While acoustic scatter from oceanic turbulence is sensitive to temperature–salinity covariations, there are unfortunately no published measurements of the turbulent temperature–salinity co-spectrum. Several models have been proposed for the form of the co-spectrum of two scalars in turbulence, but they all produce unsatisfactory results when applied to the turbulent scattering equations (either predicting negative scattering cross-sections in some regimes or predicting implausible levels of correlation between temperature and salinity at some scales). A new model is proposed and shown to give physically plausible scattering predictions in all density regimes. High-frequency acoustic data illustrate the importance of the co-spectrum for acoustic scattering, but were collected in a density regime where there is little difference between the co-spectrum models.


Urolithiasis and kidney disease as causes of significant mortality in fowls were investigated in two flocks of commercial laying birds on farms where outbreaks had occurred previously. The investigation, covering the first 10-11 months of egg production, included macroscopic and histological examination of individual cases of the disease, biochemical studies on blood samples collected at regular intervals from marked birds and the analysis of feed samples taken at the same time. The aetiology and pathogenesis of the condition was not established and the various investigations carried out did not reveal any consistent features. The possibility of an association between infectious bronchitis virus and the pathological entity described in the paper is discussed.


This paper presents an energy aware resource allocation approach that benefits from modal nature of hard real-time systems under consideration. The modal nature of considered applications made it possible to decrease the number of active cores consuming high power in certain modes or to switch into core states with lower power consumption, which lead to considerable energy savings while still not violating any of timing constraints. For the considered automotive use case, the number of required cores has been decreased by up to 75% in a particular mode and relatively low amount of data is to be migrated during the mode change. The trade-off between the amount of data to be migrated and energy dissipation in the subsequent state is also analysed.


Answers on p 130.

A 36 year old man, a victim of road traffic accident, with head injury and epistaxis, was taken to a district hospital. He was intubated with an orotracheal tube and his scalp injury was dressed, and he was referred to …


Two cases of spinal arachnoid cyst were examined by MR imaging at 1, 5 T (Signa; General Electric). In both cases, a large cystic mass was demonstrated in the thoraco-lumbar region. On a T2-weighted mid-sagittal image, a hypointense septum between the cystic mass and the subarachnoid space was identified in both cases. At surgery, an extradural arachnoid cyst was found in case 2. But, case 1 had an intradural one.


A method to improve positioning accuracy of an indoor messaging system (IMES) was developed. This method uses Doppler shifts (produced by moving a receiver antenna) and three-dimensional attitude to determine the position of the receiver. A rotation-type Doppler-measurement system applying this method was developed. To evaluate the system, two experiments were conducted: in one, rotation radius of a movable receiver antenna was varied; in the other, position where positioning is conducted was varied. The experimental results show that the method can achieve centimeter- to decimeter-level positioning accuracy.


Dear Editor, Leber's hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) is an inherited disorder that causes visual loss predominantly in young men. More than 90% of LHON cases are due to one of the following three primary mitochondrial DNA point mutations: G3460A, G11778A, and T14484C.1 While the T14484C mutation is known to show milder pathogenicity and a better outcome than the other mutations,2 here we report a patient with that mutation who showed extended neurologic abnormalities in addition to visual loss. A 34-year-old man presented with a 7-month history of decreased vision affecting both eyes simultaneously. The visual decline had progressed over the most-recent several weeks, and there was no ocular pain. Five months previously he had experienced numbness in both legs, difficulty in climbing stairs, urgency of micturition, and occasional erectile dysfunction. A lumbar laminectomy had been performed without any relief of the symptoms. He had a history of excessive smoking and alcohol consumption. His visual acuity was 20/400 in each eye. Pupillary light responses were preserved without a relative afferent pupillary defect. Ophthalmoscopy showed temporal pallor of the optic disc in both eyes (Fig. 1A). Emotional blunting and psychomotor slowing were inferred from delayed and monotonous speech, inappropriate social judgment, and obtunded facial expression. He showed slow locomotion without rigidity or tremor, and mild proximal weakness of both legs. Sensation was diminished for vibration and light touch in the lower extremities. Deep tendon reflexes were slightly increased in the legs without extensor plantar responses. The blood pressure and heart rate were elevated without arrhythmia. His waist circumference was 104 cm and his body mass index was 32 kg/m2. Optical coherence tomography revealed thinning of the retinal nerve fiber layer in the temporal quadrants (Fig. 1B). Perimetry showed central scotoma in both eyes (Fig. 1C). Pattern-reversal visual evoked potentials were absent bilaterally. The findings of nerve conduction studies were normal, but posterior tibial nerve somatosensory evoked potentials showed increased absolute latencies of the lumbar and thoracic potentials, and absent cortical potentials on both sides. Brain MRI disclosed slight atrophy of the cerebellum and widened sulci in the frontal and parietal cortices (Fig. 1D). Spine MRI revealed a loss of lumbar lordosis and central canal stenosis at multiple lumbar levels. The serum levels of vitamin B12, folate, glucose, and HbA1c (5.0%) were normal, and no infection markers were evident. He had hypercholesterolemia and hyperuricemia, but not lactic acidosis. Mitochondrial gene analysis confirmed a homoplasmic T-to-C point mutation at nucleotide position 14484 in the ND6 gene. His visual and neurologic status remained unchanged over the following 10 months. The incidence rates of visual recovery and favorable prognosis are known to be distinctly higher for the T14484C mutation than for the G3460A and G11778A mutations.2 The reported rates of visual recovery have been 37–58% for the T14484C mutation, compared to 15–20% for the G3460A mutation and 4–22% for the G11778A mutation.2 A favorable visual prognosis for the T14484C mutation was reported in other races including Koreans,3 but othSung-Hee Kim Ji-Soo Kim


The present paper deals with the microbial studies of the complex Co(II) & Cu(II) with antibiotic drug ampicillin, a formula  Co(C16H19N3O4S)2WO4.4H2O and Cu(C16H19N3O4S)2 WO4.3H2O has been suggested on the basis of elemental analysis and molar conductance for the newly synthesized complex. The microbial studies of synthesized complex were studied on pathogenic bacteria using gram +ve (Bacillus subtilis and Staphylococcus aureus) and gram -ve (Shigella flexneri, Salmonella typhosa, Escherichia coli) and some fungi (Aspergillus flavus, Fusarium oxysporum, Chrysosporium pannicale, Alternaria solani, Candida albicans ).


Ethanolic extract of Pongamia.pinnata leaves was investigated for possible anticonvulsant activity against pentylenetetrazol (PTZ) and Maximum Electroshock (MES) – induced seizures in mice. Effect of the extract on spontaneous locomotor activity was assessed using Actophotometer. Any possible change in brain GABA content was also determined, in a trial, to correlate such change with the anticonvulsant activity. In PTZ-induced seizures, the extract delayed the onset of convulsions dosedependently. The highest dose elicited complete protection against tonic hind leg extension together with remarkable reduction in mortality. In MES-induced convulsions, the extract produced significant increase in the current required to produce tonic hind leg extension. In Actophotometer the extract produced significant decrease in spontaneous locomotion compared with the control group. Brain GABA content was increased significantly by the extract in a dose-dependent manner. Thus, Investigation of ethanolic extract of P. pinnata leaves showed significant anticonvulsant activity comparable with the reference drug diazepam and such activity was accompanied with reduction in the locomotion and increase in brain GABA concentration.


Equal education is one of the most important parts of social equality, as well as one of main goals of the development of education. By analyzing Deng's four theories including reform of tuition,shares of cost,development of private universities and funding poor students,it is concluded that holding equal education is the basic principal of socialistic education.


This paper presents a user experience study of interaction with printed maps for providing digitally augmented tourism information. The Interactive Maps system has been implemented based on an interactive printed matter framework which provides all the necessary components for developing smart applications that offer printed matter interaction, and has been deployed and evaluated in the context of the publicly available Tourism InfoPoint of the Municipality of Heraklion. The results of the evaluation highlight that interacting with digitally augmented paper is quite easy and natural, while the overall user experience is positive.


This review article scrutiniz some of the vibrant technologies developed/ refined/adopted to improve agricultural system productivity in the Eastern Indo Gangetic plains. Efficient agronomic research and technological development for improving agricultural productivity in eastern region are the only options to feed our people under this difficult situation. These tested and refined technologies are not only capable of improving productivity in a sustainable manner but are equally efficient in minimizing the outbreak of insects and disease pests. Important agro-technology developed and refined for Eastern Region conditions are briefly discussed in this article.


In this paper a temperature control system for an automated educational classroom is optimized with several advanced computationally intelligent methods. Controller development and optimization has been based on developed and extensively tested mathematical and simulation model of the observed object. For the observed object cascade P-PI temperature controller has been designed and conventionally tuned. To improve performance and energy efficiency of the system, several metaheuristic optimizations of the controller have been attempted, namely genetic algorithm optimization, simulated annealing optimization, particle swarm optimization and ant colony optimization. Efficiency of the best results obtained with proposed computationally intelligent optimization methods has been compared with conventional controller tuning. Results presented in this paper demonstrate that heuristic optimization of advanced temperature controller can provide improved energy efficiency along with other performance improvements and improvements regarding equipment wear. Not only that presented methodology provides for determination and tuning of the core controller, but it also allows that advanced control concepts such as anti-windup controller gain are optimized simultaneously, which is of significant importance since interrelation of all control system parameters has important influence on the stability and performance of the system as a whole. Based on the results obtained, general conclusions are presented indicating that metaheuristic computationally intelligent optimization of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning control systems is a feasible concept with strong potential in providing improved performance, comfort and energy efficiency.


The private copy exception is a staple in most national copyright laws. It has its roots in the analogue era and has had its difficulties adapting to the new digital environment. The development of new forms of exploitations for protected content has put the exception under pressure. Relatively, new business models allow users to download and stream digital content on multiple devices at home and on-the-go. This article seeks to explore whether the private use exception under Article 5(2)(b) of the Information Society Directive (InfoSoc) is compatible with different online business models. First, the exception at the European level and at selected national levels (UK, FR, DE) is analysed as to its normative content. Second, limitations to the private use exception in the terms of use of download- and streaming-based services are compared and discussed as to their relation with the exception. Finally, the three-step test of Article 5(5) InfoSoc is applied to the private use exception in different scenarios. The article concludes with a brief summary of the findings.


We developed a highly sensitive displacement detection scheme for a GaAs-based electromechanical resonator using an integrated high electron mobility transistor (HEMT). Piezoelectric voltage generated by the vibration of the resonator is applied to the gate of the HEMT, resulting in the on-chip amplification of the signal voltage. This detection scheme achieves a displacement sensitivity of ∼9 pm·Hz-1/2, which is one of the highest among on-chip purely electrical displacement detection schemes at room temperature.


Aim To select a potential biomarker for early lung cancer diagnosis and targeted therapy by using the cancer specific bounded peptide ZS-6 which had already been obtained from the laboratory. Methods The peptide ZS-6 marked by biotin was used as a probe to pan out the human lung cancer cDNA phage display library,after 4 rounds of subtraction panning, the specific binding clones of ZS-6 were identified. After amplification and purification,then those DNA sequences were identified and analyzed with bioinformat-ics. Results 18 phage clones were identified to the specific peptide ZS-6 and the DNA sequence showed one of them was an unknown new gene while the others were known tumor related genes. Conclusion A tumor biomarker selected from human lung cancer cDNA library provides a potential tool for early lung cancer diagnosis and therapy.


Holistically assessing and improving the sustainability of 1 aquaculture development in China 2 3 Shuang-lin Dong✉*, Yun-wei Dong*, Johan Verreth, Yngvar Olsen, Wen-jing 4 Liu, Qi-zhi Fang, Ling Cao,Yan-gen Zhou, Li Li, Jing-yu Li, Yong-tong Mu, 5 Patrick Sorgeloos✉ 6 7 1. Key Laboratory of Mariculture (Ocean University of China), Ministry of 8 Education, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, P. R. China 9 2. Function Laboratory for Marine Fisheries Science and Food Production 10 Processes, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and 11 Technology, Qingdao, P. R. China 12 3. Aquaculture & Fisheries Group, Wageningen University and Research, 13 Wageningen, the Netherlands 14 4. Department of Biology, Norwegian University of Science & Technology, 15 Trondheim, Norway 16 5. School of Mathematical Science, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, P. R. 17 China 18 6. School of Oceanography, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, P. R. 19 China 20 7. Laboratory of Aquaculture & Artemia Reference Center, Ghent University, 21 Gent, Belgium 22 23 ✉To whom correspondence may be addressed. Email: firstname.lastname@example.com; 24 firstname.lastname@example.com. 25 *S.L.D. and Y.W.D. contributed equally to this work. 26


When evaluating a patient with an intracranial vascular disorder, it may be unclear, which neuroimaging modality is optimal; magnetic resonance angiography (MRA), computed tomography angiography (CTA), intra-arterial digital subtraction angiography (DSA), or routine magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or computed tomography (CT). We will discuss each angiographic technique, then outline the advantage of each imaging modality in the context of specific cases.


This article explains the complexities, and provides a critical analysis, of South Australia's environmental protection regime in relation to mining. In South Australia, the Mining Act 1971 (SA) and Mining Regulations 2011 (SA) together constitute the main statutory regime for protecting the environment from mining activities. While the creation of a separate set of environmental controls within the Mining Act means that a number of key environmental statutes do not generally apply to activities undertaken pursuant to licences or leases under the Mining Act, the legal position regarding environment protection is more complex than this statement suggests. This article's critique of the regime focuses on issues of compliance and enforcement.First, assuming that a robust system of third party participation is fundamental to a truly rigorous compliance and enforcement regime, it critically assesses the adequacy of rights of third party public participation in the assessment, decision and review of mining proposals. Secondly, given that the State Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy has the responsibility not only for promoting mining but also regulating the technical aspects of mining and ensuring that mining does not have adverse environmental impacts, it is argued that his or her position is open to the possibility of regulatory capture.


Purpose – This paper discusses the impact of aesthetic design of smartphones on users' emotional reactions and preferences towards the product. To this end, the paper presents a study that explores emotional reaction of males to varying aesthetic design of the BlackBerry and empirically evaluates their preferences for the BlackBerry in different colours and overlay patterns. The paper then presents the statistical results of the study in an innovative graphical representation.Design/methodology/approach – A quantitative and qualitative research design was used, including three types of data‐collection instruments (direct observations, rating scales, and interviews) to investigate if males have a stronger positive emotional reaction for visually treated BlackBerry Pearl devices over the original treatment (piano black) of the BlackBerry Pearl. A one‐way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was carried out with an independent within subjects variable "Pattern" with ten different levels (i.e. ten different visual tr...


The Masters on having as an intention the integral formation of educational futures, resort to the pedagogic practice as a space of joint and feedback between the theory and the practice, but also it gives to students the conceptions of what is the meaning to teach and to learn. Such conceptions have been constructed themselves along the life, by the experiences and beliefs, but can be transformed by others while the subject has an interaction with the environment. It is like, that
these students with high grades, gives as a sample that these conceptions can be transformed, showing in their speeches and their classes a structured process, with sense and significance for all of the students. In matter, it was realized a qualitative investigation, which pretended to analyze the conceptions of students with high gradesabout pedagogic practice, of the Master
Children Pedagogy of Pereira's Technological University, with motives of knowing what characterizes them and which are their conceptions, which serve as input to generate offers of formation in the program and hereby to propitiate changes in the conceptions of all the students. In order to this, for this investigation were designed the following instruments, history of life, observation not participant and an interview. Having in it counts the categories of identity, conceptualization and occupation. This investigation is sustained in two fundamental topics, one from a perspective constructivist and the other about pedagogic practices. From the conceptions, it assumes that people can change their conceptions of the environment with the
relations that have with it. As for the pedagogic practices, it is the reflection that is obtained of what to do in the classroom, where the teacher have in mind all the theory and practice to strengthen and to increase both of the following terms, experience and knowledge, in its profession as teacher. The following analysis permitted identify and characterize the conceptions that this students have from their occupation, coming to the conclusion, that the high grades are a resultof the application that they do of the knowledge of each discipline, the strategic ways to teach, didactics, and ethical, and also the constant reflection of the processes that they develop in each of the classes.


Quality and safety evaluation of agricultural products has become an increasingly important consideration in market/commercial viability and systems for such evaluations are now demanded by customers, including distributors and retailers. Unfortunately, most horticultural products struggle with delivering adequate and consistent quality to the consumer. Removing inconsistencies and providing what the consumer expects is a key factor for retaining and expanding both domestic and international markets. Most commercial quality classification systems for fruit and vegetables are based on external features of the product, for example: shape, colour, size, weight and blemishes. However, the external appearance of most fruit is generally not an accurate guide to the internal or eating quality of the fruit. Internal quality of fruit is currently subjectively judged on attributes such as volatiles, firmness, and appearance. Destructive subjective measures such as internal flesh colour, or objective measures such as extraction of juice to measure sweetness (oBrix) or assessment of dry matter (DM) content are also used, although obviously not for every fruit – just a sample to represent the whole consignment.

For avocado fruit, external colour is not a maturity characteristic, and its smell is too weak and appears later in its maturity stage (Gaete-Garreton et al., 2005). Since maturity is a major component of avocado quality and palatability, it is important to harvest mature fruit, so as to ensure that fruit will ripen properly and have acceptable eating quality. Currently, commercial avocado maturity estimation is based on destructive assessment of the %DM, and sometimes percent oil, both of which are highly correlated with maturity (Clark et al., 2003; Mizrach & Flitsanov, 1999). Avocados Australia Limited (AAL (2008)) recommend a minimum maturity standard for its growers of 23 %DM (greater than 10% oil content) for the 'Hass' cultivar, although consumer studies indicate a preference for at least 25 %DM (Harker et al., 2007).


On basis of the concrete replacement of contact suspension in expansion and reconstruction of Datong-Qinhuangdao railway, researches are made for construction flow of replacement of a whole overlap section at one time in a window time for construction, and the analysis is made accordingly, these will provide reference for the similar projects so as to improve the construction efficiency and save the window time for overhead contact system construction.


The ALICE tier2 centre and the National Analysis Facility at GSI provide a computing infrastructure for ALICE Grid and for the local usage of the German ALICE groups. The storage resources pledged to the global ALICE community (550 TB) are provided via a Grid Storage Element which consists of an xrootd [1] daemon running on top of the Lustre file system. In this contribution an enabling technology is described which gives the possibility to include local HPC resources into a distributed computing environment for ALICE and FAIR. A prototype has been implemented which will be operated in production mode for the ALICE tier2 centre at GSI. The work done in this context is also an important contribution to the Data Life Cycle Lab "Structure of Matter/FAIR" within the portfolio project "Large Scale Data Management and Analysis (LSDMA)" [2]. The new storage infrastructure as described in this article can also be used by Grid jobs in the firewall protected environment of the GSI HPC cluster.


We propose a statistical model which permits us to test whether congressional committees are preference outliers. Unlike previous tests, our model acknowledges that each representative's policy preferences are unique and that a comparison of committee and floor preferences must account for this heterogeneity. We apply our model to the House of Representatives over the period 1951 to 1984 and identify many more committee outliers than previous research.


A conventional printed spiral coil (PSC) has a self-resonant frequency and its equivalent circuit is a parallel inductor–capacitor (LC) circuit. It is desirable to use PSCs in wireless power transfer (WPT) applications; however, these are most commonly constituted by a series-primary and series- or parallel-secondary circuit. This paper proposes a printed conformal split-ring loop with the characteristic of a series LC circuit at its resonance frequency. Regarding the loop as a self-resonator, a magnetic-resonance coupled (MRC) WPT system with series-primary and secondary operating at 433 MHz in the industrial scientific and medical (ISM) band is presented. The maximum measured power transfer efficiency is 87.9% at a transfer distance of 22 mm, the best-reported result for such a configuration.


At present,the housing prices gradually come down,but the whole housing price regulation remained a deadlock,so we must adhere to tighter regulation policy.The essential means of breaking the current deadlock of the housing price regulation and preventing the housing price from rising excessively should be based on increasing the effective supply of housing.However,the multifaceted unfavorable factors have further weakened the housing supply elasticity,which is originally quite weak in a short period.So it is quite necessary to tighten the housing regulation policy to promote the addition of housing supply.The market-oriented regulation path of controlling the real estate prices by increasing the housing supply,determines strategically the upgrading regulation policy for increasing the housing supply and alleviating supply pressure of indemnificatory housing should not adhere strictly to market-oriented measures,instead,the government should properly intensify the administrative intervention measures to make the housing prices return to reasonable level and maintain the stabilization of real estate market.


Small size now becomes one of the top valued features for cellphone and laptop power adapter, especially after the USB-PD standard released. Although semiconductors have shrunk the footprint significantly, passive components, especially the electrolytic capacitors, barely reduced their size over the past decade. This paper proposed the line power extension method to reduce the value and size of the high-voltage input capacitor, which occupies up to % of the total converter volume. If same capacitance is desired, the proposed method can reduce the wide voltage gain that is required by the universal AC input. Besides, due to the extended conduction time of the line power, the current stress in the rectifier is also reduced. In a 60 W prototype, 30% of capacitance reduction and 25% of size reduction is achieved as compared to conventional full bridge.


Background Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is prominent as a vascular involvement in systemic sclerosis (SSc), which remains a leading cause of death in spite of current best treatments. Although recent studies focused on early diagnosis of established PAH, it is known that more than a half of the pulmonary circulation is impaired before early PAH is detected. However, there is little study about the changes of vascular functions or the underlying gene expressions during its subclinical stage. Objectives I. To detect the pathological changes in pulmonary arterial pressure (PAP) and vascular functions before PAH is manifested. II. To explore the changes in its underlying gene expressions of peripheral blood. Methods Total of 103 cases without PAH symptoms (NYHA I) with either Raynaud phenomenon (RP: n=87), skin sclerosis (n=65) or SSc-related autoantibody (n=68) were enrolled. To detect the pathological change of PAP, exercise Doppler echocardiography was carried out, and exercise induced pulmonary hypertension (exPH) group was segregated from normal response group (exN) with using the definition described in R. Naeije et al.1) Vascular function was evaluated with thermography after 0°C-stress and determination of ankle-brachial index (ABI) and cardio-ankle vascular index (CAVI). Furthermore, reactive hyperemic index (RHI), augmentation index (AI) and second derivative of photoplethsmogram ageing index (SDPTGAI) were assessed with using EndoPAT. Micro-vascular changes were also recorded with nailfold videocapillaroscopy. Meanwhile, genome-wide gene expression analysis was performed with using whole peripheral blood. The genes correlated with each vascular function tests were analysed by weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) and pathway enrichment analysis (PathVisio). Results There were significant differences between exPH and exN group in the result of thermography after 0°C-stress test, CAVI and AI normalised to heart rate of 75bpm (AI@75bpm). As the CAVI and AI are known to correlate positively with age, careful interpretation was necessary because the mean age of exPH group was higher as compare with exN group (69.05±11.04 vs. 60.23±14.73). However, the fact that recovery of blood-flow from RP was significantly delayed in exPH group suggested the additional pathological changes of vascular and endothelial functions. Gene expression analysis revealed that several mutual pathways such as "type2 interferon signalling", "oxidative damage" and "fatty acid omega oxidation" seemed to underlie some vascular changes. Conclusions The results of vascular function tests including thermography after 0°C-stress, CAVI and AI@75bpm were significantly different between exPH and exN group. On the other hand, gene expression analysis showed that many factors such as ageing, arteriosclerotic and immunological mechanisms were involved in the changes of these vascular functions. Although further prospective study is required to select appropriate set of the tests, it is possible that evaluation of these vascular functions may be useful as a non-invasive test to assess the pulmonary vascular disease before PAH is manifested. Reference [1] . R. Naeije, et al., Am J Respir Crit Care Med187, 576–583 (2013). Disclosure of Interest None declared


Fermentation technology plays a very important role in the field of Biotechnology. Production of various enzymes, antibiotics, single cell proteins, various food products, etc is carried out in a vessel called as the bioreactor which is the seed of fermentation technology. The project includes study of Pectinase production using submerged fermentation and various parameters like different substrate, different strains and fermentation time to obtain the maximum yield of Pectinase. To achieve this various research is being conducted. Aspergillus Niger species was being used in this work for the production of Pectinase.


The cooperative junction of mobile nodes consists of any centralized access point or a self-configuring network existing infrastructure without the required intervention is called ad hoc network. A well designed security protocol is a challenging task due to its unique characteristics such as, lack of central authority, frequent topology changes, rapid node mobility, shared radio channel and limited availability of resources for ad hoc network. However, most of these protocols are two kinds. They are proactive and reactive in terms. Both of these approaches contains their own limitations, for example, in maintaining the routing information the proactive protocols use excess bandwidth while, the reactive ones have long route request delay. In this paper, we proposed a secure hybrid ad hoc routing protocol, called Secure Zone Routing Protocol (SZRP). The proposed protocol is based on the concept of zone routing protocol (ZRP) with AES (Advanced Encryption System).


This paper presents a new search scheme that reduces the energy dissipation of a lookup engine by reducing the number of rules to compare. The lookup engine with the proposed scheme fabricated in 40-nm CMOS reduces the energy dissipation by 96.5% including only 0.5% overhead.


Abstract The depths and diameters of 158 cryoconite holes were measured at ten positions in the ablation zone of Sermikavsak, West Greenland. It was found that the depths increased on going up the glacier in agreement with other measurements made earlier on polar glaciers. There was no significant correlation of depth with diameter. The relative importance of the combined short- and long-wavelength radiation balances and the transfer of heat by convectional mixing in water-filled holes is discussed. The variations in depth are attributed to changes in the albedo and the bulk extinction coefficient of the surface ice layers on the glacier.


Advances in intensive care have enabled patients to survive an acute critical condition, producing a growing population of patients in a chronic critical condition with long-term dependence on intensive care. These patients make up 5–10% of all patients with acute respiratory failure and require a disproportionate share of resources in the intensive care units, with an overall yearly survival rate of 40–50%. The aim of review is to identify the impact of comorbid complications on the course and outcome of patients with severe brain injury. Ninety-six sources were selected according to the data characterizing the clinical (syndromic) model of the patient with consciousness disorders after coma of different etiologies. This model takes into account the stages and phases of the syndrome as well as a number of comorbid conditions that determine the course and outcome of the disease. The list of sources includes papers addressing the issues of comorbidity in patients with brain injury and conditions such as strokes, consequences of severe brain injury and brain surgery. The sources reflecting the most significant mechanisms of consistent development of comorbidities were examined. These include metabolic disorders with subsequent protein and energy deficiency and comorbidities of the gastrointestinal tract. The role of microbiome in the development of comorbidity in patients in chronic critical condition was also identified. C onclusion. The comorbidity development starts from the moment of brain injury and extends until sustained stabilization or multi-organ failure and death. Timely detection and correction of comorbidities allows optimizing treatment and increasing efficiency of rehabilitation in patients with severe brain injury.


Following the feasibility study submitted in 2005 and in the framework of the Planning Act of 28 June 2006, Andra launched a new study phase with a view to optimising the design of the geological repository for high-level and intermediate-level long-lived radioactive waste. Technical and economic issues relating to a repository for high-level long-lived waste (HL-LL) are especially significant. Today, several options are revisited in order to address as best as possible certain issues, including the design of the components for disposal cells, the thermal sizing of the module and the selection of specific architectures for both the disposal module and the disposal area. In order to support technico-economic studies, a series of tests and demonstrators was initiated. Some of those tests have now been completed, while others are under way or yet to come. The most significant tests and demonstrators in terms of their impact on the design of the Hl-LL disposal area refer to the following aspects: the connection mode of the cell sleeve, the connection mode of the closure of the cell sleeve (bottom plate and radiation-protection plug), the sizing of the cell sleeve, the search for other materials than steel, the cell-sealing mode, the cell-excavation mode, the emplacement of waste packages in the disposal cell, drift-construction methods (support, sleeve, transport of concrete) and, lastly, the formalisation of the thermal characteristics of the host rock. Aspects relating to disposal packages are not addressed here. INTRODUCTION In 2005, Andra presented the design of an underground repository for high-level long-lived (HL-LL) and intermediate-level long-lived (IL-LL) radioactive waste to its supervisory authorities. The feasibility studies constituting the Dossier 2005 [1] were approved by the relevant authorities controlling Andra's activities. The Planning Act of 28 June 2006 prescribes Andra's work schedule in order for the future geological repository to be commissioned by 2025. A new study phase was launched in 2006 with a view to optimising the design, although it may mean to re-examine certain previous decisions, and to presenting safety, reversibility and design options in 2009. Once those choices will be reviewed by the Nuclear Safety Authority (Autorité de sûreté nucléaire – ASN) and the National Review Board (Commission nationale d'évaluation – CNE), more detailed design studies will be initiated in order for a creation-licence application to be submitted in 2015. In addition, a public debate is scheduled to take place early in 2013. WM2009 Conference, March 1-5, 2009, Phoenix, AZ The disposal of HL-LL waste, which is the topic of this paper, constitutes an important part of the project. Although the volume of such waste represents less than 10% of IL-LL waste, their impact is predominant on the overall project, especially in terms of radiological inventory, excavated volume, spatial footprint and costs. Hence, the Dossier 2005 announced an excavated volume of close to 4 million cubic metres for the HL-LL area alone against only 1.8 million cubic metres for the IL-LL area. The thermal power of HLLL waste is responsible for their major impact on the repository. Consequently, the technical and economic issues relating to the repository for HL-LL waste are significant, and will be described below. Future studies will propose appropriate responses to those stakes. The studies will be based on experiments and technological demonstrators, which are implemented in surface workshops or in Andra's Underground Research Laboratory straddling the Meuse and Haute-Marne Districts in Eastern France. Some demonstrators are already completed and others are under construction or scheduled to be built over the coming years. They will be described in the last part of this article. REMINDER ABOUT THE REFERENCE CONCEPT The concept selected by Andra in its feasibility study (Dossier 2005) is briefly summarised below. The description starts with the waste and continues up to the final disposal area. HL-LL waste packages HL-LL waste includes fission products and minor actinides that are separated during fuel processing. Their high β- activity releases a significant amount of heat, which decreases over time, mainly in proportion to the radioactive decay of medium-lived fission products, such as caesium 137 and strontium 90. The conditioning of such waste in "primary packages" consists in embedding them in a glass matrix contained in a stainless-steel envelope. The size of the repository itself is set with a view to accommodating approximately 36,000 primary packages, corresponding to a total volume of slightly more than 6,000 m. Primary packages are laid out in overpacks and both constitute the actual "disposal packages". The use of an overpack is necessary due to the phenomenological specificities of the so-called "thermal" phase during which the temperature of the package gradually rises to its "thermal peak", then decreases. The phenomena of that phase increase the leachability of the glass matrix, influence the behaviour of its radionuclide content and embrittle the stainless-steel envelope protecting the primary package against corrosion during the thermal phase The selected solution for its simplicity and its robustness with regard to current knowledge and techniques is to use an individual overpack made of non-alloy steel, measuring 55 mm in thickness. It consists of a frame and a cover made of the same material. Once the primary package is introduced in the frame, the cover is welded to the latter by electron-beam welding. The cylindrical shape of the overpack minimises internal voids within the disposal package, since it matches exactly the shape of the primary package. Plans call for fitting disposal packages with ceramic pads in order to prevent the direct contact of the steel of the overpack with the steel sleeve the disposal cells. WM2009 Conference, March 1-5, 2009, Phoenix, AZ The age of the disposed waste varies between 20 years for the least exothermal packages and 70 years for the most exothermal ones. HL-LL disposal cells The reference concept for HL-LL waste consists of a horizontal dead-end tunnel (Figure 1) that is lined with a metal sleeve and measures approximately 700 mm in diameter. In order to facilitate the demonstration of its technical feasibility, the length of the disposal cells was limited to 40 m in the Dossier 2005. Figure 1: Selected concept in 2005 for the HL-LL waste repository The design work dealt notably with the following topics: the appropriate spacing between packages and between cells, for thermal reasons; the control of the damaged argillite zone by limiting voids in the cells, cell sealing and resulting provisions for the cell head. The cell includes an "effective part", which is intended for the disposal of waste packages, and a cell head, which is designed to seal the cell. Any excess heat released by the waste must be evacuated in order not to alter the containment qualities of the rock. The selected concept ensures that the heat may only be evacuated by passive conduction through the geological formation; no ventilation is required in the process. In order to comply with the 90°C thermal criterion at contact with the rock, some packages may only be disposed of side by side after a very long storage time. However, it is possible to dispose of them earlier provided that they are spaced apart sufficiently to reduce the average thermal flow. The solution consists in installing inert spacers between packages and to adjust the length of those spaces in relation to the thermal power of the packages involved. WM2009 Conference, March 1-5, 2009, Phoenix, AZ The use of a steel sleeve is justified by its mechanical strength and its usability for handling packages in the cell. The sleeve is in direct contact with the formation. At the feasibility-study stage, the purpose of selecting a suitable steel grade is to minimise the effects of galvanic corrosion; hence, studies have been conducted on a slightly-alloyed steel of a similar or close grade to the one used for package overpacks. The sleeve must be thick enough to ensure the mechanical strength of the cell and to support the thrust of the pushing tool during excavation. Resistance calculations led to a pre-sized thickness of 25 mm. Once the packages are in place, the cell head is sealed by a swelling-clay plug, which is mechanically blocked by a concrete bulkhead. HL-LL disposal modules Disposal cells are laid out on each side of an access drift and spaced apart by 8 to 13 m from each other, depending on the thermal power released by the waste. Such spacing, as well as the distance of the packages between them, is derived from a so-called "thermal design" calculation. In order to ensure evacuation in case of fire, access drifts are grouped by three: cross drifts allow personnel to move between drifts if they need to reach rapidly a space that is not filled with smoke (fresh air is injected constantly in two drifts out of three). Grouped in three, access drifts constitute the operational modules. Each module includes three access drifts, cross drifts and 150 to 200 disposal cells. The number of cells depends on the length of the access drifts (limited conservatively to 600 m in the Dossier 2005) and on the distance between cells (as prescribed by thermal design). Access drifts have an excavated diameter in the order of 8 m. HL-LL disposal area The disposal area consists of n operational modules on both sides of a series of connecting drifts. The Dossier 2005 quoted that there were 24 operational modules. Connecting drifts have an excavated width in the order of 7 m and an effective width in the order of 6 m. Each series includes four connecting drifts. MAJOR TECHNICAL AND ECONOMIC ISSUES CONCERNING THE DESIGN OF HL-LL WASTE DISPOSAL CELLS The major technico-economic issues relating to the design of HL-LL waste disposal cells concern the


As part of the 2017 Audit of UK Democracy, Sean Kippin, Patrick Dunleavy and the DA team examine how democratic the UK's party system and political parties are. Parties often attract criticism from those outside their ranks, but they have multiple, complex roles to play in any liberal democratic society. The UK's system has many strengths, but also key weaknesses, where meaningful reform could realistically take place.


Abstract The H + H- ⟶ H- + H + ħω, H + H- +ħω⟶ H + H + e reactions give examples of bound-bound and bound-free electron transitions in the H + H– quasi-molecules temporally formed during collisions. The present work is aimed at the calculations of spectral profiles produced in the reactions of resonant charge exchange H + H-. The oscillator strength of photodetachment of quasimolecules has been calculated for the first time.


In this paper, we analyze the polymorphisms of parasitoid wasp polydnavirus. The polydnavius genome is normally dormant within the genome of the wasp, but is converted into particles that are injected into the infected host along with the wasp eggs. These particles contain genes which inhibit the immune system of the infected host, and are necessary for the eggs to mature. Within a population, these particles have varied mutation rates, which suggest the polydnavirus is actively avoiding the immune system of the host. Most mutations are single nucleotide polymorphisms occurring within genes. In addition, the mutation rates indicate high selected pressure on certain genes of the polydnavirus, suggesting they are essential to the polydnavirus for the wasp eggs to mature.


THE PLANNING, CONSTRUCTION AND SETTLEMENT OF ACCOUNTS FOR FEDERAL HIGHWAYS TOGETHER WITH THE PREPARATION OF CONTRACT CONDITIONS REQUIRES STANDARD AND UNEQUIVOCAL SPECIFICATIONS ON THE GROUNDS OF ECONOMY, THRIFT AND FUNCTION. ALTHOUGH THE FEDERAL PROVINCES HAVE PREVIOUSLY PREPARED SPECIFICATIONS BASED UPON THEIR OWN EXPERIENCE, THE PREPARATION OF THE "SPECIFICATION AND REGULATIONS FOR HIGHWAY CONSTRUCTION" WILL ALLOW FOR UNIFORMITY THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE COUNTRY. THE PREPARATION, ENLARGEMENT AND AMENDMENT, ON THE BASIS OF NEW EXPERIENCE, TOGETHER WITH THE HARMONIZATION OF CURRENT STANDARDS AND OTHER REGULATIONS RESULTS FROM THE COOPERATION OF ALL PERSONS CONCERNED WITH HIGHWAY MATTERS WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF THE ROAD RESEARCH ORGANISATION. THE AUTHOR DESCRIBES THE CHAPTERS SO FAR PUBLISHED WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO THE QUALITY REQUIREMENTS AND TEST PROCEDURES. CERTAIN STANDARD TESTING REGULATIONS ARE OF GREAT SIGNIFICANCE BOTH TO SUPPLIERS, BECAUSE OF THEIR MECHANICAL ARRANGEMENTS, AND TO OFFICIALS OF THE FEDERAL MINISTRY OF CONSTRUCTION BECAUSE OF THE PROCESSING OF THE TEST RESULTS. FOR THE COVERING ABSTRACT OF THE CONFERENCE SEE IRRD NO 309029.


Deep neural networks are capable of modelling highly non-linear functions by capturing different levels of abstraction of data hierarchically. While training deep networks, first the system is initialized near a good optimum by greedy layer-wise unsupervised pre-training. However, with burgeoning data and increasing dimensions of the architecture, the time complexity of this approach becomes enormous. Also, greedy pre-training of the layers often turns detrimental by over-training a layer causing it to lose harmony with the rest of the network. In this paper a synchronized parallel algorithm for pre-training deep networks on multi-core machines has been proposed. Different layers are trained by parallel threads running on different cores with regular synchronization. Thus the pre-training process becomes faster and chances of over-training are reduced. This is experimentally validated using a stacked autoencoder for dimensionality reduction of MNIST handwritten digit database. The proposed algorithm achieved 26\% speed-up compared to greedy layer-wise pre-training for achieving the same reconstruction accuracy substantiating its potential as an alternative.


One of the focuses of Indonesia's development is on the tourism sector. In addition, one of the supporters of the sector's sustainability is the customer. So, customer satisfaction who comes and their desire to come back again, as well as an indirect promotion to other potential visitors. The availability and convenience of infrastructure and facilities are important to support this. In other words, the prediction of visiting foreign tourists is one form of alertness in preparing future tourism projections. However, the fluctuation of data for foreign tourists affects the effectiveness of the model in making predictions. Kalman filter is a stochastic deterministic model that can solve this problem. This study combines the time series model with the Kalman filter to determine the prediction of the number of foreign tourists visiting East Java. The results of these predictions can be concluded that the Kalman filter is able to handle fluctuating data with RMSE close to 0. The prediction for this paper could be help enterprise to decide future plan for give the tourist discount.


The safety of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) is a serious and challenging problem that threatens the applications of large-scale energy storage as well as the daily usage of mobile devices. In this work, we developed a rational design of reinforced ceramic-coated separator by modifying the ceramic-coated separator with an overall-covered layer of electron-insulated polypyrrole throughout the entire separator. As a result, the modified separator shows an improved thermal stability without visible shrinkage at 200 °C, has a better electrolyte wettability and a higher Li+ transference number of 0.56. With these advantages, cells assembled with the modified separators show better safety performance and an improved rate capability.


Transarterial Chemoembolization (TACE) is the infusion of Chemotherapy, in combination with an embolic particle, into the arterial vasculature supplying a hepatic tumor, under angiographic visualization and guidance. This is now a well-established treatment of choice for nonresectable or non-ablatable primary hepatic malignancy which is also used extensively for non-resectable hepatic metastases. Currently, TACE is recommended as first line treatment for patients with stage B (Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer staging) HCC [1]. In 2002 Initial randomized prospective controlled studies by Llovet and Lo demonstrated statistically significant survival benefits [2,3], setting the stage for the development of the rapidly evolving catheter directed intra-arterial tumor therapies and the field of "Interventional Oncology". Innumerable papers have been written demonstrating efficacy and a number of Meta analyses including the most recent by Lencioni showed 1, 2, 3 and 5 year survival rates of 70%, 52%, 40%, and 32% respectively [4]. The first iteration of these therapies included the mixture of one or multiple chemotherapeutics; Doxorubicin, Cisplatin and Mitomycin in an emulsion with Lipiodol, iodinated oil plus an embolic such as gelfoam, polyvinyl alcohol or spherical embolic particles to occlude the tumor vasculature. Subsequent iterations of the treatment included the development of a number of doxorubicin eluting embolic beads with varying sizes ranging from 40 to 500 microns. Subsequent studies suggested that smaller embolic beads in the range of 100 to 300 microns are more efficacious than 300 to 500 microns beads [5].


Industry-academia-government collaboration activities of the University of Tokushima started in 1991 when its Regional Joint Research Center was set up. Since then, the university developed the organization and activities concerning industry-academia-government collaboration. Number of the staff member has been increased since then from one person at first to 33 at present and the activities were strengthened remarkably and became extensive. This paper describes our basic policies, outline of major activities; Technology Licensing, Research Promotion, Intellectual Property Management, and Information Management and Utilization, and outline of a technology matching system called TPAS-Net that helps and facilitates industry-academia-government collaboration activities. Then it shows our human resources development program that was introduced in 2005 to secure leading engineers for local companies. The program consists of three courses: Production Management Course, Advanced Technology Course and Internship Course. The outline of these courses and the result of the training are explained. Finally the content of a subject on simulation and modeling is presented briefly as an example of the development program.


Railway as a most communicating tool is changing to one the most advanced and modern industry in Transportation mood. The safety of railway Tunnels during designing is one of the main point, because life and property of passengers and dangerous goods on the one hand and on the other the high speed of trains should be risky. So keeping safety in tunnels is highly important. Although, the possibilities of such events in tunnels is some how less but if it happened it should have catastrophic consequences so the designer should know how to do his job by choosing the proper tunnel system /accident deterrent/ decreasing tools and analyzing danger well to reduce the risk so in the phase of feasibility of tunnel construction, the considered safety system should be defined. The shape of tunnel system is so important in its safety. This matter should be evaluated too. In this regard tunnels as a part of the railway network in current operational situation should be studied according safety point of view then shortages and defects which cause unsafe situation should be verified, then according to the results , solutions should be presented for inspection and increasing the safety level of tunnels. In this research, we have worked on inspection process articles , number of inspection in a specific period of time , inspection of system and equipment, evaluation and training of inspectors, saving records, ranking, national data base of tunnel, inspection team organization , technical references, quality control, ensuring the quality of inspection and tunnel maintenance. Providing suitable condition for equipment, operational processes, maintenance and design in tunnels are dependent to each other in large extend. Determining the optimum combination is needed by considering the whole life-cycle cost of the tunnel and also the current values of risk.


A method of simultaneous location and mapping for autonomous underwater vehicle(AUV) is proposed.Line characteristics were firstly extracted from the data scanned by the sonar,and three kinds of geometry constraints:unary constraint,binary constraint and rigid constraint were brought into the characteristic matching process in order to guarantee that the observed characteristic would match the model characteristic correctly.Additionally,the location of the AUV and the map were modified in the simultaneous location and mapping process.In terms of the method,the AUV can locate and map automatically in complicated environments only depending on the forward looking sonar and the Doppler dromometer with the help of the inaccurate map which will be corrected at the same time.Simulation and physical tests prove correctness of the method.


Resistance of five or ten rice varieties to lesion formation and to sporulation of three blast fungus strains on host plants was tested in a greenhouse. Varietal difference of resistance to sporulation was found in a few experiments, but varietal difference of resistance to lesion formation was difficult to find, because of a large variation of pathogenicity index (aggressiveness) by which varietal resistance was estimated. However, correlation of field resistance was higher with resistance to lesion formation than with resistance to sporulation. Correlation between resistance to lesion formation and that to sporulation was not found.


In order to study the atmospheric stratification characteristics and the thermal structure of sandstorms,we performed an intensive observation during the passage of strong sandstorms process in Minqin,Gansu province from 23rd to 24th May 2004,by using the L-band radar sounding.The vertical profiles of meteorological elements and energy synoptic meteorology are used to analyze the characteristics of the atmospheric stratification and the evolutional characteristies of the atmosphere during the development process of the sandstrom.The results are as follows:Before the sandstrom arrived at Minqin,the wind speed below 500 hPa was small,there was the easterly flow below the 800 hPa level and the westerly flow at the middle-upper level.When the sandstrom passed through Minqin,the wind speed increased apparently in the surface layer,below the 700 hPa level was the northwesterly flow and the southwesterly flow in the upper atmosphere.The high-layer relative humidity was higher than that of the low-layer atmosphere before the passage of the strom,however after the passage,the relative humidity increased obviously,and there was a humidity inversion phenomenon near 800 hPa.Around the passage the entire atmosphere had a vertically consistent trend of humidity.The surface temperature was higher before the passage,there was a super low temperature phenomenon near 200 hPa,and a thicker subsidence inversion layer near 250 hPa,along with the passage of the sandstorm,the temperature in the lower level dropped markedly,the temperature inversion layer near 250 hPa gradually weakened and another temperature inversion layer occurred near 800 hPa.Before the passage,there were low pressure,high temperature and weak wind near the ground surface,when the storm arrived at Minqin,the pressure surged up,the wind speed rapidly increased,and the temperature dropped.The atmosphere was convectively below 500 hPa before the passage,during the saturation energy deficit reduced gradually,the unstable energy was transferred from upper layers to low layers,the development of vertical motion was intensified.After the passage,the whole atmosphere was stable,the unstable energy was used up,and the whole atmospheric humidity increased greatly.


Historical survey Until recent years little was known of the occurrence of diabetes in most parts of the tropics. The one exception was India where the condition has been recognized for more than 2,000 years. Two of the twenty diseases classed as urinary disorders by the ancient Indian physicians are recognizable as glycosuria and diabetes (Charaka Samhita, 1949; Sushruta Ayurveda, 1949). Both were described clinically, the importance of heredity was recognized and in treatment the value of diet and exercise was appreciated. The recommendations on exercise varied but included digging a welland following a cow in thejungle. At the beginning of this century diabetes was common in Bengal. The 'Bane of Bengal' was the description given in 1903 by one writer (Mitra, 1903). At the 1907 meeting of the tropical diseases section of the British Medical Association, diabetes in the tropics was the topic discussed. All speakers from India stressed the frequency of its occurrence among the indolent wealthy section of the population of Bengal and its rarity among the lower classes. 'What gout is to the nobility of England, diabetes is to the aristocracy of India' was one description (Bose, C. L., 1907). A 10 per cent incidence of diabetes among the well-to-do class of Bengali gentlemen was another estimate (Bose, R.K.C., 1907). A male preponderance was noted but this was thought to be due to reluctance on the part of the women to come to hospital and to


Summary Systematic geological investigations in Nepal started late in comparison with the start of such studies in other countries. The topographical feature of Nepal varies from 100 meters in south to 8848 meters in altitude in north. Physiographically, Nepal is separated into four zones similar to the geological zones. They are Terai plain (Indo Gangetic plain), Siwalik range (Churia range), lesser Himalaya and higher Himalaya region. The Terai and Siwalik region in the foreland of Nepal Himalaya are known for sedimentary basins with considerable thickness. These regions are targeted for hydrocarbon exploration. In this paper, we describe the possibility of occurring oil and gas in Siwalik, Surkhet, Gondwana and Lakharpata (Vindhyana) groups of rocks based on the results from field investigation and geochemical analysis of collected samples. The seismic interpretation of Terai region indicate the evidence of unconformities between Siwalik sediments and the under lying meta sediments group of rock which are equivalent to the oil bearing formation of unnamed formation in the northern India. This group contains potential source and seal rocks. One exploration well drilled though dry gave valuable information to petroleum exploration.


• A sharp increase in rating activity (the average number of ratings changed or assigned per issuer per year) accompanied the deterioration of credit quality cited above. The data show that average long-term rating activity levels for 1980 1992 were 2.5 times as great as for the period from 1950 to 1979. The short-term rating data exhibit a doubling of average rating activity for the 1980 1992 period over 1973 1979 levels.


In cross-over designs, sequences of treatments are applied to the units, spread over a specified period of time. The model for the estimation of such designs includes a carryover term, which makes them competent for use in consumer research trials. Construction of useful cross-over designs in the context of consumer research trials forms the body of this work and some new classes of partially balanced cross-over designs with two associate classes [PBCOD(2)] are obtained, along with their efficiencies. Designs constructed are uniform over periods for a large number of units and they estimate treatment contrasts with two sets of precision.


Our report is on the observation of thermoelectric phenomena in polymer dispersed nematic liquid crystal (PDLC). We have performed electro-optical measurements of the PDLC composite material based on both polyvinylbutiral and epoxy resin matrix. Despite different preparation al methods of the PDLC films, they show at the same time both the properties of polymer and liquid crystal. A stable memory effect was observed in the investigated PDLC films.


Deep
frying with repeated use of same edible oil leads to the formation of lipid
oxidation products. The presence of these oxidized products formed during
frying at elevated temperature is hazardous for human health and therefore,
requires prompt analysis for ensuring its fitness/quality. In this study,
oxidative degradation of thermally stressed edible oils canola, sunflower and
palm olein shortening was studied at 180°C ± 5°C up to 48 hours. Palm olein
shortening remained stable during this period as the increase in its acid value
was significantly less than canola and sunflower seed oils. The shortening
samples were further studied by attenuated total reflectance Fourier
transformation infrared (ATR-FTIR) and gas chromatography mass spectrometry
(GC-MS) to evaluate the formation of various oxidation products due to thermal
stress. ATR-FTIR indicates the formation of free fatty acids (FFAs), aldehyde
groups and change in degree of unsaturation while GC-MS gives important information
about profile of FFAs. The combination of these analytical techniques is useful
for rapid and highly sensitive analysis of oxidized edible oil thus, ensuring
its quality and fitness for safe use.


Slow ionic transport and high voltage drop (IR drop) of homogeneous porous electrodes are the critical causes of severe performance degradation of lithium‐ion batteries at high charging rates. Herein, it is numerically demonstrated that a bio‐inspired vascularized porous electrode can simultaneously solve these two problems by introducing low tortuous channels and graded porosity, which can be verified by porous electrode theory. To optimize the vasculature structural parameters, artificial neural networks are employed to accelerate the computation of possible structures with high accuracy. Furthermore, an inverse‐design searching library is compiled to find the optimal vascular structures under different industrial fabrication and design criteria. The prototype delivers a customizable package containing optimal geometric parameters and their uncertainty and sensitivity analysis. Finally, the full‐vascularized cell shows a 66% improvement in charging capacity compared to the traditional homogeneous cell under 3.2 C current density in a numerical simulation. This computational research provides an innovative methodology to solve the fast‐charging problem in batteries and broaden the applicability of deep learning algorithms to different scientific or engineering areas.


The Congregation of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, better known as Hermanos de la Salle, have made great contributions to education in Colombia. This Community arrived in Colombia in 1891, a time known in the history of Colombia as the period of Regeneration. That period required the promotion of new educational policies in accordance with the system of government that had begun towards the year 1886 and eagerly sought the implementation of educational policies in accordance with the new constitution where new educational values were fostered and centered on the Catholic religion. Thus, the Brothers de la Salle initially founded some schools in the city of Bogotá, among which are known: the Apostolic School, the Colegio de San Bernardo and the Novitiate of Chapinero. By 1896 the De La Salle Institute was founded in the Egypt district of the same city. The penetration of the Lasallian Educational Project obeyed the interest of that community to promote practical teachings that the Colombian state required at that time. The educational system of the Brothers of La Salle sought to develop a new moralizing education, conceived from a pragmatic vision with a strong confessional emphasis, that is, from the educative action of a Catholic nature, exerted from modern teachings. Likewise, it is important to highlight the contribution that this community made in the pedagogical Congress of 1917 where notable research works were exhibited for the improvement of education in Colombia.


The multispectral imaging of the sample from BAV, Vat. gr. 73 in 2016 resulted in the discovery of important texts by Dexippus and Polybius. Imaging with a then state-of-technology integrated multispectral imaging system helped reveal texts in the manuscript that were no longer visible to the unaided eye due to interventions by earlier librarians. The resulting images were processed with several techniques that produced remarkable results for researchers. Collaboration between the scientific team, the BAV staff and other investigators provided new information and large amounts of data for further research.


Previous work by Castor, Abbott, and Klein (1975) presented a selfconsistent model of a steady-state stellar wind. They also showed qualitatively that for 0 stars at least a static atmosphere could not exist. This paper extends that result by calculating in detail the minimum luminosity as a function of effective temperature required for the line radiation force to exceed gravity. Within the observational and theoretical uncertainty there is a one-to-one correspondence between a star's calculated ability to self-initiate a stellar wind by radiation pressure alone and the observed presence of outflowing material in the UV resonance lines.


This article presents a batch of Kapitän II amphorae discovered at Reșca-Romula, the main Roman settlement of Dacia Inferior (Malvensis). These amphora fragments were found in the archaeological campaigns from 2013 up to 2018, in the central area of the former Roman town. The presented items are dated between the second quarter of the 2nd century AD and the middle of the 3rd century AD. They complete the knowledge of this kind amphora and confirm some variants of this type of amphorae.


The N‐myc amplification unit was investigated using two restriction fragment length polymorphisms for SphI and PvuII which we previously found to occur in the 2nd intron and in the 3'region of the human N‐myc oncogene, respectively. All the three haplotypes which are dominant in the Japanese population were observed in the amplified DNA after analyses of a total of 22 DNA samples of fresh neuroblastomas with N‐myc amplification. We conclude that only one of the alleles was amplified and that either allele could be amplified with respect to both the SphI and PvuII polymorphisms.


This article reports on the outcomes of the first phase of the Literacies for Learning in Further Education project, which is exploring the literacy practices required for successful study within different curriculum areas in four Further Education Colleges, two in Scotland and two in England. It draws upon initial interview data with staff and students to explore the perceptions of literacy as an issue for learning within further education. This suggests a complex picture of assumptions and expectations on the part of staff and students, which are not always aligned and impact upon the teaching and learning situation. In particular, issues are raised of 'swamping' students with texts, which there is little expectation of them reading and of 'spoon-feeding' students, because of a perception of their limitations in literacy.


Nebbat and Annou (c.f.Ref.[1]) proposed a time dependent non‐linear model that considers vortices as a consequence of an instability, and where the plasma is considered ideal. In this note, we propose another approach consisting of including the grain‐grain interaction force it in the pressure term. The fluid is no longer considered ideal and the pressure term is to be modified accordingly to account for the non‐ideality of the dust fluid. We choose a Van Der Waals equation of state. A comparison is conducted between both approaches.


Abstract In earlier papers, the authors reported a new vortex excitation of a circular cylinder induced by another set downstream in a cruciform arrangement with a gap smaller than half the cylinder diameter. In this work, the structure of the flow causing this excitation is investigated through measurements of velocity and pressure on the cylinder surface, together with flow visualization. When the gap-to-diameter ratio, s/d s/d = 0-0·25, the trailing vortices are shed periodically and generate excitation on the upstream cylinder. When s/d = 0·25-0·5, the necklace vortices are formed periodically around the downstream cylinder and cause an alternating lift force on the upstream cylinder. The shedding frequencies of these two kinds of vortices differ by a factor of around 2. This fact results in a discontinuity at s/d = 0·25 in the curve representing the relationship between the reduced resonant velocity and s/d for an elastically supported system.


Title of Document: A TRADITION OF STRUGGLE: PRESERVING SITES OF SIGNIFICANCE TO AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY IN PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, MARYLAND, 1969-2007 Courtney Elizabeth Michael, Master of Arts, 2007 Directed By: Professor David Sicilia Department of History This thesis examines efforts by the citizens of Prince George's County, Maryland to protect and preserve local historic sites significant to African American history. Since the early 1980s, preservationists in Prince George's County have recognized the importance of -and made specific efforts to find, document and preserve -sites that tell the story of African American life in the county. Using three case studies, Abraham Hall, Rosenwald Schools and the Butler House, this thesis demonstrates how preserving African American historic sites became a priority in Prince George's County, due to both a shift in local demographics and to changing practices in the field of historic preservation nationwide. A TRADITION OF STRUGGLE: PRESERVING SITES OF SIGNIFICANCE TO AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY IN PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, MARYLAND, 1969-2007


The CEA-Saclay / IPN-Orsay collaboration allowed to manufacture a multicell superconducting RF cavity prototype for proton linac. Since the first experimental results (1), obtained in a vertical cryostat and the horizontal cryostat CryHoLab, the accelerating field Eacc has been recently increased up to 19 MV/m with a quality factor Q0 = 9.10 9 and a limitation by quench. However some improvements are still needed, in particular to suppress the field emission above 16 MV/m.


ABSTRACT The number of newly described species has increased since the addition of molecular data to taxonomic studies, revealing that species considered widely distributed by morphological and anatomical studies are often comprised of complexes of several distinct species. This study reports on a new turf-forming species of Digenea from the Greater Caribbean (South Florida and eastern Cuba), previously identified as D. simplex based on morpho-anatomical characters, but shown through DNA sequences to be a distinct species. Digenea nana sp. nov. is characterized by its small brush appearance, small dimensions (2.5 cm high and 0.6 mm wide), long determinate branches reaching 15 mm in length (its most striking feature) and 11–12 pericentral cells. Digenea nana is distinct from all its congeners, showing sequence divergences of 3.5–5.0% in COI-5P and 1.7–2.7% in rbcL. The species resolved as sister to D. rafaelii (genetic distance of about 3.5% and 1.7% in COI-5P and rbcL respectively) from Pacific Mexico, and can be easily distinguished by morpho-anatomical characters. Digenea nana is the seventh species in the genus worldwide. Given the presumed wide distribution of D. simplex, based solely on morpho-anatomy, and the number of cryptic and pseudo-cryptic species recently described, further integrative molecular and morpho-anatomical studies are likely to reveal new taxa.


Hydrogen permeation of two kinds of ferritic steel with different level of 2nd phase particles are compared utilising electrochemical permeation technique evaluated under various loads. This study indicates that tensile stress in plastic domain induces expansion of the interface between the 2nd phase particles and steel matrix, and formation of blister crack. Such microstructural-discontinuity provides additional hydrogen traps, resulting in slower diffusion and lower steady-state permeation flux. These phenomena appear predominantly in steel containing coarse-sized inclusion and precipitate having sharp extremities. The numerical analysis also supports that the steel containing coarse-sized 2nd phase particles with sharp extremities exhibits higher parameters of hydrogen capture rate per irreversible traps and blister crack formation rate than the steel containing fine-sized ones with spherical shape.


The objective of this writing is to clarify the changes that robotic cholecystectomy brought to the patient and its repercussions when compared to conventional laparoscopy. The present study is an integrative literature review that seeks to describe the innovations that this surgery brought to cholecystectomy, performing a search in the Virtual Health Library and PubMED based on the guiding question: "Are there benefits of robotic surgery over the laparoscopic technique in patients undergoing cholecystectomy?", with the descriptors "Robotic Surgical Procedure", Cholecystectomy and Outcomes Study totaling 76 articles at the end, being used 20 for the preparation of the text. It was noticed that robotic surgery has conquered a lot of space in general surgery, aiming to overcome the limits that conventional laparoscopy presents, seeming to provide more satisfactory results. However, because it is a relatively new technique, the little experience on the part of surgeons, together with the high cost, does not seem to be attractive for large centers. Despite this, good aesthetic, technical, and ergonomic results have been found. We conclude that despite a good number of articles on the subject, there is an important lack of concordance among them, which generates the need for new studies approaching the theme in order to help in the elaboration of concrete evidence.


Microwave sensing represents a promising approach for non-invasive tissue temperature monitoring during hyperthermia treatment. Tissue mimicking phantom materials with corresponding dielectric properties and suitable for heating experiments are essential for preliminary methodical investigations as well as for the development of the measurement hardware.In the present paper, a fat tissue mimicking phantom material is investigated depending on the temperature in the range between 30°c and 50°c and the frequency range between 0.5 GHz and 7 GHz. The measured data are modeled by means of a two-pole Cole-Cole model and the temperature dependence of the Cole-Cole parameters is fitted by means of a second-order polynomial. The results show that this material imitate the dielectric properties of real fat tissue as well as its very low temperature dependence appropriately and can be used for practical experiments.


The challenges for production systems in electronics are high degrees of automation and flexibility. The consequences are increasing costs for the equipment. To ensure economic use of such systems, computer aided methods play an important role. At the Institute for Manufacturing Automation and Production Systems at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg a complete SMT-Iine is built up in a model factory together with a number of workstations connected by an integrated network. In this environment computer integrated SMT-production can be developed and demonstrated starting from planning, modeling and simulating SMT-lines up to the diagnosis of the placement processes.


A third (32%) of doctors said that they regularly or quite often encountered barriers when explaining risk to patients, a survey carried out by the Medical Protection Society has found.

The survey received responses from 536 members of the society, including doctors working in primary and secondary care. Respondents cited the …


1. The oxygen consumption and the movements of labelled phosphate were measured in garfish olfactory nerve at rest and during activity.


This paper extends the investigation of the effect of managerial motives on hedging policy. I utilize a proxy variable that incorporates CEO incentives to increase risk relative to incentives to increase stock price. The variable is directly measured using observed characteristics of CEO portfolios of stock and option holdings. Furthermore, CEO risk-taking incentives are modeled as a choice variable to eliminate the simultaneity bias of modeling risk-taking incentives as an exogenous variable. If modeled as a simultaneous system of equations, a strong negative link between CEO risk-taking incentives and the amount of derivative holdings exists. This result is consistent with the notion that derivatives are used for hedging purposes. Both the characteristics of stock and option holdings are important in determining cross-sectional differences in corporate derivative holdings.


The chlorinated resist materials ZEP520A and ZEP7000 (ZEON Co.) are changed from positive-tone to negative-tone by high dose electron beam (EB) and ion beam irradiation. Here, the reaction mechanisms of the positive–negative inversion induced by EB were attempted to be clarified with ultraviolet–visible (UV–vis) spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The results indicated that dissociative electron attachment would be induced in response to the irradiation dose. For high dose irradiation (>5 mC cm-2), it was suggested that crosslinking would become predominant because of the structural changes in the resists and the lower scission ratio due to the decrease of the chlorine.


This research aims at presenting our novel Continuous-Discrete Gauss-Hermite Quadrature Filter (CD-GHQF) intended for treating continuous-discrete stochastic systems, whose process model is simulated by a nonlinear Itô -type Stochastic Differential Equation (SDE) but whose measurement model has a discrete-time and nonlinear fashion. We exploit the so-called "continuous-discrete" approach, which is rooted in solving the Moment Differential Equations (MDEs) arisen in the time-update step of this filter. In particular, we implement the variable-stepsize MATLAB ODE solver ode45 for an automatic integration of the mentioned MDEs in every sampling period of the state estimation run. This MATLAB code establishes the self-adaptation facility of the filter under consideration. The performance of our novel state estimation algorithm is assessed within a challenging radar tracking scenario of flight control.


A chiral effect has been observed for formation of protonated dimers of dialkyl tartrates under fast atom bombardment, analogous to the chemical ionization behaviour reported previously. Homochiral dimers show greater stability than the heterochiral dimers, as is evidenced by their enhanced formation and lesser tendency to undergo metastable breakdown. The difference in stability is related to the size of the alkyl group.


Objective : To evaluate the relationship between increased nuchal translucency (NT) and abnormal pregnancy outcomes. Methods : From January 1999 to December 2001, The 298 fetuses of increased nuchal translucency (TEX>$\geq$ 2.5 mm) in period of 10-14 weeks gestation were reviewed retrospectively. Amniocentesis and high resolution ultrasonography during second trimester were done for all cases. We analyzed septation´within NT, karyotypes, structural anomalies, and adverse pregnancy outcomes such as spontaneous abortion, intrauterine fetal death . and preterm delivery. Results : The mean age of the patients was 30.53.5 years. The mean gestational age and CRL were 12.50.95 weeks and 6.51.15 mm. We observed 18 (6%) cases of abnormal karyotypes. 7/46 (15.2%) fetuses with internal septation had abnormal karyotype and 11/252 (4.4%) fetuses without internal septation had abnormal karyotype (p=0.013). Among the 280 fetuses with normal karyotype, 8 (2.8%) fetuses had structural anomalies and 18 (6.4%) fetuses had adverse pregnancy outcomes. The chromosomal- abnormality and structural anomaly were significantly increased in the group of nuchal translucency thickness . above 3.5 mm (p=0.001). Conclusion : Increased nuchal translucency is related with chromosomal abnormality and abnormal pregnancy outcomes.


Introduction. In recent decades, there have been created powerful pulsed sources of electromagnetic radiation capable of generating and transmitting high peak signals with effective antennas. Wide-band and ultra-wide-band (NB, UWB) generator complexes in the frequency range from 0.5 Hz to 100 Hz, concentrating the energy in ultrashort pulses in duration, have become widespread. Most studies of the biological effects of these radiations are associated with their special purpose (directional action). Today, high-voltage pulsed radiation is widely used in such areas as radiolocation and navigation, radio communication, in semiconductor and composite technology, chemical compounds, medicine, and others. Biomedical aspects of ultra-wideband radiation pulses have not been studied enough. The issues of the safety and regulation for occupational exposure are considered. The studies of broadband electromagnetic pulses effect on outbred white mice during generator equipment testing were carried out in experimental conditions. Material and methods. Behavioral responses in the "open field" test, memory in a "T-shaped maze", working capacity in "forced swimming" test were studied, as well the temperature response, electrostatic body potential and body mass were measured. The studies were implemented in an anechoic chamber. The antenna system of the high-voltage pulse generator enabled us to generate a uniform field having a volume sufficient for the group exposure. Pulse simulator was remote-controlled. The study covered three groups of animals exposed daily for 15, 30 and 60 minutes during five days and a control group. Animals were studied during and after expose periods. Results. Statistically significant changes were revealed in 30 and 60 minutes daily exposure to 100 kV / m voltage pulses, which evidences disturbances in behavioral responses, motor activity, memory, and work capacity. A decline in the electrostatic body potential was shown. Thermogenic effect was not seen. The pilot study findings prove the biological activity of broadband electromagnetic pulses in short-term experiment.


In this paper, tunnelling dynamics of squeezed Bose–Einstein condensates (BEC's) in the presence of the nonlinear self-interaction of each species, the interspecies nonlinear interaction, and the Josephson-like tunnelling interaction is investigated by using the second quantization approach. The influence of BEC squeezing on macroscopic quantum self-trapping (MQST) and quantum coherent atomic tunnelling is analyzed in detail. It is shown that the MQST and coherent atomic tunnelling between two squeezed BEC's can be manipulated through changing squeezing amplitude and squeezing phase of BEC squeezed states.


The female genital tract (FGT) is the main route of HIV-1 infection and transmission. Although the FGT is lined by a protective barrier of epithelial cells, evidence in the literature suggest that HIV-1 can disruption this barrier to establish infection. How the virus does this is not clearly understood, but mechanisms such as the dysregulation of tight junctions responsible for maintaining the epithelial barrier (1) and transcytosis (2) have been suggested. Tight junctions are a complex of interconnecting transmembrane proteins that seal-off the paracellular spaces between epithelial cells and in the FGT, HIV-1 has been shown to upregulated the production of tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha to disrupt these junctions (1). This suggest that the virus is capable of harnessing host factors to its deleterious end. But apart from TNF-alpha, the role of other factors that could regulate epithelial barrier function in the FGT is not known and how these factors modulate HIV-1 mucosal infection is only speculative. Glucocorticoids are potent regulator of epithelial barrier function (3) and HIV1 pathogenesis (4). They mediate their actions through the glucocorticoid receptor (GR). But this receptor is promiscuous and can be activated by structurally related compounds such as medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA), a synthetic steroid widely used in hormonal contraceptives (5). Recent observational studies suggest MPA might increase the risk to HIV1 acquisition and transmission (6). Could MPA acting via the GR modulate HIV-1 entry in the FGT? Preliminary data from the Hapgood laboratory at the University of Cape Town suggest that MPA can down-regulate the expression of the tight junction protein claudin-4 in a cervical cell line (End 1 E6E7) in a manner consistent with GR activation. Given that End 1 E6E7 cells cannot form a functional barrier in vitro (7), it became necessary to verify this regulation of claudin-4 by MPA in primary epithelial cells and to assess its relevance in HIV-1 mucosal transmission.


The aims of the study aims are to determine the influence of the organizational culture on the employee morale at Melati Plantation of PTPN II Perbaungan Serdang Bedagai. To determine the influence of the motivation (through organizational culture) on the employee morale and to know the influence of the organizational culture and compensation on the employee morale at Melati Plantation of PTPN II Perbaungan Serdang Bedagai.The research was carried out starting from observations to data collecting through questionnaires. The data analysis techniques used validity, reliability test and path analysis. By using the significance level of 5 % ( 0.05), with a sample of 50, it can be seen that a significant difference between organizational culture on the employee morale at Melati Plantation of PTPN II Perbaungan Serdang Bedagai. There is a significant influence between the compensation of the employee morale at Melati Plantation of PTPN II Perbaungan Serdang Bedagai. There is no significant influence of organizational culture on the employee morale through employee motivation at Melati Plantation of PTPN II Perbaungan Serdang Bedagai. There is the interplay between organizational culture and employee compensation at Melati Plantation of PTPN II Perbaungan Serdang Bedagai. Keywords : PTPN II , Teamwork and Compensation


This article explains the creation of an animated video design to promote a nature school. Conducted in two stages, the method used to process data is the promotion mix, in the form of deepening the marketing 7Ps mix model representing: product, price, promotion, place, people, physical evidence, and processes. Need to tell readers what 7 P is about. Meanwhile, the creation of the work uses art-based research for capturing activities in the nature school environment to become an animated video design based on informal education, has a passion for raising students' awareness of green lifestyles. Currently, it is still constrained by the number of participants registered. Meanwhile, the various activities carried out involve the surrounding nature and are directed to produce works and activities for students. The result is an animated video design that is able to provide an overview of the positive activities in school. In conclusion, this video will attract potential applicants to continue becoming students and reinforce a green lifestyle.


In this paper, we propose an efficient message passing architecture for permutation matrices based LDPC code decoders. Min-sum algorithm is reformulated to facilitate significant reduction of routing complexity and memory usage. For a (2048, 1723) (6, 32) LDPC code with 4-bit quantization, 54% outgoing wires per variable node unit and 90% outgoing wires per check node unit can be saved. To further reduce hardware complexity, an optimized nonuniform quantization scheme using only 3 bits to represent each message has been investigated. The simulation result shows that it has only 0.25dB performance loss from the floating-point SPA


COVID-19 is a highly infectious disease caused by the SARS-CoV2 virus and has resulted in a global pandemic. Primarily understood as a respiratory disease, ongoing studies have observed the effects of COVID-19 on other body systems. COVID toes, also known as pseudo-chilblains, is an increasingly common dermatological condition in which pruritic, erythematous rashes appear on the toes. Generally benign in adults, COVID toes have also been observed in Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C) associated with COVID-19. Here we present a case of a 9-year-old Hispanic asymptomatic COVID-19 male and a 53-year-old African American female with symptomatic, confirmed COVID-19, with a comparison of the prognostic differences between children and adults of COVID toes and a review of the current literature.


Hackerspace product development helps use the collective intelligence for new product development under the "Internet plus" environment. However, the schemes from the designer collective are numerous, diverse and heterogeneous, how to select the valuable schemes rapidly and intelligently is an inevitable challenge. This paper attempts to propose a hybrid decision model for heterogeneous schemes. Firstly, a hackerspace product development framework is given out based on the "Internet plus" environment, and the schemes decision model is one of the most important components. Secondly, by analyzing the heterogeneous schemes including textual descriptions, sketches and CAD models, three different feature vectors are introduced and combined as a joint computer-aided decision model. Then, a group decision-making model in voting-based method is added for the hybrid model. Finally, an illustrative example is studied to confirm the feasibility of the proposed model in engineering applications.


AUTHOR Coleman, A. Lee TITLE Quality of Life: How Community Leaders and Ordinary Residents Assess Various Aspects of Life in Four Kentucky Mountain Counties. Kentucky Agricultural Experiment Station Report, ES-45, August 1975. INSTITUTION Kentucky Univ., Lexington. Agricultural Experiment Station.; Kentucky Univ., Lexington. Dept. of Sociology. SPONS AGENCY Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C. REPORT NO RS-45 PUB DATE Aug 75 NOTE 28p.; Related documents include ED 106 026-030


Economical signal flow graphs (SFG) of current conveyors CCII+ and CCI- are introduced in this contribution. The described method is based on the linear transformation of circuit equations with the aim of decreasing their number. The evaluation of the SFG is then modest.


XML as a tool,is applied on enterprises management widely.Aiming at the risk of XML security,analyses the possible attacks to XML,its parser and its application system,puts forward the countermeasures according to every attack.


Bears (Ursus spp.) and other predators can capture and transport large numbers of Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) to riparian areas beside small coastal streams, a process that may affect site productivity and local plant communities. We used a novel experimental manipulation of salmon carcasses to analyze understory plant uptake of salmon-derived N. A hierarchical before–after, control–impact design was used with the addition of chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta (Walbaum in Artedi, 1792)) carcasses to forest sites along 11 streams on the central coast of British Columbia, Canada. Eight months after carcass placement, the foliar %N and δ15N in three herbaceous and one moss species had increased by an average of 14%–60% (%N) and 0.5–3.3‰ (δ15N) at treatment carcass sites versus control sites. Treatment effects for %N were typically greater than for δ15N. Nitrogen isotope signatures at carcass sites were highly variable (δ15N range = 30.1‰) and were mediated by plant species, stream salmon density, carcass ...


The Health Care and Life Science (HCLS) industry is generally considered as the first (and currently only real) example where Semantic Web technologies have been used to enclose a wide range of information sources across boundaries. Other industries struggle with seemingly similar challenges. One of these is the Oil and Gas industry, where increasingly larger amounts of data and information are becoming available for decision making during the life of an asset.


Recent trend of research is to hybridize two and more metaheuristics algorithms to obtain superior solution in the field of optimization problems. This paper proposes a newly developed wrapper-based feature selection method based on the hybridization of Biogeography Based Optimization (BBO) and Sine Cosine Algorithm (SCA) for handling feature selection problems. The position update mechanism of SCA algorithm is introduced into the BBO algorithm to enhance the diversity among the habitats. In BBO, the mutation operator is got rid of and instead of it, a position update mechanism of SCA algorithm is applied after the migration operator, to enhance the global search ability of Basic BBO. This mechanism tends to produce the highly fit solutions in the upcoming iterations, which results in the improved diversity of habitats. The performance of this Improved BBO (IBBO) algorithm is investigated using fourteen benchmark datasets. Experimental results of IBBO are compared with eight other search algorithms. The results show that IBBO is able to outperform the other algorithms in majority of the datasets. Furthermore, the strength of IBBO is proved through various numerical experiments like statistical analysis, convergence curves, ranking methods, and test functions. The results of the simulation have revealed that IBBO has produced very competitive and promising results, compared to the other search algorithms.


Objectives : To validate three novel algorithms used to categorize longitudinal pain variability in multiple sclerosis (MS)-induced neuropathic pain (NPP) against clinical opinion of variability and, utilizing the superior algorithm, categorize overall variability in our cohort. Methods : Daily visual analogue scale (VAS) pain scores were collected over 28 days from patients with relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS) and NPP (n=29). Three newly developed "Pain Stability Algorithms" categorized each patient as either stable or unstable with respect to pain variability over 28 days. Algorithms were validated by comparing categorization results to blinded ratings of two clinical pain specialists, who also categorized pain ( stable or unstable ) following review of daily VAS scores. Analysis conducted between pain specialist ratings and algorithm rating results determined the algorithm that best reflected the clinical opinion of variability. Regression analysis determined which baseline patient characteristics – age, EDSS, baseline pain, pain duration and years with MS - predicted categorical pain variability labeling identified by the superior stability algorithm. Results : Stability Algorithm C agreed superiorly with clinical opinion. This algorithm detected unstable patients with sensitivity and specificity of 0.86 and 0.93 respectively and agreement of 90% to the blinded clinical ratings. Using Stability Algorithm C, 33% of the cohort displayed unstable MS pain. No significance between baseline characteristics and categorical variability assignment ( stable or unstable ) observed. Discussion : A clinically validated algorithm was developed to categorize pain stability in MS-induced NPP, and classified approximately 33% of patients with clinically unstable daily pain. No baseline patient characteristics were significant in predicting pain stability ratings.