During the seventeenth century, an alliance took shape between Japan's Tokugawa bakufu and the Zheng organization of southeastern China and Taiwan. The Zheng, especially under the half-Japanese Koxinga in the 1650s, were ideal partners because of their domination of maritime East Asian trade, privileged access to much-coveted Chinese goods, and commitment to Ming restoration against the Manchu Qing, a popular stance in Japan. The organization jointly administered the Chinese community at Nagasaki with the bakufu, and received aid in Japanese armaments and probably mercenaries. Starting in the 1660s, the alliance unraveled amid the depletion of silver to purchase Chinese goods, the rise of a robust domestic market in Japan, and the destruction of the Zheng by the Qing. This article portrays Japan's "isolation policy" (sakoku) as a dynamic process, from active involvement overseas to withdrawal, based upon rational assessments of the international climate and subject to contestation from local and foreign players.


An adaptive detection technique suitable for both stationary and nonstationary noise environments based upon a generalized likelihood ratio test (GLRT) formulation is presented. The detector, which is statistically equivalent to a special form of the Wilks's lambda test, noncoherently combines the information contained in a pulse train of arbitrary length for decision-making purposes. The probability density function of the test under the noise only hypothesis is shown to be central chi /sup 2/. Under the signal plus noise hypothesis, an exact statistical characterization of the test cannot be obtained, and, therefore, a Chernoff bound is derived. Results in terms of the probability of detection versus signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) obtained from Monte Carlo simulation, the Chernoff bound, and the optimal matched filter case are examined. The performance of the noncoherent detector is shown to be a function of the covariance matrix estimate and the number of data samples. >


The present invention, (a) homopolymers or copolymers of acrylic acid and / or acrylamide, and at least one and polymer gel-forming agent 0.05-5% is selected from the group of derivatives thereof, with the 30 ° C. lower (b) having a melting point, pentaerythritol esters, at least one wax component 0.1-10% is selected from the group of dipentaerythritol esters and / or tripentaerythritol esters, at least one of which is liquid at 25 ° C. (c) an oil component 1-30 wt%, about O / W gel composition comprising (d) water 60~95wt%. The invention also relates to a process for use and their preparation of the composition.


Electric vehicles (EVs) are being introduced by different manufacturers as an eco-friendly alternative to vehicles with internal combustion engines, provided with several benefits. In the upcoming years, the count of EVs is expected to expand. However, the uncoordinated charging of these vehicles can put severe stress on the power grid. The problem of charge scheduling of EVs is an important issue and has seen significant research activity in the past few years. Thus, this survey paper intents to perform a review of 65 research works about this scenario that operate with different approaches under a diverse period of time. Particularly, this paper describes about the power flow model, scheduling control mechanism and type of charging followed in EVs. The performance measures recorded in each of the works are described here. Finally, a compact description on research gaps and challenges relying on this aspect is made that aids the researchers in doing future works.


Foundational to the English novel in the eighteenth century was a narrative grammar of the human structured around two ideas: sympathy and sovereignty. Linking these two were deliberations on the role of technology in determining the reach and extent of the sympathetic imagination. This essay reprises the novel's historical links with distant suffering and technologies of mediation – the staple of debates on the sentimental novel and the rise of Abolitionism in the late eighteenth century – in the context of the emergence of a critical mass of world novels written against the backdrop of post-1989 sites of geopolitical carnage. New media technologies and multiple visual regimes have been critical in mediating these deathworlds for diverse publics around the world. What changes, I ask, are being wrought on the narrative grammar of the human in the novel form in this era of spectatorial capitalism where the capacity to respond to distant suffering has increased manifold with advances in information technology?


The production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in normal tissues is associated with side effects of many cancer treatments. This is, in particular, the case for the skin photosensitization experienced by certain patients subjected to PDT based on a systemic administration of photosensitizers (PS). Similarly, the ROS generated in normal tissues during radiotherapies are responsible for the damages induced in various organs, including the skin. Catechin, a natural antioxidant belonging to the family of flavan-3-ols (or flavanols), is known for its beneficial properties associated with its antioxidant action. Therefore, the main aim of the study reported here is to determine if catechin can reduce certain damages induced by PDT performed with one of the most common photosensitizers, 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) induced protoporphyrin IX (PpIX). Our study was performed on an in vivo model, the vasculature developing in the chick's embryo chorioallantoic membrane, which was treated with a topical administration of a 20 mg/mL ALA solution during 4 hours before PDT. We demonstrated that the topical administration of catechin can significantly inhibit the vascular damages induced by ALA-PpIX-based PDT. Our results strongly suggest that catechin possesses a photoprotective effects against PpIX-PDT as well as other sources of ROS.


As the essence and core of language,English idiom is a special linguistic form which comes from people's production,laboring and daily life.The meaning of idiom is not just the meanings of its parts.It often entails abundant cultural background.Food is the most important thing for all the people and is the indispensible part of people's life.Through the analysis of the food culture in some English-speaking countries,this thesis elaborates the expressions of English food idioms.


Gauge-changeable vehicles can be used to connect the trans-Korean railway with the trans-Siberian railway having a different gauge for the fast and safe transportation instead of transshipment or bogie-changing. In this paper, the dynamic characteristics of a gauge-changeable freight wagon was analyzed numerically in terms of rolling stock approval from the point of view of safety, track fatigue and running behaviour. The assessment quantities for the approval were calculated using ADAMS/Rail in each case of railways in South Korea, North Korea and Russia, which showed that most quantities are less than the limit values.


Sensitivity factors for use with residual gas analyzers in mass spectrometry have been derived for compounds most frequently encountered in vacuum tube exhaust processes. With these factors, calibration of a mass spectrometer may be done for nitrogen and applied by ratio to other compounds.


In this article simultaneous arrival of multiple unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) at a common point was studied in a fixed network hierarchy is used. By considering the model of fixed wing UAV the decentralized based control algorithm is developed for the formation control of all UAV's. The tree based networked geometry is developed for the formation control of multiple UAV's with respect to the leader. Whereas, UAV's agent or (leader / follower) are autonomously connected with each other. Formation of flight via decentralized control structure which contains two parts, one is to achieve the arrival of expected meet-point for the formation geometry and other is to maintain the synchronization of all UAV's. Moreover, the leader is supposed and able to regulate the speed or velocity of UAV's. Simulated results showed that arrival of multiple UAV's at a common point for the formation is achieved successfully and the above designed control algorithm has good robustness and flexible.


Of the several factors involved in the development of magnetic fabrics in fault zones at shallow crustal levels, lithology and deformation intensity have probably the most important consequences for the reconstruction of their kinematic history. The basement-involved Cenozoic thrusts in the Demanda Massif (N Spain) provide the opportunity for testing the applicability of anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS) to the study of deformation in cataclastic fault rocks belonging to shallow fault zones. The Rastraculos thrust is a relatively minor basement thrust (dip-slip movement of 2 km defined from cross-sections and geological maps) of Ceno-zoic age. This thrust contains a re-activated fault zone involving different rock types both belonging to its hangingwall (Palaeozoic) and its footwall (Triassic sandstones and dolostones and Jurassic limestones). AMS results show magnetic foliations parallel or slightly oblique to the fault zone, and both transport-parallel (projected onto the foliation plane) and transport-perpendicular (parallel to the observed intersection lineation) magnetic lineations. The two types of strain/magnetic fabric relationships can be related to deformational and mineralogical features inferred from the direct analysis of thin and polished sections under the microscope and the naked eye, respectively. Analysis of fault rocks in the Rastraculos fault zone indicates that in cataclasites, magnetic fabrics are particularly dependent on lithology and hence magnetic mineralogy. The results obtained prove the usefulness of AMS in fault zones where kinematic indicators are scarce and also give clues on the number of samples necessary to define magnetic susceptibility axes, depending on grain size, ellipsoid shapes and magnetic mineralogy.


sent study. Our investigation showed a highly significant increase of CSF total tau protein in patients with probable Alzheimer's disease compared with elderly depressive patients, patients with other neurological disorders, and young and elderly controls. It seems plausible that these increases are the result of enhanced release of tau protein from damaged neurons into the extracellular space and, as a consequence, into CSF. Recent results suggested an arbitrary cut off value of 200 pg/ml, at which only a small percentage of healthy controls are positive.' Based on our data, we would propose a 10% higher cut off value, of about 225 pg/ml, to better distinguish the elderly depressive patients as well as young and elderly controls. The observed difference between patients with Alzheimer's disease and elderly depressive patients confirms a recent study and is of particular interest.' Depressive periods can be accompanied by a severe impairment of attention, receptivity, and concentration which may mimick a dementing process. Thus early neurochemical identification of a depressive syndrome is of great importance for appropriate therapeutic strategies. The reason for more tau protein in depressed patients than in young controls is unknown. On the other hand, the non-significant difference between young and elderly controls leads to the assumption that increased tau protein is not merely a marker of aging itself. There are contradictory reports regarding the correlation between MMSE and total tau protein immunoreactivity in the CSF of patients with Alzheimer's disease.' I From our data there was a significant correlation only when including the whole range of scores, which became non-significant when excluding the patients with severe dementia. These results corroborate neuropathological findings which showed a significant correlation between the number of neurofibrillary tangles and MMSE only when including severely demented patients. In conclusion, total tau protein concentration in CSF is an important candidate for discriminating patients with Alzheimer's disease from elderly depressed patients as well as from young and elderly controls without mental illness. Further studies on other neurodegenerative diseases are in progress. Moreover, different combinations of tau protein antibodies to detect exclusively normal or hyperphosphorylated tau protein may help to further evaluate the diagnostic value of tau determinations in CSF. NORBERT ROSLER ILDIKO WICHART KURT A JELLINGER Ludwig Boltzmiann Inistitute of Cliniical Neurobiology, Lainlz Hospital, Vienna, Austria


As one main alkaloid isolated from the seed or leaves of Chinese herb Sophora alopecuroides L. matrine has very strong therapeutic actions on stroke, heart infarction, hepatitis, pain, etc. In this study, we want to observe the preventive effects of matrine on systolic cardiac dysfunction induced by homocysteine. Wistar rat right atria were acutely isolated and the contraction of rat atria was determined by inductive force transducers. Confocal laser scanning microscopy was used to measure [Ca2+]i in acutely isolated atrial myocytes. The results showed that matrine 10, 30, and 100 μM can effectively attenuated the decrease of the contractile force of rat atria in the presence of homocysteine 5 mM. Moreover, the effects of homocysteine 5 mM on +dT/dt and –dT/dt of rat atria also can be reversed by matrine 10, 30, and 100 μM. Further study uncovered that matrine restored the reduction of [Ca2+]i caused by homocysteine 5 mM. These suggested that matrine can prevent homocysteine-induced atrial systolic dysfunction by regulating [Ca2+]i.

 Key words: Matrine, inotropic effects, [Ca2+]i.


Document-level event extraction (DEE) ex- 001 tracts structured information of events from a 002 document. Previous studies focus on improving 003 the model architecture. We argue that exploit- 004 ing characteristics of data is also important. We 005 propose to utilize more coreference informa- 006 tion to obtain better document-level entity rep- 007 resentations, and propose the concept of core 008 roles to shallow the memory and alleviate error 009 propagation. Experiments on a large dataset 010 demonstrate that our data exploitation meth- 011 ods significantly improve performance of exist- 012 ing models on both the role-level and record- 013 level metrics. Our code is available at https: 014 //github.com/coszeros/CAB . 015


In the present paper, some strategies for the rehabilitation of reinforced concrete buildings supported on "pilotis" are presented and it is proposed the development of a CBA for the same structure with and without the different selected interventions. Through the estimation of the costs associated with interventions for each solution used, and the assessment of the benefits that each solution added to the structure, it is intended that the application of a costbenefit analysis model (CBAM) would support the stakeholders decision of the in a rehabilitation process for certain buildings.


Complex symmetric matrices arise from many applications, such as chemical exchange in nuclear magnetic resonance and power systems. Singular value decomposition (SVD) reveals a great deal of properties of a matrix. A complex symmetric matrix has a symmetric SVD (SSVD), also called Takagi Factorization, which exploits the symmetry [3]. Let A be a complex symmetric matrix, its Takagi factorization has the form:


Charging patients for HIV treatment is proving a barrier to treatment, health experts said last week at a conference in Geneva organised by the charity Medecins Sans Frontieres.

Charging for antiretrovirals "creates an economic problem for patients but also a public health problem for everyone else," said Yves Souteyrand, of the World Health Organization.

"Cost is the major barrier, over and above all others," explained Dr Souteyrand, citing data collected in Senegal showing that removing charges increased adherence by 20%. …


Copyright © 2019 by author(s) and International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development Journal. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0) ABSTRACT We know that the present air-conditioning system produces cooling effect by refrigerants like Freon, Ammonia. Using this refrigerants can get maximum output but one of the major disadvantages is harmful gas emission and global warming. This problem can be overcome by using thermoelectric modules (Peltier effect) air-conditioner and their by protecting the environment. The present paper deals with the study of Thermoelectric air conditioner using different modules is discuss Thermoelectric cooling systems have advantages over conventional cooling devices, such as compact in size, light in weight, high reliability. High reliability as there is no moving parts.


This paper discusses the effect of load change on the Thevenin equivalent impedance of power systems. In this paper, the Thevenin equivalent impedance influenced by the derivative of active load with respect to reactive load (dP dQ) is analyzed. The Thevenin equivalent impedance forms a closed curve in a complex plane and shrinks to one point when voltage collapses. The magnitude of the Thevenin equivalent impedance at the collapse point is equal to the magnitude of the load impedance. Therefore, the impedance match theory still holds under the effect of the load change. These features are verified on a New England 39-bus system.


This study is an attempt to analyze the novels of Juan Valera y Alcala Galiano, with particular attention to the characterization of the principal figures.


Wideband spectrum sensing based on sub-Nyquist sampling is an attractive approach to advance dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS), which can improve frequency resource utilization while overcoming sampling bottlenecks. Under the Compressive Sensing (CS) framework, finding occupied subbands can be equivalent to computing the support set for the Multiple Measurement Vectors (MMV) problem. To guarantee the performance of joint support recovery in noisy environments, different kinds of prior information are required, one of which is sparsity, a time-varying parameter. To address the dependence of recovery performance on signal sparsity, this paper proposed a two-step scheme for blind wideband spectrum sensing using a Modulated Wideband Converter (MWC) sub-Nyquist sampling front-end. The scheme first adopts the model order selection (MOS) method to estimate sparsity from the compressed covariance matrix, and then uses the estimates to dynamically adjust joint support recovery. The complete theoretical derivation innovatively applies MOS to sub-Nyquist sampling and presents a design method for MOS penalty constant. Extensive simulation results show that the proposed scheme can not only achieve blind sensing under the spectrum occupancy up to 40%, reduce the overall computational complexity of iterative SOMP, but also significantly improve the false alarm performance, meeting the requirements of the IEEE 802.22 standard.


Recently, mechatronics as a self-contained discipline has undoubtedly shaped the development of technical systems. Mechatronics stands for the close interaction of mechanics, electronics, control engineering and software engineering. Due to the advancement of information and communication technologies, the functionality of mechatronic systems will go far beyond current standards. The increasing complexity requires a consistent comprehension of the tasks between all the developers involved. Especially during the early design phases, the communication and cooperation between the engineers is necessary to design a first overall system model. In addition, reusing of once successfully implemented solution knowledge is becoming increasingly important related to the overall context of the triangle of tension formed by time, cost and quality. Today the reuse is well established within the different disciplines. But usually, the sum of separate single solutions is rarely the best solution on a systems-level. This requires an approach, to support the knowledge intensive design process of intelligent technical systems by a new form of multidisciplinary abstract described solution patterns.


A paracomplex structure on a manifold M is an endomorphism K of the tangent bundle TM such thatK D I , whose  ̇1-eigenspaces have the same dimension and are involutive. By using the theory of differential graded Lie algebras, we describe small deformations of paracomplex structures. We also compute the space of invariant small deformations of 4-dimensional nilmanifolds endowed with a fixed paracomplex structure. Mathematics Subject Classification (2010). 53C15, 32G07.


The development of endosperm haustorium in watermelon ( Citrullus lanatus ) was observed,and the ultracytochemical localization of ATPase activity was carried out in the endosperm haustorium cells.At the early globular embryo,the chalazal portion of the embryo sac grown into tubular haustorium,which still remained coenocytic.The haustorium cellularizated from the micropylar end to chalazal end at the later globular stage.When the embryo differentiated cotyledons,the haustorium cells gradually degenerated,then disappear.ATPase activity was mostly located on nucleus membrane,ERs and bulb like substances in wall of endosperm haustorium cells.When the haustorium cell began to degenerate,the reaction of ATPase activity on nucleus membrane is markedly reduced.With the degeneration of the endosperm haustorium,the high activity reaction of ATPase was almost localized in cell wall and intercellular spaces of haustorium cells,while the ATPase activity on nucleus membrane was hardly to see and a little enzyme activity was observed on ERs.


This paper reexamines the evolution of women's labor force participation (LFP) and employment in Iran in light of five decades of census data from 1956 to 2006. We show that changes in schooling and economic structure have fundamentally transformed the nature of female LFP and employment in the country. Although women's overall LFP rate was slow to recover following a sharp drop in the aftermath of the 1979 Revolution, it has gathered momentum in recent years. More importantly, an increasingly larger proportion of educated women aged 20-50 years are employed in the private sector in professional positions in urban areas. This is quite different from the expansion of female employment before the Revolution, which predominantly consisted of jobs for very young, uneducated women in rural areas mostly as unpaid family workers in producing carpets and handicraft. We argue that economic and political factors after the Revolution have played central roles in shaping the new trends and show that they are likely to have played a far more important part than ideological ones, particularly Islamization, did in reducing female LFP and employment during the first decade of the Revolution. The reduction in female employment during that decade was essentially due to declines of private sector jobs, particularly low skill ones in rural handicrafts, closely connected with the disruption of production and trade in the aftermath of Revolution and the Iran-Iraq War. In recent years, however, it is unemployment among educated women that has risen sharply because their entry into the labor force has significantly outpaced their ability of find jobs. Still, this problem may be temporary because the service sector where female employment is most common and where the value added per worker is greater than in the rest of the economy is growing faster than other sectors.


This paper serving as a key-note address has as its aim to propose some types of images crucial for conveying special political messages in medieval, primarily public, art. They are according to the author a poster, a condensed public image conveying a specific political message; an icon, an extrapolation of the central image, most often of a leader from a poster; and a badge, a highly abbreviated sign summing up the essence of a movement or an idea. The conclusion is that every art is at least somewhat "political" since as a piece of communication it aims at imposing one's world view or ideology.


In Power system transmission lines are used for transmitting power to the load point. These transmission lines especially overhead transmission lines are susceptible to different types of faults – symmetrical and unsymmetrical faults. For ensuring the reliability of supply the determination of fault location is very important. Traditional methods for fault location were based on impedance and reactance methods. Both these methods are based on phasor quantities which produce delay in locating and detection of faults. Accuracy can be improved by processing travelling waves generated under fault condition. In the present paper these travelling waves are processed by using wavelet transform technique which gives the time and frequency response of the given wave. For achieving more accuracy Artificial Neural networks are trained under different fault conditions for locating faults. Wavelet transformation technique is used for extracting the three phase voltages and currents thereby avoiding additional filters. These quantities are fed as an input to the neural network and the output of this network will be the location of faults. Only difficulty with this method is the selection of required number of neurons for the network that gives accurate results. The simulations are performed using Artificial Neural Network toolbox in MATLAB.


Objective To explore a comprehensive evaluation management method(evaluation of sunshine nurse) and to enhance nursing service.Methods The evaluation was implemented from January 2009.Different evaluation standards were developed on the basis of working characteristics and different patients.Evaluation of working and patients' satisfaction before and after the implementation were compared.Results Service quality and patients' satisfaction were improved greatly after the implementation of new evaluation method(P0.05).Conclusion Evaluation of sunshine nurse gives full play to nursing staff's work enthusiasm and improves the quality of nursing service and patient satisfaction.


The purpose of phase 1 is to determine the feasibility of integrating geologic CO2 storage (GCS) with geothermal energy production. Phase 1 includes reservoir analyses to determine injector/producer well schemes that balance the generation of economically useful flow rates at the producers with the need to manage reservoir overpressure to reduce the risks associated with overpressure, such as induced seismicity and CO2 leakage to overlying aquifers. This submittal contains input and output files of the reservoir model analyses. A reservoir-model "index-html" file was sent in a previous submittal to organize the reservoir-model input and output files according to sections of the FY1 Final Report to which they pertain. The recipient should save the file: Reservoir-models-inputs-outputs-index.html in the same directory that the files: Section2.1.*.tar.gz files are saved in.


As the number of aged infrastructures increases every year, a systematic and effective asset management strategy is required. One of the most common analysis methods for preparing an asset management strategy is life cycle cost analysis (LCCA). Most LCCA-related studies have focused on traffic and energy; however, few studies have focused on school buildings. Therefore, an approach should be developed to increase the investment efficiency for the performance improvement of school buildings. Planning and securing budgets for the performance improvement of school building is a complex task that involves various factors, such as current conditions, deterioration behavior and maintenance effect. Therefore, this study proposes a system dynamics (SD) model for the performance improvement of school buildings by using the SD method. In this study, an SD model is used to support efficient decision-making through policy effect analysis, from a macro-perspective, for the performance improvement of school buildings.


Objective To study general law of typing according to syndrome differentiation of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). Method Based on large sample prospective Clinical Epidemiology investigation, symptoms, conditions of tongue, pulse according to TCM and pulmonary function, quality of life in 616 patients of COPD were collected. By means of Frequencies procedure, factor analysis, cluster analysis and analysis of variance in SPSS11.5, analyze the investigated data and lay difficient types of syndrome of COPD according to TCM. Meanwhile, explored distinct distribution and the relation between types of syndrome and pulmonary function, quality of life in patient5 with COPD. Result There were six types according to syndrome differentiation of COPD, deficiency of lung-qi, pathogenic wind-cold attacking lung, deficiency of pulmonosplenic both vital energy and yin, yin-deficiency of the lung and kidney, stagnation of phlegm and pathogenic fluid-reteneion in lung following splenic asthenia and stagnation of liver-qi, blood stasis-phlegm following deficiency of heart-yang and kidney-yang. There were multiple types of syndrome in COPD patients, the relation was detected between each type of syndrome and lung function, quality of life. Conclusion To draw assistance from clinical epidemiology and mathematical statistics method, the initial standard of differentiation of symptoms and signs to COPD was layed. The regularity of types of syndrome to COPD was detected. The result could be used in diagnosis of COPD, and the method could be communicated in the standardization research of syndrome differentiation.


Methotrexate (MTX) is an anti-neoplastic drug that is widely used in the treatment of several diseases such as lymphoblastic leukemia, lymphoma, and autoimmune diseases, and has been concomitant with mild or severe liver and intestinal toxicity. One of the most attractive approaches to prevent toxicity of different organs involves the use of natural antioxidants. Thus, the present investigation was undertaken to study the possible protective effect of wheat germ oil (WGO) against single dose of methotrexate induced oxidative stress in hepatic and intestinal tissue. The oxidative stress was induced using single intraperitoneal injection of methotrexate (20 mg/kg body weight), while the protecting effect was investigated by oral administration of WGO (1400 mg/kg body weight), for six and three consecutive days before and after MTX injection respectively. MTX has revealed significant depletion of some oxidative biomarkers and an elevation in the activities of liver enzymes, Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), intestinal malondialdehyde (MDA), lipid profile, and remarkable intestinal DNA damage, as well as abnormal architecture of mucosa. The present findings confirmed that WGO has significant preventive effect against liver injury and intestinal oxidative stress induced by MTX through improving the liver enzymes levels, enhancing the intestinal antioxidant defense status, reduction of lipid peroxidation level, and protection against different pathological changes. Taken together, it's then recommended to give WGO to individuals who are treated with MTX, although more pharmacological and molecular assays are necessary to elucidate its protective mechanisms


A fundamental step in the solution of most non-linear inverse problems is to establish a relationship between changes in a proposed model and resulting changes in the forward modelled data. Once this relationship has been established, it becomes possible to refine an initial model to obtain an improved fit to the observed data. In a linearized analysis, the Frechet derivative is the connecting link between changes in the model and changes in the data. In some simple cases an analytic expression for the Frechet derivative may be derived. In this paper we present three techniques to accomplish this and illustrate them by computing the Frechet derivative for the ID resistivity problem. For more complicated problems, where it is not possible to obtain an expression for the Frechet derivative, it is necessary to parameterize the model and solve numerically for the sensitivities - partial derivatives of the data with respect to model parameters. The standard perturbation method for computing first-order sensitivities is discussed and compared to the more efficient sensitivity-equation and adjoint-equation methods. Extensions to allow for the calculation of higher order, directional and objective function sensitivities are also presented. Finally, the application of these various techniques is illustrated for both the 1D and 2D resistivity problems.


Saudi Arabian nursing graduates have difficulty succeeding on the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN). To assist nursing graduates to perform well on the exam, international nursing schools need to reduce students' test anxiety and improve their proficiency with the English language. Additionally, international schools need to focus on developing a curriculum that includes application-based-content and test- taking strategies. This paper is a proposal of a plan to promote the NCLEX-RN success of those students who graduated from King Saud University in Saudi Arabia. The paper provides different interventions to increase the success rate among Saudi nursing graduates. Roger's diffusion of innovation theory was also used to design the plan that seeks to improve the quality of nursing education at King Saud University. The change at the nursing school is needed to help increase Saudi nursing graduates passing the NCLEX-RN. the NCLEX-RN are presented by Computerized Adaptive Testing (CAT) and in multiple-choice format. In the recent years, NCLEX-RN questions have been set with three different levels [4]. Level one questions relate to nursing fundamentals and comprise less than 10 percent of the total questions. These questions require students to recall information that helps answer higher-level test questions. Level two questions measure critical thinking. Time management may become an issue with these questions, as thinking critically may require persistence in understanding the question and choosing the correct answer. Level three questions are the most difficult type, requiring students to evaluate and synthesize information. Level three questions require students to select only the best answer among all options. Nursing students may face confusion regarding issues related to decision-making and analyzing facts and information. level three questions about 90


The weather forecast is the task of deciding the future climate status. To predict future climatic conditions, the variety must be used in conditions in recent years. The probability that the time of day thought to coordinate that day the previous year is lower.We use a modified version of the Sliding Window Algorithm to fit the requirements of the Irrigation System, which has a very low computational complexity compared to ANN and requires smaller data set to predict weather conditions. . A Sliding window algorithm is developing as a main system for the utilization of weather prediction. In this way, the prediction is made in view of sliding window algorithm. Along these are considered for earlier year a sliding window is chosen of size identical to fifteen days. Each Seven days of sliding window is then coordinated with that of current year's Seven days of previous year. The best coordinated window is made to take an interest during the time spent predicting weather conditions. The month astute outcomes are being figured for four months to check the precision. The provisional comes about show that the method gives better predicted weather conditions are very proficient with a normal exactness of 94.21%.


In this paper, we study one-dimensional $p$-Laplace equation, whose weight function has a critical power at the origin. We show the existence of infinitely many bifurcation branches emanating from the same single point and also study the existence and multiplicity of sign-changing solutions. Moreover, we investigate the global shape of bifurcation branches.


Mobile commerce is considered an excellent alternative for enterprises to reach new customers. However, many mobile commerce websites have a short life because they donpsilat meet the userspsila requirements. This paper presented the consumer-oriented criteria for mobile commerce website evaluation and developed a model, including four dimensions: mobile web site quality, enjoyable shopping experience, service quality, and trading risk. This study utilized an evaluation approach based on fuzzy set theory and the technique for order performance by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) to determine overall performance value and rank of the mobile commerce websites, using triangular fuzzy numbers to express linguistic variables that consider the subjective judgments of evaluators and applying fuzzy multiple criteria decision-making approach to synthesize the group decision. Finally, several suggestion and future research are discussed.


This research attempts to enhance the students' achievement in reading comprehension through Team Pair Solo strategy. By employing classroom action research, this research was conducted in two cycles in which cycle I comprised four meetings and cycle II consisted of two meetings. 28 students of class X3 SMAN I Paciran were purposively selected to be the research subject. Their reading achievement was measured in the form of reading comprehension test (quantitative data). This research also employed diary notes, observation sheet and questionnaire showing that the Team Pair Solo strategy in the classroom was wellimplemented. The results of the reading comprehension tests conducted in all cycles obtained better improvements. The students were active, interested and enthusiastic in reading. The research result delineated that Team Pair Solo strategy significantly improved students' reading comprehension achievements.


Pleasant environmental music during an academic test helped students to overcome stress. As a result the grades they obtained were higher. It was also demonstrated that students selecting music as optional course performed better, than music-less control students over three consecutive years. Yet, there remained ambiguities as for the causes of the higher test performance of these students. Our study confirmed a Mozart effect, and further showed a latency of two to three years for such a positive influence to take place, suggesting that it is the practice of music itself that helps cognition. We showed also that other art courses, when freely chosen, have similar positiveinfluences on students' performances, illustrating that the principles of learning are linked to hedonism and to will effort in a more general manner.


The main issues discussed in this paper are related to the refinement of the on-ground casualty risk computation for the specific case of INTErnational Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory (INTEGRAL). ...


To redress this, they have written a detailed account ofthe glaring inadequacies and scandals of world mental health by region or by category. There is an introduction by Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter, followed by 12 chapters, a clarion call for action and numerous notes, references, and appendices. They systematically go through the topics ofthe Global Context of Well-being, Mental Illness and Psychiatric Services, Suicide, Substance Abuse, Violence, Dislocation, Children and Youth, Women, the Elderly, Behaviour and Health, Conclusions and an Agenda for Action, and an Agenda for Research.


BACKGROUND
The zygoma complex fracture is common injury of the middle facial skeleton. Moderntreatment of zygoma complex fractures includes open reposition and fixation with titanium mini plates. The purpose of our study was to analyse the postoperative complicationsand consequences of zygoma complex fractures treated between 1999 and 2003 in theClinical Department of Maxillofacial and Oral Surgery at University Clinical Centre inLjubljana. We hypothesised that the longer the time between injury of zygoma complexand treatment the bigger the chance for the injury to the infraorbital nerve. Another hypothesis was that the outcome of the treatment is dependent upon the surgical approach.
METHODS
There were 345 patients treated at the Clinical Department for Maxillofacial and OralSurgery because of the zygoma fractures between 1999 and 2003. Different surgicalmethods were used. The data were obtained retrospectivelly, pre- and postoperativeimages were assesed. At least 2-year follow-up was taken in account. All patients were sentthe questionnaire about their sensitivity of the infraorbital nerve. The data were revised bysimple statistics for mean values and standard deviations and ANOVA statistics for regression analysis with linear, multiple regression, hystogram, Chi-squared tests.
RESULTS
Between observed 345 patients men were predominant in 80 %, the average age was 38.2years, more than 65 % of patients were between 20 and 65 years old. The most commoncauses of zygoma complex fractures in Slovenian population are traffic accidents in 26 %and assaults in 22 %; sports accidents had increased in this period. The mean timebetween the injury and surgery was 9 days, but the part of operated patients in first weekafter fracture had significantly increased in observed period. Treatment by closed reposition decreased from 59 % in 1999 to 17 % in 2003. The operative complications as bleedingand infections were extremly rare, but the infraorbital nerve injury was present in 31 % ofpatients, but mostly in less extent as before treatment. The risk for injury of the infraorbitalnerve is 1.8 times bigger if time between the injury and treatment is longer than 8 days.
CONCLUSIONS
The best results of treatment come with a short time between the injury and surgical treatment. There is a statistical significant reduction of the injuries of the infraorbiral nervewhen using an open reposition and fixation with titanium miniplates, where one can seethe infraorbital nerve and decompress it if neccessary. We also found out that the risk forthe injury of the infraorbital nerve is correlated to the age of the patient, being 2 % biggerfor each year of the patient


Process yield, the percentage of processed product units passing inspection, is a standard numerical measure of process performance in manufacturing industry. Based on the expression of process yield, Boyles (1994) presented a yield-measure index, Spk, for normally distributed processes. In order to compute the index value, sample data must be collected and a great degree of uncertainty may be introduced into the yield assessment due to sampling errors. To remedy for this, several existing techniques have been applied to construct the confidence bounds for Spk. In this article, an alternative approach is proposed to construct the lower confidence bound for Spk. To examine and compare the performances of the proposed generalised confidence intervals (GCIs), a series of simulations is conducted. The results show that the proposed GCIs approach is superior to the standard bootstrap in terms of coverage rate. Therefore, this article recommends GCIs approach for assessing the process yield in real applications. [Received 4 November 2010; Revised 5 January 2011; Accepted 7 January 2011]


Tacit knowledge is argued to be a crucial resource to organizations' competitive advantage. The majority of research on tacit knowledge is oriented towards the conversion of tacit knowledge into ex ...


Background: The clinical course of patients with lung metastases of differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC) vary, and cancer-specific survival (CSS) can be associated with tumor burden. This study evaluated the growth kinetics of lung metastases from DTC using serial chest computed tomography for Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors assessment and its prognostic implications. Methods: Forty-four patients with macronodular lung metastases (≥1 cm) of DTC were included. The time intervals to disease progression of lung metastases were measured and compared to CSS rates. Results: On the basis of the time to progression, 15 (34%), 17 (39%), and 12 (27%) patients were classified into the slow (≥3 years), moderate (1–3 years), and rapid groups (<1 year), respectively. The growth kinetics of lung metastases exhibited a linear pattern in the three groups. The doubling time of tumor burden was 1.8 years (R2 = 0.973, p = 0.013) in the rapid group, and the estimated doubling time of the tumor burden in the mod...


Jellyfish used to be considered as a pest of fish and a nuisance to fishing operations. Yet, forty years ago this jellyfish was found to be materials of food, medicine and cosmetics and the utilization of jellyfish is now familiar in Indonesia after being imported by China and Japan industry. This study aims to determine the potential development of jellyfish commodities as food and drugs from Indonesia with the target to improve the welfare of fishermen. This research used methods of rapid observation, limited interview, processing with immersion experiment and desiccation. In addition, various literatures were also used to enrich the knowledge about jellyfish business. Observation showed that the appearance of jellyfish in Indonesian waters varies based on the fertility of the waters affected by oceanographic conditions. Jellyfish contains low calorie and fat content, high protein and minerals as well as total collagen. Thus, jellyfish is a nutritious food source to be developed into food supplements, nutricosmetics and functional foods. Due to its large size, the jellyfish from Bunyu Island is more viable than jellyfish from Suppa Pinrang to be exported as raw material. Therefore, the manufacture of food and medicines from jellyfish materials is possible to be done in Indonesia.


Project based capital investment planning for developing a railroad company's infrastructure facilities does not necessarily allow managers the optimal use of their limited capital resources, because such planning simply focuses on the required cash spending and expected return from the single project. A portfolio based investment strategy aims at increasing or maximizing the value of a company's set of ground facilities, i.e., infrastructure portfolio, through quantifying the impact of strategic investments on the value of a portfolio. This study makes two approaches to the measurement of the value of infrastructure portfolios and the effect of strategic investments. First, strategic investments are considered to add certain economic values to a company, which can be interpreted as residual returns from the portfolio after rewarding its investors. Then, the value of the portfolio is analogous to that of a stock price and its dividend yield. Second, the value of a portfolio can be maximized through finding optimal strategic investment timings and its amounts. Real options approach makes use of the concept of financial option pricing as capital budgeting techniques, and it allows a company to incorporate the value of managerial flexibility in its infrastructure portfolio. Thesis Supervisor: Dr. Fred Moavenzadeh Title: James Mason Crafts Professor of Engineering Systems Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering


The paper deals with the application of a fractional-order position control scheme to a parallel kinematics machine, the 3-CPU platform. In particular, the PDD 1/2 control sche me, which exploits the half-derivative term in combination with the proportional and derivative ones, is applied to control the positions of the three linear actuators. A nondimensional approach is used for sake of generality. The results of the multibody simulations show that this control scheme can reduce the tracking error with respect to the classical PD scheme using the same settling energy.


M and K circles are solution loci for three design positions of a dyad when one design angle is varied. This paper updates M- and K-circle theory through a geometric explanation of why regions without solutions, known as forbidden regions, exist for the case of path generation with prescribed timing and not for the case of motion generation. The extension of M-K circle theory to the linear solution of triads is also presented. This work presents the finding of circular solution curves for the linear solution of triads along with the conditions for forbidden regions.


The purpose of the present study is to automate the peak over threshold method for a large number of meteorological time series. The main goal is to develop an objective choice for the threshold and run parameter for subsequent declustering. The data used for this study is daily precipitation from the MeteoSwiss observational network covering all of Switzerland, including low-land and mountainous stations both north and south of the Alps; some stations have data for more than 100 years. The information matrix test is a goodness-of-fit test developed to identify combinations of threshold and run parameter for which the model proposed for the estimation of the extremal index, i.e. the inverse mean cluster size, must be rejected. It is used to choose visually an appropriate combination of threshold and run parameter for subsequent extreme value analysis with Peak-over-Threshold. In our particular application, we try to mimic the visual choice quantitatively by selecting the threshold/run parameter combination from a set of points for which the model is not rejected. The selected combination is then used to decluster the time series, and the Generalized Pareto distribution (GPD) is fitted to the resulting data set. Results show that the threshold/run parameter combination chosen is often, but not always, similar to a subjective expert choice. Comparison with the classical threshold diagnostics indicates that the choice is within the acceptable range of values. The method is applied to automatically produce return level estimates at all stations of the observational network. Return level maps of daily and 5-day precipitation, for instance, yield realistic climatologies that reflect regional characteristics of the prevailing climate. The difference of the results and their uncertainties to more conventional methods such as block maxima is presented.


Patients confined to manual wheel-chairs are at an added risk of shoulder injury. There is a need for developing optimal bio-mechanical techniques for wheel-chair propulsion through movement analysis. Data collected is diverse and in need of normalization and integration. Current databases are ad-hoc and do not provide flexibility, extensibility and ease of access. The need for an efficient means to retrieve specific trial data, display it and compare data from multiple trials is unmet through lack of data association and synchronicity. We propose the development of a robust web-based ePR system that will enhance workflow and facilitate efficient data management.


In this paper we propose a hybrid maximum likelihood decoding (MLD) for linear block codes. For the reliable data transmission over noisy channels, convolutional and block codes are widely used in most digital communication systems. Much more efficient algorithms have been found for using channel measurement information in the decoding of convolutional codes than in the decoding of block codes. Word correlation method can be utilized to use channel measurement information in the decoding of block codes. However as the number of code words becomes larger, the decoding complexity increases dramatically to the power of the number of information bits. The hybrid maximum likelihood decoding can solve the problem of the hardware complexity as well as the computational time. Simulation result for Reed Muller code is presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the algorithm.


We define the discrete degree of symmetry $disc-sym(X)$ of a closed $n$-manifold $X$ as the biggest $m\geq 0$ such that $X$ supports an effective action of $({\mathbf Z}/r)^m$ for arbitrarily big values of $r$. We prove that if $X$ is connected then $disc-sym(X)\leq 3n/2$. We propose the question of whether for every closed connected $n$-manifold $X$ the inequality $disc-sym(X)\leq n$ holds true, and whether the only closed connected $n$-manifold $X$ for which $disc-sym(X)=n$ is the torus $T^n$. We prove partial results providing evidence for an affirmative answer to this question.


Detailed accounts of the morphology of the elephant louse and of its phylogenetic affinities and origin are given. The main points noted are: The peculiarity of the knobs and plate in the head are described. The mouthparts are described, a notable feature being the rotation of the mandible to 180 degrees. Structural peculiarities of the thorax with the muscles are given. The abdomen is found to consist of eight segments. The alimentary canal is described; no crop has been found. The histology of Weber's organ is given, and it is held that this organ is excretory in function. The structure of the spiracle is described, no spiracular gland has been found. The reproductive organs are described. In the female, the follicular epithelium of the ovary is binucleate and a spermatheca is present. In the male, the testis is bi-follicular. The affinities of the elephant louse are discussed and the creation of a new order, the Rhyncophthiraptera, to accommodate Haematomyzus, is suggested.


Summary The larval development of Pachygrapsus gracilis was studied in the laboratory under conditions of 25°C temperature and 20, 24, 28, 32 and 34% salinity. The objective of the study was to characterize the plankton phase of life of this species.


Objective: To assess the knowledge of first professional medical students of Bolan University of Medical and Health Sciences Quetta about Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus.
Methodology: This cross sectional descriptive study was carried out on first professional MBBS students of Bolan Medical College Quetta from 1st May 2017 to 30 June 2017 (two months).The sample size was 200 students. . The questionnaire included 12 questions about diabetes mellitus, related to general knowledge of Type 2 diabetes mellitus. The students were divided into two groups. The group I was the students who think that they have knowledge of type 2 diabetes mellitus and the group II was the students who think that they have poor or deficient knowledge of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Each question was allocated 5 marks. After giving marks to all replied questions, the  total 60 marks for 12 questions were further categorized as; A score of  less than 20 poor, 21—30 average, 31—40 good, ˃ 40 excellent.  The results were analyzed by SPSS.
Results: There were 174 (87.0%) students who had some knowledge of type 2 diabetes mellitus, while 26 (13.0%) had no any knowledge of diabetes mellitus. The students having age of 20 years or more were 126 (63%) where majority 107 (53.5%) were studying in second year. There were 102 (51%) male and 98 (49%) female students. The knowledge of investigation and diagnostic criteria for type 2 diabetes mellitus were found significant amongst all. The knowledge of etiology, symptoms, course, treatment and complications were found insignificant. Only 10 (5%) students had excellent knowledge of type 2 diabetes mellitus.
Conclusion: The students having an age of more than 20 years had excellent and more knowledge of type 2 diabetes mellitus. The problems of diabetes mellitus among their relatives and friends, its causative factors, symptoms and course was found insignificant. The knowledge of diagnostic test and interpretation had a positive correlation but insignificant. Majority of students 96 (48%) had average knowledge of diabetes mellitus.


Hypertension represents an important condition that affects the adult population worldwide; it contributes significantly to morbidity and mortality from stroke, heart failure, coronary heart disease and renal failure. Although the pathogenesis of most hypertension is unclear, imbalance of the autonomic nervous system has been implicated in its development. Heart rate variability (HRV) has emerged as a practical, non-invasive tool to quantitatively investigate cardiac autonomic imbalance in hypertension. The aim of our study was to highlight the complex heart rate modulation in hypertension and to analyze the behaviour of RR intervals dynamics compared to normotensives subjects. Beside the now consecrated well known heart rate variability parameters, it seems that new parameters like ΔHR (b/min) and ΔSBP (mmHg) can offer data related to the involvement of the circadian rhythm in hypertension.


Game Theory is applied to scientific and technological in vestment in this paper,and using the theory of principal-agent sets up a principal-agent incentive model. An incentive mechanism which the central government supports the local government on scientific and technological investment is studied. The risksof principal and agent are analyzed respectively and the necessary of the incentive mechanism is discussed.


We consider systems with finite sources of requests, multiple servers, and an arbitrary number of preemptive priority classes. The service times and the source idle times are assumed to be exponentially distributed. We present an efficient approach based on marginal state description. The approach allows a recurrent analysis of priority levels where the usage of servers by higher priority requests is accounted for through server vanishing and reappearance rates. We first consider systems with fixed priorities. The method is then extended to cases where sources can issue requests at several priority levels.


The water bodies are observed with the help of remote sensing images, and it is of high significance as it provides the information of the water resources available and its on going transformations. Image processing of the water bodies helps to control and find the measures related to the water scarcity, pollution, and also predicts the flood occurrence. The location of water bodies are finds. It is also important for the analysis of the hydrological features and for water resource management.Over the past decade, a significant amount of research been conducted to extract the water body information from various multi-resolution satellite images. The objective of this paper is to review methodologies applied for water body extraction using satellite remote sensing. [1]Further, the sections in this proposed research development identity the water bodies to predict the location of the water resources.


Current-driven magnetic domain wall (DW) motion has been extensively studied not only theoretically, but also experimentally. The DW motion is induced by spin-transfer torque, that is, the transfer of spin angular momentum from conduction electrons to localized electrons. The velocity of DW motion is proportional to the spin polarization [Pa = (σ↑ - σ↓)/(σ↑ + σ↓)] of electrical conductivity (σ) and its direction is the same as electron current when Pσ > 0. The reverse DW motion is thus expected in ferromagnetic materials with negative spin polarization (Pσ <; 0) compared to those with positive spin polarization, because minority spin dominates the electrical conduction. Thereby, spintronics devices composed of both a positive Pσ material and a negative Pσ material, are of fundamental interest. We have paid a lot of attention to ferromagnetic Fe4N epitaxial films for application to spintronics devices because it is theoretically expected to have a large negative spin polarization (Pσ = -1.0). Very recently, we confirmed its negative spin polarization by experiment.


Abstract A new species of eriophyid mite, Paraphytoptus moliniae Skoracka, n. sp. inhabiting purple moorgrass, Molinia coerulea (L.) Moench (Poaceae), is described from Austria. This is the first species of the genus Paraphytoptus described from grass. A new host plant, alpine bluegrass, Poa alpina L. (Poaceae), for Aculus sayanicus Skoracka is recorded. Aculus sayanicus was described from Arshan in southern Russia and is recorded in Europe for the first time.


This paper presents an optimal scheduling strategy that decouples the dynamic formulation for dispatching energy storage units from dispatching ac grid power exchange in microgrids. This method takes into account the time-of-use price of electricity. It also considers initial stored energy as a decision variable in the optimization process instead of a fixed parameter. Case studies and results have been presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed strategies.


The APC tumor-suppressor protein associates with j8-catenin, a cell adhesion protein that is upregulated by the WNTI oncogene. We examined the effects of exogenous APC expression on the distribution and amount of 13-catenin in a colorectal cancer cell containing only mutant APC. Expression of wild-type APC caused a pronounced reduction in total fJ-catenin levels by eliminating an excessive supply of cytoplasmic 18-catenin indigenous to the SW480 colorectal cancer cell line. This reduction was due to an enhanced rate of 18-catenin protein degradation. Truncated mutant APC proteins, characteristic ofthose associated with cancer, lacked this activity. Mutational analysis revealed that the central region of the APC protein, which is typically deleted or severely truncated in tumors, was responsible for the downregulation of g8-catenin. These results suggest that the tumor-suppressor activity of mutant APC may be compromised due to a defect in its ability to regulate ,3-catenin.


Objective: To study the implement and effect of clinical nursing pathway in the perioperative health education of the elderly oral cancer patients.Methods: 80 aged oral cancer patients were randomly divided into two groups.Observation group accepted clinical nursing pathway for health education,and control group accepted routine daily care.Results: the mastery of the knowledge both before and after the surgery and the patients' satisfaction with nursing care in the observation group were superior to those in control group.Conclusion: the implement of clinical nursing pathway in health education improve the patients' mastery of the knowledge of the disease and the patients' satisfaction with nursing care.


Abstract The concept of dynamic equivalence of nonlinear time-variant systems defined on discrete-time scales is introduced. There are studied relations between classical static state feedback and external dynamic feedback. There is proved that if two time-variant systems defined on any discrete time scale are locally equivalent with respect to the regular static state feedback transformations then they are locally equivalent with respect to the external dynamic feedback transformations.


Frame-based optical flow (OF) methods struggle in the presence of large motion and occlusion due to slow frame rates. Optical flow of dynamic vision sensor (DVS) has gained attention recently as a way to overcome these shortcomings. DVS reports "events" corresponding log intensity changes exceeding a specific threshold, with an accuracy of microsecond order. The increased temporal sampling rate are indeed helpful, but the poor spatial fidelity of DVS outputs make events-based OF less reliable overall. In this work, we consider a new sensor called DAViS that combines the conventional active pixel sensor (APS) and DVS circuitries, yielding a conventional intensity image frames as well as the events. We propose a novel optical flow method designed specifically for a DAViS camera that leverages the high spatial fidelity of intensity image frames and the high temporal resolution of events generated by DVS. Hence, the proposed DAViS-OF method yields reliable motion vector estimates while overcoming the fast motion and occlusion problems. The proposed DAViS-OF method is computationally efficient and is suitable for real-time implementation.


Whole-cell recordings from rat lateral amygdala (LA) revealed two populations of principal neurons, that have similar pyramid-like morphologies but differing in firing pattern: late-spiking (LS, 66%) and regular-spiking (RS, 34%). The presence of large numbers of LS neurons arguably supports recent suggestions that the LA should be considered to be a functional extension of perirhinal cortex.


African countries South of the Saharan Desert are predominately rural. A review of literature on current trends in special education in selected Sub-Saharan African countries indicates a changing attitude toward individuals with disabilities. Modern practices have been influenced by the development of basic education, the enactment of national policies, and heightened public awareness created by the United Nations' International Year (1981) and Decade of the Disabled (1981–1991). This work provides an overview of the historical development of special education in several Sub-Saharan countries, describes current conditions, and makes recommendations for further positive change.


This paper investigates the influences of vector hysteretic properties of non-oriented silicon steel sheet on a three-phase induction motor model. The vector hysteretic properties are measured by using two-dimensional single sheet tester and modeled by using E&S vector hysteresis model to be applied to finite element method. By compared with numerical results from a typical B-H curve model, the influences of the vector hysteretic properties of the non-oriented silicon steel sheet are verified.


Background—The maximal oxygen uptake (peak &OV0312;o2) is used in risk stratification of patients with chronic heart failure (CHF). Peak &OV0312;o2 might be lower than maximally possible if exercise is stopped early because of lack of patient motivation or premature cessation by the investigator. In contrast, the anaerobic threshold (&OV0312;o2AT) and the ventilatory efficiency (&OV0312;e versus &OV0312;co2 slope) are less subject to these influences. Thus, we compared these parameters with peak &OV0312;o2 in identifying patients with CHF at increased risk for death within 6 months after evaluation. Methods and Results—We performed cardiopulmonary exercise tests with gas exchange measurements in 223 consecutive patients with CHF (114 coronary artery disease, 92 dilated cardiomyopathy, 17 others) at the Herzzentrum Ludwigshafen between 1995 and 1998. We measured peak &OV0312;o2, &OV0312;o2AT and &OV0312;e versus &OV0312;co2 slope. We selected peak &OV0312;o2 of ≤14 mL/kg per minute, &OV0312;o2AT of <11 mL/kg per minute, and &OV0312;e versus &OV0312;co2 slope of >34 as threshold values for high risk of death. The median follow-up time was 644 days. Patients with peak &OV0312;o2 of ≤14 mL/kg per minute had a >3-fold-increased risk (OR=3.4; CI, 1.3 to 9.1), with &OV0312;o2AT <11 mL/min per kg or &OV0312;e versus &OV0312;co2 slope >34 a 5-fold increased risk for early death (OR=5.3; CI, 1.5 to 19.0; OR=4.8; CI, 1.7 to 13.8, respectively). In patients with both &OV0312;o2AT <11 mL/kg per minute and &OV0312;e versus &OV0312;co2 slope >34, the risk of early death was 10-fold higher (OR=9.6; CI, 2.1 to 44.7). After correction for age, sex, left ventricular ejection fraction, and New York Heart Association class in a multivariate analysis, the combination of &OV0312;o2AT <11 mL/kg per minute and &OV0312;e versus &OV0312;co2 slope >34 was the best predictor of 6-month mortality (RR=5.1, P =0.001). Conclusions—&OV0312;o2AT of <11 mL/kg per minute and slope of &OV0312;e versus &OV0312;co2 >34, combined, better identified patients at high risk for early death from CHF than did peak &OV0312;o2 and should therefore be considered when prioritizing patients for heart transplantation.


The topic of this article is the development of democracy and human rights in Azerbaijan, but since these virtues are inversely correlated with corruption, it is natural to raise this issue too and since oil is the country's primary earner, the use made of the oil revenues will affect the prevalence of corruption. The attitude of the Western oil industry to Azerbaijani corruption is therefore crucial. The in-depth interviews with 20 of the leading opposition politicians in Azerbaijan constitute the data for this study. We have gained good insight into the Azerbaijani oppositiona l elite's perception of the Western oil industry and its operations in their country. Some people may react to the making of allegations about the oil industry that they consider unfair or even downright false. Fair or unfair, true or untrue is not the point: perceptions are also facts, part of the Azerbaijani reality to which the oil industry must relate, and so the industry will do well to listen. The study shows how easy it is—almost without being aware of it—to become caught up in the paralysing culture of corruption and Ž nally become a part of it. Some respondents attempt to relate this phenomenon in terms of Azerbaijani history, to see it as normal, natural or at any rate inevitable ; but it is also sharply condemned. Our data uncover a growing unease in Azerbaijan, a fear that the expected oil wealth will be squandered by the narrow and corrupt power elite that is now on top and is steadily entrenching itself further. Precedent from other oil states is frightening. There is little doubt that the only hope of eradicating the culture of corruption lies in strengthening civil society. It is therefore most encouraging to note that there is a very active political opposition that advocates precisely this. That members of the national assembly and political parties are prepared openly to criticize and to work systematically for democratic development—in the full knowledge that this may lead to reprisals against themselves and their families— is a new phenomenon in Azerbaijani society.


The aim of the study is to answer what governments can do to work against increasing wealth and income inequalities. In a theoretical part I describe how inheritance and income inequality are impor ...


Feminist theology / exegesis and feminist science have a very difficult relationship. The construction of gender relations that is the superiority of the man and the subordination of women, the understanding of masculinity as a spirit who claims priority over the female (body, body, sexuality), runs through the whole of Western intellectual history and has been repeatedly Bible with the aid texts from Genesis legitimized and cemented theologically. The identification of Eve with a sexually understood seduction is connected throughout the Western history again and again with the male claim to hold the female sexuality under control, the subordination to man (husband, father) who over the purity of the woman watch has to stress and also to judge how they should look, up to the present time. The original context of the chapter is in French. Keywords: feminist theology; masculinity; Western societies


Lamb waves generally consist of many dispersive modes, which makes mode identification difficult. This study discribes the extraction of a single mode from multiple modes. The single mode extraction is based on two dimensional Fast Fourie Transform (2 D FFT) in time and space, signal filtering and 2 D inverse FFT. Air-coupled ultrasonic technique were adopted for non-contact fast measurements. Using this technique, the A 0 and S 0 modes were clearly detected in preliminary tests of intact plates. Furthermore, multiple reflections of the A 0 mode, which were shown only in the computer simulation, were experimentally confirmed in reflection tests of plates with a square notch. In the reflection tests, two reflected waves were extracted in the intervals corresponding to notch widths.


ABSTRACT Choi, J.Y. and Heo, K.Y., 2019. Impact of the initial conditions from an atmospheric model on a wave forecast system. In: Lee, J.L.; Yoon, J.-S.; Cho, W.C.; Muin, M., and Lee, J. (eds.), T...


One of the key concepts of Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) is model transformations. Because of the crucial role of model transformations in MDE, they have to be treated in a similar way as traditional software artifacts. It is therefore necessary to de??ne and assess their quality. In this paper we present a set of metrics for assessing the quality of ATL model transformations.


New Zealand fjords (Fig. 1e) contain submerged, relict, proglacial lacustrine and marine deltas that formed after glaciers retreated from the west coast by 17 ka (Pickrill et al. 1992). Many of these deltas, for example those in Bradshaw and George sounds, are exceptionally well preserved because postglacial sedimentation rates have been low.

 Fig. 1.
Relict proglacial deltas in Bradshaw and George sounds, Fiordland, New Zealand. ( a ) Swath-bathymetric image of the head of George Sound superimposed on a hill-shaded DEM. Acquisition system Kongsberg EM300. Frequency 30 kHz. Grid-cell size 5 m. EB, Elder Basin; WB, Whitewater Basin; SWB, South-West Basin; AD, Anchorage Delta; WD, Whitewater Delta; SWAD, South-West Arm Delta; ALD, Alice Delta; AF, Alice Falls. ( b ) Head of Bradshaw Sound. BB, Bradshaw Basin; GAD, Gaer Arm Delta; PD, Precipice Delta. ( c ) Long-axis profile from EB to Lake Alice (LA), across the relict proglacial ALD and WB. VE×11. ( d ) Long-axis profile across the modern and relict proglacial components of GAD. VE ×10. ( e ) Location of study area (red box; map from GEBCO_08). ( f ) Enlargement showing bathymetric details of the AD foreset slope off Anchorage Cove. ( g ) Head …


Part I: Foundations of Multiple Regression Analysis. Overview. Simple Linear Regression and Correlation. Regression Diagnostics. Computers and Computer Programs. Elements of Multiple Regression Analysis: Two Independent Variables. General Method of Multiple Regression Analysis: Matrix Operations. Statistical Control: Partial and Semi-Partial Correlation. Prediction. Part II: Multiple Regression Analysis. Variance Partitioning. Analysis of Effects. A Categorical Independent Variable: Dummy, Effect, And Orthogonal Coding. Multiple Categorical Independent Variables and Factorial Designs. Curvilinear Regression Analysis. Continuous and Categorical Independent Variables I: Attribute-Treatment Interaction, Comparing Regression Equations. Continuous and Categorical Independent Variables II: Analysis of Covariance. Elements of Multilevel Analysis. Categorical Dependent Variable: Logistic Regression. Part III: Structural Equation Models. Structural Equation Models with Observed Variables: Path Analysis. Structural Equation Models with Latent Variables. Part IV: Multivariate Analysis. Regression, Discriminant, And Multivariate Analysis of Variance: Two Groups. Canonical, Discriminant, And Multivariate Analysis of Variance: Extensions. Appendices.


The asymmetric unit of the title Pd complex, [PdCl 2 (C 6 H 10 S) 2 ], consists of two independent half molecules lying on inversion centres. The Pd atoms have square-planar coordination with Pd-S distances of 2.300(2) and 2.313(2) A, Pd-Cl distances of 2.300 (2) and 2.307(2)A, and S-Pd-Cl angles of 88.21 (8) and 90.12 (8)°. The Pt complex, [PtC1 2 (C 6 H 10 S) 2 ], has the Pt atom lying on an inversion centre, also has square-planar coordination, and has a Pt-S distance of 2.286(2), a Pt-Cl distance of 2.300(2)A and a S-Pt-Cl angle of 89.25 (8)°.


Although being one of few drought-tolerant plants of economic importance, mango trees are irrigated to ensure optimum and consistent productivity. Especially during the dry season, when water is becoming scarce, the need for irrigation poses an increasing problem to mango production in Northern Thailand. Therefore water saving irrigation strategies should help to decrease water consumption and hence improve the water shortage situation for local farmers. To investigate possible negative effects of deficit irrigation on yield and fruit growth, 196 ten-year-old 'Chok Anan' mango trees, at an experimental plot near Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand, were assigned to five irrigation regimes commencing two weeks after onset of flowering: a) full irrigation (FI) as calculated based on the climatic water balance according to the Penman-Monteith equation; b) deficit irrigation (DI) with 75% of FI (DI75); c) deficit irrigation with 50% of FI (DI50); d) partial root zone drying (PRD) with 50% of FI; and e) no irrigation. PRD is a novel irrigation technique presumably based on the induction of hormonal changes by targeted withdrawal of water to part of the root system, resulting in reduced stomatal aperture, decreased water consumption and reduced vegetative growth. Soil moisture was measured in three depths (10, 30, 50 cm) by Time Domain Reflectrometry (TDR). Stomatal closure was determined by use of a portable porometer. The yield was quantified gravimetrically per tree and classified into weight classes according to recommendation of the Thai Ministry of Agriculture. Fruit growth was monitored six weeks prior to harvest by measuring length and maximum width of the fruit. After two years of experiment the results showed a potential to increase water-use efficiency (WUE) of mango by deficit irrigation. Only in one year yield in PRD-irrigated trees was significantly lower than in FI trees. Especially in the second year there was no significant difference between DI50 and PRD. DI75 had the greatest yield, however not significantly higher than FI. Differences in yield were mainly attributed to the number of fruits per tree. In addition some positive influence of deficit irrigation, i.e. DI50 and PRD, on fruit growth could be monitored. As a conclusion it can be assumed, that the crop coefficient (Kc) for mango, which is commonly used to calculate potential crop evapotranspiration (ETc) based on the potential reference evapotranspiration (ET0), overestimates the water requirement for optimum yield. INTRODUCTION Climatic changes (e.g. lack of precipitation) and expanding land use in horticulture have intensified pressure on water availability making it to an increasingly scarce 357 Proc. VIII th Int. Mango Symposium


A variety of industrial technological laser systems with 1.5, 2.5 - 3.5, 8 - 10 kW power have been developed around the multibeam diffusion-cooled CO2 lasers. A number of technological processes of parts hardening and reconditioning (sleeves made in cast iron, cylinder of diesel locomotive engines, crankshafts and camshafts of tractor engines, parts of car and tractor running gears, rings of drilling bearings, lead screws, machine guides), that employ the LTS have been developed and introduced at various industries.


In 2019, the Infectious Diseases Society of America published guidelines for the management of asymptomatic bacteriuria (ASB) with recommendations to avoid antimicrobial therapy in most patients. Denver Health has existing guidance for the management of patients with a urinary tract infection (UTI) and in August of 2019, implemented specific guidance for the management of ASB. As an institution, Denver Health has a Standardized Antimicrobial Administration Ratio (SAAR) of 0.8-0.9, suggesting a strong antimicrobial stewardship program with a ratio of < 1. The purpose of this study is to assess if signs and symptoms were present in patients prescribed an antibiotic for UTI.

 We retrospectively identified hospitalized patients at least 18 years old who were prescribed an antibiotic with "UTI" as the indication from March 1st to August 31st, 2019. Patients with catheter-associated UTIs were excluded. A random sample of 50 cases was manually reviewed for signs and symptoms of infection. Signs were considered fever, defined as at least 38oC or leukocytosis, defined as at least 10 k/uL WBC. Symptoms collected were based on documentation of patient reported dysuria, frequency, or urgency, or findings of hematuria. The primary outcome was proportion of patients prescribed an antibiotic for UTI in the absence of signs or symptoms. Prescribing patterns for choice and duration of antimicrobials were also surveyed.

 A total of 382 antibiotics were prescribed for UTI during the study period. Of the 50 cases reviewed, median age was 65.8 years, with 11% being male. Overall, 29 patients (58%) had no documented symptoms while being treated for UTI. Additionally, 22 patients (44%) had no documented fever, leukocytosis, or urinary symptoms. The most commonly prescribed antibiotics were cefdinir, fosfomycin, and nitrofurantoin. Tables 1 and 2 include additional findings.
 Table 1 Symptomology and Type of UTI

 Table 2 Antimicrobial Choice and Duration

 Despite a well established stewardship program, nearly half of patients prescribed an antibiotic for UTI did not have signs or symptoms consistent with infection. This suggests many patients were treated for ASB, without necessity. Among hospitals with comparatively low antibiotic use, ASB may be a high-yield opportunity to reduce unnecessary antibiotic use.

 All Authors: No reported disclosures


SUMMARY

Spodoptera exigua nuclear polyhedrosis virus was produced in late fourth instar S. exigua larvae, reared on semi-artificial diet. A maximum amount of virus, 1–2 × 109 polyhedra/larva, was produced in individually-reared larvae after 7 days of incubation, with an inoculum of 7–5 × 104 polyhedra/cm2 diet surface.

Virus yield was slightly reduced to 9 × 108 polyhedra/larva when production was carried out in groups of 400 and 600 larvae per container. Biological activity of virus harvested from living larvae and from dead cadavers was similar. Microbial contaminants, predominantly bacteria, in the virus product numbered 1–6% of the number of polyhedra. Tests for the presence of vertebrate-pathogenic bacteria in the virus product were all negative.


Slavemaking occurs in 8 genera or ants belonging to 2 subfamilies. Their raiding behaviour is described and compared. The basic organisation of a raid comprises scouting, recruitment, fight, and brood transportation. These elements can ordinarily be derived from the behaviour of the independent host species. Certain trends in the evolution of recruitment and fighting behaviour are discussed. "Intraspecific slavery", which has been described by various authors, probably belongs to territorial behaviour. We doubt whether it represents an evolutionary precursor of true, interspecific slavery.


. For a low frequency drift wave helical structure to be embedded in a strongly inhomogeneous plasma edge, a self-consistent radial electric field must have built up such that a(wE + U:)/& I 0 (w I wE + U: is the drift mode angular frequency, where wE is the E X B Doppler shift and U: is the electron diamagnetic frequency). Further, at marginal stability, the destabilizing action of the wave through neutrals ionization must be balanced by electron Landau damping (rather than collisional damping, as the latter would lead to a thermally unstable equilibrium constraint). These two conditions imply certain relationships between the profiles which are shown to be apparently satisfied in DIII-D (this experiment affording a high spatial resolution). The marginal stability condition, in which Landau damping is proportional to the toroidal mode number (l), suggests that only the I = 1 mode may persist in the equilibrium: this is the case with the Toi mode observed in the low confinement regime of the ASDEX tokamak. The marginal stability condition closes the system of quasi-linear cross-field transport equations, in which the square of the modulus of the eigenfunction is - by comparison with neoclassical transport theory - an extra unknown entering the expressions of the anomalous particle and heat fluxes. The quasi-linear particle flux, however, is directed inward: quasi-linear theory, therefore, is not compatible with a stationary equilibrium edge model in which ionization of the neutrals produced by recycling would trigger the anomalous retum flow of ionized particles to the material structure. In the plasma edge, quasi-linear cross-field transport theory is inappropriate if 'open' field lines - impinging on the target plates - penetrate the plasma to a depth of a few centimetres, as will be the case if the mode develops a sufficiently broad magnetic island; this study will be the subject of Part 11.


Since the Spanish flu in 1918, there has not been such a large-scale pandemic, causing significant damage to the economy of Russia and other countries, as the novel coronavirus infection COVID-19, which began in December 2019. The SARS-CoV-2 virus is highly infectious and can proceed both asymptomatic and in an extremely severe form, especially in the presence of comorbidity. Despite the fact that the clinical picture is associated with respiratory syndrome, long-term neurological symptoms are increasingly observed. In this study, we tried to find out the most pronounced and long-lasting neurological symptoms in the first 6 months after the novel coronavirus infection COVID-19. An important role in the rehabilitation process of this group of patients is played by the strategy of neurocytoprotection, which is aimed at preventing and reducing neuronal damage by affecting the cellular mechanisms of neuroregeneration and cerebral reorganization, which leads not only to structural and metabolic, but also to functional recovery.


This paper summarizes the kinds of echolocation used by bats,the ways they emit ultrasonic sound, categories and acoustic features of echolocation signals and the importance of the Doppler Shift to Long CF/FM. It also describes intra specific acoustic communication such as is used in mating behavior and mother pups recognition. Some open, but very important questions in this field are raised.


Smart cities are designed to satisfy the needs of residents and improve their quality of life by providing a wide range of smart city services. One of the keys to the efficient operation of smart city services is the accurate forecast of the missing Quality of Service (QoS). Presently, many approaches utilize the context information of users and services, such as geographic location and network location, to somewhat increase the prediction accuracy and forecast the missing QoS values. However, because the network conditions and server status are unpredictable, time is also considered as one of the important factors affecting QoS prediction, which brings more challenges as follows: higher data dimension, more complex data characteristics, and higher data sparsity. To overcome these challenges, we propose an approach for time-aware Web service QoS prediction based on contrastive learning (named CLpred). CLpred utilizes a sequential data input format for QoS data and models these QoS sequences through transformer encoder with CLpred framework. Therefore, it can downscale QoS data and extract a more efficient representation in complex QoS data. Furthermore, it makes it possible to apply data augmentation methods to address the problems of data sparsity. In order to prove the superiority of the proposed approach, particularly inside the presence of extremely high-data sparsity, extensive experiments are conducted on the well-known service QoS data set WSDREAM.


In this paper, we analyze the symbol error probability (SEP) performance of square M-ary quadrature amplitude modulation (M-QAM) with dual-hop relay transmission considering independent and non-identical flat Nakagami-m fading channels. The relay is operating under amplify-and-forward (AF) mode with average power scaling (APS) and instantaneous power scaling (IPS) constraints. Simplified closed-form expressions for the SEP are presented following the cumulative distribution function (cdf) based approach. Moreover, using a series representation of complementary error function er fc(·), we derive exact SEP expression under sufficiently large signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for the source-relay link and compared the error performance with the simplified SEP solution. Numerical and computer simulations results are presented to verify the accuracy of the proposed mathematical analysis.


This work reported the static and dynamic hydrophobic properties of the honeycomb porous and peeled films with pincushion structures by changing the concentrations of the copolymer solution. Honeycomb porous films were fabricated via breath figure technology employing a pentablock copolymer containing poly(ethylene glycol)/PEG, poly(methyl methacrylate)/PMMA, and poly(trifluoroethyl methacrylate)/PTFEMA. The relationship between the copolymer concentrations and the pore size (D) and rim width (W) was examined. Moreover, we studied the hydrophobic properties from different surfaces of flat, porous, and pincushion structures, and the contact angles, W/D ratios, and fraction of air on the porous and pincushion films were obtained. It was noteworthy that the W/D ratios and surface hydrophobic properties had a notable correlation. Finally, the dynamic behaviors of water droplets impacting on these porous and pincushion films were examined using a high speed camera. It examined the influence of the fraction of ...


It is found that the differential extinction ΔE(B - V) in open clusters, which may be due to the presence of gas and dust, decreases systematically with the age of the cluster. Consequently we can infer that the average gas removal time must be about 10 8 yr. The present work supports the findings of Elmegreen (1983) that bound clusters are formed in low-mass clouds (M ≤ l0 4 M ⊙ ) while the unbound OB associations are formed in clouds having higher masses (M > 10 5 M ⊙ . It is also concluded that if formation of bound clusters takes place in low-mass clouds (M ~ 10 4 M ⊙ ) only, then the observed low cluster formation rate and higher space density of low-mass clouds suggest that star formation in open clusters must be a continuous process for about 10 8 yr. The present work also supports the existence of a corona around open clusters and it is concluded that the coronal regions in bound open clusters are dynamically stable in the tidal forces of the Galaxy.


The article focuses on the current state and the problems concerning implementing joint educational programs by Russia and China. The author dwells on the concept of the joint educational program, proposes a classification of joint educational programs, including joint degree programs (joint diploma), double degree programs (double diplomas), and the program of included training. The analysis of visiting Russian-Chinese and inbound Sino-Russian joint educational programs as at 2018 was carried out. The problems and obstacles of joint educational programs implementation by Russia and China are revealed, among which are: legislation problems, problems of the language of instruction, problems of the cost of education, the necessary information support. The most serious problems relate to the legislation. First of all, it is the uncertainty concerning the meaning of the term "joint educational program" in the legislation framework. The attendant problems are licensing and accreditation of joint programs, award of diplomas, asymmetry between the number of visiting and inbound programs. The author comes to a conclusion that the legislation framework in the sphere of joint educational programs should include the following items: enrolment rules for foreign students in Russian universities; mechanisms of recognition of mobility periods and credits transfer for foreign participants of joint programs, migration rules of short-term courses.


Today's journalism students are probably not best placed to appreciate the fact, but they should count themselves lucky that their studies coincide with an apparently limitless supply of good new books on the subject. Any student with access to either a decent university library or the funds of a well-heeled parent can now get their hands on a wealth of journalistic insight for a minimum of effort. If only a few more of them would actually read a bit more of the stuff . . . A worthy addition to many reading lists will be Stuart Allan's edited collection, which weighs in at almost 400 large-format pages and contains contributions by more than 30 journalism scholars from the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. If its strength is the breadth of issues covered, that is also its weakness: excellent for dipping into, the whole is rather bitty with many of the chapters feeling too short. However, that should not diminish its attraction within a market where books now tend to be read via the contents and index pages rather than from start to finish. So, why yet another journalism book at this time? Apart, that is, from the obvious answer that academics need to keep their employers happy by producing more and more research outputs. Because, as Allan makes clear in his introduction (p. 1), ''these are troubled times for journalism'', with critic after critic declaring a state of crisis. The background music to the crisis chorus has been provided by the Hutton Report (in the United Kingdom) and the fakery of Jayson Blair (in the United States), although the assembled authors identify many other discordant notes within contemporary journalism, from the perpetuation of racist and sexist attitudes to the creation of a ''democratic deficit'' within society. To address these and the other ''critical issues'' of its title, the book is divided into five sections: history; democracy; ''realities''; ''othering''; and the public interest.


This document describes the annual cycle of the trajectory track line (TTL) fine scale thermal structure as captured by global positioning system (GPS) radio occultation and the pressure levels of the East Meets West Foundation (EMWF) weather analysis. This annual cycle is compared to the annual cycle in water concentrations measured by the HALogen Occultation Experiment (HALOE). A comparison between saturation mixing ratios at the temperatures captured by GPS radio occultation and HALOE concentrations of water vapor shows an annual cycle that is dominated by supersaturation in the boreal winter months, when the upward mass fluxes are larger, and subsaturation in the summer. The longitudinal dependence of these cycles is discussed as well as the possible implications for the seasonality of stratospheric-troposheric exchanges of water.


While the concentration of major air pollutants such as Carbon Monoxide (CO) and Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) in the air has decreased, the concentration of photochemical oxidants is on a slight increasing trend. Also, with regard to the fine Particulate Matter (called "PM2.5" below) described in the 2009 environmental standards, an environmental monitoring network is being prepared. However, in FY2012, 43.3% of the environmental standard was achieved at air pollution monitoring stations, and 33.3% of the standard was achieved at motor vehicle exhaust monitoring stations, and effective counter measures are being required. Atmospheric environmental problems are one of the major issues in bui ld ing a recyclingoriented society that can continuously grow and must be solved on a global scale, not just in Japan. Measuring the air is different from measuring gases emitted from fixed sources such as garbage incineration or power generationthe concentration of the substance to be measured that diffuses into the air is generally low. For that reason, highsensitivity, stable measurements are required for measuring components in the air. This paper will introduce the features of the newly developed fine particulate matter concentration monitoring device (APDA375A) for monitoring air pollution based on the HORIBA Group's measurement technology that has been cultivated over long years, and will also introduce the HORIBA Group's applications for measurement technology.


This paper introduces an augmentation to the widely applicable competitive profile matrix (CPM) in the form of statistical testing of the obtained evaluation results. The initial CPM form was transformed into a correlated CPM (CCPM) form, and the easily applicable CPM questionnaire was sent out to small and medium winemakers and wine experts (connoisseurs). The respondents' answers were statistically tested using correlation coefficient and p-value significance testing. The resulting correlation differences were observed, and, accordingly, recommendations were given for the examined wine producers' improvement and an optimal type of support to small and medium entrepreneurs in the wine business. Real field data obtained from Croatian winemakers were used as a case study for the proposed CCPM form.


Sonolytic ozonation (US/O3 oxidation) is an advanced oxidation process that has become a focus of intense investigation. In this study, the nitroaromatic compound m-nitrotoluene (MNT) was chosen as a model substrate for degradation experiments in which pH, initial concentration of MNT, ozone dose, and US density were varied. At pH 10.0, initial concentration of MNT 400 mg/L, ozone dose 2.4 g/h, and US energy density 88 W/L, the efficiency of MNT removal reached 98% after 120 min. Of the initial degradation rate of MNT abatement, 9.8, 4.1, and 1.1 mg/(L min) were observed with US/O3, O3, and US, respectively. The variation of the concentrations of related anions (oxalate, acetate, formate, and nitrate ion) during the reaction process was ascertained by ion chromatography (IC). The major intermediates detected by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) were 3-nitrobenzaldehyde, 3-nitrobenzoic acid, nitrobenzene, benzene, butene diacid, oxalic acid, and acetic acid. A degradation pathway is proposed on ...


I n this issue of the Journal, Parnetti et al. present impressive evidence that a group of older people with complaints of mild impairments of memory also had impairments on neuropsychological testing, measurements of cerebral blood flow, and neuropsychological testing, even though these subjects were not significantly disabled by the memory problems of which they complained. Their documented impairments were intermediate between those of age-matched subjects with no memory problems and those with Alzheimer's Disease (AD). Parnetti et al. studied six subjects in each of three groups (Intact, Age-Associated Memory Impairment (AAMI), and AD), a total of only 18 subjects. Despite these small numbers, the data were clear and statistically significant. The authors conclude that AAMI may include a group of patients with early AD. This interpretation agrees with a large body of literature, but it also raises fundamental questions about the relation between aging and disease, specifically in the brain. These questions have been debated at least since the description of AD in 1907.