Abstract The effects of different mould sands and casting wall thicknesses on the properties and microstructures of multivariate Al–7·5Si–4Cu alloy, which was modified by Al–10Sr, RE and Al–5Ti–B master alloys, were investigated. The melt was poured into multistep moulds made from three mould sands (quartz, alumina and chromite) to produce specimens for mechanical property testing and metallography. The results demonstrated that the sample with chromite sand exhibited the best mechanical properties owing to its higher cooling rate. Tensile strength and elongation decreased monotonically with increasing wall thickness. No obvious trend of wall thickness on hardness of the alloy was found. When the cooling speed decreased, the grain refinement and transformation effect became weaker, the dendrite arm spacing (DAS) increased obviously and the properties and microstructures became poorer. A series of fitting models was established and used to predict properties of Al–7·5Si–4Cu alloy from the DAS.


No single person doesn't have a problem at work, but confrontations should be handled tactfully to foster collaboration and productivity. A teacher has a critical duty to sustain professionalism, efficiency, and harmony at work; in addition to handling her problems, she must also understand and manage those the students face. As a result, a teacher needs to know how to put out a fire immediately where it starts. For teachers to succeed, conflict resolution skills are essential. Using a correlative research design and two structured questionnaires to gather data from teachers working in 6 nursing institutes, this study aims to identify the main personality types and their associations with conflict management strategies. Most respondents exhibit neuroticism as their primary personality trait, followed by extroverts. The conflict management strategy that stood out in the study was accommodative. The second most common strategy exercised was collaboration. The study found a relationship between neuroticism and a competing nature as a conflict management style. Found a positive relationship between extraversion and two conflict management styles—collaboration and compromise.


A new adaptive optimal controller is proposed in this paper. As no observor is required, the controller can quickly response when the controlled system has a change. The results of simulations of a multimachine power system and dynamic simulation tests show that the adaptive optimal excitation controller has better performances than conventional excitation regulator and can track automatically the changes in synchronous generator and power system.


By describing the view and scene that he saw as well as the garden atmosphere that he felt during walking in the WESTIN Hotel, Shanghai the author thinks that the design represent designer's understand on local culture. Furthermore, the author emphasizes the metaphor of "stage" in this space, human behaviors in it thus becomes performing.


Introduction: Registered nurses should strive to keep an open and humble approach towards all patients. Registered nurses in the Emergency Medical Services face many different situations that requi ...


Immune profiling of COVID-19 patients Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has affected millions of people globally, yet how the human immune system responds to and influences COVID-19 severity remains unclear. Mathew et al. present a comprehensive atlas of immune modulation associated with COVID-19. They performed high-dimensional flow cytometry of hospitalized COVID-19 patients and found three prominent and distinct immunotypes that are related to disease severity and clinical parameters. Arunachalam et al. report a systems biology approach to assess the immune system of COVID-19 patients with mild-to-severe disease. These studies provide a compendium of immune cell information and roadmaps for potential therapeutic interventions. Science, this issue p. eabc8511, p. 1210 Immune responses of COVID-19 patients are cataloged and compared with those of healthy individuals. INTRODUCTION Many patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, present with severe respiratory disease requiring hospitalization and mechanical ventilation. Although most patients recover, disease is complex and case fatality can be as high as 10%. How human immune responses control or exacerbate COVID-19 is currently poorly understood, and defining the nature of immune responses during acute COVID-19 could help identify therapeutics and effective vaccines. RATIONALE Immune dysregulation during SARS-CoV-2 infection has been implicated in pathogenesis, but currently available data remain limited. We used high-dimensional cytometry to analyze COVID-19 patients and compare them with recovered and healthy individuals and performed integrated analysis of ~200 immune features. These data were combined with ~50 clinical features to understand how the immunology of SARS-CoV-2 infection may be related to clinical patterns, disease severity, and progression. RESULTS Analysis of 125 hospitalized COVID-19 patients revealed that although CD4 and CD8 T cells were activated in some patients, T cell responses were limited in others. In many patients, CD4 and CD8 T cell proliferation (measured by KI67 increase) and activation (detected by CD38 and HLA-DR coexpression) were consistent with antiviral responses observed in other infections. Plasmablast (PB) responses were present in many patients, reaching >30% of total B cells, and most patients made SARS-CoV-2–specific antibodies. However, ~20% of patients had little T cell activation or PB response compared with controls. In some patients, responses declined over time, resembling typical kinetics of antiviral responses; in others, however, robust T cell and PB responses remained stable or increased over time. These temporal patterns were associated with specific clinical features. With an unbiased uniform manifold approximation and projection (UMAP) approach, we distilled ~200 immune parameters into two major immune response components and a third pattern lacking robust adaptive immune responses, thus revealing immunotypes of COVID-19: (i) Immunotype 1 was associated with disease severity and showed robust activated CD4 T cells, a paucity of circulating follicular helper cells, activated CD8 "EMRAs," hyperactivated or exhausted CD8 T cells, and PBs. (ii) Immunotype 2 was characterized by less CD4 T cell activation, Tbet+ effector CD4 and CD8 T cells, and proliferating memory B cells and was not associated with disease severity. (iii) Immunotype 3, which negatively correlated with disease severity and lacked obvious activated T and B cell responses, was also identified. Mortality occurred for patients with all three immunotypes, illustrating a complex relationship between immune response and COVID-19. CONCLUSION Three immunotypes revealing different patterns of lymphocyte responses were identified in hospitalized COVID-19 patients. These three major patterns may each represent a different suboptimal response associated with hospitalization and disease. Our findings may have implications for treatments focused on activating versus inhibiting the immune response. High-dimensional immune response analysis of COVID-19 patients identifies three immunotypes. Peripheral blood mononuclear cell immune profiling and clinical data were collected from 60 healthy donors (HDs), 36 recovered donors (RDs), and 125 hospitalized COVID-19 patients. High-dimensional flow cytometry and longitudinal analysis highlighted stability and fluctuations in the response. UMAP visualization distilled ~200 immune features into two dimensions and identified three immunotypes associated with clinical outcomes. cTfh, circulating T follicular helper cells; EMRA, a subset of effector memory T cells reexpressing CD45RA; d0, day 0. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is currently a global pandemic, but human immune responses to the virus remain poorly understood. We used high-dimensional cytometry to analyze 125 COVID-19 patients and compare them with recovered and healthy individuals. Integrated analysis of ~200 immune and ~50 clinical features revealed activation of T cell and B cell subsets in a proportion of patients. A subgroup of patients had T cell activation characteristic of acute viral infection and plasmablast responses reaching >30% of circulating B cells. However, another subgroup had lymphocyte activation comparable with that in uninfected individuals. Stable versus dynamic immunological signatures were identified and linked to trajectories of disease severity change. Our analyses identified three immunotypes associated with poor clinical trajectories versus improving health. These immunotypes may have implications for the design of therapeutics and vaccines for COVID-19.


From the bases of statistical mechanics a conductance equation is obtained which includes the Bjerrum association concept without making use of any ad hoc chemical model. The Hamiltonian model used is general enough to permit the a posteriori introduction of more specific Gurney cosphere ionic interactions. The former analytical results of Fuoss−Onsager and Falkenhagen et al. become a limit case formulation of the restricted primitive model applied to ions of lower electronic charges in solvents in higher dielectric constants.


The development of non clogging pump on inside flow,design method and axial seal structurein the last ten years has been summarized. The questions that should be studied in the future are also raised.


A control strategy is proposed to improve the high-speed lateral performance of an A-double (tractor-semitrailer-dolly-semitrailer) combination vehicle using active steering of the front axle of the dolly. The strategy is realized as a H∞-type static output feedback combined with dynamic feed-forward. The static output feedback synthesis is based on a previous work from the literature, while novel linear matrix inequality (LMI) conditions have been derived for dynamic feed-forward synthesis that can also be used for uncertain systems. The proposed controller has a simple structure and is easy to implement from a practical point of view since it requires only the driver steering angle (for feed-forward) and just one articulation angle measurement (for feedback). Obtained using a high-fidelity vehicle model, the synthesis results confirm a significant reduction in the rearward amplifications of the yaw rate and the lateral acceleration as well as the high-speed transient off-tracking during sudden lane change maneuvers.


All operators considered in this note are bounded and defined on a fixed Hilbert space X. In [4], C. R. Putnam has proved that if H is a positive definite selfadj oint operator and exp T = H, then || T|| <2 In 2 implies that T is a selfadjoint operator. In Theorem 3 we prove that it is sufficient to assume that II T|| < 2ir in order that T be selfadjoint. This condition, already in the set of complex numbers, cannot be replaced by || T| ? 2ir without changing the conclusion. In Theorem 4 we prove that ||T|| <?2, in a finite dimensional space implies that T is a normal operator. In Theorem 2 some conditions for a logarithm T of a normal operator N are derived. Assuming that the spectrum of N lies in the set


Because of the continual increase of the energy consumption and the long-standing patterns of extensive consumption about energy in Alxa, it is significance to the problem of environmental pollution. Alxa is main neighborhoods for Mongolian in northwest China, where the ecological environment is quite fragile and environmental pollution has had a negative impact on local desert ecological environment and economic continual development. Since 1980, the fragile environment increasingly become one of the major obstacles to continued economic development of Alxa; In particular, the severity of environmental problems that become the focus of Alxaess and Chinese has affected the industrial development Alxa in 2014. Firstly, the paper reads energy consumption leads to environmental pollution. Secondly, it depicts the causes of the problem from the Amounts of energy consumption and industrial structure. Finally, the suggestion, including Optimized energy consumption structure, modify the industrial structure, Introduced Market Mechanism and so on, is made to solve the environmental problems in Alxa League.


Short-term wind speed prediction plays an important role in large-scale wind power penetration. However, there is still a large gap between the requirement of prediction performance and current techniques. In this paper, we propose a pattern-based approach to short-term wind speed prediction. It is well accepted that wind varies in different patterns in different weather conditions. Thus, we should use different models to describe these patterns, whereas most current works conduct wind speed prediction with a single model. Based on this observation, we introduce generalized principal component analysis to automatically discover the patterns hidden in the historical data of wind speed. Then we train a predicting function for each pattern and combine their outputs for the final prediction. Experimental results show that the proposed approach performs better than the clustering-based approach, a single model, and persistence forecasting.


IN 1975 Kahn and Visscher reported in this journal' that they had acquired giardiasis after drinking water from a partially frozen stream on the Long Valley trail to Mount San Jacinto, California; as a result they became interested in water disinfection. In the same article, they proposed a simple method of iodination to be used by travelers and hikers for the disinfection of small quantities of water in the wilderness. Kahn and Visscher pointed out that a water disinfectant must be able to kill the hardiest stage of each group of organisms, especially the cyst form of amoebae. The method of disinfection that they recommended, however, had not been tested against Giardia cysts; therefore, the many recent outbreaks of waterborne giardiasis that have been reported2-6 necessitate such testing.


Bangla is one of the most popular scripts in the Indian sub-continent and a good percentage of the Indian population write Bangla on a regular basis. For the automatic recognition of the contents of such handwritten Bangla documents it is essential to develop a robust OCR for Bangla characters. In this vein this paper presents a new method for the recognition of isolated Bangla handwritten character using 1D wavelet transform on the projection profile of the handwritten characters. The system complexity decreases considerably.


T here is no denying that the recent papal encyclical, Laudato si', represents a sea change in official Catholic social teaching.1 For one thing, it is addressed not simply to the bishops nor even to each member of the Catholic Church but to "every person living on this planet" (§3); for another, it speaks from the perspective of the global South and names the debts owed by the North to the South (§51). After decades of tension between the liberation theologies emerging within the developing world and the traditional Catholic faith as preserved within the developed world (not least by the current pope's immediate predecessor), this pope has made his debt to liberation theology explicit by italicizing words corresponding to the title of the seminal and influential work of Leonardo Boff, Cry of the Earth, Cry of the Poor (see §49). In consonance with Boff's analysis, the encyclical traces the roots of the ecological crisis to the mind-set of a modern civilization that has equally destructive effects on the lives of the poor and the health of the planet. The encyclical adeptly weaves the new perspective of universal connectedness found in ecological thinking with liberationist concerns for economic justice as well as with more traditional Catholic social thinking grounded in the idea of the common good. Together, these three perspectives offer a more explicit and emphatic challenge to the politically dominant paradigms of economic liberalism and neoliberalism than ever before. It will therefore be helpful to explore the grounds offered in this encyclical for naming the dominant economic norms of the developed world as "sin." The encyclical names as "sin" the breaking of a threefold relationship of a person to God, to neighbor, and to the earth, both outwardly and within themselves. These relationships are so intertwined that to break one results in breaking the others. It starts with the traditional Augustinian account of sin as the self-assertion of human freedom without acknowledging human obligations or natural finitude (§6). For a disruption of


In recent years, a phenomenological solar wind heating model based on a turbulent energy cascade prescribed by the Kolmogorov theory has produced reasonably good agreement with observations on proton temperatures out to distances around 70 AU, provided the effect of turbulence generation due to pickup ions is included in the model. In a recent study [Ng et al., J. Geophys. Res., 115, A02101 (2010)], we have incorporated in the heating model the energy cascade rate based on Iroshnikov‐Kraichnan (IK) scaling, derivable from incompressible magnetohydrodynamics. We showed that the IK cascade rate can also produce good agreement with observations, with or without the inclusion of pickup ions. This effect was confirmed both by integrating the model using average boundary conditions at 1 AU, and by applying a method [Smith et al., Astrophys. J., 638, 508 (2006)] that uses directly observed values as boundary conditions. The reduction of effects due to pickup ions is because less turbulence is generated by pickup...


Like a mobile phone camera, optical microscopy typically relies on optical lenses that convert a plane wave to a spherical wave or vice versa. In such conventional imaging scheme, light from an object point propagates through a set of lenses and creates a tight focus on a camera, resulting in 1 to 1 relation between the object point and the camera pixel. Recently, this conventional imaging paradigm has been challenged by a new paradigm where computational algorithms replace the role of lenses. Here, I will introduce the concept of computational optics and some novel microscopy techniques based on algorithms.


The SiO 2 and C in coal refuse are in a state of inherently intimate contact, which is favorable to be synthesized to give SiC at lower temperature. But there exists fairy amount of aluminum oxide in coal refuse, which will hinder the production of SiC. This paper gives the research on such as: activation of coal refuse by pyrolysis in the protection of nitrogen; determination of the optimized activation conditions; and aluminum removal by acid leaching. With this process, the aim of aluminum removal and preservation of carbon achieved simultaneously and the SiC is produced from a de aluminum coal refuse.


We present an audit of public awareness, freedom of
choice and health behavior change relating to high heel wear subsequent to a
major public awareness campaign in the summer of 2017. Substantial reductions
in workplace high heel wear were found, whereby increasingly those who wear high heels regularly at work have freely chosen to do so,
although certain issues of social expectations remain in certain sectors.
Largely, freedom of choice has greatly increased in workplaces in line with
increased public and employer awareness.
However, high heel wear has not substantially reduced in social settings,
and progress has not been made with social expectation and explicit requirement
to wear high heels at social events.


Densities and ultrasonic velocities have been measured over the whole composition range for the binary liquid mixtures of dipropylene glycol monomethyl ether (mixture of isomers) {CH3(OC3H6)2OH}, dipropylene glycol monopropyl ether (mixture of isomers) {CH3(CH2)2(OC3H6)2OH}, and dipropylene glycol monobutyl ether (mixture of isomers){CH3(CH2)3(OC3H6)2OH} with alkyl acetates using an Anton Paar DSA 5000 density and speed sound analyzer in the temperature interval (288.15 to 308.15) K and atmospheric pressure. From these experimental data, excess molar volume, VmE and deviations in isentropic compressibility, ΔκS, have been calculated. The computed results of these quantities have been correlated using the Redlich–Kister polynomial equation to obtain the binary coefficients and standard deviations.


The experiment used the Sophora × anthantha pollen as experimental materials, the pollen viability of Sophora × anthanthawas detected by methods of I2-KI, TTC dyeing and germination in vitro, to study the influence of the different concentration of the Ca2+on pollen germination and pollen tubes growth. The results showed that the method of I2-KI and TTC dyeing were not suitable to detect the pollen viability of Sophora × anthantha, different concentrations of sucrose and boric acid had great effects on the germination of pollen, when their concentration were 20 mg/L+2.0 mg/L, the germination rates of pollen reached 30.2%. The concentrations of Ca2+ could affected the spead of pollen germination and growth. When the concentration of Ca2+ was 1.6×10-4 mg/L, the pollen germination rate was the highest and growed quickly.


The ability to acquire an invisible satellite target with minimum delay is vital in autonomous SLR systems as well as those manually operated. It is a particularly stringent requirement in LLR. Yet we don't want to waste hours doing star calibrations too often, so a Mount Model which yields 1 second of arc absolute accuracy for many months is needed. Since the coefficients of the usual analytically-based Mount Model can yield useful diagnostic engineering information, it is important that they truly represent the errors being modeled, uncorrupted by aliasing from the other errors. There is a great deal of correlation between terms of the usual model, resulting in absurdly high condition numbers in the solution algorithm. For example, terms in secE and tanE are necessarily almost perfectly correlated. The stability of the model is assessed firstly by the smallness of the pre-fit residuals of subsequent star calibrations, secondly by the variability of the solution coefficients over long periods of time, and thirdly by the condition numbers of the solutions. Some methods for reducing these are given. The possibility of adding (not replacing) an orthogonal polynomial solution to the usual model is briefly discussed, using even-only or odd-only Legendre Polynomials. If anyone knows of a set of polynomials which are orthogonal over a hemisphere, please let me know! Preliminary results from the new Mount Stromlo 1-metre telescope suggest that 1 second of arc stability is likely, which is probably due more to its excellent mechanical construction than to any algorithm improvements. INTRODUCTION Computer control of astronomical telescopes large and small, optical and radio blossomed in the 1970s when computer speeds and interfacing capabilities made it feasible. Before then, pointing and tracking were done by such means as, in 1964: "The telescope for the GODLAS system . . was pointed by a modified Nike-Ajax missile tracking mount controlled by two operators guiding on a sunlit satellite under joystick control. One operator controlled azimuth and the other controlled elevation." (Degnan, 1996). See also (Mueller 1964). The need for rapid acquisition of faint objects and for perfect tracking in astronomy using ever more automated instrumentation, and for tracking invisible objects day and night in space geodesy, made absolute pointing to a few seconds of arc essential. Pioneering work was done in Australia at Mount Stromlo Observatory (Hovey, 1974) and the Anglo-Australian Observatory (Wallace, 1976; Straede and Wallace, 1976)) in which both surface-fitting methods and the now-commonplace model-fitting methods were developed (although not necessarily invented) and published. Parallel investigations included use of spherical harmonic functions (Powell, 1977) and application to X-Y mounts (Matzke, 1976). The first published work in SLR I could find was by Randy Ricklefs (Ricklefs, 1982) who applied the model-fitting method to arbitrary mount configurations some of his old Fortran code survives to this very day. More recently, the explosion in automated small telescopes has produced popular works on the subject (Trueblood and Genet, 1997; Wallace, 2004). And last year Bob Meeks of EOS Technologies in Tucson completed a detailed critique of model fitting (Meeks, 2003) aimed at 1 second-of-arc absolute pointing accuracy. From very limited data under testing conditions, the precision of absolute pointing on both new telescopes at the EOS Space Research Centre on Mount Stromlo is better than 1.5 seconds of arc, assessed from star calibrations and a 23-coefficient model. Anecdotally (Moore, 2004), the accuracy is comparable because tracking biases seldom need to be applied while tracking satellites on the SLR 1.0 metre system. In this paper, the numerical stability of solutions to the standard model plus variants and competitors is discussed, and various tricks to improve confidence in the coefficient values are studied. THE MOUNT MODEL The alignment errors commonly modeled to describe errors observed during star calibrations, whatever the mount configuration, are: • Encoder zero-point displacements; • Encoder scales; • Tilt of the major axis, e.g. the azimuth axis; • Non-orthogonality of the secondary axis (e.g. the elevation axis) to the major axis; • Collimation error, i.e. non-perpendicularity of the optical axis to the secondary axis; • Bending (flexure) in the telescope tube; • Bending or torsion of the mount, where applicable (e.g. X-axis in alt/alt mount). Subject to taste, to these are added "empirical terms" describing repeatable patterns of unidentified or speculated physical origin. It is not common to include electronic effects such as servo, following error which should be physically adjusted during installation, or misalignments of the mirrors in the Coude path because they are not mathematically describable in a solvable way. Great care must be exercised when including empirical terms they must be repeatable night after night, and even so can easily degrade the final solution. Rigorously, the model is developed by applying a series of rotation matrices to the incoming beam from a star, that is, to the actual direction that the telescope sees after refraction has been applied to the direction in vacuum. Each rotation matrix describes the effect of a particular misalignment. The outputs are the actual encoder readings for the directions seen at the eyepiece or camera when the star is centered by some means. In practice, the mathematics are made more tractable by linearizing, i.e. by assuming that , cos 1 sinθ θ θ = = whereθ is the misalignment under consideration. Of course, this implies that the optical and mechanical alignments are sufficiently good that the products of terms neglected in the approximations really are negligible. This always seems to be assumed, and will be here, too. Thus, the model is algebraically linear in its coefficients, and solution by least squares is simple and uniterated. The result is a set of Model Equations (Observation Equations if the random error terms were included) in the form suitable for azimuth/elevation mounts:


Binary vapor liquid equilibrium data were measured for the carbon dioxide + tetrahydrofuran system at five temperatures from (311.01 to 331.33) K. A circulating type apparatus with on-line gas chromatography was used in this study. The measured data were correlated well by the Peng−Robinson equation of state with van der Waals one fluid mixing rules.


Thin-film YBa/sub 2/Cu/sub 3/O/sub 7/ microbridges have been fabricated by photo- and e-beam lithography in polycrystalline thin films grown on MgO substrates and containing a controlled density of large-angle tilt boundaries, thereby isolating individual tilt-boundary weak links. Depending on the growth parameters of the film, such weak links have critical current densities J/sub c/ ranging from 10/sup 6/ A mod cm/sup 2/. The higher J/sub c/ microbridges exhibit behavior indicative of one-dimensional flux flow and flux creep in the weak links, while the lower J/sub c/ microbridges have RSJ-like properties. Detailed comparisons have been made between the predictions of the resistively shunted junction (RSJ) model including the calculated effects of thermal noise rounding and the measured DC and microwave response of these weak links. Measurements have also been made of magnetic field effects on the critical current density. An unexpected scaling behavior has been observed in the I-V characteristics of certain types of these microbridges containing 45 degrees tilt boundaries that indicates that in those cases I/sub C/R/sub N//sup 2/ is a constant for the tilt-boundary weak link. The implications of these results for developing a successful description of the superconductive properties of YBa/sub 2/Cu/sub 3/O/sub 7/ grain boundary weak links, which electron microscopy reveals to be clean, stoichiometric, and abrupt, are discussed.


This paper presents estimates of the maximum achievable cost effective potential for electric energy and peak demand savings from energy efficiency measures in the geographic region of Connecticut served by United Illuminating (UI) and Connecticut Light and Power Company (CL&P) for the ten year period from 2003 through 2012. The results of the study showed that there is a significant savings potential in Connecticut for the implementation of additional and long-lasting cost effective energy efficiency measures. The net present value savings to ratepayers in Connecticut is $1.8 billion if the maximum achievable cost effective potential is captured by CL&P's and UI's programs over the next decade. In addition, there are significant reductions in emissions from power plants in the State and there are other significant non-energy benefits. This paper presents the detailed sector-level results of the study, including: 1) energy efficiency supply curves; 2) energy savings potential broken down by measure type (i.e., early replacement, retrofit, and replace-on-burnout) and end-use category; and 3) benefit/cost ratios. In addition, the paper describes, in step-by-step fashion, the methodologies used in estimating technical potential, maximum achievable potential and maximum achievable cost effective potential for each sector (residential, commercial, industrial). Finally, the paper discusses the valuable lessons learned through the process of completing this study, including insights for others considering similar efforts. The paper also provides suggestions for preliminary assessments and data collection to be conducted prior to embarking on energy efficiency potential studies. One unique aspect of this study which confounded an already challenging project was the re-allocation of the State's energy efficiency funds by the Governor and State legislature in order to address statewide funding deficits, which resulted in immediate layoffs of utility personnel who were critical to the project. The paper will conclude with comparisons of Connecticut efficiency potential to results of recent studies for other states.


The utility model relates to an anti-scaling tubing coupling structure. The two ends of an inner wall of a tubing coupling are provided with internal threads, the internal threads are sealing conical internal threads, and an anti-scaling bushing is fixed in the middle of the inner wall of the tubing coupling. The anti-scaling bushing is made of a material for preventing dirt from being adsorbed and remaining and reduces the probability of crude oil impurity adsorption and remaining; meanwhile, a special oil tube is adopted, the abrasion of a sucker rod and an inner wall of the oil tube and inner corrosion of the oil tube can be avoided, and the effect of protecting the sucker rod is achieved. The special oil tube is provided with an overturned edge, an inner ring and an outer ring at the position of an overturned edge pipe opening are provided with chamfers; a lining pipe of the special oil tube is connected with the transition section of the anti-scaling structure bushing, the effect of protecting the coupling is achieved well, and the service life of the coupling is prolonged.


Dietary impacts on the colonic microenvironment (microbiota and mucosal barrier) can play an important role in modulating gut‐associated inflammatory diseases, such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).Pulses, such as common beans and chickpeas, are rich sources of gut health promoting bioactives, including non‐digestible fermentable carbohydrates and phenolics, however, research demonstrating whole pulse effects on the colonic microenvironment and subsequent inflammatory pathologies, are lacking. Our objectives were to determine the effects of cooked bean and chickpea diets on critical aspects of colon health (microbiota activity and community structure, and colonic epithelial barrier integrity and function) and subsequent effects on disease severity following colitis‐associated mucosal injury. In study 1, male C57Bl/6 mice were fed a 20% cooked black bean flour supplemented diet (BB) or an isocaloric control diet (CON) for 3 weeks, followed by exposure to dextran sodium sulphate (DSS, 2% w/v, 5d) to test the ability of BB to prime the colon and attenuate the severity of colitis‐induced damage mimicking IBD. In study 2, a similar study design was used except mice were fed CON or diet supplemented with 20% cooked chickpeas.


We study the existence and multiplicity of positive solutions for a class of nth-order singular nonlocal boundary value problems u(n)(t) + a(t) f (t,u) = 0, t ∈ (0,1), u(0) = 0, u′(0) = 0, . . . ,u(n−2)(0) = 0, αu(η) = u(1), where 0 < η < 1, 0 < αηn−1 < 1. The singularity may appear at t = 0 and/or t = 1. The Krasnosel'skii-Guo theorem on cone expansion and compression is used in this study. The main results improve and generalize the existing results.


Introduction. In type 2 diabetes mellitus, an inevitable decrease in the secretion of  β-cells of the pancreas occurs, which requires the  initiation of  insulin therapy. Currently, there have been no studies evaluating the  features of  insulin therapy in patients with diabetes type 2 and morbid obesity.Objective. To compare the effectiveness of different insulin therapy regimens in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and morbid obesity. Materials and methods. 140  patients with diabetes type  2 and morbid obesity were included in  a 24-week prospective, non-blinded, randomized clinical study. The patients were divided into 4  groups: 1  – received basic-bolus insulin therapy in combination with metformin (n = 40); 2 – used prandial insulin in combination with metformin (n = 40); 3 – basal insulin in combination with empagliflozin and metformin (n = 30); 4 – received prandial insulin in combination with empagliflozin and metformin (n = 30). Initially, after 12 and 24 weeks, the level of HbA1c, fasting plasma glucose and during the day, body weight, daily insulin doses, frequency of hypoglycemia, and albumin in daily urine were assessed.Results. After 24 weeks of treatment, there was no statistically significant difference in the achieved HbA1c level between the groups (p = 0.65); in groups 3 and 4, there was a statistically significant decrease in body weight, daily doses of insulin and frequency of hypoglycemia compared to the first and second treatment groups (p = 0.029, p < 0.001 and p < 0,001, respectively); also registered a decrease in albumin in daily urine by 27% during the study period compared with the first and second treatment groups (p = 0.044).Conclusions. Administration of iSGLT-2 in combination with both basal and prandial insulin in patients with diabetes type 2 and morbid obesity has advantages over the basic-bolus regimen and the regimen of multiple prandial injections, despite the comparable efficacy.


Indigenous innovation is the main strategy for China during 2006 - 20 period. China may hope that indigenous innovation policy will spur on industrial upgrading. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the indigenous innovation policy. The paper begins with the background of the strategy, follows the detailed content of the national strategy, then analyzes how the strategy is implemented. We find that the package of indigenous innovation policy is constructive and efficient for a catch-up economy with clear industry targets but not good for innovation. If China want to be an innovative country, it needs to give market competition more space to incubate and eventually yield increment or disruptive innovation, even radical innovation. Chinese enterprises cannot close themselves off to the global technology system. Only open innovation can give Chinese enterprises the possibility to win in the next wave of innovation in the world and make China an innovative country.


An experiment was conducted in the month of November, 2021 at Crop Physiology and Ecology Laboratory, Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University, Dinajpur, Bangladesh to study the impact of tobacco industry wastewater on germination and early seedling traits of five mung bean accessions (BD-10022, BD-10023, BD-10024, BD-10026 and BD-10027) following factorial completely randomized design (CRD) with three replications. Mung bean accession, tobacco industry wastewater and their interaction significantly interacted on germination and seedling traits of mung bean. Tobacco industry wastewater reduced the germination percentage, germination rate and co-efficient of germination but insisted longer shoot and root as well as escalated the seedling dry weight of mung bean as compared to tap water. Among the five mung bean accessions, BD-10024 and BD-10027 performed comparatively better performance regarding germination and seedling traits, respectively under wastewater conditions.
Bangladesh Agron. J. 2022, 25(2): 129-137


Embedded vision systems design faces a memory-wall kind of challenge: images are big, and therefore memories containing them have high latency; and still, high performance is desired. For the case of non-linear processings, Mancini and Rousseau (Proc. DATE 2012) have designed a software generator of adhoc memory hierarchies, called Memory Management Optimization (MMOpt). While the performance of the generated circuits is very good, design-time decisions have to be made regarding their operation in order to handle finely the compromise between the usual metrics of design area, energy consumption, and performance. This study tackles the optimization challenge set by the design of the operational behavior of the memory hierarchy generated by MMOpt. After a precise formulation as a 3-objective optimization problem is given, two algorithms are proposed, and their performance is analyzed on real-world processings against the previously proposed algorithms. The results show a reduction of the amount of transferred data by 17% on average, and of the computing times by 11.7%, for the same design area.


A case of rudimentary polydactyly (cutaneous neuroma) on the ulnar aspect of the left fifth finger of a 38‐year‐old male was examined and the skin was studied by light and electron microscopy. In addition to a proliferation of nerve fibers and encapsulated corpuscles, normal Merkel cells were often present in the basal portion of the epidermis. It is suggested that proliferation of various neural components is the essential feature of the affected skin.


This paper argues that Chilean citizens and the elite are profoundly disconnected. The inability of the elite to understand people represents an obstacle to thinking and acting in tune with their perceptions and demands. Some of the main contradictions between the way public debate proceeds, natural to the elite, are shown as well as the logic that citizens use to think and act in society. Empirical evidence is reviewed, both quantitative and qualitative, taken from several Human Development reports published by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).


The paper briefly describes the '94 High-Tech Workshop recently held in Shanghai,sponsored by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. In particular,the paper introduces the on-going projects of HKUST and CUHK,in the field of Information Technology, including Microelectronics,Computer Software. Optical fiber and Wireless Communication Technologies. Finally,it expresses sincere hope for technical cooperation in these research projects between the Universities and Research Institutes of the Mainland and Hong Kong.


A yellow colored, combustible leaflet material that emits toxic fumes of nitrogen oxides when heated to decomposition. Michler's base is used as a chemical intermediate in the manufacture of dyes and for its hydrochloric salt and is also used as an analytical reagent in the determination of lead. Exposure to Michler's base irritates the skin and eyes and can lead to methemoglobinemia and respiratory tract distress. Michler's base is reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen.


Simple Summary The diagnosis of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma in a cirrhotic liver is considered a contradiction for transplantation in Germany, as well as many other international transplantation programs. The aim of our retrospective study was to evaluate the long-term outcomes of patients with incidental combined hepatocellular- and cholangiocarcinoma and sole intrahepatic cholangiocarcinomas after liver transplantation. Between January 2010 and December 2022, iCCA was found in eight patients post-transplant. We confirmed high overall survival and low recurrence rates after liver transplantation. It can be stated that liver transplantation in the case of combined hepatocellular carcinoma and sole intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma presents a possible curative therapy option. Abstract Background: Data about liver transplantation for mixed tumors from hepatocellular carcinoma to cholangiocarcinoma are limited. Furthermore, the diagnosis of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma or combined tumors in a cirrhotic liver is considered a contraindication for transplantation. Our aim was to evaluate the long-term outcomes of patients with incidental cholangiocarcinoma or combined tumors after liver transplantation. Methods: In our descriptive analysis, data were evaluated from all patients since 2010 who received a liver transplant due to an assumed hepatocellular carcinoma at Jena University Hospital. Survival rates were determined using the Kaplan–Meier method. Results: Between January 2010 and December 2022, an incidental intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma was found in eight patients post-transplant. Four combined hepatocellular and cholangiocarcinoma and four sole intrahepatic cholangiocarcinomas were found. A recurrence through distant metastases from combined hepatocellular- and cholangiocarcinoma was found in one patient at one year after transplantation. Another patient developed a pulmonary primary tumor independently one year post-transplant. The recurrence rate was at 14.3%. While two patients died, the 1- and 5-year overall survival rates post-transplant were 87.5% and 75%, respectively. Conclusion: Patients with intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma or combined hepatocellular- and cholangiocarcinoma could profit from liver transplantation.


Based on the overburden strata movement and failure features of the protected seam mining,the paper had an analysis on the feasibility of the coal and rock pressure releasing in the protected seam mining under long distance.The FLAC2D numerical simulation software was applied to the study on the stress distribution features of the protected seam,seam thickness variation law,the horizontal displacement law,the pressure releasing scope and the pressure releasing angle.The results showed that during the underneath protective seam mining,the height of the crack zone was developed to the protected seam,swelling deformations were occurred in the seam,great secondary cracks were occurred and thus different pressure releasing were occurred in the protected seam.Meanwhile,the horizontal displacement occurred would be favorable to improve the permeability of the seam.On the strike direction,the protected seam was moved about 30 m to the direction of the goaf of the protective seam.The protected seam was in the stable swelling deformation zone and the effective pressure releasing angle in the strike was about 66°.After the study results applied to the practical projects,the gas pressure of No.13-1 seam in a mine of Huainan was reduced from previous 4.4 MPa to 0.7 MPa after the seam pressure release,the permeability coefficient of the seam was increased by 1 061 times.Thus the method would be a good regional outburst prevention measure.


An escape device for allowing an individual to descend from a damaged building. A drum and cable is mounted in a housing. The free end of the cable is secured to a part of the building, allowing the user to descend as the cable plays out and the drum rotates. A multiple gear reduction train mounted to the drum automatically limits the descent speed. A coil spring shock absorber forms the connection between the drum and gear train to reduce shock. A strap is folded inside a separate compartment in the housing below the drum and gear train. The strap is placed about the user's body during the descent. A quick release door in the strap compartment provides access to the strap.


For identification of paraganglia (PG), samples of para‐aortic tissue, tissues containing the coeliac‐mesenteric ganglion complex, and the hypogastric ganglia were removed from 3‐ and 33‐month‐old male Fischer‐344 rats and were processed by the formaldehyde‐induced fluorescence method for visualization of catecholamines. Small PG containing 5–30 cells per section were found consistently in young animals. In each of six old rats, large PG containing 500–4000 brightly fluorescent cells per section were detected. Cell counting revealed a 13.5 × increase in number of PG cells between 3‐ and 33‐month old rats. Microspectrofluorimetric quantitation in old rats showed equal amounts of catecholemines in PG cells and in adrenal medullary cells. Most PG were located in samples from the para‐aortic area.


IN my paper on "National Income, National Expenditure and the Balance of Payments " in the Economic Journal for December, 1948, and March, 1949, I attempted to show algebraically certain " multiplier" relationships between Income, Expenditure, Imports and Exports on the assumption that all prices were constant. In this paper' I intend to use the geometric technique to introduce certain changes in price relationships into the general structure used in my Economic Journal paper. But this technique will be used in this paper for the sole and limited purpose of comparing Exchange Rate variation and Commercial Policy (e.g., Import Restrictions or. Export Subsidies) as a means of removing an existing balance of payments disequilibrium between two countries both of which, in the terminology of my Economic Journal paper, are adopting policies for Internal Balance. We assume (i) that there are only two countries A and B, of which one may, of course, represent the rest of the world; (ii) that A produces only one product which we will call Wheat, and B only one product which we will call Machinery or, more realistically, that the prices of A's various products do not vary in relation to each other so that we can think unambiguously of a representative A product, and similarly with B; (iii) that both A and B adopt domestic fiscal or monetary policies for the maintenance of what I have called Internal Balance or, in other words, that the authorities in each country take steps to cause such an inflation or deflation of its Domestic Expenditure (i.e., of its total money expenditure on goods and services for final use at home, whether these be home-produced or imported products) as to maintain constant the total demand for its own product and so for its own labour; (iv) that the money wage-rate and so (with constant employment and output) the money price of the product of each country in terms of the currency of that country is constant; and (v) that imports of Wheat from A into B and of Machinery from B into A are the only elements in the balance of payments except where the contrary is expressly stated. We have left room in the above assumptions for two important types of price change. First, we do not assume a constant rate of exchange between A's money which we will call dollars and B's money which we will call pounds. The pound price of B's Machinery and the dollar price of A's Wheat are fixed (see assumption iv); but as


This paper proposes a method for solving optimization problems in which the decision-maker cannot evaluate the objective function, but rather can only express a preference such as "this is better than that" between two candidate decision vectors. The algorithm described in this paper aims at reaching the global optimizer by iteratively proposing the decision maker a new comparison to make, based on actively learning a surrogate of the latent (unknown and perhaps unquantifiable) objective function from past sampled decision vectors and pairwise preferences. The surrogate is fit by means of radial basis functions, under the constraint of satisfying, if possible, the preferences expressed by the decision maker on existing samples. The surrogate is used to propose a new sample of the decision vector for comparison with the current best candidate based on two possible criteria: minimize a combination of the surrogate and an inverse weighting distance function to balance between exploitation of the surrogate and exploration of the decision space, or maximize a function related to the probability that the new candidate will be preferred. Compared to active preference learning based on Bayesian optimization, we show that our approach is superior in that, within the same number of comparisons, it approaches the global optimum more closely and is computationally lighter. MATLAB and a Python implementations of the algorithms described in the paper are available at this http URL


There is an ongoing discussion whether wide-scope indefinites denote choice functions that are existentially bound [7, 11, 14] or remain free [6]. Data from Ga, an underresearched language spoken in Ghana, show that there are wide-scope indefinites denoting existentially bound skolemized choice functions whose parameter is bound by a higher quantificational NP, free skolemized choice functions with the speaker or a higher quantificational NP as a parameter, and narrow scope quantificational indefinites. Thus the data show that both existentially bound and free skolemized choice functions are attested in natural language shedding new light on the semantics of indefinites.


The NSPCC has made available a number of resources for schools and others settings working with young people aged 11+


In June, Bionomics signed one of the best deals this year to date for an Australian biotech - R&D collaboration with Merck Serono for its Kv1.3 ion channel blocker. It also received international attention for its lead candidate, the vascular disrupting agent BNC105.


Artificial Intelligence is the central part of game development. Artificial Intelligence states to the technique used in computer and games to generate the magic of intelligence in the performance of NPC (non-player character). Playing games is a part of entertainment. They provide forward-thinking, current test-beds for developing numerous ideas and systems that are beneficial elsewhere. Advanced skills enable the awareness of game ideas that previously only could be applied through significant effort. We have implemented A Star Algorithm is a way to find the shortest path for the enemy player (Heliboy) in order to target the user (Robot). Opponents would be stopping the User Player to complete the Game. AI is even used to simulate the real-world properties in the game. Keywords: artificial intelligence, games, NPC, pathfinding, A star algorithm


BGP reconfigurations are a daily occurrence for most network operators, especially in large networks. Yet, performing safe and robust BGP reconfiguration changes is still an open problem. Few BGP reconfiguration techniques exist, and they are either (i) unsafe, because they ignore transient states, which can easily lead to invariant violations; or (ii) impractical, as they duplicate the entire routing and forwarding states, and require special hardware. In this paper, we introduce Chameleon, the first BGP reconfiguration framework capable of maintaining correctness throughout a reconfiguration campaign while relying on standard BGP functionalities and minimizing state duplication. Akin to concurrency coordination in distributed systems, Chameleon models the reconfiguration process with happens-before relations. This modeling allows us to capture the safety properties of transient BGP states. We then use this knowledge to precisely control the BGP route propagation and convergence, so that input invariants are provably preserved at any time during the reconfiguration. We fully implement Chameleon and evaluate it in both testbeds and simulations, on real-world topologies and large-scale reconfiguration scenarios. In most experiments, our system computes reconfiguration plans within a minute, and performs them from start to finish in a few minutes, with minimal overhead.


We consider the motion of spinning particles in the field of a well known vacuum static axially-symmetric spacetime, known as $\gamma$ metric, that can be interpreted as a generalization of the Schwarzschild manifold to include prolate or oblate deformations. We derive the equations of motion for spinning test particles by using the Mathisson-Papapetrou-Dixon equations together with the Tulczyjew spin-supplementary condition, and restricting the motion to the equatorial plane. We determine the limit imposed by super-luminal velocity for the spin of the particle located at the innermost stable circular orbits (ISCO). We show that the particles on ISCO of the prolate $\gamma$ spacetime are allowed to have nigher spin than the corresponding ones in the the oblate case. We determine the value of the ISCO radius depending on the signature of the spin-angular momentum, ${\rm s-L}$ relation, and show that the value of the ISCO with respect to the non spinning case is bigger for ${\rm sL} 0$. The results may be relevant for determining the properties of accretion disks and constraining the allowed values of quadrupole moments of astrophysical black hole candidates.


Autism – the new therapeutic programmes Advances over the past decade in our understanding of the neurological underpinnings of autism, as well as in our ability to detect the disorder earlier, have paved the way for new approaches to effective treatment for very young children, as well as for school age children and adolescents. Research has shown that genetic factors, as well as environmental risk factors, predispose the infant who will develop autism to atypical cerebral development in several areas of the brain. One important result of this atypical development is reduced activity in the "social brain", a network comprised of the prefrontal cortex, the fusiform gyrus, the upper temporal sulcus and the amygdala, which is actively involved in processing social and emotional information. Early intervention programs, validated over the past twenty years, appear to reduce the effects of autism on the brain's development. These interventions consist of behavioural and developmental approaches targeting social communication, a core deficit for people with autism spectrum disorder. The intervention programs presented in this article are all intensive, structured, and implemented by teams of professionals, in close collaboration with the child's parents. Most importantly, they are administered early, even very early – if possible before the age of two years. The Early Start Denver Model (ESDM) has been shown to be effective with children as young as 18 months. Following our summary of the early intervention programs, we present Vis-à-Vis, an effective socio-emotional enrichment tool for face and emotion recognition training in school-age autistic children.


A new Iranian, probably pholeophilous species of the scarabaeine genus Onthophagus Latreille, 1802, O. roessneri n. sp., is described, illustrated, and its placement in the semicornis group within the subgenus Palaeonthophagus Zunino, 1979 is discussed. A key to the species of the group is presented.


This study investigated the effects of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors on the relationships among physical activity (PA), mood and cognition in a diverse sample of middle-aged to older adults. Scores on neuropsychological tests and self-report questionnaires from 62 adults were analyzed. Multiple regression analyses were used to examine the main and interactive effects of PA and CVD risk burden on cognition and mood when controlling for age and race. CVD risk was associated with greater benefits of PA, while higher CVD risk was associated with either no benefit or lower cognitive scores. Results indicate that middle-aged to older adults with low CVD risk are more likely to benefit from PA, while higher CVD risk might limit the effectiveness of interventions for mood and cognition. Future studies are needed to further clarify individual differences that impact the relationships among PA, CVD risk, and cognitive outcomes. INDEX WORDS: Depression, Older adults, Exercise, Cognition, Heart disease Copyright by Alexia Renée Minto 2021 Moderating Effect of Cardiovascular Risk Factors on the Relationships of Physical Activity with Mood and Cognitive Function in a Diverse Sample


Blau, Peter M. Orientation of College Students toward International Relations. American Journal of Sociology. November, 1953. Deutsch, Karl W. Political Community at the International Level: Problems of Definition and Measurement. Foreign Policy Analysis Series, No. 2 (Princeton University). September, 1953. Halle, Louis J. Force and Consent in International Affairs. Department of State Bulletin. September 21, 1953.


The existence of public bath houses in the cities of medieval Spain might be seen as one of the most potent markers of an urban culture shared between Muslims, Christians, and Jews. All three religious groups patronized the public bath houses for reasons of hygiene, health, and sociability. Yet at the same time, bathing was also among the most religiously segregated and strictly unshared activities in medieval Iberian life. For Jews and Muslims, cleanliness was an important requirement of their faith that marked them as distinct both from each other and from Christians. Jewish law mandates bathing, especially before the Sabbath, and in medieval Iberia this cleansing would often have taken place in the steam, hot water, and communal atmosphere of a public bath house. Some public bath houses were open to all citizens of a town, regardless of religion, either at certain times or whenever patrons wished to bathe. Keywords: Christians; cleanliness; Jewish bathing culture; Jewish law; medieval Spain; Muslims; public bath house


Caffeic acid is a natural polyphenol containing carboxylic acid found in many herbs, and known as an antioxidant in vitro and also in vivo. And also caffeic acid has been reported to have pharmacological effects including antiinflammatory, antimetastatic, antitumorigenic and anticancer. Previous our studies showed water extract of P. frutescens (PLE) protected oxidation‐induced hepatotoxicity, and that caffeic acid isolated from P. frutescens enhanced γ‐glutamylcysteine synthetase (γ‐GCS) activity and glutathione level (GSH). The cellular regulation of GSH level is known to be influenced by nuclear transcription factor, AP‐1. In this study, we investigated the efficacy of caffeic acid and PLE on the synthesis of GSH, and the activation of AP‐1 in human hepatoma (HepG2) cells treated with caffeic acid. Caffeic acid and PLE containing its equivalent level of caffeic acid increased similar GSH concentration and expression of γ‐GCS mRNA in HepG2. And we showed the activation of AP‐1 by caffeic acid with electrophoretic mobility shift assays (EMSA).


Technology, if integrated effectively, has been found to influence students' academic performance, develop their higher order thinking and problem solving, improve their motivation, attitude, and interest in learning, and help them prepare for the workforce as well as address the needs of low performing, at-risk, and learning impaired students (Center for Applied Research in Educational Technology, 2005).  This paper reports the findings of the study trying to investigate the application and integration of web based instruction by University Putra Malaysia (UPM) lecturers in Serdang , Malaysia. A questionnaire which included the items from the short form of the Moore and Benbasat (1991) instrument as well as some demographic questions was administered to UPM lecturers in Malaysia. Data collected through the survey questionnaire was used to examine the factors influencing the University Putra Malaysia (UPM) lecturers' perception about application and integration of web based instruction. Our analysis of the data suggests that the innovation adoption variables of relative advantage, compatibility, visibility, ease of use, results demonstrability, and trialability should be considered by university lecturers seeking to increase the rate of adoption of e-Learning within their organisation.


To comprehensively and systematically identify, appraise, and synthesize qualitative research findings on factors that affect quality of life from the perspective of people with dementia.


This paper introduces the mechanical and physical properties of a new type of cementitious material, i.e. slag-flyash type geqplymer. The results from probing into some key properties of the geoplymer show that the activating effect using water glass as a activator is not as good as using pure NaOH; the optimum proportion of slag to flyash is 4∶6 and the optimum blending ratio of alkali-activator is 10%;curing temperature of the geoplymer in water ought to be above 30℃; and cation Ca2+ plays an important role in geoplymer strength.


Liquid biopsy enables identification of low allele frequency (AF) tumor variants and novel clinical applications such as minimum residual disease (MRD) monitoring. However, challenges remain, primarily due to limited sample volume and low read count of low-AF variants. Because of the low AFs, some clinically significant variants are difficult to distinguish from errors introduced by PCR amplification and sequencing. Unique Molecular Identifiers (UMIs) have been developed to further reduce base error rates and improve the variant calling accuracy, which enables better discrimination between background errors and real somatic variants. While multiple UMI-aware ctDNA analysis pipelines have been published and adopted, their accuracy and runtime efficiency could be improved. In this study, we present the Sentieon ctDNA pipeline, a fast and accurate solution for small somatic variant calling from ctDNA sequencing data. The pipeline consists of four core modules: alignment, consensus generation, variant calling, and variant filtering. We benchmarked the ctDNA pipeline using both simulated and real datasets, and found that the Sentieon ctDNA pipeline is more accurate than alternatives.


There are deductive logic and experience judge on the pattern of suitable law when a judge is trying a case.It is in relation to different law reasonings used when they are trying concrete cases.There are two ways of law reasoning——formal law reasoning and substantive law reasoning.On the suitable location of law reasoning,China takes the formal law reasoning as the dominant factor and takes the substantive law reasoning as the supplemental factor.


In this paper we present a formation control approach based on Gaussian potential functions, each parametrized by an agent-related control parameter. This results in different characteristics of attractive and repulsive forces among agents and targets, as well as among agents themselves and dependence of the formation's potential structure on the change of agent's configurations. Furthermore, we show that the undesired stable equilibria can be eliminated by the mutual interaction of agents. This leads to the characteristics change of the elementary potential functions achieved by adaptation. The introduced adaptation changes the agent-related control parameters step-wise depending on the acquired equilibrium state. The proposed approach is implemented and validated in simulation and experimentally.


Purpose To report the use of photodynamic therapy without verteporfin as treatment for patients with focal retinal pigment epithelial leaks secondary to central serous chorioretinopathy (CSC).

Methods Four symptomatic patients with CSC without clinical improvement in a period of time up to three months were included. Photodynamic therapy without verteporfin was applied without any other treatment.

Results Neurosensory detachment and fluorescein leakage resolved in all patients within two months. Visual acuity improved in all of them and none lost vision or suffered any treatment-related complications.

Conclusion The treatment of CSC with photodynamic therapy without verteporfin may result in resolution of persistent neurosensory detathment and fluorescein leakage. Although this case series is limited in follow-up and number of patients, the encouraging results, lack of complications and cheap procedure suggest that further investigation is warranted.

Commercial interest


Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether knowledge management contributes to development of enterprises and to understand a conceptual framework for the use of knowledge management as a generator of economic growth. In today's changing world knowledge management is one of the basic resources and key drivers for competitive advantage. The goal is to improve organizational capabilities through better use of the organization's individual and collective knowledge resources.Methodology – Empirical research contains survey questionnaire with a sample of 86 enterprises in Bosnia and Hercegovina. The questionnaire sought to discover contribution of knowledge management to the development of enterprises.Findings – The results show the importance of the benefits of knowledge management from increasing productivity and facilitating business decision-making to strengthening market leadership. Correlation coefficients between dimensions of knowledge management in organizations (collecting, storing, sharing, use) and the benefits it can provide for the company were calculated for the entire sample and for the subsamples or group of companies engaged in production and a group of companies engaged in the provision of services. Enterprises must recognize that they compete in increasingly knowledge-intensive markets and they are forced to rethink the management of their organizational knowledge.Contribution – The research has implications from a practitioner's point of view, to understand how organizations can support knowledge management and help using current entrepreneurs capabilities.


A thermodynamic cycle analysis computer code for the performance prediction of cooled gas turbines has been used to calculate the efficiency of plants with varying combustor outlet temperature, compressor pressure ratio, and turbomachinery polytropic efficiency. It is shown that the polytropic efficiency exerts a major influence on the optimum operating point of cooled gas turbines: for moderate turbomachinery efficiency the search for enhanced combustor outlet temperature is shown to be logical, but for high turbomachinery efficiency, this is not necessarily so. The sensitivity of the cycle efficiency to variation in the parameters determining the cooling flow rates is also examined. While increases in allowable blade metal temperature and film cooling effectiveness are more beneficial than improvements in other parameters, neither is as important as increase in turbomachinery aerodynamic efficiency.


In this work, the type of the second-order partial differential equation is first determined, and it is reduced to the canonical form, and then the mixed problem for the wave equation is solved approximately by the method of separation of variables, the method of variational iterations, and the method of Adomian decomposition. All of these methods provide a sequence of functions that converges to an exact solution. In all cases, the same results were obtained, but the Adomian decomposition method was very simple and convenient.


An elementary cellular automaton (ECA) is a one-dimensional, synchronous, binary automaton, where each cell update depends on its own state and states of its two closest neighbors. We attempt to uncover correlations between the following measures of ECA behavior: compressibility, sensitivity and diversity. The compressibility of ECA configurations is calculated using the Lempel–Ziv (LZ) compression algorithm LZ78. The sensitivity of ECA rules to initial conditions and perturbations is evaluated using Derrida coefficients. The generative morphological diversity shows how many different neighborhood states are produced from a single nonquiescent cell. We found no significant correlation between sensitivity and compressibility. There is a substantial correlation between generative diversity and compressibility. Using sensitivity, compressibility and diversity, we uncover and characterize novel groupings of rules.


Methods In the current study, we investigated the morphological differences, proliferation capacity, population doubling time (PDT), surface marker profiling, trilineage differentiation potential, and immunosuppressive ability of BM Mesenchymal Stem Cells (BM-MSCs) from untreated aAA patients and in the same number of age- and gender-matched controls. Results We observed similar morphology, proliferation capacity, phenotype, trilineage differentiation potential, and immunomodulatory properties of BM-MSCs in aAA patients and control subjects. Conclusion Our results confirm that the basic and immunosuppressive properties of BM-MSCs from aAA patients do not differ from normal BM-MSCs. Our data suggest that BM-MSCs from aAA patients might not be involved in disease pathogenesis. However, owing to a smaller number of samples, it is not conclusive, and future studies with more exhaustive investigation at transcriptome level are warranted.


Past research has shown that there are subpopulation differences in what students expect from a specific class. These expectation evaluations are usually conducted in the process of when the class is being delivered. Framing the class as a service experience, we take a step back in the service delivery process and assess what students expect from a university class in general. We use a free elicitation approach to capture the salient expectations of 271 students. Our findings are counter to some recent forced choice expectations research and suggest that faculty and student expectations may, at least originally, be aligned. ********** What do students expect from a university class? As faculty we know that if we fail to live up to student expectations we are likely to receive poor student evaluation of teaching (SET) ratings (e.g., Gaultney and Cann 2001; Millea and Grimes 2002). Making the situation more tenuous is that student expectations throughout a student's tenure may change over time (e.g. Boulding et al. 1993). Expectations may change as a student becomes accustomed to the norms of the school (Li and Kaye 1999). Thus, classroom expectations of freshman may be different from those of junior college transfer students which in turn may be different from students in different majors throughout the University, yet they all may be in the same classroom (Richardson, Kring and Davis 1997). Compounding the situation, in order to standardize assessment of faculty classroom performance across campus, most universities employ a common SET form that may or may not accurately reflect what students in a particular class expect from the classroom experience (Cerrito 2000). The consequences of not meting expectations can be profound in that they may have an effect on student's willingness to recommend the school to others, which in turn can influence future alumni giving behavior (Okunade and Berl 1997). The need to understand student expectations, as well as to develop appropriate methods for managing and assessing expectations, is clearly important. Our research contributes to our understanding of what students expect from a university course and examines factors that may contribute to differences among students' expectations. In this paper, we discuss the findings of a free elicitation approach to gather information of what students expect from a university class. A free elicitation approach was chosen to reveal those expectations that students have at "top of mind." The free elicitation method is likely to reveal the more salient aspects of a phenomena as stored in memory (Olson and Muderrisoglu 1979). The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. First, we highlight relevant research regarding expectations in order to frame our research questions. Next, we present a study designed to test our research questions. We conclude with a discussion of our findings. Literature Review The treatment of the college classroom, and overall college life experience, as a service function has been investigated in the United States for almost a century. This ongoing stream of research, which most recently has framed the college classroom experience as a service encounter (e.g., Clewes 2003; Li and Kaye 1999), suggests that instructors should take into account what their customers, the students, expect of the experience. Service expectations are important in that they set anchors in what individuals expect to occur as well as well as how they will evaluate the service experiences (e.g., Parasuraman, Berry and Zeithaml 1991). Assessment of expectations in the classroom has mainly taken the form of forced choice surveys of student's expected class outcomes such as recent research by Gaultney and Cann (2001). They found that students in an introductory psychology class sample who were presented with the forced choice of what they hoped to get out of the class predominately selected grade oriented goals (61% chose "a good grade" and 4% chose "pass") over learning goals ("learn new information"--22% and "personal enrichment" -13%). …


Towards the end of the nineteenth century the German philosopher and pedagogue Friedrich Paulsen coined the term Neuhumanismus (neohumanism)1 to describe what he felt to be a distinctly new approach to teaching the Classics. Paulsen's idea that a new era in German educational history began under the influence of W.v. Humboldt and F. A. Wolf and many others has shaped scholarly discussion with remarkable success ever since, although (or perhaps because) it has never been quite clear whether neohumanism designates a philosophical ideal of education or its institutional enactment. V.B.'s book addresses the gap between these two aspects by taking a detailed look at the teachers who taught Latin and Greek at German secondary schools and by contrasting their opinions and methods with the intellectual and academic debate. The book is based on v.B.'s doctoral dissertation at Utrecht University and has been published as the first volume of the re-established Philologus Supplementary series. The introductory chapter establishes the historical background. At the end of the eighteenth century Latin's importance both as a lingua franca and as a key to crucial knowledge was in rapid decline. But shielded by a new neohumanistic philosophy, the advocates of a classical education were not only able to prevent Greek and Latin from being marginalised in the curricula. They even managed to expand the role of the Classics by arguing that the study of classical literature in a distinctly modern way would best prepare young people for the needs of a modern society. This leads to v.B.'s initial question 'how the "neohumanistic" ideal of education endorsed by 19-century academic philologists related to the practice of Gymnasium education' (p. 6). Based on his study of around 450 primary texts, most of which were written by secondary school teachers and date from 1770 to 1860, v.B. concludes that the general classics teacher 'subscribed to a form of humanism that was distinctly more traditional than that propagated by their well-known "neohumanistic" colleagues' (p. 11). Consequently v. B. argues that the majority of German humanists are more appropriately labelled 'classical humanists'. Guided by the neohumanistic paradigm, historiography of classical education has paid disproportionate attention to theoretical novelties while disregarding overall continuity. Therefore, v.B. endeavours to re-evaluate the nineteenth-century debates on humanistic education with regard to the general teacher's standpoint. The book is divided into two parts. The first, 'The Persistence of Classical Humanism', characterises the alternative concept and argues for its applicability from the Renaissance to the twentieth century. V.B. singles out the life and writings of Karl Gottfried Siebelis (1769–1843), rector of the Gymnasium in the Saxon town of Bautzen, in order to derive an ideal type of nine constitutive aspects defining classical humanism. Education in this respect is directed towards refinement of human nature in every individual (1). This


_ _ Abstract This paper describes the method to evaluate the brazed join ts quantitatively through the ultrasonic C-scan images defined as three types that are overall area, localized area a nd honeycomb. For each type of joint, different way is suggested to dist inguish the defects. The software used to calculate the overall area of the brazed joint (S1) a nd the area of the defects (S2) is developed. On the other hand, the influence of the testing parameters on the C-scan images is investigated to establish the inspection specification to assure the consistency a nd authenticity of the results. It is concluded that using small focus transducer focused on the brazed joi nts leads to optimum images and the sensitivity for C-scan should be set with the artific ial defect. Keyword : brazed joint, C-scan, ultrasonic inspection, quantitative evaluation 1. Instruction The evaluation index of the quality of the brazed joints used commonly is the defect area or the proportion of the good area in the brazed joints. If the overall area of the joints is S 1 and the area of the defects is S 2, the proportion of good area in the brazed joints (Q) m ay be calculated in the formula below:


In the global cobalt supply chain, the illegal employment of child labor by multinational companies is a very common phenomenon, and child laborers are often exposed to poor working conditions, which are extremely harmful to their physical and mental health. And behind these phenomena, it indicates that the international community has not been successful in ensuring adequate implementation of human rights due diligence for multinational corporations. This paper will take the supply chain human rights crisis and response measures of Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Co., Ltd. in China as an example, and use case study method and literature research method to explore the current situation and insights of human rights due diligence implementation in Chinese multinational enterprises. It has been discovered through research that Chinese multinational corporations face several challenges in carrying out human rights due diligence, such as the lack of an institutionalized human rights due diligence mechanism and insufficient understanding of human rights risks. Based on this, this paper proposes the following recommendations: accelerating the formulation of human rights due diligence standards and norms; bridging the gap between domestic and foreign mandatory human rights due diligence laws; raising the awareness of human rights protection within enterprises; and strengthening human rights risk management in the supply chain.


The interpretation of irony in works of art, as well as the disclosure of the mechanism of its action, are not without difficulties. Irony is often quite difficult to understand, especially in the works of fiction by foreign writers. The question of the context necessary for the functioning and implementation of irony also remains unresolved. Obviously, an ironic message can be localized in one word at the lexical level, but there is no single answer to the question of whether it can be read in the context of the entire work. This raises the problem of interpreting the context of irony.


Abstract: The c‐ret protooncogene encodes Ret, the functional tyrosine kinase receptor for glial cell line‐derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF). K‐252b, a known protein tyrosine kinase inhibitor, has been shown earlier to inhibit the trophic activity of brain‐derived neurotrophic factor on dopaminergic (DAergic) neurons and nerve growth factor on basal forebrain cholinergic neurons while potentiating neurotrophin‐3 activity on central cholinergic and peripheral sensory neurons and PC12 cells. We tested whether K‐252b would modulate GDNF‐induced differentiation in DAergic neuron cultures. Exposure to 1 ng/ml GDNF increased dopamine (DA) uptake 80% above control, whereas treatment with 5 µM K‐252b decreased the efficacy of GDNF by 60%. Concentrations of GDNF of <100 pg/ml were completely inhibited, whereas concentrations of >100 pg/ml were moderately active, between 10 and 20% above control. In addition, K‐252b shifted the ED50 from 20 to 200 pg/ml. GDNF treatment increased soma size and neurite outgrowth in tyrosine hydroxylase‐immunoreactive neurons. K‐252b inhibited differentiation of these morphological parameters induced by GDNF. Furthermore, GDNF stimulated Ret autophosphorylation at maximal levels, whereas the inhibition of DA uptake and morphological differentiation by K‐252b correlated with a significantly decreased level of Ret autophosphorylation. Therefore, K‐252b is able to inhibit intracellular activities induced by GDNF on mesencephalic DAergic neurons.


Amidation of nitrile with N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) was catalyzed by Cu2O with 1,10-phenanthroline as a ligand under an oxygen atmosphere. A variety of N,N-dimethyl benzamides were obtained in yields up to 84%.


This article first demonstrates the utility of the σ → π* hyperconjugation by His98 and His241 in pyridoxal 5′-phosphate-dependent tyrosine decarboxylase.


Erica Garcia: La portee de la variabilite ; On the basis of two diverse analyses of essentially the same change (the loss of sibi reflexives) in French and Spanish, it is argued that the usual approach to syntactic variation is misguided, and should give way to a cognitive motivation of frequency distributions.


For researching principle and production line state of steam curing of composite wallboard, the art have been conducted through actual investigation and field test. Based on the influence of steam curing on the strength of high performance concrete, durability and volume stability, put forward suggestions of steam curing system; Several problems have been raised for steam curing in the actual production, then some correlative improve measurements are given. Provide the reference for the production and development of the residential part in our country.


In this article, the Malliavin calculus is used to derive regularity properties of the conditional distribution of one ltd process given a second Ito process. The relation between the processes involved is the usual one assumed in the study of filtering theory. The non-degeneracy which we require is stated in terms of Malliavins covariance matrix in Theorem (3.15). More practical conditions are given in Lemma (3.19) for general Tto processes and in Lemma (3.29) for diffusions. Finally, in Theorem (4.6) a "localized" version of these results is given for diffusions.


A micro-mixing method is proposed,by which a secondary flow is produced under electromagnetic forces.Then the Dean eddies appear to produce reciprocation flows in the micro channel.The interface of the fluids is bent and stretched.The efficiency of mixing is greatly improved due to a great increase of the contact area between two mixing fluids.The structures of three cases are discussed.A theoretical model of the micro-mixing is built and numerical simulations are carried out.The fluid mixing process is analyzed and the mixing efficiency is evaluated.Experiments are carried for verification.


This paper opens with a brief dissertation on the physical meaning of the word `photography' and on the types of result that can be obtained from photography. This is followed by a consideration of the formal problem of resolving time in experiments for the investigation and measurement of transients. The main part of the paper is a description of some recent experiments and the apparatus developed for them. In conclusion the present and future status of high-speed photography as a subject is discussed. The author has attempted to describe the latest thinking in the subject rather than to compile an exhaustive list of papers. The reader's attention is drawn to the proceedings of the regular conferences on high-speed photography which give detailed accounts of particular experiments.


Overview of the Real Estate Industry. Hierarchy of Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. ACCOUNTING FOR REAL ESTATE COSTS. Cost Capitalization and Allocation. Impairment. ACCOUNTING FOR REAL ESTATE SALES. Criteria for Recording a Sale. Tests for Profit Recognition--Adequacy of Down Payment. Tests for Profit Recognition--Receivable from Buyer. Tests for Profit Recognition--Seller's Continuing Involvement. Alternative Accounting Methods. Accounting for Condominium and Timeshare Sales. Retail Land Sales. Construction Contracts. Leases. Special Accounting Problems. ACCOUNTING FOR INVESTMENTS IN REAL ESTATE VENTURES. Real Estate Ventures: Introduction and Accounting Background. Accounting for Real Estate Venture Operations. Accounting for Transactions Between Real Estate Ventures and Their Investors. Real Estate Loans that Qualify for Investment Accounting. Special Investor Accounting Problems. Securitization. Current-Value. Financial Reporting. Glossary. Bibliography. Index.


This paper compares contemporary career theory with the theory applied in recent career success research. The research makes inconsistent use of career theory, and in particular neglects the interdependence of the objective and subjective careers, and boundaryless career issues of inter-organizational mobility and extra-organizational support. The paper offers new guidelines for bringing about a rapprochement between career theory and career success research. These guidelines cover adequacy of research designs, further dimensions of career success, broader peer group comparisons, deeper investigation of the subjectively driven person, and seeing new connections between boundaryless career theory and career success research.


Mutations in parkin lead to autosomal-recessive, youngonset Parkinson's disease (EOPD; PARK2). The neuropathology of PARK2 patients has demonstrated that the substantia nigra and locus coeruleus exhibit selective degeneration with gliosis. Therefore, understanding how parkin mutations lead to the selective degeneration of nigral dopaminergic neurons may lead to the discovery of disease modifying therapies, not only for PARK2 cases but also for sporadic PD. Although knock-out animal models are useful tools for investigating the pathomechanisms due to loss-of-function of parkin, parkin-deficient mice do not exhibit a robust phenotype, suggesting that parkin selectively plays an important role in human nigral dopamine neurons. Recently, Professor Yamanaka's group discovered that human differentiated somatic cells could be reprogrammed to induce pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). He was awarded a Nobel prize in 2012 in recognition of his work with iPSCs. iPSC-derived dopamine neurons from PD patients may contribute to our understanding of the pathomechanisms of dopaminergic neuronal dysfunction in PD. The recent article in Molecular Brain from the Imaizumi and Okano group described that iPSC-derived dopaminergic neurons from PARK2 patients demonstrated the functional abnormality seen in the brain pathology of patients with parkin mutations. In that article, iPSCs were generated from dermal fibroblasts of 2 patients with PARK2 (exons 2–4 and exon 6; 7 homozygous deletions, respectively) and 2 controls by overexpression of OCT4 (octamer-binding transcription 4), SOX2 (sex-determining region Y, box 2), KLF4 (Kruppel-like factor 4), and c-Myc (myelocytomatosis oncogene homolog). The authors discovered that the levels of glutathione in PARK2 iPSC-derived neurospheres were significantly lower than those in controls. In addition, the expression levels of Nrf2 (nuclear factor [erythroid-derived 2]-like 2) and NADH (nicotinamide adenine dehydrogenase) quinone oxidoreductase, which participate in the Nrf2 antioxidant response pathway, were significantly increased in PARK2 iPSC-derived neurons. Investigation of the ultrastructure of PARK2 iPSC-derived neurons using electron microscopy revealed morphologic abnormalities in mitochondria, including an electron-dense matrix and swollen mitochondrial cristae within the inner mitochondrial membrane. It is noteworthy that these abnormal mitochondrial structures were not observed in PARK2 fibroblasts or in undifferentiated iPSCs. Recent investigations suggest that a common pathway between PINK1 (phosphatase and tensin homolog [PTEN]-induced putative kinase 1) and parkin play important roles in mitochondrial quality control and regulation, such as mitochondrial fission and fusion and mitochondrial trafficking. The authors explored whether parkin-deficit, iPSCderived neurons might fail to eliminate the depolarized mitochondria. They demonstrated that parkin-deficit, iPSCderived neurons showed aberrant degradation of damaged mitochondria that had been treated with an uncoupler carbonyl cyanide m-chlorophenylhydrazone. Therefore, these results suggest that increased oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction may contribute to neuronal degeneration in PARK2 patients. Postmortem brain tissue from the patient who had an exon 2 through 4 homozygous deletion of parkin (patient A) was available for neuropathologic assessment. Although it is generally thought that Lewy bodies are absent in brains of patients who have PARK2 mutations, patient A had Lewy bodies in the substantia nigra. It is noteworthy that a-synuclein accumulation was observed in dopaminergic neurons derived from the iPSCs of patient A but not in dopaminergic neurons either from normal controls or from the other patient who had an exon 6 and 7 homozygous deletion of parkin (patient B). Neuropathologic assessment of the father of patient B showed no evidence of Lewy bodies or a-synuclein–positive neurons. In this context, pathogenic changes in the brain of a PARK2 patient thus were recapitulated using iPSC technology. This important discovery suggests that iPSC technology will allow researchers to generate more faithful models of neurodegenerative disease and may enable the discovery of a biomarker for early diagnosis and evaluation of new therapies.


Purpose:To compare the retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness in histologic sections of glaucomatous eyes to nonglaucomatous eyes, to ascertain whether RNFL thinning can be confirmed histologically in human eyes. Materials and Methods:Seven postmortem glaucomatous eyes were compared with 17 normal postmortem eyes. The eyes were sectioned using the "umbrella technique" and measurements were performed on 4 concentric peripapillary rings with diameters of 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, and 4.5 mm. An overall average thickness, as well as an average for each of the temporal, superior, nasal, and inferior quadrants was obtained. The RNFL thickness of both groups in each of the quadrants in each of the rings were compared. Results:The overall average thickness (&mgr;m±SD) of the glaucomatous eyes for the 3.5-mm diameter rings was 36.5±10.6 compared with an average thickness of 60.3±19.5 in the nonglaucomatous eyes (P=0.006). The average sectorial thickness of the 3.5-mm diameter rings for the glaucomatous and normal eyes, respectively, was: temporal 30.9±10.6, 49.2±26.4 (P=0.080); superior 41.0±13.2, 75.3±26.5 (P=0.003); nasal 32.7±7.8, 48.1±15.0 (P=0.023); and inferior 41.6±14.4, 69.4±22.4 (P=0.012). The overall physiological "double hump" pattern was less preserved in the glaucomatous eyes. Conclusions:In this study a statistically significant loss of RNFL tissue was demonstrated when comparing glaucomatous to normal postmortem human eyes. These findings strengthen data obtained using imaging techniques that quantify RNFL thickness.


In this study, different systemic, non-systemic, combination fungicides and weedicides at four different concentration were evaluated in vitro against groundnut root rot pathogen Macrophomina phaseolina. Among the non-systemic fungicides, Mancozeb 75% WP and Propineb 70% WP were found most effective and showed (99.98 and 99.96 per cent) mycelia growth inhibition at all concentrations. Whereas in systemic fungicides, Carbendazim 50% WP were found most effective with (94.24 per cent) mean mycelial growth inhibition. Among different combination fungicides tested, Carboxin 37.5% + Thiram 37.5% WP were found most effective with mean mycelial growth inhibition of (97.16 per cent).. In case of weedicides tested, Quizalofo-p-pethyle 5% EC found as most effective inhibiting the mycelial growth of M. phaseolina at all concentrations with (90.92 per cent) mean mycelial growth inhibition. Sclerotial formation was also absent in all this treatments.


Resistive probe can detect the variation of electric field from a media by its current variation. Equivalently it is a variable resistor, which is sensitive to electric field. However, the experimental results show that another mechanism is involved in it and it is considered to have a relationship with the topography of the media. In this paper, this newly observed mechanism is explained as thermal effect with simulation results. This can affect the signal quality as a noise source or detection limitation of the field variation or, in other hand can be used as a highly localized thermal tip sensor.


The occurrence of track subsidence and embankment slip, as well as their remedy by modern economical methods, is shown here in the description of two construction projects which could be regarded as models of their kind for the repair of railway embankments.


Background: Bacillus subtilis naturally produces large amounts of 2,3-butanediol (2,3-BD) as the main byproduct during poly-γ-glutamic acid (γ-PGA) fermentation using carbon sources. 2,3-BD is a promising platform chemicals in various industries, and co-production has great economic benefits. Thus, co-production of poly-γ-glutamic acid (γ-PGA) and 2,3-butanediol (2,3-BD) by Bacillus subtilis were investigated for the first time. Results: In this study, a novel Bacillus subtilis CS13 was isolated that can efficiently co-production of γ-PGA and 2,3-BD. The fermentation medium and culture parameters by B. subtilis CS13 were optimized using statistical methods. It was observed that sucrose, L-glutamic acid, ammonium citrate, and MgSO4·7H2O were favorable for γ-PGA and 2,3-BD co-production at pH 6.5 and 37 °C. A medium composed of 119.83 g/L sucrose, 48.85 g/L L-glutamic acid, 21.08 g/L ammonium citrate, and 3.21 g/L MgSO4·7H2O was optimized by response surface methodology (RSM). The results show that the yields of γ-PGA and 2,3-BD reached 27.79 ± 0.87 g/L at 24 h and 57.05 ± 1.28 g/L at 84 h with the optimized medium, respectively. Conclusions: To our knowledge, the co-production of 2,3-BD and γ-PGA will reduce the costs of production and separation in theory and provide a new perspective for industrial production of γ-PGA and 2,3-BD. B. subtilis CS13 as a generally recognized as safe (GRAS) strain, has great promise for the co-production of 2,3-BD and γ-PGA.


This paper proposes a novel framework for generating lingual descriptions of indoor scenes. Whereas substantial efforts have been made to tackle this problem, previous approaches focusing primarily on generating a single sentence for each image, which is not sufficient for describing complex scenes. We attempt to go beyond this, by generating coherent descriptions with multiple sentences. Our approach is distinguished from conventional ones in several aspects: (1) a 3D visual parsing system that jointly infers objects, attributes, and relations; (2) a generative grammar learned automatically from training text; and (3) a text generation algorithm that takes into account coherence among sentences. Experiments on the NYU-v2 dataset show that our framework is able to generate natural multi-sentence descriptions, outperforming those produced by a baseline.


Issues concerning the measurement of mortality from war are considered with particular reference to the Soviet experience in World War II. The author considers three categories of deaths: direct casualties or servicemen and women and civilians who were killed; indirect casualties or those who might have been born under normal peacetime conditions; and secondary casualties which are mainly of a psycho-social nature and have been the least studied. Methodological issues of calculating numbers of casualties in these three categories are discussed. (ANNOTATION)


A microcomputer-based system for illustrating the basic concepts of adaptive control applied (in real time) to a servomotor is described. The salient features of the software developed to support the system are highlighted and typical numerical results obtained are presented. >