Abstract R-TiO2/PMMA nanofibers were prepared by electrospinning with poly(methylmethacrylate) (PMMA) and rutile nano-TiO2 (R-TiO2) as main materials which were blended mechanically, and dimethylformamide (DMF) and ethyl ethanoate (EA) as component solvent. The nanofibers morphologies and physical states were investigated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetry analysis (TG), fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and UV-visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy. Scanning electron microscopy observations revealed that with the increase of DMF proportion in solvent the fibers average diameter gradually decreased, with the increase of EA ratio in solvent more micropores emerged, and as the content of R-TiO2 increased, the fibers average diameter decreased initially, then followed by an increase. When the content of R-TiO2 was 5%, the minimum fibers average diameter was 436 nm. Results from FTIR, XRD and TG suggested that rutile nano-TiO2 had been successfully introduced to the PMMA matrix and R-TiO2/PMMA nanofibers had good thermal stability, and heating weightlessness was less than 2% in the 300 °C. Results from UV-Vis suggested that when 10% of rutile nano-TiO2 was added, the degradation of methyl orange was 30% higher than that of pure PMMA nanofibers under sunlight irradiation.


Photoemission based electron source allow producing electron beams with precisely controlled temporal and spatial profiles, high current and high brightness. Their development is critical to future short-wavelength light sources. To accurately characterize electron beams generated by the source, a full electromagnetic emission modeling is carried out in a self-consistent manner. It takes into account the Schottky-like modulation of the cathode quantum efficiency (QE). In pulsed operation, this effect causes the QE of the cathode to be time dependent. Thus, the electron bunch temporal profile is not the same as the laser pulse profile and it should be corrected according to this model. As an application, the PITZ injector installed at the DESY site in Zeuthen is considered. The emission process is modeled in the QEand SC-limited (space-charge) regimes, respectively. Simulation results are in good agreements with the measurement data.


Specific heat and thermal conductivity of jackfruit flesh were determined at temperature range 60-90°C and moisture content range 30-75 %. The specific heat was measured by the Differential Scanning Calorimeter (DSC). The bulk thermal conductivity was performed using the Line Heat Source (probe) Method. The bulk thermal conductivity (k) and the specific heat (C p ) of jackfruit flesh were foundto depend on the moisture content and the temperature. They were found to increase with increasing moisture content (X w ) and temperature (T). Thermal conductivity changed slightly with the different direction. The empirical equations of these properties were found to be C p =1.053+5.069 X w +O.O 103 5T- 3 .05X 2 W ( R 2 =0.901) and k = l .111 -0.164X 2 W 0.024 7T+0.000163T 2 +0.875X w T (R 2 =0.841) Keywords : Jackfruit / Specific Heat / Thermal Conductivity


The article provides information about the features of forensic examination of corpses of persons who died in hospitals, medical organizations. Reflected the order and the necessary information from medical documents, to be included in the forensic examination of the corpse (expert opinion).


As a result of anthropogenic activities, there are regions suffering extreme climate changes (hot temperatures, droughts, floods), that generate serious and harmful environmental and socioeconomic consequences (Hoegh-Guldberg et al., 2018). Climate change has a strong impact on agriculture, mainly by increasing soil degradation and reducing land productivity (Olsson et al., 2019). Desertification decreases soil macronutrients as organic carbon (OC), phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N) (Shang et al., 2013; Tang et al., 2015). Considerable reductions of OC, P and N are caused by a decline in soil water, vegetation and wind erosion. It is estimated that when soil water is less than 30%, OC and N decrease approximately 50% (Shang et al., 2013). The intensity and frequency of extreme climate events predicted will increase the competition for nutrients, notably N among plants and soil microorganisms (Bennett and Klironomos, 2019; Pugnaire et al., 2019). N availability is essential for net primary production and determines changes in total vegetation biomass and soil OC (Tharammal et al., 2019). Approximately 150 Tg/yr of N is spilled to the land surface as a result of industrial activities and fossil fuel combustion (Schlesinger, 2009). Huge amounts of N fertilizers are used to increase crop productivity, but only 25%–30% are retained in plant biomass (Nadelhoffer et al., 1999; Schlesinger, 2009). The excess of N is then transported to aquatic environments resulting in eutrophication and reduction of dissolved O2, percolated to the groundwater or loss to the atmosphere, increasing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions such as nitrogen oxides (NOx) (Schlesinger, 2009; Breitburg et al., 2018). In this context, bio/technological solutions like genetic modification of crops are required to avoid, reduce and reverse GHG emissions and water eutrophication, contributing to climate change mitigation. New biotechnological strategies developed for the agriculture to increase N use efficiency (NUE) in crops would help to fulfill this purpose. In this opinion, we will discuss some studies of nitric oxide (NO) synthases (NOS) and nitrate reductase (NR) enzymes playing a collaborative role with globin (Hb) proteins, leading to NO and/or nitrate (NO3 ) homeostasis in different organisms. We propose that chimeric globin-NOS such as the NOS from Synechococcus PCC 7335 (SyNOS) may have evolved in photosynthetic microorganisms contributing to a more efficient N recycling and sustaining growth in N fluctuating conditions. Engineered crops that maximize NUE would result in a better adaptation to changing climatic conditions with less N fertilization, preserving aquatic ecosystems and atmosphere.


In a teleoperator system the human operator senses, moves within, and operates upon a remote or hazardous environment by means of a slave mechanism (a mechanism often referred to as a teleoperator). In a virtual environment system the interactive human machine interface is retained but the slave mechanism and its environment are replaced by a computer simulation. Video is replaced by computer graphics. The auditory and force sensations imparted to the human operator are similarly computer generated. In contrast to a teleoperator system, where the purpose is to extend the operator's sensorimotor system in a manner that facilitates exploration and manipulation of the physical environment, in a virtual environment system, the purpose is to train, inform, alter, or study the human operator to modify the state of the computer and the information environment. A major application in which the human operator is the target is that of flight simulation. Although flight simulators have been around for more than a decade, they had little impact outside aviation presumably because the application was so specialized and so expensive.


A full automatic soybean milk sticky biservice machine comprises a head assembly and a cylinder assembly, wherein, the head assembly comprises a cover. The cover is provided with a control panel, a circuit control device, a heating pipe and an electric motor. An involved current crush cup with an opening at the bottom is arranged on the barrel. One end of the long shaft of the electric motor is provided with a cutter blade extending into the involved current crush cup. The involved current crush cup is separated with the head assembly. A composite multi-functional sensor is arranged downward the cover. A dry burning-proof detection head and/or a flooding detection head and/or a temperature measuring detection head and/or a temperature preservation detection head are arranged on the same pipe. The utility model realizes technical reform, spurns the traditional filtering net cover. The involved current crush cup arranged inside the barrel provides ideal milking producing effect and convenient clean for the crush cup. The product is provided with the multi-functional sensor on the head, thereby saving material and adding beauty shape with a better effect of sensor.


Tu (土)? It is just like how other people say: you dress like this, you must have just arrived here [Shanghai] from xiangxia (乡下 "countryside"). To give an impression of tu is that you are coming from xiangxia . It is because people in xiangxia dress more tu . Actually, I do not agree that they are tu. It is just that people dress more comfortably there. The fact is that people in the cities do dress the same. Elaine, 28-year-old dessert shop waitress, Hubei


The composition of the planktonic algae in the Southern Bug River in the region of the city of Vinnitsa is studied, and specificity of its systematic diversity is estimated. The dominant algo complexes are revealed, and their quantitative parameters are presented. The reasons of transformation in the phytoplankton species composition of different areas of the river and a degree of their pollution by the presence of algae-indicators are discussed.


Information about wills and estate planning in Ohio. This page provides basic information about wills, estate planning and probate law in Ohio.


Objective:To optimize the purification process of anti-hepatic cirrhosis water-soluble components from radix salvia. Methods:The anti-hepatic cirrhosis water-soluble components in radix salvia were purified with macroporous resin,taking the content of salvianolic acid B as an index. The best purification process was established by screening the macroporous resin and investigating the leak curve,concentration of sample,flow rate of sample loading,adsorption time,concentration of eluent,content of eluent,elution rate,and other factors. Results: The best purification process of salvianolic acid B involved AB-8 macroporous resin,0. 4 g·mL- 1crude drug solution at a loading rate of 2 mL·min- 1with a volume of 3 BV,adsorption time of 3 h,water washing at a rate of 2 mL·min- 1 with a volume of 3 BV,and 40% ethanol washing with a volume of 10 BV. The purity of salvianolic acid B was 76. 23%,consistent with the requirement for new drug application that the mass fraction of active ingredients should be more than 50%. Conclusion:The process is simple and solvent-saving,and has a good application prospect.


Autonomous driving technology, in which cars recognize their surroundings and drive via mechanical control, has attracted much attention. However, before the introduction of autonomous driving technology, there will be a mix of autonomous and non-autonomous vehicles, requiring a traffic operation management strategy to ensure the safety and operational efficiency of mixed traffic flow. In response, an operation plan is proposed to design and operate a managed lane to minimize friction between autonomous and non-autonomous vehicles in the commercialization phase of autonomous vehicles. To evaluate the autonomous vehicle managed lane operation strategy, safety, operation efficiency, and environment effectiveness measurements were derived by conducting a simulation analysis using VISSIM. And then, a value function was developed that reflects the three measurements and their importance weighting values. Using this approach, this paper provides a strategy of optimal autonomous vehicle managed lane operation that can increase operational efficiency and safety in expressway on/off-ramp areas.


This study demonstrates a monolithic 1 x 4 optical switch composed of a planar micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) integrated with silicon nitride (SiN) waveguides. The switching motion is induced by an optimized cascaded chevron electrothermal actuator, which produces an analog, precise, and large stroke for low voltages. Nanoscale displacement measurements show a repeatability on the order of 10 nm and a total switching displacement of ∼12 μm for about 10 V. To reduce the insertion losses, a parallel plate electrostatic actuator closes the gap between the waveguides after the switching motion. The optical transmission, measured for 10 devices, is roughly the same across the entire 1520--1620 nm wavelength range. The average optical losses are 4.0 ± 1.9, 4.4 ± 2.0, 4.9 ± 1.9, and 4.1 ± 1.2 dB for ports 1 to 4 respectively, while the average optical crosstalk is smaller than −35 dB. The relatively compact switch (< 1 mm2), considering its large displacement, is built on a silicon-on-insulator wafer with a customized fabrication process flow developed by AEPONYX Inc. We believe that this device can lead the way to a new class of small and robust MEMS integrated silicon photonic devices able to operate over a wide wavelength span and to provide a large tuning range for low voltages. Future work will focus on reducing the switch optical losses and on achieving near zero power consumption with the addition of mechanical latches.


East Asian dust storms have become increasingly intense over the last two decades, and the arid inland regions of northern China have been recognized as the main dust source areas. Numerous lakes in this region have recently become desiccated, leaving large areas of bare ground prone to becoming potential dust sources. Vegetation cover characteristics and vegetation succession following lake desiccation remain unclear. Here we chose eight inland dry lakes, one outflow lake and one river on the southeast edge of the Inner Mongolian Plateau to investigate vegetation patterns along transects from lake bed to lake shore, and determine the relationships between vegetation patterns and environmental factors. The results show that dry lake bed soils do indeed have high contents of fine particles. Also, soil salt content is the most critical control on vegetation succession on desiccated lake beds, and vegetation is unlikely to colonize areas with soil salt content ≥5%. Soil texture additionally influenced vegetation patterns by affecting soil salt content. The likely vegetation succession on dry like beds is Nitraria tangutorum community > Suaeda corniculata and Suaeda glauca communities > Achnatherum splendens and Elymus sibiricus communities, and finally Carex duriuscula community as the probable climax. When vegetation is at the later stages of succession, for example with Achnatherum splendens communities, Elymus sibiricus communities and Carex duriuscula communities, soil may be protected from wind erosion because of their high vegetation cover and high proportion of perennials. We suggest grazing should be avoided around lake shores, especially in Achnatherum splendens communities, because high vegetation cover and biomass not only protect soil from erosion, but also promote the deposition of fine particles blown from upwind regions. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


In the late afternoon of January 12, 2010, an earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale struck the nation of Haiti. The epicentre of the earthquake was the coastal community of Leogane, approximately 25 kilometres south west of the densely populated capital city of Port-au-Prince (PAP). The devastation was enormous. An estimated 220,000 people died, over 300,000 were injured and more than 1.3 million were rendered homeless and are now living in temporary shelters in PAP (Pan American Health Organization 2010). Based on current predictions, this event led to the fifth-highest single-day loss of life due to an earthquake in modern history (United States Geological Society [USGS] 2010). Approximately 80% of schools in the PAP area were destroyed, and hundreds of thousands of structures including dwellings, government buildings and hospitals were damaged (USGS 2010). The future infrastructure and economic needs are colossal; however, the greatest tragedy is the number of casualties and the human toll on future generations of Haitians. Haiti's ranking on the United Nations Human Development Index(1) was relatively low prior to January 2010, and the aftermath of the earthquake will further complicate long-term development in one of the poorest countries in the world (United Nations Development Program [UNDP] 2010). Language: en


The invention discloses a high-precision full-automatic FPC (Flexible Printed Circuit) defect detecting device and a detecting process. The device comprises an upper computer system and a microscopy detection platform, wherein the upper computer system comprises a motion control module and a microscopy vision control processing module; and the microscopy detection platform comprises an electric precision objective table, a motor control cabinet, a microscopy fixing support, a microscope, a light source and a digital video camera; the detecting process comprises the following steps: comparing the key physical parameters of the FPC in the key procedure with the standard physical parameters, judging that the state of the key procedure is abnormal, and displaying an FPC image with a defect area and specific defect details, thus, the abnormal procedure can be handled timely, rapidly and conveniently by operators. According to the detecting device and the detecting process, the FPC defect detecting efficiency is improved greatly, the false alarm rate is reduced, the defect detection precision is improved, the defect detecting classes are increased, 10-micron order line width and line spacing can be detected, a blind hole and a buried hole can be identified and the automatic level of the FPC production process can be improved effectively.


Multidrug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and non-tuberculous mycobacterium (NTM) infections present challenges due to complex treatment regimens Extended use of multiple antibiotics exposes patients to higher risks of side effects from anti-mycobacterial medications A high drug toxicity profile necessitates closer monitoring One of the more challenging issues is QTc prolongation with non-injectable regimens This study investigates the portable AliveCor device and Kardia app to record and measure the QT interval on a 6-lead ECG This handheld device can record an ECG trace in a minimum of 30 seconds by establishing three points of contact with electrodes to skin: two thumbs and left ankle or knee A 6-Lead ECG by AliveCor was recorded for each patient at risk of QT prolongation (n=16) and compared to the existing 12-Lead ECG The automated QTc readout from the 12-Lead ECG for each patient and mean QTc value calculated from each patients' respective AliveCor tracing were shown alongside each other (figure 1) The general trend suggests the AliveCor underestimates the QTc as 12/13 cases (92%) calculated the AliveCor QTc as lower than their corresponding 12-Lead QTc readout The mean%difference between the automated 12-Lead and manually calculated AliveCor readings was 3% The largest%difference between the two readings was 12% The larger discrepancies could be reflected by the varying quality of the AliveCor tracings Three patients were excluded due to poor tracings or lack of corresponding 12-Lead ECG This study aimed to provide pilot data and evaluate the feasibility of a portable device to monitor QTc intervals for patients on potential cardiotoxic medications It has allowed us to place in context the role for mobile monitoring in (Figure presented) modern-day clinical practice Moreover, the recent COVID-19 pandemic has seen increasing relevance for remote monitoring Remote monitoring can aid progression of treatment whilst protecting vulnerable patients from risk of exposure to illness The use of AliveCor could potentially be translated into current clinical practice using calculated QTcs from the device with caution of percentage variation either side This could facilitate the use of AliveCor as a promising and convenient screening tool before further evaluation by a 12-Lead ECG is required


Since the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is a fundamental step in the overall water splitting process, it is necessary for an ideal catalyst to require a small amount of energy to overcome the energy barrier at the electrode-electrolyte interface. Therefore, developing highly active and integrated catalysts is of great significance. Herein, we present a facile and viable method to fabricate flower-like NiFe oxide nanosheets electrocatalysts that are directly grown on nickel foam substrates through a hydrothermal reaction. By tuning the Ni:Fe ratio, the as-synthesized NiFe oxide exhibits excellent catalytic activity that surpasses the activity of the RuO 2 benchmark catalyst, when tested as an electrocatalyst for the overall water splitting reaction. More importantly, the optimized NiFe oxide electrode possesses excellent OER activity in 1 M KOH with small overpotentials of 255 and 280 mV at 10 and 50 mA cm 2 , respectively. When employed as a stable bifunctional catalyst to split water, this electrode achieved a current density of 10 mA cm −2 at a cell voltage of 1.59 V. This work presents a highly promising candidate for use as an electrode material and represents promising progress in its practical utilization and comprehensive industrialization.


The Symposium on Ground Improvement Techniques, jointly organized by the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of the University of Macau, DSSOPT, The Macau Institution of Engineers (AEM), Civil Engineering Laboratory of Macau (LECM), Macau Association for Geotechnical Engineering and Hong Kong Geotechnical Engineering Society, took place at University of Macau on 28th November 2008.


An experiment was carried out at the Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU) Farm, Mymensingh from rabi season of 1999 to kharif-II season of 2002 in the Old Brahmaputra Floodplain Soils (AEZ 9, Aeric Haplaquept) of Bangladesh to investigate the effect of integrated use of organic and inorganic fertilizers on yield and nutrient uptake of T.Aus rice and mungbean in the Wheat-T. Aus/Mungbean-T.Aman cropping pattern. There were four treatments for wheatT1: Control, T2: NPKSZnB (MYG), T3: NPKSZnB (HYG) and T4: NPKSZnB (MYG) + CD. The nutrient rates for four treatments of wheat were N0P0K0S0Zn0B0 kg/ha for T1, N80P20K50S10Zn1B1 kg/ha for T2, N120P30K75S15Zn2B2 kg/ha for T3 and N80P20K50S10Zn1B1 kg/ha + CD (5 t/ha) for T4. In T. Aus/Mungbean one-third plot of each treatment was cultivated by T. Aus rice and the rest two-thirds plot by mungbean. The rates of N, P, K, and S for T. Aus rice were, respectively, 60, 12, 32 and 5 kg/ha for MYG, and 90, 18, 48 and 7.5 kg/ha for HYG. The corresponding rates of P, K, and S for mungbean were 10, 13, and 5 kg/ha for average yield goal (AYG). The results showed that grain (3.46 t/ha) and straw yields (5.19 t/ha) of T. Aus rice increased significantly due to application of fertilizers. The highest mean seed yield of 0.56 t/ha and stover yield of 1.99 t/ha in mungbean were obtained from PKS plus inoculum plus residual NPKSZnB for HYG treatment. The N, P, K, S, Zn, and B uptake by T.Aus/Mungbean remarkably increased with increasing supply of nutrients. The highest uptake of N, P, K, S, Zn, and B by the crops was noted in the treatment T3 that received HYG fertilizers in T. Aus rice. The removal of N ranged from 27.3 to 63.2 kg/ha and 29.8 to 48.1 kg/ha, P from 5.62 to 15.80 kg/ha and 2.60 to 4.69 kg/ha, K from 35.8 to 71.8 kg/ha and 21.9 to 37.4 kg/ha, S from 4.08 to 10.26 kg/ha and 2.12 to 4.11 kg/ha, Zn from 44 to 132 g/ha and 56 to 101 g/ha, B from 17 to 70 g/ha and 7 to 16 g/ha by T.Aus rice and mungbean, respectively. Application of cowdung along with chemical fertilizers resulted in markedly higher uptake of nutrients. The application of NPKS (HYG) fertilizers remarkably increased the crop yield. The lowest grain yield and the lowest nutrient uptake were noted in control plots receiving no fertilizer or manure.


Map labeling is a problem of placing labels at corresponding graphical features on a map. There are two optimization problems: the label number maximization problem and the label size maximization problem. In general, both problems are NP-hard for static maps. Recently, the widespread use of several applications, such as personal mapping systems, has increased the importance of dynamic maps and the label number maximization problem for dynamic cases has been studied. In this paper, we consider the label size maximization problem for points on rotating maps. Our model is as follows. For each label, a point is chosen inside the label or on its boundary as an anchor point. Each label is placed such that the anchor point coincides with the corresponding point on the map. Furthermore, while the map fully rotates from 0 to 2π, the labels are placed horizontally according to the angle of the map. Our problem consists of finding the maximum scale factor for the labels such that the labels do not intersect, and deciding the place of the anchor points. We propose an O(n log n)-time and O(n)-space algorithm for the case where each anchor point is inside the label. Moreover, if the labels are of unit-height (or unit-width) and the anchor points are on the boundary, we also present an O(n log n)-time and O(n)-space algorithm.


CRETINISM was the first well-recognised clinical form of mental defect. It was also one of the earliest well-defined metabolic errors to be recognised. It remains the classical example of disease produced by endocrine anomaly. Therapeutically also, cretinism has made history as being the first metabolic and hormonal disorder responsible for mental retardation to respond to specific treatment. Despite acentury and a half of attention the syndrome remains an imprecise concept with much still to be explained. Many cases previously described as cretins would not now be accepted as such; this applies to cases of Down's syndrome which were once described as furfuraceous (scaly, scurfy) cretins. It is now clear that cretinism as an expression of thyroid defect can have a number of different causes. Some recent developments in diagnosis and therapy have been summarised by BLIZZARD and COON.* Recognition of the complicated chain of metabolic events which occurs in the thyroid makes it clear that interruption at different links in the chain will produce different syndromes, perhaps requiring different treatment. Firstly, an enzyme defect may prevent the synthesis of normal amounts of thyroid hormone and result in a hypothyroid patient with a hyperplastic thyroid gland avid for iodide-i.e., a congenital goitrous cretin. In fact not all such metabolic defects result in congenital goitre, though this may appear later, as may the evidence of hypothyroidism. Secondly, cretinism may be due to a partial or complete anatomical deJiciency of the thyroid gland. Lingual or incompletely descended thyroids fall into this category, since they are functionally inactive. In most cases the cause of the failure of thyroid development is unknown, but BLIZZARD and others3 showed that in a minority it may be due to the formation of thyroid antibodies in the mother during pregnancy; they found thyroid antibodies in the serum of 26 per cent of the mothers of 121 athyrotic cretins, compared with 5 per cent of control pregnant women. In a third group, the mother has been treated with drugs of the thiouracil type,s with large doses of iodideY2 or with other substances which interfere with thyroid metabolism during pregnancy. The infant's thyroid defect is usually transient, but if the defect is not speedily recognised and treated permanent mental defect may result. Then there is a fourth group where endemic cretinism is due to defective maternal intake of iodine. South-eastern France, North-western India and the Great Lakes of North America are classical iodine-deficient areas with a high incidence of adult goitre, but whether they also had a high incidence of cretinism seems less clear, and in North America the situation has been changed by the addition of iodine to the table-salt. Despite the diversity of possible causes, cretinism is a rare disease-thus, in one series of 1,900 children with severe mental defect1 only 2 cases were diagnosed. This fact suggests, in Britain at any rate, that any single cause operates very infrequently. MCGIRR and HUT-


This article presents a comprehensive review of research advances in 2013 on nonpoint source (NPS) pollution mainly caused by agricultural runoff, urban stormwater, highway stormwater, and atmospheric deposition. Modeling techniques of NPS with various tools and the impact of climate change on NPS are also reviewed. Diverse control and treatment measures and best management practices (BMPs) for mitigating NPS pollution and their socioeconomic impacts are assessed.


Conjugated block copolymers are potentially useful for organic electronic applications and the study of interfacial charge and energy transfer processes; yet few synthetic methods are available to prepare polymers with well-defined conjugated blocks. Here, we report the synthesis and thin film morphology of a series of conjugated poly(3-hexylthiophene)-block-poly(9,9-dioctylfluorene) (P3HT-b-PF) and poly(3-dodecylthiophene)-block-poly(9,9-dioctylfluorene) (P3DDT-b-PF) block copolymers prepared by functional external initiators and click chemistry. Functional group control is quantified by proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, size-exclusion chromatography, and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry. The thin film morphology of the resulting all-conjugated block copolymers is analyzed by a combination of grazing-incidence X-ray scattering, atomic force microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. Crystallization of the P3HT or P3DDT blocks is present in thin films for all materials studied, and P3DDT-b-PF films exhibit significant PF/P3DDT co-crystallization. Processing conditions are found to impact thin film crystallinity and orientation of the π–π stacking direction of polymer crystallites. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2014, 52, 154–163


The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates qualified health claims (QHCs) on food and dietary supplement labels. QHCs aim to communicate the quality and strength of scientific evidence behind the claim of a diet‐disease relationship. However, research shows that consumers understand QHCs as an indication of the overall healthfulness of a product. To understand the characteristics of QHCs and what may cause consumer confusion, a content analysis examined the language used to convey scientific evidence in 53, FDA‐enforced QHCs. The analysis revealed that 77% (n=41) of QHCs score above a 9th grade reading level. Most claims also describe the quality of evidence (n=51, 96%) (e.g. "very weak"), make reference to the consistency of evidence (n=41, 77%), while a quarter of claims (n=13) quantify the evidence (i.e. number of studies). Twenty‐five claims (47%) present the evidence before stating the diet‐disease relationship, while the remainder of QHCs present information in the reverse order (n=28, 53%). In the 53 QHCs studied, there are 36 ways in which evidence is presented, which likely contributes to consumer confusion. Regulators should consider whether reforming the language in QHCs would improve consumer understanding of these claims.


Recent reports suggest that low testosterone:androstenedione (T:A) ratio following hCG stimulation may be a useful method of diagnosing 17β‐hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase‐3 (17 βHSD3) deficiency. The aim of this study was to establish the range of T:A ratios in cases of undermasculinization with proven aetiologies other than 17 βHSD3.


Objective To investigate the protection of sound conditioning on acoustic trauma.Methods Forty healthy guinea pigs with normal Preyer's reflex were used.The animals were randomly divided into four groups:normal group,conditioning noise group,high-level noise group and conditioning noise followed by high-level noise group.Sound conditioning experimental model of animals was established.Auditory brainstem response(ABR) threshold was tested with auditory electrical physiology method.Hair cell loss was measured by surface preparation technique.Results Conditioning noise exposure protected hearing loss by 13?dB from an acoustic trauma that resulted in the following high-level noise exposure.Cochlear surface preparations indicated that the loss of hair cells induced by noise exposure was obvious.A significant difference was observed between high-level noise group and conditioning noise followed by high-level noise group at the first and the second turn of the basilar membrane.Conclusion Sound conditioning experimental model of animals is established successfully with appropriate noise conditions.Morphological changes in hair cell stem from noise exposure includes hair cell loss and other impairments instead of hair cell death.Sound conditioning can decrease hair cell loss induced by the following high-level noise exposure


Recent electrochemical experiments reveal that the rhenium-tris(thiolate) [ReL3] (L = DPPBT = diphenylphosphinobenzenethiolate, a noninnocent ligand) complex catalytically reduces protons and oxidi...


A specific integrated circuit has been designed and sent to fabrication as a demonstrator for characterization of submicron MOSFET devices and multilayer interconnects. The circuit implementation consists in two main parts, one dedicated to MOS model extraction, an other dealing with interconnect characterization from a dynamic and static point of view.


This interview traces Giorgio Spini's intellectual development and political activity during his involvement with the antifascist conspiracy, his participation in the struggle against the German occupation of Italy and the process of democratization. His Protestant education served as a backbone for his moral and civic conscience. Indeed, Spini asserted his affinity with the Italian Protestant communities, who were persecuted and often susceptible to poverty. These foundations formulated the basis of his political orientation, of striving for democracy and social justice. His opinions upon people, movements and the cultural approaches he encountered during his personal maturation and political activity were perceptive and often stern - especially in relation to pre-fascist positivist socialism; Italian idealism; liberalsocialism; liberal democratic and republican trends of anti-fascism; Italian and international communism.


This study aims to investigate the effects of ankle foot orthosis(AFO) on the activities of tibialis anterior(TA), soleus(Sol), rectus femoris(RF) and biceps femoris(BF) during stairs descending. The activities of TA, Sol, RF and BF were initially measured while descending 4 stairs without using AFO. The activities of the same muscles were then measured again while descending 4 stairs while using AFO. Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were used to analyze the results in order to examine the differences between the with using AFO and without using AFO. Although the activities of TA, Sol and RF were relatively lower while using AFO than without using AFO, only the differences in Sol and RF activities were significant(p 0.05). Conclusion of this study was observed since AFO`s ground reaction force absorption during stairs descending reduced the need to use So and RF that is related to shock absorption. BF activity was increased with AFO than without during standing forward to correct the trunk stability.


Xiangjiang River is one of the rivers that have been contaminated most seriously by heavy metals in China.The present study conducted a systematic analysis of concentrations of trace metals and Pb isotopic composition of the sediments using ICP-MS and MC-ICP-MS techniques.The results show that the river sediments are significantly concentrated and enriched with heavy metals Bi,Sc,V,Mn,Ni,Cu,Zn,Pb,Cd,Sn and Sb.This metal enrichment may cause heavy metal contamination to the sediments.Evaluation by using the geo-accumulation index(Igeo)show that the river sediments were potentially contaminated by heavy metals Cd,Sb,Bi,Sn,Pb,Zn,U,Tl,Th,Mn and Cu,among which metal Cd arrives an extremely high degree of contamination,metals Sb,Bi,Sn and Pb strongly to moderately high degree of contamination,and metals Zn,U,Tl,Th,Mn and Cu moderately to slightly high degree of contamination.However,the lake sediments were not significantly contaminated by these metals except moderately high degree of contamination of metals Cd and Sb.Pb isotopic compositions of the sediments suggest that Pb in the river sediments is a mixture of multi-sources of Pb,which Pb contributed from both natural and anthropogenic processes.Pb of natural source may be the Pb contributed from weathering of granites distributed in upper river areas,and the anthropogenic Pb may mostly include Pb from different Pb-Zn ores distributed and exploited in the upper river areas and Pb from coal combustion in the lower river areas.The proportion of such anthropogenic Pb in the river sediments is about 80%.Pb in the lake sediments is mostly composed of anthropogenic Pb from Pb-Zn ores and coal combustion,and is less influenced by Pb from granite weathering taken place in upper river areas.It can be deduced that the heavy metals Sc,Cd,Bi,Cu,Zn,Sn and Sb also are mixtures of natural and anthropogenic processes,like metal Pb.Therefore,the protection of heavy metal contamination for the region should be stressed on various industrial activities of mineral application of Pb-Zn metal ores in the watershed.


Laser powder bed fusion is an attractive manufacturing technology promising novel components for the aircraft, automobile, and medical industries. However, depending on the material, some defects in the parts, especially pores or microcracks, cannot be avoided in the LPBF process. To achieve a part with low defect density, the optimal parameter sets must be determined. Many investigations have focused on how laser speed and laser power influence the melting process and the relative density of as-built parts. In this study, we considered laser and heated powder beds as two energy input sources, represented by volume energy density and preheating temperature, respectively. The interaction of these two energy inputs for the fabrication of AISI H13 was investigated. It was found that high preheating temperatures shifted the optimal parameter sets from the low energy density area to the high energy density area. In addition, high preheating also led to hot cracking, which was confirmed with Scheil solidification simulations.


Based on the basic idea of the stimulation with exploding in the hydraulic fracture front in low permeability reservoirs,a productivity calculation model was built using the theory of fluid flow in porous media and the nodal system analysis method.The effects of hydraulic fracture parameters and exploding fracture parameters on well productivity were analyzed.The results show that the well productivity is improved by increasing the length of hydraulic fracture more than that of increasing the hydraulic fracture conductivity in low permeability reservoirs.The hydraulic fracture well productivity can be enhanced by the exploding fracture and the stimulation ratio is up to 1.55.It proves that the technique of the stimulation with exploding in fracture front is feasible.


plant diseases are a normal part of nature but can cause significant economic, social and ecologic loss globally. It's difficult to monitor continuously plant health and detection of diseases. The paper presents a survey of recent studies on the area of plant disease recognition and classification from digital images using image processing and soft computing techniques. The main aim of the paper is to focus on the area of plant pathology recognition and classification only. The paper is omitting the disease severity quantification. Although the paper, considering the images of symptoms presents on plant leaves and stems only for limiting the survey. Each considered paper in the review, representing the comprehensive details of the technical implementation of an algorithm. The algorithm begins with digital image acquisition of infected and non-infected plants; perform image preprocessing, differentiate disease infected region from a non-infected region using segmentation, extract features from segmented images for recognition and classification. This survey expected to useful for researchers from plant pathology and pattern recognition field.


1. What sort of Professionalism? Sue Crowley 2. Professional Identity. Trading Places: on becoming an FE professional Denis Gleeson 3. Professional Bodies and Continuing Professional Development: A Case Study Andy Boon and Toni Fazaeli 4. A professional view of professional learning: The trouble with CPD Jean Kelly and Sue Colquhoun 5. Evaluating the Impact of Professional Learning Vivienne Porritt 6. Leading and Learning in Challenging Circumstances Fiona Mackay and Paul Wakeling 7. Professional Learning and Vocational Pedagogy Sue Crowley Conclusion Maintaining the Challenge and the Learning Sue Crowley


Tamarix chinensis Lour. is a widely distributed,and multifunctional afforested halophilous plant on the coastal beach of Jiangsu province, which harbors higher resistance against salinity,swamp and drought.Reproduction biology and development of T.chinensis are deeply researched that would be beneficial to renew a coastal shelter forest, build a coastal green Great Wall, improve pickled soils of beach, promote ecological and economical construction,and change eastern seacoast into golden coast in Jiangsu province.


Objective Explore dexamethasone diffusion the joint pipeline preshoot(referred to meters dispersion law) reaction effect on the prevention of dialyzer.Method Patients with First-Use Syndrome Were randomly divided into 2 groups.Dyspnea,pruritus,urticaria,head,chest and abdomen,and back pain as effects indicators.Pearson Chi-Square test be used to analyze.Results Conventional dialysis methods and dexamethasone diffusion the joint pipeline preshoot law during dialysis patients with or without breathing difficulties associated,pruritus,urticaria,head,chest and abdomen,and back pain were statistically analyzed,two methods are statistically significant(P 0.05).Conclusion Dexamethasone diffuse joint pipeline preshoot can effectively prevent the occurrence of hemodialysis patients dialyzer reaction improve dialysis patient comfort,improve patient compliance.


In this paper, we propose a definition of determinant for quaternionic polynomial matrices inspired by the well‐known Dieudonné determinant for the constant case. This notion allows to characterize the stability of linear dynamical systems with quaternionic coefficients, yielding results which generalize the ones obtained for the real and complex cases. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Multiple description coding (MDC) schemes have become popular as robustness tools in packet switched networks where multiple paths with varying packet loss rates are available. The descriptions are designed so that the quality of the reconstructed image depends on the number of descriptions received and not on which descriptions are actually received. We propose a new MDC framework for the EBCOT algorithm used in the current JPEG 2000 standard for still image compression. The inherent block coding in EBCOT allows for more flexibility in the formation of basic groups that are then combined in different ways to form descriptions. The bit allocation problem (between the different groups in a description) is formulated and optimized for good rate-distortion performance. Optimization of the bit allocation between the primary and secondary positions in each description is obtained using the generalized BFOS algorithm. Experiments using the Kakadu software (for JPEG 2000) show that the performance of the proposed framework degrades gracefully with increase in the number of descriptions lost.


Objective:  To investigate whether active anodal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) (of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex [DLPFC] and primary motor cortex [M1]) as compared to sham treatment is associated with changes in sleep structure in fibromyalgia.


In cellular manufacturing system parts are grouped in part families and machines are grouped in machine cells, based on their resemblance in manufacturing, to reduce intercellular movement of parts and machine. The aim of this article is to formulate a method to form cell using correlation analysis approach. The proposed method is carried out in following steps: first data (machine-part matrix) is obtained from literature. To make the initial matrix more sufficiently meaningful and significant, its standardization is needed. Several methods of standardization are found in the literature. In this article, the general standardization of primary data set is used. In the next step a correlation matrix (similarity matrix) is calculated using standardized matrix. Principal component analysis (PCA) is applied to find the eigenvalues and eigenvectors on the correlation similarity matrix. A cluster analysis based on scatter plot is performed to make simultaneously machine groups and part families while maximizing correlation between elements. In the next stage a hybrid algorithm is developed to assign exceptional machines. Assignment of exceptional part is simply based on Euclidian distance while for assignment of exceptional machine a hybrid algorithm is developed. One numerical example is solved to illustrate the proposed method. The result obtained from this method shows that the present approach is very efficient and practical. The outline of the paper is as follows: section 1 describes the Introduction and some literature review. Section 2 describes Preliminaries of proposed method. In section 3 description of proposed method is mentioned along with a numerical example. In Section 4 comparison of performance criteria obtained from proposed methods and existing methods and lastly a conclusion is made in section 5.


Results of the new regime tuning are reported. The efficiency estimates for different particle distributions on a bent crystal input for a concrete scheme of the IHEP accelerator proton beam extraction were made.<<ETX>>


Purpose – The purpose of this study was to investigate the career shock experienced by professionals who were displaced from the companies in which they worked, in light of the conservation of resources theory. In addition, we sought to analyze: the meaning attributed to career shock; career skills mobilized to deal with shock; the decisions that followed the shock and their outcomes. Design/Methodology/Approach – To achieve these goals, a qualitative and exploratory research was conducted, with the participation of 12 adult workers (30 years-old or more), with higher education, residing in the Southeast region of Brazil, who lost their jobs in private sector organizations. Findings – The results corroborated some of the principles of the conservation of resources theory. It was observed that the job loss was preceded by other resource losses and generated new losses, both objective and subjective. In addition, it was identified that the participants had to invest in obtaining resources – especially the acquisition of technical skills and the development of their social network – to deal with the job loss and to find a new space in the labor market. Finally, it was also found that those who had more resources – personal, technical and social skills, as well as family support – had an easier reinsertion. Research Limitations – Because it involved a relatively small number of participants, it is possible that some perspectives on the studied phenomenon were not identified. Practical Implications – It is hoped that the results of this study will help workers to recognize, prepare and cope more effectively when faced with involuntary turnover. It is also expected to contribute to career counseling professionals, especially those working with displaced workers. Social Implications – From a social perspective, it is intended to contribute to the debate around public policies that may foster the development of personal resources that allow the adaptation and reinsertion of unemployed workers. Originality – This research innovates by investigating job loss, understood as a career shock, from the perspective of the conservation of resources theory.


A method of solving multi-degree-of-freedom nonlinear systems subjected to stationary random excitation is presented. It uses the concepts of nonlinear coupled modes and a stochastic averaging principle as given in the Appendix. It involves expressions for moments, power spectral density matrix functions, and approximate sample response paths. It is applied to an example involving intensively excited non-linear plates. The efficiency of the method is confirmed by comparing the obtained results with those of numerical simulations.


We present the results of spectral analysis of the ASCA data for the Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 galaxy (NLS1) Ton S180 and simultaneous ASCA and RXTE data modelling for the NLS1 Ark 564. We model both the primary and reflected continuum as well as the iron K alpha line, the energy of which depends on the ionization state of the reprocessor. We show that the reprocessing matter is mildly ionized, and we find the soft to hard luminosity ratio to be about 2.5. The accretion rate approximately corresponds to the Eddington limit value.


Abstract The conical spacers made of epoxy resin are widely used in Gas Insulated System(GIS) for electrical insulation as well as mechanical support to the conductor. Electric stress on the surface of the spacer as well as at the triple junction is of major concern while designing the spacer for the Ultra High Voltage Alternating Current (UHVAC) GIS. To reduce the possibility of the flashover, the tangential field at the concave and convex surfaces is to be within limits. This paper presents a stepwise method for the reduction of the electric field at the spacer surface and at the triple junction by geometry shape optimization. The electric field has been calculated by solving Laplacian equation by Finite Element Method(FEM). Optimization has been realized by incorporating Nelder-Mead(NM) algorithm with FEM solution. The tangential field at the concave and convex surface of the conical spacer has been optimized by changing the shielding ball shape and metal inert in the spacer as well as by changing the curvature and thickness of spacer near to the high voltage conductor. The results demonstrate the reduction in the principle stress for the optimized geometry shape and the stress at the triple junction. The improvement in the electric field uniformity for the spacer surface is seen in the final optimized geometry


Reteplase (rPA) is a thrombolytic agent used for the treatment of acute myocardial infarction. We studied the expression of rPA and its selected asparagine mutants after integration into the Pichia genome. Though methanol induction of the native and the rPA mutants showed similar expression levels (~200–250 mg/L), the mutants displayed significant loss of protease activity. Strikingly, the clot lysis activities of these mutants were considerably different. While mutation of Asn12 (N12P) of the Kringle 2 domain showed delayed clot lysis activity (t 1/2 = 38 min) compared to the native rPA (t 1/2 = 33 min), a faster rate of clot lysis (t 1/2 = 27 min) was observed when the Asn278 (N278S) of the serine protease domain was mutated. Interestingly, the slowest clot lysis activity (t 1/2 = 49 min) demonstrated by the double mutant (N12P, N278S) suggests the dominant role of Asn12 in regulating the fibrinolytic activity of rPA. The results presented in this paper indicate that the fibrinolytic and the proteolytic activities of rPA are independent of each other.


The aim of the study is to identify and explain preparation activities of three English teachers in lesson study process. The English teachers dealt with activities such as setting objectives, building content, organizing classroom practices and identifying success criteria for learning objectives and reflection in three different lesson study cycles based on social constructivism for about 5 months. In this study, the single case study design was adopted. Criterion sampling method was used to determine the participants. The group-based activities of teachers were repeated in each research lesson at different subjects and different grades. Instead of preparing a new format of the existing lesson plan in each research lesson, the participants prepared new lesson plans for each research lesson. The data were obtained by class observation, camera recordings, interview, and document examination of the lesson plans. It was observed that the teachers made more qualified decisions in planning teaching tasks and there were positive changes in their planning skills and teaching practices in the process in lesson study cycle.


Purpose – The present paper seeks to provide a new insight into intellectual capital classification by theoretically and empirically differentiating relations‐based knowledge into social capital and relational capital. Additionally, taking into account the key role played by radical innovation to compete in the context defined by the "knowledge‐based economy", the aim is to empirically investigate the possible effect of both relations‐based intellectual capital components on the development of this kind of innovation by firms.Design/methodology/approach – Data were obtained from a questionnaire responded to by 251 Spanish high and medium‐high tech firms. Based on their answers, exploratory factor analysis and regression analysis are carried out.Findings – As theoretically proposed, relations‐based intellectual capital can be separated into social and relational capital, with social capital as the main component. Both elements have a significantly positive influence on radical innovation developed by firms...


This paper examined the management of conflicts in the administration of secondary schools in Osun State, Nigeria. It also identified, discussed and analysed the causes as well as the various ways conflicts manifested in the administration of secondary schools in the state. The effects of conflicts on school administration were equally examined. Quantitative and qualitative data were generated from both primary and secondary sources. The paper showed that administration of secondary schools in the state was hampered by high rate of conflicts. Several types of conflicts were identified in the schools among which were conflicts between management and staff; between staff and students; between the communities and schools; and inter-personal conflicts to mention a few. The causes of conflicts in schools in the state included inadequate welfare package for workers; forceful and compulsory retirement/retrenchment of workers; administrative incompetence; personality clashes; role conflicts; and non-involvement of students in school administration. The fact that most of the school administrators were not knowledgeable in conflict management, coupled with the absence of laid down procedures for conflict management in most schools contributed to the high rate of conflicts and industrial actions in the schools. The paper concluded that the issue of conflict management in school administration has reached a point where effective use of relevant strategies can no longer be ignored.


This paper examined empirically if Kenya"s pattern of trade with India is consistent with Heckscher-Ohlin theory, using a fixed-effect panel data model and macroeconomic variables for the period 1970 to 2013. The findings indicate a strong trade relation between Kenya and India, with Kenya specializing in the exportation of primary products to India. Overall, the findings indicate that the Kenya–India trade relation is consistent with the factor proportions theory, which spells out the trade relationship between the North – South poles. The paper recommends that Kenyan government should encourage Indian investors to establish subsidiaries of their manufacturing companies in Kenya in order to reduce the cost of importation of capital intensive goods and create jobs in the domestic economy.


This study examines the effect of real exchange rate uncertainty on fixed capital investment in private sector in Turkey using yearly time series data between 1970-2004 period. Reel interest rates and net credits / GDP ratio variables are used as other independent variables in the model. Reel exchange rate uncertainty variable is produced by ARIMA modeling. An error correction model is developed and used to estimate the coefficients. The results demonstrate that net banking credits to GDP ratio variable positively and reel interest rates negatively affect the fixed capital investment to GDP ratio, as expected. The reel exchange rate uncertainty has found to be negative and significant effect on fixed capital investment. The results support the idea that exchange rate uncertainty does matter for private sector investments in Turkey.


Management of acute pneumonia requires knowledge of current etiologic agents. Haemophilus influenzae and Streptococcus pneumoniae are the main responsible pathogens. Changes in epidemiology particularly occur in the susceptibility of antibiotics to S pneumoniae which is the main target of antimicrobial therapy.


: Background : Antepartum hemorrhage would affect mother and her neonates. Objective: To determine maternal and neonatal outcome of mothers presenting with APH in a tertiary care hospital. Methodology: This was cross sectional study conducted in Sheikh Zayed Hospital, Rahim Yar Khan from April to May 2018 on 94 mothers presenting in Gynecology and obstetrics ward with ante-partum hemorrhage (APH). Results: Regarding maternal outcome, out of 94, 64 (68.1%) mothers were healthy and alive, 8 (8.5%) were admitted in ICU, 18 (19.1%) went into shock and 4 (4.3%) died whereas 30 (31.9%) of neonates were healthy and alive, 19 (20.2%) were admitted in ICU, 3 (3.2%) had ANN and 42 (44.7%) died perinatally. Our study showed maternal education has reduced both perinatal (p value=0.005) and maternal (p-value=0.015) morbidity while husband education has not significantly affected perinatal mortality and morbidity (p-value=0.655). Our research showed that really affect mode of delivery, it has significant affect in perinatal outcome (p=0.002).Conclusion: This study showed that large proportion of mothers with antepartum hemorrhage (APH) faced complications like shock, ICU admission and even death whereas majority of neonates faced ICU admission, ANN and almost half of neonates died during perinatal period. Mode of delivery has no Significant association with maternal outcome was significantly poor among mothers who delivered via SVD


Two types film of tin silicomolybdate and tin oxide/silicomolybdate films have been prepared directly from the mixing of Sn 2 + and SiMo 1 2 O 4 - 4 0 ions from the strong acidic solutions over different scanning potentialranges. The cyclic voltammogram of the growing type I film (assigned as a tin silicomolybdate film) is characterized by two redox couples and the type II film (assigned as a tin oxide/silicomolybdate film) exhibits three redox couples and both films were confined to the immobilized film when transferred to a pH 1.0 aqueous solution. In addition to cyclic voltammetry, an electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance and UV-visible absorption spectroscopy were used to study the growth mechanism of the tin silicomolybdate and tin oxide/ silicomolybdate films. The results show that Sn 2 + and SiMo 1 2 O 4 - 4 0 ions react slowly to form a new blue-colored species with absorption peaks at λ = 320, 645, and 744 nm. The electrocatalytic reduction of ClO - 3 , BrO - 3 , IO - 3 , SO 2 - 5 , S 2 O 2 - 8 , and NO - 2 ions by a tin oxide/silicomolybdate film or a tin silicomolybdate film were investigated in acidic aqueous solutions. The electrocatalytic reactions of IO - 3 ions with a tin oxide/silicomolybdate film were investigated using the rotating ring-disk electrode method.


................................................................................................................................. 1 Declaration .......................................................................................................................... 10 List of Tables ........................................................................................................................ 11 List of Figures ....................................................................................................................... 12 Glossary of Terms ................................................................................................................ 16 Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................. 21 Dissemination ...................................................................................................................... 22 Chapter 1 – General Introduction ....................................................................................... 23 1.1 Gastrointestinal (GI) tract .......................................................................................... 24 1.1.1 Anatomy and function of the GI tract.................................................................. 24 1.1.2 Histology of the GI tract ....................................................................................... 25 1.2 Enteric nervous system (ENS) .................................................................................... 27 1.2.1 Anatomy of the ENS ............................................................................................. 29 1.2.2 Types of neurons in the ENS ................................................................................ 31 1.2.3 Enteric glia ........................................................................................................... 35 1.3 Smooth muscle .......................................................................................................... 36 1.3.1 The role of interstitial cells .................................................................................. 37 1.3.2 The mechanism of smooth muscle contraction .................................................. 38 1.3.3 The mechanism of smooth muscle relaxation ..................................................... 40 1.3.4 GI motility disorders and current treatment ....................................................... 42 1.4 Potassium ion channels ............................................................................................. 45 1.4.1 Ion channel signalling .......................................................................................... 45


There exists a growing body of literature which either explicitly or implicitly utilizes semiotic theory to discuss various sign systems in the Middle East. I believe that by exploring these works and linking them to similar studies, we can acquire a fresh perspective on the symbolic life of the people of the Middle East. I do not argue that semiotics can or should replace other paradigmatic approaches to out analysis of culture, but rather that semiotics can serve as a complementary method for interpreting sign systems.


The invention relates to a structure of a cross beam mounting surface applied to a numerical control drilling and milling machine. In the structure, a front connecting plate is fixed on the edge of the front end of a bottom connecting plate; a top connecting plate and the bottom connecting plate are horizontally arranged; a rear connecting plate and the front connecting plate are vertically arranged in the left-right direction; a left side plate and a right side plate are vertically arranged in backward and forward direction; an inclined mounting panel is fixedly connected between the edge of the top end of the front connecting plate and the edge of the front end of the top connecting plate; and the inclined mounting panel comprises an inclined mounting top plate, an inclined mounting rear plate, an inclined mounting side plate, an inclined mounting bottom plate and an inclined mounting connecting plate. In the invention, the simple inclined mounting surface structure is adopted, so that total contact area of a bearing plate and a nut seat as well as a slide block is increased, radial force born by a ball screw is reduced, the screw drives more stably, load capacity and impact resistance are enhanced, rigidity of the system is improved, vibration is reduced, and processing accuracy is also improved.


Forests of Indian subcontinent are one of the biodiversity hot spots of the world. They are the second-largest inland use next to agriculture, yet possess a high degree of endemism. Plantation forestry in India was initiated mainly for the production of industrial raw materials as well as fuelwood and fodder from exotic species. The increase in demand for industrial raw material has spurred the rise in plantations of fast-growing native tree species. Neolamarckia cadamba (Roxb.) Bosser is a native tree species whose wood has been largely used in the pulpwood and pencil industry for making boards, plywood, packing cases, tea-boxes, carving and turnery articles. Supplementation of these native trees with effective bio inoculants will improve and maintain the soil fertility and sustainability in the natural soil ecosystem besides providing economic benefits. In the present study, the diversity of PGPR was assessed in the rhizosphere of N. cadamba plantations in Narasipuram, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. 33 PGPR isolates from N. cadamba rhizosphere were isolated viz. four species of Azotobacter, three species of Azospirillum and six different PSB species. The isolates were studied for their plant growth promotional abilities such as Indole Acetic Acid (IAA) production and phosphate solubilization.


We propose the per vertex ray tracing (pVRT) method for real-time refraction rendering and discuss its algorithm, hardware implementation, and results. Our algorithm is based on single-pass rendering with a pre-processing phase to calculate the destinations of rays passing through transparent volume objects. In the pre-processing process, the direction and position of a ray's destination, which is the point at which a ray, after passing through a transparent object, intersects with an image frame, are calculated for each object independently, and objects made from refractive materials are rendered by using the computed addresses in the image buffer where the non-transparent objects are rendered. This method will be implemented entirely in hardware, and a performance evaluation based on software simulation showed an average calculation speed of 458907 polygon/sec. (241530 vertex/sec) in the pre-processing process.


Through using the method of literature review,literature review and logical analysis,this paper makes analysis on current situation of Juvenile sport dance development in Henyang.The result shows that juvenile sport dance development has great potential,development momentum is good,and gets the widespread social concern.However,there are still many problems,especially in children's sports dance training centers,the lack of a unified syllabus,teaching arrangements for the lack of science content,teacher training is not timely,knowledge structure,imperfect,inadequate professional skills,theoretical knowledge needs to be raised,management system is not perfect,no ideal conditions of facilities,which are severely restricting the development of children's sports dance in Hengyang.The main purpose is to raise attention and make relevant reform.


Jody Leleck has been appointed the principal of Broad Acres Middle School in Montgomery County, Maryland. The school is underperforming all other schools in the district, and she has been asked to improve the performance.


of the Official Records allows him to provide a good sense of the complex nature of the combatants involved in Missouri at the time. There were not only units of Federal and Confederate volunteers, but also irregular bushwhackers joining the Confederate side and various groups of state militia on the Union side, including the Missouri State Militia, the Kansas State Militia, and the Enrolled Missouri Militia. These various groups had very different levels of training and even different weapons, making coordination among them difficult. Neither William Starke Rosecrans nor Alfred Pleasonton, two of the principal Union generals inMissouri, appear in a good light in Lause's account. He details how they were consistently slow in their pursuit of Price's army and failed to coordinate their efforts well with General Samuel Ryan Curtis's Kansas militia. At times, Rosecrans did not even give Curtis accurate information about his troops' location, as when he informed Curtis that some of his troops would be occupying Sedalia, even though those troops were far from there and in fact the Confederates occupied that town. I found myself wishing the book included some maps. Lause provides minute detail about the movements of troops, including both their movements across the state and their movements during battle. Having state and local maps would make this information easier to visualize. Finally, Lause raises an interesting point in his conclusion that I wish had been developed a little more. He mentions that Federal policy toward Native Americans in Kansas hampered the ability of Union forces to stop Price's army, but Lause leaves this argument underdeveloped. Lause does make it very clear how local politics and incompetent Union commanders influenced military decision making, but explaining in more detail how those politics were related to Native American policy would have strengthened that interesting part of Lause's argument. That said, this book is the second half of a well-researched and very detailed reexamination of Price's invasion. Both general readers and scholars interested in Civil War military operations in the West should find this study useful.


Mechanical properties of composite panel made with 3mm thick Apitong(Dipterocarpus grandiflorus) veneer on each face of particleboard core of 4 different specific gravity were determined. The results obtained were as follows: 1. Measured MOR and MOE increased with an increased in specific gravity of particleboard core. 2. Test results showed that the difference in bending properties between flatwise bending and edgewise bending was present. The average MOE value of flatwise loading was higer than that of epdgewise loading. But it was shown reverse tendency in MoR and MOE. 3. The delamination between face veneer and core particle was found in flatwise bending but nell in edgewise. 4. These composite panel could be substituted for plywood and other panel materials in furniture making as considered suitable allowable stress and bending strength.


Accurately retrieving the position of football players over time may lay the foundations for a whole series of possible new performance metrics for coaches and assistants. Despite the recent developments of automatic tracking systems, the misclassification problem (i.e., misleading a given player by another) still exists and requires human operators as final evaluators. This paper proposes an adaptive fractional calculus (FC) approach to improve the accuracy of tracking methods by estimating the position of players based on their trajectory so far. One half-time of an official football match was used to evaluate the accuracy of the proposed approach under different sampling periods of 250, 500 and 1000 ms. Moreover, the performance of the FC approach was compared with position-based and velocity-based methods. The experimental evaluation shows that the FC method presents a high classification accuracy for small sampling periods. Such results suggest that fractional dynamics may fit the trajectory of football players, thus being useful to increase the autonomy of tracking systems.


We study the twisted control of the near-field radiative heat transfer between two hyperbolic antiferromagnetic insulators under external magnetic fields. We show that the near-field heat flux can be affected by both the twist angle $\theta$ and the magnitude of the applied magnetic field with different broken symmetries. Irrespective of twist angle, the external magnetic field causes the radiative heat flux to change nonmonotonically, and the minimum heat flux can be found with the magnetic fields of about 1.5 T. Such nonmonotonic behavior is due to the fact that the magnetic field can radically change the nature of the magnon polaritons with time reversal symmetry breaking. The field not only affects the topological structure of surface magnon polaritons, but also induces the volume magnon polaritons that progressively dominate the heat transfer as the field increases. We further propose a twist-induced thermal switch device with inversion symmetry breaking, which can severely regulate radiative heat flux through different magnetic fields. Our findings account for a characteristic modulation of radiative heat transfer with implications for applications in dynamic thermal management.


In order to reduce destructive testing of car sub-assemblies, on-line inspection of weld quality has gained more and more concern in terms of both resistance spot welding (RSW) and weldbonding. Dynamic resistance directly determines the amount of heat generated by current flow and consequently reflects nugget formation and growth, which is one of the most effective technologies for quality inspection. Under the measurements of voltage and current at the secondary circuit of a welding transformer, this paper proposes a method for on-line inspection of weld quality based on two indicators from dynamic resistance curve: time to nugget initiation and durable time to nugget expansion. Firstly, during the welding process of RSW and weldbonding, the proper range of time to nugget initiation and durable time to nugget expansion for good welds is set up. Then on-line inspection of weld quality on the basis of the developed proper range of these two indicators is carried out. The experimental results show the following conclusions: it is clearly able to separate accepted welds without expulsion from the welds of unaccepted nugget size in both RSW and weldbonding; the proper range for good welds, independent of electrode wear, is obtained only for a new electrode.


Brexit has been debated and unpicked to exhaustion. Writing in February 2019, Brexit is beginning to feel like a bad soap opera whose scriptwriter has run out of ideas. The plot is going round in circles. And yet, most discussions revert one way or another to sovereignty, migration and economy – all with clear nationalistic and imperialistic overtones. Debates about people or 'the people' seem to be at the core of these discussion, especially when it comes to migration. All such debates are implicitly or explicitly about 'us' and 'them'. This binary(ies) need challenging. What is also needed is a recognition of the multiple further intersections and subgroups within these binaries of groups of people.


Teaching Chinese as a secondary language will be robust growth during 21st century.Some Problems are very important for teaching Chinese as a secondary language.These include:how to clarify the leading position of Chinese culture in it so as to ensure its healthy development?how to develop students′ interest in learning Chinese language so that they will achieve twice of the results with half the effort?how to develop excellent tradition which will play role in fostering youths of talent?These problems involve the determination of thought and objective of teaching,the compilation of teaching materials,the training of teachers,and the deliberation of teaching methods.For further discussion,it is hoped that these problems will attract the attention of departments and experts concerned.


Radiation hybrid (RH) mapping is a powerful tool for ordering loci along a chromosome. Varying levels of map resolution can be obtained depending on the dose of radiation used. Errors in marker typing can result in incorrect inferences of marker order and intermarker distances. Hence, it is useful to have methods to identify the RHs that are the most likely to be mistyped. We and others previously have described several simple criteria for identifying influential hybrids and likely typing errors. Here, we describe an approach based on comparing the observed number of obligate breaks with the expected number of obligate breaks for the best locus order given the parameter estimates for that order. We have developed a simple recursive algorithm to calculate the distribution of the number of obligate chromosome breaks under a general model for haploid, diploid, or more generally polyploid RH mapping data. We use this distribution to calculate the expected number of obligate breaks for each hybrid in an RH mapping panel. Hybrids with large differences between the number of expected and observed obligate breaks are considered suspect, and merit further examination. In addition, we describe how a chi-square goodness-of-fit statistic based on all the hybrids canmore » be used to judge how well the data fit model assumptions. We illustrate this technique with two RH panels typed on chromosome 4p: a chromosome 4 haploid set and a whole genome diploid set. The haploid data consist of 479 markers typed on 86 RHs, the diploid data of 95 markers typed on 85 RHs.« less


Martin Greeley Introduction The microfinance industry is now in its third decade of growth. It is a substantial component of development efforts in most developing countries and also now in Central and Eastern Europe and the Newly Independent States (Forster et al. 2003) where it is expanding rapidly. During this growth period there has been ever-increasing attention to the modalities through which microfinance service provision seeks to contribute to the achievement of development objectives. Two routes receive most attention. The first is the contribution to poverty reduction through ensuring service delivery to poor households that have the capacity to strengthen their livelihoods, but have lacked the financial resources to realise that potential. This does not usually mean an exclusive focus on targeting households that are poor, though it may, but it does mean active programming to ensure inclusion of the poor. The second is the contribution to the establishment of functional financial markets, particularly in rural areas for households that were previously without proper access to financial services. To simplify, we can refer to the former as the poverty route and the latter as the market route. The core issue facing the industry today is how microfinance organisations (MFOs) can combine these routes. Few within the industry would disagree that both are desirable but the poverty route, through targeting and organisational learning to improve poverty outreach, has financial costs and there is a trade-off between the two courses. Quantifying these costs and the associated welfare benefits is a key industry challenge.


The slot flow meter can provide a simple and effective solution to many flow measurement problems. It makes use of the relationship between the flowrate of particulate solids through a vertical slot and the height of solids in the slot. It can be operated in a fluidized or unfluidized mode, and semi-empirical equations have been developed to describe the relationships between flowrate, slot width, and the height of material in the slot. The meter has an inherent self-calibration capability, and it can be configured so that it exhibits a mass-flow characteristic.


Abstract : Our research has involved studies of the reactions of low valent metal carbonyl complexes with arylnitrile oxides resulting in the (3+2) cycloaddition of the arylnitrile oxide to the M-CO bond of metal carbonyl complex. A number of metallacycles have been synthesized in good yield by this route, establishing the generality of this reaction. Recent studies have been concerned with the nature and synthetic utility of the products resulting from the thermolysis of rhodium- and iridium-containing metallacycles. We have recently reported the accomplishment of an important goal of this project, the metallacycle-promoted thermal activation of C-H bonds of saturated hydrocarbons. In short, the thermolysis of selected metallacycles results in the loss of arylnitrile and Carbon dioxide to generate a coordinatively and electronically unsaturated metal fragment which is highly reactive.


Based on the examination of type material, new collections, and associated life-history stages, certain species and generic concepts are revised.We recognize new synonyms for the pantropical genus Cloeodes Traver [= Potamocloeon Gillies, syn. n.; = Maliqua Lugo-Ortiz & McCafferty, syn. n.] and the following new species synonyms and new combination: C. dentatus (Kimmins), comb. n. [= M. plumosa (Wuillot), syn. n.; = M. abdallahi McCafferty, syn. n.]. First descriptions of male alates are provided for C. portabilis Lugo-Ortiz & McCafferty and C. pseudogladius Gattolliat. A species previously placed in the genus Afrobaetodes Demoulin instead belongs to Cloeodes [C. pusillus (Navas), comb. n.]. Securiops, gen. n., is established for the larvae formerly and incorrectly attributed to Potamocloeon, and this genus contains four species, including S. macafertiorum (Lugo-Ortiz), comb. n., the type species. We name three new species: S. mandrare, sp. n., S. megapalpus, sp. n., and S. mutadens, sp. n.


Introduction The liver is the largest gland in our body. Liver normally has a larger right lobe and a smaller left lobe. Though the tongue-like projection of the right lobe of the liver, i.e., Riedel's lobe, is commonly found in literature, the left lobe has very few literature. In foetal life, the left lobe is nearly as large as its right and as the haematopoietic activity of the liver is assumed by the spleen and bone marrow, the left lobe undergoes some degeneration. This paper discusses the tongue-like elongation of the left lobe of the liver. Case series Three livers with tongue-like elongation of the left lobe were found during routine dissections of 20 cadavers in the Department of Anatomy, Gauhati Medical College, Guwahati. On examination, the colour, consistency, and texture of the elongated parts were found to be similar to normal livers and histological examination showed normal liver tissue. There was absence of fibrous tissue, so the elongated parts were not the appendix of the liver. Other parts of the liver were normal. Conclusion This type of elongation of the left lobe of the liver may cause symptoms like pressure, pulling and pain in the epigastrium. Moreover, knowledge of this type of liver anomalies will be helpful for surgeons in planning hepato-biliary surgeries. Introduction The liver is one of the most precocious embryonic organs and is the centre of haemopoiesis in the foetus. It develops from an endodermal evagination of the foregut and from the septum transversum mesenchyme. The liver is proportionately large during its development. At three months of gestation, the liver almost fills the abdominal cavity and its left lobe is nearly as large as its right. When haematopoietic activity of the liver is assumed by the spleen and bone marrow, the left lobe undergoes some degeneration and becomes smaller than the right1. According to Barclay-Smith, "The changes which the liver undergoes during growth require elucidation. The small size of the left lobe in the adult as compared with an early condition may be either due to its relatively slow growth or to an actual atrophy of liver substance"2. Anomalies of hepatic morphology, as opposed to anatomical variations, are rare. Nevertheless, knowledge of such anomalies is important since they do not always remain clinically latent. A general review of hepatic anomalies can be divided into two categories, i.e., anomalies due to defective development and anomalies due to excessive development of the liver3. Riedel's lobe was first recognised as an anatomical variant of the liver4, consisting of an inferior extension of the right lobe of the liver. Variants of anatomy of the left lobe of the liver are less recognised. Congenital deformities of the liver confined to the left lobe are sufficiently extensive to cause symptoms5. Bismuth-Couinaud segment II is commonly elongated. In segmental * Corresponding author Email: firstname.lastname@example.com Department of Anatomy, Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed Medical College, Barpeta, Assam, India Figure 1: Abnormal liver no.1 with elongated left lobe.


Introduction: Oft en disregarded as functional abdominal pain, Celiac Artery Compression Syndrome (CACS) is a rare, oft en incidental diagnosis caused by compression of the celiac artery by the median arcuate ligament. Case report: A middle aged female was admitted for chronic epigastric pain, nausea and vomiting. Two years prior, she had a presumptive diagnosis of biliary colic, and underwent a cholecystectomy without symptomatic improvement. Extensive evaluation of her post-prandial abdominal pain led to a diagnosis of possible mild gastroparesis resistant to metoclopramide and erythromycin. Multiple admissions later, her diff erential diagnosis had grown to IBS with functional abdominal pain versus refractory gastroparesis versus narcotic seeking behavior. She was subsequently readmitted for severe post-prandial epigastric abdominal pain, intractable nausea and vomiting associated with a 30 pound weight loss over six months. Despite three days of supportive care, her symptoms did not improve. Renal artery duplex, ordered for episodic hypertension, coincidentally showed high grade stenosis at the celiac artery origin. Sagittal sections of her CAT scan was concerning for celiac artery stenosis. She was taken to angiography where high grade extrinsic stenosis of the celiac artery was noted with post stenotic dilation and worsening of stenosis with upsloping of the artery during expiration. Th ese fi ndings were consistent with CACS and the patient underwent laparoscopic release of the median arcuate ligament and celiac ganglionectomy. Intraoperative ultrasound revealed strong fl ow in the celiac trunk aft er ligamentous release. Patient's symptoms improved markedly and she was asymptomatic one month aft er discharge. Discussion: Th e median arcuate ligament is a fi brous arch formed at the base of the diaphragm that crosses over the celiac artery at its origin in 10-24% of people with only 1 % having symptoms related to this anatomic condition. Inspiratory/expiratory arteriography is required for defi nitive diagnosis though CT Scans can certainly help. Surgical ligamentous release is the standard treatment of CACS. Treatment outcomes generally vary in regards to achieving symptom relief. However post-prandial pain and greater than 20 pound weight loss as initial symptoms are associated with improved outcomes aft er surgical release as seen in our patient.


The echocardiographic examination of 78 patients with chronic pulmonary diseases and 85 patients with various stages of cardiac and pulmonary insufficiency is performed. As many as 28 patients without cardiac and pulmonary diseases are examined as a control group. A group of patients (20) with combination of chronic cardiac and pulmonary diseases is stood out. The results of the investigations revealed the reliable changes of the echocardiographic indices that can be used for the differential diagnosis of chronic cardiac and pulmonary insufficiency.


Abstract Single crystals of bis(benzene-1,2-dicarboxylato)bis(4-methylbenzohydrazide)zinc (ZPTH), a novel Zn(II) complex of phthalic acid and hydrazide, were grown from aqueous solution by slow evaporation solution growth technique. The compound C32H30N4O10Zn crystallizes in triclinic system with centrosymmetric space group Pī. Its structure is built up from octahedral (ZnO4N2) linked to each other through the phthalate and hydrazide groups. The good crystallinity of the as-grown specimen is confirmed by the powder X-ray diffraction pattern. The band gap energy is estimated using diffuse reflectance data by the application of Kubelka–Munk algorithm. ZPTH exhibits fluorescent emission at 401 nm in the solid state at room temperature. Theoretical calculations were performed using density functional theory (DFT) method. Experimental observations are well supported by theoretical studies.GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT


Every Leap Day, any member of the Bailey family newly over the age of twelve develops a superpower, and Rafter and his younger brother Benny wait with bated breath to claim their extraordinary skill this time around. Unfortunately, they're disappointed when their powers end up being less than super: Rafter can strike matches on polyester, while Benny can pop his innie bellybutton into an outie and back. They're afraid they'll be left out of their family's sworn struggle against a supervillain family, the Johnsons, until a confrontation with Juanita Johnson reveals that the Johnsons consider themselves the town's superheroes, archenemies of the heinous Baileys, and that Juanita's similarly found herself with a fizzled-out ability (effortlessly unclogging toilets). These surprises lead the three to dig a little bit deeper and uncover a master plot hatched by the truly villainous family of Joneses that will require their families to team up to overcome. Weak characterization and run-of-the-mill action scenes mean that the execution is less engaging than the concept, and the resolution, designed to set up for future vanquishing of the still-pretty-mysterious Joneses in a sequel, barely scrapes by as satisfying as a conclusion to this novel. Underdog superhero kids are usually crowd-pleasers, however, so this may gain traction as an up-and-coming series for fans of Cody's Powerless (BCCB 2/10). TA


T HE subject which I am to discuss with you is much broader than the subjects which have been given to the men who, out of their special competence, will discuss various particular aspects of the work of this institution in its relationship to libraries, scholarship, and institutions in the Middle West. My subject is the broadest possible one in this framework. Its breadth is doubtless a recognition of the fact that I spent a period of years as a university president and, in that period, lost the ability to speak with any particularity or definiteness. My subject is "Cooperation between Universities." Co-operation between universities in the United States of America is increasing rapidly in extent. More than forty co-operative programs involving colleges and universities are now in operation in this country. Some of these involve no more than two institutions. One of them involves as many as forty institutions of higher education. All these co-operative programs are, of course, partial. That is to say, no university co-operates with another university in all its activities and functions. Those of you who know universities will recognize this as an impossibility, since, to the best of my knowledge, there are no two universities in America today which engage in exactly the same functions. If the profile of one university is superimposed upon that of another, there will be large areas in which their silhouettes do not meet. All this cooperation, therefore, is really co-operation between parts of institutions or between institutions in regard to some particular function. In some cases the co-operation is purely negative. For example, the university which employs me at the present time has a co-operative agreement with a neighboring institute of technology. The agreement is that Emory University will not teach any engineering; and, as a result of this agreement, it has eliminated the department of engineering. This is negative co-operation, in a sense. It is elimination of unnecessary duplicating activities and programs. In some cases the co-operation involves no more than the exchange of some professors or the sharing of instruction in some classes. In others the 1 A paper presented at the dedication ceremony of the Midwest Inter-Library Center on October 5, '95'.


Based on the conceptual design reports for the Future Circular Collider cryogenic system, the need for more accurate thermodynamic property models of cryogenic mixtures of noble gases was identified. Both academic institutes and industries have identified the lack of a reliable equation of state for mixtures used at very low temperatures. Detailed cryogenic architecture modeling and design cannot be carried out without accurate fluid properties. Therefore, the helium–neon equation was the first goal of this work, and it was further extended to other fluids beneficial for scientific and industrial applications beyond the particle physics needs. The properties of the noble gas mixtures of helium–neon, neon–argon, and helium–argon are accurately modeled with the equations of state explicit in the Helmholtz energy.


Although there is a growing body of work concerning cross-group friendship and intergroup attitudes, this work typically focuses on a limited number of interpersonal processes among established friendships. In addition, little is known about the role of group-related processes within such friendships. Two studies were conducted to address this gap. Results from a retrospective online survey and a longitudinal study reveal that both interpersonal friendship processes (e.g., intimacy, affection, trust, self-disclosure) and intergroup friendship processes (e.g., belief that outgroup friend respects one's own group, spending time with outgroup friend's family members and friends) are associated with positive intergroup attitudes. Specifically, the current findings suggest that interpersonal friendship processes are vital to fostering positive attitudes for the outgroup early in the relationship, but that intergroup friendship processes become more strongly linked to attitudes once the relationship progresses. Results may inform interventions designed to promote positive interactions across "real-world" group boundaries.


We can often detect from a person's utterances whether he/she is in favor of or against a given target entity (a product, topic, another person, etc.). Here for the first time we present a dataset of tweets annotated for whether the tweeter is in favor of or against pre-chosen targets of interest―their stance. The targets of interest may or may not be referred to in the tweets, and they may or may not be the target of opinion in the tweets. The data pertains to six targets of interest commonly known and debated in the United States. Apart from stance, the tweets are also annotated for whether the target of interest is the target of opinion in the tweet. The annotations were performed by crowdsourcing. Several techniques were employed to encourage high-quality annotations (for example, providing clear and simple instructions) and to identify and discard poor annotations (for example, using a small set of check questions annotated by the authors). This Stance Dataset, which was subsequently also annotated for sentiment, can be used to better understand the relationship between stance, sentiment, entity relationships, and textual inference.


Cooperative non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) is a technology that addresses many challenges in future wireless generation networks by delivering a large amount of connectivity and huge system capacity. The aim of this paper is to design the varied distances and power location coefficients for far users. In addition, this paper aims to evaluate the outage probability (OP) performance against a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for a 6G downlink (DL) NOMA power domain (PD) and DL cooperative NOMA PD networks. We combine a DL cooperative NOMA with a 16 × 16, a 32 × 23, and a 64 × 64 multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) and a 128 × 128, a 256 × 256, and a 512 × 512 massive MIMO in an innovative method to enhance OP performance rate and mitigate the power location coefficient's effect for remote users. The results were obtained from Rayleigh fading channels using the MATLAB simulation software program. According to the outcomes, increasing the power location coefficients for the far user from 0.6 to 0.8 reduces the OP rate because increasing the power location coefficient for the far user decreases the power location coefficient for the near user, which results in less interference between them. In terms of the OP performance rate, the DL cooperative NOMA outperforms the NOMA. According to the findings, the DL cooperative NOMA OP rate outperforms the DL NOMA by a rate of 10−0.5. Whereas the 16 × 16 MIMO enhances the OP for the far user by 78.0 × 10−4 , the 32 × 32 MIMO increases the OP for the far user by 19.0 × 10−4, and the 64 × 64 MIMO decreases the OP rate for the far user by 5.0 × 10−5. At a SNR of 10 dB, the 128 × 128 massive MIMO improves the OP for the far user by 1.0 × 10−5. The 256 × 256 massive MIMO decreases the OP for the far user by 43.0 × 10−5, and the 512 × 512 massive MIMO enhances the OP for the far user by 8.0 × 10−6. The MIMO techniques improve the OP performance, while the massive MIMO technology enhances the OP performance dramatically.


Standards are critical to achieving a satisfactory transportation infrastructure (both vehicle and roadway) and have shaped the direction of the transportation industry since its inception. The purposes for standards remain much the same as they have been for close to a century, but the level at which they are specified and the organizations involved in their development have changed. Government mandating of standards is increasingly being replaced by governmental support of industry-developed standards. The globalization of the transportation industry has also affected the outlook on standards, and thereby the approach to their development and enforcement. The standards process, content, and outlook continue to evolve as the transportation industry and traveler needs demand.


In this paper, we address polarimetric radar scattering from steep terrain and its relation to polarization orientation angle (POA) by adopting a tilted surface model based on Bragg scattering. We found that, as the azimuthal slope increases, |VV| decreases at a faster rate than |HH|, they become equal, when POA is ±45°, and |HH|>|VV| afterwards. Contrasting to the general perception, the cross-pol |HV| does not always increase with azimuth slope, but reaches a maximum then decreases to zero. In addition, we investigate the effect of soil moisture on PolSAR scattering characteristics of steep terrain and the effect of vegetation over surface on POA estimation. The latter is demonstrated with NASA/JPL TOPSAR L-band PolSAR data and C-band InSAR data.