Considering near-real-time data available on the smart grid, analytics can be used to determine the best-case scenario for optimal and reliable distribution of power. However, the distributed integration of renewable sources and demand response adds complexity to the modeling, control and optimization of smart grid operations. Latest concepts aim for using new model-based computational intelligence; that requires a combination of capabilities for system optimization, stochastic power flow, system state prediction, and solution checking. The statistical model-based optimization for developing dynamic, stochastic, computationally efficient, and scalable platforms is intended in this paper. Furthermore, an analytics-based optimization is proposed to the optimal reactive power dispatch considering load variations. This illustration uses analytics obtained from empirical modeling of recorded load data.


Health care spending and health outcomes vary markedly across countries and even across regions within the United States. This inevitably raises questions about whether higher spending is "worth it" in terms of better health outcomes. Regional comparisons within the United States suggest that higher health care spending—especially at the end of life (EOL)—is not associated with better health outcomes. Medicare enrollees in higher spending regions receive more care but do not seem to live longer or otherwise experience better health outcomes, although the Medicare data suggest more waste than what is seen in younger, privately insured populations.


Abstract For 98 years (1922–2020), the entire corpus of popular music practices and experiences in Nigeria evolved and thrived almost uninterrupted until the great disruption caused when the World Health Organization (WHO) declared Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (COVID-19) a global pandemic on 11 March 2020. Between 1922 and 2020, there have been hazy and unsteady creative attempts, incipient interactions and interruptions, generational changes and exchanges, and ideological shifts which have marked the evolution of Nigerian popular music. Based on a historical-analytical approach, this article reports on a study that aimed to recollect and explore the remarkable socio-political developments, transformations and perceptions that have consistently underpinned these 98 years of popular music practices/experiences in Nigeria. As part of the study findings, these years were divided into the following four periods: the foggy years (1922–1944); the interactive-budding period (1945–1969); the liberal period (1970–1999); and the mononationalist period (2000–2020). In part, the methodology relied on the oral accounts of some elderly and middle-aged Nigerian popular music artists, entrepreneurs, enthusiasts and analysts, as well as archival resources (print and audio-visual), and the extant literature on popular music in and social history of Nigeria. The findings also revealed transnational heritages and memorial continuities that partly and presently characterise these periods.


When I taught enzyme kinetics, I started with the conventional textbook approach where the quasi-steady state approximation is quickly brought in to derive the Michaelis–Menten equation. One reason for using this approximation (or the rapid-equilibrium one) is to obtain an analytical solution to an otherwise intractable set of differential equations. However, some recent research work has shown me that modern computer power makes this reason obsolete. I needed to handle the differential equations for more complex enzyme mechanisms, with up to 16 rate constants. Numerical integration of the full set of rate equations for elementary steps took under 10 s to produce a complete progress curve (using a MATLAB procedure designed for stiff equation sets on an 8 year old mid-range laptop). With modern computing power, would this not be a better way to introduce enzyme kinetics? The time course can be calculated starting with just elementary rate equations for each step. Attainment of the quasi-steady state can be shown directly from simulation results for the concentrations of enzyme forms. In addition, analytical approximations can be introduced later as a way to obtain parameters that can be fitted to progress data beyond the transient phase. As long ago as 2010, Chen et al. advocated this sort of approach to kinetics in biochemical systems, but the paper seems to have had little impact in enzyme kinetics. Recently, Srinavasan offered some excellent and comprehensive advice on how the teaching of enzyme kinetics should be reformed, including seeing a greater role for simulation. I no longer teach enzyme kinetics, so cannot experiment with this approach myself. I would imagine presenting it along the following lines. Start by introducing the traditional three elementary steps with their respective rate constants:


This paper aims at exploring the potentials and limits of translation and English as International Language as tools of inclusion in accessible tourism. Accessible tourism can be defined as a form of tourism that enables people with access requirements, including mobility, vision, hearing and cognitive dimensions of access, to function independently and with equity and dignity through the delivery of universally designed tourism products, services and environments. This research will try to identify the main linguistic, translational and multimodal features characterising a series of accessible tourism texts in English and Italian, in order to show how translation and English as International Language may increase, or sometimes hinder, the actual level of accessibility and promotional aims of these texts, raise awareness on disability issues and, mostly, contribute effectively to the development of a more inclusive and egalitarian society.


The purpose of the study is to understand the significance of audit as independent watchdog, and their dichotomy with external auditors and. We seek to address the issue, to what extent audit committee as another watchdog is critical in enhancing the accuracy of financial reports and complement the role of external auditors. We adopt an investigative approach to understand the role responsibility, liability of both these watchdogs in relations to auditing, internal control and financial reporting to the shareholder and investors of the company. We find that both external auditor and audit committee are important determinants of corporate governance frameworks for shareholder and investor protection. The role, responsibility and liability of an external auditor are clearly articulated, while audit committee as a watchdog performs the oversight function rather auditing the accounts. We also find no consensus on audit committee liability in case of audit failure and their ability to enhance auditor independence. The study implicates that it the auditor, who are the first line of defense for shareholders, with audit committee just playing the complementing role. It will be better for regulators to give more powers to auditors with an increased liability to prevent any auditing or corporate failure. Efforts are required to ensure audit committee independence in assuring auditor independence.


In order to weaken the dependence to routers password in network topology discovery,to enhance universal and efficiency of network topology discovery algorithm,based on analysis and research to network topology discovery method of SNMP,ICMP,ARP,give a new network topology discovery algorithm based on statistics to IP addresses of routers,This algorithm first uses traceroute to obtain a large number of router IP address,and then under the traceroute working principle,get the information of the connections between routers based on statistics of router's IP addresses.Finally give the actual test results on a campus network,these results show that the method can efficiently and accurately find the network trunk topology.


Chloride ion permeability is one of the most important factors that induce corrosion of reinforced steel in concrete.In this paper,the influences of mineral admixtures such as fly ash and silica fume on chloride ion permeability in alkali activated slag concrete were examined by way of the rapid chloride permeability test(ASTM C1202).The results show that the chloride ion permeability increase with the content of fly ash increase,and decrease with the content of silica fume increase.From the point of view of controlling the chloride ion permeability in alkali activated slag concrete,the amount of fly ash that replace the slag in concrete should be lower than that of 50%.


Inherited parameters learning method based on logic stabilization rules is presented to overcome learning error and instability of Baosteel 2 050 mm hot roughing mill and satisfy the requirement of new system learning. First of all, logic stabilization conception is proposed and two theorems are given; then learning error is analyzed and inherited parameters learning method based on logic stabilization rules is put forward by reasoning decisionmaking. The analysis of actual application shows that the method given in this paper is right and feasible.


The method of alternating projections onto convex (POCS) sets is used to process images for both compression and enhancement. Convex sets are derived that define certain desirable characteristics of the images for both applications. A new image is produced using POCS which satisfies these characteristics thereby relaxing others. For enhancement, images are produced that display more of the information desired such as adjacent pixel differnces. For compression, relaxing the characteristics not deemed important allows for improved coding efficiency. POCS provides the ability to define the problem piecewise, to apply as many or few constaints as desired, and to easily implement the algorithm by separately deriving and implementing the projection operators.


The proper classification of pixels is an important step in the realm of satellite imagery, to partition different land cover regions. This paper describes a clustering method that utilizes hard and fuzzy clustering algorithms. The performance of the algorithm is optimized using genetic algorithm, which searches the best cluster centers to initialize the fuzzy partition matrix in place of random initialization. The proposed approach provides accurate clustering results for gray-level images. Comparison between segmentation results of hard c-means, fuzzy c-means and fuzzy c-means genetic algorithm (FGA) is presented.


Graft copolymerization of butyl acrylate onto gelatin has been carried out using potassium persulphate as initiator both in aqueous and in water-acetic acid medium. Kinetic parameters like rate of grafting, percent grafting, and grafting efficiency were determined for the two systems. The grafting was proved by IR spectra of the isolated graft chains which showed amide absorption bands characteristic for the amino acids.


Page 566. P. Boquet, M. Dworetzky and H. E. Essex, "Physiologic Responses of Certain Animals and Isolated Preparations to Mixtures of Snake Venom and Egg Yolk." The last 2 sentences of the legend f...


The pre-bored grouting planted nodular (PGPN) pile is a type of composite pile foundation that is considered to be environmentally friendly and economical. A simplified approach, which considers the two interfaces of the pile shaft, was proposed to analyze the load-displacement response of a single PGPN pile. An elastic-failure model, based on the shear test results, was used to simulate the shearing behavior of the concrete-cemented soil interface. A hyperbolic nonlinear model, considering the influence of cement paste injection, was created to simulate the behavior between the skin friction and the relative displacement developed along the cemented soil-soil interface. A linear model and a nonlinear model that considers the reduction in the shearing stiffness were used to simulate the PGPN pile base load-displacement responses in a field test and in a model test, respectively. Comparisons between the calculated and measured load-displacement responses revealed relatively good agreement. The proposed approach is thus shown to be efficient and suitable for the analysis of a single PGPN pile embedded in layered soils, and is used to analyze the factors influencing its behavior. Enlarged cemented soil base is considered to be effective in promoting the behavior of a short PGPN pile, while increasing the diameter of cemented soil along the shaft is efficient in promoting the compressive bearing capacity of a long PGPN pile.中文概要目的静钻根植竹节桩是一种由预制桩和水泥土组成的组合桩基, 其桩身具有预制桩-水泥土和水泥土-桩周土体两个接触面。本文以桩土接触面剪切试验、模型试验和现场试验数据为基础, 提出一种静钻根植竹节桩简化沉降计算方法, 为静钻根植竹节桩的沉降计算提供依据; 并通过所提出的简化计算方法对静钻根植竹节桩桩端水泥土扩大头以及桩周水泥土直径对静钻根植竹节桩承载性能的影响进行研究。创新点1. 通过剪切试验对预制桩-水泥土接触面的剪切性能进行研究, 得到接触面侧摩阻力与相对位移的关系; 2. 建立同时考虑预制桩-水泥土接触面和水泥土-桩周土体接触面作用的静钻根植竹节桩简化沉降计算方法。方法1. 通过桩土接触面剪切试验, 得到预制桩-水泥土接触面摩擦模型; 2. 通过对模型试验结果的分析, 得到水泥土-桩周土体接触面摩擦模型; 3. 根据试验结果编写静钻根植竹节桩沉降计算程序, 通过与试验结果的比较验证所提计算方法的可靠性; 4. 通过提出的静钻根植竹节桩简化计算方法对静钻根植竹节桩承载力影响因素进行分析与研究。结论1. 预制桩-水泥土接触面摩擦性能远优于水泥土-桩周土体接触面摩擦性能; 2. 由于水泥浆的渗透作用, 水泥土-桩周土体接触面的初始剪切刚度有所提高; 3. 所提出的计算方法能够有效地计算出静钻根植竹节桩单桩在成层土体中的荷载位移关系曲线; 4. 桩端水泥土扩大头能够有效地提高静钻根植竹节桩桩端承载性能, 并且增加桩周水泥土直径能够提高静钻根植竹节桩承载性能。


To decrease the effect of the complicated aerial warfare environment and the fast changing topology of the highly dynamic nodes in the UVA(unmanned aerial vehicle) networks,an adaptive optimized link state routing protocol(ALOLSR) was proposed.This protocol used the node location and speed information instead of topology control information in OLSR when GPS information was favored.The nodes in the networks received location and speed of the others by MPR flooding.The routing strategy made full use of GPS information to select stable links.Using the NS3 to simulate the UVA networks,the result shows that ALOLSR achieves better performance in packet delivery radio and delay.


1-Ethyl-6-fluoro-1,4-dihydro-4-oxo-7-(1-piperazinyl)- 3-quinolinecarboxylic acid (I, AM-715), a new potent antibacterial agent, was labelled with carbon-14 at the C-1 position of the N-ethyl group for metabolic studies. The synthesis was achieved according to two reaction routes. The overall radiochemical yields of 14C-AM-715 based on ethyl iodide-1-14C from route A and route B, were 29.4% and 9.4%, respectively.


Dingtai Ni-Mo deposit in Zunyi area occur in the west side of the Songlin dome.It is produced from the black shale series at the base of Niutitang Formation,lower Cambrian Series,the ore body shape to flaggy and lenticle and output of 0.04 to 0.08 m thick,individual lenticle 0.2 m thick.This paper analyses genesis of Dingtai Ni-Mo deposit from the characteristics of rock and ore.


Due to variational environmental conditions and varied adaptive control strategies, the operation states of wind turbines are continuously changing, leading to diverse types of samples in the power curve. Different kinds of samples may contain noises or valuable information for specific downstream tasks and thus need to be correctly identified and labeled. To this end, this paper proposes a spatial-temporal pattern recognition algorithm for data identification and tagging. According to spatial distribution and temporal characteristics, all data points are divided into four groups including normal samples, isolated outliers, change points, and faulty samples. Then, some distances based on the dynamic time warping method are defined to make evaluations and then serve as indicators for achieving precise tagging of each category. Case studies and comparative experiments are conducted to verify the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed method.


The development of medium- and high-rise buildings has performed a vital role in the creation and expansion of modern cities. Our ability to build tall structures has enabled us to reduce our land use on a per-capita basis, allowing cities to manage their population growth while limiting the land degradation from urban expansion. However, the construction of these buildings comes at a price. The mining and processing of building materials uses significant amounts of energy, and the building industry is a major contributor of global greenhouse gas emissions. This paper investigates the potential of renewable building materials to reduce embodied energy and greenhouse emissions in medium-rise construction by substituting the conventional materials in a commercial building in Melbourne with renewable materials. The analysis found that overall a reduction of 13 and 14% could be made in embodied energy and greenhouse emissions, respectively. The potential and limitation of renewable building materials in this construction area are also discussed.


Citation: Akosile M, Zhu H, Zhang S, Johnson NP, Lai D, et al. (2018) Reassessing the Effectiveness of Right Heart Catheterization (RHC) in the Initial Care of Critically Ill Patients using Targeted Maximum Likelihood Estimation. Int J Clin Biostat Biom 4:018. doi.org/10.23937/2469-5831/1510018 Accepted: July 26, 2018: Published: July 28, 2018 Copyright: © 2018 Akosile M, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.


The Internet of Things will provide 50 billion new opportunities for interdependent devices to malfunction. The recent Mirai botnet attack demonstrated that the Internet of Things is already capable of creating widespread interruptions in the Internet and the activities that depend on it.
Realizing the promise and positive benefits of the IoT will require not only technical innovation, but changes in how regulation, business, security, and risk in the system are handled. The current IoT ecosystem suffers from flaws that include vulnerability to cyberattack, technical system failures, and the problem of free riders who depend upon security and other safeguards in the network to compensate for their own insecure devices, protocols, and software. Cyberattacks and failures undermine confidence in the IoT and serve as a reminder that regardless of how much IoT security is improved, there will always be vulnerabilities and exploits. Networked failures can have significant socioeconomic consequences.
This paper proposes an insurance system for the Internet of Things. The intent is to address technical and market failures in the IoT ecosystem, propose a method of distributing risk more equitably, and examine ways to fund necessary responses to large scale incidents. Making insurance mandatory, or at least available and desirable, would promote security audits and formal internal procedures for the insured, leading to improved security, prevention, incident response, and recovery planning in the IoT ecosystem. An insurance model has not been widely adopted in the traditional Internet, but the increasing number and reach of IoT devices increases the risk and consequences of a network failure and suggests the need for a risk management solution.
This paper applies the concept of insurance as an accepted method of risk management to the Internet of Things ecosystem. We take a constructivist approach to creating a new insurance business model framework, and a policy planning approach to creating policy and regulatory guidelines for IoT insurance. The proposed insurance business models would permit insurance to be offered by interested companies beyond traditional insurers, such as Internet service providers, telephone companies, cloud providers, or others with experience in assessing and managing security technology. Necessary regulation includes constructing a better-defined liability framework to avoid the current "shell game" of responsibility. Also, disclosure requirements for companies that know of vulnerabilities or experience security incidents to assist in building actuarial data that would help insurance companies determine the actual risks, appropriate insurance products, and pricing structure. Regulation would also streamline the legal and procedural difficulties that currently exist when trying to make a claim, and assist in defining the rights and roles of insurers and claimants. Regulation would help establish what is currently an immature market and could encourage standardization in products and procedures.
A regulatory framework for an IoT insurance system would help align the objectives of device manufacturers, network operators, services, and end users. With a proper insurance framework for the IoT, market solutions could develop that foster greater security, trust, and confidence in the IoT ecosystem.


Curcumin,the active substance of turmeric.has multiple therapeutic activities.However,its water solubility and bio-availability in vivo is very low,which limits the utility of curcumin.This article reviewed recent approaches of the bioactivity and the structure-function relationship of curcumin.The authors suggest that new methods should be tried to modify the structure of cureumin and further studies of therapeutic activities of the homologues are needed.

Key words:
Curcumin; Structure-function relationship


Effective leadership is a topic of paramount importance for today's competitive global environment. Much has been spoken and written about the styles of effective leadership. High CEO turn over is a complex issue that cannot be traced to one cause. CEO must be held accountable and cannot be allowed to continue without showing results. CEOs who are not successful, does not mean that they are incapable or don't have the vision. But the fact is that in spite of doing well some thing happens that derail them and make them accountable. Some times it is wrong execution of strategy, some times, they don't accept the reality of change, sometimes don't make compromises and become overconfident. Reason may be any but a CEO is accountable to all. Therefore this is the high time to make a stitch in time. The need is to recognize those traits which are really required. The creation of leadership is an elusive entity in its own form. It calls for a strong result oriented approach, dynamic thinking, establishment of values, implementing of shared decisions by involving people at all stages. The present article throws light on the points where the world's great CEOs stuck and which, if adopted, can save the failure of a company.


The effect of dietary protein and energy on intestinal MUC-2 expression and broiler chick performance for five weeks were evaluated. One hundred thirty chicks were randomly allocated to four dietary treatments viz. A [23% Crude protein(CP);2808 ME kcal/Kg], B (23% CP; 3005 ME kcal/Kg), C (21% CP; 2801 ME kcal/Kg) and D (21% Crude Protein; 2801 ME kcal/Kg), Diet C being the regulrar broiler diet, was taken as control. Body weights at 5-week, feed intake, and FCR (0–5 weeks) were recorded. mRNA expressions of MUC2 and β-actin genes in intestinal mucosa were quantified at the age of first, third and fifth week by real time PCR, using β-actin gene as a housekeeping. The mean body weight in the diet A, B and D were significantly higher as compared to diet C at the age of third weeks. The transcription level of mucin gene was found to be modified by dietary protein and energy levels, and age of the bird. Mucin expression in duodenum was higher in all treatment groups (A, B and D) compared to control diet (C) at early age but reduced as the age progressed. The expression of mucin gene was highest in group A at first week and in group B at third week. Significant down regulation in the expression levels were noted at 5th week of age in all treatment groups. It can be concluded that manipulating dietary constituents, leads to alter the performance as well as mucin gene expression in naked neck broilers.


The lookup procedure in Linux costs a significant portion of file accessing time as the virtual file system (VFS) traverses the file path components one after another. The lookup procedure becomes more time consuming when applications frequently access files, especially those with small sizes. We propose Stage Lookup, which dynamically caches popular directories to speed up lookup procedures and further reduce file accessing latency. The core of Stage Lookup is to cache popular dentries as shortcuts, so that path walks do not bother to traverse directory trees from the root. Furthermore, Stage Lookup enriches backward path walks as it treats the directory tree in a VFS as an undirected map. We implement a Stage Lookup prototype and integrate it into Linux Kernel v3.14. Our extensive performance evaluation studies show that Stage Lookup offers up to 46.9% performance gain compared to ordinary path lookup schemes. Furthermore, Stage Lookup shows smaller performance overheads in rename and chmod operations compared to the original method of the kernel.


The role of active and passive cigarette smoking in breast cancer etiology remains controversial. Using data from a large population‐based case‐control study in Poland (2386 cases, 2502 controls) conducted during 2000–2003, we examined the associations between active and passive smoking overall and for different age categories. We also evaluated differences in risk by estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR) status in tumors, and the potential modification of the smoking association by N‐acetyl transferase 2 (NAT2) genotype. Women ever exposed to passive smoking at home or at work had a risk of breast cancer similar to those never exposed to active or passive smoking (OR (95%CI) = 1.11 (0.85–1.46), and no trends were observed with increasing hours/day‐years of passive smoking exposure. Active smoking was associated with a significant increase in risk only among women younger than 45 years of age (OR (95%CI) = 1.95 (1.38–2.76); 1.15 (0.93–1.40); 0.91 (0.77–1.09) for <45, 45–55 and >55 years of age, respectively; p‐heterogeneity <0.001 for <45 vs. >55 years) and prevailed for both ER+ and ER− tumors. The smoking association among women <45 years was stronger for current than former smokers, and a significant trend was observed with duration of smoking (p = 0.04). NAT2 slow vs. rapid/intermediate acetylation genotype was not related to breast cancer risk (0.99 (0.87–1.13)), and did not significantly modify the smoking relationships. In conclusion, our data indicate that passive smoking is not associated with breast cancer risk; however, active smoking might be associated with an increased risk for early onset breast cancers. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


c‐Myc induces widely varying cellular effects, including cell proliferation and cell death. These different cellular effects are determined, in part, by c‐Myc protein expression levels, which are regulated through several transcriptional and post‐transcriptional pathways. c‐Myc transcripts can be detected in cells at all stages of B and T lymphocyte development. However, little is known about c‐Myc protein expression, and how it varies, in developing lymphocytes. Here mice have been generated in which the endogenous c‐Myc locus has been modified (c‐MycG) so that it encodes a GFP‐c‐Myc fusion protein. c‐MycG/G mice are viable, appear normal and exhibit grossly normal lymphocyte development. Flow cytometric analyses revealed significant heterogeneity in c‐Myc protein expression levels in developing c‐MycG/G B and T lymphocytes. GFP‐c‐Myc expression levels were highest in proliferating lymphocytes, suggesting that c‐Myc up‐regulation is important for promoting lymphocyte cell division, and demonstrating that GFP‐c‐Myc expression is a marker of proliferating lymphocytes in vivo.


The invention relates to a multi-way fire hose connector which comprises a main connector, a plurality of branch connectors and a connecting part, wherein the main connector is connected with a fire hydrant; all the branch connectors are communicated with the main connector; the connecting part is used for fixing the main connector and the branch connectors, and comprises a buckle fixed on the end surface of the main connector and a base fixed on a fire fighting truck; the buckle comprises a vertical part fixedly connected with the end surface of the main connector and a horizontal part; the horizontal part is perpendicular to the vertical part and extends in a direction reverse to the axial line of the main connector; the base is cylindrical; a connecting groove with a large belly and a small opening is formed in one end surface of the base; an inserting opening communicated with the groove opening of the connecting groove is formed in the end surface of the base and in the edge of the groove opening; the size of the buckle corresponds to that of the inserting opening; the buckle is clamped in the connecting groove. As the number of the connectors is increased, the fire hydrant can supply water for a plurality of fire hoses at the same time, and particularly, the fire extinguishing efficiency is greatly improved when the number of fire hydrants is finite.


Excerpt One of the most perplexing problems to hospitals and to the medical profession is the difficulty of securing blood for transfusions in sufficient quantities at all times and at a cost withi...


Robust object detection is hindered by various illumination conditions in real-world applications. Common practice introduces thermal modality to augment the detection capability of RGB images in poor illumination conditions. However, a major challenge for such work is how to leverage the complementary information of RGB and thermal images effectively. In this article, we tackle this by combining the strengths of illumination-guided inter- and intra-modality information in both modalities. Specifically, we propose an effective object detection network dubbed Triple-I Net (TINet) to adaptively fuse the complementary features extracted from RGB and thermal images. First, we design an illumination-guided feature weighting module to guide the network in learning toward a reliable modality. Then, an inter-modality attention module is developed to amplify and complement differential features between these two modalities. We further design an intra-modality attention module using object heatmap prediction to enhance the foreground features of each modality. Finally, we fuse the inter- and intra-modality features for object detection with illumination-guided feature weights. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method on the FLIR-aligned dataset and the KAIST multispectral pedestrian detection dataset.


Experimental study of pumping characteristics of a pilot model of a claw single‐stage vacuum pump with identical rotors was carried out. The curves of pumping speed vs. pressure at different rotary speed and the ultimate pressure at different rotors speed were determined on a test unit. Indicator pressure diagrams in working chambers of claw vacuum pump were obtained with the help of special sensors.


Objective:to develop a kind of new inclusion tablets by mixed-cyclodextrin and lycopene.Methods:lycopene was included by mixing with β-cyclodextrin and hydroxy-propyl-β-cyclodextrin.UV spectrophotometry was used to detect the inclusion constants.The complexes were prepared by grinding.Prescriptions and preparation methods were decided by the stability,disintegration time and dissolution of inclusion tablets.Results:the inclusion constants of different proportions of mixed-cyclodextrin with Lycopene were 522~932L·mol-1.The solubility of different inclusion complexes were increased from 47.6 to 116.7 times.The stability,dissolution and activity of inclusion tablets were improved.Conclusion:the effect of the inclusion complexes made with mixed-cyclodextrin is obvious,and it's better than the simple addition of individual cyclodextrin.The inclusion tablets have a very high performance-cost ratio.


Improving the school governance structure and establishing a modern school system are the current research focuses in elementary and middle school management. Through a comparative analysis of the school governance structure of four provinces and cities in China (Beijing-Shanghai-Jiangsu-Guangdong, BSJG) and PISA2015 high-scored countries/economies, we found that the school autonomy in seven major aspects including "teacher selection, teacher dismissal, evaluation policy, enrollment policy, textbook selection, curriculum content, and curriculum design" in BSJG schools was significantly lower than that of high-scored countries/economies. The average decision-making of BSJG principals and teachers in various affairs was also substantially lower than the high-scored countries/economies. The multilevel analysis found that the impact of school governance structure on student performance presented different patterns between BSJG and high-scored countries/economies. Therefore, China needs to (i) expand the autonomy of school management further and establish a new government-school relationship; (ii) give priority to curriculum management and ensure its autonomy in schools; (iii) improve the principal accountability system, and strengthen the principal's power and responsibility in school management; (iv) strengthen democratic management, thereby promoting teachers' participation in the decision-making of school affairs.


AIM
Dental occlusion often rhymes with confusion, discrediting many research protocols. The profession seems to be in "major chaos about occlusion." This may be due to the lack of a precise classification of occlusal dysfunctions. We suggest using a classification based on the separation of three occlusal functions, with the identification of precise, objective clinical diagnostic criteria. This article aims to define a precise classification of occlusal functions, in order to be able to establish a positive diagnosis of occlusal disorders. This occlusal analysis method could then be used in the daily practice of dentists and orthodontists, with a view to align epidemiological studies that focus on occlusion, in order to obtain results capable of comparison in different studies.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
A analysis of the literature in PubMed database published between the early 1970s and the present day identified many confusing definitions of occlusal disorders. In this paper, we propose the separation of occlusal functions into three subcategories: Stabilizing, centering, and guiding functions, defining three different subcategories of occlusal disorder.

RESULTS
Occlusal function allows the definition of three kinds of malocclusion: Stabilizing dysfunction, centering dysfunction, and guiding dysfunction. The individualization of clear subcategories could allow the study of the more pertinent impacts of pathogenic malocclusion.

CONCLUSION
This classification of occlusal functions or dysfunctions allows lines to be drawn between different occlusal situations that are frequently confused, such as a loss of posterior occlusal support and loss of occlusal vertical dimension, infra-occlusion and loss of posterior support, short or reduced dental arch, reversed and scissor occlusion, sagittally and transversely deflected mandible, posterior occlusal interference and balancing contact, as well as natural and iatrogenic malocclusion.

CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE
An occlusal analysis that makes use of the three occlusal functions, "stabilizing, centering, guiding," could offer diagnostic standardization. It may also allow the avoidance of incorrect interpretations. Therefore, this occlusal function classification may be relevant to many fields, for instance, for epidemiological studies of occlusion and the periodontium, TMD and occlusion, or TMD and orthodontic treatment.


Background & Aims Long term follow-up studies in children with functional constipation are scarce, but results suggest that symptoms may persist for many years. Knowledge about the outcome at adult age is lacking. In this study we examine the long-term prognosis of constipated children when they reach adult age and identify prognostic factors associated with poor and good clinical outcome. Methods In a tertiary hospital in the Netherlands, children (5-18 years) diagnosed with functional constipation were eligible for inclusion. After an initial 6-week treatment protocol, prospective follow-up was conducted at 6 and 12 months and annually thereafter, using a standardized questionnaire. Good clinical outcome was defined as ≥3 bowel movements per week for at least 4 weeks with <2 fecal incontinence episode per month, irrespective of laxative use. Results A total of 401 children (260 male, median age at study entry 8 years (25th-75th percentiles 6-9), were included and a median follow-up duration of 11 years (9-13) was accomplished. Drop-out rate during follow-up was 15%. Good clinical outcome was achieved by 80% of patients at the age of 16 years and thereafter this percentage remained constant at around 75%. The following clinical characteristics were associated with poor clinical outcome at adult age: older age of onset (OR 1.15, 95%CI 1.02-1.30, p=0.04), longer delay between age of onset and first visit to our outpatient clinic (OR 1.24, 95%CI 1.10-1.40, p=0.001), and a lower defecation frequency at study entry (OR 0.92, 95%CI 0.84-1.00, p=0.03). Conclusions A quarter of children with functional constipation continued to have symptoms at adult age. Certain risk factors for poor clinical outcome in adulthood were identified. Referral to a specialized clinic should be considered at an early stage for children unresponsive to first line treatment.


Many countries are interested in waste management technologies and their use, where these technologies contribute to the disposal of pollutants that affect the environment. As a significant fraction of municipal solid waste, waste paper is a potential source for producing bioethanol. Bioethanol production is a widely studied process for biofuel production, as waste disposal through incineration emits dangerous greenhouse gases (which cause global warming). The current work uses cardboard waste as a raw material for bioethanol synthesis through the physical, chemical, and enzymatic treatments to improve glucose synthesis from cardboard waste by two-stage saccharomyces and fermentation stage, using yeast extract. We relied on Trichoderma is a genus of fungi found in all soils, being the most widely cultured fungi; this fungus is a producer of the cellulase enzyme that breaks down cellulose into fermented sugar and relies on three different media with a carbon source and a vegetable source. (CMC) carboxymethyl cellulose agar the medium was chosen for the growth of enzyme-dissolving fungi, and then the enzymatic filtrate was taken, which contains a high percentage of sugars about (12 mg/l) in the optimum conditions pH (5.5-6) and temperature 28 °C. The purpose of the research exploitation of cellulose in cardboard and production of ethanol by fermentation process for a period of 5-8 days, satisfactory results have been obtained, consumption of 5g cardboard waste produces 1%, which is equivalent to 20ml ethanol yield.


The great quantity of buildings faced with architectural terracotta and faience, principally constructed between 1860 and 1930, now present a major problem in terms of repair, maintenance, and conservation. During a study into the nature of soiling on terracotta, and the effects of different cleaning methods, the authors used a variety of surface analytical and conventional chemical techniques to study the samples. These techniques include scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive x-ray analysis (SEM-EDX), secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS), x-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic absorption (AAS), and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The authors identified aluminum and silicon as the major elemental components of terracotta, with iron and calcium present in smaller amounts, and trace levels of potassium, magnesium, and titanium. More iron is present in red terracotta than in the buff variety; the reverse is true for titanium. The major crystalline species are cristobalite and mullite. Soiling may be attributed to the elements calcium, sulfur, and chlorine, although pulverised fuel ash (PFA) and iron-rich particles have also been found incorporated into the surface layer. The latter are possibly generated by blast furnace activity. The treatment of terracotta with a proprietary hydrofluoric acid cleaning solution has been shown to enlarge the surface pores, increasing the potential for damage due to water penetration. Large amounts of fluorine remain on the surface after this treatment, even following prolonged rinsing, and penetrate to a considerable depth. Silicon and potassium appear to have been most affected by the treatment; calcium, iron, and titanium were less affected. -- AATA


Sacrificed for Honor: Italian Infant Abandonment and the Politics of Reproductive Control. David I. Kertzer

E1 Castillo: The Politics of Tradition in an Andalusian Town. Richard Maddox


OBJECTIVE To study the prescription and preparation process of earthworm syrup nano-silver hydrogel patch, and evaluate the effect of promoting wound healing of deep second degree burn. METHODS Optimizing the ratio of the dragon and caster sugar in the preparation of hydrogel patch, taking the protein content as an indicator. The formulation process of hydrogel patch combining earthworm syrup with nano-silver was optimized by single factor experiment, which factors containing glycerol, glyceryl aluminum hydroxy, and sodium polyacrylate, then response surface methodology was used for evaluation of the formulation process, with stick power, shear strength, peel force and appearance as comprehensive indexes. The model of second degree scald in mice was constructed. The efficacy of the hydrogel patch was evaluated by wound healing rate, the water content and hydroxyproline content in the wound skin while the Jingwanhong scalding cream was used as control. RESULTS The fittest ratio between the earthworm and caster sugar was 1∶0.8. The optimal formulation process of hydrogel patch was as follows: 25% of glycerol, 0.4% of sodium glycerol, and 3.5% of sodium polyacrylate. The healing times of mice in the burn ointment groups were shorten. Meanwhile, the healing rates and the content of hydroxyproline were increased in the burn ointment groups. These edema in the early time of scald in mice were relieved. CONCLUSION The hydrogel patch prepared by the optimal formulation process has neat appearance with even quality and the adhesiveness meets the regulations of Chinese Pharmacopoeia 2015 Editon, and has a healing effect on deep second degree scald.


The method for measuring the macroscopic properties of the plasma in the T-9 tokamak, which has a noncircular plasma cross section, is described. This method is based on the integral relations derived by Shafranov (Plasma Phys. 13, 757 (1971)) and Zakharov and Shafranov, )Zh. Tekh. Fiz. 43, 225 (1973) (Sov. Phys. Tech. Phys. 18, 151 (1973))) for a plasma with a cross section of arbitrary shape. Experimental results on ..beta../sub 1/, tau/sub E/, and T/sub e/ in the T-9 finger-ring takamak are reported.


Aim To explore the neuroprotective effect and the possible mechanism of 2-phenoxy-indan-1-one derivative YKY-7,a novel acetylcholinesterase inhibitor,onβ-amyloid peptide induced damage in primary rat cortical neurons and human neuroblastoma cell lines SK-N-SH in vitro.Methods Rat cortical neurons or SK-N-SH cells were exposured to YKY-7 or Donepezil for 2 h before addition of Aβ25-35 for 48 h and then cell morphology change and cell viability were examined by light microscopy and MTT assay respectively,and SKN-SH cells apoptosis were measured by fluorescence microscopy,transmission electron microscopy and flow cytometric analysis.The interference of PI3K-Akt blocker LY294002 on the neuroprotective effect of YKY-7 was detected by MTT assay.Results Rat cortical neurons and SK-N-SH cells viability were increased by 12.5μmol·L -1 of YKY-7 after Aβ25-35 treatment,and its protective effect was stronger than the same concentration of Donepezil;SK-N-SH cells apoptosis induced by Aβ25-35 was attenuated by 12.5μmol·L -1 of YKY-7;the neuroprotective effect of YKY-7 was blocked by LY294002.Conclusion 2-phenoxy-indan1-one derivative YKY-7,an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor,has the protective effect on Aβ 25-35 induced neurons apoptosis which might be achieved through PI3KAkt signaling pathway in vitro.


This paper documents the difficult process of redefining the basic economy of the port of La Spezia. It shows the past and the present bound by a strong military presence and ambitions for a future based on tourism and commerce. The start of a debate on the possible conversion of military areas and the formulation of plans and projects for the physical and functional transformation of key places in the town clearly show the policy and urban planning problems which can emerge from processes of this nature.


Abstract In this paper the deformation state of a circular and isotropic plate is analyzed, using as methods of comparison the analytical, the finite element and the experimental element methods. In the finite element method, the plate is analyzed by several programmes, as well as assembled with the respective container.


Transesterification of beef tallow and methanol is affected by many factors. Catalyst, free fatty acids, and
water in beef tallow, and reaction time were investigated. Sodium hydroxide (NaOH) was a more effective catalyst than
sodium methoxide (NaMeO). NaOH and NaMeO reached their maximum activities at 0.3% and 0.5%, w/w of beef tallow,
respectively. The presence of water had more negative effect on transesterification than did the presence of free fatty acids
(FFA). For best results, the water content of beef tallow should be kept not beyond 0.06%, w/w. FFA content of beef tallow
should be kept below 0.5%, w/w. The transesterification of beef tallow was very slow in the first minute. The production of
beef tallow methyl esters (BTME) was complete after about 15 min. There were still some mono- and diglycerides in the
BTME phase after the reaction was finished.


We have analyzed the effect on ultrasonic propagation of modifying the soft mode electric susceptibility of KDP type piezoelectric crystals to include "central peak" behavior. We have used the susceptibility suggested by Cowley in 1970 for KDP and by Shirane and Axe to explain neutron data in perovskites. We find that for parameters consistent with the published light scattering data in KDP the model predicts a detectable central peak spectrum in the frequency dependence of the attenuation which multiplies the usual ω2 dependence. The velocity changes from the central peak are slight and probably not detectable. The calculated frequency dependence can be made consistent with the curvature seen in a vs. ω2 by Garland and Novotny (1969) by choosing a central peak relaxation time of 4 nanoseconds.


Taking Xiushan County, Chongqing, as the object, the paper compares human factors action on agricul-
tural drought in every decades since 1950's, and studies the causes and change tendency of the drought. The result
shows that because of the destruction of ecological equilibrium, the lack of water conservancy facilities and unrea-
sonable policy, human factor aggravated the losses of agricultural drought in 1950's and 1960's. But because of the
enlarged input in agricultural infrastructure and the policy on fighting drought, human factor lightens the losses of
agricultural drought in 1970's, 1980's and 1990's.


The neurologic changes seen in association with or as a result of lung diseases are quite variable, ranging from the changes associated with abnormal gas exchange, paraneoplastic syndrome, direct effects of metastatic cancers, to the changes resulting from the treatment of the underlying lung diseases, such as mechanical ventilation or use of pharmacologic agents. The neurologic changes may also result from secondary complications of the primary lung disease, such as infections, nutritional and vascular diseases. Occasionally the neurologic and the pulmonary systems are simultaneously involved by the same disease process, such as systemic lupus erythematosus. This review will focus on the neurologic changes resulting from abnormalities of gas exchange in chronic respiratory insufficiency and obesity hypoventilation. Also, the neurologic changes of paraneoplastic and neurometabolic syndromes will be reviewed in depth. Table 1 enumerates the other pulmonary conditions associated with neurologic changes and the reader is referred to the references for a more in-depth review.


Abstract The angular dependences of extinction ratio and polarization plane orientation for prism liquid crystal polarizers have been measured fix 632. 8nm vawelength in the limits of angular aperture. The planar and homeotropic orientations of nematic liquid crystal layer were used.


* The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) * International Institutions Concerned with International Trade in Commodities * Regional Economic Integration * Special Institutional Frameworks


Shear-wave velocity profiles (SWVPs) for soil and sand cover have been acquired for five sites in the Botany Bay area, Sydney, using microtremor array observations together with spatial autocorrelation (SPAC) processing methods. Single-site horizontal/vertical particle motion spectral ratios (HVSR) at the sites show a range of natural-resonance peak frequencies from 7 to 1.3 Hz and SWVPs developed by inversion of the SPAC coherency spectra indicate three classes of unconsolidated Quaternary material in the upper 100 m, these being very soft (presumed) silts (Vs 90 to 130 m/s), sands (Vs 180 to 260 m/s), and (presumed in-situ) weathered sandstone/siltstone (Vs 40 to 720 m/s). Three sites having similar HVSR frequency maxima in the range 1 to 2 Hz were selected for further study using equivalent linear site response modelling with a peak ground acceleration on rock basement of 0.2 g. Results demonstrate that amplitudes of observed HVSR spectra lack quantitative value for the assessment of site response. This is particularly the case in regions with more complex regolith such as soft silts overlying sands. This style of regolith requires quantitative site response modelling based on SWVPs from array microtremor data in order to identify ground resonances relevant to both single and multi-storey buildings.


Summary.  Over the last 4 decades, there have been very significant advances in the treatment of haemophilia. Plasma products first became available in the 1960s, beginning with cryoprecipitate and then intermediate‐purity plasma concentrates, for the treatment of haemophilia A and B. The disasters of viral infections amongst people with haemophilia in the 1980s served to stimulate both the development of techniques of viral inactivation of concentrates and the manufacture of purer products. We therefore now have safe plasma products that are also pure in that they are concentrates of only the deficient protein responsible for the congenital coagulopathy. Preparations of specific coagulation proteins obtained using recombinant biotechnology techniques have been available since 1995.


Objective To provide clues on the establishment of health promotion model on iodine deficiency disorders in non-iodized salt problem areas through investigation and analysis of risk factors influencing population behavior of salt consumption. Methods Field investigation covered all of the townships in Gansu, Jiangsu, Fujian, Hainan, Chongqing, Xinjiang and Shandong provinces, autonomous region and municipality. In every township, 10 families in 2 villages were selected randomly. Salt samples were tested by semi-test kit. Questionnaire was used among families using non-iodized salt and village retailers related. Results In non-iodized salt problem areas, awareness of iodine deficiency disorders (IDD) and iodized salt was low. People tended to consume salt on account of traditional habit and price. Most of the non-iodized salt in families and retail shops came from mobile peddlers. Conclusions The analysis on the risk factors influencing population behavior of salt consumption is the basis of intervention planning. Interventions on different risk factors are supplement each other. Among them, planner should pay more attention on iodized salt supply and administration on non-iodized salt.


Recent evidence indicates that oxidative stress and genetic factors play an important role in the pathogenesis of vitiligo. SNPs in miRNAs involved in oxidative stress could potentially influence the development of vitiligo. In this case–control study, we investigated the association of a functional SNP of rs11614913 in miR‐196a‐2 with risk of vitiligo. A significantly lower risk of vitiligo was associated with the rs11614913 miR‐196a‐2 CC genotype (adjusted OR, 0.77; CI, 0.60–0.98). In addition, TYRP1 gene expression was considerably down‐regulated by the rs11614913 C allele in miR‐196a‐2, which lowered the levels of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reduced the proportion of early apoptosis in human melanocytes in response to H2O2 treatment. Our data suggest that the rs11614913 C allele in miR‐196a‐2 confers potential protection against oxidative effects on human melanocytes through the modulation of the target gene, TYRP1, which may account for the decreased risk of vitiligo in this study population.


Summary Typical platelet thrombi were produced in veins of dogs and rats. The administration of G 31150 reduced the incidence of thrombi in dogs but not in rats. Infusion of dog plasma to which G 31150 had been added, successfully reduced the incidence of thrombosis in rats.


Beginners studying quantum mechanics are often baffled with electron tunneling.Hence an easy approach for comprehension of the topic is presented here on the basis of uncertainty principle.An estimate of the tunneling time is also derived from the same method.


Abstract The aim of the study is to contribute to the knowledge on how to develop students' skills and capabilities required when addressing complex societal challenges in practice. In this paper we are investigating the design and implementation of a teacher training module focusing on improving teacher's ability to facilitate students' teams learning and collaboration skills. The feedback and learning from the design and implementation of the module at universities in Botswana, Kenya and Sweden is presented and discussed in this paper.


Abstract Readily accessible tetraorganoborate salts undergo selective coupling reactions under blue light irradiation in the presence of catalytic amounts of transition‐metal‐free acridinium photocatalysts to furnish unsymmetrical biaryls, heterobiaryls and arylated olefins. This represents an interesting conceptual approach to forge C−C bonds between aryl, heteroaryl and alkenyl groups under smooth photochemical conditions. Computational studies were conducted to investigate the mechanism of the transformation.


Case Closed: A Prosecutor Without Borders Julie Flint and Alex de Waal Eleven years ago, celebrating the creation of the world's first permanent International Criminal Court, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan spoke of "a gift of hope to future generations, and a giant step forward in the march towards universal human rights and the rule of law." Reflecting on the birth of the United Nations amidst the struggle against genocide, war crimes, and aggression half a century earlier, Annan noted how the idea of a world criminal court had been stillborn, strangled by the superpower rivalry of the Cold War. Only with the triumph of Western liberalism, and the horrors in former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, had this changed. The International Criminal Court (ICC), Annan said, "is an achievement which, only a few years ago, nobody would have thought possible."


A significant quantity of stress and anxiety is caused, as a consequence, as a result of employees having to try to balance the demands of work and family in their lives, which results in a significant amount of job-related stress and anxiety. Work-related conflicts are a very common occurrence among employees as the result of job stress, making it one of the biggest problems in the world for employees as a result of job stress, due to the fact that there are so many types of conflicts. It is true that employees who are able to maintain a balance between their work and family lives have the ability to apply the positive behaviors they have learned from their personal lives to their work lives, but the authors of this paper found out by conducting a survey that there is still room for improvement in this area. As part of the literature review, a number of studies related to gender have been conducted over the past few years, the majority of which have focused on the impact of gender on the work-family balance in the workplace. The availability of several gender-related studies on this subject has been noted in the literature, and several of them are in progress. A lot needs to be determined in terms of whether or not men find it difficult to balance work and family responsibilities in the same way as women, or if they in fact are experiencing a bit of an advantage in this sense over their female counterparts.


The Pebble Bed Modular Reactor is a new and inherently safe concept for a nuclear power generation plant. In order to obtain the necessary licenses to build and operate this reactor, numerous design and safety analyses need to be performed. The results of these analyses must be supported with substantial proof to provide the nuclear authorities with a sufficient level of confidence in these results to be able to supply the required licences. Beside the obvious need for a sufficient level of confidence in the safety analyses, the analyses concerned with investment protection also need to be reliable from the investors' point of view. The process to be followed to provide confidence in these analyses is the verification and validation process. It is aimed at presenting reliable material against which to compare the results from the simulations. This material for comparison will consist of a combination of results from experimental data, extracts from actual plant data, analytical solutions and independently developed solutions for the simulation of the event to be analysed. Besides comparison with these alternative sources of information, confidence in the results will also be built by providing validated statements on the accuracy of the results and the boundary conditions with which the simulations need to comply. Numerous standards exist that address the verification and validation of computer software, for instance by organisations such as the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). The focal points of the verification and validation of the design and safety analyses performed on typical PBMR modes and states, and the requirements imposed by both the local and overseas nuclear regulators, are not entirely enveloped by these standards. For this reason, PBMR developed a systematic and disciplined approach for the preparation of the Verification and Validation Plan, aimed at capturing the essence of the analyses. This approach aims to make a definite division between software development and the development of technical analyses, while still using similar processes for the verification and validation. The reasoning behind this is that technical analyses are performed by engineers and scientists who should only be responsible for the verification and validation of the models and data they use, but not for the software they are dependent on. Software engineers Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za


437 EACH CELL MUST define a budget that balances conflicting demands for resources to maintain cell viability and cell function with demands for resources to support growth. As a major consumer of the cell's resources, ribosome biosynthesis plays a key role in the cell's budgeting process, especially because new ribosomes represent an investment in new plant, with the opportunity for faster growth – but only if other essentials will be available. Ribosome synthesis involves both macroregulation, in conjunction with other aspects of cell growth, and microregulation to ensure that the components of the ribosome are available in equimolar amounts (reviewed in Refs 1,2). Recent results offer new insight into how the Saccharomyces cerevisiae cell uses the 'wisdom of evolution' to optimize this part of its economy and raise new questions about its implementation.


Marine folk culture is an essential part of Chinese folk culture. The preservation and promotion of marine folk culture plays an important role in the promoting of local culture industries. After investing the connotation, features and current situation of marine folk culture in Zhoushan City, this paper analyzes the problems existing in the preservation and promotion of marine folk culture from the perspective of cultural globalization. Finally, approaches for effective preservation and promotion are proposed for Zhoushan to better handle all the challenges under the background of cultural globalization.


To provide objects with a highly polished metallised finish, it is proposed that the objects be given a basic coating, an intermediate coating producing the highly polished metal finish and a top coating, in which the intermediate coating is applied by the plasma process.


Sensing-as-a-service is anticipated to be the core feature of 6G perceptive mobile networks (PMN), where high-precision real-time sensing will become an inherent capability rather than being an auxiliary function as before. With the proliferation of wireless connected devices, resource allocation in terms of the users' specific quality-of-service (QoS) requirements plays a pivotal role to enhance the interference management ability and resource utilization efficiency. In this article, we comprehensively introduce the concept of sensing service in PMN, including the types of tasks, the distinctions/advantages compared to conventional networks, and the definitions of sensing QoS. Subsequently, we provide a unified RA framework in sensing-centric PMN and elaborate on the unique challenges. Furthermore, we present a typical case study named"communication-assisted sensing"and evaluate the performance trade-off between sensing and communication procedure. Finally, we shed light on several open problems and opportunities deserving further investigation in the future.


Direct Time-of-Flight (D-ToF) sensors can be implemented combining Single-Photon Avalanche Diodes (SPAD) with Time-to-Digital Converters (TDCs). Such an architecture exhibits an intrinsic distance range limitation due to the TDC range, which is fixed by the TDC resolution and number of bits. Up to now it was not possible to extend this range without redesigning the TDC. In this work we propose a method to overcome this limitation thanks to a folding measuring technique. In our implementation the TDC is based on a ring-oscillator; the TDC starts when a photon is detected and stops when an external Stop signal is provided. As the number of bits is limited, the TDC restarts from 0 after reaching the final value (folding). In this paper, we show that it is possible to arbitrary extend the maximum detectable distance through repeated measurements by modifying the timing of the "stop" signal in multiples of the TDC's maximum range.


The Super Efficient Refrigerator Program (SERP) is a collaborative utility program intended to transform the market for energy-efficient and environmentally friendly refrigerators. It is one of the first examples of a large-scale {open_quotes}market transformation{close_quotes} energy efficiency program. This report documents the preliminary impact and market transformation evaluation of SERP ({open_quotes}the Program{close_quotes}). Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) conducted this evaluation for the U.S. Department of Energy. This study focuses on the preliminary impact evaluation and market transformation assessment, but also presents limited process evaluation information. It is based on interviews with refrigerator dealers and manufacturers, interviews with utility participants, industry data, and information from the Program administrators. Results from this study complement those from prior process evaluation also conducted by PNNL. 42 refs., 5 figs., 4 tabs.


The article focuses on the notions of structural elements of the chronotope developed by M. Bakhtin and applied in the stories of the Romanian writer Ion Creanga from the perspective of the imaginary, namely: challenge, chance, nature, landscape, heroes' pilgrimage, road, threshold. Overpassing evil places such as the forest, places haunted by devils, the pond, the pub are clues in the rounding of the character. The idea of good and evil spaces is strongly anchored in the collective unconscious according to the principle of splitting and differentiation between opposites. The evil spaces in Ion Creanga's stories are places of voluntary or involuntary challenge in which the initiation and rounding of the characters takes place.


In general, the input impurity levels in the electric and induction furnace charge is low, so refining does not pose any special problems. But the use of poor quality or
unsorted scrap or high phosphorus sponge in the charge can lead to significant increase in the input impurity level. Besides, quite often the desired final impurity level is very low. Composition control in these cases pose a problem particularly because a large refining time leads to a higher power consumption and low productivity. To overcome this difficulty, ladle refining as secondary steelmaking practices are widely used along with the electric steel making. In this lecture refining
principles both in electric furnace and ladle furnace will be discussed.Even at steelmaking temperatures, the reactions do not attain equilibrium unless the slag and metal phases are well stirred for a reasonable length of time. In this sense, equilibrium thermodynamics cannot give quantitative idea about the extent of actual refining that can be attained in electric and induction furnace.


The accurate prediction of internal cracks in steel billets is of great importance for the stable production of continuous casting. However, it is challenging, owing to the strong nonlinearity, and coupling among continuous casting process parameters. In this study, an internal crack prediction model based on the principal component analysis (PCA) and deep neural network (DNN) was proposed by collecting sufficient industrial data. PCA was used to reduce the dimensionality of the factors influencing the internal cracks, and the obtained principal components were used as DNN input variables. The 5-fold cross-validation results demonstrate that the prediction accuracy of the DNN model is 92.2%, which is higher than those of the decision tree (DT), extreme learning machine (ELM), and backpropagation (BP) neural network models. Moreover, the variance analysis showed that the prediction results of the DNN model were more stable. The PCA-DNN model can provide a useful reference for real production, owing to its strong learning ability and fault-tolerant ability.


The corresponding functions of the Word and Excel are applied in the management of house rent contracts.By this method,some important information about the contracts can be extracted conveniently and effectively.


10 Imagery-based, three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) 11 holds the potential to provide safer, more economical, and less disruptive bridge inspection. In 12 support of those efforts, this paper proposes a process using an imagery-based point cloud. First, 13 a bridge inspection procedure is introduced, including data acquisition, 3D reconstruction, data 14 quality evaluation, and subsequent damage detection. Next, evaluation mechanisms are proposed 15 including checking data coverage, analysing points distribution, assessing outlier noise, and 16 measuring geometric accuracy. In this final aspect, the "Guide to the Expression of Uncertainty 17 in Measurement" was used. The overall approach is illustrated in the form of a case study with a 18 low-cost UAV. Areas of particular coverage difficulty involved slim features such as railings, 19 where obtaining sufficient features for image matching proved challenging. Shadowing and large 20 tilt angles hid or weakened texturing surfaces, which also interfered with the matching process. 21 22 23


Context (Back ground) Acute Rheumatic fever and Rheumatic heart disease are the most common acquired childhood heart disease in India. It is well established that 2 D Echo cardiography is more sensitive in picking up minor degrees of valvular regurgitation than clinical examination. AIMS & OBJECTIVES: To study the clinical profile of "Rheumatic Fever and Rheumatic heart disease" & correlate it with Echocardiographic findings in Children under 15 years age group presenting to a tertiary care hospital. MATERIALS AND METHODS OF STUDY: Thirty six cases of Acute Rheumatic fever, which includes eight cases of first attack and twenty eight cases of reactivation of Rheumatic fever were studied over a period of two years in paediatric medical wards, King George Hospital, Visakhapatnam. The revised (1992) modified Jones criteria with the 1988 WHO modification was taken as a criterion to diagnose Acute Rheumatic fever. RESULTS: Peak age of Acute Rheumatic fever and Chronic Rheumatic heart disease is between 5-10 years (55.8%). No sex variation has been observed. Fever and joint involvement are the most common clinical manifestations (87.5%each) in first attack cases. Active carditis (75%) the second most common manifestation, followed by arthralgia (25%) and sore throat (25%), chorea, chest pain, abdominal pain were infrequent manifestations found to be 12.5% each. None of the cases had Erythema marginatum. CONCLUSION: In the present study the clinical findings were correlated with that of previous studies and Echocardiographic findings were correlated well as far as moderate to severe lesions. Further Echocardiography was proved to be more sensitive in detecting even trivial or mild aortic regurgitation and mitral or aortic stenosis.


A new circuit-based method for performance evaluation of mid-range wireless power transfer links is presented. The characterization is based on the measurement of selected node voltages, which allows to define the performance of the link in terms of its efficiency, output power, and mutual inductance. The main feature of the proposed method is that it can be applied to wireless power transfer systems during normal operational conditions, without the need for disconnecting the load. The characterization procedure is validated by experimental results.


Quality management practices (QMPs) have been proposed to improve organizational performance and received substantial attention in recent researches. This study empirically examines the extent to which QMPs and Organizational performance are correlated and how QMPs impacts on organizational performance. In this study, a QMPs framework is developed according to a comprehensive literature review and represents a relationship between QMPs and Organizational performance through examining the effects of the six QMPs constructs on Organizational performance. Questionnaire using for collected data from the banking sector in Jordan and tested proposed model. The results of this study supported a model proposed.


Background:Breast carcinoma is a common disease among females in the world. There is a correlation between carcinoma and hypercoagulation.
In a cancer state, there is an increase in the level of cross-linked brin degradation product (d-dimer) which indicates systemic activation of
brinolysis and hemostasis. So, there is a relation between an increase in d-dimer value and breast carcinoma. Aims and Objectives: This study
was done in an attempt to evaluate the role of D-dimer in patients with carcinoma breast, in predicting lymph node metastasis in carcinoma patients
and to look for the relationship of these markers with histopathologic parameters. Patients and methods: A prospective study was done in
Narayana medical college (department of surgery) from Jan 2022 to Jan 2023. Forty-three breast carcinoma patients were included in the study
after FNAC/core needle biopsy conrmation. Plasma d-dimer levels compared with (tumor size, stage, grade, lymphovascular invasion, and lymph
node involvement). Results: D-dimer level was increasing in breast carcinoma with enlarged tumor size, high stage, grade, lymphovascular
invasion, and lymph node involvement. Conclusion: Plasma D-dimer levels are elevated in breast cancer, especially in an advanced stage. It is an
important marker of clinical stage progression, lymphovascular invasion, and metastasis So pre-operative plasma D-dimer level is a safe, costeffective, and convenient method for the prediction of advanced-stage breast cancer


This paper proposes a fuzzy bi-objective mixed integer linear programming formulation and solution methodology for a multi-echelon, multi-product and multi-period supply chain planning. The supply chain is a network of suppliers, plants, distribution centers, cross-docks and retailers. Products are delivered to retailers through cross-docks or directly from manufacturing plants. Cross-docking as an efficient logistic strategy is an intermediate level that involves receiving products from various resources distribution centers, sorting and then shipping them to their destinations retailers. The aim of this paper is to present a model that minimizes the total cost and develops a just-in-time JIT distribution for the supply chain. The proposed model integrates procurement, production and distribution plans in the tactical level under fuzzy supply, production and demand by considering cross-docking and direct shipments simultaneously. Triangular fuzzy numbers are adapted to represent fuzzy parameters. Moreover, the fuzzy chance-constrained programming is applied to transform the fuzzy model into an auxiliary crisp model.


Objective To explore the clinical effects of low-dose heparin intervention on infants serious bronchopneumonia.Methods 68 cases of serious bronchopneumonia were randomly divided into therapeutic group and control group,two groups of infants were given oxygen,anti-infection,cardiac treatment and symptomatic treatment,therapeutic group was administered a low dose of heparin,after treatment to determine effect and determination of blood hematocrit and blood viscosity.Results Compared with the control group,therapeutic group after treatment of pulmonary got a reduction of disappearance time rate by 47.70%,shorten recovery time of hard breathe to 27.95 percent,shorten the overall course of treatment 25.90%,the total effective rates of therapeutic group was superior to the control group,red blood cell hematocrit increased 57.69 percent,blood viscosity reduced 27.95 percent,both had significant difference(P0.05 or P0.01).Conclusions Treatment of infants serious bronchopneumonia with low dose of heparin can significantly improve efficacy.


Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) is a layered material with a high refractive index in the visible and infrared spectral range. In this work, we theoretically and experimentally demonstrate Mie-resonant MoS2 nanodisks. We show enhanced second harmonic generation from MoS2 nanodisk resonators due to the overlap of Mie-type resonances at the fundamental wavelength with the C-exciton resonance at the second-harmonic wavelength.


We develop a substantial enhancement of the efficient congruencing method to estimate Vinogradov's integral of degree k for moments of order 2s , thereby obtaining for the first time near‐optimal estimates for s>58k2 . There are numerous applications. In particular, when k is large, the anticipated asymptotic formula in Waring's problem is established for sums of s k th powers of natural numbers whenever s⩾1.543k2 .


Cereal product comprising cereal together by means of at least one binder and / or cereals having at least one coating, wherein the cereal product contains 50 to 95% by weight (relative to the total dry substance of the cereal product) of cereals and 5 to 50% by weight (on dry substance total cereal product) of isomaltulose as a binder and / or coating.


Starting from the present situation of traffic congestion of big cities in our country,the reasons which the question produces are analysed,and finally the corresponding solutions including increasing transportation supplies and introducing transportation demand simultaneously,guiding the city to develop as the multi-centers,applying intelligence traffic control system to raise the traffic control level,strengthenning the static state traffic control and so on are proposed,and some actual operational suggestions of how to reduced transportation demand are given.


In order to measure industry total factor productivity accurately, we require reliable information not only on the outputs produced and the labour input utilized by the industry but we also require accurate information on eight additional classes of input used by the industry. One of these additional classes of input is intermediate input; i.e., inputs that are utilized by the industry but which are produced by other industries. Information on the real and nominal purchases of intermediate inputs by industry comes from the system of input-output tables published by Statistics Canada. In section 4, we explain why the estimates of real intermediate input utilization by industry that one can obtain from the real input-output tables of any country are likely to be inaccurate. In section 5, we go on to make the case that national productivity estimates are likely to be more accurate than subnational industry estimates. Section 6 concludes on an optimistic note.


(57) Abstract: A method of forming a sodium tungstate using pyrometallurgical operation is provided. Tungsten-containing concentrate (12) is introduced into silica (14) and the slagging furnace with sodium silicate (16) (18). High density tungsten-containing phase (20) by gravity settled to the bottom of the crucible furnace, low density slag phase (22) is isolated at the top of the crucible furnace. High density tungsten phase (20) is introduced into the sparging furnace (24). Gas from slagging furnace (18) (26) can be subjected to particulate control (28). The recovered particles (30) is recycled to the slagging furnace (18), the treated gas (32) can be discharged to the atmosphere. Carbon-containing gas such as methane (34) is introduced into the sparging furnace (24). The sparging step, tungsten carbide product crude (52) was obtained, which is subjected to water leaching step (54). The liquid portion (58) is sent to crystallizer (60), crystal (64) is subjected to a water (68) suitable acid while being ground in (72) acid leaching (70). High purity tungsten carbide (78) is subsequently recovered.


Abstract : Although there is general agreement that the initial treatment of freezing cold injury (FCI) should be rapid rewarming to prevent direct injury from intracellular ice formation and protein denaturation, there is less conformity in the clinical intervention after rewarming. Medical treatment is directed towards the prevention of additional injury due to microvascular damage. With the exception of freezing cold injury, hyperbaric oxygen therapy is now accepted as an adjunct therapy for the management of all other acute traumatic peripheral ischaemias, such as crush injuries, compartment syndrome, thermal burns, compromised skin grafts and flaps, and threatened replantations. The present report documents our experience of using HBO as an adjunct therapy in the treatment of 10 FCI patients. All patients were experienced alpinists, which received their injury during expeditions in the Alps, Andes, Himalayas, and Pamir. All received field medical attention upon returning to base camp, and regardless of location managed to return to Ljubljana within a few days to a week for further treatment, which also included HBO therapy (HBOT). During HBOT patients were compressed to 2.5 ATA for 90 min and breathed 100% oxygen via an oro-nasal mask. During the 90-min therapy, subjects inspired 100% oxygen for 25 min followed by a 5 min air break. This was repeated 3 times. Bone scintigraphy was performed prior to the HBO treatment protocol in 7 patients. The number of HBOTs ranged from 11 to 30 per patient. In all cases, patients presented with oedema in the afflicted digits. Some patients also had haemorrhagic blisters and/or some necrosis. The progression of their recovery, and results of HBOT are largely dependent on the time between injury to the onset of HBOT, the magnitude of the injury, and the field treatment. In general, oedema subsided by the 3rd to 5th day of HBOT, and revitalisation of the affected region was evident on the 2nd day of HBOT.


The study sought to establish the effect of psychological capital on employee engagement on small to medium scale micro finance institutions. Secondary objectives were developed using psychological capital constructs namely hope, self-efficacy and resilience. The study adopted a quantitative approach backed by positivist philosophy. A sample of 350 respondents was determined using the Yamane's model. Stratified random sampling was adopted and data was collected using a structured questionnaire. The results of the study indicate that psychological capital has a significant effect on employee engagement. The study recommends that employee behavioral workshops, mentorship, ethical leadership and coaching programmes directed at developing psychological capital in SMEs.


The present investigation indicates that G. edulis can be successfully cultivated on commercial scale in the nearshore areas of Gulf of Mannar during the five
months period from November to March when the sea is calm. The shallow waters near CMFRI fish farm in Palk Bay are not suitable for G. edulis cultivation as the
growth of the plant was affected by various environmental factors mentioned above. The culture experiments of G. edulis conducted earlier by the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute in 3 - 4 m depth area at Palk Bay near CMFRI fish farm showed good growth of plants as there was less sedimentation, fouling organisms and predators. Hence G. edulis could be cultivated in deep waters in Palk Bay side and attempts may also be made to culture G. edulis in shallow waters at other areas of Palk Bay in order to select the suitable culture sites and period of good growth.


According to high temperature weak stability of common asphalt mixture, rutting tests of diatomite modified asphalt mixture, modified lake asphalt mixture, modified rock asphalt mixture and common asphalt mixture are carried out. Changes of dynamic stability for common asphalt mixture compared with modified asphalt mixtures are comparatively analysed. The results show that compared with common asphalt mixture, rutting resistances of diatomite modified asphalt mixture, modified lake asphalt mixture and modified rock asphalt mixture are greatly improved. It is proposed that those kinds of modified asphalt mixture are adopted in asphalt pavement of large longitudinal slope section.


Along with the increasing human population and development of technology, the need for fuel is also increasing, but reserves of petroleum resources derived from fossils are increasingly depleting because of its nonrenewable nature. Biodiesel is a renewable fuel made from vegetable and animal oils. In this research, the raw materials used are biodiesel from castor oil and palm oil. This study aims to obtain the characteristics of palm-castor oil biodiesel fuel in the form of power, specific fuel consumption, fuel injection characteristics.
This study uses biodiesel fuel variations in B25, B30, B35, B40 and diesel by testing physical properties. In testing using a single cylinder diesel engine that is connected to the generator with a load of 5 lamps with a 500 watt lamp each. Then test the performance of diesel engines, test fuel consumption, and injection characteristics.
The results showed that overall pure diesel fuel has a higher or more wasteful power compared to biodiesel fuels of variations in B25, B30, B35, and B40. In testing the injection characteristics show that pure diesel fuel has the biggest spray angle. While castor oil has the smallest spray angle.


Abstract The results of a year's survey on the parasitic infestation of the gastrointestinal tract of three species of benthic fish, namely Serranus scriba, Mullus surmuletus, and Scorpaena porcus, living in a restricted coastal seaground in the N/W sector of the Gulf of Palermo, are reported and critically discussed. Fish populations were sampled monthly by means of a trammel net, according to the local fishing usage. As many as nine helminth species, five of them trematodes and four nematodes, were collected from the gastrointestinal tract of 625 individuals. Infestation was most intense in M. surmuletus, with a peak in the spring. S. scriba was especially parasitized during the spring and summer, whereas S. porcus showed no appreciable variations over the year, but only a slight increase in the spring. A positive relation of the degree of infestation to feeding habits, and especially to crustacean prey, was demonstrated. M. surmuletus and S. scriba are very likely final hosts of H. fabri, whereas S. po...


In this article, we study the so-called multi-time Hamilton-Jacobi Equations arising in Mathematical Economics. We prove, under rather natural assumptions, the existence and uniqueness of a viscosity solution to this system in the case in which the Hamiltonians depend on the space variable, extending previous results of Lions & Rochet where the Hamiltonians were allowed to depend only on the gradient variable. In addition, we show how this result immediately yields the commutation of the associated semigroups.


An experimental high strength steel weld metal containing 7 wt. % nickel and 2 wt. % manganese was found to have a complex microstructure. Employing high resolution characterisation techniques the microstructure consisted primarily of a mixture of martensite, upper bainite and a novel constituent with large grain size that contained plate-like precipitates. This constituent was characterised to have a ferritic matrix with cementite precipitates. Considering morphology, crystallography and recorded phase transformation temperatures it was concluded the novel constituent was a variant of bainite best described as coalesced bainite.


The design and characterization of LDMOS power transistors and amplifiers developed for 6 GHz WLAN applications are presented. Transistors of different size were fabricated in a 0.25 µm SiGe:C BiCMOS technology and have been characterized using a load/source pull measurement system. Based on this characterization a 5.8–5.9 GHz power amplifier was designed, fabricated and tested. By using on-board Wilkinson combiner structures an output power of 1 W at 1 dB power compression was achieved. The measured maximum drain efficiency/PAE were 40/28 % with a small signal gain of 7.2 dB. From the modulated signal evaluation using a 802.11p test signal an ACPR of −38 dBc and an error vector magnitude of 3 % were determined at 1 dB peak power compression.


In this paper we will study Fourier hyperfunctions of general type b y the functional analytic method namely the duality m ethod. This method was first introduced by L. Schwartz in order to establish the concept of distributions as a generalization of the concept of functions. "Generalized functions" a s a generalization of the concept of functions are thereby understood as dual objects of functions and "vector valued generalized functions" are understood as continuous linear mappings of function spaces into topological vector spaces. A s such things a re there distributions, Radon measures, ultradistributions, analytic functionals, Sato hyperfunctions, Fourier hyperfunctions, modified Fourier hyperfunctions, mixed Fourier hyperfunctions, partia l Fourier hyperfunctions, partial modified Fourier hyperf unctions, partial mixed Fourier hyperf unctions and their vector valued ones. Among them, the space of (vector valued) Fourier hyperfunctions o f each type is stable under the Fourier transformation on the whole ground space. It seems that the spaces of (vector valued) hyperf unctions stable under the Fourier transformation are exhausted by the above ones. All the above (vector valued) hyperfunctions are special cases of vector valued partial mixed Fourier hyperf unctions. So we will call vector valued partial mixed Fourier hyperfunctions as Fourier hyperf unctions of general type and study them in the unified manner. Here we will turn round the history of generalized functions. In 1950, 1951, L. Schwartz introduced the notion of distributions as dual objects o f infinitely differentiable functions with compact support, [4 4 ] . Almost concurrently, J. S. e. Silva, G. K6the and A. Grothendieck introduced the concept of analytic functionals as dual objects of holomorphic functions, [48], [30], [6]. O n the one hand, M . S a to understood generalized functions a s boundary values of holomorphic functions, [40], [41], [42]. As to the concept of boundary values of holomorphic functions, G. Kdthe and H. G. Tillm ann, before this, have introduced the notion of "Die Randverteilungen analytischer Funktionen", [29], [5 0 ] . But they regrettably used it only to characterize distributions in the sense of L . Schwartz and did not regard it a s a new mathematical substance. In this point, did M. S ato succeed. By considering boundary va lues o f holomorphic functions a s a new mathematical substance, he obtained the concept of hyper-


A phosphor consisting of antimony oxide, boric oxide, and manganese activator is fairly efficiently excited by ultraviolet radiation. It emits a band spectrum with a peak at 6400 Aa. The function of the boric oxide is to enhance fluorescent intensity, optimum composition being about 1 mole antimony oxide, 0.1 mole boric acid, and 0.002 mole manganese. Firing times, temperatures, and atmospheres (except hydrogen) are not critical. The structure of the phosphors is discussed on the basis of x‐ray diffraction patterns.


The African coastal and ocean environment span twenty two countries in the South and Central Eastern Atlantic Ocean and nine countries in the Indian Ocean. According to the World Bank, the population of Africa is approximately 650 million which is projected to grow at a rate of no less than 3% per year. With this growth rate, the population in the coastal urban area is expected to double within the next 30 years and by the year 2025, the urban coastal population will increase from a mean of 200 inhabitants/km to 500 inhabitants/km". The African coastal and ocean environment is richly blessed with a wide variety of living and non-living resources. Rapid industrial growth and the search for source of livelihood in the coastal cities have resulted in high pressures on the coastal resources. According to a Global Environmental facility report, the three greatest threats to the African coastal and ocean areas are pollution from land base activities, over exploitation of living resources, alteration and destruction of marine habitats. Global climate change and associated impacts like sea-level rise and flooding have been documented to have serious impacts on the socio-economic activities in both West and East African regions. The devastating mega thrust earthquake of December 26, 2004 in South East Asia produced gravity waves which propagated in the Indian Ocean for several hundreds of kilometers to reach the East African coast causing loss of lives and destruction of coastal infrastructure. Coastal storm surges caused by meteorological factors also cause widespread coastal flooding annually along the West African coast. While several national and International coastal and marine programmes are presently being implemented, many African coastal countries need international assistance to address coastal and marine hazards which are devastating the area. The need for an integrated and African-wide early warning system is now imperative to warn coastal population of impending hazards from flooding, earthquakes and other associated coastal hazards. Such an early warning system will also complement and ensure preparedness programmes to alleviate poverty and enhance national socio-economic developmental programmes. Implementation of an early warning system and coastal hazard mitigating options will be hampered by lack of human capacity, infrastructure and funds. The present focus of the United Nations, governments, private industries, and non governmental organisations for an integrated approach to coastal and marine environment management requires global cooperation and provision of the tools (funds, capacity building programmes, early warning system) that will ensure the health of the Africa coastal and the marine environment which constitute an integral part of the world's coastal and ocean environment.


Summary form only given. The magnetic properties of thiii ferromagnetic (F) films grown on antiferromagnetic (AF) substrates may be controlled to a large extent by the nature of the interface. Interface roughness in F/AF bilayers is a subject of current interest and despite the research effort dedicated to the subject and the large amount of experimental data accumulated so far, there are still unsolved questions. In this contribution we show that the step defect may produce strong reduction of the domain wall width and that the frequency of rigid displacement domain wall oscillations is determined by the interface exchange energy within the domain wall region. We consider a Neel wall of a thin uniaxial ferromagnetic film on a two-sublattice AF substrate. The uniaxial direction of the substrate is supposed to coincide with the easy axis direction (z-axis) of the ferromagnet. The normal to the surface is along the y-axis and a step, running along the z-direction, divides the substrate into two regions, each containing spins from opposite sublattices of antiferromagnet.


Bi1.5Zn1.0Nb1.5O7 (BZN) films were deposited by rf magnetron sputtering on different substrates to systematically vary the film stress due the thermal mismatch between BZN and the substrate. Substrates included Pt/SiO2 covered silicon, vycor glass, magnesium oxide, and sapphire. The BZN film microstructures (orientation, grain size, and roughness) were similar on the different substrates. Measurements of the permittivity and dielectric loss tangent were carried out between 80 and 300 K at frequencies between 10 kHz and 10 MHz. Films that were under a moderate tensile stress showed a low-temperature dielectric relaxation, associated with a dielectric loss peak and drop in permittivity, at ∼100 K. In contrast, the dielectric relaxation was shifted to temperatures below 80 K in films on vycor that were under a large tensile stress. This shift reflected a lowering of the activation energy of the dielectric relaxation processes due to tensile stress. It is expected that films under large tensile stress require...


An important application in wireless networks is data collection. It aims to gather and deliver specific data for concerned authorities. Many researchers invest in vehicular ad hoc networks for that purpose to acquire data from different sources on the roads as from its vicinity. A vehicle is considered as a mobile data collector, it gathers real-time or delay-tolerant data such as road traffic, environmental information, and event advertisements. In a previous work, we have proposed a novel clustered data gathering protocol CDGP for vehicular ad hoc network, which improves the collection performance by implementing a new space division multiple access technique called dynamic space division multiple access and a retransmission mechanism in case of errors. However, CDGP supports only delay-tolerant data as it does not use any aggregation technique. In this paper, we propose an enhancement of this protocol by extending it to support: i both real-time and delay-tolerant applications; ii multiple types of data; and iii aggregation of collected data prior to sending them to the initiator. We present the plausible analytical complexity of the extended CDGP, as we illustrate the superiority of its performance throughout the results obtained from simulation experiments, using a Freeway mobility model. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


This article describes stabilization efforts for a collapsed tunnel shaft and the Strood and Higham tunnel lining project in North Kent, England. After a hole 12 meters in diameter and 11 meters deep appeared in 2000 at an apple orchard, work was initiated to reinstate the ground to its original profile and ensure that there would be no additional load to the existing tunnel lining as well as no encroachment on the tunnel profile. Thirty meters below the surface was a brick-lined tunnel originally constructed as a canal tunnel in the early 1800s. The article describes how, in six stages, the collapse was repaired using cavity grouting, steel channels and rock bolts, permeation grouting, compaction grouting, foam concrete and finally, chalk fill and topsoil.


The authors propose a possible mechanism lying behind the adatom version of the Binnig et al. (1983) model for the Si(111)-7*7 reconstructed surface. On the basis of the hexagonal Fermi surface of the 2D ideal metallic surface band previously stressed by Tosatti and Anderson (1974), an anisotropic RKKY-type interaction is introduced among Si adatoms. Taking the Fermi wavenumber for the nearly half-filled case, they calculate the Ewald's sum of interaction energies for all possible kinds of adatom arrangements in the n*n-type structure (1<or=n<or=10), finding that the Binnig et al. model falls into the energetically most stable state. The present mechanism resolves both the problems of the long-range periodicity and of local arrangements in the surface unit cell. In a similar way, the coverage-dependent 7*7 to 5*5 transition on the reconstructed Ge(111)-Sn surface is explained by a small change in the Fermi wavenumber caused by electronic charge transfer from distributed Sn atoms to the Ge ideal surface band. An application of the theory to molecular-cluster versions of the Binning et al. model is suggested.


In 1966, the anthropologist Francis L.K. Hsu pub I ished a Hypothesis on Kinship and Culture which purports to relate a culturally selected domiant dyad of the nuclear family, through the attribute...