A two-dimensional, two-carrier simulation of a uniformly doped etched-groove permeable-base transistor which includes models for impact ionization and for Auger and Shockley-Read-Hall recombination is reported. It was found that for high current densities the breakdown voltage was reduced by channel avalanche. This mechanism was associated with a strong accumulation of electrons and holes in the source access region. In this region, the gate current remained low but the injection of electrons in the channel was enhanced, resulting in a degradation of the drain conductance and frequency performance. >


one, has been isolated from Nigrospora sp.1} and Phoma sp.2) This dihydropyranone has been considered to be a biosynthetically and synthetically important precursor of ( +)-acetylphomalactone (2)3) and ( +)-asperlin (3),3'4) isolated from Asperillus sp., which have antibiotic and antitumor activities. Furthermore, (+)-asperlin (3) was shown to have inhibitory activity against rice and lettuce seedlings. Recently, a 5-epimer (4) of (+)-asperlin (3) was isolated along with 2 and 3 from Asp. caespitosus?) The absolute configuration of (+)-asperlin (3) was established in 1978 by Xray analysis.5) Though the syntheses of a ra-


ABSTRACT The present paper attempts to read the hermeneutic play into the structural matrix of Joe Sacco's Safe Area Goražde through the idea of 'spatial excess' that the paper proposes by theoretically conflating Gadamer's concept of 'Fusion of Horizon' with Groensteen's idea of 'hyperframe' and 'margin'. The paper reads the flashback episodes which it identifies as hermeneutic by disposition and which drives home the idea of historical consciousness by redefining the ideas of authorship which here qualifies not only the role of Sacco, the comics journalist but also the natives of Gorazde who narrate their own testimonies of the war. The flashback episodes in the text are embedded in black borders to categorically segregate them from the present-day narrative. These black borders apart from being a stylised trope become a potent hermeneutic schema that offers a spatial excess within which they accommodate the victims' point of view as well as situate the readers into the textual space and thus change the epistemic practices of perceiving the past.


A series of studies on the shock behaviour of agricultural materials is already available. This especially applies to potatoes. It is one goal of these studies to investigate, analyze, and reduce the damage to and mechanical loads on these materials caused by shocks [1, 2, 3, 4]. Moreover, the shock-like mechanical load is used for the qualitative and quantitative establis hment of specific mechanical properties of materials [5, 6, 7, 8]. In general, the mechanical fundamentals that govern the contact between elastic bodies and, in particular, the study by HERTZ on contacts between solid elastic bodies [9] or phenomenological linear visco-elastic theories [10, 11] provide the theoretical basis for these studies. Several authors have described the (though limited) applicability of these fundamentals which have been developed based on the concept that technical materials have homogeneous properties to agricultural materials [12, 13, 2, 3]. Linear elasticity according to the generalized HOOKE law is the material property of contacting bodies that constitutes the basis of HERTZ theory. Especially under quasi-elastic material conditions, the analytically founded effects shown using this theory come very close to the reality of bodies subject to penetration and shocks. The reasons stated below, however, require that extended or other approaches than the one developed by HERTZ be sought to describe the penetration or shocking of solid bodies out of real materials: • Energy dissipation (or damping) is a significant property of the problem to be described. • The geometries of the surfaces of the contacting bodies do not correspond to the 2 degree surfaces assumed by HERTZ, or they are subject to changes during the contact (due to particles being removed or broken off during contact deformation). • The elastic component in the description of the material behaviour is not only linearly dependent on the deformation.


In this work, we have investigated the capability of different bimetallic nanoparticle alloy combinations to be used in fibre optic temperature sensing based on the technique of surface plasmon resonance (SPR). The metals considered for the present analysis are silver, gold and aluminium. The analysis is derived mainly from the thermo-optic effect along with some fundamental concepts of metal optics such as surface scattering, phonon–electron scattering and electron–electron scattering. The performance of the sensor with three different bimetallic nanoparticle alloy combinations is evaluated and compared, numerically, in terms of its sensitivity and accuracy. On the basis of the comparison and some logistic criterion, we predict the best possible bimetallic alloy combination along with a requisite alloy composition ratio that simultaneously provides higher values of both sensitivity and accuracy which is not possible with any single metallic nanoparticle layer.


The aim of the article is an empirical evaluation of a relationship between organizational learning of the company through one of the forms of internationalization – export and the development of proactive corporate environmental strategy. Proactive environmental strategies accumulating knowledge in the process of internationalization of enterprises through organizational learning have been specified. The hypotheses have been tested in the empirical part of the paper. Supported hypothesis shows that there is the relationship between proactive environmental strategy of the company and organizational learning, regardless of the number of years of export activity.


Objective To investigate the association between MspI polymorphism of apolipoprotein B gene and blood-fat of Hazakh inhabitant.Methods Using the technique of polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP),Apo B gene polymorphism was detected in 100 Hazakh patients with hyperlipemia and 90 healthy men,then their blood-fat were detected.Results Cholesterol total (TC),triglyceride (TG),low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C)were higher in patients with hyperlipemia (P0.05).Three genotypes were checkout.Patients with hyperlipemia and healthy man have no difference on genotype and allele frequency distribution (P0.05),both M+M+ is central.The TC content of people with M+M+gene and people with M+M+/M-M-was different (P0.05).Conclusion Apo B gene polymorphism as the risk factors was related to blood-fat,apolipoprotein of Hazakh inhabitants (LDL-C,apo B were higher on people with M+M+ gene,LDL-C,apo B were lower on people with M+M-/M-M-gene) have higher TC than hyperlipemia patients with M+M-/M-M-genotype.


History gives us the opportunity of perspective. But in the "Network Society", time moves too fast for hindsight. An appropriate metaphor is that of quantum mechanics, in which matter exists in two states at the same time. Consequently, the invitation to reflect on what one thought was happening three years ago is unusual. Does anyone really care how extensively Africa was connected to the Internet in 1998?


This article presents an efficient superblock-based sample adaptive offset (superSAO) that jointly exploits block-wise filter partition and probabilistic band interval segmentation to improve quality-of-experience of industrial video applications. Specifically, we investigate the partition flexibility of a superSAO block whose root size is up to 256 × 256, and propose to optimize the block-wise SAO filter by considering computation complexity and compression efficiency. Furthermore, we segment the band interval by equal probability of the sample intensity distributions, which facilitates the computation of better band offsets to attenuate ringing artifact due to quantization errors or encoded motion vectors. Experimental results show that the proposed superSAO method outperforms state-of-the-art approaches by obtaining 4.6% bandwidth reduction on average for the low delay and high-compression video applications.


Saurashtra has 925 sq. miles, i.e., only 4.3% of its total land area under forests. Owing to past mal-treatment the forests are very open. 500 sq. miles of forest comprising most of the reserved area belong to the Tropical Dry Mixed Deciduous type, with preponderance of teak. These are worked under regular working plans. The rest belong to the 'Tropical Thorn' type. It is intended to increase the percentage of forests to 12%. The Gir forests of Saurashtra are the last home of the Asiatic Lion which is under special protection. Its present number, as per Census taken in 1950, is 227.


Slow crystallization of the dinuclear [(CuTpCF3,CH3)2O2] yields a solid-state solution of the peroxo and bis(hydroxo) complex, but not sterically compressed Cu(III) complexes. Since the CF3 substit...


We present a new translation model that include undecorated hierarchical-style phrase rules, decorated source-syntax rules, and partially decorated rules.

Results show an increase in translation performance of up to 0.8% BLEU for German--English translation when trained on the news-commentary corpus, using syntactic annotation from a source language parser. We also experimented with annotation from shallow taggers and found this increased performance by 0.5% BLEU.


Synthesis and activity test as potential sunscreen material of two asymmetric dibenzalacetones have been conducted. The first compound, anisalbenzalacetone was synthesized from benzaldehyde, acetone and p-anisaldehyde. The second, benzalveratralacetone was synthesized from benzaldehyde, acetone and veratraldehyde. Those compounds were synthesized by crossed aldol condensation in base condition with water-ethanol solvent. The synthesize of both compounds using ice bath throughout the stirring. The precipitate was purified by coloumn chromatography. Each product was characterized by FTIR, H-NMR, C-NMR, HMQC and HMBC. Activity test as UV protection was done by Walter method. The result showed that anisalbenzalacetone active in UV-A area, while benzalveratralacetone protection is in UV-B area.


This paper describes three passive lossless circuits for recovering turn-on snubber energy, which are applicable to high frequency power converters. The inductive trapped energy, which is load current dependent, is recovered into the DC supply, load or both, at switch turn-off. The operational processes of the circuits, which may be operated as a hard-clamped or soft-clamped snubber, are analyzed and compared. Simulations, along with experimental results, are given.<<ETX>>


ARTICLE 5(3) of the Brussels Convention on Jurisdiction and the Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters of 1968, states that, "in matters relating to tort, delict and quasi-delict" a defendant may, as an alternative to being sued in the court of his domicile, be sued "in the courts for the place where the harmful event occurred". But when a newspaper containing a libellous article was published and distributed in several countries where was that place? Was there one "harmful event" or were there several, one for each of the countries involved? In Shevill and Others v. Presse Alliance S.A. (Case C-68/93) [1995] 2 W.L.R. 499 these were the questions asked of the European Court of Justice on a reference from the House of Lords. The response of the court was adumbrated by Handelskwekerij G J Bier B. V. v. Mines de Potasse d'Alsace S.A. (Case 21/76) [1976] E.C.R. 1735 where it had held that when the act causing the harm and the damage occurred in different Contracting States, the "place where the harmful event occurred" must be understood as being intended to cover both the place where the damage occurred and the place of the event giving rise to it. The plaintiff could proceed in either forum. Furthermore, in the same case the ECJ firmly rejected, because of the need for legal certainty, the concept of "the most significant connection" as a way of determining where a "harmful event" occurred. Unsurprisingly, therefore, in Shevill the ECJ held that


Today's traffic management schemes are facing the problem of traffic congestion on roads. Traffic congestion on main roads leads to many problems such as delay in emergency services, accidents and others. Many techniques have been applied to control traffic. However, ATMS (Advanced Transportation Management System) software solutions are open source to control traffic that showed significant potential for adaptation and deployment within the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans). This paper presents survey of different traffic management techniques applied to control traffic. The aim of this paper is to explore best methods of traffic


An intermolecular potential function for ammonia–water has been developed from ab initio molecular-orbital calculations. The analytical potential function consists of Coulomb interaction terms and exponential terms for short-range interactions. A Monte Carlo statistical-mechanics simulation has been carried out for a system containing 48 ammonia molecules and 168 water molecules, corresponding to a 18.45 mol% ammonia solution in water, at 20.0 °C and 1.0 atm. At this concentration the hydrogen-bonded network among water molecules still exists. Analysis of the solvent structure around water molecules suggests that H2O/(H2O)4, (NH3)1 and H2O/(H2O)5, (NH3)1 are the dominant units in the solution, regarding water as the central molecule. The ammonia molecule has 14.6 solvent molecules in the first surrounding shell; the dominant compositions are NH3/(H2O)12, (NH3)2 and NH3/(H2O)13, (NH3)2. NH3/H2O hydrogen-bonded configurations vary considerably in geometry, and H3N⋯H—NH2 bonds are hardly visible.


ABSTRACT Background Peer support groups can be a way to obtain support, problem solve, and widen social networks. However, there has been no systematic literature review examining the evidence for the use of peer support groups after an acquired brain injury (ABI). Objective This review sought to systematically evaluate the evidence for (1) the psychosocial effectiveness, and (2) the experience of peer support groups in adults who had experienced ABI's. Methods The systematic literature search was conducted across the following four databases: PsycINFO, PsycARTICLES, MEDLINE, and Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) in October 2019. The mixed methods appraisal tool was used to examine the quality of the research. Results 13 papers were included in this review. Limited evidence was found for the psychosocial effectiveness of peer support groups in ABI, although the experience of partaking in a peer support group was largely found to be positive. The benefits and helping factors of taking part in a peer support group can be summarized as: being connected, interacting with others, and providing and receiving support. Conclusions The findings of this review suggest that peer support groups could be a promising intervention to support individuals and promote adjustment following an ABI.


Based on the experimental study on bond behavior of steel reinforced concrete, the relationship between bond stress and slip is analysed. The effect of some parameters, such as concrete strength, on the bond behavior is discussed, the result is instructive to project engineering.


Cloud computing storage services allow people to easily maintain and manage large amounts of data at a low cost. However, it cannot guarantee data integrity. Data is sent to remote cloud servers, which is insecure and untrustworthy. Meaning data might be altered intentionally by unauthorized users or accidentally by the service provider causing data loss or modification. Therefore, it's become critical to protect data from hackers to maintain its integrity. This paper proposes EDIE algorithm to enhance data integrity in cloud computing. The proposed algorithm is designed by incorporating Moving Target Defense and New Lightweight Cryptographic Algorithm. The EDIE algorithm will use MTD to dynamically change network configurations and frequently confuse attackers therefore minimizing the level of attacks and leading to enhanced data integrity. In comparison to other commonly used integrity schemes in cloud, the proposed algorithm is expected to have lower attack level and improved execution time resulting in enhanced data integrity in cloud computing.


Background : Based on the most disease pattern of internal medicine
outpatients at Dr. Sardjito Central General Hospital, DM disease was occupied in
the first ranks. Basically, DM disease could not be cured, but it could be
controlled in term of reducing the effect of complications. One of the methods to
reduce the effect of complications is by planning the proper dietary pattern. Some
studies revealed the poor in planning the dietary pattern such as the high intake
of fat, saturated fat, sodium and carbonated beverages, which might cause
decline in kidney function.
Objective : To determine the relationship of dietary pattern, the intake of energy,
protein, fat, carbohydrates, and the consumption of soft drinks with decline in
kidney functions in type 2 diabetes mellitus outpatients in Dr. Sardjito Yogyakarta.
Method : This observational study using cross-sectional design. The research
was conducted with the primary data (data of patient�s characteristics,
anthropometry, 24-hours of food recall�s data for two consecutive days in dissuccession
and food frequency�s data) and secondary data (laboratory test
results by using the level of creatinine). The patient's dietary pattern such as the
intake of energy, protein, fats, and carbohydrates as well as the consumption of
soft drinks is obtained from the results of 24-hours food recall and food frequency
(FFQ). The decline in kidney function�s data is obtained using the MDRD formula
that requires the data of age, sex, race, and serum creatinine levels. The analysis
tests were used to determine the relationship between dietary pattern (intake of
energy, protein, fat and soft drinks) and decline in kidney function are Chi-square
test, Somers�d test and logistic regression.
Results : There is a relationship between intake of energy, protein, and
carbohydrate with decline in kidney function (p < 0,05). However, there is no
relationship between intake of fat and soda consumption with decline in kidney
function (p > 0,05). There is a relationship between age and decline in kidney
function (p = 0,021) and duration of diabetes disease and decline in kidney
function (p = 0,040). Last, there is no relationship between obesity and decline in
kidney function (p > 0,05).
Conclusion : There is a significant relationship between intake of energy, protein
and carbohydrate with decline in kidney function in the type 2 of diabetes�
outpatients in Dr. Sardjito Yogyakarta.


Salivary duct carcinoma is a high-grade adenocarcinoma that resembles breast ductal carcinoma. It is believed to be derived from intraand interlobular excretory ducts. Salivary duct carcinoma may arise de novo or as a relatively common malignant component of a carcinoma ex pleomorphic adenoma. It accounts for about 9% of all malignant salivary gland tumors. Although there is a wide age range at presentation, most patients present in the seventh decade of life; men are affected much more frequently than women (4:1). The vast majority of cases arise in the parotid gland, where they usually manifest as a rapidly growing mass, often with ulceration and facial nerve palsy. Patients with carcinoma ex pleomorphic adenoma may have a history of a long-standing mass with recent enlargement. Because lymph node metastasis occurs frequently, aggressive multimodality therapy is required; surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy yield the best outFigure 2. Left: Slide shows periand intraneural invasion by a cribriform neoplasm. Right: Central comedonecrosis isseenwithin a duct space. There is moderate nuclear pleomorphism.


In the production of solid enzyme products, the granules are dried in a fluidised bed dryer prior to being coated with a protective salt coating. The coating exhibits a low mass diffusivity, which essentially encapsulates any present moisture inside. During the coating process moisture is inevitably added to the granules. It has prior been shown that moisture content in the final product has a negative impact on the shelflife stability of some of the enzyme product produced by Novozymes. It has been theorised whether it is the moisture of the granules before the coating is applied, or the moisture added during the coating which accounts for this effect. The primary objective in this thesis was to determine the correlation between moisture content from the dryer and the final products shelf-life stability. From experimental data a clear correlation was observed. A considerably decrease in absolute enzyme activity was observed when the coating was performed with high moisture content granules. It is thought that high moisture content combined with a high temperature cause the enzymes to denature. Furthermore a mathematical model was implemented in Python to simulate the drying. The simulations were shown to predict the moisture content of the granules well to the experimental data. However the simulated temperatures deviates considerably from measured values. (Less)


Recent studies on service management mainly focused on service satisfaction, IT-enabled services, industrial transformation, or service-oriented technology. Few studies explored business model innovation strategies from the perspective of service value creation. The purpose of this study is to establish a business model innovation strategy from the perspective of customers' service expense and diversity of services they receive. This is a multiple case study that constructs a strategy matrix using service expense and service diversity for analysis (as shown in Fig.1); the cases are four listed companies in the domestic service industry, namely Taiwanmobile, Hotel Royal, Lung Yen, and National Petroleum Corporation (NPC). Data is mainly collected from the secondary data of cases and by conducting in-depth interviews with experts, in which secondary data is mainly business models adopted by each company between 2005 and 2014. Data is analyzed at the company level to find their strategy and changes in service expense and service diversity, allowing for further exploration of their business model innovation strategy and development process. Findings of this study are as follows: 1. All four companies moved towards "integrated fee-based services" when the number of their clients were growing, not only extending their customer service value, but also increasing their overall revenue; 2. Taiwanmobile alternated between free service and fee-based service in the service expense aspect of its business model, and actively provided "diverse free services" along with technological developments to create win-win with consumers; 3. Royal Hotel and NPC require customers pay a fixed service fee for their hardware facilities and service personnel, and could only develop towards "differentiated fee-based service" and "integrated fee-based service"; 4. When Lung Yen first entered the funeral industry, its marketing team provided "value-added free services" that helped grow the company's membership, after which it extended to "integrated fee-based service"; 5. All four companies have a membership system to create inseparable specific assets, in which the company and its consumers are mutually benefited, thus creating stickiness; 6. All four companies need to create "diverse free services" to grow in their severely competitive market.


Anthony Rabin: Forcible circumcision by Jews of non-‐Jewish males in the Second Temple period According to the Old Testament, circumcision for Jewish males on the eighth day was a sign of the covenant between Abraham and his descendants and God. Circumcision of males was also seen in the Greco-Roman world as a distinctive Jewish marker, setting Jewish males apart from others. With such a background, this paper explores the references, principally in the works of Josephus, to the occurrence in the Second Temple period of forcible circumcision by Jews of non-Jewish males, usually within the context of war. How reliable are these reports? If we believe that these events happened, why did they happen? If we believe that they did not, why would Josephus assert that they had?


Agronomic traits comparative experiment were carried out among six new lines of whipgrass(Hemarthria compressa) in phenological period,regrowth speed,resistance,herbage yield and the ratio of stem to leaf using Chonggao as the check variety.The results indicated that the regrowth speed,fresh and dry yield of the six lines was higher than that of the check variety and the resistance of the six lines to cold,drought and pest was strong during cultivation period.Overall,the vari-ous characters of H2003-5 were the best,and with the traits of rich leaves,strong resistance and high herbgae yield.Its fresh yield and dry yield was increased by 9.38%~11.12% and 20.53%~43.77% respectively.


The intent of this article is to bring the objectives of the European Space of Su- perior Education closer with one of the objectives of Viktor Frankl s speech logotherapy, i.e., how to define or reflect on the «sense of life» as a proposition to elaborate the plans of education from attitudinal values. In this understanding, the topic is fundamentally correlated between the perception of the world and of the person who possesses it; establishing this quality is critical to the most suitable understanding of the idea of education. On the basis of this, such reflections will be provided as designing improvement plans for the students, respecting the individual objectives, group objectives, and the legitimate concept of school as a favorable space to the de velopment of skills. Therefore, the logical plan of this article is to effortlessly explain the respec- tive discussions of attitudinal values with the objectives of «Bologna» In this manner, the ped- agogical methods must take into account the opinions of the students in any decision of their education. Finally, this article defends the propositions of the EEES from the theoretical contri- butions of speech logotherapy.


Electronics and all that they plug into are energy intensive. Energy is another form of waste, like electronic waste that contributes to the material footprint of electronic technologies. This chapter examines the particular ways in which electronics use energy, from manufacture to powering devices to running cloud servers. While electronics consume energy, they are also used to manage energy consumption with the hope of achieving greater sustainability. By developing the concept of "electronic environmentalism," the chapter considers how we might account more fully for both the environmental impacts of electronics, as well as attend to and even trouble the ways in which they guide us to think about environmental practices.


Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an inflammatory-demyelinating disease, caused presumably by an autoimmune process. IFN-â, a cytokine produced mainly by macrophages and epithelial and fibroblast cells, has antiviral and anti-inflammatory effects and has been established as an effective treatment in relapsing-remitting MS patients. This treatment can induce the production of specific antibodies to IFN-â. Neutralizing antibodies (NAB) are those that bind directly to the portion of the IFNâ molecule which interacts with its receptor in the target cells, interfering with the biological effect of the IFNâ. Forty percent of patients treated with r-IFNâ 1b (Betaferon) [1] and 6% of those treated with IFNâ 1a (Avonex) [2] developed NAB and the clinical efficacy of the drugs was reduced. However, a clear correlation between the appearance of these antibodies and the clinical course of the disease has not been established [3]. We studied 10 patients bi-monthly over a period of 3 years of treatment with natural IFNâ (Frone) and determined the presence of binding antibodies and NAB activity to different IFN-â molecules. Materials and Methods


The problem of extracting a basis of irredundant motifs from a sequence is considered. In previous work such bases were built incrementally for all suffixes of the input string s in O(n3), where n is the length of s. Faster, non-incremental algorithms have been based on the landmark approach to string searching due to Fischer and Paterson, and exhibit respective time bounds of O(n2log n log|Σ|) and O(|Σ|n2log2 n log log n), with Σ denoting the alphabet. The algorithm by Fischer and Paterson makes crucial use of the FFT, which is impractical with long sequences. The present paper describes an off-line algorithm for binary strings that takes O(n2) time. The algorithm does not need to resort to the FFT and yet its performance is optimal for finite Σ.


Pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) is one of the most common infectious diseases globally. This study was carried out to asses the levels of vitamins C and E, glutathione peroxidase, catalase,  superoxide dismutase and lipid peroxidation product (malondialdehyde)  in pulmonary tuberculosis patients in Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria. A total of  90 individuals (males and females), comprising 30 newly diagnosed pulmonary tuberculosis patients yet to commence therapy. Thirty old cases on therapy and control group consisting of 30 apparently healthy individuals of the same age range (35-55years). The levels of Vitamin C, Vitamin E, glutathione peroxidase, catalase and superoxide dismutase in pulmonary tuberclosis were determined using standard method. The results showed that the levels of Vitamin C (1.64±0.41 mg/dl), Vitamin E (1.46±0.38 mg/dl), glutathione peroxidise (0.89±0.07 iu/L), catalase (70.49±2.02 iu/L) and superoxide dismutase (65.45±3.48 iu/L) in pulmonary tuberculosis were significantly decreased when compared with controls ( 1.91±0.42 mg/dl , 0.84±0.31 mg/ldl, 72.60±2.58 iu/L, 0.94±0.06 iu/L, 68.65±2.83 iu/L)  respectively (p<0.05). While the level of malondialdehyde (8.7±1.81 mol/ml) was significantly increased (p<0.05) in pulmonary tuberculosis when compared with control (4.91±1.90 mol/ml). However, the levels of antioxidants were increased in pulmonary tuberculosis on antituberclosis drugs when compared with those not on therapy.  These probably indicate that antioxidants status is significantly reduced in pulmonary tuberculosis patients which  may be associated with high levels of free radicals and oxidative stress. Hence, supplementation of pulmonary tuberculosis patients with diet or drugs containing  antioxidant can improved their condition.


Bandgap engineering of ZnO is crucial towards its practical applications. Due to their wide bandgap, BexZn1−xO alloys are promising materials for making optoelectronic devices that function in the solar-blind wavelength region. In this study, a theoretical investigation of the thermodynamics of these BexZn1−xO alloys is carried out using both first-principles calculations and the cluster expansion method. The cluster expansion method is used to describe the disordered alloys. It is revealed that, for both wurtzite (WZ) and zincblende (ZB) phase BexZn1−xO alloys, the formation enthalpies of all structures are positive for the whole range of composition. This implies the occurrence of miscibility gap when BeO and ZnO form alloys. A good comparison between the density functional theory used and the effective cluster interaction fitted formation enthalpies validates the cluster expansion method in the calculation of the formation enthalpies. The phase diagram of BexZn1−xO has been derived based on the theoret...


Over the past 40 years, almost a dozen attempts have been made to establish diagnostic and classification criteria for patients with idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIMs). In 1970, Medsger et al. [1] proposed five criteria similar to the Bohan and Peter criteria. However, the diagnostic criteria included responsiveness to steroids, excluding those patients who failed to respond to corticosteroids alone and yet subsequently responded to immunosuppressive therapy. De Vere and Bradley's [2] proposed criteria consisted of a combination of weakness, pain and tenderness, biopsy, EMG and creatine kinase level. However, the authors did not assess specificity against patients with non-inflammatory myopathies. Over 30 years ago, Bohan and Peter [3, 4] discussed two main topics: the problem of diagnosis and the problem of classification. However, these two terms have since been used interchangeably. They highlighted the need for clearly defined criteria for diagnosis and suggested a scheme in an attempt to establish such guidelines (Table 1)—'These criteria are empirically derived . . .' [3]. No data were provided for the sensitivity or specificity of these criteria, but they were explicit that other conditions needed to be excluded (e.g. motor neurone disease, muscular dystrophy, myasthenia gravis, infections, granulomatous myositis such as sarcoidosis, toxic causes from drugs and alcohol, metabolic disorders and endocrinopathies). Unfortunately, no instruction was given as to how to exclude other forms of myopathy. Most of the criteria are non-specific including the characteristic rashes of DM. In many rheumatic diseases, classification criteria have been developed to ensure meaningful comparison of patient populations both to predict the course of a disease and response to treatment. Several classification schemes had been popular, but Bohan and Peter [3] offered their work as an alternative approach. Their classification system was (i) primary idiopathic PM, (ii) primary idiopathic DM, (iii) PM or DM with malignancy, (iv) juvenile DM (or PM) associated with vasculitis and (v) PM or DM with associated collagen vascular diseases. However, they did not recognize IBM or other inflammatory myopathies, such as granulomatous and eosinophilic myositis. Clinicians widely accept that modern-day histopathology and genetic techniques need to exclude IBM, hereditary and other myopathies when applying the Bohan and Peter criteria. Several classification systems or modifications of the original classification criteria have since been proposed for IIM, but disagreement still continues. The new criteria that have been suggested have either been based on autoantibody subgroups [5–7] or on muscle histopathology [8]. Love et al. [5] suggested a classification based on several specific autoantibodies that define subgroups of patients with their clinical features, response to therapy and prognosis. Of the 212 patients included in their study, the clinical groups classified by Peter and Bohan differed relatively little from one another when examined by demography, signs and symptoms, HLA antigens and prognosis. The only exception was IBM. In contrast, they found that unique serological abnormalities of IIM, the myositis-specific autoantibodies (MSAs), each define more distinctive groups of IIM than the clinical groups for signs and symptoms and immunogenetics, and prognosis. However, few of these autoantibodies are available for routine clinical testing, which severely limits the practicality of their otherwise useful approach. Tanimoto et al. [6] included all five of the Bohan and Peter criteria and added four new criteria. Three of these criteria—arthritis and arthralgias, systemic inflammatory signs (fever, high ESR and CRP) and muscle pain or tenderness—are common features of many rheumatic diseases that are not found in non-systemic myopathies or neuropathies. Thus, they are not helpful in establishing TABLE 1 Bohan and Peter criteria for the diagnosis of PM and DM


Sinomenine (SN) is an alkaloid that has previously been shown to have a role in such varied processes as inflammation, angiogenesis, arthritis and immunosuppression. Therefore, in this study, possible anti-tumor effects of SN on the human prostate cancer cell lines, PC-3 and DU-145, was investigated. After treatment with varying doses of SN, apoptosis was measured by flow cytometry. Prostaglandin E2 production was detected by ELISA, and expression levels of cyclooxygenase-2 and nuclear factorkappa B were evaluated by western blot. In both PC-3 and DU-145 cells, SN treatment induced apoptosis, inhibited in vitro production of prostaglandin E2, and decreased activation of cyclooxygenase-2 and nuclear factor-kappa B. Growth inhibition assays were also performed to determine whether cell viability was responsible for the decrease in the activation observed. In combination, these results suggest that SN can induce an anti-tumor response by suppressing the activation of cyclooxygenase-2 and nuclear factor-kappa B signaling pathways.


The game started off pretty evenly with both sides struggling to find any sort of opening. However, after 17 minutes Rob Wilson popped up inside the ...


Abstract— Near‐UV induced activities of a series of 5‐a‐lkoxypsoralen derivatives (C1 to C8) and 5‐h‐ydroxypsoralen were compared with respect to lethal, mutagenic and prophage inducing effects on E. coli. Although 5‐a‐lkoxypsoralen derivatives having an alkoxyl chain longer than C2 were slightly soluble, their saturated solutions containing their insoluble portion showed the significant photolethal effect on E. coli. 5‐E‐thoxypsoralen was less photoactive in inducing phenotypic reversion of the arginine auxotrophy than 5‐m‐ethoxypsoralen but it photoinduced prophage lambda from the lysogenic bacteria as well as 5‐m‐ethoxypsoralen. Photomutagenesis by the derivatives of C3 to C8 could not be detected but ca. 10% of the lysogenic bacteria photoinduced prophage in the presence of the derivatives at the maximum induction.


A two‐coil mutual‐inductance technique for measuring the complex ac response of a two‐dimensional (2‐D) superconductor to a weak ac magnetic field is described. Analytical and numerical methods are presented which allow extraction of the complex ac conductance of the superconductor from the signal voltage induced in the detection coil by the screening currents flowing in the sample. The method is illustrated by measurements of the ac conductance of a square network of aluminum wires from which the penetration depths of both the network and (granular) aluminum are deduced. It is shown that the method provides a powerful tool to observe characteristic features associated with critical phenomena in 2‐D superconducting systems.


Concrete is undoubtedly the most widelyused construction material in the world,and it is expected to be so in the future.Substantial re s e a r ch and developmentactivities have been undertaken in thea r ea of concrete engineering andtechnology to investigate and innovatethe material properties, stru c t u r a lbehaviour and applications, and theconstruction practices of concrete. Thishas resulted in "new generations" ofc o n c r ete being constantly impro v i s e dand developed in order to meet the everi n c r easing demand for superiorworkability, mechanical and durabilityproperties, and they have been utilisedsuccessfully in numerous civil andstructural engineering applications. It is also widely understood that plainc o n c r ete is a brittle material whichpossesses low flexural tensile strength,ductility and strain capacity. The tensilestrength of concr ete, which is generally inthe range of 10 % of the compressivestrength, causes a number of undesirableconsequences in its performance as ane f fective construction material. Thisshortcoming has been there for the pastfew decades, and is still one of the mainconcerns of structural engineers.F u r t h e r m o r e, this scenario is alsop r evalent in some special applicationc o n c r ete, such as high performancec o n c r ete (HPC) and high stre n g t hconcrete (HSC), which are acknowledgedfor their enhanced mechanical propertiesand durability. The superior mechanicalproperties and durability in HPC andHSC are achieved by modifying them i c r o s t r u c t u r e of these concrete bydensifying and reducing the porosity ofthe matrix. However, this modification ofthe microstructure leads to a significantincrease in the brittleness as well as in thevolume changes which occur during theh a r dening of the material, i.e. inautogenous shrinkage [1]. These negativee f fects in HPC and HSC results indrawbacks to the beneficial and superiorp r operties demonstrated by them.H o w e v e r , these shortcomings can bereduced to a large extent byincorporating short discontinuous fibresinto the concr ete mixes, which r esults in amaterial known as fibre re i n f o r c e dconcrete (FRC).


Many of the interesting properties that make Ta2O5 a strategic material for current and future applications in chemistry, microelectronics and optics, depend on its structural characteristics. In this work, we use Raman spectroscopy to probe structural modifications in amorphous Ta2O5 coatings submitted to thermal annealing. On the basis of previous knowledge on the crystalline material, we perform Raman spectrum simulations in disordered and partially ordered Ta2O5 from a phonon density of states. Calculated spectra are in good agreement with complex experimental spectra. Our original approach allows assignment of the vibrational features of the amorphous material, and quantitative interpretation of observed structural modifications in terms of ordering scales. In addition, it provides numerical indicators to analyse amorphous to crystalline phase transformation. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Interaction between the Pinchal Granodiorite and the Kilometric Xenolite of Cerro Negro, Sierra de Moreno, Antofagasta Region, Chile. The processes associated with the interaction between the Pinchal Granodiorite (PG) and the kilometric Cerro Negro Xenolith (KCNX) are studied. The PG was cooled during the Late


A unified strategy for kainoid synthesis was developed. The key features of the strategy involve a Claisen–Ireland rearrangement to construct the contiguous stereogenic centers and a palladium-catalyzed formation of the pyrrolidine ring with complete stereoselectivity. The present protocol has enabled rapid access to a wide range of kainoids with diverse types of substituents (alkenyl, aryl, and alkyl groups) at the 4-position of the pyrrolidine ring, starting from the common intermediate and appropriate acetic acid derivatives. To test the generality of the strategy, we have accomplished the syntheses of kainic acid, o-methoxyphenyl derivative (MFPA), and a novel cyclopropyl derivative (CPKA), using 3-methylbut-3-enoic acid, 2-(2-methoxyphenyl)acetic acid, and 2-cyclopropylacetic acid, respectively.


Learning the structure of a Bayesian network and considering the efficiency and accuracy of learning has always been a hot topic for researchers. This paper proposes two constraints to solve the problem that the A* algorithm, an exact learning algorithm, is not efficient enough to search larger networks. On the one hand, the parent–child set constraints reduce the number of potential optimal parent sets. On the other hand, the path constraints are obtained from the potential optimal parent sets to constrain the search process of the A* algorithm. Both constraints are proposed based on the potential optimal parent sets. Experiments show that the time efficiency of the A* algorithm can be significantly improved, and the ability of the A* algorithm to search larger Bayesian networks can be improved by the two constraints. In addition, compared with the globally optimal Bayesian network learning using integer linear programming (GOBNILP) algorithm and the max–min hill-climbing (MMHC) algorithm, which are state of the art, the A* algorithm enhanced by constraints still performs well in most cases.


Excited 20Ne at 0.1 torr was placed inside the cavity of a single‐frequency, 6328‐A laser. A pronounced peak appeared in the output power, caused by an inverted Lamb dip effect. Because of the low pressure used, this peak was only 30 ± 5 MHz wide and must be very near the atomic resonant frequency. In contrast, the overall output curve was blue‐shifted 60 ± 10 MHz by the 3 torr nominal pressure in the laser gain tube. This saturated absorption effect can be used as an absolute reference for the frequency stabilization of He–Ne and similar lasers.


Objectives: To investigate the value of T-wave inversion after premature ventricular complexes (PVCs) for the prediction of hypertensive patients with a likelihood of ischemic heart disease (IHD). Patients and Methods: Ambulatory 24-hour ECG, ambulatory 24-hour blood pressure (BP) recording, echocardiography, treadmill exercise ECG test and thallium-201 scintigraphy were performed for 210 hypertensive patients. Results: Predictive indices showed that persistent symmetrical T-wave inversion after repetitive uniform PVCs equaling 30 min can be considered an indicator for the prediction of IHD in hypertensive patients as sensitivity was 80%, specificity: 73%, accuracy: 78%, positive predictive value: 83%, and negative predictive value: 69%. kappa coefficient value (ĸ) indicated that there was good agreement between changes in ventricular repolarization after PVCs and stress thallium scintigraphy (ĸ = 0.897). Receiver-operating characteristic curve data showed that the ideal cutoff value of T-wave inversion voltage to predict IHD in hypertensive patients was 2.2 mV (sensitivity: 66% and false positive: 35%, and area under curve: 0.716), but the ideal cutoff value of time for resolution of T-wave inversion was 34 min (sensitivity: 83% and false positive: 18%, and area under curve: 0.873). Multivariate analysis revealed that T-wave inversion after repetitive uniform PVCs was significantly associated with non-sustained ventricular tachycardia, decreased parasympathetic activity, increased sympathetic activity, morning BP surge, systolic BP load >50% and left ventricular diastolic dysfunction status. Conclusion: The data show that persistent symmetrical T-wave changes following resumption of sinus rhythm after repetitive uniform PVCs are an independent variable for the prediction of IHD in hypertensive patients.


This paper depicts the marketing education in the People's Republic of China. The evidence presented in this paper seems to indicate that marketing education in China is still at a growth stage and further development is necessary and desirable. Chinese marketing educators should consider seriously shifting their vocational training orientation to decision-making direction in their course planning and curriculum development. Creative teaching methods like teaching company schemes and computer applications should also be incorporated into the traditional instruction methods.


S-palmitoylation is a reversible lipid modification that regulates trafficking, localization, activity, and/or stability of protein substrates by serving as a fatty acid anchor to cell membranes. However, S-palmitoylation-dependent control of signal transduction in cardiomyocytes and its effects on cardiac physiology are not well understood. We performed an in vivo gain-of-function screen of zinc finger Asp-His-His-Cys (zDHHC) family S-acyl transferases that catalyze S-palmitoylation and identified the Golgi-localized enzyme zDHHC3 as a critical regulator of cardiac maladaptation. The closely-related enzyme, zDHHC7, also induced severe cardiomyopathy but this effect was not observed with overexpression of plasma membrane enzyme zDHHC5, endoplasmic reticulum enzyme zDHHC6, or Golgi enzyme zDHHC13. To identify effectors that may underlie zDHHC3-induced cardiomyopathy we performed quantitative site-specific S-acyl proteomics in zDHHC3-overexpressing cells that revealed the small GTPase Rac1 as a novel substrate. We generated cardiomyocyte-specific transgenic mice overexpressing zDHHC3, which develop severe cardiac disease. Cardiomyopathy and congestive heart failure in zDHHC3 transgenic mice are preceded by enhanced S-palmitoylation of Rac1 and induction of additional Rho family small GTPases including RhoA, Cdc42, and the Rho family-specific chaperone RhoGDI. In contrast, transgenic mice overexpressing an enzymatically-dead mutant of zDHHC3 do not exhibit this profound induction of RhoGTPase signaling or develop cardiac disease. Rac1 S-palmitoylation, plasma membrane localization, activity, and downstream hypertrophic signaling were substantially increased in zDHHC3 overexpressing hearts. Taken together, these data suggest inhibition of zDHHC3/7 S-acyl transferase activity at the cardiomyocyte Golgi or disruption of Rac1 S-palmitoylation as novel therapeutic strategies to treat cardiac disease or other diseases associated with enhanced RhoGTPase signaling.


This article examines the tensions and contradictions in the relationship between academic education and market. It tries to show how propositions of the education reform policies have relied on the notion of curricular flexibleness, whose matrixes - resignified and applied to the educational field - guide such policies. Productive re-structuring, State reform, job market, and academic education are, therefore, taken as interrelated key categories. First, this study focuses on the productive re-structuring and job market in the globalization context. Then its focus changes to the academic education reform, above all to the national curricular guidelines. At last, it approaches flexibleness, market, and autonomy as determining elements of the paradigms which define professional profiles since they taken as a reference to the curricular planning in academic education institutions.


In this paper a theory of the earnings attainment process is formalized. This theory conceives of the attainment process as being governed by vacancy chains in hierarchically structured organizations. Predictions deduced from the theory are tested with data on attainment processes within some 5,600 Swedish manufacturing establishments. The empirical results offer support for the theory and suggest that individual attainment processes systematically are influenced by the shape of the organizational structures in which they are embedded.


In any repair of a tooth with permanent restorative materials, the interface is always a sensitive region. The appearance of adhesive materials was a great step forward in dealing with the problems of this region and improving the overall performance of the restorations. However, contemporary adhesive materials do have a major disadvantage, namely that their durability is limited, a limitation which often arises due to their inadequate marginal adaptation. Restorative materials in the new era aim to be "bio-active" and longlasting. As part of our continuous interest in developing the novel bioactive containing restorative materials, we evaluated the effect of the additional bio-actives (such as chitosan, β-carotene, guar gum resin and the combination of the materials) to the commercially available flowable restorative materials such as Premise on the volumetric shrinkage, flexural strength, compressive strength, the surface hardness of the "bio-active" containing composite. Materials and Methods: The bioactive modified restorative materials were prepared by dispersion of the corresponding component with the addition of commercially available flowable restorative material. The surface morphology (SEM) of the freshly prepared restorative materials as well as reactive surface of the material after 24 hours and 3 months storage in artificial saliva has been performed. The physicochemical properties such volumetric shrinkage, Vickers Hardness and flexural strength of the bio-active restorative materials have been measured and are reported. The effect of the bioactive additionto the commercially available flowable restorative materials such as Premise on the shear bond strength of dentin has been evaluated. Results: The SEM images were obtained to characterize the microstructure of the freeze-dried modified restorative material as well as evaluated the durability of the bioactive restorative materials after 24 hours and 3 month exposure to artificial saliva.All bioactive containing flowable restorative materials gave significantly (P< 0.05; non-parametric ANOVA test) higher shear bond values (P< 0.05) than dentin treated or not treated with phosphoric acid.Volumetric changesdue to polymerization in modified composites have been explored using an electronic mercury dilatometer. The average


3D printing is a new innovative manufacturing method for fabrication of customized medical devices. The customized medical devices & long-lasting implantable devices.has increasing demand for addressing some critical cases in surgeries.
The main aim of this work was to explore the potential of 3D printing in Fabrication of medical devices and prosthetics. The characters of the polymers, the features of softwares were studied.
The study showed that drug loading into filament through hot melt extrusion and followed by 3D printing has many defects such as denaturing of drugs at higher printing temperatures.
The invention discloses the dip coating process  after fabrication of a 3D printed polymer structure. The drug release depends up on the surface area of the device, coated polymer, concentration of drug and thickness of the coat.
The method for preparing the personalized drug eluting coronary stent / Bone wedges / Braces comprises the step that according to image data of coronary angiogram or volume rendered data from CT scans. The designing was done by adopting a QCA technique for measuring the diameter of a diseased coronary artery and reconstructing in a three-dimensional manner. According to indexes such as lesion vascular diameter, lesion length and lesion vascular pattern, a personalized coronary stent can be made for each patient in a customized manner and a stent most suitable for the lesion state of a patient can be prepared.
Keywords: 3D printing, manufacturing method, Fabrication of medical devices


This paper presents a physics-based approach capable of detecting cast shadows in video sequence effectively. We develop a new physical model of cast shadows without making prior assumption of the spectral power distribution (SPD) of the light sources and ambient illumination in the scene. The background appearance variation caused by cast shadows is characterized as the interaction of the blocked light sources and the background surface reflectance. We then take advantage of the statistical prevalence of cast shadows to learn and update the shadow model parameters using the Gaussian mixture model (GMM) over time. The proposed algorithm is completely unsupervised and can adapt to specific environment with complex illumination condition as well as changing shadow conditions. Experimental results on three challenging sequences demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.


Section 313 of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act of 1986 (EPCRA) requires certain facilities manufacturing, processing, or otherwise using listed toxic chemicals to report their environmental releases of such chemicals annually. Beginning with the 1991 reporting year, such facilities also must report pollution prevention and recycling data for such chemicals, pursuant to section 6607 of the Pollution Prevention Act, 42 U.S.C. 13106. When enacted, EPCRA section 313 established an initial list of toxic chemicals that was comprised of more than 300 chemicals and 20 chemical categories. EPCRA section 313(d) authorizes EPA to add chemicals to or delete chemicals from the list, and sets forth criteria for these actions.


Airport operators, planners and regulatory agencies to measure the economic contribution of an airport to its local and regional surroundings, frequently use economic impact studies. The most common methods to measure airport economic impacts have been the Input-Output method, the Collection of Benefits method and most recently the Catalytic method. The most used measured variables include employment, wages, local and regional spending and air traffic levels. This paper is a new approach to these impact studies in which is used a new tool to identify the added values generated within airports and surrounding community interactions to better catch real socio-economic impacts. The VNA – Value Network Analysis, is used as an integrated methodology to identify these interactions and added values generated (tangibles and intangibles) in the business system of landside airports. To define the system it is used the matrix key airport performance benchmarking areas of ACI (Airport Council International) that are in the range of landside of the airport. Key words: Social Networks, Airport Landside, Value Network Analysis, Key Performance Indicators, Business System.


Abstract : To develop an inversion procedure which will estimate the bottom acoustic properties with sufficient resolution to enable prediction of acoustic field over a range of frequencies. Investigate the usefulness of wavelets in determining the bottom compressional wave speed profile at different scales.


Acknowledgments Preface Introduction: The Wisdom Effect-Ivo Andric the Storyteller Love in the Kasaba An Uneasy Year Corkan and the German Tightrope Walker Byron in Sintra Maltreatment The Surveyor and Julka Ojujaci Thirst Miracle at Olovo In the Camp The Slave Girl Zuja Loves Woman on the Rock The Pasha's Concubine Anika's Times A Family Portrait The Snake The Tanners The Game An Ivory Woman Jelena, the Woman Who Is Not


Smart manufacturing is usually associated with fancy cobots and automated production lines. But the Big Data ecosystem has a part to play, and is probably faster and cheaper to start with. The numerical revolution has dramatically accelerated these last years, with many implications in different industries. We propose in this article to present these new tools, and discuss some real use cases. We will also present the best practices and some of the inevitable challenges related to data projects.


The morphofunctional state offspring of rats first generation in age 3 and 6 monthes from long time exposed males and females in hazardous area of Chernobyl NPS was studied (registration point Masany). At experimental animals the damages in blood, in sex systems, in heredetic apparatus, in morrow cells and in blood lymphocytes were shown, that testify about the effects of low-intensive long-term radiation on organism. Obtained data indicate remote consequences of radiation-ecological factors of environmental surroundings at posterity animal of generation F1 breeding in zone of enhanced radioactive contamination.


European students are aware what a rich collection of important works is to be found in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, but they do not always realise that it is also a treasure-house of smaller objects which are yet of great archaeological interest. An instance is the relief which Dr. Lacey Caskey, Curator of the Department of Classical Art, kindly permits me to publish as a note to my article on archaic figurative terracotta decoration in Rome. The relief (fig. 45), 7⅞ by 8¼ inches, is said to have been found in Rome; it is of red clay, and is broken at both sides so that only a part of the subject remains. This consists of two horses, proceeding slowly to the left, evidently attached by the pole between them to a chariot now no longer visible. Two long pairs of reins extend backwards and must have been held by the driver. All other indications of harness have vanished and may have been supplied in colour.


To make water in urban rivers flowing and improve water quality, an eco-gate pump unit which uses plate gate as a carrier was designed and developed based on computational fluid dynamics method and the model test in this paper. Firstly, the bidirectional operation energy performance of eco-gate pump was verified by the model test. The results showed that the numerical simulation results were consistent with the model test results with an error of ±2% at the optimum operating condition both in the pumping mode and the powering mode, which verified the reliability and accuracy of numerical stimulation. The major sources of error associated with the power losses were due to the fact that the blade tip leakage and the blade deflection were not considered in computational fluid dynamics simulation. The thickened blade edges also contributed to the differences. On this basis, different schemes of runner blade's setting angles, blade number, blade lean angle, bulb body's length, and shoulder profile line were designed, and their influences on eco-gate pump's performance were analyzed to choose the best runner type and bulb body's profile line through the computational fluid dynamics numerical simulations. The numerical results showed that the eco-gate pump had the best hydraulic performance when the blade's setting angle was ϕ = 23°, blade number z = 5, blade's lean angle a = 0° and bulb body's shoulder profile line was convex type with length L = 100 mm. The developed pump showed the highest efficiency of 70.95% under the condition of design discharge of 500 L/s and design lift of 1.0 m. Furthermore, the whole flow pattern of the optimized pump was analyzed. Overall, the eco-gate pump presented in this paper can make use of its low-lift pumping function to replenish the target water body more efficient than other similar products. At the same time, it also can utilize the micro-head water energy fully to generate power.


We demonstrate a two-stage system of cascaded traveling-wave phase-sensitive optical parametric amplifiers, achieving 3.6dB squeezed-quadrature amplification (0.9dB deamplification) on top of 1.3 dB squeezing provided by the first stage.


Pastoral care cannot be separated from counseling services as a form of guidance for people who have problems or commonly referred to as counselees. The problem discussed by the author is the problem of depressive neurosis. Depressive neurosis is a problem that occurs in a person's psyche without knowing the cause. In solving the problem of depressive neurosis, a good strategy is needed so that this problem can be solved. The purpose of this writing itself is so that the servant or counselor can understand and know what strategies are suitable to be used in helping to solve the problem of depressive neurosis in contextual pastoral care. The method used is the Literature method by observing books and journals or articles to support writing. Build a good relationship with the counselee, involve and direct the counselee's family to help the counselee, encourage the counselee to know himself, listen to the counselee well without guessing the problems experienced, provide support to the counselee, and provide opportunities and guide the counselee to take a way out. of the problem. Thus, the authors hope, the strategies described can be used in pastoral care to solve the problem of depressive neurosis.


When Behaviour & Information Technology (BIT) was first founded in 1983, most computer users had little computer power on their desks. The personal computer (PC) had only been launched a couple of years previously (1981) and 'dumb' terminals were common attached to large central mainframe computers. In those computer-centric times, this was known as 'remote computing'. As I pointed out at the time, it was not remote for the users! However, the rapid adoption of personal computing changed all that and users became used to having considerable power on their desktop, in their laptops and, more recently, in their phones. In what could be regarded as the 'mainframe fights back' (sorry, I enjoyed the latest Star Wars movie during the holidays), cloud computing has become the latest wave of computing technology to affect the lives of ordinary people. The benefits of duplicated data and access from almost anywhere have been widely recognised and largely welcomed – not as an alternative to personal computing but as a useful adjunct. Lose your diary on your smartphone and you can wipe it remotely and still access all your own data. I am reminded of a talk I heard a few years ago (sorry I cannot remember the attribution) where the analogy was made with electric light. We expect all buildings and many external environments to be well enough illuminated so that we do not routinely carry our own torches (flashlights to our US colleagues). Anyone who felt the need to provide their own illumination at all times would quite rightly be regarded as a little odd. So the speaker suggested that the desire to lug laptops around would also be regarded as rather quaint. But I think that is too simplistic. Rather like the way men's hairstyles in the UK changed from considerable uniformity – all 'short back and sides' to 'all over the collar' in the fifties to seventies – to 'anything goes' today, I believe we live in a world where there is an increasing mix of technology, from powerful personal technology to the 'cloud', available almost anywhere. I for one welcome this. There are times where it's convenient to have 'all your own stuff' and times where the reassurance of having large server farms somewhere on earth does indeed reassure. One of the key drivers of making this happen is the way networks allow multiple access paths and automatic joining and rejoining as we move around. In the early days, constant logging on and reconnecting when connections failed was a major drain on our energy and efficiency. From the inspired invention of packet switching to increasingly capable storage, our computing world has changed for the better. It is far from perfect yet but most of the time we do not need to think about where our data is, which, of course, brings its own issues in terms of privacy and security, but that is another editorial. In this issue of BIT, we publish a diverse group of papers which address the implications of large databases and networks, starting with a paper which explores the perspective of students using cloud archiving. Daniel Burda and Frank Teuteberg from the Institute of Information Management and Information Systems, University of Osnabrueck, Germany, wanted to understand how customer preferences vary so that these could be targeted with appropriate cloud services. They conducted an experiment and analysed choice decisions of 340 German students by means of a conjoint analysis. They performed an individual-level analysis of preferences, which revealed significant differences and heterogeneity within the sample. By using a subsequent cluster analysis, they identified three distinct customer segments that also showed significant differences in, for example, the perceptions of information privacy and risks. The authors conclude their report with a discussion of the practical implications that could aid cloud storage providers in service design decisions, and highlight the limitations associated with their research approach and sample. In the next paper, T. Rosman and A.-K. Mayer and G. Krampen (also from the Department of Clinical Psychology) from the Leibniz Institute for Psychology Information (ZPID), Trier, Germany, investigated individual factors that determine success and failure in bibliographic database searching. In line with previous research, they hypothesised that the low usability of advanced bibliographic database interfaces (e.g. OvidSPTM) would hinder students in implementing their information-seeking knowledge. Furthermore, they assumed that conscientious students and those who needed cognitive closure would be driven to using such advanced interfaces, even if they overtaxed them. They performed a cluster analysis on data from 116 psychology undergraduates, and identified 3 types of searchers: successful database users, unsuccessful database users, and no-database users (e.g. Google ScholarTM searchers). Multiple regression revealed the relationship between information-seeking knowledge and search success to be positive for no-database users and negative for unsuccessful database users: unsuccessful database users did not only have trouble putting their information-seeking


Recent outages in several Web services have demonstrated the potential damage of availability disruptions, since millions of end users rely on these services powered by thousands of servers in large-scale Internet data centers. As Internet data centers continue to grow in scale and complexity, it has become a daunting task to monitor and manage thousands of servers simultaneously. This paper presents a cooperative monitoring framework to continuously monitor availability of thousands of servers in Internet data centers. We propose a simple yet effective algorithm for locating monitor nodes for the purposes of load balancing and resilience, and demonstrate the performance of this method through simulations based on dataset collected from a large Internet content provider. The results show that the monitoring load are well divided among the servers in the data centers, and cooperative monitoring adapts gracefully to the events of monitoring node failures.


Background Diabetes has become a serious global public health problem. With the increasing prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), the incidence of complications of T2DM is also on the rise. Sitagliptin, as a targeted drug of DPP4, has good therapeutic effect for T2DM. It is well known that sitagliptin can specifically inhibit the activity of DPP4 to promote insulin secretion, inhibit islet β cell apoptosis and reduce blood glucose levels, while other pharmacological mechanisms are still unclear, such as improving insulin resistance, anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidative stress, and anti-fibrosis. The aim of this study was to explore novel targets and potential signaling pathways of sitagliptin for T2DM. Methods Firstly, network pharmacology was applied to find the novel target most closely related to DPP4. Semi-flexible molecular docking was performed to confirm the binding ability between sitagliptin and the novel target, and molecular dynamics simulation (MD) was carried to verify the stability of the complex formed by sitagliptin and the novel target. Furthermore, surface-plasmon resonance (SPR) was used to explored the affinity and kinetic characteristics of sitagliptin with the novel target. Finally, the molecular mechanism of sitagliptin for T2DM was predicted by the enrichment analysis of GO function and KEGG pathway. Results In this study, we found the cell surface receptor―angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) most closely related to DPP4. Then, we confirmed that sitagliptin had strong binding ability with ACE2 from a static perspective, and the stability of sitagliptin―ACE2 complex had better stability and longer binding time than BAR708―ACE2 in simulated aqueous solution within 50 ns. Significantly, we have demonstrated a strong affinity between sitagliptin and ACE2 on SPR biosensor, and their kinetic characteristics were "fast binding/fast dissociation". The guiding significance of clinical administration: low dose can reach saturation, but repeated administration was needed. Finally, there was certain relationship between COVID-19 and T2DM, and ACE2/Ang-(1-7)/Mas receptor (MasR) axis may be the important pathway of sitagliptin targeting ACE2 for T2DM. Conclusion This study used different methods to prove that ACE2 may be another novel target of sitagliptin for T2DM, which extended the application of ACE2 in improving diabetes mellitus.


In emergency contexts such as the COVID-19 pandemic, mental health risk factors affect children and may affect behavioral and emotional problems including anxiety, self-blame, emotional disturbance, and stress. Preventive measures are crucial to address these health risks. Research highlights strength-based factors, such as socio-emotional skills and prosocial behaviors, as important for childhood development and socio-emotional wellbeing. Yet, the initial evidence base shows mixed effectiveness and insufficient behavior change theory application into socio-emotional and prosocial digital game interventions. Additionally, few interventions are designed with a clear process to convert theory into practical game solutions and very limited guidance on the digital game development process exists. This study describes the Intervention Mapping Protocol (IMP) and theory application in the design of a digital game intervention which aims to strengthen social-emotional skills development and promote prosocial behavior in 8–11-year-old children. The method systematically describes the steps of the IMP process in detail to guide future theory-based game design. The results explain the final digital game prototype that was co-designed with continuous input and insights provided by stakeholders and feedback from children. This paper contributes to our understanding of theory application in the design of digital game interventions focused on health and behavior change and provides much needed guidance on how theory and stakeholder input can be incorporated into a final game design.


Diabetes is an important internal disorder with complications such as metabolic abnormalities, retinopathy, neuropathy, nephropathy ... and vascular disorders. The patient plays the most roles in treatment. So we studied a self ‑ care planning effect on diabetic foot healing in some selected hospitals in Tehran.

 Methods & Materials: This quasi ‑ experimental study performed on 54 diabetic foot assess in two random groups (30 cases and 24 controls). In 3 months the cases trained how to use self ‑ care planning such as drug ‑ taking, regimen, exercise and ulcer dressing but the control care as usual.

 HbAlc and ulcer in two groups compared before intervention and in 1,2 and 3 months. The data gathered biweekly.

 Results: Finding showed no significant difference in imean of HbAlc in both groups before intervention but significant decline in cases 3 month later.

 Discussion: The score of ulcer with no significant difference in both groups before intervention but showed significant difference in the treatment and prevention of diabetic complications so it seems necessary and important to teach self ‑ cares planning to diabetic patients


Batik is one of the important industries and the pride of Indonesia. Batik is a world cultural heritage which is originally Indonesia. In batik industry, innovation is one of the important factors that will improve marketing
performance. This study wanted to test some of the main drivers of innovation and marketing performance on Batik SMEs. The purpose of this study is (1) Testing the influence of social capital on innovation and marketing
performance; (2) Testing the effect of entrepreneurial orientation on innovation and marketing performance;
and (3) Testing the influence of co-creation on innovation and marketing performance. The research sample
consisted of 161 batik businesses in the city of Sragen and Purwodadi. Data were analyzed using SEM PLS
and processed using WarpPls with version 5. The results of this study indicate that only some of the hypotheses
are accepted, such as (1) entrepreneurial orientation is able to significantly improve innovation, (2) co-creation
is able to significantly increase innovation, (3) market capability is able to significantly improve innovation, and (4) market capability is able to significantly improve marketing performance

Keywords: Entrepreneurial Orientation, Social Capital, Market Capabilities, Co-Creation, Innovation, Marketing Performance


early (e.g. cT1N0) this may be excessive. We hypothesize that a single 7 Gy radiotherapy (RT) fraction directed at the tumor combined with a single Pembro dose given preoperatively in patients with early stage breast cancer is feasible and may result in pathologic response.


levels. To investigate the error types, the frequency of error types, the similarities and difference of errors and the last to find the error sources that occur in first, second and third year learners. Error analysis is one type of linguistic study and it focuses on learners' error making. The linguistic category and surface strategy taxonomy are used to find out the types of error. The analysis the phenomenon based on Brown (1980) namely, error identification, error classification, Error description and error explanation. The data from students' writing products, 54 pieces in three levels and the total errors are 571 erroneous sentences. There are two types of errors, namely lexical errors and syntactical errors; eight error categories and twenty-seven error cases. The second year learners made the most error 263 errors or 46, 05% while first year learners produced 229 errors or 40, 10% and third year learners made 79 errors or 13, 83%. There are similarity in errors types, five similar categories and five error cases, but there are three different error categories and eighteen error cases. The main error sources, learners had lack knowledge of English grammatical rule. The overgeneralization (265 errors or 46, 40%) influences learners' error, language transfer (199 errors or 34, 85%) still interfere learners' acquisition and simplification (107 errors or 18, 73%) is one factor that effect learners' errors.


Energy storage systems (ESS) are more and more used in power systems where renewable energy sources (RES) are integrated. ESS can participate in frequency control and also represents a flexible solution to supply the demands in power systems. The mathematical model presented in this paper minimizes the investment costs, load shedding costs and generation costs, concomitant with integrating ESS and building new transmission lines if the capacity of the existing ones is not sufficient.


To investigate the processing of transforming growth factor beta1 (TGFbeta1) pro-protein by furin protease we expressed a GST-pro-TGFbeta1 fusion protein in bacteria. Analysis of the furin digestion pattern revealed the liberation of 12.5 kDa TGFbeta1 monomers. There was no evidence for cleavage of an alternative furin site within the pro-protein.


Wafer level chip scale package (WLCSP) has been recognized providing clear advantages over traditional wire-bond package in relaxing the need of underfill while offering high density of I/O interconnects. Without the underfill, the solder joint reliability becomes more critical. Adding to the reliability concerns is the safety demand trend toward "green" products on which unleaded material, e.g. lead-free solders, is required. The requirement of lead-free solders on the packages results in a higher reflow temperature profile in the package manufacturing process, in turn, complicating the reliability issue. This paper presents an optimization study, considering the fatigue reliability, for a wafer level chip scale IC package in which a Ti/Cu/Ni UBM is involved. A finite element model is developed for the package. The model employs Sn3.8Ag0.7Cu lead-free solders built on build-up layers with micro-vias. Finite element analyses are performed to study the mechanical behaviors of the package elements in which the solder as well as the UBM is of interest. Firstly, a Surface Evolver program is used to construct the solder based non-solder mask defined (NSMD) pad. Then, multi-purpose finite element software, ANSYStm, is used to create a double symmetric 3D numerical model to investigate the mechanical behaviors including deformation, stress-strain relation as well as hysteresis loops for temperature cycles. The GarofaloArrhenius Creep Model is employed. A modified CoffinManson formula is also employed to estimate the fatigue life for the package. Finally, the Taguchi robust analysis is adopted for optimization analysis of UBM thicknesses and solder geometry. Our results show that thicker UBM layers tend to increase the fatigue life while a small solder pad will prolong the fatigue life and as volume increases so does the fatigue life. From the results of Taguchi robust analysis, it is shown that among the factors of UBM layer thickness, solder pad radius and solder 1 Department of Engineering Science, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan. 2 Department of Computer Application Engineering, Far East College, Tainan, Taiwan. volume, the solder volume is the most dominating factor on the fatigue life of the package. The optimal combination of UBM thickness set at 0.0066 mm (level 3), solder pad radius set at 0.10 mm (Level 1), and solder volume set at 0.020 mm3 (Level 3) contributes the greatest fatigue life of 1229 cycles which is 448% gained over our reference package model. keyword: Wafer level package, Lead-free, Finite element analysis, Robust design


Molecular Medicine and Gene Therapy: An Introduction (T. Kresina & A. Branch). Nuclear Transplantation and New Frontiers in Genetic Molecular Medicine (D. Jerry, et al.). Building a Better Mouse: Genetically Altered Mice as Models for Gene Therapy (E. Sandgren & W. Kisseberth). Vectors in Gene Therapy (K. Ponder). Gene Targeting (E. Kmiec). Gene Therapy of Hematological Disorders (C. Dunbar & T. Wu). Gene Therapy for Liver Disease (C. Schilling, et al.). Gene Therapy in Cardiovascular Disease (V. Dzau, et al.). Components of Cell and Gene Therapy for Neurological Disorders (L. Doering). Gene Therapy in the Treatment of Cancer (S. Hall, et al.). Gene Therapy for HIV Infection (B. Bunnell). Gene Therapy Approaches for Rheumatoid Arthritis (R. Gay, et al.). Federal Oversight of Gene Therapy Research (T. Kresina). Ethical Issues in Molecular Medicine and Gene Therapy (L. Fleck). Epilogue: Personal Genetic Medicine-The Future Is Now (T. Kresina). Appendix. Index.


Background: Electrocardiogram (ECG) is a low-cost, inexpensive, non-invasive, and ubiquitous test to detect structural or electrical cardiac abnormalities. The ECG interpretation is a visual task t...


The simultaneous generation of 1,2-dibromobenzocyclobutene and 5,6-bis(bromomethylene)cyclohexa-1,3-diene gives benzo[b]biphenylene directly. Annelated derivatives of this ring system, including naphtho[2,3-b]-, biphenyleno[2,3-a]-, and biphenyleno[2,3-b]-biphenylenes may be obtained by variations of this procedure. Some cycloaddition reactions of 1,2-dibromobenzocyclobutene with cyclopenta-2,4-dienones and with thiophene 1,1-dioxides, giving rise to simple biphenylenes, are also described.


The purpose of this research is to explore how empirical studies surrounding e-therapy may affect the social work profession from an ecological perspective. Technology has played an important role in expanding contemporary society's ability to connect to one another. Currently, there is a significant number of people who are in need of mental health services but do not have access for a variety of reasons such as lack of local resources, financial issues, or simply the stigma surrounding seeking mental health treatment. This review explores eleven quantitative research articles in an effort to determine who is being treated with online therapeutic interventions, why they are being treated, and the outcomes of selected studies. Findings suggest that many aspects of online mental health treatment are being explored at an international level across all mental health professions. Studies conducted in Europe (n=4) tend to focus on adults suffering from general psychological issues, to individuals experiencing chronic addictions. Articles from Australia or New Zealand (n=3) are oriented around addressing young people's (under 20) psychological concerns and perceptions of mental health treatment as a whole. Clinician's perspectives are also examined in the remaining articles (n=4). Online mental health services may provide another avenue for the implementation of successful therapeutic interventions. Future research should continue to explore the efficacy of CBT and psychotherapy delivered online, making a conscious effort to repeat Standardized Measurement Tools (SMT). SYNTHESIS OF E-THERAPY IN SOCIAL WORK 2


Recently, the importance of DRAM is very significant in multicore processors which are widely used in computers, laptops, tablet PCs, and mobile devices. To keep up with this, both industry and academia have actively studied various types of future DRAMs. Therefore, accurate DRAM model is requisite when evaluating the multicore processor performance. In this paper, a multicore processor trace-driven simulator which can couple with the cycle-accurate DRAM simulator has been developed. Using SPEC 2000 benchmarks as input, the effect of cycle-accurate DDR3 model on the multicore processor performance has been evaluated.


Operation Wallacea and BioMAP Egypt conducted bird surveys and distance sampling in St Katherine Protectorate in June and July 2007. 18 repeat surveys in St Katherine City estimated bird abundance, diversity and density. 33 species were recorded, 17 during expeditions and 18 in St Katherine City. Rock Dove Columba livia, Laughing Dove Streptopelia senegalensis and Sinai Rosefinch Carpodacus synoicus had the highest abundance and density in the repeated St Katherine surveys. A number of bird species that formerly appeared to be common in St Katherine Protectorate were detected only rarely or were not detected at all in recent surveys. Mourning Wheatear Oenanthe lugens and a number of Hooded Wheatear Oenanathe monacha were observed in a variety of surveys, but had probably been missed in 2006. A pair of Bonelli's Eagle Hieraaetus fasciatus was observed in Wadi Arbaein for the second year running. Early migrant warblers were noted on stopover in mid-July, such as Olive-tree Warbler Hippolais olivetorum and Orphean Warbler Sylvia hortensis. Remaining bird populations are threatened with increasing pressure from overgrazing, settlement, expanding tourism, illegal hunting and demands placed on scarce water resources. St Katherine Protectorate is an important area for both resident and migratory birds, and requires ongoing protection, management, and further research.


Urodynamic researches were carried out at healthy children in the age of 6-15 years. Laws of a structurally functional status of bodies of uric system at children during the various age periods are revealed. The interrelation between the parameters describing uric ways as uniform structurally functional system is determined


FIELD: radio engineering, communication. SUBSTANCE: signs of the presence of a radio pulse at the input of a detector are considered not only overshoots but also undershoots in the output signal of the detector, wherein undershoots are detected using an additional threshold circuit which improves detection characteristics. EFFECT: high efficiency of detection. 3 dwg


Objective
To study the clinical effect of concurrent radiotherapy and chemotherapy in advanced cervical cancer.

Methods
From January 2012 to January 2013,a total of 30 cases clinical data with advanced cervical cancer treatment in Songzi People's Hospital were recruited. By retrospective analytical method,according to different strategies of treatment programs they were divided into observation group (n=15,treatment by radical radiotherapy combined with chemotherapy program) and control group(n= 15, only treatment by received radical radiotherapy). The study protocol was approved by the Ethical Review Board of Investigation in Human Being of Songzi People's Hospital. Informed consent was obtained from all participants. There had no significance difference between two groups among age,clinical staging and types of pathologic of advanced cervical cancer(P>0. 05). Analysis of clinical therapeutic effects of two groups by statistics method.

Results
The effective rates of differerent methods of treatment programs in observation group was significantly better than that in control group (P<0. 05). The recurrence rates,distant metastasis rates,and mortality rates in observation group were significantly lower than those in control group, and there all had significance difference (P<0. 05).

Conclusions
Concurrent chemotherapy and radiotherapy in advanced cervical cancer clinical efficacy clearly better, can prolong survival time and improve the quality of life of advanced cervical cancer patients. The clinical treatment of advanced cervical cancer may be preferred concurrent chemoradiotherapy regimens.

Key words:
radical radiotherapy; chemotherapy; cervical cancer


The subject of dust in galaxies, if covered comprehensively, is so vast that it would require an entire book for adequate discussion. In this review we concentrate on a few topics related primarily to dust as a constituent of systems in the Universe having masses comparable to galaxies. We have intentionally omitted discussing characteristics of dust as interstellar matter within galaxies or associated with stars. Several previous review articles have been devoted to the physical properties of dust within the Milky Way, and we will avoid repetition of material covered earlier.

Our discussion focuses on observable characteristics and the physical importance of dust in galaxies. We have included active nuclei galaxies and quasars in this discussion, interpreting galaxies in the broadest sense. In the subjects we have covered, we have attempted to be up to date as of approximately June 1982.

The observable characteristics of dust that generally lead to significant information about the solid grains are extinction, reddening (as deduced from continuum alteration or anomalous line ratios), scattering (such as in reflection nebulae), polarization produced by extinction and scattering, and thermal emission in the infrared. All of these processes may play a role in determining the characteristics of galaxies inferred from observations. From an understanding of the observational effects due to the presence of dust, we can better understand the important physical processes at work in galaxies. In the following sections we discuss the manifestations of dust, first in our Galaxy, then in normal galaxies, and finally in the active nuclei galaxies and quasars.


Introduction The aim of this study was to examine the association between blood eosinophil levels and the decline in lung function in individuals aged >40 years from the general population. Methods The study evaluated the eosinophil counts from thawed blood in 1120 participants (mean age 65 years) from the prospective population-based Canadian Cohort of Obstructive Lung Disease (CanCOLD) study. Participants answered interviewer-administered respiratory questionnaires and performed pre-/post-bronchodilator spirometric tests at 18-month intervals; computed tomography (CT) imaging was performed at baseline. Statistical analyses to describe the relationship between eosinophil levels and decline in forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) were performed using random mixed-effects regression models with adjustments for demographics, smoking, baseline FEV1, ever-asthma and history of exacerbations in the previous 12 months. CT measurements were compared between eosinophil subgroups using ANOVA. Results Participants who had a peripheral eosinophil count of ≥300 cells·µL−1 (n=273) had a greater decline in FEV1 compared with those with eosinophil counts of <150 cells·µL−1 (n=430; p=0.003) (reference group) and 150–<300 cells·µL−1 (n=417; p=0.003). The absolute change in FEV1 was −32.99 mL·year−1 for participants with eosinophil counts <150 cells·µL−1; −38.78 mL·year−1 for those with 150–<300 cells·µL−1 and −67.30 mL·year−1 for participants with ≥300 cells·µL−1. In COPD, higher eosinophil count was associated with quantitative CT measurements reflecting both small and large airway abnormalities. Conclusion A blood eosinophil count of ≥300 cells·µL−1 is an independent risk factor for accelerated lung function decline in older adults and is related to undetected structural airway abnormalities. This study shows that high blood eosinophil count is significantly related to rapid FEV1 decline in all people, independent of well-established risk factors such as smoking and age, and may be related to undetected airway abnormalities https://bit.ly/36o8Cc6


Up-conversion fluorescence material Tm3+/Yb3+-codoped NaYF4 was prepared in combustion.Under 980 nm LD excitation,strong blue light was observed.The tests indicated the strongest blue light was observed when the molar concentrations for Yb3+,Tm3+ and urea were 2.68%,0.024%,and 30% respectively,while the temperature was set at 450~550 ℃,and the reaction time was 110 min.


This paper describes a semi-autonomous system that has been developed to support the mining, visualization, and analysis of the process as performed by a team of operators when fulfilling specific military command and control tasks. The system focuses on operational centre activities. It is composed of several independent modules. Two primary modules provides the basic input to the system: a monitoring module that logs all keystrokes, mouse clicks and screen snapshots on each workstation used by the operators; and, a reference module providing a repository of activity models describing expected sequence of activities. In addition, the system uses an optical character recognition (OCR) application as well as pattern recognition algorithms. It provides information on the structure of the workflow as performed by the operators and support the comparison between the expected and observed activity flow. The system has been used to support Joint Fires Support experiments and although improvements to the OCR are required, the developed methodology appears very promising.


Abstract This study investigated vanadium leaching from carbonaceous shale by a multi-stage counter-current (MSCC) acid leaching process. Experimental results showed that MSCC leaching can decrease the consumption of acid and enhance the leaching rate of vanadium remarkably compared with the conventional leaching way. The leaching rate of vanadium can reach 86% under optimal conditions. When the leaching stage exceeded 3, two types of precipitation formed in the leaching solution after the solution cooled to below 40°C. One was suspended amorphous silica and the other was potassium alum crystals. The formation of amorphous silica can result in the loss of vanadium by electrostatic adsorption of VO2+ to the surface of the silica and the loss of aluminium was mainly due to the formation of potassium alum crystals. Hence, it was appropriate to decide on the three leaching stages for counter-current acid leaching in this study.


Predicting urban congregations can help in monitoring a variety of unusual group events, which is of great importance to public safety and traffic management in smart cities. However, it is very challenging because of complicated spatio-temporal correlations. In this article, we propose a deep neural network-based model, entitled CgNet, for urban congregations prediction. Firstly, we design three types of flows to present dependencies between regions among different timestamps to model the mobility of individuals. Secondly, CgNet utilizes four components, including spatial feature extraction, temporal feature extraction, external factors fusion and congregation feature fusion to collaboratively predict congregations. The combination of these components is capable of not only capturing the spatial and temporal correlations simultaneously, but also learning the essential relationships between three flows and congregations in each region at different stages. Finally, we evaluated the effectiveness of CgNet with extensive experimental study on real taxi trajectory data. The results demonstrate the advantages of our model beyond several baselines.


ABSTRACT In recent years, the precise design of the pile foundations has gained considerable attention due to its important role in the cost management of the civil projects. While the piles are mostly designed using static analysis methods, their resistance during the construction process is controlled by other control methods. This inconsistency increases the cost and the delay in the construction plan. In order to address these issues, new approaches for a more reliable and economically efficient design of the piles incorporate the effects of construction control techniques in the initial design. In this paper, we use the results of the Dynamic load test (DLT), the static load test (SLT), and the dynamic formulas to improve the resistance factor of the LRFD method for the initial design. The results show that the DLT at BOR and the SLT have the greatest effect in increasing the resistance factors of the static analysis methods.


For two decades, mixed crop-livestock farms have once again been attracting worldwide interest, in particular in the northern hemisphere, where mixed crop-livestock farms have been decreasing. As they are considered to be a good way of limiting environmental problems while being productive and economically viable, mixed crop-livestock systems could be a way to tackle environmental challenges linked to specialised agriculture. The definition of mixed crop-livestock farming nevertheless includes many different types of farming around the world. According to the level of interactions between livestock and crops within farm, mixed crop-livestock farms could be more or less able to meet sustainability challenges. The research works reviewed are mostly focused on biophysical flows between crops and livestock within farms. Farmers' decisions and practices are not taken into account in these works. Mixed crop-livestock studies are based mainly on technical or economic arguments, or on contrasted case studies of the southern hemisphere. Systemic approaches are needed to allow a rethink of the way in which mixed crop-livestock farming could contribute to sustainable development. To limit misunderstanding, the definition of mixed crop-livestock systems should better explained in research studies on the topic, in particular the level of integration between crops and livestock considered. Specific political incentives would be needed to develop and maintain mixed crop-livestock systems, especially in the northern hemisphere.


There has recently been much discussion regarding optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging studies with respect to neurodegenerative disease.1 The retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) is, after all, part of the central nervous system.


The sulfonation in 98.5% H2SO4 at 25.0 °C of naphthalene-1-sulfonic acid yields 58% 1,5-, 32% 1,6-, and 10% 1,7-disulfonic acids and that of the 2-sulfonic acid 4% 1,3-, 74% 1,6-, 18% 1,7-, and 4% ...