one. Information drawn from more central ocations must be presented before any conclusions can be drawn; that not even the representativeness of the sample can yet be assessed precludes generalizations of this information to any larger area whatever. Besides the obvious statistical imitations imposed by such a situation, even certain qualitative, substantive statements are ruled out. If otherwise comparable structures, differing only in centrality of location, show comparable figures, this result would constitute a powerful argument against urban status. Urban or no, one would expect some greater concentration of craftsmen ear the center, simply on the grounds of the concentration there of upper-class residences. For Tikal to qualify as urban, however, the figures from the center would have to be very distinctly higher. Present information, however, is insufficient to develop any conclusions at all. Differential quality of evidence similarly acts to drop that 25% figure to a much lower estimate. Obviously it is legitimate -necessary, desirable-to infer, to retrodict, what is no longer directly observable on the basis of what is recovered. Quite a rigorous logic actually governs this type of operation; I would be the last to disqualify the results of such reasoning. But all such inferences become more reliable as (among other considerations) the directly observable base grows larger. For Tikal the maximal estimate of that base is still very small; all else being equal, this operation is epistemologically safer for a Teotihuacan than for a Tikal. Second, it is also a thoroughly accepted procedure to infer the presence of specialists from the work they may safely be assumed, on the basis of its quantity, distribution, context, and differential energy cost, to have done. In his instances of dentists and of masons this is etically what Becker has done: it is far more probable that he has recovered not the practitioners but the clients. This procedure documents the presence of specialists, as a list, but cannot generate any estimate of the numbers involved because we do not know how many customers each craftsman served. I suggest his hypothesis because, while craftsmen advertise, it is also an old saw that the cobbler's children go barefoot. No system can feed upon itself: economically there is little rationale for a craftsman to expend so much energy in his own behalf, but every reason to do so for a paying customer. Although both interpretations suggest the presence of occupational specialists, in other respects the implications of the two reconstructions differ markedly. Because an evolving urbanism is a situation governed by positive feedback, growth in size, density, and internal diversity/ symbiosis hould occur gradually in mutually reinforcing relation. On the basis of bioenergetic considerations, this association of nucleation and heavy emphasis upon full-time specialization should be most marked the more paleotechnic the society in question. Nothing is radically new in these statements; these are Adam Smith's principles of the growth of markets. Somebody, however, sufficiently nearby in cost-benefit terms must be producing a food surplus above local subsistence needs to feed this growing urban settlement; if the agricultural system, through the action of one or another limiting factor, is not capable of comparable intensification, then any potential urban growth is necessarily aborted (negative feedback). If, however, identified and mapped craft specialists are working largely under patronage of a local elite (this pattern characterizes ranked society also) or for export (as is the case in much contemporary craft production in the Guatemala highlands), then the feedback system will be different from that described above, and the demographic result will not normally be urban. Neither elite patronage nor export production is likely to stimulate the development of a local economy based on intrasettlement symbiosis. As a material index of the extent to which such an economy has evolved (this too is a quantitative phenomenon), the criterion cited in my paper-size of market relative to size of total population-should serve for comparative purposes. There may be other, comparable material indices; if so, results obtained from them should be consonant with those obtained from the market index. All craft specialization, whatever its form, implies comparable intensification of the subsistence base, especially so in a paleotechnic context where transport costs are very high. This too is quantitative, insofar as the degree of energy harnessed by craft activity should determine the minimal surplus production of the agricultural sector above its own subsistence needs. Phrased another way, craft specialization is limited by the extent to which the production of such an agricultural surplus is possible. Where specialists produce for an elite, they are fed out of redistribution, tribute, or taxation. Where entire communities produce for export, this pattern implies a reservoir of food production elsewhere, accessible to the craftsmen in cost-benefit terms; the result, as in highland Guatemala, is regional symbiosis. Settlement pattern-the material counterpart and representation of the mode and organization of production-should reflect he type of organization and the quantitative importance of the parameters involved in particular cases. So are we all, all reasonable men. The foregoing discussion substantiates my point that the umbrage Haviland has taken at my "disrespect for facts" is merely a mask for a far more ramifying difference of paradigm: I recognize different things as facts and can justify my treatment of some of these as systemically more important han others. Obviously, my explicitly stating the framework from which I reason does not result in its becoming any more palatable. Culture history can ask what happened but is severely limited in asking why or how. I happen to believe that a materialist, evolutionist paradigm based on deductive logic will be more productive in generating explanation and even in generating facts than will a historicist paradigm relying heavily upon induction and the belief that facts will speak for themselves. They don't. They have certain real difficulties in even making themselves known.


With the development of car ownership, peoples demand for parking Spaces is increasing constantly at the same time. As a result,all kinds of stereo garages come out. In this article, we study the push-pull driving mechanism of a tree-like stereo garage. It mainly uses SolidWorks for modeling and then uses ADAMS for kinematics simulation.In the design process we focus on the feasibility and the stability of the push-pull driving mechanism.


Techniques recently developed at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) have enabled the zero-frequency (or dc) value of 4-terminal Laboratory Standard Resistors readily to be determined to an accuracy of two parts in 107 from a few measurements made in the frequency band 40 c/s to 600 c/s. A Kelvin double-bridge network is used, the ratio arms consisting of inductively-coupled voltage dividers with an accuracy and discrimination of one part in 107 over the whole frequency range. Experimental results and constructional details of the inductive dividers are given together with the theoretical considerations underlying the principle of the method.


Experimental Relative Energy Losses The relative energy losses (the logarithmic decrements), b', of the green sample at different temperatures are plotted against frequency in Figure 1. The temperatures at which the experiments were conducted are 42.0°, 33.8°, 14.8°, 3.5°, and -1.2°C. The curve for 25.5°C was reproduced from Figure 2 of Part I. It is seen that by lowering the temperature the b' value rises, while it decreases at temperatures below 14.8°C. In Figure 2, the b' values at the frequency 20 cycles per sec. are plotted against the reciprocals of the absolute temperatures. We thus see that there is a temperature at which the b' value attains a maximum; in Figure 2, this temperature is around 10.2°C. For metals, a maximum of the energy loss with temperature has been found by many authors [3]. However, as far as we know, no case has been reported showing a maximum for high-polymeric substances. In Figure 1, we see that the b' values at -1.2 °C show a maximum at the frequency 13.5 cycles per sec. The observed decrease of the b' values at frequencies higher than 13.5 cycles per sec. is greater than the experimental error. The existence of the maximum in the b' values at -1.2°C is direct evidence for the theory presented in Part I.


To conduct a systematic review and meta‐analysis investigating the effect of tofacitinib and baricitinib on venous thromboembolism (VTE) risk. Search of PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, Scopus, ClinicalTrials.gov, LILACS, and Google Scholar databases to identify controlled observational and clinical trials reporting on adverse effects in patients treated with oral tofacitinib or baricitinib up to July 2020. The outcome measure was occurrence of VTE events. We analyzed 59 studies involving 14,335 patients treated with tofacitinib or baricitinib and 11,612 patients who received another active drug or placebo. The meta‐analysis showed an odds ratio (OR) for VTE events of 0.29 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.10–0.84) overall for tofacitinib based on data from 10 clinical trials with 15 treatment arms; similar ORs were observed for the 10 mg/d dose (OR = 0.18; 95% CI = 0.02–1.60) and the 20 mg/d dose (OR = 0.19; 95% CI = 0.04–0.91). The ORs for VTE events for baricitinib were 3.39 (95% CI = 0.82–14.04) overall, 3.05 (95% CI = 0.12–75.43) for 2 mg, 3.64 (95% CI = 0.59–22.46) for 4 mg, and 3.0 (95% CI = 0.12–76.49) for 7 mg. The indirect meta‐analysis comparing tofacitinib with baricitinib (10 clinical trials with 15 treatment arms) showed an OR for VTE events of 0.086 (95% CI = 0.02–0.51) for tofacitinib and a superior safety profile for VTE events. In the meta‐regression analysis (19 clinical trials with 21 treatment arms), the effect was 0.02 (95% CI = −0.04 to 0.08) for tofacitinib and −0.01 (95% CI = −1.29 to 1.26 for baricitinib. Plotting of the data for tofacitinib showed that VTE risk increased with high doses. The effect, however, was less than 1 for the 10‐mg and 20‐mg doses, indicating a protective effect. This effect was not observed for baricitinib. Tofacitinib is not associated with an increased risk of VTE and has a superior safety profile to baricitinib in this respect. Tofacitinib may exert a protective effect against VTE.


The energy spectrum of (252)Cf fission fragments was measured using Nuclear Track Detectors (NTD's) and Digital Image Analysis Systems (DIAS). The detection material was fused silica glass. The detectors were chemically etched in an 8% HF solution. After experimenting with various etching time, it was found that the best resolution of the track diameter distribution was obtained after 30 minutes of etching. Both Gaussian and Lorentzian curves were fit to the track diameter distribution histograms and used to determine the basic parameters of presented here include the fully-automated analysis process, the low cost of the NTDs and the simplicity of the nuclear track method (NTM). The distribution resolution obtained by this method is comparable with the resolution obtained by electronic analysis devices. The descriptive variables calculated were very close to those obtained by other methods based on the use of semiconductor detectors.


Wireless networks provide convenient and low cost mechanism for connecting network devices. They are ideal since they do not require physical connections .They therefore help to overcome the port limitations of the physical hardware. Any device that has radio receiver can detect these wireless signals. This is because a wireless router transmits the signals uniformly in all directions. The ease with which connections can be established forms one of the weaknesses of wireless networks. They are therefore exposed to many attacks as these attacks can be launched from a remote location, unlike in wired networks where one needs physical connections to the network of interest. To overcome this challenge, authentication protocols have been developed to deter any illicit access to wireless networks. These protocols include Wired Equivalent Privacy(WEP) and Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA). Wi-Fi Protected Access version 2 (WPA2) is the later version of WPA. The objective of this research paper was to demonstrate that WPA2 can still be broken, hence compromising on the Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability (CIA) of the data being transmitted in wireless networks. Data Confidentiality, Integrity and availability has been referred to as the CIA triad in this paper. The set up was implemented in Ubuntu 12.04 operating system using Ettercap, File2air, Khexedit , Wireshark and Airodump-ng from Aircrack-ng suite. The results indicated that WPA2 does not actually protect data in transit in wireless networks, and therefore there is need to explore other technologies that can secure wireless networks.


During performing complex synthesis (structural and parametric) of artificial neural networks (ANN) of complex topologies (for example, recurrent neural networks: RNN and deep neural networks: DNN), neuroevolution is a promising approach. After all, methods of neuroevolution synthesis allow to obtain the appropriate topology and parameters of the neuromodel with less involvement of an external expert, by gradually increasing, increasing the complexity and changing the network parameters. However, neuroevolution synthesis has a significant execution time. There are also sometimes problems with local extremes. That's why the urgent task is to develop modifications that can be introduced point-by-point during the synthesis process in order to overcome disadvantages that were listed and improve results of using such methods.


The paper develops a dynamic model of the North-South product cycle, in which North- ernrms continuously transfer production to two Southern countries through foreign direct investment (FDI). The technologies of Northern multinationals are eventually imitated by Southernrms. The competition among Southern countries for FDI through R&D, trade, FDI and intellectual property rights policies are examined. A Southern country's subsidy to attract inward FDI benets its production workers at the expense of those in other South- ern countries. However, a Southern country's import tari®s against the North benet the production workers of all Southern countries.


The mechanism,stages and controlling step of hot metal desiliconization process are investigated,and the methods intensifying process and increasing reaction rate are proposed


When comparing networks (with the same number of nodes) with direct methods, a number of possible distances is already available in literature. Among others, two of the most common families are the set of edit-like distances and the spectral distances. The functions in the former family quantitatively evaluate the differences between two networks in terms of minimum number of edit operations (with possibly different costs) transforming one network into the other, that is, deletion and insertion of links, while spectral measures relies on functions of the eigenvalues of one of the connectivity matrices of the underlying graph.
A noticeable issue affecting edit distance is the fact of being local, i.e. not taking into account the global structure of the networks but only summing the contributions coming from each single link. On the other hand, spectral measures cannot distinguish isomorphic or isospectral graphs. We propose here a possible solution to overcome both issues: combining together an edit and a spectral distance in a product metric we will define \textit{glocal}. In what follows we define the two components and the glocal metric itself, with a few examples of applications.


Eliminating emission of mercury in an alkaline chloride electrolysis plant, for example, is achieved by converting pre-purified waste water to flushing water through vacuum distillation. Hot brine from the electrolysis plant serves as a heat carrier for the vacuum distillation step.


It is known that the tangent surfaces (tangent developables) are developable surfaces. Developable surfaces which are locally isometric to the plane keep on interesting many mathematicians, for instance, Monge (1764), Euler (1772), Cayley (1845), Lebesgue (1899). See [23] for details. Therefore the tangent surfaces are regarded as generalised solutions (with singularities) of the Monge-Amp\'ere equation


The value of InfoTrac as a reference source has been de bated since the laser disc system was introduced two years ago. This paper provides an overview of that debate and presents the results of six user studies conducted at Louisi ana State University Libraries during a one-year period. The impact of the InfoTrac Government Publications Index on LSU documents use is also explored. Finally, the role of InfoTrac and other similar systems in research libraries is considered.


Pancreatic carcinoma (PC) is one of the most common and deadly human malignancies worldwide. LncRNAs play significant roles in the occurrence and development of various cancers. LncRNA SNHG11 (SNHG11) has been found to display high expression in serum of PC patients, which implies that dysregulated SNHG11 may be related to the development of PC. However, there is still a knowledge gap concerning the specific function and molecular mechanism of SNHG11 in PC. After conducting experiments with constructed models in vitro or in vivo, we found that exosomal SNHG11 promoted cell proliferation, migration, and angiogenesis but impeded cell apoptosis in PC in vitro, and additionally, it facilitated tumor growth in vivo. Exosome‐mediated SNHG11 regulated the expression of VEGFA through sponging miR‐324‐3p. Rescue assays validated that the inhibitory effect of SNHG11 depletion on cell proliferation, migration, and angiogenesis could be reversed by miR‐324‐3p downregulation or VEGFA upregulation, and the promoting effect of SNHG11 silence on cell apoptosis could be rescued by transfection of miR‐324‐3p inhibitor or pcDNA3.1‐VEGFA. To conclude, exosomal‐mediated SNHG11 could regulate PC progression via miR‐324‐3p/VEGFA axis. Our findings may provide a novel insight for understanding PC, which might contribute to the development of potential PC biomarker.


Highly conductive and well-aligned ZnO nanowhisker films which can be used to optoelectronic devices have been fabricated on conductive F-doped SnO2 coated glass substrates using aqueous solutions with the addition of polyethylenimine at a lower temperature. ZnO nanowhiskers with well crystalline and hexagonal morphology were grown with high orientation along the c-axis. The electrical properties were investigated by a low intensity red laser irradiation (6 mW), after DNA molecules labeled with dye molecules were absorbed on the nanowhiskers. Enhanced photocurrent was detected.


A novel method of identifying stable phase coupling behavior of two signals within the wavelet transform time-frequency plane is presented. The technique employs the cross-wavelet transform to provide a map of phase coupling followed by synchrosqueezing to collect the stable phase regime information. The resulting synchrosqueezed cross-wavelet transform method (Synchro-CrWT) is illustrated using a synthetic signal and then applied to the analysis of the relationship between biosignals used in the analysis of cerebral autoregulation function.


Despite higher cure rates, childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) may continue to result in considerable family strain. We sought to (i) measure incidence of divorce, reduced career opportunities, changes to work hours, home relocation, and changes to family planning at one year after ALL diagnosis; and (ii) Identify family and patient factors associated with these events.


Subject. The article addresses the infrastructure of information and communication support of the knowledge economy at the macro level.
Objectives. The study focuses on identification of trends and prospects for the development of the element base of the infrastructure of information and communication support to create Russia's knowledge economy at the macro level.
Methods. We employ methods of statistical, correlation-regression and logical analysis of basic parameters of the infrastructure of information and communication support of the knowledge economy at the macro level.
Results. The paper presents results of statistical analysis of trends in basic parameters of Russia's information and communication infrastructure at the macro level for 2010–2021. We calculated forecast scenarios of these parameters for the medium-term period (until 2026).
Conclusions. The statistical analysis enabled to detect contradictory trends during 2010–2021 and suggest options for forecasting their values over the medium term (until 2026). The study defines positive trends and favorable forecast scenarios for availability of cellular communication among the population, broadband Internet access, local telephone network digitalization. Negative trends and unfavorable forecast are identified for the use of fixed telephony, digital terrestrial television and cable television programs. Problematic is the situation of high variability of the forecast in terms of dynamics of several analyzed indicators.


Superresolution techniques based on intensity measurements after a spatial mode decomposition can overcome the precision of diffraction-limited direct imaging. We present both the experimental implementation of simultaneous spatial multimode demultiplexing as a distance measurement tool and the theoretical analysis of the actual sensitivity limits given the main experimental imperfection: cross-talks between channels. We demonstrate the distance estimation between two incoherent beams in both directions of the transverse plane, and find a perfect accordance with theoretical predictions, given a proper calibration of the demultiplexer. We show that, even though sensitivity is limited by the cross-talk between channels, we can perform measurements in two dimensions much beyond the Rayleigh limit over a large dynamic range. Combining statistical and analytical tools, we obtain the scaling of the precision limits for weak, generic crosstalk from a device-independent model as a function of the crosstalk probability and N.


Environmental water delivery is becoming more frequently used to help restore riverine ecosystems. Environmental watering actions have been undertaken in the Edward-Wakool system in New South Wales since 2010. There is a diverse and active community that has been engaged in activities associated with environmental watering in this system. Uptake of localism principles by key project partners from 2010 to 2014 created opportunities to re-engage with a community disenfranchised by recent institutional and regulatory changes. Over time, stakeholder engagement (classified according to the IAP2 Spectrum of Public Participation) has shifted from lower levels of engagement (ie. Inform, Consult, Involve) to higher levels (Collaborate and Empower). A refocusing of community engagement using the approaches of adaptive management and localism enabled trust to be built between all parties (investors, water managers, delivery partners and the broader community) and promoted a willingness to share responsibility to achieve a shared vision for the system. The ultimate expression of this trend has been the establishment of the Edward-Wakool Stakeholder Committee, which aims to engage stakeholders in decision-making, facilitate information exchange and coordination of activities, and support adaptive management of projects in the Edward-Wakool system. The increased stakeholder engagement has enabled an adaptive management approach to be implemented that can respond to stakeholder needs and, at the same time, lead to improved environmental and social outcomes.


We analyze the response of surface plasmon (SP) sensors using a transmission line model. We illustrate this analysis with particular reference to a layered structure in which plasmon hybridization occurs. By applying the appropriate resonant condition to the system, we derive a circuit model which predicts the responsivity of different modes. This gives new physical insight into the sensing process. We discuss how the change in the sample region may be modeled as a change in the reactance in the equivalent circuit and from this, it follows that a single parameter can determine the change in resonance position with reactance. This approach is used to predict the response of a generic sensor to binding of an analyte and the bulk change of refractive index. This parameter arises naturally from the circuit representation in a way not readily accessible with the transfer matrix approach. The parameters can be expressed in terms of the <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${Q}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> of a resonant circuit and confirms the intuition that a high <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${Q}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> is associated with poor responsivity, however, we demonstrate that there is another circuit parameter, the resistance at resonance, that can mitigate this effect, providing a route for optimization of the sensor properties.


The extensive, unconfined sand and gravel aquifer located along the Saco River from Bartlett, New Hampshire to Fryeburg, Maine, is an important water supply for this region. The aquifer ranges in width from 1 to 3 miles, covers a surface area of 39 mi2 (square miles) and is located in the foothills of the White Mountains. Saturated thicknesses ranged from 10 ft (feet) or less near the valley walls to approximately 280 ft near the center of the valley in Fryeburg. Hydraulic-conductivity values based on grain-size distribution ranged from 11 ft Id (feet per day) for silt and very fine sand to 97 ft/d for very coarse sand and gravel. Hydraulic-conductivity values determined using a slug-test method designed for use in highly permeable sediments ranged from 2 ft/d for silt and very fine sand to 210 ft/d for very coarse sand and gravel. The principal flow path in the aquifer is in a cross-valley direction from the fill-covered or bedrock uplands toward the Saco River, the major groundwater discharge zone. Gradients are steepest near the valley walls and flatten towards the center of the valley. A ground-water flow divide, which coincides with a surface-water divide, is located to the northeast of Pine Hill in the Redstone area of Conway, New Hampshire. Another ground-water flow divide is located in the area from north of Swans Falls to northwest of Fryeburg Center, Maine, and has an approximate southwest-northeast trend. The average annual recharge from precipitation falling directly on the aquifer is approximately 24 in/yr (inches per year), or half the average annual precipitation. The average annual runoff from upland sources is about 32 in/yr. Seepage to the aquifer from tributary streams also is an important source of recharge. Ground-water quality in uncontaminated areas was characterized by low specific conductance (median = 54 microsiemens per centimeter at 25 degrees Celsius), moderate acidity (median pH = 5.8), and low alkalinity (median = 9.0 mg/L (milligrams per liter) as CaCO$). The ground water generally was soft (median hardness = 12.2 mg/L as CaCO^). The principal cations were calcium and sodium, and the principal unions were bicarbonate and chloride. Ground-water samples from agricultural areas had the highest median concentrations of calcium, magnesium, and total phosphorus, and the highest concentrations of total orthophosphorus and potassium. The high concentrations probably resulted from the use of fertilizers. Ground-water samples from a heavily developed area along State Route 16 in Conway had the highest median values of sodium and chloride, primarily as a result of use of deicing salts on the roads. The highest median values and highest maximum values for nitrite and nitrate, ammonium, ammonium and organic nitrogen, and organic nitrogen also were found in ground-water samples from this area. These high concentrations and the elevated levels of MBAS (methylene blue active substances), used in detergents, probably resulted from septic-tank discharges. Dissolved-solids concentrations at medium streamflow conditions in the Saco River increased approximately 20 percent in a downstream direction. The highest concentrations of fecal coliform and fecal streptococci were found immediately downstream from populated areas along the mainstem of the Saco River. Degradation of water quality along the Old Course of the Saco River was indicated by increased nutrient and decreased dissolved-oxygen concentrations and by elevated bacteria counts. A two-dimensional finite-difference model of ground-water flow in the Saco River valley aquifer was developed and calibrated to long-term water-level conditions. The pattern of recharge simulated in the model, in which runoff from upland areas provides most of the recharge, is conceptually different from other models of stratified-drift river valley aquifers in New England, which derive most of their recharge from precipitation falling directly on the aquifer. Water levels computed with the model were most sensitive to decreases in aquifer hydraulic conductivity. The calibrated model was used to predict the effects of present (1985) and increased pumpage under varying recharge conditions on ground-water levels and on the size of contributing areas to municipal wells. The maximum pumpage simulated with the model was 11.1 cubic feet per second from 7 wells located in Lower Bartlett, North Conway, and Conway Village, New Hampshire. During periods of low recharge, this pumpage comprised 23 percent of the ground water flowing through the aquifer. Under the various pumpage scenarios used to simulate low recharge periods, water levels declined up to 17 ft along aquifer boundaries and from 0.3 to 11.1 ft near municipal wells. Contributing areas for present (1985) and proposed municipal wells were estimated with a particle-tracking model that was coupled with the ground-water flow model. The contributing areas within the aquifer for a scenario of proposed pumpage under low recharge conditions ranged from 0.2 to 1.0 mi2. These contributing areas are much larger than the present 400-ft-radius zones commonly protected by legislation in New Hampshire. The total contributing areas to pumped wells in this scenario are much larger than the contributing areas within the aquifer itself because upland areas adjacent to the aquifer also contribute significant quantities of recharge. The East Branch of the Saco River, Lucy Brook, Kearsarge Brook, and the Saco River are important sources of induced infiltration for the municipal wells in this scenario. INTRODUCTION


The shock response of polyvinylchloride has been measured using manganin stress gauges, and compared to those of polyethylene. Results show that this polymer, with the replacement of a hydrogen atom with chlorine, has significantly lower shock velocities and release velocities. We have suggested that the presence of the highly electronegative chlorine atom may reduce the stiffness of the carbon‐carbon backbone by drawing charge towards itself.


We evaluate the effects of the external optical feedback on the on-off keying (OOK) and four-level pulse amplitude modulation (PAM4) signals in the single-mode fiber (SMF) link implemented by using a commercial 10G-class 1.55-<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL). The results show that the PAM4 signal is much more sensitive to the external optical feedback than the OOK signal. For example, in the back-to-back condition, an error floor is observed at the bit-error rate (BER) of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\sim 8\times 10 ^{\mathbf {-3}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> for the 10-Gbaud PAM4 signal when we set the optical feedback ratio to be −14 dB. In comparison, the 10-Gbaud OOK signal has a power penalty of only 0.4 dB (@BER <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$= 5\times 10 ^{-5}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) under the same conditions. The results also show that the PAM4 signal becomes more sensitive to the optical feedback after the SMF transmission due to the shallowed BER curve by the fiber dispersion. In addition, we confirm that the effects of the optical feedback are independent of the baud rate. From these results, we conclude that the error-free transmission of the high-speed PAM4 signal cannot be achieved if there is even one bad fiber connector having >2.5% reflection in the VCSEL-based SMF link.


Objective. To investigate the efficacy and safety of a daily dose of 10 mg of atorvastatin in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) stages 4 and 5 and a glomerular filtration rate of <30 ml/min. Material and methods. This was an open, prospective, randomized study. A total of 143 patients were included: 73 were controls and 70 were prescribed 10 mg/day of atorvastatin. As efficacy variables, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and triglyceride levels were determined at the start of the study and at 1, 3, 6, 12, 18, 24, 30 and 36 months. Results. The follow-up period was a mean of 20±14.4 months (range 1–36 months) for those on atorvastatin versus 22±12.7 months (range 0.5–36 months) for the controls. Compared with baseline values, patients treated with atorvastatin had significantly lower concentrations of total cholesterol at Month 36 (5.8 vs 4.4 mmol/l; −23%; p<0.001), of LDL cholesterol at Month 36 (3.6 vs 2.2 mmol/l; −35%; p<0.001) and of triglycerides at Months 24 (2.5 vs 1.9 mmol/l) and 36 (2.5 vs 1.8 mmol/l). The controls had significantly reduced levels of total cholesterol at Month 36 (p<0.21) and of LDL cholesterol at Months 30 and 36. Compared with the controls, the atorvastatin group had lower levels of total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol at Months 1–30. Fifteen patients (21%) stopped taking their medication as they could not tolerate the side-effects, the most frequent complaints being gastrointestinal discomfort and headache. Conclusion. Although the medication caused no severe adverse events, we recommend caution when using atorvastatin for severe CKD patients until further evidence of its safety and efficacy is verified.


In this paper the influence of the multi-core architecture on the processing time for solving a 2D problem, described by a non homogenous Poisson PDE, in COMSOL, was considered. Only the direct solvers were taken into account. Different levels of mesh refinement were compared and different Lagrange finite element orders have been used.


As promised few days ago, Japanese Midokura announced the availability of MidoNet at this week's OpenStack Summit, running April 15-18 in Portland, Oregon. MidoNet, is ...


Epiphytes are aerial plants, often characterized by CAM (Crassulacean Acid Metabolism) photo- 2 synthesis, which make up a significant portion of the biomass in some rainforests. Their unique 3 characteristics have not yet been included in ecohydrological models and their potential impact on 4 local hydrometeorology is largely unexplored. This work introduces a water balance model for epi- 5 phytes, which adapts the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum model to represent a plant system with- 6 out soil and couples it to the Photo3 photosynthesis model, which includes CAM photosynthesis. 7 The model, which is parameterized with field data of Guzmania monostachia , accurately captures 8 the observed hydraulic and photosynthetic behavior of the epiphytic species. The application of 9 vertical profiles of environmental inputs within the rainforest canopy shows increasing transpira- 10 tion rates and decreasing water use efficiency with increasing canopy height, which corresponds to 11 observed distributions of epiphytes in rainforests. Given that vascular epiphytes constitute a maxi- 12 mum of 35-50% of the foliar biomass in rainforests and contribute up to 13% of forest net primary 13 production, they may contribute up to 10-50% of total rainforest evapotranspiration, a significant 14 portion of the water cycle on the local ecosystem scale. The results of this work provide a missing 15 piece to current ecohydrological models, and can be integrated into Earth system models to help 16 improve the physical representation of transpiration and free-surface evaporation from canopy, in 17 current and future climates. 18


PP31B-2025
Dinoflagellate cyst and planktic foraminiferal assemblages from a core in the western Iceland Sea were analysed in order to reconstruct the last interglacial (MIS 5e) surface water conditions and compare these with the Holocene climate development. The considerable dissimilarities between the assemblages from the two warm periods suggest that quite different surface water conditions existed during each of the two interglacial stages. Holocene interglacial conditions initiated around 10 ka with a subsurface warming that peaked around 7.5 ka preceding a thermal maximum in the uppermost ocean between 6.5 and 5.5 ka, followed by overall cooling. By contrast, both planktic foraminifers and dinoflagellate cysts show a last interglacial thermal optimum around 120.5 ka, following an increased influence of Atlantic (-type) waters from ~122 ka onward. A major shift of the oceanographic fronts appears to have occurred around 120 ka and marks the onset of slightly cooler conditions that persist until the return to stadial conditions around ~117 ka. This late-MIS 5e cooling in the western Nordic seas is opposite to previous observations of a late MIS 5e thermal optimum in the eastern Nordic seas. Such an opposite trend likely relates to the reorganisation of the oceanic fronts that appears to have occurred in the Nordic seas at ~120 ka. Overall, the MIS 5e assemblages are characterised by higher percentages of typical "Atlantic water" species, compared to the cooler Holocene assemblages. This implies a higher contribution of Atlantic waters in the southwestern Nordic seas, possibly due to a more northward expansion of the Irminger Current under weakened East Greenland/East Icelandic currents, during the last interglacial than during the Holocene. A reduced influence of polar waters in the southwestern Nordic seas is consistent with other evidence of relatively warm conditions during MIS 5e all around southern Greenland.


The discovery of a shell of the Chinese pond mussel in 1998 and further confirmation of this species indicate that a reservoir with natural thermal conditions is the oldest species location in Poland. Growth increments of an archival shell do not fall within the ranges obtained by this species in Konin lakes. They are, however, close to population ranges from Hungary. In contrast to other specimens found, the analyzed shell has a very high H/L ratio and is thicker. The observed features might result from the founder effect or they might point to a considerable plasticity of the species.


In the present, most of the cities and metropolitan regions face the problem of having traffic congestions on their road networks, being this an important challenge and topic for the Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS). A hypothesis of solution to mitigate this problem is through the development of traffic forecasting techniques using historical data, that would help to take better traffic management decisions regarding the network's state in a close future. Thus, this dissertation focus on the study, test and analysis of techniques to forecast the traffic conditions on road networks (motorways) in real-time, based on Simulation (model-driven approach) and Artificial Neural Networks (data-driven approach), that would serve as basis for a new module in the Intelligent Transport System developed by Armis. The chosen simulation technique was the microscopic approach using the open-source simulator SUMO (Simulation of Urban Mobility). Regarding the data-driven approach, it was decided to use artificial neural networks (ANN), firstly developing a normal model and then creating a combined neural network with fuzzy logic, to learn and predict the traffic patterns. For testing these techniques it was used real data collected from traffic detectors located in VCI (Via de Cintura Interna) motorway, a main inner-ring road of Porto. The executed tests were made using a test-bed corresponding to a junction node of VCI motorway.


The real estate sector and its supply chains, i.e. up- and downstream processes, are responsible for a significant share of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in most countries. The GHG emissions from the Swiss building stock are quantified and the hotspots identified along its supply chain using the multiregional, environmentally extended input–output tables Exiobase v3. Biodiversity impacts caused by land use, water stress due to water consumption, air pollution and eutrophication impacts are also quantified. The environmental impact-reduction requirements were estimated based on global planetary boundaries assuming that each economic sector will reduce its impacts according to the required global reduction. The Swiss real estate sector causes more than 24 Mt CO2e/year, which is 480 ppm of global emissions, while its gross value-added share is 200 ppm. Hence, the GHG emissions per US dollar gross value added of the Swiss real estate sector are above average. Two-thirds of the emissions are caused during the use stage of buildings, whereas 30% are caused by the supply chains. A reduction to net zero is needed within the next two to three decades to comply with the 1.5°C limit. The real estate sector must address its supply chains, but also must its tenants and users. Policy relevance The Swiss real estate sector building-related GHG emissions are analysed, taking into account the full building life cycle. The requirements for environmental impact reduction are estimated based on global planetary boundaries, assuming that each economic sector reduces its impacts with the same global percentage. The Swiss real estate sector is found to be environmentally inefficient: it causes more GHG emissions compared with its gross value-added share. Two-thirds of the emissions are caused during the use phase of buildings, with the remainder caused by the supply chain. A reduction to net zero is needed at the latest by 2050 in order to comply with the 1.5°C limit. The real estate sector should thus further increase the energy efficiency of buildings, phase out the use of fossil fuels and address its supply chains (particularly the construction materials and products) to develop zero emission products.


This paper introduces an approach to deal with the requirement analysis related challenges posed by the increasing demand of interoperability and joint system use. Taking reliability as the analysis measure, the study adopts the Scenario-Based Reliability Analysis (SBRA) technique used for component-based software applications to analyze the reliability of a mix-match of military components over a set of missions. Mission scenarios represented in the form of Sequence Diagrams (SDs) are transformed into their Petri Net equivalents and then combined under a High Level Petri model, which is run to collect statistics for constructing a Component Dependence Graph (CDG). Later, an algorithm is applied to the CDG to investigate the sensitivity of mission specific reliabilities to changes in the reliabilities of components, and communication links.


Relaxation effects have been investiaated in Bi2Sr2CalCu208+~ and Bi1,7Pb0,3Sr2Ca1CuZOs+x single crystals by critical current and magnetic relaxation measurements. Both crystals consisted of 2212 single phase material (Tc= 85K and 92K f o r the pure and the doped samples, respectively)


Chapter 3 shows how laughter became both a strategy for survival and a means for covert communication in the tense political environment of Henry II's court. Contemporary writers described how public laughter worked as a potent weapon for shaming courtly rivals. As anxieties about mockery reached a new peak, public derision regularly destroyed careers and reputations. Laughter also became valued as a means of subtle communication, and as a way of exposing the hidden codes and power relationships of court life. As this chapter argues, laughter became so highly valued at Henry's court because it allowed courtiers to appeal to a reason and dialogue that was otherwise beyond the restrictions of explicit discourse. Evading the culture of rigid procedure that was defining the operation of Angevin government, Henry's courtiers were able to translate laughter's growing conceptual and imagined power into a hard-edged, socially coercive political practice.


In what seems like more than a coincidence, Patrick Hayes's J. M. Coetzee and the Novel begins where Carrol Clarkson's Countervoices ends. Both critics draw our attention to J. M. Coetzee's claim that he is ''not a herald of community or anything else, a statement that continues: ''I am someone who has intimations of freedom (as every chained prisoner has) and constructs representations. . . of people slipping their chains and turning their faces towards the light. I do not imagine freedom, freedom an sich; I do not represent it.'' Ever since the reception of Coetzee began in earnest, this elusive writer's refusal to push an overt political agenda, while simultaneously expressing an acute awareness of the political dimensions of existence, has been a central concern and, sometimes, a major stumbling block for his readers. It was David Attwell who first provided a trenchant account of Coetzee's work as both constitutively metafictional and historically (and ethically) engaged. But much has happened since then. Coetzee's work has grown and continued to challenge expectations of what he specifically, and what ''a'' writer of fiction more generally, should do. We have moved far beyond the stalemates of the 1980s. There has been an ethical, Levinasian turn in the reading of Coetzee, as well as significant debates around the figure of the public intellectual and the role of animals in his work—to mention just a few of the areas in this scholarly field that continues to expand exponentially. It testifies to the peculiar power of Coetzee's oeuvre that it not only sustains but gains from this massive critical attention. The observation first made by Teresa Dovey—that Coetzee's writing anticipates the critics—remains valid, and therefore the ''back to basics'' approach evident in both Clarkson's and Hayes's books is a


Ankle‐foot problems have a considerable impact on daily functioning in patients with hypermobile Ehlers‐Danlos syndrome and hypermobility spectrum disorder (hEDS/HSD). Therefore, the objective of this study was to identify alterations in multisegment ankle and foot kinematics during gait and to assess foot function and pain in these patients.


Teaching methods and learning materials are studied to achieve a good teaching result.The study is made with the consideration of the goal of higher vocational training and the characteristic of the course.


Abstract Objective: To prospectively analyze duplex sonography, CTA, and MRA with respect to stenosis grading of the celiac trunk (TC) and the superior mesenteric artery (SMA), with DSA as the reference. Materials and Methods: 52 subjects were enrolled (mean age: 71). The image quality was graded: 1-insufficient, 2-bad, 3-moderate, 4-good or 5-excellent. Stenosis was graded: 1 (< 25 %), 2 (25 – < 50 %), 3 (50 – 75 %) or 4 (75 %). Two-sided chi-square tests were used to check for correlation of stenosis grading between modalities. The weighted Cohen's kappa was calculated to assess the strength of correlation. With a threshold of 50 % for non-relevant stenosis vs. relevant stenosis, the sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV, and accuracy were calculated. Results: The mean image quality was 3.8 ± 0.7, 3.1 ± 1.0, 4.4 ± 0.7, and 3.8 ± 0.9 for DSA, duplex sonography, CTA, and MRA, respectively. For both TC and SMA, stenosis grading reached a significant level of correlation between each noninvasive modality with DSA (p < 0.001, each). The weighted Cohen's kappa for duplex sonography/CTA/MRA was 0.94/0.93/0.74, respectively, for the TC and 0.64/0.91/0.56, respectively, for the SMA. Highest sensitivity/specificity/NPV/PPV/accuracy were found for CTA with 100 %/95 %/85 %/100 %/96 % for the TC and with na/98 %/na/100 %/98 %, respectively, for the SMA. Conclusion: CTA provided the best image quality, reached the highest level of agreement and significance in correlation in stenosis grading, and offered the best diagnostic accuracy.


Automatic system has brought many revolutions in the existing technologies. One among the technologies, which has greater developments, is the solar powered automatic shrimp feeding system. For instance, the solar power which is a renewable energy can be an alternative solution to energy crisis and basically reducing man power by using it in an automatic manner. The researchers believe an automatic shrimp feeding system may help solve problems on manual feeding operations. The project study aimed to design and develop a solar powered automatic shrimp feeding system. It specifically sought to prepare the design specifications of the project, to determine the methods of fabrication and assembly, and to test the response time of the automatic shrimp feeding system. The researchers designed and developed an automatic system which utilizes a 10 hour timer to be set in intervals preferred by the user and will undergo a continuous process. The magnetic contactor acts as a switch connected to the 10 hour timer which controls the activation or termination of electrical loads and powered by means of a solar panel outputting electrical power, and a rechargeable battery in electrical communication with the solar panel for storing the power. By undergoing through series of testing, the components of the modified system were proven functional and were operating within the desired output. It was recommended that the timer to be used should be tested to avoid malfunction and achieve the fully automatic system and that the system may be improved to handle changes in scope of the project.


In this paper we present a time sensitive content distribution system under implementation with the following innovative features: (a) events can be accessed and distributed using a fully decentralized DHT-based platform, (b) the bootstrap problem is solved by means of a permanent core network made of always alive nodes, (c) the streams are served through a forest of collaborating nodes interested in the events, by means of a topology independent from the one of the underlying DHT structure


IN August ]9-dl:3 a man aged 28, suffering from confluent lupus vulgaris of the face and ears, was referred to one of the writers (G.B.D.) at the Department for Diseases of the Skin at St. Thomas's Hospital. He had been receiving Finsen and general light treatment for five years according to the Tuberculosis Officer who sent him, without improvement. He wanted to give it UJD because he found it inconvenient to attend by day. He was given 150,000 international units of calciferol daily in the form of Ostelin High Potency tablets, each of which contains 50,000 i.u. After two and a half months of this treatment it was evident that he had made a considerable stride forward towards recover}^ While vitamin D had been used in the treatment of lupus for many years, the one common factor in all established genera] remedies for the disease (abundant butter and milk, cod-liver oil, general carbon arc light and heliotherapy, and the Gerson-Herrmannsdorfer diet) being in fact the presence of an abundance of this vitamin, the change that had taken place was not expected. At the same time it was difficult to see what else could be held responsible for it, as lupus is not a disease in which a sudden spontaneous imjDrovement is to be looked for. Accordingly it Avas decided to apply the same remed}' to all cases tliat were, or miglit come, under our care, either at St. Thomas's Hospital or elsewhere. Up to the present they have amounted to 38, some very old with much X-ray scarring, others of more recent origin in which X-rays had never been used. By degrees it became evident that the


Pharmacists in Australia have recently entered a new dimension of contemporary ethical deliberation, courtesy of the recent registration of a therapeutic agent, namely mifepristone (otherwise known as RU486), used specifically for the termination of pregnancy.


Necrotizing Fasciitis (NF) is a rare infection of the fascia and subcutaneous tissue; it has a high associated mortality rate. This paper reports the first case of fatal NF after an uneventful laparoscopic cholecystectomy. The patient had no predisposing factors or gastrointestinal complications. A PubMed/Medline database search (1966–2006) identified 13 reports of NF after laparoscopic surgery. Factors such as obesity, diabetes mellitus, alcohol, substance abuse, chronic pancreatitis, bowel perforation, leaking cystic duct, and trocar site herniation were found to be predisposing factors or complications of laparoscopic surgery. The mortality rate of NF was reported to be 23%. Infectious causes of disease such as streptococcal and staphylococcal species, enterococci and enterobacteriaceae are common culture isolates. Early diagnosis and an aggressive approach to treatment with initial debridement followed by planned repeat debridements in conjunction with antibiotics and nutritional support remains the mainstay of treatment. The Laboratory Risk Indicator for Necrotizing Fasciitis score may be a good tool for distinguishing NF from other soft tissue infections.


To measure blood concentrations of radiolabelled particles or substances, blood sampling is generally required. The kinetics of radioactivity variations in the blood can be studied by blood sampling from each individual or experimental animal. Alternatively blood samples can be taken from different individuals at different time points. With either of these methods it is difficult to predict the optimal time points for blood sampling, and important information can easily be missed, especially in rapid processes. In this study we present a simple non-invasive technique for continuous recording of blood radioactivity concentrations in mice.


The objective of this study was to explore the association of household income disparity and health risk behaviors with the poor mental health/depression (PMHD) of university students of Heilongjiang Province in China. A stratifi ed cluster sample of 3,189 university students was used in a cross-sectional study. The data were obtained from a self-administered questionnaire, which included questions on sociodemographic characteristics and problem of health areas. The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory 2 (MMPI-2) was used to determine PMHD of university students. Chi-square test and Cochran-Armitage trend test were used for the categorical data analysis. The associated factors for depression were examined using a logistic regression analysis. The low household income and health risk behaviors in university students were in general related to PMHD. The depression prevalence of low household income university students (29.4%) is higher than that of high household income students. Low household income, smoking habit, and engaging in premarital sex are all major associated factors of depression. For the interaction of these three associated factors, the odds ratio of depression was 3.08 (95% CI 1.11~8.58). Furthermore, the association of depression and other poor mental health has statistical signifi cance. This study confi rms that poor mental health was associated with household income disparity and with health risk behaviors among university students of Heilongjiang Province in China.


ABSTRACT Crime fiction was introduced to the Greek reading public at an early period, first through the translation of works of Émile Gaboriau (1878) and later through the works of Arthur Conan Doyle from 1905 onward. Their effect can be seen in the first Greek crime fiction novel, by an anonymous writer, serialized in 1913 in the periodical Hellas, entitled Sherlock Holmes Saving Mr. Venizelos, who was the Greek Prime Minister of the time. The novel, that takes place in London, is a hybrid of a political and a crime fiction novel, using Doyle's forensic methods and electrical devices for its resolution. In this paper we will try to see how far this Greek by-product of the Holmes tradition follows the scientific approach of the original Doyle works, using his forensic methods as well as technological inventions of the time to solve the case.


"Don't ask for the true story," the speaker of Margaret Atwood's 1981 poem "True Stories" implores; "why do you need it? / It's not what I set out with / or what I carry. / [...] The true story lies / among the other stories, / [...] The true story is vicious / and multiple and untrue / [...] Don't ever / ask for the true story." This poem might very well serve as a motto for Margaret Atwood's novel The Penelopiad, which features many stories, both "vicious" and "multiple" and also "untrue." The Penelopiad (2005) could be described as an attempt to depict one such "true story" lying "among the other stories," in more ways than one, not just the story as seen by one character and seen by another character, but also the story as told in prose and in verse.In her novel, Atwood artfully employs a mix of narrative, poetic and dramatic styles. While the main narrative-a retelling of Homer's Odyssey by Penelope-comes along as a straightforward narrative in the vein of Christa Wolf's Kassandra, Atwood intersperses Penelope's tale with lyrical segments, giving voice to the twelve maids killed by Telemachus on Odysseus' return to Ithaca. Both ancient Greek chorus and modern musical number, these lyrical interludes employ a range of poetic genres, from nursery rhyme to sea shanty to ballad and idyll, thus giving the maids voice as a collective. Further interludes have them take on singular roles in, variously, a courtroom drama and an anthropology lecture.This paper is going to investigate the various forms and functions of Atwood's poetic insertions into her narrative text.1 Incidentally, Atwood's Penelopiad is quite literally situated at a crossroads of genres, as Atwood herself turned her novel into a play. Differences between the novel and play version of The Penelopiad as regards the lyrical interludes will therefore also be discussed. I will argue that the interludes serve as a performative enactment of the silenced female voices of the Odyssey. They may furthermore serve as a pointer, an invitation extended to the reader to go in search of silenced voices haunting other texts of the Western literary canon.A Line of EchoesSince the time of its inception, Homer's Odyssey has inspired many rewritings.2 The most prominent among them have made Odysseus, the epic's protagonist, the centre of their work. In his seminal study The Ulysses Theme: A Study in the Adaptability of a Traditional Hero, W. B. Stanford identifies the complexity of the epic's protagonist with regard to his "character and exploits" as the main reason for Odysseus' enduring popularity with subsequent writers (7). Later critics, such as Edith Hall in The Return of Ulysses: A Cultural History of Homer's Odyssey, extend Stanford's argument by pointing towards a whole cast of characters that might attract future readers' and writers' attention, stating that "one reason for the poem's enduring popularity must be that its personnel is so varied that every ancient or modern listener, of any age, sex or status, seaman or servant, will have found someone with whom to identify" (4).3Margaret Atwood's rewriting of Homer's Odyssey is then, in her own words, "an echo of an echo of an echo" (Penelopiad: The Play v).4 The Penelopiad was originally commissioned as a novel, as part of the Canongate Myths Series which saw a number of well-known authors rewrite traditional myths (Atwood, "The Myths Series" 58). Two years after the publication of the novel, The Penelopiad: The Play premiered in July 2007 at the Royal Shakespeare Company's Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, a co-production with Canada's National Arts Center, and the play later transferred to Canada as well.5 For her portrayal of Penelope, Margaret Atwood drew on both the Odyssey and other mythological sources of Greek antiquity (cf. Penelopiad 19798).6 The novel consists of two intertwined narratives: in the main narrative, Penelope, speaking from the Underworld, relates her life from birth to the end of the Trojan War and, finally, Odysseus' return to Ithaca. …


The culture of Anhui area is one of the important parts of the traditional culture in China, which went through a series of changes and influenced historical development. A group consisted of the famous scholars, historians appeared in Anhui area, especially in Modem Anhui. It is a significance to study the characters of Anhui history during a long times according to the imbalance idea of evolution of politics, economy,culture and to the view of connect Anhui culture with whole national culture under the great background of thousands years.


In order to detect the presence of primary user (PU) signal, spectrum sensing is a fundamental requirement to achieve the cognitive radio (CR) goals. This ensures the efficient utilization of the spectrum. There are many methods for signal detection such as cyclostationary detection, cyclic prefix detection, energy detection, and detection based on fractional Fourier transform (FrFT). The aim of this paper is to propose a novel method for detection of long term evolution (LTE) signal. In this method, Constant Amplitude Zero Autocorrelation (CAZAC) sequence, as a polyphase code, is chosen for the detection of the LTE signal because of its good periodic correlation properties. We will show constant false alarm rate (CFAR) properties that can be used for the reduction of noise power effect to determine a detection threshold. Finally, the proposed method is compared to three other methods and simulation results show that the performance is acceptable.


The digital transformation of public organizations reached a new level during the COVID-19 global pandemic. The delivery of public services leveraged on digital technologies to ensure the continuity of the service. Despite the advances in digital government, little is known about the opportunities and risks posed by such quick responses during the pandemic. In this paper we look at a case study from the public sector in Chilean Courts through a liminal lens. Furthermore, using primarily qualitative interviews (30) conducted over a year, we identify liminal spots, and analyse potential space for liminal innovation, as well as potential risk for those public organizations to stay in a liminal permanence. Our contribution is twofold. Fellow researchers can draw from our case study new theoretical perspectives on public organization, digitalization, and liminality. Practitioners can find characterizations of potential innovation opportunities or the risk of liminal permanence in their organizations.


The invention relates to the field of detectability of vehicles. It relates to a radar cross value management process (20) of a vehicle (10) presented to a group of at least one radar (15), the vehicle moving in the presence of at least one radar and having a radar cross section (20) non-uniform, said method comprises a step (Etp50) for detecting at least one electromagnetic beam emitted by at least one radar (15), a step (Etp51) for measuring in real time, parameters of each electromagnetic beam of the group of at least one radar, a step (Etp52) for predicting, in real time, moments of illumination and non-illumination of the vehicle by each of the electromagnetic beams, a step (Etp53) of estimating the detectability of the vehicle (10), a step (Etp54) modifying the value of the radar cross section (20) by the vehicle to at least one radar.


The Balearic Sea forms the transition zone between two key regions in the western Mediterranean Sea having well-defined dynamics: the Liguro-Provenqal and the Algerian Basins. Studies of the large scale circulation during the seventies depicted a predominant cyclonic circulation. Later studies found that this circulation was actually associated with two permanent density fronts. ,One on the continental shelf slope and a second distinctly separated front located over the Balearic Islands shelf slope. Those fronts arise because of thermohaline differences between low salinity coastal waters, more saline, offshore MAW in the central part of the basin and less saline, coastal waters of the Balearic Islands. More recently, intensive field experiments that have included current meter moorings, radio tracked drifters, satellite imagery and high resolution CTD and ADCP sampling, revealed the importance of mesoscale variability, one of the most representative topics of the western Mediterranean dynamics. These field studies indicate strong temporal and spatial variability in the area. In several studies, energetic eddies and filaments associated with the slope fronts have been observed. These rapidly evolving instabilities, characterized by velocities almost an order of magnitude higher than the mean large scale current, have a significant effect on the shelf/slope exchange processes and as a result strongly affect the biomass distribution in the Balearic Sea. There are several physical mechanisms that could account for this important mesoscale variability. The relationship between these instabilities and bottom topography has been suggested in several studies. Local wind forcing has been also shown to play an important role as an input of energy in the inertial range affecting upper layer circulation and internal-near inertial oscillations at the thermocline. Frequent changes of water inflows from the north and south also modify and characterize the seasonal circulation. Seasonal and Interannual Variability of the Western Mediterranean Sea Coastal and Estuarine Studies, Volume 46, Pages 73-91 Copyright 1994 by the American Geophysical Union


Article history: Received 19 February 2019 Accepted 27 February 2019 Available online 05 March 2019 Cu2+-doped TiO2 nanoclusters are prepared by the sol-gel method. Scanning electron microscopy and Xray diffractometry are applied to characterize their structural properties. The photocatalytic analysis is done by UV-Vis absorption spectrum. The results of X-ray diffraction (XRD) shows the presence of rutile peak with a strong orientation along (1 1 0) plane. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) study shows the uniform distribution of agglomerated nanoclusters. EDS spectrum confirms the presence of doped metal ion Cu2+ in the TiO2 crystal lattices. In this work, the photocatalytic effect of Cu2+-doped TiO2 on the degradation of methyl orange dye is studied. TiO2 doped with 5 wt% Cu2+ gives an excellent result in the degradation of methyl orange.


The industrial fusion is a dynamic developing process that different industrial or the different profession of the identical industrial inter cross,mutually seeps,gradually merges into one organic whole in the technical fusion foundation,becomes the new industrial attribute or the emerging industrial shape.The technical innovation is the intrinsic driving influence of the industrial fusion,the competition cooperation pressure and pursuing the scope economy are the enterprise agent of industrial fusion,the development of multinational corporation's is a huge propelling force of industrial fusion,relaxing control provides an external condition for the industrial fusion.As a kind of development pattern and the industrial organization form of Enhanceing the productivity and the competitive ability,the industrial fusion has the innovation optimization effect,the competitive structure effect,the organized structure effect,the competitive ability effect,the expense ability effect and the region effect.


Making use of Kelvin probe force microscopy, in dark and under ultraviolet illumination, we study the characteristics of p–n junctions formed along the axis of self-organized GaN nanowires (NWs). We map the contact potential difference of the single NW p–n junctions to locate the space charge region and directly measure the depletion width and the junction voltage. Simulations indicate a shrinkage of the built-in potential for NWs with small diameter due to surface band bending, in qualitative agreement with the measurements. The photovoltage of the NW/substrate contact is studied by analyzing the response of NW segments with p- and n-type doping under illumination. Our results show that the shifts of the Fermi levels, and not the changes in surface band bending, are the most important effects under above band-gap illumination. The quantitative electrical information obtained here is important for the use of NW p–n junctions as photovoltaic or rectifying devices at the nanoscale, and is especially relevant since the technique does not require the formation of ohmic contacts to the NW junction.


Scleromyxoedema can be a challenging diagnosis on clinical examination with Afro-Caribbean skin.

We report on a case of a 61-year-old Afro-Caribbean man who presented to a public dermatology clinic with a greater than 30-year history of diffuse facial papules that had been previously treated as


Strawberries, depending on the cultivar and environmental conditions, can be a rich source of nutrients like folates and vitamin C as well as bioactive phytochemicals, mainly polyphenols. But at room temperature, this fruit is highly perishable and has a relative short shelf life of only a couple of days. An innovative, cost effective and environmentally friendly technique, photosensitization, has been applied with the aim to extend the shelf life of strawberries and to minimize the loss of nutrients and also phytochemicals. Photosensitization works based on the combined action of photosensitizer, light and oxygen, which produce reactive oxygen species that inactivate microorganisms. Curcumin, known for its antifungal activity was used as the photosensitizer in this study. To see the effect of photosensitization, physicochemical parameters of both fresh and photosensitized strawberries have been tested. There were no significant (p < 0.05) changes in pH, titratable acidity, total soluble solids and moisture content between treated and untreated (control) strawberries. However, total sugar content of photosensitized strawberry was significantly (p < 0.05) higher than that of the control (5.29 ± 0.26 g/100 g FW vs. 4.12 ± 0.13 g/100 g FW). No significant difference was observed in the total phenolic content of the treated (192.9 ± 3.16 mg gallic acid equivalents (GAE)/100 g FW) and the control (195.8 ± 3.05 mg GAE/100 g FW) samples. These preliminary findings show that photosensitization could be a promising technique that has the potential to be used in the horticulture industry to extend the shelf life of fresh produce such as strawberries.


With the expeditious advancements in science and automation, further people are utilizing automobiles in this day and age. Consequently, this increased vehicular number constructs congestion, accidents, and misconduct of vehicle flow on roads. Typical traffic light control systems are not proficient to dispense present-day congestion complications. For that reason, an advanced system needs to be introduced in this domain. This paper initiates a method to use the forecasting of vehicles using Neural Network (NN) toolbox in MATLAB software. It also focuses on the algorithm for sequentially switching the traffic lights using forecasting from the NN toolbox. This paper focuses on the traffic framework of Lovely Professional University (LPU), Punjab (India). Furthermore, a well-planned system is designed to solve congestion problems in LPU.


Since 1976, the U.S. Department of Energy has sponsored a multidisciplinary research program to determine the physical processes which drive circulation and control the chemistry and biology of the continental shelf waters off the southeastern United States (Figure 1). This area extends from Cape Hatteras, N.C., to Cape Canaveral, Fla. (often called the South Atlantic Bight (SAB)). Knowledge gained about water circulation across the shelf and at the western edge of the Gulf Stream has been used by cooperating investigators (Table 1) and others to describe the circulation of shelf water, to determine where and how certain trace elements are transported and transformed, and to relate the circulation regime to biological production. The following description of the program is presented under three headings: circulation, trace element geochemistry, and food chain dynamics.


Every American president promotes improvements in science, technology, engineering and math education to enable American students to better compete in the global high tech economy; and employers want colleges to place more emphasis on such instruction. In fact, improved education in science and technology – well beyond basic computer skills – is vital to more than occupational competitiveness. As democratic citizens, Americans must understand science basics, including in frontier areas such as molecular biology and genomics, if they are to grasp the ways in which new technologies are profoundly transforming our lives. Unfortunately, a recent study concludes that more than 30% of Americans are effectively scientifically illiterate, so educators have a long ways to go.


Administrative exchange network of the electric power system is the important information transmission network which refers to dispatching,production management and electric quantity collection,etc.Consequently,the security and stability of the administrative exchange network operation have become one of the important factors in the stable operation of the power grid.This paper introduces that the automatic management system of administrative exchange network consists of automatical line fault acception,routine testing,user data information management,etc.It elaborates the Robotic line grasping,comprehensive test,routine testing,voice combined with measurement and other key technologies.Practice shows that this system realizes the automatic closed-loop process,from fault acception,testing,maintenance assignment to repairing response.It provides fast and accurate fault diagnosis,automatic on-line detection and repairing supervision.It also achieves a fully computerized management of administrative telephone network operation and maintenance.At the same time it improves the level of the administrative exchange network operation and maintenance.


The ability of a hybrid material that is based on cholesteric liquid crystal and carbon nanotube to detect acetone vapor is investigated. We find that the phase transition in this cholesteric liquid crystal-carbon nanotube hybrid will enable carbon nanotube to form conducting networks under the higher vapor concentration. This cholesteric liquid crystal-carbon nanotube hybrid exhibits an obvious change in reflected color and electrical resistance in the early and later stages of gas diffusion, respectively. This hybrid architecture has potential application as a gas sensor with a high dynamic range.


catalyzing the reduction pyridine nucleotides ferredoxin present in the 100,000 x g supernatant. Similar results were also obtained with strain IAM4967.


The need to improve early mathematics education in the United States is very clear, given the importance of early mathematics learning and the consistently poor math performance of children from low-SES backgrounds. It is crucial to engage these disadvantaged children in meaningful math learning as early as possible. With the continuous infiltration of technology into our lives, the powerful affordances of tablet computers may enable the development of powerful math applications. Given the limited evidence of using well-designed math applications to enhance young children's math learning, the primary goal of this dissertation was to examine the efficacy of a research-based math software application on low-income preschoolers' number sense performance. Twenty-eight 4- to 5-year-old intervention participants completed MathemAntics (MA) training 15 minutes a day, 3 days a week for 4 weeks. The other 28 control participants stayed in their classroom and received general class instruction. All participants were given a pretest and a posttest to evaluate their number sense performance. Results indicated that the intervention group outperformed the control group on number sense assessment, and the intervention participants' mean standardized Addition & Subtraction gain was the highest among the seven subtests, with the mean Standardized Compare Quantities gain being the lowest. Results also indicated that prior knowledge of identifying numerals predicted the overall post-assessment performance and the lack of knowledge on Addition & Subtraction predicted the standardized overall gain. The MA training analyses showed that the participants improved adequately on most of the MA activities during intervention. The use of MA tools was also discussed. The results provided direct evidence for demonstrating the efficacy of MA and added valuable information to the field of math software design. The results of this study also suggested confirmed the effectiveness of MA in supporting children to learn and their sense skills, by showing that the intervention group MA on The results provided direct evidence for demonstrating the efficacy of MA and added valuable information to the field of math software design. The study's results also suggest that in the future, researchers may examine how MA activities can be effectively integrated into the math curriculum and whether home math activities can be developed to support math learning as well as positive attitudes towards math.


A live imaging system coupled with self-incompatible Arabidopsis lines highlights the role of stigmatic cells in controlling pollen hydration and in reacting to pollen tube intrusion by remodeling the actin cytoskeleton.


The human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class II molecules are cell-surface glycoproteins involved in the regulation of immune responses. Allelic variation at the HLA class lI loci is an important consideration in major areas of medicine and biology. For instance, detailed knowledge of the allelic constitution at class lI loci is required for matching of suitable donors and recipients for bone marrow and other tissue transplantations. Susceptibility to a number of autoimmune diseases has also been found to be associated with specific residues, alleles, or haplotypes at class II loci, (9-17) and characterization of these loci provides an opportunity for early identification and initiation of immunotherapy for individuals at risk of developing these diseases. The class II polymorphism also provides an excellent marker system for paternity determinations and for purposes of individual identification in forensic medicine. 118,19) Finally, these loci are valuable tools in determining evolutionary relationships at the DNA level. In this review we discuss the pros and cons of the alternate methods available for genetic typing of the allelic variation at class II loci for these various applications, using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR).


Classic analysis techniques in chemical metrology such as titrimetry are developed up to a very refined level. Reproducibility levels of up to 0.02 % are achieved. The results of national metrological institutes in different countries are compared in so-called Key Comparisons. Samples used in metrological comparisons are prepared and handled with special efforts. The two laboratories EMPA (Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research, St. Gallen) and LNE (Laboratoire National d'Essais, Paris) jointly organised a Key Comparison in elemental analysis and acted as pilot laboratories.


The profession of high performance sports coaching is a complex process focused on performance improvement with the goal of producing international sporting success. Rising demand for top-level coaches has been matched with the increasing amount of resources allocated to producing worldclass performances. This includes creating and sustaining a culture of learning and competition. For a foreign coach, the culture of an adopted country can differ dramatically from that in their homeland. This discussion explores the challenges and opportunities an expatriate coach may experience in an effort to succeed in an adopted nation at the highest level of competition.


Objective
To investigate the efficacy and therapeutic mechanism of traditional Chinese medicine plaster application for patients with knee osteoarthritis (KOA).

Methods
112 patients with KOA admitted to our hospital from July, 2015 to June, 2017 were enrolled. The patients were divided into a treatment group (56 cases) and a control group (56 cases) according to the random number table method. The control group orally took diclofenac sodium sustained-release tablets; in addition, the treatment group was treated with traditional Chinese medicine plaster. After 4 weeks' treatment, the clinical efficacy, inflammatory factors and matrix metalloproteinase levels in the joints of the affected limbs were compared. The adverse reactions of the two groups were observed.

Results
The total effective rate of the treatment group was 94.64% (53/56), which was significantly higher than that of the control group [82.14% (46/56)] (P<0.05). The levels of interleukin-1β (IL-1β), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) in the joint fluid of the affected limb in the treatment group were (0.35±0.10) μg/ml, (117.24±23.45) pg/ml, and (0.45±0.11) μg/ml, which were significantly lower than those in the control group (all P<0.05). The contents of matrix metalloproteinase-3 (MMP-3), MMP-9 and MMP-13 in the joint fluid of the affected limb in the treatment group were (86.74±12.12) ng/ml, (36.12±5.25) ng/ml, (165.25±26.14) ng/ml, which were significantly lower than those in the control group (all P<0.05). No significant adverse reactions occurred in either group.

Conclusion
Traditional Chinese medicine plaster can significantly improve the clinical efficacy of patients with knee osteoarthritis, which may be related to the relief of inflammatory symptoms and inhibition of matrix metalloproteinase expression.

Key words:
Knee osteoarthritis; Traditional Chinese medicine plaster; Inflammatory factors; Matrix metalloproteinase


Physical-chemical properties of molten salt media based on potassium cryolite with additions of boron or scandium oxides have been considered from the point of view of their feasibility in production of functional materials, such as aluminum alloys. Liquidus temperature in the quasi-binary systems: [KF–AlF 3 ]-B 2 O 3 , [KF–AlF 3 ]-Sc 2 O 3 , [KF–NaF–AlF 3 ]-B 2 O 3 , and [KF–NaF–AlF 3 ]-Sc 2 O 3 has been measured by thermal analysis. Solubility of Al 2 O 3 , B 2 O 3 , and Sc 2 O 3 in potassium and potassium-sodium cryolites has been determined. The potassium-cryolite-based melts were found to have an enhance protective function due to a low melting point, and an effective refining ability due to a good alumina solubility. It has been assumed that for aluminum alloys production the potassium-cryolite-based melts can be used as fluxes with improved properties as well as electrolytes for low-temperature electrolysis.


As part of an ecological evaluation in the Puget Sound, Washington, an in situ bioassay using the blue mussel (Mytilus galloprovincialis) was conducted to determine the effect of sediment-borne chemicals on bioaccumulation and growth of shellfish. The assay included four sample stations from a contaminated embayment (Sinclair Inlet) and one station from a reference site (Holmes Harbor). At each station, 300 mussels were deployed 1 meter above the sediment surface and maintained for a period of 3 months. The length and total weight of each mussel was measured at the beginning of the exposure period and the length, total weight, tissue weight, and shell weight of each mussel was measured at the end of the exposure period. Composite tissue samples from 100 mussels were collected at the beginning and end of the exposure period and analyzed for semivolatile organic chemicals, chlorinated pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls, inorganic chemicals, organotin, and lipids. Water quality measurements (including temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, and chlorophyll a) were made at each station every two weeks during the assay to characterize environmental factors influencing mussel bioaccumulation and growth. Weight growth was similar among stations in Sinclair Inlet, but was significantly greater in all Sinclair Inlet stations compared tomore » the Holmes Harbor reference station. Length growth was statistically indistinguishable among stations in Sinclair Inlet. Only one Sinclair Inlet station had a significantly greater length growth compared to the Holmes Harbor reference station. The influence of water quality on mussel growth is presented. The correlation between sediment chemistry and bioaccumulation is discussed.« less


A reaction path Hamiltonian is constructed that is based on a straight‐line, least motion path that interpolates linearly between equilibrium reactant and product geometries of the molecular system. Conservation of linear and angular momentum are correctly accounted for. The resulting Hamiltonian has a Cartesian‐type kinetic energy, the Coriolis coupling terms originally present in the kinetic energy having been transformed to potential energy coupling (hence the term ''diabatic'' reaction path Hamiltonian). Curvature coupling terms that appear in the original reaction path Hamiltonian, which is based on the minimum energy reaction path, are absent here because the present reaction path is straight. This new, diabatic reaction path Hamiltonian should be especially useful for describing H‐atom transfer reactions in polyatomic systems, a case for which the minimum energy reaction path provides a poor description.


Perovskite oxides can exhibit a wide range of interesting characteristics such as being catalytically active and electronically/ionically conducting, and thus, they have been used in a number of solid-state devices such as solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) and sensors. As the surface compositions of perovskites can greatly influence the catalytic properties, knowing and controlling their surface compositions is crucial to enhance device performance. In this study, we demonstrate that the surface strontium (Sr) and cobalt (Co) concentrations of perovskite-based thin films can be controlled reversibly at elevated temperatures by applying small electrical potential biases. The surface compositional changes of La0.8Sr0.2CoO3−δ (LSC113), (La0.5Sr0.5)2CoO4±δ (LSC214), and LSC214-decorated LSC113 films (LSC113/214) were investigated in situ by utilizing synchrotron-based X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), where the largest changes of surface Sr were found for the LSC113/214 surface. These findings offer the po...


Measurements obtained in the temperature range 0.1°–1°K illustrate the influence of the thermal boundary resistance on the thermal conductance of a suspension of copper particles in an amorphous dielectric.


Ceramic materials, such as geopolymers, have been increasingly used in civil construction as a compatible, green-friendly, and even more efficient alternative. They are obtained through the mixture of an aluminosilicate source, with an alkali solution, and its mechanical properties may vary according to its molar ratios, curing regimes and processing conditions. Geopolymers present compatible mechanical and durable responses, despite their characteristic brittle behaviour. Fiber reinforcement appear as an interesting solution to overcome this vulnerability. Particulate, discrete and textile forms of distinct fibers can be used as reinforcements, resulting in sustainable solutions (natural fibers) and even ultraductility performance (synthetic fibers). This study presents an experimental evaluation of distinct geopolymer composites reinforced with natural (sisal, jute and curauá) and synthetic fibers (PVA). The geopolymer mixture was produced with metakaolin in a sodium based solution. Compression, tensile and pull-out tests were performed. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to investigate the hardened geopolymer microstructure. Despite presenting distinct quantitative responses, all composites exhibited strain-hardening behaviour with multiple cracking formation.


Abstract In this work, three forms of a novel octapeptide have been evaluated as asymmetric catalysts for the Michael reaction. Low quantity catalyst loading, ecofriendly solvents, and reusability of organocatalyst successfully applied to attain excellent yields and moderate enantioselectivities in the Michael reaction. [Supplementary materials are available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of Synthetic Communications® for the following free supplemental resources: Full experimental and spectral details.] GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT


This article considers the value of female reproductive substance as exteriorized and extracorporeal bodv Darts. Women's accounts of donating their ova to infertile recipients are explored within tht -ontext of contemporary bio-medical discourse on assisted conception in Britain. Contrary to predominant assumptions of the Western model of the autonomous and bounded individual, it is argued that donors, as procreative agents, enact forms of relatedness as the sociality of anonymity. Western discourses of science and reproductive medicine are engaged at the present moment in an expansive technology of genetic anthropomorphology. Cells and genes, as human body parts, are being mapped, written up and fetishized as though they have a claim to personhood and ought, as such, to enter the legal domain as nature-endowed, rights-bearing entities. There are apparently such things as gay genes, quiescent cells, orphaned embryos, and so on. The anthropologist coming to this language for the first time may not only wonder at the kinds of translations taking place between object and subject, and between the biological and the cultural, but how indeed such 'persons' may themselves be worlds of kinship in the human body.' I want to give this thought a quite specific inflection by unravelling here a few sequences of bodily exchange.


Alloys of the Fe-Al system are interesting due to occurrence of long-range order and many thermal vacancies at high temperature, which lead to not only significant hardening, but also cause changes of physical properties. High temperature diffusion is conditioned by structural defects in solids, such as vacancies, foreign atoms and dislocations influencing thermal characteristics of a solid solution, among others the thermal diffusivity coefficient. Measurement of thermal diffusivity was performed at room temperature using the laser flash method. For characterization of the defect structure, positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy was used. The data were presented for alloys with 28 and 38 at.% aluminium without chromium and containing 5 at. % Cr addition. The results showed that thermal diffusivity decreased with aluminium content and deviation from stoichiometry. In the studies, different structural defects in the alloys were observed.


Title of dissertation: FUNDAMENTAL STUDIES OF TIN WHISKERING IN MICROELECTRONICS FINISHES Lesly Piñol, Doctor of Philosophy, 2010 Dissertation directed by: Professor John Melngailis Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering Common electronics materials, such as tin, copper, steel, and brass, are ambient reactive under common use conditions, and as such are prone to corrosion. Duri ng the early 1940s, reports of failures due to electrical shorting of component s caused by 'whisker' (i.e., filamentary surface protrusion) growth on many s urface types – including the aforementioned metals – began to emerge. Lead alloying of ti n (3-10% by weight, typically in the eutectic proportion) eliminated whiskering risk for decades, until the July 2006 adoption of the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) directive was issued by the European Union. This directive, which has since been adopted by C alifornia and parts of China, severely restricted the use of lead (<1000 ppm) in a ll electrical and electronics equipment being placed on the EU market, imposing the need for developing reliable new "lead-free" alternatives to SnPb. In spite of the abundance of modern-day anecdotes chronicling whisker-related failures in satellites, nuc lear power stations, missiles, pacemakers, and spacecraft navigation equipment, pure tin f inishes are still increasingly being employed today, and the root cause(s) of tin wh skering remains elusive. This work describes a series of structured experiments exploring the fundamental relationships between the incidence of tin whiskering (as dependent var iable) and numerous independent variables. These variables included deposition method (electroplating, electroless plating, template-based electroc hemi al synthesis, and various physical vapor deposition techniques, including resistive evaporation, elec tron beam evaporation, and sputtering), the inclusion of microparticles and organic co tamination, the effects of sample geometry, and nanostructuring. Key findings pertain to correlations between sample geometry and whisker propensity, and also to the stre ss evolution across a series of 4"-diameter silicon wafers of varying thicknesse s with respect to the degree of post-metallization whiskering. Regarding sample geometry, i t was found that smaller, thinner substrates displayed a more rapid onset of whiskering immedia tely following metallization. Changes in wafer-level stress were not found to correlate with whiskering morphology (number, density, length) after 6 weeks of aging. This re sult points either to the irrelevance of macrostress in the substrate/film composite , or to a difference in whiskering mechanism for rigid substrates (whose stress gradient ov r ime is significant) when compared with thinner, flexible susbtrates (whose stress is le s variable with time). Organic contamination was found to have no appreciable effect when expl icitly introduced. Furthermore, electron-beam evaporated films whiskered m ore readily than films deposited via electroplating from baths containing organic "b righteners." Beyond such findings, novel in themselves, our work is also unique in that we empha size the "clean" deposition of tin (with chromium adhesion layers and copper under layers) by vacuum-based physical vapor deposition, to circumvent the question of contamina tion entirely. By employing silicon substrates exclusively, we have distinguished ourselves from other works (which, for example, use copper coupons fabricated fr om rolled shim stock) because we have better sample-to-sample consistency in t erms of material properties, machinability, and orientation. FUNDAMENTAL STUDIES OF TIN WHISKERING IN MICROELECTRONICS FINISHES by Lesly Agnes Piñol Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degre e Doctor of Philosophy 2010 Advisory Committee: Professor John Melngailis Professor Harry K. Charles Professor Lourdes Salamanca-Riba Professor Martin Peckerar Professor Agis Iliadis


The theory of Control and Surmount illustrates the relation among the media,audience entity and ideology.This paper tries to expound the possibility that the audience entity would surmount being control ed by media and form its own audience concept,meanwhile it shows the bright future of the media.


Political decision makers hope that international comparisons of institutions will give them insights that will help to improve decision making in their own country. They wish to know what institutional arrangements have been chosen by other countries and whether the arrangements chosen have yielded desirable results. The questions associated with institutional learning are discussed in the next three sections.


Field studies were carried out to evaluate various green manuring crops viz. sesbania, guara and sunnhemp and grain legumes viz. mungbean and cowpeas for their biomass production and N contribution to soil. Plant sampling was done at 30, 45 and 60 days after sowing. Maximum, plant height and fresh shoot and root biomass were produced by sunnhemp at all the three growth periods but the grain yield and total biomass production at harvest stage (60 DAS) were maximum in case of Pakistani Janter (Sesbania aculeata), The yield of the follow-up wheat crop was also affected significantly by the residual effect of green manures and grain legumes and the maximum wheat grain and straw were recorded from the plots where Pakistani Janter was planted.


The utility model discloses a shell-and-tube type heat exchanger which comprises a shell tube and a plurality of heat exchange pipes, wherein flanges, tube plates, tube boxes, end plates, transitional tubes and gas-liquid conveying tubes are symmetrically arranged at two ends of the shell tube; the shell tubes, the flanges, the tube plates, the tube boxes and the end plates are sequentially connected with one another; the end plates are provided with two transitional tubes; each gas-liquid conveying tube is arranged on each transitional tube; embedding concave parts are arranged on the inner sides of the tube boxes and are provided with flow equalizing plates; a plurality of flow equalizing holes are formed in the flow equalizing plates; a plurality of baffle plates are arranged on the tube wall of the inner side of the shell tube. The shell-and-tube type heat exchanger is simple and reasonable in structure and convenient to use, is obviously energy-saving in application in mariculture and has a good heat exchange effect.