DETAILS ARE GIVEN OF THE OPERATION OF TAXIS IN THE PARIS REGION (PARIS ITSELF, THE THREE ADJACENT DEPARTMENTS, LAND BELONGING TO PARIS AIRPORTS) AND OF THOSE OPERATING IN THE ZONE OF ILE-DE-FRANCE NOT SERVED BY THE TAXIS MENTIONED ABOVE. THE FOLLOWING POINTS ARE DISCUSSED: ORGANIZATION, CONTROL, HOW TO BECOME A TAXI DRIVER, RIGHTS OF USERS AND DRIVERS, TARIFFS, INCOME OF DRIVERS. PART 2 OF THIS PUBLICATION DESCRIBES A TWO-MODE BUS IN USE IN JAPAN. THIS VEHICLE TRAVELS ON AN ORDINARY ROAD IN RESIDENTIAL AREAS TO COLLECT AND DROP RESIDENTS, AND IN AN EXCLUSIVE RIGHT OF WAY BETWEEN RESIDENTIAL QUARTERS AND THE NEAREST STATION. DETAILS ARE GIVEN OF THE VEHICLES, TRACKS, STATIONS, INTERCHANGES, CONTROLS, ADVANTAGES AND FIELDS OF USE. A COMPARISON IS MADE WITH SIMILAR SYSTEMS OPERATING IN EUROPE.


Optimal sensor placement (OSP) is an important part in the structural health monitoring. Due to the ability of ensuring the linear independence of the tested modal vectors, the minimum modal assurance criterion (minMAC) is considered as an effective method and is used widely. However, some defects are present in this method, such as the low modal energy and the long computation time. A new OSP method named IAGA-MMAC is presented in this study to settle the issue. First, a modified modal assurance criterion (MMAC) is proposed to improve the modal energy of the selected locations. Then, an improved adaptive genetic algorithm (IAGA), which uses the root mean square of off-diagonal elements in the MMAC matrix as the fitness function, is proposed to enhance computation efficiency. A case study of sensor placement on a numerically simulated wharf structure is provided to verify the effectiveness of the IAGA-MMAC strategy, and two different methods are used as contrast experiments. A comparison of these strategies shows that the optimal results obtained by the IAGA-MMAC method have a high modal strain energy, a quick computational speed, and small off-diagonal elements in the MMAC matrix.


1. Introduction. Networking Evolution. The Challenges of High-Speed Networking. The Changing Role of Routing. Virtual Networks. Why ATM? ATM Concepts. ATM in the Wide Area Network. ATM in the LAN Environment. ATM as a LAN Transport Mechanism. Legacy Protocols in ATM Networks. Address Resolution. Routing Protocols. Multiprotocol Support. 2. Emulated and Virtual LANs. LAN Emulation Version 1.0. LAN Emulation Protocol Stack. LAN Emulation Components. LAN Emulation User-to-Network Interface. LAN Emulation Functions. LAN Emulation Version 2.0. Virtual LANs 2.3. VLAN Frame Tagging. 3. Multiprotocol over ATM (MPOA). Benefits of MPOA. Technology Used by MPOA. MPOA Logical Components. MPOA Functional Components. Information Flows in the MPOA Solution. Client-to-Server Flows. Server-to-Server Flows. Data Encapsulation. MPOA Operation. 4. APPN Support in ATM Networks. High Performance Routing (HPR). Techniques for ATM Utilization. LAN Emulation. Native ATM DLC. Native ATM DLC Implementation. Node Structure. ATM Connection Networks. ATM Traffic Contracts and Quality of Service (QOS) Classes. APPN/HPR Flows over ATM. Multiprotocol Encapsulation. APPN Network Design Considerations. APPN High Performance Routing Compared to TCP/IP. 5. IP Support in ATM Networks. Classical IP over ATM (RFC 1577). IP Subnetwork Configuration. Permanent Virtual Connections. Switched Virtual Connections. Enhancing RFC 1577. IP Address Resolution in ATM Networks. Next Hop Resolution Protocol (NHRP). Introduction. NHRP Functional Components. Next Hop Resolution. Deployment. Cache Management Issues. The NHRP Domino Effect. Stable Routing Loops. NHRP in ATM Networks. IP Multicasting in ATM Networks. ATM Multicast Approaches. Multicast Address Resolution Server (MARS). MARS Operation. 6. PNNI Phase 1 and Integrated PNNI. PNNI Overview. PNNI Design Concepts. PNNI Routing. Addressing. PNNI Information Exchange. PNNI Routing Hierarchy. Generic Connection Admission Control (GCAC). PNNI Signalling. Designated Transit Lists. Crankback and Alternate Routing. PNNI Phase I Summary of Features. PNNI Augmented Routing. Integrated PNNI (I-PNNI). I-PNNI Operation. I-PNNI IP Address Reachability. Route Computation. I-PNNI and Broadcast LANs. I-PNNI Compared to MPOA. I-PNNI Summary of Features. 7. Switched Virtual Networking Architecture. SVN Components. IBM Networking BroadBand Services. IBM Networking BroadBand Services. Architecture Overview. IBM Multiprotocol Switched Services. Enhanced LAN Emulation Component. 8. The Future of IP. IP Next Generation Protocol. Next Generation IP. Why? IPv6 Overview. The IPv6 Header. IPv6 Addressing. IPv6 Routing. IP Version 6 and ATM. IP Integrated Services. IP Integrated Services Model. IP Resource Reservation in ATM Networks. Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP). Resource Reservation. Appendix A. Protocol Stack Reference. ATM Layers. Physical Layer. ATM Layer. ATM Adaptation Layer (AAL). SNA Layers. TCP/IP Layers. Appendix B. ATM Service Categories. Appendix C. AAL Service Classes. Appendix D. ATM Address Formats. Appendix E. Multiprotocol Encapsulation over AAL 5 (RFC 1483). LLC Encapsulation. VC-Based Multiplexing. Appendix F. Cells in Frames (CIF). Framing. Generation and Processing of Frames. ATM Adapation Layer 5 Traffic. Other ATM Adaptation Layer Traffic. Available Bit Rate (ABR) Support. Signalling. Management. Discussion. Appendix G. Server Cache Synchronization Protocol (SCSP) - NBMA.


Virtual reality has shifted its focus to the realms of alternative sports or media which connect the sports and individual routine lives of contemporary people who face an increasing temporal and spatial constraint on the access to sports, and as a result, the image training, sports performance improvement. For the exercise requiring constant participation, more diverse ICT and content technologies should be applied and transformed into the reality contents that can be used in routine lives and activities. That is because many users have expectations for more diverse contents service.


Sales practitioners continue to come to terms with the selling conditions of mature consumer and business markets. Mature markets display signs such as cost-focused competition, similarity in the perceived functionality of offerings, and multiple suppliers vying for highly knowledgeable and powerful customers. While researchers have noted that in mature industrial markets the relationship to sales personnel can be an important differentiator for buyers, sales research has not specifically examined the consequences of market maturity on the conditions and modes of selling in these markets. In addressing this gap in research, this paper examines the effects of market maturity on the relationships between selling personnel and their customers by presenting case study research from a mature industrial market for chemistry products: the North Sea oil industry.


A nonparametric estimator of the probability distribution of time-to-tumor is incorporated into an algorithm for calculating linearly extrapolated dosage limits from an animal carcino-genesis bioassay. The procedure is illustrated with tumor data from a mouse bioassay with 2-acetylaminofluorene. Extrapolated dosage limits for an excess risk of 10-6 differ by only a factor of 2 across the six replicates of the experiment.


—Protein structure prediction is a challenging field strongly associated with protein function and evolution determination, which is crucial for biologists and the pharmaceutical industry. Despite significant process made in recent years, protein structure prediction maintains its status as one of the prime unsolved problems in computational biology. In this study, we have developed a method for protein structure prediction based on profile Hidden Markov Model (HMM) and Quantum Particle Swarm Optimization (QPSO) with diversity-maintained algorithm (DMQPSO). The profile HMM can reduce the number of states using secondary structure information about proteins for each fold, which is called a 7-state HMM. The DMQPSO is an efficient optimization algorithm which is used to train profile HMM. Experiment results show that the proposed method is reasonable and the accuracy of protein secondary structure prediction is increased.


ABSTRACTIntroduction: A common reason for people to obtain orthodontic treatment is a misalignment between the upper dental midline and the midline of the face. The process of orthodontic treatment is considered to affect a patient's visual perception before and after the treatment, as well as their satisfaction with treatment, possibly due to the information received during treatment.  This study aimed to analyze this visual perception of dental midline deviation differences between orthodontically completely treated and untreated patients. Methods: This was a cross-sectional survey of 90 orthodontic patients, 49 completely treated patients who had completed orthodontic treatment and 41 untreated patients who had not started treatment. Patients were asked to complete a Google Form questionnaire for evaluating 12 intraoral smiling photos with midline deviation and a Likert scale. Bivariate statistical analysis with the Mann Whitney test was carried out to see differences in visual perceptions between two groups. Results: Completely treated patients perceive a 0-1 mm (LCN/L photos) midline deviation of the upper teeth as attractive, while untreated patients perceive a 0-2 mm (LCN photos) and 0-3 mm (L photos) deviation as attractive. The statistical analysis revealed a significant difference in patient perception between completely treated and untreated groups, with a p-value of 0.001 (p<0.05) and a mean score of 36.5 and 53.0, respectively. Conclusion: There are differences in visual perception between orthodontically completely treated and untreated patients. The group of completely treated patients is more sensitive to detecting a midline deviation of the upper teeth..Keywords : Upper dental midline deviation, visual perception, completely treated orthodontic patients, untreated orthodontic patients


Abstract : The studies accomplished may be divided into five main categories: studies of the mechanics of forced expiration and coughing at ground level with ambient air as the inspired gas; similar studies at simulated altitudes of 18,000 and 27,000 feet, similar studies at ground level with gas mixtures of different densities as the inspired gas; studies of the effect of gas density on a mechanical model to simulate clearance of mucous from the respiratory tract; and analog computer modelling of various breathing maneuvers. In addition to purely physical factors, these studies have involved several physiological factors including compliance and resistance of the lung and airways, the pressure-volume relationship of the chest, the force-velocity and relationship of the respiratory muscles, and the contraction and relaxation time of these muscles. This report presents pertinent data and conclusions.


The integrated density of states (IDS) for the Schrodinger operators is defined by using the eigenvalue counting function of the operator restricted to bounded regions with appropriate boundary conditions. Two sufficient conditions for the coincidence of the IDS for the Dirichlet boundary conditions and the IDS for the Robin boundary conditions are given. The proofs of some fundamental formulas, e.g. the change of variables, the chain rule and the divergence formula, for Lipschitz domains are given for the completeness.


Qadermarzi A, Pouladi M, Rezamand A, Hoseinifar SH, Hedayati AA. 2018. Investigation of sub-acute levels of zinc oxide nanoparticles on the filtration rate of Mytilaster lineatus and Dressina polymorpha in the short term. Nusantara Bioscience 10: 53-57. The filtration rate is one of the physiological indices in the bivalves which indicate the degree of efficacy of the filtration function in the exposure to contaminants. In this study, changes in the filtration rate of freshwater bivalves (D. polymorpha and M. lineatus) were investigated after exposure periods of 5 and 10 days with nanoparticles. Bivalves were transferred from the natural environment to the laboratory. The distribution of nanoparticles was measured by differential light scattering (DLS). Bivalves were exposed to 2.5, 25 and 50 ppm nanoparticles for ten days in water reservoirs. The filtration rates were significantly different in the treatments compared to the control samples, with the highest filtration rate was observed in the control group. On the fifth day, the highest filtration rate was obtained in the first treatment of M. lineatus and the lowest filtration rate was obtained in the third treatment of D. polymorphia. The highest filtration rates were observed in the first and second treatments and the lowest filtration rate was observed in the third treatment. Also, there was no significant difference in the filtration rate of M. lineatus in the 1st treatment with control (P> 0.05) on the 5th day, but filtration rate was significantly (P <0.05) less than other concentrations and control group in the third treatment. On the other hand, the filtration rates on the 10th day showed similar differences compared to the 5th day. It could be concluded that the changes infiltration rate are an appropriate indicator for the measurement of contamination in nanoparticles.


Three phase dual active bridge (3ph-DAB) is one of the promising isolated bidirectional dc-dc converter (IBDC) for high power industry application attracting more and more attention. However, the conventional single-phase shift (SPS) modulation brings obvious shortcomings such as high root-mean-square (RMS) current, massive circulating energy and soft-switching failure. Although many modulation schemes are proposed to solve these issues, most of them are very complex to be used. This paper proposes a novel three phase LCL dual active bridge (3ph-LCL-DAB) topology to reduce the high RMS phase current especially at heavy load situation with large voltage ratio. Adjusting values of phase inductor and capacitor, the RMS phase current is reduced significantly in the proposed 3ph-LCL-DAB converter with SPS control. Simulation and experiment results verify its effectiveness.


Snap force in tether may cause fracture in the tether system or plate which connecting tether and tunnel body. In this paper, snap force in tether of Submerged Floating Tunnel (SFT) were investigated by hydrodynamic testing on the SFT model. The case study of the shallow waters refers to one of the waterways crossing which connecting the Panggang island and the Karya island in Indonesia is used. Hydrodynamic testing model is carried out by applying regular waves with different variation of wave and structural parameters. Experimental models use PVC cylindrical pipe where the dimension of the model testing use 1:100 scale from the real environmental conditions. In the SFT model testing, the forces on the mooring lines were measured using a PVDF transducer type which is based on the sensor piezoelectric material. Results show that snap force occurs in certain condition of wave and structure parameter.


Paddy husk is the outermost layer of the rice grain , lso called rice hull. It is separated from the b rown rice in rice hulling. Burning of paddy husk produced paddy husk ash (RHA). If the burning process is incomplete carbonized paddy husk (CRH) is produced [1]. Paddy husk is an agricultur al waste material obtained from the threshing of th e rice and constitutes about 20% of 650 million tons f rice produced annually in the world [2].


This study describes a survey of 141 lesbians in a metropolitan area of North Carolina. In addition to assessing library usage and library satisfaction, this study also examined information needs as they exist within the situational contexts of these women's lives. Results indicated that during the initial stages of identity acceptance, when individuals may not have access to the lesbian community, the library is used heavily as an information resource. During the later stages of identity acceptance, information needs become more specific and resources are consulted with more discrimination


Understanding dynamics of proteins has many practical implications in terms of finding a cure for many protein related diseases. Normal mode analysis and molecular dynamics methods are widely used physics-based computational methods for investigating dynamics of proteins. In this work, we studied dynamics of Hepatitis C NS5B protein with molecular dynamics and normal mode analysis. Principal components obtained from a 100 nanoseconds molecular dynamics simulation show good overlaps with normal modes calculated with a coarse-grained elastic network model. Coarse-grained normal mode analysis takes at least an order of magnitude shorter time. Encouraged by this good overlaps and short computation times, we analyzed further low frequency normal modes of Hepatitis C NS5B. Motion directions and average spatial fluctuations have been analyzed in detail. Finally, biological implications of these motions in drug design efforts against Hepatitis C infections have been elaborated.


Didemnum vexillum is a globally invasive species and a major pest to the aquaculture industry. Like other colonial ascidians, D. vexillum can readily overgrow aquaculture nets and cultured species. Recently, the species has been found in great abundance on seafloor habitats, where it is often associated with commercially important shellfish species such as sea scallops, Placopecten magellanicus. Despite the increasing abundance of D. vexillum in areas that are regularly fished for sea scallops, little work has been conducted on the ascidians impact on scallop behavior. This study examined the effect of overgrowth of the sea scallop by D. vexillum using four measures: time to initial exhaustion, swimming speed, horizontal and vertical displacement. Scallops covered by D. vexillum became exhausted more quickly, and were not able to swim as far in either the horizontal or vertical direction as the control sea scallops without D. vexillum encrustation. The expansion of D. vexillum into sea scallop habitat may increase the vulnerability of sea scallops to predation and limit their ability to access food rich habitats.


A new concept of risk sensitivity is devised, unveiling a class of functions not detected as risk sensitive in the classical scenario. It allows extending known risk sensitive control problems and provides a new pattern concerning the format of the problems to come. We show that the classical concept is insensitive to risk over time and that this may lead to critical exposures regardless how strong the controller's risk aversion is. The new concept, instead, fully covers this aspect. Relations between the classical concept and the corresponding restriction of the new concept are established. Particularly, in the important affine case, we showed that both concepts are equivalent and, parallel to the classical case, risk sensitivity and convexity are equivalent. We provide examples via richer versions of the linear exponential of quadratic Gaussian optimal control problem and the non-linear partially observed optimal control problem given in James et al. (1994, IEEE Trans. Autom. Control, 39, 780–792).


The range of the linear operator over a polyhedron considered in this paper is a convex subset H of a finite dimensional subspace S of the ambient inner product space X. According to the reduction principle the best approximation to a point of X from H equals the best approximation to the best approximation to that point of X from S from H. Equivalent representations are presented for H in terms of 'opposite' translated convex cones. Explicit calculations are given for the best approximations from finitely generated, translated convex cones. An interesting special case is treated when such a best approximation is to a point in a in this paper introduced translated polar cone. Several results are presented to establish the position of the projection of a point of X onto S with respect to the set H. Using the Boyle-Dykstra theorem, it is proven that these best approximations are precisely the ones from the set H itself. The result is finally applied to real-life data from oil industry in that a solution is presented for a very important problem in oil and gas production operations called the reconciliation problem, where the contribution of individual wells to a measured total production has to be assessed.


The paper analyzes the principal behavior of government,retailers and consumers,when reuse wrap pages are reclaimed by distribution center.The studies indicate as follows.First,the government can be corresponds with distribution center on an equilibrium.Secondly,the behavior of retailers is dependent on the inspiriting mechanism of distribution center.That is,the optimum strategy of retailers is to reclaim the wrap pages when reverse logistics is realized by distribution center,otherwise not so.Finally,62% of the consumers with questionnaire would like the wrap pages to be reclaimed.


The Management of Chronic Pain; Caught Between a Rock and a Hard Place: The Case for a Renewed Focus on Provider, Patient, and Payer Education Talal W. Khan, and Farnad Imani Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, United States Pain Research Center, Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences (IUMS), Tehran, Iran Corresponding author: Talal W. Khan, 3901 Rainbow Boulevard, Mail Stop 1034, Kansas City, Kansas, 66260. Tel: +98-9135883315, Fax: +98-9135883365, E-mail: email@example.com


Generalized peritonitis is a common surgical emergency in developing countries [1]. Despite advances in surgical techniques, good antimicrobial therapy and intensive care support, it carries high morbidity and mortality while its management remains difficult and complex [2]. The spectrum of secondary peritonitis in tropical countries differs from western counterparts [2]. The management approach requires both knowledge of the signs and symptoms of peritonitis to aid diagnosis and an understanding of common causes to assist the surgeon in appropriate surgical care. Peritonitis can be classified as primary, secondary or tertiary, depending upon the source of microbial contamination. Primary peritonitis is secondary to extra peritoneal sources, the infection spreading mainly through haematogenous dissemination without visceral perforation. Secondary peritonitis, on the other hand is caused by resident flora of the gastrointestinal or urogenital tracts, the organisms reaching peritoneum secondary to a mechanical breach, Tertiary peritonitis may be defined as a severe recurrent or persistent intra abdominal infection after apparently successful and adequate surgical source control of secondary peritonitis [3].


Extremophiles are organisms that have evolved to survive in extreme conditions of heat, acidity, pressure, and cold that would be fatal to most other life forms. The enzymes secreted by extremophiles, termed "extremozymes," that allow them to function in such forbidding environments are of great interest to medical and biotechnical researchers. Extremophiles are classified according to the conditions into many but here mainly focused are Thermophiles and Hyperthermophiles. Thermostable DNA polymerases are mainly focused here. DNA polymerases are enzymes that synthesize DNA molecules from deoxyribonucleotides, the building blocks of DNA. These enzymes are essential for DNA replication and usually work in pairs to create two identical DNA strands from a single original DNA molecule. Thermostable DNA polymerases are heat-resistant, template-dependent enzymes that add free nucleotides to the 3'-end of a newly synthesized complementary DNA strand which are used for the polymerase chain reaction and related methods for the amplification and modification of DNA. Genome and proteome experiments are carried out for the stability of proteins but they are time-consuming, so Bioinformatics tools and methods are carried out for the same.


The exceptional upconverting properties of lanthanide-doped nanoparticles make them attractive systems with applications ranging from photovoltaics to biological labeling, imaging, and therapeutics. While they draw considerable interest, structural data, which are necessary to understand the upconversion process, remain scarce. In this work, we demonstrate the use of 23Na, 19F, and 89Y solid-state NMR together with DFT calculations to characterize the structure of cubic NaYF4 nanoparticles with and without Er3+ doping. By measuring 23Na MAS NMR spectra at various magnetic fields and 3QMAS spectra at ultrahigh field, we show that the spectra are characteristic of a solid solution in which cation sites are statistically occupied by Na+ or Y3+ ions. The 23Na NMR spectra are broadened as a result of isotropic chemical shift distribution, whereas the extracted quadrupolar products appear to be small (≤1.8 MHz), which is in good agreement with DFT calculations using CASTEP. The chemical shift distribution in 19...


Microbubbles are widely used in a number of diverse applications ranging from food,cosmetic to medicine in virtue of their special structure.In particular the application of microbubbles opens a new field in non-dam- ageing ultrasound medical examination.However,the preparation of microbubbles used for medical imaging is a com- plicated and difficUlt process.The progress in preparation methods of microbubbles speeds up along with the introduc- tion of microcapsule techniques.In this paper,the preparation methods of microbubbles and their advantages and disad- vantages at home and abroad in recent years are introduced.Finally,it is pointed that individual acoustic contrast a- gents can be gotten with chemical method,and the double virtues of imaging and targeted therapy will be possessed.


Three telemedical projeets were studied that used ISDN video to link primary care medical centres to hospitals. Specifically, a doctor or nurse practitioner with the patient was able to consult a remote specialist about treatment or diagnosis. Five task characteristics for this particular form of telemedical consultation are identified. These characteristics make clear the need for high quality multiparty sound communication and multiple-view slow-scan video but suggest that full motion video may not be necessary to support this kind of work. Some issues in analysing technologically-mediated collaborative work are briefly discussed.


Electronic reading is taking an increasing place in the total reading space of students. Although the first e-reading systems, commonly called electronic books or ebooks, have been existing for several years, opinions about their potential still diverge. A great variety of electronic scholarly content is now offered to students, and this involves a multiplication of uses as well as a variety of reading modes. E-reading systems are now an integral part of the electronic environment to which students have access and need to be studied in greater depth. Many experiments have been conducted in public libraries and academic libraries on electronic books. Research was undertaken on their usability and the degree of readers' satisfaction in order to improve their design. However, few studies have tackled the reading practices of scholars (in particular students) and their perceptions of these new reading systems. Our research focuses on these aspects by studying two different e-reading systems, the Tablet PC (portable device) and a Web-books system, NetLibrary (reading interface integrated into a Web navigator). Our research investigates the reading practices of students on electronic books. It is guided by three research questions : (1) students' reading strategies (before, during and after reading), (2) elements of the e-reading system which influence (positively or negatively) the reading process, and (3) students' perceptions of the electronic book technology and its potential contribution to their scholarly work. For this research, a mixedmethod approach was chosen, using three modes of data collection : a questionnaire, semistructured interviews with students having used one e-reading system, and the capture of reading traces (annotations, highlights, etc.) left by students in the systems, after use. Respondents in our study (n=46) were students at the Université de Montréal, from three departments (Library & information sciences, Communications and Linguistics & translation). About half of them (n=21) were interviewed. Furthermore, reading traces left by students in the e-reading systems were analysed. Data from interviews and answers to open questions of the questionnaire were subjected to content analysis, while data from the closed questions of the questionnaire were summarized statistically. vii Our results show that, generally, the reading goal, the type and structure of the text, student's reading practices and functionalities of the e-reading system are the elements which determine and orient the choice and use of reading strategies. Helps and barriers for the reading process were identified for each of the two e-reading systems under study. Help mostly consists in elements of the paper book metaphor in the electronic reading environment (delimited page, pagination, etc.), the integrated dictionary, and the fact that ereading systems facilitate text skimming. As for the barriers, reading instrumentation seems to affect text appropriation by the reader. Moreover, the electronic reading (eg. « on screen ») involved lack of concentration and visual tiredness, particularly with NetLibrary. Both the Tablet PC and NetLibrary were considered easy to use, although not always comfortable, discomfort with NetLibrary being more manifest. Students believe that the two e-reading systems are practical tools for their academic work, although for various reasons, specific to each reading system. Overall evaluation of the e-reading experience by respondents was judged positive for the Tablet PC, and somewhat mitigated for NetLibrary. This research contributes to the knowledge on : (1) electronic reading, in particular that of student readers, and (2) the impact of a reading system on reading effectiveness, on readers, on the achievement of a reading goal, and on reading strategies used. In addition to the limits of this study, suggestions for future research are presented.


Firstly, the paper discusses the reasons of industry agglomeration in geographic methods, the answer is that natural advantage agglomeration forces, spill agglomeration forces and human culture cohesion forces are the basic forces for industry concentration in geography. Secondly, the author puts forward that industrial structure may be optimized and regional economy can be accelerated by industry agglomeration in geography.


The conflicts in Somalia seem to be intractable. Despite the many peace processes, it has not been resolved. Somalia had no effective government since 1991. A transitional government backed by Ethiopian troops threw out Islamists from the capital, Mogadishu, in December 2006, but since then Islamist insurgents have carried out almost daily attacks. The effects of these conflicts have been evident with about 20,000 people fleeing fighting in Mogadishu each month. If this trend continues, the government of Somalia will keep performing poorly due to poor conflict management styles they are employing. This study investigated the Roles of governance on conflict management in Mogadishu, Somalia. The study was guided by the following specific objectives that is, accountability affects on conflict management, adherence to rule of law and adherence to code of ethics in conflict management in Mogadishu. This study took descriptive research design. The target population of this study was 300 management staff in Mogadishu administration where a sample size of 60 managers was chosen. 100% of the respondents responded, this implies that all of the respondents managed to respond to the researcher. Most of the respondents 55% were male. Few respondents were female 45%. This implies that the majority of the respondents were men due to societal beliefs that they are more hardworking than women and thus capable in governance issues on conflict management. The study found out that there is significant relationship between governance and conflict management in Mogadishu was accepted. The study also revealed that the adjusted R2 is .453. This implies that there is significant relationship between the governance and conflict management in Mogadishu was accepted meaning there is a relationship. The study concludes that the availability of information is critical to good governance. Access to information and the promotion of procedural rights provide an enabling framework where accountability and improved delivery could enhance institutional changes. © 2016 Elixir All rights reserved. Elixir Leadership and Governance 99 (2016) 42920-42928 Leadership and Governance Available online at www.elixirpublishers.com (Elixir International Journal) Ali Abdirahman Osman and Gabriel Lubale / Elixir Leadership and Governance 99 (2016) 42920-42928 42921 The country underwent a dramatic change in its governance structure and public administration in 1969 following the military coup that brought Siyad Barre to power. The Military Junta abolished the National Assembly and replaced it with a Supreme Revolutionary Council (SRC) comprising of Siyad Barre as the head of State, senior military and police officers as heads of government departments (Kozan, 1997). This resulted into conflict, which went on upto-date. Contextual Perspectives Somalia"s history of conflict reveals an intriguing paradox namely; many of the factors that drive armed conflict have also played a role in managing, ending, or preventing war. For instance, clannism and clan cleavages are a source of conflict used to divide Somalis, fuel endemic clashes over resources and power, used to mobilize militia, and make broad-based reconciliation very difficult to achieve. Most of Somalia"s armed clashes since 1991 have been fought in the name of clan, often as a result of political leaders manipulating clannism for their own purposes (Africa Watch , 2010). Yet traditional clan elders are a primary source of conflict mediation, clan-based customary law serves as the basis for negotiated settlements, and clan-based blood-payment groups serve as a deterrent to armed violence. Likewise, the central state is conventionally viewed as a potential source of rule of law and peaceful allocation of resources, but, at times in Somalia"s past, it was a source of violence and predation. Economic interests, too, have had an ambiguous relationship with conflict in Somalia. In some places, war economies have emerged that perpetuate violence and lawlessness, while in other instances business interests have been a driving force for peace, stability, and rule of law. Understanding under what circumstances these and other variables serve as escalators or de-escalators of violence or both are the subtle challenge conflict analysis faces in the Somali context (Ahmed, 2004). In the late 1980s and 1990s, the political conflict in Somalia degenerated into a governmental crisis which eventually led to a general militarized social conflict throughout the clan faction network. The institutionalized principles of clan equality and representation in politics constituted a conceptual framework and basis for power sharing and government crisis management but failed to resolve the intense socio-political conflicts of the decade (Nuruddin, 2000). The Somali government used the framework, although in a limited way, to promote representative democracy, crises management and conflict resolution. In the larger regional context, the pattern of refugee displacement and the dynamics of the spillover of the armed conflicts from Somalia to the neighboring countries of Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya have on the contrary, revealed the strength of cultural solidarity as a factor of social integration in Africa. The Somali-speaking communities in these countries played active roles in not only receiving but also helping the refugees to integrate into their host communities. (SNM, 1981-1991) Both at national and regional levels, the generalization potential of the civil war revealed the mobilizing capacity of cultural over civic values. The exclusive affirmation of clan identity and the clan-based political system were obstacles to the promotion of civic citizenship based on human rights and democratic principles. At a military level, the creation of clan armies by political faction leaders greatly undermined the military institution and led to its collapse. Under these circumstances, human rights, tolerance and coexistence principles central to violence prevention, conflict resolution, political stability, peace and development, were greatly undermined (Daniel, 1992) The ensuing civil war in Somalia developed over several years. It was caused by a combination of several factors both local and international and involved many different actors. At the national level, several years of continued frustration over basic human needs caused unrest: children could not go to school because education was not free; the sick could not be cared for sufficiently because there were no facilities; populations from famine affected areas (from 1972) could not be fed because there was not enough food in spite of the provisions made by international humanitarian NGOs; and social and political aspirations could not be achieved because the political framework was not democratic. In addition, the ineffective economic policies of the government worsened economic difficulties, causing extreme poverty, intense government crises characterized by constant reshuffles of cabinet ministers and the loss of state authority; a politicized army, and coups and counter coups d"Etat which were attempts to change government and social fracture. Consequently, between 1972 and 1989 the population became poorer and gradually desperate. The very difficult living conditions became an incentive for young men to join faction armies opposed to the government in office. A culture of violence and crime emerged as a strategy for ensuring livelihood (Tom, 1998). The conflicts in Somalia seem to be intractable. Despite the many peace process, it has not been resolved. Somalia has had no effective government since 1991. A transitional government backed by Ethiopian troops threw out Islamists from the capital, Mogadishu, in December 2006, but since then Islamist insurgents have carried out almost daily attacks. In January 2007, the African Union (AU) approved sending a peacekeeping mission to Somalia (AMISOM), paving the way for some 8,000 troops to enter but leaving the origin of those forces unclear. As of late 2008, a 2,400-strong peacekeeping force, made up of some 1,600 Ugandan troops and 800 troops from Burundi, had deployed to Mogadishu. The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for the UN Security Council to consider sending 27,000 peacekeepers to Somalia to replace the AU peacekeeping force (Nchi, 18 November 2011). In October 2011, hundreds of Kenyan troops entered Somalia, escalating their efforts to fight the Al-Shabaab militant group, which it accused of kidnappings and raiding Kenyan coastal resorts and refugee camps. The group soon threatened reprisals against Kenya and witnesses reported seeing Al-Shabab fighters move toward the areas invaded. The operation was initially called "miguided", "ill-thought out" and "the biggest security gamble Kenya has taken since independence" (Nchi, 2011) The effects of these conflicts have been evident with about 20,000 people fleeing fighting in Mogadishu each month. More than two million Somalis rely on food aid to survive (International Crisis Group Africa Report, 2012). If this trend continues, the government of Somalia will keep performing poorly due to poor conflict management styles they are employing. This study was to investigate to establish the role of governance and the causes of poor conflict managements in Mogadishu local government, Somalia. Objectives of the Study The specific objectives of the study were Ali Abdirahman Osman and Gabriel Lubale / Elixir Leadership and Governance 99 (2016) 42920-42928 42922 1. To find out the roles of public accountability on conflict management in Mogadishu 2. To determine the role of adherence to rule of law on conflict management in Mogadishu. 3. To examine the role of adherence to code of ethics in conflict Management in Mogadishu. 2. Literature Review Theoretical Review This study employed public choice theory by (Shughart II, 2008). The theory states that political decision-making may resul


The analysis of the dynamic behavior of complex systems requires the simultaneous and continuous monitoring of many variables, often over extended periods of time. In older to prepare the large amounts of data so obtained for analysis, efficient methods for data reduction and the characterization of "condensed" time series using appropriate screening and statistical procedures are essential. In this paper a solution to two of these problems is dealt with, namely the characterization of multivariate data, recored from biological systems under stress, in the time domain and the screening of study data for redundancy. The processing of such data is subject to two major constraints: the variables are frequently nonnormally distributed and the order of the behavior of the system to be characterized is frequently not known. The approach described comprises an initial data reduction for intermediate storage by a factor of one thousand to seventy through an averaging procedure. The resulting second time series is then characterized in terms of a) steady-state values during both the control and the response state; b) the variability of these steady state values and c) the shape and magnitude of the transient part of the response. The number of parameters resulting from this procedure is further reduced by screening the data for redundancy without investigator bias using a functional proposed by Andrews. Further processing of the data includes cluster and principal component analysis in an attempt to identify biologically meaningful basic system dimensions.


This item was submitted to Loughborough University's Institutional Repository by the/an author. Citation: BISWAS, A.K. and KAUL, S.N., 2002. Prospect of common effluent treatment plant (CETP) in industrial sector. IN: Reed, B. (ed). Sustainable environmental sanitation and water services: Proceedings of the 28th WEDC International Conference, Kolkata (Calcutta), India, 18-22 November 2002, 3p.p.


We consider the one-sided matching problem, where agents must be matched to indivisible objects. Our first result is a novel characterization of strategyproof mechanisms by three intuitive axioms. Furthermore, we introduce partial strategyproofness, a new relaxation of strategyproofness that bridges the gap between full and weak strategyproofness. Partial strategyproofness finds application in the incentive analysis of non-strategyproof mechanisms, such as Probabilistic Serial, different variants of the Boston mechanism, and hybrid mechanisms. In this letter, we summarize the main results from [Mennle and Seuken 2014a] and demonstrate how they can be used for the design and analysis of matching mechanisms.


GSM/(E)GPRS networks support a mixture of traffic consisting of voice and data. A key concept of dimensioning radio resources in such networks is represented by sharing resources between different users and different services. In this paper we address the problem of voice and data traffic models according to different resources allocations strategies: CP (Complete Partitioning) and PP( Partial Partitioning) and define specific parameters in each case. The proposed traffic model depend in each case on the resources allocation strategy: for voice traffic it is based on both cases, CP and PP, on Erlang law meanwhile for data traffic we build different models depending the scheme used for resources allocation. For CP scheme we propose two models: the model based on Erlang law and those based on modified Engset law. For PP scheme we also proposed two models: one is based on the bi-dimensional Markov chain and the other on the modified Engset law. Both consider voice-data interaction according to the PP scheme. In all cases we define specific performance parameters. We also implement the studied models and evaluate the proposed performance parameters. Finally we compare the results in order to find the adequate model to use for dimensioning purposes.


A study was conducted to assess the level of knowledge regarding selected minor ailments of pregnancy and its remedial measures among antenatal women attending antenatal OPD at Doon medical college and hospital, Dehradun in a view to develop information booklet. A descriptive research design was used for the study. The study samples were 150 antenatal women attending antenatal OPD at Doon medical college and hospital. Participants were selected by using non-probability convenient sampling technique. Self structured knowledge questionnaire was administered for the assessment. The study results shows that majority of women 70 (46.7%) were having moderate knowledge, 55 (36.7%) women have inadequate and 25 (16.6%) have adequate knowledge regarding minor ailments of pregnancy and their remedial measures. Area wise knowledge score shows that majority of mothers having adequate knowledge regarding backache, followed by fatigue and sleeplessness with Mean 10.68%, Mean percentage 44.5% and Standard deviation 5.125. The chi- square test done at 0.05 level of significance revealed association of knowledge score with all demographic variables i.e Age, education, occupation, type of family, family income, area of residence, gravid, gestational week, previous knowledge and source of information.Findings stress the need of health education in hospital and community to improve the knowledge of pregnant women.


Objective To explore the value and feasibility and usefulness of transvaginal hydrolaparoscopy(THL)as a screening tool for infertile patients with Standarddiagnostic laparoscopy(LAP)and hysterosalpingography(HSG).Methods The 3 above methods were used in 29 infertile women,then the results of observation for the 3 methods were compared.Results Compared to LAP and HSG both needed less time of operation and less cost with statistically significantly difference,and their diagnostic rates were 64.29%(18/28 cases)and 92.86%(26/28 cases),respectively.The average cost of operation was the lowest in HSG,while was the highst in LAP.Conclusion Although HSG is simple and economical.the accuracy is poor.Standard diagnostic laparoscopy is considered the gold standard to investigate tubo-peritoneal infertility,while it requires general anaesthesia and full operative facilities.THL can be performed on the outpatients under local anaesthesia and is a highly accurate technique in comparison with the laparoscopy.Therefore THL may be a valuable technique for the diagnosis of tubal pathology.


Background: White button mushroom (Agaricus bisporus) is one of the most sensitive agricultural crops after harvesting and its antioxidant properties tend to decrease during post-harvest storage with the passage of time. OBJECTIVES: The possible role of exogenous application of malic acid as dipping treatment on bioactive components and antioxidant properties of sliced white button mushroom during storage was investigated. METHODS: The mushrooms were soaked in chilled malic acid solution at desired concentrations (1%, 3% and 5%) for 10 minutes or were dipped in chilled distilled water as control and were refrigerated (4°C) for 15 days. On each designated day (every 5 days) mushroom samples were taken out for further analysis. Total phenolic, chelating ability, and DPPH assay, as well as assay of reducing power, were evaluated as markers of bioactive components and antioxidant properties of sliced button mushroom. RESULTS: Malic acid treatment effectively maintained higher levels of bioactive components and antioxidant properties (as depicted by higher retention of phenolic and lower EC50 values for DPPH and reducing power) as compared to control during the whole storage period. On the other hand, chelating ability of mushrooms was not influenced by the malic acid treatment and a weak correlation was found between malic acid treatment and chelating ability retention. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that dipping in 3% malic acid solution prior to storage can serve the purpose of maintenance of bioactive components and antioxidant properties of sliced button mushroom during storage.


Cosmosoma auge (Linnaeus 1767) (Lepidoptera: Erebidae) is a Neotropical arctiid moth common in Cuban mountainous areas; however, its life cycle remains unknown. In this work, C. auge life cycle is described for the first time; also, immature stages are described using a Cuban population. Larvae were obtained from gravid wild females caught in Vinales National Park and were fed with fresh leaves of its host plant, the climbing hempweed Mikania micrantha Kunth (Asterales: Asteraceae), which is a new host plant record. Eggs are hemispherical and hatching occurred five days after laying. Larval period had six instars and lasted between 20 and 22 days. First and last larval stages are easily distinguishable from others. First stage has body covered by chalazae and last stage has body covered by verrucae as other stages but has a tuft on each side of A1 and A7. Eggs and larvae features agree with Arctiinae pattern. Pupal stage lasted eight days, and, in general, females emerge before males as a result of pupal stage duration differences between sexes.


With the support from the Department of Energy, we participated in the World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE) cruises to document the spatial variation of the properties of the carbonate system over the world ocean. With the other members of the DOE C0{sub 2} science team, we took advantage of the initial postponed ship schedule to initiate an intercomparison of total dissolved inorganic carbon measurement in seawater. This work has proven to be essential for the measurements performed at sea soon after. We participated in 2 cruises in the Equatorial Pacific Ocean along 150{degree} W and 135{degree} W. Surface seawater C0{sub 2} partial pressure (pCO{sub 2}) measured along 150{degree} W has been compared with earlier measurements made by Ray Weiss in 1979 along the same cruise track. The large variations of surface seawater pCO{sub 2} (pCO{sub 2}{sup sea}) on short spatial and temporal scale do not allow us to determine whether anthropogenic C0{sub 2} modified pC0{sub 2}{sup sea} in this ocean area. In the laboratory we also investigated a different means of measuring total alkalinity by thermometry. In this highly variable ocean, several complementary approaches are now underway to detect the anthropogenic signal and predict future changes: Continual monitoring of themore » carbonate properties in the ocean; Modeling and remote sensing; and monitoring of atmospheric pCO{sub 2} and pO{sub 2}. In this report, we summarize the results of the at-sea measurements of the parameters of the carbonate system in seawater on the WOCE cruises P16c and P17c, as well as the theoretical and experimental results of laboratory studies made to improve the measurement techniques.« less


Broadly speaking, the criticism of religion can be classified into two groups, a priori and a posteriori sorts of criticisms. To the first group belong attempts to re-interpret religious claims in line with whatever world view the critic presupposes. To this group belong the Feuerbachian/Marxian line of criticism, the (later) sociological theories of religion (e.g. Durkheim's), Freud's etc. Those attempts are a priori in that they rule out the possibility of religion from the beginning on. Given e.g. the materialist world view, that Marx, and, to some extent Freud and even Feuerbach presuppose, religious claims are ruled out on a priori grounds. This sort of criticism has its roots in the classical Continental philosophical tradition with its openness towards grand metaphysical theories, such as materialism and whatever theories are built upon it (e.g. a materialist theory of history). Its weakness is, obviously, that its critique of religion makes sense only to those people already sharing whatever world view is at stake.


Results: Out of the 132 patients included in the study, 73 (56.2%) were females and 57 (43%) were males. A majority of patients were Hispanic 70/132 (53%) and white 47/132 (35.6%). 72% of the patients had endoscopy during the studied hospitalization. Of the 95 patients who underwent endoscopy, 70 (73.68%) had HP testing by endoscopy and biopsy. The HP positivity rate was as follows: (GU) 56.52%, (DU) 37.5%, GU and DU100% and Gastritis (26.32%). Of the 95 patients who had endoscopy and biopsy- 37 (38.95%) were positive for HP. Only 35% of positive HP patients (13/37) were started on one of the accepted anti-HP regimen, " before discharge from the hospital". All other patients were discharged on either H 2 antagonist or proton pump inhibitors. The documentation of work up for H. Pylori was present in 74% of cases and absent in 26% of class.


The study of one of the components, the heat accumulator, of Low Thrust Cryogenic Propulsion
systems (LTCP), is of scientific interest in the framework of ISP-1 project [1]. This device stores thermal energy from the fuel cell that provides electrical energy to the whole system. This thermal energy is employed for the pressurization of the propellant tanks. A numerical model is being developed [2] in order to predict the thermal behaviour of the heat accumulator and having a tool for its design in the next future. The numerical model is validated with experimental results of ISP-1 partners (DLR) [3], [4].


190 Notes and commentsthat the presence of queen cells in a colony does not necessar-ily indicate a queen change will occur.The presence of queen cells and cells which appear to haveemerged are used in beekeeping to signal a need for actions toprevent swarming or to replace a failing queen with a queen ofa desired stock rather than allow the colony to supersede. Theunusual queen cells we observed throughout the brood nest arelikely to be interpreted as supersedure cells rather than swarmcells. Beekeepers may unnecessarily re-queen some Russiancolonies if they attempt to prevent supersedure by requeening.Supersedure is a frequent occurrence in honey bee colonies(Butler, 1957), usually has a favourable outcome for the colony,and might be profitably ignored by beekeepers. Supersedure canoften occur without beekeepers noticing the event. Generalrequeening of all colonies on a yearly or every other year sched-ule may be a better strategy to assure that colonies have queensof a desired stock.The adaptive value of this unusual queen rearing behaviour is notclear. The seasonality of far- eastern Russia provides a shortgrowing season with a limited opportunity for honey produc-tion followed by a winter dearth that may last up to six months(Crane, 1990). Perhaps these queen cells, in various stages ofdevelopment, provide an opportunity for colonies to morequickly replace a queen during the short active season shouldshe fail.


"Cultural Dissimilation""Cultural Naturalization"are two viewpoints to solve problem of cultural dif-ference in translation,also two translating ways or strategies.The two are never against each other but supplement each other in translation behavior.The translation should not be the word-for-word corresponding process of two linguistic symbols but the equal process of cultural function behind language symbols and this equal process should have areversibility.


Sir: We read with considerable interest the recent paper by J. R. Srigley and his co-authors in the January 2013 edition of Histopathology, entitled 'Dataset for reporting of prostate carcinoma in radical prostatectomy specimens: recommendations from the International Collaboration on Cancer Reporting'. It is a review based on a project designed to harmonize the Royal College of Pathologists (RCPath), College of American Pathologists (CAP) and Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia (RCPA) datasets, checklists and structured reporting protocols for examination of radical prostatectomy specimens (RPSs). We fully agree with the authors that this process is an efficient method for producing an evidence-based dataset for prostate cancer. The authors are to be congratulated on promoting common, internationally agreed upon, evidence-based datasets for cancer reporting through the International Collaboration on Cancer Reporting (ICCR), a quadripartite group that includes the RCPath, CAP, and RCPA, and the Canadian Association of Pathologists in association with the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer. The current evolution from a quadripartite to a 'pentapartite' group with the inclusion of the International Society of Urological Pathology (ISUP) as a new partner following discussions in Vancouver in March 2012 (to which some of the authors of this Correspondence contributed) will certainly facilitate the development of a multilingual dataset for urological cancers, with the engagement of experts from Europe and South America in addition to the initial four ICCR partners, and translation of the datasets into other languages. A fundamental prerequisite for internationally agreed datasets is a high level of standardization of laboratory routines. The 2009 ISUP Consensus Conference on handling and staging of RPSs (which some of the authors both of this Correspondence and of the review paper by Srigley et al. attended) issued recommendations for international standardization. Following the Conference, our group has worked on issues related to this topic at the Section of Pathological Anatomy of the Polytechnic University of the Marche Region, Ancona, Italy, where a complete sampling procedure with coronal serial sectioning from the apex through the body to the base coupled with the whole mount technique is routinely applied. This procedure has given us important information relating to the definition of insignificant versus significant prostate cancer, as well as to contemporary approaches in prostate cancer treatment, including active surveillance and focal therapy. In the last 2 years, one of our main goals has been to further refine the method of analysis for the prostate base/bladder neck, the seminal vesicles, and their junction with the prostate. The reason has been the need for a more accurate and detailed histological evaluation of the whole area that includes both the prostate base/bladder neck and seminal vesicles. One of our group was probably among the first to define histologically the prostate base and the bladder neck in a radical prostatectomy specimen, at the World


To develop and validate of analytical methods for simultaneous estimation of mefenamic acid and its major impurity 2,3-xylidine (2,3dimethylaniline). In UVSpectrophotometric methods, absorbance correction method absorbance was measured at 350 nm mefenamic acid (at 350 nm absorbance of 2, 3-xylidine is zero) and 235.20 nm 2,3-xylidine. In RPHPLC method for mefenamic acid and 2,3xylidine chromatographic separation was carried out on Waters spherisorb®, 5μm, ODS (250 mm L × 4.6 mm Ø) in size using mobile phase methanol : water (70:30 % v/v), flow rate 1 ml/min, and detected at 233 nm using PDA detector. Detection linearity was established in concentration range Mefenamic acid 10-50μg/ml and 2,3-Xylidine 15μg/ml for absorbance correction method and Mefenamic acid 80120μg/ml and 5-25μg/ml 2,3-Xlidine for RP-HPLC method. Validation of developed method was performed according to ICH Q2R1guidline.


We study the action of Bender-Knuth involutions on linear extensions of posets and identify LE-cactus posets, i.e. those for which the cactus relations hold. It was conjectured in \cite{chiang2023bender} that d-complete posets are LE-cactus. Among the non-d-complete posets that are LE-cactus, one notable family is ordinal sums of antichains. In this paper, we characterize the LE-cactus posets in a more general family, namely ordinal sums of disjoint unions of chains.


In 1978, the Supreme Court in Andrews imposed a ceiling of $100 000
on compensation for the bodily non-pecuniary injury. In contrast, the
Supreme Court in Snyder (1998) and Hill (1995) had decided that the
ceiling of Andrews does not apply to actions in defamation and moral
non-pecuniary damages. Today, this situation still appears to be unjust.
How is moral suffering so different from the bodily suffering? This
article starts from this unfairness to explore our intuition that suffering
is incommensurable. The objective is to determine how the law could
better understand suffering and compensate it more adequately and
fairly. Considering the now-inevitable confusion in the methods of
assessment of non-pecuniary injury, a better comprehension of the
choices of incommensurability and commensurability permits us to
identify a method of assessment of indemnities which is fair, consistent
and predictable. The author calls this method the "personalizedconceptual
approach with functional reasonableness".


A B S T R A C T U7lex europaeus is a much-branched shrub with small, narrow, spine-tipped leaves and axillary thorn shoots. The origin and development of axillary shoots was studied as a basis for understanding the changes that occur in the axillary shoot apex as it differentiates into a thorn. Axillary bud primordia are derived from detached portions of the apical meristem of the primary shoot. Bud primordia in the axils of juvenile leaves on seedlings develop as leafy shoots while those in the axils of adult leaves become thorns. A variable degree of vegetative development prior to thorn differentiation is exhibited among these secondary thorn shoots even on the same axis. Commonly the meristems of secondary axillary shoots initiate 3-9 bracteal leaves with tertiary axillary buds before differentiating as thorns. In other cases the meristems develop a greater number of leaves and tertiary buds as thorn differentiation is delayed. The initial stages in the differentiation of secondary shoot meristems as thorns are detected between plastochrons 10-20, depending on vigor of the parent shoot. A study of successive lateral buds on a shoot shows an abrupt conversion from vegetative development to thorn differentiation. The conversion involves the termination of meristematic activity of the apex and cessation of leaf initiation. Within the apex a vertical elongation of cells of the rib meristem initials and their immediate derivatives commences the attenuation of the apex which results in the pointed thorn. All cells of the apex elongate parallel to the axis and proceed to sclerify basipetally. Back of the apex some cortical cells in which cell division has persisted longer differentiate as chlorenchyma. Although no new leaves are initiated during the extension of the apex, provascular strands are present in the thorn tip. Fibrovascular bundles and bundles of cortical fibers not associated with vascular tissue differentiate in the thorn tip and are correlated in position with successive incipient leaves in the expected phyllotactic sequence, the more developed bundles being related to the first incipient leaves. Some secondary shoots displayed variable atypical patterns of meristem differentiation such as abrupt conversion of the apex resulting in sclerification with limited cell elongation and small, inhibited leaves. These observations raise questions concerning the nature of thorn induction and the commitment of meristems to thorns.


Blood glucose monitoring with reagent strip methods has been used in our 330-bed teaching hospital. Concern about the accuracy of testing results, reported by the Diabetes Clinical Nurse Specialists, prompted a collaborative study by the Division of Nursing and the Clinical Pathology Department. Comparison of paired capillary and venous glucose results obtained with reagent strip methods by nurses on four hospital units with laboratory analyses demonstrated an average difference that exceeded acceptable clinical standards. Most reagent strip determinations differed by more than 10% from the laboratory determined value. The greatest variance occurred with glucose concentrations greater than 240 mg/dL (13.2 mmole L). Differences in variability on particular nursing units could be partially explained by the use of a meter rather than reading by eye, the level of staff skills, and the average level of blood glucose in their patient populations.


This project proposes a two-step fuzzy-based filter for restoring color images corrupted with impulsive and gaussian noise. The goal of the first step is to identify the noisy pixels by calculating the similarity between the central pixel and its neighborhood in a selected window. The noisy pixels in a selected window are then replaced by its modified value by computing the median around the central pixel. The second step is fuzzy filtering which is carried out by computing the Rank Ordered Logarithmic difference (ROLD) between the central pixel and its neighborhood in a selected window. Depending upon the difference value, a fuzzy membership degree is calculated using a membership function. Computed fuzzy membership values are appropriately utilized as weights for each pixel and then computes the weighted average representing the modified value for the current central pixel. The output of the proposed system is compared with the some of the existing schemes. The experimental analysis shows that the proposed method gives better results even when the mixed noise percentage is above 50%. The quantitative analysis has been done to prove the efficiency and effectiveness of the proposed method.


This assay introduces the introduction of WJD-0. 75 electric scraper in Dongxiang copper mine,and the models usage and the important function in Dongxiang copper mine. The causes for the fragile scraper central jointed shaft bearing and the expansion deformation of rear frame jointed fork were analyzed. According to the actual situation,the jointed shaft was improved. This assay introduces the advantages of the improved jointed shaft and the actual use situation.


Today, for various reasons, there is a growing tendency towards traditional and complementary medicine in the world as well as growing interest in Persian Medicine in Iran. This study aimed to investigate the frequency of major complaints by patients in some chosen Persian Medicine clinics. In this retrospective cross-sectional study, 1319 files of patients referred to Persian Medicine clinics of Tehran University of Medical Sciences in the fourth week of each month in 2012 were investigated and analyzed in terms of major complaints and demographic indices. Data gathering tool was an information form regulated based on main study goals. Data were analyzed by SPSS software Version 19. mean age of patients was 40.82 ± 16.006 years. The most common complaint in all the clinics was musculoskeletal problems (28,7%). Most of the patients were single housewives (38%). The most common complaints in the single-patient group were musculoskeletal problems (35.44%) and in the married-patient group were skin problems (29.41%). The most common complaints in both genders were musculoskeletal complaints (26% in men & 31.44% in women). Due to the prevalence of women referral to Persian Medicine centers, adequate knowledge of gynecological diseases is one of the requirements of Persian Medicine professionals that should be considered in their education. Planning for adequate knowledge of musculoskeletal, digestive, and skin diseases should also be considered in educational curricula.


This paper addresses the problem of way-point tracking control of an underactuated autonomous underwater vehicle(AUV) in the presence of ocean current disturbance.Kinematics and dynamics models for the underactuated AUV with three degrees of freedom in horizontal plane are established.A kinematic controller is designed with the dummy inputs of forward speed and angular velocity relative to the current.Then a dynamic controller is derived based on the Lyapunov theory and the backstepping techniques.Simulation results show that the underactuated AUV can ef-fectively track the way-points in the inertial frame and reach the final destination with asymptotically converged tracking errors.


In this paper, the problem of joint task, power, and spectrum allocation is studied for a mobile edge computing (MEC) based small cell network (SCN). In the considered network, each small base station (SBS) that is connected with an MEC server provides commutation service to users while each MEC server provides computation service to users, who will request various types of computational tasks including: collaboration computational task performed at both the user and the MEC sever, edge computational task processed at the MEC server, and local computational task implemented by user itself. As the data size of each computational task requested by each user varies, one must reconsider resource (transmit power and subcarrier) allocation and task partition to effectively service the users. We formulate this problem as an optimization problem aiming to minimize the transmission and computational delay. To solve this problem, a multiple stack Q-learning method is proposed. The proposed method can use multiple stacks to record the wireless environment and users' information so as to avoid repeatedly learning the same information and, thus improving the learning efficiency and speeding up the convergence. Simulation results show that the proposed resource allocation scheme provides 79\% and 63\% gains in terms of sum delay compared to cases that fully computed at user and fully computed at the MEC server, respectively.


Oakley, Warrack & Clarke (1947) demonstrated the existence in culture filtrates of various strains of Clostridium oedematiens of six antigens, designated as ac, P, y, 8, e and 4. The ac-antigen is produced by both type A and type B strains and is the main lethal agent in Cl. oedematien8 toxic filtrates. Its biochemical action is unknown, but one of its physiological effects is that of a capillary poison (A. A. Miles & E. M. Miles, 1952; A. A. Miles & J. M. Elder, unpublished), which may well be due to an attack on some constituent of the capillary wall. Since the chemistry of the capillary wall is unknown, it was decided to find out if the crude toxin had any action on some known proteins, particularly those which, by association in lipoprotein structures, might themselves conceivably be concerned in some permeability phenomenon, in the hope of getting some clue to the nature of the toxic action. It has been found that Cl. oedematiens type B (gigas) toxins contain an antigenic sulphydrylactivated enzyme decomposing tropomyosin. Serological tests show, however, that this enzyme is not identical with the lethal ac-toxin, nor with any of the other previously described antigens. It has therefore been designated specifically as Cl. oedematicn8 ij-antigen, and called a tropomyosinase. The characters of this enzyme are outlined below. Throughout this paper the word 'toxin' is used to denote the crude enzyme preparation, which was in fact toxic, and the specific antigens, distinguished in this toxin by serological tests, are denoted as a-antigen, a-antigen, etc.


Dynamic response time is an extremely important character of MR damper,and it directly determines the control frequency,application range and the effect of MR damper.The dynamic response time was defined as the time interval from the time when damping force initialed to the time when damping force reached 63.2 percent of the difference between initial and stable damping force.The acquired arising and descending curves of damping force were processed and statistically analyzed,and response time under different testing condition was acquired.The influences under each condition such as different linking mode of electromagnetic coils,different amplitude of step current,different piston speed and working temperature were analyzed.At last,the reasonable explanation was given out.


A team of scientists from USDA/ARS, Oregon University, University, and University of Tennessee developed and evaluated two different types of intelligent variable-rate spray systems in nursery production. In Oregon evaluations were conducted for the two prototype spray systems using either laser or ultrasonic sensors to detect targeted plant presence and size and adjust the spray output to match the tree row characteristics. In nine separate efficacy trials in commercial shade tree nurseries in four years, reductions in spray volume of the variable rate spray applications compared to the constant rate applications ranged from 34% to 76.8% while maintaining equivalent control of the insects and diseases sampled. Economic analyses of six trials in 2013 and 2014 showed the use of the intelligent sprayer resulted in reductions of chemical costs, in a range from 32.5% to 78.7% to control insects and from 54.8% to 72.1% to control diseases, when compared with a conventional air-blast sprayer using best management practices. The new spray systems significantly advanced the technology for efficient pesticide spray applications to increase growers' production profitability, worker safety and environmental stewardship while maintaining tree quality.


Maximum likelihood naturally arises as the target criterion for detection in many applications, as well as in layered space-time communications. Nevertheless, existing algorithms for maximum likelihood decoding have computational complexity that is not feasible for implementation in practical systems. Applying the expectation maximization algorithm to the maximum likelihood detection of layered space-time codes, we iteratively maximize the conditional log-likelihood of a single layer, rather than maximizing the intractable likelihood function of all layers. Computer simulations demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed detection scheme, in comparison to the well known nulling and cancelling detection scheme.


Gelsomino and colleagues1 are to be commended on a well-conceived study regarding a very topical issue. The authors describe their experience with 62 patients who underwent aortic valve replacement with small stentless bioprostheses. Although the issue of prosthesis-patient mismatch has been the focus of many investigational studies over the years, its clinical significance remains the source of much controversy. Medallion and colleagues2 were unable to demonstrate a detrimental survival effect of moderate prosthesispatient mismatch in patients undergoing isolated AVR, whereas a recent study by Rao et al.3 demonstrated poorer freedom from valve-related mortality in the mismatch group. What most such studies fail to take into account, however, is the presence (or absence) of prosthesis-patient mismatch at late follow-up, such that late outcomes are linked only to early postoperative hemodynamic indices. Since a time-related increase in effective orifice areas for stentless valves has been well documented (possibly secondary to ventricular remodeling),4 correlation of late outcome to early postoperative indices may be irrelevant. Herein lies the value of the current study. Whereas prosthesis-patient mismatch was noted in 12 patients at discharge, none of the late controls demonstrated evidence of mismatch, due to increases in effective orifice area. Although one could argue the presence of confounding variables to account for the changes in effective orifice area, it must be noted that such changes were accompanied by a regression of concentric hypertrophy along with a decrease in mean gradients in the absence of significant changes in ventricular function. The resolution of prosthesis-patient mismatch by 1 year


The paper mainly analyzes the grave impact of the financial crisis upon the international and Chinese logistics industry and the dire results concerning the logistics demand volume and the management,financing and intra-industry rivalry of logistics enterprises,etc. It further analyzes three deap-seated reasons for the impact and attempts to offer countermeasures,on the levels of macroscopic government policy and microscopic enterprise operation,for logistics enterprises,including altering the development mode of the logistics industry,reinforcing the government macro-economic control and accelerating the construction of logistics informatization,etc.


The structure of coal and the processes of coal gasification and coal liquefaction are reviewed. While coal conversion technology is not likely to provide a significant amount of synthetic fuel within the next several years, there is a clear interest both in government and private sectors in the development of this technology to hedge against ever-diminishing petroleum supplies, especially from foreign sources. It is evident from this rather cursory survey that there is some old technology that is highly reliable; new technology is being developed but is not ready for commercialization at the present state of development. The area of coal conversion is ripe for exploration both on the applied and basic research levels. A great deal more must be understood about the reactions of coal, the reactions of coal products, and the physics and chemistry involved in the various stages of coal conversion processes in order to make this technology economically viable.


We consider hamiltonians HB=Ho+ ,3HI(g),where Ho is the hamiltonian of a free Bose field $(x) of mass m> 0 in two-dimensional space-time, H I ( g ) = jg(x): P($(x)): dx where geO is a spatial cutoff and P is an arbitrary polynomial which is bounded below, and the coupling constant ,3 is in the cut plane, i.e. /3# negative real. We show that HB generates a semigroup with hypercontractive properties and satisfies higher order estimates of the form I H o N r R ; <co, where N is the number operator, R,=(H,+b)-l , r a positive integer, and ,3, s, and b are suitably chosen. For any 0 5 @ < P, RB converges in norm to Ro as +0 with larg ,3I (= 0.Finally we discuss applications of these results and establish asymptotic series and Borel summability for various objects in the real ,3 theory.


An efficient approach to reduce power consumption in a synchronous Finite-State Machine (FSM) is to de-compose it, according to a partitioning algorithm, to a number of sub-FSMs that interact through some communication signals. Only one sub-FSM is clocked at a time and low power operation is obtained by only clocking the active sub-FSM. In this paper we introduce a new asynchronous communication control for the interacting sub-FSMs, which reduces the total capacitance switched by the system clock. Experimental results show that this leads to significant power savings when the FSM is partitioned into many sub-FSMs.


One of the most important factors of desertification influence on the human health is reduction of quantity and deterioration of waters and it is cause of increase of the population diseases. On the basis of the sociological polls data of the Mongolian population in the pilot territories in period from 2009 to 2011 years and on the information about population diseases was established that the greatest distribution of the illnesses was gained by the diseases which connected with consumption of poor quality potable water. It is revealed that reduction of the water quantity in connection with desertification processes, directly influences on the economic and social situation of the population. The conducted researches are showing the necessity of carrying out of the further profound researches on the given problematics.


A swine population of 550 F2 animals was produced by outbred cross using two sires of the native Brazilian breed Piau and 18 commercial dams. The animals were genotyped for 13 microsatellite markers. The evaluated composition traits of carcass were: ham weight, skinless and fatless ham weight, boston shoulder weight, skinless and fatless boston shoulder weight, picnic shoulder weight, skinless and fatless picnic shoulder weight, total loin (bone-in) weight, loin weight, bacon weight, rib weight, jowl weight, sirloin weight, and belly fat weight. Data were analyzed by multiple regression interval mapping, using the QTL Express software. Suggestive QTL were found for skinless and fatless ham weight, picnic shoulder weight, loin weight, and sirloin weight. However, the genomic region should be saturated with additional markers in order to confirm the presence of real QTL.


"Any researcher coming fresh into an environment has the potential for upsetting the local ecology." Grant et al. 1979:465 1. Introduction Professional learning occurs in many diverse ways. Educational research investigates teacher learning from diverse perspectives and focuses on its different aspects (the following analysis is based mostly on American research in the last two decades). It sways from delineating the content of professional knowledge (e.g. Shulman 1987) to identifying the mechanisms and conditions of learning (e.g. Carter 1990), to analyzing the ways in which knowledge is held and assessed (e.g. Fenstermacher 1994, 2000), to illuminating the processes of how professional knowledge develops in practice and informs it (e.g. Connelly & Clandinin 1999, Lieberman & McLaughlin 1992). For the most part, the wide range of pre-service and in-service events and everyday classroom practice bound the context of these researchers' investigations of teachers' learning. However, most of these studies do not account for informal learning that occurs in settings that are not specifically designed for teachers' professional development. Some aspects of informal learning have been analyzed (e.g. Kottler 1997). Nonetheless, little attention has been paid to researching informal teachers' learning in situations in which teachers are subjects of scholarly investigation. With this ecological study, I focus on teachers' learning in a research project and ask, whether and how a teacher learns as a participant of a study, and other related questions: Are educational researchers always aware of their influence on the situation when they are in the field? What do researchers leave behind after their intrusion? How do teachers respond to being researched? These and similar questions need attention because any interaction (in this case, between a researcher and a teacher) is a particular social experience that creates new learning opportunities. Researchers report on their experiences and findings. Teachers, however, leave the scene in silence. There are only a few studies (e.g. Rex 2002), in which teachers have a voice in expressing their learning from participation in an inquiry. This study, therefore, attempts to fill in the gap existing in understanding how teachers pursue professional growth in informal settings and how they position themselves to do that. The investigation is based on the assumption that research in which voices of teachers are heard can tell us about their learning in ways otherwise not accessible. Thus, I aim to draw attention to possible outcomes of teacher-researcher interaction. I do so by illuminating the trajectory of one teacher's learning as a reconstruction of her professional identity in the specific social situation. In other words, I explore how the teacher positions herself as a professional in the process of interaction with me as a researcher. This study encourages reconceptualizing the process of "doing" research with teachers. It aims at increasing awareness of all possible figures that engage in helping teachers become better professionals. Hence, researchers, policy makers, teacher educators and teachers, would benefit from knowing how teachers learn in informal settings, how teachers' understandings evolve under researchers' conscious or unconscious influence. In the first part of this paper, I explore theoretical perspectives of research on teachers' learning paying particular attention to how theories of learning represent teachers as learners in informal settings such as researcher-teacher relationships. The second part is an empirical account of the teacher's learning during the study. I investigate the relationship between the teacher's learning about her teaching and reconstruction of her professional identity. I do so by representing what the teacher does in order to learn in the research relationship. I treat the interview data as socially produced texts, which I analyze applying discourse analysis. …


We study the problem of the rigorous computation of the stationary measure of an IFS described by a stochastic mixture of two or more dynamical systems which are either all uniformly expanding on the interval, either all contractive. In the expanding case, the associated transfer operators satisfy a LasotaYorke inequality, and we compute rigorously the approximations in the L1 norm. The rigorous computation requires a computer-aided proof of the contraction of the transfer operators for the maps, and we show that this property propagates to the transfer operators of the IFS. In the contractive case we perform a rigorous approximation of the stationary measure in the Wasserstein-Kantorovich distance, using the same functional analytic approach. We show that a finite computation can produce a realistic computation of all contraction rates for the whole parameter space. We conclude with a description of the implementation and numerical experiments.


Henry Varley was one of the most significant itinerant evangelists of the nineteenth century, and probably the most significant to visit Australia in that time. He made a number of evangelistic trips to this country, settling in Melbourne for some years and also plying his trade in country centres and other capital cities. He preached, wrote tracts and booklets on biblical and social issues, and sought to inspire the local evangelicals. Invited out initially by the leadership of the Melbourne evangelicals, he enjoyed a measure of success but, apparently, did not manage to retain their full support. They were in essential agreement with Varley's theology, emphasis on prayer, and message. However, his itinerancy, separatist ecclesiology, and militancy gave cause for concern. The leadership was interdenominational, mostly lay, loyal to their denominations, and able. The peripatetic and populist Varley was never going to dominate them: thus his influence was much more ephemeral than, say, that of his contemporaries and friends Moody and Spurgeon.


In my bachelor thesis, I am concerned with the design of an interior droplight employing light-emitting diodes (LEDs). The thesis is structured into three parts. In the first, theoretical part, I outline the history and evolution of lighting. I describe and discuss the LED technology, lighting as it is, and its ergonomics. In the second, practical part, I analyse the market for lamps and technologies for their production, which forms the fundamentals for my thesis. In the third, project part, I describe the steps I have followed when designing the lights, and present their final design using visualisation.


Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to extend previous scholarly writing on community service‐learning (SL) initiatives by looking beyond their use in the not‐for‐profit sector to their potential use in community‐based small businesses.Design/methodology/approach – A rationale for the appropriateness of using SL projects in small businesses is provided, and distinctions drawn between small business SL projects and student internships. A case study involving a strategic management project in a community‐based small business is presented.Findings – The findings support the usefulness of SL initiatives in small businesses. Benefits to the students include an enhanced understanding of course material, improved learning through the transparent information sharing and experience of the small business owner, increased confidence in strategic management skills, and greater appreciation of community, environmental, and ethical concerns. Benefits to the small business owner included receipt of customized, onsite...


The simulation of metal forming processes with the finite element method (FEM) is becoming more and more significant for process analysis and optimising. With regard to the quality of the calculations care must be taken to select a suitable FE model. Possibilities for FEM applications will be shown using the examples of die bending sheets and profile bending. A practical extension of this application is the support of the FE systems user by access to a material database


Agricultural biotechnology was for a long time defined in the UK as a purely scientific issue. Debate and concern that was not based on scientific evidence was dismissed as irrational, or at best irrelevant, 1 and this narrow framework for decision making went along with a resistance to public involvement. This was very much in line with the UK's fairly opaque approach to decision making in technical or scientific policy areas more generally. It would however have been difficult for such an overtly narrow approach to genetically modified organisms (GMOs) to survive the media and public discussion of the issue in the late 1990s. In the UK as elsewhere, developments in agricultural biotechnology provoked unusual levels of public concern at this time, and major food retailers and processors began to avoid GM produce. Some sort of response was required of government. In 1999 an agreement was reached between government and the industry body, SCIMAC (the Supply Chain Initiative on Modified Agricultural Crops), that there would be no commercial cultivation of GM crops pending completion of certain scientific trials (relating specifically to the impact of the crop management regimes related to four different GM crops on farmland biodiversity). This 'moratorium' ran parallel with the EU-wide moratorium on authorisations of GMOs, which the UK government did not formally support. The UK moratorium had an explicitly scientific starting and end point: it was based on concern expressed by, among others, the government's advisor on biodiversity issues, English Nature, that GM herbicide-tolerant crops could have harmful effects on farmland biodiversity, 2 and was a temporary decision, pending the completion of further scientific investigation. However, this narrowly scientific 'precautionary' approach also created some time for more broadly based public discussion of the issues. 2 Agricultural biotechnology policy in the UK now recognises (at least in principle) the importance of public values and public participation. This shift of approach, or at least of rhetoric, reflects, and even exemplifies, more general changes in the UK approach to risk regulation. Whilst it would be overly simplistic to explain evolution of thinking on risk by reference to one, or even a few, specific events, the discovery of a link between bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE or 'mad cow disease') in cattle and variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD) in human beings is a notorious episode in the regulation of risk in the UK. Government communication on the issue had emphasised reassurance, focussing …


Objective To observe the clinical effect of Yiaikang Capsule (Herbal capsule for AIDS) combined with treatment based on syndrome differentiation on AIDS patients.Methods Totally 885 AIDS patients from October 2004 to October 2008 were involved in the observation.They were treated with Yiaikang Capsule,5 capsules each time,3 times a day,additionally,treatment based on syndrome differentiation was applied.The treatment course last for 48 months.The scores of symptoms and signs,frequency of common cold,Karnovsky scores,number of CD4+T cell,viral load,and fatality rate were recorded and compared to see the changes after treatment.Results After treatment,the scores of symptoms and signs were significantly lowered,Karnovsky scores and body weight were increased,the frequency of common cold was lower,showing a significant difference in comparing with those before treatment (P0.01).Cases with decreased or stabled viral load level was counted 84.8%,the number of CD4+T cell was significantly reduced (P0.01),and the fatality rate was getting lower year by year.Conclusion Yiaikang Capsule combined with treatment based on syndrome differentiation can improve symptoms and signs of AIDS patients and reduce opportunistic infections,viral load,and fatality rate.


Interoperability frameworks present a set of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitute a method of dealing with interoperability issues in the electronic business (e-business) context. Achieving interoperability in the e-business generates numerous benefits. Thus, interoperability framevailable online 17 February 2014


Increasing competition in the present dynamic business environment pressurizes companies to innovate perpetually. The ability to establish and successfully manage a permanent innovation process depends on the quality of decisions made at its consecutive stages. At the same time, management control systems provide managers with the informational basis for decision-making. Thus, the purpose of this paper was to measure the impact of different forms of management control on decision-making quality throughout the innovation process. The analysis was based on a survey conducted amongst the representatives of 64 Polish industrial companies in the third and fourth quarters of 2019 and the first quarter of 2020. Analytical tools included principal component analysis (PCA), used to aggregate data, and multivariate multiple regression models, used to determine the relationships between variables. The findings demonstrate that the relationship between mechanistic and organic forms of management control and decision-making quality may not be analyzed in isolation from the stage of the innovation process. The direction and strength of the relationships between these variables differs at consecutive stages of the innovation process in a statistically significant way.


In order to insure the multiple aseismic fortification line performance for a frame-shear wall structure in tall buildings,in the "JGJ 3-2002,Technical specification for concrete high-rise building" the calculation method for the seismic shearing force of frame columns of a frame-shear wall structure has been modified.Based on the "Determination of seismic forces acting on frame in high-rise frame-shear wall structures" study,in this paper a practical approach in segments for the seismic shearing force of a frame-shear wall structure is finally presented,which is based on a deformation index,and at the same time,the stiffness degeneration on the shear wall is taken into account.Furthermore,this method is compared with the former by the result of an example.The results indicate that this method is necessary and available.This method supplies an important reference for the supplement of design codes.


The research advances on the physio-biochemistry and molecular-biology of the genetic male sterility in Brassica were summarized and the research direction was discussed.


This essay defends the view that Kant neither is nor can be a just war theorist. The main reason for this is his conception of the state of nature. In Kant's state of nature it is impossible to identify the justice of a war and to connect legal consequences to this identification. First, some arguments of the opposite view which sees Kant as a just war theorist will be discussed. Second, it will be asked whether Kant will share the main values which underlie just war theory (orientation towards justice and peace, limitation of violence). In the last section, it is argued that Kant's ius post bellum should not simply be viewed as an extension of just war categories but also as a critique and radical transformation of traditional just war theory.


In this paper, an efficient catalytic route for the reduction of graphene oxide (GO) is described using hydrogen spillovered platinum (Pt) nanoparticles at room temperature. Pt nanoparticles were decorated on GO sheets using a hydrogen reduction of chloroplatinic acid. The Pt nanoparticles served as a catalyst for the process of hydrogen disassociation to atomic hydrogen, which spillovered onto the GO sheets which acted as a strong reducing agent for the reduction of GO. Reduced graphene oxide (RGO) obtained in this manner has a C/O atomic ratio as high as 22, which is one of the highest values ever reported for chemically converted graphenes. The electrical conductivity was greater than 8000 S m−1. Electrochemical studies revealed that the RGO–Pt hybrid exhibits excellent electrocatalytic activity toward the methanol oxidation reaction, with high CO tolerance and long-term stability.


Deep learning technique has made a tremendous impact on medical image processing and analysis. Typically, the procedure of medical image processing and analysis via deep learning technique includes image segmentation, image enhancement, and classification or regression. A challenge for supervised deep learning frequently mentioned is the lack of annotated training data. In this paper, we aim to address the problems of training transferred deep neural networks with limited amount of annotated data. We proposed a versatile framework for medical image processing and analysis via deep active learning technique. The framework includes (1) applying deep active learning approach to segment specific regions of interest (RoIs) from raw medical image by using annotated data as few as possible; (2) generative adversarial Network is employed to enhance contrast, sharpness, and brightness of segmented RoIs; (3) Paced Transfer Learning (PTL) strategy which means fine-tuning layers in deep neural networks from top to bottom step by step to perform medical image classification or regression tasks. In addition, in order to understand the necessity of deep-learning-based medical image processing tasks and provide clues for clinical usage, class active map (CAM) is employed in our framework to visualize the feature maps. To illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed framework, we apply our framework to the bone age assessment (BAA) task using RSNA dataset and achieve the state-of-the-art performance. Experimental results indicate that the proposed framework can be effectively applied to medical image analysis task.