Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), in conjunction with the nucleation and growth of Au clusters, has been used to identify and quantify various types of defects on ordered, SiO2 thin films grown on Mo(112). On a low-defect surface, Au clusters nucleate and grow at line defects with metal deposition at room temperature, whereas deposition at 850 K leads to cluster decoration primarily at step edges. On a highly defective surface, clusters nucleate and grow at point defects (oxygen vacancies and/or oxygen vacancy complexes) on the terraces, with some clusters grown on oxygen vacancy complexes remaining even after an 850 K anneal. The average cluster density for low Au coverages deposited at room temperature is identical to that obtained for the same Au coverage deposited at 850 K, consistent with complete titration of point defects by the nucleating clusters.


Objective To evaluate the effect of popularizing AIDS knowledge in the residents of the project demonstration community,to provide scientific evidence for AIDS prevention and control in the non-project district.Methods The method of systematic sampling was adopted,to analyse the effect of different intervention mode through investigation by questionnair.Results The understanding rate of residents' AIDS knowledge raised to 93.7% from 71.7% after intervention.There was very notable difference in the understanding rate between the group of health education intervention and the group of mass publicity and education(P0.05).There was notable difference in age,sex,culture,occupation of different crowd before intervention.The effect was more notable after intervention than before intervention,but there was not notable difference in each group.Conclusion The intervention mode of combining hygiene publicity and education with health education and promotion should be adopted.It is effective method of quick raising residents'understanding rate.The age,sex,culture,occupation of different crowd didn't have influence on interfering effect.


The peripherally inserted central catheter(PICC) ruptured and the catheter tips migrated into cardiac chamber and pulmonary artery in one patient.For removal of the PICC,bilateral femoral vein puncture was performed,one 5F-PIG catheter and one guided wire were placed via femoral vein,one PICC tip was dragged into the inferior vena cava and was removed through vascular sheath with gooseneck snare.The PICC was removed successfully,with no infection and hemorrhage of puncture point after treatment.


The rate of embryonic aneuploidy increases exponentially in women over the age of 35 years, coinciding with a dramatic decrease in the success of in vitro fertilization (IVF) in women of advancedmaternal age. Despite advancements in preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidy (PGT-A) including the introduction of next generation sequencing (NGS), morphologic assessment remains the primary method of embryo selection in IVF. This multinational, multicenter randomized controlled trial aimed to evaluate the efficacy of NGS based PGT-A compared with morphologic methods in selection of embryos for frozen-thawed single embryo transfer. Women aged 25 to 40 years and undergoing IVF with autologous oocytes and 2 or more blastocysts of sufficient quality to biopsy by day 6 of gestation were recruited from 34 clinics. Clinics followed their own standard of care regarding IVF protocols, whereas all genetic testings were done at 9 laboratories that met predetermined sequencing quality metrics. Participants were randomized in a 1:1 ratio to either control or PGT-A arms. Both groups received a single frozen-thawed embryo transfer. In the control group, the embryo selectedwas the one with the most favorable morphological assessment. In the PGT-A group, all good quality blastocysts underwent PGT-A testing and vitrification, and the euploid embryo with the most favorable morphological assessment was transferred. The primary study outcome recorded was ongoing pregnancy rate (OPR) at 20 weeks' gestation. An intention-to-treat (ITT) analysis was performed and efficacy of PGT-A testing was assessed by comparing OPR at 20 weeks between the 2 cohorts using the Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel test. A total of 984 women were consented between October 2014 and January 2016, with 661 randomized to either the control (n = 331) or PGT-A cohort (n = 330). The average age of participants was 33.7 ± 3.6 years, and demographic characteristics were similar for the 2 cohorts. In the control cohort, 313 participants (94.6%) received the allocated treatment, compared with Health, Inc. All rights reserved. 242 Obstetrical and Gynecological Survey 274 (83.0%) in the PGT-A cohort. A total of 2178 blastocysts were analyzed in the PGT-A cohort, with 939 (43.1%) found to be euploid and 1181 aneuploid (54.2%). The OPR did not differ significantly between the PGT-A and control cohorts for either the women who received an embryo transfer (50.0% vs 45.7%, respectively, P = 0.32) or within the ITT analysis (41.8% vs 43.5%, respectively, P = 0.65). A higher OPR per transfer among women aged 35 to 40 years was found in the PGT-A group compared with the control group (50.8% vs 37.2%, respectively, P = 0.035); however, this was no longer statistically significant when evaluated in the ITT analysis. In women between the ages of 25 and 40 years undergoing IVF, the use of NGS-based PGT-A for selection of euploid blastocysts before single embryo transfer did not result in statistically significant differences in OPR or live births per embryo transfer compared with selection of embryo based on morphology alone.


We present here an algorithm able to compute the permutation between two given equivalent binary linear codes. The algorithm only works if the automorphism group of the considered codes is trivial, that is reduced to the identity permutation. For random codes of length 1000 and dimension 500, the computation time needed is about one second on a workstation DEC alpha 500/266.


A novel substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) circular cavity using triangle probe are proposed in this paper. Prior to this research work, circular cavity resonator was used to achieve a miniaturization for the overall circuit size. The proposed filter provides single resonant mode, TE110. The resonant frequency of TE110 can be adjusted by varying the length and width of the SIW cavity. The proposed filter are designed to operate at frequency 3.75 GHz and implemented on Rogers 3210 substrate with thickness of 0.64 mm. The insertion loss in operating band is less than 0.6 dB and the return loss is better than 24 dB. Simulated result obtained using Ansoft HFSS software.


Exactly how much thought do you put into hiring a new employee? Have you ever calculated how much hiring the wrong employee can cost in wasted time and money and the frustration generated for you and the rest of your team? The trouble is, most salon, spa and clinic owners haven't got the luxury of a human resources department to handle all the steps associated with the hiring process.


We investigate the value of accounting for demand seasonality in inventory control. We consider a single-location, single-item periodic-review lost sales inventory problem with cyclic demand in a retail environment. Customer demand has seasonality with a known season length, the lead time is shorter than the review period, and orders are placed as multiples of a fixed batch size. Our cost structure comprises a fixed cost per order, a fixed cost per batch and a variable cost per unit, which are used to model retail handling costs. We consider four different settings which differ in the degree of demand seasonality that is incorporated in the model: with or without within-review period variations and with or without across-review periods variations. In each case, we calculate the policy which minimizes the long-run average cost and compute the optimality gaps of the policies which ignore part or all demand seasonality. We apply the problem to a real life setting, using Point-of-Sales data. We find that it is most beneficial to incorporate demand seasonality for high-velocity products with low batch size for which demand across-review periods varies substantially.


Background: Contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) permits evaluation of intratumoral vascularity in real time. The purpose of the present study was to compare the performance of conventional ultrasound (US) and CEUS in the evaluation of malignancy risk in patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs). Methods: In this retrospective study, we included patients with suspected GISTs who underwent conventional US and CEUS preoperatively. Fifty patients with pathologically confirmed GISTs were enrolled. Tumor risk stratifications were determined according to the 2008 NIH criteria. Pre- and post-CEUS findings were reviewed. Tumor size, lobular border, heterogeneity, cystic areas, calcification and intratumoral gas on US, irregular vessels, heterogeneous enhancement, and non-enhancing areas on CEUS were compared among different risk groups of GISTs. The relationship between time-intensity curve parameters and risk stratification was also analyzed. Results: Larger lesion size, lobulation, and cystic areas were associated with higher risk (P 0.05). Visualization of intratumoral irregular vessels and non-enhancing areas on CEUS were significantly correlated with higher risk classification (P Conclusions: The combination of conventional US and CEUS provides valuable information for preoperative risk stratification of GISTs.


This paper defines the concept and features of components of the application of closing up of fire law enforcement and explains the proper application of closing up in fire law enforcement.This is of some significance for fire law enforcement.


International experience has indicated that up to an extent tourism has always been subject to government intervention regardless the ideology served by a country's political authority. While tourism focuses on space and time as a particular form of a changing private consumption with the subsequent problems of production and distribution which diffuse economy and society as a whole, it requires the regulatory state intervention. Therefore the issue raised is not whether the state should have an intervening role in the development of tourism but what kind of role it is going to have-something which is linked directly to which goal it will serve and which objectives it will have. In general the main areas of intervention which international experience has recorded are: planning, conservation, legislation and regulation, coordination as well as the support of and stimulation and, the wider policy of tourism capital formation. The extent to which the above areas of state intervention influence tourism is neither pre-determined nor stable but it changes through time depending on the extent to which the goal and the objectives placed by the tourism policy are achieved. After World War II international experience of tourism policy in different countries has indicated that most governments - in the context of national economic development plans - have engaged in either realizing or even operating directly the necessary investment for tourism development. Tourism development in Greece provides a typical example of this complex state intervention. The phases of this policy starting from 1951 - the year of re-establishing Greek National Tourism Organization (GNTO) and of formulating the national tourism policy with a completely intervening operation in tourism - up to the first five years of 2000, a period of obvious disorganization of the state's operations both in tourism and in general, shape the time context of the evolution of Greek tourism. In this historical period the operation of the Greek state in tourism has adopted all the internationally known intervention forms regardless their successful or unsuccessful outcome. Typical cases of the intervening role of the state in the spatial development of Greek tourism are for example the following: a. the Plan of Public Investments and b. the Credit Policy followed.


In every day our daily needs we are depending on transport system. Transport mode may be two wheeler, four wheelers etc. In metro there is a huge traffic of vehicles, there may be chances of accidents. The most of the accidents are due to inability of the driver to control the vehicle. In order to improve the safety of the driver, need to add some auto control for the vehicle. The driver assistance is one of the auto control system. In driver assistance there are many subsystems. Adaptive cruise control is one of the major driver assistance sub systems. The Adaptive cruise control was implemented by using Real time operating system with preemptive priority based scheduler. It takes more memory and time. Time triggered cooperative scheduler is one of the most efficient and predictable scheduler. It is designed for controlling adaptive cruise control tasks. It is implemented using ARM7 based Microcontroller, ultrasonic sensor, Throttle valve sensor and speed sensor. The whole system is placed in host vehicle, vary the speed of the host vehicle so that to keep minimum distance between host and target vehicle. The TTC scheduler for adaptive cruise control is simulated using keil IDE tool. The application tasks are controlled by using efficient Time triggered cooperative scheduler. The adaptive cruise control is controlled by TTC scheduler is written in embedded 'c'. The simulated results are compared with existing cooperative schedulers. It is proved from the results that the TTC scheduler takes less time and less memory.


The purpose of this study was to evaluate differences in comprehension among elementary school children who listened to a narrative passage presented at different rates of expansion or compression, ranging from 78 words per minute (in increments of 50 words per minute) to 428 words per minute. One hundred sixty-two elementary school children from three levels of intelligence comprised the samples. All subjects had mental ages falling in the 9–4 to 11–3 range. The materials used in this study were three standardized listening passages and associated tests. The first two passages were used for training and familiarization purposes; the third passage was used for obtaining criterion data. Multiple choice tests covering the passage contents were used. Two alternate forms of a 28-item test were used with the criterion passage. Immediate and one-week retention data were gathered on each subject. Results of the study indicate that listening rates of 228 to 328 wpm are more efficient for learning and retention than the normal rate of 178 wpm. Subjects with lower IQs performed better at rates which were slower than the most efficient rates for higher IQ subjects. It was further observed that the performance curves obtained in this study display a secondary peak just prior to the final drop in performance at very high listening rates. This study provides evidence that high-speed listening can be an efficient learning medium for elementary school children.


The introduction of a novel technology can have profound impacts on nature and society. Within PROSUITE, a general methodology is developed in order to assess the sustainability impacts of a novel technology, including a methodology for evaluating on the impacts on society and social wellbeing. The approach includes the methodology for modelling the life cycle, guidelines for the performance assessment, description and operationalization of indicators, aggregation along the life cycle, data collection and a method for dealing with data uncertainty. Social impacts include impacts on knowledge-intensive jobs, total employment, risk perception, possibility of misuse, child labour, forced labour, trust in risk information, stakeholder involvement, long-term control functions, regional income inequalities and global inequalities.


To the Editor:— Since babies with the congenital rubella syndrome have been found to excrete virus, 1 we should consider the possibility that such babies are contagious. This possibility appears to have become a reality in the face of a small outbreak of rubella among nurses caring for such infants at the Children's Medical and Surgical Center of the Johns Hopkins Hospital, and in view of a similar outbreak reported by Cooper et al 2 as this letter was being written. The original source of infection for the Johns Hopkins nurses appears to have been a group of 18 babies with congenital rubella. All but one were born to mothers who had rubella (by history) during pregnancy. Their disease was manifested by one or more of the following: low birth weight, icterus, hepatosplenomegaly, thrombocytopenic purpura, nuclear cataracts, glaucoma, patent ductus arteriosus, peripheral pulmonic stenosis, and failure to thrive. All


Objective To Investigate the effect of insulin analogue on the proliferation of human umbilical cord stem cells. Methods Human umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells were incubated with 1,10 and 100 nmol / L of regular human insulin, insulin aspart and insulin glargine, respectively. Cell proliferation was detected by MTT assay after 24-hour, 48-hour and 72-hour culture. Result Regular human insulin, insulin aspart and insulin glargine, at dose of 10 nmol / L and 100 nmol / L, could significantly increase cell proliferation compared with control group after 24-hour culture. Human insulin, insulin aspart and insulin glargine, at dose of 1, 10 and 100 nmol / L, could significantly increase cell proliferation compared with control group after 48-hour and 72-hour culture. Human insulin, insulin aspart and insulin glargine could promote cell proliferation in a dose- dependent manner. Insulin aspart showed no significant effect on cell proliferation compared with human insulin(P 0.05). Insulin glargine showed significant effect on cell proliferation compared with human insulin after 48- hour culture (P 0.05) and 72- hour culture (P 0.05), respectively. Conclusion Both regular human insulin and insulin analogues can enhance human umbilical cord stem cell proliferation. Insulin aspart and regular human insulin have similar effects on cell proliferation, Cell proliferation effect of insulin glargine was stronger than that of human insulin. This study may provide a new way to prepare sufficient seed cells for adipose tissue engineering.


Onboard sensory data mining from multiple spacecraft platforms has been an increasingly important task in space missions. In this paper, a field programmable gate array (FPGA)-based reconfigurable physical inversion prototype is developed for real-time retrieving of physical properties of the investigated area. The generalized inversion processor is able to fuse the data from multiplatform sensors, eliminate redundant algorithm development and provide a vehicle for autonomous onboard image analysis and physics-based data compressions. From our empirical study, we found that the FPGA system is faster than the Pentium-based PC by at least two to three orders of magnitude. The fixed point radial basis function algorithm demonstrates parallelism as the number of bases increase


This paper introduces the reading values,analyzes the forming process and internal causes of the reading values of university students,expounds the external factors influencing the formation and development of the reading values of university students,and puts forward some measures for guiding university students to overcome the reading bias and establish healthy reading values.


This cross-sectional study investigates the estimated prevalence, common causes, and health care burden of pleural effusions among hospitalized adults in China.


Accessible summary What is known on the subject?The Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale‐21 (DASS‐21) is a widely used measurement for psychological symptoms and distress.Some previous studies have shown that the DASS‐21 can accurately measure symptoms of anxiety, depression and stress, while other studies have indicated that the DASS‐21 mainly measures overall distress.The factor structure of the DASS‐21 is important and debated since if affects interpretations of findings. &NA; What does this paper add to existing knowledge?In this study, the DASS‐21 was translated into Swedish and evaluated in three diverse samples.The DASS‐21 subscales of Depression and Anxiety correlated significantly with corresponding criteria instruments. The DASS‐21 Stress subscale showed more diverse associations with psychological distress.The analyses supported a bifactor model of the DASS‐21 with three specific factors of depression, anxiety and stress as well as a general distress factor. &NA; What are the implications for practice?The results show that the DASS‐21 may be used to measure unique symptoms of depression, anxiety and, with some caveat, stress as well as overall psychological distress.This study confirms that the DASS‐21 is theoretically sound instrument that is feasible for both research and clinical practice.The DASS‐21 can be an accessible tool for screening and evaluation in first‐line mental health services. Introduction: There is a constant need for theoretically sound and valid self‐report instruments for measuring psychological distress. Previous studies have shown that the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale‐21 (DASS‐21) is theoretically sound, but there have been some inconsistent results regarding its factor structure. Aims: The aim of the present study was to investigate and elucidate the factor structure and convergent validity of the DASS‐21. Methods: A total of 624 participants recruited from student, primary care and psychotherapy populations. The factor structure of the DASS‐21 was assessed by confirmatory factor analyses and the convergent validity by investigating its unique correlations with other psychiatric instruments. Results: A bifactor structure with depression, anxiety, stress and a general factor provided the best fit indices for the DASS‐21. The convergent validity was adequate for the Depression and Anxiety subscales but more ambiguous for the Stress subscale. Discussion: The present study overall supports the validity and factor structure of the DASS‐21. Implications for practice: The DASS‐21 can be used to measure symptoms of depression and anxiety as well as overall distress. It can be useful for mental health nurses, and other first‐line psychiatric professionals, in need of a short, feasible and valid instrument in everyday care


Battery technology has been widely used in various applications such as electric vehicles, smart grids, renewable energy systems, and sustainable power applications in recent years. The type, rating, and operating characteristics of batteries vary from one application to another. For example, Electric Vehicles (EVs) need lightweight batteries capable of producing fast energy and withstanding frequent charge/discharge cycles. Renewable energy applications require batteries that can store large energy in the time of excessive electric power generation and can substitute renewable energy sources to supply power in times of non-generation. As batteries are an electro-chemical phenomenon and are generally expensive, it is essential to establish an effective battery model to analyze its behavior under different operating conditions. In this regard, this paper presents a comprehensive study of various battery modeling approaches widely used for the characterization of batteries employed as energy sources for electric vehicles. A simple modified generic battery model is developed and simulated for the ANR26650M1 Li-ion battery in a MATLAB-Simulink environment. The modified generic model includes a polarization voltage term to represent the open-circuit voltage accurately and the polarization resistance term is slightly modified. The model parameters are deduced from the data sheet provided by the battery manufacturers. The discharge curve obtained through simulation is validated with the one given in the datasheet.


The paper summarizes the changing approaches to asset management of manufacturing companies amid the unprecedented uncertainty in markets, progressing digital transformation and production facilities being enriched with intelligent information and communication systems. A conceptual model has been designed that reflects the new principles and the key conditions of asset management systems' operation in the digital industry. Having examined the cases of the energy sector and high-tech industries, the authors identify the main trends in the innovative development of production asset management: cutting-edge reliability-focused repair and maintenance methods, the digital twin technology, and platform solutions for business customization. The results of the study could be used for asset management strategy development in manufacturing and for improvement of the relevant legal and regulatory frameworks, including the international standards PAS 55 and ISO 55000.


Proinflammatory cytokines, such as tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-� ) and interleukin-1beta (IL-1� ), impairs long-term potentiation (LTP) in hippocampus, a synaptic model of memory, while in spinal dorsal horn TNF-� is found to induce LTP of C-fiber evoked field potentials in rats with nerve injury. In the present work the role of IL-1� in the spinal LTP of C-fiber evoked field potentials, which is important for pathological pain, was investigated in both physiological and pathological conditions. We found that spinal application of IL-1� at the concentrations up to 500 ng/ml affected neither basal synaptic transmission mediated by C-fiber nor spinal LTP induced by tetanic stimulation in intact rats. In rats with neuropathic pain produced by spared nerve injury (SNI) or lumbar 5 ventral root transection (L5 VRT), however, IL- 1� at a low concentration (5 ng/ml) induced LTP of C-fiber evoked field potentials. Pretreatment with either p38 MAPK inhibitor (SB203580) or NF-�B inhibitor (PDTC) but not with JNK inhibitor (SP600125) completely blocked LTP induced by IL-1� in SNI rats. Taken together, the results indicated that exogenous IL-1� might induce spinal LTP only in rats with nerve injury but not in intact rats. The differential effects of proinflammatory cytokines on synaptic plasticity in spinal dorsal horn and in hippocampus may be clinically significant.


We use laser ablation inductively coupled mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) to establish mapping technique for the analysis of elements in environmental and biological samples, which provides high sample throughput, high sensitivity, accuracy and precision of the analytical data for trace and ultra-trace multi-element analysis of solid samples. In this study, a laser beam at a fixed speed (line scan mode) moving along the sample has been used in the LA-ICP-MS mapping technique. MATLAB is utilized to process data, to produce two- or three-dimensional image and to integrate counts for quantitative or qualitative analysis of samples. In addition, a comparison of the proposed method with the laser beam in a fixed position on the sample (grid mode) in analyzing standard samples and real samples are also performed. A better linearity of calibration curves established from standard samples is shown in line scan mode, but similar elemental concentrations are observed by both methods. The proposed mapping technique by LA-ICP-MS is successfully applied in aerosol particulate samples and a slice of lung tissues.


The paper presents structure and interpretation of combined chronosequence of soil paleocatenas, formed in the postglacial period in the inland dune area of the ToruBasin (Northern Poland, Central Europe). Based on radiocarbon, palynological and archaeological datings, four generations of paleosols were distinguished, of Allerod, Preboreal, Eo-Mesoholocene and Neoholocene ages. Time spans of pedogenesis divide periods of aeolian activity: Late Glacial climatogenic period with three phases: pre-Allerod, Younger Dryas and late Preboreal and anthropogenic period with episodes correlated with archaeological cultures and second-level climate oscillations, during Neoholocene. Paleosols of particular generations form similar catena patterns on dune slopes, composed of Podzols, Gleyic Podzols, Humic Gleysols and Histosols, providing diversity of geoecosystems depending on landscape position. Additionally, during Holocene two different sandy analogues of Cambisols developed: so called Finow soils (Schlaak 1993), as the effect of climate cooling at the break of Younger Dryas and Preboreal and Brunic Arenosols, as the effect of leave forest succession during Eo-mezoholocene and Neoholocene. Despite typological similarity, soils of different ages distinctly differ in stage of development, which relates to both time and conditions of pedogenesis.


Quality has always been a significant strategic issue but increased global competition has brought it to the forefront of management philosophy. Quality management principles and techniques are now a well-accepted part of almost every manager's toolkit. Most large firms have adopted total quality management (TQM) in one form or the other, the exact origin of the quality management movement is difficult to trace. Powell (1995) attributes to the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers (JUSE) for initiating this movement in 1949. However, Deming (1989) refers to Shewhart's work on statistical process control (SPC) in the 1930s. The Concept of total quality control (TQC) was pioneered by, Feigenbaum, Manager (Manufacturing and quality control) of the General Electric (GE). According to him, TQC is an effective system of integrating the quality development, quality maintenance and quality improvement efforts of the various groups in an organisation so as to enable production and service at the most economical lever which allow for full customer satisfaction ". The essence of any organisation strategy should be the establishment of a TQM culture through the realisation of its three axioms. viz. Commitment, Scientific Knowledge and Involvement.


In the 1960's research was carried out on so called N-path filters. These filters exploited down conversion filtering and again up conversion. This way band-pass filters could be made from low-pass filters. The techniques lost attention because the matching of capacitors turned out to be a problem and soon "real" oversampled Switched Capacitor filters took over attention, which have become classical. However in modern nanometer CMOS the capacitor matching is almost perfect and the speed of up the down and up-converters is in the GHz range which makes it worth to have a look at these techniques and to improve the architectures. Moreover with today's speed of digital circuits the required multiphase clock signals can be easily generated for RF frequencies. The result is a filter which shows more or less analog behavior while just using switches, digital gates and capacitors. After discussing the basics of N-path filters a fourth-order bandpass filter and a second order notch filter, both tunable over a decade in frequency, will be discussed. Speaker Biography: Bram Nauta was born in Hengelo, The Netherlands. He received the M.Sc and PhD degree from the University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands in 1987 and 1991 respectively. After that he joined Philips Research, Eindhoven the Netherlands and 1998 he returned to the University of Twente, as full professor heading the IC Design group. He was the Editor in Chief of IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits (2007-2010) and is the Chairman of the technical program committee of the 2013 International Solid State Circuits Conference (ISSCC). He is also member of the programme committee of ESSCIRC and VLSI symposium. He is co-recipient of the ISSCC 2002 and 2009 "Van Vessem Outstanding Paper Award", is distinguished lecturer of the IEEE, elected member of IEEE-SSCS AdCom and is IEEE fellow. "Time-Domain Analog and RF Signal Processing" Robert Bogdan Staszewski Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands Abstract: One of the most important developments in the wireless industry within the last decade was the invention and popularization of the time-domain analog/RF microelectronics. The new paradigm revolves around a bold premise of "the superiority of a time-domain operation over the traditional voltage-domain operation" in which the time-stamps, rather than the voltage or current levels, are the information carrier. This approach works surprisingly well in nanoscale CMOS processes, being nowadays the mainstream process technology for consumer electronics, with their rising and falling transition times on the order of 10 picoseconds as well as extremely low energy consumption due to the fact that only 100 or so electrons are involved in each transition. This new paradigm has been successfully exploited by this author while at Texas Instruments in Dallas, Texas, USA, to transform the entire wireless transmitter/receiver architecture in which the analog and RF circuits operate now in the time-domain. Specifically, a time-to-digital converter (TDC) and a digitally-controlled oscillator (DCO), which form an all-digital phase-locked loop (ADPLL), have been proposed to significantly improve the frequency synthesizers operating at multi-GHz frequencies. New infinite-impulse response (IIR) filters have been proposed to process weak antenna signals in the new discrete-time receiver architecture. This new approach drastically improves cost, area/volume, energy consumption and integration level of analog electronic circuits. Consequently, the majority of the 1.6 billion cell phones produced annually are now based on this approach. However, this author believes that the time-domain analog revolution has merely begun and the best is yet to come with new aspects (e.g., ultra-low power, millimeter-wave), circuits (e.g., ADC, DAC) and applications (e.g., satellite communications; non-wireless, such as 3D imagers) begging to be exploited. This talk revisits this exciting journey and offers glimpse of future developments. One of the most important developments in the wireless industry within the last decade was the invention and popularization of the time-domain analog/RF microelectronics. The new paradigm revolves around a bold premise of "the superiority of a time-domain operation over the traditional voltage-domain operation" in which the time-stamps, rather than the voltage or current levels, are the information carrier. This approach works surprisingly well in nanoscale CMOS processes, being nowadays the mainstream process technology for consumer electronics, with their rising and falling transition times on the order of 10 picoseconds as well as extremely low energy consumption due to the fact that only 100 or so electrons are involved in each transition. This new paradigm has been successfully exploited by this author while at Texas Instruments in Dallas, Texas, USA, to transform the entire wireless transmitter/receiver architecture in which the analog and RF circuits operate now in the time-domain. Specifically, a time-to-digital converter (TDC) and a digitally-controlled oscillator (DCO), which form an all-digital phase-locked loop (ADPLL), have been proposed to significantly improve the frequency synthesizers operating at multi-GHz frequencies. New infinite-impulse response (IIR) filters have been proposed to process weak antenna signals in the new discrete-time receiver architecture. This new approach drastically improves cost, area/volume, energy consumption and integration level of analog electronic circuits. Consequently, the majority of the 1.6 billion cell phones produced annually are now based on this approach. However, this author believes that the time-domain analog revolution has merely begun and the best is yet to come with new aspects (e.g., ultra-low power, millimeter-wave), circuits (e.g., ADC, DAC) and applications (e.g., satellite communications; non-wireless, such as 3D imagers) begging to be exploited. This talk revisits this exciting journey and offers glimpse of future developments. Speaker Biography: R. Bogdan Staszewski received BSEE (summa cum laude), MSEE and PhD from University of Texas at Dallas, USA, in 1991, 1992 and 2002, respectively. From 1991 to 1995 he was with Alcatel in Richardson, Texas. He joined Texas Instruments in Dallas, Texas in 1995. In 1999 he co-started a Digital RF Processor (DRPTM) group with a mission to invent new digitally-intensive approaches to traditional RF functions. Dr. Staszewski has served as a CTO of the DRP group between 2007 and 2009. Since July 2009 he is Associate Professor at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. He has co-authored one book, four book chapters, 135 journal and conference publications, and holds 100 issued and 50 pending US patents. His research interests include nanoscale CMOS architectures and circuits for frequency synthesizers, transmitters and receivers. He is an IEEE Fellow. "Advanced Digital RF MIMO Transceiver for Next Generation Mobile Communication" Hyun-Kyu Yu Electronics & Telecommunications Research Institute, Korea Abstract: The RF front-end is the last exempt and barrier to be true digital convergence on the hand-held phone. Some pioneers dream SDR ideally or try practical digital intensive transceiver such as DRP of TI. A new Digital RF Transceiver SoC with minimum analog signal processing is introduced. The receiver is composed of only three blocks: LNA, Direct Digital Converter (DDC), and external SAW. In the transmitter, the digital baseband signal is directly converted to the RF by Direct RF Converter (DRFC). Most analog signal processing is done at the Digital Front End (DFE). This novel architecture was applied successfully to the 3G LTE transceiver at the band of 2.1GHz with variable bandwidth of 1.4/3/5/10/15/20MHz. The design details and implementation results will be presented on the spot. The RF front-end is the last exempt and barrier to be true digital convergence on the hand-held phone. Some pioneers dream SDR ideally or try practical digital intensive transceiver such as DRP of TI. A new Digital RF Transceiver SoC with minimum analog signal processing is introduced. The receiver is composed of only three blocks: LNA, Direct Digital Converter (DDC), and external SAW. In the transmitter, the digital baseband signal is directly converted to the RF by Direct RF Converter (DRFC). Most analog signal processing is done at the Digital Front End (DFE). This novel architecture was applied successfully to the 3G LTE transceiver at the band of 2.1GHz with variable bandwidth of 1.4/3/5/10/15/20MHz. The design details and implementation results will be presented on the spot. Speaker Biography: Hyun-Kyu Yu received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in electronics engineering from Kyungpook Nat'l University in 1981 and 1983 respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical and electronics engineering from KAIST in 1994. In 1983, he joined the ETRI, where he worked on both devices and circuit technologies on CMOS, VDMOS, PSA BJT, 4M/16M/64M DRAM, SOI MOSFET modeling, and standard cell library. Since 1996, he has led RF/Analog IC design team that successfully developed the world first CMOS based Rx/Tx chips for the CDMA and PCS cellular phone in 1999 and 2001 respectively. He also directed several tasks in the area of RFIC including digital TV tuner, DDFS, IEEE 802.11.a/b, WCDMA handset, Digital Multimedia Broadcasting, and 10Gbps SerDes. Since 2006, he has been the director of RF Circuit Group which includes research on mm-wave applications such as 60GHz WPAN and 77GHz/94GHz radar sensor system in SiGe and/or compound semiconductor devices including HEMT and HBT. More recently, he worked on Digital RF transceiver SoC for mobile TV and 3G LTE application. And he is currently responsible for SW-SoC Convergence Laboratory as a senior vice president of ETRI. Dr. Yu is a board member of IEEK and a senior member of IEEE. He founded and has been serving as chairman of the RF Integrat


Review(s) of: Land of sweeping plains: Managing and restoring the native grasslands of South-Eastern Australia, by Williams, N., Marshall, A. and Morgan, J. (eds), CSIRO Publishing, Paperback, RRP $59.95, 472 pages.


The obsolete way in which some anti-virus products are generating malware signatures, is provoking that polymorphic malware detection becomes a tedious problem, when actually it is not so hard. This paper describes the basics of a method by which the generic classification of polymorphic malware could be considered as a trivial issue .


A biomolecular security system mimicking a keypad lock device was developed using enzyme-based concatenated AND logic gates resulting in the implication logic network.


In intelligent transportation system (ITS) to traffic detection and information collection is an important subject. This paper mainly introduces the recent proposed the main vehicle detection and vehicle tracking technology, on the analysis of the background of the heavy classic finite difference method is improved.


Background. Since some clinical interventions may have a counterproductive and even opposite effect, instruments to assess the attitude of health professionals towards evidence-based clinical practice (EBCP) are necessary.

Objectives. To cross-culturally adapt to Rioplatense Spanish and to validate psicometrically a questionnaire that allows to investigate the perception of Graduates in Obstetrics/Midwifery towards EBCP and to describe the perception of a sample of this healthcare professionals.

Methods. We performed a cross-cultural adaptation of the EBPQ-19 questionnaire, and analyzed its construct validity through exploratory factor analysis, and its reliability, using Cronbach's Alpha coefficient. Then we evaluated the perception of the Graduates in Obstetrics towards the EBCP through the administration of the instrument to 150 professionals enrolled in the College of Midwives V in Quilmes, Buenos Aires.

Results. After linguistically adapting three items to adapt their performance in our region, we documented satisfactory psychometric properties of EBPQ-19. Items 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 ('practices' domain) loaded in one factor; items 6, 7 and 8 ('attitude' domain) had factorial loads greater than 0.79 in the same factor; and items 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 ('skills and competencies') had factorial loads greater than 0.45 in a third factor. General and factor-specific Cronbach's alpha coefficients were greater than 0.8. More than 95% of the responses revealed commitment to patients regarding seeking information to resolve clinical questions, but 94 % of the subjects considered they had no skills and knowledge to deliver a EBCP.

Conclusions. The adapted version of the EBPQ-19 has a good performance. We encourage its use for the evaluation and monitoring of educational programs that advocate for an EBCP.


The influence of the curing regime on the mechanical properties and microstructure of ultra-high-strength mortar was studied. Nine different curing procedures were applied in which the start and duration of the heat treatment were varied. The studied mortars had a water-to-binder ratio of 0.17 and additions of amorphous silica fume and fine quartz filler. The microstructure and microchemistry were investigated by electron scanning microscopy and mercury intrusion porosimetry. The results revealed that longer heating times increased the degree of hydration, refined the microstructure and resulted in higher ultimate compressive strength. Very late and very early application of the heat treatment caused a lower degree of hydration and a smaller long-term increase of compressive strength. The scanning electron microscopy investigation revealed the formation of one hydration rim around anhydrous cement particles and the presence of a hollow shell in all investigated specimens.


Many thermoelectric materials benefit from complex microstructures. Grain boundaries (GBs) in nanocrystalline thermoelectrics cause desirable reduction in the thermal conductivity by scattering phonons, but often lead to unwanted loss in the electrical conductivity by scattering charge carriers. Therefore, modifying GBs to suppress their electrical resistivity plays a pivotal role in the enhancement of thermoelectric performance, zT. In this work, different characteristics of GB phases in Ti‐doped NbFeSb half‐Heusler compounds are revealed using a combination of scanning transmission electron microscopy and atom probe tomography. The GB phases adopt a hexagonal close‐packed lattice, which is structurally distinct from the half‐Heusler grains. Enrichment of Fe is found at GBs in Nb0.95Ti0.05FeSb, but accumulation of Ti dopants at GBs in Nb0.80Ti0.20FeSb, correlating to the bad and good electrical conductivity of the respective GBs. Such resistive to conductive GB phase transition opens up new design space to decouple the intertwined electronic and phononic transport in thermoelectric materials.


Objective To explore the effect about rhEPO on neuromotor function,secondary pathology change and expression of NT-3 and NGF,which was administered at different time after rat traumatic spinal cord injury.Method Wistar rats were randomized into normal group,sham operation group,control group and experiment group.SCI model is made according to improved Allen crush model.The Wistar rats in experiment group were peritoneal injected with rhEPO(5 000ku/kg)at 1h,6h and 24h after traumatic spinal cord injury.The injures of spinal cord were estimated by the score of neurological function and histopathology.The expression of NT-3 and NGF were detected by immunohistochemistry methods.Result 48 hours after traumatic spinal cord injury,neuromotor function and secondary pathology change are significantly improved in rhEPO 1h,6h group.Compared to concur-rent control groups,the angles from improved tiltboard experiment(43.5°± 3.45°;42°± 1.98°)obviously in-creased(P0.05).The indexes of the expression of NT-3 and NGF increased significantly(P0.01).But in rhEPO 24h group,the increases of the indexes are not statistically significant(P0.05).Conclusion Early peritoneal injection of rhEPO could lessen the lesion of neuromotor function and secondary pathology change.The protection is partially due to the increase of expression of NT-3 and NGF.


One of the most basic questions anyone can ask is, 'How do I know that what I think I know is true?' The study of this question is called epistemology. Traditionally, epistemology has been considered to be of legitimate interest only to philosophers, theologians, and three year old children who respond to every statement by asking, 'Why?' Software engineers need to be interested in the subject, however, because a lack of sufficient understanding of epistemology contributes to many of the current problems in the field.


Study Design. The application of complex neurophysiological examination including motor evoked potentials (MEP) for pre- and postoperative evaluation of patients experiencing acute sciatica. Objective. The assessment of sensitivity and specificity of needle electromyography, MEP, and H-reflex examinations. The comparative analysis of preoperative and postoperative neurophysiological examination. Summary of Background Data. In spite of the fact that complex neurophysiological diagnostic tools seem to be important for interpretation of incompatible results of neuroimaging and clinical examination, especially in the patients qualified for surgical treatment, their application has never been completely analyzed and documented. Methods. Pre- and postoperative electromyography, electroneurography, F-waves, H-reflex, and MEP examination were performed in 23 patients with confirmed disc-root conflict at lumbosacral spine. Clinical evaluation included examination of sensory perception for L5–S1 dermatomes, muscles strength with Lovett's scale, deep tendon reflexes, pain intensity with visual analogue scale, and straight leg raising test. Results. Sensitivity of electromyography at rest and MEP examination for evaluation of L5–S1 roots injury was 22% to 63% and 31% to 56% whereas specificity was 71% to 83% and 57% to 86%, respectively. H-reflex sensitivity and specificity for evaluation of S1 root injury were 56% and 67%, respectively. A significant improvement of root latency parameter in postoperative MEP studies as compared with preoperative was recorded for L5 (P = 0.039) and S1 root's levels (P = 0.05). Conclusion. The analysis of the results from neurophysiological tests together with neuroimaging and clinical examination allow for a precise preoperative indication of the lumbosacral roots injury and accurate postoperative evaluation of patients experiencing sciatica. Level of Evidence: 3


The amount of information processed by the sensory system limits the extent of an organism's perception. In consequence, stimulus reconstruction algorithms are of practical importance in quantifying the content of encoded sensory signals. Recent efforts in this way have made use of reverse Wiener (linear) filters to estimate the encoded stimulus via observation of the neural response. Experimental evidence, however, points to the existence of various non-linearities in the input-output behavior of the sensory pathway; it is therefore expected that non-linear estimation methods extract greater amounts of stimulus-related information from observed responses. Additionally, reverse filters do not provide information with regards to the forward encoding mechanism. Motivated as such, we present a two-stage framework to: (1) model the non-linear forward encoding process through a Volterra/Wiener series expansion, and (2) on this basis develop a Bayesian estimation algorithm for decoding. This approach, on the other hand, is directly linked with the forward encoding mechanisms and also improves upon the reverse-filter method in a variety of cases. Results also suggest that the above framework may be applicable in describing general non-linearities in neuronal encoding that have been observed experimentally in a variety of sensory pathways.


A review of the legislative history and the constitutional challenges of the Kentucky House Bill 32 (HB 32) finds it to be suspect in several areas. Case law shows a pattern of controversy over whether a mineral owner may surface mine property, particularly when the mining rights derive from the broad form deed type of severance deed. The extent to which the Kentucky Supreme Court adheres to prior interpretations of broad form deeds will determine whether it upholds the constitutionality of HB 32. If the courts are seeking a way to change its attitude toward broad form deeds, HB 32 may provide the opportunity.


Arabic IR (Information Retrieval) has recently become a focus of research and commercial development. Very few standards for evaluation of such tools are known and available. A concrete evaluation for Arabic IR systems is necessary for the advancement of this field. In this paper we discuss available resources for testing Arabic IR systems and we propose a strategy to accelerate the development and the reliable evaluation of systems that can than be exploited by a wide range of users of varied interests.


Introduction Anxiety has become a topical issue since the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic, especially for frontline healthcare professionals as they deal with patients affected by the Covid-19. Objectives Objectify anxiety in frontline medical and paramedical staff and study its associated factors. Methods We conducted a national descriptive and analytical cross-sectional study via a survey over a 2-month period from September to October 2020. We used "Beck Anxiety Inventory" to screen anxiety as well as "Brief Cope Scale" to detect probable correlations between anxiety and coping mechanisms. Results We collected 78 persons. The mean age was 29.86 years. 35.9% moved out of home. 39.7% worked in Covid units. 7.7% had personal psychiatric history. 76.9% provided direct care to patients with Coronavirus. The frontline staff reported that only 29.5% of patients were stables. Only 48.4% received adequate training of protection against Covid-19. 64.1% of professionals did PCR test and only 16.7% of them tested positive. We objectified an increase of 6.4% in the anxiolytics use. Stigma affected 57.7% of professionals. We highlighted a link between anxiety and social support strategy (p=0.048). 92.3 % of the staff suffered from anxiety according to Beck Anxiety Inventory. Conclusions Screening anxiety among frontline medical and paramedical staff might enhance their productivty and thus provide patients with the best care. Disclosure No significant relationships.


We show both asynchronous and synchronous, dual-wavelength femtosecond pulse generation from an SWNT-mode-locked fiber laser by tailoring the intracavity anomalous dispersion, suggesting the effect of the mode-locker on pulse synchronization in the presence of dispersion.


This paper addresses the following questions: Overall, on average, how did child and youth well-being in the United States of America change in the last quarter of the 20th century? Did it improve or deteriorate? By how much? In which domains or areas of social life? For specific age groups? For particular race/ethnic groups? And did race/ethnic groups disparities increase or decrease? To address these questions, some 28 national-level time series of social indicators in seven quality-of-life domains – material well-being, social relationships (with family and peers), health, safety/behavioral concerns, productive activity (educational attainments), place in community (participation in schooling or work institutions), and emotional/spiritual well-being – are reviewed. Twenty-five of these time series date back to 1975 or earlier, while three are based on indicators that commenced in the 1980s. The 25 time series that date back to 1975 are indexed by percentage change from the base year 1975 – that is, subsequent annual observations are computed as percentages of the base year values. Similarly, all 28 time series that are available by 1985 also are indexed separately with 1985 as the base year. This is followed by the construction of seven domain-specific summary well-being indices in which each of the component time series in each of seven well-being domains are equally weighted. The seven component indices then are combined into two equally-weighted summary indices of child and youth well-being – the first of which is based on the 25 social indicator time series that date back to 1975 and the second of which is based on the 28 time series that date back to 1985. We also examine the impact of averaging the well-being indicators across the individual time series rather than across the seven quality of life domains. For this, we calculate corresponding base year 1975 and 1985 summary well-being indices that average equally across the individual component series. Basic findings about trends in child and youth well-being in the United States in the last quarter of the 20th century are shown to depend on both the base year and the formula by which the summary indices are calculated. Findings about child and youth well-being also are dependent upon the specific indicators and domains used in the composition of the summary indices. Using our general indices as metrics by which to measure change, we reach several conclusions. First, using 1975 as a base year – overall conditions of life for children and youths in the United States deteriorated fairly steadily for a number of years in the 1980s and reached low points in the early-1990s. From 1993, they then began an upturn that continued Social Indicators Research 56: 241–320, 2001. © 2001 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands. 242 KENNETH C. LAND ET AL. through 1998 towards, but still slightly below, 1975 levels. In other words, while some domains and conditions of life for children/youths improved by 1998 as compared to 1975, others deteriorated. Averaging across all of the domains of life and conditions included in our summary indices, the basic finding is that the overall quality of life of children/youths in the United States was not better in 1998 than in 1975. Using 1985 as a base year, the trend in overall well-being for children/youths shows a similar pattern of decline through the early-1990s followed by an improvement through 1998 to levels slightly above those of the 1985 base year. In other words, compared to 1985 base levels, average conditions of well-being for children/youths in the United States had slightly improved by the late-1990s. Additional findings are discussed pertaining to trends over time in each of the seven domains of well-being, trends within infancy, childhood, and adolescence/teenage age groupings, and trends in race/ethnic-group-specific comparisons and disparities. Every generation of adults is concerned about the conditions of its children and youths (Moore, 1999). From the stagflation and socially turbulent days of the 1970s through the decline of the rust belt industries and transition to the information age in the 1980s to the relatively prosperous e-economy and multicultural years of the late-1990s, Americans have fretted over the material circumstances of the nation's children, their health and safety, their educational progress, and their moral development. Are their fears and concerns warranted? How do we know whether circumstances of life for children in the United States are bad and getting worse, or good and improving? On what basis can the public and its leaders form opinions and draw conclusions? Since the 1960s, researchers in social indicators/quality-of-life measurement have argued that well-measured and consistently collected social indicators provide a way to monitor the condition of groups in society, including children and families, today and over time (Land, 2000). The information thus provided can be strategic in forming the ways we think about important issues in our personal lives and the life of the nation. Indicators of child and youth well-being, in particular, are used by child advocacy groups, policy makers, researchers, the media, and service providers to serve a number of purposes. In three instances: • to describe the condition of children, • to monitor or track child outcomes, and • to set goals, CHILD AND YOUTH WELL-BEING IN THE UNITED STATES, 1975–1998 243 the use of indicators is well within the long-established 'public enlightenment' function of social indicators. And while there are notable gaps and inadequacies in existing child and family wellbeing indicators in the United States (Ben-Arieh, 2000; Moore, 1999), there also literally are dozens of data series and indicators from which to form opinions and draw conclusions (see, e.g., Brown, 1997). In face of this surfeit of data, we address in this paper a crucial part of the public enlightenment function, namely, the summarization question: Overall or on average, how well are children and youths in the America doing? Focusing on the last quarter of the 20th century in particular, did overall child and youth well-being – defined in terms of averages of social conditions encountered by children and youths – in the United States of America improve or deteriorate? Did it improve or decline in various domains or areas of social life? For specific age groups? For particular race/ethnic groups? And did race/ethnic groups disparities increase or decrease? We address these questions by engaging in a measurement exercise. Specifically, we construct a new Index of Child and Youth Well-Being based on numerous specific indicators in seven domains of life: material well-being, social relationships (with family and peers), health, safety/behavioral concerns, productive activity (educational attainments), place in community (participation in schooling or work institutions), and emotional/spiritual wellbeing. In the next section, we commence with a discussion on how child and youth well-being can be conceptualized and review the methods and data we used to construct our basic Index of Child and Youth Well-Being. Subsequent sections discuss trends in this basic Index and several variations thereon. A final section summarizes the main conclusions that can be drawn from the Index, discusses its limitations, and cites ways in which it could be improved with a better system of child and family indicators. (A Note on Terminology: Throughout this article, we generally refer to 'child and youth well-being' and to our summary index as an 'Index of Child and Youth Well-Being.' Sometimes, however, for purposes of simplicity of the grammar, we use terms like 'child well-being' or the 'well-being of children' as short-hand expressions. In such cases, 244 KENNETH C. LAND ET AL. the references should be understood as inclusive of child and youth well-being, unless the context suggests otherwise.) CONCEPTS, DATA, AND METHODS OF INDEX CONSTRUCTION Conceptualization of Child and Youth Well-Being, Sources of Data, and Basic Indicators How should the child and youth well-being construct be conceptualized? We seek to measure the circumstances of children's lives – to assess their quality of life – and track changes therein over time. Fortunately, we do not have to reinvent the wheel here, as the subject of quality of life assessment has been studied by many social scientists during the past three decades. Recent reviews by Cummins (1996, 1997) of empirical studies of the quality of life are particularly helpful. Cummins (1996: p. 118) reviewed 27 definitions that have attempted to identify domains or subject areas of the quality of life and drew three conclusions: • First, the term quality of life refers to both the objective and subjective axes of human existence. • Second, the objective axis incorporates norm-referenced measures of well-being (i.e., measures of life circumstances on which there is a consensus among the general public that they are significant components of better or worse life circumstances). Usually, objective measures of well-being are based on observable facts (e.g., infant deaths) or reports on behavior (e.g., victimization of a sample survey respondent in a violent crime incident within the last year). • Third, the subjective axis incorporates measures of perceived or subjective well-being based on individuals' personal values, views, and assessments of the circumstances of their lives. The norm-referenced approach mentioned in the second point dates back to the definition put forward by Mancur Olson. As the principal author of Toward a Social Report published on the last day of the administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson, Olson wrote: 'A social indicator is a statistic of direct normative interest which facilitates concise, comprehensive and balanced judgements about the CHILD AND YOUTH WELL-BEING IN THE UNITED STATES, 1975–1998 245 c


The utility model relates to an improved strong suction disc, which is composed of a suction disc, a joint bolt, a tension component, a fastening component, and a joint component, wherein, the periphery of the top of the suction disc is sheathed with a ring made of low friction coefficient material; the joint bolt is connected to and fixedly arranged at the central position of the suction disc; the tension component is a round-disc shaped body, and the end at the bottom is provided with a convex edge downwards; the fastening component is a cover body; the central position at the inner top surface of the fastening component is provided with a screw connection seat, and the central position at the top surface of the fastening component is provided with a joint seat; the joint component is a block body, and the body part can be jointed with the joint seat of the fastening component. The utility model has the advantages of simple structure, convenient operation, and multiple functions.


A major question in the law and society literature is the effect of legal experience on individual attitudes toward legal institutions, in particular the court system. Positive attitudes and confidence in the legal system are important for generating citizen trust and confidence in government generally and also for inculcating citizen values and behavior that support the rule of law and encourage legal (and peaceful) resolution of disputes and grievances more specifically. Thus, these values are important for sustaining democracy. For a country like China, in transition from state socialism, in which legal modes of governance and social control were less common than administrative edicts, Communist Party campaigns, and state repression, attempts to build an effective legal system are also linked to limited political reform. Rule of law building is the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) attempt to build more effective and efficient governance, while making an end run around democratization and the sharing of political power. In this case, creating positive citizen attitudes toward the legal system is part of a strategy to avoid democracy. In this chapter, we examine how experience with the legal system affects Chinese citizens' evaluation of the courts through a series of comparisons between those who have used the law to resolve an employment dispute and those who have not as well as comparisons between disputants who remained positive and confident in the legal system and disputants who were fully disillusioned and negative. We find that legal experience leads to higher levels of disillusionment and more negative perceptions of the legal system's effectiveness and fairness. Whereas nonusers tend to have vague but benevolent notions of the legal system and its effectiveness, actual disputants have less confidence in the effectiveness of the legal system.


Mobile IPv6 suffers various limitations, e.g., lack of business model and management of enormous and discrete home agents, preventing it from being deployed in large-scale commercial environments. Recently, the identification/locator (ID/Locator) split architecture has demonstrated its significant predominance in next generation mobile networks. With the aim of pushing the global deployment of mobility support over IPv6, this study makes an effort to design and evaluate an operational mobility model over IPv6 (OMIPv6) based on ID/Locator split architecture. Instead of the home agents adopted in the standard MIPv6, a cloud mobility management center is employed to be responsible for maintaining the identification and locations of mobile hosts, as well as providing the name resolution services to the mobile hosts. Moreover, this paper develops an analytical model considering all possible costs required for the operation of OMIPv6.


Recently, Netbot Attacker is very dangerous DDoS attack tool which causes much damage to the many commercial companies. In this paper, we analyzed Netbot Attacker's DDoS attack commands, performance effects and DDoS attack traffic characteristics to protect these attacks. We expect to find the approach protecting DDoS attacks.


The invention relates to a process for sorting distribution sequences on a despatch sorting machine, in which each despatch is arranged in a distribution sequence according to its read and recognised address code, where sorting takes place in several cycles in accordance with the number and size of the available sorting compartments and the sequence requirements. According to the invention, in order to avoid being faced with full compartments, after the recognition of all the despatches' address codes, with one or more full compartments, one or more compartment combinations for one distribution stop are found by iterative search steps taking account of all the compartments available for sorting and all possible distribution stops, while retaining the predetermined despatch sequence, where said combinaisons are formed by characteristic numbers of the compartments during the passages and which are capable of accepting despatches for distribution at the distribution stop concerned.


With increasing obesity in childhood and adolescence, weight gain, and insulin resistance become also more frequent in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). Especially during puberty, insulin therapy often has to be intensified and higher insulin doses are necessary. Some studies point to a beneficial effect of metformin in addition to insulin in these patients. In order to describe current practice and possible benefits, we compared pediatric T1DM patients with insulin plus metformin (n = 525) to patients with insulin therapy only (n = 57 487) in a prospective multicenter analysis.


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Pictured on his electric boat, "Watter Baby," with family: (front left), daughter-in-law, Tuk, and daughter, Stacey. Back row (left to right), wife, Doris, Dr. Willis and son, Bruce.

After more than 30 years as a practicing pediatrician and advocate for children in


Two new species of herb gall wasps are recorded from Spain, which induce galls on flower heads of Serratula nudicaulis L. DC (Asteraceae). Isocolus serratulae (Mayr, 1882) is recorded for the first time in Spain, while a new species of Aulacidea Ashmead, 1897, Aulacidea pilarae sp. n. , is described. This new species is similar to Aulacidea serratulae Diakontschuk, 1984, which is found throughout Oriental Europe. However, those two congeneric species may be distinguished by the morphology of the adults.


In this paper we make an exhaustive computer search for finding new curves with many points among fibre products of 2 Kummer covers of the projective line over F5 and F7. At the end of the search, we have 12 records and 6 new entries for the current Table of Curves with Many Points. In particular, we observe that the fibre product y13 = \frac{5(x + 2)(x + 5)}{x}, y23 = \frac{3x2(x + 5)}{x + 3} over F7 has genus 7 with 36 rational points. As this coincides with the Ihara bound, we conclude that the maximum number N7(7) of F7-rational points among all curves of genus 7 is 36. Our exhaustive search has been possible because of the methods given in the recent work by Ozbudak and Temur (2012) for determining the number of rational points of such curves.


Auditing in various forms has existed in China for many centuries, and in the first half of this century an auditing organisation responsible to the government was in operation. However, following the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, views differed on the need for, and role, function and benefits of an independent auditing organisation. A similar system to that of the USSR was followed, with financial management and control being the responsibility of controlling instrumentalities such as the Ministry of Finance and the banks. Over the succeeding years, the work traditionally performed by auditors has been integrated into the day to day work of accounting staff, financial bureaus and managerial staff in all areas of governmental operation. Although some of these techniques have become more developed along with the development of the socialist system of government, the traditional independence associated with the auditing role has been lost. At the same time, specific training in auditing in tertiary institutions has been similarly abandoned. With China's current modernisation and the associated move to revenue raising based on taxation rather than the profit going to the state, there has been a recognition of the need to strengthen the planning, control and supervision of public enterprises to prevent unnecessary losses and expenses. This has led to a move to establish an auditing agency to operate at all levels of government. The Constitution of the People's Republic of China, adopted by the Fifth National People's Congress on 4 December 1982, established the position and the office of the Auditor-General. Under Article 62 of the Constitution, the National People's Congress decides upon the choice of the AuditorGeneral who is appointed by the President in pursuance with this decision, under Article 80. Article 86 makes the Auditor-General a member of the State Council.


High-resolution radio continuum VLA images of a segment of the Galactic center arc centered at G0.16-0.15 at wavelengths of both 6 and 20 cm are presented. In this segment, the highest multiplicity of filaments, the largest degree of linear polarization, and a maximum rotation measure of -5500 rad/sq m between wavelengths 6.166 and 6.363 cm are found. The large helical segments which surround the filamentary system are also shown and discussed. Based on a number of intriguing characteristics of the filamentary system, including the helical component and possible twisting of some of the filaments, a picture is considered in which the geometry of the magnetic structure is that of a cylindrically symmetric, force-free field anchored to the halo of the Galaxy. An analogy with solar flare filaments is used to discuss some aspects of the Galactic center filaments. 25 references.


The development of the study on soil's anisotropy during different decades of soil's constitutive model is summarized. Test apparatus, study method, results and applications of anisotropy are also introduced. Difference and connection of soil's inherent anisotropy and stress-induced anisotropy are compared. It is believed that the structure character of soil's particle is the ultimate reason and the complex stress situation is the external conditions of soil's anisotropy. It is emphasized that study on the anisotropy, especially on the stress-induced anisotropy, will play an important role in the study of soil's constitutive model. Method of the anisotropy study in the future is suggested.


Objective: This study aims to adapt a short form of Psychological Maltreatment of Women Inventory (Tolman 1989) to Turkish and to examine the psychometric properties of the Turkish short form. Method: Participants were 852 women between the ages of 2355 (32.12±10.97 years), who were either married (48%) or in a romantic relationship (47%) during data collection. The questionnaire was comprised of Psychological Maltreatment of Women Inventory (PMWI), Submissive Acts Scale (SAS) and demographic information form. Principal Components Analysis was used for confirmatory construct validity, and Pearson correlation coefficients between SAS and PMWI total scores were calculated for discriminatory validity. Cronbach-Alpha internal consistency coefficients and split-half reliability were measured to establish internal consistency. Results: The three-factor (Restriction/Blaming/Threat; EmotionalVerbal Violence; Responsibility) structure explained 64.3% of variance. Internal consistency coefficient (Cronbach-Alpha) was found to be .93; split half reliability was found to be .90 and .87 for the first and second halves, respectively, and the correlation between the two halves were found to be .71. Conclusion: The Turkish short form of Psychological Maltreatment of Women Inventory is a valid and reliable tool to measure psychological maltreatment experienced by married women, or women in romantic relationships.


Creativity could be interpreted as a person's cognitive abilities in solving problems by bringing up new ideas. The problems of students' math achievement lows are math presented as a finished product, ready to use, abstract and taught mechanistically. This case can be lead to the creativity of the less developed students because students are not given the opportunity to think and use their ideas in solving mathematical problems. Problem Based Learning Model is a learning model that emphasizes the concept and information outlined from the academic discipline. The purpose of this study is to analyzed students' creativity in solving mathematical problems through Problem Based Learning model (PBL) in class VIII-1 MTsN Model Banda Aceh. Data gained based on the students' worksheet in groups. The data acquisition is categorized into 5 levels (highest level 4 and lowest level 0) which is analyzed descriptively. The results are three groups were at level 4 with very creative categories, one group is at level 3 with a creative category and another group is at level 2 with deeply creative enough category. To the conclusion is PBL model could cultivate the students' creativity in solving mathematical problems.


Museums are judged not solely on the basis of their exhibition quality and collection care but, within a corporate model, they are also judged on quantitative measures such as audience numbers and, in turn, their financial viability. Programming has, therefore, become a major focus of forward planning and the basis for funding development. Blockbuster exhibitions, strategically placed throughout annual programs, have been a common way to increase audience numbers and sustain support. In more recent times, the blockbuster model has developed to address more complex measures of success beyond their quantifiable benefits. In addition to the aim of increasing visitor numbers, the blockbuster exhibition and its associated public and education programs, have been effectively utilized as a means of broadening and diversifying audiences. Such efforts help museums to meet expectations, often set by governments, to address and reflect the diverse demographic communities within which they are situated and to whom they serve. The Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW) in Australia provides one such example of a museum that is working creatively within the blockbuster model in order to present exhibitions that build on their collection strengths and existing programs, attract large audiences and engage diverse audiences by focusing on community building. This paper uses the AGNSW blockbuster exhibition The First Emperor: China's Entombed Warriors, to examine the role of this format in contemporary museums more broadly. We use this exhibition as a frame by which to analyse how the Gallery has modified the blockbuster model, and indeed built on it, in order to target geographically and culturally diverse audiences. We argue that this has been effectively achieved as a result of the Gallery building blockbusters around their curatorial and collection strengths, by working with external organizations and community groups and by offering a range of activities and opportunities for engagement both within the museum and outside of its boundaries. This exhibition proves that when blockbusters are used creatively to support museum wide efforts to engage culturally and linguistically diverse audiences they can achieve success that is both quantitative and qualitative.


GIS-based land-use suitability analyses are significantly useful in urban growth planning and management. Becoming a responsible and capable urban and regional planner involves learning to reflect on the rationale of decision-making in planning, particularly in the physical planning field. For any planning programme, therefore, integrating landscape-use suitability analysis into planning education is both an essential aspect of the curriculum and central to learning in terms of developing professional skills. Unfortunately, GIS-based land-use suitability analysis and evidence-based decision making in planning remains a challenging in both education and practice. Using the urban growth management in Bendigo as an example, this paper presents a case of teaching GIS and planning studios to masters of urban planning and landscape architecture students in the University of Melbourne. The paper presents two student projects as examples and points out students' common learning experiences that repeat despite very similar planning objectives. Other observed recurring issues from these examples include difficulties in addressing system thinking across scales, and challenges to deal with complexity by synthesis and simplification of large volumes of data and information available. Reflecting these challenges, the strengths and weaknesses of the traditional spatial overlay for land-use suitability analysis, and the recent advancement in spatial information technology, the paper then discusses the emergence of geodesign as a new method for urban growth management. The paper concludes by outlining changes need to be undertaken in our educational processes aiming at mentoring a generation of urban and regional planners who are better equipped to think scientifically while shaping our built and natural environment responsibly and creatively.


Comprehensive information on exploration blocks, oil and gas fields, transmission pipelines, oil refineries, oil, products and chemicals storage assets and liquefaction/regasification LNG terminals are included. Further, Asset wise details of all operational and upcoming projects are included. The detailed report identifies key strategies and new business plans to emerge as a strong and future ready player.


There is a silent problem developing across cropping regions in Australia. No matter how much money is spent on inputs, yields are declining. Could soil be the key and could science help farmers understand nature's systems?


This paper describes the application of 5S method in welding workshop and to highlight the significant contribution of 5S implementation to organizational progress both in terms of quality, productivity, work safety, and worker moral values. 5S is a work culture includes Seiri, Seiton, Seiso, Seiketsu, and Shitsuke. 5S is used to improve the quality of employees in handling their work activities. Welding workshop at small and medium scale (UKM) usually has a limited work area. Storage of irregular and unclear equipment and materials relates to increase search activity The search activity allows for delay. The key to successful implementation of 5S is the organizational commitment and worker discipline in handling the 5S. The application of 5S in welding workshop requires a storage device in the form of a rack equipment by naming information or information items saved in it. With the implementation of 5s and the procurement of storage rack able to minimize the search activity of 18.75% and the use of space 11.20%.


The dynamic strength of concrete materials is usually obtained by conducting laboratory tests such as drop-weight test or split Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB) test. It is widely accepted that the uniaxial compressive strength of concrete and concrete-like material increases with strain rate. Many empirical relations of concrete material dynamic increase factor (DIF), which are proposed for use in the design and analysis, are given in the literature. However, most of these empirical relations were obtained from testing data of concrete-like materials, i.e. the testing specimens were made of mortar matrix only without coarse aggregates owing to constraints in preparing the concrete specimens for high-speed impact tests. Because concrete is a composite material with mortar matrix, interfacial transition zone (ITZ) and aggregates, and these components have different material properties, using specimens made of mortar material alone in tests may not give accurate concrete dynamic material properties. It is also known that the lateral inertia confinement affects the dynamic strength of concrete specimens obtained in impact tests. A number of studies to investigate and quantify the lateral inertia confinement effect on dynamic strength of concrete materials obtained in impact tests have been published. Previous studies also indicate that including aggregates in concrete specimens affects the dynamic strength. However, no systematic study that devotes to investigating the influence of aggregates in concrete specimen on its dynamic strength has been reported yet. In the present study, a mesoscale concrete material model is used to simulate impact tests and to study the influences of aggregates on concrete material compressive strength increment at high strain rates. The commercial software AUTODYN is used to perform the numerical simulations. A method to remove the influence from lateral inertia confinement is proposed and verified. The influence of ITZ on compressive behavior of concrete specimen is discussed. Numerical simulations of concrete specimens with different volumetric percentages, e.g. 20% 30% and 40%, of aggregates under impact loads of different loading rates are carried out. The influence of the aggregates on DIF of concrete material is examined and quantified.


The study was on appraisal of marketing communication tools for effective country rebranding campaign of Nigeria. It was an offshoot of the perennial erroneous perceptions of Nigerians and the consequent negative image equation in the international circles. This is in spite of the various federal government's Rebranding Nigeria project. The objectives of this study were to: ascertain if the right marketing communications messages, right marketing communications media, and right marketing communications personnel were used in the rebranding Nigeria projects. Survey technique was employed in the study, which targeted a cross section of Nigerians of varied social, economic and political classes. The area of coverage was limited to two cities: PortHarcourt and Lagos, where Nigerians of all ethnic persuasions live and work there in large numbers. From a working population of 1,200,000, a sample size of 350 was determined. Data were analyzed with the Chi-square (X 2 ) statistical tool, at a confidence level of 95% and a 5% margin of error. Results reveal that: the wrong marketing communications messages were used in the execution of the rebranding Nigeria project; the wrong choice of media channels were used in the rebranding Nigeria exercises and majority of the personnel used in the rebranding Nigeria programmed did not have the requisite marketing communications skills. Based on this, it was recommended that trained marketing communications' practitioners and appropriate media should be used in future rebranding Nigeria exercises. Keywords: Marketing Communications, Country Rebranding, Media, Personnel.


Lidow guides those who want to be considered entrepreneurial leaders, with an assertion that it is entrepreneurs who lead their enterprises to success, not just their ideas. He says they "must master five skills: self-awareness, the basics of enterprises, relationship building, motivation, and change leadership." The vehicle for accomplishing this is the personal leadership strategy. He details five steps: tapping into core motivations, finding objective mentors, inventorying your traits, assessing your skills, and, finally, drafting your strategy. An important feature for decision making is asking yourself what is the best and worst that could happen if you choose to do or not do a particular activity.


We show that the large sieve is optimal for almost all exponential sums, thus proving a conjecture by Erd\"os and Renyi.


The present study examined the involvement of prostaglandins (PGs) in the mechanisms of ACTH and β-endor-phin release from rat anterior pituitary quarters incubated in vitro. Various cyclooxygenase inhibitors (indomethacin, diclo-fenac, flurbiprofen) had no effect on basal release of ACTH-like or β-endorphin-like immunoreactivity (β-EI), but enhanced ACTH-immunoreactivity/β-EI release upon stimulation by ar-gihine-vasopressin (AVP) or synthetic ovine corticotropin-releasing factor [CRF-(1–41)]. The lowest effective concentration of indomethacin was just sufficient to prevent PG synthesis. Indomethacin was similarly active after blockade of the phos-phodiesterase by 3-isobutyl-l-methylxanthine. When added to the incubation media in concentrations up to 1 μM, PGE2, D2, F2α, or prostacyclin (PGI2) did not alter basal β-EI release; however, with stimulation by AVP or CRF-(1–41), PGE2 but not PGD2, F2α, or I2 inhibited β-EI release by about 60%. The concentrations of PGE2 in the incubation media, as measured b...


Music, according to Hans Urs von Balthasar, can most reach human's emotions. Art reflects our greatness and weakness. In a theologist's opinion it is God, who breathed art into human's souls, it is the greatest gift which man received from God. The role of an artist should be to serve others. On the one hand music tries to find a form of a metaphysical dimension, on the other it expresses things which are low and conceivable. In music, as it is in religion, man becomes touched by what is invisible. Beauty present in the world and in human's works leads to the discovery of God's source.


Abstract : A general model of computation on a p-parallel processor is proposed, distinguishing clearly between the logical parallelism (p* processes) inherent in a computation, and the physical parallelism (p processor) available in the computer organization. This shows the dependence of performance bounds on both the computation being executed and the computer architecture.


To share the fixed cost of a communication network, the private-cost method allocates to each subscriber the cost of his dedicated terminal devices. The external-cost method shares the connecting cost of user i among all of his correspondents in proportion to their traffic with i. All convex combinations of these two methods are characterized by three axioms: additivity with respect to connecting costs, sustainability (it is not profitable for any subnetwork to duplicate equipment for inside traffic), and no transit (it is not profitable for any three users i, j, and k to make some of the traffic between i and j transit through k). (This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)


The tearing away of the nerve roots from the spinal cord is, fortunately, a somewhat uncommon accident. When it does occur, however, the diagnosis should be made without much difficulty. In spite of the ease with which the diagnosis is made, the condition is often overlooked. In only a few instances has the diagnosis been verified at operation or at necropsy. Mills 1 reported a case in which operation had been done, and later Frazier and Skillern 2 also published a report of the same case. Of the twenty-three cases found by Frazier and Skillern in the literature on the subject, only one afforded an opportunity to determine at necropsy the extent of the damage done to the nerve trunks. F. F., man, aged 36, was admitted to the Orthopedic Hospital and Infimary for Nervous Diseases, May 28, 1912. He gave the following history: In 1907 he had fallen between


For space communications, the transmitted signal generally faces a long-distance transmission and a high-accelerating movement. The long-distance transmission causes a very low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and the high-accelerating movement causes a dynamic Doppler-shift. Under a very large acceleration, the long-time accumulation which aims to solve the very low SNR, brings about the serious energy dispersion problem, thus posing a great challenge for Doppler-shift acquisition. Introducing the clustering idea in machine learning, we propose one clustering-fast-Fourier-transform (CFFT) based Doppler-shift acquisition scheme with an affordable computational complexity, to address the energy dispersion problem for space communications. The proposed CFFT scheme includes two algorithms called the Generic CFFT algorithm and the High-order CFFT algorithm, respectively. First, the Generic CFFT algorithm clusters multiple density-reachable signal elements into one signal cluster, thus accumulating the dispersed energy again. Second, the High-order CFFT algorithm, which conducts several rounds of clustering, clusters more density-reachable signal elements into one larger signal cluster. Simulations results show that our proposed CFFT scheme achieves a higher acquisition probability than the existing FFT based schemes and consumes a lower computational complexity than the FRFT scheme.


Myopsocus arthuri sp. n. is described from Dominican amber (Miocene?). This first fossil Myopsocidae shows some similarities with the recently described Australian genus Nimbopsocus.


Since January 2018, China's ban on imports of waste plastics has reduced the profitability of recycling styrofoam through recycling. Accordingly, the recycling industry is avoiding the collection and processing of waste styrofoam, and the resulting waste problems are becoming a social problem. Therefore, this study aims to develop semi-incombustible building insulation through the upcycling of waste EPS, and perform the efficiency analysis through flame retardant performance test and fire simulation (FDS). The results of cone calorimeter test and FDS analysis showed the improved performance in terms of fire safety by confirming the reduction of heat release rate and the decrease of temperature, CO and CO2 generation, and the increase of visible distance and oxygen concentration. The upcycling technology development of waste EPS is expected to greatly contribute to the utilization of waste resources, reduction of building material cost, and improvement of profitability of recycling business.


This paper presents a novel application of the two-time scale controller for the full envelop flight control of a Rotary wing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (RUAV). In this paper flapping and servo dynamics, important from a practical point of view, is included in the RUAV model. The two-time scale controller takes advantage of the `decoupling¿ of the nonlinear translational and rotation dynamics of the rigid body, resulting in a two-level hierarchical control scheme. The inner loop controller (attitude control) tracks the attitude commands and sets the main rotor thrust vector, while the outer loop controller (position control) tracks the reference position and control the flapping angles and the tail rotor thrust vector. High fidelity RUAV simulation results are used to demonstrate the control performance. Simulation results show acceptable performance of the proposed two-time scale controller. The comparison of control inputs between the proposed two-time scale controller and an already implemented PID controller show that this controller is suitable for practical implementation.


Little research has been done for artificial intelligence applications of semiconductor backend. This study aims to develop a deep learning based fault diagnosis framework as prognostics and health management (PHM) solutions with a comprehensive analytics process. A linear encoder sensor is employed to measure position, while data preparation is conducted to convert position information into a signal. Then, signal processing is used to extract the features, in which high pass filter is applied to normalize the signal and emphasize the features. High-dimensional features including time domain statistical features, time-frequency domain features obtained by continuous wavelet transform (CWT), and frequency domain features converted by fast Fourier transform (FFT) are extracted to prepare the dataset. An ensemble neural network model that integrates deep neural network (DNN) and convolutional neural network (CNN) is employed to recognize the pattern and diagnose the positioning errors. The accuracy and false alarm rate are considered to support maintenance decisions. An empirical study was conducted in a world leading IC assembly and testing company for validation. The results have shown that the proposed approach can effectively detect inappropriate installation of the bond head in wire bonding equipment for predictive maintenance and cost reduction.


America's youth, and especially those in their teens, need to be engaged in their communities through volunteerism and service that allow them to actively participate in decisions affecting themselves and their families, schools, workplaces, and communities. However, many volunteer administrators and program leaders often experience frustration and encounter unforeseen obstacles as they seek to design, implement, and manage community-based programs involving teens as partners. This article provides a conceptual background to adolescent development as applied to community based programs. The author addresses the "four E's" critical to forging successful partnerships with teens as volunteers: empathy, engagement, empowerment, and enjoyment. [Editor-generated]


The state, problems, and prospects of a new branch of chemistry, computer chemistry, associated with the application of computers to the solution of chemical problems is described. The application of computers in quantum chemistry, in solution theory, in the search for new medicinal drugs, in the identification of chemical compounds from spectroscopic data, and in the development of the syntheses of new chemical compounds is examined. The level of the problems solved in the above fields of computer chemistry is demonstrated for specific examples. The bibliography includes 64 references.


We should be indebted to Dr. Berry for his cogent observations on some key aspects of the producer bargaining issue. At the same time, however, I would be remiss in my role as discussant if I failed to point out two major shortcomings of his paper. First, the current status of producer bargaining is treated incompletely. Second, and more glaring, is the complete omission of any discussion of the distribution of benefits of agricultural bargaining. It should be mentioned that both these shortcomings could be remedied simply by changing the title of the paper. For example, if the address was entitled, "Producer Bargaining: Its Present Status in the Dairy Industry," these two criticisms would be largely unwarranted. I must also confess that if the assigned roles of Professor Berry and myself were reversed, he would very likely be levying the same comments about my presentation. For a complete analysis of the assigned topic involves a Herculean task – but a task with which we must come to grips in the near future.


AbstractWe present in this paper efficient and robust algebraic algorithms for computing intersection curves between torus and natural quadrics used in CAD, namely sphere, cylinder and cone. A proper local coordinate system (LCS) is chosen first. Under the chosen LCS, cylinders and cones are parametrized by their line generators, and the problem of computing intersections between tori and cylinders or cones are converted to the line/torus intersection problem. Then, cases that the intersections are conic sections are identified and computed in geometrical and intuitive ways. For all other cases, discrete intersection points are computed and sorted to form intersection curves. For torus/sphere intersection, we present algorithms to compute the intersection curves directly from explicit algebraic representations.


Exemplary embodiments disclosed herein relate to backing up firmware. An operating system can be initialized. During the initialization process, a memory can be set. The firmware can be secured on the basis of set memory in a memory.