Direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) signal is generated by modulating the pseudo randomnoise (PN) sequence with the data signal. The receiver must generate the same PN sequence toextract the direct sequence signal and then get the data signal. This paper presents a method toseparate the PN sequence and data sequence from DSSS signal using adaptive blind deconvolutiontechnique which utilizes the normalized cumulant of the adaptive signal. To minimize thecomputation burden the process gain is first estimated and is used in the adaptation process. Theprocess gain estimator is also based on the computation of the normalized cumulant. Moreover, anefficient method that can enhance the direct-sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) signal at the receiveris introduced without complicating traditional slipping and tracking schemes. Both theoreticalanalysis and computer simulations verify the validity of the proposed method.


Blends of thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) and poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) were prepared via mechanical blending.The effects of the weight ratio of TPU/PVC,the amount of plasticizer,thermal stabilizers and filler on properties (mechanical and rheological behavior,oil and solvent resistances) of the blends were investigated.When the weight ratio of TPU/PVC was 30/70(m/m),the blend exhibited optimal mechanical strength,solvent and oil resistances.Calcium stearate and silica were considered as the best choices for thermal stabilizer and filler,respectively.SEM micrographs showed that the TPU/PVC(30/70) exhibited the best compatibility in all ratios.Infrared analysis showed that no chemical reaction was observed between TPU and PVC,yet the thermal stability of PVC was increased with blending of TPU.


Dialogues in classical detective novels : an analysis of male and female dialogues in Agatha Christies "Death in the clouds"


We study the asymptotic behavior as time tends to infinity of the solution of an initial–boundary value problem for a system of nonlinear integro-differential equations that arises in the mathematical modeling of penetration of electromagnetic field into a medium whose electric conductivity substantially depends on temperature. Both homogeneous and inhomogeneous boundary conditions are considered. The exponential stabilization of the solution is established. DOI: 10.1134/S0012266112010089


This paper reports on the experiences of a nursing-led research group, 'The Palliative and End of Life Care Research Group', within the School of Nursing and Midwifery at the University of Sheffield. There is a long tradition of research in palliative care in which nurses have played an important role and currently opportunities to conduct research in palliative care are expanding. Nurses face a number of ethical and methodological challenges in conducting palliative care research, many of which extend beyond individual research conduct. Drawing on practical examples in each case, this paper explores the following themes: issues involved in raising participation and recruitment to studies of palliative care; how the topics of palliative and end-of-life care are introduced and explored with participants; what 'special' needs participants have in palliative care research; interpersonal issues in conducting palliative care research; and providing support and supervision to researchers.


Fibre optic sensor cable technology is relatively a new research area that combines a set of scientific and technical disciplines in order to meet distributed sensor system needs and quality standards. In this paper, we discuss a fibre optic sensor design with three tightly encapsulated fibres for multipurpose and multivalent sensing. It has the potential to integrate more detection and measurement techniques into a small space, and this, in turn, largely contributes to installation and cost optimizations and directly impacts investment plans and industrial success. The developed cable is tested in a specially developed high pressure and high temperature chamber. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the proposed sensor cable offers the possibility of detection and distributed measurement of temperature, pressure, bending and vibrations.


The invention etching the predetermined thickness portion of the oxide, even when during relates to a semiconductor and a manufacturing method for bonding pads to prevent contamination, in particular, a nitride etch is to etching using a conventional gas, an oxide etch to oxide etch, oxide the remaining thickness portion of the thickness of the metal at the bottom part is directed towards a new etching method. Semiconductor, and a manufacturing method for bonding pads to prevent contamination of the invention has a first step of depositing the oxide on the metal pad; A second step of depositing a nitride on the oxide; A third step of opening the metal pad portion by applying a photoresist over said nitride; A fourth step of etching the nitride; A fifth step of etching a predetermined portion of the thickness of the oxide; In and made by the said first remaining thickness portion of the non-etching the oxide in the fifth step, the method comprising a sixth step of etching the glue layer and the desired thickness of portions of the metal pads on the top metal pad and the semiconductor has a technical feature . Thus, a semiconductor and a manufacturing method for bonding pads to prevent contamination of the invention because the proton of hydrogen chloride (HCL) to form a protective film quality layer on the metal surface AL X F X form or other forms by reaction with oxygen in the air It can be prevented from being deformed by. Further, by processing in the top of the metal surface where the bonding pads of the present invention see, Lee can prevent the contamination of the metal surface is effective to facilitate the wire bonding (wire bonding). Bonding pad, antifouling


To screen an optimal adsorbent for the purification of soybean saponins from low-temperature defatted soybean meal,four types of macroporous resin were compared for the differences in dynamic and static adsorption and desorption performances.AB-8-type macroporous resin was shown to have optimal adsorption and desorption capacities towards soybean saponins.The optimal desorption parameters for the purification of soybean saponins using AB-8-type macroporous resin were investigated,and the structure of purified soybean saponins was characterized by infrared (IR) spectroscopy.Results showed that the optimal elution of soybean saponins from AB-8-type macroporous resin was achieved by washing the resin with 2 BV deionized water followed by eluting with 70% ethanol at a flow rate of 0.5 BV/h.The eluate was concentrated by reduced pressure distillation and vacuum freeze dried and purified soybean saponins with 87.07% purity and 1.19% yield were obtained.In addition,the structure of purified product was confirmed by IR spectroscopy to be consistent with the known structure of soybean saponins.


T RYPAN blue has been used frequently as a "vital dye.'1"4 Its administration is known to produce a generalized vital staining of the ground substance of connective tissues with a special affinity for inflammatory lesions. Trypan blue possesses a hydrophobic-hydrophilic molecular configuration associated with active transfer in living cells and also has been shown to combine with proteins. It was of interest to determine to what extent trypan blue would participate in the formation of those calcified tissues which were of mesenchymal origin and to determine whether or not those tissues were permeable to this dye after formation and calcification had been completed.


Candidate genes of neuromuscular junction (NMJ) pathway increased risk of frailty, but the extent and whether can be offset by exercises was unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between aerobic exercises and incident frailty regardless of NMJ pathway‐related genetic risk.


BaBar collaboration announced that they observed time reversal (T) asymmetry through B meson system. In the experiment, time dependencies of two distinctive processes, B− → B̄0 and B̄0 → B− (− expresses CP value) are compared with each other. In our study, we examine event number difference of these two processes. In contrast to the BaBar asymmetry, the asymmetry of events number includes the overall normalization difference for rates. Time dependence of the asymmetry is more general and it includes terms absent in one used by BaBar collaboration. Both of the BaBar asymmetry and ours are naively thought to be T-odd since two processes compared are related with flipping time direction. We investigate the time reversal transformation property of our asymmetry. Using our notation, one can see that the asymmetry is not precisely a T-odd quantity, taking into account indirect CP and CPT violation of K meson systems. The effect of εK is extracted and gives rise to O(10−3) contribution. The introduced parameters are invariant under rephasing of quarks so that the coefficients of our asymmetry are expressed as phase convention independent quantities. Some combinations of the asymmetry enable us to extract parameters for wrong sign decays of Bd meson, CPT violation, etc. We also study the reason why the T-even terms are allowed to contribute to the asymmetry, and find that several conditions are needed for the asymmetry to be a T-odd quantity.


A new method for pre-cracking hydraulically bound bases has been developed and tried successfully in Austria: notches are made immediately after compaction by means of a cutting disc mounted to a roller. Since the notches are only 1/3 of the thickness of the base an additional measure is required to ensure that all the joints will open at an early age: a hydraulic road binder is used that develops strength very slowly. With a 7-day-compressive strength of 3 N/mm² on Proctor cylinders the tensile strength during the first days will be only 1/3 of the strength that would result if normal Portland cement were used and the notches will crack during the first nights. Ultimate tensile strength, however, will be at least by 50 % higher than with Portland cement and this will improve the long-term performance of the road.


Objective  Previous studies suggest that hyperthyroid patients remain at increased risk of cardiovascular morbidity after restoring euthyroidism. The aim of this study was to compare the rate and causes of hospitalization of hyperthyroid patients treated with radioactive iodine (RAI) with those of an age‐ and gender‐matched reference population in a long‐term follow‐up study.


This research aims to study the effect of pipe flattening on heat transfer characteristics and internal phenomena of a sintered wick heat pipe by using the three-dimensional finite element method (3D FEM). The 3D simulation program had been established to study the effect of pipe flattening. The calculation domains were separated into three important regions, i.e., vapor core, wick, and wall. The Cartesian coordinates and the three-dimensional tetrahedral elements are applied in this model. The original diameter of the heat pipe is 6 mm. Water was used as a working fluid. The vapor flow is assumed to be laminar and incompressible. The composite wick which made from sintered copper and grooved copper pipe was used. The thickness of wick and wall were 0.70 and 0.30 mm. The wall temperature distribution is recorded when the heat pipe reached steady state operation and the overall thermal resistance is determined to validate with that obtained from the 3D simulation. It was found that the predicted wall temperature and thermal resistance agreed well with the experimental data with the standard deviations of ±5.95% and ±32.85%, respectively. These pressure drops agreed well with Dacry-Weisbach equation and Engineering Sciences Data Unit (ESDU) 79012 with the standard deviation of ±13.84% and ±26.02%, respectively. Furthermore, the overall thermal resistances of the tubular heat pipes (original diameter of 6 mm), which are flattened into the final thickness of 4.0 mm and 3.0 mm, decreased from 0.91℃/W to 0.83 ℃/W, respectively, due to an increase of the contact surface for the heat transfer. However, the overall thermal resistance of a flattened heat pipe with the final thickness of 2.5 mm increased to 0.88 ℃/W, In addition, the critical value of the final thickness of heat pipe was about 45% from original diameter.


Purpose To select fluorescein angiography (FA) signs detected in Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) in order to propose a new classification.


Disk drive designers favor the spindle motor with the S-pole/9-slot configuration for the purpose of nainimin'ng cogging torque and ensuring smooth and vibration-free operation at today's increasingly higher speeds. Bad side story of this configuration is its magnetically unbalanced radial force, mtathg with a fluctuating amplitude, creating vibration problems for ball bearing spindle motors'" . But it needs careful evaluations whether the unbalanced magnetic force is good or bad to the. spindle motors supported by fluid film bearings. In this paper, first of all, characteristics of the unbalanced magnetic force is presented and its effects on the fluid bearings are discussed . Then methods of getting rid of the bad thiigs of the unbalanced magnetic force are given and its effectiveness is proved using FFT analysis.


p‐Phenylenediamine (PPDA) is it strong contact sensitizer which is included in the standard patch test tray and winch can also act as an indicator of allergy to related substances by virtue of cross‐reactions In a previous study, the pattern of cross‐reactions between PPDA and related substances was investigated in the guinea pie to evaluate the prohapten concept. The results provided some support for this concept, but also indicated that a number of reactive intermediates might be behaving as haptens. This work has inns been extended to an examination of the prohapten concept in man in PPDA‐allergic subjects. These subjects were tested with 7 substituted benzenes, plus PPDA. Of these, the 1,4‐suhstituted benzenes hydroquinone, Metol. PPDA and p‐aminophenol are all capable theoretically of giving rise to benzoquinone by oxidation (after demethylation in the case of Metol).However as had been the case in the guinea pig, only a limited degree of cross‐reaction was observed. Only one of the subjects allergic to PPDA gave a clearly positive allergic reaction m benzoquinone. The data provided only limned support for the prohapten concept in terms of benzouinone as the ultimate hapten for a range of 1,4‐substituted benzenes. As indicated in the guinea pig, a range of reaction intermediates or indeed other oxidation products may he involved, So, for each molecule, the sensitizing activity and potential to give rise to cross‐reactions may depend on the balance between routes of skin metabolism


Varicose veins in the esophagogastric junction rarely occur after surgery of esophagogastric junctional carcinoma, because the collateral pathway of the left gastric vein and short gastric vein was sacrificed. We presented a case of jejunal variceal bleeding successfully treated with percutaneous transhepatic obliteration after surgery of esophagogastric junctional carcinoma.

 Case report.

 A 50-year-old man with alcoholic liver cirrhosis (Child-B) was admitted for abdominal pain, three months after proximal gastrectomy for esophagogastric junctional carcinoma. After diagnosed with peritonitis due to jejunal perforation, emergency surgery was performed. The next day after surgery, he had developed a lot of black stool. Gastroduodenoscopy revealed the variceal bleeding at the anal side of the esophagojejunal anastomois. Although endoscopic clipping was performed, intermittent bleeding was observed for several days. Since the contrast-enhanced computed tomography scanning revealed jejunal vein dilation at the anal side of the esophagojejunal anastomois, we planned to perform percutaneous transhepatic obliteration. Percutaneous transhepatic portography revealed jejunal varices and drained to the inferior vena cava, and continuously obliterated by 5% EOI (Ethanolamine oleate iopamidol). He was discharged without re-bleeding on the 14th day after the obliteration.

 Percutaneous transhepatic obliteration might be a useful treatment option for jejunal variceal bleeding after surgery of esophagogastric junctional carcinoma.

 All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.


Why and how a painting is created are questions which have received much contemplation and a variety of reasonable answers. To reduce the answers to these questions to formulas would make painting a mere craft to be mastered and strip the creative act of the mysteries which make it a lifetime challenge. It is the purpose of the writer to review his experience in painting and to make a statement of what he believes to be important with regard to the content of the paintings which make up this thesis.


Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to propose a novel combined finite-discrete element method (FDEM), based on the cohesive zone model, for simulating rockslide problems at the laboratory scale.

Design/methodology/approach

– The combined FDEM is realized using ABAQUS/Explicit. The rock mass is represented as a collection of elastic bulk elements glued by cohesive elements with zero thickness. To reproduce the tensile and shear micro-fractures in rock material, the Mohr-Coulomb model with tension cut-off is employed as the damage initiation criterion of cohesive elements. Three simulated laboratory tests are considered to verify the capability of combined FDEM in reproducing the mechanical behavior of rock masses. Three slope models with different joint inclinations are taken to illustrate the application of the combined FDEM to rockslide simulation.

Findings

– The results show that the joint inclination is an important factor for inducing the progressive failure behavior. With a low joint inclination, the slope failure process is observed to be a collapse mode. As the joint inclination becomes higher, the failure mode changes to sliding and the steady time of rock blocks is shortened. Moreover, the runout distance and post-failure slope angle decrease as the joint inclination increases.

Originality/value

– These studies indicate that the combined FDEM performed within ABAQUS can simulate slope stability problems for research purposes and is useful for studying the slope failure mechanism comprehensively.


Background: Neurofibromatosis 1 (NF1) has a broad spectrum of clinical manifestations, most typically involving café-au-lait spots and skin neurofibromas. Only 2% of patients with NF1 have symptomatic spinal tumors. Case Description: A patient with a previous diagnosis of NF1 presented with cervicalgia, dysphagia/mild dysphonia, gait alteration, and progressive hypoesthesia involving all four limbs. The magnetic resonance documented a giant dumbbell neurofibroma arising between the C2 and C3 levels which extended toward the foramen magnum, causing medullary and bulbar compression. The major challenge of surgical management was the enormous size and location this C2–C3 (5 cm × 4 cm × 5.1 cm) lesion. Conclusions: Compression of the foramen magnum attributed to a dumbbell giant spinal neurofibroma at the C2C3 level resulting in prebulbar cisterns should be among the differential diagnostic considerations for patients presenting with tetraparesis and underlying NF1.


In some patients undergoing an U.S. study of kidney for lumbodynia, it's sometime possible to visualize hypoechoic and areas poorly demarcated without distal acoustic enhancement, localized within the cortex and disrupting the cortico-medullary junction. These findings, called focal nephritis, associated to minimal retention of urine in the bladder, reflect an inflammatory process involving the renal parenchyma, in spite of normal urine analysis. To confirm this theory, 7 patients who presented these findings at US study of kidney underwent renal scintigram with labeled granulocytes. This test revealed the presence of focal bacterial nephritis in the same hypoechoic areas. Therefore US study of kidney combined with renal scintigram is useful to diagnose inflammatory process of the kidney in patients complaining lumbodynia.


Background
 Graves' disease is a prevalent endocrine disorder characterized by diverse clinical manifestations affecting multiple organs, exhibiting varying degrees of severity. Cardiovascular system involvement is one of the most common manifestations, which include palpitation, tachycardia, cardiomyopathy, atrial fibrillation, pulmonary hypertension, or heart failure. Additionally, excessive thyroid hormone can lead to a hypercoagulable state, increasing the risk of venous thrombosis. However, thrombotic events, particularly deep vein thrombosis, cerebral venous thrombosis, or pulmonary embolism, are rare complications of Graves' disease.

Case presentation
 In this report, we present the case of a 53 years old woman who presented with progressively worsening dyspnea, orthopnea, paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnea, bilateral leg edema, and jaundice for 2 weeks. She had also reported a weight loss of 4 kilograms within 3 months. Upon admission to our hospital, she initially received a diagnosis of congestive heart failure with atrial fibrillation and thyrotoxicosis. Following diuretic therapy, the patient developed hypotension and severe hypoxemia. Subsequent investigation revealed acute right ventricular failure due to an acute sub-segmental pulmonary embolism, which was confirmed by computed tomography of the pulmonary artery. The patient's condition improved after resuscitation involving intravenous fluid administration to increase right ventricular preload, intravenous vasopressor infusion to elevate systemic blood pressure, management of severe thyrotoxicosis, and intravenous administration of heparin.

Conclusion
 Graves' disease, accompanied by hemodynamic disturbances due to acute right ventricular failure, necessitates admission to the intensive care unit for resuscitation and close monitoring. Although acute pulmonary embolism is an uncommon condition associated with Graves' disease, it should be considered, particularly in patients who develop acute right ventricular failure.


Agile supply chains are dependent upon timely, accurate and precise information. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technologies can provide real-time automated data collection from across the supply chain to improve decision-making. Hence, RFID has the potential to deliver even greater levels of agility. This paper discusses two RFID implementation case studies to evaluate the impact of RFID on supply chain decisions. It is found that RFID-enabled decision-making is reliant on cooperative working across the supply chain, and upon the competences of the decision-makers. Supply chains will be redesigned for RFID implementation, and must address its socio-technical impact for the technology to deliver its predicted benefits.


In the crystal structure of the title compound, C24H20ClN3O3, weak intermolecular C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds link the molecules into chains extended along the a axis. The crystal studied was found to be an inversion twin.


One novel superabsorbent polymer with temperature-sensitive and magnetic properties was prepared by the designed route. As a comparison, the other superabsorbent polymer was prepared by changing the above route. The obtained samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), superconducting quantum interference device magnetometer (SQUID), and gel permeation chromatography (GPC). The temperature-sensitive properties of the obtained polymers were investigated by measuring swelling ratios at given temperatures. The superabsorbent polymer exhibiting the preferable temperature-sensitive, magnetic properties and swelling ratio was employed in the dewatering process of the fine coal. The moisture mass content in the fine coal was decreased to less than 10% within the mixing time 60 min. In addition, it can be found that the polymer with relatively stab...


We report a panchromatic cyclometalated Ru(II) complex, denoted as O18, which shows intense metal-to-ligand charge transfer transitions in the visible to near-IR region with the absorption tail extending to 800 nm. The panchromatic spectra response and enhanced molar extinction coefficient (e = 1.9 × 104 M–1 cm–1 at 593 nm in solution) of O18 are attributed to the stabilization of the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital and the increased absorption cross section via rationally extending the π-conjugated system of 2,2′-bipyridyl (bpy) ligands. As a result, NiO solar cells sensitized with O18 show short-circuit currents up to 3.43 mA cm–2 and efficiencies up to 0.104%, which are the best among all cyclometalated-Ru(II)-sensitized p-type dye-sensitized solar cells. Femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy reveals decreased geminate recombination across the O18–NiO interface by 1 order of magnitude compared to our previous report.


This study proposes a novel multiple model adaptive control (MMAC) algorithm for a class of nonlinear discrete time systems. The controller consists of a linear indirect adaptive controller, a nonlinear indirect adaptive controller based on neural networks, and a switching mechanism. The control input is generated by the switching mechanism, which selects the candidate controller from the two controllers. The assumption of the nonlinear term is relaxed to linear-bounded when a modified adaptive law is introduced. The restraint that the nonlinear term of the plant should be linear with respect to the control input is removed by resorting to the pole-placement control scheme. The proposed control method can address the properties of non-minimum phase and open-loop instability in the linear part of the plant. The proposed MMAC algorithm can guarantee the bounded-input-bounded-output stability of the proposed closed-loop switching system. A simulation example is presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.


Latest understanding has shown that application of conventional seismic sequence stratigraphic methods on shelf-to-slope transition environments is difficult. The Suriname margin of the equatorial Atlantic is the youngest post-rift margin of the Atlantic and should; therefore, be the least complex (Fig. 1). It is the objective of this study to apply latest sequence stratigraphic principals to data from this margin in an attempt to understand the relative roles of external forcing functions such as sea level, sediment input and tectonics to development of the margin


The activity of POD, PPO and PAL had close relation with the resista nt or susceptible squash cultivars.The activity of POD and PPO wasn′t distinctl y different between the healthy leaves of resistant cultivars and the susceptibl e one, and the activity of PAL was distinctly different. The activity of POD eme rged three higher points in12, 16 d after inoculation, the activity of PPO emerg ed two in 10, 14 d after inoculation., the activity of PAL emerged two in 10, 16 d after inoculation.


>A short pulse stretching circuit capable of stretching a short puise to enable it to be displayed on a relatively slow sweeping oscilloscope is described. Moreover, the duration of the pulse is increased by charging a capacitor through a diode and thereafter discharging the capacitor at such time as is desired. In the circuit the trigger pulse alone passes through a delay line, whereas the main signal passes through the diode only, and results in over-all circuit losses which are proportional to the low losses of the diode only. (AEC)


We study the effect of high hydrostatic pressure on 3D polymerized fulleriteC60. We do not observe further structural changes until 150 GPa after aformation of 3D C60 under hydrostatic pressure 28 GPa. It is experimentallyshown that the obtained samples consist of different clusters formed by sp3 bonds with a different set of force constants, the values of which vary within 20% and exceed the diamond force constants by the factor of 1.3-1.5. The influence of the exposure of laser radiation on the process of 3D polymerization of C60 under pressure was found. Increasing of the exposure by the factor of 15 leads to a decrease in the bulk modulus of3D C60 from 610 GPa to 504 GPa. Keywords: bulk modulus, ultrahard fullerite, high pressures, Raman spectroscopy.\


Online social networks (OSNs) are one of the most popular services available on the Internet. They are also considered as the primary source of news for many people. In spite of all the advantages of OSNs, dissemination of rumors has become a major concern. Influence blocking maximization (IBM) is the problem of determining savior users to limit the spread of misinformation as much as possible. Although the IBM problem has been widely studied, most of existing works neglect the effect of deadline and delay. In this article, we study Temporal IBM and propose a sampling-based approach (TIBM-M) with both theoretical guarantee and practical runtime efficiency. We perform extensive experiments on four real-world datasets and both experimentally and theoretically show that TIBM-M consistently matches the greedy algorithm in terms of effectiveness while significantly improves the efficiency. The results also indicate that TIBM-M has better blocking effect than other methods in all conditions.


Atmospheric blocking is a mid-latitude weather pattern that describes a quasi-stationary, long-lasting, high-pressure system that modifies the westerly flow, blocking (or at least diverting) the eastward movement of the migratory cyclones. Blocking events can have major impacts on the mid-latitude weather, sometimes leading to extreme events as cold spells in winter or heat waves in summer. In this thesis, Northern Hemisphere winter blocking and its impacts on mid-latitude climate are analyzed through the introduction of a set of new bidimensional diagnostics based on the geopotential height that provide information about the occurrence, the duration, the intensity and the wave breaking associated with the blocking. We are able to distinguish among three main categories of blocking: one placed at low latitudes over the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, unable to block or divert the flow. A second one is detected at high latitude occurring over Greenland and North Pacific, north of the jet stream and dominated by cyclonic wave breaking. Finally a third category is defined as the traditional mid-latitude blocking, and it appears as being only localized over Europe and driven by anticyclonic wave breaking. We address the relationship between the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and the blocking occurrence, showing that blocking over Greenland (Greenland Blocking, GB) is not only a key element to describe the NAO index, but it is essential also to modulate its pattern. Consistent with this, we link the eastward displacement of the NAO pattern observed in the recent years to the decreasing frequency of Greenland Blocking. On the other side, we notice that blocking events over Europe (European Blocking) are not correlated with the NAO. We also analyze the relationship between the Atlantic eddy driven jet stream displacements and blocking occurrence. We find that Greenland Blocking is linked with the equatorward displacements of the jet stream, while European Blocking is associated with poleward displacements of the jet (and only in some case it leads to a split flow). In order to quantify the potential impacts of blocking changes in the future, global longterm climate projections from the Climate Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) are analyzed. This is performed in order to understand the reasons behind the biases of the models and to evaluate the predicted change in blocking frequency and its pattern of variability in the next century. The majority of the state-of-the art models still exhibit large biases especially over Europe. In future climate scenario, the blocking frequency is predicted to decrease in association with an intensification and a reduction of variability of the Atlantic and Pacific jet streams.


Silence is a two edged sword that cuts from both ends. In her text 'Purple Hibiscus', Adichie Chimamanda has used silence as a dramatic technique of power play. Papa Eugene, the Antagonist, is portrayed as a man of limited words who hardly opens his mouth unless he is either ordering, scolding or reprimanding his 'subjects', family members whom he patronizes over with iron fist. The protagonists, Kambili, Jaja and Beatrice are involved in crisis with religious and domestic stakes from the very beginning of the narrative. The regime under their father has not only prevented them from speaking their minds but also from being themselves. The two not only struggle to make  their mouths function within the totalitarian temperament of their father's home but also to engage and listen to the eloquent silence of their bodies sexual metamorphosis. It is the objective of the paper to substantiate Adichie's implied meaning of silence and prove its lethal edge as an instrument of revolutionary power. Kambili, Jaja and their mother, Beatrice use a domineering silence as a survival strategy. The technique of silence is conceptualized in order to articulate how power is played by the dominant group to regulate and control the existence of the subservient trio and how they manipulate power to negotiate their existence around the margins. The text is closely examined through the theoretical framework of Michel Foucault's idea of power and Gayatry Spivak's; 'Can the Subalterns speak?'


A 3D visualization system for rocket trajectory and satellite orbit simulation based on openGL and visual C++ is proposed.The software is composed of interface module,control module and simulation module.The structure of the system,pivotal technology and realization approach of the software are presented.


A coupled constitutive model based on hyperelasticity is proposed to capture the resilient behavior of granular materials used in pavement construction. The coupling property of the proposed model accounts for shear dilatancy and pressure-dependent behavior of the granular materials. The model is calibrated using triaxial resilient test data and the results of a three-dimensional finite element analysis of a sample pavement system are presented. A statistical comparison is made between the applied stresses of the test and the stress values predicted by the proposed model, the K-O model, and linear elasticity corresponding to the measured strains.


Director Jonathan Mills decided that the main theme of the Edinburgh International Festival would be the cultures of the Asian countries. It was perhaps a risky choice, and questioned in some quarters according to press reports, but he delivered one of the best Festivals of recent years. I intend to describe here a personal and very partial odyssey of events and encounters at the 2011 Festival, primarily covering the Asian productions, as well as some Traverse plays and Book Festival events, and the various byways of less publicised events.


The rapid increase in urban population, land scarcity and the challenge of urban food security has accelerated the phenomenon of urban agriculture in terms of water resources in the Gaza Strip. Urban agriculture and the pressures it exerts on water supply have been largely ignored by planning institutions. Model analysis shows that there is illegal over exploitation of potable water resources (80 Million cubic meter/year) by farmers who use it for irrigation. The treated effluent is enough to irrigate more than 100 km of permanent trees, equivalent to more than 50 million cubic meters of potable water. In addition, plans are proposed to convert 178 thousand tons of urban organic waste into useful material for agricultural production to boost farm profit. The questionnaire surveys undertaken in this study indicate that farmers are willing to use the treated effluent water. Generally, in spite of the fact that urban agriculture is practiced widely in the Gaza Strip, planning for urban agriculture is almost non-existent, and it seems to have been neglected by water providing institutions. Farm profit analysis shows that urban agriculture principles have failed and should be reconsidered. Planners should promote urban agriculture and eco-sanitation in parallel to save potable water for domestic purposes – a key tool for alleviating poverty – and should initiate a new link between urban planning and the protection of precious water resources. The relevant institutions should put in place a clear policy to ensure waste is recycled and used sustainably for urban agriculture. Contact Dr. Husam Al-Najar University of Palestine firstname.lastname@example.com Acknowledgement The author wishes to thank the GIS expert Mr Mansour Abu Kwaik for his constructive efforts in map analysis and measurements.


The visual arts encompass an extensive range of visual modes that children utilise for expressing, communicating, mediating their thinking, engaging in aesthetic exploration and research. What is defined as visual arts is shaped by cultural and social values. Some common examples include painting, clay work, sculpture, collage, weaving, construction, photography, wearable art, carving, printing and ephemera, although there are many more modes of visual expression and exploration.


Objective To observe the variation of circadian heartbeat rhythm after operation on cerebral heamorrhage in hy- pertension patients.Methods One hundred subjects who had suffered from cerebral hemorrhage caused by hypertension were treated by craniotomy and clearing the clots.After the operation,heartbeat (HB) was recorded every 1 hour for 9 days.Circadian heartbeat rhythm was analyzed by single Cosinor and Population mean-cosinor.Results Circadian heartbeat rhythm in the pa- tients disappeared from day 1 to 7 after the surgery and appeared again since day 8.Conclusion The craniotomy and clearing the clots may severely influence the circadian heartbeat rhythm in the cerebral hemorrhage patients through the occurrence and devel- opment of encephaledema.


Gene expression can be silenced in a sequence-specific manner by use of small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) in a process that is known as RNA interference (RNAi). The application of RNAi technologies has the potential to allow the systematic analysis of gene expression and gene function. In this thesis I report novel RNAi-induced phenotypes in mammalian cultured cells for a variety of target genes, and describe some technical aspects of siRNA design, siRNA delivery by a novel method and the application of RNAi in the zebrafish Danio rerio. The application of RNAi as a research tool to unravel gene function included as target genes the endoprotease FACE1, which is indirectly linked to the Hutchinson Gilford Progeria Syndrome, the coiled coil protein astrin, kinetochore associated proteins (scc1, smc1, smc3, securin and separase) and kinesin related motor proteins (MCAK, TPX2, HSET, KIAA0622). The zinc-finger metalloprotease FACE1 processes the nuclear protein prelamin A to mature lamin A by cleaving off the 16 carboxy terminal amino acid residues. Inhibition of this proteolytic cleavage by silencing of FACE1 results in the accumulation of unprocessed prelamin A and a strong phenotype that includes abnormalities in the nuclear architecture, mitotic arrest and apoptosis. Similar effects are known from HGPS patients in which the FACE1 cleavage site is lost by a cryptic splice site on the lamin A sequence. Using RNAi approaches astrin as well as a set of other mitosis related proteins are shown to be essential for progression through mitosis.Furthermore silencing with imperfect RNA duplexes is demonstrated. These duplexes consist either of a single, self complementary antisense RNA molecule against the lamin A/C gene (palindrome) or the duplex is composed of two complementary antisense RNAs with target regions in the lamin A/C sequence (two target site). The most striking experiments show silencing of two target genes by transfection of an imperfect RNA duplex consisting of two antisense RNAs against different targets (dual targeting of lamin A/C and emerin).The successful silencing of a gene depends essentially on the delivery of siRNAs into the target cells. Here I report a novel technique for the transfection of siRNAs by pinocytosis. Cells automatically start pinocytosis when they are confronted with a hypertonic environment. For transfection siRNAs are mixed with an hypertonic medium and reach the cytoplasm of cells in pinocytotic vesicles. Application of an osmotic shock in a hypotonic environment releases the siRNAs which are now accessible for RNAi.RNAi has been shown for a variety of vertebrate species, including mouse, man and chicken. Conflicting results for the zebrafish indicate incompatibility of zebrafish embryos and siRNA. Delivery of dsRNAs into embryos causes non specific effects. In this thesis I show, that application of siRNA in cell lines from adult and embryonic zebrafish leads to sequence specific gene knockdown without nonspecific effects.


Abstract : The HiReTS was developed by Shell Global Solutions, Fuels Business Group as a small- scale unit for evaluating the thermal stability of jet fuel prior to shipment to the consumer. The HiReTS was designed to operate at high fuel flow rates through a heated, stainless steel tube (capillary) representative of turbulent flow conditions in actual engine fuel injectors. At the standard operating conditions (SOC), the HiReTS has a Reynolds' Number (Re) of approximately 13,000, well within the turbulent regime. The presence of high turbulence in the HiReTS also eliminates the sensitivity of mass transport effects that occur in laminar flow test devices such as the Jet Fuel Thermal Oxidation Tester (JFTOT), which operates at a Re of approximately 10.


Ring-opened metathesis polymers and copolymers have been formed from norbornene, norbornadiene, a range of their derivatives, and cyclopentene using RuCl2(CHPh)(PCy3)2, as catalyst. 13C NMR analysis of the polymers illustrate a rather selective propagation reaction. The catalyst is highly regioselective, and the polymers are generally high trans with a strong isotactic bias. However, polymers from diene monomers tend to be less isotactic than those from the corresponding monoenes, and in the case of 7-methylnorbornadiene the polymer has an overall syndiotactic bias. A rate enhancing effect, noted previously, due to an oxygen atom proximate to the monomer double bond, is less pronounced than with other initiators. Catalyst activity, in the case of certain diene monomers, was shown to be monomer dependent and rate enhancements were also achieved using phenol as solvent. The results are interpreted in terms of the steric and electronic properties of both the catalyst and the monomers.


Fitzgerald scholarship in 2003 exhibited renewed interest in the two early novels and the later short fiction—a move away from the ever-present The Great Gatsby and Tender is the Night. Scholars employed a rich variety of critical approaches, the dominant being stylistic analysis. Hemingway scholarship continued in the usual areas of psychosexuality and biography, with vital new work in publishing, pedagogy, and cultural studies. No single literary text dominated Hemingway studies; works from the 1920s and 1950s continued to attract the most attention.


This paper presents a study on the power factor improvement of the wind Turbine Generation System (WTGS) at Haeng-won wind farm in Jeju isiand Vestas WTGS named V47 as a model system is selected in This paper, and has 660 kW power ratings In this system, power factor correction is controlled by the conventional method with power condensor bank. So, model system at Haeng-won wind farm has very low power factor In the area of low wind speed, which is from 4 m/s to 6 m/s This is caused by the power factor correction using power condensor bank To Improve the power factor In line area of low wind speed, we used the static var compensator(SVC) using current controlled PWM power converter by IGBT switching device Finally, to verify the proposed method, the results of computer simulation using Psim program are presented to support the discussion


This study aimed to compare the effects of cervical stabilization exercises with breathing exercises and cervical stabilization exercises with thoracic spine extension exercises on respiratory function in subjects with forward head posture (FHP). The study included 30 adults with FHP. They were divided into two groups—experimental (EG) and control (CG)—with 15 participants in each group. The EG was asked to perform cervical stabilization exercises with breathing exercises, and the CG was asked to perform cervical stabilization exercises with thoracic spine extension exercises. After 4 weeks of exercise, the changes in respiratory function were measured again. The results showed significant differences in the EG before and after exercise in terms of forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1), peak expiratory flow (PEF), and forced vital capacity/vital capacity max (FVC/VCmax%) (p < 0.05). The CG showed only a significant increase in FVC, FEV1, and FVC/VCmax% after the experiment (p < 0.05). In the between-group comparison, there were significant differences noted in FVC, FEV1, PEF, and FVC/VCmax% in the EG compared to the CG (p < 0.05). As a result, cervical stabilization exercises with breathing exercises are recommended to promote respiratory function.


The field scattered by an ungrounded conducting sphere above a ground plane is considered. The quasi-static solution is facilitated by the use of bispherical coordinates. The approximate solution obtained by considering only the interaction of dipole modes with the interface is presented for comparison. The general results are used to calculate the backscatter of a low frequency ground wave by a small obstacle.


The utility model discloses a combined type steel bar truss floor support plate with a demountable thickness-adjustable formwork panel. The combined type steel bar truss floor support plate comprises a steel bar truss (1), a formwork panel (2) and a supporting fastener (3) and is characterized in that the supporting fastener (3) comprises a hook head (5), a supporting gasket (6) with a hole, a connecting screw rod (7), an adjusting nut (8), a force transmission steel shaft (9) with a hole and a supporting spanner (10). According to the combined type steel bar truss floor support plate with the demountable thickness-adjustable formwork panel, the formwork panel has no welding points, does not deform, is convenient to mount and demount, can be used repeatedly, and is suitable for the using of formwork panels of different types and different thicknesses, production cost is effectively reduced, and the combined type steel bar truss floor support plate with the demountable thickness-adjustable formwork panel has wide market prospects.


The article examines the role of propaganda in the formation of workers' motivation for solving the tasks faced by the USSR industry during the Great Patriotic War and demonstrates the main non-economic methods used to increase labor productivity, reduce resource costs, and cover the shortage of qualified personnel.


This paper presents an optimal phasor measurement unit (PMU) allocation strategy. PMUs provide precise measurements of voltage and current phasors of a power system. These measurements can be used for detailed dynamic analysis of the system which would not be possible with standard measurements, but their high cost makes the allocation of resources critical. The current state of the art simply allocates PMUs at certain buses and assumes all possible current measurements are taken. In this work, the problem is formulated as a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) problem that considers which branch current phasors each PMU will measure besides which buses the PMUs will be installed at. This is done in two ways: updating the objective function to include individual current measurement costs and creating a new optimization problem altogether. Updating the objective function is an improvement on cost minimization, but is essentially the same for observability analysis. The new optimization problem allows for a more comprehensive cost minimization and more precise topological observability analysis compared to the methods in literature. For larger systems, this methodology can change which buses should receive PMUs and reduce cost to the point of allowing more PMUs to be used. The method is tested on 7, 14, 57, and 118 bus IEEE systems.


Assuming that the MIT bag model corresponds to a particle moving in a certain potential, Delta to N+ gamma transition amplitudes are calculated. A non-zero E2/M1 transition ratio, and amplitudes A3/2 and A1/2 are obtained which are closer to the experimental ones than those in the standard method.


Purpose
This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

Design/methodology/approach
This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

Findings
Companies can achieve positive results with teams that embrace agile ways of working. It is possible to optimize the impact on key outcomes like employee engagement and team performance by largely focusing on core characteristics of agile working and exploiting the interplay between them.

Originality/value
The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.


This paper reports the results of studies on the behaviour of strontium 90 and cesium 137 in repositories contructed in rocks by the use of bentonite clay as an additional barrier. Alumophophate glasses are used as matrices for solidification of nuclear wastes. The leaching process was modeled.


Inelastic scattering of light has been used to study the magnetic excitations in antiferromagnetic FeF2 crystals disordered in two ways. In the first the magnetic dilute system Fe1–xZnxF2 is investigated as a function of the concentration x and temperature T, with x varying from zero nearly up to the percolation limit xp = 0.76. The other is the mixed system Fe1–xMnxF2 in the limit of small Mn impurity concentrations. In this case an anomalously large scattering by the impurity associated local modes is observed. The behaviour of the excitations in both magnetic systems is explained satisfactorily by simple theoretical models.


South African doctors have reformed themselves into a new association in an attempt to eradicate past links with the apartheid era. What is significant about the new association is that many of the doctors who have been voted on to its council come from a prominent group of progressive doctors disaffected by apartheid.

The newly formed South African Medical Association is made up of the Medical Association of South Africa (MASA) and the Progressive Doctors Group. MASA was the largest and oldest group of doctors--it was …


Purpose: To evaluate the effect of subthreshold transpupillary thermotherapy (sTTT) in foveal subretinal fluid of small pigmented choroidal lesions. Methods: Retrospective, noncomparative, interventional case series. We reviewed patients with small pigmented choroidal lesions presenting foveal subretinal fluid and treated with sTTT to evaluate fluid regression. Results: We treated 13 patients with small pigmented choroidal lesions with a mean height of 2.02 ± 0.54 mm (range, 1.4–2.9 mm) and a mean largest diameter of 7.60 ± 1.98 mm (range, 5–11 mm). In 11 cases, foveal subretinal fluid was completely resolved (84.6%), with a mean follow-up of 42.46 ± 26.29 months (range, 12–103 months). The mean number of sTTT sessions applied was 1.38 ± 0.77 (range, 1–3 sessions), at a mean spot size of 1,570.59 ± 795.1 &mgr;m (range, 500–3,000 &mgr;m), and overall exposure time of 2.32 ± 1.2 minutes (range, 1–6 minutes). Mean laser power applied was 370.63 ± 162.87 mW (range, 200 to 600 mW). Best-corrected visual acuity at the time of diagnosis was maintained or improved in 69.3% of patients after sTTT treatment. During follow-up, tumor progression was reported in 5 cases, regardless of the presence of subretinal fluid. These cases were treated promptly with brachytherapy. Conclusion: However, sTTT may be effective in solving foveal subretinal fluid in small pigmented choroidal lesions, attaining satisfactory visual acuity in most cases.


During the past 60 years, many studies have been conducted on the biological disposition and lifetime health effects of internally deposited radionuclides in laboratory animals. These studies were conducted to (a) increase knowledge about radio-nuclides for which some human data are available (see section 2); (b) extend the knowledge base to other radionuclides and routes of exposure for which no human data are available; and (c) examine the underlying processes and mechanisms of the behaviour and effects of radionuclides in the body. In this section, studies of carcino-genicity of a broad range of α-and β-particle-emitting radionuclides are summarized, most of which were large and were conducted over many years in specialized facilities equipped for safe work with relatively large amounts of radioactive materials. The results of these long, expensive studies are uniquely valuable international resources. Readers interested in obtaining more information are encouraged to consult the files of the International Radiobiology Archives of Long-term Animal Studies, described by Gerber et al. (1999). These archives were created by American, European and Japanese scientists to safeguard the data and make them available for use by other scientists now and in the future. 3.1 α α-Particle-emitting radionuclides 3.1.1 Pure α-particle emitters (a) Radon-222 222 Rn and its decay products were evaluated previously for carcinogenicity (IARC, 1988), and there was judged to be sufficient evidence for their carcinogenicity in experimental animals. After exposure by inhalation, respiratory tract tumours were induced in rats and dogs. (b) Polonium-210 Hamster: The relative carcinogenicity of 210 Po was studied after intratracheal injection of a soluble form, resulting in relatively uniform distribution of radioactivity in the lung, in contrast to the non-uniform distribution of 210 Po adsorbed onto Fe 2 O 3 carrier particles. Female Syrian golden hamsters, eight weeks of age, received multiple intratracheal instillations of 210 Po and/or other materials, as described below, and were observed for life. In the first study, the hamsters were divided into three –251–


7-Hydroxy-flavylium salts absorb at longer wave lengths than the corresponding flavylium salts, yet auxochromes in 4′-position have a less bathochromic effect in the 7-hydroxy-flavylium series than in the flavylium series. As a result the absorption maxima converge. 4′-Dimethylamino derivatives show a convergence of 22 nm.


The working environment in the coal mine is poor, and except methane, carbon monoxide and other easily combustible gases, there are corrosive hydrogen sulfide and other gases in the mine. Those are the inevitable problems in the design of the mine ventilation equipment room monitoring system. In order to establish the rational mine ventilation system, this paper probes into the monitoring of the mine ventilation equipment room and the selection of sensors.


The shooting through the head of a military convict attempting to escape from a sentinel at this post, with the Krag-Jorgensen, the new rifle adopted for the United States Army—presenting the first instance in the country of its effects on the skull of the living subject, has led to various sensational accounts in the secular press. Based on these, I have received a number of letters of inquiry from physicians interested in the result of the change of caliber. In order to prevent erroneous deductions from newspaper reports, and to give the profession a true description of the injury produced, I have deemed proper to publish this account, with a sketch of the skull as it appeared after removal of the integument. I saw the man a few minutes after he was shot. His breathing was stertorous; he was, unconscious, and death appeared to be only a question of minutes.


Most electronic devices are packaged in plastic, generally epoxy-based molding compounds. Organic compounds serve as effective barriers for alpha particles. However, sensitive or thermally stressed devices often must be packaged in ceramic packages, including Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}, glass ceramics, BeO and AlN. Therefore, the concentration of alpha-particle-generating elements and the tendency of the material to induce soft errors in the device must be considered when selecting a ceramic package option. AlN is a relatively new packaging material. It offers high thermal conductivity ({ge}170 W/(m{center_dot}K)), dielectric and mechanical properties comparable to Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} and a coefficient of thermal expansion similar to silicon. AlN substrates and packages are produced via pressureless sintering or hot pressing, using high-purity powders and sintering aids, generally alkaline- and/or rare-earth oxides. The concentration of alpha-particle-emitting elements in AlN ceramics depends on the concentration of these elements in the AlN and additive powders. In the present work, the concentration of alpha-particle-generating elements uranium and thorium in AlN powders is shown to be related to the levels of these elements in the raw materials used in AlN powder synthesis.


Abstract An important dimension of university students' academic success is retention in their chosen major. When students do switch majors or interrupt their education, it is largely due to their lack of confidence about doing well academically, as well as perceived chances of success in the career area related to university major. A term often used for this confidence is 'self-efficacy'. The present study measures closeness of fit between a particular student and the general population of students in his or her major on a dimension of personality known as 'cognitive style'. A measure of cognitive style known as the Kirton Adaption-Innovation Inventory is used to measure a sample of 247 upper level university business students along this dimension. The same students were then given an instrument to assess self-efficacy in the areas of chosen major and intended career. Subjects' cognitive style varies systematically among majors, possibly due to self-selection of each subject into a major which is perceived to match his or her cognitive style. Self-efficacy related to major choice was found to vary systematically among subgroups, and possible explanations are explored. Self-efficacy relating to the associated career path does not vary systematically among subgroups. Introduction and Background As the cost of attending universities has increased, the focus on student retention and success has come under greater scrutiny by parents, lawmakers, university administrators and faculty. Unfortunately, the numbers indicate that there is much improvement needed. Approximately 58% of students who started in 2004 completed their bachelor degree within 6 years. This is a small increase from students, who started in 1996, 55% completed a bachelor's degree within 6 years. With the 4 year public university average cost, for 2011-2012 at $16,789 for in state students and average private, non-profit, university costs at $37,906 these 2 additional years are expensive. (http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d12/tables/dt12_349.asp) Students who complete their bachelor's degree earn 22% than those with just an associate's degree. For those who start college and do not receive a degree there is a 37% difference in annual salary, (http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/ d13/tables/dt13_502.30.asp) This salary differential adds to the difficulty in paying off any student loans. Selecting a career path is a significant decision in the academic life of an undergraduate. Unfortunately, an all too common observation is students switching career paths (as indicated by changing majors) multiple times well into their university experience. While some of this is likely healthy exploration and growth, there does come a point where these switches result in additional time added to the traditional four years at best and leaving the university altogether at worse. Retention decreases because students often give up and leave school because it becomes too difficult to finish a degree in a reasonable time and at an affordable cost. When universities ensure that students receive support especially early in their academic experience, research shows that persistence is positively impacted (Lowis and Castley, 2008). Thus, it makes sense to help students explore and advise them about choosing wisely in a way that reduces the number of switches that cost them additional time and money. This paper examines one piece of this important issue, student self-efficacy as it relates to their chosen career path. Self-Efficacy Self-efficacy is someone's belief in his or her ability to successfully complete some course of action in order to produce given attainments (Bandura, 1997). Researchers have investigated how it is an important component of success. Bandura (1997, p. 216) states that "Perceived self-efficacy is a better predictor of intellectual performance than skill alone." In the university setting, our attention turns to academic self-efficacy. …


We examined base cation leaching from the canopy of a subtropical rainforest in northeastern Taiwan. The forest is characterized by extremely low levels of base cations in both canopy vegetation and in the soils. The rates of canopy leaching of K+, Ca2+, and Mg2+ were very high, representing up to 30, 35, and 190%, respectively, of the amount stored in leaves. The rate of H+ retention in the canopy was close to the rate of base cation leaching, suggesting that cation leaching is neutralizing acid precipitation. The subtropical forest studied leached cations from the canopy throughout the year, unlike temperate deciduous forests, which are physiologically inert in the winter. The forest canopy of the subtropical forest we studied is impacted by acid deposition and fog throughout the winter because of frequent rainfall and high relative humidity. This continuous exposure to acid precipitation could cause more intense negative effects on the canopy of subtropical forests as compared with temperate forests ex...


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A 3-year-old child was brought to the emergency department (ED) by his parents with complaints of coughing and difficulty in breathing for the last 5 days. The parents described an episode of coughing and choking a day before the onset of symptoms, which lasted a few seconds. One day after this episode, the child was examined by a pediatrician who diagnosed suspected pneumonia and started treatment with amoxicillin which did not seem to improve his condition. When presenting to the ED, he was tachypneic with right upper chest subcutaneous emphysema. On auscultation, there was diminished air entry to the right lung. Chest X-ray followed by a computed tomography scan revealed suspected occluding right main bronchus FB (red arrow), PMT (curved red arrow), left PNT (yellow arrow), and subcutaneous emphysema (curved green arrow; Figures 1 and 2). The child was taken to the operating room; a rigid laryngobronchoscopy was performed and revealed pus in the right main bronchus with an occluding organic FB. During the procedure, the child was desaturating and was not stable so following FB removal a decision was made to place a


Magic squares is n×n matrix with positive integer entries as well as the sum of rows, columnsand mains diagonal have the same magic constant, one of the most oldest magic square wasdiscovered in china. In this paper the history of magic square is displayed and some definitionof its kind is given the prove of two theorems about properties of magic square is introduced.


Abstract—Electro-Fenton (EF) and Convention Fenton (CF) processes were used to treat the wastewater containing nickel and citric acid as its chelating agent. A stainless steel reactor was used for all the experiments. For the EF experiments, the reactor also served as the cathode while the anode is rod-type titanium metal coated with IrO2/RuO2. The nickel and COD removal were studied. Mere coagulation of the wastewater was not enough to treat the wastewater. The COD removal was only 5.65% and there was no nickel removal after 4.5 hours of reaction time. This implies that potent treatment for the non-biodegradability of the wastewater was required. In this study, EF and CF was done to treat the wastewater followed by neutralization and settling to meet the pH requirement of possible effluent discharge or succeeding treatment. A 1.5Fe:1Ni molar ratio for EF process gave the highest COD removal at 96.88% though at the start there was marginal difference between EF and CF process. As for nickel removal, a molar ratio of 1Fe:1Ni for EF process gave the highest removal at 98.31%. It can be noted however that after the 8 hour reaction time and neutralization, the 1.5Fe:1Ni molar ratio for EF had the highest nickel removal. Based on the results, organic and nickel containing wastewater can be treated with EF process coupled with neutralization and settling. Keywords—Advanced oxidation processes, Electro-Fenton process, NickelElectro-Fenton (EF) and Convention Fenton (CF) processes were used to treat the wastewater containing nickel and citric acid as its chelating agent. A stainless steel reactor was used for all the experiments. For the EF experiments, the reactor also served as the cathode while the anode is rod-type titanium metal coated with IrO2/RuO2. The nickel and COD removal were studied. Mere coagulation of the wastewater was not enough to treat the wastewater. The COD removal was only 5.65% and there was no nickel removal after 4.5 hours of reaction time. This implies that potent treatment for the non-biodegradability of the wastewater was required. In this study, EF and CF was done to treat the wastewater followed by neutralization and settling to meet the pH requirement of possible effluent discharge or succeeding treatment. A 1.5Fe:1Ni molar ratio for EF process gave the highest COD removal at 96.88% though at the start there was marginal difference between EF and CF process. As for nickel removal, a molar ratio of 1Fe:1Ni for EF process gave the highest removal at 98.31%. It can be noted however that after the 8 hour reaction time and neutralization, the 1.5Fe:1Ni molar ratio for EF had the highest nickel removal. Based on the results, organic and nickel containing wastewater can be treated with EF process coupled with neutralization and settling. Keywords—Advanced oxidation processes, Electro-Fenton process, Nickel INTRODUCTION Nickel is a widely used metal in electroplating and semiconductor industry. In the Philippines, Nickel is the largest metal consumed according to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR, 2005). Conventional treatment cannot remove heavy metals in the wastewater, thus a more potent treatment is needed to address the problem. Advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) are now considered as an alternative treatment for toxic organic and recalcitrant wastewaters. Fenton process uses ferrous ions and hydrogen peroxide to produce hydroxyl radicals to oxidize different kinds of chemicals. Organic contaminants such as chlorobenzenes, nitrophenols and aromatic amines have been proven to be effectively treated by Fenton process (Casero et al., 1997; Ewa, 1991; Sedlak and Andren, 1991). However the application has been limited because of the significant amount of Fe(OH)3 that was generated that would further need separation process and disposal (Chang, et al., 2004). EF process was developed to minimize or eliminate the disadvantage of Fenton process. This study aimed to investigate the effect of varying initial Fe dosage using EF and CF process coupled with neutralization and settling on COD and nickel removal. This study may be able to help the industries using nickel to have an alternative wastewater treatment. MATERIAL AND METHODS All experiments were done in batch mode with a total reaction time of 8 hours using a stainless steel cylindrical reactor with a working volume of 1 liter and were operated at a constant electric current of 1A. The reactor was provided with mixers for appropriate agitation and was connected to a Topward 33010D DC


This paper presents results of a survey of departments offering accredited Computer Science degree programs. It discusses demographic information related to curricula, faculty, and students for all such programs, and identifies various trends based on this data. These results are of interest and use to all accredited and non-accredited departments alike, since it provides the information necessary to monitor and compare individual degree programs to other programs in the nation in terms of faculty composition, student enrollment and graduation rates, faculty salaries, and curriculum issues.


Background pCR rates in stage II – III HER2-positive breast cancer have greatly improved since the addition of HER2 targeted agents to neoadjuvant chemotherapy and are associated with excellent long-term survival. While longer treatment regimens increase pCR rate, early complete responses are also common. We evaluated an image-guided approach to tailor chemotherapy duration based on the identification of early complete responders.
 Methods 45 hospitals across the Netherlands participated in the phase 2 TRAIN-3 trial. Patients received neoadjuvant systemic treatment consisting of paclitaxel, trastuzumab, carboplatin and pertuzumab (PTC-Ptz). Response to treatment was monitored every three cycles and patients were referred for surgery in case of a radiologic complete response (rCR) or after a maximum of 9 cycles. RCR was defined as the absence of pathological enhancement on MRI breast plus negative vacuum assisted core biopsies in case of hormone-receptor positive (HR+) tumors. In addition, negative fine needle aspiration or lymph node biopsy was required in patients with nodal involvement at baseline. The primary endpoint was 3-year event-free survival (EFS). Here, we report locally assessed rCR and pCR rates after 3, 6 and 9 cycles, the negative predictive value of rCR assessment and the incidence of adverse events (AEs). Analyses are stratified by HR-status.
 Results We included 467 patients between April 2019 and May 2021. Median age was 51 years, 69% had stage II disease and 232 had HR+ tumors. 33.6% of HR- patients and 15.5% of HR+ patients achieved pCR after 3 cycles of PTC-Ptz (see table). The NPV was higher in HR- patients and independent of the number of cycles. AE evaluation is currently ongoing.
 Conclusion Three cycles of PTC-Ptz induce an early pCR in one in three HR- and one in six HR+ tumors in patients with stage II-III HER2+ breast cancer. Dynamic contrast enhanced MRI-based response evaluation identifies these patients with ±87% certainty in HR- disease and ±58% in HR+ disease. Continuation of PTC-Ptz after 6 cycles further improves pCR rates and can be considered to reduce the need for adjuvant T-DM1. Efficacy and safety of this image-guided approach to tailor treatment duration need to be confirmed with follow-up in EFS and OS analyses.
 Table 1: Cumulative rCR & pCR according to HR-status *Including patients who underwent surgery for other reasons than rCR
 Citation Format: Anna van der Voort, Mette S. van Ramshorst, Rob Kessels, Ingrid A. Mandjes, Inge Kemper, Mariëtte J. Agterof, Wim A. van der Steeg, Joan B. Heijns, Marlies L. van Bekkum, Ester J. Siemerink, Philomeen M. Kuijer, Astrid Scholten, Jelle Wesseling, Marie-Jeanne T.F.D. Vrancken Peeters, Ritse M. Mann, Gabe S. Sonke. Image-guided optimization of neoadjuvant chemotherapy duration in stage II and III HER2-positive breast cancer: radiologic and pathologic complete response (pCR) rates in the multicenter phase 2 TRAIN-3 study (BOOG 2018-01) [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2022 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2022 Dec 6-10; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(5 Suppl):Abstract nr PD18-06.


In this work, we examine the capabilities of two forms of mappings by means of Grammatical Evolution (GE) to successfully generate controllers by combining high-level functions in a dynamic environment. In this work we adopted the Ms. Pac-Man game as a benchmark test bed. We show that the standard GE mapping and Position Independent GE (πGE) mapping achieve similar performance in terms of maximising the score. We also show that the controllers produced by both approaches have an overall better performance in terms of maximising the score compared to a hand-coded agent. There are, however, significant differences in the controllers produced by these two approaches: standard GE produces more controllers with invalid code, whereas the opposite is seen with πGE.


In this paper, optimal convex combination bounds of centroidal and harmonic means for weighted geometric mean of logarithmic and identric means are proved. We find the greatest value λ(α) and the least value Δ(α) for each α ∈ (0,1) such that the double inequality: λC(a,b)+(1−λ)H(a,b) < Lα (a,b)I1−α (a,b) < ΔC(a,b)+(1−Δ)H(a,b) holds for all a,b > 0 with a = b. Here, C(a,b), H(a,b) , L(a,b) and I(a,b) denote centroidal, harmonic, logarithmic and identric means of two positive numbers a and b, respectively.


m syndrome is a constellation of cardiovascular risk factors in one individual that predicts an approximately 3 fold increased risk for new onset type 2 diabetes and a 2 fold increased risk of cardiovascular events. different definitions of metabolic syndrome have been proposed by different organisations (see table) but systemic hypertension and central obesity remain common to all. metabolic syndrome is highly prevalent in patients with hypertension. in a population based study (the smooth study) involving 4590 consecut ive subjects attending the primary care service of 9 genera l pract i t ioners , the overall prevalence of metabolic syndrome was 13.4%, being much higher in hypertensive than in normotensive subjects (24 versus 4%, P < 0.0001).1 sympathetic nervous system plays an important role in the initiation and maintenance of elevated blood pressure i n e s s e n t i a l h y p e r t e n s i o n ( f i g u r e 1) . 30 data collected in experimental animal models of hypertension as well as in human hypertension provide conclusive evidence that alterations in the sympathetic control of heart rate, cardiac output, peripheral vascular resistance and renal sodium handling may promote alone or in combination, the development and progression of the hypertensive state.2,3 subjects with metabolic syndrome display greater levels of sympathetic nerve traffic,4,5 When obesity and hypertension are concomitant ly present in the same pat ient , the degree of sympathet ic act ivat ion is much greater than in patients with either condition singly.6 in the metabolic syndrome, as in other cardiovascular diseases, sympathetic over activity has an adverse impact on both cardiovascular function and


Has anybody ever thought that if it is true that space and time are not fundamental entities in Physics, but only epiphenomena arising from other yet more fundamental entities, then at the same time it might not be true that the universe has originated from nothing? If space and time are emergent entities only (epiphenomena) arising from other yet more fundamental entities, then were they emergent also when they made their first appearance at the beginning of the universe? Or, were they fundamental entities at that time? If we claim that they have originated from nothing at the beginning of the universe, then they were fundamental entities at the beginning, simply because they have originated from nothing and not from those yet more fundamental entities. If they were fundamental entities at the beginning, then how and when did they become emergent by losing their fundamental nature? However, if they were emergent at the beginning also, then would they not require the prior presence of those fundamental entities from which only they could arise? Being epiphenomena arising from other yet more fundamental entities, was it possible for them to arise from nothing? If the above argument is correct, then it cannot be the case that the universe has originated from nothing, but from those fundamental entities from which only space and time can emerge. That means all those hypotheses that try to explain the origin of the universe from nothing are all false hypotheses only.


In a few last decades there has been a change in the way the role of nursing is regarded. Education of nurses is now a part of university courses, which undoubtedly means higher expectations concerning this profession. Enabling professional nurses to perform their duties well requires more than just expertise, skills, and competences; what is necessary is deep emotional engagement with their work, which is reflected by their adequate, highly humanistic response to the individual needs of a particular patient. Many theoreticians of nursing point out in their models and theories the importance of humanistic aspects in terms of professional activities performed by nurses. The aim of this paper is to attempt to review the existing theories concerning nursing, focusing on the values of humanism, and to emphasise their significance for nursing practice.


In this work we investigate a numerical model of a coaxial RF-driven plasma jet operated at atmospheric pressure. Due to the cylindrical symmetry an adequate 2-D representation of the otherwise 3-dimensional structure is used. A helium-oxygen chemistry reaction scheme is applied. We study the effect of secondary electrons emitted at the inner electrode as well as the inserted dielectric tube and discuss their impact on the discharge behavior. We conclude that a proper choice of materials can improve the desired mode of operation of such plasma jets in terms of materials and surface processing.


S ince the mid-1980s Northeast Asia' has witnessed a phenomenally accelerating economic integration among its economies, as manifested by the declining importance of the United States both as a market and as a source of investment for Northeast Asian economies and the concurrent deepening economic interdependence among the economies in the region with rising intraregional trade and direct investment flows3 (See Tables 1-5). As an autonomous process, however, growing economic integration in Northeast Asia has been primarily driven by market forces, but short of a formal regional grouping equivalent to the European Union (EU) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The very nature of economic integration in Northeast Asia is due largely to the continuing existence of some significant constraints that make official regional schemes hard-born in Northeast Asia.


We live in a world of the post-truth politics filled with alternative facts. To cope with the situation, public sectors need stronger ties and cooperation with private sectors. It is thus pressing that government agencies need to tackle how they can use both Soft Power, such as culture, political values, and foreign policies, and Hard Power, such as military power and economic power.After the U.S. Embassy Tokyo put the video of Ambassador Caroline Kennedy dancing from the TV program ?We Married as a Job? [a translation of the original title: Those who fight and run away, live to fight another day] on YouTube in December 2016, it went viral and has since been viewed more than 6.5 million times. Major media, including the New York Times and the Tokyo Broadcasting System, considered it as one of the most successful examples of public diplomacy. Public diplomacy is ?the process by which an international actor conducts foreign policy by engaging a foreign public? (USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism).It is the purpose of this essay to explore why public diplomacy is increasingly important in the 21st Century, compared with the 20th Century. Specifically, how did the relationship between legacy media and new media change? What kinds of news possess greater news value? What are directions for public diplomacy if we hope to use social media, such as YouTube or Facebook, for sending messages? This essay argues that the turning point was the inauguration of President Barack Obama in 2009. It will analyze so called the ?Obama boom? among the Japanese in 2009. For example, his CD speech book has sold more than half a million copies over the years. In conclusion, it is argued that public diplomacy should play a greater role since technology has rendered distance practically irrelevant, business is increasingly challenged to develop global strategies, and that a greater focus on transnational and intercultural communication is needed.


Abstract:Let s and t be complex numbers, and let h(z) = 1 + h1z +, be regular in aunit disc D. This article studies the Briot-Bouquet equationzq'(z) + [q(z) - h(z)] [sq(z) + t] = 0.Sufficient conditions are obtained for the regularity of its solutions in D. Applications of these results to integral operators defined oil a class of regular functions aregiven.


The emergence of new means of administering genetically-engineered biological drugs, such as an autoinjector (pen injector device), can positively affect the organizational aspects of treating patients with severe eosinophilic asthma (SA) who need biological therapy.The aim. To determine the place of a new delivery device for benralizumab (autoinjector, pen injector device) in the clinical practice of treating eosinophilic SA.Results. The expert council considered the results of the latest clinical studies and real practice data on the use of genetically-engineered biological drugs in the form of an autoinjector. The experts discussed the safety and efficacy of this delivery device and recommended considering the possibility of switching eosinophilic SA patients to self-administration of genetically-engineered biological drugs (autoinjector form) at home. This treatment tactic is especially relevant in the current epidemiological situation since it will reduce the risks of infection compared to planned medical care in inpatient or outpatient treatment settings and reduce the burden for healthcare workers.Conclusion. The practice of switching eosinophilic SA patients to self-administration of biologics in the form of an autoinjector (pen injector device) can improve the adherence to biological therapy and quality of life of this group of patients.


We would like to thank Dr. Wagner and colleagues for their letter and for their compliments on the quality of our article "Histological R0 classification after colorectal endoscopic submucosal dissection: a gold standard with feet of clay." As reported in the article, the 4-cm granular LST in the left colon indeed had a 10-mm Kudo Vn, Sano 3b demarcated area highly suspicious of deep degeneration. Our team recently reported that diagnostic ESD is feasible and safe for colorectal lesions with a focal deep invasive pattern of less than 15mm [1]. The study showed that ESD cured 26.6% of patients and could be a valid option for 30.6% (low risk T1 cancers with submucosal invasion >1000μm without any other unfavorable criteria), especially for frail patients with comorbidities. Therefore, routine referral of these lesions to surgery may not be adequate. On the other hand, endoscopic intermuscular dissection (EID) in the rectum has been recently described and could provide vertical free margins, by dissecting more deeply between the two muscle layers, when the deep submucosa is invaded [2]. As no endoscopic criteria can predict lymphatic invasion, tumor budding, or poor histological differentiation, we believe that ESD could be proposed to obtain an accurate pathological assessment to avoid systematic surgery, with a much safer morbimortality profile [3].


Owing to the constraint of carrier transport, the dark current is relatively lower in Schottky contacted devices than that in Ohmic contacted devices, leading to a high specific detectivity in photodetectors. In this work, we prepared ϵ-Ga2O3 thin film by using metal-organic chemical vapor deposition, then constructed a three-pair interdigital ultraviolet solar-blind photodetector with Au electrodes as Schottky contacts. Seen from the results, this photodetector displays an outstanding wavelength selectivity with responsivity of 0.52 A W−1 responding to 250 nm wavelength light. In addition, it shows a photo-to-dark current ratio of 1.82 × 104/6.03 × 102 at 5 V under 40/5 μW cm−2 254 nm light illuminations, respectively, and a low dark current of 1.87 × 10−11 A. Correspondingly, the specific detectivity is 1.67 × 1013/4.45 × 1012 Jones, and the photoresponsivity is 0.198 A W−1/52.54 mA W−1. Overall, ϵ-Ga2O3 prepared here is certified to be an excellent candidate material to perform high-performance solar-blind detection.


This article considers the problems faced by students and teachers in India's state schools. Item is offered on open access from the journal website.


Islamic banks' profitability which was downturned throughout 2010 to 2014
indicated the management to evaluate and determine the strategic steps including
in social performance as one of the determining factors. The implementation of
social function and education function is associated with the aspect of social
performance in Islamic banks. In CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility)
practices, the distribution of corporate zakat and qardh financing which are
included in the social function is classified into cause branding and venture
philanthropy. The research analyzed and discussed the social-function
performance and the education-function performance as well as the profitability
of Islamic banks throughout 2010 to 2015 and particularly the influence of both
functions on the profitability.
The data were retrieved from the annual financial reports of 6 Islamic banks
for 6 years (2010-2015). The analysis techniques were descriptive statistics and
multiple linier regressions. Social-function ratio and education-function ratio as
the independent variables were tested for the influence on Return on Asset (ROA)
as the dependent variable after the descriptive analysis on those variables was
performed.
The result showed that the social-function performance was optimal but the
education-function performance and the profitability of Islamic banks required
enhancing. In this case, each of social function and education function
significantly and positively had on Islamic banks' profitability.


Utilization of noble iridium holds vital importance in energy storage devices for rendering durable performance as an anodic material. In continuation of the efforts being devoted for effective consumption of iridium, on employing two step facile hydrothermal synthesis, we present a highly effective approach for its best utilization. Anchoring of tiny IrO2 nanoparticles on the surface of well-aligned one-dimensional substrate (Co3O4), at an expense of atomically just 6–7% of iridium in relative to cobalt, showed superb durability in an acidic environment. A durable 20-fold enhanced mass specific activity was observed for the best mixed composite relative to that of IrO2. Moreover, compared to iridium dioxide's Tafel slope of 68.2 mV dec–1 and onset potential of 1.48 V, a quite steeper Tafel slope of 51.2 mV dec–1 and an improvement of 30 mV in onset potential were observed. This outstanding performance is believed to be the synergistic effect of metal cations on account of their electronic modulations as ...


COVID-19 pandemic has significantly reduced most of MSME revenue, including Pelangi Nusantara Singhasari Foundation (PELANUSA). Market demand has decreased drastically, many activities and production have been delayed, which have an impact on the decline in sales turnover. This forces all activities to shift to the digital realm to ensure business continuity. In fact, the process of migrating community activities from conventional systems to digitalization poses a new problem for the management. The use of platforms that are still fragmented, the lack of knowledge of digital marketing concepts, to the limitations of the management in carrying out empowerment activities, especially for members of the disabled community. Seeing this phenomenon, Institut Asia Malang collaborated with PT. Ina Gata Persada proposed an innovative solution in the form of a digital empowerment application called PELAWONS (PELANUSA for Women and Disabilities). To achieve the suitability of the purpose of PELAWONS with functionality and timeliness, it takes an analysis and proper software design. SCRUM is considered to be able to produce good quality software according to user desires, can be used in large and small projects, and easy to adopt changes. We developed PELAWONS refers to the five main steps on SCRUM process: establishing SCRUM team, defining list of the product backlogs, arranging the sprint phase, analyzing the progress through daily scrum, and evaluating the result with sprint review. SCRUM methodology adoption in designing PELAWONS proven to be able to accelerate the application development process and reduce the risk of project failure through system flexibility.


In the age of 21st century, education is faced with increasingly severe challenges. One of the challenges is to produce human resources who have the ability to face the full range of challenges in life. Competence in the 2.1 century is called 4C which includes the ability to think critically and solve problems (Critical Thinking and Problem Solving), creative thinking (Creativity), communication skills (Communication Skills), and the ability to work together (Ability to Work Collaboratively). to test the closeness between critical thinking and creative thinking on ecological material; Two classes were used in data collection, totaling 36 students, 25 of which were female and 11 were male with an age range of 15 to 17 years and were obtained by simple random sampling technique; Data were collected from the test instrument for critical and creative thinking questions and then analyzed by the regression equation Y for X, the linearity and significance test Y for X, the correlation coefficient and the significance test for the correlation coefficient Y over X; This study obtained the results that show that the relationship is linear with a correlation value of 0.724 which is classified as a strong level of closeness so that the value of the contribution of critical thinking skills to creative is 52.42%; The relationship between the ability to think critically towards creative thinking with the contribution of critical thinking skills to the ability to think creatively is 52.42%.


The authorized content is the content which can only be generated by the content provider (CP). The content copies delivered to a user may bring some reward to the CP if the content is adopted by the user. The overall reward obtained by the CP depends on how much the user is interested in the content and how the user may help disseminate the content copies. Hence, to maximize the reward obtained, the content provider are motivated to disseminate the authorized content to the most interested users. In this paper, we study how to effectively disseminate the authorized content in interest-centric opportunistic social networks (IOSNs) such that the reward is maximized. We first derive the Social Connection Pattern (SCP) to statistically describe the interest distribution of the users contacted or connected. The SCP is used to predict the interests of possible contactors and connectors. We then propose our Social Connection Pattern based Dissemination algorithm (SCPD) to calculate the best number of content copies to disseminate when two users meet. Our dataset based simulation shows that our SCPD algorithm is effective and efficient to disseminate the authorized content in IOSNs


Machine state control is one of the most promising energy-efficient measures for machining processes. A proper control reduces the energy consumed during idle periods by switching off/on the machines. A critical barrier for practical implementation is related to the knowledge of part arrival process that is affected by uncertainty. The stochastic processes involved in the system are usually assumed to be known. However, real production environments are subject to several sources of randomness that are difficult to model a priori. This work provides an online time-based algorithm that is able to control the machine state. Through a method for the estimation of the stochastic process, the algorithm provides the optimal control parameters based on a collected set of observations. A new policy is formulated to manage the control over time such that changes in the control parameters are applied only under certain conditions. Potential benefits are discussed using realistic numerical cases. Note to Practitioners—This article analyzes the control problem of switching off/on a machine tool for energy saving during machine idle periods. A control policy based on time information is investigated when the machine requires a startup time to resume the service after being switched off. The proposed policy works online while acquiring information from the real system. An algorithm is described for identifying and applying the optimal control parameters. The results of this research will be useful for a practical implementation of a switching policy for energy saving. This implementation requires the estimation of the power adsorbed by the machine in four different states and, therefore, it reduces the implementation effort for practitioners.


In this paper, we study irreducibility of Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation which is driven by an additive noise acting only on a finite number of Fourier modes. In order to obtain the irreducibility,

we first investigate the approximate controllability of Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation driven by a finite-dimensional force, the proof is based on Agrachev-Sarychev type geometric control approach.

Next, we study the continuity of solving operator for deterministic Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation. Finally, combining the approximate controllability with continuity of solving operator,

we establish the irreducibility of Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation.


Wringinpitu Village is one of the furniture-producing villages located in the Mojowarno District, Jombang Regency, East Java Province. As an industrial village that produces furniture, of course there are products from the manufacturing process that are not used, namely wood sawdust (grajen). Grajen is a sawn waste that is not reprocessed by the community. In community service carried out by the implementing team, they offered a solution in the form of training in the processing of sawn wood waste which resulted in briquette products. Briquettes are one of the alternative fuels that are environmentally friendly, briquettes can usually be made from rice husks, coconut shells, corncobs and grajen. Which is in the making through the process of burning or writing which will later be mixed with starch or tapioca as an adhesive and then printed as desired which can later be sold by the public. Briquettes are environmentally friendly steel products, the difference between briquettes and other charcoals is that they have minimal smoke and are more durable.


Thermosetting adhesives undergo a chemo-rheological transition during cure which transforms the material from an initial compliant bonding state to a rigid high strength holding state. The results of combined application of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and Instron thermomechanical analysis (TMA) in a study of reaction kinetics and physical state changes in epoxy-phenolic adhesives are reported. A special reduction of DSC data isolates the apparent heat of polymerization DELTAH p and activation energy E* of curing. Analysis of a repetitive extension-recovery cycle, at low strain amplitude, isolates the temperature-time efforts of curing upon the tensile modulus E, the work of deformation W T = W L + W S , and the work ratio W P /W S =work loss/work stored per cycle. Correlated results of DSC and TMA analysis of two epoxy-phenolic adhesives isolates the effects of metal fillers upon both the curing kinetics and mechanical response of the cured material.


The paper presents an unsupervised learning algorithm to learn answer pattern for answer extraction module of Chinese Question Answering(QA).Given two or more questions of one question type,the algorithm can learn the corresponding answer patterns from internet via web search,topic segmentation,pattern extraction,vertical clustering and horizontal clustering,etc.The experimental results show that the performance of pattern-based answer extraction of Chinese QA is improved significantly.


Summary Simultaneous inversion of petrophysical parameters based on Metropolis sampling algorithm is formulated in the Bayesian framework, combining statistical petrophysics with the geostatistical priori information. Firstly, we can get the geostatistical priori information through Fast Fourier Transform- Moving Average (FFT-MA) and Gradual Deformation Method (GDM). Then according to the statistical petrophysical model, we can get the relation of elastic parameters and petrophysical parameters. Based on the petrophysical relation, we can construct the likelihood function. Finally, we apply Metropolis sampling algorithm in order to obtain an exhaustive description of the posteriori probability density. Compared to deterministic inversion, the inversion method we proposed can integrate high-frequency information of well-logging data and have a higher resolution. According to the numerical calculations, we can conclude that the final inversion results match the model well and have a higher resolution. In addition, the direct inversion of petrophysical parameters avoids the accumulation of error and reduces the transmission of uncertainty. And it can increase the computation efficiency.