In the European Union, buildings are responsible for 40% of energy consumption and 36% of CO? emissions, which contribute significantly to anthropogenic climate change. Since heating represents the major portion of energy consumption in buildings in Spain, renewable heating systems emerge as an alternative to mitigate this problem. This thesis proposes a heating system in which the PV production is self-consumed by a heat pump. For this purpose, a photovoltaic off-grid system that feeds an air-water heat pump to heat a small building through radiant loor has been designed and built. The building, despite the aim of being independent, incudes connection to the grid, so the heat pump supply can be switched between the photovoltaic microgrid and the conventional grid. The photovoltaic array, with a total area of 15.7m² and useful area of 14m², is composed by 12 modules, nominal power of 180W each. Heat pump's nominal heating power is 6kW, which is in fine with building's maximum thermal load. To size properly this type of photovoltaic system, it is necessary to go beyond peak sun hours term commonly used by installers and to simulate realistically photovoltaic production over time. The method known as five-parameter model, details the working curve of a module for a given cell temperature. In this thesis, production has been addressed from a physical point of view, emphasizing the influence of solar cells' temperature on their efficiency. A heat transfer model has been developed, which allows to determine accurately cell temperature under changing meteorological conditions, and then to calculate the photovoltaic production in each moment, basing on technical specifications commonly provided by the modules' manufacturers. This dissertation includes the experimental validation of both cell temperature and photovoltaic production models. The efficiency of the used modules, according to their total area, is 13.73% at 25°C, 12.08% at 50°C and 10.76% at 70°C. The proposed method is easily adaptable to any type of photovoltaic module, once its material composition is known, and its output can be simulated for any tilt angle and location, for where meteorological data are available. Depending on obtained working temperatures, the use of hybrid photovoltaic/thermal modules can be considered. The photovoltaic production model was simulated for the heating period from 4/12/2012 to 30/04/2013, predicting an achievable production of 1265.8kWh and an average cell temperature of 21.3°C, which reaches an average daily maximum value of 47.5°C. The intercepted solar energy during that period was 8869.4kWh, so the efficiency of the array according to its useful area would be 14.3%, instead of the nominal value of 15.4%. The photovoltaic heating system was experimentally tested during the same heating period. The array produced 820.8kWh of electricity. The seasonal photovoltaic efficiency was 9.26%. The achieved production was significantly lower than the achievable one, according to the simulation. The heat pump was fed with 723.9kWh of electricity, 501.4kWh of which carne from photovoltaic source: useful efficiency of the system 5.7%. Several factors caused that efficiency, such as electrical losses in diverse conversions, control system's limitations, storage system's capacity and fit of the production to the demand. The ammount of heat supplied to the radiant floor was 2321.9kWh. The seasonal COP was 3.2 and system's global efficiency was 18.2%. The system was isolated from the grid at 69.3%. Greenhouse gases emissions saved were 170.5kgco? comparing to feeding the theat pump with conventional electricity (for an emission factor of 0,34kgco? /kWh); 835.9 kgco? comparing to supplying the same heat ammount through a gas-oil C boiler; 573.6 kgco? comparing to a natural gas boiler. On the other hand, refrigerant leaks were equivalent to 132.1 kgco?.


Background:  Breast-conserving therapy (BCT) is a wide local excision of the tumour usually followed by radiation treatment to the breast. It is the mainstay treatment for carefully selected patients with early breast cancer. There has not been a formal audit to review BCT outcomes in our unit. Objectives:  To determine excision margins, re-excision and local recurrence rates. Methods:  A histopathological and oncology records' review of BCT patients from 01 January 2006 to 31 December 2010. The health faculty's ethics committee granted approval. Data points accrued included age, histological tumour size, nodal status, tumour type, oestrogen receptor status, lymphovascular invasion, volume of specimen, margin status, management of involved or close margins, radiotherapy, ipsilateral breast recurrence rate and duration of follow-up. Results:  A total of 192 patients had BCT. The mean age is 53 years. A median of 229.5 cm 3  volume of specimen was excised. Infiltrating ductal carcinoma was the commonest histological type at 79.1%. The resection margin status: positive margins rate 15.1%, close margin rate 8.3% (≤ 1 mm), 35.9% (1 mm–5 mm), 23.4% (6 mm–10 mm) and 17.2% (> 10 mm). Overall, 27 (14.0%) patients underwent a second procedure, 16 (8.3%) patients had re-excision and 10 (5.2%) patients had a mastectomy. At a median follow-up of 60 months, a total of 11 (6.8%) patients had recurrence. Median time to recurrence is 39 months. Conclusion:  Positive and close margin re-excision and local recurrence rates in our unit are acceptable and comparable to other units in South Africa and internationally.


The capital investment index value of the fixed assets is difficult to determine,and the traditional production function model does not consider the problem of the delayed effect of capita and labor for promoting economic growth. Aiming at these problem,this article constructs the delay grey production function from the perspective of dynamic rather than static,and uses grey correlation analysis to determine the lag order. Based on the accurate measure about the production function index values,this paper adopts this new method to measure the contribution rate of marine science and technology progress of China. The empirical analysis shows its effectiveness.


An encouraging form of chemotherapy in bladder carcinoma has been the use of thiotepa, topically instilled by urethral catheter directly into the bladder for the treatment of multiple, well-differentiated, superficial, papillary bladder tumors.21The urinary bladder lends itself well to the use of topical therapy, and a high local concentration of the drug can be obtained with minimal general toxicity. In the past, such agents as podophyllum extract, phenol, and glycerin were used with a measure of success. It is well-recognized that bladder tumors are multifocal in origin, frequently recur, and readily "seed." Studies by Melicow22have shown microscopic evidence of numerous "subcistoscopic" tumors interspersed between the cystoscopically recognized tumors. This accounts in part for the great tendency of lesions to recur and demonstrates the futility of relying alone on endoscopic resection or fulguration of visible tumors to control the neoplasm. The use of a cytotoxic agent instilled


Objective To investigate the first aid and following treatment of serious hydrochloric acid(HA) burns in eye,and to evaluate the effect of recombinant bovine basic Fibroblast Growth Factor(bFGF),amniotic membrane transplantation(AMT) for HA burn in eye.Methods In 22 cases of 44 eyes(degree Ⅰ burn 11 eyes,degree Ⅱ 15 eyes,degree Ⅲ 12 eyes and degree Ⅳ 6 eyes).All the cases had administered the first aid and following treatment.Which include using bFGF eye drops,AMT(3 eyes) or combined with either corneal limbal stem cell transplantation(1 eye).Results The follow up period was 15 months.In degree Ⅰ Ⅱ burn cases,26 eyes recovered normal visual acuity(VA).In degree Ⅲ,12 cases had VA of 0.5 or better.In degree Ⅳ,3 eyes had VA of 0.2 0.3,2 eyes had VA of 0.1 0.15,one eye of 0.04,their cornea remains serious haze and neovascularization.No infection,corneal progressive melt and perforation,symblepharon were seen in all cases.Conclusion First aid is the most important for serious HA burn.Using bFGF Eye Drops can effectively speed up the wound healing.To serious burns cases,fresh amniotic membrane can be used to reconstruct ocular surface,it can effectively prevent symblepharon,corneal perforation and reduce neovascularization.


The tunneling-ionization model predicts that fully ionized plasmas with controllable perpendicular ({ital T}{sub {perpendicular}}) and negligible longitudinal temperature ({ital T}{sub {parallel}}) can be produced. The validity of these predictions has been studied through experiments and supporting theory and simulations. Emission of odd harmonics of the laser frequency, indicative of a stepwise ionization process, has been observed. X-ray measurements show that the plasma temperature is higher for a circularly polarized laser-produced plasma compared to when linear polarization is used. Analytically we find that the growth of the stimulated Raman (SRS) and Compton scattering (SCS) instabilities are suppressed during the ionization phase. A higher {ital T}{sub {parallel}} than expected from the single-particle-tunneling model was observed after the ionization phase through SCS fluctuation spectra. The maximum achievable plasma density is found to be limited by ionization induced refraction. One-dimensional (1D) simulations show that, after the ionization phase, the initial {ital T}{sub {parallel}} is low as expected from the single particle model and SRS density fluctuations grow to large values. In 2D simulations, however, {ital T}{sub {parallel}} at the end of the ionization phase is already much higher and only SCS is seen to grow. The simulations indicate that stochastic heating and the Weibelmore » instability play an important role in plasma heating in all directions and in making the plasma isotropic. Two-dimensional simulations also confirm that refraction plays a crucial role in determining the maximum electron density that can be obtained in such plasmas.« less


Mechanism of appointment and social portrait of Kazan governors of the first half of the 19th century are under investigation.


Article type: Original Article Received: Oct. 2017 Accepted: Dec. 2017 e-Published: 5 Feb. 2018 Corresponding author: Elham Ghasemi e-mail: elham.ghasemi1@gmail. com Background & Aim: Nurses play an important role in the health system and their turnover disrupts its performance. The aim of this study was to investigate intention to turnover and its relationship with healthy work environment among nursing staff. Methods & Materials: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 295 nursing staff from Imam Khomeini hospital complex in Tehran in 2016. Nurses were selected by the stratified random sampling with a proportional allocation, and completed a demographic data form, the Healthy Work Environment questionnaire and the Anticipated Turnover Scale (ATS). Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, independent t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson/Spearman correlation coefficient and multiple linear regression tests using the SPSS software version 20. Results: The mean score for the intention to turnover was 36.21 (SD=4.38) ranged from 12 to 60. "Authentic leadership" and "skilled communication" domains obtained the highest (9.60±3) and lowest (8.97±2.74) scores respectively. There was poor correlation between the meaningful recognition domain and the anticipated turnover score (r=-0.135, P=0.024). In addition, the anticipated turnover score was significantly higher in male nurses than in female nurses (P=0.023). Conclusion: Although there was no relationship between anticipated turnover and healthy work environment in this study, considering the importance of nurses' recruitment and retention, there is a need to investigate the reasons for turnover, including characteristics of work environment, and take necessary measures.


In this paper, an M-channel perfect reconstruction filter bank based on a coarsening algorithm is proposed. Compared with most of the designs of graph filter banks that do not consider the graph reconstruction, our proposed design can provide the perfect graph reconstruction as well as perfect graph signal reconstruction. In the analysis part, the proposed filter bank provides a coarse version of the input graph as well as coarsened graph signal spectral invariant to the input signal. In the synthesis part, the filter bank perfectly reconstructs the input graph as well as input signal from their coarse version. The spirit of the proposed design is to partition the spectral information of the input graph and input graph signal into every channel. The partition method is adjustable and can be nonuniform. Two intuitive schemes named sort-by-eigenvalue and sort-by-intensity for uniform partition are introduced. In the proposed design, the coarsening operators are obtained through an existing coarsening algorithm, while the recovery operators are defined by taking the conjugate transpose of the coarsening operators. Besides, we address the relation between the proposed design and a framework of sampling graph signals based on the discrete sampling theory. It is shown that the coarsening operator in the proposed design is actually a special case of the sampling operator in the framework based on the discrete sampling theory. Experimental results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed design of filter banks.


In the literature of travel, two traditional orders come up, the journal and the guide, as well as two characters, the traveler and the cicerone. The objective of this article is to advance in the comprehension of cities as some cultural field on the perspective of both the travel and the travelers. In order to do so, I propose the rethinking of the distance between Mario de Andrade and Gilberto Freyre, central figures of Brazilian modernism and anthropology, by examining their travel experiences. More specifically we show a meeting between these two diverse personalities, sometimes antagonistic, in a common topos to access the Brazilian culture: Northern and Northeastern Brazilian cities caught in the crisis of the agro-exporting and patriarchal regimes with their remains of landscape and character, peoples and ways of life, memories, urban setup, architecture, folklore, art. The reading bases are the journals and chronicles written by the writer from Sao Paulo state along his two long ethnographical journeys to the Amazonian (1927) and to the Northeastern (1928/1929) regions as well as youth journals, newspaper chronicles, and the Guia Pratico, Historico e Sentimental da Cidade do Recife (1934) - "Practical, Historical, and Sentimental Guide of the City of Recife (1934)," by the anthropologist from Pernambuco state. If the option for such writings - less important in their authorship but constituting solid positions in the genre - instigates the tourist and the cicerone towards a relation of proximity, it is possible to take a snapshot of, together with the pleasurable travel, an exploratory and ethnographic dimension of the modern society.


The aquatic beetles of the genus Laccophi/uis represent a specialized and highly successful group widely distributed over the earth. The genus is found in nearly every tropical or temperate region, and in some tropical areas as many as a dozen species may be found in the same or similar situations. Various workers have concluded on the basis of morphological characters of the adults and larvae that Laccophilus represents a relatively new and expanding group of beetles. If this is so, the species have not yet had time to complete the adaptation to diverse habitats, that is, to undergo the adaptive radiation seen in many aquatic groups. This diversification of habitat often lessens the effects of interspecific competition by separating various closely related forms. Four species of Laccophil/us are found in Indiana (Blatchley 1910). Three of these, L. miaculosus Say, L. fasciatus Aube, and L. proximus Say, are widely distributed over much of the eastern United States. They are more or less ubiquitous in habitat selection and occur, as adults at least, in almost any kind of aquatic situation. The fourth species, L. iandatus Aube, has been reported sporadically in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Indiana. The 4 Indiana species frequently occur together in the same plond and often within a few inches of one another, persisting together over much of the year. The proximity of the species is even more remarkable in that they are aggressive predators which often betray cannibalistic tendencies and, if in aquaria, need to be kept under special conditions to hold down mortality (Hodgson 1953). The assumption is, therefore, that these species compete with one another to some extent and affect each other's existence. Gause (1934) in presenting experimental sup-port for the theoretical conclusions of Volterra (1931) and Lotka (1932) concludes that species competing for a limited supply of food can not persist together in the same microcosm. Thomas Park (1955) restates the concept in this way: "Using the Tribolium model we have again confirmed an assumption that species of relatively similar ecology, when living together as interspersed populations, create a situation inimical for survival of both." The complexity of natural situations prevent application of the types of models employed by these workers. Crombie (1947), also working with gramnivorous insects states, "Species occupying different ecological niches survived in the same medium: while of those occupying the same niche, one always was exterminated." The situation in Lacco philus, however, could be similar to that found by Lack (1945) in the cormorant and shag (Phalacrocorax sp.). He demonstrated that what was apparently a case of 2 morphologically very similar species (P. carbo and P. aristotelis) occupying the same niche and habitat was not the case at all. After close analysis it was shown that not only the food, but also the feeding areas and nesting sites, were different. There is evidence that utilization of different prey is not the sole factor in permitting 2 species to persist in the same habitat. Lack (1946), from Uttendorfer's lists of prey species of German predatory birds, points out that, while no 2 congeneric species compete for the same food supply, there were 5 species of Falconiformes and 5 species of Strigiformes preying on a single species of often very abundant vole. Also, Crowell and Crowell (1946) reported the displacement of Common and Roseate terns (Sterna hirundo and S. dougalli) by Herring gulls (Larus argentatus) front the AVeepecket Islands off Massachusetts. These workers thought that, although some predation (which is not competition) by gulls on terns was present, it was inability of the terns to reproduce successfully in the presence of the gulls that was of greatest consequence. Andrewartha and Birch (1954, p. 404) state that competition is the ". . . relationship between species which utilize the same food and space." They also emphasize that competition exists only when food or space is limited in relation to the numbers of organisms utilizing it or when one species harms the other by fighting or in some other way. In this study competition is defined as the condition that exists when species of Lac' Contribution No. 662 from the Zoological Laboratories ,of Indiana University. 2 This work, part of a doctoral thesis, was done while I was a graduate student in the Zoology Department, Indiana University, under a National Science Foundation Fellowship for the academic year 1956-57.


Stratigraphy and volcanic facies of the of the Valle del Cura Formation: Paleogene volcanism in the Frontal Cordillera of San Juan. A thick volcanic and volcaniclastic sequence, which includes epiclastic and pyroclastic facies, was recognized in the Valle del Cura region in the Frontal Cordillera of San Juan. The Valle del Cura Formation represent an important Eocene volcano-sedimentary episode composed of thick beds of tuff, coarse conglomerate, coarse to middle lithic sandstone, volcanic sandstone and scarce shale. The volcanic levels include rhyolitic lavas and high-grade ignimbrites that represent strongly welded and high-temperature pyroclastic flows. The formation also includes thick pyroclastic flow deposits composed of crystalline, lithic and/ or glassy tuff, lapilli tuff, and even coarse facies such as volcanic breccia and agglomerate. Volcanic epiclastic facies interbedded within the pyroclastic deposit represent the reworked primary pyroclastic material. These pyroclastic flow deposits show features that reflect the proximity of its eruptive centre, which might be located in the southern end of the cordillera de la Brea. The Valle del Cura Formation can be correlated with the equivalent units exposed farther north at Rio de la Sal and Rio Blanco (Macho Muerto) and, chronologically, with the Bocatoma Unit intrusives that crop out to the west in Chile, emplaced along the Eocene magmatic front. By contrast, the Valle del Cura Formation represents intense volcanic activity developed in a back-arc setting.


The equilibrium carbon-carbon bond lengths in π-electron hydrocarbons are very sensitive to the electronic ground-state characteristic. In the recent two papers by Stolarczyk and Krygowski (J. Phys. Org. Chem., this issue) a simple quantum approach, the Augmented Hückel Molecular Orbital (AugHMO) model, is proposed for the qualitative, as well as quantitative, study of this phenomenon. The simplest realization of the AugHMO model is the Hückel-Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (HSSH) method, in which the resonance integral β of the HMO model is a linear function the bond length. In the present paper the HSSH method is applied in a study of carbon-carbon bond lengths in a set of 34 selected policyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). This is exactly the set of molecules analyzed by Rieger and Müllen (J. Phys. Org. Chem. 2010, 23, 315) in the context of their electronic-excitation spectra. These PAHs have been obtained by chemical synthesis, but in most cases no diffraction data (by X-rays or neutrons) of sufficient quality is available to provide us with their geometry. On the other hand, these PAHs are rather big (up to 96 carbon atoms), and ab initio methods of quantum chemistry are too expensive for reliable geometry optimization. That makes the HSSH method a very attractive alternative. Our HSSH calculations uncover a modular architecture of certain classes of PAHs. For the studied molecules (and their fragments – modules) we calculate the values of the aromaticity index HOMA. ∗ Correspondence to: Leszek Z. Stolarczyk, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Warsaw, Pasteura 1, PL-02-093 Warsaw, Poland. E-mail: email@example.com a Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw, Pasteura 5, PL-02-093 Warsaw, Poland b Faculty of Chemistry, University of Warsaw, Pasteura 1, PL-02-093 Warsaw, Poland 1 ar X iv :1 71 1. 02 53 2v 3 [ ph ys ic s. ch em -p h] 2 4 Ju n 20 20


Electromigration behavior in the Sn96.5Ag3.0Cu0.5 solder lines was investigated and compared Sn96.5Ag3.0Cu0.5 with eutectic SnPb. Measurements were made for relevant parameters for electromigration of the solder, such as drift velocity, threshold current density, activation energy, as well as the product of diffusivity and effective charge number (DZ). The threshold current density were measured to be at and the value represented the maximum current density which the SnAgCu solder can carry without electromigration damage at the stressing temperatures. The electromigration energy was measured to 0.56 eV in the temperature range of . The measured products of diffusivity and the effective charge number, DZ were at , at , at , at SnPb solder existed incubation stage, while SnAgCu did not have incubation stage. It was thought that the diffusion mechanism of SnAgCu was different from that of SnPb.


Monte Carlo Simulation (MCS) and Expression of Uncertainty in Measurement (GUM) are the most common approaches for uncertainty estimation. In this work MCS and GUM were used to estimate the uncertainty of hardness measurements. It was observed that the resultant uncertainties obtained with the GUM and MCS without correlated inputs for Brinell hardness (HB) were ±0.69 HB, ±0.67 HB and for Vickers hardness (HV) were ±6.7 HV, ±6.5 HV, respectively. The estimated uncertainties with correlated inputs by GUM and MCS were ±0.6 HB, ±0.59 HB and ±6 HV, ±5.8 HV, respectively. GUM overestimate a little bit the MCS estimated uncertainty. This difference is due to the approximation used by the GUM in estimating the uncertainty of the calibration curve obtained by least squares regression. Also the correlations between inputs have significant effects on the estimated uncertainties. Thus the correlation between inputs decreases the contribution of these inputs in the budget uncertainty and hence decreases the resultant uncertainty by about 10%. It was observed that MCS has features to avoid the limitations of GUM. The result analysis showed that MCS has advantages over the traditional method (GUM) in the uncertainty estimation, especially that of complex systems of measurement. MCS is relatively simple to be implemented.


X + Z + SX → 2X + Z, Z + X + SZ → 2Z + X. We denote the intrinsic catalytic activities of X, Y , and Z, respectively, by cX , cY and cZ . Each reaction to synthesize X, Y , and Z utilizes the resource SX , SY , and SZ , respectively, which are shared by cells. The intrinsic reaction rates for replicating the molecule species X are given by F X = VAf A XsX , F B X = VBf B XsX , respectively, for cell type A and B. Here, VA, and VB are the volumes of cell types A and B, respectively, and f X = cY x A Xx A Y , f B X = cZx B Xx B Z , where x I i = N I i /VI(i = X, Y, Z; I = A,B) and N I i is the number of molecule species i. The rates of replicating Y and Z are, respectively, given by F Y = VAf A Y sY , F B Z = VBf B Z sZ Here, f Y = cXx A Xx A Y , f B Z = cXx B Xx B Z . si = Si/S 0 i (i = X, Y, Z) is the normalized concentration of the resource where Si is the concentration and S i is introduced to normalize Si to one when Si = S 0 i . The rate equations of cell-types A and B for molecule species X are written as, dN X dt = F X = VAf A XsX , dN X dt = F X = VBf B XsX , (1)


Jung discloses a spiral wound membrane modules for use osmosis. Membrane module includes generally a spiral wound forward osmosis membrane configuration. Module may include two inlet and two outlet, it is possible to define a first fluid flow path and a second fluid flow path. An inlet for the fluid flow paths, respectively, generally can be isolated in order to prevent mixing. In some embodiments, the membrane module may include a divider region and the collector region.


The soft chemical method was adopted for the synthesis of cobalt substituted nickel-zinc and zinc-nickel ferrites (Ni0.95-xZn0.05CoxFe2O4 and Zn0.95-xNi0.05CoxFe2O4 for x= 0.01, 0.02, 0.03, 0.04, 0.05, and 0.06. We have recently studied the structural, morphological, magnetic properties, initial permeability, and dielectric constant of the samples. They are found with cubic ferromagnetic spinel structure along with the morphology suitable for high-density recording media. The effective initial permeability μi (μeff) is found to depend on magnetocrystalline anisotropy constant K1 and grain size D. From this present study, the dc resistivity is found to increase linearly with Co2+ substitution for both ZNCF and NZCF ferrites up to x=0.04. After that, the material changes its ferromagnetism to paramagnetism thereby increasing the activation energy. The difference between the two magnetic states (Ferro and para) in NZCF is found to be greater than in ZNCF. The phase transition helps to determine the Curie temperature. The ac conductivity takes place by the hopping of charge carriers called polarons. The conductivity is enhanced with frequency.


This paper presents a smart DC network formed by a multi-terminal VSC-HVDC connecting various micro-grids, independent power generation stations, and passive loads. The corresponding deadbeat current control scheme based on coordinated strategy for multi-terminal VSC-HVDC systems is proposed. The current control scheme is easy to design, implement and has good dynamic response. the case of four-terminal VSC-HVDC interconnected with AC grids, wind farms, and passive loads is developed in MATLAB/Simulink to demonstrate the validity of the proposed control scheme and the united system. Simulation results have demonstrated that the proposed scheme enables optimal operation under conditions of voltage dip, power flow and load changes when used for a large DC smart network.


In the previous article [14], we obtained an inductive technique to show the cohomological base change property on syzygies only from the locally freeness of the first higher direct image sheaves for a flat family of arithmetic D2-closed subschemes in a projective space. A slight improvement of this technique in [15] makes us possible to study the degeneration of syzygies, namely inconstancy of the graded Betti numbers. This technique can be applied to any arithmeticD2 closed subscheme including a reducible singular variety X with H(X,OX) ∼= C and dimX > 0, but we restrict ourselves to the case of a smooth projective variety having degenerate syzygies as the matter in hand for finding the essential difficulties in studying degenerate syzygies. Thus, as our first step, we give a preparatory study for applying our new technique to the degeneration of syzygies for a flat family of canonical curves with genus 5 in this article.


Objective:To study the influence of organophosphorus insecticides on the reproductive function in female workers.Methods:According to the reproduction occupational epidemiological method, observation group of 601 female workers exposed to pesticide environment in the first production line of the pesticide factory and control group of 873 female workers not exposed to pesticide environment were investigated using the unified questionnaire on female reproduction.Results:The incidence rate premature delivery(8.20%), postmature delivery(7.64%), spontaneous abortion(2.83%), birth weight reduction(3.18%), birth defects(1.061%) and hypertension of pregnancy(6.41%) in the exposure group is obviously higher than those in the control group(χ2=14.712,8.966,8.070,4.041,4.384,4.464;P=0.000,0.003,0.004,0.044,0.036,0.035).Conclusion:The finding suggested that the organophosphorus insecticides has a certain effect on the female reproductive function, meanwhile some preventive measures should be taken to protect the female worker's health.


53 patients using Enovid as a contraceptive for a total of 8111 cycles (average 122) at an average dose of 3.72 mg/day/cycle were evaluated for history or physical indication of diabetes. 30 evaluated as normal 23 as prediabetics on the basis of histories. The oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) was performed on patients after taking at least 5 Enovid tablets and before cycle ended with a glucose overload of 30 gm/sq m of body surface samples drawn at fasting 1 2 and 3 hours. Glucose content was analyzed in a Technicon Autoanalyzer using a glucose oxidase method. Patients with 4 test values greater than 500 mg were considered abnormal; those with 425-499 mg were retested with cortisone at least 3 days after the last Enovid tablet. 12 patients had abnormal carbohydrate tolerance; 2 overt diabetics 5 abnormal glucose tolerance tests (4 prediabetics 1 normal but obese by history) 5 abnormal cortisone tolerance (2 prediabetics 3 normal by history). Of the 2 overt diabetics 1 patient was diabetic before treatment--but with no deterioration during 149 cycles. 1 patient developed diabetes during 152 cycles but this was expected from family history. There was no cause-effect relationship between treatment and diabetes for these patients. Evaluation of cortisone tolerance may be misleading on patients on contraceptives but they will be followed for appearance of diabetes.


A questionnaire was sent to all Monthly, Preparative and other Business Meetings and worshipping groups in Britain Yearly Meeting for completion on 7 May 2006. With an over 80 percent response rate meaningful statistics can be calculated for attendance at Meetings for worship, Meetings for business and involvement by Friends and attenders in the business of the Society.1


Abstract Efforts to manage several trout fisheries in Tennessee have been stymied by conflicts between management agencies and angler groups. To assist in preventing such conflicts in the future, we examined attitudes and motivations of trout anglers who fished eight tailwater fisheries in Tennessee during 2001–2002. Using a stratified random sampling design, anglers were contacted and interviewed on site (n = 2,643). Those anglers who agreed to complete a questionnaire (n = 1,942) were mailed a 10-page survey. Response rate to the mail survey was 55% after excluding surveys that were undeliverable. Angler subgroups were created using hierarchical cluster analyses of 14 variables related to experience, resource use, investment, and centrality of fishing to their lifestyle. Five subgroups of minimally to highly specialized anglers were identified, and nonhierarchical cluster analysis determined the size of each group (n = 178–369 anglers/group). Subgroups differed in the importance they attached to harvest...


A spiral, or clock-spring, core has leakage flux produced by poles which exist at the inner and outer turns of the spiral.


This article analyses the infant feeding specialist health visitor role in leading practice and professional development, and concludes that increased continued breastfeeding rates reaffirm the place for specialist knowledge and practice in health visiting


Non‐closure of the surface energy balance is a frequently observed phenomenon of hydrometeorological field measurements, when using the eddy‐covariance method, which can be ascribed to an underestimation of the turbulent fluxes. Several approaches have been proposed in order to adjust the measured fluxes for this apparent systematic error. However, there are uncertainties about partitioning of the energy balance residual between the sensible and latent heat flux and whether such a correction should be applied on 30‐min data or longer time scales. The data for this study originate from two grassland sites in southern Germany, where measurements from weighable lysimeters are available as reference. The adjusted evapotranspiration rates are also compared with joint energy and water balance simulations using a physically based distributed hydrological model. We evaluate two adjustment methods: the first one preserves the Bowen ratio and the correction factor is determined on a daily basis. The second one attributes a smaller portion of the residual energy to the latent heat flux than to the sensible heat flux for closing the energy balance for every 30‐min flux integration interval. Both methods lead to an improved agreement of the eddy‐covariance based fluxes with the independent lysimeter estimates and the physically based model simulations. The first method results in a better comparability of evapotranspiration rates, and the second method leads to a smaller overall bias. These results are similar between both sites despite considerable differences in terrain complexity and grassland management. Moreover, we found that a daily adjustment factor leads to less scatter than a complete partitioning of the residual for every half‐hour time interval. The vertical temperature gradient in the surface layer and friction velocity were identified as important predictors for a potential future parameterisation of the energy balance residual.


: Cobalt sulfide nanomaterials are considered as important counter electrode materials for dye-sensitized solar cells. A potential reversal electrodeposition technique was applied to fabricate transparent cobalt sulfide film with fluorine-doped tin oxide glass as substrate. The experimental results ten devices, which is higher than that of the dye-sensitized solar cell equipped with platinum electrode (6.94%).


The main goal of this work is an experimental search for excess mechanical noise which might be generated in a contact area of parts glued to each other by silicate bonding technique under external stress. This technique is an important method developed for the second generation of the ground based gravitational wave detectors. Although this technique is already used in AdvLIGO for the attachment of "ears" with suspension fibers to the test masses, the absence of additional nongaussian noise caused by the bond area subjected by heavy load wasn't proved yet.


In this study, the mediating effect was tested. The mediator effect of FOMO was tested in the relationship between impulsivity and social media craving. The participants of the study consisted of 251 individuals, 106 of whom were females and 145 of whom were males. Barratt Impulsivity Scale, Social Media Craving Scale and fear of missing out Scala were used in the study. Mediation analysis were performed using Hayes' (2017) process application. The power of impulsivity to interpret FOMO has been studied and it has been determined that impulsivity predicts FOMO in a meaningful way (F=12.99, R2=.05, p<.0001). Impulsivity explains 5% of the total variance in FOMO. 2nd ed. when the model was passed, the power of impulsivity to process Social Media craving was examined and the result was determined as significant. (F=7.41, R2=.03, p<.0001). 3. In the model, the mediated effect of FOMO in the relationship between impulsivity and social media craving was examined and it was determined that FOMO showed a full mediated effect (F=22.19, R2=.15, p<.0001). The power of impulsivity to predict social media craving was 3% in the total variant, while the variance was up to 15% with the inclusion of FOMO in the analysis. The results of Sobel and Bootstrapping tests were determined to be statistically significant in order to determine whether the indirect effect was significant (Sobel Z = -4.62, p <.0001).


In this study, a nonlinear translation-torsion model of spur gear pair with flexible support of gearbox is proposed. The time-varying meshing stiffness, transmission error and backlash are considered in this model. Lagrange's equations are used for establishing the mathematic model. The numerical method is presented for solutions of nonlinear differential equations. The effect of rotating speed and support stiffness of gearbox is analyzed. The numerical results show that the flexibility of the support of gearbox has a significant effect on the amplitude-frequency characteristic of the spur gear pair at low rotating speeds. The response shows flexibility while the support stiffness is smaller than the bearings and rigidity while the support stiffness is larger than the bearings. The maximum deformation of the driving gear bearings under the flexible support is generally greater than the one under rigid support.


Introduction: Subject motion in MR imaging causes image artifacts such as ghosting and blurring, thereby reducing the reliability of image-based quantitative analysis and the data's diagnostic usefulness. Problems from subject motion are exacerbated when imaging trabecular bone (TB) due to the high resolution required to accurately retrieve bone 3D micro-structure and the associated relatively long scan time. Although navigator-based or autofocusing motion correction techniques alleviate motion artifacts, correction of both translational and rotational motion is problematic for the former in TB imaging and the image sharpness metrics used in the latter are often susceptible to noise. Here, we present a registration-based approach for automatically rigid-body retrospective motion correction. In-vivo experiments were conducted on the distal radius, an anatomical site where rotational motion occurs more frequently, to evaluate the technique's performance and effectiveness on improving serial reproducibility. Methods: The new technique involves three steps. First, we assume that one image in the time series of acquired images is less motion corrupted than the others. This image is used as the "reference" to correct the other motion-degraded images. A pattern-based registration is performed to resample the reference to each of the corrupted images. Next, motion-induced displacements in the corrupted images are corrected based on the reference. As in traditional autofocusing k-space data of the corrupted image is divided into small segments, which are corrected one at a time (starting from the center of k-space and moving outward) by applying a series of trial rotations and translations (the remaining segments being fixed). The objective here is to maximize the cross-correlation between the corrupted and reference images within a region of interest (typically TB region), as opposed to optimizing an image sharpness metric for individual scans separately in traditional autofocusing. This segment-based optimization is performed in an iterative manner, i.e., when all segments with a given size have been optimized, a new iteration starts with a reduced segment size. Lastly, if there are more than two time points in the series, the third step is to resample the corrupted images after correction back to their reference for subsequent quantitative analysis (see Figure 1 for an illustration of the procedure). The technique's performance was evaluated based on measurement of serial reproducibility of structural and mechanical parameters in the distal radius of 12 women (ages 50-75). All in-vivo μMR images were acquired as part of a previous study at three time points using a 3D fast large angle spin echo (FLASE) sequence with a voxel size of 137 x 137 x 410 μm at 1.5T field strength. Reconstructed images were motion corrected using navigator-based correction, autofocusing and registrationbased correction (translation only as well as rotation/translation combined) separately for comparison. Structural parameters, including BV/TV, surface to curve ratio (S/C) and erosion index (EI) were calculated via digital topological analysis (DTA) based virtual bone biopsy (VBB) processing. Trabecular thickness (Tb.Th) was calculated using fuzzy distance transform and trabecular number (Tb.N) derived as in . Mechanical parameters, including axial stiffness, yield strain/stress, ultimate strain/stress, modulus of resilience and toughness, were calculated using linear and nonlinear microfinite-element (μFE) analysis 11 under simulated compressive loading in the axial direction. Coefficients of variation (CV) and intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) were calculated as measures of reproducibility. Results and Discussion: The percent changes of NGS, a measure of image sharpness, relative to no correction were 0.07%, 1.09%, 3.73%, 3.90% and 3.92%, respectively, for navigator-based, autofocusing, translation only as well as rotation/translation combined registration-based correction (Figure 2). In terms of reproducibility, the average CV over all parameters (structural and mechanical) decreased from 5.6% to 4.9%, 4.1%, 3.7% and 3.5%, respectively for the navigatorbased technique, autofocusing, the registration-based technique (without and with rotation correction). Similarly, average ICC increased from 0.948 to 0.959, 0.969, 0.974 and 0.978, respectively (Figure 3). Conclusion: These results suggest that rigid-body motion artifacts in 3D high-resolution trabecular bone imaging can be retrospectively corrected by using a relatively motion-free image in the time series as reference. The registration-based motion correction approach presented here has been shown to correct for intra-scan motions thereby improving the serial reproducibility of image-derived estimates in longitudinal studies.


A sample of horsebean (Vicia faba L.) was analysed for its amino-acid contents, by chromatography on buffered filter paper. The results were in general agreement with those obtained by microbiological assay and already reported in the literature. The coefficients of variation for the determination of different amino-acids ranged from 1.5% to 8.5%.

Eighteen amino-acids have been determined similarly in the whole grains of five species of pulses commonly grown in West Pakistan.


This study sought to investigate the effects of exercise on the dynamics of the ventilatory response to hypercapnia. Nine volunteers took part. Their ventilatory responses to hypercapnia were measured at rest and during a constant level of moderate (30% of maximal) exercise. End‐tidal PCO2 was alternated between 1.5 and 10 Torr above the normal air‐breathing value at rest or during exercise, as appropriate, in a manner designed to distinguish the effects of hypercapnia on the peripheral and central chemoreflexes. End‐tidal PO2 was kept constant at 100 Torr. A two‐compartment respiratory model of the peripheral and central chemoreflexes was fit to the ventilation data in order to estimate the gains and time constants of these chemoreflexes. Although no significant change in either peripheral or total chemoreflex sensitivity was detected with exercise, central chemoreflex sensitivity was nevertheless significantly (p<0.05) augmented from 2.2±0.9 to 2.7±1.4 l/min/Torr. Both chemoreflex responses were faster during exercise, with a marginally significant (p=0.05) decrease in peripheral time constant from 10±3 to 5±4 s, and a large significant decrease in the central time constant from 80±35 to 26±9 s (p<0.01). These results suggest that, rather than just being a product of their physiochemical environments, the time constants of the chemoreflexes may undergo active regulation.


The tradition of the poetic translations of the rubai by O. Khayyam is developed enough both in the European and Russian literature. In 1950th years Henry Sapgir made the translations of the poems by O. Khayyam, and created the cycle of the quatrains «The Verses for a Ring» (1981), which similar by the composition and the subjects to the classical firm form of the east poetry rubai. Continuing the traditions of the east literature, H. Sapgir modified the canon of the form and the poetic translation of the rubai, he changed its metric figure, the rhyme, the composite structure and the semantic filling, thereby contributing to the development and the actualization of this form.


Humankind longed for an image like the sense of sight and has developed history of image on the basis of the will toward record and reproduction. A long period of time was required for accumulation of technology for reproduction of an object, but directing point has always been impression experienced by the 'eyes.' But it has not all been pointing in the realistic image. This study aimed to discuss about its process and directing point of the paradigm of image creation that has been continued together with progress of humankind based on the academic outcomes achieved by Platon. 'Mimesis' classified by Plato required techne how far it may be distant from 'Idea.' Techne went forward in the direction of securing rationality according to accumulation of civilization in the end and reality, the history of mimesis was the process toward 'realistic image' and 'fantastic image.'


Abstract Keyphrases are the most important phrases of documents that make them suitable for improving natural language processing tasks, including information retrieval, document classification, document visualization, summarization and categorization. Here, we propose a supervised framework augmented by novel extra-textual information derived primarily from Wikipedia. Wikipedia is utilized in such an advantageous way that – unlike most other methods relying on Wikipedia – a full textual index of all the Wikipedia articles is not required by our approach, as we only exploit the category hierarchy and a list of multiword expressions derived from Wikipedia. This approach is not only less resource intensive, but also produces comparable or superior results compared to previous similar works. Our thorough evaluations also suggest that the proposed framework performs consistently well on multiple datasets, being competitive or even outperforming the results obtained by other state-of-the-art methods. Besides introducing features that incorporate extra-textual information, we also experimented with a novel way of representing features that are derived from the POS tagging of the keyphrase candidates.


Silicon carbide and its nanocomposites have recently emerged as a promising candidate for anodes in lithium-ion batteries. We systematically investigate the geometric structures and electronic stru...


The electrical resistance is one of the important properties for Nd2Fe14B magnets with low eddy-current loss. We have coated Nd-Fe-B melt-spun particles with CaF2 by the liquid-phase coating technique and then performed hot-pressing and hot-deformation to make Nd2Fe14B/CaF2 composite magnets. The morphology and distribution of CaF2 in the magnets and its influence on the coercivity mechanism and the electrical properties of the Nd2Fe14B/CaF2 magnets have been investigated by scanning electron microscope, hysteresisgraph, and four-probe resistivity meter. The morphology of CaF2 depended on the liquid-phase synthesis parameters, especially the concentrations of the reactants. On the surface of Nd-Fe-B particles, there formed only a few CaF2 nanoparticles and nanoflakes when 0.5 and 1 mol/l reactant aqueous solutions were used as precursors. With the increase of the concentrations of the reactants, there obtained a flake-shaped thin CaF2 coating on the Nd-Fe-B particles. In addition, the CaF2 coating became thicker, ~150-200 nm, with further increasing the concentrations of the reactants to 2 mol/l. After compaction and hot-deformation, the electrical resistances of the Nd2Fe14B/CaF2 magnets fabricated using the concentrations of the reactants of 2 mol/l reached approximately 580 μΩ cm, which increased about 348% comparing with the corresponding pure Nd-Fe-B magnet. It is interesting to find that the coercivity of the Nd2Fe14B/CaF2 composite magnets increased from 12.42 to 13.5 kOe when the concentrations of the reactants increased from 0.5 to 1.5 mol/l and then decreased to 10.2 kOe with further increasing the concentrations of the reactants to 2 mol/l. The reason for the increment of coercivity may be that CaF2 nanoparticles and nanoflakes acted like lubricants that were beneficial to the rotation and the orientation of Nd2Fe14B particles during the hot-deformation process.


My forthcoming book, Flexible Knowledges: Histories under Globalization, is about reenactments, a term I use inclusively to examine the currently experi mental historiographies of African transnational radio oralities, global action adventure television, living-history sites, heritage Web sites, "time traveling" documentary television, and museum installations in order to think about changes in the materialities that "write" histories of technologies under globaliza tion. Along with Sharon Traweek, an anthropologist of particle physics commu nities in the United States and Japan, 1 have become "interested in how these massive shifts in political economy affect the kinds of questions intellectuals begin to find interesting . . . , the kinds of resources assessed to investigate their ques tions, the kinds of auricular and pedagogical changes generated, and the new modes of investigation. That is, what else is going on when there is a change in what counts as a good question, an interesting mode of inquiry, way of teaching and learning, and the infrastructure needed for pursuing these emerging forms of knowledge making."1 In Flexible Knowledges I examine both authoritative and alternate sites for what I call "writing technologies," for productions of knowledge and the crossing and moving of boundaries between them. I do this by looking at what I call "bits of pastpresents" in these experimental historiographies. Pastpre sents (one word), similar to feminist technoscience historian and theorist Donna Haraway's naturecultures (also one word), are implosions across discursive and other realms.21 think of pastpresents as quite palpable evidences that the past and the present cannot be purified each from the other: they confront me in each experimental historiography with interruptions, obstacles, new/old forms of organization, bridges, shifts in direction, and spinning dynamics. Neither nature


Of especial interest are the pages (79-146) dealing with Metatron, who in 3 Enoch is the angel that has access to the presence of God, a kind of second deity. He has a great variety of functions. He is a kind of Hermes whom God employs as guide and instructor for Rabbi Ishmael, who ascends to heaven to secure this revealed wisdom. He is the guardian of all the divine secrets. Originally he was Enoch translated to heaven where he now has been transformed from an earthly human into a celestial angelic nature and given authority over the entire angelic hosts, and is the intermediary between them and God. There are vestiges of the notion that he was the primal man, the "first Adam." But his chief function now is to serve as the authentic mediator of the divine wisdom-a conception fundamental to all mystic gnostic types of religious thinking. This document is a noteworthy piece of apocalyptic writing that unquestionably belongs to the legitimate succession of Enoch-books, but it invites further study, more particularly in relation to extra-Jewish interests and ways of thinking in the environment where its sponsors are assumed to have lived. SHIRLEY JACKSON CASE


We propose a novel method for automatic object recoloring based on Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs). The user can simply give commands of the form recolor to which will be executed without any need of manual edit. Our approach takes advantage of pre-trained object detectors and saliency mask segmentation networks. The segmented mask of the given object along with the target color and the original image form the input to the GAN. The use of cycle consistency loss ensures the realistic look of the results. To our best knowledge, this is the first algorithm where the automatic recoloring is only limited by the ability of the mask extractor to map a natural language tag to a specific object in the image (several hundred object types at the time of this writing). For a performance comparison, we also adapted other state of the art methods to perform this task. We found that our method had consistently yielded qualitatively better recoloring results.


We use Bochner's subordination technique to obtain caloric smoothing estimates in Besov- and Triebel--Lizorkin spaces. Our new estimates extend known smoothing results for the Gaus--Weierstras, Cauchy--Poisson and higher-order generalized Gaus--Weierstras semigroups. Extensions to other function spaces (homogeneous, hybrid) and more general semigroups are sketched.


We evaluated a 28-year-old woman who complained of "recurrent infections." She reported that she had experienced 8 episodes during the preceding year. The infections were accompanied by pain, dizziness, and pressure in the ear. She said she was not aware of any hearing loss, but she had noted some pulsatile tinnitus during the preceding few weeks. Examination revealed the presence of a vascular mass in the inferior middle ear (figure). A Weber test lateralized to the involved ear, and air conduction was superior to bone conduction with the 512 tuning fork, in both ears . Auscultation with a Toynbee tube revealed that the pulsatile tinnitus was synchronous with her heartbeat. The work-up involved an attempt to deterrnine if the vascular mass was a glomus tympanicum or a glomus jugulare. We have found that high-resolution computed tomography can differentiate the two types ofglomus tumors . Careful inspection ofthe floor of the middle ear and the jugular bulb revealed erosion . The tumor extended to the posterior wall of the carotid artery. The patient underwent successful removal of the tumor through a modified infratemporal approach. Her facial nerve as weil as cranial nerves IX, X, and XI were preserved.


Spectral functions in the σ-channel are investigated near the chiral critical end point (CEP), that is, the point where the chiral phase transition ceases to be first-ordered in the (μ, T )-plane of the QCD phase diagram. At that point the σ meson becomes massless in spite of explicit breaking of the chiral symmetry. It is expected that experimental signatures peculiar to CEP can be observed through spectral changes in the presence of abnormally light σ mesons. As a candidate, the invariantmass spectrum for diphoton emission is estimated with the chiral quark model incorporated. The results show the characteristic shape with a peak in the low energy region, which may serve as a signal for CEP. However, we find that the diphoton multiplicity is highly suppressed by infrared behaviors of the σ meson. Experimentally, in such a low energy region below the threshold of two pions, photons from π → 2γ are major sources of the background for the signal.


A programmable logic controller (100), according to the embodiments of the present invention, is provided with a master unit (110) and one or more slave units (120, 130, 140, 150, 160). The master unit (110) has a configuration information table (111a) for managing IO numbers allocated to the slave units (120, 130, 140, 150, 160), and generates shared password information (121a, 131a, 141a, 151a, 161a) from divided password data, which is obtained by dividing the password that was originally set in the master unit (110), using the IO numbers allocated to the slave units (120, 130, 140, 150, 160). The slave units (120, 130, 140, 150, 160) store the shared password information (121a, 131a, 141a, 151a, 161a) sent from the master unit (110).


An imbalance, dysfunction, or disruption of the gut microbiota (GM) is increasingly recognized as an indicator of certain disease or poor health. Due to the complexity and individual variation in microbial communities, there is no gold standard for determining the presence or degree of this imbalance or disruption of the gut microbiota, although many studies refer to it as gut dysbiosis. The problem with the definition of intestinal dysbiosis is caused by the lack of a clear definition of a healthy intestinal microbiota. Several indices have been defined and applied to qualify the term «gut dysbiosis». According to the results of an extensive literature search, known indices of dysbiosis (ID) can be methodologically grouped into five categories: large‑scale profiling of bacterial markers, relevant taxon‑based methods, environmental classification, random prediction, combined α/β‑diversity. These methods for identifying and quantifying gut dysbiosis successfully capture differences between GM associated with specific conditions, diseases, or interventions, as well as that present in healthy individuals or at baseline (before intervention). Such indices can help to characterize diseases and adverse conditions, predict treatment outcomes, and provide information different from conventional alpha and beta estimates of microbial diversity. It should be kept in mind that dysbiosis is not a well‑defined condition and that indices of dysbiosis differ in methodological and clinical contexts, developed for different cohorts and to describe a variety of conditions. Current basic methods and principles related to the assessment of GM in a clinical context are highlighted, including the current use of dysbiosis indices, their calculation and indicators in the context of specific diseases and conditions. Dysbiosis indices are not separate measurements and should be interpreted in the context of clinical data. It should be remembered that the GM that characterizes a particular disease or intervention often changes due to disturbances in factors such as diet, medication, oxygen availability, or immune responses. In this case, ID is used as a diagnostic marker, but not necessarily as a predictor of the disease. However, the value of dysbiosis indices as simple tools to describe the differences between different gut microbial communities is important.


Knowledge that is not well managed and shared disintegrates easily, especially, tacit knowledge that resides in the mind and is accumulated over time. In the realm of knowledge management processes, knowledge sharing is vital yet probably the most difficult one. Knowledge sharing refers to the transference of knowledge among individuals, groups, teams, departments, and organizations. It is also the building block for the success of the organization as it provides a competitive edge. However, many factors that affect knowledge-sharing behaviors include personal characteristics, characteristics of groups, organizations, trust, culture, etc. Different researchers have identified and explained various antecedents to knowledge-sharing behavior. However, the purpose of this conceptual article is to uncover the issues in knowledge sharing and transfer, particularly investigate the learning link in organizational tacit knowledge creation and dissemination.


ABSTRACT: Many different versions of equality have been proposed and defended, but they can be organized around the emphasis that they give to three different perspectives: historical, economic, and remedial. The remedial perspectives expands on the historical perspective to consider the continuing effects of past discrimination. This perspective is most frequently invoked to justify programs of affirmative action. Here we focus on the programs of affirmative action in Spain in the last years within the legal framework of the European Union. I examine wether affirmative action measures, particularly quotas, violate the principle of equality. KEY WORDS: DISCRIMINATION – EQUALITY – REMEDIAL PERSPECTIVE – AFFIRMATIVE ACTION -  IMPLEMENTATION – SPANISH CONSTITUTION – EUROPEAN UNION -


The new 4-[(7-chloro-2,1,3-benzoxadiazole)azo]-4,5-diphenyl imidazole (L) have been synthesized and characterized by micro elemental and thermal analyses as well as 1 H.NMR, FT-IR, and UV-Vis spectroscopic techniques. (L) acts as a ligand coordinating with some metal ionsV(IV), Fe(III), Co(II), Ni(II), Cu(II), and Zn(II). Structures of the new compounds were characterized by elemental and thermal analyses as well as FT-IR and UV-Vis Spectra. The magnetic properties and electrical conductivities of metal complexes were also determined. Study of the nature of the complexes formed in ethanol following the mole ratio method.. The work also include a theoretical treatment of the formed complexes in the gas phase, this was done using the (hyperchem-8) program for the molecular mechanics and semi-empirical calculations. The heat of formation (ΔHf ○ ), binding energy (ΔEb)and total energy (ΔET) for ligand and their metal complexes were calculated by (PM3) method at 298 K.The electrostatic potential of the ligand (L) was calculated to investigate the reactive sites of the molecules. PM3 were used to evaluate the vibrational and electronic spectra for the ligand (L) and their metal complexes then comparing with the experimental values. The antibacterial activity for the (L)and its metal complexes were studied against two types of pathogenic bacteria Pseudonomous aerugionosa as gram negative and Bacillus subtilis as gram positive. Furthermore, the antifungal activity against two fungi Candida albicans, and Aspergillus flavus was studied for (L) and its metal complexes.


In this article a state of the art is realized about visibility and representation of the Queer theory, in virtual and traditional media. This state compares the research on how to represent in the media. The corporality and behavior in the face of sexual and gender diversity. The investigations revolve around narratives in television series, movies and on the Web.
The work questions the way in which identities are visualized, from the perspective of several authors, considering that the media raise a narrative in stereotypes from the patriarchal. The discussions focus on feminism as a starting point to talk about the Queer theory. The approaches of gender, sex, sexuality, sexual orientation and identity are part of a social and cultural construction
In this work you will find positions among normative, subversives and transgressors. In order to understand Queer theory, it is about building relationships that are not close to what is called "weird". Not only is talking about the aesthetics of the body but how love relationships are created that are often hidden for fear of social rejection. In spite of the queer proposal, normalized forms of love are not observed in the media or in everyday life, because falling in love can be quite diverse. The conclusions mention that what is relevant are rights as human beings without the need to categorize the "other".


All figures and tables in the article are correct, but the text appearing in the last five lines on the left side of page 1476 (which describes Fig. 10a and Table 3) should be amended. Please …


The radiation emitted from extended seismic sources, mainly when the rupture spreads in preferred directions, presents spectral deviations as a function of the observation location. This aspect, unobserved to point sources, and named as directivity, are manifested by an increase in the frequency and amplitude of seismic waves when the rupture occurs in the direction of the seismic station and a decrease in the frequency and amplitude if it occurs in the opposite direction. The model of directivity that supports the method is a Doppler analysis based on a kinematic source model of rupture and wave propagation through a structural medium with spherical symmetry [1]. A unilateral rupture can be viewed as a sequence of shocks produced along certain paths on the fault. According this model, the seismic record at any point on the Earth's surface contains a signature of the rupture process that originated the recorded waveform. Calculating the rupture direction and velocity by a general Doppler equation, the goal of this work using a dataset of common time-delays read from waveforms recorded at different distances around the epicenter, requires the normalization of measures to a standard value of slowness. This normalization involves a non-linear inversion that we solve numerically using an iterative least-squares approach. The evaluation of the performance of this technique was done through a set of synthetic and real applications. We present the application of the method at four real case studies, the following earthquakes: Arequipa, Peru (Mw = 8.4, June 23, 2001); Denali, AK, USA (Mw = 7.8; November 3, 2002); Zemmouri–Boumerdes, Algeria (Mw = 6.8, May 21, 2003); and Sumatra, Indonesia (Mw = 9.3, December 26, 2004). The results obtained from the dataset of the four earthquakes agreed, in general, with the values presented by other authors using different methods and data.


This paper presents a method for optimal control of hybrid systems. An inequality of Bellman type is considered and every solution to this inequality gives a lower bound on the optimal value function. A discretization of this "hybrid Bellman inequality" leads to a convex optimization problem in terms of finite-dimensional linear programming. From the solution of the discretized problem, a value function that preserves the lower bound property can be constructed. An approximation of the optimal feedback control law is given and tried on some examples.


. The alarm raised by the prospect of global warming and rising sea levels has led to concern about the future of Pacific Island states. Although major problems may eventuate from global climatic change, this paper argues that the range, magnitude and uncertainty of other mainly social and economic processes is such that simple prediction is impossible. Instead a more wide ranging geographical approach is required which recognises both regional diversity and human activity and response.


A pup was presented with dropped lower lip and incisors, inability to eat, severe pain on jaw manipulation and severe salivation. Lateral radiograph revealed bilateral mandibular fracture between 2nd and 3rd premolars. The fractures were immobilized with two K-wires, external molded plastic splint and tape muzzle. The pup was maintained with Dextrose saline for three days and oral liquid diet for next four days followed by soft diet. The external splint and tape muzzle were removed on seventh day. Follow up radiograph after one month revealed fracture union with minimum callus and K-wires were removed. Clinical examination revealed rigid fracture union and painless manipulation. The pup recovered uneventfully.


Inflammatory bowel disorders (IBD), including Crohn's disease and colitis, have a prevalence between 10–20%. IBD patients experience a reduced quality of life due to symptoms such as diarrhea, abdominal cramps, anal bleeding. The exact etiology of IBD is incompletely understood, but the immune response plays a critical role. Innate immune cells integrate the sum of stimulatory and inhibitory signals to determine overall activation. Solidifying the roles of pertinent proteins and their interactions is critical in mapping the immune response and understanding the implications of clinical treatment of IBD. ST8Sia6 is a sialic acid transferase which adds terminal a2,8 disialic acids to cell surface glycoproteins, and we have found that ST8Sia6 generates ligands for Siglec-2 and Siglec-E on innate immune cells, including colonic macrophages and neutrophils. These siglecs are inhibitory sialic acid-binding membrane receptors expressed on several immune cell subsets. Restraining ST8Sia6 should therefore enhance the immune response by reducing siglec-mediated inhibition. To examine this, our lab has generated a novel ST8Sia6 knockout (KO) mouse. At baseline these mice are healthy, but we have found that ST8Sia6 KO mice challenged with dextran sodium sulfate (DSS)-induced colitis lose weight and succumb to colonic inflammation significantly faster than their wildtype (WT) counterparts, particularly at low doses. ST8Sia6 KO mice exhibit increased histological damage and immune infiltration of the colon and small bowel as compared to WT controls. This data demonstrates a role for ST8Sia6 in regulating the hose immune response to inflammatory bowel disorders.


Reproductive bud phenology from 1983 through 1989 limited potential outcross efficiency to a maximum of 58 to 87%, in a Douglas-fir (Pseudotsugamenziesii (Mirb.) Franco) clonal orchard near Monmouth, Oregon. Potential outcross efficiency was calculated for 20 clones from dates of male and female bud opening and pollination mechanism information. Cool weather before bud opening of the earliest clones delayed and compressed the breeding period and resulted in a greater percentage of trees having synchronous periods of pollen release and receptive seed strobili. Length of breeding season among years averaged 20 days and ranged from 16 to 27 days. Differences in phenology significantly impacted the breeding system because the overall breeding period of the orchard clones exceeded the 8-day receptive period of individual clones by two or three times and often prohibited or limited potential outcrossing between the earliest and latest clones. Outcrossing was greatest in clones with intermediate phenology and le...


In an effort to reconcile theoretical "blind spots," we integrated research in technology management, organizational ecology, and evolutionary economics. The central premise underlying the resultan...


This piece seeks to compare and contrast the developing deepening insolvency theory in the US with the wrongful trading regime in the UK. Beneath the differences in semantic expression lies a common underlying idea. Hence the two principles share many similarities as follows. First, both principles recognise that undue prolongation of an insolvent corporation's life harms the corporation's interests and that, when the risk of insolvency looms, the management have a perverse incentive to continue trading as long as possible. Thus, both principles seek to arrest this perverse incentive and impose personal liability on those participating in the unnecessary trading. It follows that the management owe a duty to the corporation not to trade unnecessarily when insolvency is on the horizon. Second, both principles can apply to outsiders who exercise domination and control of the debtors. Third, neither principle imposes an absolute duty on the managers of an insolvent corporation to shut down and liquidate the corporation as soon as there is any insolvency risk. The New York bankruptcy court in In re Global Service Group completely misunderstood the English wrongful trading regime. Fourth, the measure of damages under either principle may be based on the corporation's increase in net deficit during the period of unjustified trading. However, deepening insolvency and wrongful trading appear to diverge in the following areas. While deepening insolvency may be invoked outside the strict confines of liquidation proceedings, a wrongful trading claim can only be brought by a liquidator. The realm of application of the deepening insolvency principle is potentially very wide, whereas the wrongful trading provision applies only to directors (including shadow directors). Furthermore, while a deepening insolvency claim belongs to the insolvent corporation, a wrongful trading claim does not, though the current English position on this is wrong. This piece will also consider the possibility of the English court developing an English tort of deepening insolvency. At any rate, much is to be gained from comparative law studies in this area.


This paper evaluates crash severity of unsignalized intersection using Conflict Index. Crash and Conflict Severity Model is developed to show the relationship between Crash Index and Conflict Index. The validity and reliability of this model are proved by comparing the Model Ranking and Wisconsin Statewide Ranking of unsignalized intersections' safety. The results indicate that the Model Ranking and Statewide Ranking match well. Based on intersections' conflict data in Wisconsin, this paper offers unsignalized intersections' crash severity classification using probabilistic computing. Visual software is developed for calculating unsignalized intersections' crash severity intelligently based on this model. Overall, CCS Model can serve for intersection crash severity evaluation in real time system and be a theoretical basis for decision support system of unsignalized intersections crash prevention.


A central need in the emerging business of model-based prediction is to enable customers to validate the accuracy of a predictive product. This paper discusses how analysts can evaluate data mining models and their inferences from the customer viewpoint, where the customer is not particularly knowledgeable in data mining. To date, academia has focused primarily on the validation of algorithms through mathematical metrics and benchmarking studies. This type of validation is not sufficient in the business context, where organizations must validate specific models in terms that customers can understand quickly and effortlessly. We describe our predictive business and our customer validation needs. To that end, we discuss examples of customer needs, review issues associated with model validation, and point out how academic research may help to address these business needs.


Parents of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) may experience increased stress in their social and professional activities due to the challenges of raising a child with ASD. The present study developed a scale to measure the Social and Professional Stress (SPS) experienced daily by these parents. The study sample consisted of 255 parents residing in Brazil aged between 21 and 61 years (mean = 38, SD = 6.0). Item Response Theory (IRT) was used to develop the SPS-Scale, which showed good psychometric properties. Our findings indicated a higher level of SPS among mothers who are primary caregivers and who have children with symptoms of ASD at medium or severe levels. The child's age and the interviewee's marital status also showed an association with the SPS experienced by the parents. Overall, the SPS-Scale proved to be a valid instrument to measure the SPS experienced daily by parents of children or adolescents diagnosed with ASD.


Long non‐coding RNAs (lncRNAs) exert a significant role in carcinogenesis. lncRNA KCNQ1OT1 is detected in many tumors and is considered as an oncogene. The expression and mechanism of KCNQ1OT1 in retinoblastoma (Rb) are not clearly elucidated.


In the year 2000, Townsend developed a prototype that integrates FDG-PET and CT, thus creating the possibility of performing both tests sequentially, in order to obtain an image that is the result of the fusion of hardware of anatomical (CT) and metabolic information (PET) of the section under study (Townsend & Beyer, 2002). Since then, PET/CT imaging has been a revolution in the diagnosis of tumours, staging, restaging and detection of local and distant recurrence and assessment of therapy response.


International organization — Officials — United Nations Administrative Tribunal — Definition of "staff member" for purposes of Tribunal's jurisdiction — Formation of contract of employment — Anticipatory breach of executory contract — Damages.


We study the energy dependence of the cross section for the coherent Coulomb excitation of relativistic nuclei traversing crystals. It is shown that with increasing energy total coherence sets in, which leads to an increase of the excitation cross section quadratic in the number of atoms. The growth of the cross section is not due to any resonance condition. A space--time interpretation of this phenomenon is given.


This pictorial review explores the wide spectrum of paediatric groin and scrotal masses. Examples overlap with the adult population but concentrate on those more common in, or unique to, children. Correlation with other imaging modalities is included where appropriate.


Fuzzy Tsukamoto is one method that is very flexible and tolerant of existing data. Fuzzy Tsukamoto has the advantage of being more intuitive, accepted by many, more suitable for the input received from humans rather than machines. Microfinance institutions are specialized financial institutions established to provide business development services and community empowerment, either through loans or financing in micro-scale businesses to members and the community, deposit management, and the provision of business development consulting services that are not solely for profit. The purpose of this study is to apply the fuzzy Tsukamoto method to determine the level of financial distress in microfinance institutions in the city of Medan based on the variables Liquidity Ratio, Age Firm, and Cumulative Profitability Ratio, Profitability Ratio, Financial Structure Ratio, Capital Turnover Ratio.


The invention discloses a video playing method and a video playing device, belonging to the technical field of audio and video. The method comprises the steps of receiving a request to play a video; acquiring a multimedia file and a decryption key from a video server if the video comprises an encryption key; playing the acquired multimedia file; decrypting the video according to the decryption key; and playing the decrypted video when the multimedia file finishes playing. When an off-line video already downloaded to a terminal is playing, whether a current video is encrypted is known; when the video is encrypted by the encryption key, the terminal firstly needs to acquire and play the multimedia file pushed by the server, and then decodes the encrypted video according to the decryption key provided by the server, so as to play the decrypted video. When the video is played offline, the skip of the multimedia file resulting from playing schedule control is prevented, and the watch ratio of the multimedia file is guaranteed.


The EuroDendro project aims to detect the signal of recent snow-avalanche activity within the analyses of tree rings. In mountain areas, even middle mountains, snow avalanches are a common process & pose serious hazards & risks in recently occupied sectors, either for residence or recreation purposes. Where (i) geomorphological evidence of snow-avalanche occurrence are scarce, (ii) historical records are poor & (iii) trees are colonizing part of the slopes, tree-ring analyses appear as a good alternative to reveal the recent snow-avalanche history. The dendromorphological approach consists in a survey of the investigated areas to inventory damages that affect the morphology of the tree: tilting of the trunk, presence of scars on the trunk, topped trees. Such a survey enables mapping the most frequent snow-avalanche paths, helping to: locate the maximum potential damages estimate the runout distances appreciate the lateral dispersion of the events The EuroDendro project is very interested in: (i) broad-leaved trees, which attracted seldom attention in dendrogeomorphology related to snow-avalanche activity: birch (Betula pubescens) in N Iceland birch (Betula pubescens) & alder (Alnus) in W Norway beech (Fagus sylvatica) in NE Cantal-France (ii) coniferous trees in little explored areas where broad-leaved trees are unavailable: spruce (Picea abies) in Central Romania Core extractions in c & d directions, i.e. parallel to the main flux lines, on both the uphill & the downhill sides of the tree Core analyses on a Lintab measurement table, enabling tree-rings counting, location & dating of growth disturbances (narrow & large rings) & reaction wood formation. The EuroDendro project investigates four main areas, some of them in connection with other scientific frameworks. The investigated areas are located in: xx (A) Northern Iceland, in the Dalsmynni valley, the Ljosavatn-skarð pass & the southern Fnjoskadalur valley, (B) Western Norway, at the bottom of Nordfjord, in Erdalen & Bodalen, (C) Central Romania, in the Southern Carpathians, in the Bâlea valley, Făgărăs massif, (D) Central France, in the Northeastern valleys of the Cantal massif. xx All these areas are characterised by steep slopes, harsh wintry conditions, known frequent snow-avalanche activity, a relative remotness & a tree-cover on talus & cones. A B C D The Fjnoskadalur site, Iceland © Armelle Decaulne The Bâlea site, Romania © Armelle Decaulne The Erdalen site, Norway © Armelle Decaulne The Cantal site, France © Emmanuelle Defive © GoogleEarth Study sites location Recurrent snow avalanches strongly influence the growth of the birches that develop typical tilted trunks (Ljosavatnskarð, Iceland). © Armelle Decaulne Slow growth Samples from the lower track & upper runout zones Broad-leaved trees => tension wood on the strained side of the trunk => asymmetrical growth Reference growth from outside the snow-avalanche influence area isolate the role of climatic accident & insect attacks Location of the reaction wood date recurrent events over the last 80 years, with a different distribution Young trees could indicate: (i) recent snow-avalanche activity drop at valley level (ii) change in grazing zones Well-defined areas of felled trees = recent major snow-avalanche events Reference growth = average of all cores extracted in c-d directions Samples from the lower runout zones Bodalen: sudden drop of tree growth in 2000 = major avalanche felled the tree Erdalen: recurrent avalanchy winters post-1995, severe from 2000 & especially in 2002 & 2006 Reference curve built from straight spruces sampled below the path Narrow path with poor tree cover, even in the distal runout zone Most of the trees are very young (+/-30 years) Reaction wood formation on the downhill side = recurrent stress due to snow-avalanche activity. Oldest trees signal several avalanchy periods, especially from 1920s to early 1950s again during the 1980s. Spatial distribution of major impact areas affecting trees in the Bodalen valley, Norway. Background image is © Norwegian land survey Main dendrogeomorphological investigated paths in the Bodalen valley, Norway. © Katja Laute Map of the tree morphology, reflecting damages due to snow-avalanche occurrence on a colluvial cone in the Dalsmynni valley, Iceland. Background images are © skipulag.is Birches felled by a snow avalanche in the Bodalen valley, Norway. © Armelle Decaulne Topped & tilted spruce in the distal part of the path, Romania. © Armelle Decaulne Asymetric branch distribution on a spruce in Romania. © Armelle Decaulne Scars on the trunk & main branches in the snow-avalanche path. © Armelle Decaulne Tilting, scars & topping Tilting & scars Main areas of felled trees Main areas of damaged shrubs Tilting 200 m


The operation of many systems can be described by the timing of events. When the system behavior can be described by equations that are "linear'' in the max-plus algebra, which has maximization and addition as its basic operations, the system is called a max-plus-linear system. In many of these systems the order of the events may need to be changed due to changes in the conditions, or the requirements. Such systems that can change the order of events are called switching max-plus-linear (SMPL) systems. In this thesis we consider two application of SMPL systems. The first application of SMPL systems models the railway traffic networks and is used for on-line rescheduling of railway traffic in the case of delays. In this thesis a macroscopic model for the railway traffic network is presented that can model the effects on the railway traffic of several control actions. For every set of control actions the new event order and times are determined. In order to solve the on-line rescheduling problem for a railway traffic network a global model predictive control (MPC) approach and four distributed model predictive control (DMPC) approaches are proposed. The second type of SMPL system models legged locomotion for different gaits. In this thesis the steady state cyclic behavior of the max-plus-linear systems describing the gaits, and the transition to the steady state cyclic behavior, are analyzed. It is shown that the steady state behavior can be uniquely defined for all gaits. With the steady state behavior uniquely defined for all gaits we were able to determine optimal gait switches.


Department on three occasions with wheeziness and noisy breathing and was treated for an upper respiratory tract infection and reactive airways disease with antibiotics and salbutamol. On the fourth visit his respiratory symptoms had worsened and he had a tracheal tug, inspiratory and expiratory stridor and peripheral blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) of 92% breathing room air. He was referred to the ENT clinic and a microlaryngoscopy and bronchoscopy were performed the same day. Visualisation of the trachea showed external compression of the anterior trachea 2 cm above the carina (Fig. 3). A metallic sequin, 16 mm in diameter, was found at 15 cm in the oesophagus with granulation tissue antero-laterally. Malignancy could not be excluded. He was transferred to the PICU, his trachea intubated and his lungs ventilated until oedema of the airway resolved. A CT of the chest and neck was performed the next day, and showed an ill defined mass on the right anterior aspect of the oesophagus encircling the trachea. A biopsy showed ulcerated, inflamed granulation tissue with no malignant cells. Intravenous antibiotics were started due to a low grade fever on day 2, and the patient remained intubated on the PICU for 5 days. He was discharged to the ward on day 6, where he had two episodes of waking from sleep with choking and desaturation (SpO2 85%). These resolved spontaneously. On day 7 he was still symptomatic with noisy breathing and was not eating. A video swallow showed generalised narrowing of the upper and mid oesophagus, probably due to mucosal oedema. A paediatric thoracic surgeon was consulted and advised no change in his management. Over the next 8 days the airway obstruction and dysphagia improved. He was discharged on day 15 eating a normal diet. He was reviewed 1 week later. He still had stridor after eating, at night or if stressed. His quality of sleep was improving, although he was still tired during the day. Three months later the stridor was decreasing in frequency and worsened only with intercurrent upper respiratory tract infection. He was discharged from hospital care. This infant presented with recurrent wheeziness and noisy breathing on four occasions. The history was typical of a foreign body aspiration [1], but it was not recognised. A chest X-ray would have ensured earlier diagnosis and treatment. When investigated, the foreign body was in the oesophagus. Most foreign bodies in the oesophagus pass through, but up to 30% cause airway obstruction [2]. Therefore, if the foreign body is not in the airway, examine the oesophagus. Failure to do so may result in oesophageal perforation, mediastinitis or even pericarditis.


A new procedure to diagonalize quadratic Hamiltonians is introduced. We show that one can establish the diagonalization of a quadratic Hamiltonian by changing the frame of reference by a unitary transformation. We give a general method to diagonalize an arbitrary quadratic Hamiltonian and derive a few of the simplest special cases in detail.


A High birefringence and low confinement loss of three patterns photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) are investigated and compared by using finite element method. Results show that the mode birefringence of proposed PCF with rectangular air holes at λ= 1.55 μm reaches 8.1 × 10-2 (which is the highest value to our knowledge) and the confinement loss is less than 5×10-3 dB/km, respectively. Besides, an ultrahigh birefringence up to 2.76 × 10-2 is also achieved from the proposed circular air holes PCF, which is the highest value compared to conventional circular air holes PCF.


This paper seeks to parse the solution to the problem of hoax from the perspective of Quranic interpretation holistically and comprehensively. This study is a qualitative research by reading the  relationship (munasabah) between verses about  hoax in the Holy Quran that are represented by the terms ifk, fa>siq, muna>fiq, murjifu>n, and tabayyun. After reading the verses related to the term, it was concluded that hoax news can be minimized by critical thinking, having emotional maturity, performing tabayyun, and broadening insight. In addition, the Holy Quran also teaches good communication ethics, namely qaulan sadi>dan (correct speech), qaulan bali>gan (good words that leave an imprint on the soul), qaulan maisu>ran (proper speech), qaulan layyinan (soft words), qaulan kari>man (noble words), and qaulan ma'ru> fan (good words).


In the present paper comparisons are drawn between data for the poly(/spl beta/-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) homopolymer and for a related poly(/spl beta/-hydroxybutyrate-co-/spl beta/-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV). In measurements of complex relative permittivity for PHB and PHBV over wide ranges of frequency and temperature. four distinct loss regions are apparent, These are attributed respectively to carbonyl-driven local mode /spl beta/-relaxations involving cooperative motions of methyl and ester groups in amorphous domains, to the /spl alpha/-relaxation process associated with the glass transition in the amorphous regions, to an polarization at the interface between crystalline and amorphous domains, and to the presence of phosphite residues.


An unpublished chalk-talk was given at Gregynog Synthesi Workshop, Wales, on the total synthesis of an enediyne antitumour antibiotic that has been 20 years in the making.


Planning of an underground mine poses considerable difficulties in the areas of safety, environment, ground control and production scheduling. To maximize the profitability of these operations, an integrated optimized stope layout and production schedule is required to coordinate underground mining activities such as development, extraction, haulage, dumping, stockpiling and processing. An optimal mine life is detailed in proper scheduling of all available resources and more importantly the mining sequence. The process of preparing such strategic mine plan is an optimization decisionmaking process which entails a mining sequence that takes into consideration the physical limitations, resource and production constraints, financial performance and uncertainties of the mine, and meets the required quantities of ore type at each period throughout the life of the mine. The current underground stope layout optimization and production scheduling algorithms in literature lack the ability to deal with real w orld large s cale complex underground mine planning problems. Most of the algorithms and solvers available do not integrate production scheduling with stope layout optimization. A few that integrate this two important mine planning processes do not have the ability to address: i) the broad range of mining methods (exhaustiveness), ii) practical problem sizes, and iii) stochastic parameters. This paper reviews relevant literature on existing solvers and algorithms for underground stope layout and production scheduling optimization, and outlines their limitations and potential research opportunities.


(57) ABSTRACT There is provided a method of vacuum evaporation compris ing causing evaporated material (5) from vacuum evaporation source (20) furnished with container (1) with its one side open accommodating organic material (2) to form a film on opposed substrate (7), wherein the vacuum evaporation Source has heating element (3) not fixed to the container, and being in contact with the Surface of organic material held in the container, and wherein the organic material is evaporated by heating of the heating element only, the evaporated mate rial released through at least one hole (6) or at least one slit made in the heating element.


By application of aluminium liner cots 890 as a substitution of top apron roller 2865,the latter one has more impurities on the surface.Analysis is done to the competitive edge and cautions in using the aluminium liner cots 890.


Presents a hardware and software approach to the problem of executing test vectors at double the basic tester rate. The scheme avoids many of the pitfalls inherent in most double speed multiplexing schemes.


In this paper, the excitation control with rotary exciter of generator A2 in Thermal Power Plant "Kostolac A" is presented. Excitation system under consideration consists of a main exciter, an auxiliary exciter and power semiconductor rectifiers. The main exciter is a synchronous-reluctance generator with windingless toothed rotor. That excitation system is specific due to the fact that the main exciter has three excitation windings and three phase output a.c. windings, all located at stator. Series excitation is serially connected with rotor winding of the synchronous generator, while other two separate excitations are realized by independent windings, each of them generating the flux pointing in opposite direction. In the main three phase a.c. windings the 500 Hz frequency currents are induced. Auxiliary exciter is a 400 Hz permanent-magnet synchronous generator. It supplies separate excitation windings of the main exciter by means of thyristor rectifier bridges. The main aim of the control algorithm is to accomplish the magnetomotive force balance of all three excitation windings in order to regulate generator terminal voltage. In addition to the main outer voltage control loop, the inner local stabilizing current loop is added in order to achieve the satisfactory transient performance of the regulation. Control algorithm sets the values of the firing angle of the thyristors in two three-phase rectifier bridges, in order to produce corresponding excitation currents of separate excitation windings.


The rapid growth of engineering education requires the propermaintenance of academic quality in educational institutions in order towithstand competition in the global market. External accreditation andinternal quality assurance are two very important processes that are carriedout in order to maintain the quality of engineering education. Accreditation isa process designed to determine whether or not an educational programmehas met or exceeded the published standards of the accreditation agency,whereas the purpose of internal quality assurance is to develop a qualityculture within an institution, and to implement a strategy for the continuousenhancement of quality. Although several quality assurance standards andguidelines have been established and implemented worldwide throughvarious international, regional and national agencies; relevant literaturesearches show that there is no common agreement or criterion that can beused in the quality assurance of engineering education. In this article, theauthors elaborate on several important issues regarding the accreditation andquality assurance of engineering education. The authors define internalquality assurance of an engineering programme as: enabled by certain qualityenablers, a structured process of quality analysis (benchmarking,monitoring, evaluating, assessing, guaranteeing and improving the quality)of the design, resources, delivery and outcomes of the programme; resultingin defect avoidance, strategic alignment, continuous improvement, andstakeholder trust. A brief outline of a multi-dimensional framework forinternal quality assurance of engineering programmes is provided in thisarticle.


In the article two popular low-frequency methods o d bid-ask spread estimation are presented and applied to the stocks quoted on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE): the Roll method [Roll 1984] and CorwinSchultz method [Corwin and Schultz 2012]. The widel y available data on average spreads published by WSE are used as benchm ark and proxy of information, usually received from difficult to acc ess and limited highfrequency financial data


It is shown that a recently found generalization of coordinate transformations allows a geometric interpretation of many indefinite media, including perfect lenses made therefrom.We show that the perfect lens proposed by Smith and Schurig consists in a combination of time reversal and space inversion and derive alternative designs of perfect lenses made from two slabs of indefinite materials.