Objectives: To determine the prevalence, patterns and behavioural attributes of tobacco abuse in patients of acute coronary syndrome (ACS). Furthermore, to assess the interaction of tobacco abuse with other conventional risk factors of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Methodology: This observational study included 230 consecutive patients with ACS. Data was collected regarding total duration and extent of tobacco consumption, "tobacco addiction" and various behavioural patterns related to it. Risk factors profile was acquired for hypertension, diabetes, obesity, family history of premature CVD and dyslipidemia. Odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) for these risk factors were calculated for tobacco abusers compared to non-abusers. Results: Among the study population, 63(27.4%) were active tobacco users. Urban residents had lesser odds of being tobacco abusers compared to non-urban residents (0.49, [0.27 – 0.89]). Tobacco abusers had a lower prevalence of hypertension compared to non-abusers (0.44 [0.24 – 0.81]). A similar trend was observed for diabetes, obesity and dyslipidemia, however, the differences could not reach significance thresholds. Cigarette smoking was the commonest mode of tobacco consumption (90.5%). "Tobacco addiction" could be attributed to 84.1% of abusers. Most (82.5%) were willing to give up tobacco abuse and 63.3% had already made attempts at quitting. Conclusion: About one-third of ACS patients were tobacco abusers with the majority being tobacco addicts. Tobacco abuse was observed to be independently implicated as a risk factor in ACS patients. Furthermore, tobacco abuse was inversely related to hypertension translating into a sub-multiplicative / additive impact of hypertension as a risk factor.


As an advanced medical imaging technology, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has great advantages and application potentials in medical clinical diagnosis. However, since the long scanning time and the artifacts caused by patient movements, the imaging results are always not satisfactory. Therefore, accelerating MRI and improving the imaging quality are the key problems. In this work, we propose a novel deep network that combines the U-net architecture with non-local attention blocks for MRI reconstruction. We employ the U-net to construct the basic network. The non-local attention is exploited to capture the remote dependencies in MRI images which calculates the weighted average of the remaining multiple location features as the value of the response location. The U-net has limitations in capturing long-term dependencies, however, the non-local attention can solve this problem well. Furthermore, we develop the residual module to better retain the detail information. The proposed model is compared with some recent leading MRI reconstruction methods, including the state-of-the-art deep learning-based methods. Compared with these methods, the proposed residual non-local attention network provides superior MRI reconstruction results and retains better perceptual image details.


In order to solve the downhole complex issues such as lost circulation, sticking and well collapse during drilling due to the development of coal-bed and coal seam, thick carbonaceous shale, formation is not homogeneous, the inclination is large, well-developed cracks and other reasons, which constraint exploration and development of oilfield in Huoyanshan tectonic belt region. According to the well instability mechanism of this block and the principle of "Materialized blocking, inhibiting surface hydration, effective stress support" multiple collaborative anti-sloughing drilling fluid, we developed a set of new drilling fluid systems suitable for the Huoyanshan tectonic plate through laboratory experiments. Field test application results show that the new drilling fluid system has a strong capability of salt resistance, anti-calcium and anti-poor soil, has excellent ability of anti-collapse, and has better temperature resistance and crack sealing ability. The new drilling fluid meets the needs of drilling under complicated geological conditions completely.


Primary cutaneous anaplastic large‐cell lymphoma (pC‐ALCL) is distinguished from systemic anaplastic large‐cell lymphoma (S‐ALCL) with cutaneous involvement. Although pC‐ALCL is a unique entity with different genetics, clinical characteristics, and prognosis, its causes are unknown. Herein, we report the case of a Chinese woman with a 4‐month history of a gradually enlarged ulcerative mass in her right forearm following an unidentified insect bite. Biopsy revealed an extensive infiltrate with patches of large anaplastic lymphoid cells. These cells were immunohistochemically positive for CD45, CD30, and TIA‐1 and negative for CD2, CD3, CD4, CD5, CD20, CD7, CD8, and ALK‐1. DUSP22‐IRF4 rearrangement was detected; on the other hand, TP63 rearrangement was not observed by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). No Epstein‐Barr virus‐encoded small RNAs (EBERs) were detected by ISH. Rearrangement of monoclonal TCR gene was found using BIOMED‐2 polymerase chain reaction. No abnormality was found on the subsequent positron emission tomography‐computed tomography (PET‐CT) scan. After five cycles of cyclophosphamide + doxorubicin + vincristine + prednisolone (CHOP) chemotherapy, the patient achieved complete remission. This is the first report of a unique pC‐ALCL with DUSP22‐IRF4 rearrangement following an insect bite other than S‐ALCL involving the skin.


INTRODUCTION The revision of the IUCN definition of a protected area brought about a fundamental change in the primary focus from biodiversity to the broader concept of nature (Dudley, 2008). The contrast between the previous definition and the current one is clear from the following texts:  'An area of land and/or sea especially dedicated to the protection and maintenance of biological diversity, and of natural and associated cultural resources, and managed through legal or other effective means' (IUCN, 1994).  'A clearly defined geographical space, recognised, dedicated and managed, through legal or other effective means, to achieve the long-term conservation of nature with associated ecosystem services and cultural values' (Dudley, 2008).


Solvent- and supporting electrolyte-free electrolysis in a two-compartment cell proved to be effective for the direct electroactivation of C-H acid-containing compounds vs. catalytic addition processes. Michael adducts (including quaternary carbon centres) and 2-nitroalkanols were obtained in very good yields and selectivity on application of a catalytic amount of electricity under galvanostatic conditions.


According to the viewpoint entrepreneurs are a collection of some competence, this paper constructs an entrepreneurial supply-demand model of single competence, analyses some affecting factors and their effects on the entrepreneurial supply-demand model.


Nodular lymphoid hyperplasia (NLH) is a rare condition with unknown etiology frequently associated with common variable immunodeficiency (CVID) and selective immunoglobulin A deficiency. NLH is a common cause of gastrointestinal bleeding. The risk of malignancy has been well recognized in subjects with NLH. The present knowledge about the nodular lymphoid hyperplasia (NLH) was described.


This study investigates the interplay between the absorber layer of Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cells and the other layers of these devices. Cu(In,Ga)Se2 devices with absorbers of different thicknesses and different buffer layers are fabricated. Absorber layers and finished devices are characterized. Good efficiencies are obtained, also for devices of substandard thickness down to 0.3 μm. Best open-circuit voltages and fill factors are found for cells with half the standard absorber thickness, but the highest efficiencies are found for cells with the standard thickness of 1.6 μm due to their higher short-circuit current density. Cu(In,Ga)Se2 cells with Zn(O,S) buffer layers are more efficient than CdS reference devices for the same absorber thickness due to a higher short-circuit current. For cells with thin absorber layers, a part of the higher current is caused by higher quantum efficiency at long wavelengths. Electrical simulations indicate that the loss in the open-circuit voltage for the thinnest devices is due to recombination in the back contact region. The difference in long-wavelength quantum efficiency between the buffer layers is attributed to a difference in the CIGS band bending. Acceptors at the Cu(In,Ga)Se2-CdS interface are proposed as an explanation for this difference. A low-quality back contact region enhances the effect.


Motivated by the equivalence of two-dimensional shape and contour control points, techniques for making a number of popular shape measurements in control point space are presented. Then, a shape inspection scheme for locating test shape flaws is developed. Being primarily based on our jointly optimal spatial domain contour normalization algorithm, the inspection scheme applies to test shapes independent of their position, size and orientation.


The compatibility of bismuth compounds as a sintering aid for (ZrO2)0.89(ScO1.5)0.1(CeO2)0.01 (ScSZ) electrolyte in intermediate-temperature solid oxide fuel cells (IT-SOFCs) has been discussed. Addition of 3 mol% BiO1.5 considerably decreased the sintering temperature of ScSZ of approximately 200°C and achieved the densification with a relative density above 95% at 1200°C. The solid solubility limit of BiO1.5 in ScSZ was less than 2 mol%. Dispersion of Bi2O3 at the grain boundaries correspondingly accelerated the growth of ScSZ grains and increased the grain boundary resistance at temperatures below 450°C. At elevated temperatures of 450–750°C, the electrical conductivity of the ScSZ after doping remained almost unchangeable in air and under reducing atmospheres. The results suggested that bismuth addition is promising to be applicable to a low-temperature co-firing fabrication of ScSZ based components for IT-SOFCs.


Test coverage such as branch coverage is commonly measured to assess the sufficiency of test inputs. To reduce tedious manual efforts in generating high-covering test inputs, various automated techniques have been proposed. Some recent effective techniques include Dynamic Symbolic Execution (DSE) based on path exploration. However, these existing DSE techniques cannot generate high-covering test inputs for programs using complex regular expressions due to large exploration space; these complex regular expressions are commonly used for input validation and information extraction. To address this issue, we propose an approach, named Reggae, to reduce the exploration space of DSE in test generation. In our evaluation, we apply Reggae on various input-validation programs that use complex regular expressions. Empirical results show that Reggae helps a test-generation tool generate test inputs to achieve 79% branch coverage of validators, improved from 29% achieved without the help of Reggae.


Scientific practice is procedural, systemic and presupposes the discovery of reality. Learning through investigative processes is training, education, and enhances multiple learnings. In this case study, descriptive-analytical, of a qualitative nature, it aimed to analyze the possibilities, limits and perspectives for learning by investigation within the Research Initiation Program. Highlights as theoretical and analysis categories: PIBIC and research knowledge. The data were generated by the semi-structured questionnaire with four scholarship recipients of the notice / 2019, from the Federal Institute of Piauí, Campus Piripiri and by the cut in the projects that bring the act of research as an object of study. Therefore, it becomes evident as to the possibilities for learning with research through the Program: development and deepening of studies, improvements in academic work, importance of scientific rigor and systematization of knowledge. The scholarship recipients point to the strengthening of research knowledge, personal and professional curriculum. Of the five projects approved by PIBIC, only one brings the act of research as the object of study, which was the focus sought. PIBIC is considered as an articulator of research knowledge and learning as investigative possibilities, minimizing the limiting aspects.


Background: With the spreading global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) there has been disruption to normal clinical activity in response to the increased demand on health services. There are reports of a reduction in non-Covid-19 emergency presentations. Consequentially, there are concerns that deaths from non-Covid-19 causes could increase. We examined recent reported population-based mortality rates, compared with expected rates, and compared any excess in deaths with the number of deaths attributed to Covid-19. Methods: National agency and death registration reports were searched for numbers of deaths attributed to Covid-19 and overall mortality that had been publicly reported by 16 April 2020. Data on the number of deaths attributed to Covid-19, the total number of deaths registered in the population and the historical average over at least 3 years were collected. Data were available for 3 Northern European countries (England & Wales, Scotland and the Netherlands) and New York State, United States of America. Results: There was an increase in observed, compared with expected, mortality in Scotland (+27%), England and Wales (+35%), the Netherlands (+60%) and New York state (+26%). Of these deaths, only 43% in Scotland and England and Wales, 49% in the Netherlands and 30% in New York state were attributed to Covid-19 leaving a number of excess deaths not attributed to Covid-19. Conclusions: A substantial proportion of excess deaths observed during the current COVID-19 pandemic are not attributed to COVID-19 and may represent an excess of deaths due to other causes.


This paper proposes an evolutionary approach to select appropriate behaviors for a mobile robot. We augment each behavior by adding activation/termination constraints to accelerate the evolutionary processes. The former constraints reduce the number of situations where each behavior is executable, and the latter contribute to extract meaningful behavior sequences, each of which can be regarded as one action regardless of its length. We apply the genetic algorithm to obtain the switching function to select the appropriate behavior according to the situation. As an example, a shooting task in a soccer game is given to show the validity of the proposed method. Based on the combination of the proposed architecture and GA, we can obtain the purposive behaviors. Simulation results are shown, and a discussion is given.


The defibrillation threshold (DFT) using simultaneous (SIML) versus sequential (SEQ) pathways for shock delivery was compared in 16 patients with an implanted cardioverter defibrillator. All patients had three‐lead nonthoracotomy systems (NTL) using a left chest subcutaneous patch, a right ventricular endocardial lead, and a lead in the coronary sinus (n = 5) or superior vena cava (n = 11). The DFT were determined 2–44 days (17 ± 17 days) after implantation. The DFT was defined as the lowest energy shock that resulted in successful defibrillation. The first pathway tested was SIML in 12 and SEQ in 4 patients with output beginning at or above the intraoperative DFT, routinely 18 J. The second pathway was tested beginning 2–4 J above the DFT of the first tested pathway. All shocks were delivered in 2–4 J decrement or increment steps. The SEQ pathway shocks resulted in a significantly lower DFT than SIML pathway shocks (14 ± 6 vs 18 ± 6 J; I < 0.01). There was no difference in the time delay after ventricular fibrillation initiation before shock delivery for the successful defibrillation between SIML versus SEQ pathways (7 ± 2 secs for both pathways). In 7 of 16 patients, defibrillation using SEQ pathway resulted in a > 5 J lowering of DFT, while only one patient had > 5 J lowering of DFT using SIML shocks (P <0.05). These results have important implications for selecting the optimal pathway for implantable cardioverter defibrillator therapy with a multilead NTL system.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the anesthetic and cardiopulmonary effects of ketamine-dexmedetomidine combined with local anesthesia, associated or not in the postoperative period with different doses of atipamezole, for orchiectomy in cats.

ANIMALS
24 healthy cats.

PROCEDURES
Cats received ketamine (7 mg/kg) combined with dexmedetomidine (10 µg/kg) IM, and 1 mL of saline (group KDSAL), 25 µg/kg (group KDAT25), or 50 µg/kg (group KDAT50) of atipamezole IV, postoperatively. All cats received local anesthesia (2 mg/kg of lidocaine) intratesticular and SC. Physiologic variables were recorded at baseline and at time points during anesthesia. Ketamine rescue dose (1 mg/kg) was recorded. The quality of recovery, the degree of sedation, and side effects were evaluated postoperatively.

RESULTS
2 cats received a single additional bolus of ketamine to perform local anesthesia. Heart rate was lower in KDSAL, KDAT25, and KDAT50 during anesthesia, compared with baseline. Hypertension was observed intraoperatively in all groups. The time to head up, pedal reflex regained time, time to sternal recumbency, and time to standing were shorter in KDAT25 and KDAT50 compared to KDSAL. Lower sedation scores were assigned sooner to KDAT25 and KDAT50 than KDSAL. All groups resulted in low recovery quality scores and no side effects.

CLINICAL RELEVANCE
At the doses used, ketamine-dexmedetomidine combined with local anesthesia allowed the performance of orchiectomy. Rescue dose of ketamine for performing local anesthesia may be required. This combination can result in hypertension. Both atipamezole doses shortened the anesthetic recovery, without differences among them, and side effects.


My people, I hear you! Yes! So much so that your loud acclamation now prompts me to make this confession. As a good student of Prospero's Caliban, let me simply say that I'm flabberwhelmed. And overghasted! Can't you see I've turned radio-active. Going beyond hot flashes to having power surges? And I have you all to blame for this, this my blazing joy of transformation. Your eloquent nods inspire me now to walk on water. I salute you! Especially those who conspired to arraign me here to be acknowledged and honored by this Distinguished body of scholars and writers. And you know, what? To you, you enablers, making me fly so high now and soar above, I'll put you on notice in the manner of the Big Brother Idi Amin, "I shall retaliate! You hear me? I will retaliate!" But for now like the true daughter of Africa, Nigeria and the Anioma Igbo world that I am, I rouse you to affirm with one voice: Kwenu! Kwenu! Kwenu! And yes, I hear you ... Calling me to Duty. So here I stand. I accept! I accept your offer of the Fonlon Nichols Award. I accept this grand honor simply not as an insignia of my own valorization in stepping to the steep height or pinnacle in the roll call of literary Divas or giants, but as my own special call to duty. My mandate to rise up and be counted in the ranks of veteran vanguards of Truth and Justice, exemplified by-Bernard N sokika Fonlon and Lee Nichols-these men of steel whose uncompromising spirits in the face of wrong, with them speaking Truth to Power, both inspire and inform this award as an enduring legacy to us. In receiving this cherished award, therefore, I'm mindful of this one fact: That I'm not alone anymore. For I am acutely aware that I stand on the broad shoulders of literary giants and truth seekers-like the irrepressible brother, Ngugi wa Thiong'o and Sister Nawal el Sadaawi, respectively interrogating, digging ever deep into the murky, toxic rubbles of our world, still reeking with the raped, decomposing, mutilated and battered body of Africa-and her women in particular-to exhume the buried and distorted body of Truth and Justice in the swift boats of today's techno-crazy world. On this subject I'm reminded of a car sticker I once read with the apt inscription: "If you want Justice, You must work for Truth." Are we, really? And wasn't it that indefatigable sister Sadaawi who gave us her luminous insight on the subject when she noted that: "Nothing is more perilous than truth in a world that lies?" With your blazing barge of honor, you, this distinguished body have


The computer network is the only approach to effective resource sharing which is impossible under traditional environment.Standing the point of social information control theory,this paper discusses a new model under the new environment,which is characterized as the integration of collecting and utilizing in a whole society accompanied by the separision of that in a specific library.


The new mealybug species, Paracoccus ficus Moghaddam sp. n., collected on Ficus carica (Moraceae) in Iran, is described and illustrated based on the adult female. An identification key is presented to distinguish this new species from other mealybug species, reported on Ficus spp., in Iran.


This paper expresses a proposal of a framework for scientific applications based upon advanced computer technics like object programming, artificial intelligence and distributed objects (CORBA). Some numeric software developed at CEA depict a modular structure where a command language, allows chaining of numerical modules with data exchange. This architecture must progress to take into account exchange with other codes without the same organization, data and computer distribution over a network and need for code complexity assistance. The outline test-bed is based on the following elements : an implementation independent syntax to describe technical data, an object oriented command language to build numerical procedures with expert tools for definition and reuse assistance, an executor to perform procedures with data and computer distribution management and assistance for execution supervision and data interpretation. This architecture is based on object concepts to improve maintenance, evolutivity and reuse. Moreover it is supported by standards for data description and distribution management.


Let G = (V,E) be a simple connected graph. A subset S of vertices in a graph G is called a dominating set if every vertex v ∈ V is either in S or adjacent to some vertex in S. A dominating set S in G is called a dendant dominating set if < S > contains atleast one pendant vertex. If G1, G2, G3, ..., Gn are connected subgraphs of G with E(G) = E(G1)∪E(G2)∪E(G3)...∪E(Gn), then (G1, G2, G3, ..., Gn) is said to be a decomposition of G. In this paper, we introduce ascending dendent domination decomposition of graphs. Also we obtain P(n+1)2 , Cn(n+2) and Km(m+1) 2 ,n admits ascending pendent domination decomposition.


The role that differential rotation plays in the hydromagnetic stability of rapidly rotating fluids has recently been investigated by Fearn & Proctor (1983) (hereinafter referred to as I) as part of a wider study related to the geodynamo problem. Starting with a uniformly rotating fluid sphere, the strength of the differential rotation was gradually increased from zero and several interesting features were observed. These included the development of a critical region whose size decreased as the strength of the shear increased. The resolution of the two-dimensional numerical scheme used in I is limited, and consequently it was only possible to consider small shear strengths. This is unfortunate because differential rotation is probably an important effect in the Earth's core and a more detailed study at higher shear strengths is desirable. Here we are able to achieve this by studying a rapidly rotating Bénard layer with imposed magnetic field B0 = BM sϕ and shear U0 = UM sΩ(z)ϕ, where (s, ϕ, z) are cylindrical polar coordinates. In the limit where the ratio q of the thermal to magnetic diffusivities vanishes (q = 0), the governing equations are separable in two space dimensions and the problem reduces to a one-dimensional boundary-value problem. This can be solved numerically with greater accuracy than was possible in the spherical geometry of I. The strength of the shear is measured by a modified Reynolds number Rt = UM d/k, where d is the depth of the layer and κ is the thermal diffusivity, and the shear becomes important when Rt [ges ] O(1). It is possible to compute solutions well into the asymptotic regime Rt [Gt ] 1, and details of the behaviour observed are dependent on the nature of Ω(z). Specifically, two cases were considered: (a) Ω(z) has no turning point in 0 < z < 1, and (b) Ω(z) has a turning point at z = zT, 0 < zT < 1 (Ω′(zT = 0, Ω″(zT) ≠ 0). In both cases, as Rt increases a critical layer centred at z = zL develops, with width proportional to (a) Rt−1/3, (b) Rt−¼. In the case where Ω(z) has a turning point, the critical layer is located at the turning point (zL = zT). The critical Rayleigh number Rc increases with (a) Rc ∝ Rt, (b) Rc ∝ RRt−¼, and the instability is carried around with the fluid velocity at the critical layer. The relevance of these results to the geomagnetic secular variation is discussed.


The mechanism of adsorptive purification of oil refining wastewater from phenols by modified carbonate sludge of chemical water treatment (CWT) has been studied. Phenols in wastewater are extremely toxic substances. In the legislative order, the sanitary and hygienic standards set the maximum permissible concentration (MPC) of phenol in water, which is 0.001 mg/dm3. A process scheme of adsorption purification of wastewater from phenols with modified carbonate sludge, which is a large-tonnage waste from the power industry, is proposed. An adsorption filter has been designed for effective additional cleaning at Aktobe Oil Refining LLP.


The un-usedbrush bristles which are on the marketing (11 kinds of round cut bristles, 6 kinds of straight cut bristles and 2 kinds of hong bristles) were observed scanning electromicroscopically.The results obtained were as follows:The tip of those bristles could be devided into 6 types; the straight, the inclined, the widened-edge, the round, the bud-like and the exceptional cut.


In [Parker et al., 2008a] group theory was employed to prove the existence of homoclinic cycles in forced symmetry-breaking of simple (SC), face-centered (FCC), and body-centered (BCC) cubic planforms. In this paper we extend this classification demonstrating that more elaborate heteroclinic cycles and networks can arise through the same process. Our methods naturally generate graphs that represent possible heteroclinic cycles and networks. The results do not depend on the representation of the symmetry group and are thus quite general. This study is motivated by pattern formation in three dimensions which occur in reaction–diffusion systems, certain nonlinear optical systems and the polyacrylamide methylene blue oxygen reaction. This work extends previous work by Parker et al. [2006, 2008a, 2008b] and Hou and Golubitsky [1997].


This article utilizes a GDP framework to make an assessment of economic growth and change in China's most advanced region, the Lower Yangzi, from the early modern period to the present It offers a quantitative assessment of the Shanghai-based industrialization in the first three decades of the 20 century through a detailed compilation of a 1933 Lower Yangzi GDP. It shows that the Lower Yangzi in the 1930s had a per capita GDP 64% higher than China's national average, and experienced a magnitude of growth and structural change between 1914/18 and 1931/36 comparable to Japan and her East Asian colonies during this period. This paper further provides a historical narrative arguing that the City-state model adopted in the early 20 century Shanghai, with its secure property rights and provision of public goods, laid the institutional foundation of an Industrial Revolution in the Lower Yangzi with long-lasting political and economic impact across East Asia. * I would like to thank the organizer Konosuke Odaka and the participants of the two International Workshops held at Hitotsubashi University in March, 2001 and January 2002, the All-UC Economic History Conferences at University of California at Irvine in Oct. 2002, and the 3 Annual Hakone Conference in Tokyo, 2003, and also Huang Han Ming, Momoko Kawakami, Loren Brandt, Angus Maddison, Kenneth Pomeranz, Bart van Ark and Yuan Weipen. Thanks also go to Thomas Rawski for sending me his unpublished manuscript. I alone remain responsible for all errors. Industrial Revolution in the Prewar Lower Yangzi Region of China: a Quantitative and Institutional Interpretation Abstract: This article utilizes a GDP framework to make an assessment of economic growth and change in China's most advanced region, the Lower Yangzi, from the early modern period to the present It offers a quantitative assessment of the Shanghai-based industrialization in the first three decades of the 20 century through a detailed compilation of a 1933 Lower Yangzi GDP. It shows that the Lower Yangzi in the 1930s had a per capita GDP 64% higher than China's national average, and experienced a magnitude of growth and structural change between 1914/18 and 1931/36 comparable to Japan and her East Asian colonies during this period. This paper further provides a historical narrative arguing that the City-state model adopted in the early 20 century Shanghai, with its secure property rights and provision of public goods, laid the institutional foundation of an Industrial Revolution in the Lower Yangzi with long-lasting political and economic impact across East Asia. This article utilizes a GDP framework to make an assessment of economic growth and change in China's most advanced region, the Lower Yangzi, from the early modern period to the present It offers a quantitative assessment of the Shanghai-based industrialization in the first three decades of the 20 century through a detailed compilation of a 1933 Lower Yangzi GDP. It shows that the Lower Yangzi in the 1930s had a per capita GDP 64% higher than China's national average, and experienced a magnitude of growth and structural change between 1914/18 and 1931/36 comparable to Japan and her East Asian colonies during this period. This paper further provides a historical narrative arguing that the City-state model adopted in the early 20 century Shanghai, with its secure property rights and provision of public goods, laid the institutional foundation of an Industrial Revolution in the Lower Yangzi with long-lasting political and economic impact across East Asia. For students of the history of industrialization, China presents an intriguing antithesis of England, the first country to industrialize. Why, as Joseph Needham and his colleagues famously asked about two decades ago, did China's scientific and technological leadership over the rest of the world up until perhaps the 14 century not lead to a British style industrial revolution? For China historians, the Needham story of science and technology became a tale of economic revolution the so-called medieval or "Song" economic revolution in the 10-13 century, as argued by Mark Elvin, Yoshinoba Shiba and others, had thoroughly transformed China's production technology and market institutions to set her ahead of the rest of the world possibly right before the early modern era. 1 See Mark Elvin, 1973. Li Bo-zhong counted Japanese scholar such as Ichisada Miyazaki, and Chinese scholar Qi sha as among the advocates of the Song Economic Revolution (2002, p.97-99). Angus Maddisons converts this millennial China-Europe divergence paradigm into a plot of a Chinese per capita GDP series between 400 and 1800 AD downright flat except for the upward sloping Song dynasty (roughly between 950 and 1250 AD), against the European series, sinking with the fall of the Rome only to rise continuously from 1000 AD, and overtake China by the 14 century (Maddison, 2001, p.42).


Copolymers may be produced by radical-initiated copolymerisation of monomer mixtures composed of (a) 60 to 99 % by weight 1-vinylpyrrolidone, 1-vinylimidazole or their mixtures; (b) 1 to 40 % by weight nitrogenated, basic, ethylenically unsaturated monomers as free bases, salts or in quaternary form and if required (c) up to 20 % by weight of other monoethylenically unsaturated monomers. These copolymers are used as additives for washing agents to inhibit fading during washing. Also disclosed are washing agents containing such polymers, as well as polymers which may be produced by radical-initiated polymerisation of (a) 1-vinylpyrrolidone, 1-vinylimidazole, 1-vinylimidazolium compounds or their mixtures and if required (b) other nitrogenated, basic, ethylenically unsaturated monomers as free bases, salts or in quaternary form, and/or (c) other monoethylenically unsaturated monomers, in an aqueous medium in the presence of water-soluble proteins. A process is disclosed for preparing these polymers by polymerisation of the monomers (a) and if required (b) and/or (c) in an aqueous medium in the presence of water-soluble proteins. For 100 parts by weight of the monomers used for polymerisation, 0.5 to 400 parts by weight of proteins are used.


Based on the transient pressure wave method, this paper uses OLGA simulation software to detect CO2 incomplete pipe blockage, sets different monitoring points in the pipeline, uses its pressure response data for the calculation of blocking position, blocking length and strength, and determines the best monitoring point by analyzing the relative error of specific blocking parameters. For blockage length, when the monitoring point is close to the blockage position, it has the highest measurement accuracy and a relative error of less than 0.535%. Therefore, the monitoring point should be set up separately at the pipe entrance and near the front of the blocking position, so that the internal blockage of the pipe can be detected more accurately and effectively.


Objective:To evaluate the memory,executive function and the contributing factors of them in male patients with heroin dependence(MPHD).Methods:140 MPHD and 75 healthy controls were tested for memory and executive function with Wechsler Memory Scale(WMS)and Modified Wisconsin Card Sorting Test(M-WCST)respectively,and 140 MPHD were assessed with a self-developed questionnaire,Symptom Checklist 90(SCL-90),Self-Rating Depression Scale(SDS)and Self-Rating Anxiety Scale(SAS).Results:The performances of WMS and M-WCST in MPHD were significantly lower than those in healthy controls(P0.05 or 0.01).In MPHD;age correlated negatively,while the educated years correlated positively with MQ and most indicators in M-WCST tests.Heroin abuse years and times per day,veinous injection use route and the number of previous heroin acute toxicosis et al were significantly correlated to some indexes reflecting cognitive function(P0.05 or P0.01).The total score of SCL-90,SDS and SAS correlated negatively with MQ,and total score of SAS correlated negatively with card number sorted rightly,while positively with card number sorted wrongly and number of persistent error of M-WCST(P0.05 or P0.01).The experience of "high" at drug use,total score of SDS and the educational level entered the regression equation for memory.The total score of SAS and heroin abuse route entered the regression equation for executive function.Conclusion:MPHD suffered from abnormal memory and executive function.The experience of "high" at drug use,educational years,heroin abuse route,and negative mood may be responsible for impaired cognitive function in MPHD.


A hair moisturising complexing agent-containing shampoo composition, containing (A) an anionic surfactant which accounts for 5-30% of the weight of the composition and an amphoteric surfactant which accounts for 1-8% of the weight of the composition, the anionic surfactant being a composition of a lauryl alcohol sulphate and a polyoxyethylene lauryl ether sulphate having a weight ratio of 1:2, (B) an alkyl glucoside nonionic surfactant which accounts for 1-8% of the weight of the composition, (C) a hair moisturising complexing active agent which accounts for 0.5-12% of the weight of the composition, (D) a cationic polymer which accounts for 0.2% of the weight of the composition, (E) a methyl glucoside polyoxyethylene ether (120) dioleate which accounts for 1.2% of the weight of the composition, and (F) water which accounts for the remainder.


In a recent paper, Yamaguchi and Ando [J. Appl. Phys. 51, 5007 (1980)] discussed the composition of thermally grown oxide films on InP. Reanalysis of their infrared absorption data in conjunction with Raman data shows that their assignments of oxide products are in error. The dominant product at T≳620 °C is indium orthophosphate.


The work is aimed at improving the recognition procedures of biomedical signals in supervised learning systems in the direction of increasing the fidelity level of decisions. The prerequisites of the work is the increasing data flow during medical diagnostics and deepening search of informative features of signals of patient's state. The results of the work are applied to the field of medical diagnostic software. The work is based on using shape characteristic of a signal and scalar product as criteria of several signals' similarity. The reasoning for the work is to provide signal shape characteristic algorithms with the methods to manipulate the standard for more tailored supervised learning and effective recognition. While simultaneously maintaining correctness of comparing incoming signals with the heavily modified standards with custom composition of features. Six modifications of recognition algorithms with the representation of signals in normalized measurement scales are proposed, in which joint and separate options for choosing the boundaries of these scales on training samples of signals of different classes are implemented. Procedures have been built for comparing signals with standards and making decisions with and without fitting standards to signals. Modifications to recognition procedures are implemented and explored in the MATLAB ® environment. Their performance has been confirmed. The half-hour ECG recording from an open access database has been used for signal recognition for the normal and two types of abnormal cardiac beats. The viability of the development has been confirmed with the control samples in test example. An increase was found in the values of statistical estimates of the sensitivity, specificity, and general validity of solutions for recognizing signals when switching to normalized measurement scales in comparison with the option of using ordinary scales of measurements in describing the observed processes. The modification with variable boundaries of the scales has been found to be more effective for the used signal types while learning all three types of signals simultaneously. Additional modifications with variable standards and discarding worse features allowed further increase in correct decisions rate. As the result, the statistical values of recognition has been calculated for all six algorithms with variable calculation complexity and effectiveness. Special consideration has been paid to the consistency of signals and their standards for the cases of variable scales, boundaries, and composition during learning and recognition phases.


Bangladesh lies at the intersection of the Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Meghna rivers with a combined average discharge of 38,000 m3s-1 ranking fourth globally. Despite the volume of water flowing through and seasonally inundating parts of the landscape, groundwater reliance is necessary to support an intensive agricultural industry. Here we use newly-developed open-source software to combine observations from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites with hydrologic estimates of land water storage from the Global Land Assimilation Data System (GLDAS) to isolate basin-scale groundwater anomalies in Northwest Bangladesh from 2002 to 2016. We place our estimates in the context of previously-published water management estimates and our results suggest the largest losses in water storage are due to groundwater abstractions with groundwater storage decreasing at a rate of 0.88 cm yr-1. We estimate basin-averaged total water storage loss from 2002 to 2016 at 27.92 cm with groundwater and surface water storage loss accounting for 12.46 cm or 44.6%. For Bangladesh, a region where 80% of landcover is dedicated for agricultural use and over half of the country's population is employed in the agricultural sector, the estimated declines in water storage hold long-term implications for the livelihood and food supply of the region.


The external thermal insulation contact systems (ETICS) have been massively applied for the reduction of energy consumption in large block of flats in the Czech Republic in the last two decades, as well as in some new buildings. The engineering practice shows that, in addition to the thermal conduction characteristics, the surface radiation properties can affect the expected result substantially, thus they should be involved into the ETICS design. This paper presents an original, relatively simple computational tool for the evaluation of the effect of the thickness of particular layers, namely of the outer one, to the prevention of the temperature decrease under the dew‐point temperature, creating, thanks to the presence of liquid water, good conditions for the life of various unwelcome microorganisms.


Increasing cases of illegal logging, including illegal logging, illegal timber trafficking, encroachment and abuse of authority to permit the use of timber, on a small scale and large scale within an organization. Kampar Regency is one of the areas that have the potential of abundant natural resources, including forests. Basically most people Kampar work as farmers, but the high price of wood and huge market demand for timber, a lot of people who think that the timber business will provide greater profits than on the job as a farmer. so, many people involved in this illegal logging activities. The purpose of this study was to determine law enforcement to the crime of illegal logging In Kampar jurisdiction based on law no. 18 year 2013 concerning the prevention and eradication forest destruction. The results of this study are law enforcement to illegal logging activities in the jurisdiction in Kampar regency Based on Law No. 18 Year 2013 concerning the Prevention and Eradication forest destruction carried out by the police resorts Kampar, investigators civil servants of district forestry services Kampar and national army Indonesia, rangers , the state prosecutor Bangkinang. In enforcing the law, the protection of which is to do with the efforts Pre-emptive, repressive efforts, formed a special team to eradicate illegal logging, because of the high crime of illegal logging in Kampar district.


From therapeutic communities to evidence based practice - 40 years of experience from the development of addiction treatments and policies in Sweden.


Abstract In a retrospective follow‐up study including 60 eyes with simple or capsular glaucoma, the results obtained by using a gelatin implant under the scleral flap during trabeculectomy were compared with those obtained without such implants. One month postoperatively the mean IOP was significantly lower in the gelatin group than in the control group (15.0 mmHg and 17.9 mmHg, respectively) (p = 0.024). At the long‐term follow‐up, however, the mean IOP in the two groups were very similar (13.6 mmHg and 14.8 mmHg, respectively).


The paper presents the analysis of the stop choice and bus choice behaviors in space-time dimension using the public transit path choice model under the framework of random utility models, based on the idea of hierarchical information processing. The parameters of the perceived utility function of bus choice are calibrated and tested from TIYUZHONGXIN BRT stop to DONGPUZHEN BRT stop (8 direct routes) in Guangzhou with IC data and bus arriving data in case study. The result shows that waiting time, on-board time, comfortable at stop, comfortable at bus and the on-board experience are statistically significant in bus choice model under the hierarchical processing of degree of comfort.


Summary The present work explores relationships among motivation, the use of learning strategies and anxiety. In this research 93 university students took part; 84 females and 9 males, 19 to 26 years old. Obtained results indicate existence of positive and significant correlations between motivation and the use of learning strategies. More motivated students organise their personal activities better, they are more active during lectures and they elaborate materials better compared to the less motivated students. Anxiety influences the motivation process, so that more anxious students are more motivated than the less anxious ones. The data confirm that moderate levels of anxiety can influence the learning process in a positive way, enhancing positive effects on activity and outcomes.


Objective: To study dissolution curve profiles of domestic propafenone hydrochloride tablets in different pH media by the fiber- optic real time dissolution test system and evaluate the drug quality. Methods: The paddle method was used at a rate of 50 r·min- 1,the dissolution curves of domestic and imported propafenone hydrochloride tablets were detected in the following four media including water,pH 1. 2 hydrochloric acid solution,pH 4. 0 acetate buffer solution,and pH 6. 8 phosphate buffer solution by the fiber- optic real time dissolution test system, and the results were compared with the dissolution curves published in the Japanese Orange Book by method of AV value. Results: The comparison indicated that the dissolution process of domestic products were quite different in the four media,the dissolution curves were all distinctly dissimilar with the reference curves in the Orange Book. Conclusion: There is significant difference in the quality of domestic products from several manufacturers and a pronounced gap exists as compared between the domestic manufacturing technique and the abroad.


The Czech Capital market, a market with long-tem securities, e.g. stocks of bonds, is considered to be a less liquid. Market liquidity is described by several characteristics. A liquid market is breadth, resilient and depth. In some references also trustworthiness and fair play market is added. Above mentioned characteristics suggest that some of them are analyzed with difficulties. In this proceeding we will focused on the depth of the Czech capital market as a one presumption of liquidity the market as a whole. The liquidity of the Czech Capital market will be compared with other market oriented economy. Methods use in the proceeding – analysis, comparison.


Climate change is an existential threat to biodiversity and people, but building political will for action on climate change remains elusive. Research on climate change communications to increase effectiveness at motivating action include these recommendations: pairing risk and opportunity in message framing, localizing information, and appealing to a sense of place. Here, we present a case study on mobilizing bird enthusiasts to take action on climate change. The science communicated found that over two-thirds of North American birds are moderately or highly vulnerable to climate change under a 3.0°C warming scenario. Of these climate-vulnerable species, 76% would have reduced vulnerability if warming were stabilized at 1.5°C. These findings were summarized and communicated with the public in an award-winning interactive website, the "Birds and Climate Visualizer," that allowed individuals to look up any location by postal ZIP code and learn what birds would be impacted by climate. Also included was a Climate Action Handbook providing sample personal actions. The communications rollout earned 2.5 billion media impressions, the visualizer has been used at least 42,000 times, and handbook circulated to 250,000 households. More than 33,000 people read headlines from the report or explored the visualizer and then completed an online action in support of clean energy policies. The message frame combined with the visualizer and handbook as tools to deliver the frame have contributed to climate legislative wins in four states. These early successes suggest that message and visual online tools that localize and personalize a message are effective to motivate action.


The aim of this paper is to calculate VaR index with parametric Markov-Switching GARCH approach for accepted companies in Tehran Stock Exchange and also selecting the optimal portfolio of their stocks. To calculate the index, data and information of weekly stock price of 10 representative firms over the period 2008–2014 has been used which account for 332 working weeks. The results from estimation of VaR and determination of optimal stock portfolio in the non-linear programming framework showed that optimal portfolio of food-industry companies stock, in the context of VaR has higher returns in the first regime (Boom period) compared to the second regime (recession period), but had a lower risk. On the other hand, it has had lower weight in both stock portfolios that had lower average returns compared to the rest of the stocks and compared to the stocks which had lower VaR relative to other stocks that has higher weights.


We examine whether the level of deference shown by the Israeli Supreme Court to military decisions has changed over time by empirically analyzing the entire body of Supreme Court decisions in petitions against the military commander between 1990 and 2005. Setting forth a number of different factors that might generally affect the degree of deference to state agencies, we hypothesized that there would be a decrease in deference in the relationship between the Court and the military commander during the examined period. Our findings show that deference to the military commander has indeed diminished significantly. We argue that this is best explained by the continuation of the armed conflict (and its aftermath, namely, the routinization and increase in the number of petitions by the civilian population) and also—to some extent—by the rise of a substantive rule‐of‐law legal consciousness, central to which is the importance of human rights.


Overview Paper and Poster Sessions In all, 173 papers were approved for the program, but unfortunately last-minute cancellations (largely related to visa issues) reduced the number presented to 155. The program featured 25 general oral paper sessions and 12 special oral paper sessions, each containing three or four papers, and typically with either three or four running concurrently. Twenty poster papers were presented, in three sessions. Special Sessions The following special paper sessions were conducted (organizers in parenthesis): • Topographic-Bathymetric LiDAR (Webster) • Global Scale Modeling and EO Data Analysis (Guoqing and Song) • Marine Traffic and Risk Analysis: 2 paper sessions (Fournier) • Massive Mobility Data Analysis and Mining (Stefanakis) • Discrete Global Grid Systems: 3 paper sessions (Purrs) • Digital Earth Education (Moorman) • GEOGLAM: 2 paper sessions (Justice and Wu) • Digital Globes (Woodgate and Chrisman) Panel Discussions The following plenary panel discussions were conducted (organizers/moderators in parenthesis): • Digital Globes (Woodgate and Chrisman) • DGGS: Why all the Hype? (Gibb) • Astronauts' Perspectives (McLean/Werle) • DE Ethics in Daily Life (Georgiadou) • Wrap-up Panel (Millward) Workshops The following pre-conference workshops were offered (organizers in parenthesis): • RADARSAT-2 Images: Theory and Applications (Brigitte Leblon) • Topo-Bathymetric LiDAR (Tim Webster) • COIN Atlantic Geospatial Tools Training (Jeff McKenna) • Next Generation of Spatial Data Infrastructures (David Coleman) • Geospatial Thinking and Digital Earth (Lynn Moorman) All workshops were scheduled as half-day sessions on Sunday, October 4.


A method for the design of compact and efficient mode converters for waveguides is presented. The required mode converter is modeled in the form of a scatterer placed in the waveguide and then its surface profile is optimized for maximum excitation of power in the required mode. Design examples are provided which show that such converters can achieve efficiencies of above 98%, while keeping the length of the converter less than that of the conventional mode converters. >


This paper deals with the receiver for sampling and preprocessing the wideband signals. These signals are wide in the meaning of its spectrum, e.g. very short impulses, in our case the M-sequence modulated continuous wave signals (MMCW). Conversion of the wideband signals like M-sequence is not a trivial task. Devices that are driven with this type of MMCW signals usually operates in the frequency band nearly from DC up to 20 GHz. It is an ultra-wide frequency band (UWB) specified by the Electronic Communication Committee (ECC) or the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). For the processing of these signals, sampling in equivalent time is used. This principle, as well as the individual components of the receiver, are explained in this article. The results from measurements and simulations of the dynamic, AC, DC and nonlinear characteristics are presented as well.


In this paper the author recommends that American pharmaceutical education should move rapidly in the direction of a single terminal professional doctor of pharmacy degree for all of its graduates. An attempt is made to review for the reader: (1) some of the historical events of the twentieth century that influenced the direction of education in pharmaceutical, medical and related health professions,1,2,3,4 (2) the Pharmaceutical Survey of 19485,6 which was the last major introspective study prior to the present work underway by the Millis Commission, (3) the report of the Citizens Commission On Graduate Medical Education7 which appeared in 1966, (4) several tracts of the past few decades2,3,8,9,10 which have focused on the changing scene in American pharmaceutical education, (5) the development7,10 in medical education which have provided important precedents for pharmacy and (6) several recent papers11,12 which have espoused the professional doctor of pharmacy degree. The author particularly calls upon direct quotes and recommendations from the Findings And Recommendations of the Pharmaceutical Survey of 1948. Also, he draws upon and paraphrases remarks of The Report of the Citizens Commission and Graduate Medical Education, chaired by John S. Millis, and which appeared in 1966.


ABSTRACT Heinrich von Storch was a classical economist of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century; he was of German descent and of Russian nationality; his main work was written in French. This paper tries to present the essence of Storch's innovative ideas and contrasts them with contemporary British and French economic thinking on value, land rent, foreign trade, money and currency, "inner goods," and development. It is argued that Storch was an economist of moderate impact on literature but of high professional relevance.


Network coding is a technique that proposes a different approach for the protocol design in data communication networks. Thus, the nodes in the network are allowed not only to store and forward data packets, but also to process and mix different packets in a single coded packet. By using this technique, the throughput and robustness of the network can be significantly improved. However, the transmission delay of network coding is still not well understood. In real-time communication systems with stringent delay constraints, understanding the transmission delay distribution is at the core of implementing network coding in practical scenarios. Moreover, the benefits of network coding for broadcast scenarios have been proven, but the use of this technique in data gathering applications is limited. Unlike broadcast applications, where the main objective is to minimize the transmission delay, in data gathering applications the challenge is to reduce the data collection time, called the completion time. The inherent diversity and requirements of data gathering applications make this completion time minimization even more challenging and application-driven. Beyond transmission time considerations, network coding requires additional processing to generate the coded packets, which may influence the data transmission performance. In practical scenarios, where the power levels are fixed for different processes, e.g., transmission of data, generation of coded packets, the main challenge to improve the energy efficiency of the system is to decrease the transmission time. This implies careful attention in terms of energy efficiency of the overall system. Thus, the focus of the thesis is on the design of communication protocols based on network coding subject to performance metrics that include the data transmission time, the data collection time, and the energy consumption. Moreover, we consider different constraints, i.e., application constraints (e.g., deadline, network size, topology, length of the data messages), network constraints (e.g., data loss), design constraints (e.g., feedback type, limited number of data packets). We start by exploring the delay behaviour of network coding in broadcast applications. Previous results are typically asymptotic in nature or focus


SUMMARY The principal lipid of A. ugilis, A. tumefuciens, and E. coli extractable with ethanol and methanol-chloroform was a phosphatidyl ethanolamine. A phosphatidyl choline was detectable only in A. tumefaciens. The fatty acids of phospholipid from A. Glis were found to be myristic (773, palmitic (35%), palmitoleic (41%), and octadecenoic (17%) acids. The fatty acids from A. tumefuciens were myristic (l%), palmitic (E%), hexadecenoic (l%), methylene hexadecanoic (6%), octadecenoic (30%), and lactobacillic (47%) acids. The neutral lipid was a minor fraction (5% to 10%) of the extractable lipids and was found to consist of free fatty acids, esters, and coenzyme Q. only a few studies have been made of the liter. A. tumefaciens strain TTlO was grown in the kinds of phospholipids present in gram negative synthetic medium of Starr (6), and A. agilis (A. vinebacteria. Cephalins were detected in bacterial endo- Zandii strain 0) was grown in Burk's synthetic medium toxins by Morgan and Partridge (1) and by Westphal (7). The cultures were grown aerobically at 30' and Liideritz (2). Similarly, phospholipids extracted and were centrifuged soon after the end of exponential directly from whole cells (3, 4) or envelopes (5) of growth. The cells were washed twice with distilled gram negative bacteria were identified as phosphatidyl water, once with cold 0.1 N HC1 and suspended in ethanolamine by the classical methods of differential distilled water. solubility, functional group analyses, and elemental Extraction and Purification of Lipids. Aliquots of analyses. The amount of phosphatidyl ethanolamine the cell suspensions were dried to constant weight at relative to other lipids and the types of phospholipids 60° and 15 cm Hg. The remaining suspension was other than phosphatidyl ethanolamine have not been centrifuged, and the pellet was extracted twice with established.


Today, public areas, such as airports, hospitals, city centers are monitored by surveillance systems. The widespread use of surveillance systems reduces security concerns while creating an amount of video data that cannot be examined by people in real-time. Therefore, the concept of automatic understanding of video activities has raised the standards of security camera systems. In this paper, we propose a framework (OF-ConvAE-LSTM) to detect anomalies using Convolutional Autoencoder and Convolutional Long Short-Term Memory in an unsupervised manner. Besides the deep learning model, the feature extraction stage based on dense optical flow is applied in the framework to obtain the velocity and direction information of foreground objects. The experiments were carried out on three popular public datasets consisting of Avenue, UCSD Ped1, and UCSD Peds2. The experimental results have shown that the proposed framework models the complex distribution of the pattern of regular motion changes with high accuracy. Besides, this method was observed to outperform state-of-the-art approaches based on unsupervised and semi-supervised deep learning models.


Background and Aims: Avian Influenza (AI) H9N2 subtype was first reported to infect turkeys in the United States in 1966 and has been panzootic in Eurasia. In Iran, the H9N2 virus was first isolated from broiler chickens in 1998 in Ghazvin province and it is the most prevalent subtype of influenza virus in poultry industry in Iran at the present time. Materials and Methods: In this study, we sequenced and analyzed Nucleoprotein (NP) gene of six AI H9N2 isolates from broiler farms of different parts of Iran from 1998 to 2011 to show probable changes since first advent. Results: Results indicate that nucleotide homology among these isolates with NP genes is between 91.8% to 98.8%. The divergences between isolates have significantly been increased since 2007.Iranian AI H9N2 Isolates based on NP gene divided in two distinct clusters according to their isolation year. Group 1 is located in Y-439 clade and Group 2 is located in G1 Clade. Iranian H9N2 isolates of avian influenza virus show more amino acid substitutions Compare to those found in human H9N2 isolates. Conclusion: The results shown here that further gene reassortment has occurred subsequent to the emergence of viruses in the Middle East highlights the potential for viruses to evolve rapidly.


The measurement of pavement surface deflections under moving loads can be used for evaluation of pavement structural condition. The objective of this paper is to develop an innovative backcalculation method to calculate pavement layer moduli based on traffic speed deflectometer (TSD) measurements and analyze factors influencing backcalculation results. The backcalculation method is based on 2.5D finite element method (FEM) and constrained extended Kalman filter (CEKF). Field measurements at different pavement sections were used to verify the accuracy of backcalculation results. Parametric analysis was conducted to evaluate the influences of traffic loading and pavement structure variations in the field. It was found that the backcalculation results were considerably affected by the variation of asphalt layer thickness and dynamic loading due to pavement surface roughness. A heavy truck passing the adjacent lane during TSD testing could also cause variation of backcalculation results.


Recent work has highlighted the scope for reductions of short-lived climates pollutants (SLCP) that yield significant benefits to human health and agricultural crops at the local scale while limiting temperature increase in the near-term [1,2]. Identified measures would achieve large cuts in emissions of CH4 and BC, but minimize further emission reductions of cooling aerosols, such as SO2, beyond what is already implied in current legislation. Climate policies, cutting emissions of several pollutants, would also bring important health benefits [3].

While implementation of measures addressing SLCP or specific climate polices would result, beyond climate benefits, in significant air quality and ecosystem improvements, they will not be sufficient to remediate all current air quality problems and achieve sustainable air quality around the world. Additional air quality measures will need to involve further reductions of cooling aerosols, such as SO2 emissions, which however will result in a clear climate dis-benefit, at least in the near term (Figure 1).

The presentation will review available emissions scenarios for measures or policies that could compensate climate disbenefits of SO2 mitigation by co-controls of long-lived greenhouse gases.


Takes 14 cities of Guangxi Autonomous Region as example,uses the number of domestic tourism as the basic data,and then analyzes the difference scale of domestic tourism and the space-time evolution of scale of the Guangxi domestic tourism from 2003 to 2009 by the methods of standard deviation,coefficient of variation,geography centralized index and relative change rate.The results showed that: Guangxi domestic tourism scale is going through an absolute difference of increases from 295.74 in 2003 to 740.10 in 2009,and absolute difference scale of the domestic tourism has become enlarged yet the relative difference lessens in fluctuation down from 0.912 in 2003 to 0.864 in 2009.In the time dimension,we could see that the overall difference in Guangxi domestic tourism scale is shrinking,however,in the space dimension,the scale of the regional tourism is highly concentrated,plus,the gradient differences are more obvious.Based on this,the author selects the index numbers like per capita GDP,the number of 2A and above scenic spots,the total of mileage of the highway and railway,the number of star hotel,the number of staff in travel agencies,and their correlation degree are 0.730 8,0.711 2,0.693 6,0.676 2,0.623 5 respectively.Therefore,it is fair enough to say that the factors like the degree of social and economic development,situation of the tourism resources plus the traffic conditions and so on have made a lot impact on the scale difference of tourism.


Gene environment interaction is an influence on the expression of a trait that results from the interplay between genes and the environment. Some traits are strongly influenced by genes, while other traits are strongly influenced by the environment. Most traits, however, are influenced by one or more genes interacting in complex ways with the environment.


Chloraniphcnicol acctyltransfcrase ( C A T ) ( E C 22.214.171.124) catalyses the 0-acetylation and inactivation of the antibiotic, using acetyl-CoA a s the acyl donor. T h e structural gene for CAT in chlor~rmphenicol-resistant bacteria may be chromosomal. hut in most genera has been observed t o be plasmidborne. All known variants have similar subunit molecular masses ( 75 k l h ) and a high degree o f sequence homology, indicative of a common tertiary structure (Shaw & Leslie, I YSS). The so-called type I enzyme. associated with transposon TnO and ;I variety o f F-like R plasmids, is the most frequently encountered natural CAT variant in Gram-negative bnctcria. A less commonly observed member of the entcric C'AY family. a type 111 variant. has proved t o he a particularly iiseful model system for protein engineering and the study of determinants o f molecular recognition (Murray ct (11.. I988). The tertiary structure o f a type 111 CAT has been determined by X-ray diffraction and shown it t o he a trinier o f identical subunits. with the active sites located at the three subunit interfaces ( lxsl ie ct d . 19881. T h e slructure o f the native trimcr and its binary complex with chloramphenicol are known at 0.1 75 nm resolution. and the structure o f CAT with CoA hound has been refined ;it 0.24 nm resolution. Since ('AT hinds chloramphenicol with the same specificity ;IS the pcptidyl transferase centre o f prokaryotic ribosomes, the elusive target for the antibiotic's action, there is a sense in which CAT may be seen ;IS ii 'siirrogate' receptor for ligandbinding studies (ShaN. 198.3). T h e results o f steady-state kinetic studies had previously suggested that the mechanism of CAT is likely t o be a sequential one. wherein ;I ternary complex o f CAT. chloramphenicol. and acetyl-CoA is formed by thc random order o f addition o f substrates (Kleanthous & Shaw. 1984). The reaction was shown to be freely reversible, although the forward reaction is favoured because of the difference in free energies o f hydrolysis o f acetyl-CoA and acctyl chloramphenicol: Chloramphenicol + acetyl-S-CoA = 3-0-acetyl chloramphenicol + CoASH ( 1 )


A new infrared measuring system for extended appli cation of the laser flash method to the determination of the thermal conductivity of molten salts at high temperature with a remote sensing germanium detector has been developed. This system detects the temper ature response curve of a thin platinum disk in contact with a semi-infinite column of molten salt sample. Its data processing is presented with measurements for molten sodium carbonate at 1132K. This modification minimizes the effects of elec trical noise frequently observed in the previous experiments that were conducted with thermocouples.


The fabrication of functional micro-structures at sheet surface has a wide range of applications in noise reduction, friction reduction, heat and mass transfer, etc. By integrating the conventional rolling forming and the incremental sheet forming process, a flexible and widely applicable incremental rolling forming process was proposed in the present work to fabricate surface micro-grooves. First, a rolling tool which has hemispherical ring convex on the roller and the convex height is much higher than the height of forming groove was designed and manufactured. Then, a series of incremental rolling tests on titanium alloy (TA1) were carried out by using self-designed rolling tools, with varying roller size, rolling depth and feed rate. The results show that continuous micro-grooves with good dimensional consistency were prepared on the surface of the plate. Furthermore, by investigating rolling force and groove size after rolling, it was found that the rolling depth have significant effects on the micro-groove formation and only localized material flow is occurred at the grooved region. Compared with the traditional rolling process, the incremental rolling process has the advantages of low rolling force and adjustable groove spacing, which is conducive to the subsequent processing of the sheet.


The effects of attention on visual perception are assessed in the location-precuing paradigm. First, we present a review of some current metaphors for attention and relevant data. Then, a framework is suggested that provides an interpretation of the temporal sequence of external and assumed internal processes within a location-cuing trial. Cases when a precue correctly indicates the target location (valid trials) are compared to cases when the precue directs attention to the wrong location (invalid trials) with the cue location either at fixation or peripheral to the target location. Several specific hypotheses are suggested; these concern decrements in performance on invalid trials and effects of the location of a precue. For the most part, these hypotheses are supported by data in the literature and in some new studies. A gradient-filter metaphor for attention, which includes a synthesis of ideas from the gradient model and the attention gate model, is more consistent with the data than is a spotlight metaphor.


For the research of the process of starting,the method of double-loop control of PI regulation in speed and chopping single piple in current is confirmed,we study the full digital starting used digital control technology.Then the hardware and software design of starting control system based on DSP in detail is introduced.Experiments results of speed response and the current wave confirm that the full digital starting control system has the excellences of short time of starting,rapid response of speed and steady performance.All of this is usefull for Doubly Salient Electro-magnetic Motor in aero-power starter/generator system.


WTO regime and international investment law are two separate systems,which have their specific objects to be regulated and cannot be replaced by each other.The fact that they are connected and overlapped to some extent does not constitute a denial of them as separate systems.At present,this paper points out,we should insist on confining WTO's regulations concerning investment strictly within the"trade-related"scope and prevent WTO's over-expansion of its"trade-related"domain.


Asian giant honeybees (Apis dorsata) have an important economic role for the community around the forest and forest's health. However, degradation and conversion of forest are the main threats for its existence and distribution. Thus, the conservation strategy needs to be developed to maintain their honey production. Moreover, natural landscapes in West Sumatera province makes some unique characteristics of the honey since in each bioregion has its vegetations. This study aimed to characterize the physicochemical characteristics of West Sumatra's forest honey. Observation and survey were used as the research method. SNI 3545:2013 was used as a reference for making the comparison between bioregions. The result showed that physicochemical characteristics of West Sumatra`s forest honey taken from many bioregions have already met the standard required by SNI 3545: 2013. Furthermore, the physicochemical characteristics are not significantly different between its bioregions.


Method for establishing an emergency call between a user equipment (2) within an area of radio coverage (40 ') and one of at least two points (42, 44) with ability to answer the call, comprising method: receiving an emergency call request; determining a first estimate of the position of said user equipment (2) within said radio coverage area (40 '); interrupt a setting corresponding to the emergency call call; using a control point to select, based on said first position estimate, which of said at least two answering points (42, 44) the call is to be established; and when it has been selected a response point, resuming said call setup and determining a second estimate more accurate position and send the second position estimate to the selected response.


Customer empowering behaviors, an emerging research topic in the fields of service management and organizational behavior, refer to employees' perceptions of certain behaviors of customers or certain conditions created by customers in the service encounter contexts that make them feel motivated and competent to make independent decisions for achieving the desired service objects in the process of providing services (Dong et al., 2015; Tuan et al., 2019). Although this concept originally comes from "empowerment," prior research on empowerment mainly focused on organizations (or leaders) empowering employees (e.g., empowering supervision, leadership empowerment behavior, employee empowerment, or employee psychological empowerment) and organizations empowering customers (e.g., customer empowerment or customer psychological empowerment), customers empowerment of employees (i.e., customer empowering behaviors) was given little attention. Therefore, this study focuses on the relatively new concept of customer empowering behaviors and aims to investigate their effects on the career growth of frontline service employees. To unravel the linking mechanisms and boundary conditions of the relationship between customer empowering behaviors and employees' career growth, we introduce organization-based self-esteem as a mediator and career centrality as a moderator, respectively, from the perspective of self-determination theory. We conducted a three-wave research design and achieved 245 valid samples from the frontline service employees of six garment sales enterprises in Guangzhou and Shantou cities of Guangdong Province. Confirmatory factor analysis was performed to examine the discriminant validity of key variables (i.e., customer empowering behaviors, organization-based self-esteem, career centrality, and career growth); the results yielded good distinctiveness. Then, we employed hierarchical multiple regression analyses and bootstrapping analyses to test the hypotheses. The results indicated the following: (1) customer empowering behaviors have a significant positive impact on employees'


The optimum temperature of UFE-Ⅰ was about 45 ℃.The optimum pH was about 7.0.It was discovered that Fe3+、Cu2+、Ag+、Hg+ and Pb2+ ions were inhibitors of UFE-Ⅰ,and Mg2+、Mn2+ and Fe2+ ions were activators of this enzyme.SBTI(soybean trypsin inhibitor) and PMSF(phenylmethyl sulfonylfluoride) completely inhibited UFE-Ⅰ,which indicated that the enzyme belonged to serine protease group,chymotrypsin inhibitor fractionaly inhibited UFE-Ⅰ,leupeptin、aprotinin and benzamidine inhibited UFE-Ⅰweakly.Like lumbrokinase,UFE-Ⅰ can not only directly degrade fibrin but also indirectly hydrolyze fibrin through transforming plasminogen into plasmin(84.0%).when each enzyme and rabbit thrombus was incubated at 37 ℃ for 3 h.The results showed that UFE-Ⅰhad stronger thrombolytic ability than lumbrokinase.


Abstract GaAs1‐xPx thin films have been deposited onto glass substrates at a rate of 50A/min. in a vacuum of 5 x 10‐5 Torr using a successive evaporation method. Thin films of various compositions (X = 0.3–0.9) were obtained at gallium source temperature TGa = 870°C, arsenic source temperature TAs = 275°C, phosphorus source temperature TP = 330°‐363°C and substrate temperature Tsub = 265°‐330°C. Compositional, optical (absorption) and electrical properties of the films in a thickness range of 1300–1900 A were determined by using an X‐ray diffractometer, a grating spectrometer and an electrometer respectively. The experimental results were compared with those for simultaneous evaporation and discussed from the atomistic viewpoints. The values of △X/△Tsub are ‐ 7 x 10‐3 and ‐1 x 10‐3 °C‐1 for successive and simultaneous evaporation respectively, the difference of which can be explained by the absorption effect of a predeposited Ga layer in successive evaporation. The value of △X/△Tp is about +7 x 10‐3°C‐1 f...


In This Issue L E G O Logo in a Lean Factory by Jose Armando Valente LEGO Logo in a Lean Factory 1 Logo Summer Ins t i tu tes c en t e r f o ld To wha t extent is " t r a in iug , in the t rad i t i ona l sense appropr ia te i n a lean What ' s New? 12 factory where worke rs accompl ish tasks but do no t understand what they do? Logos ium '97 16 W h a t do worke rs o n an automated assembly l ine comprehend about the Logo Users Groups 16 concepts of automat ion? Is such knowledge necessary t o increase product i v i t y ? I n the previous issue o f Logo Update The d i s t inc t i on between be ing able to do th ings w i t h success {savoir faire) Celia Hoyles and R i chard Noss w r o t e and the comprehens ion o f what is achieved is presented by Piaget ( 1974 ) . He about us ing Logo w i t h bank employees, observed that a ch i l d can do complex act ions successfully w i thou t necessarily ( " U n d e r s t a n d i n g t h e M a t h e m a t i c s o f comprehend ing al l the concepts involved in the act iv i ty . This can also occur Bank ing " Logo Update Vo l . 5 No. 1, Fa l l w i t h adu l ts . 1996. ) I n th is issue, Jose Valente disComprehens ion is par t i cu lar ly necessary i f we want people t o be comcusses the use o f Logo in another nonpletely invo lved in wha t they are do ing , a level o f invo lvement w h i c h is school sett ing, a factory. He argues that requi red i n a lean factory. the "Logo aesthetic" wo rks w i t h adults The t e r m "lean p r o d u c t i o n " was used by Womack , Jones, and Roos (1990 ) as we l l as w i t h ch i ldren . to refer to a p roduc t i on process w i t h no waste o f energy, materials, stock, or Valente is exp l i c i t about what Hoyles human effort. Lean p roduc t i on Ls one p roduc t i on parad igm. The first was craf t and Noss suggest: Schools have fai led to p roduc t i on , fo l lowed by mass p roduc t i on , and more recently, by lean produceducate people i n a way that leads them t i o n . to have an understanding o f wha t they Lean p roduc t i on is an a t tempt t o solve some o f the excesses ident i f i ed i n do. He asks whether or no t such undermass p roduc t i on . I t produces on ly what the consumers want , the defects are standing is necessary for p roduc t i v i t y i n i d en t i f i ed d u r i n g the p r o d u c t i o n process ra ther t h a n at the end o f the today's j o b market . assembly l ine, and p roduc t i on processes are constantly improved i n order to There has been a recent f lu r r y o f e l iminate excesses o f t ime , labor , mater ia ls , and superv is ion . The who le new Logo products , b o t h software and p roduc t i on chain is aware o f the need to e l iminate waste, thus the t e r m "lean books. Look at "What 's New?" on page p r o d u c t i o n . " 12, and the l ist o f i tems available f r o m Mass p roduc t i on a l lowed more people to have access to less expensive the Logo Foundat ion on page 14. products than was possible w i t h craft p roduc t i on . But th is was accompl ished Final ly , i t ' s t ime to make arrangeat the expense of p roduc t qual i ty and the economy o f h u m a n and mater ia l ments for summer professional developcontinues an the ne:rt page ment act iv i t ies. The center insert o f th is Logo Update gives you fu l l i n f o rmat i on about the Logo Foundat ion ' s Summer Inst i tutes i n New York , Colorado, and ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ K T — j M inneso ta . O the r s u m m e r events i n ^^^^^^^B ^ ^ ^ B ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ v ^ ^ ^ elude The Stonington Retreat (see page 7) , and Euro logo '97 (see page 12.) ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ K ^ Also, look at the back page for infer^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ V ^ ma t i on about Logos ium '97 i n Seattle. This annual gather ing is sponsored by t h e L o g o F o u n d a t i o n a n d I S T E ' s LogoSIG as a NECC pre-conference act i v i t y . I hope to see y o u at one or more of these ve ry w o r t h w h i l e s u m m e r Logo events .


Phorbol esters and their derivatives, such as TPA, have been reported as potential natural antitumor products, with some derivatives entering clinical research for leukemia treatment. In this study, 16 phorbol derivatives were synthesized from phorbol, and their anti-leukemia activity against Jurkat, HL-60, and K562 were tested. The results showed that several derivatives had anti-leukemia activity, with 5B demonstrating the strongest cytotoxic activity against the K562 cell line (IC50 = 0.24 ± 0.04 μM). Based on the IC50 values, a structure-activity relationship was established. When the substituent contained an aromatic group, phorbol derivatives esterified with long-chain organic acids at three reactive hydroxyl groups (C12-OH, C13-OH, and C20-OH) had better activity. When aryl groups were absent from the substituent groups, phorbol derivatives esterified with short-chain organic acids at two hydroxyl groups had better activity. Derivatives esterified with heterocyclic acids, either tri-substituted or di-substituted, showed a significant decrease in cytotoxicity. The mechanism of anti-leukemia activity was explored through flow cytometry, which indicated that phorbol esters inhibited the growth of leukemia cells by inducing apoptosis, leading to cell death. Molecular docking data of compound 5B docking to PKCδC1B suggested that substituent groups should not be too large, and caution should be taken when substituting C20-OH. Overall, these findings provide valuable insights into the design of more effective phorbol esters as anti-leukemia agents, but further research is needed to confirm their safety and efficacy in clinical settings.


The influences of the prepulse current on the implosion dynamics of planar wire array were investigated. The time-delay between the prepulse current and the main current ( Tdelay) was able to be controlled manually based on the double pulse current generator "Qin-1." In the precondition stage by the prepulse current, the corona plasma, aluminum vapor, and residual wire cores formed during the explosion of the wires, and ∼40% (±10%) mass of the wires was in a gaseous state at ∼425 ns after the prepulse. After the main pulse was applied, the low-density corona plasma was first imploded and then collided with the aluminum vapor and residual dense cores. Then, the further implosion of the preconditoned wires closely related to their mass distribution, which was determined by the duration of Tdelay. The residual dense wire cores had a significant impact on the implosion when Tdelay was ∼200 ns. When Tdelay increased to ∼> 500 ns, the mass distribution gradually became uniform, and the implosion of the preconditioned wires showed no ablation and no trailing mass.


In order to study the effects of a small family on the health status of children in India a comparison is made between the health status of children whose parents have undergone either a vasectomy or a tubectomy and those children whose parents do not opt for a family planning operation. A total of 411 families and 1219 children were included in the study. Of these 100 couples had undergone either a vasectomy or tubectomy. 311 families with 901 eligible children were taken for a comparison. Special emphasis was placed on assessing the nutritional status according to standard criteria. The parameters selected were weight height and detection of vitamin deficiency diseases. Taking into consideration all 3 parameters no statistically significant difference was found between the children of operated and non-operated parents. It can thus be inferred that the children of parents who undergo a vasectomy or tubectomy fare no better in respect to their health status.


The present paper deals the stability of Amlodipine besylate in acidic and basic pH, heat and under UV light. It also plays many important physiological and metabolic roles and has antioxidant properties. Amlodipine besylate 10mg tablets and by making its dilution 25ug/ml we exposed it to acidic and basic condition, heat and u.v light and noted their absorbance at wavelength 237nm. It is found that Amlodipine absorbance decreases in all the above mentioned stress conditions. It is concluded that stability of Amlodipine besylate decreases in acidic and medium. Stability also decreases in heat and u.v sensitive. The spectrophotometric assay of the degraded solutions of ascorbic acid has revealed that heat degrades ascorbic acid more as compared to UV light and alkaline medium.


The recent announcement in the popular press that an Israeli group had graound gravitational waves coming from the pulsar is just the tip of the gravitational iceberg. Since Joseph Weber's report in 1969 that he had observed gravitational waves at 1661 Hz, more and more experimenters have been peparing their own experiments to observe the waves. And theorists have been busy trying to explain what sort of source will produce gravitational waves.


In this paper we apply the semantics sketched by Smith and Cohen (1996) to the system of conversational policies developed for KAoS. We show that the compositional nature of the speech-acts and their semantics allows us to provide a comprehensive semantics for the conversational policies; and that we can use the generated semantics to analyze policies, to alter policies, and to show how the policies can be combined to form complete dialogues and protocol control strategies. We also show that the semantics provides us with a valuable tool to analyze and to suggest corrections for the conversational policies.


Over the years the Arab–Israeli conflict has had many aspiring interlocutors. With the exception of the United States, their goals have always been to impose a solution on the parties and sideline a negotiated settlement. Right answers are their stock in trade. Those answers favor one side of the equation on the grounds that there are essentially one victim and one villain, one grave human rights abuser and one suffering population living under an occupation that materialized in a vacuum. The party that has the grossest bias and a fundamental predisposition to Arab and, in particular, Palestinian–Arab interests is the United Nations. Yet the plot line of the road map1 reflects this UN prejudice and implants it in the minds of all would-be interlocutors, including the United States, as the path to a terrorist-free world.2 American endorsement of the road map's orientation represents a seismic shift in the U.S. attitude toward the Arab–Israeli conflict. The long-standing UN policy that pushes imposed solutions rather than a negotiated settlement has been swallowed almost whole. Adjudication of the process also is no longer in the hands of the parties. Consider the change in American attitudes from the fall of 2001 to the end of 2002.


David Castriota examines one of the most important monuments of early Roman Imperial art, the Ara Pacis Augustae, the sculptured marble altar built to celebrate the peace, prosperity, and stability initiated by the reign of Augustus in the later first century B.C. Castriota argues that the floral decoration of the altar enclosure was profoundly significant, operating as a visual counterpart to the technique of metonymy in language. It utilised an array of realistic plants and flowers as allusive elements associated with various gods and goddesses, which together symbolised the support and blessing of the Roman divinities for the Augustan regime. Supporting his argument with evidence from Greek and Roman literature and religion, Castriota shows that the planners of the Ara Pacis adapted and expanded a long tradition of symbolic floral decoration from Greek monumental arts. Throughout his work, Castriota demonstrates that the Roman absorption of Greek precedent enabled viewers to recognise the intended message of divine sponsorship. By examining the origins of the Ara Pacis within its broader historical setting, the author provides new insights into a crucial period that witnessed the emergence of a distinctly Roman Imperial art.


Introduction: In managing paediatric patients most common challenge is to encounter child's fear and anxiety during dental procedures. In modern era smart phone dentist games can be used as a modification of Tell Show Do (TSD) technique. Aim: To evaluate the effectiveness of different behaviour modification techniques in paediatric patients at first dental visit and to compare conventional techniques: TSD, TSD + maternal presence, Mobile Dental game (MD) and MD + maternal presence as behaviour modification techniques in preschool children. Materials and Methods: The present pilot study (a randomized parallel group clinical trial) was conducted in the Department of Paediatric and Preventive Dentistry of Faculty of Dental Sciences, SGT University, Gurugram,Haryana from July 2021 to December 2021 over a period of 6 months in 80 children Between the age group of 4 to 6 years with deft (d=decayed, e=extracted due to caries, f=filled, t=teeth) <3 and caries in any primary second molar indicated for Glass Ionomer Cement (GIC) filling, visiting the dentist for the first time. Patient with Frankl behaviour rating score of 1 and 2 accompanied by their mothers with positive dental attitude were included. Patients were equally divided into four groups. Behaviour was assessed using Frankl behaviour rating scale, Raghavendra, Madhuri, Sujata Pictorial scale (RMS-PS) and Face, Leg, Activity, Cry, Consolability (FLACC) scale before and after treatment. Results: The mean age of patients in the study was 4.99±0.92 years. The difference between pre and post Frankl behaviour rating score and RMS-PS were statistically significant in all the four groups (p<0.01), whereas difference in pre and post FLACC score was significant in group 2 and 4 (p<0.01). On comparing mean RMS-PS between four groups, significant difference was observed in group 1 and 4 (p<0.01). When mean FLACC score was compared, significant difference was observed between mean scores of Group 1 compared to Group 2 and Group 4. Conclusion: In the present study all the behaviour modification techniques showed improvement in child's behaviour but use of digital mode of behaviour management along with maternal presence in paediatric dental operatory had displayed significantly better results.


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The demand for multimedia service is increasing dramatically with the popularity of the World Wide Web (WWW). The streaming of high quality videos consume a significant amount of network resources. Hence, this service may cause a bottleneck in the communication network due to the high bandwidth demand. Proxy Servers are suggested as a solution to intermediate buffering schemes and they have been used to speed up the transactions and reduce the remote server bandwidth demand, service delay and networking error. The streaming of video and audio data over the communication network has become much popular. Now usually, the demand for video storage is very high and it posses several challenges for video data management. Hence, the design of efficient video-on-demand architectures and an optimal caching and streaming strategies for video contents at Proxy Server has become increasingly important. The large size of the video and the storage limitation of the Proxy Servers have made caching of the complete video on the Proxy Server impossible. This work proposes innovative strategies for efficient proxy caching and buffer management to override the challenges. Certain efficient distributed VoD architectures, load sharing algorithms and effective streaming approaches are developed here to improve the Video-on-Demand engineering. Simulation results show that, the proposed strategies greatly improve the performance when compared to the commonly used strategies. Chapter one presents an introduction to multimedia applications and in particular it provides an insight into Video on Demand (VoD) concepts. The various needs and the current challenges of Video on Demand systems are discussed. General VoD architectures and various components to implement the VoD application are also discussed. The protocols required for Proxy Servers to communicate with each other are also presented. It also deals with the motivation and objective of this research work. Chapter two gives a review of current literature on various algorithms for efficient utilization of Proxy Server storage, for balancing the load among the Proxy Servers, and also various distributed architectures to improve the overall performance of the VoD system. A detailed survey of various proxy caching techniques and load sharing mechanisms are made. An in-depth review of various streaming approaches like batching, patching, broadcasting, piggybacking and chaining are presented here. As the Proxy Server storage capacity is limited, dynamic buffer allocation algorithms are required for efficient utilization of Proxy Server buffer to achieve high video availability. In chapter three we deal with the design of such complexities. Another buffer allocation algorithm using VBR characteristics of the video is also presented. This algorithm uses the Frame Differencing Technique to improve the storage rate at the Proxy Server. To improve the performance of the system, efficient VoD architectures are proposed in which closely located Proxy Servers are interconnected to achieve high availability with the increased aggregate storage of video prefixes among the Proxy Servers. This architecture combines the advantages of both client server and peer to peer approaches with the help of the central coordinator called the Tracker. Also an efficient load sharing algorithm in combination with the dynamic buffer allocation technique for the proposed architecture is presented. This algorithm achieves increased service rate at the Proxy Server, reduced client waiting time and reduced bandwidth demand from the Central Multimedia Server. Chapter four presents the following algorithms Regional popularity based replication and Placement (RPR-P), Regional Popularity Based Proxy prefix caching and Load sharing algorithm (RPPCL) and Stochastic model based Prefix Placement Strategy to Achieve Reduced Transmission Cost. It is not efficient to cache the entire video at the Proxy Server as the size of the video is huge and the cache size of the Proxy Server is limited. Hence the initial portion (prefix) of the video can be stored in the Proxy Server to serve the client requests from the Proxy Server immediately. Thus, the downloading of the complete video from the remote Central Multimedia Server can be avoided. The proposed algorithm efficiently partitions the video and determines the video prefix and the size of the prefix to be cached at the Proxy Server along with efficient prefix distribution schemes. These algorithms reduce the client response time, network traffic and also the main server load. Chapter five presents algorithms, which combine peer to peer techniques with the current server-client streaming approach to build a new system that is both scalable and robust. Specifically, we propose an algorithm C2C-Chain: Client-to-Client chaining protocol for VoD Applications. Here we explore the combination of proxy prefix caching and load sharing scheme to chain the end points in the proposed coordinator based cooperative Proxy Server's architecture. This architecture uses a proxy-to-proxy and client-to-client streaming approach to cooperatively stream the video using chaining technique with unicast communication among the clients. This approach considers two major issues of VoD 1) Prefix caching scheme to accommodate more number of videos closer to the client maximizing the service rate at the Proxy Server and minimizing the load of the remote main server 2) Cooperative proxy and client chaining scheme for streaming the videos using unicasting. This approach minimizes the request-service delay, the client rejection rate and bandwidth requirement on server to proxy and proxy to client path. Chapter six presents a concluding summary and discusses the scope for further research work in this field. Finally, a list of references and a list of publications made are presented.