at the small farmer income. It also identified differences between the entities consider most relevant issues and the reality of the small producer. We conclude that it is necessary to offer alternatives to diversify the production, promote greater dialogue between farmers and authorities to provide better living conditions for families of the field ensuring its permanence and reducing the rural exodus


This conference report gives a summary on the contributed papers and discussions presented at the 8th Asia-Pacific Transport Working Group Meeting held at the Engineering & Technical College of Chengdu University of Technology, Leshan, China, from 12 to 15 June 2018. The objective of the meeting is to develop a predictive understanding of the physical mechanisms responsible for particle, energy and momentum transport in magnetically confined plasmas. In order to achieve this objective, five technical working groups were organized under the headings: (A) edge/SOL turbulence and L-H/H-L transition, (B) core-edge turbulence coupling, and transport in high beta plasmas, (C) transport and turbulence in 3D magnetic topology, (D) interaction between energetic particles, MHD instabilities and turbulence, and (E) model reduction and experiments for validation. A summary of the selected significant progresses from the presentations in the five technical working groups is given. The Young Researchers Forum which was held in this meeting is described.


Present 3D limit equilibrium (LE) methods do not incorporate shear resistance from near vertical sides parallel to the direction of slide movement. Consequently, the computed 3D factor of safety (FS) is underestimated and the shear strength parameters from an inverse analysis are overestimated. The present study uses continuum mechanics to calculate the magnitude of side shear resistance along near vertical sides of a translational slide mass. Results of the parametric study show use of an earth pressure coefficient (Kτ) that is in-between at-rest (K0) and active (KA) earth pressure and Mohr-Colombo strength criteria provides a reasonable estimate of the side shear resistance and 3D/2D FS ratios that are in agreement with finite element (FE) and finite difference (FD) a continuum analyses. Based on these findings, charts showing the influence of shear resistance on 3D/2D FS ratios for various slope inclinations and geometries are presented herein.


An extended battery of neuropsychological tests was administered to three groups of college seniors (lysergic acid diethylamide [LSD]/mescaline users; marihuana/hashish users; and controls) who were matched on predrug usage intellectual and personality dimensions. The study was replicated one year later. In the combined-years' analyses, the three groups showed statistically significant differences only on the Trail Making Test: LSD/mescaline users performed within normal limits but significantly worse than either of the other two groups. Since the three groups also differed significantly in the extent of their alcohol usage, a covariance analysis was carried out that indicated that this variable did not account for the LSD/mescaline group's performance on the Trail Making Test. Inference about possible organic dysfunction cannot be drawn from these findings, but prospective neuropsychological testing might prove useful.


Objective Several studies have shown that arginine vasopressin (AVP) potentiates the sympathetic nervous transmission in isolated vessels. The present study investigates such a potentiation in the pithed rat model. Methods Male Wistar rats weighing 270–310 g were used. Spinal-cord stimulation was applied, with frequencies of 0.25–4 Hz, in the presence or absence of a subpressor dose of intravenous (i.v.) AVP (1 pmol/kg per min). In addition, the effect of AVP on postsynaptic α-adrenoceptor-mediated responses was studied using exogenously administered noradrenaline (NA). For this purpose dose–response curves (DRCs) for NA (i.v.) were constructed. Results In the pithed rat model endogenously generated angiotensin II facilitates neurally mediated increments in vascular resistance. Without the administration of the angiotensin II type 1 (AT1) antagonist, irbesartan, the facilitating effect of AVP was not visible. However, after the administration of the AT1 antagonist, irbesartan, the facilitating effect of AVP became apparent. The stimulation-induced rise in diastolic blood pressure (DBP) was enhanced in the presence of AVP from 63.7 ± 4.5 to 78.6 ± 4.2 mmHg, at a stimulation frequency of 4 Hz. The vasopressin receptor V1 antagonist, SR-49059, completely inhibited this AVP-induced facilitation, whereas the V2 antagonist, SR-121463B, or the V2 agonist, desmopressin, did not. The DRC of exogenously administered NA was not influenced by AVP. Conclusion The stimulating effect of AVP on sympathetic neurotransmission is completely dependent on the stimulation of presynaptically located V1 receptors. The facilitating effect of angiotensin II on the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) in the pithed rat model masks the facilitating effect of AVP in this preparation.


Using 3D finite-volume method and unstructured meshes to do numerical simulate research on inlet flow patterns around pump in pile pipe for different inflow conditions.The results show that,the parameters of steel pile pipe size,hole style,elevation,and pump style are optimized.The transverse velocity and the strength of vortex inside suction part around pump are minimized.The inflow condition is improved after the model.The model result provides relevant parameters for future physical model and preliminary design.


The presence of bike-sharing has a significant influence on the ease of trips by bike, which is one critical aspect of bicycling accessibility (BAcc). The existing measurements of BAcc rarely consider the factor of ownership of bikes, which means that no distinction is made between private-bikes and shared bikes. To measure BAcc more fully, this paper proposes a method to evaluate the influences of bike-sharing on BAcc and to perform the method on a real-world case study in Beijing. It is found that bike-sharing has a boosting effect on BAcc, and the increased rate of BAcc is significantly affected by bicycling frequency and shared-bike availability. A case study in Beijing utilizing geo-location data collected from two major bike-sharing companies (OFO and Mo-bike) illustrates the significance of the impact of bike-sharing on BAcc and the necessity to include bike-sharing in the measurement of BAcc. Besides, the case study shows BAcc around the transit station is better than that over the whole area. Given that bicycling feeds transit, this research lays the foundation for analyzing the combination of bike-sharing and transit from the perspective of accessibility and can further support transportation planning.


THE AUTHORS BRIEFLY RELATE THE RESULTS OF A BRIEF STUDY CARRIED OUT IN 1972 AT THE LYON LABORATORY, WHICH HAS SHOWN THE PRE-SETTING IMPROVEMENT THAT COULD RESULT FROM INCORPORATING CRUSHED SAND INTO THE FORMULA OF A SAND-SLAG. THE STUDY CONSISTS INITIALLY IN INVESTIGATING THE VARIATION IN THE RESISTANCE TO PUNCHING OF COMPACTED SAMPLES WHEN THE RATIO OF ROUND SAND (0/5 MM ALLUVIUM) / CRUSHED SAND (0/5 MM FROM CRUSHING THE SAME ALLUVIUM) IS VARIED, THE PERCENTAGE OF GRANULATED SLAG REMAINING CONSTANT. IT CAN BE ESTIMATED THAT THE AMOUNT OF 25% OF CRUSHED SAND ALLOWS THE IMMEDIATE RESISTANCE OF THE MIX TO PUNCHING TO BE TREBLED. IT WAS ALSO PROPOSED TO VERIFY IF THE AMOUNT OF 25% OF CRUSHED SAND WOULD ALLOW THE SLAG PERCENTAGE TO BE REDUCED FROM 25% TO 15%. HOWEVER IT APPEARS THAT THE SLAG DOSAGE REMAINS PREPONDERANT, THE PHYSICAL/CHEMICAL BONDS WHICH HAVE BEEN CREATED BY THE PRESENCE OF THE SLAG BEING THE PRINCIPAL CAUSES OF OBTAINING THE FINAL STRENGTH. FOLLOWING THE TESTS IT APPEARS THAT THE QUANTITY OF CRUSHED SAND LEADING TO OPTIMUM STABILITY IS CLOSE TO 30%. THE SAND-SLAG THUS CORRECTED APPEARS AS A FLEXIBLE MATERIAL WITH EASY WORKING, EVEN IN LATE AUTUMN UNDER DIFFICULT CLIMATIC CONDITIONS.


Chapter 1 presents a useful survey of special relativity. It is followed by calculations of the force between moving charges, showing that the weak magnetic interaction can be interpreted as a second-order relativistic effect. The electric and magnetic fields near a moving charge are used in Chapter 4 to develop Maxwell's equations for systems of point charges moving with uniform velocities; accelerating charges are considered in an Appendix. The scalar and vector potentials are treated in Chapter 5 and relativistic electromagnetism in the final Chapter. Problems are included in most Chapters. The book has been extremely carefully written and is easy to follow. The author is a thoughtful and helpful guide, but the quick student may find the style too slow and repetitive. The book is recommended to those who have some knowledge of electromagnetic theory -- it should help to clarify their understanding of this important subject. The MKSA system of units (S.I.) has been used.


Recent advances in Neural Radiance Fields (NeRF) have demonstrated significant potential for representing 3D scene appearances as implicit neural networks, enabling the synthesis of high-fidelity novel views. However, the lengthy training and rendering process hinders the widespread adoption of this promising technique for real-time rendering applications. To address this issue, we present an effective adaptive multi-NeRF method designed to accelerate the neural rendering process for large scenes with unbalanced workloads due to varying scene complexities. Our method adaptively subdivides scenes into axis-aligned bounding boxes using a tree hierarchy approach, assigning smaller NeRFs to different-sized subspaces based on the complexity of each scene portion. This ensures the underlying neural representation is specific to a particular part of the scene. We optimize scene subdivision by employing a guidance density grid, which balances representation capability for each Multilayer Perceptron (MLP). Consequently, samples generated by each ray can be sorted and collected for parallel inference, achieving a balanced workload suitable for small MLPs with consistent dimensions for regular and GPU-friendly computations. We aosl demonstrated an efficient NeRF sampling strategy that intrinsically adapts to increase parallelism, utilization, and reduce kernel calls, thereby achieving much higher GPU utilization and accelerating the rendering process.


Background: A vision-screening program is effective in prevention of vision impairment. The validity of vision screening conducted by nurses, medical assistants, and teachers has been previously reported. However, the validity of preschool teachers in conducting external eye observations in preschool children has not been widely investigated. This study aimed to determine validity of preschool teachers in conducting external eye observation tests, including the observation of behavior and external eye health, in preschool children.Methods: In this cross-sectional study, preschool teachers from Kemajuan Masyarakat kindergarten in Klang Valley, Malaysia, were randomly allocated to the study (n = 30) or control (n = 30) groups. The study group underwent theory training with an optometrist and practical sessions with preschool children on vision screening, while the control group received only brief verbal instructions on steps to conduct the screening. After the briefing, teachers from both groups conducted vision screening tests at their kindergartens on preschool children aged 4–6 years. The same vision screening procedure was repeated in the same children by optometrists to verify results of the teachers. Results: A total of 700 preschool children were screened by 60 preschool teachers and optometrists. Teachers from the study and control groups displayed high validity in screening for external ocular health, including sensitivity (66.67% versus 66.67%), specificity (95.21% versus 95.54%), and negative predictive value (99.41% versus 99.69%). The positive predictive value was slightly higher in the study group (19.05%) than in the control group (11.76%). Conclusions: Preschool teachers competently observed external eye health in preschool children. A training module for vision screening is important, and a revision of the current training module is needed. Empowering preschool teachers could help in the early detection and intervention necessary in needy children. This could reduce the nationwide prevalence of visual impairments.


Soft X-ray projection lithography with a reduction rate of 32 was examined using Mo/Si-multilayer-coated Schwarzschild optics. The optics were designed to function at 13 nm, and were aligned with the synchrotron radiation light source. The patterns on a transmission mask were imaged in a 0.18-µm-thick polymethyl methacrylate resist. Line-and-space patterns down to 0.1 µ m were fabricated.


The migration behaviour of polymer additives in 17 polypropylene (PP) samples is described. These samples cover the major types of PP used in food packaging. The diffusion coefficients of additives with relatively small molecular masses, M r = 136 (limonene), as well as the migration of typical antioxidants used in PP up to M r = 1178 (IRGANOX 1010), were measured at different temperatures. In addition, the diffusion data and percentages of xylene-soluble fractions were correlated. This enables a prediction of the migration behaviour of a PP sample by testing its 'isotactic index' with xylene. The results clearly indicate that PP can be subdivided, from the migration point of view, into the monophasic homopolymer (h-PP), the monophasic random copolymer (r-PP), and the heterophasic copolymer (heco-PP). The diffusion coefficients for r-PP are at least one order of magnitude higher than those of h-PP and comparable with the values for heco-PP. Upper limits for the diffusion values can be calculated based on the safety margin required by consumer protection laws.


Almost all CSR systems presently in practical use are based on whole-word template matching. Although their performances are quite high, a few problems arise due to the use of whole words as ba sic units. They are related to storage require ments, coarticulation effects at the junction be tween words, discrimination of similar words and training time, especially for large vocabularies. In this paper we report a very positive experi ence which is being made with a system based on very short sub-word units, called "diphones". With the approach described in this paper, the above mentioned problems are much alleviated, with no penalty on performance. The first part is devoted to the presentation and discussion of the peculiar characteristics of the diphones, of the language model based on them and of the overall recognition system. Then a set of procedures used for training the system on a new application and for extracting the diphone templates for any new speaker are briefly de scribed. Finally we report and discuss the results of different tests performed on various recogni tion tasks.


Due to the growing emphasis of modern language pedagogy on meaningful communication, L2 willingness to communicate (WTC) has recently become an important concept in second language learning and communication. The present study investigated the effects of individual differences on Iranian EFL learners' willingness to communicate. As many as 431 students who were learning English as a foreign language in language centers served as the participants of the study. McCroskey's (1992) questionnaire was utilized to measure students' willingness to communicate. A series of independent-samples t-tests and one-way ANOVAs were run to provide answers to the research questions. The results indicated no significant difference among the participants in terms of gender, major, age, and personality types; however, significant difference was found with respect to other variables such as proficiency level, length of studying, being abroad, and communicating with foreigners. Therefore, the effects of Iranian EFL individual differences on their L2 WTC were partially confirmed. The importance of the present study lies in its theoretical contributions to the WTC research and the pedagogical implications for both second language teaching and learning.


Families are places where everyone in the family feels safe and comfortable from acts o violence, but in reality violence also accurs whitin the family. The enactment of Law No. 23 of 2004 on the abolition of domestic violence (hereinafter referred to as the Law of Domestic Violence) aims to prevent all forms of domestic violence, protect domestic violence victims, prosecute domestic violence perpetrators, and maintain wholeness harmonious and prosperous households. In handling it is sometimes resolved peacefully. This raises the question of whether the Law on Elimination of Domestic Violence has guaranteed the settlement of Domestic Violence according to its objectives? All forms of violence against women and children constitute a violation of human rights, so it is necessary to be protected by their dignity and dignity and guaranteed their right to life in accordance with their nature and nature without discrimination. The Criminal Act contained in Article 5 of the Act states that prohibited violence is physical violence, psychological violence, sexual violence, or neglect of the household. Many cases of domestic violence are reported but not a few are repealed by the victim for various reasons, such as still loving the perpetrator, and the perpetrator is the breadwinner in the household. The resolution of cases of domestic violence is also up to the court's decision, but this certainly brings the consequences of the objective of the Law on Elimination of Domestic Violence. Despite all forms of prevention of domestic violence, protecting the victim, prosecuting the perpetrator is reached but if the case is passed on to the court decision whether the goal of maintaining a harmonious and prosperous household unity can be achieved. The resolution of domestic violence requires the wisdom of the Law Enforcers (Police, Prosecutors, Judges).


The literature on real options theory is both diverse and rapidly expanding. Now standard techniques for the pricing of derivatives given a stochastic process for the price of underlying assets, are increasingly applied to the case of real investment in productive assets, including property development (Trigeorgis, 1996). Typically, this latter class of investments is represented as a set of options over deferment of a project, termination and salvage, switching of inputs and/or outputs, spawning of related projects, and the expansion, contraction, and temporary shut-down of projects. Concurrently, finance theorists have drawn on the mathematical literature on risksensitive and robust control theory under norm bounds and relative entropy constraints as one vehicle for accommodating uncertainty and market incompleteness (Andersen, Hansen, and Sargent 1999; McEneaney, W.M., 1997; Tornell, A., 2000). This paper provides a heuristic understanding of the relationship between these two bodies of research by examining recent work that establishes range bounds over option prices in incomplete markets (eg, that arising due to the stochastic volatility of stock prices or the existence of a stochastic interest rate) through the application of "gooddeal" bounds over the Sharpe ratios and gain-loss ratios of basis assets (Bernardo and Ledoit, 2000; Cochrane and Saa-Requejo, 2000). By varying the stipulated bound, the valuer can move along a spectrum ranging from the set of non-arbitrage bounds through to the uniquely defined option price that is associated with the pricing kernel of a chosen asset pricing model. The "good-deal" bound can thus be interpreted as a measure of investor uncertainty relative to a reference probability distribution for the equilibrium asset-pricing model. The paper identifies the precise relationship holding between the sup-norm bound on the pricing kernel, minimum cross entropy (Stutzer, 1995), and the stochastic uncertainty constraint that is adopted in certain robust control problems. In addition, it examines the derivation of martingale measures and the role of entropy techniques in Generalized Method of Moments estimation. As such, it sets out an agenda for future research into real options-based valuation of investment under uncertainty. _____________________________________________________________________


The retinal vascular tree has become an important task of medical image processing in different scientific areas. Many studies have focused on developing an automatic algorithm, however little attention has been paid to improve computational processing time of these algorithms. In this paper, an automatic methodology for retinal vascular tree extraction using cellular neural networks (CNNs) is proposed. The aim of using CNNs is to improve computational time in order to achieve real-time requirements.


We accidentally observed an abnormal elution pattern on high performance liquid chromatogram when we examined the Hb A1c level in a 65-year-old male patient who suffered from pneumoconiosis and alcoholic liver injury. The value of the glycated fraction was within the normal range but the elution patterns on high performance liquid chromatography varied with the glyco-hemoglobin analyzers. Isoelectrofocusing and urea-cellulose column chromatography showed an anomalous fast-moving β chain estimated at approximately 47%. The instability test of the hemolysate was slightly positive. Structural analysis demonstrated that the mutant was consisted by a substitution of His→Tyr at β117. This new variant was named Hb Tsukumi for the place of residence of the patient. Additionally, the nucleotide sequence showed a change of C→T |AC(His)→TAC (Tyr)] at the first base in the 117th codon of the β gene.


This paper analyzes the forecasting performance of fi nancial market data in comparison to other indicator groups to forecast industrial production for Germany and the US. We focus on single-indicator models and various weighting schemes and evaluate the forecasting performance using a signifi cance test. In addition, we investigate the stability of forecasting models before and during the recent fi nancial crisis. This paper shows that fi nancial market indicators are useful for short-term forecasting, especially for the US and longer forecast horizons. Nevertheless, the results indicate that the Great Recession was not foreseeable even if fi nancial market indicators were taking into account. Furthermore, the reliability of pooled forecasts is higher than most of the forecasts obtained from single-indicator models. JEL Classifi cation: C53, E37


Background and Purpose: Although the modified Rankin Score (mRS) is broadly used as a measure of stroke outcome, quality of life (QOL), expressed in 0-1 numerical utility values (0=death, 1=perfect...


Character strengths are an important foundation for positive development and thriving in adolescence. Most research on character strengths has been conducted with youths in Western cultures. We examined character strengths in relation to positive and negative well-being indicators in a sample of Iranian youths. We investigated the reliability and validity of the Farsi version of the Values in Action Inventory of Strengths for Youth (VIA Y-96)—a self-report survey commonly used in Western contexts. Participants were adolescents in Iran (N = 1,359; 48.5% female; M age = 13.54, SD = 1.00) who completed the VIA Y-96 and questionnaires assessing life satisfaction, positive/negative experiences, depression, anxiety, and stress. We found that reliability coefficients were acceptable for most of the VIA subscales. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), as well as a second-order CFA, supported the construct validity of the Farsi VIA Y-96. Correlations between the character strengths and positive and negative well-being indicators supported convergent validity. Measurement invariance for the VIA Y-96 was established in this study comparing boys' and girls' response patterns. Sex and grade level differences were found for some of the subscales. Overall, the Farsi VIA Y-96 had acceptable psychometric properties, suggesting that it can be used in research on character strengths with Iranian youths.


Temperature-programmed static secondary ion mass spectrometry (TPSSIMS) and temperature-programmed desorption (TPD) have been used to study the mechanism of ethene to ethylidyne conversion on Rh(111). Ethene is adsorbed molecularly on Rh(111) at 100 K. During temperature-programmed reaction of small coverages of ethene, hydrogen accumulates on the surface at 140 K, followed by the formation of ethylidyne at 190 K. Scission of a C—H bond being the first step in the decomposition of ethene points to a vinyl (either η1-CHCH2 or µ3-η2-CHCH2) intermediate in the reaction to ethylidyne. The temperature at which the vinylic intermediate forms increases with increasing coverage until it coincides with the ethylidyne formation temperature, which remains at 190 K, irrespective of coverage. This behaviour is explained by an ensemble size requirement for C—H scission: the number of vacant ensembles decreases with increasing coverage, thus obstructing C—H cleavage, but increases again during the formation of ethylidyne. Similarities and differences in ethylidyne formation on Rh(111) and Pt(111) are discussed.


Registration of two Sorghum Hybrids, ESH-1 and ESH-2 Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L) Moench) is an indigenous crop to Ethiopia and staple for many millions of people in most parts of Africa. The crop is one of the most important cereals grown in arid and semi arid areas where others often fail to survive. In Eastern Africa, more than 70% of sorghum is cultivated in the dry and hot lowlands where severe drought, low soil fertility, and poor stand establishment are the major hurdles for crop production (Mukuru, 1993). In Ethiopia, sorghum occupies 1.62 million ha annually and contributes 2.8 million MT to annual grain production in the country with increasing trend (CSA, 2008). The productivity of sorghum in Ethiopia is about 1.7 t ha-1, which is significantly lower than experimental plots yield as well as yields obtained in areas where improved production technology packages were promoted. Significant achievements were registered in the development of early maturing and drought tolerant open pollinated varieties; however, there exists enormous yield advantage of hybrids over varieties.


The invention provides a noise reduction control system for an ear-worn speaker-carrying device (''ESD''). The system is configured to sense ambient noise and to develop electrical signals which can be used to reduce the amount of said ambient noise audible to a wearer of the ESD. The system sets a plurality of predetermined and discrete noise reduction levels and automatically responds to at least one controlling event, outside the control of the wearer, to set the degree of noise reduction to one of those discrete levels. Typically, the system inverts and filters the electrical signals relating to ambient noise and feeds the inverted and filtered signals to the speaker of the ESD in time for the speaker to generate sounds capable of interfering destructively with the ambient noise.


Compiler diagnostic warnings help developers identify potential programming mistakes during program compilation. However, these warnings could be erroneous due to the defects of compiler warning diagnostics. Although the existing technique (i.e., Epiphron) can automatically generate test programs for compiler warning defect detection, the effectiveness of Epiphron on defect-finding is still limited, due to the limitation for generating warning-sensitive test program structures. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a DIversity-guided PROgram Mutation approach, called DIPROM, to construct diverse warning-sensitive programs for effective compiler warning defect detection. Given a seed test program, DIPROM first removes its dead code to reduce false positive warning defects. Then, the abstract syntax tree (AST) of the test program is constructed; DIPROM iteratively mutates the structures of the AST to generate warning-sensitive program variants. To effectively construct diverse warning-sensitive structures, DIPROM applies a novel diversity-guided strategy to generate program variants in each iteration. With the generated program variants, differential testing is conducted to detect warning defects in different compilers. In the experiments, we evaluate DIPROM with two popular C compilers (i.e., GCC and Clang). Experimental results show that DIPROM significantly outperforms three state-of-the-art approaches (i.e., HiCOND, Epiphron, and Hermes) by up to 18.93%$\sim$∼76.74% in terms of the bug-finding capability on average. Meanwhile, DIPROM is efficient, which spends less time on finding the same average number of warning defects. We at last applied DIPROM to the latest development versions of GCC and Clang. After two months' running, we reported 8 new warning defects; 5 of them have been confirmed/fixed by developers.


Abstract : The hyperfine Zeeman splittings in the recoilfree absorption spectrum of the 26 kev gamma ray from Dy-161m in Dy-161 situated in dysprosium iron garnet have been observed. At 85 K, the magnetic hyperfine interactions of the ground state and first excited state of Dy-161 are -400 + or - 40 mc and 455 + or - 40 mc, respectively. The electric quadrupole interactions (eqQ/4) at this temperature are 120 + or - 30 and 90 + or - 30 mc, respectively. At 300 degrees K the effective magnetic field (H sub eff) is 4.6 times smaller, and illustrates the proportionality between H sub eff and spontaneous magnetization of the Dy sub-lattice. Assuming Parks value of -0.37 + or - 0.05 nm for the Dy-161 ground state magnetic moment, H sub eff (85 K) equals 3.5 x 10 to the 6th power oe, and 0.42 + or - 0.08 nm for the magnetic moment of the first excited state were obtained. At 300 K a quadrupole interaction of less than 20 mc was obtained. The strongly temperature dependent quadrupole interaction is interpreted as being largely due to the effective electric field gradient produced at the nucleus by the 4f electrons which should be partially aligned below the Curie temperature. (Author)


Cooperative control of a large group of swarm robotics can perform complex tasks efficiently than a singel sophisticated roboric.Self organization has robust,flexible and scalable characters.According to the current situation,the key definition of self organization is introduced and we describe and compare some methods of self organization which can be used to swarm robotics.Future directions of self organization are discussed.


This article is an exploration of and theological reflection on the teaching of Pope Francis about the nature and mission of the church, as expounded in his encyclical Evangelii Gaudium and in the talks and presentations he has given in a number of venues. The author identifies three salient themes in Francis' thought about the church: (1) the church as communion, (2) a church in solidarity, and (3) a servant church. The author relates Francis' statements about the church as communion to the ecclesiology of Vatican II, especially as articulated in Lumen Gentium . The article expounds the pope's emphasis on the need for the church to be in solidarity with the poor and other suffering people in the world, connecting it with statements made by Pope Benedict XVI at the 2007 CELAM gathering at Aparecida. Finally, the author reflects upon Francis' summons to Christians to embody a spirit of service in their mission to the wider world and in their approach to ministry within the church. The author concludes by acknowledging that Francis' ecclesiology will undoubtedly continue to develop, but he suggests that these three themes will remain central to the pope's vision of the church in the modern world.


This article discusses the problem of controlling the process of electromagnetic oscillations in a long-distance transmission line. A long line is understood as an electrical line formed, in the sim-plest case, by two parallel current conductors, the length of which exceeds the wavelength of the transmitted electromagnetic waves, and the distance between the conductors is much less than the wavelength. Such a line is characterized by four distributed parameters, namely the ohmic re-sistance of the conductor, inductance, electrical capacity and leakage coefficient. A signal generator is connected to the left end of the line, and the right is grounded, but not of high quality. When transmitting a signal, the current and voltage make small oscillation. The control is the voltage at the left end of the long line, and the disturbance voltage at the right end, the values of which are li-mited. The boundaries of their permissible values are set. The magnitude of the aggregate of exter-nal disturbances acting on the conductor is not known exactly, but only its variation limits are given. Aim. The purpose of the control process is that at a given moment in time, the average value of the voltage value is in a given interval. This average is calculated using the specified function. Materials and methods. To solve the problem, the method of optimizing the guaranteed result was applied. Results. A transition was made to a new one-dimensional variable, with the help of which the considered problem was reduced to a control problem of the same type in the presence of inter-ference. This made it possible to find the necessary and sufficient conditions under which it is pos-sible to achieve the set goals with any admissible set of external forces and interference at the right end. A corresponding algorithm for constructing the law of voltage change at the left end of the conductor is proposed. An example is analyzed that clearly shows how management is built that guarantees the achievement of the set goal. Conclusion. If the found necessary and sufficient con-ditions are fulfilled, then it is always possible to construct such a law of voltage variation at the left end, which will lead to the achievement of the goal for any admissible interference.


The aim of this study was the prediction of sport injuries in athletes participating in recreational sports with functional movement screening test (FMS). Two hundred and four athletes participating in Dodgeball, 3 on 3 basketball, 2-player volleyball and minifootball have been assessed with functional movement screening tests prior to the recreational sport Olympiad of the medical universities of Iran. Sport injuries have been recorded during the matches by research and medical team. In total, 79 athletes have endured 129 injuries during the Olympiad. The results of the logistic regression test and the Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve showed that the athletes with the FMS score of less than 14 are 3.63 times more vulnerable to injuries. These findings emphasize on using the FMS tests for screening athletes with high risk of injuries in recreational sports as well as the championship sports and using FMS test for predicting vulnerable athletes and organizing more targeted preventive strategy plans in recreational sports by coaches and athletes is suggested. The aim of this study was the prediction of sport injuries in athletes participating in recreational sports with functional movement screening test (FMS). Two hundred and four athletes participating in Dodgeball, 3 on 3 basketball, 2-player volleyball and minifootball have been assessed with functional movement screening tests prior to the recreational sport Olympiad of the medical universities of Iran. Sport injuries have been recorded during the matches by research and medical team.


This Paper addresses the various facts of China-ASEAN economic engagement, its potential, impact and future trends. The paper emphasizes the major political hiccups between China and ASEAN should well be resolved due to the larger economic interests of China-ASEAN in reshaping the regional order. The economic engagement had emerged as the most reliable and agreeable instrument of China-ASEAN rapprochement. Preface China and ASEAN today represent East Asia's two major and dynamic societies. Since 1990s, with the normalization of the relationship between two sides as well as rapidly economical development for both sides, China and ASEAN countries have come to be more important players in East Asia regional economic integration. China and ASEAN leaders signed the Framework Agreement on China-ASEAN Comprehensive Economic Cooperation and decided to build a China-ASEAN free trade zone by 2010. In July of 2005, the Goods Trade Agreement of the China-ASEAN free trade zone took effect. The two sides lowered tariffs for more than 7,000 kinds of commodities. In January 2007, China and ASEAN signed the Service Trade Agreement. These measures have vigorously promoted the volume of bilateral trade. With the establishment of free trade zone, trade and investment between the Chinese and ASEAN economies are expected to increase significantly. Besides the establishment of free trade zone, China and ASEAN countries have been exploring to deepen and widen sub-regional economic cooperation with great efforts under the China-ASEAN economic cooperation framework, which is most strongly witnessed by the two emerging sub-region economic cooperation programs, the one is Greater Mekong Sub-region Cooperation, the other is Pan-Baibu Gulf economic cooperation. With the aim for "regional growth, equity and prosperity" and towards win-win strategy, these two sub-region economic cooperation programs, almost incorporate South-Western provinces of China and all ASEAN countries, have drawn a great attention of China and ASEAN. China and ASEAN, as two economically complementary and competitive partners, the establishment of free trade zone * Dr Shi Xueqin, Deputy Director and Associate Professor, Institute of Malaysian Studies, Faculty of International Relations and Research School of Southeast Asian Studies, Xiamen University, Fujian Province, China. Email: firstname.lastname@example.com 2 and implementation of sub-region economic cooperation, on the one hand, undoubtedly will significantly promote the rapid growth of bilateral trade and investment, on the other hand, certainly will produce new challenges and problems for both China and ASEAN countries, especially when ASEAN countries are confronting the China, one of the great economies in the world, which is still dominantly export-oriented economy and presenting similarity in trade and industrial structure as ASEAN countries in some extent. In addition, at present, there still exist political hiccups between China and some ASEAN countries such as South China Sea Disputes. Whether does economic engagement promote political confidence-building and offer one feasible and effective solution to political dispute between two sides? It's not a blindly optimistic hypothesis. Obviously, as the regional economic integration today is the unavoidable trend for all countries, China and ASEAN countries, as neighbors geographically inextricably linked by land and water as well as historically closely linked by trade and other communications, and today being rising as two newly industrial economies with great potentials to be integrated economically, the economic engagement had emerged as the most reliable and agreeable instrument of China-ASEAN mutual confidence-building. Bilateral Trade Bilateral trade volume is widely recognized as an important indicator reflecting the economic engagement of two sides. In the past, ASEAN's trade with China was relatively small, as compared to trade with other major partners like USA, EU, and Japan. China and ASEAN trade was only US$ 523 million for 1975. It is gratifying to see that their bilateral trade volume has gone up from US$20 billion for 1996 to almost 40 billion for 2000, an increase of 45% over 1999. In 2001, the China-ASEAN bilateral trade was further enlarged to be worth US$41.6 billion, up by 5% over the previous year, among which US $ 23 billion was in ASEAN's exports to China and US$19 billion was in China's exports to ASEAN. In November 2002, China and ASEAN signed Framework Agreement of Comprehensive Economic Cooperation, launching the process of China-ASEAN establishing Free Trade Area (CAFTA). This agreement is officially served as legal basis for CAFTA, additionally resulting in the growth of their bilateral trade exceeded US$100 billion for 2004 and whopping US$202.55 billion for 2007, making ASEAN the fourth, and China the fourth, biggest trade partner for each other respectively. Thus, undoubtedly, China-ASEAN bilateral trade has gradually come to occupy the centre-stage of China-ASEAN economic engagement.


For the practical problem which encountered in the research and development of AC motor controller,self-learning ability of the conventional fuzzy control system is not strong,the method of combining support vector machine and fuzzy system was used to propose a SVM-fuzzy controls ystems.The design was based on SVM self-study ablities in fuzzy inference controller,and applied to the speed control of the AC motor vector control system.Vector control system used a given adaptive rotor flux observer to estimate the flux.The simulation results and experimental results show this control method is rapid response,good robustness,good stability.It is an effective control method.


With the accelerating process of urbanization in China, the demand for high-rise buildings is on the rise. The resulting fire risk is also rising. The vast majority of major fire is within the high-rise buildings. However, there is a lack of paying attention to high-rise building evacuation. Therefore, it is necessary to analysis the influence factors of high-rise building evacuation and put forward to a set of high-rise building evacuation capability evaluation methods according to the characteristics of high-rise building. On the basis of general discussion of the safe evacuation, the influence factors of high-rise building evacuation are analyzed and three areas of evaluation factors are identified. Each factor is broken down into several points to constitute the evaluation system. Safety checklist and social investigation were selected to evaluate these three factors and fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method is selected to evaluate the whole system according to the characteristic of the factors and the purpose of evaluation. According to the status of the new main teaching building of Harbin University of Science and Technology, combined with the use of safety assessment methods, the construction factor and management factor were inspected and evaluated and human factor was investigated and assessed. The analytic hierarchy process is applied to determine the weight of each factor to the overall evaluation objectives as well as the weight of the internal factors to certain factors. Fuzzy comprehensive evaluation calculation followed and worked out the evacuation capability rank. The results show that the evacuation capability rank of the new main teaching building of HUST is "good", which is well satisfied the actual situation. This method has a certain reference value to the evacuation capacity evaluation of other high-rise building.


In order to increase the communication efficiency in distributed data association,this paper proposes an improved algorithm on its information propagation method.Based on the distributed calculation,this paper replaces transforming messages to every neighbour node by broadcasting a shared belief,and modifies the means of information expression and propagation,reducing communication volume greatly.The logarithmic operation is introduced during realization and the stability of numerical computing is solved.The simulation results indicate that this algorithm saves energy resources,increases the network's using life and implements network size's scaling easily.The simulation results are consistent with the theoretical analysis.


In order to compensating thermistor dynamic measurement error, a dynamic compensation block is employed. The block is a band-pass filter or a high-pass filter in essence, thereby the block causes severe noise amplification, and the accuracy of measurement system is infected. The thermistor dynamic measurement error compensating with reducing noise disturbance is studied. The coefficient of the block is obtained via experimental data, at the same time a method that combines polynomial prediction filter and median filter for the noise attenuation is introduced. The simulation results show that the dynamic compensation method is valid.


Image of men wearing hats facing away from camera looking up at construction material being lifted up the Toronto Dominion Bank building.


To address the pathological human–nature nexus, psychological processes that impact this relationship need to be further understood. Individual differences related to personality, values, worldviews, affect, and beliefs are likely to influence how people relate to the natural world. However, there is a lack of empirically-based ecopsychological research exploring multiple individual attributes. Understanding individual differences enables the strategic design of planetary-focused interventions, such as advocacy, policy, and technology development. Using a theoretical model that incorporates intrinsic, affective, cognitive, and behavioral constructs, this study sought to identify and describe different types of people and their relationship with the biosphere. Seven hundred and fifty-three people completed an online quantitative questionnaire battery. Results from the cluster analyses of the cognitive and affective constructs showed that six heterogeneous types existed. Their different descriptive expressions of intrinsic, affective, cognitive, and behavioral constructs provide a deeper understanding of each type's relationship with the biosphere.


Expression and phase variation of Neisseria gonorr‐hoeae P.ll genes in Escherichia coli viere studied using TnphoA fusions. Fusions were created in the P.llc gene of N. gonorrhoeae JS3 using λTnphoA‐1 and were characterized by restriction digestion and dideoxy sequencing. Three fusions were chosen for further study; Tnp7 (fusion junction at mature amino acid 7), Tnp57 (amino acid 57), Tnp66 (amino acid 66). All fusions were in frame with the P.llc coding sequence but were out of frame with the purported initiation codon. All fusion constructions were shown to phase vary in E. coli in an analogous fashion to that seen in N. gonorrhoeae, i.e. phase changes (in a recA background) at a frequency of c. 10−3 accompanied by an alteration at the DNA level of the number of coding repeats (CRs). In vitro mutagenesis of the fusion constructions indicated that expression of out of frame P.ll genes in E. coli was probably the result of ribosomal frameshifting within the run of 'A' residues immediately preceding the CR region and not due to low‐level false initiation at codons other than the ATG initiation codon (as had previously been suggested). The mechanism for P.llc::phoA phase variation appears to be related to the 'slipped‐strand mispairing' mechanism responsible for frameshift mutations in a number of other bacterial genes containing short, direct, tandem repeats.


At the end of the Cold War, the new-world opment have been unable to restore the state order promised a liberal peace. Instead, and place the country on the road to liberal democracy. Renewed diplomatic and develthere were new wars and failing states. Since opment efforts to resurrect the Somali state 11 September 2001, these are now being scrutinised as potential threats to interare likely to prove equally problematic if the national security. In late 2001, Somalia existing processes of development in Somalia are ignored. These processes need to be emerged as a potential target of the Western military alliance in an expanded 'war on assessed not as a failure of development, but terror'. Military action in Somalia was not as a response to, and reflection of, existing global development policies and processes. In carried out and attention has refocused on rebuilding the state through diplomacy and this sense, it may be better to understand state collapse and statelessness not as a development. For the past ten years, conventional approaches to diplomacy and devel'failure', but as something strived for.


3D computer-based animations are nowadays used for training purposes in a wide range of industrial applications like assembly, maintenance and operations. Authoring them is usually a time consuming task, demanded to professional 3D designers, who need at first a good understanding of the involved entities and actions in order to create customized animations. The proposed methodology deals with the use of an ontology in order to filter and understand generic natural language training requests. Once identified the proper actors and actions, they are associated to the corresponding models and movements to be performed in the virtual environment and translated in a 3D graphics format template. The result is a customized animation, which can be created by a non-expert designer and then visualized by the worker on site. The role of the ontology is to reduce the overall complexity of the animation authoring process by assuring the necessary comprehension of the training requests as well as reusability and extensibility of the structure of both modeled objects and of animations' components in different fields of knowledge.


The effect of thrombin, ADP or ergonovine on the release of plasminogen activator (PA) and prostacyclin was studied in the isolated perfused dog heart with or without coronary injury.The PA activity of the perfusate was estimated by fibrin plate method. Thrombin induced dose-dependent PA release from the perfused heart, while DFP-thrombin gave no PA release. ADP induced weak PA release, but ergonovine, induced no PA release.The local fibrinolytic activity was studied with fibrinolysis autography. After the administration of high-dose of thrombin into the perfused heart, the local fibrinolytic activity in the left anterior descending (LAD) branch of coronary arteries was decreased, while the activities in the great cardiac vein and small vessels of left ventricle were not altered.6-keto-PGF1α in the perfusate was determined by radioimmunoassay. There was no detectable 6-keto-PGF1α (<50pg/ml) in the perfusate before and after the administration of the drugs.Intimal injury was induced with balloon catheter in the LAD. The dogs were killed at 1 or 4 weeks after injury. The patterns of PA release from the injured heart were similar to those from the heart without injury. But the local fibrinolytic activity in the injured LAD was lower than that in the LAD without injury.


Monitoring of Power factor is of particular interest for the electricity producer and for the carrier, distributor, supplier and end user because it influences the performance characteristics of all operators on the electricity market, electricity supply costs and available capacity to transfer energy equipment. Economic impacts caused by operation with low power factor must be taken into account in determining energy electricity tariff aiming to compensate for energy losses that this mode has caused. Given that reducing the power factor is due to phenomena (causes) local technical and financial measures taken to increase its, relate, especially at the node in the power system where is connected user who produce its reduction. Although the consumer who determines this mode is penalized by price for energy losses in the power system which is determined by the energy transfer to low power factor, the reduction of system performance characteristics and the need to increase the produced power to cover these losses' corresponding harmful effects on the environment make this energy consumption mode not supported.


In this paper the effects of the additives added into the electrolyte of the lead acid battery on the battery performances were studied.By measuring the discharge capacity,the ability of battery to accept charging capacity,the polarization curve and charge maintenance,a comparison of the performances of the battery is made between the cases in the presence of additive E and additive F and without the additive in the electrolyte.The results demonstrate that when additive E and additive F are added into the electrolyte,the ability of battery to accepting charge is greatly improved especially under the low temperature condition.In the meanwhile,the over potential of the negative electrode evolving hydrogen is enhanced,hence the self charge of the battery in the storage process is lowered.


Objective To investigate the effects of lorsatan on tachycardia-induced acute atrial electrical remodeling(AER).Methods Twenty-one rabbits paced with maximal atrial capture rate for 3 h were randomly divided into saline group,diltiazem group and lorsatan group.Three 2 F electrode catheters were positioned in high right atrium(HRA),low right atrium(LRA) and His bundle region(HIS).After autonomic blockade,the pre-tachycardia,post-tachycardia atrial effective refractory period(AERP),AERP rate adapting feature,AERP dispersion(AERPd) and right-atrium conduction time were measured.Results (1) In the saline group,there was a prompt decrease in AERP as the result of rapid atrial pacing.AERP_ 200 and AERP_ 150 shortened most quickly within 0.5 h pacing [(30.2±10.5) ms/h,(24.1±9.1) ms/h]and most significantly at 1 h ( P 0.05).The AERP did not change dramatically in diltiazem and lorsatan groups;(2)In the saline group,the (AERP_ 200 -AERP_ 150 )/50 ms in HRA was 0.17±0.08 at 0 h and became significantly smaller at 0.5,1,2,3 h(0.08±0.06,0.09±0.06,0.08±0.04,0.09±0.05,respectively, P 0.05),suggesting a reduction of rate adaptation of AERP.It did not change during the 3 h of pacing in diltiazem and lorsatan groups;(3)In the saline group,AERPd increased significantly at 2,3 h( P 0.05).Diltiazem could not prevent the increase of AERPd at 3 h( P 0.05).During lorsatan infusion,the AERPd was no longer increased by rapid atrial pacing.There was no significant difference in right-atrium conduction time among the three groups.Conclusion Like calcium antagonist--diltiazem,lorsatan can prevent AERP shorteing induced by rapid atrial pacing.Lorsatan is more valuable than diltiazem in inhibiting the increase of AERPd.


Covalently bound fluorine is often considered similar in size as hydrogen, and the C–F unit as 'bioisosteric' to C–H. True or not? Comparing the C–F and C–H bond lengths as well as the atomic van der Waals radii of fluorine and hydrogen, it is obvious that a C–F unit extends substantially further out than a corresponding C–H unit (Fig. 1). The volume change by H/F replacement is close to one third of the volume increase due to the introduction of a methyl group;[2] and three H/F replacements, such as in going from a CH 3 to a CF 3 group, result approximately in a volume increase corresponding to an additional methyl group. Accordingly, a CF 3 group occupies approximately the volume equivalent of two methyl groups or has the size, but not the shape, of an ethyl group.[3] Nevertheless, covalently bound fluorine is indeed the smallest substituent replacing hydrogen or its isotopes in organic substrates. The concept of 'isosterism' has undergone many redefinitions over 100 years of its original introduction by Langmuir.[4] It is currently being used in medicinal chemistry in a most relaxed manner for almost any type of designed structural analogy.[5] The prefix 'bio' is not very helpful either as this property, by definition, depends on the biological context. This reduces the utility of the term 'bioisosteric' in most cases to glamor in publication titles. Fluorine is the most electronegative substituent. In spite of its minute size, its incorporation into an organic compound can cause dramatic changes on the compound's chemical, physical, and biological properties. Many experimental data on diverse compound properties accumulated towards the end of the last century prompting first comparative overviews by Smart in the mid-nineties.[6] Further excellent reviews,[7] special journal issues,[8] and books[9] followed during the two subsequent decades. They document the enormous momentum that organofluorine chemistry has taken since the end of the last century, giving evidence of an impressive expansion of synthetic methods and ever-growing structural diversity of fluorine-containing building blocks. They attest a steadily increasing amount of property data providing the foundation of continuous attempts to rationalize fluorine-induced compound property changes with concomitant development of powerful molecular design concepts. Much data is now obtained by computational methods.[10] Whereas this is legitimate for limited analogue series with suitable calibration, there is nothing that should replace experimental data. Every effort must be taken to fill still existing gaps in our knowledge regarding properties of F-containing compounds.[11] The large electronegativity difference between carbon and fluorine confers a strong polarization to the C–F bond with a concomitant high bond energy, which is higher than that of any other C–X single bond. This provided the early motivation for H/F substitution as a means to block or reduce oxidative C–H metabolism.[12] The polarization is not confined locally, but extends inductively to rather remote sites, with approximately exponential attenuation as a function of topological distance. This is well evidenced by the substantial basicity reduction when fluorine is introduced close to an amine unit, and still significant basicity modulations by fluorine substituents in rather distant locations.[7a,13] The transmission of the inductive polarization effect is optimal through trans-aligned sigma bonds, whereas gauche arrangements along an inductive σ-path may reduce the transmission. This is particularly evident for cyclic amines, where H/F replacement at an equatorial position exerts a remarkably stronger effect than in the corresponding axial position.[14] However, there is also another important contribution, in particular for an axial fluorine substituent in β-position to a protonated amine. Thus, in protonated 3-fluoro-piperidine the bond dipole moment of an axial C–F unit adopts a (1,3)-parallel orientation to the axial N–H bond, which is polarized in the opposite direction. This results in a favorable (1,3)-antiparallel dipole–dipole interaction that stabilizes the protonated amine, thus reducing the basicity lowering effect by fluorine.[14] An analogous way is to consider favorable electrostatic interactions between the positive and negative partial charges at the nitrogen-bound proton and the axial International Year of the Periodic Table 2019: Elements Important for Life Sciences


A broadband circularly polarized antenna array is proposed in this paper. The array consists of four sequentially rotated feed groove-backed strip antennas. Compact size (46mm×46mm×1.6mm), wide impedance bandwidth (4.62–9.92 GHz), and wide 3 dB axial ratio bandwidth (4.48–8.52 GHz) can be observed. The measured peak gain is 7.5 dBi at 8.2 GHz, and good agreement between the simulated and measured results can be achieved.


AbstractMembrane-aerated biofilm reactor (MABR) was designed to treat oilfield produced wastewater from offshore oil platform. The effects of suspended solids (SS) of influent, intra-membrane air pressure, and feed flow velocity on chemical oxygen demand (COD), oil, and ammonia nitrogen (-N) removals were investigated through a 160-d process study. The results indicate: (a) high influent SS resulted in the formation of a barrier layer containing insoluble SS on the outside surface of biofilm which significantly reduced the mass transfer of -N and organic substrates from wastewater to the biofilm; (b) under the condition of feed flow velocity of 0.01 m/s, with the increase in intra-membrane air pressure, the oxygen permeate flux of hollow fiber membrane was enhanced and -N removal efficiency at 0.12 MPa was up to 95%; (c) under the condition of intra-membrane air pressure of 0.08 MPa, with the increase in flow velocity, the performance of MABR was significantly enhanced, the best removal efficiencies of CO...


This study focused on the potential of aluminum nitride (Al12N12) and aluminum phosphide (Al12P12) nanomaterials as anode electrodes of lithium-ion (Li-ion), sodium-ion (Na-ion), and potassium-ion (K-ion) batteries as investigated via density functional theory (DFT) calculations at PBE0-D3, M062X-D3, and DSDPBEP86 as the reference method. The results show that the Li-ion battery has a higher cell voltage with a binding energy of −1.210 eV and higher reduction potential of −6.791 kcal/mol compared to the sodium and potassium ion batteries with binding energies of −0.749 and −0.935 eV and reduction potentials of −6.414 and −6.513 kcal/mol, respectively, using Al12N12 material. However, in Al12P12, increases in the binding energy and reduction potential were observed in the K-ion battery with values −1.485 eV and −7.535 kcal/mol higher than the Li and Na ion batteries with binding energy and reduction potential −1.483, −1.311 eV and −7.071, −7.184 eV, respectively. Finally, Al12N12 and Al12P12 were both proposed as novel anode electrodes in Li-ion and K-ion batteries with the highest performances.


Osseointegration has been defined as "a direct structural and functional connection between ordered, living bone and the surface of a load-carrying implant". However, titanium and its alloys cannot directly bond to living bone after being implanted into the body. The osseointegration of titanium dental implants is critically dependent on the implant surface properties. Various surface modifications have been proposed in order to provide commercially pure titanium with bioactive bone bonding ability. In the present work, the titanium dental implant surface morphology was modified by acid etching and electrochemical treatments with the purpose of enhancing tissue response, and decreasing the waiting time for implant loading. The results show that surface morphology, topography, roughness and chemical composition were changed by the treatments and these changes has a significant influence on osseointegration. The best results were observed in the samples submitted to the electrochemical treatment.


Globalisation, which is the interconnectedness of various regions of the world, has many dimensions. The economic dimension, that is, the integration of domestic economies with the world economy and its resultant increase in economic interdependence of all nations through trade and free movement of factors of production, is perceived to be the heart of globalisation. Though this paper recognises the colossal economic benefits of globalisation especially for developed economies, it emphasises that globalisation has led to the marginalisation of developing economies of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Globalisation has adversely affected developing nations resulting in loss of jobs, misery, health hazards, and abject poverty of their peoples. The paper therefore, argues that for poverty alleviation programmes to be effective and efficient and for the growth of Nigerian economy, the government has to ensure consistent macroeconomic policies and adequate infrastructural development to spore increase in capacity utilization and export to reap the benefits of globalisation.


Caching and transcoding at multi-access edge computing (MEC) server and wireless resource allocation in eNodeB interact with each other and together determine the quality of experience (QoE) of dynamic adaptive streaming over HTTP (DASH) clients. However, the relationship among the three factors has not been explored, which has led to limited improvement in clients' QoE. Therefore, we propose a joint optimization framework of video segment caching and transcoding in MEC servers and resource allocation to improve the QoE of DASH clients. Based on the established framework, we develop an MEC caching management mechanism that consists of the MEC caching partition, video segment deletion, and MEC caching space transfer. Then, a joint optimization algorithm that combines the video segment caching and transcoding in the MEC server and resource allocation is proposed. In the algorithm, the clients' channel state and the playback status and cooperation among MEC servers are employed to estimate the client's priority, video segment representation switch and continuous playback time. Considering the above four factors, we develop a utility function model of clients' QoE. Then, we formulate a mixed-integer nonlinear programming mathematical model to maximize the total utility of DASH clients, where the video segment caching and transcoding strategy and resource allocation strategy are jointly optimized. To solve this problem, we propose a low-complexity heuristic algorithm that decomposes the original problem into multiple subproblems. The simulation results show that our proposed algorithms efficiently improve client's throughput, received video quality and hit ratio of video segments while decreasing the playback rebuffering time, video segment representation switch and system backhaul traffic.


One reads and hears, always more often, of proprioceptive training and rehabilitation, but frequently the exercises proposed are not absolutely adequate for the scope. Their effect is limited to a modest positive action on the "proprioperception", that is the representation at a conscious level of the sense of the position and movement of a joint. This aspect, though, interests only a millionth part of the internal flow of proprioceptive signals deriving from the periphery and has a negligible effect on the quality of movement and functional stability of the limbs. It is necessary, instead, to act on the "archaeoproprioception", that is on those flow of signals that involve, together with the peripheral receptors, the more primitive structures of the nervous system: spinal cord, brainstem and primordial part of the cerebellum (figure 1), common not only to inferior mammals, but also to the other vertebrates. Such structures are defined as subcortical, as they do not enter the dominion of the conscious. Our nervous system in fact, thrown in an always more technological future, carries within itself the history of life. During foetal life and during the successive first phases of birth the nervous system rapidly runs all the philogenetic stages that have required millions of years to pass from the nervous organisation of an anemone to that of man.


The pilot experiment results of direction stripping and precipitation of neodymium with oxalic acid solution in self-designed three phase stripping tank from P507 loaded organic phase are introduced. The results show that Nd_2O_3 purity is over 99.88%,particle size is between 3.76 μm to 4.27 μm, mass fraction of chlorine is 0.01%, mass fraction of non-rare earth elements is accorded with product quality.The self-designed three phase stripping tank has a reasonable construction and strong adaptability. Its stage efficiency is over 95%.No solid deposits on lean boards and scars in tank.


Background and Aim of the Study. To investigate if mitral valve (MV) surgery quality differs by hospital volume in New Jersey (NJ). Methods. Using the NJ State Inpatient Database, patients ≥18 years undergoing MV repair or replacement from 2016–2019 were identified. Centers were considered high-volume if they performed more than 50 mitral operations annually. Baseline characteristics and outcomes (in-hospital mortality, seven-day readmission, hospital length of stay (LOS), and postoperative complications) were evaluated for the population and by center volume. Subanalysis by center volume within each procedure was conducted. Results. Among 2,560 mitral operations, MV replacement (92.3% (n = 2,362)) was performed more often than repair. High- (4) and low-volume (15) centers performed 1,180 (46.1%) and 1,380 (53.9%) mitral surgeries, respectively. Charlson Comorbidity Indices did not differ by center volume, including in subgroup analyses. Low-volume centers had higher rates of Hispanic patients, low-income patients, and readmission rates. High-volume centers had more transfers, urgent/emergent admissions, higher rates of in-hospital mortality, and longer LOS. Postoperative complications did not differ by volume. The MV replacement cohort reflected many of the differences seen in the total population, in addition to seeing higher rates of heart failure at high-volume centers and stroke at low-volume centers. Within MV repairs, significantly more Hispanic patients presented to low-volume centers and high-volume centers had longer LOS. Multivariable analysis indicated that hospital volume was not correlated to in-hospital mortality for the total population and within each procedure. Conclusions. MV replacement is performed more frequently than repair. Hospital volume is not correlated with MV surgical quality, and more representative quality measures are needed.


The thesis deals with a newer method of network analysis which is based on small connected induced subgraphs or graphlets. First, a definition of a graph or network is provided, then standard graph families and some of their characteristics are presented, which helps the reader understand the thesis more thoroughly. Later in the work, a few frequently used types of networks are described in detail. The main focus is on the method of network analysis using graphlets, and several values that determine the structural characteristics of networks are defined in the course of the thesis. Each calculation of networks is based on graphlets. Furthermore, a few algorithms that use graphlets in order to operate properly, and several algorithms that count graphlets are presented as well. One of such algorithms is called Orca and it is used for counting orbits, nodes and connections for graphlets on 2- to 5-nodes. The method by which the algorithm operates is described, using specific examples. The course of the mere algorithm is presented as well as the function of the programme Orca, which is implemented in R tools.


An essential issue about macro control power is its allocation and performance, which have not received due attention in the academic circle. This article discusses some basic issues about the macro\|control, namely, the legitimacy and source of macro\|control, the allocation of the power of macro\|control, the principles and force for the performance of the macro\|control and the independence of the power in an effort to expound the ways of perfecting the theory and institutions of the macro\|control law through analyzing the power of macro\|control from the perspective of law.


Larvae of the syntomid moth, Lymire edwardsi (Grote), occasionally are injurious to species of Ficus in south Florida. These are important ornamental and shade trees in this section. In exceptional cases some trees may be defoliated by the feeding of these caterpillars. During the summer of 1958 extensive damage by this insect was observed in Palm Beach County. Serious to complete defoliation was noted in West Palm Beach, Palm Beach, Lake Worth and at various points along the highways in Palm Beach County and adjacent counties. The 1958 infestation has been the most general and injurious that the writer has observed in ten years in the area. While Ficus on the coastal areas seemed to sustain the most injury, defoliation was observed also in the Everglades section. In addition to damage to the trees, the species may be considered a household nuisance since the pre-pupae seem to prefer the walls of buildings for pupation, if available, to any other site. As many as 35 pupae, pre-pupae and abandoned cocoons and pupal cases have been counted per square foot on the sides of buildings. In such situations they detract from the appearance of the property.


Through a normative method with a conceptual approach, the results of this study confirm that business competition law can greatly contribute to the country's economic development through consumer welfare by ensuring and maximizing efficiency, market integration, market liberalization, and competitiveness, restraining monopolistic practices, and maintaining market competition. healthy. These results are even supported by several previous studies. Where competition law has a role not only in economic development but also in distributive justice and social regulation.


Outsourcing, overseas development, and foreign workers displacing American ones: These are all interesting issues, but in a sense they're all so "last century." Or are they?


Solar Photovoltaic array is non-linear power source and under varying environmental conditions it is time consuming and extravagant to obtain operating characteristics. In order to overcome these restrictions an improved model of solar module/array has been proposed, this paper presents a step-by-step method for the simulation of SPV panels/arrays in MATLAB/Simulink. The governing curves of SPV array are also investigated for vast range of environmental conditions, substantial parameters and array configurations. The proposed method gives an exact decisive and easy to tune model of SPV array. Moreover, it provides an improved analysis of SPV array for various substantial parameters (series, parallel resistance, diode factor etc.) and environmental conditions (irradiance, temperature and partial shading)aspects.


During plasma-based in situ chamber cleaning of deposited dielectric films using NF3, a transformation of aluminum chamber parts into AlFx can take place. We studied the roles of fluorine atoms and ion bombardment in this process by employing NF3 discharges mixed with He, Ne, or Ar interacting with or without ion bombardment with sputter-deposited Al films on silicon. Aluminum oxide erosion rates and surface chemistry changes, and information on the species that evolve from the surfaces during the process, were obtained by real-time ellipsometry and mass spectrometry, respectively. Characterization of processed Al surfaces was also performed using x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. We find that Al oxide is rapidly removed/transformed in NF3 discharges and also for C2F6/O2 rf powered discharges. We observe a complex interactive role of fluorine atoms and ion bombardment that leads to the formation of thick fluorinated Al reaction layers during exposure of Al to NF3-containing rf plasmas. For NF3-rich rf dis...


We develop a novel stochastic geometry framework to quantify the SINR coverage probability of a Terahertz (THz) cellular network. THz frequencies will require highly directional beams, leading to inevitably imperfect beam alignment. We derive a tractable and accurate semi-closed form lower bound for the coverage probability of a typical user in the network, introducing a novel approach of characterizing non line-of-sight (NLOS) links as equivalent LoS links using a non-homogeneous Poisson Point Process. We use the coverage bound to investigate the SINR scaling trends with base station density and array directivity at the base station and user. Dense base station deployments are required to achieve sufficient coverage and our analysis exposes a tradeoff between directivity (array gain) and loss in SINR due to misalignment.


Superocide dismutase solution extracted from the leaves of the aloe has been isolated and purified by precipitation of actone,denaturization with hearing,DEAEsepharose column chromatography and Sephacryl S-200 gel giltration.The purified isozyme Ⅰ of superoxide dismutase was homogeneous as shown in SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and isoelectric focusing electrophoresis.The molecular weight of the isozyme Ⅰ of superoxide dismytase detemined by gel filtration was 46 kD and SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis was 23 kD.Isoelectric point of the isozyme Ⅰ of superoxide dismytase was pH 8.9.


A general method for dealing with the propagation of waves in homogeneous anisotropic media is presented. The formulas were derived and applied to determine the reflected and transmitted waves resulting from a plane wave obliquely incident at an interface between two anisotroptic media with arbitrarily oriented principal axes. The validity of the formulas was also demonstrated by calculating the reflection and refraction at a biaxial–biaxial interface.


AbstractObjective: The study evaluated the clinical intraoperative effects of intrathecal administration offentanyl on shoulder tip pain in patients undergoing laparoscopic total extraperitoneal inguinalhernia repair (TEP) under spinal anaesthesia.Methods: Patients undergoing TEP were allocated in a double-blinded, prospective, randomizedmanner to two groups. Spinal anaesthesia was induced by intrathecal administration of 2.8ml of0.5% hyperbaric bupivacaine (14mg) in the control group and with 2.6ml of 0.5% hyperbaricbupivacaine (13mg) and 10mg fentanyl (0.2ml) in the experimental group.Results: The quality of muscle relaxation, adequacy of operative space and incidence ofpneumoperitoneumweresimilarinthetwogroups(n¼36pergroup).Comparedwiththecontrolgroup, the experimental group had significantly fewer cases of hypotension (12 [33.3%]) versus23 [63.9%]) and shoulder tip pain (nine [25%] versus 18 [50%]). Intraoperative shoulder tip painwas more severe in the control group than in the experimental group.


It is generally assumed that the gravitational field is bosonic. Here we show that a simple propagating torsional theory can give rise to localized geometric structures that can consistently be quantized as fermions under exchange. To demonstrate this, we show that the model can be formally mapped onto the Skyrme model of baryons, and we use well-known results from Skyrme theory. This begs the question: {\it Is geometry bosonic or fermionic (or both)?}


The sea water-soluble fraction of the pulverized slag was prepared in anaerobic condition, and mixed with a basal medium in various ratios for preparation of a culture medium, on which the growth of a diatom, Skeletonema costatum, was suppressed. The inhibitory effect of the soluble fraction to this alga was reduced to a certain degree when the culture medium had been aerated with nitrogen preceding inoculation. The growth of Skel. costatum was also inhibited on the basal medium containing the untreated slag powder in various amounts, while it was stimulated when the slag powder was washed for several days before addition to the basal medium. The soluble fraction of the slag affected unfavorably the growth of a laver, Porphyra yezoensis, also. A diatom, Nitzschia closterium, was able to grow closely adhering to the slag powder. The inhibitory effect of the soluble fraction of the slag to algae seems to be caused largely by potassium or sodium sulfide, and slightly by sulfur oxides and some heavy metals dissolved in trace amounts.


Distributed antenna network (DAN) is a promising wireless network which can mitigate the impacts of distancedependent/shadowing losses and fading. Frequency-domain space-time block coded-joint transmit/receive diversity (FDSTBC-JTRD) is an antenna diversity technique which allows an arbitrary number of transmit antennas while keeping the coding rate constant and is suitable for the downlink transmission. It obtains the frequency-diversity gain by exploiting the frequencyselective fading channel and improves the signal-to-interference plus noise power ratio (SINR) in a multi-cell environment. In this paper, we evaluate the channel capacity distribution of downlink single-carrier (SC-) DAN using FD-STBC-JTRD in a multi-cell environment. It is shown that multi-cell SC-DAN using FDSTBC-JTRD can allow the single-frequency reuse. Keywords; channel capacity, distributed antenna network, antenna diversity, transmit frequency-domain equalization, cochannel interference


Al2O3/Cr composite ceramic was ion-nitrided in N2 under atmospheric pressure. The plasma was generated by two different systems: an ac high voltage corona discharge, and an ac high voltage concentric dielectric barrier discharge. An analysis of the plasma light emission revealed the presence of N ions (upto 50%) and confirmed the non-isothermal state of the plasma. The treated surface of the high melting sinter was smoothened when its components were nitrided so that Cr is transformed into Cr2N and Al2O3 is transformed into AlN.


Polymeric materials, both pure and containing nanostructures, can be prepared as thin sheets in order to produce joints with an interface between an optically transparent sheet and an optically absorbent substrate to be welded by infrared pulsed laser irradiation. The Laser Transmission Welding (LTW) technique has been successfully applied in order to join two or more thermoplastic polymeric sheets that must have a similar chemical composition. In this research work, polymeric joints of Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene sheets were realized, characterized and welded. Some polymer sheets were doped, at different concentrations, with carbon nano-particles absorbent the laser radiation. A pulsed laser operating in the wavelength region 532 nm with intensity of the order of 109 Watt/cm2 was employed to be transmitted by the transparent polymer and to be absorbed by the carbon enriched surface. At the interface of the two polymers the released energy induces melting, that is assisted by pressure, producing a fast and resistant welding zone. Mechanical and optical characterizations and surface analyses are presented and discussed.


COLD-WEATHER any surface water treatment problems plant at any surface w er treatment pl t result, for the most part, from unusual climatic conditions or from oversights in the design or installation of new equipment. The problems and their solutions relate to heat, energy, physical properties of materials, and mechanical arrangements. The mention of cold-weather problems inevitably causes most surface water treatment plant operators to think of ice on the settling basins. Not too long ago, a prolonged cold wave meant that a crew would be kept busy each day chopping ice away from the basin wall. The possibility of damage from the expanding ice made this an expensive necessity. Today, as a result of increased labor costs and the trend to technologic improvements, many water plants have installed basin de-icers.


Herein, we report on unique bimetallic PtPb/Pt core/shell nanodisks consisting of structurally ordered PtPb hexagonal nanoplates as the core and the well‐organized Pt as the shell, as extremely active and selective catalysts towards CH3OH reformation. We found that the created Pt‐Pb nanodisks/C show the composition‐dependent activity with the optimized PtPb0.56 nanodisks/C being the most active for the CH3OH reformation to H2, 5.1 times higher than those of the commercial Pt/C. Significantly, only very limited carbon monoxide (CO) is produced during the CH3OH reformation, which is crucial for the practical application in fuel cells. The PtPb0.56 nanodisks/C is also more active for CH3OH reformation than PtPb hexagonal nanoplates/C and PtPb0.58 nanoparticles/C. X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) results reveal that the high ratio of Pt (0) to Pt (II) in Pt‐Pb nanodisks/C enhances the CH3OH reformation to H2, while the high content of Pb (0) is beneficial for decrease the CO production. Diffuse Reflectance Infrared Fourier Transform Spectroscopy (DRIFTS) of CO adsorption shows that Pt‐Pb nanodisks can promote the activation of CO molecules by forming the carboxylate (CO2δ−) intermediates, leading to the low CO production.


and books devoted to the question of how to enhance economic growth, especially in the developing world. Actual progress on the ground, however, is mixed at best. While many areas enjoyed remarkable growth in incomes and living standards during the past three or four decades—Asia being a prime example—other regions noticeably lagged. In the words of a recent, thorough study by the World Bank, by the end of the 1990s, poverty rates in Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean remained "stubbornly high." If it were a matter of applying the standard neoclassical model used by many economists, solving the growth problem would be relatively easy, somewhat like baking a cake: add some capital (domestic or foreign), technology, and education to a fixed supply of labor and assume the presence of some basic market institutions, and growth of income per capita should follow inexorably. For our purposes here, the key assumption is that market institutions—specifically, the presence of widely recognized and enforceable property rights—are well functioning. Indeed, it is fair to say


> of PCG. They include angle surgeries like goniotomy, trabeculotomy (manual, 3600 suture or microcatheter V ] | combined trabeculotomy with trabeculectomy with or without anti-metabolites; glaucoma drainage devices, and cyclodestructive procedures. Goniotomy, abexterno trabeculotomy, combined trabeculotomy with trabeculectomy with or without mitomycin C are the most commonly performed surgeries in the current day glaucoma practice.