The problem of the propagation of a Love wave in a corrugated isotropic layer over a homogeneous isotropic half-space has been investigated. The dispersion relation of Love wave propagation in a corrugated layer medium bounded by irregular boundaries is derived. In special cases, the dispersion relation is reduced for the corrugated layers bounded by periodic boundary surfaces, d cos px, d1 cos px and d2 cos px. The dispersion relation is found to be a function of the amplitudes of the corrugation, frequency and position parameters of the corrugated boundary surfaces. The results of Ewing et al. and results similar to Noyer are recovered from our analysis. The phase velocity and group velocity of Love waves are computed numerically and the results are depicted graphically.


We propose a data preprocessing method for estimating the travel time of a path and a system model to supplement the data required for Artificial Neural Network (ANN) training. Providing an accurate and reliable estimated travel time from the origin to the destination of a path aids in efficient path planning. An ANN is used to estimate travel time based on historical and real-time traffic data. Machine learning algorithms include the ability to find patterns and infer results based on raw data. The data preprocessing capabilities of this raw data play an important role in getting the best outcomes from training. There are fixed sensor-based approaches and mobile sensor-based approaches to collecting traffic data. However, fixed sensor-based approaches have cost and implementation constraints, and mobile sensor-based approaches require numerous probe vehicles. However, probe vehicles are not everywhere. In addition, in urban areas, it is challenging to estimate the travel time because a long time interval can pass through 2–3 sections. Therefore, we present a model that predicts the fractional velocity of a segment using the last three data points of a set of Global Positioning System (GPS) points within a segment. If there is insufficient data, we present a method to fill the input data of the ANN by copying the previous velocity data. In addition, we propose a system model that divides the training according to the standard deviation and uses all the data as training data through a K-fold cross validation model if the data required for training is insufficient. As a result, it can be seen that the error rate of learning is reduced compared to learning all at once. The outcome enables a slightly more accurate prediction of the travel time of a segment.


Haemophilus in�uenzae is causative agent of serious infections especially among children. β-lactam antibiotics are commonly used for treatment of these infections. Among H. in�uenzae isolates, β-lactam resistance can be due to the presence of either a β-lactamase, or in β-lactamase negative ampicillin resistant strains (BLNAR), to mutations in the ftsI gene that generate altered PBP3 with reduced a�nity for β-lactams. The role of speci�c amino acid substitutions in PBP3 in producing a BLNAR phenotype has been thus far demonstrated by ftsI sequencing and deduced PBP3 amino acid substitutions of large numbers of strains with a BLNAR phenotype, by transforming susceptible recipient strains with ftsI genes from BLNAR strains, and by using site directed mutagenesis of the ftsI gene to generate desired substitutions. However, reversal of resistance in BLNAR strains by trans-complementation with wild-type ftsI has never been demonstrated and might be a useful tool in the investigation of β-lactam resistance in H. in�uenzae. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of trans-complementation with wild-type ftsI on the β-lactam susceptibility of H. in�uenzae with various β-lactam susceptibility phenotypes and genotypes. For this purpose, wild type ftsI gene encoding for PBP3 was ampli�ed in whole from β-lactam susceptible H. in�uenzae Rd and cloned in pLS88 plasmid to obtain pADUTAS17, which was then used to transform known BLNAR strains, susceptible strains, and a strain (CF55) with wild type ftsI but unexplained reduced β-lactam susceptibility. Ampicillin and cefotaxime MICs were determined after transformation with pLS88 and pADUTAS17 plasmids. The results showed that antibiotic susceptibilities were not affected by trans-complementation for isolates carrying wild type ftsI gene, including strain CF55. However, trans-complementation for all BLNAR strains showed decreases between -0.957 and 0.5-fold for ampicillin and cefotaxime, con�rming the role of the PBP3 substitutions in the BLNAR phenotype of these isolates. These results show that trans-complementation might be a useful tool in the investigation of decreased β-lactam susceptibility in H. in�uenzae.


The dominant chemical reaction kinetics of CFsC1 and stoichiometrically equivalent C~F6 + C12 plasmas were studied by a small periodic power modulation and analyzed using transfer function techniques. The plasmas were studied at a pressure of 500 mTorr and residence times of �9 = 200 and 20 ms. Six reactions were used to model the dominant neutral discharge chemistry. The same reaction network was used for both CF3C1 and C2F6 + C12 discharges. The reaction network captured the competitive parallel C1 formation in the CF3C1 plasma and important reaction interdependencie s in the C2F6 + C12 plasma. The experimental results confirmed the importance of surface recombination and quantified total sticking coefficients over anodized aluminum for C1 and CF3: ~/c~ = 0.15 and "/CF.~ = 0.05. These results suggest that chemically similar plasmas can be developed for chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) based discharges, such as CF~C1, using non-CFC based feed gases such as C2F6 + C12.


*Terrestrial Ecology Research Unit and Department of Botany, University of Port Elizabeth, PO Box 1600, Port Elizabeth, 6000, South Africa tAustralian Museum, 6 College Street, Sydney, New South Wales, 2010, Australia tNew South Wales Department of Environment and Conservation, PO Box 402, Armidale, New South Wales 2350, Australia ?Biodiversity Conservation Unit, Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa, 2b Lawrence Street, Central Hill, Port Elizabeth 6001, South Africa **Cape Conservation Unit, Botanical Society of South Africa, Claremont 7735, South Africa ttKirstenbosch Research Centre, National Botanical Institute, Claremont 7735, South Africa ttBiodiversity Directorate, National Botanical Institute, Private Bag xlOl, Pretoria, 0001, South Africa ??Leslie Hill Institute for Plant Conservation, University of Cape Town, Private Bag, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa


Objectives & Background EM and Paediatrics are specialties at the forefront of the move towards 24/7 consultant delivered care. This shift has been partly driven in EM by trauma pathways, as well as aiming to provide better patient care, and to support training. Chelsea and Westminster Paediatric ED sees around 34,000 children a year. It is not a major trauma centre. In May 2013, 6 consultant paediatricians were appointed to be resident in PED at night. This study evaluates the PED team's perceptions of the impact of this change on the quality of clinical care, training and job satisfaction, and of trainee's views of undertaking a similar role in the future. Methods An online questionnaire was sent to all nursing staff and junior doctors (ST1-ST8) working in PED, in May 2014. Questions were answered on a 5 point Likert scale, with scope for free text responses, and role specific questions for both nursing and medical staff. Results 26/35 (75%) of staff responded (42% medical/58% nursing staff). 72% of respondents preferred working with resident consultants. Clinical Care 100% of trainees and 80% of nurses felt the quality of care was improved at night. 90% felt it improved the management of a resuscitation, and 100% felt it was easier to discuss safeguarding concerns. Training & Supervision Trainees felt it improved their supervision in practical procedures (70%), increased their opportunity to complete WBPAs (80%), and increased the number of learning opportunities (70%). Registrars were concerned that opportunities for leadership and management experience were reduced. Nursing staff 87% believed decision making was faster, 73% felt children spent less time in the department and 80% felt waiting times were reduced. Perceptions Only 30% of trainees would like to work as a resident consultant in the future. 90% believed that resident on call working should be time limited. Conclusion PED staff at C&W have welcomed the move to 24/7 consultant delivered care. The core aims – to improve the efficiency and proficiency of patient care, and to better utilise out of hours working as a training opportunity – are being achieved. Concerns remain about disempowerment of senior trainees and the perceived impact of night shifts in a consultant role on work-life balance. To sustain this model, trainees must be convinced of the benefits of becoming a resident consultant upon their own career.


In this article we report the processes, results and perspectives of our two-year course aiming for collaborative education to produce professionals with a master's degree who have a wider view of health and welfare. These professionals are able to understand the requirements of patients and are capable of supplying such necessary steps and materials. How we have carried out such education and improved it for better collaboration on campus is the center of this discussion. Our undergraduate program includes the socalled freshman seminar I and II during spring semester and fall semester respectively, besides the standard basic classes and professional courses, as mentioned in other chapters. Further, a comprehensive seminar, sometime called Integrated Learning Seminar is added to our program as mentioned also in the other chapter. All of these seminars are used to make students familiar with other aspects of health and welfare. Ordinary education taught traditionally looked to develop highly specialized knowledge and techniques but this has been recognized as insuffi cient for patients and care professionals today. Collaboration and cooperation in our professions are indispensable for performing our desired activity, namely to be a QOL (quality of life) helper. Since 2006, when our graduate school was founded, a special seminar course for collaborative science in health, welfare and medicine was started. This is a required course operated in an omnibus style. A professor is more like a coordinator or a chairperson in the class room and discussion between students, fresh from undergraduate courses and experienced professionals and speaker(s) is promoted. The professor in charge of the class designs topics and directs the fl ow of discussion. The speaker may be an on-campus professor, invited specialist in the area from another university or from offcampus, and various team-leaders in the Niigata area. This system has created collaboration between our departments, universities and local organizations, and even between local organizations, promoting a higher level of interaction and collaboration. The themes chosen for discussion in the fi rst year were the following: 1. " Abuse of infants and persons of higher age (elders)", lead by Professor Kouzoh Iwasaki. 2. " Current status and problems in critical path." lead by Dr. Naoto Endo from Department of Medicine, Niigata University. 3. " Interdisciplinary health practice: The care of aged people" : lead by Dr. David Satin from Harvard Medical School, U.S.A. 4. " Collaboration among professionals in health, welfare and medical fi elds": lead by Dr. Yoshimaru Usuda, Shinrakuenn Hospital. 5. " Exercise and meals for overweight and diabetes mellitus": lead by Dr. Norihito Special Program for Collaborative Science in Health and Welfare towards the Master's Degree


How to harness the vast intellectual assets of universities as a lever for social good? Several years ago, Michael Burawoy (former president of the American Sociological Association and a University of California, Berkeley professor), in a response to a New York Times op-ed by Stanley Fish, declared: "Academics are living in a fool's paradise if they think they can hold on to their ivory tower" (Burawoy 2004, p. B24). He continued, "The chickens are coming home to roost as the public is no longer interested in our truth, no longer prepared to subsidize our academic pursuits. ...Fish would have us draw the curtains, close our eyes, and either accede to privatization or hope that the passion for the market will evaporate. It won't. We have to demonstrate our public worth" (Burawoy 2004, p. B24). Burawoy's challenge to engage in public life has never been more urgent. Witness recent protests on college campuses across the country - clearly, there is a crisis in higher education. With skyrocketing tuition, shrinking access to and budgets for public universities, and increasingly complex social problems, it is time to ask: What are public research institutions doing - and what should they do - to fulfill their compact with the citizens of their states? One approach is found in the example of The University of Texas at Austin's (UT-Austin) intellectual entrepreneurship (IE) initiative. Part of the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement headed by vice president Gregory Vincent, a presidential portfolio created by president William Powers Jr. to foster "dynamic community-university partnerships designed to transform lives," IE seeks to educate "citizen-scholars" - students supplying more than narrow disciplinary knowledge (The University of Texas at Austin 2008, ¶ 1). Whether participating in cross-disciplinary multi-institutional teams to find solutions to overcrowded emergency rooms ("synergy groups"), working with mentors on- and off-campus to address the problem of child abuse ("pre-grad internships"), developing an arts-based community newspaper and implementing arts educational programs that place at-risk urban youth on the path to college ("arts entrepreneurship incubator"), or using the scholarly methodology of oral history to implement programs for increasing diversity and promoting culturally-sensitive communication in local schools ("project in interpreting the Texas past"), these IE students and projects concretely exemplify academic engagement. They take to heart the ethical obligation to discover and put to work knowledge that makes a difference - engaging in service with, rather than to, society. Moreover, IE students reveal how local, national, and global problems are complex and cannot be solved by any one academic discipline or sector of society. Answers demand intellectual entrepreneurship - an approach to service that fosters collaboration among educational institutions, nonprofit agencies, businesses, and government. This is far different from the customary unilateral, elitist sense of the term "service" in which universities contribute to society in a top-down manner. To be clear, these student examples are powerful illustrations of the potential of academic engagement. Yet serious challenges remain. Several UT-Austin faculty (a poet, economist, philosopher, neurobiologist, theatre historian, and geologist), along with distinguished community members (including the U.S. secretary of commerce, CEO of a major health care network, chancellor of the University of Texas System, and president of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation), contributed to an IE newspaper series exploring how to engender greater connections between the university and community (The University of Texas at Austin 2003-2004). What emerged was the conclusion that the quest to create engaged public research universities - to fully realize the ethical imperative to make a difference - requires academe to confront a stark reality: inflexible administrative structures, historically embedded practices, status-quo thinking, and inertia. …


ABSTRACT Pulverized coal (PC) pyrolysis is an indispensable process for coal thermal conversion and utilization. The transformation of fuel-N into fast pyrolysis is a basis for the investigation of nitrogen migration in coal combustion. In this paper, a wire mesh reactor was used to study the initial decomposition processes and to reveal the final pyrolysis yield and composition distribution during the fast pyrolysis process. Furthermore, the initial pyrolysis characteristics of PC with different ash contents were presented and compared. The results showed that both Huangling coal (with higher volatile) and Wuhai coal (with higher ash content) showed a similar trend, and the pyrolysis ratio increased with the increased pyrolysis final temperature. The pyrolysis ratio at the high heating rate was estimated to exceed that at the low heating rate by 2%–10%. With the temperature increased, the char-N yield decreased first and then tended to be stable, and most of nitrogen remained in the char (more than 55%). An increase in heating rate made the pyrolysis zone to shift toward higher temperature, and it enhanced the yields of volatile and tar as well as the proportion of tar in volatile. Besides, the heating rate increased from 10°C·s−1 to 1500°C·s−1, the yield of tar-N increased from 4% to 14% and gas-N decreased from 28% to 19%. Overall, NH3 yielded was higher than HCN, which became more apparent at high heating rates. The content of the N-6 was positively related to the coal pyrolysis ratio.


Many problems afflict contemporary Japanese youth. Among them I shall take up for discussion here those which concern students, namely, school phobia, student apathy and student radicalism. For I think these are the most important youth problems of Japan, because of the impact they are exerting upon the whole nation. In fact, I doubt whether the student problems in Western countries, extremely critical as they may have become at one time or another, have ever so pervaded and affected the very fibres of society as in Japan. Compared with the student problems, other youth problems like delinquency or drug abuse, which are reported to be quite serious in some Western countries, are pretty much confined to a certain sector of population in Japan and more or less under control. It is also interesting to note in this regard that the suicide rate of youth, which used to be quite high for Japan, has sharply dropped in recent years and come close to the level of Western countries, seemingly in reverse proportion to the increasing magnitude of student problems.


Objective To uncover the effect of human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG) on the invasion of choriocarcinoma cells.Methods The effect of hCG on the expression of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) in JEG\|3 choriocarcinoma cell line was investigated by applying the method of reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT\|PCR). Results The results showed that, among the 18 types of MMPs only MMP\|8,\|10, \|12,\|19 were found to be expressed by JEG\|3 cells. After the incubation with 25 IU/ml hCG for 50hours, the expression of these 4 types of MMPs were all significantly reduced. Conclusion The invasiveness of JEG\|3 choriocarcinoma cell line was associated with the expression of MMP\|8, \|10, \|12, \|19, high levels of hCG could reduce the invasion of choriocarcinoma cells by inhibiting MMPs expression.


Financial intermediaries may increase economic efficiency through intertemporal risk smoothing. However without an adequate regulation, intermediation may fail to do this. This paper studies the effects of a production shock in a closed economy and compares abilities of market-based and bank-based financial systems in processing the shock. Unregulated banking system may collapse in absence of a proper regulation. The paper studies several types of regulatory interventions, which may improve the performance of the banking system.


The stress and displacement fields in an elastic half space subjected to a circular cylindrical inclusion with uniform temperature distribution are investigated. Using the Green's functions for axisymmetric body farces in elastic half space, one closed form solution is obtained for both interior and exterior elastic fields of the inclusion.


The main objective of data mining is to acquire information from a set of data for prospect applications using a measure. The concerning issue is that one often has to deal with large scale data. Several dimensionality reduction techniques like various feature extraction methods have been developed to resolve the issue. However, the geometric view of the applied measure, as an additional consideration, is generally neglected. Since each measure has its own perspective to the data, different interpretations may achieved on data depending on the used measure. While efforts are often focused on adjusting the feature extraction techniques for mining the data, choosing a suitable measure regarding to the nature or general characteristics of the data or application is more appropriate. Given a couple of sequences, a specific measure may consider them as similar while another one may quantify them as dissimilar. The goal of this research is twofold: to evince the role of feature extraction in data mining, and to reveal the significance of similarity measures geometric attributes in detecting the relationships between data.


The invention relates to the field of semiconductor manufacturing, in particular to a manufacturing method for copper interconnection lines. According to the manufacturing method for copper interconnection lines, provided by the invention, miniature solidified materials are adopted in a slot-prior copper interconnection process to form an isolating film between two layers of light resistors in a double-exposure technology, and through holes and metal slot structures in the light resistors are shifted to media layers sequentially, so that the existing process in which metal slot etching and through hole etching are traditionally regarded as two independent steps is replaced, and further the etching steps in a double Damascus metal interconnection line process are reduced effectively. Therefore, the productivity is improved and the manufacturing cost is reduced.


Device using an electrophoretic display system (10) is disclosed. Details of various structures can be simplified wiring system for the elevator system (24) is deployed. In one detailed embodiment, the touch screen device (104) is used together with the electrophoresis apparatus, the data is transmitted to the elevator dispatching controller elevator system (38).


The importance of classroom management to the consultation role in school psychology is explored. Approaches to classroom misbehavior by classroom teachers and graduate students completing their training in school psychology were analyzed, using the induction-sensitization model of socialization. Significant differences in overall approach to classroom management were noted, with teachers displaying a more sensitizing (punitive) approach to classroom management. A significant gender-profession interaction was found. Further analysis revealed a significant difference between male and female teachers in their approach to classroom management. These results are discussed and programs of consultation (group and individual) are outlined, utilizing the results of the study.


Methansulfonic acid/di-phosphorus pentoxide (4:1) was found to be an efficient reagent for one-pot synthesis of acylaryl methane sulfonates of phenolic esters via Fries rearrangement. This method is easy, rapid, and high-yielding reactions for the synthesis of acylaryl methane sulfonates.


This article is centrally concerned with the sort of knowledge that can and should inform educational policy—and it treats this as an epistemological question. It distinguishes this question from the more extensively explored question of what sort of knowledge in what form policy-makers do in fact commonly take into account.

The article examines the logical and rhetorical character of policy and the components of policy decisions and argues that policy demands a much wider range of information than research typically provides. Either the research task or commission has to be substantially extended or the gap will be filled by information or thinking that is not derived from research.

One of the gaps between research of an empirical kind and policy is the normative gap. In the final section the article points to the inescapably normative character of educational policy. Of course the values that inform policy can be investigated empirically, but this kind of enquiry cannot tell us what we should do. There is a role for research/scholarship and more rather than less intelligent and critical argumentation in addressing these normative questions as well as the empirical questions that underpin policy.


Leo Frederick is Principal of the Wells High School, Chicago, Illinois. H OW is pupil learning in the classroom evaluated? Is classroom learning evaluated entirely on an objective basis? To what extent does subjective evaluation account far wide variations in teachers' marks based presumably on the same criteria? To what .extent are teachers concerned with the evaluation of growth of creative ability? Of critical thinking? How are desirable social characteristics included in the evaluation of pupil learning? These questions will be discussed in terms of reports from eighty-five faculty members of a city high school of 2,100 enrollment. The scope of the discussion will necessarily be limited to the responses received in reply to questions submitted to the faculty.


In this paper, the finite difference method is applied to the 2 point nonlinear boundary value problem derived from a 2nd order nonlinear ordinary differential equation and the resulting matrix system solved by the coupled reduced alternating group explicit (CRAGE) method (Evans, 1985, 1990) on a parallel computer.


Integration of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), such as datalogging systems in science teaching laboratories has a long-standing and ongoing history. However, teachers' views and practices should be examined in order to achieve higher levels of efficacy and meaningful implementation of ICT in schools. In the present study, 12 primary student teachers along with an expert design and develop lab teaching material by implementing datalogging systems. The extent to which they integrate datalogging, as well as the nature of integration of ICT that they adopt is been studied through qualitative analysis of group discussions and quantitative analysis of the science experiments developed. Findings of the study reveal that student teachers addressed difficulties in 'actively' integrating technology in a non -negligible number of experiments, not only due to lack of content and technological content knowledge needed, but also due to cultural incompatibilities with the innovative and student-centered affordances of datalogging. Student teachers also held limited views of technology and regarded dataloggers mostly as measurement tools and not as a tool for inquiry. Moreover, student teachers' prior experiences on using ICT as well as their prime emphasis on PCK strongly affected the design of experiments, indicating a PCK to TPACK approach.


The curator of any collection of meteorites has an unenviable task in deciding whether, and on what terms, he should supply material for destructive study. Some relevant considerations and the policy adopted by the British Museum are outlined.


This work presents a new method of catalyst surface modification by using oxygen plasma to change the oxidation state of active sites in metal oxide catalysts. The concentration of V5+ ions on phase-pure M1 MoVNbTeOx catalyst is the key factor of catalytic performance in the oxidative dehydrogenation of ethane (ODHE) process. Based on this variable valence system, oxygen plasma is used to increase the vanadium valence state in consideration of its strong oxidization properties at low temperature. As expected, the oxygen plasma can efficiently increase the V5+/V4+ ratio on the catalyst surface without influencing the M1 phase structure. The catalyst evaluation results confirm that the oxidized catalysts give better performance in the ODHE process, e.g., a 9% increase of ethane conversion using the catalyst treated by 50% O2 plasma compared to the M1 phase catalyst without any post-treatment under the conditions of 673 K and the contact time of 20.7 gcat h molC2H6−1. As a gas–solid method, plasma treatment provides an efficient and mild way for catalyst preparation and modification. It is anticipated that this novel approach can be extended to treat a rich variety of redox catalysts.


There are various methodologies available for developing and testing software. The method we choose depends on various factors such as the nature of project, the project schedule, and resource availability. Although all software development projects involve periodic testing, some methodologies focus on getting the input from testing early in the cycle rather than waiting for input when a working model of the system is ready. Those methodologies that require early test inclusion have couple of great conditions, furthermore incorporate tradeoffs terms of project management, schedule, client interaction, budget, and communication among team members. Agile Testing is an arrangement of timesaving techniques specifically designed to make the work of agile testing teams easier and more productive. It is an engaging procedure that produces great results and has a simple mission: Get the most ideal testing comes about with minimal measure of work an exact, targeted solution. Common challenges agile teams face and recommended solutions to handle them rapidly and effectively .These challenge and solution-based techniques do not require significant changes in your current work process. We can adopt them in increments, which empowers us to focus on one particular test and meet it head-on with a precise, targeted solution. Common challenges agile teams face and recommended solutions to handle them rapidly and effectively .This paper discusses about how testing fits and challenges into conventional/Agile approach and then discusses the test-driven development practice in Agile Methodology in detail. CHALLENGES OF TESTING IN AGILE METHODOLOGY: A REVIEW Paper ID IJIFR/V4/ E4/ 019 Page No. 5807-5813 Subject Area Computer Sci.


To provide guidance on reopening a library, the American Library Association (ALA) offers a variety of guidance to catalogers and other library personnel through its COVID-19 Recovery website.


The clustering of buildings on the city map is an important field of cartographic and the main step to resolve issues related to the scale of the city map transformation process. The development of computer technology promotes the studies of cartographic and modelling algorithms. In order to achieve automatic clustering of map elements, the domestic and foreign scholars have proposed numerous automatic clustering algorithms. Although each algorithm works for specific problems, all algorithms are based on the graphical analysis transformation of building polygons on the map. By reading and analyzing current development of domestic and foreign researches, we find out that map building clustering needs more inspiring interactive features and automatic integrated decision-making simulation functions. It needs to improve the visualization software and integrated automatic intelligence, increase the proportion of the batch to support implementation of automated cartographic generalization to a higher level.


Summary The zebra mussel, Dreissena polymorpha, is a highly prolific biofouling freshwater mollusk accidentally introduced into North America in the 1980s. Understanding its reproductive mechanisms may give insight into its dispersion, adaptive mechanisms, and possible control methods. The spread of zebra mussels into tidal regions and estuaries could be affected by the responses of zebra mussel gametes to seawater. This study investigated the effect of dilute seawater (Instant Ocean, IO) and several of its components on zebra mussel oocyte viability. Zebra mussels were induced to spawn with serotonin. Oocytes exposed to various concentrations of IO or its component ions began to break down within 3 h, usually after a latency of 1–2 h. The percentages of oocytes fragmenting after 3-h exposure to low IO concentration were: control, 11±3%; 2% IO, 18±2%; 5% IO, 47±4%; and 10% IO, 53±4% (ANOVA, p<0.00l). NaCl or CaCl2 concentrations comparable to amounts present in 5% and 10% IO also induced oocyte breakdown (e.g., after 3 h, control, 12±1%; 50 mM NaCl, 49±1%; 1 mM CaCl2, 52±1%; ANOVA, p<0.001). However, NaCl and calcium-mediated mechanisms may differ because: (a) fragmentation morphology differs; (b) osmotically equivalent NaCl, Na-phosphate, and glucose yield similar results, suggesting that these solutions all work primarily by an osmotic effect; and (c) CaCl2 caused twice the oocyte fragmentation of osmotically equivalent NaCl, suggesting that oocyte breakdown may also depend upon specific Ca-activated mechanisms. Both osmotic and calcium-mediated mechanisms may be involved in the breakdown of oocytes in response to seawater. Structural changes of zebra mussel oocyte fragmentation may resemble breakdown of oocytes described in other organisms in response to aging and oxidative stress that have been suggested to be mediated by apoptosis.


This report provides an overview of e-Science developments in the Asia-Pacific region, based on country reports made at the International Symposium on Grids and Clouds 2011 (ISGC 2011) [1], held on 21-25 March at Academia Sinica, Taipei. The document includes a brief overview of 12 Asian countries presented at ISGC 2011. They are: Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.


This paper investigates socioeconomic impacts of three multifunctional sports arenas situated in Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg, Germany. The three arenas were chosen for their potential to contribute to revitalisation of their economically deprived neighbourhoods. We employ a difference-in-differences approach to check for structural breaks in development of land values within areas of potential impact. Our results suggest that arenas emanate positive externalities and apparently have accelerated the process of gentrification going on in Prenzlauer Berg. However, evidence also supports concerns that congestion problems may adversely affect property values, at least when not addressed appropriately during planning.


Abstract Based on an experimental configuration (lateral impact, flexion angle of the knee: 90°, car velocity 32 km/h), a car—bicycle impact was simulated using a complete finite element model of the lower limb previously validated in various impact conditions. This lower limb was coupled with the upper body of a rigid hybrid III dummy. Models of a car front and a bicycle were added to simulate the global environment of the car—bicycle impact. The simulation was performed with Radioss. A car—bicycle impact test was used for the model validation by comparing global kinematics and recorded data (accelerations). Moreover, the description of numerical joint movements brought insight into injury mechanisms. The injury analysis was quantified by stress levels on the bone structures and by strain for knee ligaments. The simulation was extended by modifying the car velocity, cause of the greatest variation in predicted injury mechanisms.


Based on practical projects,the anti-floating design methods of pile foundation and raft of beam are proposed and then the design details,calculation methods and structure formations of prestressed concrete pipe pile are also introduced,effectively solve the problems existed in construction.


The surface energies and work functions of the disordered binary alloys of alkali metals are calculated using the density functional formalism and the variational principle for the energy. Vegard's law for the volumes is assumed. To calculate the structure-dependent pseudopotential contribution the virtual-crystal approximation and the linear relation between the Wigner-Seitz radius and the core radius of the Ashcroft model potential is used. The calculated variation of the work function against the concentration of the constituents is in good agreement with the measurements for Na-K, K-Rb and Rb-Cs systems.


The Constitution of Timor-Leste (East Timor) guarantees the legal protection of women. It has also adopted common international legal principles on human rights. However, there are some issues and hindrances which preventthe Constitution from protecting women substantially and practically. For example, there are transitional provisions regarding the national jurisdictional system in the Constitution. This paper raises those issues which are the obstacles to the provision of legal protection for women. It argues that an evolutionary and comprehensive strategy needs to be considered, not a revolutionary one, in order for legal measures to function as protection for women.


This article focuses on the development of an aromatic amination reaction using CuI and CsOAc and its application to total syntheses of nitrogen-containing cyclic natural products. The reaction conditions present several unprecedented features that have not been observed in conventional palladium-catalyzed systems, including high functional group compatibility (e.g., N-alloc-and sp2-Br are retained) and applicability for highly hindered substrates. The utility of this reaction has been fully demonstrated through total syntheses of duocarmycins, yatakemycin, and PDE-II.


The ambient-temperature passive magnetic bearing system developed at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory achieves rotor-dynamic stability by employing special combinations of levitating and stabilizing elements. These elements, energized by permanent magnet material, create the magnetic and electrodynamic forces that are required for the stable levitation of rotating systems, such as energy-storage flywheels. Stability criteria, derived from theory, describe the bearing element parameters, i.e., stiffnesses and damping coefficients, that are required both to assure stable levitation (''Earnshaw-stability''), and stability against whirl-type rotor-dynamic instabilities. The work described in this report concerns experimental measurements and computer simulations that address some critical aspects of this overall stability problem. Experimentally, a test device was built to measure the damping coefficient of dampers that employ eddy currents induced in a metallic disc. Another test device was constructed for the purpose of measuring the displacement-dependent drag coefficient of annular permanent magnet bearing elements. In the theoretical developments a computer code was written for the purpose of simulating the rotor-dynamics of our passive bearing systems. This code is capable of investigating rotor-dynamic stability effects for both small-amplitude transient displacements (i.e., those within the linear regime), and for large-amplitude displacements, where non-linear effects can become dominant. Under the lattermore » conditions a bearing system that is stable for small-amplitude displacements may undergo a rapidly growing rotor-dynamic instability once a critical displacement is exceeded. A new result of the study was to demonstrate that stiffness anisotropy of the bearing elements (which can be designed into our bearing system) is strongly stabilizing, not only in the linear regime, but also in the non-linear regime.« less


path algorithms play a vital role in real world applications. In this paper a cache friendly implementation for Bellman Ford algorithm to solve single source shortest path and all pair shortest path algorithm is proposed. The proposed algorithm is compared with sequential algorithm in terms of execution time, cache hit, ALUPacking and ALUBusy. This algorithm is also tuned with execution environment to yield maximum performance. In this paper we have discussed all above factors in terms of framework called OpenCL. Keywords-Ford, OpenCL, ALUPacking, ALUBusy, Cache hit.


We have solved the quark confinement boundary-vaiue problem of the MIT bag mode! rnimerically for axially deformed bag shapes. As first resuits we present a Nilsson-type leni diagram for quarks confined in a deformed cavity. Minimising die baryori energy with respcct to die shape parameters, we also calculate die masses of baryonic states. Tiere die resuits show very clearly that excited baryon resonances arc intrinsically deformed. 1. Introductjon The original MIT hag mode) (Chodos ei al 1 974a, b), while c~rcuniventing the difficulties of QCD, allOWs US to understand many properties of hadrons by taking into aecount only spherical shapes of bags in which quarks arc confined. Within this simple spherical approximation, attempts have been made to deseribe excited hadronic states even with first-order gluonic corrections being taken into account (dc Grand 1976, de Grand and Jaffe 1976). Later defornied cavities within which static point quarks served as sources of colour electric and niagnetic fields, the lauer then being subjeeted to the gluonic hag boundary conditions (Gnadig ei al 1976, Mulders ei at 1979, 1980, Aerts ei al 1980, Wang Gia-zhan ei al 1981), were considered as weil as toroidaily deformed bags containing only gluons (Robson 1980). The next step, the inelusion of quark flelds in dynamical calculations, has also been envisaged (Viollier and Chin 1980). Rccently, the Regge trajectory for non-strange baryons in the cylindrical geometry could also be calculated with simplifying assumptions (Shanker ei al 1982). Other, numerous, publications on the bag model aiready exist (Hasenfratz ei al 1978), but, so far as we know, no caiculations for arbitrary axial quark bag shapes have yet been published. In this short paper we present numerical solutions of the bag model for free massless quark~ (i.e. non-strange baryons) moving in cavities with axial and refleetion symmetries. Our resuits clearly show that excited baryonic states are intrinsically deformed.


In the interest of their stockholders, policyholders and employees, management seeks to generate capital by selling a diversified portfolio of insurance claims on itself, while investing the funds in a balanced portfolio of finanical instruments. To generate and invest capital optimally, management must measure capital costs and investment returns accurately and be able to relate the risk-return characteristics of the array of capital claims to each other as well as to its portfolio of assets. This paper presents a technique to aid management in optimizing the portfolios of claims and investments and the degree of leverage in the capital structure. As a financial intermediary, an insurance company attracts capital by offering an instrument dissimilar to those in which it in turn invests. The assets (investments) of an insurance company are of the risk generating type-mortgages, bonds, stocks, even cash if one wishes to consider the risks of inflation. The insurance policies offered (liabilities to the company) are risk reducing to those who buy them because their returns are negatively correlated with the wealth of the insured.'


A monolithic integrated filter with mode conversion and impedance transformation for GSM 900 is presented. Hereby, a so called rat-race inductor is utilized, replacing up to six conventional inductors and one transformer, resulting in a reduction in chip size by approximately 50 %. The rat-race inductor is handled theoretically and 3D-EM based simulations are carried out, verifying the proposed structures and expected results. A first wafer run is to be fabricated on Infineon Technologies P7MI semiconductor process. The insertion loss of the filter is as low as 2.3 dB accompanied by a phase imbalance of less than 5/spl deg/ and an amplitude imbalance of less than 0.5 dB.


Abstract : The Army Transformation Plan (ATP) Roadmap of 2003 laid the blueprint for a radically different Army structure to be in place by 2014. The ATP marks the beginning of the end for the fixed-organization structure within the division and corps. In its place, a modular structure will be the hallmark of the future Army. The Army will consist of new corps and division headquarters designed for joint force operations and for command and control of a tailored mix of forces capable of supporting full-spectrum operations. The traditional combat brigades will be restructured into modular forces called Brigade Combat Teams (BCTs) with improved force mixes, sustainability, and command and control supporting full-spectrum operations. While there will be different types of BCTs (Heavy, Stryker and Infantry), they will be based on standard configurations, eventually evolving into the Future Combat Systems Brigade. Along with the restructured BCT, some of the supporting structures of the traditional corps and division will be remodeled. There will be five new brigade-sized units designed to support the deployment and sustainment of the new BCTs. The first four new brigades are the Aviation Brigade, the Fires Brigade, the Battlefield Surveillance Brigade, and the Sustainment Brigade. All of these brigades are now under development as their concepts and organizational structures are shaped to support the modularity designs of the future Army. The last brigade element, the Combat Support Brigade (CSB) (Maneuver Enhancement [ME]), is the subject of this article.


Effective communication has the prospective to enhance women's quality of life, protect them in the fragile environment and create a knowledge based society that is more responsive to change and development issues. It can lead to the empowerment of women, enabling them to take control of their lives and participate as equals with men in development activities. The internet has made access to information and communication quick and easy with information. From entertainment to banking to access to resources related to education and health available at their fingertips. Internet services have a potential agent in the empowerment of women. This study found that exposer to the internet can help in gaining knowledge and change attitudes, which indirectly helps women gain freedom on all fronts. However, internet services have a very limited penetration among women in Nepal thereby limiting its impact on women empowerment.


In 39 healthy active people aged 17 to 79 who had not fallen, anteroposterior sway during quiet standing increased slightly with age; there was no increase with age in lateral sway. Sway increased on deprivation of visual information and altered proprioception due to foot pressure sensory change in all age groups, and especially when both forms of sensation were altered concurrently; but the increase of sway on pressure sensory change was no greater in the older than in the younger subjects.


The design of next-generation RFICs remains challenging and demands innovation. In addition, with signal frequencies reaching tens of GHz, testing these circuits has created extraordinary challenges. This issue of D&T features a special issue on design and test of RFICs. This issue also includes an in-depth interview with Chris Rowen—founder, president, and CEO of Tensilica. In addition, there are four general-interest articles addressing diverse design and test issues.


We introduce a simple method for specifying individual components of a concurrent system. The speciication of the system is the conjunction of its components' speciica-tions. We show how to prove properties of the system by reasoning about its components. Our approach is useful in substantial veriication problems.


With technological advancement, visual search has become an effective tool for searching important information by providing images. We propose a practical medical equipment recognition that can be used in visual search through deep transfer learning. We evaluated three deep learning models, i.e., VGG-16, ResNet-50, and Inception-v3, to recognise ten different classes of medical equipment. A data set consisting of 2,666 images had been collected and augmented to measure the models' effectiveness. The models pre-trained with the ImageNet data set were transferred to the final models, and the last layers were replaced and trained with the collected data set. A grid search method was then used to find the best combination of hyperparameters, such as optimiser, batch size, epoch number, dropout rate, and learning rate. We tested the models using photos captured using smartphones. The results showed that Inception-v3 outperformed the other two models with the highest accuracy of 0.9454. This is the first study that uses deep transfer learning for recognising medical equipment to our best knowledge. Such recognition technology can potentially be implemented in visual search for helping consumers to check the validity of medical equipment.


In the wake of the continuous deepening of the application of new generation information technology in the manufacturing field, digital twin, as a most new active factors for smart manufacturing, has become a new research hot spot. Based on such a background, the article proposes a novel application framework of digital twin-driven product smart manufacturing system and analyzes its operation mechanism. Key enabling technologies such as digital twin mapping technology with manufacturing entity, twinning of cyber and physical manufacturing system, as well as twining data-driven machining parameter optimization are also illustrated in detail. Finally, a case of the aeroengine fan blade manufacturing is given to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the implementation method mentioned above. Meanwhile, potential industrial applications and limitations are discussed as well to provide valuable insights to aeroengine blade manufacturers.


Research on career development and counseling for gifted and talented students primarily has focused on the recurring themes of multipotentiality, career needs of females, perfectionism, and early cognitive and vocational maturity. A review of current literature, however, indicates that new perspectives on traditional concepts are needed in order to provide appropriate and adequate career counseling to all gifted and talented students. This article gives an overview of the existing issues, identifies areas for further research, and recommends an agenda for change in the nature of career counseling for the gifted and talented.


We examine the paradigm of data-centric artificial intelligence (DCAI) as a solution to the obstacles that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) face in adopting AI. While the prevalent model-centric approach emphasizes collecting large amounts of data, SMEs often suffer from small datasets, data drift, and sparse ML knowledge, which hinders them from implementing AI. DCAI, on the other hand, emphasizes to systematically engineer the data used to build an AI system. Our contribution is to provide a concrete, transferable implementation of a DCAI development process geared towards industrial application, specffically in machining and manufacturing, and demonstrate how it enhances data quality by fostering collaboration between domain experts and ML engineers. This added value can place AI at the disposal of more SMEs. We provide the necessary background for practitioners to follow the rationale behind DCAI and successfully deploy the provided process template.


In Sri Lanka the three honeybee species Apis florea, Apis cerana and Apis dorsata are found in the
same biotope. The daily periods of drone flight were found to be specific O( ENIKGER and AW-YALGUN1ASE
K,ERA 1976). According to NT RUETR (1988) this behavioral isolation is a more complete separation than
the reproductive barrier between A. mellifera and A. cerana.
The three honeybees, A. cerana, A. vechti and A. dorsata are naturally distributed in the same
habitat. We compared the time of drone flight between these honeybees in Sabah (North East Borneo).


This study aimed to test the hypothesis that young adults with obesity and cold‐activated brown adipose tissue (BAT) are less likely to have metabolic dysfunction (dyslipidemia, insulin resistance, and hypertension) than those without cold‐activated BAT. Previous studies have noted a potentially protective effect of BAT and higher adiponectin/leptin ratios, but they have acknowledged that the clinical implications of these findings remain uncertain.


In this paper we address the problem of dynamically locating unwanted nondeterminism (race conditions) in executions of explicitly parallel message-passing programs. We formally define what it means for a race to exist and show conceptually how to dynamically locate races. We also show the import ante of accurate race detection as a starting point for debugging, reporting only races directly caused by bugs and not by other races. We argue that accurate detection using a pure on-the-fly algorithm requires space bounded by the execution's length, an impractical requirement for long program runs. To address this problem, we present a two-pass on-the-fly algorithm that requires space independent of the execution's length. Our algorithm is simple, efficient, and accurately locates races in runs of any length.


Inaccurate range estimation is a major problem which comes with Electric Vehicles. Because of this many people face issues when planning long trips and short trips with limited battery capacity. To overcome this issue, it is necessary to have a better power consumption prediction algorithm which uses vehicle data and other dynamic environmental conditions. This paper is based on cloud based power consumption estimation system which uses linear regression in machine learning to obtain a better estimation based on above mentioned areas. KeywordsElectric Vehicle, Range, Power Consumption, Estimation


This paper presents a linear programming model for optimal water allocations in a large river basin system. The model is applied to the transboundary Subernarekha River in India, which has two main stream reservoirs, two barrages, and three small command area reservoirs. The Tripartite Agreement (TPA) among the cobasin riparian states for sharing of its waters is analyzed. The main objective is to find the maximum annual benefits from irrigation and hydropower subject to various constraints on the system. Design constraints as per the TPA relating to the water shares among riparian states (i.e., Bihar, Orissa, and West Bengal) at individual dams and barrages are also considered. Optimal water allocations are obtained based on the 75% water year dependable flow as specified in the TPA. Water shortage and water surplus years have also been considered to determine optical water allocations during the dry and wet years, respectively. The stream reservoirs Chandil and Icha would fail to meet the water demands during the low flow years, whereas the Kharkai and Galudih barrages would essentially satisfy water demands according to the TPA provisions. Results indicate that Bihar is likely to benefit most from the TPA.


In this article, we have applied the tanh-function method using a generalized wave transformation to obtain the exact traveling wave solutions of nonlinear partial differential equations with variable coefficients via the KdV equation with forcing term and the generalized Gardner equation. It is shown that this method provides straightforward and powerful mathematical tools for solving nonlinear partial differential equations with variable coefficients. Keywords-The tanh-function method; Nonlinear partial differential equations with variable coefficients; Exact traveling wave solutions; Generalized wave transformation.


This study aimed to analyze the Influence of Management Commitment, Asset Administrator Competencies, Internal Control and Administration of Asset on Information quality of local government Asset Report. The research conducted on 207 Local Government Organization in 17 districts/cities in South Sumatera Province. The research data is primary data collected through questionnaire. The year of study is 2017. The analytical method used in this research is SEM by using Lisrel 8,7. The results of this research show that: (1) Management commitment does not significantly affect Information Quality of Local Government Asset Report while other variables namely Asset Administrator Competencies, Internal Control and Asset Administration, partially do. (2)The influence of Management Commitment, Competence of Asset Administrator, Internal Control and Administration of Asset significantly affect information Quality of Local Government Asset Report simultaneously. The implication of this study are expected in contributing to help the heads of Local government organization districts/cities of South Sumatra to improve Quality of Local Government Asset Report in order to obtain an unqualified opinion from BPK-RI. the Local Government in South Sumatera must perform a skilled asset administrator, management commitment, internal control and Administration of Asset with the best in particular to the assets.


icloram (C6H3Cl3N2O2; CAS 1918-02-1), the common name for 4-amino-3,5,6-trichloro picolinic acid (IUPAC), is a white powder with a chlorine-like odour. The amine and potassium salts picloram are soluble in water and constitute the act ingredients of several herbicides. At present, three Tor products are registered for use in Canada: Tordon 2 Tordon 101, and Tordon 202C (Agriculture and AgriFood Canada 1997). Tordon 22K contains 240 g ⋅L picloram as isooctyl esters or as the potassium sal liquid form. Tordon 22K, also contains glycol and sorbit ester-type wetting agents along with alcohol and wa Picloram organic salts (triisopropanolamine a triethylamine) and the isooctyl ester are used combination with other herbicides. Tordon 101 is mixture of 10.2% picloram and 39.6% 2,4-D, both triisopropanolamine salts. This mixture also contains glycol derivative sequestrant and glycol wetting age along with alcohol and water. Tordon 202C contains 200 g⋅L 2,4-D and 12 g ⋅L picloram. All soil-applied granular formulations of picloram have been discontinu for use in Canada because of concerns with groundw contamination.


As a result of the wide use of high-tensile steel and the imperfect fabrication process in ship construction as well as some uncertainties in ship fatigue design, cracks could be initiated much earlier than expected. The presence of fatigue cracks greatly affects a ship's structural safety and serviceability. To ensure structural safety and perform reliable crack inspection and maintenance planning, it is important to know how fast cracks can grow in ship structures. In the current study, the principles of fracture mechanics are used for crack propagation analysis in ships. By taking into account the special properties of a ship's stress response, an efficient spectral method is proposed and validated for the prediction of crack propagation in ship structures. In this spectral method, structural stresses are assumed to be narrow-band Gaussian processes. Furthermore, for crack inspection and maintenance planning based on crack growth, it is essential to know the wave environments encountered in a ship's future operations. Therefore, a spatiotemporal statistical wave model based on both satellite and buoy measurements is briefly introduced. It is developed to generate wave environments along arbitrary ship routes. Finally, the deck longitudinal stiffener of a 2800TEU containership is used to demonstrate the application of the spectral method and the wave model for the prediction of crack propagation in ships. The route information and operating conditions are taken from full-scale measurements of this ship. In the case study, the scatter of crack propagation associated with the wave environments encountered is also investigated. The results from this investigation indicate possible potentials of crack inspection and maintenance optimization to enable more efficient ship operation.


The present invention relates to the detection of a target nucleic acid sequence by a PTOCE (PTO Cleavage and Extension) assay in a liquid phase. The present invention detects a target nucleic acid sequence in which the PTO (Probing and Tagging Oligonucleotide) hybridized with the target nucleic acid sequence is cleaved to release a fragment and the fragment is hybridized with the CTO (Capturing and Templating Oligonucleotide) to form an extended duplex, followed by detecting the presence of the extended duplex. The extended duplex provides signals (generation, increase, extinguishment or decrease of signals) from labels indicating the presence of the extended duplex and has adjustable Tm value, which are well adoptable for detection of the presence of the target nucleic acid sequence.


Based on the non-uniform rational B-spline(NURBS)curve theory,the general rule of how the knot vector affects the shape of the NURBS curve is put forward.The local support property on how a knot affects the NURBS curve is demonstrated.The quantitative computation formula on how a knot affects the NURBS curve is obtained.An experiment performed on the example in computer aided geometric design(CAGD)proves that it is possible that the NURBS curve can be modified locally and be designed interactively by modifying a single knot.And another experiment performed on the measurement of the edge of the vane of the aero-engine compressor proves that the fitting model with the minimum errors can be achieved by the knot factor method(KFM)that is based on the rule.Both experiments prove that the rule proposed here is correct,practical and feasible.


An example of the present invention provides a display apparatus including the method of forming an organic film with the photosensitive resin composition using this, and the organic film.


The behavioral characteristic of hospital and predicament in department-managing in view of clinical department management in general public hospital is analyzed.problems such as mismatched management between hospital and sub-hospital level and the imbalance among different departments is discussed and relative suggestions is also presented.


In the digital imaging equipment,Gaussian white noise and salt pepper noise are both common noise source.They have great impact on the quality of the image.Against the characteristics of!the noises,a content-based image adaptive filtering algorithm is presented.In order to obtain the optimum filtering effect,the algorithm can adjust the filter coefficients adaptively,according to various pieces of the image features.Experiment shows that the algorithm can get good effect from the image interfered by Gaussian noise source,salt pepper noise source and both noise sources.


The Sino-Africa Educational Cooperation is an important part of the all-round and friendly Sino-African cooperation relation,which has shown the features of multi-actor,multi-level,multi-field and multi-approach.Sino-Africa educational cooperation emphasizes on mutual benefits and common development to promote Africa's self-development.The Sino-Africa educational cooperation includes mutual visits between government officials,exchanges and joint researches between universities,students exchanges,dispatching teachers and volunteers to Africa,developing human resources in Africa,and teaching and studying Chinese language in Africa.


Real-time big data analysis provides a better value than standard offline big data analysis. Academic groups are still researching and exploring the technologies of real-time big data analysis. Due to the vast scale and poor transmission rate of big data, there are several impediments in the research process, making it hard to fully access the potential value of data.A real-time large data visualization analysis platform based on Flink is presented to overcome this challenge.The platform first collects data in real time and sends it to the message middleware Kafka, and then the big data analysis platform reads the data stream in Kafka in real time and transmits it to the multidimensional operator developed with Flink as the framework for real-time Calculate, and uses WebSocket technology to push the calculation results to the front end in real time, and perform visual display, enabling real-time monitoring and analysis of data flow.The experimental findings suggest that the real-time big data analysis platform based on the integration of Flink and Kafka can accurately, promptly, and clearly portray the real-time data flow process and visual analysis.


The invention provides a communication control device, a communication control method, and a program which are able to reduce interference that occurs between different radio systems. A communication control device provided with a communication unit which communicates with a device that belongs to a first radio network, and a control unit which, on the basis of information relating to a second radio network different from the first radio network, controls whether or not a radio communication device that belongs to the first radio network performs frequency hopping.


This is a bachelor thesis on how requirements are communicated within projects at IKEA IT Delivery and if a common requirement tool can facilitate the communication. The question formulations of the thesis were: • How are requirements communicated within projects at IKEA IT Delivery? • How can a common tool facilitate or aggravate the communication of requirements at IKEA IT Delivery? To see patterns in how the tools were used and to answer the thesis question formulations qualitative interviews and a quantitative survey was done. The survey showed that 69% of the project members used more than one tool to manage requirements this although that project members, both in the survey and in interviews, stated that the use of only one requirement tool facilitated the project members' work and the communication of requirements. Word was the most used tool to manage both IT and Business requirements but the project members who only used one tool and then Quality Center was the most satisfied. Quality Center with its features like the possibility to link requirements to each other and tests, have all information such as requirements, tests, defects and releases regarding a project in one place, to see who has changed what and when and get an e-mail when changes are done facilitated the communication of requirements. With this as background the author only sees advantages with projects using Quality Center as the one common tool. (Less)


The utility model discloses an LED (Light-Emitting Diode) lamp tube comprising an LED lamp panel and a transparent cover and also comprises a heat abstractor and a pipe plug, wherein the heat abstractor is a cavity formed by enclosing heating panels, and the cavity is provided with an LED lamp panel joint face and an air heat dissipation part; the air heat dissipation part is provided with a heat dissipation hole; the pipe plug is arranged at one end of the cavity, and the pipe plug is provided with an air vent; the air vent and the heat dissipation hole forms the position relation of air convection.


sue Lawrance is a clinical Nurse specialist in lymphoedema at the florence Nightingale Hospice in Aylesbury, uK Lymphoedema and chronic oedema are common problems which have many causes; both are often incurable, progressive conditions that can have considerable physical and psychological implications. Due to their chronic nature, the principle aim of treatment is rehabilitation with the view of reducing disability as far as possible, while maintaining patient independence and providing patients with the skills to manage the condition themselves. Treatment centres around a twophase approach. The initial intensive phase (phase one) is known as decongestive lymphatic therapy (DLT) and is managed by a specialist practitioner. This aims to reduce the size, 'normalise' the tissues, skin and appearance of the affected limb, and improve patient mobility and function. with the support of a qualified healthcare professional. Maintenance of the limb relies on patient compliance to use the prescribed compression garments and follow a regime, including skin care, exercise and simple lymphatic massage.


Shell and tube heat exchanger is an important equipment in nuclear power, chemical industry and other industries. The working conditions of such equipment are sometimes complex, and the use temperature, fluid state and flow may affect the normal operation of the equipment. In addition, there are many connecting pipes on the shell and tube head of the shell and tube heat exchanger connected with other equipment, which has an impact on the continuity of the equipment structure. Reasons for the corrosion of the shell and tube heat exchanger tube box head in a chemical plant was analyzed in this paper. Finite element method was used to model the corroded tube box head, studies of the stress distribution after corrosion. Some suggestions was given to avoid this kind of corrosion.


Abstract In this study I estimate population densities and biomass of the major prey species of tiger Panthera tigris, leopard Panthera pardus and dhole Cuon alpinus in Bhutan's temperate ecosystem and recommend measures for reducing crop damage whilst simultaneously protecting ungulate populations. Thirty-two transects totalling 849 km were walked to estimate densities and biomass of ungulates and primates in Bhutan's Jigme Singye Wangchuck National Park during 2005–2006. Adequate detections (> 40 sightings) for analysis using Distance were obtained for wild pig Sus scrofa (n = 54), muntjac Munticus muntjac (n = 102) and sambar Cervus unicolor (n = 48). Because of similarity in morphology and habitat use, density of serow Capricornis sumatraensis was estimated using the detection probability for sambar. Detections for langur Trachypithecus geei and macaque Macca mulatta were combined (n = 39) to estimate primate density. Mean estimated densities were 3.68 wild pig, 2.17 muntjac, 1.19 sambar, 2.37 primates and 0.36 serow km-2. The three primary prey species of large predators, wild pig, sambar and muntjac, provided a biomass of 379 kg km-2, which could support up to 1.2 tigers per 100 km2. However, the presence of other sympatric carnivores competing for prey in the same area suggests that the actual number of tigers that could be supported is lower. Livestock (density, 6.0 km-2; biomass, 615 kg km-2) apparently supplement prey availability. Ungulate density in the study area is generally low compared to other areas in the Indian sub-continent, and this may be due to conflicts with farmers, excessive grazing of livestock in the forest and the rugged terrain.


This work is based on the discussion of the importance of using the inte grated software MRP II (Manufacturing Resources Planning), used for business managem ent and the improvement 2 MORAIS, T. T.; OLIVEIRA, S. Análise das atividades de PCP em uma indústria farmacêutica do Centro-Oest e mineiro Conexão ci.: r. cient. UNIFOR-MG, Formiga, v. 10, n . 1, p. 01-19, jan./jun. 2015 of the production process. In any organization PCP (Planning and Control of Production) is essential because it directs the production, control and distribution. The main objective is to analyze the activities and the difficulties of good planning, the researc h was made in form of a case study, performed in a pharmaceutical company in Minas Gera is, where it was identified the existence of an great difficulty in performing the PCP activities due to method failure used to perform the demand forecasts made by the commercial sector, whe e the sales forecast becomes little assertive. From there, makes it difficult for g od planning, because it jeopardizes the inventory management of raw materials and finishe d product. The results show that the integrated software MRP II is effective for pla nning and for production control, but striking factor is the flawed method for the preparation of sa les forecasts, reflecting directly on schedule. It is presented as a suggestion, review of the met ods used to prepare the demand forecast in order to contribute to a good production planning.


eral and the Commissioner of Insurance of the state to inquire into the subject matter of two bills introduced in that year. These officials reported in January, I9201 that the bills, which required every registrant of a motor vehicle to give evidence of liability insurance or of a bond covering his financial responsibility, were "drawn upon the theory that the State can and ought to require every person who operates an automobile to furnish protection for the public against the injuries which they may cause." They also considered the feasibility of a plan analogous to workmen's compensation but reported that "The proposition of replacing common law liability with a measured system of benefits is in our opinion an interesting possibility, but no more than that." They recommended the enactment of a law providing for compulsory liability insurance, stating that they did "not believe a State insurance company would furnish the best method of providing the insurance." No law on the subject having been enacted, a commission was appointed under a resolve of the year I921. This commission considered the compulsory insurance and compensation plans, and the suggestion that an injured person might be given a lien on the automobile causing the injury. After commenting adversely on the com-


The authors research and develop a flapping wing type robotic fish (shark ray robot) with flexible tail fin as an advanced underwater vehicle. The flapping wing consists of multijoints mechanism to get lift force and rotation moment for high maneuvering characteristics of motion. The tail fin is designed by elastic oscillating system and developed to produce strong propulsion force for higher speed maneuvering. In addition, a trim balance mechanism is designed to get the trim of pitch motion. The developed the shark ray robot has higher maneuverability by strong lift force of flapping wing and propulsion force of tail fin. Also, the shark ray robot can cruise quietly and avoid twining by seaweeds, and is effective for environmental parameter sensing and acquisition. The shark ray robot was designed by elastic oscillating fin system and the model with tail fin and main wings has been constructed. Then, its effectiveness has been successfully confirmed by numerical simulation and tank test. In addition, the authors proposed an effective fin drive due to resonance, and had positive outcomes.


This chapter focuses on recent clinical applications of antimicrobial photodynamic therapy (aPDT). The key attributes of aPDT include a wide therapeutic window, high efficacy against polymicrobial biofilms, avoidance of the resistance issues that plague antibiotic usage, potent anti-inflammatory effects and the activation of both the innate and adaptive arms of the immune system. Clinical applications for chronic adult periodontitis, refractory rhinosinusitis and staphylococcal nasal decolonization are presented in detail. The chapter demonstrates how a Methylene Blue-based sensitizer along with relatively low-power activation can provide the clinician with an alternative to the standard of care, including mechanical debridement, surgery, empirical antibiotic coverage and combinations of steroids and antibiotics in both systemic and topical administration. The treatment time is short, adverse effects are minimal to non-existent and no patient compliance either before or after therapy is required. The clinical hardware is relatively inexpensive due to the ongoing evolution of diode lasers, light-emitting diode arrays and low-loss, high-performance plastic optical fibers. In particular, the ongoing emergence of multidrug-resistant organisms and the absence of resistance induction by aPDT implies that the technique faces a bright future as a clinical modality and should be further developed.


Through the process of formation and development, communities have gradually accumulated experience in exploiting and using natural resources to serve their lives. Eating is an essential human need, first of all, to survive, and then gradually develop into art. Experience in exploiting and processing edible plants is diverse. In this study, by the botanical research methods combined with the ethnobotanical method, the authors recognised in the Thai ethnic community in Sop Cop district, Son La province 114 edible plant species. In 114 species recorded, 81 species are wild plants (accounting for 71.05%), 43 species are domesticated (37.72%), in which 10 species (8.77%) are semi-wild and domesticated. The group of vegetables is the most diverse with 52 species (45.61%), fruit trees with 39 species (34.21%), spice plants with 21 species (18.42%)... The parts are used also plentiful, with the most fruit with 57 species (50%), leaves, young buds, tubers... There are many special plants, processed to create unique and typical Thai dishes in Sop Cop district, Son La province.


The authors have developed the Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) program for the parents with sexually abused child. The aim of this program is to reduce the parents` stress and to learn the sufficient coping strategies that let the parents help the sexually abused child. CBT for the parents consists of three components which include training of coping skills , gradual exposure and parenting skill. The initial component is training of coping skills to express and change parents` own emotions and negative thoughts, to cope and manage their own stress and to provide the general information on sexually abused child. The second component is gradual exposure. Gradual exposure helps parents confront and cope with discussion about the abuse and train parents for the skills of talking with their children directly about the abuse. If parents have a personal history of the abuse, it is recommended that parents deal on their history. The third component focuses on parenting skill that may be used in managing behavioral problems, particularly any problems that may develop in response to the abuse. and it includes training regarding how to present sex education in proportion to the age and personal safety skills information to the child


scarce, sewage-lines non-existent, and the dryness of the climate encourages the composting of organic materials; what then is the advantage of the flush toilet over the traditional and perfectly hygienic earth-closet? Why spend crores of rupees trucking in fossil fuels, when the sun shines for 300 days of the year, and most energy needs could be met by the development of solar and wind power? What is the point of destroying local selfsufficiency in favour of dependence on resources from outside over which


Domatia are small invaginations and hair tufts usually found at vein junctions on the undersides of leaves in many woody dicots. Domatia of 32 plant species (of worldwide origin from 18 families) growing in California, Hawaii, and Costa Rica were examined for mites. Domatia of 31 of 32 (97%) of these plants contained mites, and 24 of 32 (75%) contained mite eggs. Mites were found within the domatia of 48% of the sampled leaves. The domatia of 26 of 31 (84%) plants had mite species considered beneficial (primarily in the families Phytoseiidae and Tydeidae, but also Bdellidae, Cheyletidae and Stigmaeidae), while 6 of 31 (19%) had mite species considered harmful (Tenuipalpidae and Eriophyidae). Based on these findings (and in part upon Lundstrom's 1887 domatia theory), we hypothesize the existence of a widespread facultative mutualism between plants with leaf domatia and beneficial mites: leaf domatia serve as shelters and nurseries for mites which in turn eat phytophagous arthropods and pathogens using the plants. This proposed mutualism could be of importance to agriculture since domatia are known to occur in some crop plants, including coffee, grape, and walnut.


Key Points Question What is the relative effectiveness of financial incentives and environmental change strategies, alone and in combination, on initial weight loss and maintenance of weight loss in employees with obesity? Findings In this randomized clinical trial, at the 18-month primary end point, participants in the incentives group lost a mean of 5.4 lb (2.45 kg), those in the environmental strategies group lost a mean of 2.2 lb (1.00 kg), and the combination group lost a mean of 2.4 lb (1.09 kg) more than the usual care group. None of the strategies was significantly more effective than usual care. Meaning Across all study groups, participants lost a modest amount of weight but those who received interventions did not lose significantly more weight, suggesting that more intensive individualized weight loss strategies may be needed.


Objective To analyze the experience of endovascular treatment of vertibrobasilar aneurysms.Methods A total of 245 cases were enrolled from July, 1986 to June, 2002, in which 224 cases were treated with endovascular therapy.Methods of treatment included: occlusion of unilateral vertibral arteries with balloons(51 cases); simply embolization with coils(107 cases); treatment with balloon assisted remodeling technique and coils(34 cases); embolization with stents and coils(24 cases); simply implantation of stent(4 cases); treatment with detachable balloons(4 cases). Among the 21 failure cases, two cases failed because of difficulty of getting ideal position of the microcatheter.One case was given up because of the cerebral infarction in the procedure of angiogram.The other 18 cases failed because of various reasons.Results There was no mortality in our series. One case suffered from ischemia of brain stem 3 hours after operation and recovered after 45 days of medical treatment.145 of the 224 cases were followed up from 4 months to 8 years after treatment. Recurrence and enlargement of the aneurysms were found in eleven cases of wide necked aneurysms after the first embolization, in which subarachnoid hemorrhage was found in one case.Five in these 11 cases were embolized again with coils.The other 6 patients refused the second treatment because of the economic problem.Conclusions Most of the vertibrobasilar aneurysms could be treated effectively because of the improvement of endovascular technique.The fusiform vertibrobasilar aneurysms which were regarded as incurable disease could also been treated with good outcome.


: In order to address the problems in traditional Chinese-English translation teaching, the study adopts the "condensation-expansion" and "AB double Texts" based on PAD Class teaching model, which reconstructs the traditional Chinese-English translation teaching. The study decodes the Chinese text by analyzing the sentence components; and encodes the English version by determining sentence structure, determining tense and adding modifiers. Text A is used to demonstrate by teachers and Text B is used to practice by learners. The teaching practices from 2020 till now show that the "condensation-expansion" and "AB Double Texts" based on PAD Class teaching model can effectively improve the learners' Chinese-English translation ability, cultivating learners' critical thinking and expressive abilities.


this department will naturally depend largely on the measure of co-operation accorded the editor by other members of the Academy. Among those who have already indicated their interest and willingness to contribute are such well-known workers along sociological lines as Professor F. H. Giddings (Columbia College), Professor W. F. Willcox (Cornell University), Dr. John Graham Brooks (Cambridge, Mass.), Dr. E. R. Gould (Chicago University), Mr. John Koren (Boston), Hon. Carroll D. Wright (Washington, D. C.), Professor E. Cheysson (Paris), Mr. Robert D. McGonnigle (Pittsburgh, Pa.), President John Fi. Finley (Knox College), Professor D. R. Dewey (Boston), Rev. Dr. I,. T. Chamber. lain (New York), Dr. Wm. H. Tolman (New York), Dr. D. I. Green (Hartford), Mr. Robert Donald (London), Sig. Giuseppe Flamingo (Rome), Dr. Georg Simmell (Berlin), Miss Emily Green Balch (Jamaica Plains, Mass.), Miss M. E. Richmond (Baltimore, Md.), and others.]


Objectives:This study examined the association between gasoline prices and hospitalizations for motorcycle and nonmotorcycle motor vehicle crash (MVC) injuries. Methods:Data on inpatient hospitalizations were obtained from the 2001 to 2010 Nationwide Inpatient Sample. Panel feasible generalized least squares models were used to estimate the effects of monthly inflation-adjusted gasoline prices on hospitalization rates for MVC injuries and to predict the impact of increasing gasoline taxes. Results:On the basis of the available data, a $1.00 increase in the gasoline tax was associated with an estimated 8348 fewer annual hospitalizations for nonmotorcycle MVC injuries, and reduced hospital costs by $143 million. However, the increase in the gasoline tax was also associated with an estimated 3574 more annual hospitalizations for motorcycle crash injuries, and extended hospital costs by $73 million. Conclusions:This analysis of some existing data suggest that the increased utilization and costs of hospitalization from motorcycle crash injuries associated with an increase in the price of gasoline are likely to substantially offset reductions in nonmotorcycle MVC injuries. A policy decision to increase the gasoline tax could improve traffic safety if the increased tax is paired with public health interventions to improve motorcycle safety.


The Case of Rohsamo and Ohmynews Daniel Jisuk Kang, Laurel Evelyn Dyson Department of Information Systems Faculty oflnformation Technology PO Box 123 Broadway NSW 2007 Email: firstname.lastname@example.com, email@example.com This paper examines the impact of the Internet on politics in South Korea. Many have noted the Internet's political potential due to its versatile nature as a communication medium. However, recent studies are beginning to show the irifluence of the Internet to be more moderate than expected initially. South Korea represents a very interesting case because of its extremely high Internet penetration rate and its youthfUl democracy. Two specific cases a political fan-club called 'Rohsamo' and the Internet news medium 'Ohmynews' have attracted particular attention mainly because of their perceived pivotal role in the 2002 presidential election. In this paper the part played by Rohsamo and Ohmynews in Korean politics is examined. While the research does not support claims which place the Internet as a revolutionary political force, it shows that the Internet has the potential to be a major player in South Korean politics.


We investigated the growth manner and mechanical characteristics of amorphous carbon (a-C) nanopillars formed by electron-beam-induced chemical vapor deposition (EB-CVD). The pillars' inclinations were well explained if we assumed the vertical growth rate to be almost constant within a specified distance from the substrate. The pillars' Young's modulus evaluated by deflection measurement was approximately 29 GPa, which was almost equivalent to that of bismuth, but much smaller than that observed in focused ion-beam-induced chemical vapor deposition (FIB-CVD) pillars.


Aim: To assess the change of risk factors that are specific to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) after the initialization of a campaign to reduce the risk (RTR) of SIDS compared to non‐SIDS postneonatal deaths. Methods: Data were extracted from the Swedish Medical Birth Registry, 1982‐1991 and 1993‐1998. 1105 infants died from SIDS during the postneonatal period, 2115 postneonatal deaths were from other causes and 11050 live birth controls were selected. Risk factors previously identified to be related to SIDS were defined as high parity, prematurity, young maternal age, low Apgar score, birth during the night, single motherhood, multiple births, maternal smoking, male gender, short length standard deviation score (SDS) and small weight‐to‐length SDS. Results: Non‐SIDS deaths were more significantly related to a low 5‐min Apgar score, smaller weight‐to‐length SDS, and/or short length SDS values; while SIDS deaths were more closely related to mothers with higher parity or multiple births, mothers who smoked during pregnancy and single‐parent (mother) families. Maternal smoking was even more prominent among SIDS deaths in the post‐campaign period. The adjusted odds ratios, compared with non‐SIDS deaths, increased from 1.84 (95% CI: 1.48, 2.28) in the pre‐campaign period to 4.11 (95% CI: 2.72, 6.21) in the post‐campaign period.


We consider the problem of estimating link quality in an ad-hoc wireless mesh. We argue that estimating links well requires combining information from the network, link, and physical layers. We propose narrow, protocol-independent interfaces for the layers, which in total provide four bits of information: 1 from the physical layer, 1 from the link layer, and 2 from the network layer. We present a link estimator design with these interfaces that reduces packet delivery costs by up to 44% over current approaches and maintains a 99% delivery ratio over large, multihop testbeds.


Exhumation of the lower crust (e.g., orogenic root) is one of the key topics in understanding the evolution of global orogenic belts. Numerous geological and geophysical investigations have been carried out in typical Phanerozoic continent-to-continent collisional orogens (e.g., Alps and Himalayas) and built various models. These well-constrained approaches and models can be also used to unravel the orogenic processes of the early Earth, in particular the Neoarchean to Paleoproterozoic eons.


This article provides information about the potential of the Kaliningrad region in eco-tourism, obstacles and prospects for the development of natureoriented types of tourism. It presents the areas with the highest potential for eco-tourism and a list and a map of the most important sites on the SouthEast coast of the Baltic Sea (Russian part). The research emphasizes "Curonean Spit" National Park as a "pilot" area for sustainable tourism development in the Kaliningrad region.


Space-time image velocimetry (STIV) technology has achieved good performance in river surface-flow velocity measurement, but the application in a field environment is affected by bad weather or lighting conditions, which causes large measurement errors. To improve the measurement accuracy and robustness of STIV, we combined STIV with deep learning. Additionally, considering the light weight of the neural network model, we adopted MobileNetV2 and improved its classification accuracy. We name this method MobileNet-STIV. We also constructed a sample-enhanced mixed dataset for the first time, with 180 classes of images and 100 images per class to train our model, which resulted in a good performance. Compared to the current meter measurement results, the absolute error of the mean velocity was 0.02, the absolute error of the flow discharge was 1.71, the relative error of the mean velocity was 1.27%, and the relative error of the flow discharge was 1.15% in the comparative experiment. In the generalization performance experiment, the absolute error of the mean velocity was 0.03, the absolute error of the flow discharge was 0.27, the relative error of the mean velocity was 6.38%, and the relative error of the flow discharge was 5.92%. The results of both experiments demonstrate that our method is more accurate than the conventional STIV and large-scale particle image velocimetry (LSPIV).


In the Netherlands, DG VII, the Directorate-General for Transport, is responsible for EURET I, which is a part of the EC (European Commission) Framework programme on Research and Development in technology. Amongst other reasons, experiences within the EURET I-programme, suggested the idea of a systematic analysis of future research needs in transport in the EC. For the topics of freight transport and logistics INRO-TNO has been asked to design a framework and give proposals. A survey has been conducted in which European experts in the field were asked to give their opinion on priorities for Research and Development in the EC and in addition they were asked to do suggestions for new research projects. This paper summarizes the results of the survey as a contribution to an open discussion on the Research and Development agenda in Europe on freight transport and logistics. (Author/TRRL)


Vanadium phosphorus oxide(VPO) catalysts have been considered as the most effective catalysts for the oxidation of n-butane to maleic anhydride. In this article,the developments of the preparation methods and catalytic mechanism of VPO catalysts for the selective oxidation were reviewed. The effects of adding supports and cocatalysts on the performances of the catalysts were discussed. The catalytic mechanism of active components in VPO catalysts for the selective oxidation was introduced. The future development of VPO catalysts was forecasted.


This article aims to analyze the process of literary construction of the "monstrous" identity of Barcelona. Specifically, it examines and contextualizes the literary images of the city-as-woman from the mid-nineteenth century until Francoism. The metaphor of Barcelona as a woman is articulated around two axes: the idealization of the city as a compliant and submissive woman, and its monsterification as a rebel woman. Both processes are inextricable and serve to justify (symbolically and literally) the political control of the city.


Internet-of-Things (IoT) based applications are rapidly gaining popularity. Smart home is one of them; home security and safety, home automation, energy management and health surveillance are some applications of smart homes. Smart homes have enormous potential as well as enormous threat to security and privacy of the end users. Pay TV is considered asthe likely entry points for IoT services into smart homes. Pay TV has evolved security techniques very similar to of IoT based smart homes services. Pay TV is an application of broadcast encryption schemes in which premium content is broadcasted only to subscribed users. The broadcaster needs assurance that only subscribed user can access premium content, so the program is encrypted with a group key shared among all subscribers. Thus, to share the key, Pay-TV systems require efficient and secure group key agreement (GKA). This research proposes an efficient and secure, dynamic, ID-based authenticated, asymmetric group key agreement (AAGKA) protocol for Pay-TV networks. Security is proved under the assumptions of the discrete logarithm problem (DLP) and decisional Diffie-Hellman problem (DDHP). Finally, comparison of the protocol with state-of-art protocols shows that the proposed protocol is highly efficient.


Video conference system is virtual conference through network technology, support carrying on real-time information interchange and share remotely. It is conventional to make member's exchange true and straight, has important function to remote learing. This paper introduces its kinds, technology and development.


We report on the utilization of optical sub-wavelength quasi Fabry-Perot cavity coupled with the Raman microscopy to study the interaction between the localized surface plasmon resonance of gold nanoparticles and the surface plasmon resonance of a gold film. We show an enhancement of the Fabry-Perot oscillations when the distance between nanoparticle and gold film decrease.


Infants with feeding problems requiring tube feedings may remain dependent on them for long periods. Experience with behavior therapy (defined as the extinction of specific problem behaviors at meal times and the fostering of adaptive eating behaviors) suggests that this may shorten the duration of tube feeding dependency. Objective: To compare the outcome of tube feeding dependency with behavior therapy and standard therapy. This is the first randomized trial of behavior therapy in this population.Methods: Subjects were tube feeding dependent infants aged 5 to 36 months and their primary feeder (32 infants in Group 1 and 31 in Group 2). Sample size was selected to detect improvement in successes with behavioral intervention (50%) vs. control group (10%). Exclusion criteria included recent aspiration, swallowing difficulties due to neurological or anatomical problem, and inability to attend regularly. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of two interventions: Intervention A (nutritional counseling + behavior therapy) or Intervention B (nutritional counseling). There were 7 weekly treatment and 4 follow-up visits. Total duration of involvement in the trial for each patient was 6 months. The primary outcome measure (success vs. failure of treatment) was the number of infants still dependent on tube feeding at the third follow-up visit in each group (i.e., 5 months after the start of the trial). The decision to discontinue tube feeding was made by an independent judge, without knowledge of intervention and using pre-defined criteria.Results: 63 infants were enrolled. The two treatment arms were similar with respect to infant age, birthweight, birth order, gender, development delay, severity of the feeding disorder, socio-economic status and parents' age and education. Because the study is not completed yet, it is inapproriate to break the randomization code at this time. However, preliminary results on the entire sample indicate that 10 out of 33 (30%) subjects at the third follow-up visit and 13 out of 30 (43%) at the fourth follow-up visit were successes. These success rates are in line with our predictions based on sample size and much higher than the rate expected without behavioral treatment. Final results by treatment intervention will be analyzed on completion of the study (March 1998). Conclusion: We suspect that behavior therapy will be found to be efficacious.


This paper describes a new driving mechanism for a miniature robot hand. In developing robot hands, it is necessary to consider miniaturization and minimalization. The proposed mechanism uses elastic torsion springs and hinges as joints, and the finger is wire-driven from actuators placed outside the robot hand. First, the driving mechanism of a one joint finger is described, and its mechanism is applied to a five fingered miniature robot hand. The robot hand is one half the size of that of an adult male's, and has a total of eighteen degrees of freedom. The properties of the robot hand are discussed, and are shown to be an effective mechanism for miniature robot hands.