Substance use disorders (SUDs) can be defined as patterns of symptoms caused by the abusive consumption of recreational or prescribed substances that an individual continues to use despite their negative effects. Oxidative stress is one of the main pathophysiological processes occasioned by SUDs in different brain areas. Oxidative damage and subsequent deleterious symptoms can happen because of the consumption of psychoactive drugs, both stimulants and depressants. This chapter focuses on SUDs associated with depressant drugs, such as alcohol, opioids, benzodiazepines, and their effects on the central nervous system (CNS). We present the main characteristics of the SUDs and later explore endogenous mechanisms of repair, such as neuroglia and the endocannabinoid system. We also examine the neuroprotective effects of exogenous substances such as phytocannabinoids (e.g., cannabidiol) and N-acetylcysteine (NAC), which have shown important roles in anti-inflammatory pathways and antioxidative cascades, and how these molecules can be potential tools in the treatment of neurological symptoms of SUDs.


Powdery mildew of cantaloupe, caused by the fungus Sphaerotheca fuliinea, is a perennial and often serious disease in Arizona. In 1989, potential new fungicides were evaluated for disease control in a field trial. All tested materials provided significant control when compared to untreated plants. Of the compounds tested only Bayleton currently is registered for use on cantaloupe. Rally, which performed extremely well in this test; should be available for use on cantaloupe in the near future. INTRODUCTION Powdery mildew of cantaloupe is usually not difficult to find in Arizona. Disease symptoms first appear as small, white, superficial spots on stems and leaves of cantaloupe. When these lesions enlarge, they become powdery in appearance, increase in number and coalesce, eventually covering stems and both surfaces of leaves. Infection on young leaves can lead to general chlorosis and eventual death of infected leaves. Severely infected leaves become brown and desiccated with resultant premature defoliation. Cantaloupe fruit are free of visible infection; however, severely infected plants produce prematurely ripened fruit that lack flavor. Yield reduction is dependent upon the duration and severity of disease development. Disease development is favored by low relative humidity, dry soil conditions, moderate temperatures, reduced light intensity, and succulent plant growth. Spores of the fungus can germinate in the absence of free water and in relative humidity of less than 20 percent. MATERIALS AND METHODS In 1989 a fungicide trial was established at the Yuma Valley Agricultural Center to evaluate new fungicides for control of powdery mildew of cantaloupe in Arizona. Cantaloupe (Topmark) was seeded February 27 on 80inch beds. Treatments were replicated four times in a randomized complete block design. Each replicate consisted of 50 feet of row with a plant spacing of 12 inches. Treatment beds were separated by single nontreated beds. Fungicide treatments were applied with a tractor -mounted boom sprayer that delivered 100 gallons /acre at 100 psi to nozzles spaced 12 inches apart. Fungicides were applied May 17 and 31. Furrow irrigation was used for the duration of the study. Disease incidence and severity was determined June 12 by collecting 25 leaves from each replicate of each treatment and counting the number of powdery mildew lesions.


Chitosan-g-PDMAEMA graft copolymers have been successfully synthesized and their aggregation behaviours in aqueous solution were investigated by the measurements of surface tension,steady-state fluorescence probe and conductivity.It shows that the aqueous solutions of these graft copolymers possess relatively good surface activity.This kind of modified chitosan is a new cationic surfactant with special structure and will be found the potential use in biomedical field.


Purpose To examine the electrophysiological symptoms in patients with preproliferative and proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PPDR, PDR) with macular edema (ME).

Methods 24 patients with type II diabetes were investigated. OCT presented a focal, diffuse and clinically significant ME. ISCEV standard ERG methods, as well as chromatic macular and multifocal ERG (mf ERG), long-duration flash ERG, pattern ERG (PERG) and retinocortical time (RTT) were performed.

Results ERG changes were similar in PPDR and PDR with ME. Full-field and flicker ERG were normal or subnormal depending on the localization of the pathological process in retina. The amplitude and interpeak latency of OPs were significantly changed. A different amplitude reduction of macular chromatic ERG to red, green and blue stimuli and prolonged b-wave latency to green and blue stimuli were revealed. The retinal density of bioelectrical activity and amplitudes of N1, P1 components were decreased. A long-duration flash ERG showed normal or subnormal ON-response and diminished OFF-response. The pathological macular and mf ERG were attended by pathological full-field and flicker ERG in certain cases. N95 component oPERG was changed in amplitude and implicit time. The RTT was prolonged in most of the patients.

Conclusion The ERG signs point to extent inclusion in pathological process of different retinal structures and layers. PERG and RTT changes indicate initial functional damage of the optic nerve. It is necessary to compare OCT and ERG data for understanding of mechanisms of visual disturbance in DR. The number of cases in which clinical and functional signs did not correspond to each other must be a subject to deep analysis before choosing a medical or laser treatment.


A novel active discriminant functions (ADFs) for handwriting recognition is presented in this paper. First, statistical feature based deformable model in principal subspace is proposed and a minimum distance between an unknown pattern and the deformable model is given. Second, to improve the accuracy of recognition, the minor subspace is also considered in ADFs. Third, as parameters of the ADFs, the optimal constraints of a deformable model are searched by applying minimum classification error (MCE) criterion. Finally, empirical experiments are conducted on handwritten Chinese characters used in banking and the results show that our proposed ADFs outperform other representative techniques, such as support vector machine, multiplayer perceptron, etc.


The modern physical revolution in early 20th century established relativity and quantum mechanics and completed the change from classical physics to modern physics. Through the review of physical revolution, this paper discussed the effect of physical revolution on human society


4109 Background: Retrospective data in some cancer types suggested a possible different toxicity profile with chemotherapy and targeted therapies according to gender. However, data from prospective studies are still very limited, especially in infrequent tumors such as NETs. Methods: Pts with advanced pancreatic and gastrointestinal NETs treated with pazopanib or lenvatinib in the multicenter open-label phase II studies PAZONET and TALENT respectively, were included in the analysis. Both studies were performed by Spanish Task Force Group for Neuroendocrine Tumors (GETNE). All toxicity grades with an incidence higher than 5% were considered for univariate review. Additionally, all grade 3-4 toxicities were analyzed separately. Results: 155 pts (47.7% female) with 1213 adverse events (AEs) (20% G3-4) divided in 121 categories were included. In female patients, liver toxicity, headache, pyrexia, nausea/vomiting, hair/skin disorders and dizziness were significantly more common (table). The only toxicity with higher incidence in men was dysphonia (OR 0.42, 95% CI 0.2-0.9, p 0.02). There were no gender differences in grade 3-4 toxicities. Conclusions: We observed significant differences in toxicity AEs by gender in two prospective phase II studies with MKIs in NETs patients. Potential different approach to manage toxicity may be adopted based on gender. [Table: see text]


It is required to estimate reliable design floods for hydraulic structures in order to respond more effectively to recent climate change. In this study, differences of design floods that were estimated the flood frequency analysis (FFA) and the design rainfall-runoff analysis (DRRA) were analyzed. In Korea, due to lack of measured flood data, the DRRA method is used in practice to determine the design floods. However, assuming the design floods estimated by the FFA as true values, the DRRA method over estimated the design floods by 79%. Thus, this study proposed a practical method to estimated design flood in ungauaged watersheds through regressive adjustment of flood quantiles estimated from the DRRA method. To this end, after investigating the differences between design floods acquired from the FFA and the DRRA method, nonlinear regression analyses were performed to develop the adjustment formulas for 8 large-dam watersheds. Applying the adjustment formula, the accuracy was improved by 65.0% on average over the DRRA method. In addition, when considering the watershed size, the adjustment formula increases the accuracy by 2.1%p on average over when not considering the watershed size.


Since radioimmunoassay of insulin had been developed, various reports on blood insulin in diabetes mellitus have been published. However, there is no established conclusion on the content or response of plasma insulin in human diabetes. The present study was intended to elucidate the pathogenesis of diabetes mellitus by characterizing insulin response in man. In the present study, 121 diabetics, 9 normal subjects, as well as 123 patients with other diseases, were investigated. Patients with mild or moderate diabetes showed a delayed and rather elevated insulin response to glucose loading, whereas insulin response to glucose was minimum in severe diabetes. Obese patients or those under steroid treatment showed an exaggerated insulin response to glucose. The so called "insulinogenic index" (4I/z1G) at 30 minutes was significantly lower only in the group with


Abstract The bismuth sulfide and methylene blue colorimetric finishes for soil sulfate determination by the Johnson‐Nishita distillation method were examined and compared. Both procedures gave comparable results when applied to soils and soil extracts, but the bismuth method was more rapid and more reliable. Nitrogen flow rate over the range 100–500 ml/min was not critical for the bismuth method, provided appropriate distillation times were employed. However, the release and transfer of hydrogen sulfide in the bismuth method was effected in one‐third of the time required for the methylene blue finish, largely due to the elimination of a gas‐washing step. Predrying of soil extract samples increased recovery of hydrogen sulfide with the bismuth procedure arid could be used to increase sensitivity. Nitrate interference was observed with the bismuth procedure but attributed to interference during the reduction step. The bismuth procedure can readily be adapted for microdetermination in the 0–40 ppm sulfate‐S ...


How do organizations innovate to respond to emerging market issues? Building on a multiple-case research design, we study four cases of innovation in the Indian insurance industry. In the first stage of our analysis, we identify seven innovation processes: Demystification, technologization, bundlization, indigenization, retailization, commoditization and segmentation. In the second stage, we find that these seven processes serve as generic responses to three typical issues: management of meanings and values, accessibility and affordability that firms face in emerging markets. Our findings contribute to a better understanding of innovation processes in emerging markets.


A sibling case of hyperphenylalaninemia without phenylpyruvic aciduria was described. An oral loading of phenylalanine revealed a delay of clearance of serum phenylalanine, a slight elevation of serum tyrosine, and an increased urinary excretion of phenylpyTuvic acid and o-hydroxyphenylacetic acid. Phenylalanine hydroxylase in the liver was found to be of about one-tenth the normal activity. These findings suggest that hyperphenlyalaninemia may be a genetic variant of phenylketonuria.


ABSTRACT The paper presents a critical review of the methodological approaches used in tour-based mode choice models within the activity-based modelling frameworks. Various components of the activity-based models, such as activity type choice, activity location choice, and activity duration have already matured significantly. However, the mode choice component is often simplified in many ways. Both trip-based and tour-based approaches are used in many cases. However, the tour-based approach is considered to be the most relevant to the activity-based modelling framework. This paper presents a synthesis of the strengths and weaknesses of existing tour-based mode choice models. The previous studies on tour-based mode choice models are grouped into seven categories, ranging from simplified main tour mode to complex dynamic discrete choice models. Besides, challenges with data-hungry models, simulation-based models and static models are discussed elaborately. In conclusion, it proposes a few methodological suggestions for researchers and practitioners for finding an appropriate mode choice modelling framework for activity-based models. In addition, the paper also provides a guideline on how to incorporate automated vehicles and Mobility-as-a-Service within the framework of tour-based mode choice models.


The study aims to identify the achievement level and the direction of students allocated Sharia in Curriculum and Teaching Methods towards the process of e-learning and distance education, and indicate their attitudes towards some systems (Blackboard and Tadarus) used in the field of E-learning and Distance Education Deanship at Imam Muhammad Ibn Saud Islamic University. The study sample composed of (115) students distributed them scale. The results showed higher average grades academic achievement with an average year (84.06) for male (83.76) and female (84.37) students. Differences in degrees of academic achievement among students of the study sample were slight differences and ineffective. The trends of students deanship about axes of the study were positive trends and satisfaction factor illustrated through degrees of the scale, with an overall average of the trend towards Dean (4.01), and e-learning and distance education (4.09), and toward Tadarus system (3.99), and toward a Blackboard system (3.72). and tilt slightly in favor of Tadarus system gives an indication of the students' experience in the system on the one hand, and their satisfaction with the Blackboard and Mechanisms built-education on the other hand, and that differences trend tend to male versus female students in all axes scale. Keywords: e-learning, distance education, achievement, Tadarus system, the Blackboard system, the trend.


Emergency powers and national security laws have long been features of a powerful state in Malaysia and Singapore. In addition to extensive emergency regimes, these states have employed security laws authorizing preventive detention as well as public order statutes regulating expression and assembly. Courts have traditionally been highly passive in scrutinizing government actions taken in the name of national security or public order, refusing to assess whether the vast powers wielded by the executive were reasonable. This chapter makes the case for greater judicial scrutiny over whether government restrictions on individual liberties are justified. Proportionality analysis offers a rigorous, yet flexible, framework that courts can use to engage directly with the government's justifications of national security and public order. And on some occasions, courts may have to employ a constitutional basic structure doctrine to strike down legislative attempts to pass statutes or constitutional amendments aimed at removing judicial review or eroding institutional safeguards. These judicial mechanisms would aid courts in the critical, yet sensitive, endeavor to balance security and liberty.


Generalized hill climbing (GHC) algorithms provide a well-defined framework for describing the performance of local search algorithms for discrete optimization problems. Necessary and sufficient convergence conditions for GHC algorithms are presented. These convergence conditions are derived using a new iteration classification scheme for GHC algorithms. The implications of the necessary and the sufficient convergence conditions fur GHC algorithms with respect to existing convergence theory for simulated annealing are also discussed.


Providing high fluidity when melted, exhibits a high adhesive strength PP nonwoven fabric between each other, but also exhibit high nonwoven fabric PE film -PP adhesive strength hot melt adhesives and hot melt adhesive mixture with a base polymer. Propylene-based polymer (B) satisfy the following (Bi) a copolymer of an olefin-based hot melt adhesive comprising (A) satisfies the following (Ai) ~ (Aiv) and and (Bii); and a hot-melt a base polymer binder, consisting of (a) satisfies the following (Ai) ~ (Aiv) a propylene-based polymer and (B) satisfy the following (Bi) and a mixture (Bii) the olefin-based copolymer composed of and satisfies the following (1) and (2); (Ai) melting point of 120 ℃; (Aii) Mw of 10000 ~ 150000; (Aiii) Mw / Mn of 2.5 or less; (Aiv) a penetration of 8 or less ; (of Bi) a penetration of 15 or more; (Bii) a melting point of 90 deg.] C; tensile elastic modulus of (1) 23 ℃ of 400MPa or less; (2) 23 ℃ when the half-crystallization time of 20 minutes the following.


One thing is clear – our obligation and need to find an appropriate funding arrangement for our clients is making funding as complicated as ever, and the landscape continues to develop and change. This article considers the important cases and developments in relation to funding from the beginning of 2008 to March 2009. It is not now uncommon to have a combination of four different funding arrangements: a Conditional Fee Agreement for solicitor's and Counsel's fees; before-theevent insurance for disbursements and the Defendant's costs and possibly for a top-up on hourly rates up to a limit (i.e. the difference between the rate allowed by the insurer and the rate that would otherwise be charged); after-the-event insurance for the Defendant's costs and own disbursements; and disbursements-only funding. The paperwork and obligations upon the solicitor are onerous, not only in relation to advising the client appropriately and making sure he or she is properly covered, but also in relation to complying with the requirements set by the funding providers. The time and effort all this takes can be frustrating for a client (and solicitor) when, in reality, all they (and we) want is to get on with the case. In addition, the costs incurred may not be recovered in full from the paying party. Many of us hope that funding will somehow miraculously become straightforward and easily available in all of our cases. This is, of course, wishful thinking. There had been speculation that funding issues and cases may become less prominent last year, but 2008 was as important as any other year, with a flurry of case law and a substantial number of Reviews launched. On a positive note, the recent case law suggests a further move by the Judiciary to reject technical arguments raised by Defendants.


Corporate executives require relevant and intelligent business information in real-time to take strategic decisions. They require the freedom to access this information anywhere and anytime. There is a need to extend this functionality beyond the office and on the fingertips of the decision makers. Mobile Business Intelligence Tool (MBIT) aims to provide these features in a flexible and cost-efficient manner. This paper describes the detailed architecture of MBIT to overcome the limitations of existing mobile business intelligence tools. Further, a detailed implementation framework is presented to realize the design. This research highlights the benefits of using service oriented architecture to design flexible and platform independent mobile business applications.


The transition between Middle and Late Woodland cultures is a gradual one in terms of changes in adaptations. A stylistic/typological boundary between the periods can be drawn sometime between A.D. 700 and A.D. 900 and involves the persistent use (after this date) of triangular projectile points and the manufacture and use of a suite of ceramic types different from those of earlier times. Alterations of adaptive strategies, as reflected in settlement patterns, do not seem to appear until later, ca. A.D. 1200–1300. The most dramatic change is seen in lowland aspects of settlement patterns. Large group settlements of the Middle Woodland period (and presumably the early Late Woodland period), oriented around portions of fresh water tidal marshes, shift to broad floodplain settings sometime during the Late Woodland period. This article provides detail on the noted changes and similarities at the Middle to Late Woodland transition. Hypotheses dealing with explanations for these changes are also explored.


The complex nature of the schistosome parasite and its interaction with the mammalian host necessitates the continued use of live intact animal models in schistosomiasis research. This review acknowledges this necessity and highlights some of the important insights into the pathogenesis of the disease that have been gained from using various animal models. The use of non-human primates as more relevant models of human schistosomiasis is stated. In addition, the importance of animal welfare consideration when using primates for research is emphasized. Finally, some guidelines for the refined capture, handling and early humane endpoints for non-human primates to be used in experimental schistosomiasis are suggested.


The structures, stabilities and electronic properties of neutral and anionic B3Sin (n = 1–17) clusters have been systemically investigated on the basis of density functional theory at the B3LYP/6-311 + G(d) level and CALYPSO structure prediction method. The structural searches show that three boron atoms tend to form B3 triangle encapsulated into Sin cages with the increasing number of silicon atoms. Most of the lowest energy structures can be derived by using the squashed pentagonal bipyramid structure of B3Si4 and B3Si4− as the major building unit. The relative stabilities are studied based on the calculated binding energies, second-order difference of energies and HOMO–LUMO gaps of the lowest energy structures. In addition, Hirshfeld, natural population analysis, Bader approaches and natural electronic configuration are performed to explore the charge transfer. At last, molecular orbital, magnetic properties, IR, Raman and UV–vis spectra are also, respectively, analysed for providing strong support for essential theoretical and experimental research. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT


material as a neutralizer, the beam spreading was measured in the same way and with the same equipment as with water using 1000 eV deuterons. The resulting neutral-current density at beam centre and beam spreading are shown in Fig. 11. The fluorocarbon pressure was somewhat uncertain because the Schulz-gauge calibration for this material is not known. In plotting Fig. 11, it was assumed that the gauge constant for the fluorocarbon is the same as for water. For comparison, Fig. 11 also shows the spreading of the same beam by the water neutralizer. The larger spreading by the fluorocarbon might limit the usefulness of this material for neutral-injection experiments.


The scanning electron microscope,laser particle size analyzer,specific resistance test instrument and X-ray diffractometer were applied to the qualitative and quantitative analysis on the fly ash particle form,particle size,specific resistance,ash composition and other electrostatic dust collection features.An electrostatic dust collection experiment was conducted with the self made dust collection device.The results showed that the fly ash particle form after the coal water slurry combusted was various,including the unburned carbon,floating beads and micro beads.The particle size distribution was uneven and the percentage of the coarse particle was high.The major composition of the fly ash was SiO2 and Al2O3,which were taken 70%-90% of the total quantity.Under the same temperature,the specific resistivity of the fly ash from the coal water slurry would be one to two magnitude orders higher than the fly ash of fine coal.The dust collection rate of the fly ash from the coal water slurry would be higher than the fly ash of fine coal and was 98%.The fly ash of the coal water slurry would be more favorable than the fine coal to the electrostatic dust collection.


Abstract Thiobutyl or thiophenylcycloalkenes were acylated by acetyl or benzoyl chloride in the presence of aluminium trichloride. Aluminium exchanged montmorillonite catalysed the reaction and gave a better yield than with a stoechiometric quantity of aluminium trichloride.


Using known population mean of an auxiliary variable, a generalized class of estimators of population ratio of two population means of study variables is proposed, its bias and mean square error are found and comparative aspects have also been studied and given. Sri Lankan Journal of Applied Statistics 2015;16(3): 179-193


This paper contributes to the HCI literature on usability practice with insights about the empirical challenges and global emerging practices caused by the advent of agile software development (ASD). In the paper we report from a worldwide study involving 12 usability professionals from 12 different countries. The findings show that the usability professionals share a forced development and innovation in their practice that stem from their clients' adoption and use of ASD methods. The ASD methods challenge the way usability testing is performed, the abilities of the usability expert, the usability deliverables, and the experts' assumptions about the importance of validity.


Such factors,such as inherited language,age,and individual physical and psychological features are closely associated with the process and final outcome of SLA,which has been an issue of wide concern in recent years. Truly,these variables all exert a pivotal impact on SLA practices. However,different views are held by researchers in this specific field toward the category and the degree of that impact. Due to the fact that SLA is a new disciplinary field,and that humans perceive any new academic subject in a constantly dynamic manner,SLA theorists and practitioners should not accept previous research results without judgment,but deal with them carefully and critically. This is the purpose for which this article is composed.


is present in MPI. This can be used to layer new functionality on top of MPI. Next, Section 8.3 deals with setting the information found in status. This is needed for generalized requests. Section 8.4 allows users to associate names with communicators, windows, and datatypes. This will allow debuggers and profilers to identify communicators, windows, and datatypes with more useful labels. Section 8.5 allows users to add error codes, classes, and strings to MPI. With users being able to layer functionality on top of M P I, it is desirable for them to use the same error mechanisms found in MPI. Section 8.6 deals with decoding datatypes. The opaque datatype object has found a number of uses outside MPI. Furthermore, a number of tools wish to display internal information about a datatype. To achieve this, datatype decoding functions are provided. The chapter continues, in Section 8.7, with a discussion of how threads are to be handled in MPI-2. Although thread compliance is not required, the standard specifies how threads are to work if they are provided. Section 8.8 has information on caching on communicators, datatypes, and windows. Finally, Section 8.9 discusses duplicating a datatype.


The problems of investment attractiveness of our country in the framework of the implementation of the "Strategy of Economic Security of the Russian Federation until 2030" are considered. The stabilization of investment processes in the economy can become effective through the implementation of a system of planning, assessment, and monitoring of national threats and risks in the context of the crisis of the global economic system, market globalization, and price liberalization. An important investor in this process is the state: public investments implemented in the framework of public-private partnerships; finance aimed at modernizing Russian enterprises and major regional and federal projects. Increased control over them should be exercised by the state, investors and interested parties (or stakeholders).


This paper presents a technique involving index cards and roleplay to assist in making use case development more accessible and better guided. The technique is based on the established CRC card technique used for object-oriented design. In our technique, essential use cases are recorded on cards, and roleplay is used for development and review. The paper presents the technique, and outlines our experience in applying it. We found the technique did achieve the expected benefits, and was especially useful in determining the system boundary. We also saw other significant benefits, some relating especially to the nature of essential use cases. behaviour.


Achieving high electrical conductivity while maintaining good thermal insulation are often contradictory in the material design for the goal of simultaneous thermal protection and electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding. The reason is that materials with high electrical conductivity often pertain high thermal conductivity. To address this challenge, this study reports a multifunctional ceramic composite system for carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites. The fabricated multifunctional ceramic composite system has a multi-layer structure. The polymer derived SiCN ceramic reinforced with yttria stabilized zirconia fibers serves as the thermal protection and impedance matching layer, while the carbon nanotubes provide the EMI shielding. Thermal conductance of the multi-layered ceramic composite is about 22.5% lower compared to that of the carbon fiber reinforced polymer composites. Thermal insulation test during the steady-state condition shows that the hybrid composite can be used up to 300oC while keeping the temperature reaching the surface of carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites at around 167.8oC. Flame test was used to characterize the thermal protection capability under transient condition. The hybrid composite showed a temperature difference of 72.9oC and 280.7oC during the low and high temperature settings, respectively. The average total shielding efficiency per thickness of the fabricated four-layered ceramic composite system was 21.45 dB/mm, which showed high reflection dominant EMI shielding. The average total shielding efficiency per thickness of the eight-layered composite system was 16.57 dB/mm, revealing high absorption dominant EMI shielding. Typical CFRP composites reveal reflection dominant EMI shielding. Results of this study showed that materials with good thermal insulation and EMI shielding can be obtained simultaneously by confining the electron movement inside the materials and refraining their movement at the skin surface.


Net book belongs in the category of small, legacy-free and inexpensive portable computer. Net books typically have less powerful hardware than other laptops. Net books are used to run simple task that doesn't utilize a lot of CPU power such as word processing, presentations, web browsing and photo management. However, online video viewings utilize a lot of CPU power. Flash video has been accepted as the default online video format by many sites but it uses Adobe Flash Player to display the video. With the new version of HTML5, developer can now use <video> element that plays video without using any third-party application. There are many web browsers for user to use when surfing the Internet. The most commonly used browsers are Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome which has their own features to provide the best service to the users. ICT and E-learning platforms provide an alternative channel for improving the quality of education and extending it to reach broader audiences. This study was designed to find the best video format for video streaming on E-learning portal in different browsers that utilize less CPU power to help users perform multiple tasks on their net book.


In this study, the polycondensation products of a diamine anthraquinone (1,4-diamino anthraquinone) and some aliphatic diacids with different methylene numbers were synthesised. Their UV-visible spectroscopy and thermal properties were then characterised. The synthesis was achieved by reacting equimolar solutions of the amine and the acid halides. The structure and thermal properties of the products were characterised. FT-IR Spectra of all the three products revealed the formation of amide due to the presence of strong bands at 1565 and 3390 cm −1 assignable to C=O stretching and N-H vibrations. Differential Scanning Calorimetry revealed high melting exotherms for the products. Thermogravimetry revealed moderate thermal stabilities for Poly NAM and Poly NAS and low thermal stability for Poly NAA which indicated 5.9%, 7.1% and 61.2% weight losses at 285˚C, 285˚C and 374˚C for the three products respectively. The wavelengths of maximum absorbance for the dye samples are 601.5, 591 and 589 nm respectively with absorptivity coefficients ( ) of 11640000, 11610000 and 11560000 respectively. 1% 1cm a


Gravitational lensing of gravitational waves (GWs) is a powerful probe of the matter distribution in the universe. Here we revisit the wave-optics effects induced by dark matter (DM) haloes on the GW signals of merging massive black hole binaries (MBHBs), and we study the possibility of discerning these effects using the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA). In particular, we include the haloes in the low-mass range of 105–108 M⊙ since they are the most numerous according to the cold DM model. We simulate the lensed signals corresponding to a wide range of impact parameters, and we find distinguishable deviation from the standard best-fit GW templates even when the impact parameter is as large y ≃ 50. Consequently, we estimate that over $(0.1\!-\!1.6){{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ of the MBHBs in the mass range of 105.0–106.5 M⊙ and the redshift range of 4 − 10 should show detectable wave-optics effects. This probability is one order of magnitude higher than that derived in previous works. The uncertainty comes mainly from the mass function of the DM haloes. Not detecting any signal during the LISA mission would imply that DM haloes with 105–108 M⊙ are less numerous than what the cold DM model predicts.


For the students of foreign citizen of Chinese origin,Chinese is their second language,at the same time,as well as their mother tongue.The way of Chinese language learning and the complicated psychology of the students illustrated there are both the same and differences between the Chinese education and the second language teaching.Therefore,the cultural teaching of Chinese education has its own discipline feature,especially on the key issue of the cultural teaching,and the critical period of culture of Chinese education should be prior to the one of the second language teaching and learning.


This paper presents recent and planned activities in the area of computer aided detection and classification (CAD / CAC) of mine like objects (MLOs) at the FWG with assistance of FU-Berlin and FGAN-FOM. These investigations are intended to support software for the analysis of side scan sonar images by an operator and to contribute to automatic target recognition (ATR) software in case of autonomous UUVs. The object detection and classification process is divided into a couple of processing steps starting with pre-processing and screening for regions of interest over the reduction of false positives and object classification up to the fusion of detection and classification results of different algorithms. A first CAD system was presented 2008 [2] including four different screening methods (statistical analysis, highlight / shadow analysis, correlation with a 1dtemplate and a modified Maximally Stable Extremal Regions (MSER) approach) as well as four different algorithms for the reduction of false positives (snake algorithms, correlation with a set of 2d-tamplates and iterative segmentation). In the meantime investigations have been made to study the influence of pre-processing on the detection and classification process, additional algorithms have been implemented (e.g. k-means and higher order statistical based segmentation, co-occurrence matrixes based entropy and energy, ...) and first results were achieved. All algorithms have been or will be tested using a SSS data currently covering 25 km of the seafloor. These data were in part collected by the SeaOtter MK I AUV from Atlas Elektronik gathered in the Baltic Sea and the Mediterranean Sea.


The satisfaction of the rights of victims in the repair processes of serious violations of international human rights and international humanitarian law, involves the obligation to adopt criteria that take into account the perspective of the victims, why which the rationale, form and objectives of such remedies must be based on the construction and collective discussion of the people and communities involved. In this context, it is necessary to respond to what has been called a "failure to recognize" the peasantry from the adequacy of the various versions of justice, preventing compensation regulations and guarantee of rights, rural development policies and land reform. To develop such a purpose are explained four realities: first, the conflict is characterized rural, in a second time, precision and relate the properties of each of the positions of the concept of justice in the conflict, in third, is investigated by regulatory and case law concerning the rights of peasant communities and finally, fourth, will address the complementarity of justice and political participation in the context of justice and economic efficiency, recognizing the imminent inclusion of community peasant in the neoliberal economic model, for the foundation of adequate reparation policies.


The important phenomenon that the internationalization of Chinese firms (ICF) represents has attracted increasing interest from scholars from multiple fields over the past 20 years (1991–2010). Although this proliferation of research has the potential to significantly improve understanding of Chinese multinational enterprises (MNEs), the necessary step of consolidating and integrating extant knowledge is absent. This paper reviews the scholarship on the ICF and offers insights into the specific areas in critical need of further development. By focusing on articles published in major scholarly journals during the period 1991–2010, the authors develop a coherent framework to organize and review conceptual and empirical findings from disciplines as far ranging as management, international business, cross‐culture and area studies. Within the reviewed literature, three primary streams of enquiry are identified which focus on the antecedents, processes and outcomes of the ICF. Achievements within each of the three research streams are carefully reviewed using content analysis, whereby a number of important issues are identified which have remained consistently untouched, and recommendations are provided for future research, aimed at developing a more integrated research agenda on the ICF for management and international business scholars.


Various correspondences from several South African institutions interested in BU's Program for Legislative Drafting for Democratic Social Change. Included are draft proposals to create a Legislative Drafting program(s) in various institutions in South Africa. Also included is a BU program Legislative Drafting Techniques course assignment from 1994 from South Africa.


AbstractThere are numbers of Indonesian Youtube Videos that show steps to wear and remove Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for Corona Virus Disease (COVID19). However, the conformity with the current guidelines remains unknown. This paper aims to determine the validity of these videos based on the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines. We searched on the Youtube website for videos in donning and doffing PPE for droplet precaution and selected the videos using inclusion and exclusion criteria. Included videos were then evaluated with a checklist derived from WHO course on donning and doffing PPE for COVID-19 and WHO recommendation on PPE for Covid-19. The search that was undertaken resulted in 66 videos, and 40 videos were included for evaluation. There is no significant difference in the donning and doffing score between account types (personal, organizational/institutional, news). The average number of viewers of all videos is more than 2700 viewers. The average score of donning is less than 70% of the total score, and the average doffing score is under 65%. The vast majority of the videos do not follow the WHO recommendation on the PPE type and use more equipment than recommended. There are several contamination risks shown by the videos. Indonesian Youtube videos on PPE procedures for COVID-19 must be selected carefully to be used as an instructional or educational media since most of it presents a high risk of cross-contamination.Keyword: personal protective equipment, audiovisual, cross-contamination, trainingAbstrakTerdapat video dalam Bahasa Indonesia yang terkait cara memakai dan melepaskan Alat Pelindung Diri (APD) untuk Corona Virus Disease (COVID19). Namun, kesesuaian video terhadap pedoman terkini belum diketahui. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menentukan validitas video berdasarkan pedoman World Health Organization. Kami menelusuri Youtube untuk memperoleh video instruksi mengenakan dan melepas APD pencegahan kontaminasi droplet dan menyeleksi video tersebut berdasarkan kriteria inklusi dan eksklusi. Video yang telah diseleksi kemudian dievaluasi menggunakan checklist yang diturunkan dari langkah-langkah yang ditunjukan dalam kursus APD COVID-19 yang disediakan oleh WHO, serta rekomendasi APD dari WHO. Penelusuran Youtube menampilkan 66 video, dan dipilih 40 video yang sesuai dengan kriteria kelayakan. Tidak terdapat perbedaan signifikan dalam skor mengenakan dan melepaskan APD antara akun personal, organisasi/institusi, dan berita. Rata-rata jumlah penonton video adalah lebih dari 2700. Skor rata-rata pemakaian APD kurang dari 70% dari skor total, dan skor pelepasan APD kurang dari 65%. Sebagian besar video tidak mengikuti rekomendasi WHO dalam pemilihan tipe PPE dan menggunakan alat yang lebih banyak dari yang direkomendasikan. Terdapat sejumlah risiko kontaminasi yang dapat diobservasi dari langkah-langkah yang ditunjukan dalam video. Video Youtube prosedur APD untuk COVID-19 perlu diseleksi dengan cermat untuk digunakan sebagai media instruksi maupun pendidikan karena sebagian besar menunjukan risiko tinggi kontaminasi silang.Kata Kunci: alat pelindung diri, audiovisual, kontaminasi silang, pelatihan


Text classification is to automatically classify an unknown class text into its corresponding text class. With the increasing growth of information, as an important research task in information-processing fields, automatic text classification has nowadays become a research hotspot. A text classification system based on improved classification model presented in this paper is used to realize automatic text classification. The traditional feature selection algorithm doesn't take the distribution of feature terms in inter-class and intra-class into consideration, which makes the algorithm can't effectively weigh the distribution proportion of feature terms. In order to solve the problem, variance in inter-class and intra-class which describes the distribution of feature terms is used to revise weight of the feature term. Then genetic algorithm is applied to feature selection. The traditional idea that selection was done in every document is not adopted here, instead the idea that selection was done in every category is adopted. That is, genetic algorithm is used to modify the weight of the feature term until feature vector trained for every category can represent the feature of this category. Finally, the feature vector trained is used in automatic classification. After some experiments, it has proved that the method proposed is proper and feasible.


Total hip and knee arthroplasty is known to have a significant blood loss averaging 3–4 g/dL. Historically, transfusion rates have been as high as 70%. Despite years of work to optimise blood manag...


Mystrothrips Priesner, a newly recorded genus (Thysanoptera: Phlaeothripidae) is reported in the present paper. The genus can be distinguished from other genera by the following features: body including antennae and leg strongly reticulate, pronotum with five pairs of major developed setae. Mystrothrips flavidus, originally described from Japan, is firstly recorded from China, and the first description of macropterous type of the species is provided. This species is found from leaf-litter and widely distribute in Guangdong Province, China. The specimens were deposited at the Insect Collection, Department of Entomology, South China Agricultural University (SCAU).


The cellular pigments of the retinal pigment epithelium are photoactive; that is, they promote free radical oxidative reactions when illuminated with visible or ultraviolet light. This activity is sufficient to cause photo-oxidation of several major cellular components such as antioxidants, dinucleotide cofactors, proteins and fatty acids. The present investigation determined the relative ability of melanin, lipofuscin, and melanolipofuscin granules isolated from human and bovine eyes to oxidize linoleic and docosahexaenoic acids, which are polyunsaturated fatty acids. The dark reactivity as well as the light-stimulated reactions were determined. All RPE pigment granules stimulated fatty acid oxidation when irradiated with the blue-green (488.1 and 514.5 nm) emission of the Argon-ion laser. Only lipofuscin, however, caused peroxidation of fatty acids in the dark. These findings not only suggest that accumulation of lipofuscin in the aging eye may contribute to increased photo-oxidative stress to the retina and RPE, but also that the photoactive RPE pigments might serve as endogenous photosensitizers for therapeutic applications.


Poly(2-fluoro-1,4-phenylenevinylene) (PFPV) and poly(1,4-phenylenevinylene) (PPV) were synthesized through the water-soluble precursor method. The polymers were characterized by UV−visible spectroscopy, and the light-emitting properties were studied. The absorption maxima of PPV and PFPV are at around 415 and 410 nm, respectively. The electroluminescent (EL) devices were fabricated with ITO and aluminum as positive and negative electrodes, respectively. The EL properties of these polymers were studied by EL spectra, current−voltage characteristics, light intensity−current characteristics, and Fowler−Nordheim plot. The I−V characteristics of the polymers showed typical diode characteristics, and the operating voltages of PPV and PFPV were 6 and 10 V, respectively. The photoluminescent spectra of these polymers were also obtained and similar to the EL spectra. The relative EL quantum efficiency of PFPV was 10 times higher than that of PPV. This result may be due to the smaller band offset between the alumin...


I agree completely with most of the issues raised in Mark Atlas's article "Rush to Judgment" in this issue (Atlas 2001). First, environmental justice is an important research topic that is too often addressed by writers with preconceived notions about the presence or absence of discrimination in environmental protection. Second, I agree with Mark's critique of the National Law Journal (NLJ) study, the first to investigate possible racial or class inequities in civil environmental penalties. Third, I agree that researchers need to use appropriate data, controls, and statistical techniques and that there is no evidence that civil penalties for violating environmental regulations are systematically lower in poor and/or minority communities. Finally, I agree that in "Rush to Judgment" Atlas makes a unique and valuable contribution to the environmental justice literature-which is why I recommended that the manuscript be published in Law & Society Review. Nevertheless, I believe that "Rush to Judgment" has substantial weaknesses that detract from its stature as a piece of social science research. Not surprisingly, I disagree with Mark's assessment of the validity of the conclusions from my previous work in this area-conclusions that "Rush to Judgment" reinforces in every respect. More important, however, I believe that Mark's article displays fundamental flaws regarding how we use evidence to draw generalizable conclusions about the world around us, and how one makes use of extant research to carve out a niche for one's own work. Clarifying the Evaluative Standard The claim Mark makes in "Rush to Judgment" is that substantive misunderstandings and incorrect methodological choices render my previous work regarding environmental civil penalties "unreliable" or "per se unreliable" (Atlas 2001:643, 651). Reliability is an unusual platform from which to critique the work of others, since it is a property of measures and measurement rather than a property of research designs, models, or conclusions. Reliability is generally thought of as the ability of a measure or test to produce the same value in repeated trials under various circumstances. Using this standard, the conclusions in Ringquist (1998) are consistent across sampling frames, three measures of the dependent variable, and dozens of different models. Thus, the results in my previous research are nothing if not "reliable" in the traditional sense of the term. The issue at the heart of Mark's critique is not reliability, but validity-in particular, internal validity. In all prepublication versions of "Rush to Judgment," the term validity was used. After I pointed out in my review of the manuscript that conclusions regarding the internal validity of my research need not follow logically from the critique offered, Mark replaced "invalid" with "unreliable," but the critiques and their associated conclusions remained unchanged.' But let's be clear. At issue is the assertion that the results of my previous research cannot be trusted-a classic definition of internal validity. I am confident that both the critiques of the work, and the conclusions following from these critiques, are in error, and I make my case to this effect in the following pages by addressing (1) Mark's criticism of the models representing civil penalty assessment in environmental protection, (2) his criticisms of data accuracy, and (3) errors of omission and commission found in "Rush to Judgment." Modeling Civil Penalties in Environmental Protection Theoretical Refutation of the Modeling Critique The lion's share of the criticism in "Rush to Judgment" centers on the inclusion of a group of control variables in Ringquist 1998. In a critique longer than the text of my original research note, each control used in Ringquist 1988 but not in "Rush to Judgment" is argued to be inappropriate. While space constraints limit my response to the five controls that attract the most criticism, these refutations are generalizable to the other control variables. …


Abstract The optimizing process of the postal transportation network can be based on several variables and on different infrastructures. The most commonly used variables for optimization are time and distance. This article is focused on the comparison of the results of the optimization process based on the time and distance variables in the conditions of the Slovak national postal operator. The different types of the underlying infrastructures (roads or railways) could be used for optimization based on the territory conditions. For the optimization, there has been used the p-median method, that describes the problem of locating P "facilities" relative to a set of "customers" in such a way that the sum of the shortest demand weighted distance between "customers" and "facilities" is minimized. In the conclusion, the article authors will formulate the rule for selection of the best optimization variables for the postal transportation network optimization.


* Doris S. & Theodore B. Lee Professor of Law, William S. Boyd School of Law, University of Nevada Las Vegas. Thanks to Bill Boyd, Doris Lee, Ted Lee, Ann McGinley, Jim Rogers, and John White. Thanks also to Jeanne Price, David McClure, Jeanette Barrick and Chandler Pohl for valuable research assistance. © 2011 Jeffrey W. Stempel. 1 Although the current fashion (and preference of the ADR community) is to refer to "dispute resolution" generally rather than to "alternative" dispute resolution, I continue to find this linguistic aspiration to primacy misplaced. The dispute resolution movement (including its now largest contingency among the ABA sections) is grounded upon presenting alternatives to the default dispute resolution system of litigation. Similarly, the model of restorative justice presented by Brown and Wolf, see Jennifer Gerarda Brown & Liana G.T. Wolf, The Paradox and Promise of Restorative Attorney Discipline, 12 NEV. L.J. 253 (2012), is presented as an alternative to the default methods of bar association discipline. Other dispute resolution alternatives are presented as alternatives to default regulatory or administrative methods of dispute resolution. Consequently, it is in my view more accurate to continue to describe this movement—however established it has become—as an "alternative" dispute resolution movement, and I will do so in this paper. 2 At least that's my view. See Jeffrey W. Stempel, The Inevitability of the Eclectic: Liberating ADR from Ideology, 2000 J. DISP. RESOL. 247, 250 (2000); Jeffrey W. Stempel, Beyond Formalism and False Dichotomies: The Need for Institutionalizing a Flexible Concept of the Mediator's Role, 24 FLA. ST. U. L. REV. 949, 962 (1997). This stems in large degree from the community relations roots of ADR as a means of resolving problems in neighborhoods or organizations. A substantial portion of the ADR community disagrees. See, e.g., Lela P. Love & Kimberlee K. Kovach, ADR: An Eclectic Array of Processes, Rather Than One Eclectic Process, 2000 J. DISP. RESOL. 295, 301–06 (2000); Zena Zumeta, A Facilitative Mediator Responds, 2000 J. DISP. RESOL. 335 passim (2000); Gary L. Gill-Austern, Faithful, 2000 J. DISP. RESOL. 343, 345–46 (2000). The larger discussion of whether aspects of the ADR movement, in particular the strongly held view by some that mediation should only be facilitative, is beyond the scope of this Comment. Also beyond the scope of this Comment is the greater question of dispute resolution styles, particularly mediation styles, a topic of substantial, ongoing academic conversation at least since Professor Riskin's important article charting mediation methodology according to its degree of facilitative and evaluative comment. See Leonard L. Riskin, Understanding Mediators' Orientations, Strategies, and Techniques: A Grid for the Perplexed, 1 HARV. NEGOT. L. REV. 7, 17 (1996); see also Jeffrey W. Stempel, Identifying Real Dichotomies Underlying the False Dichotomy: Twenty-First Century Mediation in an Eclectic Regime, 2000 J. DISP. RESOL. 371, 377–79 (2000) (noting utility of Riskin "Grid" for assessing mediator styles and that there should not be a bright line between evaluation and


Consider a nonparametric capillary or prescribed mean curvature surface zD f.x; y/ defined in a cylinderR over a two-dimensional region  that has a boundary corner point at O with an opening angle of 2 . Suppose 2 and the contact angle approaches limiting values 1 and 2 in.0;/ as O is approached along each side of the opening angle. Our results yield a proof of the Concus-Finn conjecture, which provides the last piece of the puzzle of determining the qualitative behavior of a capillary surface at a convex corner. We find that if. 1; 2/ satisfies 2 Cj 1 2j> , then f is bounded but discontin- uous at O and has radial limits at O from all directions inand, these radial limits behave in a prescribed way; if . 1; 2/ satisfiesj 1C 2 j > 2 , then f is unbounded in every neighborhood of O; and otherwise f is continuous at O.


The purpose of the present study was to determine the change in total excess volume of CO2 output (C02 excess) due to bicarbonate buffering of lactic acid produced during exercise and change in swimming performance following resistance training for 8 weeks in competitive swimmers. Ten healthy university competitive swimmers were assigned to either a resistance training and swimming training group (COMBINE: N=5) or a swimming training only group (SWIM: N=5). Muscle mass was measured using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). CO2 excess and blood lactate concentration were measured during incremental exercise on a cycle ergometer and swimming performance was measured during competition. COMBINE showed a significantly higher percentage change in muscle mass (11.1•}4.5%) than SWIM (3.5•}2.5%). The percentage change in CO2 excess, CO2 excess per body weight (CO2 excess/BW) and CO2 excess/BW per blood lactate accumulation (CO2 excess/BW/•¢La) during exercise was significantly higher in COMBINE (107.3•}60.1, 102.6•}56.8, 59.1•}37.7%, respectively) than in SWIM (42.5•}10.0, 42.9•}10.4, 13.4•}22.4%, respectively). The percentage change in swimming performance was significantly higher in COMBINE (2.2•}1.8%) than in SWIM (-2.0•}3.6%). A negative correlation between percentage change of muscle mass and percentage change of CO2 excess/BW/ •¢La (SWIM: r=•|0.993, P•ƒ0.01, COMBINE: r=•|0.744, P•"0.05) was found. It was suggested that combined swim and resistance training resulted in greater increases in the bicarbonate buffering system (CO2 excess/BW/•¢La). However, increases in muscle mass may have subsequently caused a relative decrease in the contribution of the bicarbonate buffering system. (Jpn. J. Phys. Fitness Sports Med. 2000, 49: 355•`364) key word: resistance training, muscle mass, CO2 excess, bicarbonate buffering system, swimming performance


coatings on aluminum alloy D16 was studied using EPR technique. Aluminum alloy D16 contains alloyed transition metals such as Cu, Mn, Fe, Ni, Ti, being incorporated into the coatings structure during MPO processes. EPR data on transition metal ions allow estimating an appearance of a high temperature phase of Al


The internationally organized European XFEL freeelectron laser is under construction at the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY). The project is the first large scale application of the TESLA technology developed over the last 15 years. Superconducting accelerating cavities will be used to accelerate the electron beam to an energy of up to 17.5 GeV. Recently an energy reduction by 20% to 14 GeV was discussed as a reasonable compromise between cost aspects and scientific potential of the facility. With realistic assumptions on lower beam emittance, the design photon beam parameters will be achieved. The talk briefly summarizes the overall XFEL design before presenting details about the status of the superconducting linac. The activities within the international collaboration are described. Final prototyping, industrialization and commissioning new infrastructure are the actual challenges. Contracts for long lead items are placed.


The design, fabrication, and testing of a preconcentrator-focuser (PCF), consisting of a thick micromachined Si heater packed with a small quantity of a granular adsorbent material are described. The PCF is developed to capture and concentrate vapors for subsequent focused thermal desorption and analysis in a micro gas chromatograph. The microheater contains an array of high-aspect-ratio, etched-Si heating elements, 520 /spl mu/m (h)/spl times/50 /spl mu/m (w)/spl times/3000 /spl mu/m (l), bounded by an annulus of Si and thermally isolated from the remaining substrate by an air gap. This structure is sandwiched between Pyrex glass plates with inlet/outlet ports that accept capillary tubes for sample flow and is sealed by anodic bonding (bottom) and rapidly annealed glass/metal/Si solder bonding (top). The large microheater surface area allows for high adsorption capacity and efficient, uniform thermal desorption of vapors captured on the adsorbent within the structure. The adsorbent consists of roughly spherical granules, /spl sim/200 /spl mu/m in diameter, of a high-surface-area, graphitized carbon. Key design considerations, fabrication technologies, and results of performance tests are presented with an emphasis on the thermal desorption characteristics of several representative volatile organic compounds as a function of volumetric flow rates and heating rates. Preconcentration factors as high as 5600 and desorbed peak widths as narrow as 0.8 s are achieved from 0.25-L samples of benzene at modest heating rates. The effects of operating variables on sensitivity, chromatographic resolution, and detection limits are assessed. Testing of this PCF with a micromachined separation column and integrated sensor array is discussed briefly.


The existence of the orange plantation at Gadingrejo Village, Umbulsari District, Jember Regency has attracted all the capitalist to do an investment. Usually they're doing an investment in order to do the rent land and to sell their crops to the middlemen or wholesalers. Because currently, the market for direct agriculture is done on the agricultural land which is through the land rent. The land rent system which is an investment form of all the capitalist has created a new position on the land rent system and that is a broker and the confidant. The presence of both local & foreign tenant has created capital decomposition which later would also followed by the manpower decomposition. Actually, in Gadingrejo Village, the possibilities of the occurrence of the manpower decomposition have been found. And there were 17 possibilities of it. These conditions that the Gadingrejo Vilage peoples called welfare. And these conditions were different from Scott's research condition, where Scott saw the deterioration of the farmer caused by the presence of the capitalist. And because of that, as the results the manpower got decreased, it creates unemployment and also there were three kinds of land tenant positions.


Existing self-tracking tools for women concentrate on one's general well-being and keeping track of ovulation and periods. With around 10% of women worldwide suffering from endometriosis there is a ...


Through the bibliometric analysis of sports organizations,to understand the activity and academic influence of sports science,this paper based on CNKI、VIP、CSSCI and Copied Newspaper Documents·Sport,makes a comprehensive bibliometric analysis on the study of China Sports Organizations by the indexes of published paper amount,number of papers cited,academic reprint amount,H index and amount of foundation.Then,through the indexes,the paper points out the study situation and the development trend of sports science,and provides objectively a relatively comprehensive analysis of the academic influence of sports organizations.


PURPOSE: To provide an apparatus for purifying wastewater and a method therefor, which are able to be simply and economically operated and provide adequate conditions to various microorganism groups needing different amounts of oxygen, thereby providing a continuous and good spatial yield. CONSTITUTION: The apparatus comprises an aeration tank (2b) containing wastewater (8) to be purified by microorganism groups, an aerator (3) for aerating the aeration tank, a device for measuring an oxygen concentration (4) of the aeration tank, a device for measuring a temperature (7) of the aeration tank and a control device (5) for controlling the aerator, wherein the control device includes a storage unit for storing the value measured by the measuring device and a calculation unit for calculating an oxygen decrease speed in the activated sludge tank from the measured value and then calculating an operation continuous time of the aerator based on the oxygen decrease speed.


Human's principal part is a centricity in modern philosophy of the West all along.It has three stages in the history of human education——human's principal part suppressed in theology stage,human's principal part rationalistic in modern industry civilization stage and human's principal part cleared up in post-modernism stage.The cultivating of human's principal part relates to the exploitation of the study in a creative way and authorship.In 21st century education will develop human's principal part.This is the tiptop objective of education.The idea gives us a useful inspire on how to comprehend human's all-round development and cultivating.


. The time domain reflectometry probe. The probe is placed into a tank of liquid technique was used to measure liquid levels in a so that the liquid can flow freely into the probe tank. Remote readings of liquid level were easily and seek the same level as the liquid in the tank. obtained. The state-of-the-art allows direct The change in impedance of the line at the liquid readout of volume, level, or pulse travel time interface causes a reflection which is easily seen. through use of proper calibration techniques and This reflection is used to measure the depth of a computer-calculator. Calibration and readout liquid in the tank. using the same fluid allowed level measurement of 20.3 cm. When solutions of different ionic strengths were used for calibration and readout, the errom in liquid level measurement varied from EXPERIMENTAL +1 cm to +4 cm. The magnitude of the error depended on the difference in ionic strength and A tank was calibrated according to Rocky Flats on the trigger voltages used in the electronic standard operating procedures4 y5 using standard instrumentation.


Aiming at Radio Frequency Identification(RFID) localization problem for indoor environments,an UHF RFID tag localization method based on power scanning of reader is proposed.A path loss model is proposed to study the power of reader as a function of read range.The function is analyzed based on an empirical model that often used in indoor environments and Friis transmission equation in theory,and demonstrated in experiments.Based on the function,a circle localization using multiple RFID antennas is proposed.Experiment demonstration using two antennas shows that the average accuracy value is 57 cm.The factors that affect the location accuracy are studied,and then an improved localization method is proposed.Statistical results indicate that the average accuracy is improved from 57 cm to 18 cm using three antennas,and the location accuracy in terms of 90% probability within 25 cm.Meanwhile,decreasing the step of the power adjustment can also improve the location accuracy.


As health plans work to develop and price products for the 2017 open-enrollment cycle—beginning November 1, 2016, it looks like some premiums are set to rise substantially.


Under the following terms: Attribution You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. NonCommercial You may not use the material for commercial purposes. NoDerivatives If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material.


The purpose of this exploratory study was to better understand the development of successors in the small family business, including their approach to the leadership of the firm. It examined variables (and their relationships) that help to explain family business successor leadership. A case study approach was followed, using grounded theory analysis of qualitative interviews of the top managers of six family businesses. It provided six propositions for future research—namely, concerning positive parent—child relationships, acquiring knowledge, long-term orientation, cooperation, successor roles, and risk orientation.


The risk factors possibly existing in the construction process of mountainous high-rise pier and long span continuous rigid-frame bridges are analyzed.By way of example of the construction of the Longtan River Bridge on the West Section of Shanghai-Chengdu Expressway in Hubei Province,the possibe risk sources of the bridges are identified by the analytical hierarchy process(AHP) method.The results of the identification are fairly agreeable with those of the field investigation and the feasibility of application of the method to the risk identification in the construction of similar bridges is also verified.


This article describes a study involving 30 second-language learners of French attending an Irish university: 15 students from first year and 15 students from fourth year. The aim is twofold: (a) to investigate the extent to which advanced university learners of French are aware of the linguistic phenomenon of 'false friends' and how they cope with them in a translation-based language exercise and (b) to examine the role of formal second-language teaching in the shaping of L2 learner avoidance behaviour. Their performance on an English-French translation-based language task is compared in quantitative terms. The results support the underlying hypothesis of the study that the fourth-year learners will cope with the phenomenon of false friends more competently than the first-year learners. The article concludes by suggesting that the first-year learners' preference for avoiding translating difficult lexical items such as false friends can be attributed to factors related to teaching.


Cementogenesis on a root surface previously exposed by periodontal disease is a prerequisite for periodontal regeneration. The extent of periodontal regeneration largely depends on the regenerative potential at the root surface. The mechanism of cementogenesis and the exact locations of the cementoblasts or their precursors are still not well known until now. More and more experimental studies have focused on this field. The article reviewed the studies on cells associated with cementum, proposed the viewpoints on the location of cementoblast-precusors and the origin of cementoblasts. In the review, an animal cementoblasts model established for the study on formation mechanism of cementum was also mentioned.


Although general anesthesia is widely used in today's medical surgery, its precise underling mechanism is not yet clear. For clinically relevant concentration of propofol specific changes in electroencephalogram (EEG) rhythms can be observed experimentally. These characteristic changes comprised increased activity in the delta (0.5-4) Hz and alpha (8-13) Hz frequency bands over the frontal head region, but increased delta and decreased alpha activity over the occipital region [1]. The work model aims to understand the mechanisms underlying these specific changes in EEG power spectrum using a neuronal population model of a single thalamo-cortical module (Fig.1) based on a recently developed neural field model of anesthetic action [2,3]. The model reproduces well the certain changes observed experimentally in EEG rhythms over both frontal and occipital electrodes during propofol anesthesia sedation. The power spectral analyses reveal that the alpha power originates from the cortico-thalamic relay interaction, which is associated with a constant time delay around the inverse of peak frequency in alpha band. It is shown that as the concentration of propofol increases, dependent on the potential values of the resting state of the system, it causes an increase or decrease in the gains function within the thalamo-cortical loop what then results in an increase or decrease in the spectral power in the alpha band over frontal and occipital regions, respectively. The model indicates the importance of multiple resting states in brain activity. Moreover our findings demonstrate that the emergence of delta power results from the increased GABAergic inhibition into the thalamo-cortical system. Our results reveal that the specific observed changes in EEG rhythms can be reproduced with and without the propofol effect in cortical cells. This finding points out the importance of thalamus


Abstract A new series of optically active dopants have been prepared using 4,4"-terphenyldicarboxylic acid and 2-alkanols. These are nonmesomorphic, chemically stable—especially with regard to racemization and UV-light-compounds. Introduction of such a compound into a smectic C matrix of phenylpyrimidine or phenylbenzoate type leads to broadening the smectic C range of the matrix despite the fact that the dopant itself is a nonmesomorphic compound. The Ps value induced by the dopant depends greatly on the length of the alkyl tail attached to the chiral center from the external part of the molecule.


This paper proposes an intelligent way of reducing the problem of traffic congestion on the road network which has become very severe nowadays. In this contemporary scenario this work suggests new and alternative method for improving the efficiency of the existing road network. In today's world most of the traffic light systems are based on Microcontroller or Microprocessor with fixed time delays for green light and red light with no or less arrangement for contingency situation. At this situation this paper explores an alternative approach to manage this problem in best apposite way. This Microcontroller based project has co-opted the density of the traffic on the road network as a prime focal irrespective of the conventional traffic system in which time is assigned without calculation of the density on the road crossing. In this paper time duration has been assigned on the basis of the traffic rather than on fixed time basis with an extra arrangement for the contingency situation. To handle the emergency situation, voice recorder is used with microcontroller where the voice of ambulance vehicle is already recorded and if the record voice math with the vehicle present on the road network then it will halt all the outgoing instruction and will furnish highest priority to the ambulance vehicle. For gauging the traffic density IR sensors have been used here and programming of the Microcontroller has been done on the basis of traffic density measurement. In this considered module three LED of different colour-RED, GREEN, YELLOWhas been used. In pursuance of this information, micro-controller will make a decision and then assign the glowing time of green light, yellow light and red light. It means that the timing of the traffic light is set according to the density of the vehicles. This is going to be very helpful in the reduction of the traffic congestion and it has a scope for further expansion in future.


Topological mechanics is rapidly emerging as an attractive field of research where mechanical waveguides can be designed and controlled via topological methods. With the development of topological phases of matter, recent advances have shown that topological states have been realized in the elastic media exploiting analogue quantum Hall effect, analogue quantum spin Hall effect, analogue quantum valley Hall effect, higher-order topological physics, topological pump, topological lattice defects and so on. This review aims to introduce the experimental and theoretical achievements with defect-immune protected elastic waves in mechanical systems based on the abovementioned methods, respectively. From these discussions, we predict the possible perspective of topological mechanics.


A ceramic tooth veneer 2 has an average thickness d of less than 0.2 mm and a bevelled edge extending between 0.3 and 3 mm towards the centre of the tooth. The veneer is preferably translucent and may have a layer of preâ treated, partially cured bonding material on its rear surface 6 to facilitate attachment to a tooth 3. The bonding material may include a colouring material. Also disclosed is a method of manufacturing a tooth veneer using computer controlled milling of a ceramic blank, putting supporting material such as wax against the first side and then milling the second side, forming a bevelled edge, before sintering the veneer and removing the supporting material. Pores in the support material should be less than 0.05 mm diameter; the blank may be preâ sintered and heated to 55-65 °C; and the second surface should be milled from the edge towards the centre.


The current 3.5' MO disk has a capacity of 640 MB. To increase capacity/recording density, we investigated magnetically induced super resolution. Double mask rear aperture detection is described, resulting in two to four times increase in capacity. In future we want to achieve 15 GB or 20 Gb/in2 five years later from now and 150 GB ten years later. Various technologies to achieve them are surveyed. To increase performance we proposed multi-beam optical head. Laser-assisted magnetic recording will be a breakthrough to the density limitation of magnetic recording caused by thermal fluctuation.


In robotic manipulation, object grasping is a basic yet challenging task. Dexterous grasping necessitates intelligent visual observation of the target objects by emphasizing the importance of spatial equivariance to learn the grasping policy. In this paper, two significant challenges associated with robotic grasping in both clutter and occlusion scenarios are addressed. The first challenge is the coordination of push and grasp actions, in which the robot may occasionally fail to disrupt the arrangement of the objects in a well-ordered object scenario. On the other hand, when employed in a randomly cluttered object scenario, the pushing behavior may be less efficient, as many objects are more likely to be pushed out of the workspace. The second challenge is the avoidance of occlusion that occurs when the camera itself is entirely or partially occluded during a grasping action. This paper proposes a multi-view change observation-based approach (MV-COBA) to overcome these two problems. The proposed approach is divided into two parts: 1) using multiple cameras to set up multiple views to address the occlusion issue; and 2) using visual change observation on the basis of the pixel depth difference to address the challenge of coordinating push and grasp actions. According to experimental simulation findings, the proposed approach achieved an average grasp success rate of 83.6%, 86.3%, and 97.8% in the cluttered, well-ordered object, and occlusion scenarios, respectively.


Peter Schulze, Daniel Stucht, K. A. Danishad, Ilja Y. Kadashevich, Michael Herbst, Cris Lovell-Smith, Julian Maclaren, Robb T. Barrows, Todd P. Kusik, Brian S. Armstrong, Tom Prieto, Thomas Ernst, Maxim Zaitsev, and Oliver Speck Department of Biomedical Magnetic Resonance, Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany, Department of Radiology, University Medical Center, Freiburg, Germany, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, United States, Department of Neurology, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, United States, Department of Medicine, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, United States


The polarization filter that is presented in this publication is based on a narrow deep etched waveguide. The measured suppression of the TE mode is 20 dB. The achieved bandwidth is larger than 130nm (limited by the setup). The filter width for an operating range around 1550 nm is 0.5 μm


In a pipelined-channel interconnection network, multiple bits may be simultaneously in flight on a single wire. This allows the cycle time of the network to be independent of the wire lengths, significantly affecting the network design trade-offs. This paper investigates the design and performance of pipelined channel k-ary n-cube networks, with particular emphasis on the choice of dimensionality and radix. Networks are investigated under the constant link width, constant node size and constant bisection constraints. We find that the optimal dimensionality of pipelined-channel networks is higher than that of nonpipelined-channel networks, with the difference being greater under looser wiring constraints. Their radix should remain roughly constant as network size is grown, decreasing slightly for some unidirectional tori and increasing slightly for some bidirectional meshes. Pipelined-channel networks are shown to provide lower latency and higher bandwidth than their nonpipelined-channel counterparts, especially for high-dimensional networks. The paper also investigates the effects of switching overhead and message lengths, indicating where results agree with and differ from previous results obtained for nonpipelined-channel networks. >


By contrasting and analyzing grade 2000 new comers' physique quota of speed?strength?endurance and pliancy, the authors have had a good knowledge of the students' physique, and have worked out a correspondent working plan of physical education so that both the students' physique and the teaching quality of physical education could be improved.


In the United States, a liquidity crisis in the mortgage market in 2006 resulted in the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, The Investment Bank of America, on September 15, 2015. This situation has turned into a crisis affecting the world economy and financial markets. In addition to this practice known as monetary easing, the Bank of America reduced interest rates to near zero. He then started a new practice by adding the lyrical orientation to his policies. Sweden. Swiss, Danish and European Central Banks have implemented negative interest rate policies to cope with low inflation. In this study, the effect of negative interest rate implementation on the economies of the country was examined


This paper introduces the guiding and support measures adopted since 2007 to national cemented carbide industry by Chinese government,including setting up state key labs,state 863 key projects,state pillar science and technology programs.


Myeloid cell leukemia-1 (Mcl-1) is an anti-apoptotic member of the Bcl-2 protein family, which plays an apical role in many regulatory programs of cell death and survival. Mcl-1 deficiency results in peri-implantation lethality. Here, we employed the Cre-loxP system to conditionally knockout mcl-1 in the endothelial cell lineage. Tie2-cre-mediated deletion of mcl-1 leads to embryonic lethality with incomplete penetrance, with the expected frequency of Tie2-cre;mMcl-1f/ko conditional knockout embryos decreasing dramatically after E13.5. Histological analysis revealed that these conditional knockout embryos demonstrate a severe delay in heart development and one of them manifested defects mimicking congenital heart defects. However, detailed analysis revealed that cell proliferation and survival of mesenchymal cells in the endocardial cushion as well as migration of neural crest cell appeared to be normal in these mutant mice. The survived adult conditional knockout mice showed aortic regurgitation and an aortic stenosis-like phenotype. These results suggest a crucial role of endothelial Mcl-1 in embryonic heart development and maintaining normal heart functions during the adulthood. How Mcl-1 carries out these functions remains to be determined.


Objective:To explore the therapeutic effect of recombinant human interferon α-2b gel(Yallaferon)in treatment of cervical human papillomavirus(HPV)persistent infection without high-grade lesions,and to find the clearance rate of different HPV subtype. Methods:271 cases with cervical human papillomavirus(HPV)persistent infection without high-grade lesions were divided into two groups. The treatment group(234 cases)were treated with recombinant human interferon,while the control group(37 cases)did not use any drug intervention. Clinical efficacy was assessed after 3 and 6 months respectively. Results:The clearance rate and effective rate of treatment group are significant higher than those of control group(P0.05). The efficacy of interferon in treating HPV latent infection is statistically significant(P0.05). The clearance rate of hr HPV16,18,31,33,45,52 and 58,which possess rate,are all statistically significant(P0.05). Conclusion:Interferon demonstrates high efficacy in treating high risk HPV persistent infection. For treating HPV infection with high pathogenicity and low natural clearance,we should strart early and follow up closely.


Signal processing in frequency domain needs block processing which will cause a longer processing delay. Such processing delay is not permitted for the application of active noise control (ANC) systems because the phase of the anti-noise signal is important for acoustic sound cancellation. However, to perform the adaptation in frequency domain for the wideband ANC systems is necessary; and thus, it needs a high performance processing kernel. The delayless structure of the filter-x subband adaptive filter is proposed by Morgan, who also opens the study in the field of the delayless subband adaptive filtering. To implement such parallel structure over a single processing kernel is hard for engineers. This paper suggests using the discrete Fourier transform (DFT) subroutine which has been optimalized by the chip provider to perform the wideband ANC systems. In this paper, the proposed delayless filter-x fast block LMS (DFX-FBLMS) algorithm can achieve the same performance as previous approaches but with less computational complexity. Once a low level (low cost) controller is applied, the ANC system just updates the weights as the DFX-FBLMS process is finished. The proposed structure also makes the software easily programmed and maintained by engineers.


The Electrical Engineering Senior Capstone Project is intended to give each student experience in completing a sophisticated design project that spans most of the senior year. Planning, management of time, allocation of responsibility, documentation, and presentation of the results are integrated with the technical design task. The students work with one or two faculty advisors who have expertise in the project research area. The student is fully responsible for the design project, with the advisor(s) acting as guide and mentor. Each student is expected to work an eight hour lab period each week from October through May.


Machaeridians are armoured annelids that were morphologically diverse during the Palaeozoic. The scleritome developed from fleshy protrusions at the base of each parapodium, with alternating segments giving rise to differentiated inner and outer shell plates. The elytra‐like anatomy of the shell‐bearing soft tissues and distinctive jaw apparatus support an affinity of machaeridians with aphroditacean scaleworms. While frequently found as disarticulated remains, whole scleritomes of machaeridians are rare. Only a few species are represented by multiple articulated individuals, rendering many aspects of our knowledge of scleritome construction and growth uncertain. Here we describe a collection of articulated scleritomes of the plumulitid machaeridian Plumulites tafennaensis Chauvel from the Upper Ordovician (Katian) Upper Tiouririne Formation of Morocco that includes individuals representing both adult and juvenile stages. These scleritomes shed light on the morphology of the anterior region in plumulitids and show an increase in the number of shell plates with increasing size, suggesting that unlike some derived lepidocoleids, at least some plumulitids added segments repeatedly during ontogeny. Shell plates with a distinctive umbo have previously been assigned exclusively to the anterior region, but our material shows that they are present along the scleritome, with corresponding sclerites on the opposite side of the skeleton showing normal morphologies. We suggest that these plates are abnormal and best explained as healed injuries, replacing plates that had been previously removed from the body, demonstrating the capacity for machaeridians to regenerate lost body parts, a feature that is widespread in living annelids.


Stearic acid and sodium stearate were used as lipids to form inclusion complexes with cornstarch through a cooking process, respectively. The complexing index and the surface tension of the cooked pastes were measured. The films of the pastes were formed by casting, paper-sizing, and paper-coating methods. X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy were used to characterize the crystal and surface structures. Such properties of the complex films as the moisture absorption, friction coefficient, and tensile properties were tested. The results reveal that the two lipids could form an inclusion complex with amylose in the cornstarch more or less as a result of forming V-type crystals that restrained the crystallite size of the B-type crystal in the starch film. The addition of lipids reduced the sensitivity of the complex films to environmental moisture, decreased the friction coefficient of the films, and visibly increased the smoothness of the surfaces of the films. When the lipids were added in the starch at a weight content of 1%, the elongation at break of the complex film increased and the strength decreased slightly, and above a 1% content of the lipids, the tensile properties of the starch film were greatly deteriorated. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012


Introduction: Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is the leading cause of deaths and disease among women of the reproductive age group (15-49 years) in low-income countries. It is therefore necessary to undertake periodic reviews of pertinent indices related to HIV/AIDS. This could serve as the basis for developing evidence-based strategies. The study is aimed to identify and monitor trends in sexual risk behaviors, HIV knowledge and testing among women of the reproductive age group in Nigeria. Material and methods: Secondary data analysis of the Demographic Health Surveys (DHS) in Nigeria carried out from 2003 to 2013 was performed. Data on sexual risk behavior, HIV knowledge and testing among reproductive-aged women were extracted from the online log book to the Excel format. Chi square for trend was employed in the analysis using Epi Info version 7. Results: The survey (2003-2013) had a total of 79,953 women aged 15-49 years. Mean age of respondents was 26.0 ± 12 years. Most of the respondents (71%) were married or cohabiting. As to sexual risk behaviors, non-spousal sex and non-condom use showed a significant decline (p < 0.05). Although there was a 0.1% rise in multiple sex partnership, this trend was not statistically significant (p > 0.05). There were significant upward trends in the indicators of HIV knowledge and testing (p < 0.01). Conclusions: Nigeria is making progress in the fight against HIV/AIDS among reproductive-aged women as reflected in the indicators on sexual risk behaviors, HIV knowledge and testing. However, collaboration with international stakeholders needs to be strengthened to enhance this progress. HIV AIDS Rev 2017; 16, 2: 107-111 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5114/hivar.2017.66858


Equilibrium properties of different cation exchange membranes were studied as a function of concentration. Measurements showed that the homogeneous description does not agree with the experimental data. A heterogeneous model of the membrane solution was introduced, was supported by application to transfer experiments, and was compared to the pore model as well as to different physical investigations


Contents Unit 1: Why research? Unit 2: The research process Unit 3: Writing a bibliography Unit 4: Referring to other sources in your essay Unit 5: Plagiarism Unit 6: Using supporting arguments


The ASTEROID project is a H2020-COMPET EU project whose main goal is to provide Europe with the capability to manufacture high performance infrared focal plane arrays (FPA) devoted to scientific and astronomical space and ground telescope missions. The european consortium is composed by key research institutions (CEA-Leti, CEA-Saclay and IFAE) and industrial partners (Lynred, EVG and ADDL) being the resulting detector a SWIR hybridized MCT (mercury-cadmium-telluride) FPA of 2k x 2k pixels and 15 μm of pixel pitch. The project also looks for the validation of a thermo-mechanical model for large FPAs by reducing the stress build up in the ROIC and wafer bonded structures, both resulting in better detector reliability. On this framework, a cryo-vacuum system has been developed at the IFAE mechanical workshop with capabilities to perform low temperature thermal cycles in the MCT detector range and up to ~50K. The large volume cryostat (~120 liters) is cooled by a helium compressor and a single stage cold head, hosting the detector and its preamplification stage to provide a suitable light path and radiation shield for thermal background control. Most of the inner light path parts has been developed using off-the-shelf optomechanical components which allow us to modify the incoming light performance with standard 1 or 2-inches optical components. The cryostat design, configuration and the whole system performance will be reported on this paper with the aim to test the hybridized FPA to assess the reliability at operating temperature after several thermal cycles..


Exploration and exploitation are two fundamental activities for a firm's long-term success. Based on a panel data of 125 high technology firms collected using a text mining technique, this study shows a three-stage "horizontal S" relationship between exploration and firm performance. Further, this study reveals that it is critical to align appropriate type of resources between exploration and exploitation. Different type of resources each has its own unique way of benefiting or hampering a firm's exploration and exploitation activities. In particular, absorbed slack resource facilitates exploitation but impairs exploration, while unabsorbed slack resource facilitates exploration.


molecules, their allotropes and polymorphs, the determination of their orientation, purity and crystallinity, and the detection of strain states. SEM/EDX allows for the identification of atoms and chemical compounds and the imaging of surface structures. RISE combines the advantages of both, thus facilitating the most in-depth characterization of the sample. RISE analysis of polymorphs: correlating structure with chemical phases With SEM it is possible to identify materials consisting of different atoms using EDX (energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy). It cannot however distinguish between different modifications of chemically identical materials (polymorphs). As the manner of atomic bonding greatly influences the structure and properties of a material, visualizing not only morphology but also identifying its molecular architecture is important. RISE microscopy accomplishes both of these tasks as demonstrated with the analysis of TiO2 polymorphs (fig. 1). TiO2 is studied intensively because of its interesting chemical and optical properties and is widely employed in photocatalysis, electrochemistry, photovoltaics and chemical catalysis. It is also used as white pigment in tooth paste, sun screen and wall paint and as anode material for lithium-ion batteries. Depending on the application, one crystalline form or the other gains in importance. TiO2 occurs in eight modifications, two of which – anatase and rutile – were examined. For RISE microscopy an SEM image taken of a 1:1 anatase/rutile powder mixture was merged with the corresponding confocal Raman image (fig. 1 a, c). It was demonstrated that though the elemental compositions of the modifications anatase and rutile are identical, they can be distinguished from one another by their characteristic Raman spectra at wave numbers between 300 and 800 rel 1/cm (fig. 1b). Both phases were combined in agglomerates , in which rutile accumulated in larger particles than anatase. To our knowledge this is the first direct visualization of the spatial distribution of anatase and rutile phases of TiO2 in a mixture of both. Fig. 1: RISE microscopy of TiO2polymorphs Two modifications of TiO2, anatase and rutile, were mixed 1.1, ground, dissolved in water and imaged with an SEM (a) and a confocal Raman microscope. Both images were then overlaid (c). In the Raman spectrum (b) anatase (blue) can be easily distinguished from rutile (red). Knowledge of the morphology and chemical composition of heterogeneous materials on the sub-micrometer scale is crucial for the development of materials with new properties for highly specialized applications. Each analytical microscopy technology has its own distinct advantages and limitations. …


An archaic piece of Germanic poetry in Latin language is reconstructed for the first time by retracing the way in which its text and meter came to be corrupted. The result is a poem by which a sixth-century Frankish king, with touching straightforwardness and striving to find the appropriate words, addresses the still unfamiliar God of the Christians in the similarly unfamiliar Latin tongue, showing nonetheless that he has some sentitiveness for the holy language's religious imagery and metaphors. The then ongoing merging of heathen and Christian conceptions is tangible in the verses of King Chilperic - these for the historian a fascinating eye-witness document, for the reader a work of simble but dignified beauty.


Auxiliary Power Converter for the low-floor trams is installed on the roof, whereas other auxiliary power converters for general railway applications are installed on the underframe of the vehicles. In case of roof mounted auxiliary power converter, it is necessary to design the auxiliary power converter as to be small and light weight and considering the temperature increasing due to the direct solar irradiation. This paper introduces the auxiliary power converter applying a topology which can be small and light weight, reducing switching temperature loss of power semiconductor devices.