On January 7, 2011, Arizona Democratic congresswoman Gabrille Giffords sent an email to a friend in Kentucky, Republican Secretary of State Trey Grayson. Grayson had recently been offered the prestigious position of director of Harvard's Institute of Politics and Giffords wrote to congratulate him. "After you get settled," she wrote, "I would love to talk about what we can do to promote centrism and moderation. I am one of only 12 Dems left in a GOP district (the only woman) and think that we need to figure out how to tone our rhetoric and partisanship down" (Terkel). Giffords' plans for a civil rhetoric were interrupted when, the next day, at a "Congress on Your Corner" event in Tucson, a vigilante shot her in the head. She survived, but six others died. Tragedy tends to defy precisely what it demands—explanation. Who is Jared Lee Loughner, and why did he do it? Many accounts circulated in the days and weeks following the shooting. Some blamed Arizona's lax gun laws, others the lack of funding devoted to treating the mentally ill. When Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik stepped up to a podium on January 8 to give a statement on the shooting, he cited these factors. He then took the conversation in a different, and for many, unexpected, direction by blaming political discourse, the very thing Giffords herself feared and hoped to moderate. For him, the angry, polarizing, take-no-prisoners, violent talk of the Republican Right—its "vitriolic rhetoric"—was the primary cause of the shooting. Americans searching for an explanation need look no further than


In this paper, for the rst time, a high performance hybrid silicon evanescent traveling wave electroabsorption modulator based on asymmetric intra-step-barrier coupled double strained quantum wells active layer is introduced which has double steps at III/V mesa structure. Through this active layer, hybrid silicon evanescent traveling wave electroabsorption modulator will be advantages such as very low insertion loss, zero chirp, high extinction ratio, and large Stark shift and better gures of merit as compared with multiquantum well and intra-step quantum well structures. Furthermore, traveling wave electroabsorption modulator with double steps III/V mesa structure results in a wider bandwidth as compared with one-step III/V mesa and mushroom structures. For the modulator with double steps III/V mesa structure with a 200 μm length, the 3 dB bandwidths are obtained as 132 and 52 GHz for 25 and 40 Ω characteristic impedances, respectively.


The Social Audit is a statement that was created with a view to disclosing the social responsibility of organizations. This instrument, which has been widely discussed, provides users with accounting information regarding the organizations' internal policies on the human promotion of employees and the quality of life in organizations; the formation and distribution of wealth; the organizations' attitude in relation to the environment and spontaneous contributions to the community. In Brazil, the preparation of the Social Audit is still not mandatory and there are no official models or indicators for disclosing the data. However, an increasing number of organizations from various sectors are adopting the practice, including the companies analyzed in this research. This study provides a review on the concepts and indicators of the aforementioned report and, basically, evaluates the content of the information provided by the largest companies (by number of employees) in the state of Santa Catarina. The results reveal that Social Audits have been used by companies throughout the State. However, they use different models; disclose the indicators in a wide variety of forms; omit important information and provide data for two periods only, as a result of which Social Audits are not as useful to the users as they potentially could be.


Cloud computing is known to be a secured technology. It has various applications. Cloud computing is providing its security services and storage services at a very low cost. Privacy and authentication are required at a high degree. There are various approaches to deal with these security issues. Cloud is secure enough from all external theft. Cloud computing provides three kinds of services: IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service), PaaS (Platform as a Service) and SaaS (Software as a Service). For data protection in cloud server, cryptography is one of the important methods. Cryptography provides various types of symmetric and asymmetric algorithms to secure the data. Here we use two mechanisms in this paperdata encryption and file splitting. When a user uploads a file it is encrypted using AES encryption algorithm. Then encrypted file is divided into equal parts according to the number of clouds and stored on the cloud. This proposed system enhances the data security on cloud.


A method for preparing oxidated pellets from pure hematite concentrate includes the following steps: after the hematite concentrate is preprocessed until the specific surface area is larger than or equal to 1300cm2.g-1, compound additive which accounts for 0.5 to 1.6 percent by weight of the total amount of hematite concentrate is added, damp milling is then carried out, pelletizing, drying, preheating and roasting are sequentially carried out after damp milling, and thereby the finished oxidated pellet product is obtained. The compound additive is the mixture of humic acid, calcium peroxide and paigeite, the mixture is ground to the grain size of negative 0.074mm after mixing, and the percentage by weight is not lower than 95 percent. The method solves the problems in the preparation of oxidated pellets from the hard-to-pelletize, hard-to-roast hematite concentrate, such as poor pellet quality, high preheating and roasting temperatures, long time, low finished pellet product strength. The method is simple, the quality of the prepared hematite concentrate pellets is high, the preheating and roasting temperatures are low, the time is short, and the method is suitable for the preparation of the oxidated pellets from the hematite concentrate, particularly the preparation of the oxidated pellets from hard-to-pelletize, hard-to-roast spiegeleisen concentrate. The method can realizeindustrialized production.


Writing and publishing in these fast-moving times necessitates continuous vigilance against perverse consequences. For this reason, the British Society of Gastroenterology-Joint Advisory Group (BSG-JAG) documents circulated as best consensus guidance for UK Endoscopy,1–3 dating from 20th March 2020, have been subject to repeat scrutiny over the last 13 days. The latest iterations of these documents are available at https://www.bsg.org.uk/covid-19-advice.

Newton's Third Law states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.4 The time sequence of various advice documents from the devolved health administrations followed after the BSG-JAG principles of practice were published. For the most part, governments have endorsed these principles at face value.5 There are, inevitably, nuances (eg, the timing of the continued implementation of cancer diagnostics and screening),6 but as a professional membership society in touch with the realities of the UK workforce on the ground, the importance of the primary BSG-JAG message of pausing to regroup, articulated in the early guidance, cannot be overstated; acknowledging …


Mining is one of the deadliest industries in the world. In some countries, many miners face problems with health issues and safety risks and are left to fend for themselves in the event of injury without assistance. Coal miners are exposed to coal dust and toxic materials such as mercury, arsenic, and lead, which are released during the process of mining. Toxic materials have ionizing radiation, thereby damaging the genetic material (DNA). Finally, the workers are affected by various diseases such as respiratory diseases, skin diseases, and genetic disorders. Work-related deaths are commonly caused by rock falls, fires, explosions, methane poisoning, and drilling. So this methodology provides an effective solution for monitoring the environment, and the main goal of this system is to relieve workers from an unhealthy lifestyle. This system proposes a wearable ear muff that prevents hazardous noise from coming from the process of mining. The system is developed with a vibration sensor. Whenever the vibration exceeds the limit, a relay alert is sent through an ear muff with the help of audio playback. To prevent the inhalation of toxic gases, a mask is used, which is made up of several layers and attached to a fan that acts as a filter for dust particles. This methodology also prevents fire accidents by means of a smoke sensor, which gives an alert through a buzzer when it exceeds the limit. Various parameters can be detected by using humidity, temperature, and oxygen sensors, which will be displayed on the LCD in order to ensure the healthy life of workers.


Heaterless inert gas ion thruster hollow cathodes were investigated with the aim of reducing ion thruster complexity and increasing ion thruster reliability. In this study, cathodes heated by glow discharges were evaluated for power requirements, flowrate requirements, and life limiting mechanisms. In addition, an accelerated cyclic life test was completed


Due to the increasing competitiveness of businesses, project planning and scheduling have become a challenging theme in the last years. In this paper, we propose a two-stage stochastic programming model for the resource constrained project scheduling problem, taking into account the stochasticity of activity durations. In this formulation, assuming that some activity duration scenarios are known, resource allocations are taken in the first stage, while scheduling decisions are postponed in the second stage. The resulting problem is a mixed integer problem with recourse, where binary variables appear in the first stage. In order to efficiently solve the problem, a decomposition algorithm is developed, based on the well-known integer L-shaped method. Detailed computational results are presented for a set of benchmark instances taken from the literature.


The article dwells on the analysis of the problem dealing with poetical imitation of a pattern having different nominations in the history of the Persian-Tajik literature specifying the devices used by poets: tatabbu, nazirapayravi, tarikai dar tarzi, dar ravishi and etc. In this aspect the author of the article analyzes the creation of the bilingual poet (zullisonain) Amir Umarkhon who belonged to Khukand literary circle. She asserts that the compositions of payravi and tatabbu obtained a new impulse at the end of the XVIII-th and the beginning of the XIX-th centuries. Most of all Khukand poets composed tatabbus in imitation of such Persian-Tajik men-of-letters as Abdurahmon Djami, Soib Tabrezi, Mirzo Abdulkodir Bedil and Amir Umarkhon; the latter being a governor of Khukand khanate. The author of the article conducts a detailed analysis comparing responsive gazels written in imitation to patterns with the latters, she evaluates properly innovational and original aspects of the devices resorted to.


Essence, stages and types, also basics and forms of political evolution are revealed in the article. Analysis of different approaches to interpretation of given appearances is realized. Author's point of view on different problems of political evolution is suggested.


The present invention obtains a vehicle door belt molding with which a portion facing a pillar can have a small width in the vehicle width direction even when a belt molding main body is molded by employing extrusion molding, and furthermore an end cap can be prevented from shaking inside the vehicle. The belt molding main body (21) comprises: a vehicle outside part (24) which faces a pillar (17) and an upper edge part (12) of an outer panel (11) from the vehicle outside; a vehicle inside part (25) which faces the upper edge part from the vehicle inside, the whole end surface of the vehicle inside part (25) being disposed between a pair of pillars (16, 17) as a receding end surface (36); and a engaging part (28) which is formed on the inner surface of the belt molding main body. The end cap (39) comprises: a cover end part (40) for covering an end surface of the vehicle outside part; an insertion part (41) which extends from the cover end part to a position in front of the receding end surface; and an engagement part (45) which is formed on the vehicle outside surface of the insertion part and controls movement of the end cap toward the vehicle inside by engagement with the engaging part.


The electron-photon delayed coincidence technique has been extended to radiative lifetime measurements of excited simple free radicals. Dissociation processes of the parent molecules NH3 and CH4 leading to formation of the excited fragments NH and CH, respectively, have been studied. For the NH radical the following lifetimes are obtained: C1 Pi (364+or-5) ns and A3 Pi (347+or-5) ns; and for CH: A2 Delta (440+or-20) ns.


The relationships between ambient oxygen concentration, temperature, body weight, and oxygen consumption for Mysis relicta in Kootenay Lake, B.C. are examined. Mysis oxygen consumption rate declined with both decreasing temperatures and ambient oxygen concentrations.


The value of GFA determination for predicting the survival of patients after surgical treatment of a malignant brain tumor was studied. GFA was measured on a histologically controlled fragment of the tumor. No significant correlation was found between the level of GFA and the survival time of patients treated by chemotherapy and radiotherapy.


As a sophisticated and outstanding method,the artificial insemination technology has been widely used in intensive pig industry.In company with the provement of physilological and biochemical technic in recent years,the artificial in semination technology is developing more rapidly.Some new technology such as semen frozen,the sex sorted spermatozoa,intro-uterine insemination,deep intro-uterinehorn insemination and the laparoscopic artificial insemination technology becomes the topic and developing direction of recent research in artificial insemination technology.In this article,the current study and application of semen frozen,intra-uterine insemination and the sex sorted spermatozoa technology were summarized.


language; Paolo Virno explores language both as faculty and particular utterance. This way, he argues for an understanding of language that is deeply rooted in the human body. In order to do that, he goes through a series of key arguments – he claims that the act of speaking is a performative act and defends it through the concept of an 'absolute performative' (p. 43). Furthermore, he sets out an intriguing rethinking of Wittgenstein's physiognomic work into a 'second-degree sensualism' (p. 111), following which he moves onto reification, alienation and fetishism as a way of reinforcing his 'critic of interiority' (p. 109). Finally, he aims to connect the current book to his previous work on the multitude and politics (p. 221). In general, Virno explores a variety of sources, but Aristotle, Wittgenstein, Frege and De Martino seem to be the most recurring ones. Even though the book explicitly focuses on language from its very outset, for the attentive reader, it is not difficult to identify the many implied political implications, which are finally made explicit in the third part of the book (pp. 169–236). Overall, it could be said that Virno manages to provide an intricate and convincing argument that grows in complexity. Considering that the text of the book was first published in Italy in 2003, the new (and first) translation introduces an innovative and noteworthy text to English-language readers. The book is, as expected of Virno, purely theoretical. Regardless of that, Virno focuses on embodied phenomena and at times refers to palaeontological (Leroi-Gourhan), anthropological (Gehlen and Herder), and psychological sources (such as Piaget and Vygotsky), in addition to the already mentioned philosophical ones. Furthermore, Virno's style is not hostile to the reader, and by growing in complexity with each part, although not explicitly linked, the understanding of each subsequent essay is facilitated. In conclusion, When the Word Becomes Flesh makes for an intriguing, innovative and somewhat radical text that aims to provide an account of human nature as something that is not distant and inaccessible, but actually manifest in common empirical occurrences such as the language faculty. Furthermore, the book shies away from theology and provides an interesting, yet underdeveloped, appendix on Wittgenstein written from an atheistic perspective.


ABSTRACT Clustering methods are valuable tools for the identification of patterns in high-dimensional data with applications in many scientific fields. However, quantifying uncertainty in clustering is a challenging problem, particularly when dealing with high-dimension low sample size (HDLSS) data. We develop a U-statistics based clustering approach that assesses statistical significance in clustering and is specifically tailored to HDLSS scenarios. These nonparametric methods rely on very few assumptions about the data, and thus can be applied to a wide range of datasets for which the Euclidean distance captures relevant features. Our main result is the development of a hierarchical significance clustering method. To do so, we first introduce an extension of a relevant U-statistic and develop its asymptotic theory. Additionally, as a preliminary step, we propose a binary nonnested significance clustering method and show its optimality in terms of expected values. Our approach is tested through multiple simulations and found to have more statistical power than competing alternatives in all scenarios considered. Our methods are further showcased in three applications ranging from genetics to image recognition problems. Code for these methods is available in R-package uclust. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.


Sub-diffraction imaging, also known as super-resolution (SR) imaging, is a novel method that can overcome the fundamental diffraction limit by localizing spatially isolated microbubbles (MBs). A low concentration of MBs is required to achieve isolated signals in microvasculature, which is especially challenging in cancerous tissue due to high vessel density and slow flow. This study proposes a frequency decomposition method that uses the polydisperse nature of commercial MB contrast agents to separate spatially non-isolated MBs with different acoustic signatures.


Guided by the Health China 2030 Action, this research aims to investigate the current state of sports and medicine integration in China. The study utilizes a combination of literature review and questionnaire survey methods to identify key challenges facing sports and medicine integration in China. To address these challenges, the study examines the sports medicine integration in the United States, and the implementation of the "Exercise is Medicine" course in the University of Georgia's Kinesiology curriculum. Through this examination, the study aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the challenges and opportunities for integrating sports and medicine in China, with the understanding that sports can serve as a valuable form of medicine.


Coordinated by the US Geological Survey, the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) is a Web‐based system that provides increased access to data and information on the nation's biological resources. The NBII can be viewed from a variety of perspectives. This article – an individual case study and not a broad survey with extensive references to the literature – addresses the structure of the NBII related to thematic sections, infrastructure sections and place‐based sections, and other topics such as the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (one of our more innovative tools) and the development of our controlled vocabulary.


Man's spiritual activities are the unity of co gn ition, emotion and will. The quality of will that acts as the subject of cogniti o n plays important roles in cognition and its results, including direction-deter mining, controlling and adjusting roles.


To optimize the cathodic protection (CP) system for one offshore platform jacket, the relationship curves between the protective current density and potential were obtained using laboratory and real-world experiments. Based on calculations for traditional anodes, Al-Mg composite anodes, and special-shape anodes, the study reduced the total required weight of anodes by about one third. The numerical simulation was used to optimize the position of each anode to provide uniform potential distribution. The monitoring experiments showed that the jacket achieved good CP.


We have developed a general method for constructing a set of nonorthogonal bases with equal separations between all different basis states in prime dimensions. The results are that the corresponding biorthogonal counterparts are pairwise unbiased with the components of the original bases. Using these bases, we derive an explicit expression for the optimal tomography in nonorthogonal bases. A special two-dimensional case is analyzed separately.


In this report, a design method is proposed for in-plane MEMS electrostatic energy harvesters with comb drives. Dependent on the device layer thickness and the achievable aspect ratio of the DRIE process, either the overlapping-area-change or the gap-closing converter has higher output power than the other. Two prototypes of MEMS electret energy harvesters are developed to verify the present design method.


The lack of society trust system co-exists with the family management of private enterprises.Currently,there's no reason for us to force the private enterprises to abandon this kind of management model unless the society trust system has been improved qualitiely.


Hysterectomy is commonly performed when medical therapy fails for so-called dysfunctional uterine bleeding (DUB). As a simpler, less costly alternative to hysterectomy, surgical ablation of the endometrium has become more viable with the recent development of new approaches. In this multicenter randomized …


Mass shootings are a highly visible form of violence in the United States, although public response to these events varies considerably. Drawing on social problems and collective threat perception literature, we use search data for all Google-using Americans following mass shootings since 2004 to examine how event attributes such as the number of victims, venue, and type of weapon(s) predict public information-seeking related to gun control and gun rights. The results demonstrate that the number of victims, news coverage, school venue, and the use of certain weapons all significantly increase public interest in gun control and gun rights. These key predictors interact with one another to further influence information-seeking behaviors related to both gun control and gun rights. We conclude with a discussion of our findings and the potential for Google Search data in social science research.


In this paper we study asymptotic behavior of solutions for a free boundary problem modeling the growth of tumors containing two species of cells: proliferating cells and quiescent cells. This tumor model was proposed by Pettet et al in Bull. Math. Biol. (2001). By using a functional approach and the C0 semigroup theory, we prove that the unique stationary solution of this model ensured by the work of Cui and Friedman (Trans. Amer. Math. Soc., 2003) is locally asymptotically stable in certain function spaces. Key techniques used in the proof include an improvement of the linear estimate obtained by the work of Chen et al (Trans. Amer. Math. Soc., 2005), and a similarity transformation.


An experiment employed a "familiar-informant false-narrative procedure" to examine the effects of ego involvement manipulation on the creation of false memories for suggested events. Our main sample consisted of 54 Serbian adolescent students. During the pre-testing stage, students' parents (N=54) provided details from their children childhoods, which were used to create stimuli for the subsequent stages. Half of the participants were given an ego-involving suggestion- a short written statement that claimed that people with higher intelligence have a better and more detailed memory of their childhood. We hypothesized that ego-involved group would recollect more childhood events in general, create more false memories and be more confident in its' authenticity and clarity. Implanted event was recognized as autobiographic by 24% respondents in the testing stage and by 44.4% respondents in the retesting stage. There were significant qualitative differences between authentic and false memories: authentic memories were assessed as more reliable and clearer than the false ones. Ego-involvement manipulation had no impact on the frequency or quality of false memories reported by the participants. Even though the specific ego-involvement manipulation was not successful, our findings suggest that other motivating strategies we employed pushed the respondents into accepting false memory suggestion in the retesting stage. Future research could benefit from testing more elaborate ego-involving procedures.


Crystals of scandium magnesium aluminate,ScAlMgO4,were grown from the melt prepared from stoichiometric quantities of Sc2O3,Al2O3 and MgO. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction indicates that ScAlMgO4 crystallizes in the space group R3 m with a = b = 3.2506(9) ,c = 25.152(8) ,V = 230.16(11) 3,Z = 3,F(...


INTRODUCTIONAlthough elder abuse in Korea has recently received increased attention, little is known about how older people are treated in their homes. Due to developments in medical care, improvement in sanitary conditions, and attention to health issues, the population of aging individuals continues to grow in Korea. According to the National Statistical Office in Korea (2005), the percentage of the population aged 65 and over is 9.1% (or 4.28 million out of 47 milllon), and will reach 14.4% by the year 2018, and 20% by 2026.As the older population increases, the burden on families becomes heavy, especiaUy given a lack of social services, and values emphasizing the family's responsibility to care for its aging members (Park & Choi, 2001). Many of these values reflect the strong impact of Confucian ideology (originating in China) on Korean family life going back as far as the mid17th century. It was at that time that Confucian norms spread into the general public, clan rules were established, and discrimination in inheritance emerged, giving preference to eldest sons and discriminating against daughters (Choi, 1983). By the end of Korea's Chosun dynasty (14th to 19th centuries), the family system had become patrilineal, married daughters were considered to be members of their husband's family, and the patriarchical family was consolidated.As distinct from the Western emphasis on independence and individualism, Korean family relationships are interdependent and expected to serve a protective function for family members as they age. Despite recent social changes, important values defining the Korean family include "filial piety" to the parents, revealed through the ancient custom of ancestor worship (The Society for the Study of Korean Women's Society, 2001). FaUures to demonstrate filial piety can cause conflicts between generations (Mo, 1999). Moreover, because of filial piety norms, and victims' concerns with preserving family harmony and honor, elder maltreatment can be committed covertly and not discussed outside the home or even viewed as abusive. That is, in Asian cultures, value systems influenced by Confucian philosophy, such as close family ties, harmony, order, and filial piety, may not decrease abusive behavior but may minimize the extent to which abusive behaviors are recognized and acknowledged (Ho, 1990).In response to growing recognition of the problem of abuse in famiUes, two provisions for the prevention and punishment of domestic violence were enacted in Korea in July 1997-the Act on the Punishment of Domestic Violence, and the Act for the Prevention and Protection of Victims of Domestic Violence. Before this legislation, most people, even police, were reluctant to violate family privacy to intervene in domestic violence cases. Moreover, victims were generally unwilling to recognize their aversive experiences as "abusive." Extending these two provisions, a separate legislative act for elder abuse was passed in 2004. Although an Act for Elder Welfare was estabUshed in 1981 and revised several times, it was the 4th revision in 2004 that included elder abuse. According to this law, elder abuse is defined as physical /psychological/sexual violence, economical exploitation, cruel behavior or neglect for the elderly.To obtain an estimate of the prevalence of elder maltreatment, the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs coUected data from 865 elders over age 65 in 2001 . Nearly 8% had experienced abuse from their children or other family members. Types of abuse were verbal and psychological (7.7% of respondents), neglect (2.5%), economic exploitation (2. 1 %), physical abuse (0.3%), and other abuse. Almost 43% of the elder abuse occurred "almost every day." In regard to causes, 39.5% of the abuse incidents were attributed to economic problems and 22.1% to the personality of the abuser. According to the research of Seo (2003) with 1,300 elderly people over the age of 65, the major elder abusers in the family were sons (42. …


This work is one of two volumes presenting selected histories from Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas. It discusses issues within a female context and features political and economic issues, marriage practices, motherhood and enslavement, religious beliefs and spiritual development.


We investigated an intracranial pressure (ICP) estimation method based on aqueductal cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) flow rate measurements from cine phase-contrast MR images. A fluid dynamics model is provided that relates CSF flow rate change to the elastance index, which is a parameter proportional to the ICP. Experimental results from 8 patients with clinical diagnosis of increased ICP showed significantly larger elastance index than 9 healthy adults (867.38k492.25 vs. 397.67+160.35, P=0.016). MR-based noninvasive ICP estimation may be a potentially useful tool in the assessment of clinical idiopathic intracranial hypertension.


Tourist intending to go on vacation are always searching for information related to the place they will visit by website or travel application. The more and later information obtained, the better the preparation made by tourists on their tour enabling them to have a good travel experience then. A good tour preparation, however, needs to be supported by the latest information as occurred in tourist sites such as traffic conditions, weather conditions and the crowd of tourist attractions. The latest information about tourism objects needs to be facilitated with the information notification about what occurs in the tourist sites to be visited. In this paper, we present the results of research on how the prototype of a tourism planning system with a two-way relation that can make it easier for tourists to provide and obtain information from any various sources in regard to the attractions they will visit. The High Fidelity Prototype of tourism planning system with a two-way relation was made using the Adobe XD with the User Centered Design method and was evaluated using System Usability Scale. The results of System Usability Scale showed that the prototype is acceptable and meet the usability, easy to learn and useful.


Using the Unified Theory of Technology Acceptance (UTAUT) model as a framework for this study, the aim was to describe how older adults assess digital services in terms of ease of use and quality in health and social care and how often those services are offered. Further, the aim was to describe how older adults receive support for service use, focusing on people aged 65 and over. A structured web-based questionnaire was used for data collection. The data (N=978) was analysed by quantitative statistical analysis. Most of the respondents found the digital services of health and social care easy to use. The function of the services was considered understandable. Respondents also felt that they could find the necessary information about the services. For the most part, they received service use help from their children or grandchildren. However, the role of health and social services professionals was less important. According to our findings, older adults received minimal support from health and social care professionals or employees in third sector organizations. Although, most respondents (70 %) needed support when using digital services.
In the future, health and social care service providers should invest in increased digital services. In conclusion, we found that older citizens know how to use digital services in the health and social care context and they receive adequate help from their relatives in using them.


Howling phenomenon caused by acoustic feedback affects the working of an amplifier system. The adaptive linear prediction proved to be effective for howling suppression. In this paper, we proposed a MATLAB platform that provides a virtual environment for the simulation of adaptive howling suppressor (AHS). We improved the system performance by duplicate adaptation. The duplicate-Least Mean Square predictor was finally implemented on a C55 DSP and evaluation of the AHS was carried out.


The use of serious games has become widespread in many fields, both civilian and military. In the military realm this use has been dominated by first person shooter (FPS) style games that provide a useful virtual environment for a wide range of training and concept development applications. This paper describes the use of a non-FPS game, Dangerous Waters, for research in the maritime domain, and how that game was integrated with other systems. Specific advice is given for repurposing games and their related technology for use in research and training systems. 1.0 BACKGROUND The use of first person shooter games in the defence community for training and concept development is well-established. While some other types of games are seeing use, it is still the first-person shooter game that dominates, particularly in the context of army training. While first-person shooter games are very common in the commercial space, they are by no means the only genre of game available. In fact, they are not even the only type of virtual environment. This paper will discuss the use of a virtual non-first-person shooter game in a research context and also discuss some of the potential uses in training environments. Before jumping into the use case, it is worth discussing some of the features of serious games that make them useful generally. The first, and most obvious, attribute of game technology that makes it so useful to us, is the low cost. Compared to traditional simulation systems, serious game technology is extremely economical (by orders of magnitude in many cases). Even in cases where a commercial game cannot be used off-the-shelf but requires modification, the cost is still much lower than that of traditional simulation systems. Another attribute of game technology is how accessible it is to end-users. Not only do the trainees (or in our case experiment participants) find it easy to pick up and use, so do scenario developers, instructors, and system administrators. This accessibility comes from the simple fact that games must be easy to use outof-the-box, without instruction, or else they have no market. A third attraction of games is that we can often find a game that does most or all of what we require from a simulation system. It is entirely possible to find an off-the-shelf game costing less than $50 per seat that will meet all (or most) of your requirements for particular applications. This is also true for research systems; however it can be more difficult to find a product that does not require modification for research applications. Of course, game technology does have some drawbacks. The fidelity of the simulation itself is often not to the standard of traditional simulators as the need to run on consumer hardware is of paramount importance, and gameplay is more important than fidelity. Game technology is often built on a closed architecture, and this can make it very difficult to take a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) game and interface with existing simulation systems. For example, in the training or simulation context it is easy to imagine a need to interface with a Distributed Interactive Simulation (DIS) or High Level Architecture (HLA) simulation, and there are very few COTS games (if any) that can do this. STO-EN-MSG-115 9 1 Using Games Technology for Maritime Research: a Case Study Luckily, many game companies have realized the market for military simulation and training can provide a lucrative secondary revenue stream. In order to address some of the shortcomings of COTS game technology, these companies have made non-commercial versions of their games to provide some visibility into the inner workings of the game, and allow customers to interface with other simulations, retrieve information from the game itself, or extend functionality into areas where they require it. This paper will present a case study of the use of the non-first-person shooter game Dangerous Waters (DW) by Sonalysts[1] and other COTS components in a research environment. While DW is the serious game that was selected for the particular application discussed, the lessons learned are applicable to any serious game either within a research context or not. 2.0 VICTORIA CABABILITY EVALUATION LABORATORY (VCEL) The Atlantic Research Centre of Defence Research & Development Canada (DRDC) has constructed a facility to conduct experimentation to support the command teams of the VICTORIA Class submarines of the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN). The facility consists of a reconfigurable space representing the control room of the VICTORIA Class boats, along with the IT infrastructure and recording devices required to provide simulated submarine systems and extract data from the runs. The facility uses off-the-shelf hardware, software, and consumer electronics extensively to meet the requirements of the experimental program. The concept is to scale the simulation elements to meet the needs of the experimental program as they change. For example, while we could run the real combat system in the facility, our current experimental program does not require that level of fidelity. It is possible to imagine experiments where the full combat system is required, experiments where a game will be sufficient, or experiments that may require some real parts of real hardware and software but not the entire system. The Victoria Capability Evaluation Laboratory (VCEL) consists of a physical space (designed like a television or theatre set) that provides a reconfigurable area to run experiments. The structure is made of plywood, and it is easy to modify the space, move consoles, change the periscopes, and so on. This gives us a relatively low-cost representation of the space actually available inside the control room of the VICTORIA Class boats (Figure 1). 9 2 STO-EN-MSG-115 Using Games Technology for Maritime Research: a Case Study Figure 1: The VCEL experimental space. Inside the structure are off-the-shelf consumer class computers, networking gear, and data capture equipment. Outside the structure is the "White Cell" area where we have more standard consumer grade computers, large LCD televisions, and a single rack for the switches and some simple servers. 2.1 Software System Before talking about the use of game technology in the VCEL it is helpful to put it in context. In VCEL, we do not run only the game, but a number of pieces of software that work together to provide the synthetic environment. The game provides a number of critical functions, but would not be enough on its own. A simple conceptual diagram is given in Figure 2. STO-EN-MSG-115 9 3 Using Games Technology for Maritime Research: a Case Study Figure 2: VCEL software system diagram. At the centre of the system is ActiveMQ[2]. This is a free and open source server for implementing messaging between software components. We use it as the backbone through which all the disparate pieces of the system communicate. At the top of the diagram are the system management, monitoring, and logging applications. In VCEL, these were all written in-house to meet our specific needs. There is also a box for specialized simulations and data providers; two examples in VCEL are a data provider that reads sound-speed profiles and responds to queries, and a very basic Automatic Information System (AIS) network simulation that creates AIS reports for other software to consume. To the right are real systems that are integrated with VCEL. Currently we only support the ECPINS-W[3] commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) electronic charting and navigation system. In principle, anything could be connected, though an adaptor would be required to interface with ActiveMQ. Figure 3 shows the ECPINS station in VCEL. 9 4 STO-EN-MSG-115 Using Games Technology for Maritime Research: a Case Study Figure 3: The ECPINS system. At the bottom of Figure 2 is a box representing experimental software. In the VCEL context, this means prototype interfaces or entire systems meant for operators to use directly. We have been very successful using Adobe Flash as a rapid application development (RAD) tool for creating new operator interfaces and systems, and for emulating real systems where it is impractical to use them directly. Finally, on the left of Figure 2 is a modified version of Sonalysts' "Dangerous Waters[1]" modern naval combat game. This software provides all operator interfaces, periscope, sonar, radar, electronic countermeasures (ECM), weapons & effects, ship motion simulation, as well as an extensive scenario editor. While it does not directly simulate a VICTORIA class submarine, it does allow us to provide representative stations where real naval operators can do their jobs. 2.2 Dangerous Waters Dangerous Waters (DW) is a commercial game that was first released in 2006 and is still currently available at a cost of approximately $15 per seat[4]. There are many features of DW that make it particularly attractive in the maritime context. First, it includes simulations of many platforms: maritime patrol aircraft, maritime helicopters, surface ships, and submarines. While it is fair to call DW a virtual simulation, it is not the same kind of environment provided in a first-person shooter game. In DW each crew station is modelled by a separate interface and most of these interfaces are not windows into the 3-D environment. For example, the sonar operator has several different sonar screens that emulate real systems but does not have a view "out the window". Additionally, DW provides a unique multiplayer mode where each crew station (Figure 4) on the controllable platforms can be run by a separate player. This was critical to our experimentation because we needed to have a complete command crew doing their jobs within the control centre of the submarine. STO-EN-MSG-115 9 5 Using Games Technology for Maritime Research: a Case Study Figure 4: The target motion analysis and fire control stations inside VCEL. Unfortunately the commercial version of DW did


The invention discloses an ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene composition. The composition comprises the following raw material components in parts by weight: 60-90 parts of ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene, 10-40 parts of polypropylene, 0.1-2 parts of a compatilizer and 1-10 parts of a lubricating agent. According to the ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene composition disclosed by the invention, the defect that the ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene is poor in processability in the prior art is overcome, and when the composition is applied to an ultra-high molecular weight PE wear-resisting pipe, the composition has the advantages of excellent wear resistance, excellent impact resistance and excellent ageing resistance, and large-scale production requirements in the actual industry are met.


Dengue fever is an endemic condition of tropical areas because of arboviruses. Ocular manifestations are rare and mainly include posterior segment findings. We report a case of cysticercosis causing orbital cellulitis and panophthalmitis in dengue fever. The presentation was acute in onset, with rapid progression of the disease, leading to blindness. The diagnosis of cysticercosis was established on imaging, positive anticysticercal antibodies, coexisting brain parenchymal calcification, and therapeutic response to anticysticercal therapy. The location of the cyst in relation to medial rectus and sclera and possible immune dysfunction caused by dengue fever were responsible for the fulminant course causing intense inflammation within the globe and orbit.


The problem addressed is automatically detecting, measuring and correcting nonnative pronunciation characteristics (so-called "for-eign accents") in foreign language speech. Systemic, structural and realizational differences between L1 (native language) and L2 (target language) appear as phone insertions, deletions and substitutions. A bilingual phone recognizer using native-trained acoustic models of the learner's L1 and L2 was developed to identify insertions, deletions and substitutions of L2 phones. Recognition results are combined with knowledge of phonetics, phonology and pedagogy to show learners which phones were mispronounced and to instruct how to modify their articulatory gestures for more native-sounding speech. The degree of the learner's foreign accent is measured based on the number of alternate pronunciations the learner uses; the number decreases as learning progresses. Evaluation experiments using Japanese and American English indicate that the system is an effective component technology for computer-aided pronunciation learning. models. Some of our experiments use American English as L1 and Japanese as L2; other experiments use these two languages the other way around.


In this paper, based on the completion problem of partial P -matrix for 1- chordal graph, we obtain the partial positive P -matrix completions of k-chordal graphs and k-chordal block graphs under some conditions and solve partial positive P -matrix completion problems with zeros in the inverse completion for k-chordal graphs and k-chordal block graphs (k � 2).


The effect of Ge alloying on B diffusion in amorphous Si1−xGex alloys is reported for x=0−0.24. The diffusivity was not observed to exhibit any transient decay. The diffusivity decreases with increasing Ge concentration. The activation energy for B diffusion appears to increase from 2.8eV for amorphous Si to 3.6eV for amorphous Si0.76Ge0.24. It is suggested that, in these alloys, Ge distorts the amorphous Si network thereby increasing B trapping by Si.


The study explored how teacher-training institutions could infuse the Community Development Vocational and Technical Institutes' instructors with educational competencies and skills as innovations to boost science and technology to accelerate national development. Even though the restructuring transformed the then Women Vocational Training Institutes into Community Development Vocational and Technical Institutes, and subsequently introduced Core Mathematics, it was still not clear whether the instructors had the required competencies and skills to implement the curriculum. This exploratory survey purposively sampled fifty instructors in three districts of Upper East Region and issued with questionnaires to explore the instructors' educational and Mathematics backgrounds. Having coded and analysed the data with SPSS software, the findings showed that the educational and mathematical backgrounds of the instructors still require further education and training in the competencies and skills. This would build skilled manpower, create jobs, reduce north-south migration and accelerate national development. We therefore, recommended continuous inter-tertiary collaborations, scholarships and realignment of the CDVTI institutes to the Ghana Education Service to achieve these goals.


In Na4/3Ln26/3(SiO4)6(F1/3O2/3)2 (Ln = La, Ce, Gd) apatites, synthesized by hydrothermal and ceramic methods, Na+ and Ce3+ cations are disordered on 4f sites while O2- and F- anions are disordered in the "apatite" channels. The high U33 value of these anions suggests the onset of conductivity at high temperature.


© BMJ Publishing Group Limited 2022. No commercial reuse. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. DESCRIPTION A man in his 60s (64.0 kg; 161.5 cm) with a chief complaint of abdominal distension and vomiting was diagnosed with intestinal obstruction due to a transverse colon tumour by abdominal CT. Gastrointestinal endoscopy revealed a type II colon tumour of approximately 4 cm diameter, and biopsy examination revealed adenocarcinoma. There was no evident metastasis, and a laparoscopic colon resection was planned. Written consent was obtained to report the case. After inserting an infusion catheter in the epidural space from the T9T10 interspace, general anaesthesia was administered using propofol, remifentanil, fentanyl and rocuronium. The operation time was 451 min, and the patient was in a headdown position for approximately 6 h. He complained of left shoulder pain after being awakened. We diagnosed that the pressure of the shoulder pad, holding the position during surgery, caused the postlaparoscopic shoulder pain (PLSP). We produced trigger point injections with 10 mL of 1% xylocaine, but PLSP was not relieved. On postoperative day 1, the pain was still severe but was relieved when the patient was in a sitting or standing position. Xrays in the supine position show that the drain is in contact with the diaphragm (figure 1). We diagnosed that the drain under the left diaphragm caused left shoulder pain due to referred pain. The pain resolved immediately after removing the drain. PLSP is a common complication. In many cases, prolonged pressure on the shoulder is the cause, but the referred pain mediated by the diaphragmatic nerve should be considered. Phrenic innervation (C3C5) is placed on the central diaphragmatic pleura and the mediastinal pleura, while the supraclavicular nerve (C3C4) conducts sensory input from the acromium process. Pain occurs in the scapula with stimulating the phrenic nerve. PLSP after laparoscopic cholecystectomy has been reported to be improved by diaphragmatic nerve block without respiratory depression. Previous reports of PLSP focused on stimulating the diaphragmatic nerve by carbon dioxide inflation, but we should remember that drains can also stimulate the diaphragmatic nerve. If the patient complains of shoulder pain where the drain is under the diaphragm, we recommend that the patient be placed in a standing or sitting position and see if the pain goes away.


In nonlinear system identification of discrete-time models, it is critical to determine the nonlinear delay elements within models. This paper proposes the use of dispersion functions to pre-determine the significant delay elements within an unknown nonlinear autoregressive, moving-average (NARMA) model. The methodology is based on orthogonal projection and hence meets the criterion of mean-squared error. According to the properties of dispersion functions rules can be made to determine the possible delay elements by given input and output data. Furthermore, the rules of the determination are independent of the degree-of-nonlinearity of the model. Finally, computer simulations are performed and show coinciding results.


The invention provides a disinfection antibacterial agent, which is characterized by being prepared from the following components in parts by weight: 20-40 g of safflower, 10-20 g of cymbopogon distans, 20-30 g of lithospermum, 20-30 g of acanthopanax, 10-20 g of khasi nightshade fruit and 1000 mL of alcohol. On the basis of clinical practice and summarization and analysis of traditional knowledge of traditional Chinese medicinal plants, the pure natural medicinal plant extract is successfully researched by creatively selecting safflower, cymbopogon distans and other traditional Chinese medicinal plants as main raw materials and combining modern natural product extraction technique and bioengineering fermentation technique; and the disinfection antibacterial agent has good treatment effect or rehabilitation effect in antibacterial disinfection, wound healing, skin ulceration repairing, pain alleviation, resistance against tumors and other diseases or other fields.


Medical set for a method of administering at least an analgesic to a patient, which is dependent on the administration of an analgesic over a prolonged period, comprising: a) application of a transdermal therapeutic system containing an analgesic to the beginning of the extended period of time, and b) administering the mentioned under a) analgesic and / or another analgesic that is suitable for the same indication in the form of an aerosol.


By broadband networks developed rapidly,voice,data and video are inosculated gradually,then voice transmission by that we are often in contact with other people will be transformed from tradition circuit exchange to packet exchange,therefore it is impendent to require for IP telephones that are able to used in Internet.The paper puts forward a portable design scheme of IP telephone on AR1688,Which not only used directly in Internet,but also its QoS accorded with correlative criterion;How to design and implement the hardware circuit and hardware theory of IP telephone on AR1688 was described;Software project of IP telephone is introduced;Performance testing result of telephone interface indicated that the design run all right on traditional Internet.


Sequence analysis and structure prediction of violaxanthin de epoxidases(VDE) were performed, based on the knowledge of bioinformatics, with the biological databases(GenBank,Swiss Prot and Prosite) and tools(PHDsec and SignalP) supported by Internet, and software(DNAstar).The characteristics of transit peptides, conserved sites, motifs, and secondary structure of VDEs were obtained, meanwhile, their functions were analysed.


This article provides a comprehensive overview of the situation of adult education in China, of its aims, role and achievements not only in the fields of literacy and rural development, but also in higher education. It discusses the problem of an aging population and the Chinese government's initiatives to provide educational opportunities for senior citizens, and concludes with recommendations for the future.


The concept of Selection Mosaic is central to the Geographic Mosaic Theory of Coevolution. Most information on coevolving interactions, however, comes from specialized organisms. In contrast, an accurate understanding of the effect of geographically varying evolutionary dynamics on the evolution of generalist organisms is lacking, although these kinds of organisms are the most frequent in nature. In flowering plants, pollinators and herbivores are important selective agents. In this study we investigate whether a geographic selection mosaic for floral traits in a generalist plant, Erysimum mediohispanicum (Brassicaceae), can be mediated by the interplay of mutualistic and antagonistic interacting organisms. In eight populations we quantified the selection exerted by these organisms on several plant traits. We found significant spatial variation in pollinator assemblage. In different populations, the main pollinators belonged to different functional groups (beeflies, large bees, small bees, and beetles). Damage by ungulates also varied among populations. Consequently, we found that different populations were under different selective regimes, and the traits affected by selection depended on the local interaction intensity with pollinators and mammal herbivores. Some traits, such as flower number and stalk height, were selected similarly in most populations. Other traits, such as corolla diameter and tube length, were selected only in some populations. Finally, we found divergent selection for some traits, such as corolla tube width and corolla shape, which were selected in contrasting directions in different localities. This spatial variation in selective scenarios results in populations with strong selective regimes (hot spots) intermingled with populations with weak selective regimes (cold spots). Four important outcomes emerge from the E. mediohispanicum selection mosaic. (1) Interactions with generalist organisms may produce strong selection. (2) Spatial changes in main pollinators result in divergent selection across populations. (3) Geographic mosaics depend on a balance between mutualistic and antagonistic selection. (4) Selection mosaics operate at fairly small spatial scales. These findings will surely contribute to expanding the conceptual framework of the Geographic Mosaic Theory of Coevolution.


In this paper, a novel varactor-tuned microstrip bandpass filter consisting of two dualmode open loop resonators was proposed. The two open loop resonators are placed diagonally to prevent the occurrence of resonance between them. No coupling exists between the operating oddmode and even-mode. Based on this feature, we use a simple DC bias circuit to tune the odd and even mode frequency of the resonator respectively to realize tunable passband frequency. The results show that two transmission zeros are produced at the edge of each passband, which greatly improves the frequency selectivity of the filter. This filter is tuned from 0.87 GHz to 1.03 GHz with return loss more than 20dB with nearly constant frequency response.


This paper discusses the ways to render the unnarratable in realist fiction and contemporary film.It classifies the unnarratable and demonstrates the ground on which the classifications are made.According to the author,there are four kinds of the unnarratable:the subnarratable the supranarratable,the antinarratable and the paranarratable.Then by making use of examples from contemporary films,the paper expounds "the neonarrative",and it holds that the devices used in those films broaden the horizon for the presentation of the unnarratable.


Mulford's milkvetch ( Astragalus mulfordiae ) is a perennial, whitish-flowered plant species endemic to southwestern Idaho and adjacent eastern Oregon. It has been a priority conservation concern for many years due to its limited distribution range, the small size of most populations, and problems with habitat loss and degradation. Habitat decline and outright habitat loss are most acute and chronic in the Boise Foothills portion of the species' range and largely related to urban development pressures. By the mid-1990s it was becoming clear that monitoring information was needed to help Boise City and Ada County land managers be more pro-active in their conservation actions on behalf of Mulford's milkvetch and other rare plant species in the Boise Foothills. Towards this end, a series of 12 Mulford's milkvetch monitoring plots were established in the Boise Foothills in 1999 and 2000. The objective of the monitoring program is to provide population, habitat, and disturbance trend information for Mulford's milkvetch occurrences to support the species' long-term conservation. Monitoring data at the Boise Foothill plots were collected in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008. In 2019, Boise City and the Idaho Native Plant Society collaborated to resample Mulford's milkvetch monitoring plots located in the Boise Foothills. A total of 37 Mulford's milkvetch plants were tallied on transects in 2019, with most having fewer plants compared to previous monitoring years. Eight transects had no Mulford's milkvetch. The 37-plant tally for 2019 represents a 83% decrease compared to 2008. All plots had one or more ground disturbance factors in 2019, with total ground disturbance in plots ranging from <1% to 15.1 %. Mean total ground disturbance for all plots in 2019 was 6.2%, a value lower than all previous monitoring years except 2006. Primary ground disturbance factors in 2019 included animal digging at 7 plots, deer tracks at 2 plots, animal tracks (likely deer and/or dog) at 1 plot, and a walking trail at 1 plot. Plant community data collected in 2019 showed Mulford's milkvetch plots in the Boise Foothills to be characterized by a sparse to open shrub layer, high grass cover dominated by non-native weedy species, mainly cheatgrass, and low to moderate cover of


Medical imaging like MRI and CT scan images are crucial for accurately diagnosing human brain disease. The traditional method for tumour analysis relies on the radiologist or physician visually inspecting the specimen, which can result in some incorrect classifications when a large number of MRI pictures need to be processed. An automated intelligent classification system is suggested that requires picture categorization in order to reduce human mistake rates. One of the illnesses that kills the majority of individuals worldwide is the brain tumour. If the tumour is accurately anticipated at an early stage, the likelihood that someone would survive can be increased. The human brain is studied using the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) method to identify illnesses. In this project, Support Vector Machines (SVM)-based classification approaches are suggested and implemented to classify brain images; DWT will extract features from MRI images. The primary goal of this research is to provide a superior result, which is higher accuracy and reduced error rates for SVM-based MRI brain tumour prediction.


The reaction of the diaminonaphthalene dilithium salt(THF)2Li2[(NSiMe3)2C10H6] with BX3 (X = Cl, Br) in hexane provides the monomeric compounds BX[(NSiMe3)2C10H6] [3 (X = Cl), 4 (X = Br)] with a tricoordinate boron atom. Attempts to reduce 3 and 4 with lithium, sodium, potassium or sodium/potassium alloy with the intention to isolate a boranide resembling a carbene were unsuccessful. However, the diaminonaphthalene dilithium salt (THF)2Li2[(NSi-iPr3)2C10H6] (2) reacts with SnCl2 in THF to provide the carbene analog 5. Compounds 2, 3 and 5 were characterized by single-crystal X-ray structure analysis. The structures of 3 and 5 show the naphthalene backbone to be nearly planar, while the heterocycles in 3 and 5 containing boron and tin atoms, respectively, have torsion angles (3: 30.06°; 5: 37.27°) with respect to the naphthalene plane. The boron atom has a trigonal-planar environment, and the stannylene tin–nitrogen bonds form a very acute N–Sn–N angle of 92.2°.(© Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 69451 Weinheim, Germany, 2008)


Chemoselective cleavage of the C(CO)–C(alkyl) bond in aryl ketones leading to azole amides is disclosed with a broad substrate scope. Aryl ketones with a variety of long-chain alkyl groups have been demonstrated to be active substrates and mechanism studies suggested that molecular oxygen serves both as an oxidant and a reactant in this strategy.


where the summation runs over all permutations of the 2m roots evi, eee, cy2m. To calculate the volume of a compact simple Lie group G, we need to know the value of T. However it is hard to compute r directly because it involves the summation over the symmetric group (even if we use computers in the case e l 4). Now, we shall correct the Freudenthal's volume formula, that is, in the proof of Freudenthal-de Vries [2], p.200, 1.2, u(G)= kv(D)=kv'(D) shoud be change to


Humans have the ability to recognize objects in a cluttered scene in 100 s of milliseconds. Computer algorithms operate at a much lower performance level compared to humans. Furthermore, it has proven to be particularly difficult to develop algorithms to recognize all objects in a category, such as, all cat faces vs dog faces, because of the large in-class variability. The distinguishing features can vary significantly among different objects in the same class. A similar case can be made for other categories, such as, cars, human faces, etc. In this paper we approach this problem using a model of the human visual system. The human visual system can be divided into two major pathways, commonly called the 'what' and 'where' pathways. The 'what' pathway recognizes an object in a scene, but not its specific location. In this paper we present a biologically inspired hierarchical 'what' neural network that can successfully classify objects into categories.


A recombinant microorganism having producing ability of poly lactate or hydroxyalkanoate-lactate copolymer is provided to supply a lactyl-CoA and manufacture poly lactate or its copolymer with high yield. A recombinant microorganism having a producing ability of poly lactate or hydroxylalkanoate-lactate copolymer comprises propionyl-CoA transferase gene (me-pct) and polyhydroxy alkanoate (PHA) synthase gene. The recombinant microorganism is obtained by transforming a microorganism which does not have PHA synthase gene with the propionyl-CoA transferase gene and PHA synthase gene. The microorganism which does not have PHA synthase gene is E.coli.


Chapter 3 discusses conventional data balancing techniques familiar to many researchers and the limitations present in each. Chapter 4 covers the groundbreaking sample selection and treatment effect models pioneered by James Heckman in the 1970s. Beginning in Chapter 5 and continuing until Chapter 8, the book outlines four common propensity score analysis techniques including propensity score matching, subclassification, weighting, and matching estimators. These techniques represent the core methods behind propensity score analysis and will likely be of primary interest for most readers. Chapter 9 discusses analysis with nonparametric regression—a relatively recent addition to the field. New to this edition, Chapter 10 covers dosage analyses when examining treatment effects using categorical or continuous data. Given the increasing attention paid to dosage across many research fields, this information is highly useful. Chapter 11 focuses on the nature and detection of selection bias, as well as sensitivity analyses. Finally, Chapter 12 concludes the book with a discussion of common pitfalls, criticisms of propensity score methods, and suggested directions for future advances in the field. A real strength of the book is the clear and reader-friendly presentation of material. Each chapter is broken down into numerous subsections that make the content manageable and easily digested. Graphs, tables, figures, bulleted points, and equations abound throughout the book. There are also very useful lists of the tables and figures, as well as an extensive reference list and a thorough index of topics. Readers should have little trouble navigating the content of the book. The authors do an admirable job of following through on their stated goal of making these methods applicable to research projects. Specific examples are detailed throughout the text, many of which are drawn from already published articles. As such, the level of empirical support is exemplary. There are also several Monte Carlo studies and data simulations that effectively convey the different characteristics, and potentially varying results, of the techniques. Given that there are still few opportunities to study these methods in the classroom, Propensity Score Analysis: Statistical Methods and Applications is likely the best solution available for those looking to learn these techniques. Although not a guide to publishing per se, motivated researchers with strong backgrounds in other advanced statistical methods should find this book sufficiently comprehensive for the purposes of writing and publishing peer-reviewed articles. For others who simply wish to become familiar with these techniques, this book will serve as an excellent resource guide. In fact, it would make an ideal textbook for a graduate course on propensity score analysis methods. Readers should be aware that the book relies almost exclusively upon Stata for its data analyses. The book is paired with a very useful companion website that includes Stata syntax for all of the examples found in the text. Broadly speaking, Guo and Fraser's book makes this oftentimes difficult topic accessible. It is undeniable that the field of propensity score analysis is a technical one that requires a fairly steep learning curve. The presentation of these methods is among the clearest and most reader-friendly to be found anywhere. More attention could be given to writing propensity score manuscripts, but this is a minor point of criticism. Overall, the second edition of Propensity Score Analysis: Statistical Methods and Applications is a commendable attempt to cover the growing field of propensity score analysis methods. It is simply the best resource available to those looking to learn about, and readily apply, these promising techniques.


In many parts of the world – including Europe and Asia – significant corneal donor shortage causes long keratoplasty waiting lists and medically indicated surgeries are being unduly postponed [1–3]. In other areas of transplantation surgery, split use of donor tissue has long been established to reduce donor shortage. Split-liver transplantations have been used for several years, reducing the need for donor tissue by approximately 40% [4,5].


According to the real situation of dredging in Tianjin Port and based on the analysis of the influence of the dispersion of suspensions coming from construction of various kinds of dredgers on the surrounding sea area,we put forward the new idea of applying protection dredging technique in Tianjin Port.


Molecular testing of nasopharyngeal specimens for SARS-CoV-2 are highly specific and sensitive.1,2 However, SARS-CoV-2 viral shedding within the respiratory specimens of individual patients may not be dependable or consistent throughout the course of illness.2-5 The range of clinical presentations of COVID-19 present a diagnostic dilemma; reports of false positives6 add to uncertainty. Retesting of patients is increasingly requested in the setting of ongoing concern for COVID-19 after an initial negative test. Which patients should be prioritized for retesting and at what time interval are currently unclear.


The paper describes some common peculiarities in evolution of the State family politics and policies in Europe since the middle of the XIX century to our days. Неге we define the family policy widely enough as the state activity (ideological, legislative, economic, social) concerning a family. The State family policy has four main dimensions such as demographical, social, gender and existential ones. The analysis of the long-term trends in European family policies made it possible to draw four main periods in its evolution. A set of the main problems, priorities and practices is defined for each period. The article also presents the links between the origin of every new period and the changing families, demographical and social realities. The first period (from the second half of the XIX century till the end of the 1940th) is described as the institutionalization of the European family policy. The main problem of this period is the demographic one. The links between the institutionalization of the European family policy and the changes in family life, demographic and social changes in the boundary of the XIX-XX centuries are shown. The second period (the 1950th) is characterized by the development of the social dimension as a part of the becoming European welfare state. In 1950-s, the main focus in family policies was made on the overcoming of the family poverty. The third period (the 1960th – the end of the 1980th) is characterized by a pluralization of the problems, strategies, measures of family policy under the influence of the differentiation of family structures and styles of family life. The fourth period (from the beginning of the 1990th to the present time) deals with reformatting of the conventional relations of the state and a family in the conditions of a new family, demographic, social and economic European context. The article presents the diversity of the family policy models in the European countries in their connection with the political and ideological factors. Special attention is paid to interdisciplinary scientific family studies which are directed to the practical solution of the modern family problems. It is noted that the European scientific centers for family studies and researches play a significant role in the scientific maintenance of European family policy.


E-commerce and online shopping have become more convenient due to the rapid growth of the internet logistic industry in many developed countries and is particularly popular and suitable in China. The method is primarily based on logistic points like attended collection and delivery points (ACDPs), an emerging industry for economic development. This article includes text analysis, descriptive statistics, and spatial analysis to analyze the operation types, service objects, location distribution, and influencing factors of ACDPs in Nanjing City using point of interest data (POI) of Cainiao stations and China Post stations. The results are as follows: 1) ACDPs have a mainly independent mode of operation, but some are reliant on supermarkets, department stores and individual shops. 2) The main service targets of ACDPs are communities, schools and townships followed by businesses, enterprises, and office buildings. 3) The spatial distribution of ACDPs in Nanjing is asymmetrical, displaying a trend to the northwest direction and a difference in the trend between the N-S and E-W axes. Their layout creates four main core areas and the number of sites decreases with distance from the core. 4) Most of the ACDPs are in urban areas and on residential and industrial land. This study provides insightful ideas for decision makers and planners to help formulate policies that can lead to more sustainable logistic enterprises development and for the companies that want to establish successful CDP networks in big cities.


Objective To investigate normal people's odontoid process and typeⅡ odontoid fracture basic image data, to guide the design of typeⅡ odontoid fracture fixation with biodegradable magnesium alloy AZ31B hollow screw design and production and the feasibility of magnesium alloy hollow lag screws for treatment of fractures of type Ⅱ odontoid. Methods One hundred and fifty cases of normal adult odontoid screw CT image data and 43 cases of type Ⅱ odontoid fracture image data from Guangzhou General Hospital of Guangzhou Military Command were included. On computer the spiral CT imaging scale was used for direct measurement of axis odontoid process, total height, length of fractures of odontoid tip distance from the line, after the angle and axis odontoid process for hollow screw fixation length. According to the imaging data, the ideal magnesium alloy hollow screws were designed and in cadaver specimens simulation was made for type ⅡB odontoid fracture of magnesium alloy hollow screw fixation, postoperative visual fracture end instant stability. Results Axis height was(35.11±4.15)mm, odontoid length(14.99±1.26)mm, odontoid basal coronary diameter was(8.94±1.26)mm, sagittal diameter was(10.20±1.02)mm, fracture line from odontoid tip distance of(10.49±1.75)mm, the needle after the dip(17.56±5.29)°. Conclusion The typeⅡ odontoid fracture fixation screw has length 38 mm, diameter 3.5 mm, about 1 cm long appropriate distal screw. Design of biodegradable magnesium alloy AZ31B hollow screws combined with beautiful appearance conforms to clinical titanium alloy hollow screw, with convenient operation, good visual fracture end instant stability. It provides the basis for the biomechanical tests.


Positive polynomial matrices play a fundamental role in systems and control theory: they represent e.g. spectral density functions of stochastic processes and show up in spectral factorizations, robust control and filter design problems. Positive polynomials obviously form a convex set and were recently studied in the area of convex optimization [1, 5]. It was shown in [2, 5] that positive polynomial matrices can be parametrized using block Hankel and Toeplitz matrices. In this paper, we use this parametrization to derive efficient computational algorithms for optimization problems over positive polynomials. Moreover, we show that filter design problems can be solved using these results. Keywords: convex optimization, positive polynomials, trigonometric polynomials, filter design.


The phytoplankton composition and abundance in Mbiakong River, Cross river estuary, Niger Delta, Nigeria was studied for a period of one year (March, 2021-February, 2022). Plankton net of mesh size 55µm was used to collect plankton samples from below the water surface, after towing for 5 minutes. The content was emptied into plastic containers and fixed immediately with 4% formalin in the field for preservation. After 48hrs in the laboratory, the preserved plankton samples were concentrated to 10 ml. The concentrated sample was agitated to homogenize before pipetting 1ml sub sample with sample pipette. Enumeration and identification were performed using a zeis inverted microscope at x400 and x 1000 magnification. Species identification was done using recommended keys and guides. A total of six hundred and fifteen (615) individual organisms comprising of thirty-five (35) species belonging to five (5) taxonomic groups were recorded from Mbiakong River. The most abundant group was the Bacillariophyceae which was represented by 12 species (302 organisms) consisting of 49.11%. This was followed by Chlorophyceae represented by 10 species (199 organisms) consisting of 32.36%, Cyanophyceae represented by 12 species (109 organisms) consisting of 17.72%, Euglenophyceae represented by 1 species (3 organisms) consisting of 0.33% and the least abundant was the Dinophyceae represented by 1 species (2 organisms) consisting of 0.14%. The study revealed that species composition and abundance was high in June.


This paper presents a high efficiency SiC power converter in pulsed power applications. SiC Power MOSFETs have 7∼10 times lower switching loss than Silicon counterparts. However, because of the large depletion capacitance, the SiC device switching loss will be higher than silicon device at zero current. Therefore, loss reduction method is proposed to further improve SiC gradient driver efficiency. A 2700V, 1300A SiC gradient driver prototype is designed, fabricated and tested.


High domestic consumption of coal, especially in energy sector, has raised concerns on several environmental issues in Indonesia. Large amount of coal combustion product in the form of solid waste, such as fly ash resulting from coal power plant production causes problems in its disposal since its necessity of land occupancy. Over the last decade, many researchers have put effort to solve this disposal concerns by utilizing these materials for various purposes, such as construction materials as part of circular economy. This paper presents the utilization of fly ash for soil stabilization in Surabaya. Firstly, the index properties of soil samples were determined through a series of laboratory soil test including specific gravity, unit weight, moisture content, sieve analysis and Atterberg's limit tests. Subsequently, standard proctor test was conducted to obtain the maximum dry density and optimum moisture content of the soil samples. Using those parameters, four types of soil stabilized with fly ash samples were prepared with fly ash content based on weight of soil as follows: 0%, 5%, 10%, and 15%. Finally, unconfined compression tests were performed with cylindrical soil samples to assess the unconfined compressive strength of those samples. The results indicate that soil with fly ash content of 10% showing the highest unconfined compressive strength compared to the other variations of 0.90 kg/cm2.


Wide-ranging research is being undertaken on the Devonian carbonate complexes of the Lennard Shelf, at the northern margin of the Canning Basin. This work is aimed at obtaining a detailed understanding of the processes involved in reef diagenesis and formation of Pb-Zn mineralisation. Preliminary results imply that the early diagenetic car(cid:8226) bonate cements are largely of marine origin. Later diagenetic carbonates, including those intimately associated with Pb-Zn mineralisation, formed at temperatures of 45°C to l10°C from fluids of widely varying salinities, some of which contained minor amounts of hydrocarbons. Stable isotopic data imply that there were different sources of sulfur for the dif(cid:8226) ferent deposits, and that iron sulfides formed separate(cid:8226) ly from galena and sphalerite.


The process of health care reform is accompanied by a search for ways to improve the organization of health care and improve the process of submission services. The reason for the adoption of fully-informed decisions is an estimation of efficiency of functioning of the industry, which, in accordance with the requirements put forward by the WHO carried out not only on the basis of clinical criteria, but also taking into account the views of patients. Assessment of the availability and quality of medical services is studied, as a rule, through the analysis of the levels of patient satisfaction.


Just as economic analysis historically has progressed from considerations of supply and demand conditions starting at the economy as a whole, then narrowing to the industry and finally to the individual firm, theories of wages have run a parallel course. Wage theory on the micro level, at least in modern times, has been termed the "theory of bargaining." Three outstanding approaches warrant our attention, viz., bilateral monopoly, risk evaluation, and the theory of games.1 The purpose of this paper is to synthesize the interesting and valid conclusions from these separate approaches, and to present a unified picture of the pure theory of bargaining to date. The typical framework for the analysis of conflicts assumes (1) both the buyer of labor services, viz. management, and the seller of labor services, viz. the union, are able to exercise a certain degree of monopoly power in setting the wage rate, (2) only a single bargaining situation is to be considered, and this contract is to be effective over a stated period of time, (3) the wage contract is negotiated at a micro level, i.e., between one firm and one union, or possibly one industry and one union, (4) other wages and external influences in the economy are given, and (5) each of the parties to the contract has a specified pattern of tastes which may be represented by means of an ordinal utility function. Although we might have been more ambitious in considering the possibility of the bargaining situation modifying the negotiators' utility functions, we have decided to explore the essence of the bargaining problem with as few complicating factors as appear permissible, and we shall not elaborate in detail on the important topic of how each party arrives at its own utility function. Furthermore, the reader is of course aware that union-management contracts in real life situations ordinarily cover a wide range of employment stipulations and considerations (conditions of employment, fringe benefits, overtime pay, intra-firm wage structure, etc.). Again in order to make the analysis tractable we shall restrict ourselves to considering the determination of only two variables, viz. the wage bill and the amount of employment in the firm (or industry).2 Needless to say, the universality of our conclusions must be tempered by the restrictive nature of our assumptions. It is generally recognized that the solution to the wage contract problem given the above framework is practically always indeterminate. This is not to infer that we have no information as to the range of possibilities for a settlement


The European Research Network Pharmacogenetics/Pharmacogenomics (PGx) is a specialist group of scientists and clinicians who share a common interest in research in PGx and its implementation to improve clinical care. This 5th anniversary meeting focused on progress and future challenges for PGx in Europe. A series of expert presentations were made, and are summarized below. The meeting concluded with an open debate on the current challenges facing the field in a time of limited funding.


By EMU seat chassis structural analysis,and build a simplified mechanical model,to and use the cross-sectional area of longitudinal beam chassis as the objective function,maximum deflection and intensity of constraints,using optimal design method,to find the deflection and strength to meet the requirements when the beam diameter and wall thickness of the best data points find best data points of beam diameter and wall thickness when deflection and strength to meet the requirements


OBJECTIVE:To study the hemostatic effect of reptilase in hepatic perioperative period.METHODS:The study was conducted in 49 patients randomly divided into 2 groups:reptilase group(n=27) and control group(n=22).In reptilase group,the reptilase was given in preoperative,postoperative and intraoperative period;while in control group,other commonly used hemostatics were given in the same way as in reptilase group.Then,the amount of bleeding,the content of D-Dimer in venous blood,and the quantity of postoperative bloody drainage were compared between the 2 groups. RESULTS:Respectively in reptilase and control group,the amount of intraoperative bleeding were(327.1±29.5)ml and (542.6±30.2)ml(P0.05);postoperative content of D-Dimer in venous blood were(0.6 777±0.053)ng/L and(0.9 901± 0.051)ng/L(P0.05);and the quantity of bloody drainage were(297±27)ml and(521±22)ml(P0.05).CONCLUSION:The hemostatic effect of reptilase in hepatitis operations is obviously better than that of other commonly used hemostatics.


Mangrove planting project is one of the most beneficial conservation efforts in coastal areas in terms of environmental impact and carbon sequestration rate. We hypothesized that it would serve as an effective learning strategy if the planting project were planned and organized by the student within a structured biology course. This study examines the impact of the mangrove planting project as a climate initiative program within a biology course towards students' climate literacy. In this study, 57 students who participated in a mangrove planting project within the Conservation of Coastal Resources course were assigned a climate change questionnaire. The change in participants' climate literacy was measured before and after the intervention. Climate literacy is measured in three aspects i.e., climate action readiness, climate concerns, and pro-climatic attitude. The result shows that mangrove planting projects increase all measured aspects significantly, with climate action readiness showing the highest improvement. These findings confirmed the benefits of collaborative project-based learning to improve the students' climate literacy.


The utility model discloses an insulator-string live detection robot, comprising a plurality of guide bar mechanisms, at least one insulator detection device, a control device and at least one set of rotation drive device. The guide bar mechanisms are arranged in connection at two sides of the rotation drive device, and the control device and the insulator detection device are both fixed on the guide bar mechanisms. The insulator detection device and a drive motor of the rotation drive device are both in electric connection with the control device. The insulator-string live detection robot of the utility model has a compact structure and high traveling speed, requires few pieces of short-circuit insulators, causes small wearing on insulators, and provides good safety protection and wide application range, being suitable for double horizontal insulator strings, single strain insulator strings, suspension insulator strings and V-shaped insulator strings.


clinical practice. This study aims to identify key themes regarding therapists actual experience of working with dreams. A systematic search of the literature on therapist experiences and ways of working with dreams in clinical practice was conducted using keyword searches of PsychINFO and the APA Journal Dreaming (since its publication). A thematic analysis organised the findings into categories. Four overarching themes emerged from the literature; therapist estimates of dream prevalence in therapy; factors which influence therapists working with dream material; what therapists do when dream material is presented and; therapist experience of working with dreams in practice. Nine subordinate themes were also identified; frequency of dreams being presented by clients; kinds of clients who bring dreams to therapy; amount of time spent working on dreams in therapy; therapist theoretical orientation; therapists valuing of dreams; therapist competence in working with dreams; attitudes to dreams and dream work outcomes. The paucity of empirical studies, the nature of studies found through systematic search and the single-researcher nature of this review are presented as the primary limitations. A discussion of the various themes emerging from the literature on therapist experiences of dreams in psychotherapy and the resulting implications for therapist training and further research, including an agenda for research in the Irish dreamscape context are highlighted.


As the number of document resources is continuously increasing, automatically extracting keyphrases from a document becomes one of the main issues in recent days. However, most previous works have tried to extract keyphrases from words in documents, so they overlooked latent keyphrases which did not appear in documents. Although latent keyphrases do not appear in documents, they can undertake an important role in text summarization and information retrieval because they implicate meaningful concepts or contents of documents. Also, they cover more than one fourth of the entire keyphrases in the real-world datasets and they can be utilized in short articles such as SNS which rarely have explicit keyphrases. In this paper, we propose a new approach that selects candidate keyphrases from the keyphrases of neighbor documents which are similar to the given document and evaluates the importance of the candidates with the individual words in the candidates. Experiment result shows that latent keyphrases can be extracted at a reasonable level.


We studied the operation of multi-collector bipolar transistors with directional magnetic field sensitivity. The complex three-dimensional (3D) device consists of four crosswise-arranged lateral transistors with one common central emitter. To analyze the electrical characteristics and sensor performance, we modeled the complete device structure using technological and physical parameters, extracted from experimental measurements on real devices. Because of the complex geometry, a full 3D numerical analysis of carrier flow and electrostatic potential is required in order to study the effects of an arbitrarily oriented magnetic field. Full 3D analysis is essential also in devices whose contact areas differ widely. In this case, a simplified analysis confined on the 2D central mirror plane is inadequate even for the mere electric device behavior at zero magnetic field. This reflects the problem of current calibration inherent in 2D approximations of devices with truly 3D structures. To overcome this discrepancy, we implemented, for the first time, the 3D galvanomagnetic transport vector equations in a state-of-the-art general purpose device simulator.<<ETX>>


Isomalt for its biological characteristic,has become a new functional sweeter in recent years.The physical and chemical properties,security,biological functions and applications of Isomalt are summarized in this paper.


Accurate knowledge of snow cover extent, depth (SD), and water equivalent is essential for studying the global water cycle, climate, and energy–mass exchange in the Earth–atmosphere system, as well as for water resources management. Ratio between SAR cross- and co-polarization backscattering (σVH/σVV) was used to monitor SD during snowy months in mountain areas; however, published results refer to short periods and show lack of correlation during non-snowy months. We analyze Sentinel-1A images from a study area in Central Pyrenees to generate and investigate (i) time series of σVH/σVV spatial dispersion, (ii) spatial distribution of pixelwise σVH/σVV temporal standard deviation, and (iii) fundamental modes of σVH/σVV evolution by non-negative matrix factorization. The spatial dispersion evolution and the first mode are highly correlated (correlation coefficients larger than 0.9) to SD evolution during the whole seven-year-long period, including snowy and non-snowy months. The local incidence angle strongly affects how accurately σVH/σVV locally follows the first mode; thus, areas where it predominates are orbit-dependent. When combining ascending- and descending-orbit images in a single data matrix, the first mode becomes predominant almost everywhere snow pack persists during winter. Capability of our approach to reproduce SD evolution makes it a very effective tool.


The domestication of Amaranthus dubius Mart. ex Thell., characterized by abundant leaf production and well adapted to the central-western region of Argentina was investigated. The experimental design included randomized plots subjected to six treatments with 5 replications. Whole plants were used to determine the best cutting time for leaf consumption. Agronomic and chemical variables were assessed. Best cutting time was found to be on day 40th at which moment maximum green (27080.00 kg.ha - 1 ) and dry (4191.20 kg.ha - 1 ) matter and protein (928 kg.ha - 1 ) levels were obtained, with an acceptable protein level (22.12 g%).


In the history of Tamil Nadu history, Sangam Age places its first place. Tamils history has been started from the beginning of the Sangam Age. There are many differences in calculating the Sangam Age among historians and scholars. Although, this Sangam Literature stand as evidence to prove the history and antiquity of the Tamils. Sangam literature gives us lots of news about historical evidence. It caters for social, cultural and political situations in a subtle manner. There is much evidence about the rule and life of the triumvirs Cheras, Cholas and Pandias. After the end of the Sangam Age, the Kalabharas ruled Tamil Nadu in the 4th and 5th centuries. The Pandias and the Pallavas ended the Kalabhara rule and then the Pallavas and the First generation Pandias ruled Tamil Nadu. In the Pandian country, Parantaka Netuncataiya Pandian ruled the country efficiently and there are inscriptions about him in the Velvikudi and Sivaramangala Copperplates. This chapter culls out the evidence based on the archaeological evidence about King Parantaka Netuncataiya Pandian.


The constant development of the technosphere leads to negative consequences, such as environment pollution by components with toxic properties and violation of natural biosphere processes. The most significant negative effect of the functioning of the oil and gas production and processing complex is soil pollution. This article is devoted to the study of the features of the electrochemical cleaning process in various types of soils contaminated by oil and reservoir waters. The mechanisms of the hydrocarbons amount decrease are described. The greatest contribution is made by electrokinetic processes as well as by direct and indirect oxidation. The dependence of the content of petroleum hydrocarbons on the amount of transmitted electricity in several types of soil (clay, loam, chernozem and sand) is established. It has been established that there is the limit quantity of charge required for effective cleaning of each type of soil. This parameter primarily depends on the soil characteristics. It was revealed that at a high soil moisture the voltage differences are insignificant. The efficiency of cleaning for each type of soil was calculated. The clay soil has optimal conditions for electrical treatment (cleaning efficiency is 84.5%). The cleaning efficiency of sand soil was minimal.