Author(s): Guo, Pinglei | Advisor(s): Alvaro, Peter | Abstract: Benchmark is an essential part of evaluating database performance. However, the procedure of setting up the environment and collecting result is time-consuming and not well defined. The uncertainty in benchmark procedure leads to low reproducibility. Furthermore, many benchmark results are highly compressed and only published in unstructured formats like document and graph. Without a structural format and the context of a benchmark, comparing benchmark results across sources is time-consuming and often biased. In this thesis, BenchHub is presented to remedy those problems. It defines a job specification that covers the life cycle of running database benchmark in a distributed environment. A reference implementation of infrastructure is provided and will be hosted as a public service. Using this service, database developers can focus on analyzing benchmark result instead of getting them. BenchHub stores metrics like latency in time series databases and puts aggregated results along with benchmark context in relational databases. Users can query results directly using SQL and compare results across sources without extra preprocessing. BenchHub integrates time series workloads like Xephon-B and standard database workloads like TPC-C. Comparisons between open source databases are made to demonstrate its usability. BenchHub is open sourced under MIT license and hosted on GitHub.


The following paper deals with the criminogenic influence of media. Firstly, it considers the effect that passively received aggressive and violent media content has on the behaviour of its recipients in the real world. Secondly, it covers the occurrence of active use of aggression and violence via modern multimedia, e.g. Internet or cellular network. Considering the diversity of outlooks on terms and genesis of aggression and violence, as well as theoretical assumptions and empirical findings, it cannot be said that presenting violence and aggression in media translates directly into behaviour of their recipients in social reality. It is necessary to take into account a number of indicated factors co-conditioning their occurrence. Among indicated psychophysical factors there was receipients' age, stage of their psychophysical development, intellect, mind's perception, occurrence of characterological or personality disorders. A correlation of criminogenic influence of media with the presence of social factors, such as dysfunctions in the family environment as well as on different stages of the process of socialization, or in social and professional relationships, was also indicated. Furthermore, in the context of cyberspace, the favorable bidirectionality of mass communication was underlined, as it guarantees its recipients ongoing relations that have pro-social, but also antisocial (including criminal) undertone.


This short paper updates the material presented in Microsimulation Research Notes 35 and 36 on the impact of Budget changes on incomes in general and child poverty rates in particular. It takes account of all the main policy changes to be introduced by the Labour government of 1997-2001. The focus is on personal taxes and social security benefits that have a direct effect on household incomes. As well as providing a picture of the distributional effects, the paper aims to show how choices made in the presentation of distributional analysis can affect the conclusions that are drawn.


With the proliferation of mobile devices, mobile crowd sensing (MCS) has emerged as a new data collection paradigm, which allows the crowd to act as sensors and contribute their observations about entities. Unfortunately, users with varied skills and motivations may provide conflicting information for the same entity. Existing work solves this problem by estimating user reliability and inferring the correct observations (i.e., truths). However, these methods assume that users' expertise degrees are dependent on the truths, but ignore the finer clusters that exist even in the entities with the same truths. To capture users' fine-grained reliability on different entity clusters, we propose a novel Bayesian co-clustering truth discovery model for the task of observation aggregation. This model enables us to produce a more precise estimation while taking into account the entity clusters and the user clusters. Experiments on four real-world datasets reveal that our method outperforms the state-of-the-art approaches in terms of accuracy and F1-score.


Tourism, as an economic activity, has consolidated itself as one of the main forms of economic liberalism, penetrating social structures and modifying through demonstration and adaptation cultural traits. However, so far, it has not been possible to show or demonstrate a principle of direct and unique causality of these modifications. Tourism grows, tourism businesses expand, and motivation to offer and consume tourism products is wider, more varied, and changeable than ever. If you have an economic surplus, or failing that borrowing capacity and time, you can be a tourist. If you have access to the market to demonstrate your brand, to show your product, you can be a destination. Tourism is based on this exchange; it is both a global business, as shown by its distribution channels, and a domestic one, as in individuals' interest in being part of it. It is a complex combination of production, supply, and consumption. The analysis of tourism involves multiple disciplines and diverse theoretical perspectives with varying degrees of academic acceptance and conceptual depth. These many aspects can be positioned along a gradient of the impacts of tourism, which vary according to the position of the affected or of the observer. In a kaleidoscopic game, researchers are often blamed for not getting sufficiently involved in all the various facets of the tourism business, its management or even its design. Sometimes, researchers are even considered as friendly spies. Possibly, they are somewhat overwhelmed, or just confused by it all. The truth is that in recent decades, multiple models of analysis have come to coexist, and sometimes eclectically intermingle, and to a lesser extent, there have been attempts to intervene in the development of tourism. The examination of the social changes that tourism brings, usually along with other factors, can be done aseptically with a microscope and scalpel, or with emotional involvement and academic sincerity. This second form, which involves both the material and the intangible (beliefs, attitudes, motivations), expresses not only the structure, components, and consequences of change, but the intention to influence, to generate debate, and encourage reasoned dialogue. This is the way of the scholar Julio R. Aramberri. From the theory and his own experience, he has been able to foster social criticism and build opinions on tourism (in favour and against), based on the principles of sociology. I first came across Julio R. Aramberri through his works in Sociology, in particular, Los límites de la sociología burguesa [The limits of Bourgeois Sociology] (1977) and Los orígenes de la teoría sociológica [The origins of sociological theory] (Iglesias, Aramberri, & Zúñiga, 1989). These were times when the social and cultural study of tourism was disregarded and Aramberri, swimming against the current of his peers, offered his own particular analysis of tourism in El Paraíso... ¿Perdido? Sobre algunas teorías del turismo. Estudios turísticos [Paradise ... Lost?: Some theories of tourism] (1983).


The invention discloses a direct current/alternating-current converter for acquiring a stable low voltage and a telephone power supply circuit based on the direct current/alternating-current converter. The direct current/alternating-current converter comprises a power-grade circuit, an energy storage circuit and a feedback control circuit, wherein the power-grade circuit is used for receiving an input dynamic voltage of an external circuit; the energy storage circuit is used for storing the electric energy output by the power-grade circuit into an energy storage component and outputting the electric energy to a load; and the feedback control circuit is used for receiving the voltage of an output end and feeding the voltage back to the input end of the energy storage circuit so as to control the switching of the input of the energy storage circuit to further control the output voltage of the energy storage circuit. When the technical scheme of the invention is adopted, an energy storage inductor is used for storing the energy and limiting output, the relatively low voltage can be acquired from a relatively wide output voltage range by the feedback and control circuit, so that power consumption can be reduced, and influences on a telephone can be reduced when the telephone is hooked off and/or hooked on.


We report THz optical soliton formation in defect-less ring QCL featuring anomalous dispersion. Free-running spectra with sech2 envelopes are presented together with SWIFT measurement showing ~12 ps pulses in the reconstructed emission time-profile.


To make teachers better understand and use teaching mode and improve teaching efficiency and quality,the paper briefly introduces the definition,basic characteristics and constitution of teaching mode,and studies diversity theory from characteristics of teaching mode,main theoretical basis,logical starting point of establishing teaching mode and main methods of implementing teaching mode.


A model describing the pyrolysis of an organo-silicate polymer (Blackglas polymer) to form a silicon oxycarbide glass was developed based on the known chemistry and architecture of the polysiloxane precursor. The objectives were to develop a plausible reaction pathway to explain the pyrolysis process, rate, and product spectrum, and to study the effect of various heating protocols on the pyrolysis process. The model successfully predicted the evolution rates of the major gases as a function of process temperature and the overall pressures reached during the process. The effects of various heating protocols on the outgassing kinetics were studied to develop an optimum protocol for a rapid pyrolysis process that gives a composite with desirable mechanical properties. Overall, the model appears to capture the essential characteristics of the process and is in good agreement with experimental results.


Homotoma eastopi Hollis & Broomfield 1989, previously described from Bamenda (Northwest Region, Cameroon) with unknown immatures and host plants is presently reported from Yaounde (Centre Region, Cameroon), on several species of the genus Ficus on which adults and immatures feed. The last instar immature is described and illustrated; taxonomically relevant morphological details of the adults are illustrated, especially on the head, and male and female terminalia. The host plant range and information on its biology are also given.


The principal problem in developing a theory of internal nucleation lies in the constitution of the nascent nuclei. To get at this constitution in an internally nucleating glass, oxygen and lithium core level x-ray photoelectron spectra have been measured on glassy and nucleated lithium disilicate and on the three stable crystalline compounds in the Li 2 O-SiO 2 system. Our results indicate that nucleated lithium disilicate glass consists of completely polymerized silica in the formation of which non-bridging oxygens are consumed. During this silica polymerization lithium atoms move away from presumably four-fold coordinated sites towards higher coordinated ones.


As one of ten safety aims of patients, medicine safety is vital to nurses. Enhance medicine safety management and control the safety of medicine from different channels can increase therapy effect and decrease side effect. The author summarizes an effective medicine management from 3 years clinical practices, which could produce a reference to the medical fraternity.


Photorefractive materials are of considerable interest for the development of optical devices. Recently, attention has been drawn to the photorefractive polymer owing to its excellent properties. In this paper, photorefractive polymer composite based on photoconductor poly(N-vinylcarbazole) (PVK) is described. As an electro-optic chromophore (S)-(-)-N-(5-nitro- 2-pyridyl)prolinol(PNP) is used in the composite. In order to decrease the grass transition temperature N-ethylcarbazole (ECZ) is added. A small amount of 2-4-7 trinitro-9 fluorenon (TNF) is also added to increase the photosensitivity in visible region. The composition is PNP:PVK:ECZ:TNF 50:33:16:1 wt%. The mixture of these materials is dissolved in THF and is stirred sufficiently. The PR samples are prepared by casting the mixture onto the glass plate and pressed another glass at about 140 C. The glass plates are coated with transparent electrode for application of the external electric field. The film thus obtained is light yellow and the optical absorption coefficient of this film is 25 cm-1 at 633 nm. Two coherent writing beams from He-Ne laser are overlapped in the sample to create a fringe pattern. From the measured increase and decrease in the writing beam powers, the two beam coupling gain coefficient is calculated. In our experiment gain coefficient is 101 cm-1 and 68 cm-1 for p- polarized and s-polarized light respectively at 100 V/10-6 m.


- Background: The teeth are the hardest tissues in our bodies and after death; they maintain their original features for the long term. Teeth measurements were used in forensic medicine for sex determination and can support dental students and orthodontists to apply their practical sections. Aims: The current study aimed to measure the crown dimensions from the buccolingual (BL) and mesiodistal (MD) directions and their benefits for adult Sudanese maxillary molars teeth. Material and methods: This study was conducted on 120 adult Sudanese extracted sound maxillary molar teeth (60 male and 60 female), ages ranging between 26 to 48 years. The teeth were fixed in 10% formalin immediately after they were removed. The measurements in millimeters were applied by using Vernier caliper on the crown buccolingual and mesiodistal dimensions. The data values were analyzed by using the SPSS program. Results: The crown dimensions of molars teeth are slightly large in males than in females, and the buccolingual crown dimension is slightly large than mesiodistal. Conclusion: The morphometric data values of the adult Sudanese extracted molar teeth can be used in forensic cases identity, orthodontics, and teaching dental students and professionals.


Abstract During Charles Lyell's lifetime the concept of geological time was gradually rendered meaningful through the construction of a heuristic geological timescale, the development of quantitative methods to calculate the duration of that scale, and the acceptance of a quantitatively determinable limit to the age of the Earth. This paper describes a few episodes in the process of 'inventing' the concept of geological time, episodes chosen primarily for their relevance to the work of Lyell.


Objective: To study the effects of polychlorinated biphenyls on the skeletal development of zebrafish embryo and the expression of bone morphogenetic protein(BMP)-2 and BMP-4 genes.Methods: Zebrafish embryos were separately exposed to 0.125 mg/L,1.000 mg/L PCB1254 or pure water.Embryos were assessed for changes in embryonic survival and spinal deformity rate.BMP-2 and BMP-4 genes were assessed at 120 hours post-fertilization.Results: ① Low levels of polychlorinated biphenyls did not cause obvious changes of the survival or spinal deformity rate;② The survival rate declined and the spinal deformity rate increased obviously when zebrafish embryos were exposed to the high concentrations of PCBs(1 mg/L);③ The expression of BMP-2 and BMP-4 gene declined obviously in the PCB-treated larvae at concentrations 0.125 mg/L and 1.000 mg/L compared with their controls.Conclusion: Embryonic exposure to high levels of PCBs induced developmental deficit in zebrafish skeleton,which suggests the value of monitoring organic contaminant.


To solve the problems of low efficiency, slow dynamic response, and transmission power imbalance of input-series-output-parallel (ISOP) dual active bridge (DAB) converter system, a power optimization balance control strategy based on dual-phase-shift (DPS) control is proposed in this study. The current stress of the DAB module is optimized under DPS control, which improves the operational efficiency of the system compared with the traditional phase-shift control. At the same time, to balance the output power of each module when the internal parameters do not match, the power distribution coefficients are changed by the input voltage balance loop. In addition, the virtual voltage component is introduced into the output power calculation to improve the dynamic response of the system output voltage under the step change of input voltage or load. Finally, taking the ISOP system consisting of three DAB modules as an example, comparative simulations are carried out on MATLAB/Simulink to verify that the proposed control strategy can balance the power of each DAB module, and improve the efficiency and dynamic performance of the system transmission power.


Organisations need to develop and adopt improved products, processes and services to be successful and grow in the modern world. The European Commission (EC) supports this through FP7 by funding European-led projects in collaborative research and innovation. The aim of FP7 is to create a cohesive research structure to enable European organisations to compete in current and future global markets. The application of the resulting knowledge in new technologies or other added value factors will support the EC's Lisbon Agenda to make Europe the most competitive and dynamic knowledge based economy in the world by 2010.


Manufacturing system and manufacturing method for the optical display device by the optical anisotropy is the same direction of the two rolls the raw material, to bond the optical film to one surface and the other surface of the optical display unit is optically anisotropic so as to be perpendicular, such as the absorption axis , and it provides the raw material roll set and a method of manufacturing the same. A first optical film (F11) with a width corresponding to the short side of the optical display unit (W), section for dividing the first optical film (F11) with a length corresponding to the long side of the optical display unit (W) Prize It forms a pre. A second optical film (F21) with a width corresponding to the long side of the optical display unit (W), section for dividing the second optical film (F21) with a length corresponding to the short side of the optical display unit (W) Prize It forms a pre. The split members of the first bonding apparatus 18, the first optical film having a length corresponding to the long side of the optical display unit (W) (F11) is bonded to one surface of the optical display unit (W). A second bonding device 28 is bonded to split members of the second optical film (F21) of a length corresponding to the short side of the optical display unit (W) to the other surface of the optical display unit (W).


A 56-year-old woman presented with right leg paresthesia for the previous year. Magnetic resonance imaging showed an intradural extramedullary tumor in the left anterolateral cervical spine. An operation was performed through the posterior approach. Intraoperative findings showed that the tumor was generated from the anterior nerve root. Total resection was performed. The histopathological diagnosis was schwannoma (World Health Organization grade 1). Immediately after the operation, the right leg paresthesia disappeared completely. Slight motor weakness of the left upper extremity appeared postoperatively but was restored two weeks later.

 Key words: Contralateral paresthesia, schwannoma, anterior nerve root.


Research problem: As a follow up to an earlier article, this study compares Fortune 500 website homepage design in 2013 with the results of a similar study in 2008, providing an updated overview of homepage design practice that reflects the many technological advances that have influenced web design during the intervening period. The findings are useful for those wanting to know the state of homepage design in 2013, whether as current practitioners or researchers. Research questions: (1) What are the current homepage design practices of Fortune 500 companies? (2) What are the current Web 2.0 technology practices of Fortune 500 companies? (3) What changes in homepage design have occurred for Fortune 500 companies? (4) What are the differences in homepage design and Web 2.0 technology practices between the 100 largest and 100 smallest Fortune 500 companies? and (5) Is homogeneity in design increasing amongst Fortune 500 homepages? Literature review: Three key areas guided my analysis of homepages. (1) Usability research, which suggests guidelines for design based on aggregated performance of users, such as locating the search box in the upper right and for directing mobile users to an alternate site designed for mobile access. (2) Design practice studies, which suggest guidelines for design based on aggregated analyses of websites, such as having links to employment information and investor information on the homepage. (3) Design patterns: libraries of patterns to provide designers with responses to design problems, such as using collapsible panels or module tabs to reveal and conceal content on a page. These libraries also provide guidelines for design, such as using fat menus or sitemap footers to structure navigation. Methodology: Using content analysis, every Fortune 500 homepage in 2013 was analyzed for 68 major design elements in these categories--navigation, content links, support for specific types of users, visual design, multimedia, and web 2.0-and the results were analyzed. Results and conclusions: The homepages displayed greater homogeneity in design than a similar study in 2008. Overall, 12 elements-(1) corporate logo in the top left of the page; (2) link to an "about us" section containing company information; (3) link to information for those seeking employment; (4) horizontally oriented main navigation; (5) link for contacting the company; (6) link for information for investors; (7) link for terms of use or legal disclaimers; (8) link to privacy information; (9) link for news or a press room; (10) multimedia use; (11) links that do not appear on the page initially, requiring interaction; (12) search box, located in the upper right of page-were present on 80% or more homepages, and 6 elements-(1) web 2.0 features; (2) an image that can be clicked on as a focal point; (3) link to a sitemap; (4) link to Twitter; (5) link to Facebook; and (6) dropdown or pulldown menu-were present on 50% to 79% of pages. Between 2008 and 2013, many practices have changed, such as increases in page length, the overall number of links, the number of links to social media sites, and the number of sites with search boxes. Certain design choices-such as mobile options for sites, links to social media sites, and links to site maps-were more prevalent in the largest 100 companies than the smallest 100 companies.


The paper analyzes terminal data transmission principle,and communication between terminal and preceding communicating cell as well as using AT instruction dial-up to GPRS,thus illustrates the whole transmission process of data from terminal to master.Besides the paper proposes a method of inducing the communication preceding computer emmitting connection request automatically aiming at the disadvantage of the traditional module can't realize bi-directional commmunication of host computer,and it can obtain the prospective effect through test.


This paper is concerned with the clinical features of coarctation of the aorta, and is based on a group of 26 cases observed by the author and described in the St. Cyres' Lecture, delivered on June 6, 1945. A paper on the collateral circulation in coarctation of the aorta has been published (Bramwell and Jones, 1941), and a further paper on the radiological diagnosis of the condition will follow: all three are based on the same series of cases. Coarctation of the aorta has long been familar to anatomists, but until comparatively recently it generally eluded the clinician. In 1928 Maude Abbott was able to collect from the literature 200 cases over three years of age that had come to autopsy; but, of these, only 21 had been diagnosed during life as coarctation and 7 others as obstruction of the aorta. The same year Roesler published his classical paper on the radiological diagnosis of coarctation, and the following year Railsback and Dock published similar observations. Fray added a further paper in 1930. These radiological observations provided the Mulberry Harbour that enabled clinicians to invade a territory hitherto dominated by morbid anatomists. Many cases have since been reported and I myself have seen 26* in the last fifteen years, 11 in private practice, 8 at my outpatient clinic at the Manchester Royal Infirmary, and 7 in recruits referred to me by medical boards of the Ministry of Labour and National Service during the war. Autopsy statistics suggest that the incidence of this condition is about one per thousand. Fawcett (1905) found 18 cases in 22,316 autopsies at Guy's Hospital, an incidence of 0-08 per cent, and Evans (1933) 26 cases in 19,217 autopsies at the London Hospital, an incidence of 0-14 per cent; but I am inclined to think that the condition may be more common than these figures suggest, for I have reason to believe that coarctation sometimes escapes detection even at autopsy. CLASSIFICATION Most authors have followed Bonnet's (1903) classification and have described two types, the " infantile " and the " adult." In the former, which may be regarded as a persistence or exaggeration of the anatomical relations that exist before birth, there is a diffuse narrowing of the aortic isthmus. In the latter the narrowing, which is in the immediate vicinity of the insertion of the ductus arteriosus, may be so abrupt as to suggest that the aorta had been constricted by a ligature. The adult type was attributed by Craigie (1841) and some subsequent workers to an extension of the normal process that leads to occlusion of the ductum arteriosus after birth. This hypothesis is attractive, but there is considerable evidence in support of the view that the adult form also is due to an error in development at the junction of the primitive fourth and sixth branchial arches, an error that Maude Abbott suggests does not produce its effect till after birth when kinking of the descending limb of the aortic arch results from traction by the obliterated ductus.


In this paper, we consider the first order neutral difference equations with "Maxima". Sufficient conditions for oscillation of all solutions are obtained. The asymptotic behavior of nonoscillatory solutions are also investigated.


A test statistic for the equality of the j-th largest eigenvalues of the covariance matrix in a multipopulation is proposed. Asymptotic distribution of the statistic is derived under the normal population when the sample sizes are equal. By simulation studies, we investigate the power of a test using the suggested statistic for normal, contaminated normal and skew normal populations, and compare it with two nonparametric tests.


The efficient investment of enterprises is inseparable from the professional ability of managers. It has been found that the overseas experience of corporate executives can improve the investment ability of managers.This paper takes Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share listed companies from 2004 to 2020 as the research object, and investigates whether managers' overseas experience can improve the investment efficiency of enterprises. The empirical analysis results show that enterprises with overseas managers can improve the phenomenon of over investment, but the impact on the underinvestment is not significant.Based on the empirical results, it is found that the characteristics of managerial returnees have different impacts on enterprises in different industries. Compared with export-oriented enterprises, the characteristics of managerial returnees have more significant impacts on export-oriented enterprises.The reason for these results may be that managers' overseas experience is more conducive to the development of non-export-oriented enterprises.


In audio coding, the emphasis is on the perceived quality rather than on the statistics of the source signal as in speech coding. The quantization noise has to t to the masking threshold derived from a psy-choacustical model. It can most easily be described in the frequency domain. This is the reason why all major perceptual audio coding systems are frequency domain coders. Historically audio coders are either called subband coders or transform coders depending on the implementation of the lter bank used for analysis and synthesis of the signal. This paper describes lterbanks used for high quality audio coding. Perceptual coding of digital audio:-Analysis Filterbank Quantization and Coding Encoding of Bitstream-6 ?-FFT Perceptual Model audio in bitstream out Figure 1: Block diagram of a perceptual coder The basic structure of a perceptual coder is shown in gure 1 (see 2]): A multirate lter bank is used to decompose the input signal into subsampled spectral components. In the frequency domain an estimate of the actual (time dependent) masking threshold using rules known from psychoacoustics is calculated. This is done using the lterbank output or optionally using an additional FFT. The spectral components are quantized and coded with the aim of keeping the noise, which is introduced by quantizing, below the masking threshold. Depending on the algorithm, this step is done in very diierent ways, from simple block companding to analysis-by-synthesis systems using additional noiseless compression. A multiplexer is used to assemble the bitstream, which typically consists of the quantized and coded spectral coeecients and some side information. The following paragraph decribe lter banks which have been used in audio coding. A typical QMF-tree lter bank for audio coding uses from 4 up to 24 bands 3]. Problems with the non perfect reconstruction can be solved by introducing higher lter length or the use of wave digital lters instead. The computational complexity is high. Polyphase lter banks are equally spaced lter banks which combine the lter design exibility of generalized QMF banks with low computational complexity. A typical implementation uses 32 bands 7]. Discrete Fourier Transform and Discrete Cosine Transform with several kinds of windows are used with 128 to 512 bands 2]. Fast algorithms ooer a low computational complexity. Blocking eeects can be avoided by overlapping of succeeding blocks. They do not ooer critical sampling, i.e. the number of time/frequency components is greater than the number of time samples represented …


Abstract. The smooth variable structure filter (SVSF) has seen significant development and research activity in recent years. It is based on sliding mode concepts, which utilize a switching gain that brings an inherent amount of stability to the estimation process. In an effort to improve upon the numerical stability of the SVSF, a square-root formulation is derived. The square-root SVSF is based on Potter's algorithm. The proposed formulation is computationally more efficient and reduces the risks of failure due to numerical instability. The new strategy is applied on target tracking scenarios for the purposes of state estimation, and the results are compared with the popular Kalman filter. In addition, the SVSF is reformulated to present a two-pass smoother based on the SVSF gain. The proposed method is applied on an aerospace flight surface actuator, and the results are compared with the Kalman-based two-pass smoother.


In this article, we study the existence of infinitely many nontrivial solutions for the class of (p1(x), p2(x))-laplacian elliptic problem involving concave-convex nonlinearities with Robin boundary, our method is based on the Ljusternik-Schnirelman principle in Banach spaces.


Establishing and prioritising the factors that may influence the final contract price when responding to a call for tenders is crucial for proper risk analysis and reliable forecasting; it could make or mar the ability to achieve expected profit margin in an era of lump sum fixed price contracts where clients often contest variation claims. In New Zealand, these factors have not been researched; hence estimators rely only on judgement to 'guess-estimate' in their price forecasting. This study aimed to fill the knowledge gap by investigating the priority factors. 150 responses from professional members of the New Zealand Institute of Quantity Surveyors were analysed using multi-attribute method. Results showed thirty-seven factors which could influence the final contract price; the three most influential being poor tender documentation, complexity of design & construction, and completeness of project information. Other factors relating to project, client and contractor characteristics, design consultants and tendering conditions, estimating practice and external factors were reported. Concordance analysis indicated high level of agreement amongst survey participants in the rank-ordering of the relative importance of the identified factors. The findings could assist quantity surveyors to prepare more reliable contract price estimates at the pre-contract stage. It would also improve construction-stage cost control.


Fiedler and Nikiforov gave sufficient conditions for the existence of Hamilton paths and cycles in terms of spectral radii of a graph and its complement, which stimulated much later works on this topic. The class of claw-free graphs, which contains line graphs as a subclass, is an important type of graphs. Motivated by Fiedler and Nikiforov's works, in this paper we prove tight sufficient spectral conditions for Hamilton cycles in 2-connected claw-free graphs and Hamilton paths in connected claw-free graphs. Our strategy is to deduce spectral results from structural results, and main tools include Ryj\'{a}cek's claw-free closure theory, Tur\'{a}n's theorem and a characterized theorem of minimal 2-connected non-hamiltonian claw-free graphs due to Brousek, together with some spectral inequalities.


Accurate prediction of wave-in-deck uplift force is of considerable importance in the structural design of wharf and similar ocean structures.A series of model tests were carried out in a wave flume to investigate the influence of structure geometry and wave conditions on wave-induced uplift force on a 1:36 scale model of a jetty head.The maximum uplift force was found usually lagging behind the largest pressure and the pressure related to the maximum uplift force was shown to be constant along the deck.Analysis of measured data confirms that the dominant variables for the uplift force are the deck clearance and the deck width.A predictive model was provided to evaluate uplift loads on elements of jetty superstructures.The new prediction method was compared with the previous models and was applied to the case study on Beilun Port.It is shown that the results from the model with deck width and wave reflection influence are more consistent with the measured data.


The study examined the views of lecturers and Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) Tutors on students' use of smartphones for learning at a rural university in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The research adopted a quantitative approach and the design was a survey. A total sample of 50 academics that was comprised of 39 lecturers from the Faculty of Business Science & Management and Faculty of Science, Engineering & Technology from a population of 71 and 11 PAL Tutors from Faculty of Science, Engineering & Technology from a population of 14 voluntarily partook in the survey. A five-point Likert-scale questionnaire was employed to collect data. The questionnaire consisted of two sections in which the first section was used to obtain the demographic data and the second section to collect the core data. The quantitative data were captured into Statistical Package for Social Sciences (version 26) which were analyzed using descriptive statistics and triangulated by sources among lecturers and PAL Tutors. The results obtained revealed that the lecturers and PAL Tutors showed positive attitudes on the students' use of smartphones in university classrooms. It has been strongly established that students do not have the multitasking capability of using smartphones and paying attention to lecture at the same time. Furthermore, this study also showed that use of smartphones for academic purposes in university classrooms were enjoyed by the students and it was motivating and enhancing their learning process.


Success with in vitro propagation of camellias has been limited to juvenile material of Camellia japonica L. (1, 2, 6). Beauchesne (1) obtained callus from meristems cultured on either Knops or Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium (2) amended with 1H- indole-3-butanoic acid (IBA), N-(phenyl-methyl)-1H-purin-6-amine (BA), gibberellic acid (GA3), and (2,4-dichlorophenoxy) acetic acid (2,4-D). Callus proliferated rapidly when cotyledons of camellias were cultured on a diluted (MS) medium (2). Subculturing the callus onto fresh media resulted in plantlet formation; however, no data were reported on multiplication rates to support these findings. More recently, Samartin et al. (6) reported callus formation from juvenile nodal explants of Camellia cultured on a modified MS medium supplemented with N-(2-fur-anylmethyl)-1H-purin-6-amine (kinetin) (4.6 μM) and BA (4.4 μM). The objectives of this research were to define some of the requirements for shoot proliferation of mature Camellia 'Purple Dawn' in vitro.


A cylindrical device was analyzed using a Laplace transform–based method. The two-dimensional model represented a pharmaceutical agent uniformly distributed in a polymeric matrix surrounded by an impermeable layer. Molecules could be transferred only through a small hole centered at the top surface of the cylinder. A closed-form solution was obtained to help study the effects of design parameters and geometries on the cumulative amount of drug released. The latter variable increased with the mass transfer and diffusion coefficients and decreased with any increment in the device's length. The delivery rate was described by an effective time constant calculated from Laplace transforms. Reducing the orifice diameter or fabricating a longer system would delay transport of the medication. Simplified expressions for the release profile and the time constant were derived for special design cases.


Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is the most common renal tumour in adults. Altered levels of secondary messengers, that is, intracellular calcium and cyclic AMP (cAMP), have been implicated in the pathogenesis of various malignancies. In the present study, we measured levels of intracellular calcium and cAMP in RCC. The intracellular calcium level was significantly reduced, whereas the cAMP level was significantly augmented in RCC as compared with adjacent grossly normal renal parenchyma. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The cost-effectiveness of four production systems of a short-straw form of winter triticale (cv. Alekto) with different levels of nitrogen fertilization and fungicide treatment was determined. Based on the current prices of means of production, the total cost of winter triticale production was estimated at PLN 2200-2600, and direct costs accounted for 60-65% of total costs. Regardless of the applied production technology, the predominant cost items were mineral fertilizers (30-39%), followed by the costs of tractor and machine operation (approximately 26-30%), crop protection agents (approximately 11-19%) and labor (approximately 3%). The highest productivity (grain yield per 1 ha) and cost-effectiveness (income per 1 ha, unit production cost, profitability ratio) were noted in a production system where short-straw winter triticale was fertilized with nitrogen at 120 kg·ha -1 N in two equal splits (BBCH 27 and 32) and subjected to two fungicide treatments (BBCH 31 and 39).


Summary:  Nuclear‐factor κB (NF‐κB) transcription factors are activated by a wide variety of stimuli in diverse cell types and control key aspects of immune function and development. Receptor‐mediated activation of NF‐κB appears to occur through two distinct signaling pathways termed as the canonical and non‐canonical NF‐κB pathways. Although much work has demonstrated the physiological importance of non‐canonical NF‐κB signaling to immunity and its involvement in diverse pathologies, such as cancers and autoimmune disease, the architecture and regulation of the pathway is only beginning to be understood. The non‐canonical pathway appears to be activated by a select set of receptors within the tumor necrosis factor superfamily, and we discuss the molecular mechanisms that connect ligation of these receptors to pathway activation. It has become increasingly clear that the key regulatory step of the pathway involves modulation of the post‐translational degradation of NF‐κB‐inducing kinase (NIK), the central activating kinase of non‐canonical NF‐κB signaling. How NIK post‐translational stability is controlled before and after receptor ligation is an important aspect of understanding non‐canonical NF‐κB signaling. Furthermore, how release of NF‐κB dimers downstream of the pathway's activation is actually connected to its identified physiological and pathological roles is a key remaining question in the field.


The use of discrete event simulation integrated with energy consumption computation is nowadays very useful for the efficient design of an industrial production plant. In this paper a serial manufacturing line made by four operating machines has been modelled by means of SIMIO discrete event simulator, focusing on the production line energy consumption computation. Each operating machine has been described according to three different aspects. Firstly the mechanical behaviour, that is guaranteed from the simulator modelling functionalities itself. Secondly the control functionalities that have been designed by means of Finite State Machines (FSMs), then translated into the C# programming language and finally integrated into the SIMIO platform. Finally the energy consumptions, that have been computed by modelling the energy states associated to the different operating machine working functions. In the end a simulation experiment has been run and the regarding results have been presented. The power absorbed and the energy consumed from the whole plant and from each single machine have been compared in order to allow the discussion about possible actions to be taken in order to respect the maximum amount of energy supplied to the plant, value that often represents a primary economic constraints for the industrial plant management. Main limitations coming from the proposed work regard the missing of plant power and energy measurement and the level of approximation used to model the different machines energy consumption.


The paper is devoted to the analysis of the concept of time in the worldview of Margaret Atwood, contemporary Canadian author, a representative of the postmodern literary style; image-bearing individual components of this concept are studied.


In recent years it is generally believed that we should consider positive vacuum energy density or cosmological constant. Also as higher dimensional theory is important at the early stages of the Universe, so it will be interesting to study classical tests of cosmology in a higher dimensional generalized Kantowski–Sachs model. For matter field, we consider dust and a cosmological constant and examine which are physically permissible.


Correspondence: Richard T Maziarz Medical Director, Adult Blood and Marrow Stem Cell Transplant Program, Oregon Health and Science University, 3181 SW. Sam Jackson Park Road, Portland, OR 97239, USA Tel +1503-494-4606 Fax +1 503-418-4054 Email email@example.com Abstract: Plerixafor is a CXC4:CXCL12 antagonist that has an expanding role in the stem cell mobilization phase of the hematopoietic stem cell transplant procedure. The drug is currently licensed by the FDA to be used in combination with granulocyte colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) to mobilize hematopoietic stem cells into the peripheral blood for collection and subsequent autologous transplantations in patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and multiple myeloma. Plerixafor is particularly useful in patients who have been heavily pretreated or as effective therapy for frontline salvage of poor peripheral blood stem cells mobilizers. In conjunction with G-CSF, plerixafor can be successful in decreasing the number of apheresis days and therefore the associated additional risks and cost of more apheresis procedures. Patients taking plerixafor, when compared to the side effect profile of G-CSF alone, do not report significantly more side effects.


Accurate wind speed forecasting is a significant factor in grid load management and system operation. The aim of this study is to propose a framework for more precise short-term wind speed forecasting based on empirical mode decomposition (EMD) and hybrid linear/nonlinear models. Original wind speed series is decomposed into a finite number of intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) and residuals by using the EMD. Several popular linear and nonlinear models, including autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA), support vector machine (SVM), random forest (RF), artificial neural network with back propagation (BP), extreme learning machines (ELM) and convolutional neural network (CNN), are utilized to study IMFs and residuals, respectively. An ensemble forecast for the original wind speed series is then obtained. Various experiments were conducted on real wind speed series at four wind sites in China. The performance and robustness of various hybrid linear/nonlinear models at two time intervals (10 min and 1 h) are compared comprehensively. It is shown that the EMD based hybrid linear/nonlinear models have better accuracy and more robust performance than the single models with/without EMD. Among the five hybrid models, EMD-ARIMA-RF has the best accuracy on the whole for 10 min data, and the mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) is less than 0.04. However, for the 1 h data, no model can always perform well on the four datasets, and the MAPE is around 0.15.


The article is devoted to the analysis of the legal status of scientific organizations and its legal regulation in the framework of the Federal Law «On Science and State Scientific and Technical Policy». The authors provide statistical data and comprehensively cover the state of scientific organizations in the Russian Federation. The results of the work are the following: theoretical provisions on the concept of a scientific organization, its organizational and legal forms, rights and obligations of a scientific organization as a legal entity, the powers of ownership. A classification of scientific organizations is proposed. From the practical point of view, the study is notable for the selection of imperfections of scientific organizations legal status regulation. The possibility of introducing amendments to the current legislation is investigated: setting the percentage of public and private partnership in the sphere of scientific organizations ownership; introducing the grounds for recognizing a scientific organization of humanitarian direction as a scientific center; amending the list of results of intellectual activity that a scientific organization has the right to contribute to the charter capital of an economic society, etc. The article may be useful in the study of the concept «scientific law» and the legal regulation of science in Russia.


The article analyses the responses of three established European powers, France, Britain and Germany, to a world of rising regional hegemons. It argues that Europe as a region remains unique as it consists of three regional powers of similar material and ideational power resources and is the most institutionalised region worldwide. The current transformation of world power configurations, debated in competing visions of global order, challenges Europe's central place. Facing gradual marginalisation, the foreign policy adaptations of Germany, Britain and France have been insufficient and remarkably static. Old foreign policy identities still play a significant part in European self-perceptions. However, views are gradually changing as the world becomes more heterogeneous. Among the emerging regional powers, China, India and Russia are perceived as decisive global players. Other rising powers are viewed as mainly regional and, hence, more manageable actors. Finally, the article calls for a general shift in European attitudes towards the non-European world and argues that European powers should overcome traditional Euro-centric world views. Rather, they should start to engage with rising powers in a serious discourse over common global responsibilities.


Direct write metallization is an important approach for circuit modification and prototyping. We investigate the evolution of the chemical vapor deposition of tungsten induced by a 50 keV focused Ga+ ion beam. Time resolved imaging in combination with atomic force microscopy reveals that chemical vapor deposition of tungsten by focused ion beam proceeds via two clearly distinguishable regimes of layer growth. Deposition starts with the nucleation of nanoscale tungsten deposits scattered over the substrate surface. Despite local impacts of the ion beam within the irradiated area of the substrate the localization of the nucleation spots is not correlated to the scan path of the ion beam. The nanoscale tungsten particles preserve their position and typical shape during further deposition. Only after merging of the particles into a contiguous tungsten layer, does the second regime of growth characterized by deposition of tungsten on a tungsten surface set in. In this regime the deposition process is determine...


Until now, the majority of environmental and economic problems have been studied in a monodisciplinary way so that the impacts between different variables are neglected. An integrated environmental model has been developed in which economic, geographical and spatial elements are analysed in relation to the natural environment. The results of integrated modelling are relevant for physical planning because insight is obtained about the medium-long term (i.e., 5–15 years) consequences of a concrete plan for a region.


FIELD: communications engineering. SUBSTANCE: voice file and configuration file are scanned by voice control device to execute dynamic loading of voice message basing on requirements to configuration file speech at any time moment. Service voice message can be dynamically loaded automatically by loading condition setting and file configuration. Service voice message control by service organization system is preferred over switching system alone. In the course of loading service voice message operation is not subject to impact of other factors. EFFECT: facilitated loading of service voice messages. 10 cl, 3 dwg


The present invention provides a sealing tape movement. It comprises a side plate movement, the tape mounting means, roller means, with cutting means, said cutting means comprising a rotatable belt holder, one end of the holder is connected to the blade mount, the blade mounting bracket is attached to the blade, the blade guard mounting bracket is provided with a rotatable blade, the blade guard is also provided with a blade made of a suction pad material between the back of the blade, blade guard and a blade provided with retardation plate blade guard shield of the rotation lever reset. Blade guard according to the present invention can play a protective role on the blade, the blade guard to the blade as a pad against the plate, with a cutting blade automatically after the oil suction pad oiling blade, to avoid viscous substance sticking on the tape when the tape cut effect on the blade of a sharp blade, and further protect the blade, with effectiveness and efficiency increased shear.


The article reviews the strategic trends of transport development that meet the modern requirements of the economy and society. It was revealed that the key trend is to increase the speed of traffic. To achieve breakthrough results in this direction, it is proposed to use magnetic levitation in combination with the use of a vacuum environment - the creation of vacuum-levitation transport systems. It is noted that the Joint Scientific Council of JSC Russian Railways formed the requirements for the creation of such systems and focused attention on the problem of the socio-economic efficiency of its creation. It is concluded that rail transport, in the interests of its strategic competitiveness, should be the initiator and active participant in the creation of vacuum-levitation transport systems, which, in turn, can become an important incentive for integrating the efforts of the world scientific community.


THIS ARTICLE DISCUSSES THE RELATIONS BETWEEN FORMALRATIONAL LAW, MODERN STATE AND THE CAPITALIST ECONOMY IN THE ANALYSIS MAX WEBER. THE ROLE OF RATIONAL LAW AS A PRECONDITION TO CAPITALISM IS EXAMINED, ON THE ASSUMPTION THAT SOME OF ITS FEATURES ARE REQUIRED TO PROVIDE LEGAL CERTAINTY, ESSENTIAL TO ECONOMIC CALCULATION. THE CENTRAL IMPORTANCE OF CONTRACTING FOR CAPITALIST ECONOMY IS DISCUSSED, IN THAT SOME KEY ELEMENTS FOR ITS FUNCTIONING – PRIVATE APPROPRIATION AND TRANSACTIONS – OPERATE BY MEANS OF PRIVATE CONTRACTS GUARANTEED BY THE STATE LEGAL SYSTEM. IT ALSO DEALS WITH THE – RECIPROCAL – CAUSAL LINKS BETWEEN LAW AND ECONOMIC ACTION, AND WITH THE EXISTING LIMITS TO THE EFFECTIVENESS OF NORMS ON THE BEHAVIOR OF ECONOMIC AGENTS. LASTLY, SOME FIELDS OF RESEARCH ARE SUGGESTED WHICH CAN BE TREATED UNDER THE WEBERIAN APPROACH, CONSIDERING HOW THE WORKS BY THIS AUTHOR TAKE A FAIR ACCOUNT OF THE COMPLEXITY OF THE RELATIONS BETWEEN LAW AND ECONOMICS, THUS GIVING A MAJOR CONTRIBUTION TO SET A COMMON OBJECT OF STUDY.


Detailed molecular phylogenies of closely related species provide an unprecedented opportunity to study the relationship between plumage evolution and speciation. Through reconstruction of ancestral character states, phylogenies enable us to separate convergence from similarity due to shared ancestry, and gains of plumage ornaments from losses. Molecular phylogenies also provide information for inferring the details of speciation: which species split, when the splits occurred, and even whether one species is nested genetically within another. We have used these approaches in a series of studies on plumage evolution and speciation in New World orioles (Icterus). A genus-wide study of 44 individual plumage ornaments revealed evidence of repeated convergence and reversal. Two overall plumage types, moreover, have evolved independently in the three clades of orioles. We then conducted a detailed study focused on the "northern oriole" group. Multiple samples from throughout the ranges of the Baltimore oriole (Icterus galbula; eastern North America) and the black- backed oriole (Icterus abeillei; central Mexico) confirm that these two species are each other's closest relatives, and that they probably split very recently. They differ from each other in many plumage traits, providing a dramatic example of rapid divergence in signal characters. In orioles, it seems likely that much of this plumage divergence occurred in allopatry. Nevertheless, lineages that have evolved plumage differences in allopatry may be less likely to remerge upon secondary contact. Such a process could account for published correlations between signal divergence and species richness.


Marine engine room simulation system based on virtual reality is proposed and completed. The algorithm to create 3D vision image applied to marine simulation is given. The realization of utilizing visual facilities such as stereo eyewear and head mounted display in virtual environment is studied. Virtual marine engine room roaming, virtual bridge and engine control room are discussed.


The tether sampling method is a new minor-body sampling method proposed by the authors. It consists of three phases; 1) shooting a corer to penetrate the surface of a minor-body, 2) pulling up the corer with tether using a reel mechanism, 3) recovering the corer into a storage box. In this paper, the recovery phase is focused on, and its feasibility under micro-gravity is examined using parabolic flights. The experimental setup and parameters are described in this paper, and the experimental results indicate that the retrieval phase in tethered sampling method is feasible to work under micro-gravity.


Aerospace-grade textiles have decades of flight heritage for protection against harsh elements of the space environment. However, these substrates have remained electrically passive despite occupying useful large-area real-estate on the exterior walls of persistent spacecraft. By leveraging electronic textiles in an aerospace context, hybrid fabrics can be developed that simultaneously protect spacecraft while also detecting debris or micrometeoroid hypervelocity impactors. Specifically, this paper describes prototype development and preflight testing of piezoelectric Beta cloth ahead of a scheduled late 2020 material resiliency test on the International Space Station. Two accessible manufacturing methods for piezoelectric fiber are introduced based on modifications to piezoelectric cable that reduce diameter, increase mechanical flexibility of the fiber, and improve compatibility with textile weft insertion techniques. A Beta cloth simulant with piezoelectric fiber is introduced and custom ultra low power readout electronics are specified, which allow for a first-order power consumption estimate for scaling of this material across large-area spacecraft walls. Finally, high-velocity impact sensor data measured using the Laser Induced Particle Impact Test (LIPIT) facility is presented, building towards an accurate prediction of impactor velocity.


This paper establishes a regressive formula to dope out the calorific value (Q_(b,ad))of seam 8 in Tongting Coal Mine of Linhuan mining area based on its industry analysis data.


For an edge-colored complete graph, we define the color degree of a node as the number of colors appearing on edges incident to it. In this paper, we consider colorings that don't contain tricolored triangles (also called rainbow triangles); these colorings are also called Gallai colorings. We give a complete characterization of all possible color degree sequences $d_1 \le d_2 \le \dots \le d_n$ that can arise on a Gallai coloring of $K_n$: it is necessary and sufficient that \[ \sum_{i = k}^n \frac{1}{2^{d_i - d_{k-1}}} \ge 1 \] holds for all $1 \le k \le n$, where $d_0=0$ for convenience. As a corollary, this gives another proof of a 2018 result of Fujita, Li, and Zhang who showed that the minimum color degree in such a coloring is at most $\log_2n$.


The purpose of this paper is to consider literary education from the point of view of the relationship between literature and life. In these times of crisis in the humanities, we believe it necessary to reclaim the irreplaceable role of literature in the education of children and adolescents. In order to evaluate the transformative power of literature and the vital dimensions of the experience of literary reading in the early stages of identity construction, we explore ve autobiographical texts of ve Spanish contemporary writers as a source of introspective and retrospective information, in the trend of ethnographic research. In these readers, their exceptional reading experiences add up to an equally outstanding expressive ability to communicate what this intense relationship with literature has represented in their life story, and in their construction as individuals.


Tracing messages and information passing through a distribution system is necessary for resolving problems and improving performance. This paper summarizes the requirements, analyzes the aspects, proposes a conceptual approach, gives an example of possible implementation, and summarizes the findings. A number of challenges are uncovered, for example prescribed identification schemes in the system; versioning; repetition of incoming and outgoing messages; multiple output channels; recycling of IDs; invalid messages, etc. The key requirement is to trace messages with information on the input and output of the distribution system by assigning the proper identifier information. Unfortunately, identification schemes are different as to the information provider, in the central data store and in each output channel; the solution must keep track of these differences, and therefore events affecting the assigned information identity must be documented. The same applies to transactions, affecting information existence, as is the case with information deletion due to expiration. A sample of possible implementation shows that linking information between different types of log records might be greatly simplified if processed information keeps track of the transaction which has imported the information into the system.


In this paper a low swing driver-receiver pair (lhos-lp) for driving signals is proposed to optimize the energy dissipation and delay of global interconnect lines. The simulation, performed based on 1V 0.13µm CMOS technology with HSPICE, for signal transmission along a wire- length of 10 mm. The simulation results show lhos-lp is 18% and 14% better than other similar signaling schemes (lhos-db and lhos-lhos) and consumes 17% lower energy than lhos-lhos and it has similar energy consumption respect to lhos-lp. Also this circuit performs 28% and 20% better than lhos-lhos and lhos-db in a point of energy delay product.


One of the new features introduced in the emerging video coding standard, H.264/ MPEG-4 AVC (advanced video coding), is the utilization of flexible block sizes ranging from 4/spl times/4 to 16/spl times/16 in inter-frame coding. The aim is to reduce the error due to fixed block size prediction within a macroblock. However, this feature results in extremely large encoding times, especially when the brute force full-search algorithm is employed. We propose a fast block-size selection algorithm for inter-frame coding. The proposed algorithm relies mainly on two robust and reliable predictive factors - the intrinsic complexity of the macroblock and mode knowledge from the previous frame. Extensive simulations verify that the proposed method provides significant improvement in computational requirement, without sacrificing picture quality and compression ratio.


The benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is a (noncancerous) malignant growth in the size of the prostate. This enlargement of the prostate gland is produced by a relative increase in estrogen (female hormones) on testosterone (male hormone), which appears in men with age. Objective:To determine the relationship of PSA, with the size of the prostate in patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia admitted to General Hospital of Escarcega, Campeche Dr. Janel Aguilar during the period from August 2019 to January 2020. Method:patients were studied with the diagnosis of benign prostatic hyperplasia 50 years of age and older and excluded those who had other diseases that may alter prostate specific antigen, subsequently classified by age determined through PSA ultrasound prostate-specific and the average size of the prostate in grams and the average PSA for each age range and the relationship between them, while describes how it affects their self-esteem was determined. Results:Of the patients studied, 22 belong to the range of 50 to 59 years old (51.16%), 14 to range from 60 to 69 years old (32.55%) and 7 to range from 70 to 79 years old ( 16.27%). 44.1% of patients presented a prostate of 50 grams, the 51.16% prostates 60 grams and 4.6% a prostate gland of 70 grams. The average size of the prostate in grams was 50 grams in the range 50 to 59 years old, 60 g in the range 60 to 69 years old and 60 grams in the range of 70 to 79 years, and the average value of PSA was 5.5 ng / ml, 6 ng / ml and 7.5 ng / ml respectively. In the range 50 to 59 years of age every gram prostate equivalent to 0.11 ng / ml of PSA in the range 60 to 69 years of age every gram prostate equivalent to 0.1 ng / ml of PSA and the range 70 to 79 years old every gram of prostate equivalent to 0.125 ng / ml of PSA. Similarly we find that the entire population 72% have low self-esteem and problems with its image. Conclusions:In our environment in the group of 50-59 years old is the highest number of patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia.


In response to GSI-191, "Potential of PWR Sump Blockage Post-LOCA", NEI and the industry formed the PWR Sump Performance Task Force. Its main purpose was to create a methodology document that could be used as a guideline for PWR operators to be addressed the issue. The NEI methodology document provides basic guidance on approach and various methods available. But some additional information will be required in order to apply to specific plants, such as OPR1000. The present work aims to evaluate debris transport during LOCA blow-down, the first transport mode, based on CFD analysis. The target plant is U1chin 3&4 which is OPR-1000 plant. The results indicate that flow patterns are strongly affected by structural features of containment, and location of components such as steam generator, RCP and pipes. The present work takes advantage of 3D CAD model so that real geometry of OPR1000 plant was used. The analysis results give a clear figure about flow pattern in containment during LOCA blow-down, and fraction of debris transport to upper containment, which is one of major safety issues.


The earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2000 Annual Meeting of
the European Public Choice Society, Siena, Italy, 26-29 April, 2000. This paper is also available from the EPRU website at http://www.le.ac.uk/ulsm/research/epru/dispaper.html


Oxidation and thermal robustness of gate stacks in Ge and SiGe are intensively investigated. The key points of new understanding in this work are twofold. One is that GeO2/Ge interface reaction occurs inhomogeneously, resulting in agglomerated Ge region formation. The other is that Si in SiGe is oxidized by GeO2 and Ge agglomeration also occurs on SiGe surface. Scientific tips are proposed for wellcontrolled Ge and SiGe gate stack formation.


THERE is probably no legal concept which is so fundamental, yet so confusing, as " jurisdiction." * This confusion is further accentuated when a question of jurisdiction takes on a transnational or international character. Then a court must not only decipher its way through an analysis of the proper distribution and exercise of authority within its own domestic constitutional order, but must assess the requirements, if any, of public and private international law. A case in point is the application of the United States antitrust and securities laws to international transactions. In an international transaction touching upon the subject-matter of United States antitrust or securities laws,* courts of several nations


The paper investigates and analyzes the female college students' outlook on love through questionnaire and proposes the psychological guidance strategy on college students' outlook on love aiming to guide the female college students to carry out career and life planning,direct the female college students to form correct outlook on love and help the students with a healthy cultural atmosphere of college.


The seasonal pattern in the onset of type 1 diabetes has been described (1), but seasonality in the onset of type 2 diabetes has not been previously reported. Some studies revealed seasonal changes in glycemic control in selected cohorts of patients with type 2 diabetes (2–4). While the incidence of type 1 diabetes can be easily studied based on complete registries, the …


Sm(C 7H5O3)2(C4H6NO2S))·2H2O was synthesized from the reaction of samarium chloride hexahydrate with salicylic acid and thioproline, and characterized by IR, elemental analysis and thermogravimatric analysis. The standard molar enthalpies of the solutions of SmCl3·6H2O(s), 2(C7H6O3(s)), (C4H7NO2S(s)) and (Sm(C7H5O3)2· (C4H6NO2S)·2H2O(s)) in a mixed solvent of absolute ethyl alcohol, dimethyl formamide(DMF) and 3 mol/L HCl were, respectively, determined by calorimetry to be Δs�*�k Θ (SmCl3·6H2O(s), 298.15 K)=(-46.68±0.15) kJ/mol, Δs�*�k Θ (2C7H6O3(s), 298.15 K)=(25.19±0.02) kJ/mol, Δs�*�k Θ (C4H7NO2S(s), 298.15 K)=(16.20±0.17) kJ/mol and Δs�*�k Θ {(Sm(C7H5O3)2(C4H6NO2S))⋅2H2O(s), 298.15 K}=(-81.24±0.67) kJ/mol. The enthalpy change of the reaction SmCl3⋅6H2O(s)+2C7H6O3(s)+C4H7NO2S(s)=(Sm(C7H5O3)2(C4H6NO2S))⋅2H2O(s)+3HCl(g)+4H2O(l) was determined to be Δr�*�k Θ =(123.45±0.71) kJ/mol. From the data in the literature, the standard molar formation enthalpy of (Sm(C7H5O3)2(C4H6NO2S))⋅2H2O(s) was estimated to be Δf�*�k {(Sm(C7H5O3)2(C4H6NO2S))⋅2H2O(s), 298.15 K}= (-2912.03±3.1) kJ/mol through Hess' law. Keywords Samarium chloride hexahydrate; Salicylic acid; Thioproline; Standard molar formation enthalpy Article ID 1005-9040(2009)-04-564-05


The invention provides a method for manufacturing a metallic box body. The method comprises the following steps of: cutting a first metallic plate, a second metallic plate and a metallic strip from a metal sheet; correspondingly cutting off four corners of the second metallic plate to obtain a square; by using a die, bending the first metallic plate into a square-shaped frame; welding joints of the square-shaped frame bent by the first metallic plate; by using a die, bending the four edges of the second metallic plate at 90 degrees; inwards placing the bent edges of the second metallic plate in the square-shaped frame, which is bent and welded, of the first metallic plate to obtain a whole body by point welding, and finally polishing and painting the product to obtain the finished product. After the cut first metallic plate is bent into the square-shaped frame, the inside of the square-shaped frame can be welded by the metallic strip; and after the second metallic plate is bent, the outer diameter is equal to the inner diameter of the square-shaped frame bent by the first metallic plate. Because the box body is simplified into two parts, compared with the conventional process, the welding workload is greatly reduced by the method; and in the manufactured box body, the welding points are hidden in the box body, so that the safety factor is improved, and the anti-explosive performance of the box body can be enhanced just by increasing the number of welding points.


Objective To observe the change of serum high sensitive C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) and cardiac troponin I in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS),and explore the role of hs-CRP and cTnI in ACS.Methds One hundred and seven cases were studied,SAP group (35 patients) ,UAP group (42 patient),and AMI group (30 patients).There were 40 cases in normal control group.The levels of hs-CRP and cTnI were detected and compared.Results The levels of hs-CRP and cTnI in AMI group were significantly higher than that in SAP group and UAP group (p0.01);The hs-CRP and cTnI in UAP group were significantly higher than that in SAP group (p0.01);The hs-CRP and cTn I in SAP group were not significantly increased compared with normal control group (p0.05).Conclusion The elevation of hs-CRP and cTnI in serum is closely associated with ACS,particularly AMI,and may serve as an indicator for predicting ACS and AMI.The unite evaluate the patient whom these two levels of marking things can indentify high risk of heart.


This paper studies the potential of vision enhancement systems (VES) for automotive applications. VES present a combination of infrared sensor and head-up display (HUD) technologies. The paper focuses on the effect of VES on driver peripheral visual performance.


This paper presents a comparison of the rotor position estimation of a switched reluctance motor(SRM) with built-in search coils. Squared euclidean distance, fuzzy logic and neural network are used to estimate the rotor position. The simulation is performed by three methods and the results are compared. The experiment of squared euclidean distance is achieved and compared with the simulation result.


High-strength copper conductor composites have been used in pulse magnet applications and as internal reinforcement in superconductor wires. The required property is high strength while maintaining high conductivity. Heavily worked pure copper has a strength of 450–500 MPa. Increasing the strength of copper by alloying additions without affecting the conductivity drastically is a significant challenge. Mixing pure copper with a higher modulus, higher strength tantalum alloys is an option to meet the challenge. This work reports on the use of a tantalum–tungsten alloy to strengthen high-purity copper through a multi-filament approach. The tantalum tungsten has a high modulus and very low solubility in copper. A composite wire containing 133 filaments of Ta–W (25% by volume) has a conductivity of 80% International Annealed Copper Standard and ultimate tensile strength of over 650 MPa with a modulus over 140 GPa. The wire has good ductility and toughness. These results are comparable or better than current options, and the potential to improve this product is explored.


We introduce a new method to determine the redshift of unknown-redshift BL Lac Objects. The method relies on simultaneous multi-wavelength (MWL) observations of BL Lac objects in optical, X-ray, HE (E?100 MeV) gamma-rays and VHE (E?100 GeV) gamma-rays. It involves best-fitting spectral energy distribution (SED) from optical through HE gamma-rays with a Synchrotron-Self-Compton (SSC) model. We extrapolate such best fitting model into VHE regime, and assume that it represents the intrinsic emission of the object. We then compare the observed VHE flux which has been affected by the interaction with Extragalactic Background Light (EBL). Constraining the measured vs intrinsic emission leads to the determination of gamma-gamma opacity. Comparing the obtained opacity with the predicted opacity based on EBL model, we obtain the redshift of the photon source.


In 2011, China entered into an era of urban society with a majority of urban population. It is a miracle in human history and a momentous change in Chinese society. Under this context, this paper establishes an index system to measure the quality of urbanization, including the rate of household registered population and deviation of urbanization based on the three aspects of urban development, residents' life and urban–rural integration and the five dimensions of population, economy, space, society and urban–rural coordination. The entropy method and inter-provincial panel data in 2011–2017 are used to conduct empirical analysis on the quality of urbanization of China and its evolution in this period. It is found that although urbanization quality has been improved significantly and regional disparities have been alleviated slightly after entering the urban society, the overall pattern has not changed. Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai as well as the eastern provinces including Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Guangdong are among the top, while the northeastern region continues to decline and the western inland provinces are still left behind. The most pressing task is to promote high-quality urbanization. With people as the core and "market" as the support, efforts should be made to improve social construction and urban–rural coordination, narrow the gap between the rate of household registered population and the rate of permanent urban population, promote the new urbanization focusing on quality and finally, build a high-quality modern urban society.


This report provides the technical details on the research activities conducted by Wright Laboratory and UES, Inc. personnel during the period of August 1990 to November 1991. The performance of two heat pipe coupled, planar thermionic energy converters was characterized using experimental and analytical methods. Nondestructive failure analysis was performed to evaluate the causes for the failure of a molybdenum-rhenium converter. The experimentation was carded out at the thermionic facilities at the USAF Wright Laboratory while the computer simulations were performed at Wright Laboratory and the University of Central Florida. A maximum current density of 10.1 amps/cm[sup 2] and a peak power density of 7.7 watts/cm[sup 2] were obtained from the rhenium-rhenium diode operating in the ignited mode.


Because traditional target tracking algorithm don′t take full advantages of spatio-temporal relationships between the target and its local background,small target and edges can not be distinguished effectively,thereby the excursion problem occurs.Based on the Spatio-Temporal Context(STC)learning tracking algorithm,excursion problem was analyzed,and a new IR dim target tracking based on Guided Image Filter and STC is proposed.Guided Filter is adopted to preserve edges and eliminate the noise of context areas,and ideal context prior can be calculated after subtracting the filtering result from original image.Then,an ideal confidence map makes an accurate estimation of target.Several group of experimental results demonstrate that the presented method can track the target effectively,compared with several classical methods,such as improved template matching tracking,temporal-spatial fusion filtering algorithm and moving pipeline filtering algorithm.The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm performs well in terms of efficiency and accuracy.


Teachers in a south London borough have developed a new syllabus that flows from the foundation stage to year 6 – it is now available for all. Ally March reports


Environmental threats and conflicts have become the epicenter of many problems we now face globally. The environmental problems do not concern just poor people in Third World countries, but also people in all over the World. This paper touches upon the significance of environment related problems in terms of global security. For this purpose it assesses some environmental conflict cases and discusses the importance of global cooperation to eliminate the environment related conflicts.


Aim This in vivo study aimed to examine the systemic effects of contemporary calcium silicate cements (CSC) contain different radiopacifiers in rats. Materials & Methods Polyethylene tubes filled with BIOfactor MTA (BIO), Neo MTA Plus (NEO), MTA Repair HP (REP), Biodentine (DENT) and empty tubes (control group) were implanted into the subcutaneous tissues of 80 male Spraque Dawley rats for 7 and 30 days (n = 8). After 7 and 30 day, samples of liver and kidney tissues were submitted to histopathological analysis. Blood samples were collected to evaluate changes in hepatic and renal functions of rats. Wilcoxon and post hoc Dunn Bonferroni tests were used to compare between the 7th and 30th days in order to evaluate the histopathological data. Paired-sample t-test was used to compare laboratory values between the 7th and 30th days, ANOVA analysis and a post hoc Tukey test were used to compare values between groups (p < 0.05). Results On the 7th day, REP, BIO and NEO groups were statistically similar in kidney tissue and the degree of inflammation was found to be significantly higher in these groups compared to the control and DENT groups. On the 30th day, the degree of inflammation of the REP and NEO groups in the kidney tissue was found to be significantly higher than the control, BIO and DENT groups. Although the inflammation in the liver was moderate and mild on the 7th and 30th days, no statistically significant difference was observed between the groups. Vascular congestion was evaluated as mild and moderate in kidney and liver in all groups, and no statistically significant difference was observed between the groups. While there was no statistically significant difference between the groups in the 7th day AST, ALT and urea values, when the creatinine values were compared, the DENT and NEO groups were found to be statistically similar and significantly lower than the control group. On the 30th day, ALT values were statistically similar between the groups. The AST values of the BIO group were found to be significantly higher than the DENT group. While BIO, DENT, NEO and control groups had statistically similar urea values, the REP group was found to be significantly higher than the other groups. The creatinine value of the REP group was significantly higher than the groups other than the control group (p < 0.05). Conclusion CSCs with different radiopacifiers had similar and acceptable effects on the histological examination of the kidneys and liver systemically, and serum ALT, AST, urea, creatinine levels.


In recent, hospital information systems are widely used to electronically record, manage and share the data collected in hospitals. Such systems have contributed greatly to improving the work efficiency in modern hospitals, however, the collected data concerning the patients should be appropriately processed and reused to provide the healthcare service providers with decision supports. Especially, this paper proposes the patient flow monitoring system for the operations management of the outpatient department for patients with chronic diseases, and discusses the related issues. The proposed system visualizes the standard process model extracted from the patient history data and various performance measures, and this enables the managers to evaluate and enhance the operations of the outpatient clinic. In this paper, the patient flow monitoring system is applied to the rheumatology clinic, and the prototype system optimized for I-pad is illustrated.


ABSTRACT A two-year field experiment was performed to investigate greenhouse gas emissions from rice straw return to different return depths and soil types. The experiment comprised of six treatments: without straw return (silty clay loam, SC; sandy loam, SL); straw return to topsoil (SCT, SLT); and straw return to subsoil (SCS, SLS). SCT and SLT released 2402.18 and 2494.01 kg ha−1 more CO2 than SC and SL in total, respectively. Straw return to topsoil and subsoil in both soil textures significantly increased CH4 emissions. Compared to the total cumulative CH4 fluxes in SC and SL, those of SCT and SLT increased by 239.62 and 131.34 kg ha−1, and those of SCS and SLS increased by 125.07 and 89.93 kg ha−1, respectively. SCT and SCS emitted 389.06 and 168.94 g ha−1 less N2O than SC in total, respectively. SL released 146.28 and 72.06 g ha−1 more N2O than SLT and SLS in total, respectively. The variations in the ratio of the total cumulative fluxes of CO2 and CH4, indicate that rice straw return to silty clay loam and subsoil tend to release more carbon in the form of CH4 compared to sandy loam and topsoil, respectively.


It is anticipated that South Carolina will experience an employment crisis within the next decade. To address this impending crisis, the Lumina Foundation has instituted Goal 2025 and South Carolina has set a goal of becoming one of the nation's most educated states by the year of 2030. One way South Carolina can achieve these two goals is to close the gap that currently exists between majority and minority populations with college degrees. African Americans are the largest minority population with college degrees and the largest minority population currently enrolled in baccalaureate degree programs in the state. Forty-four percent of these African American college students are attending Historically Black Colleges and Universities, but first year retention numbers are low at these institutions as more students are entering academically underprepared. Research has identified the importance of effective academic advising to first year student retention. There are three main approaches to academic advising: prescriptive, developmental, and proactive. Of these three approaches, proactive advising has been shown to be the most effective approach for academically underprepared students. But, little is known about the academic advising approach being used by advisors at HBCUs. This quantitative study identified the most prevalent academic advising approach used at HBCUs in South Carolina. The Academic Advising Inventory was administered to 85 first year students attending HBCUs in South Carolina. The results showed that the most prevalent advising approach used was developmental advising. Also, participants were shown to be more satisfied and preferred developmental advising more than prescriptive advising.


Since the inception of radiotherapy soon after the discovery of X rays by Roentgen in 1895, the technology of X ray production has first been aimed towards ever higher photon and electron beam energies and intensities, and more recently towards computerization and intensity modulated beam delivery. During the first 50 years of radiotherapy the technological progress was relatively slow and mainly based on X ray tubes, van de Graaff generators and betatrons. The invention of the 60 Co teletherapy unit by H.E. Johns in Canada in the early 1950s provided a tremendous boost in the quest for higher photon energies and placed the cobalt unit at the forefront of radiotherapy for a number of years. The concurrently developed medical linacs, however, soon eclipsed cobalt units, moved through five increasingly sophisticated generations and became the most widely used radiation source in modern radiotherapy. With its compact and efficient design, the linac offers excellent versatility for use in radiotherapy through isocentric mounting and provides either electron or megavoltage X ray therapy with a wide range of energies. In addition to linacs, electron and X ray radiotherapy is also carried out with other types of accelerator, such as betatrons and microtrons. More exotic particles, such as protons, neutrons, heavy ions and negative p mesons, all produced by special accelerators, are also sometimes used for radiotherapy; however, most contemporary radiotherapy is carried out with linacs or teletherapy cobalt units.


(65) Prior Publication Data PageRank (PR) is used by web search engine Google in ranking individual web pages. However, it is known that this US 2008/OO75O14 A1 Mar. 27, 2008 value is also easily manipulated by methods known as spoof 51) Int. C ing. Further, the calculation of PR will require iterative cycles (51) 2,L i2/26 2006.O1 of computations to achieve a "steady value. This would ( .01) mean that huge computation resources are required to obtain (52) U.S. Cl. ........ ...370/252: 370/238; 370/254 reasonably reliable PR values for various web pageS. This (58) Field of Classification Search ................. 370/241, invention provides relatively accurate and simple methods for 370/252,229, 235, 238,254; 700/90, 245, ranking the importance of a node in a network. The web graph 700/262: 709)238, 240 or the network is first represented by an incidence matrix or a See application file for complete search history. representation matrix W. The matrix W is then self-multiplied (56) References Cited to obtain flow matrix. The flow capacity, or the rank of each node, is then obtained from the flow matrix. U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS


For solving the problem of nonlinear multimodal function optimization,this paper presents a bi-group evolutionary strategies as a fast convergent algorithm.First of all,for this kind of optimization problems,we use bi-group random variables as the mutation operator and the algorithm of evolution in two different subgroups are parallel performed by using different mutation strategies to make the group in the solution space to be decentralizedly explorated as possible while in the local to be carefully done.The exchange of information between supgroups is realized by reorganizing them.We,through the examples,can see that the algorithm in solving the problem of the nonlinear multimodal function optimization has the features like high precision,fast convergence rate etc.


Competition has been studied as something to be averted, yet rarely has it been asked what processes may be involved in successful competition. We tested whether more accurate modeling of an adversary can assist competitive success. Pairs played a zero-sum game with no specific skill component over 40 trials. We measured the relative accuracy of the players' second-order model (i.e., what I think about my opponent: R2MA), and third-order model (i.e., what I think my opponent thinks of me: R3MA), using responses to adjectives indicating personality traits. Performance correlated with both R3MA and having a better strategy (i.e., a better distribution of responses), but they contributed separately to performance variance. However, R2MA did not correlate with performance. Modeling the Adversary 3 Modeling the Adversary and Success in Competition Some important aspects of competition are thrown into stark relief by the card game poker. Thagard (1992) illustrated this with a story about miners from the gold fields of 1840's California on a slow ship to the east coast. To pass the time, they played poker with their gold dust. During one hand a player kept four cards and drew one, but as it was dealt to him he could only catch a glimpse of it before the wind blew it overboard. Immediately the player jumped into the water, swam to the card and was pulled out of the water holding it in his hand. On his return to the table, he bet all his gold dust. All the other players folded, assuming that the card must have completed a great hand. Why else risk drowning? It turned out that his hand consisted of four clubs and a very wet diamond. The miner won, not because he knew more about cards and probabilities, but because he accurately predicted how the other players would interpret his act. Critically, his opponents failed to do this. Poker has rarely been used in studies of competition. Instead, many studies have used social dilemmas such as the prisoner's dilemma (see Axelrod, 1980). The main focus of this research has been on the factors leading to competition, but rarely has the question of what is the basis of success in competition been addressed. Yet this question could be interesting for multiple reasons. First, competition is a pervasive part of daily life, such that people even seek it out in games and sports. Second, competition could provide a useful domain for testing ideas about interaction in general, because people's goals are usually clear. Competition has been studied in economics and game theory (see Rapoport, 1960). Yet much of this research has been normative, and has focused either on explaining or describing aggregate outcomes of competition, rather than the processes underlying competition. However, seeing competition as problem solving might suggest what these processes could be. Problem solving researchers have labeled competition Adversarial Problem Solving (APS), in order to Modeling the Adversary 4 emphasize the idea that competition can make similar cognitive demands to those normally associated with problem solving (see Gilhooly, 1988; Holding, 1989; Thagard, 1992). Unless the definition of problem solving is to be restricted, any general theory of problem solving must incorporate competitive tasks. Thagard (1992) proposed a set of cognitive processes that could be involved in successful APS (i.e., competition). In particular, Thagard argued that it is the ability to model the opponent, and further to model how the opponent models you, that is critical for success. A mental model formed through interpersonal perception (a topic with a long history, see Kenny, 1994) can then be used to anticipate and counter the opponent's actions. However, to turn Thagard's proposal into a testable hypothesis, requires a focus on accuracy in modeling. Further, accurate modeling of the opponent should not be the critical determinant of success in any one competitive event; instead, the critical factor should be having a model of that particular opponent which is more accurate than the model that opponent has of you. Information about an opponent's personality can influence cooperation in prisoner's dilemma games (see Wrightman, Baxter, Nelson, & Bilsky, 1972). Information about what another person received or what their price preferences are can influence bargaining (see Bazerman, White, & Loewenstein, 1995). Information specific to the game that is provided about an opponent is part of a players complete model of a competitive task. However, the focus of this paper is on whether being able to perceive a relatively more accurate model of an opponent is related to success in a game in which one must anticipate the opponent's choices. Components of Modeling Thagard (1992) suggested that the models that people build of their opponents may have more than one component. In particular, players need a model both of their opponent, and what Modeling the Adversary 5 they think their opponent thinks of them. In a very different context, this distinction was worked through by Laing, Phillipson, and Lee (1966). They studied couples experiencing difficulties in their marriage. However, in the same way as for competitors, what she thinks he thinks about her can be critical. So Laing et al. gave the husband a set of issues regarding the couple's interaction or interexperience (e.g., "She makes up my mind for me") and asked him three questions: How true do you think this is for you (i.e., direct perspective)? How would she answer (i.e., metaperspective)? How would she think you have answered (i.e., meta-metaperspective)? His wife independently answered the same questions from her point of view. By comparing their answers for each issue, Laing et al. could identify agreement (match of each person's direct perspective), understanding (match of own metaperspective to other's direct perspective), and realization of understanding (match of own meta-metaperspective to other's metaperspective) for each issue. They found that number of matches clearly differentiated on all three levels between couples in disturbed and nondisturbed marriages, and found all three levels important for detailed analysis. Laing et al.'s (1966) theory appears extendible to competition (they briefly consider international relations), particular given that realization of understanding is critical to deception (see Hymans, 1989). Dennet (1978) argued that deception involves beliefs about other people's intention, as deception requires believing that false impressions of one's own intentions can be created. Dennet (1978, pp. 274-275) put forward a useful distinction in that he proposed that beliefs about others' intentions are second-order intentions, while beliefs about what we believe others to believe about us, are third-order intentions. In a similar way, modeling an opponent can be divided into secondand third-order components: What we think of an opponent can be seen as second-order modeling, while how we believe the opponent is modeling us can be seen as thirdorder modeling. Laing et al.'s understanding and realization of understanding levels are equivalent to Modeling the Adversary 6 secondand third-order models. A Methodology for Studying Competition While it seems to make sense that modeling an opponent should play a role in success during competition, there is little empirical research that has tried to support this intuition. Even when it has been shown that modeling occurs in competition, this modeling has not then been related to success. For example, Ruscher and Fiske (1990) showed that individuals in competition focus more than non-competitors on trying to individuate their opponents, particularly with regard to task relevant attributes. This could be interpreted as showing that competitors tried to build a model of their opponent. However, Ruscher and Fiske did not examine whether trying to individuate the opponent improved performance. A problem with examining factors leading to success in competition is that it often involves tasks that are too complex to produce testable hypotheses, given our ignorance regarding competition. Therefore, we needed a simple, manipulatible, competitive task in order to test hypotheses about competition. A possible candidate was the oft studied prisoner's dilemma game. However, this game was used to study why people compete, because there is pressure towards both cooperation and competition. In contrast, when studying how people compete, it is best to know that participants are competing. Therefore, we used a purely adversarial game: a repeated, zero-sum, two-player game in which players simultaneously select the number ONE, TWO, or THREE. Table 1 presents the payoff matrix for this game. In this zero-sum game, we will refer to the two players as the Chooser and the Avoider. The Chooser player tries to select the number that he or she expects the Avoider player to select, while Avoider seeks to avoid selecting the number chosen by Chooser. Both players make their selections in secret, then each player is told what the opponent selected. If their selections coincide, then Chooser wins the amount of points that corresponds to the Modeling the Adversary 7 number they both selected and Avoider loses the same amount of points. If the players' numbers do not match then Avoider wins a point and Chooser loses a point. A point tally is updated over repeated trials and the winner is the player who finishes with positive points. As can be seen, the game is different for the two players. Chooser can win up to three points, but Avoider can only ever win one point. To offset this, Avoider is expected to win more individual trials of the game. Using a game like this seemed to make it more interesting for the players, but its primary advantage was that it allowed us to set up a game in which one player has an advantage, even though neither player could be expected to be able to determine this with certainty. Thus, the pattern of r


Food safety is an important issue that is closely related to public health.This paper proposes that China should improve the legal system that safeguards food safety,clarify the relationships between the enforcing agencies,take advantage the public participation in supervising food safety,update food safety standards,expand food safety laws and standards on an international level and establish effective public participation and penalty system.