Background: Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a frequent complication in hospitalized patients, especially in those in intensive care units (ICU). The RIFLE classification might be a valid prognostic factor for critically ill cancer patients. The present study aims to evaluate the discriminatory capacity of RIFLE versus other general prognostic scores in predicting hospital mortality in critically ill cancer patients. Methods: This is a single-center study conducted in a cancer-specialized ICU in Brazil. All of the 288 patients hospitalized from May 2006 to June 2008 were included. RIFLE classification, APACHE II, SOFA, and SAPS II scores were calculated and the area under receiver operating characteristic (AROC) curves and logistic multiple regression were performed using hospital mortality as the outcome. Results: AKI, defined by RIFLE criteria, was observed in 156 (54.2%) patients. The distribution of patients with any degree of AKI was: risk, n = 96 (33.3%); injury, n = 30 (10.4%), and failure, n = 30 (10.4%). Mortality was 13.6% for non-AKI patients, 49% for RIFLE 'R' patients, 62.3% for RIFLE 'I' patients, and 86.8% for RIFLE 'F' patients (p = 0.0006). Logistic regression analysis showed that RIFLE criteria, APACHE II, SOFA, and SAPS II were independent factors for mortality in this population. The discrimination of RIFLE was good (AROC 0.801, 95% CI 0.748–0.854) but inferior compared to those of APACHE II (AROC 0.940, 95% CI 0.915–0.966), SOFA (AROC 0.910, 95% CI 0.876–0.943), and SAPS II (AROC 0.869, 95% CI 0.827–0.912). Conclusion: AKI is a frequent complication in ICU patients with cancer. RIFLE was inferior to commonly used prognostic scores for predicting mortality in this cohort of patients.


AbstractThe concept of territoriality needs review in the light of recent mammalian studies. Intensive behavioural observations were carried out on the white rhinoceros in Zululand, South Africa, and results on social organisation are summarised. Territoriality is exhibited by certain adult males and has the following features: (i) mutually exclusive ranges of 1-2 km2; (ii) a dominant assertiveness in interactions within the territory; (iii) specialised scent marking techniques using dung and urine; (iv) exclusive participation in reproduction. Territories may be shared with one or more subsidiary bulls. Territoriality in the white rhino may be characterised as a space-correlated dominance relationship with the function of ordering reproductive competition among males. It plays no significant role in population regulation. These conclusions are extended to other territorial ungulates. Methodological criteria for territoriality are suggested. Evidence is needed on (i) differing social classes; (ii) range u...


The invention discloses a vehicle-mounted head-up enhancement display system. The vehicle-mounted head-up enhancement display system mainly comprises a reflection type display module, an optical functional membrane and an image source, wherein the image source is used for providing image signals to the reflection type display module, the optical functional membrane is adhered to front windshield glass of an automobile, and an image displayed by the reflection type display module is reflected to an observation view angle of a driver through the optical functional membrane. The driver can observe driving information from the front windshield glass without lowering the head, thereby realizing a head-up display purpose. A reflection type display is utilized, and ambient light is utilized as a lighting source, so that the displayed image is clearer when the brightness of ambient light is higher. When the brightness of the ambient light is relatively low, a light supplementation measure is adopted, so that the definition of the displayed image is guaranteed.


Vancomycin is a high priority antibiotic to human health according to World Health Organization, because it is the last option to the treatment in bacterial infections. There are many vancomycin resistant bacteria like enterococci, which is a kind of bacteria that is part of the normal microbiota of mucous surfaces and intestinal tract of domestic animals, wild animals and humans. Enterococci have the presence of different multidrug resistant genes that are essentials to their survival. There are nine different genes of resistance to vancomycin, but the gen Van A and the gen Van B are the most common genes with high prevalence in this kind of bacteria. There are many reports about vancomycin resistance in worldwide bacterial infections in humans and in animals. Also, there are reports about enterococci that were isolated from rectal swabs of finches, marine and terrestrial iguanas from Galapagos' isles, but those hasn't been confirmed if are vancomycin resistant enterococci.


In the second part of their analysis of problems that arise in teaching and learning genetics at A-level, the authors take a detailed look at some published materials showing the widespread nature of the misuse of genetics terminology. It is not intended to aim criticism at any of the authors of the source materials examined—indeed the texts used were chosen for their obvious merit—but simply to indicate how widespread is the problem. It is the authors' contention that similar problems can be found in almost any text that attempts to address the study of genetics seriously. The paper concludes with some suggestions for improving the situation and a plea for urgent action.


We consider the problem of designing finite-horizon safe controllers for a dynamical system for which no explicit analytical model exists and limited data only along a single trajectory of the system are available. Given samples of the states and inputs of the system, and additional side information in terms of regularity of the evolution of the states, we synthesize a controller such that the evolution of the states avoid some prespecified unsafe set over a given finite horizon. Motivated by recent results on Whitney's extension theorem, we use piecewise-polynomial approximations of the trajectories based on the data along with the regularity side information to formulate a data-driven differential inclusion model that can predict the evolution of the trajectories. For these classes of data-driven differential inclusions, we propose a safety analysis theorem based on barrier certificates. As a corollary of this theorem, we demonstrate that we can design controllers ensuring safety of the solutions to the data-driven differential inclusion over a finite horizon. From a computational standpoint, our results are cast into a set of sum-of-squares programs whenever the certificates are parametrized by polynomials of fixed degree and the sets are semialgebraic.


The Stamford Heart Association, an affiliate of the Connecticut and American Heart Associations, has made available for distribution cardiac rubber stamps for recording fluoroscopic findings. These stamps have been modified from Taussig's "Congenital Malformations of the Heart" with the permission of the Harvard University Press for the Commonwealth Fund.
 They are available at cost, $3.00 for one set of stamps. Each set consists of three stamps which record the AP, RAO and LAO positions.
 The Stamford Heart Association, 1380 Bedford St., Stamford, Conn., desires only to make these stamps available to interested physicians and seeks no income from them other than the cost price, above mentioned.


Abstract Lactic acid is converted to 2,3-pentanedione, acrylic acid, and acetaldehyde in vapor-phase reactions at 0.5 MPa over phosphate salts. Highest selectivities to 2,3-pentanedione are achieved at 280-300°C and long (2-4 sec) residence times, while selectivity to acrylic acid is best at 350°C and short residence times (0.4 sec). 2,3-Pentanedione is proposed to form by a second-order condensation in the presence of phosphate, while acrylic acid is proposed to result from elimination of water via a cyclic lactic acid-phosphate transition state.


This study aims to develop some models to aid in making decisions on the combined fleet size and vehicle assignment in working service network where the demands include two types (minimum demands and maximum demands), and vehicles themselves can act like a facility to provide services when they are stationary at one location. This type of problem is named as the dynamic working vehicle scheduling with dual demands (DWVS-DD) and formulated as a mixed integer programming (MIP). Instead of a large integer program, the problem is decomposed into small local problems that are guided by preset control parameters. The approach for preset control parameters is given. By introducing them into the MIP formulation, the model is reformulated as a piecewise form. Further, a piecewise method by updating preset control parameters is proposed for solving the reformulated model. Numerical experiments show that the proposed method produces better solution within reasonable computing time.


For the knowledge ontology related application,combined with the relevant content of knowledge retrieval,the problems of knowledge retrieval is analyzed.The retrieval mechanism for the hoist fault knowledge ontology is constructed;the retrieval processes of ontology-based hoist fault knowledge is given;a detailed analysis of the query constructor,query engine and the results custom modules is focused;the specific structure and realization of each module is given.Finally,combined with hoist fault knowledge ontology,the implementation and application of system show this method help to increase the reusability and generality of the hoist fault knowledge;the system can provide users with comprehensive and accurate domain knowledge and also verify the method is effective and correct proposed in this thesis.


Capital Structure is the combination of debt and equity and is one of the important decisions of finance. Capital Structure decision is of significant importance to a firm irrespective of its nature and size of the firm as it has the direct impact on the profits. Therefore, choosing an appropriate combination of debt and equity is of essential for the finance manager because it also helps in growth and expansion of the business. To survive and to meet the requirements of debt and equity holders, the company has to earn good profit and maintain proper debt and equity position. This paper makes an attempt to identify the relevance of capital structure on profitability of ten BSE SENSEX companies from different industries over the period of 10 years from 2007 to 2016. The data has been analysed using debt equity ratio, profitability ratios, and descriptive statistics like mean, standard deviation, skewness, covariance and correlation. Two tail t-test has been used to measure the correlation between debt equity ratio and other profitability ratios.


Abstract : Employing more than fifty dogs as experimental animals and performing extensive laboratory investigation, it was found that Hydroxyethyl starch (.9% substituted made up as a 6% solution in saline) was able to cause a hemorrhagic diathesis in mongrel canine animals, which in all respects was similar to that observed with Dextran 70.


In the economic times,universities and colleges should keep up with the step of social informatization,catch and use the opportunity and condition of network's unlimited information spaces after the Internet's popularization to enlarge and change their own service functions.It should offer the information and specialized service to readers according to different levels or sorts,aiming at offering individuated service to meet readers' need,so as to improve the efficiency of knowledge service effectively.This paper particularly explores several aspects such as the differences between knowledge service and information service,the necessity of offering knowledge service and points for attention.


In many situations the C.P.U. (central processor unit) of a computer is provided with a local store (L.S.) of small capacity but with high speed access time. Access time to main store (M.S.) is much slower. Data flow of blocks of words from M.S. to C.P.U. is via L.S. An address trace of a program to be processed by the C.P.U. often requires at ' various places of the trace the same data and instruc.tions. Keeping of such data and instructions in L.S. diminishes the throughput time when considered versus the situation without L.S. The present study investigates the operational influence ~f the presence of a L.S. on the throughput time, given the capacity of L.S. and of M.S. An important operational feature is the policy which determines which of the data and instructions already once needed by the trace and ~till available in L.S. should leave the L.S. to make r?om f~r new data or instructions required for the processing of the trace but not available in L.S. and therefore to be ~ransported from M.S. to L.S. A variety of such replacement policies is known and has been iI;lvestigated. Th~ performance of storage h~erarchy leads to an interesting and important traffic problem concerning transport in the computer organisation. This problem is studied here and an analytical method is developed to evaluate the operational influence of a L.S. for various types of replacement policies. The method is approximative, but sound evidence is available, that its results are accurate. The first part of the study {s devoted to a description of the statistical characteristics of the trace. This description is fundamental and seems to be new, it will be' useful also for other purposes. The second part describes and studies a stochastic model by which it is possible to evaluate various replacement policies. The re'sults obtained are promising , and show clearly which stat,istical information about the trace is needed to calculate the effect of storage hierarchy. ,432/.1


We observed 52 children aged from one day to 5 months who underwent surgery for various surgical diseases (atresia of the anus and rectum, high intestinal obstruction, pylorostenosis, intestinal intussusception, hemangiomas of various body regions, etc.). No significant abnormalities of the pulmonary and cardiac system were found during the preoperative examination. All children depending on the method of artificial ventilation were divided into three groups.


In this paper, a novel method for the electromagnetic field in non-planar layered dissipative medium based on Poggio-Miller-Chang-Harrington-Wu-Tsai (PMCHWT) integral equation is presented. Triangular patch basis functions are employed to mesh the media interfaces. We use Rao-Wilton-Glisson (RWG) basis functions to approximate the unknown coefficients of equivalent electric and magnetic surface currents on the media interfaces. The Galerkin's method is introduced to transform the continuous surface integral equation (SIE) to a linear matrix equation. Numerical results of embedded spheres structure are presented to validate the proposed method.


The measurement and assessment of indoor air quality in terms of respirable particulate constituents is relevant, especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated infection events. To analyze indoor infectious potential and to develop customized hygiene concepts, the measurement monitoring of the anthropogenic aerosol spreading is necessary. For indoor aerosol measurements usually standard lab equipment is used. However, these devices are time-consuming, expensive and unwieldy. The idea is to replace this standard laboratory equipment with low-cost sensors widely used for monitoring fine dust (particulate matter—PM). Due to the low acquisition costs, many sensors can be used to determine the aerosol load, even in large rooms. Thus, the aim of this work is to verify the measurement capability of low-cost sensors. For this purpose, two different models of low-cost sensors are compared with established laboratory measuring instruments. The study was performed with artificially prepared NaCl aerosols with a well-defined size and morphology. In addition, the influence of the relative humidity, which can vary significantly indoors, on the measurement capability of the low-cost sensors is investigated. For this purpose, a heating stage was developed and tested. The results show a discrepancy in measurement capability between low-cost sensors and laboratory measuring instruments. This difference can be attributed to the partially different measuring method, as well as the different measuring particle size ranges. The determined measurement accuracy is nevertheless good, considering the compactness and the acquisition price of the low-cost sensors.


BackgroundAddiction is now recognized as a global problem facing all countries. Reducing neurotransmitters in addicts is an important barrier to drug addiction. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of resistance training on some neurotransmitters and the pulmonary function of men after quitting the addiction.Materials and MethodsIn this regard, 20 subjects were selected as the statistical samples of this research and were randomly divided into control (10 people) and resistance training (10 people) groups. The experimental group performed 3 sessions of circular resistance training for 8 weeks and weekly with 50%-65% intensity in one maximal repeat. Then, the subjects' blood sample (4 cc blood) was taken in order to study the variables of the research 48 hours before and after the implementation of the protocol. Next, all biochemical variables of dopamine and serotonin were measured by enzyme-linked-immunosorbent assay. Finally, all statistical calculations were performed using SPSS software, version 16 and P ≤ 0.05 was considered as a significant level.ResultsThe results of the study showed that 8 weeks of resistance training significantly increased dopamine levels (P = 0.0001), serotonin (P = 0.0001), maximum ventilation volume (P = 0.0001), and vital capacity (P = 0.0002). Eventually, the results indicated that 8 weeks of resistance training did not significantly change the forced expiratory volume in seconds (P = 0.628).ConclusionAccording to the results of the study, it seems that 8 weeks of resistance training can increase neurotransmitters and pulmonary function in men who are addicted to drugs, and therefore, it can be used as a non-pharmacological approach to help these people to quit the addiction.


This prospective study aims to address mortality in the context of the early pulmonary immune response to burn and inhalation injury. The authors collected bronchoalveolar lavage fluid from 60 burn patients within 14 hours of their injury when smoke inhalation was suspected. Clinical and laboratory parameters and immune mediator profiles were compared with patient outcomes. Patients who succumbed to their injuries were older (P = .005), had a larger % TBSA burn (P < .001), and required greater 24-hour resuscitative fluids (P = .002). Nonsurvivors had lower bronchoalveolar lavage fluid concentrations of numerous immunomodulators, including C5a, interleukin (IL)-1&bgr;, IL-1RA, IL-8, IL-10, and IL-13 (P < .05 for all). Comparing only those with the highest Baux scores to account for the effects of age and % TBSA burn on mortality, nonsurvivors also had reduced levels of IL-2, IL-4, granulocyte colony-stimulating factor, interferon-&ggr;, macrophage inflammatory protein-1&bgr;, and tumor necrosis factor-&agr; (P < .05 for all). The apparent pulmonary immune hyporesponsiveness in those who died was confirmed by in vitro culture, which revealed that pulmonary leukocytes from nonsurvivors had a blunted production of numerous immune mediators. This study demonstrates that the early pulmonary immune response to burn and smoke inhalation may be attenuated in patients who succumb to their injuries.


The production of natural gas is strongly increasing around the world. Long-run negative external effects of extraction are understudied and often ignored in social) cost-benefit analyses. One important example is that natural gas extraction leads to soil subsidence and subsequent induced earthquakes that may occur only after a couple of decades. We show that induced earthquakes that are noticeable to residents generate substantial non-monetary economic effects, as measured by their effects on house prices, also when house owners are fully compensated for damage to their houses. To address the issue that earthquakes do not occur randomly over space, we use temporal variation in the occurrence of noticeable earthquakes while controlling for the occurrence of earthquakes that cannot be felt by house owners. We find that earthquakes that are noticeable with peak ground velocities of above half a cm/s lead to price decreases of 1.2 percent. The total non-monetary costs of induced earthquakes for Groningen are about € 150 million, about € 500 per household. The results also indicate that the non-monetary costs of are in the same order of magnitude as the monetary damage costs.


Part of the Orthodontics and Orthodontology Commons Recommended Citation Jham, Andre Correia. "The efficacy of Novamin powered technology Oravive and TopexRenew, Crest and Prevident 5000 Plus in preventing enamel demineralization and white spot lesion formation. ___________________________________ Fang Qian ii To my dear wife Raquel, my loving parents Alice and Gulab, and my brother and best friend Bruno for their unconditional love and support. To everyone one else who has, in one way or the other, been a part of this great journey. You are way too many to mention. iii. Never look down on anybody unless you're helping him up. Jesse Jackson. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank Drs. Moreno for all their valuable advice and insight. In addition, I am very thankful to Jeff Harless and Maggie Hogan for their willingness to help at all times during this project. I would also like to express my deepest gratitude to Jared Bolding and Molly Bremen for all their help and dedication since the start of this project, and to Abby Kershner and Treagan White for being available to help when needed. I would also like to thank the staff and faculty of the Department of Orthodontics, University of Iowa for providing me with a high quality education, in special to Dr. Tom Southard for believing in me. And last but not least, a big thank you for my co-residents for being this great group of people and putting up with me for the last two years. I will always consider you amongst my closest friends.


Objective
Observe the behavior of gabapentin to reduce reactive hypertension secondary to anxiety and pain in patients
undergoing ophthalmic surgery as well as opioid consumption between groups.

Method
Clinical randomized double blind controlled trial that analyzed 125 patients divided into three groups: Group A, gabapentin 300 mg; Group B, gabapentin 450 mg; and Group C, amaranth dragees as a control 2 h before the surgical procedure. Chi-squared test was used in sociodemographic variables and one-way ANOVA for continuous numeric variables. It was considered as significant a p < 0.05 for a study of two tails with a power of 80% beta.

Results
Anxiety and analgesia intraoperative and postoperative had significant differences between groups. Lower consumption of opioid was found in the groups that used gabapentin.

Conclusions
Gabapentin orally 300 or 450 mg h prior to surgery reduces pain, anxiety and postoperative opioid consumption in patients undergoing ophthalmic surgery.


The historical development of the load combinations used in concrete containment is presented in the paper. These load combinations are examined and identified in the light of the reasonable, min-max and probabilistic decision processes. Included also is a listing of estimated event and failure probabilities associated with the design of concrete containments.


Which industry dose the information industry belong to in the industrial classification? Based on the industrial economics,the relationship between the information industry and other industries,as well as the overwhelming influence of information industry,this article argues that information industry is a mew industry,independent of the primary,secondary and tertiary industrial sectors.


Evaporation-elevation relationships for many areas of the tropics and subtropics are reviewed in an attempt to define general relationships and are discussed with respect to atmospheric profiles of temperature and humidity. At least three characteristic profiles can be identified: (i) a general decline in evaporation with elevation for most mountainous areas, (ii) a decrease in evaporation with elevation to a minimum (near 1,200 m in Hawai'i) and then a continual increase above that level for trade wind islands and possibly the subtropical Andes, and (iii) an increase in evaporation with elevation in a shallow layer (750 m in southern California) near sea level and a continual decrease above that level for dry, coastal, subtropical west coasts.


THE RESULTS OF TWO FULL SCALE VEHICLE IMPACT TESTS INTO THE CALIFORNIA TYPE 15 BRIDGE BARRIER RAIL ARE REPORTED. THE TYPE 15 BRIDGE RAIL IS A SEMI-RIGID SYSTEM CONSISTING OF TWO 3 1/2-IN. SQUARE STRUCTURAL STEEL TUBULAR RAILS MOUNTED AT 14 AND 27-IN/ ABOVE THE PAVEMENT ON 6 WF 25 STEEL POSTS BOLTED TO THE EDGE OF THE CONCRETE BRIDGE DECK. TESTS WERE CONDUCTED AT IMPACT VELOCITIES OF APPROXIMATELY 60 MPH AND APPROACH ANGLES OF APPROXIMATELY 15 DEGREES. THE TEST RESULTS INDICATED THAT THIS BRIDGE RAIL DESIGN WILL RETAIN AND REDIRECT A 4500 LB. PASSENGER VEHICLE IMPACTING AT A 60 MPH VELOCITY AND AN ANGLE OF 15 DEGREES WITH TOLERABLE DECELERATION RATES, MODERATE VEHICLE DAMAGE; AND IF THE BARRIER POST SPACING IS 8.0 FEET OR LESS, MINIMAL BARRIER DAMAGE. (MODIFIED AUTHOR ABSTRACT)


We design sources for the two-dimensional Helmholtz equation that can cloak an object by cancelling out the incident field in a region, without the sources completely surrounding the object to hide. As in previous work for real positive wavenumbers, the sources are also determined by the Green identities. The novelty is that we prove that the same approach works for complex wavenumbers which makes it applicable to a variety of media, including media with dispersion, loss and gain. Furthermore, by deriving bounds on Graf's addition formulas with complex arguments, we obtain new estimates that allow to quantify the quality of the cloaking effect. We illustrate our results by applying them to achieve active exterior cloaking for the heat equation. This article is part of the theme issue 'Wave generation and transmission in multi-scale complex media and structured metamaterials (part 2)'.


EDRS PRICE MF01/PC01 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Agricultural Trends; Economic Development; Economic Factors; *Farmers; Higher Education; Industry; *Influences; Land Grant Universities; Linking Agents; *Opinions; Research Needs; Research Utilization; *School Business Relationship; *Scientific Enterprise; Technical Assistance; Technology Transfer IDENTIFIERS *Farm Crisis; Iowa; Iowa Farm and Rural Life Poll; Private industry; *Research Priorities


References to relevant literature it summarizes the definition of standards, distribution and harm of brackish water, analysis of the causes of brackish water, and reviews the current use of more distillation, electro dialysis, using the reverse osmosis brackish water desalination method.


Bell inequalities were meant to test quantum mechanics vs local hidden variable models, but can also be used to verify entanglement. For entanglement verification purposes one assumes the validity of quantum mechanics as well as quantum descriptions of one's measurements. With the help of these assumptions it is possible to derive a strengthened Bell inequality whose violation implies entanglement. We generalize known examples of such inequalities by relating the expectation value of the Bell operator to a particular quantitative measure of entanglement, namely, the negativity. Moreover, we obtain statistics illustrating the fact that violating a given (strengthened or not) Bell inequality is a much more rare feat for a quantum state of two qubits than it is to be entangled.


The present work aims to analyse participation in demonstrations, petitions and boycotts in Brazil. Using data from both World Values Survey and a Brazilian survey ran by the University of Sao Paulo, we perform logistic regressions to assess the impact of variables such as political efficacy, political trust and education on these different types of political participation. Following previous theoretical propositions and empirical evidences about the determinants of political participation, we found that education and political interest are powerful predictors of all types of action hereby studied in many of the models we tested. The size of the city presented some interesting results: in some models it is positively related with participation, and it is more significant for activities such as petitions where the relationship seem more intuitive, such as demonstrations, suggesting that bigger cities provide not only more opportunities for political action, but are also more susceptible to this type of action due to other factors, such as cultural variables that are not usually included in the political participation models


The main aim of this work is using keystroke biometric system as behavioral type of biometrics and improving the accuracy and dependability of the system. In this proposed we've preprocessed the data of dynamic keystroke by converting the feature to one dimensional vector. In feature extraction we've used a Wavelet Energy (WE) by implementing 2D dimensional Discreet Wavelet (2DDWT) into four-level and computing the energy for the Singular Value Decomposition (SVD). SVD is computed on the result of wavelet and saved in a file for training information. Wavelet transform Daubchies "DBI" basic function has advantage that provide a good energy localization in the frequency domain as other wavelet transforms and then using Elman networks (Backpropagation) for training and testing the system and its useful in such areas as signal processing and prediction where time plays a dominant role.


Theory and practice of social work are highly morally grounded. As a basically helping profession, social work practice is closely linked to the idea that it will contribute to improving the lives of its clients. Social work practice is grounded in the various values of a societal order (social justice, individual rights, rights of religious freedom, human dignity, etc.), which are transformed into ethical standards that are used to structure normative expectations regarding the activities of professionals.
Empirically, however, moral issues in social work practice often appear in a quite different way. Based on a conversation analysis of audio-taped discussions between professionals and clients in German care-planning conferences, this study emphasizes how morals are established primarily in a practical sense. By regarding morals as a sign of respect or disrespect, it is shown that professionals make use of morals to assess a client's behaviour in either a positive or a negative way. Furthermore, it is argued that morals in social work practice primarily respond to the overall interactional asymmetries of a client–professional encounter. In addition, they also reflect the basically deficit-oriented case descriptions of the professionals to establish the case in a less threatening way.


In this paper a wet chemical synthesis of zinc oxide assisted by microwave heating was investigated. Two starting solutions of Zn(NO3)2 · 6H2O and NaOH were mixed. Obtained mixture was heated in conventional oven and in microwave reactor. Products of reaction were investigated with scanning electron microscope. Results showed that obtained white powder contains crystallized structures build from nano- and microscale stars and urchins.


Abstract : This document summarizes our initial year's work on the Army After Next project at RAND Arroyo Center. This project started about halfway into FY 97. The intent of the effort was to provide analytic, simulation-based support to the Army After Next (AAN) initiative. The effort focuses on use of high-resolution construction simulation to explore technology options and operational concepts for the light battle force component of AAN.


The aim of the paper is to introduce a flexible system whose objective is to help industrials and decision-makers to efficiently install a marine energy farm in a suitable area and to facilitate expertise between stakeholders. We introduced a three-step approach which allows to select marine farm sites and suitable technological solutions. The system developed is based on the combination of Geographic Information System (GIS), a multi-criteria analysis (MCA) process and an optimisation algorithm. The whole approach is illustrated by a case study applied to an installation of a set of tidal turbines in a maritime area in North West France.


Multicast routing is an effective way to transmit messages to multiple hosts in a network. However, it is vulnerable to intermittent connectivity property in mobile ad hoc network (MANET) especially for multimedia applications, which have some quality of service (QoS) requirements. The goal of QoS provisioning is to well organize network resources to satisfy the QoS requirement and achieve good network delivery services. However, there remains a challenge to provide QoS solutions and maintain end-to-end QoS with user mobility. In this paper, a novel penalty adjustment method based on the rough set theory is proposed to deal with path-delay constraints for multicast routing problems in MANETs. We formulate the problem as a constrained optimization problem, where the objective function is to minimize the total cost of the multicast tree subject to QoS constraints. The RPGA is evaluated on three multicast scenarios and compared with two state-of-the-art methods in terms of cost, success rate, and time complexity. The performance analyses show that this approach is a self-adaptive method for penalty adjustment. Remarkably, the method can address a variety of constrained multicast routing problems even though the initial routes do not satisfy all QoS requirements.


The invention discloses an organic light emitting diode array substrate and a packaging method thereof, which are used for reducing frames of an organic light emitting diode product, shortening packaging time, increasing the use rate and improving the production efficiency. The organic light emitting diode array substrate comprises a plurality of display panels distributed in arrays, wherein at least one side edge of one of at least two adjacent display panels is connected with at least one side edge of the other one of the at least two adjacent display panels through frame sealing glue, and a cutting clearance area is avoided.


The LOCAL model is among the main models for studying locality in the framework of distributed network computing. This model is however subject to pertinent criticisms, including the facts that all nodes wake up simultaneously, perform in lock steps, and are failure-free. We show that relaxing these hypotheses to some extent does not hurt local computing. In particular, we show that, for any construction task $T$ associated to a locally checkable labeling (LCL), if $T$ is solvable in $t$ rounds in the LOCAL model, then $T$ remains solvable in $O(t)$ rounds in the asynchronous LOCAL model. This improves the result by Casta\~neda et al. [SSS 2016], which was restricted to 3-coloring the rings. More generally, the main contribution of this paper is to show that, perhaps surprisingly, asynchrony and failures in the computations do not restrict the power of the LOCAL model, as long as the communications remain synchronous and failure-free.


This paper makes a survey of the publishing business in Japan. It analyses the circulative channels of the publishing business and the characteristics of its circulative system. The paper explores the function and developmental strategy of the sales agencies which play an important part in the process of circulation. At last, the author points out the necessity of the present circulative system in the publishing business.


Plant stress is one of major issues that cause significant economic loss for growers. The labor-intensive conventional methods for identifying the stressed plants constrain their applications. To address this issue, rapid methods are in urgent needs. Developments of advanced sensing and machine learning techniques trigger revolutions for precision agriculture based on deep learning and big data. In this paper, we reviewed the latest deep learning approaches pertinent to the image analysis of crop stress diagnosis. We compiled the current sensor tools and deep learning principles involved in plant stress phenotyping. In addition, we reviewed a variety of deep learning applications/functions with plant stress imaging, including classification, object detection, and segmentation, of which are closely intertwined. Furthermore, we summarized and discussed the current challenges and future development avenues in plant phenotyping.


In this extended critical review of Michelle Alexander's popular work, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Color Blindness, the author, a student and current prisoner in the Monroe Correctional Complex in the state of Washington, calls our attention to the overlooked severity of penal institutions and the role of U.S. punishment practices in reproducing marginality. The author suggests doing so will provide the foundation for the kind of "cultural work" needed to reform criminal justice policy, moving academic and activist critiques of mass incarceration beyond the pragmatist rationalities that threaten to exacerbate the inequalities they seek to remedy.


While a range of benefits to students participating in mooting have been identified by the legal education literature, there are impediments to students participating in mooting that have been revealed by recent surveys of law students at QUT. These impediments include time, geographical location and a failure to perceive the benefits of mooting. This paper will explore the benefits of using technology to overcome these impediments, evaluate technological options to facilitate distance mooting, such as the use of Second Life, Elluminate and video conferencing, and will recommend a trial of these options.


The invention relates to the technical field of railway tunnel construction, specifically a digging method of IV and V-class surrounding rock railway tunnel with large cross section, aiming to solve the problems of the existing railway tunnel digging method including narrow operation space, low work efficiency, inflexible construction method, instable construction progress, high deformation potential of surrounding rock, and inconvenient operation. The method comprises performing leading support, digging arc-shaped pilot tunnel and preserving core soil; staggeredly digging left/right side walls of middle sidestep and preserving core soil; staggeredly digging left/right side walls of lower sidestep and preserving core soil; sequentially digging upper, middle and lower sidesteps and preserving core soil; and digging inverted arch and carrying out preliminary support. The invention has large construction space and high work efficiency, and can perform multi-job parallel operation. When the geologic conditions are changed, the invention can be flexibly and timely converted to other construction method. Preservation of core soil and left/right staggeredly digging are helpful to the stability of the digging working face. When the surrounding rock has large deformation, the invention can adjust closure time as soon as possible under the prerequisite of assuring safety and meeting requirements of clearance cross section.


We are developing an open-source EDA flow for asynchronous logic. Key parts of the flow are implemented using the Galois system for parallelization to reduce run-time requirements. We report on the current state of this flow, and some of the open issues that we are exploring in order to improve the overall quality of results.


Dr. Wellens raises several important issues in his recent editorial comment1 regarding the role of electrophysiological testing in risk stratification and treatment of patients with previous myocardial infarction and nonsustained ventricular tachycardia presented in our article.2 Our study was based on the results of previous investigations in patients with remote myocardial infarction, which indicate that the inability to induce sustained ventricular arrhythmias predicts a low risk for subsequent sudden death, and thus identified a large group of patients in whom therapeutic intervention is unlikely to be beneficial.2 The results of our study extended these findings by demonstrating that even in the subgroup of patients known to be at highest risk of sudden death (those with impaired ventricular function), the predictive value of a negative test was excellent. We also systematically evaluated the role of electrophysiologically guided antiarrhythmic drug therapy as a prophylactic treatment strategy in patients with inducible ventricular arrhythmias. Drug therapy alone was found to have serious limitations. Although drug responders had good long-term prognoses, 50% of the patients were nonresponders. The 2-year incidence rate of sudden death or cardiac arrest in these latter patients was 50%. Dr. Wellens' interpretations of several aspects of this study are inaccurate. No patient in our study had hemodynamically stable sustained ventricular tachycardia during follow-up. All arrhythmia-related end points were either sudden death or cardiac arrest with successful resuscitation. If the results of guided drug therapy were analyzed on an intention-to-treat basis, the three patients with inducible sustained ventricular arrhythmias and cardiac arrest during serial drug testing would have been classified as drug nonresponders (all had been nonresponders during at least one previous drug trial and certainly could not be grouped with patients without baseline inducible arrhythmias). In contrast to Dr. Wellens' assertion, such an analysis would have magnified the difference between drug responders and nonresponders and certainly have not rendered the difference insignificant! The findings of our study do not necessarily support the universal application of serial drug testing to myocardial infarction survivors with inducible sustained ventricular arrhythmias, nor do they suggest that drug therapy alone can provide adequate prophylaxis in all patients. However, as we concluded, electrophysiologically guided drug therapy in combination with implantable defibrillators for patients who are not drug responders may be a more suitable therapeutic strategy for testing in future placebo-controlled clinical trials. A second set of issues raised by Dr. Wellens is related to the optimal method of choosing high-risk candidates and the proper timing of studies after myocardial infarction. As suggested by Dr. Wellens, electrophysiological testing in this setting should be limited to patients with impaired ventricular function and occur only after reversible myocardial ischemia has been appropriately treated. Both these conditions were met in our study population. The apparent excellent negative predictive value of the signalaveraged electrocardiogram has been established in a diverse population of patients, including myocardial infarction survivors.3 However, many of these patients had good ventricular function. Whether this test will remain a useful predictor of benign outcome when applied exclusively to patients with impaired ventricular function remains to be determined. Dr. Wellens also questioned the additional requirement of nonsustained ventricular tachycardia as a criterion for study entry. The presence of nonsustained ventricular tachycardia in the post-myocardial infarction survivor increases the risk of sudden death by twofold to fourfold, independent of ventricular function.45 Thus, patients with both nonsustained ventricular tachycardia and impaired ventricular function form a subgroup at highest risk for sudden death and constitute an ideal population for studying the impact of therapeutic interventions. The findings of the Cardiac Arrhythmia Suppression Trial (CAST) raise serious questions regarding the suppression of spontaneous ventricular ectopy as an effective strategy for preventing sudden death.6 However, this latter study does not invalidate the role of spontaneous nonsustained ventricular tachycardia as a baseline predictor of risk. Ideally, risk stratification after myocardial infarction should be performed just before hospital discharge. However, the anatomical substrate for ventricular arrhythmias undergoes considerable change in the first few weeks after myocardial infarction. The reproducibility of electrophysiological findings during this time period has received little attention. Two studies with small populations specifically addressing this issue demonstrate considerable variability in the induction of sustained monomorphic ventricular tachycardia at different points in time during the first 2 months after infarction.7'8 One prospective study with a large population demonstrated that the induction of sustained ventricular arrhythmias early after myocardial infarction in patients with normal or impaired ventricular function was associated with a significantly increased risk of sudden death.3 However, the stimulation protocol in this study was somewhat unusual (i.e., limited to two extrastimuli with a stimulation current of no more than 20 mA). The usefulness of more often used stimulation protocols (as many as three extrastimuli delivered at twice diastolic threshold) early after myocardial infarction in patients with impaired ventricular function has not been established. Further clarification of these problems is necessary before early postinfarction testing can be advocated routinely. Validation of electrophysiologically guided therapy as an effective method for preventing sudden death in patients with previous myocardial infarction awaits the results of several well-designed placebo-controlled trials that are currently planned or under way. As Dr. Wellens correctly points out, if maximum benefit is to be derived from interventional strategies after myocardial infarction, careful consideration must be given to the characteristics of patients selected for these potentially time-consuming and expensive therapeutic interventions.


For the wavelet threshold de-noising method,the threshold selection of wavelet was addressed based on de-noising principle,and the traditional soft and hard threshold methods were descussed.On this basis,the modified threshold function was introduced.The results of experimental simulations indicate that the modified de-noising method can reduce effectively the stationary and non-stationary signals generated by the impact of shocks and the constant bias.The new threshold function is of better de-noising capability than the traditional functions.


In this article, we report on transport across n+(p+) c-Si/AlQ/Al junctions where AlQ is tris(8-hydroxy quinolato)aluminum, and n+ and p+ are n and p type degenerately doped crystalline silicon (c-Si). Specifically, we show that n+ c-Si is a very efficient electron injector into AlQ. We have studied the temperature and thickness dependence of AlQ on the current–voltage characteristics to understand transport in AlQ. From these measurements, we show that transport in AlQ is injection limited and the current is limited by tunneling injection from the contact into AlQ. We also report on the influence of the interface and gap states on transport in AlQ.


Heavy metals are considered important pollutants found in sewage sludge. That is why sewage sludge can have a limited use as fertilizer in agriculture. Some aquatic plants can remove nutrients and heavy metals from media as sewage sludge or contaminated sediments. In this paper, we investigated the effects of different concentration levels of two heavy metals (Ni and Cd), respectively, 10, 35, 85 and 20, 50, 150 mg/kg in sedimentary media on plant uptake of Ni and Cd, considering three aquatic plants: Typha latifolia, Phragmites australis and Scirpus tabernaemontani. These uptake abilities were investigated at the 60days of experiment through a completely random design. Results showed that Ni and Cd accumulation in root and rhizome was higher than similar amounts for the stem and leaf of the three plant species. Also, with the increase in the concentration levels of the two heavy metals in sediments, their accumulation in plant tissues was increased. Cd accumulation in belowground tissues of T. latifolia was 8.43, 24.97 and 70.5 mg/kg in dry weight at the 10, 35 and 85 mg/kg metal concentration in the simulated sediments respectively. Also, Translocation factor (TF) and Bioconcentration factor (BCF) for Ni and Cd were calculated for the three plant species. The results showed that TF and BCF were 0.44, 0.32, 0.26 and 0.58, 0.48, 0.42 for Ni respectively in T. latifolia, P. australis and S. tabernaemontani at the higher value of the concentration. The values of TF and BCF were 0.34, 0.21, 0.24 and 0.83, 0.68 and 0.34 for Cd in the three plants, respectively. According to our results, the accumulation of Ni and Cd in the above-ground and below-ground tissues in T. latifolia was the highest. Also, our results are important for bioindication, bioremediation and biomonitorng of aquatic ecosystems and heavy metals removal from sewage sludge.


In order to solve the problem of modeling of a rotary dryer, a cascade hybrid dynamic model is proposed and a RBF neural network is adopted to determine the model parameters drying rate. Considering the effect of material properties, middle parameters, drying technology and drying equipment structure on the model of the rotary dryer, the model of zinc concentrate ore rotary dryer is established and a simulation is done by using the Matlab. Simulation results show that the hybrid model can improve the flexibility and accuracy of the model. This model provides more convenient way to analyze the zinc concentrate ore drying process and study new control strategies for energy conservation and emission reduction.


This paper expounds China's drug clinical trial and GCP(Good Clinical Practice), introduces the development history, organizational structure and construction progress of the drug clinical trial institution in the First Hospital of Shanxi Medical University, and briefly sketches the work of ethics committee.


The acellular dermal matrix (ADM) has become popular in various reconstructive surgeries of different regions. There are different needs depending on the clinical applications including breast, abdominal wall, and any other soft tissue reconstruction. Removal of the basement membrane (BM), which consists of collagen fibers, may help achieve natural and soft breast reconstruction that require highly elastic ADMs. Given the lack of knowledge of the effectiveness of the ADM without the BM, we compared the clinical outcomes of ADMs with and without BM in breast reconstruction.

 We conducted a prospective, single-blinded, randomized controlled trial to evaluate differences in clinical outcomes. The patients were randomized into ADM with BM and without BM groups. Both groups underwent immediate prepectoral direct-to-implant breast reconstruction. Demographics, surgical outcome, and breast shape change using nipple position were compared between the two groups.

 A total of 56 patients were divided into two groups: ADM with BM (n=30, 53.6%) and ADM without BM (n=26, 46.4%). Clinical and surgical demographics were similar between the two groups. The authors detected no statistically significant differences in the overall rate of complications and breast shape change between the two groups. However, the rate of seromas was higher in the ADM with BM group than that in the ADM without BM group (10% vs. 0%, P=0.09).

 The two groups showed similar surgical outcomes. The use of ADM without BM in implant-based breast reconstruction was safe with its mechanical properties of lower tensile strength and higher elasticity.


Informatics, law and philosophy are strictly connected.
When progress confers to men new technologies that modify even the way of living on earth and redesign personal and communitarian identity, philosophy is compelled to ask itself about the possibilities and also the risks of electronic brave new world.


Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to use the findings of a correspondence testing in order to assess the hiring effects of foreign-origin and employment status in the French construction sector.

Design/methodology/approach

To empirically test these features, the author constructs four applications, each representing a particular profile with respect to ethnic origin and employment status. The author sends 1,204 resumes in reply to 301 job vacancies advertised from mid-April to mid-September 2011 in the Paris area.

Findings

While being employed increases the performance for applicants of foreign origin, this is not the case for native applicants. However, the benefit of being employed does not fully overcome the penalty created by foreign origin. Hence, the study does not allow to affirm that employed applicants of foreign origin are less penalized than unemployed ones.

Originality/value

This paper improves the knowledge of the effects of employment status on employability. The quantification of these effects remains an important issue. To the author's knowledge, this is the first time correspondence testing has been used to measure the influence of ethnic origin on employability, conditional on employment status.


favor of eliminating two teams by the start of the 2002 season. The vote generated a welter of controversy, nearly all in opposition to the plan. Although legal roadblocks quashed timely implementation of the proposal, contraction remains a lively future option. This paper examines key economic, legal, and political aspects of contraction. What teams are most likely to be affected, and how would remaining teams gain? Will a bill in Congress remove a part of baseball's antitrust exemption, and what is the effect of court decisions in Minnesota and Florida? What is the impact of an arbitration decision on a grievance filed by the Major League Baseball Players Association? Also of interest are outcomes that may result from contraction. How, for example, will players whose jobs have been lost be made available to other teams? What influence does contraction have on negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement between owners and players?


By using datasets of HadISST monthly SST from 1895 to 2014 and
600-year simulations of two CESM model experiments with/without doubling
of CO 2 concentration, ENSO characteristics (such as intensity,
maximum signal location, lifetime and frequency) are compared pre-
and post- global warming. The analysis periods are defined by the
eras of 1895–1954 and 1955–2014 in the observations
and the two model experiments, without and with doubling of CO 2 concentration, in the model, respectively. The main conclusions
are as follows. Due to global warming, the maximum climatological
SST warming occurs in the tropical western Pacific (La Nina-like
background warming) and the tropical eastern Pacific (El Nino-like
background warming) for observations and model, respectively, resulting
in opposite zonal SST gradient anomalies in the tropical Pacific.
The La Nina-like background warming induces intense
surface divergence in the tropical central Pacific, which enhances
the easterly trade winds in the tropical central-western Pacific and
shifts the strongest ocean-atmosphere coupling westward, correspondingly.
On the contrary, the El Nino-like background warming causes westerly
winds in the whole tropical Pacific and moves the strongest ocean-atmosphere
coupling eastward. Different background warmings determine the different
evolution characteristics of ENSO events. Under the background of
La Nina-like warming, ENSO tends to develop and mature in the
tropical central Pacific, because the background easterly wind anomaly
weakens the ENSO-induced westerly wind anomaly in the tropical western
Pacific, leading to the so-called "Central Pacific ENSO (CP
ENSO)". However, the so-called "Eastern Pacific ENSO
(EP ENSO)" is likely formed due to increased westerly wind
anomaly by the El Nino-like background warming. ENSO lifetime
is significantly extended under both the El Nino-like and the
La Nina-like background warmings, and especially, it can be prolonged
by up to 3 months in the situation of El Nino-like background
warming. The prolonged El Nino lifetime mainly applies to extreme
El Nino events, which is caused by two processes in response
to global warming. On the one hand, the earlier outbreak of the westerly
wind bursts (WWB) in the tropical western Pacific makes El Nino
occur earlier. On the other hand, the climatological thermocline depth
becomes shallower in the tropical Pacific, which can slow down the
eastward propagation speed of the negative-feedback Kelvin wave in
the subsurface ocean. In addition, the climatological upper-ocean
temperature gradient between the equator and off-equator reduces in
the tropical central-eastern Pacific, which can weaken the "discharge"
rate of the ENSO warm signal. Both of the above processes make El
Nino decay slowly and persist longer. Results from both observations
and the model also show that the frequency of ENSO events greatly
increases due to global warming, and many more extreme El Nino
and La Nina events appear under the El Nino-like and the
La Nina-like background warmings, respectively. Based on the
theories of ENSO evolution, this study shows the possible changes
of ENSO characteristics in response to global warming, and reconciles
the phenomena and mechanisms of different characteristics of ENSO
changes in observations and models, which are essential for the understanding
and prediction of the change of ENSO characteristics and its impact
under the global warming background in the future.


The antibacterial activities of silver (Ag) and copper (Cu) monometallic and bimetallic nanoparticles (MNPs and BNPs) against the most economically important and common plant bacterial diseases in Kyrgyzstan were tested, as well as their phytotoxic effects on wheat and corn seeds. To achieve this, a range of Ag and Cu MNPs and BNPs were synthesized using different methods and were tested at different concentrations to compare their biological effects. The antibacterial activities of Ag and Cu MNPs and Ag-Cu BNPs against the plant pathogenic bacteria Erwinia amylovora, Pseudomonas syringae, and Pectobacterium carotovorum were evaluated. Of the three pathogens, Ps. syringae was found to be the most sensitive to NPs. The antimicrobial activities of the tested NPs showed significant positive correlations with the concentration; hence, there was a dose-dependent effect. Due to their antibacterial properties, these Ag-Cu nanocomposites have high potential in plant protection applications.


With the application of large capacity hydro turbine generating set, it is important for the hydro turbine generating set to monitoring its vibration and diagnoses its faulty. In this paper, fault diagnosis based on support vector machine is proposed for hydro turbine generating set. The most important advantage of SVM is effective for the case of lack of training samples. Some key parameters of SVM and kernel functions are surveyed. Compared with the artificial neural network methods, SVM methods are more effective. The experiment shows that the SVM method has good classification ability and robust performances.


Two sets of side-chain, liquid-crystalline ionomers based on copolymersof butyl acrylate and 4-{[6-(acryloyloxy)-hexyl]oxy}benzoic acidcontaining2.5-20mol-% of lithium or rubidium ions were studied. As the content of ions of alkali metals increases, segmental mobility markedly decreases. As compared with rubidium-containing ionomers, ionomers containing lithium ions are characterized by a far more efficient decrease in theirdielectric relaxation times because ionic radius of lithium ions is lower than that of rubidium ions.


Effect of annealing on optical characteristics of Nickel oxide thin films deposited by ion beam sputtering technique from a Ni target in a mixture of oxygen and argon gas on to a glass substrate has been studied. The deposited films were characterized in as deposited state(S1) and after annealing(S2) at temp of 523 K. Crystalline properties of films were investigated using X-ray diffraction technique from which we found that both S1 and S2 shows the polycrystalline nature with preferential growth along (111) plane. The transmittance of the S2 films was decreased. The surface morphology of the film was studied using atomic force microscopy (AFM). The nonlinear optical properties of the films were obtained using z-scan technique which reveals that the nonlinear absorption coefficient of S2 films is larger than that of S1 samples. Improved nonlinearity suggests the utility of the grown films for optoelectronic device application.


Despite the obvious practical importance of the question, economists did not attempt until the 1990s to assess empirically the effects of international variations in the strength of IPRs. Without such evidence, the field lay open to strong claims on both sides of the debate—a situation that remains largely true today. Thus, for example, advocates of global harmonization of strongly protective standards made powerful assertions about the trade-distorting effects of weak and variable IPRs in order to buttress the case for their inclusion in the Uruguay Round negotiations. Their opponents argued that strengthening global IPRs would cause monopolization of trade and technology transfer, leading to widespread competitive abuses. These arguments clearly were based on strong assumptions with limited systematic evidence available to support any of them. The situation was even more stark than the earlier acute shortage of information on how patent systems affect innovation and welfare, which had prompted Priest (1986, 19) to lament, "The ratio of empirical demonstration to assumption in this literature must be very close to zero." In the last decade, a number of economists have made strenuous efforts to help close this information gap. Some analysts developed numerical indices to characterize the strength of patent rights across nations. These in turn were used to study the impact of patent regimes on international trade, FDI, and technology licensing. This chapter reviews the evidence compiled in such studies; it concludes that, in the main, the strength of IPRs is a significant and positive determinant of international commercial activity. Stronger global IPRs could enhance the dynamic efficiency with which resources are allocated internationally, which should help mitigate any adverse distributional consequences.


Introduction Some Important Distinctions in Place Branding Nation Brand as Context and Reputation Is Place Branding a Capitalist Tool? Why Brand? Some Practical Considerations for Nation Branding When Place Images Change Public Diplomacy and Place Branding: Where's the Link? 'Brand Europe' - Where Next? Public Sector, Private Sector Place Branding: Is it marketing, or isn't it? More on Brands. 'Nation Branding' in Asia Place Branding: Cause or Effect? Should Place Brands be Simple?


Virtue prototyping model of the gearbox contains the box and the gear system. To analyze the modes of the gearbox should include the structure of the box and the gear system in it. This paper calculated the modes of the gearbox, made a comparison between the two circumstances; with the gears and without the gears. It is verified that the design of the box structure was reasonable as it avoided the frequency of sympathetic vibration with the vehicle. At the same time, the application of this method measuring the modes of gearbox was demonstrated to be reasonable feasible, it can apply optimize instructions in the design process.


Effects of blameworthiness, account type, and politician power on respondents' evaluations of political offenders were examined. Political expertise and party affiliation served as additional categorical predictors of evaluations. Participants read two scenarios describing the misadventures of fictitious politicians and their accounts and evaluated the politicians. Results revealed that political novices were more generous than experts in their evaluations. Politicians who transgressed intentionally were evaluated more negatively than politicians who trans-gressed accidentally. Respondents who shared partisanship with the politicians evaluated them more positively than respondents who did not share partisanship. Finally, results revealed interactions among politician power, account type, party, and scenario. This study points to the utility of a sociolinguistic framework for the systematic investigation of respondents' private reactions to public political transgressions.


The invention relates to a method for orderedly separating and arranging unordered or piled meats (such as bird bodies, drumsticks and chicken medium wings), and a process system (equipment) thereof. The method comprises: conveying the unordered or piled meats to a multi-stage centrifugal rotating device II composed of a plurality of centrifugal type rotating disks by a hoisting and conveying device I so as to primarily separate and arrang the meats; then further separating and arranging the meats by a multi-stage belt conveying device III composed of a plurality of belt conveying mechanisms connected end to end, and finally achieving the purpose of ordered separation and arrangement of the meats. The separating and arranging system can be used on a meats processing production line of a large-scale meats plant for separating and arranging the meat products, keeps fixed distance between the products and continuously arranges the products to be ready for the next working procedure.


There is increasing demand for short-term urban link travel time prediction to build an advanced intelligent transportation system (ITS). With the development of data collection technology, probe data are receiving more attention but the penetration rate of probe vehicles capable of sending probe data is still limited. Most research pertaining to short-term travel time prediction tends to aggregate probe data to obtain useful samples when the penetration rate is low. However, as a result, the prediction can only provide a general description of the travel time and changes in travel time during a short time interval are neglected. To overcome this limitation, a non-parametric model using disaggregate probe data based on dynamic time warping (DTW) was developed in this study. Data from the crossing direction are introduced to separate the data into different signal phases instead of identifying the exact signal pattern. A classical k-nearest neighbor (KNN) model and a naïve model were compared with the proposed model. The models were tested in three scenarios: a computer simulation and two real cases from Nagoya, Japan. The results showed that the proposed model outperforms the other two models under different data penetration rates because it can reflect changes in travel time during a traffic signal cycle. Moreover, the proposed model has wider applicability than the KNN model because it is free from the equal time interval constraint.


equally in Israel, but in a vacuum with regard to the historical context in which they were converted from a majority into an unequally treated minority. Second, he notes that the Palestinian experience in and exposure to a modern, democratic Israel "created" and strengthened Palestinian Arab identity. He asserts that the identity was a response to inequality, but that the latter was a result of an Israeli non-policy on Palestinians, i.e., discrimination by default, rather than from a systematic policy of discrimination as others have asserted. He then argues that policy reforms on three levels—personal, institutional and governmental—will not only provide equality but will also foster a greater Israeli identity in the Palestinian community. Nonetheless, he concludes that Palestinians must recognize that Israel will preserve its dominant Jewish national identity, which de facto means continued inequality. Consequently, Landau's analysis obfuscates understanding of the real bases of Palestinian inequality in Israel.


Is accumulated in the fish farm floor and wall or attach food, excrement of fishes, other sludge and Crustacea are responsible for disease or wound of fishes. Therefore, cleaning in fish farm is essential. In this research, do it can do fish farm cleaning at short time as well as can remove sludge or Crustacea which is attached to floor and wall of fish farm certainly. Also, manufacture drainage pump by quality of the material that corrosion resistance is strong, and in anaphora water starting point that wear attains well in drainage pump divergence wedge loading-unloading system that can change divergence wedge that is been worn away establishing as is possible simply develop .


Recoverin is suggested to inhibit rhodopsin kinase (GRK1) at high [Ca2+] in the dark state of the photoreceptor cell. Decreasing [Ca2+] terminates inhibition and facilitates phosphorylation of illuminated rhodopsin (Rh*). When recoverin formed a complex with GRK1, it did not interfere with the phosphorylation of a C‐terminal peptide of rhodopsin (S338‐A348) by GRK1. Furthermore, while GRK1 competed with transducin on interaction with rhodopsin and thereby suppressed GTPase activity of transducin, recoverin in the complex with GRK1 did not influence this competition. Constructs of GRK1 that encompass its N‐terminal, catalytic or C‐terminal domains were used in pull‐down assays and surface plasmon resonance analysis to monitor interaction. Ca2+‐recoverin bound to the N‐terminus of GRK1, but did not bind to the other constructs. GRK1 interacted with rhodopsin also by its N‐terminus in a light‐dependent manner. No interaction was observed with the C‐terminus. We conclude that inhibition of GRK1 by recoverin is not the result of their direct competition for the same docking site on Rh*, although the interaction sites of GRK1/Rh* and GRK1/recoverin partially overlap. The N‐terminus of GRK1 is recognized by Rh* leading to a conformational change which moves the C‐terminus of Rh* into the catalytic kinase groove. Ca2+‐recoverin interacting with the N‐terminus of GRK1 prevents this conformational change and thus blocks Rh* phosphorylation by GRK1.


Primary γ-Amino acids are essential structural scaffolds with biologically actives in pharmaceutical compounds. However, their preparation from readily available substrates remains challenging. Here, we report a direct approach to achieve...


Calcifications of thyroid nodules are often found in sonography reports and can be detected in both benign and malignant nodules. Although it is well known that micro-calcifications are associated with thyroid malignancy, especially in papillary thyroid carcinomas, the results for macro-calcifications are controversial. Yoon et al. evaluated the role of presence of macro-calcification in thyroid nodules for predicting malignancy by retrospectively analyzing FNAC data and sonographic findings in one institution, and showed that macro-calcification is also significantly associated with thyroid malignancy. Coarse calcifications were more commonly found in malignant nodules than in benign nodules, however, rim calcification was not associated with malignancy. We should carefully evaluate thyroid nodule(s) with calcification regardless of the pattern of calcification, and it would be mandatory to evaluate the clinical significance of rim calcification by prospective analysis. (Korean J Med 2012;83:319-321)


Two selective, sensitive and reproducible methods for the determination of carbimazole are described. The spectrophotometric determination of carbimazole was achieved through its reaction with a known excess of potassium bromate in bromide solution, then residual reagent was treated with sodium fluorescein in buffered medium at pH 5.5, where equivalent eosin is produced, which absorbed maximally at 517 nm. Stoichiometric study of the reaction showed that, carbimazole reacts with potassium bromate in the ratio of 1:1. The spectrophotometric method is linear over a range of 30–110 μg%. The spectrodensitometric analysis provides a rapid and precise method for the separation and quantitation of carbimazole. The method depends on the quantitative densitometric evaluation of thin layer chromatogram of carbimazole at 291 nm. It determines the drug in concentration range of 5–22.5 μg per spot. The two methods retained their accuracy and precision when applying the standard addition technique. The results obtained by applying the proposed methods were statistically analysed and compared with those obtained by the official B.P. method.


Financial consumer protection originated from 1960s. With the developing of financial mixed management,especially after the outbreak of the financial crisis in 2008,there are trends on consumer financial protection over the world:strengthening financial consumer protection became an important content of financial regulatory reform; horizontal legislation providing unified protection; the application of financial safety net was enlarged. For China,it is necessary to give conduct regulation power to departments of consumer financial protection,to formulate horizontal legislation about selling financial product,to enlarge the application of financial safety net.


Abstract Successive differential and integral sorptions of water vapor into the polyelectrolyte complex of poly (sty renesulfonic acid) / poly(4-vinyl-N-ethylpyridinum bromide) have been measured; films of stoichiometric (1/1 molar ratio) and nonstoichiometric (2/1 molar ratio) complex were employed in the experiments. Sorption isotherms have been also determined by using the values obtained from integral sorption experiments. The sorption data have suggested the following. (i) The rearrangement of polymer chains plays a relatively unimportant role in sorption of water. (ii) The relaxation motion of network chains is suppressed. (iii) The change of morphological structure caused by vapor sorption is obscure. (iv) The ionic character of the 1/1 complex is higher than that of 2/1 complex. (v) A small amount of water can be dispersed on specific polymer sites, but the sorption of a large amount of water is accompanied by an expansion of network structure. Points (i)-(v) have been consistently interpreted on ...


With development of China's economy, automobile is entering ordinary family gradually, automobile after-sales service is undergoing unprecedented development. On the basis of the actual research and analysis the value of automobile after-sales service, this paper propose the management countermeasure of take customer as center, strengthen customer records management and thorough excavation customer lifetime value.


Understanding of forces governing hydrophobically driven inclusion provides a path for aimed utilization of non-polar synthons and offers insights into the related hydration thermodynamics. To shed light on the factors...


We consider a particular approach to the regularization of the inverse problem of computerized tomography. This approach is based on notions pertaining to Fourier synthesis. It refines previous contributions, in which the preprocessing of the data was performed according to the Fourier slice theorem. Since real models must account for the geometrical system response and possibly Compton scattering and attenuation, the Fourier slice theorem does not apply, yielding redefinition of the preprocessing. In general, the latter is not explicit, and must be performed numerically. The most natural choice of preprocessing involves the computation of unstable solutions. A proximal strategy is proposed for this step, which allows for accurate computations and preserves global stability of the reconstruction process.


Purpose – Understanding China's economic success requires insights into its peculiar guanxi‐based market. Many scholars are confused about how to apply Western network theories to the guanxi‐based Chinese market. This paper aims to contribute to this comprehensive topic by theoretically exploring the differences among three fundamental network concepts: guanxi; structural hole; and closure.Design/methodology/approach – Following Heide, the present paper categorises networks into three dimensions: network initiation, network maintenance and network termination, each based on different time phases. The three fundamental network concepts in every dimension are compared, laying out their similarities and dissimilarities in detail.Findings – Although each of the three networks are initiated either naturally or artificially, guanxi is closely embedded in Chinese institutions. Unlike structural hole and closure, which can be applied at any level, guanxi is a special relation that only exists at the individual le...


Continuous alcohol ingestion may lead to various dental diseases because a hyposalivation. In this study, we investigated changes in pathology and choline acetyltransferase (ChAT, an enzyme for synthesis of acetylcholine) in the brain and acetylcholine-binding protein (AchBP, a protein responsible for modulation of synaptic transmission in cholinergic synapses) in the submandibular gland after alcohol ingestion. There was no change in neuronal death and expression of ChAT in superior salivary nucleus after alcohol ingestion. In the submandibular gland, expression of AchBP were significantly reduced after alcohol ingestion. Therefore, decrease of saliva secretion by alcohol ingestion is less related to damage of neurons in the superior salivary nucleus and decrease of acetylcholine synthesis or cholinergic neurotransmission.


The rind of corn stalk (Zea mays L.) contains a high content of lignin, which is difficult for ruminants to digest. So, the separation of the pith and rind is the basis for the effective use of corn stalk. The shearing characteristics of pith are important parameters in the process of the separation of rind and pith for corn stalk. In this study, both the shearing strength and shearing energy were determined for the pith of cornstalk. The shearing force was measured at three moisture content levels (10 w.b.%, 40 w.b.%, and 70 w.b.%), different sample heights (lower, middle, and upper), and three different shearing speed levels (2 mm·min-1, 20 mm·min-1, and 50 mm·min-1). The shearing strength and the shearing energy were calculated from this data. The shearing energy was calculated by using the area under the shearing force versus the displacement curve. The results showed that the maximum shearing strength and the shearing energy increased as the moisture content increased. The maximum shearing strength and shearing energy were found to be 0.8452 MPa and 0.6446 J, respectively. Both the shearing strength and the shearing energy were found to be higher in the lower region of the stalk due to structural heterogeneity.


In the pyrolisis process, heat ramp rate, temperature, and process time are very important variables so the control monitor system of heat ramp rate and temperature is needed in order to make a desired product. Initially pyrolisis device was manually controlled, that the change of temperature was set directly by user and the trend of temperature cannot be monitored. The device show the latest temperature value.
In this project, the control and monitor system for furnace/ heating room will be designed, which use heating element as correction element and K type thermocouple as measurement element. As a requirement, the temperature of thermocouple terminal will be sensed by LM35. Instrumentation amplifier and voltage to pulse frequency modul is used as signal conditioner. Pulse will be counted by microcontroller proportionally with the increase of temperature. LabView 8.2 PC software is used as control element.
This project produce the control and monitor system that is able to control automatically, with the purpose to ease the observation of pyrolisis process at the laboratory of polymer technology of Chemical Engineering Gadjah Mada University. In this system, PC was used as interface between user and machine that provided with measured parameter graphic and indicators.


In this paper we present a distributed system for social media scraping which aims to acquire an arbitrarily large number of information from social networks, by exploiting an actor-based solution able to orchestrate efficiently several services on cloud. Our goal is to ensure that correct operations among actors occur, thanks to a master node, based on the ActoDeS architecture, which takes care of managing communications, interface and messages exchanged by client nodes. As a use case, we consider Twitter as social media platform for the key role that is playing in the modern society, as shown by Google Trends data. However, Twitter's search API have many limitations and there is definitely no way to make it work when it comes to obtaining millions of records within a monthly or annual time range. Thus, we have designed a distributed solution that is able to overcome these constraints without breaking the current laws on this subject and the policies of Twitter.


This study was conducted to investigate the scope, depth and difference of the values of physical education in middle school students between Hongkong and Dalian. Chosen as the subjects for the present research are 1759 middle school students. Adopted for the present study are investigation, mathematical statistics, comparison, and so on. The characteristics of the middle school students physical education value concept in the two areas are summarized: the notion of fitness becomes the core with the foremost importance in the physical education value system; the tendency of physical education value concept varies with regions; and there exists a negative value concept etc.


Stroke-like migraine attacks after radiation (SMART) syndrome is a rare and late complication of cerebral radiotherapy of unknown pathophysiology. It is characterised by hemicranial headache associated with persistent unilateral focal neurological signs and, occasionally, epileptic seizures. An increase in the frequency of SMART syndrome can be attributed to an increase in the survival rate of patients undergoing radiation therapy This study details the case of a 60-year-old woman with a history of small-cell lung carcinoma, who, in her late forties, was treated with prophylactic cranial irradiation. She presented at the emergency room with acute onset of global aphasia, lethargy and headache that started a few days before.


Northwestern University's interest in Africa South of the Sahara dates back to 1927 and was originally centered in the field of Anthropology. By 1948 the need for greater knowledge of Africa and its inhabitants had become so increasingly apparent that the Anthropology Department announced the establishment of an African research program to be guided by an interdisciplinary committee. At approximately the same time, the University Library acquired a large collection of African newspapers, periodicals, pamphlets, and monographs as a gift from the University Museum of the University of Pennsylvania. The report in the Northwestern Library News for December 17, 1948describing the gift concluded with these words: "Not the least significant aspect of this acquisition is the demonstration of inter-university cooperation and division of labor it gives. The University of Pennsylvania is now placing emphasis on studies of North Africa, while Northwestern will specialize on Negro Africa. Between the two, American resources in training and research in the field of African studies will, for the first time, afford coverage of the entire continent."


In this presentation, a recent work [18] on a fast nonlinear homogenization method for simple microstructures is revised. The degrees of freedom of the approach are defined on shear bands. Moreover, the number of degrees of freedom as well as the number of stress computations is very small compared to related finite element (FE) computations making the method fast. The predictions of the computational method are validated by FE-simulations. As a new aspect, the overall algorithmic tangent moduli of the method are derived for the first time.


The poplar grown on the beaches of Yangtze River , Anqing city, Anhui province ,were selected to study the wood anatomical properties under sand covered. The results showed that the fiber length, fiber and vessel percentage, the ratio of fiber length to width and angle of microfibril with the values of 829. 08 μm, 62. 48% , 24. 09% ,47. 5 , 15. 3°. Compared to the normal trees, the wood properties of fiber length, the thickness of cell wall and vessel percentage had significant effect by sand covered with the relative difference values of -33.78% ,34.70% , -33.08% ,while the properties of the wood ray percentage and the ratio of fiber length to fiber width had few effect. Compared to normal poplar tree, the sand covered poplar tree may be have larger wood mechanical prosperities according to the small angle of microfibril, the large fiber percentage and thick cell wall. The difference of wood properties' radial variation between normal and sand covered resulted in different molecular physiological function and different growth cycle.


Introduction: Although the replication of sequences from clustering to dispersal by immigrant groups has become apparent in Spain, we argue that the current picture of immigrants' settlement patterns is more complex than the projected by the traditional assimilationist perspective. Aim: We investigate the co-existence of assimilation, pluralism and heterolocal tendencies in Spain after a decade of mass international migration. Data: We use annual population data between 2000 and 2010 derived from Municipal Registers across the smallest census geographies for all municipalities in Spain. Method: We analyze three separate aspects of the residential patterns of immigrant groups: evenness, exposure and encapsulation. Results: The findings allow us to confirm that whilst some immigrant groups replicate the assimilation path of outward spatial movement gradually, some purse the pluralist path by huddling together in spatial enclaves and others become heterolocal by virtue of immediate dispersal after arrival.


Results: Of the 311 subjects, 181 (58.2%) were females. 139 (44.69%) had low risk ie.< 10%. 93 (29.9%) and 41 (13.81%) had 10<20% and 20-< 30 % risks respectively. 16 (5.14%) subjects had 30<40% risk while 22 (7.07%) had ≥40 % risk. Age more than 60 years, smoking and hypertension were significantly associated with a 10-year cardiovascular risk of ≥20%. Those with prehypertension were at significantly higher risk than those with stage II hypertension.


We show that the inter-band absorption of radiation in a 2D Dirac material leads to a direct electric current flowing at sample edges. The photocurrent originates from the momentum alignment of electrons and holes and is controlled by the radiation polarization. We develop a microscopic theory of such an edge photogalvanic effect and calculate the photocurrent for gapped and gapless 2D Dirac materials, also in the presence of a static magnetic field which introduces additional imbalance between the electron and hole currents. Further, we show that the photocurrent can be considerably multiplied in a ratchet-like structure with an array of narrow strips.


In this paper, we consider the prediction and the spread of the infectious disease (Hepatitis B) and develop a model based on the Susceptible-Infected-Recovered (SIR). The North Tongu District was considered as the host population. The district is assumed to have a constant population size. A system of non-linear differential equations is used to model the spread of the disease in the district. We solve the system numerically using the fourth-order Runge-Kutta method. Simulation and sensitivity analyses were also performed on the model equations to determine the effect of different parameter values on the spread of the disease. It was shown that the global dynamics are completely determined by the basic reproductive number . If 1, the disease-free equilibrium is globally stable and the disease always dies out. On the other hand, if 1, an endemic equilibrium exists and is globally stable in the interior of the feasible region, and the disease persists in an endemic equilibrium state if it initially exists. This paper indicates that the people of North Tongu would be at high risk if there should be an outbreak of the Hepatitis B. It was therefore recommended that vaccination of the more susceptible populace should to be done, since it will give immunity to the individual


By analyzing the magnetic field of a direct electric current within conductors and its action on the charge carrier in the current, a new effect is proposed for a conduct when current flowing through. Similar to the Hall Effect, this effect make the directionally moving charge carrier in the current deflected towards to the center of the current. If the charge carriers of the conductor with only one type charge (positive or negative), a radical electric field will form in the current cross section and a voltage will be produced between the center and the edge of the current. This effect also predicts that for a steady DC current the current density is not evenly distributed in the cross section of the current. The current density in the center area is larger than that in the edge area. It is not like what we always thought that the current density is evenly distributed in the current cross section.


The present study was a systematic replication of the classic study by Skinner (1938) using a hot air blast (HAB) as the punisher. After lever press training, six rats underwent two extinction sessions. During the initial 10 min of extinction in the first session, half of the subjects received a HAB for every lever press (punishment). Subjects that received punishment made fewer lever presses during first extinction session, but the total number of responses in both groups was equivalent by the end of the second extinction session. The present data corroborate the findings of Skinner (1938) that the punishment may have partial and temporary effects in certain contexts. We discuss the ways in which the elicitation of competitive responses, the intensity and nature of the stimulus, and the duration of exposure to the aversive contingency are important factors that may explain the divergent results in the literature. Keywords : punishment, replication, competitive responses, suppression, rats, hot air blast


Preface Introduction by Nora Levin Susan Anne Dore David Hans Erica Ernst Hanna Samuel Myer Henry Isadore Nathan Chayale Lili Marian Index


The types of companies reegulated in UU no. 1/1995 and PP no. 20/1994 seems to be good instruments to attract foreign investors to conduct their activities in Indonesia. However, in accordance with concept ogf the social welfare state (as stated in Pancasila), the effect for Indonesia people itself should be taken more consideration.


The advent of ferromagnetism in 2D van der Waals (vdW) magnets has stimulated high interest in exploring topological magnetic textures, such as skyrmions for use in future skyrmion‐based spintronic devices. To engineer skyrmions in vdW magnets by transforming Bloch‐type magnetic bubbles into Néel‐type skyrmions, a heavy metal/vdW magnetic thin film heterostructure has been made to induce interfacial Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction (DMI). However, the unambiguous identification of the magnetic textures inherent to vdW magnets, for example, whether the magnetic twists (skyrmions/domain walls) are Néel‐ or Bloch‐type, is unclear. Here we demonstrate that the magnetic twists can be tuned between Néel and Bloch‐type in the vdW magnet Fe3GeTe2 (FGT) with/without interfacial DMI. We use an in‐plane magnetic field to align the modulation wavevector q of the magnetizations in order to distinguish the Néel‐ or Bloch‐type magnetic twists. We observe that q is perpendicular to the in‐plane field in the heterostructure (Pt/oxidized‐FGT/FGT/oxidized‐FGT), while q aligns at a rotated angle with respect to the field direction in the FGT thin plate thinned from bulk. We find that the aligned domain wall twists hold fan‐like modulations, coinciding qualitatively with our computational results.


Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a complicated progressive neurodegenerative diseaseleading to dementia including language and behavior, and its pathogenesis is still unknown. MicroRNA(miRNA)are recently focused on as novel biomarkers for AD patients. 16 eligible studies of circulating miRNA in AD detection were identified through PubMed, suggested that circulating miRNA (miR-125b,miR-223,miR-342-3p,miR-34c and miR-384,et al) may be potential, none-invasive and novel biomarkers of AD. Furthermore, the combination of some miRNA are also applied for AD diagnosis, but no studies report the comparision between single miRNA and miRNA signature for AD detection.

Key words:
Alzheimer's disease; microRNA; Early diagnosis; Combined diagnosis


The rolling speed of a rigid cylinder (PMMA) in contact with a thick rubber strip is studied as a function of tensile uniaxial pre-strains applied to the strip. It is shown the the observed increase in rolling speed at increasing deformation arises directly from the decrease of the surface energy (Dupre's energy of adhesion) due to the imposed tensile pre-strain


Phonons play an important role in determining the electrical and thermal properties of semiconductors and other material systems. A mathematical model based on elastic continuum approach has been used for calculating the phonon dispersion of semiconductor cubic quantum dot. With this model acoustic phonon dispersions of an individual GaAs quantum dot are calculated for three different sizes to investigate the size effect on phonon spectra. Phonon group velocity has also been calculated for each phonon branch by numerical differentiation.


The application service provider model can realize economies of scale in managing hardware, software, and personnel resources, but this new concept also introduces uncertainty as it redistributes responsibilities among organizations.


Purpose
This study aims to explore how the co-created value arising from integrated solutions results in both, intended and spill-over effects.

Design/methodology/approach
The research uses a qualitative multi-level field study, with data from 12 respondents in 1 supplier firm and 29 respondents from 10 buying firms.

Findings
The resulting propositions suggest that co-created value developed through exploitative and emerging strategies, each may lead to both higher intended and spill-over effects. However, it appears that exploitative strategies are more effective in returning intended effects, whereas emerging strategies lead to higher spill-over effects.

Research limitations/implications
The results are exploratory, obtained from a limited number of buyer companies. Concerns of external validity were traded off against opportunities to gain insights into a poorly understood phenomenon.

Originality/value
The paper contributes to the existing value co-creation literature by offering insights from integrated solutions, associated with the development of buyer and seller relationships. The resulting propositions suggest that co-created value developed through both exploitative and emerging strategies may each lead to both higher intended and spill-over effects. However, it appears that exploitative strategies are more effective in returning intended effects, whereas emerging strategies lead to higher spill-over effects.


This paper presents a novel smart Ultra High Frequency (UHF) Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) reader. The reader is designed by discrete components with high performance. The sensitivity of this reader is −85dBm. This reader combined with a powerful computational CPU, it provides a platform for high speed computational ability and data retention, which makes ranging, localization, motion detection and other applications becoming possible.


Data compression algorithms with high compression ratio are vital to modern data centers due to limited bandwidth and the exponential increases in the quantity of data stored. PAQ is the collection of a series of open source compression algorithms ranking top in terms of compression ratio on many typical benchmarks. Due to its high computational complexity and large memory usage, PAQ is not widely used. In this paper, based on a lite version of PAQ (LPAQ1) algorithm, an improved LPAQ1 (ILPAQ1) algorithm is presented to reduce the memory usage and improve the throughput at the cost slightly loss in the compression ratio. For the ILPAQ1 algorithm, the tradeoff between compression ratio and memory usage is also investigated based on some typical benchmarks. To the best of our knowledge, for the first time, a well-optimized VLSI architecture for the predictor part, which dominates the overall complexity of the ILPAQ1 algorithm, is proposed. The predictor architecture is coded in RTL and synthesized under the TSMC 90nm CMOS technology. The implementation results demonstrate that the proposed architecture achieves a throughput of 44.4 Mb/s at 400MHz clock speed, which is 5 times faster than that of the software implementation based on Intel core-i7 4790 CPU at 3.60 GHz.


SYNOPSIS The potential of wind power generation near the remote areas of Saudi Arabia is investigated. Meteorological data from twenty weather stations for a period of ten years are analyzed to obtain wind pattern and characteristics. The annual average wind velocity distribution, and frequency of occurrence are significant in assessing the wind power potential of a certain site, especially as the power in the wind is related to the cube of the wind velocity. The analysis of the data revealed that the potential of wind power is promising. The possible sites for capturing the wind energy are the northern and coastal sites of Saudi Arabia. Small desalination units, irrigation pumps and electrical power generators could therefore be powered by wind energy in remote areas of Saudi Arabia.