This study aims to examine users' knowledge change characteristics and knowledge change process, and examined factors that may influence users' knowledge change process. A user search experiment was conducted, in which participants were asked to search for two learning‐related search tasks and use a mind‐map to organize their thoughts during the search process. Pre‐ and post‐search questionnaires were distributed to collect users' self‐assessed topic familiarity and task difficulty. Besides the overall knowledge change process by all the users, we identified four types of knowledge change styles using a hierarchical clustering method: Early knowledge change, Medium‐term knowledge change, Late knowledge change and Average knowledge change. In addition, we found that task type, task difficulty in information integration and difficulty in drawing the mind‐map had significant influences on users' knowledge change styles. This study took a process perspective to characterize users' knowledge change at different stages and shed light on when and how learning occurs during the search process.


The activated carbon produced from Hura crepitans seed shell was effectively utilized as adsorbent for the removal of eosin red and malachite green from waste water. Thus the adsorption of eosin red, a typical acid dye and malachite green, a typical basic dye from synthetic waste water using Hura crepitans seed shell activated carbon was studied. The effect of adsorbent dosage, initial dye concentration and contact time was evaluated. The residual eosin red and malachite green concentration in solutions was determined using UV-visible spectrophotometer. All batch experiments were carried out at room temperature (± 2°C) using mechanical shaker that operates at 200 rpm. The results showed that the efficiency of dye adsorption increased with increase in amount of adsorbent, contact time, and with decrease in concentration of dye. The qmax for the adsorption of Malachite green was higher than that of Eosin red showing that MG were removed from waste water easily than ER. The results also showed that the adsorption of the two dyes follow pseudo-first order kinetics. Adsorption isotherm obtained for eosin red follows the Freundlichmodel while the adsorption isotherm obtained for Malachite green followed the Langmuir model.


A study was conducted for screening of ten different irrigated wheat varieties against Angoumois grain moth, Sitotroga cerealella (Olivier) under laboratory conditions (28±2C°, 60±5% RH, 12:12 L:D hours) during 2009 at The University of Agriculture, Peshawar-Pakistan. The varieties were evaluated on the basis of developmental period, total progeny of S. cerealella and percent grain damage, percent weight loss, grain size and chemical composition of the grains. The results revealed that none of the varieties was completely immune to the attack of S. cerealella. However, their response varied significantly (P< 0.05). Weight loss being main index of resistance, variety Fakhre Sarhad (3.87% weight loss) was found significantly tolerant followed by Uqab (7.610%), Sehar (7.78%), Shafaq (9.19%) and Dera-98 (9.24%) while Pirsabak-2004 (13.39%), Pirsabak-2005 (13.82%), Raj (14.10%), Saleem-2000 (14.44%) and Pirsabak-2008 (27.75%) were significantly susceptible. The coefficient of correlation between percent weight loss and fat was negative and non-significant (r = - 0.215). The correlation of percent weight loss with protein content was negative and highly significant(r = - 0.632), while it was positive and highly significant with moisture (r = 0.690) and crude fibre (r = 0.649).


The invention of the solar cell as an electro-optical power device dates back to the year 1954. In 1961, Shockley and Queisser derived the maximum conversion efficiency of an ideal pn-junction solar cell by applying the principle of detailed balance. This principle, known since the years 1924/25, is strictly valid only close to thermal equilibrium. Despite of this restriction, application of this principle to solar cells under illumination, i.e. in a non-equilibrium situation, is commonly accepted and successfully used even for the analysis of non-ideal solar cells. During the last two decades, new photovoltaic technologies like dye sensitized or organic solar cells have emerged from laboratories. The large difference of organic semiconductors to their inorganic counterparts challenges our general understanding of solar cells. The present contribution will start from the fundamentals of photovoltaic energy conversion and discuss the principles that are common to all these devices. In a next step, a general approach based on the principle of detailed balance is introduced that allows us to describe organic and inorganic solar cells and to highlight their different working principles. These differences have immediate consequences on the limitations, the practical design and the technical realization of the various types of devices.


Quality management
 has emerged with promising organizational performance outcomes
 around the business world and has brought healthy prospective for
 the modern era business organizations to meet the challenge of
 continuous quality improvement to satisfy the customer demands.
 Organizations are forced to ensure the quality of their products and
 services to meet the challenges posed by the competition existing in
 the markets around the globe, growing customers awareness of market
 development, ever escalating quality demands from customers, and the
 urge of organizations to strive for winning the competitive edge at
 marketplace.
 This dissertation provides the insight of quality management status
 of cotton yarn industry of Pakistan by addressing the issue of
 quality management implementation in the industry and its
 performance outcomes. This dissertation is meant to evaluate that
 whether the quality management programs, which proved very effective
 in improving organizational performance in the advanced countries,
 could be successful in the organizations belonging to developing
 country like Pakistan. The existing literature of quality management
 is mostly based on research performed in advanced countries,
 therefore to contribute to the body of knowledge of quality
 management in Pakistan this study is conducted in the cotton yarn
 industry of Pakistan.
 The organizational culture, management style, human resources and
 the managerial perspectives are considered critical factors in
 defining the success or failure of the quality management programs.
 Hence, it is worthwhile to appraise the effect of quality management
 practices in improving the quality of yarn and organizational
 performance in context of cotton yarn industry of Pakistan, which is
 characterized with a specific organizational culture, management
 style, human resources, and managerial perspectives. Within this
 research objective, the research problem was established as;What
 level of Quality management implementation is achieved by cotton
 yarn industry of Pakistan, and how much quality management is
 effective in improving quality of cotton yarn industry? To address
 the main research problem, four research activities were planned.
 The first research activity was to have exhaustive hypothetical and
 pragmatic knowledge about the concepts, principles, practices, and
 the issues related to quality management implementation in
 organizational context. This research activity was imperative to
 discover quality management approaches to develop a research
 structure to evaluate the level of implementation of quality
 management techniques by the cotton yarn industry of Pakistan. The
 second research activity was to explore the empirical
 interrelationship of quality management practices implemented in
 organizational context of the cotton yarn industry of Pakistan. The
 third research activity was to identify the relationship of quality
 management techniques with the performance measures in the
 organizational perspectives of cotton yarn industry of Pakistan. The
 fourth research activity was to evaluate the effect of
 implementation of quality management techniques on organizational
 performance and quality improvement of cotton yarn. To comply with
 these research activities, main research problem was re-defined into
 four sub-questions
 i. What level of adoption of quality management techniques is
 achieved by the cotton yarn industry of Pakistan?
 ii. How do quality management techniques interrelate in the work
 environment of the cotton yarn industry of Pakistan?
 iii. How does implementation of quality management techniques link
 with the performance measures of cotton yarn industry of Pakistan?
 iv. What effect implementation of quality management techniques has
 on the quality of yarn in the cotton yarn industry of Pakistan?
 In addressing research question 1, the findings of this research
 show that cotton yarn industry of Pakistan has implemented quality
 management techniques at a moderate level, and quality management
 programs are receiving positive response from the industry. In
 addressing research question 2, the findings of this research show
 that in the organizational environment of cotton yarn industry of
 Pakistan, all the quality management techniques have significant
 positive correlation with each other, except the practice of
 changing the suppliers for their failure in maintaining the promised
 quality level. In addressing research question 3, the findings of
 this research show that implementation of quality techniques is
 positively linked with the organizational performance measures,
 except for the practice of changing the suppliers for their failure
 in achieving and maintaining the minimum level of quality, that has
 negative effect on performance measures. In addressing research
 question 4, the findings of this research show that in the context
 of cotton yarn industry of Pakistan, the implementation of quality
 management techniques proved to have a significant positive impact
 on profitability, market share, sale volume, reduction in rejection
 rate, and organizational performance.


Big data has been an emerging problem these days. To solve this problem Hadoop has evolved as a most widely used tool and adopted by various popular MNCs like Facebook and Yahoo. To search large number of pattern in big data is a challenging task. Map/Reduce is used to write codes to perform pattern matching on big data. In this work OpenCL is combined with Apache Hadoop to write fast Map/Reduce for pattern matching in data using suffix arrays.


The use of a single-valued neutrosophic set (svns) makes it much easier to manage situations in which one must deal with incorrect, unexpected, susceptible, faulty, vulnerable, and complicated information. This is a result of the fact that the specific forms of material being discussed here are more likely to include errors. This new theory has directly contributed to the expansion of both the concept of fuzzy sets and intuitionistic fuzzy sets, both of which have experienced additional development as a direct consequence of the creation of this new theory. In svns, indeterminacy is correctly assessed in a way that is both subtle and unambiguous. Furthermore, membership in the truth, indeterminacy, and falsity are all completely independent of one another. In the context of algebraic analysis, certain binary operations may be regarded as interacting with algebraic modules. These modules have pervasive and complicated designs. Modules may be put to use in a wide variety of different applications. Modules have applications in a diverse range of industries and market subsets due to their adaptability and versatility. Under the umbrella of the triplet (μ,ν,ω) structure, we investigate the concept of svns and establish a relationship between it and the single-valued neutrosophic module and the single-valued neutrosophic submodule, respectively. The purpose of this study is to gain an understanding of the algebraic structures of single-valued neutrosophic submodules under the triplet structure of a classical module and to improve the validity of this method by analyzing a variety of important facets. In this article, numerous symmetrical features of modules are also investigated, which demonstrates the usefulness and practicality of these qualities. The results of this research will allow for the successful completion of both of these objectives. The tactics that we have devised for use in this article are more applicable to a wide variety of situations than those that have been used in the past. Fuzzy sets, intuitionistic fuzzy sets, and neutrosophic sets are some of the tactics that fall under this category.


The article presents a method to increase competitiveness of railways. The models of the development of railway transport with non-state property are shown. An analysis of the main models of functioning clusters in the world is conducted. The cluster approach to the organization of the transportation process is considered. The properties of the cluster and their classification, scheme for the construction of transport and logistics cluster (TLC) are shown


Photochemical hole burning (PHB) is attracting much interest [1] due to its potential in high density optical memory, and its power in high resolution spectroscopy. The PHB is expected to a 103 to 104-fold increase in storage density over conventional optical storage. The PHB enables one to select a group of photoreactive molecules in the system, and obtain much information on the circumstances around them. Thermal stability of system at low temperature has been studied extensively with the cycle annealing experiments[2,3]. From these experiments, two types of information can be obtained, i.e. thermal activated backward reaction of photoproduct and spectral diffusion[3]. The systems studied were concentrated on one-color hole burning systems. The information of thermal stability in photon-gated hole burning system is scarce. The laser-induced hole filling were studied in rare earth ion and dyes doped into BaFC1.5Br.5 and polymers respectively[2,4,5].


Time series forecasting was for a long time based on the principle that simple methods in forecast accuracy exceed machine learning methods. However, simple models cannot use the various mutual dependencies and information offered by time series, content-related or similar to those that are subject to prediction. The occurrence of massive data is also connected with the collecting of enormous amounts of time series, but in using simple, traditional methods, their high potential for enhancing forecast accuracy remains untapped.

The opportunity to bridge this gap comes with neural networks. To process sequential data, recurrent neural networks are used in forecasting that can use mutual dependencies of points in time. Among recurrent neural networks, long short-term memory neural networks are considered as especially successful in time series forecasting. The paper focuses on the building and optimization of this neural network type. Our purpose was to improve forecast accuracy in time series forecasting, understanding at the same time why and to what degree individual factors contribute to this improvement.

The forecasting was applied to the number of clicks on Facebook ads. First, we analysed various combinations of time series processing, discovering that they might influence forecast accuracy improvements. Neural networks learned using a group of related time series and the forecasts were compared to the traditional time series forecasting approaches ARIMA, ARIMAX and VAR. We also researched a number of options to improve forecast effectiveness with neural networks using similar time series.

As expected, we found that with adequate data processing, long short-term memory neural networks achieve greater forecast accuracy compared to the traditional models. We demonstrated that forecasting can be further improved using similar time series, however, this approach is not always helpful.


14 undergraduate students who attributed success in a mid-year examination to external factors performed more poorly on the end-of-year examination and received a lower final grade than 169 students who internalised their successful examination performance. This is congruent with Thompson's 1997 suggestion that externalising success is a common factor in performance-limiting behaviour.


Abstract All English translations to date of 'Hacia un tercer cine' ('Toward a Third Cinema'), by Fernando Solanas and Octavio Getino, are based on the original publication in Spanish of the article in the October 1969 issue of Tricontinental (Havana). However, Solanas and Getino published a revised version in 1970, with the same title, which reflected the development of their thinking following the experience of the Cine Liberación group's extensive, and often clandestine, screenings of The Hour of the Furnaces. This article translates and discusses some of the most pertinent changes in the previously untranslated (and unacknowledged) revision; in particular, their evolving thought on Third Cinema, militant cinema and the 'instrumentalisation' of cinema in the rapidly changing political environment in Argentina at the time.


The all-round construction for well-to-do society is the basic goal and main undertaking by us. How to estimate and control the construction process is an important matter since we hadn't have a full-scaled scientific index system up-today, so that the description of the changes of living qualities and the goals in the future are still less effectively.


The definition of length of water gate seepage - proof in the present textbooks is generally far from accuracy, Which leads to bad result to a lot of engineering. In this paper, the definition is modified and a new definition is presented.


N,N-Dimethylbenzimidazolium iodide catalysed benzoin condensation and Stetter reaction in 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium hydroxide (bmim)(OH) which acts as a basic catalyst as well as a solvent for the reactions are described. The recycled reaction media containing benzimidazolium salt can be reused for several times without significant loss of efficiency.


This paper provides an analysis of the impact of 9111 on a major urban/metropolitan university in the New York City metropolitan region, namely Pace University. The purpose of this paper is fouifold: ( 1) to examine the impact of a major catastrophic incident on an urban/metropolitan university; (2) to analyze how the university responded to the unforeseen crisis; ( 3) to relate the lessons learned from this experience for the use of other urban/metropolitan universities; and ( 4) to explain what is needed by urban/metropolitan universities in emergency management planning.


The deep water resource is very rich, but the water level is relative deep, and the strata are complex. It is difficult to drill or can not drill if we use routine methods, using through down-hole hammer air drill method not only raise rate of drilling, but also reduce pollution to the aquifer, promoting exploration and development for the deep underground water.


In this paper, we present a theoretical analysis of multiple-pulse thermal damage thresholds based on the Arrhenius integral damage model. We consider the dependence of thresholds on both the number of pulses and the pulse spacing and show that the trends can be understood by considering the thermal relaxation time. The biological data that exists in the multiple-pulse thermal damage regime fits in with the model's predictions but does not validate them. We propose a simple experiment for validation and present a hypothetical scheme for adjusting the maximum permissible exposure limit for multiple pulses in the thermal damage regime.


Saline aquatic systems include inland and marine-derived lakes, solar salterns, or temporary inland saline ponds. Despite their high salinity, these ecosystems are inhabited by diverse microbial communities driving full biogeochemical cycling of main elements. To date, numerous salt-loving (or 'halophilic') environmental strains with metabolic traits of applicative interest belonging to all Domains of Life (Bacteria, Archaea, Eukarya) have been isolated from saline aquatic systems. The aim of the present work is to briefly review some of the most relevant achievements in the bioprospecting of saline aquatic systems for compounds and metabolic capabilities with potential uses in the environmental, industrial, and food biotechnologies. Additionally, the successful stories of current commercial exploitations of a few halotolerant (e.g., the bacterium Halomonas elongata), halophilic (e.g., the green algae Dunaliella sp.), and haloalkaliphilic microbes (e.g., the sulfur-oxidizing bacteria of genus Thioalkalivibrio sp.) are overviewed.


Abstract In this paper hemivariational inequality with nonhomogeneous Neumann boundary condition is investigated. The existence of infinitely many small solutions involving a class of p(x) - Laplacian equation in a smooth bounded domain is established. Our main tool is based on a version of the symmetric mountain pass lemma due to Kajikiya and the principle of symmetric criticality for a locally Lipschitz functional.


The futuristic technologies and new dimensions of the digital world makes a perfect combination to increase the power demand which make people to move towards advancement in the field of research in DC -DC power converters. The concern over the energy availability is based on the rapid building of Organizations and development in people's population. These factors influence renewable energy sources on industries and commercial has become more important today so people started moving towards renewable energy resources due to the merit of Renewable Energy Sources over conventional energy resources and also it causes less amount of pollution when compared to conventional energy resources. The role of energy converter in a electrical system is to make the availability based on the requirement and having control over the power generation depending upon rata of change of demand in the consumer side load. Nowadays the application of energy converter is in wide range, which covers majority of field applications and the advancement in the semi conductive materials also plays a major role in the improvement of various performance parameters of the power converters. Various factors like compactness, weight, performance during stationary and run time has been improving on the daily basis. The reliability and stability issues of the power generated by renewable energy conversion system has been processed and stabilized with the help of power converter systems configuration. The intermittency issues occurring has been solved with the help of multiport converters. Our proposed project is implemented on design basis of variable multiple input-output converter which delivers continuous power supply to the loads by means of multi input sources such as solar and battery. The continuous power supply is generated by bridging multiple power sources and it acts as a very efficient power supply to the multiple AC/ DC loads. The proposed system is designed to fit in the field of Electric vehicle and Hybrid Vehicles where the harvesting of energy will be considered from multiple sources. The converter operates in different mode based on the power requirement from the consumer side. The proposed system hardware was designed and implemented along with performance analysis. The proposed system has been analyzed and its characteristics were discussed in this research paper.


This essay narrates and explores the work of Catholic Theological Ethics in the World Church (CTEWC) in developing a network that connects roughly 1500 Catholic ethicists around the world. It highlights the impact that CTEWC has had in encouraging Christian ethics to become more inclusive, active, and mindful in advancing a network that builds bridges beyond the northern paradigm. In this narrative, we see how CTEWC planned and realized three major international conferences in Padua, Trento, and Sarajevo and six regional conferences in Manila, Nairobi, Berlin, Krakow, Bangalore, and Bogota. Together with its monthly newsletter, CTEWC has also sponsored a visiting scholars program in Bangalore, Manila, and Nairobi, a PhD scholarship program for eight women in Africa, and an international book series with eight volumes and over 200 contributors. Throughout, we respond to the challenge of pluralism by answering the call to dialogue from and beyond local culture. As it enters its second generation with new leadership, CTEWC pursues critical and emerging issues in theological ethics by engaging in cross-cultural, interdisciplinary conversations shaped by shared visions of hope, but always mindful that we must engage the Global South and go beyond the northern paradigm where most contemporary theological ethics occur.


In this work 12 Holstein calves were used distributed in three treatment, on a completely randomized desing with four replicatin. The treatments were used, integral milk and two types of comercial milk replacer Lactal ® and Destetor ® to evaluate the digestive system alometric growthof the including, rumen and reticulum papillae heigth and omasum rigde growth. The animals were milking for 60 days and after slaughtring, their digest system organs were weighed and stomach complex compared (rumen, reticulum, omasum and abomasum). No difference (P>0.05) due to treatments were obseved for the proportions among the diferent stomach compartiments of the calves. However, differences (P<0.05) for the papillae height of rumen and for the rigde lenght of omasum were observed. The milk replacers in this work resulted in a good calve growth being an alternative source of feed during mlking period.


Objective :To compare the HPLC fingerprint of sexual propagation and asexual propagation G.elata Bl. Then investigate their difference in the quality.Methods:A Dalian Elite Hypersil C_(18) column(4.6 mm×250 mm,5 μm) was used.Gradient elution with 0.1% phosphoric acid and 0.1% phosphoric acid methanol was adopted as mo- bile phase,0→15 min(97:3→93:7) ,15-65 min(93:7→0:100).The flow rate was 1.0 mL·min~(-1);The detection wavelength was set at 226 nm.Results:Good similarities with correlation coefficients higher than 0.9 were found in fingerprint between the sexual propagation and the asexual propagation G.elata.Conclusion:The HPLC fingerpnnt can be used tot the quality control of this medicinal materials.The quality of the sexual propagation was basically i- dentical with the asexual propagation G.elata.


Abstract: The word 'life' is a mysterious word with a chart of attributes that have neither been completed nor has been agreed upon by the race of humans. Probably the proper definition of life is impossible to identify for humans (the proof for this claim is given later) but the handbook to the secret shall be updated till the end, thanks to the inquisitive attitude of humans. For this piece, we shall adopt the description from the professional medical community of today. Though this topic falls midway between science and philosophy, this project is strictly technical. To quote dictionary.com, Life is the condition that distinguishes organisms from inorganic objects and dead organisms, being manifested by growth through metabolism, reproduction and the power of adaptation to environment- through changes originating internally; cambridge.com teaches Life is the period between birth and death, or the experience or state of being alive; medicaldictionary.thefreedictionary.com states Life is the property or quality that distinguishes living organisms from dead organisms and inanimate matter, manifested in functions such as metabolism, growth, reproduction and response to stimuli or adaptation to the environment originating from within the organisms. There are several other definitions but to summarize, we can safely state that though the concept is somewhat vague, we could indeed point out some common principles. We shall, in this project, try to replicate the characteristics so as to attain life in medical terms. (The order does not base upon importance of the listed character since the characters, all of them are absolute essentials and cannot possibly be categorized as more or less important). 1) Metabolism 2) Growth 3) Adaptability 4) Birth 5) Death 6) Self-stimulated response to environment 7) Reproduction 8) Can sustain self without foreign intervention Keywords: artificial, life, intelligence, computer, programming, algorithm This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.


Abstract Bartok's influence on his outstanding Hungarian contemporary, Laszlo Lajtha (1892–1963) remains as yet largely unresearched. Lajtha studied with Bartok at the Royal Hungarian Academy of Music and went on to become a composer, folk music researcher, versatile teacher, international cultural ambassador, and member of the French Academy. The two men's friendship and mutual respect lasted throughout Bartok's life. Among the leading musicians of the time, it was Bartok who first expressed his high opinion of the younger composer's talent. Bartok's influence can be observed in almost every field of Lajtha's work. For example, it was Bartok who recommended that Lajtha choose Paris as the place to complete his studies, which fostered in turn Lajtha's orientation toward Latin culture. Following in Bartok's footsteps, Lajtha became one of the greatest folk music collectors and researchers in Hungary, and this music also exerted a significant effect on his compositional style. Bartok recommended that the di...


Hydrocarbon exploration in Mizoram state is extremely challenging task because of difficult terrain with complex geology. Adequate basement depth estimation by only available crooked seismic data is extremely difficult in such kind of drastic terrain and complex thrust-fold belt area for hydrocarbon exploration. The depth of sedimentation is more than 10 km and seismic has its own limitation for mapping the basement depth. Gravity-magnetic data interpretation affords a strapping hold to extract the correct geological information for integrated interpretation. This paper deals with the direct basement depth estimation using 3-D Euler deconvolution technique, radial average power spectrum analysis of gravity-magnetic data, tilt angle and horizontal tilt angle map analysis are carried out for identifying the source-edge locations. The results are correlated with the identified thrust/fault study from geological filed modeling. The results derived from Euler depth solution and tilt angle, horizontal tilt angle map analysis provide additional thrust and fault information which can be used for integrated geo-scientific study for better hydrocarbon exploration.


Context
A healthy lifestyle has been the need of the hour during the COVID 19 pandemic. Analyzing the current lifestyle patterns of many individuals can be the basis for finding solutions toward building a healthy future for India.

Objectives
The study intended to evaluate the current lifestyles of adults in an urban setting in the midst of a pandemic and to examine the diseases that people could face with respect to their current lifestyles.

Design
The research team performed a cross-sectional study.

Setting
The survey was conducted in an urban setting in the Pimpri Chinchwad area of Pune, India.

Participants
Participants were 500 men and women between the ages of 18 and 25.

Outcome Measures
The research team created a survey with 13 multiple-choice questions.

Results
The pandemic has taken a toll on people's mental and physical health. Social distancing and staying indoors for long periods are factors that have affected people's mental health.

Conclusions
Efforts need to be made by individuals to focus not only on their physical health but also on their mental health.


Soil erosion is an incident that is effective in shaping the surface. However, the acceleration of erosion by man is a problem. Erosion problem causes agricultural lands to become infertile and disappear over time. This problem is even more pronounced in Turkey which has a rugged topography and a long history of settlement. Therefore, detailed field studies are needed to determine the size of the problem and to solve it. In this study, the risk of erosion of the Melet River Basin was investigated. The Melet River is an important river that separates the Central and Eastern Black Sea divisions of the Black Sea Region. It emerges from the west-facing slopes of the Karagol Mountains and flows into the Black Sea from Ordu City Center. The catchment area of the river is 2006 km2. The basin is bounded by the water section lines passing through the Giresun Mountains from the south and the east and the water section lines passing through the Canik Mountains from the west. Erosion risk of the basin was investigated by using the MICONA model developed by adding height and soil depth data to the ICONA method. While preparing the study, field observations, GIS technologies were used together. The basic raster datas used in the model which NDVI (vegetation density), land use, bedrock, soil depth, height and slope are compiled from field studies, satellite images and documents of various government organizations. According to MICONA model, 25.2% of the basin is very high, 20.1% is high and 27.2% has moderate erosion risk. In return, 17.2% of the basin has a low erosion risk and a very low erosion risk of 10.3%. The areas with the highest erosion risk in the area are concentrated upper course of the basin where in the west of Karagol. In the west of Mesudiye, the topography is simplified and the risk of erosion decreases.  The rise of the coastal mountains in the middle course of the basin increases the hilly ground, slope and precipitation. This area has a high erosion risk. Medium and low risk areas are common in the lower course of the basin where decrease in height opposite to increased human pressure. According to the results of the study, the problems in the land use and the natural environment features such as high precipitation and rugged topography increases the risk of erosion in the basin. Therefore, land use should be rearranged in very high and high risk areas; destructed parts of the forest should be forested and overgrazing should be controlled in pasture areas.


The aim of this paper is to estimate the banking profitability determinants of the Czech commercial banks during the period 2004-2014. For estimation of banking profitability we used three common measures, namely the Return on Assets, Return on Equity and Net Interest Margin. We estimated twelve determinants of banking performance. The effect of the determinants of banking profitability is estimated using panel data analysis. The data set is consists of seventeen commercial banks in the Czech Republic. The results show that the profitability was positively influenced by the bank's size, capitalization, credit risk, level of concentration, ownership structure and bank's market share. Number of branches of the bank had the negative impact on ROA and ROE. on the other hand, the variables Gross Domestic Product, interest rate, liquidity risk, riskiness of bank's portfolio and affiliation with financial conglomerate have not got the significant influence on profitability of the Czech commercial banks.


This paper explains the first report in metamorphic evolution of pelitic schist from Barru Complex in South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Garnet-biotitemuscovite schist was examined petrologically to assess the metamorphic evolution history, which has implications on tectonic condition of this region. The rock mainly composed of garnet, biotite, muscovite, epidote, quartz, rutile, hematite, and plagioclase. Inclusions in the garnet preserve records of prograde stage of this rock, which are epidote, titanite, quartz, and apatite. Garnet, biotite, muscovite, quartz, rutile, and plagioclase are concluded as equilibrium assemblages at peak P-T condition of this rock, which estimated at 501–562 oC and 0.89–0.97 GPa. The result is still on the ranges of the estimated geothermal gradient P-T path of eclogite from Bantimala Complex. Similar geothermal gradients of metamorphisms might be indicated that these metamorphic rocks were metamorphosed on the similar tectonic environments. Keywords: Pelitic schist, Barru Complex, South Sulawesi, metamorphic evolution.


Cyanobacteria are prokaryotic aerobic photosynthetic microorganisms with the capacity to remove nutrients from wastewater and synthesize a large variety of bioactive compounds and valuable byproducts. Among those valuable byproducts, glycogen (carbohydrates) and polyhydroxybutyrates (PHB) are receiving increasing interest due to their potential as biofuel substrate and as bioplastic, respectively.
The main objective in this PhD thesis was to cultivate and select cyanobacteria from a mixed microalgae culture for carbohydrates and PHB production. In order to fulfil that main goal, the thesis was divided in two parts. The first consisted in evaluating the effect of nutritional and operational conditions on the selection and grow of wastewater-borne cyanobacteria in a mixed microalgae consortium fed with in secondary effluent and digestate. While the second was focused in the accumulation of carbohydrates and PHB throughout different strategies based on nutrients and carbon limitation.
In the first part, digestate diluted with secondary effluent wastewater was used to select a culture dominated by cyanobacteria from an initial mixed microalgae consortium in pilot scale (30 L) and lab scale (3L) closed-photobioreactors (PBRs). Through several essays, the PBRs were operated at different nutrients loadings (paying attention on N and P ratios and concentrations) and hydraulic regimes (i.e. continuous, semi-continuous and sequencing batch) in order to find conditions appropriated for cyanobacteria dominance over other wastewater-borne microorganisms (mainly with green microalgae).
During approximately one year of operation, the effect of nutrient variations in the influent and their ratios on the culture composition and biomass concentration was evaluated in a semi-continuous PBR operated at 10 days of HRT/SRT. The results evidenced that cyanobacteria species dominated over green algae when the influent had non-limited carbon conditions, N:P ratios between 16:1-49:1 (molar basis) and low phosphorus loads. Under these conditions, cyanobacteria were able to reach an average biomass production of 0.08 g L-1 d-1. Subsequently, short term studies testing operational strategies were performed in order to remove green algae also tolerating phosphorus limiting conditions. These strategies consisted on sequencing batch operation. According to the results, a sequencing batch operation consisting in a HRT of 6 days and SRT of 10 days provided suitable conditions to remove unsettled green algae Scenedesmus sp. and to improve
cyanobacteria dominance until reach 70% of the total population. While increasing the biomass production to 0.12 g L-1 d-1. On the contrary, lower HRT and SRT led to high volumetric loads that promoted the presence of other microorganisms (diatoms and protozoa) and bacterial activity.
In the second part, the cyanobacteria dominated culture previously obtained was submitted to different strategies to accumulate polymers. Among these, nutritional conditions (N and P limitation) and luminic (permanent light and light/dark alternation) were found to be a promising strategies to reach PHB content up to 6.5% and carbohydrates content of 75% in N limitation under light/dark alternation in batch test performed along two weeks. Subsequently, this time needed of accumulation was reduced through the adaptation of cyanobacteria to feast and famine regimes. Consisting in the submission of the biomass to a period of carbon availability and a subsequent absence of carbon. With the application of this procedure the culture was able to reach similar PHB and carbohydrates concentrations in less than 2 days. In addition, these results indicated that carbon uptake and the consequent polymers production from cyanobacteria can be enhanced through carbon and nutrient feeding strategies.


Review(s) of: Wanted, a beautiful barmaid: Women behind the bar in New Zealand, 1830-1976, by Susan Upton, Wellington: Victoria University Press, 2013, ISBN: 978-0-864738943.


Comparison of gamma -ray decomposition and photodecomposition of aqueous solutions of riboflavin under four conditions showed differences in their ultraviolet spectra and paper chromatographic changes. In gamma -ray decomposition, lumichrome is not formed, differing from the case of photodecomposition in neutral and acid reactions. It was also found that a substance not found after photodecomposition is formed by gamma -ray decomposition. The substance shows up as a fluorescent spot on paper chromatograms. (auth)


1. Background to second language acquisition research and language teaching 2. Learning and teaching different types of grammar 3. Learning and teaching vocabulary 4. Acquiring and teaching pronunciation 5. Acquiring and teaching a new writing system 6. Strategies for communicating and learning 7. Listening and reading processes 8. Individual difference in L2 users and L2 learners 9. Classroom interaction and Conversation Analysis 10. The L2 user and the native speaker 11. The goals of language teaching 12. General models of L2 learning 13. Second language learning and language teaching styles


The invention discloses a cycling switch valve under a well. The cycling switch valve under the well is designed to satisfy various technological requirements of high-pressure water injection well working under pressure. A cycling locking mechanism is designed inside a valve to enable the cycling locking mechanism to smoothly achieve unlimited times of cycling opening and closing movements of the valve through pressure inside an oil pipe on the ground. Opening and closing of the valve are only controlled by pressure difference between oil and a sleeve pipe and oil pipe flow rate, and have nothing to do with formation pressure, and therefore the cycling switch valve under the well can bear larger formation pressure, and then reliable sealing and plugging of the oil pipe are achieved. Due to the fact that a self-sufficient type lubrication system is arranged in the valve, lubricating oil can be supplied timely, so that a reversing part of the cycling switch valve under the well is enabled to work in a good environment, and service life is prolonged. Reversing pressure difference and flow rate of the cycling switch valve under the well can be set through the change of the dimensional coordination of parts inside the cycling switch valve under the well, and therefore the cycling switch valve under the well is enabled to be applied to field operation within areas with different formation pressure.


Real-time concept is being widely used by a society that seeks to speed communications, decisions and their daily activities. Even though this term is not used with the necessary conceptual precision, it makes clear the importance that time exerts on computer systems. Nowadays, the big data scenario, this concept is important and used with different meanings, which can define failure or successful of applications. This article aims to present a systematic literature review on the topics of data stream, big data and real-time. For this, we developed a protocol revision in which were determined research questions, the search term, the search source and the inclusion and exclusion criteria of articles. After an extensive study, we classify the articles selected in seven categories according to real-time concept used. Finally, we present a discussion that shows that there is not convergence on real-time concepts in the big data literature.


Cognitive factors has been regarded as the most important factors in relation to foreign language learning for a long time.But in recent years,with the development of foreign language research,psychological factors are attracting more and more attention.This paper focuses on the study of the relationship between three major psychological factors(anxiety,motivation,introversion/extroversion) and foreign language learning.The result of the research will provide some enlightment on the future English learning and English teaching.


This study tested the function of protein kinase C delta (PKCδ) during fertilization and embryonic development using gene‐knockout (Prkcd−/−) mice. Fertility analysis revealed that Prkcd−/− mating pairs produce significantly fewer pups per litter than wild‐type pairs (P < 0.05), and exhibit a high incidence of embryonic loss post‐implantation. Both Prkcd−/− male as well as Prkcd−/− female mice mated to Prkcd+/+ controls also showed reduced litter sizes, with a selective loss of Prkcd‐null pups. Further analysis of the females demonstrated comparable in vitro fertilization outcomes between control and Prkcd−/− oocytes fertilized with wild‐type sperm. Pregnant Prkcd−/− females, however, exhibited a reduced number of total implantations, suggesting a possible disruption in early embryo quality and/or implantation. In turn, male gamete analysis revealed that Prkcd−/− sperm demonstrated a decreased capacity to penetrate the zona pellucida (P < 0.05), necessary for successful fertilization. Moreover, we identified phosphorylated PKCδ as a component of the sperm acrosome, indicating a potential role for this kinase in acrosome exocytosis. Therefore, loss of PKCδ disrupts key reproductive functions in both males and females that limit fertility. Mol. Reprod. Dev. 82: 797–808, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


Abstract Context: Morus alba L. (Moraceae) is traditionally used for the treatment of urinary incontinency due its strong diuretic properties. Objective: The present study explores the renal protective effects of M. alba, due to its free radical scavenging properties, in order to provide experimental evidence for its established use. Materials and methods: Ethanolic extract (200 mg/kg/d) derived from M. alba fruit was employed in rabbits as a co-therapy (GM-al) with gentamicin (80 mg/kg/d) for a period of 3 weeks. Biochemical kidney functioning parameters, urinary isozymes, and histopathological examination were performed. Results: The results showed that ethanol extract of Morus alba L. prevented alterations in serum creatinine (4.02 ± 0.14, p < 0.0001), blood urea nitrogen (54.18 ± 2.60, p < 0.0001), and serum uric acid levels (2.34 ± 0.12, p < 0.001). However, a decrease in creatinine clearance and urinary volume was observed in experimental groups. Histopathological examination and urinary enzymes excretion also suggested the protective role of the extract. Discussion and conclusions: The co-administration of M. alba with gentamicin prevented renal functioning alterations expected with the use of gentamicin alone. Therefore, it can be concluded that M. alba to protect from kidney damage, which may be because of its free radical scavenging and diuretic properties.


As to the issue that the off-line test method cannot reflect the actual changing course of PVT parameters of polymer material during injection molding,and the result error is large when the parameters are used in CAE simulation,an on-line test technology and devices about polymer material PVT relationships which is based on injection molding machine is researched and developed.The PVT parameters obtained from the on-line test and off-line test devices are applied in CAE simulation of injection molding respectively,and the simulation results are compared with the actual injection molding samples.The results show that the simulation shrinkage rate obtained by using on-line test PVT parameters is closer to the actual value.The state equation of PVT relationship based on the on-line test technology can significantly improve the accuracy of numerical simulation,which provides an important technical support for CAE simulation analysis of polymer molding and advanced manufacturing.


Automation in agriculture nowadays is the main focus and area of development for various countries. The population rate of the world is increasing rapidly and will be double in upcoming decades and the need of food is also increasing accordingly. To meet this rapid growth in demand, agriculture automation is the best solution. Traditional strategies employed by farmers are not efficient enough to fulfill the rising demand. Improper use of nutrients, water, fertilizers and pesticides disturbs the agricultural growth and the land remains barren with no fertility. This research paper presents different control strategies used to automate agriculture such as: IoT, aerial imagery, multispectral, hyperspectral, NIR, thermal camera, RGB camera, machine learning, and artificial intelligence techniques. Problems in agriculture like plant diseases, pesticide control, weed management, irrigation and water management can easily be solved by different automated and control techniques mentioned above. Automation by advance control strategies of agricultural methods have verified to increase the crops yield and also the soil fertility become strong. This research paper reviews and observe the work of different researchers to present a brief summary about the trends in smart agriculture and also provides the work flow and revenue of smart agriculture system in figure 15 using technologies verified by researchers in their research papers.


A microwave conducting structure is described, in which a first electrically conductive layer, a first dielectric substrate with a first dielectric constant being arranged on the first electrically conductive layer, and at least one electrically conductive trace with a first width being arranged on or within the dielectric substrate are provided. A track of a second dielectric substrate having a second width being wider than the first width and a second dielectric constant being lower than the first dielectric constant, is arranged locally between the first dielectric substrate and the conductive trace so as to extend along the conductive trace such that the conductive trace operates electrically as being arranged on the second dielectric substrate.


Special problems related to Power Quality (PQ) can appear during the connection and even in steady-state regimes of equipment based on power electronic converters. These problems can be accompanied by additional Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) problems at the supplying network and respectively at load. Electromagnetic interferences (EMI) are expected to appear due to conduction and electromagnetic radiations. These can be noticed especially at low frequencies because the working frequencies for many power converters are usually small.


This paper studies the expansion properties of randomly perturbed graphs. These graphs are formed by adding, for example, a random 1-out or very sparse Erdős-Rényi graph to an arbitrary connected graph. The central results show that there exists a constant δ such that when any connected n-vertex base graph G 0 is perturbed by adding a random 1-out then, with high probability, the resulting graph has for all S ⊆ V with . When G 0 is perturbed by adding a random Erdős-Rényi graph, 𝔾 n,ε/n , the expansion of the perturbed graph depends on the structure of the base graph. A necessary condition for the base graph is given under which the resulting graph is an expander with high probability. The proof techniques are also applied to study rapid mixing in the small-worlds graphs described by Watts and Strogatz in [Watts and Strogatz 98] and by Kleinberg in [Kleinberg 00]. Analysis of Kleinberg's model shows that the graph stops being an expander exactly at the point where a decentralized algorithm is effective in constructing a short path. The proofs of expansion rely on a method of summing over subsets of vertices that allows an argument based on the first-moment method to succeed.


Commercial applications of ``angle switching'' of synchronous motors are given especial attention in this paper. ``Angle switching'' refers to a method of starting synchronous motors whereby the time of application of the excitation voltage with respect to the relative angular position of the field poles and the impressed voltage is controlled. The advantages of this method of starting are pointed out, the equipment is described briefly, and a number of practical applications in which increased starting torque, reduced starting current, or other features were obtained are described.


Objectives  To evaluate the effects of the aroma of essential oil of lavender against placebo on subjects' pain perceptions and levels of anxiety when undergoing elective cosmetic facial injections of botulinum toxin type A (BOTOX® COSMETIC) for the correction of glabellar wrinkles.


Significance Chirality is a measure of asymmetry that is important in many branches of science. Homochiral evolution at different length scales is critical for molecular processes in nature (such as communication, replication, and enzyme catalysis) that rely on a delicate balance between molecular and conformational chirality and, most importantly, control the nature of the self-assembly of superstructures of constituent molecules. Here, we compare the homochiral evolution from molecular, to intrachain, to interchain, and, ultimately, to mesodomain chirality from the self-assembly of a pair of block copolymers possessing a chiral block that exhibits one of the two different stereochemistries. The comparison sheds light on the physical mechanisms that link chiral structure across these length scales in this prototypical class of self-assembling materials. We explore the generality of the influence of segment chirality on the self-assembled structure of achiral–chiral diblock copolymers. Poly(cyclohexylglycolide) (PCG)-based chiral block copolymers (BCPs*), poly(benzyl methacrylate)-b-poly(d-cyclohexylglycolide) (PBnMA-PDCG) and PBnMA-b-poly(l-cyclohexyl glycolide) (PBnMA-PLCG), were synthesized for purposes of systematic comparison with polylactide (PLA)-based BCPs*, previously shown to exhibit chirality transfer from monomeric unit to the multichain domain morphology. Opposite-handed PCG helical chains in the enantiomeric BCPs* were identified by the vibrational circular dichroism (VCD) studies revealing transfer from chiral monomers to chiral intrachain conformation. We report further VCD evidence of chiral interchain interactions, consistent with some amounts of handed skew configurations of PCG segments in a melt state packing. Finally, we show by electron tomography [3D transmission electron microscope tomography (3D TEM)] that chirality at the monomeric and intrachain level ultimately manifests in the symmetry of microphase-separated, multichain morphologies: a helical phase (H*) of hexagonally, ordered, helically shaped tubular domains whose handedness agrees with the respective monomeric chirality. Critically, unlike previous PLA-based BCP*s, the lack of a competing crystalline state of the chiral PCGs allowed determination that H* is an equilibrium phase of chiral PBnMA-PCG. We compared different measures of chirality at the monomer scale for PLA and PCG, and argued, on the basis of comparison with mean-field theory results for chiral diblock copolymer melts, that the enhanced thermodynamic stability of the mesochiral H* morphology may be attributed to the relatively stronger chiral intersegment forces, ultimately tracing from the effects of a bulkier chiral side group on its main chain.


This paper analyzed the factors influencing the efficiency of attacking defense from the aspects of psychology,sport fitness,skill and tactics,explained the definition,feature,behaving form of attacking defense of football and its connection with rules and pointed out that the attacking defense was the main tactic of the football game.


B ackground : Burkitt lymphoma (BL) is the commonest tumour among Nigerian children. It is reported to be highly responsive to readily available cytotoxic drugs; yet, the outcome of therapy remains abysmal. O bjectives: To review the epidemiology of BL in terms of risk factors, age incidence, regional distribution, disease sub-types, examine the available treatment regimens locally and internationally and report on the outcome of treatment in Nigeria under different conditions. M ethods: A comprehensive literature review on the epidemiology of BL was undertaken and results of publications and clinical trials of BL were evaluated.  R esults: Three major sub-types of Burkitt lymphoma are recognised in the world literature; the classic endemic BL (eBL) in sub-Saharan Africa, EBV-independent sporadic BL (sBL) found in population outside the endemic areas and the HIV-related BL (HIV-BL), which is found in regions with high incidence of HIV infection. All the sub-types have common cytogenetic abnormalities: t (8, 14), t (8, 22), and t (2, 8). The COM regimen incorporating cyclophosphamide, oncovin and methotrexate (with the intrathecal cytarabine and methotrexate), was found to be very effective for eBL. Treatment outcome was dismal for the self-financed patients treated with COM regimen between 1986 and 2000 (Group A) compared to the internationally sponsored patients treated between 2000 and 2014 (Group B). While 16.8% of Group A patients had no chemotherapy, 9.8% were lost to toxic deaths and 88% defaulted; most of the patients in group B had full chemotherapy; the Event-Free Survival (EFS) rates at 12 and 24 months were 58.3% and 53.4%, respectively. C onclusions: COM regimen with intrathecal cytarabine and methotrexate is very effective for eBL.


Parametric thermal evaluations of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) waste packages (WPs) emplaced in the potential repository were performed to determine the impact of thermal loading, WP spacing, drift diameter, SNF aging, backfill, and relocation on the design of the Engineered Barrier System. Temperatures in the WP and near-field host rock are key to radionuclide containment, as they directly affect oxidation rates of the metal barriers and the ability of the rock to impede particle movement which must be demonstrated for a safe and licensable repository. Maximum allowable temperatures are based on material performance criteria and are specified as the following design goals for the WP/EBS design: SNF cladding 350{degrees}C, drift wall 200{degrees}C, and TSw3 rock 115{degrees}C.


We present a study on the stellar populations and stellar ages of sub-sample of far-infrared AGN and non-AGN green valley analysed in Mahoro et al. (2017,2019) at 0.6<z<1.0 using the data from the COSMOS field. We used long-slit spectroscopy and derived stellar populations and stellar ages using the stellar population synthesis code"STARLIGHT"and analysed the available Lick/IDS indices, such as Dn4000 and $\rm{H\delta_{A}}$. We find that both FIR AGN and non-AGN green valley galaxies are dominated by intermediate stellar populations 67 % and 53 %, respectively. The median stellar ages for AGN and non-AGN are log t = 8.5 [yr] and log t = 8.4 [yr], respectively. We found that majority of our sources (62 % of AGN and 66 % non-AGN) could have experienced bursts and continuous star formation. In addition, most of our FIR AGN (38 %) compared to FIR non-AGN (27 %) might have experienced a burst of SF more than 0.1 Gyr ago. We also found that our FIR AGN and non-AGN green valley galaxies have similar quenching time-scales of ~ 70 Myr. Therefore, the results obtained here are in line with our previous results where we do not find that our sample of FIR AGN in the green valley shows signs of negative AGN feedback, as has been suggested previously in optical studies.


: As is well known, the de Autexusio by Methodius is one of the most relevant sources used by Eznik of Kołb in composing his treatise, conventionally known as Ełc Ałandoc' ( Refutation of the Sects ). The latter included an almost integral translation or reworking of the former, divided into two parts. This was highlighted for the first time by Father Grigoris Galēmk'earean, who devoted to the subject the greater part of his study on Eznik's sources, published as a mono-graph in 1919. In 1924–1925, Louis Mariès addressed the same topic in his work on Eznik's text. However, in later years, the subject seems to have ceased to draw the attention of Armenologists. In this contribution, after a short summary of the contents of the works both of Methodius and Eznik, we address Eznik's manner of selecting the sects that are the object of his criticism. We then highlight how Eznik more or less freely translates Methodius' Greek text, providing some relevant examples. Eznik


Besides the air flow field, the flow field of molten polymer plays a key role in fiber formation in the melt-blowing (MB) process. In this article, the flow field of molten polymer was discussed, and its effects on the fiber microstructures were studied through theory and experiments. First, this field was supposed to be a kind of shear flow field. Two equations were introduced and solved. Then, analyzing the solutions combining with the actual melt-blown practice, we concluded that the distribution profile of this flow field was a series of inverse parabolic in the course of the polymer stream attenuating. Further inferring from this flow pattern, we could also assume that there could have been a novel cross-sectional microstructures in the melt-blown fibers. Finally, the comparison experiments concerning the MB and its fibers were designed and carried out. The results indicated that the shear flow field could be qualitatively described by the equations, and the assumptions about the microstructures are basically in agreement with the experimental results. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 2012. © 2012 Society of Plastics Engineers


The objective of the present work is to present a case study of one of the participants of the Anger Management Training program developed by Lipp. The hypothesis tested was that anger management training would reduce interpersonal stress as well as cardiovascular reactivity during moments of stress. The psychological evaluation used the State-Trait Anger Inventory and the Lipp Stress Symptom Inventory. Finger blood pressure and heart rate were monitored continuously during the laboratory session using the Finapress methodology. Results indicated a significant decrease in several of the anger sub-scales, such as state, trait, temperament, reaction, anger-out, control and expression of anger. They also showed decreases in stress levels and blood pressure reactivity during the experimental sessions. Analyses of the transcript of the anger management sessions revealed a decrease in anger behavior and an increase in appropriate actions. It was concluded that the changes in target behavior shown by the participant indicate the effectiveness of the training in reducing stress and anger.


Solid-state drives (SSDs) are susceptible to the limited number of program/erase (P/E) cycles and uncorrectable flash errors, and hence achieving high reliability of SSD storage systems is a critical issue. RAID provides a viable option for enhancing system reliability by distributing redundancy across a number of SSDs. However, the flash error rate of an SSD increases with the number of P/E cycles, and this time-varying nature complicates the reliability analysis of SSD RAID. In addition, there remains very limited formal analysis that quantifies the reliability dynamics of an SSD RAID array under general settings. To this end, we propose a new continuous time Markov chain (CTMC) model to characterize the reliability dynamics of SSD RAID over time under two general settings: (1) fault tolerance against a general number of device failures and (2) non-uniform workload. We validate the correctness of our CTMC model via trace-driven simulations. Based on our model, we further analyze the impact of different RAID parameters on the reliability dynamics of an SSD RAID array.


Discourse topic management is discussed within the framework of a functionally based, pragmatic approach to language. The multiple parameters of topic management are described in terms of a multidimensional model of topic coherence, and the interaction between these parameters and linguistic and cognitive knowledge is discussed. Problems are examined in terms of the effects of discourse-, linguistic-, and cognitive-level difficulties on the topic parameters. A method of assessment across all parameters and in terms of the interaction with the other domains of knowledge is discussed, and intervention principles and techniques are presented.


Objective: The magnetic field affects the organisms in many aspects. However, previous studies showed that effects of the magnetic field on learning and memory in animals are conflicting. In this study, we examined whether two pulsed magnetic fields (65G/50Hz, 35G/25Hz) influenced memory and locomotor activity in ICR mice. Methods: The mice were exposed to different pulsed magnetic fields 1 hour per day for 25 days running, and then they were measured spatial discrimination memory, spatial and non-spatial memory and locomotor activity by using Y-maze, Morris water maze and open-field tests respectively. Results: When exposed to 65G/50Hz magnetic field, the locomotor activity increased and spatial discrimination memory impaired in Y-maze, however, showing no effect on performance in Morris water maze. Compared with control group, mice treated with the 35G/25Hz magnetic field had similar performance. Conclusion: Long time low pulsed magnetic field could influence the behavior in mice,even human behavior.


One of EV power system's important characteristics is high voltage and large current. Creepage distance of EV on-board energy storage device should be less than safety margin, for avoiding such harm that from explosion, fire or toxic substances, the protection of power battery overcorrect should have corresponding security standard. The electric motor drive of EV may appear faults when facing the special danger situation. So we should take some measures to ensure that it could work normally and avoid fault. It should be required that there are corresponding safety measures to protecting personnel electrocuting when EV without external power supplies. It should be required the measures for in case of short circuit, for protecting the harm to passengers and the third party from on-board energy storage device when vehicles colliding, too.


Cobalt-exchanged A and X zeolites are studied by infrared spectroscopy and small-angle X-ray scattering. Samples were irradiated and heated until the zeolite structure collapsed. We found that cobalt leaching depends on the fractal dimension regardless of the nature of the zeolite and the irradiation treatment. Heating and γ-irradiation destroys the zeolite network as found by infrared spectroscopy. The modifications in the 4R and 6R pore opening vibrations show that the cobalt sites are altered by thermal and irradiation treatments.


Common treatment methods for patients with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) include physical therapy and surgical treatment, and loop electrosurgical excisional procedure (LEEP) is relatively widely used in surgical treatment of CIN. However, some CIN patients were found margin positive of residual lesions in uterine specimens by biopsy after LEEP treatment, and the rate of margin positive of CIN was 4.51%-23.40%. A large number of studies have confirmed that margin positive of CIN is associated with postoperative residual lesions in uterine specimens by biopsy and recurrence of CIN. Further treatment strategies of patients with margins positive of CIN after LEEP treatment, no consensus has been reached in domestic and foreign studies of this area. At present, it is considered that the follow-up treatment of patients with CIN who have residual lesions and margins positive of CIN after receiving LEEP treatment need comprehensive evaluation and appropriate measures, especially for patients with positive of CIN in internal and external margins. This article focuses on latest research progresses of high-risk factors and treatment strategies in patients with margins positive of CIN after LEEP treatment, in order to provide reference for standardized clinical diagnosis and treatment of CIN patients.

Key words:
Cervical intraepithelial neoplasia; Uterine cervical neoplasms; Cervical resection; Hysterectomy; Loop electrosurgical excisional procedure; Margin positive of residual lesions; Biopsy; Female


Contents: Supplementary bibliography of Walter Ullmann Public law as an instrument of government in historical perspective KA nigs- und Papstherrschaft im Spiegel der Bistumsbesetzungen Zum Papstwahldekret von 1059 Alexander III and the conquest of Ireland Frederick IIa (TM)s opponent, Innocent IV, as Melchisedek The medieval papacy, St Thomas and beyond The development of the medieval idea of sovereignty A medieval document on papal theories of government Personality and territoriality in the a /Defensor pacisa Baldusa (TM)s conception of law The medieval theory of legal and illegal organisations Medieval principles of evidence Honorius III and the prohibition of legal studies Medieval views concerning papal abdication The defence of the accused in the medieval Inquisition Historical introduction to Lea, The Inquisition Reflections on medieval torture Index.


A novel 2×2 optical switch,which consists of phase spatial light modulator(PSLM),polarizing beam-splitter(PBS),mirror,half-wave plate(HWP) and quarter-wave plate(QWP),is proposed.The optical switch is compact in structure,efficient in performance,and insensitive to polarization of signal beam,and it has less optical components.In addition,the straight and the exchange functions of 2×2 optical switch are implemented bi-directionally in free-space.Simultaneously,a new optical experimental module of 4×4 optical switch is presented.


Background: Chemotherapy of patiens with multiple myeloma cause changes hemoglobin concentration that an indication of changes in nutritional status. Changing of hemoglobin concentration is influenced by multiple myeloma stage, gender, and age of the patient. This study aims to determine the hemoglobin differences between before and after the first to six chemotherapy.
Method: The study used medical records of 68 patients with multiple myeloma who seek treatment at Dr Kariadi. Data were analyzed using Paired Samples T test to determine differences of hemoglobin concentration between pre-and post-chemotherapy, uji Kruskal Wallis untuk mengetahui perbedaan perubahan kadar hemoglobin sebelum dan setelah kemoterapi pada berbagai stadium (1, 2 ,dan 3), uji Mann-whitney untuk mengetahui perbedaan perubahan kadar hemoglobin pada laki-laki dengan perempuan, dan uji korelasi spearman untuk mengetahui hubungan antara umur pasien.
Results: There were significant differences in hemoglobin level before chemotherapy with chemotherapy after the first, second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth (p = 0.00, 0.00, 0.00, 0.04, 0.014, and 0, 2002).There were no significant differences in hemoglobin concentration changes before and after chemotherapy at various developmental stages (p = 0.934), and gender (p = 0.41) There was no correlation between changing of hemoglobin oncentration with patient age (p = 0.087).
Conclusion: There are differences in hemoglobin concentration among patients with multiple myeloma before chemotherapy and after chemotherapy I, II, III, IV, V, and VI. There were no differences in hemoglobin concentration changes at different stages and genders. Tedapat no relationship between age and change in hemoglobin concentration in Dr Kariadi semarang.

Keywords: hemoglobin concentration, chemotherapy, multiple myeloma Stadium, age of the patient.


Chromatographic analyses were carried out on bean curd refuse decomposed by Bacillus sp. HR6 to evaluate the decomposition process. The water-soluble fraction possessed strong absorption bands (251 - 259 nm). Gel filtration chromatography showed that one of the major peaks, at a molecular weight of 1170, disappeared and that two peaks with molecular weights of 1040 and 1310 were newly detected. In the ether- and chloroform-soluble fractions, a novel peak at the molecular weight of 8890 was observed after 24 h of decomposition, although we did not detect peaks from such higher molecular weights in the original sample. These results indicate that not only the decomposition of many kinds of water-soluble compounds but also the polymerization of hydrophobic ones were carried out in this process.


Software developers often include available open-source software packages into their projects to minimize redundant effort. However, adding a package to a project can also introduce risks, which can propagate through multiple levels of dependencies. Currently, not much is known about the structure of open-source package ecosystems of popular programming languages and the extent to which transitive bug propagation is possible. This paper analyzes the dependency network structure and evolution of the JavaScript, Ruby, and Rust ecosystems. The reported results reveal significant differences across language ecosystems. The results indicate that the number of transitive dependencies for JavaScript has grown 60% over the last year, suggesting that developers should look more carefully into their dependencies to understand what exactly is included. The study also reveals that vulnerability to a removal of the most popular package is increasing, yet most other packages have a decreasing impact on vulnerability. The findings of this study can inform the development of dependency management tools.


Journalism and mass communication research constitute a vibrant and creative arena in which many emerging interests and subjects converge.  Surveying and using conference papers is a sound approach to gaining insight into trends, if not recent research topics and prevailing interests of a given field.  This cursory examination of AEJMC conferences for 2000-2009 offers an open window into the trends and preoccupation's of researchers in the journalism and mass communication field.  Examination and discussion of data, reveals particular loci of specialization and emergent trends.  As an awareness tool and approach the use of conferences and their respective listings is a valuable tool for librarians engaged in reference, instruction, as well as collection management.


This resource update provides an overview of forest resources in Missouri based on an inventory conducted by the USDA Forest Service, Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program at the Northern Research Station in cooperation with the Missouri Department of Conservation. Estimates are based on field data collected using the FIA annualized sample design and are updated yearly. Information about the national and regional FIA program is available online at http://fia.fs.fed.us. For the 2017 inventory, estimates for current variables such as area, volume, and biomass are based on 7,517 plot samples collected from 2011–2017. Change variables, such as net growth, removals, and mortality, are based on 7,348 samples collected in 2006–2011 and 2011–2017. Estimates from earlier annual and periodic inventories are shown for comparison. See Bechtold and Patterson (2005), O'Connell et al. (2017), and Gormansonet al. (2017) for definitions and technical details.


Growth rate and morphometric parameters were estimated for the Anodonta grandis (Pelecypoda, Unionidae) population in Shell Lake, N.W.T. (68°N), based on sampling during the summer of 1972. Variation in density and size of Anodonta within the lake as a function of varying depth and slope of bottom was estimated by SCUBA during the summer of 1973. Predictive models based on these data estimate total calcium in shells of the Anodonta population to be 10.1 Mg, which is approximately half the amount of calcium dissolved in Shell Lake water. The youngest four or five year-classes are missing from the estimated age distribution, and recent pollution may be a factor. Independent estimates of calcium used for shell growth, and of calcium released by death of individuals and subsequent shell dissolution, approximate 50% (of the calcium in the Anodonta population) per year. This implies a mean residence time in the Anodonta population of approximately 2 yr.Key words: calcium, clam, unionid, lake, arctic


Unique applications of immobilized proteins in bioanalytical systems, M. Gupta and B. Mattiasson fundamentals of dry reagent chemistries - the role of enzymes, B. Walker enzyme electrode biosensors - theory and applications, J. Kauffman and G.Guilbault enzyme labelled probes for nucleic acid hybridization, J. Kaguni and L. Kaguni DNA restriction enzymes and RFLPs in medicine, J. Kant advances in enzymatically coupled field effect transistors, S. Shiono et al enzyme labelled antibodies in bioassays, M. Walker et al.


Is an FUE (Follicular Unit Extraction) graft in the hands of one doctor the same as an FUE graft in the hand of another? Or for that matter, is what is claimed to be a follicular unit the same in anyone's hand? Do grafts that come from FUTs (Follicular Unit Transplantation), FUEs, FITs (Follicular Isolation Technique) or MUGs (Multi-family Unit Grafting) have a common thread so that the public can understand the arcane language we have created? Should we define things like: the risks of hair loss in each particular graft as it is related to its harvesting technique, the damage to the donor area that is intrinsic to the procedure or technique used, or the risks of buried grafts with an FUE procedure? When we feel the need to market our skills, should we (a) disclose the basis by which we promote how wonderful we think we are, and if so (b) should we tell the patient whether we met our criteria for the 'procedure' that we performed on him/her? How do we deal with the differences between FUT's and MUGs? Does it really matter what we call what we do, or do we just call it all "hair transplants"? These issues were important when the transition was made from mini-micrografting to FUT, but are now even more relevant with the increasing interest in FUE. (1)


Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) is an effective therapy for inoperable patients with severe aortic stenosis. However, peri-procedural complications, such as valve migration and paravalvular leakage (PVL) have been reported. Our aim is to develop a computational approach to investigate the effect of valve positioning and heart motion on the risk for migration and PVL. Patient-specific CFD models were capable of quantifying the flow through the paravalvular gaps, showing a direct effect of the initial TAVR positioning on the degree of PVL. The Living Heart Human Model was able to successfully assess TAVR devices performance in a beating heart.


This paper is a short review of the combined use of RU486 and prostaglandins in human fertility control. It principally insists on the several prostaglandins which are currently used.


The Morgado Superior cave is a karst cave located in the municipality of Tomar (Santarem, Portugal). As other caves of the same area, it has provided stratigraphic data and votive deposits fall- ing within the Holocene, more precisely in a dia- chronic time range that extends from the Neolithic to the early Bronze Age. In the Morgado Superior cave there are multiple burials with a few votive ob- jects like jars, bone artefacts and lithic tools (blades, arrowheads etc.), beads, pendants, and other deco- rative items in association with more than 8,000 hu- man bones: the number of the grave goods elements is low if compared with the number of individuals buried in the cave. Concerning the use-wear study, we analyzed the grave goods in order to understand both their meaning in this funerary context and their function in the economy of this prehistoric society. We focused on the most representative elements of the grave goods: arrowheads and knapped lithic artefacts. This study led us to understand that the majority of the grave goods were everyday objects but with a strong symbolic value. Since in the Mor- gado Superior Cave there are a lot of grave goods showing prior breaks, their symbolic value does not seem to be lost even if the objects were broken. Thus, the use-wear analysis of the grave goods from the Morgado Superior Cave allowed us to identify the strong symbolic value of these elements for that human community, but at the same time to hypoth- esize a funerary practice that did not provide a spe-


Methyl 9- and 10-methoxystearates were obtained by the γ-induced addition reaction of methanol to methyl oleate in the absence or presence of methanol. Yield of the adducts increased with the increase of methanol added in the reaction systems.


Photographic negatives, mostly of houses and other buildings in the Wellington region, taken ca 1962-1970 by Duncan Winder, and registers of negatives.
Quantity: 5375 b&w original negative(s). 3 volume(s) negative registers.


_____________----______-_-_-Introduction __________-_-___-___---_-_ New systematic names proposed_______-_ General features of Los Angeles Basin____ Repetto formation of Los Angeles Basin __ General features.___________________ Outcrop localities._-_--____-_-_____ Subsurface section.________________ Larger fossils from Repetto formation____ Outcrop localities._________________ Subsurface localities.---______.__-_Fossils. _ _-____-____---___-_-______. Inferred environment of larger fossils..... Depth range of allied modern species. Page Inferred environment of larger fossils Continued. Inferred depth range of larger fossils______________ 13 Interpretation of fossils of deep-water facies----.... 15 Distribution of fossils of different depth facies...... 16 Paleogeographic implications_____________________ 16 Bearing on geologic history of Los Angeles Basin.__. 17 Comparison between Los Angeles Basin during Repetto time and modern deep-water basins on Continental Shelf of southern California._________ 18 Age relations of larger fossils.__________________'______ 18 Fossils of deep-water facies__-____________________ 18 Fossils of intermediate and shallow-water facies.____ 20 Descriptions of species_____-___--__-_-____-__-_.____ 22 Index.______.________________________ 65


The essential construction features of a piston actuated shock tube are described, and its advantages relative to the conventional use of diaphragm ruptures for shock initiation are listed. Typical operational parameters are presented to illustrate the levels of reproducibility achieved. Tests with He and N2 drivers into ∼99% Ar (1.0%–0.1% reagent) covered shock speeds from 1.539±0.002–0.8143±0.002 mm/μs, corresponding to 2390–847K incident shock temperatures. Application of this tube for recording postshock front density gradients of the endoergic dissociation of ethane and the exoergic condensation of iron atoms via the laser–Schlieren technique is described.


We describe the development of an algorithm for the automatic classification of heart sound phonocardiogram waveforms as normal, abnormal or uncertain. Our approach consists of three major components: 1) Heart sound segmentation, 2) Transformation ofone-dimensional waveforms into two-dimensional time-frequency heat map representations using Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients and 3) Classification of MFCC heat maps using deep convolutional neural networks. We applied the above approach to produce submissions for the 2016 PhysioNet Computing in Cardiology Challenge. We present results from the challenge, as well as describe in detail the resulting neural network architecture produced and design decisions made.


Within the past year and a half, three exhibitions have presented important collections of French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings to the American public: The New Painting: Impressionism 1874-1886, Impressionist to Early Modern Paintings from the U.S.S.R., and Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Masterpieces: The Courtauld Collection.


Using the broadening of the electron paramagentic resonance (EPR) linewidth of paramagnetic particles by oxygen, it is possible to make measurements of the partial pressure of oxygen in vivo. While the results obtained so far with EPR oximetry are very encouraging, several paramagnetic materials may lose their responsiveness to oxygen in tissues. This aim of this study was to provide evidence that an appropriate coating can preserve the oxygen sensitivity of paramagnetic materials in vivo. Two charcoals that have the oxygen‐sensing properties required for EPR oximetry (combined with a tendency to lose responsiveness to oxygen when placed in tissues) were coated using pyroxylin. Sensitivity to variations in pO2 was checked by inducing hypoxia in the muscles of mice injected with charcoal. While the uncoated material lost responsiveness to oxygen within few days, the particles coated with 20–30% of pyroxylin did not lose their responsiveness for more than 2 months. Magn Reson Med 42:193–196, 1999. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Semi-structured text often contains valuable information that could be parsed and placed in a structured store that is relatively easy to process, but parsing requires a grammar, which is usually unknown. This makes potentially rich information sources such as family history books difficult to access and query, especially for the task of learning about specific individuals of interest. A conceptual modeling approach is useful because we can conceptualize the desired individual records as an ontology relating lexical objects to one another, lexicalize the text, generate a grammar to parse the stream of lexical objects, and compile records that satisfy the grammar and populate the ontological conceptualization. The induced grammars are regular and thus parse in linear time, and we have measured high accuracy (f-score > 90%) for a variety of family history books with minimal effort and expertise required to generate thousands of records per book. and she is distinct from the Elizabeth Selden born in 1819 who has coordinates "(@563,38,4)". Coordinates are built from page, line, and token offset values for the corresponding lexical tokens. Name is a key for the Person table, and Name-Spouse is a compound key for the Marriage table. Unique coordinates also allow us to join records appropriately, thus deriving more complete, linked information about individuals, marriages, and children.


Objective
To describe the current status of recovery of nursing errors by ICU nurses, so as to explore its influencing factors.

Methods
Totally 220 nurses from 14 ICUs of 4 Class Ⅲ grade A hospitals in Guangzhou were selected by random sampling and investigated in their recovery of nursing errors with the recovery of nursing error questionnaire designed with reference to Recovered Medical Error Inventory (RMEI) between October and December 2014.

Results
The top three errors most often found among ICU nurses were improper fixing or displacement of tube, nurses' failure to restrain restless patients or inappropriate restraints, and unplanned extubation. According to the multivariate linear analysis, the number of working years, title and department, when included into the regression equation, could account for 21.7% of the nursing error variation by ICU nurses.

Conclusions
ICU nurses can promptly recover nursing errors. The job title, department and length of service can affect nurses' behavior in recovery of nursing errors, and nursing managers can train nurses with related knowledge to timely recovery of nursing errors and enhance their ability to recover nursing errors.

Key words:
Nurses; Intensive care units; Recovery of nursing errors


16S rDNAs carry significant species-specific genetic information,but species identification is not straight forward because the sequence identity varies greatly for different species.In this manuscript,we analyze the key sites that are well conserved within species but significantly varied between species using an information theoretic approach.The method proposed by us was just using the sites(key sites) which contained more genetic information than that of the normal sites of the sequences,to classify the bacterium rather than using the overall sequence.Only a few sites of the whole sequences are responsible for the classification of species.The results presented here demonstrated that key-sites based similarity measures have much better statistical characteristics than that of the traditional overall sequence identity scores


This paper is devoted to study the observer-based robust H∞ dynamical output feedback control problem for a class of linear switched systems with time-varying delays. By multiple Lyapunov functions and the so-called Lyapunov-Metzler inequalities, a min-switching rule and a switched controller with a full order observer are designed to render the system without external disturbance to be asymptotically stable at the equilibrium and to satisfy H∞ disturbance attenuation level when there exists the disturbance. Moreover, the effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated by the simulation for a numerical example.


This disclosure provides a plurality of positions login control method, device, and system. The method may include receiving a login information recorded for the current login by the server, the login information includes client login ID for the current login, the first login time, and the first geographic location. The login information for a previous login about login ID is acquired, to obtain the second geographical location and the second login time of the client in a previous login. The server, based on the two login time and two geographical locations, may calculate the velocity of movement. When the speed of movement exceeds the rate set in advance, the server may determine that the current login is invalid plurality of positions login.


ABSTRACT This article explores the relationship between Zionism and Jewish immigration, as well as the meaning of emigration in the Jewish-Israeli world. It focuses on Israeli discourse regarding emigration. What are the social implications of emigration and how do the Israeli state and Israeli society perceive it? Most importantly: what are the institutional acts and the cultural texts which manufacture a public discourse of emigration within Israeli society, and how, if at all, has this discourse changed over the years of Israel's existence? In this article, I attempt to articulate the gaps and tensions structuring a discourse of anxiety regarding emigration. In order to do so, this article addresses the discourse regarding inbound and outbound migration with respect to the Zionist project and the Hebrew language. Following that, the article describes constructions of the emigrants, as well as of emigration as a national problem. The second part of this article attends to academic texts, investigating the ways this discourse is adopted by academics. The argument here is that Israeli academics work within a set of Zionist assumptions, similar to those promoted by Israeli state policy, media and public figures.


It has been suggested [1] that the discovery of a low-energy nuclear resonance reaction yielding energetic charged particles might be important in the development of a ' clean controlled thermonuclear reactor. Many reactions of potential interest have not been measured at low bombarding energies. It seems appropriate, therefore, to consider what predictions about possible resonance enhancement can be made by combining present-day resonance reaction theory with the available data. The maximum possible enhancement may be estimated [2] from the ratio of the resonant value of the reaction cross-section to the corresponding 'black-nucleus' (i. e. average) value. For S. = 0 resonances, this ratio is ft K/MRr, where K ~ (2M| V|/fi), Tis the total reaction width of the resonance, M is the reduced mass in the incident channel, | v | is the magnitude of the interaction potential in the incident channel, and R is its range. The single-particle value of the incident-channel reduced width was used to obtain this result. For T^ 100 keV, this enhancement is of the order of 100 at the resonance energy and decreases by a factor of two within one half-width (r/2). In the case of S. = 1 resonances, the enhancement is reduced approximately in the ratio 3P = 1/P 0, where Pfi is the entrance-channel penetrability for relative angular momentum St. For smaller values of T, larger enhancement will occur over a proportionately smaller energy interval. We see then that the requirement for a significant enhancement at low energy is that a resonance with a large (very nearly single-particle) reduced width in the entrance channel should exist near zero binding energy. A level with nearly single-particle St = 0 proton reduced width can be expected to occur near zero binding energy only in nuclei with mass numbers near 9-11, and large S. = 1 proton reduced widths can be expected only in nuclei with mass numbers near 20-30. The probability of a level having a single-particle deuteron reduced width is small; but reasonably large values (0.1 0. 5 of the single-particle limit) may occur in the lighter nuclei. A survey of the known levels of light nuclei indicates that the p+ Be reaction most nearly satisfies the above requirements. An S. = 0 re sonance in B at excitation energy 6. 88 MeV (Ep » 330 keV) has a nearly single-particle reduced width in the incident-proton channel and a total width of r « 100 keV. The cross-sections for the reactions Be(p, d)Be •* 2He (Q=0.56 MeV) and Be(p,a)Li (Q= 2.13 MeV) have not been measured below 250 keV proton energy [3]. Using the measured values for the parameters that describe the resonance at 330 keV [4], we can predict the lowenergy behaviour of these cross-sections with reasonable confidence. The results are shown in Fig. 1. Very probably these reactions receive no significant contribution from other resonances at energies below 250 keV since the s-wave levels in B at excitation energies 6.88 and 7.43 MeV account for most of the s-wave single-particle strength. At the resonance energy of 330 keV, the p+ Be cross-section is at least an order of magnitude larger than that for p+ 6Li. The extrapolation to low energies is based on the straightforward resonance formalism with JWKB penetrabilities [2]. A possible source of additional low-energy enhancement lies in the fact that Be has the most loosely bound neutron of any known stable nucleus, the separation energy being ~ 1 . 7 MeV. This means that the wave function of this neutron will extend to considerably larger


In the study the results of investigations which concern milling of rock raw material are presented. Milling was carried out in a ball-mill of periodical operation. Quartzite, granite and greywacke were subjected to milling. In the course of milling the composition of grinding media (balls) was altered. Based on the granulometric analysis the specific grinding rates of particular dimension fractions were determined. The influence of ball composition changes and the fact which originated from this phenomenon, the change of a number of grinding media contact points, the milling rate and the kinetics of milling process were analyzed.


Wetlands are among the most bio-diverse and highest productivity ecosystems on earth, making their monitoring a high priority to conservation, protection and management interests. Although visual interpretation of satellite images is generally precise for monitoring wetlands, recent works have emphasized computerized classification methods because of the reduction in analyst time. However, it is difficult to automatically identify wetland solely based on spectral characteristics due to the complexity of wetland ecosystems. The ability to extract wetland information rapidly and accurately is the basis and the key to wetland mapping at a large scale. Here we propose an operational method to map China wetlands based on Landsat TM data and ancillary data. On the basis of theoretical analysis of wetland automatic classification, we developed a revised multi-layer wetland classification scheme and a rule-based classification model. In the latter, supervised classification (SVM and decision tree) and unsupervised classification (ISODATA) methods were tested. Four Landsat TM images, representing various wetland eco-regions in China (i.e. the Sanjiang Plain in the northeast China, the North China Plain, the Zoige Plateau in the southwest China and the Pearl River Estuary in southeast China), were automatically classified. The overall classification accuracies were 86.57%, 96.00%, 84.51% and 88.30%, respectively, which we considered to be satisfactory accuracy. Our results indicate that issues such as the resolution of geographic data and the understanding of wetland samples should be carefully addressed in the future.


Non-competition agreements are contracts signed by employees and firms that prohibit employees from joining or forming a rival company after splitting from the firm. Stricter enforcement of such contracts may induce firms to undertake riskier R&D projects, leading to technological breakthroughs or dead ends. Specifically, non-competition agreements reduce the risk that the firm loses the fruits of inventive activity by its employees, such that when the enforcement of non-compete covenants is stricter, firms grant corporate inventors more freedom to explore risky but high-potential research paths. This study uses data about U.S. patent applications between 1990 and 2000 to identify the impact of non-competition agreements and considers both cross-state and longitudinal variation in the enforcement of non-compete clauses. The empirical findings are mainly consistent with theory and show that in states with stricter enforcement, companies are more likely to undertake risky and potentially path-breaking R&D projects than in states that do not enforce non-compete agreements as strictly.


The explosion of data in recent years has only been matched by the onslaught of regulation in the financial services industry. New international accounting standards in Europe and auditing processes of the Sarbanes-Oxley and anti-money laundering acts in the US are shaking up IT security policies and adding to storage burdens. The data burden is growing, the regulative landscape is becoming more complex; meanwhile IT budgets remain static. New legislation is set to make data retention and storage increasingly challenging for telecommunications companies.