The toppling of anti-dip layered rock slope is a typical mode of rock slope failure. Because this kind of deformation phenomenon is very common in hydraulic engineering and highway engineering, it has been paid more and more attention by the engineering community. The deformation mode, factors affecting toppling rock slope and dumping deformation mechanism were described in this paper.


Anaerobic carnitine metabolism in Escherichia coli was recently shown to involve six genes organized in the cai operon and located at the first minute on the chromosome. The DNA sequence lying at the 5′ end of the cai locus was further investigated. It contains four open reading frames organized as an operon. In vivo overexpression of this DNA region revealed four polypeptides with apparent molecular masses of 27, 33, 45 and 6 kDa. These proteins displayed significant amino acid sequence homologies with polypeptides encoded by the fixABCX operons from Azorhizobium caulinodans and Rhizobium meliloti. The four ORFs were thus named fixABCX. The first two gene products were also found to share a high degree of sequence similarity with the subunits β and α, respectively, of mammalian electron transfer flavoproteins, suggesting a role for these proteins in a redox reaction. A singly polycistronic 5 kb mRNA transcript was detected in Northern blots under anaerobic conditions in the presence of DL‐carnitine. Expression of a fixA‐lacZ transcriptional fusion was induced by L(‐)‐carnitine and crotonobetaine but not by D(+)‐carnitine, γ‐butyrobetaine, glycinebetaine and choline as found previously for the carnitine pathway. Similarly, the fix operon was repressed by glucose and nitrate. Moreover, expression of the fix operon was induced by the global regulatory proteins CRP and FNR and repressed by the histone‐like protein H‐NS. All these regulatory proteins have been shown also to control expression of carnitine enzymes. Results from Northern blots and lacZ fusion studies indicate a common regulation of expression of fix and cai operons, which implies a physiological linkage between these two loci.


The temperature dependence of transmittance through a liquid crystal driven by the frame rate control (FRC) method was measured, where two-level voltages (on/off) were supplied alternatively at intervals of a frame period for gray-scale representation. The measurements were performed between 0 to 60°C on a 10-inch diagonal thin-film transistor LCD (TFT-LCD) with a TN liquid crystal of normally white mode. The transmittance, with an on-state voltage supplied in one frame period in every three periods, increased to 57 percent from 10 percent by increasing the temperatures to 60°C from 0°C, while the transmittance of the gray scales by the conventional method which use intermediate voltages show contrary dependence.

Since the transmittance was constant as long as the ratio of the response time of liquid crystal to the frame period was kept constant, the transmittance change was attributed to the increase in the response time with temperature. The temperature dependence of the FRC-driven LCD was well simulated by considering the change in viscosity of the liquid crystal. It was found also that the transient change in the capacitance of the liquid crystal affects the transmittance characteristics.


E-SVET describes a novel, Environmentally controlled, Scanning Vibrating Electrode Technique which allows the measurement of localised corrosion current flux under conditions of low oxygen partial pressure. The E-SVET apparatus, shown schematically in Figure 1, employs a Perspex environmental chamber encasing the SVET scanning head and immersion tank. Maximum signal detection and resolution, a function of height and probe vibration (1), are systematically achieved using a threedimensional surface profiling function.


Cellular senescence and inflammation may contribute to the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). We sought to define their inter‐relationship in cell culture and animal models of AD and determine if senolytic compounds could alleviate these conditions thereby improving cognition.


MASOOR (Multi Agent Simulation Of Outdoor Recreation) is a multi-agent recreational behaviour simulation model. MASOOR is developed to evaluate both existing management policies and effects of various management actions. In addition, it can serve as a communication tool in participatory processes. By visualizing recreational behaviour on maps the model helps different stakeholders (recreationists, managers, scientists) to interpret the complex patterns of visitor use and support the discussion among those stakeholders. However, it is important that the model is verified and validated. Verification can be defined as the process of testing whether or not the logic of the model is acceptable. It involves checking that the model behaves as expected and it is sometimes referred to as testing the ëinner validityí of the model. Verification deals with building the model right. Validation relates to the extent that the model adequately represent the actual situation that is modeled. Validation deals with building the right model. Validity can be ascertained by comparing the output of the model with comparable data collected from a real-world system using a various statistics. In this paper we verify MASOOR by an assessment of recreational path use at different numbers of replications. We validate MASOOR by comparing the modeled output with real world data. Finally, we focus the validation on specific behavioural rules such as preference for path type and chunking direction Index Terms — Behaviour simulation, MASOOR, recreation model, behavioural rules and preferences. —————————— u —————————— Rene Jochem is with the Wageningen University and Research. Email: firstname.lastname@example.com


: Basically object detection and object tracking are two important and challenging aspects in many computer vision applications like surveillance system, vehicle navigation, autonomous robot navigation, compression of video etc. Object detection is first low level important task for any video surveillance application. To detection of moving object is a challenging task. Tracking is required in higher level applications that required the location and shape of object. There are three key steps in video analysis: detection of interesting moving objects, tracking of such objects from frame to frame, and analysis of object tracks to recognize their behavior. Object detection and tracking especially for human and vehicle is currently most active research topic. A lot of research has been undergoing ranging from applications to noble algorithms. The main objective of this paper is to review (survey) of various moving object detection and object tracking methodologies.


A new type of microstrip bandpass filters is proposed,which is composed of the zeroth-order resonant(ZOR) system of J-inverters.The ZOR uses the left-handed material(LHM)as unit cells,which is composed of complementary split ring resonators and series gaps.On the basis of traditional design,a bandpass filter(BPF)is designed.And the method to determine the resonant frequency and susceptance slope parameter is proposed.Experimental verification is provided and a good agreement has been found between the simulation and measurement,the proposed BPF has much better selectivity,more symmetrical responses and controllable bandwidth.


Clonal/oligoclonal expansions of cytotoxic T-lymphocytes (CTLs) and quantitative/qualitative abnormalities of T-regulatory cells (Tregs) have been implicated in the pathophysiology of acquired bone marrow (BM) failure syndromes such as aplastic anemia, myelodysplastic syndromes and large granular lymphocyte proliferative disease. Chronic Idiopathic Neutropenia (CIN) is an acquired disorder of granulopoiesis characterised by increased apoptosis of BM CD34+/CD33+ granulocytic progenitor cells. We have previously provided evidence for oligoclonal T-cell expansions with possible pathogenetic significance in CIN. The aim of the current study is (a) to define and compare the magnitude of CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell responses and (b) to evaluate the number of Tregs, in the peripheral blood (PB) and BM of CIN patients. Eighty five CIN patients and 85 healthy controls, age- and sex-matched to the patients, were studied after informed consent. All patients had PB neutrophil counts below 1800/μL (mean 1410 ± 330 neutrophils/μL, range 100–1799 neutrophils/μL), displayed negative anti-neutrophil antibody activity and were satisfying the previously reported diagnostic criteria for the disease.The T-cell receptor (TCR)-Vβ repertoire was analysed by flow cytometry (Vβ spectratyping) in the PB and BM CD3+, CD4+ and CD8+ cells. The size distribution of the TCR-Vβ complementarity determining region 3 (CDR3) was analysed in immunomagnetically sorted PB and BM CD4+ and CD8+ cells by PCR according to the -2 protocol using a fluorescence-based DNA sequencer (CDR3 spectratyping). Vβ family expansions were defined as above of 2 standard deviations from the mean values of the 85 healthy controls. CDR3 oligoclonal/monoclonal patterns were defined upon comparison with the normal Gaussian-type size distribution. The Treg cell frequency was defined as the proportion of FOXP3+ cells within the CD4+/CD25high PB and BM cell fraction by flow cytometry. We found that 69.41% and 82.61% of CIN patients displayed one or more predominant TCR-Vβ family expansions within the CD3+ cell fraction of PB and BM, respectively. None of the controls displayed clonal/oligoclonal expansions in either PB or BM (P


Production process of UV-cured primer and top coat for wood materials was introduced and effects of raw materials' choice on the painting effect were analyzed.


Siwu decoction (SWD), a traditional Chinese medicinal formula with over 1000 years clinical history, has been widely used for gynecological disease, especially blood deficiency syndrome similar with anemia in modern medicine. In view of metabonomics as a useful approach to investigate the potential mechanisms from the point of systems biology, herein a ultra-performance liquid chromatography- quadrupole-time of flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-Q/TOF-MS)analysis was employed to access a holistic evaluation of SWD on blood-deficiency rat model induced by N-acetylphenylhydrazine and cyclophosphamide via plasma metabonomics study. Blood routine examination results exhibited SWD could significantly promote the declining hemogram indexes. Meanwhile, plasma metabonomics profiles in different groups were analyzed and differentiating metabolites were primarily visualized through chemo-metric analysis. Totally, 7 biomarkers were identified in plasma samples of blood-deficiency rat model compared with normal group. 5 main metabolism pathways were suggested using Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes Pathway Analysis (KEGG) and Pathway Activity Profiling (PAPi) algorithm analysis. It indicated that SWD played a therapeutic role in blood deficiency by regulating the aberrant endogenous metabolites. To sum up, this study provides a clear evidence that metabonomics study could serve as a useful tool to elucidate the systematic therapeutic profiles and mechanisms for blood deficiency syndrome of Chinese herbal medicines.


Broadband access over the existing telephone network can be provided by the deployment of hybrid fiber twisted-pair (HFTP) systems. For HFTP the twisted-pair cable has to be modelled as a vector channel with distributed transceivers on the subscriber side. The upstream transmission capacity can be increased by FEXT cancellation based on a 2 dimensional decision feedback equalizer (2-D-DFE). The achievable gain depends on the usable upstream bandwidth as well as on the background noise and can be more than 100 % for the transmission of 27.6 Mbit/s with a 16-QAM. About 15 feedback taps are required per FEXT canceller, resulting in 19000 gates for a gate array implementation in 0.35 /spl mu/m technology.


This article shows the actual problem, which is not so frequently in the publications of scientific-methodical literature, namely, the identification of motivations to attend to fitness physical exercises women of 30-50 years old. The article considers the level of interest of women30-50 years old to healthy physical exercises, and their attitude to the health and other aspects of activity. The current situation in this matter was analyzed and was planed the possible ways of formation the women's stable motivations to physical activity which would keep safe during the life.


In this study mesoporous TiO2 with a bicrystalline (anatase and brookite) framework was synthesized directly under high-intensity ultrasound irradiation. This was carried out separately, both with and without the use of a triblock copolymer. Without thermal treatment, mesoporous TiO2 was formed by the agglomeration of monodispersed TiO2 sol particles. The resulting materials were characterized by XRD, TEM, nitrogen adsorption, TGA/DTA, and FTIR. The use of ultrasound irradiation assisted in the formation of the brookite phase. As the content of the brookite phase increased, the pore size and the crystalline sizes of anatase and brookite became larger when the triblock copolymer was used in the synthesis. Both as-prepared samples exhibited better activities than the commercial photocatalyst P25 in the degradation of n-pentane in air. The degradation rate of mesoporous TiO2 synthesized in the presence of triblock copolymer was about two times greater than that of P25. The high activities of the mesoporous T...


The main objective of this research was to determine the severity of disease caused by Pseudomonas syringae pv. lachrymans on cucumbers grown in the Izmir, Bursa, Balikesir and Manisa provinces of the Western Anatolia Region (Turkey). The resistance, tolerance or susceptibility of commonly used cultivars to the pathogens was also studied. Mean values of disease severity were calculated as 32.7, 17.0, 16.1 and 15.3% for the Manisa, Bursa, Balikesir and Izmir provinces respectively. Cvs Ophix, Fancipak and AG 1204 (of the pickling cultivars) and Reia, Sahara, Vlasstar, Octopus (of the table cultivars) were found to be less susceptible to the pathogen than other cultivars.


This paper, based on the strategic formation and the connotation of the firm's flexible strategy, an-alyzes the objectives and roles of firm implementing flexible strategy, and gives the main points of systemati-cally designing flexible strategy. Meanwhile relative analysis model is built.


In 2010 a decision was made by the Academy Racing (formerly known as ACME Racing) FSAE team during the conceptual design of WS-12 to use a Yamaha WR450 single cylinder engine. As development of the vehicle continued, it was found that design requirements specific to the powertrain system needed to be developed, how they were to be realised needed to be investigated, and a method of testing and validation employed to ensure the system was compliant with the design philosophy of the vehicle.
Using a QFD approach, design requirements for the powertrain system were developed. An analysis was conducted into the sub systems of the powertrain system and how they affected the performance of the powertrain system and the vehicle as a whole. The effects of these changes were predicted and discussed based on the results of engine simulation and optimisation software. The simulations were to be validated by running the engine on the Academy Racing engine dyno.
The Aim of this thesis is to provide the Academy Racing FSAE team with both the design parameters for the powertrain system to be used in WS-12, and a framework within which any team member could use as a reference for future powertrain design without the need for a detailed study into each of the subsystems.


Pump-probe photoelectron spectroscopy (PES) is a versatile tool to investigate the dynamics of transient states of excited matter. Vacuum space-charge effects can mask these dynamics and complicate the interpretation of electron spectra. Here we report on space-charge effects in Au 4f photoemission from a polycrystalline gold surface, excited with moderately intense 90 ps (FWHM) soft x-ray probe pulses, under the influence of the Coulomb forces exerted by a pump electron cloud, which was produced by intense 40 fs laser pulses. The experimentally observed kinetic energy shift and spectral broadening of the Au 4f lines, measured with highly-efficient time-of-flight spectroscopy, are in good agreement with simulations utilizing a mean-field model of the electrostatic pump electron potential. This confirms that the line broadening is predominantly caused by variations in the take-off time of the probe electrons without appreciable influence of local scattering events. Our findings might be of general interest for pump-probe PES with picosecond-pulse-length sources.


BACKGROUND AND AIM
There is evidence that a reduced nocturnal fall in blood pressure (BP) entails an increased risk of hypertensive-mediated organ damage (HMOD) and cardiovascular events. Most studies focusing on left ventricular (LV) systolic function, assessed by conventional LV ejection fraction (LVEF) in non-dippers compared to dippers failed to detect significant differences. To provide a new piece of information on LV systolic dysfunction in the non-dipping setting, we performed a meta-analysis of speckle tracking echocardiography (STE) studies investigating LV global longitudinal strain (GLS), a more sensitive index of LV systolic function.

METHODS
A computerized search was performed using Pub-Med, OVID, EMBASE and Cochrane library databases from inception until July, 31 st2022. Full articles reporting data on LV GLS and LVEF in non-dippers and dippers were considered suitable.

RESULTS
A total of 648 non-dipper and 530 dipper individuals were included in 9 studies. LV GLS was worse in non-dipper than in their dipper counterparts (-18.4±0.30 vs -20.1±0.23%), SMD: 0.73±0.14, CI: 0.46/1.00, p < 0.0001) whereas this was not the case for LVEF (61.4±0.8 and 62.0±0.8%, respectively), SMD: -0.15±0.09, CI: -0.32/0.03, p=1.01). A meta-regression analysis between night-time systolic BP and myocardial GLS showed a significant, relationship between these variables (coefficient 0.085, p < 0.0001).

CONCLUSIONS
Our findings suggest that early changes in LV systolic function not detectable by conventional echocardiography in the non-dipping setting can be unmasked by STE; implementation of STE in current practice may improve the detection of HMOD of adverse prognostic significance in individuals with altered circadian BP rhythm.


Electromagnetic radiation, which is used by broadcasting and mobile telephone systems to transmit information, permeates the city environment. In order to properly evaluate population exposure to electromagnetic fields, knowledge of their intensity and spectral components is necessary. In this study the results of radiofrequency field monitoring carried out in Torino, a large town located in the north-west of Italy are shown: the variation of the electromagnetic field strength is evaluated as a function of the height from the ground, the location in the urban area and the frequency. separating the contributions of the different sources (broadcasting antennas and radio base stations for mobile phones). Furthermore, the contribution of the radio base stations is theoretically evaluated, adding the emissions off all installations situated in Torino and examining the field strength maps calculated, considering the orography, for different heights. The theoretical values are also compared with those measured in the frequency range of mobile telephony emissions.


The purpose of this study was to estimate the prevalence of tuberculosis among patients undergoing treatment at the ERCC medical centre in Alushi from January 2017 to July 2021. A total of 3029 TB presumptive patients were included in the current investigation. The overall TB prevalence was 43.57%. There were 993 (64.90%) males, 10.1% of whom were rifampicin resistant, and 537 (35.09%) females, 34.8% of whom were rifampicin resistant. The highest prevalence is recorded in all age groups, was seen in the age bracket 21-30 with a total of 350 (26.51%) and 327 (24.77%) in the age range 31-40. Findings revealed that having a history of TB medication and being female were both associated with the development of rifampicin-resistant Tuberculosis and patients aged 21 to 40 were more likely than others to be infected with tuberculosis and develop rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis. Because of the high prevalence, immediate action is essential to encourage early identification and the completion of DR-TB medication in order to prevent the disease from spreading in the community, as well as continuous community health education about tuberculosis and the risk of drug resistance


Various problems afflict projected multimedia presentations. For example, certain colors that look good together and are easily distinguishable on the screen may not be easily recognizable as different when sent through a projection panel and displayed with an overhead projector. Developers of multimedia presentations should follow some guidelines-provided here-to avoid common problems associated with the projection of multimedia materials.


【This study has been conducted to optimum operating conditions for effective acid fermentation according to OLR(organic loading rate) in the mesophilic and thermophilic acid fermentation process. The results are summarized as follows. In order to obtain reasonable acid fermentation efficiency in performing acid fermentation of food wastes in thermophilic condition, organic loading rate was required below 20 gVS/L.d. As $SCOD_{Cr}/TKN,\;SCOD_{Cr}/T-P$ of thermophilic acid fermented food wastes In organic loading rate 20 gVS/L.d were 18.9, 73.4 respectively, it was possible to utilize as external carbon source for denitrification in sewage treatment plant after solid-liquid separation as well as co-digestion of fermented food wastes and sewage sludge.】


Research in anti-spoofing for automatic speaker verification has advanced considerably in the last three years. Anti-spoofing is a particularly difficult pattern classification problem since the characteristics of spoofed speech vary considerably and can never be predicted with any certainty in the wild. The design of features suited to the detection of unpredictable spoof-ing attacks is thus a staple of current research. End-to-end approaches to spoofing detection with exploit automatic feature learning have shown success and offer obvious appeal. This paper presents our efforts to develop such a system using recurrent neural networks and a particular algorithm known as neuroevolution of augmenting topologies (NEAT). Contributions include a new fitness function for network learning that not only results in better generalisation than the baseline system, but which also improves on raw performance by 22% relative when assessed using the ASVspoof 2017 database of bona fide speech and replay spoofing attacks. Results also show that mini-batch training helps to improve generalisation, a technique which could also be of benefit to other solutions to the spoofing detection problem.


SUMMARY The 3-D structure of the lithosphere beneath the Aegean Sea is investigated through surface wave dispersion analysis. Rayleigh and Love waves recorded by 12 broad-band stations installed for a duration of 6 months in the Aegean region are processed through array analysis and Wiener filtering. Data from three GEOFON stations in the area of Crete were also used. The resulting two-station phase velocities are used to determine lateral variations of Rayleigh wave phase velocities between periods of 20 and 100 s by a 2-D ray tomography method. The obtained phase velocities are inverted to calculate variation of S-wave velocity with depth using a combination of linearized inversion and a Monte Carlo based non-linear inversion. The absolute S-wave velocity is resolved to a depth of approximately 200 km. A highvelocity anomaly of 3 per cent is observed in the southern Aegean attributed to the Hellenic subduction. In the northern part of the Aegean, in the prolongation of the North Anatolian Fault which is influenced by strong extensional movements, we found low absolute S-wave velocities at 50‐100 km depth. This supports a model of a distributed deformation of the upper mantle in the area. Separate Rayleigh and Love wave phase velocity inversions along common profiles reveal a strong Love‐Rayleigh discrepancy in the northern Aegean down to at least 150 km depth, i.e. most probably including the top of the asthenosphere.


Current state of development of the pension provision in Ukraine is a crisis, the solidarity system is not able to fulfill its state functions of social protection of pensioners. From the collapse of the solidary system hold only allocations from the state budget, which for the last 5 years make up about 45% of the revenues of the Pension Fund. For example, for 2013 year, the budget of the Pension Fund of Ukraine of all legally certain sources of income received 250.5 billion UAH, of which own admission 166.9 billion UAH [1]. The Central source of filling the budget of the Pension Fund is a single fee for obligatory state social insurance. According to article 7 of the law of Ukraine «On the collection and accounting of the single contribution for obligatory state social insurance» base accrual and retention fee includes: wages of employees, remuneration to individuals for execution of works, the payment of the first five days of temporary disability at the expense of the employer, the temporary disablement allowance, benefit or compensation paid in accordance with legislation, financial support [2]. The role of government in pension systems is paramount in the quality of life of its retiring populations. Whether the governmental pension includes medical benefits, disability and survivor benefits, the cash out benefit should always guarantee some basic benefits, however current modern realities indicate that no government pension alone can meet the needs of retirees. Adding the perception and reality of increasing longevity all over the world leads to the conclusion that single governmental pensions are insufficient. Given this reality government policy¬ makers, industries and employees need to give the proper incentives and contributions to ensure that the basic benefits from a single central system are supplemented with additional pensions. In previous years, the government has taken various measures to solve the problems of financial security pensions, but they were not sufficient because they were not systematic and did not bring effective results. During the whole period from the beginning of economic reforms the government has failed to formulate a holistic approach to the regulation of pension provision. For politicians the most common method to slow down benefits is always the idea of increasing the retirement age, and to increase future benefits the solutions is


The ever-growing scholarly literature on resistance-closely associated with the now-classic works by James Scott (1976; 1985; 1990)-has consistently focused on the historical conjunctures explaining the emergence and consolidation of dominant social orders and their ideological, economic, political, and cultural underpinnings, the mix of coercion and "consent" in varying historical contexts that accounts for more or less effective state rule and hegemony, and, especially, the contexts and processes within and through which social groups creatively contest the dominating and seemingly totalizing power of states, elites, and other power holders. There is a growing realization that seemingly dominant ideologies' are rarely if ever as pervasive as they seem to be, that behind the apparent acquiescence to state and elite rule and domination are alternative visions, hopes, and expectations and a deep questioning of existing politico-economic arrangements and their ideological underpinnings, and that the power of the state and dominant classes, while very real, is rarely all-encompassing and hegemonic projects are often quite fragile and fragmentary. Subordinate groups are constantly questioning and challenging "the terms of their subordination," do not engage in "willing, even enthusiastic complicity" in that subordination (Scott, 1990: 4, 86), and have available to them the opportunities and repertoire-cultural, political, economic, social, and ideological-to challenge it. The resistance literature has amply documented the manifold ways that subordinate, marginalized, or otherwise disposed but not entirely powerless social groups have (more or less) successfully confronted, maneuvered around, checked, challenged, skirted, or otherwise undermined closely overlapping forms of domination (Scott, 1976; 1985; 1990; Nash, 1988; Colburn, 1989; Leong, 1992; Gutmann, 1993; Reed-Danahay, 1993; Guha, 1994; Roseberry, 1994; Ortner, 1995). My purpose in this article is not to tread over familiar terrain-either to dwell on the goals and achievements of resistance scholarship or to reiterate the many critiques that have been leveled at it (see especially Abu-Lughod,


New thermo-chemical reaction technologies for preparation of ceramics coatings on metal substrate in recent years were reviced,and the status of thermo-chemjcal reaction technologies has been made a summary.Based on the response mechanism of this thermo-chemical reaction ceramic coating,it should be exactly considered as"the technology of low temperature solid phase response formed ceramics coating".


An artificial basilar membrane (ABM) is an acoustic transducer that mimics the mechanical frequency selectivity of the real basilar membrane, which has the potential to revolutionize current cochlear implant technology. While such ABMs can be potentially realized using piezoelectric, triboelectric, and capacitive transduction methods, it remains notoriously difficult to achieve resistive ABM due to the poor frequency discrimination of resistive‐type materials. Here, a point crack technology on noncracking vertically aligned gold nanowire (V‐AuNW) films is reported, which allows for designing soft acoustic sensors with electric signals in good agreement with vibrometer output—a capability not achieved with corresponding bulk cracking system. The strategy can lead to soft microphones for music recognition comparable to the conventional microphone. Moreover, a soft resistive ABM is demonstrated by integrating eight nanowire‐based sensor strips on a soft trapezoid frame. The wearable ABM exhibits high‐frequency selectivity in the range of 319–1951 Hz and high sensitivity of 0.48–4.26 Pa−1. The simple yet efficient fabrication in conjunction with programmable crack design indicates the promise of the methodology for a wide range of applications in future wearable voice recognition devices, cochlea implants, and human–machine interfaces.


In order to develop the remote sensing techniques to infer cloud physical parameters, a multispectral cloud radiometer (MCR) was mounted on a NASA high-altitude aircraft in conjunction with the Cooperative Convective Precipitation Experiment in 1981. The MCR has seven spectral channels, of which three are centered near windows associated with water vapor bands in the near infrared, two are centered near the oxygen A band at 0.76 microns, one is centered at the 1.14-micron water vapor band, and one is centered in the thermal infrared. The reflectance and temperature measured on May 31, 1981, are presented together with theoretical calculations. The results indicate that the MCR produces quality measurements. Therefore several cloud parameters can be derived with good accuracy. The parameters are the cloud-scaled optical thickness, cloud top pressure, volume scattering coefficient, particle thermodynamic phase, effective mean particle size, and cloud-top temperature.


Animal fats such as beef fat/tallow widely available on the market and relatively cheap. Public awareness is high enough the importance of health by reducing the consumption of fatty foods, making animal fat is not utilized to the maximum, so the research was about catalytic cracking beef fat/tallow into liquid fuels with the opened reactor  using a  nature zeolite and MgO as catalyst. The colour of liquid that produced by the opened reactor and using natural zeolite catalyst was clear yellow liquid oils with the composition of the carbon chain were C 12 - C 20 . The results of GC - MS analysis showed that the composition of the group of compounds were 64.51% of alkanes, 27.37% of alkenes, 0.7% of aldehyde, 4.34% of ketone and 3.08% of fatty acids. The colour of liquid that produced by the opened reactor and using MgO catalyst was brownish yellow liquid oils. The results of GC-MS analysis showed that the composition of the carbon chain were 17.85% of C 7 -C 11 and 82.15 % of C 12 -C 19. The results of GC-MS analysis showed that the composition of the group of compounds were 57.6% of alkanes, 32.16% of alkenes and 10.24% of ketones. The composition of the cracking results tallow oil compounds using natural zeolite catalysts showed that the oil can be used as a diesel, while using MgO catalyst generated 17.85 % of liquid fuels equivalent of petrol and 82.15 % liquid fuels equivalent diesel.


Background: Patients who develop delayed graft function (DGF) following cadaveric renal transplantation have inferior survival to those who do not. Calcineurin inhibitors (CNI) may prolong recovery from DGF. Patients with DGF are therefore routinely treated with either polyclonal antilymphocyte preparations or monoclonal anti‐CD3 monoclonal antibodies and delayed introduction of CNI. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of the anti‐CD25 monoclonal antibody basiliximab (BSLIX) started post‐operatively in patients at high risk for DGF combined with low dose tacrolimus (TAC).


Purpose:
– The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature of the health and wellbeing issues faced within the construction and retail sectors and the difficulties faced in addressing these issues.

Design/methodology/approach:
– This is a small, qualitative pilot study based on in-depth, semi-structured interviews with a purposively sampled group of representatives with expert knowledge from seven firms in the construction sector and three firms in the retail sector.

Findings:
– Health and safety concerns in construction were pervasive. Causes were strongly tied to industry practice and structures such as short-term and sub-contracting as well as long hours and a masculine culture. In the retail establishments concerns tended to be more holistic, focusing on wellbeing and encompassing work satisfaction. Industry leaders in construction are proactive in trying to address these issues, particularly in regard to safety. The multi-dimensionality of the concept of workplace wellbeing implies the need for a holistic approach to interventions.

Research limitations/implications:
– This research was initiated as a pilot study, as part of a wider project in collaboration with a business partner, and is limited by the sample size.

Practical implications:
– These findings should be incorporated into sector specific research on workplace wellbeing and occupational health initiatives.

Social implications:
– Workplace wellbeing programmes need to be constructed holistically as wellbeing is a multi-dimensional concept encompassing quality of life as well as effects of work on health.

Originality/value:
– An in-depth study with industry experts that increases knowledge of the underlying causes of workplace health and wellbeing issues in construction and retail and the barriers to addressing them.


To address the drawbacks
of the traditional Parker test in multivariate linear models: the process is cumbersome
and computationally intensive, we propose a new heteroscedasticity test. A new heteroskedasticity test is proposed
using the fitted values of the samples as new explanatory variables, reconstructing
the regression model, and giving a new heteroskedasticity test based on the
significance test of the coefficients, it is also compared with the existing
Parker test which is improved using the principal component idea. Numerical
simulations and empirical analyses show that the improved Parker test with the
fitted values of the samples proposed in this paper is superior.


Human resource management is a key area of organizational development today. Human resource management strategies that can be developed in the course of organizationalchange must meet the wishes and emotional needs of the new generation of employees. Different generations require different approaches in terms of shaping human resource management strategies. Companies have to make great efforts to constantly attract employees and provide a comfortable working environment for representatives of different generations. Staff turnover is still reaching high levels, and in the future it may grow due to the replenishment of the labor market with workers of a new generation with a greater degree of mobility. The main reason employees remain employed is because they enjoy their job. With the influx of representatives of a new generation into the labor market, an increasing understanding has come and continues to come that it is impossible to do without the adoption, implementation and development of digital technologies, as well as all the things arising from their use. The generation born in the digital world will develop more and more. An increasing percentage of people will work remotely from different parts of the world and without being tied to a specific territory. A major challenge for businesses in the near future will be balancing the productivity gains and distraction generated by digital innovation. In the future, employers will have to be more flexible than ever before.


Provide a method and a host apparatus to perform an assessment of trimming instructions for. In one embodiment, to obtain trace to a trim and write commands storage device. For the trail each trim command, identifying for the trim command the same logical block address (LBA) of the subsequent write command, and calculating the trim and write commands between the elapsed time. This information may be used to show when the histogram, and / or optimize the storage means executed when trimming instructions and / or host device issues trim commands.


The invention relates to a wavelength division multiplexing system and a method for measuring individual crosstalk of a special, several or all channels to a user channel in wavelength division multiplexed systems. DOLLAR A The invention is characterized in that n identification frequencies f · (n) · (5) are modulated with a modulation factor m · (n) · a useful signal and the crosstalk current is calculated.


Objective
To explore the efficacy of Lichtenstein repair in the treatment of inguinal hernia.

Methods
722 cases of patients with inguinal hernia underwent Lichtenstein repair Nan'an hospital from January 2010 to December 2015 were retrospectively analyzed. The surgical records, postoperative hernia recurrence, chronic pain and scrotal hematoma were reviewed and recorded.

Results
There were 15 cases of hernia recurrence, 2 cases of chronic pain, 19 cases of scrotal hematoma or seroma, and 3 cases of surgical site infection. Of these, hernia recurrence was mainly due to the large ring and incomplete transverse fascia, accounting for 13 cases.

Conclusion
Lichtenstein repair has a low risk in the treatment of inguinal hernia, and less postoperative complications. However, there is a high recurrence rate for the patients who have large inner ring and incomplete abdominal transverse fascia. In clinic, it can use individual treatment based on preoperative judgment or specific circumstances, such as the size of the hernia ring and abdominal fascia integrity to further determine the surgical method, to reduce the risk of recurrence after surgery.

Key words:
Hernia, inguinal; Herniorrhaphy


The number of web pages is increasing into millions and trillions around the world. To make searching much easier for users, web search engines came into existence. Web Search engines are used to find specific information on the World Wide Web. Without search engines, it would be almost impossible for us to locate anything on the Web unless or until we know a specific URL address. Every search engine maintains a central repository or databases of HTML documents in indexed form. Whenever a user query comes, searching is performed within that database of indexed web pages. The size of repository of every search engine can't accommodate each and every page available on the WWW. So it is desired that only the most relevant pages are stored in the database so as to increase the efficiency of search engines. To store most relevant pages from the World Wide Web, a suitable and better approach has to be followed by the search engines. This database of HTML documents is maintained by special software .The software that traverses web for capturing pages is called "Crawlers" or "Spiders". In this thesis, we discuss the basics of crawlers and the commonly used techniques of crawling the web. We discuss the pseudo code of basic crawling algorithms, their implementation in C language along with simplified flowcharts. In this work, firstly we describe how search engine works along with implementation of various crawling algorithms into programs using C language and then the implementation results of various crawling algorithms have been discussed and a comparison study is given in a table in last.


Many studies have shown that urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA) is causally involved in promoting cancer invasion and metastasis. Thus, monitoring uPA levels could be very useful in cancer diagnosis, identification of initial metastasis, and guiding cancer treatment. Here, the authors developed a novel and scalable uPA sensor based on a graphene-gold nanoparticle platform that uses fluorescence of quantum dots to rapidly (<1 h) detect uPA up to 100 pM. Indeed, the authors' sensor is highly selective and showed an ability to sense up to 100 pM uPA even in the presence of complex biological milieu such as the fetal bovine serum.


Information for system design and evaluation inputs was collected from the experienced expert of thyroid diagnostics. Standardized was number of inputs and verbal expression of output diagnostic decisions (diagnosis recommendation) which would be offered by the system. Then set of basic diagnostic decisions was established. One of them was in detail explained, modeled in rules and graphically described. When the measure of detachment of decision and the general limpidity of the whole system is increased using the expert system then the endeavour lead to experimental diagnostic system creation in graphical environment suitable for this work. Creation of a part of knowledge base represented by the rules was described and the knowledge base was presented in graphical representation form of Petri net and also its diagnostic evaluation.


The about 15000 multimodal bio-images US National Library of Medicine Visible Human Dataset (VHD) is a remarkable piece of raw digital anatomical knowledge. For its best use, among major problems waiting for effective solutions we have the automatic segmentation of significant anatomical structures within images. Methods to apply depend strongly on image characteristics. The amount of memory necessary to manage each VHD image, the detailed anatomical structures contained in a single image, the aim to keep limited the computational time, all of them are problems to solve. We investigate approaches able to obtain appreciable results.


Translated from Probl. Procbosti; 5: No. 3, 90-94(Mar 1973). Results of the investigations show that under conditions of brief static loading molybdenum sheet of grade MCh-II is almost insensitive to siress concentrations (for the selected types of concentrators). The presence of a diffusion protective coating leads to a considerable decrease in the ductility of the material over the whole investigated range of temperatures and to a decrease in its strength at temperatures below the coating deposition temperature. It was established that the strength of specimens with protective coatings in the presence of stress concentrators is higher than the strength of smooth specimens with the same coatings. (auth)


From design connotation and topic,design range,skill and other aspects the extension of environmental landscape design in residential quarters is introduced as well as practical design contents.According to greening design and skills analysis is made in order to improve the quality of urban eco-environment and settlement environment in city.


Vidian neurectomy is the recommended surgical treatment for vasomotor rhinitis resistant to conservative therapy. 16 cases have been operated on over a period of 9 years. Only in one case did we not encounter complete success and in 2 cases we had relapses after 2 years on the unoperated side of the nose.


In 1956 Ryser gave a necessary and sufficient condition for a partial latin rectangle to be completable to a latin square. In 1990 Hilton and Johnson showed that Ryser's condition could be reformulated in terms of Hall's Condition for partial latin squares. Thus Ryser's Theorem can be interpreted as saying that any partial latin rectangle $R$ can be completed if and only if $R$ satisfies Hall's Condition for partial latin squares.
We define Hall's Condition for partial Sudoku squares and show that Hall's Condition for partial Sudoku squares gives a criterion for the completion of partial Sudoku rectangles that is both necessary and sufficient. In the particular case where $n=pq$, $p|r$, $q|s$, the result is especially simple, as we show that any $r \times s$ partial $(p,q)$-Sudoku rectangle can be completed (no further condition being necessary).


Background: Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is a common nosocomial infection among hospitalized patients who have undergone intubation and mechanical ventilation for more than 48 hours. Patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) are at risk of developing life-threatening VAP due to specific conditions, especially with Gram-negative pathogens with advanced drug resistance. Hereby, the control of these agents and its monitoring is of particular importance. In this study, the pattern of antibiotic resistance of Gram-negative bacteria isolated from tracheal culture of patients with VAP investigated in ICU of Imam Khomeini Hospital of Ahwaz. M aterials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, tracheal samples were collected during April 2016 to April 2017 from patients who were on mechanical ventilation in ICU of Imam Khomeini Hospital in Ahwaz, Khuzestan province, southwest of Iran. After isolation, bacterial strains were identified using biochemical tests. Then, antimicrobial resistance pattern of these isolates investigated using standard disc diffusion according to clinical and laboratory standards institute 2016 (CLSI 2016) guidelines. R es ults: A total of 111 bacterial isolates were identified which were as following; Acinetobacter baumannii , Pseudomonas aeruginosa , Klebsiella pneumoniae , Escherichia coli , Stenotrophomonas maltophilia , and Serratia marcescens , with prevalence of 54%, 19.8%, 14.4%, 6.4%, 4.5%, and 0.9%, respectively. Antibiotic susceptibility test of isolates showed that almost all isolates had high resistance to treatment antibiotics and were multi-drug resistance (MDR). The A . baumannii isolates were resistant to ciprofloxacin and piperacillin-tazobactam, but ampicillin-tazobactam had a good effect. C onclusion: The results of this study showed that patients admitted to ICU due to their conditions of treatment are more likely to develop VAP by Gram-negative pathogens. The empirical treatment of VAP due to predominant bacterial causes and emerging drug resistance has become more challenging. It requires to use of multidrug regimens for routine clinical practice. It should be noted that in order to appropriate antimicrobial therapy, precise and correct diagnosis is very important.


The authors present a framework that supports an incremental and modular development process of secure software systems. The framework unifies the treatment of secure information flow properties and their relationship to refinement of underspecification, translation from one level of granularity to another, and composition.


Nowadays, kroncong of music seems less attractive to young people. The listener of this style of music is dominated by the elders. Orkes kroncong Tresnawara appeared to revive kroncong to be more appealing to younger generation. Orkes kroncong Tresnawara modifi ed kroncong in its every performance to be fi twith the musical taste of the younger generation. Kroncong creation relatively has high tempo and dynamic beat with the beat syncopation with accents. It brings orkes kroncong Tresnawara a unique musical style. The style andits young players make the kroncong song arranged by this group is very appealing to the youth. Kroncong creation is a mean chosen by orkes kroncong Tresnawara to communicate with young people. In this modern era, the environment and function are different. Therefore, Orkes kroncong Tresnawara attempts to adapt to the era


Objective The present study aimed to trace the behavior results and event-related potential (ERP) of conflict monitoring from 7 ~ 12 years old to explore the development features of the conflict monitoring.Methods In six groups of 144 children aged from 7 to 12,behavior and non-target N2 amplitude were analyzed in continuous performance test (CPT) task. Results 1. Behavior results:the reaction time of target stimulus decreased ( ( 533.33 ± 66.65 ) ms, (523.91 ± 92.96 ) ms, (468.37 ± 64. 13 ) ms, ( 46 1.48 ± 98.31 ) ms, (457.57 ±84.05 ) ms, (405.02 ± 67.90) ms) and the hitting number increased ( ( 34.87 ± 4.84 ), ( 37.64 ± 3.54 ), ( 37.95± 2.92 ), (38.67 ± 1.23 ), (39.31 ± 1.08 ), ( 39.45 ± 1.00 ) ) as age increased, and the difference was statistically significant ( P<0.01 ). 2. ERP: ①The non-target N2 amplitude was significantly higher than the target,and the difference was statistically significant (F= 98.57, P< 0.01 ). ②The amplitude of non-target N2 amplitude decreased with age, and the difference was statistically significant (F= 5.54, P< 0. 01 ). Conclusion The non-target N2 was closely related to the monitoring conflict, and the behavior and ERP results in this study showed the development trend. 8 ~ l0 and 12 years old are the critical development period of information processing speed, attention and conflict monitoring function for children.

Key words:
School-age children;  Event-related potentials;  Behavior;  Conflict monitoring


Under the influence of the pandemic environment, many people may have lost their jobs or on the verge of being laid off, while there are many new job seekers. Hence, the status of new jobs under the pandemic and how various industries are affected by the pandemic—including predicting future work trends—have become the focus of attention. In this paper, we present a social informatics solution to mine the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on the labour market. We make good use of data mining (especially, frequent pattern mining), statistical analysis, and prediction. Evaluation of real-life Canadian labour market data demonstrates the practicality of our tool. Although we illustrate our ideas with the Canadian labour market, our solution can be adaptable to mine labour markets in other geographical locations.


The invention relates to a method of operating a radar sensor (5, 6) of a motor vehicle (1), wherein for the detection of a target object (12) in an environment of the motor vehicle (1), a transmission signal (S) by means of the radar sensor (5, 6) is emitted and a to the target object (12) reflected echo signal is received as a receiving signal, as the transmission signal (S) comprising a plurality of sequences (13) each comprising a plurality of frequency modulated chirp signals (14) one after the other (by means of the radar sensor 5, 6) are transmitted, and wherein after each sequence (13) each have a transmission pause (15) follows, in which the radar sensor (5, 6) no chirp signals (14) emits. The duration of the transmission pauses (15) is adjusted in each case by chance in the operation of the radar sensor (5, 6).


In this contribution, a direct conversion receiver (DCR), zero IF or homodyne receiver applying in-phase/quadrature (I/Q) sampling has bee n revisited in conjunction with digital error compensation. Contrary to common practice, our main interest is focused on the investigation of performance degradation in conjunction with the processing of ultra-wideband frequency division multiplex (FDM) signals. To this end, all potential error sources have been identified and introduced into a comprehensive rror model. This error model comprises path individual DC-offsets, gain, phase and time delay mismatch, bidirectional crosstalk between the input ports of the down-conve rters, quantisation and overflow saturation (clipping) errors, as well as time jitter due to sample-and-hold circuits and clock generator. For all of these error sources an exact error analysis has been carried out. Furthermore, a typical error scenario taken from an ultra-wideband application in satellite communications has been used to demonstrate the overall perf o mance degradation as a result of the combination of these error contributions. For this application, the major degradations are caused by DC-offsets that heavily impair the channe l centred at zero frequency, branch time delay difference that are most pronounced in edge c hannels, and gain mismatch. Each of these three error sources introduces, on its own, a performance degradation such that error compensation measures are compulsive. In contrast, all other error contributions are of minor influence. To reduce degradation, blind digital error compensation methods have been investigated to estimate and compensate the most im portant errors. In particular, a novel approach to compensate for I/Q time delay mismatch as been developed. The combination of this novel delay mismatch compensation method wi th known DC-offset, gain, and phase compensation techniques results in highly improved signal to noise and distortion ratio (SNDR). This enhancement due to digital error compe nsation will be demonstrated by simulation by applying the above ultra-wideband scenari o.


Through combining conjoint individual analysis and numerical simulation, we studied game behaviour among China's online game firms and their quality choices. By calculating equilibrium of firms' different quality choices in a simulated online game market, we drew two conclusions: (1) Liberal market environment will stimulate firms to provide games with high quality; either innovations on profit model or R&D subsidies from government are able to move equilibrium towards a status with higher quality. (2) Some characteristics of online game players will also affect firms' choice on online game quality, such as education background and length of the history of playing games. Current composition of online game players can still permit firms to gain profits and market share by low quality products, but as the maturing of the market, quality will finally be the most important factor for firms' survival.

 Key words: Online game, quality choice, conjoint analysis, numerical simulation.


Local journalism is a pillar of democratic societies, and its role becomes more critical during crises. But despite its critical importance, local news has faced immense challenges that jeopardize its sustainability in the U.S. This study examines the Colorado media ecology by comparing local news sources across four different counties during Summer 2020 and exploring the factors behind similarities and differences in coverage. Building on Napoli et al.'s (2017) framework to assessing the health of local news, the study uses content analysis to examine original, local reporting and coverage of critical information needs as well as type of framing in over 600 online stories appearing on the home pages of all news sources in the four counties. The findings reveal that the Colorado journalism ecosystem post-Covid outpaces U.S. local news in quality in the pre-Covid era yet aligns with disturbing trends pointing to inequities and disparities. In other words, rural, poorer, and more racially and ethnically diverse Colorado communities tend to have weaker news ecosystems and are more likely to become news deserts. The study also introduces thematic coverage as a necessary dimension to add to journalism quality assessment frameworks and discusses several approaches to salvage local news. © 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.


This book concerns the biosynthesis of ethanol fuels from biomass. Topics considered include anaerobic thermophilic bacteria, screening for cellulolytic mutants, the enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose to fermentable sugars, process biotechnology for the conversion of biomass into liquid fuels, a flow reactor for acid hydrolysis or pretreatment of cellulosic biomass, the production of ethanol and chemicals from wood by the Georgia Tech process, liquid fuels and chemicals from cellulosic residues by acid hydrolysis, alkane fuels production from biomass, and the integration of production of corn-derived fuels with animal feed production.


It is argued that: 1) Quantum Mechanics implies the preferred frame also because of the collapse delayed at detection, 2) forthcoming experiments with moving beam-splitters will allow us to decide between Preferred Frame and Multisimultaneity, and 3) if the Preferred Frame prevails, superluminal communication is in principle possible.


PURPOSE: To effectively perform the discharging of a condensed water which sticks on the surface of a flat heat transfer tube and a heat transfer fin being arranged in the horizontal direction. CONSTITUTION: The downstream side end edges of flat heat transfer tubes 6, 6 are projected at more downstream side of the downstream side end edges of heat transfer fins 7, 7. The central parts of the flat heat transfer tubes 6, 6 are bent at an obtuse angle, and the upper surfaces of respective flat heat transfer tubes 6, 6 are tilted. Water guiding plates 9, 9 are provided on the lower sides of the flat heat transfer tubes 6, 6 extending in the vertical direction, and respective water guiding plates 9, 9 are brought into contact with or made to approach the downstream side end edges of the flat heat transfer tubes 6, 6. A condensed water which sticks on the surfaces of the flat heat transfer tubes 6, 6 and the heat transfer fins 7, 7 flows to the lower position sides on the downstream side end edges of the flat heat transfer tubes 6, 6, and streams down along respective water guiding plates 9, 9.


It has been known for some time that there is an association between rheumatoid serum factor and rheumatoid subcutaneous nodules (Ball, 1950). This suggests that serum factor may be produced in areas of tissue damage, or perhaps be concentrated there. In either case, serum factor might be extractable in greater amounts from the nodules than from either the healthy tissues of the same subject or the non-rheumatoid tissues. This line of reasoning, which initiated the experiments described below, takes no account of immunofluorescent microscopic studies of the localization of rheumatoid factor because most of the experiments were carried out before those studies had been reported. Immunofluorescent microscopy shows that, in the subcutaneous nodules, synovial membranes, and lymph nodes of rheumatoid subjects, serum factor occurs almost exclusively in plasma cells; and it has been suggested that serum factor is synthesized by these cells (Mellors, Heimer, Corcos, and Korngold, 1959; Mellors, Nowoslawski, and Korngold, 1961). The experiments reported here, concerned as they are with the extraction of serum factor from various tissues, constitute a different approach to this problem of the source of rheumatoid serum factor; the findings indicate that skin contains significant amounts of serum factor and might be an additional site of synthesis of this protein.


The invention discloses a method for expressing ultrapixels and measuring similarity between the ultrapixels. The method comprises two phases. According to the first phase, an ultrapixel BoS is built, namely, the ultrapixels are acquired regarding to a given input image, an ultrapixel pyramid is built, the maximum inscribed square is extracted, outstanding square calculation is carried out, and ultrapixel BoS descriptors are built; according to the second phase, ultrapixel similarity calculation is carried out based on an ultrapixel BoS model, and the similarity of two ultrapixels is measured on the basis that the ultrapixel BoS descriptors are acquired. Due to the adoption of the method, ultrapixel characteristics can be better matched, detailed information of the ultrapixels can be precisely captured, and ultrapixel separation and merging diversity can be reasonably dealt with. The method can ensure that ultrapixel-based specific application algorithms like image cutting algorithms and image matching algorithms in relevant fields like computer visions can better copy with irregularity, separation-merging diversity and multi-characteristic characteristics so as to achieve better effect.


A wide range of networked games send data with very high interarrival-time between packets and with small payloads in each packet. We call these transmission patterns "thin streams". Reliability, when needed for game traffic, is usually achieved through TCP or by using retransmission schemes modelled on TCP. These retransmission schemes can result in very large delays if the stream is thin [9]. Viewed in the light of the time-dependent nature of game traffic, large delays can be severely impeding to the game experience. In order to reduce application-layer latency when packets are lost, we have implemented modifications to TCP in the Linux kernel. The changes are only active when thin-stream properties are detected, thus not affecting TCP behaviour when the stream is not thin. In this paper, we show the latency improvements from these thin-stream modifications. As a case study, we have used the game BZFlag to test the mechanisms, and present statistics from these tests. The experimental results show that our modifications allow TCP to recover earlier from packet loss. This latency reduction was then shown to improve the difference between perceived and actual player positions in the BzFlag game.


In this paper, we propose two rotation and scale invariant features extracted from the Hough transform domain to guide a CBIR system in the search of relevant building images. Upon receiving a query image, the CBIR system transforms the edges detected from the query into the Hough domain with 180 degrees/bins. From each bin, the peak percentage and peak distance ratio are calculated. The circular correlations between the peak percentages and peak distance ratios across the 180 bins of the query image and those of the database images are then taken as the similarity measure for ranking the relevance of the database images to the query.


The reactions of the singlet NH(a1Δ) radicals with alcohols were studied by the photolyses of hydrogen azide in liquid methyl and ethyl alcohols at the temperature of Dry Ice–methyl alcohol and at 0 °C. The main products were nitrogen, ammonia, and oxime ethers; acetaldehyde oxime O-ethyl ether from ethyl alcohol and formaldehyde oxime O-methyl ether from methyl alcohol. The relative yields of the products were independent of the changes in the reaction temperature and in the concentration of the hydrogen azide examined. Methoxyamine or ethoxyamine, a possible insertion product of the singlet NH into the O–H bond of alcohol, was detected as a form of oxime ether by the reactions with the aldehyde eventually formed. It was concluded that the singlet NH radicals can effectively insert into the O–H bond of the alcohol.


Reduction of restenosis rate with drug-eluting stents (DES) has accelerated the utilization of PCI in patients with multivessel disease [1]. However, a disturbing higher mortality rate with DES compared with bare metal stents has been noted recently with extended (up to 4 years) follow up, particularly due to late thrombosis (Camenzind E, WCC-ESC, Barcelona 2006, unpublished data). These data, which need to be validated by further studies, could mitigate the enthusiasm for the application of DES, particularly in patients with multivessel disease and/or left main stem lesion. In this scenario, a reappraisal of the surgical revascularization strategies is warranted, also taking into account a relevant amount of scientific information, which has been either overlooked or not adequately considered.


A hand-portable suitcase unit formed by a drawer and a slip-case cover, with a retaining lock which retains the drawer within the cover so that the unit may be carried as luggage by a combination carrying handle and drawer pull attached to the drawer front. Interlocking bead members are provided on the upper and lower surfaces of the slip-cases so that they may be stacked with the drawers horizontal to form a chest-of-drawers, and a cooperating latching device is shown on the rear face of the slip-case for releasably locking the covers together in the stack.


A method and an apparatus for decoding signals are provided to decode only a signal-changed partition among signal-changed partitions by using a decorrelator when an original signal is recovered by the upmixing of downmixed signals. A method for decoding signals comprises the following steps of: reading downmixed signals and spatial information from a bitstream(1501); upmixing the downmixed signals by using the spatial information or generating decorrelated signals by applying a decorrelator to the downmixed signals(1505); and generating 3D(Dimensional) virtual signals by applying 3D virtual information to the upmixed and downmixed signals and the decorrelated signals(1507).


With the widespread use of various electrical applicances in daily life, there has been an increase in unnecessary radiated electromagnetic waves influencing many spheres of social life. In addition to the radiation of unnecessary electromagnetic waves by electrical machinery, considerable noise arises from ignition systems of internal combustion engines. We assumed that the sources of electromagnetic waves were always due to the flow of radio wave currents. As an example of internal combustion engines, this paper uses an automobile engine. Also, a surface current detector was used for the generated noise currents (in the 300-MHz band). By means of measurements over the body of an automobile (sedan type), the relationship between the noise currents and the radiated noise waves was examined. The automobile body receives various electromagnetic waves which exist in space, especially TV waves, and that flow as high-frequency currents all over the automobile body. Naturally the reradiation if these waves is considered. On the other hand, a large amount of noise currents of the engine system flows on the bonnet near the fender part. It was observed especially that the noise currents tended to flow from the top of the ignition coil inside the engine housing. However, no noise currents were observed on the car door, roof and trunk. Based on these measurements of the radio noises actually radiated, it can be inferred that it is possible to reduce the electromagnetic radiation if the noise currents which are flowing in the bonnet and the fender part are eliminated.


This study was conducted to investigate the effect of Kanglaite (KLT) on the tumor cell cycle. The results reveal that the blank emulsion has a slight inhibiting action on tumor cells: the inhibition rate of 1:20 diluted emulsion (corresponding to 50 ul/ml) for KB cells being 10%.The 1С 50 values for KB cell and K562 cell being 22,65 ul/ml and 38,57 ul/ml KLT respectively. The mechanism by which KLT blocks the growth of tumor cells as showed by the flow cytometry is the inhibition of the multiplication of cancer cells, characterized by a decrease in the number of S-period cells and an increase in the G2+M period cells with a dose-dependent relationship, thus resulting in the apoptosis of tumor cells.


m6A plays important roles in cell differentiation and tissue development via selectively binding with the YTH-containing proteins. However, the mechanism of the selectively binding events is largely unknown. The precise prediction of m6A-YTH binding regions across the transcriptome will be helpful to learn the molecular basis of m6A selectively binding with the YTH-containing proteins. In this study, we developed a machine learning-based model, named m6ABRP, for predicting m6A-YTHDF2 binding regions. Sequence-based features were extracted and five different algorithms, Support vector machine (SVM), RandomForest, ExtraTrees, GradientBoosting and AdaBoost, were implemented for model training. Among them, the SVM-based model received the best AUC of 0.920 on the training dataset using five-fold cross validation and received the best AUC of 0.910 on the independent test dataset. The results suggest that m6ABRP is a powerful tool for predicting m6A-YTHDF2 binding regions.


Lidar is a powerful tool for measuring the vertical profiles of aerosols in the atmosphere using Rayleigh and Raman lidar techniques. Bistatic lidar can be used to obtain the angular structure of the scattered light. When the aerosols are uniformly distributed, this information can be analyzed to provide particle size distribution information. However, dusts tend to be irregularly shaped particles with varied composition. We investigate the impact of the irregular shape using optical scattering at several wavelengths, scanning electron microscopy, and T-matrix calculations. In particular, we study the rapid loss of Mie scattering resonances as the particle shape departs from spherical. Different size distributions produced by different size-cuts of Arizona Road Dust (ARD) are studied.


• Differentiating the doctor of philosophy (PhD) in nursing by its contributions to substantive disciplinary knowledge. • Designing research that attends to the integrality and complexity of human experiences in health/illness. • Developing scholarship and knowledge relevant to society and its concerns. • Creating student research experience grounded in faculty's work and expertise while encouraging innovations in knowledge development.


source and performance history is untangled in two concise paragraphs. As with most entries, not a word is wasted. His discussion of this cantata's uncommonly diverse choruses is similarly all-encompassing yet succinct, offering useful summaries of style, formal structures, scoring, use of text, and even reception. Du« rr may no longer be at the cutting edge of Bach scholarship, but in a book of this type that is probably a good thing. For criticism of greater verve and depth, serious students of the cantatas will want to consult Eric Chafe, Martin Petzoldt, Robert Marshall, and others, using Du« rr/Jones mostly as a point of reference, since this book (more than any other) keeps us honest about these pieces. Those well versed in the literature will inevitably find strikingly different readings. Concerning the opening movement of Wo Gott der Herr nicht bei uns ha lt, BWV 178, for example, which Richard Taruskin has described as 'French overture straight from hell', Du« rr allows only that it 'seems to be inspired chiefly by the image of raging enemies' (p. 459). Interestingly, one finds only occasional evidence of his disagreements with other scholars (cf. the terse little note on p. 273 on the 'napkin' scene in the Easter Oratorio). More often, Du« rr is content to raise questions that cause the reader to rethink even familiar works: why indeed is there no chorale at the end of Ich habe genug, BWV 82? Jones wisely updates numerous passages, including those that address issues of performance practice. Joshua Rifkin and Andrew Parrott's ideas about the size of Bach's ensemble get an approving nod, though one remark made me wonder whether this was Jones speaking on his own or not: the 1999 Ba« renreiter edition of Du« rr notes that for a typical Leipzig cantata, Bach needed 'etwa 12 Sa« ngern' (p. 43), while Du« rr/ Jones pares this down to 'an ensemble of at least four' (p. 24).The timings given for each cantata, on the other hand, are consistently wide of the mark, reflecting performances that were more common a generation ago. Die Elenden sollen essen, BWV 75, for instance, takes the Bach Collegium Japan only 30 minutes, a full 10 minutes less than the estimate given in Du« rr/Jones (which, like the German editions of Du« rr, borrows its timings from Werner Neumann's 1984 Handbuch der Kantaten J. S. Bachs). One other feature of the German editions that should have been changed is the awkward positioning of the musical examples to Part 1 just after that portion of the text, which makes the examples difficult to find. (The examples in Parts 2 and 3, in contrast, are worked nicely into the text.) The bibliography, though generous, favours work by members of the Bach industry over the occasional piece by a scholarly interloper. Among those not included: Susan McClary's provocative 'The Blasphemy of Talking Politics during the BachYear' (in McClary and Leppert, Music and Society (Cambridge, 1987)), with its gendered reading of Cantata 140. And is it really necessary in such a book to have fairly basic wordsçlike 'chorus'çstarred for reference in the glossary at their first appearance in each individual cantata discussion? But enough nitpicking! An indispensable reference work is finally available in a handsome English translation, and for that we should be thankful.


The idea of using no-fault insurance in other than auto claims has been impeded by the fear of insurers and their corporate insureds (including manufacturers and other businesses as well as health care providers) that claim frequency would increase dramatically under such insurance. In this article, a statute is proposed under which a defendant in a claim for personal injury would be given the option of foreclosing the claim by offering, within 60 days of the claim, to pay the claimant's economic loss or "special" damages, consisting mostly of medical expenses and wage loss, beyond any collateral sources already available to the claimant.


Equilibrium credit rationing, in the sense of Stiglitz and Weiss, is shown to imply that the marginal cost of funds to the borrower is infinite. So entrepreneurs have an overwhelming incentive to cut their loans by a dollar and so avoid rationing. Ways of doing this include scaling down the project, decreasing consumption, or delaying the project to accumulate more savings. Credit rationing emerges for indivisible projects only when delay causes sufficient deterioration. Borrowers then apply for funds at the first opportunity, but, counterfactually, once denied a loan, they never reapply. Conditions for credit rationing are stringent indeed.


Currently, Team HAKUTO is developing the Flight Model version of a lunar micro rover. This rover is designed to operate during the lunar day to complete the Google Lunar XPRIZE mission requirement. Compared to the previous rover iterations, we updated the rover's thermal and power performance by incorporating passive thermal interface designs within the restricted dimension and mass budget. As part of the qualification for space readiness, alternative Commercial Off-the-Shelf avionics are implemented to replace several Pre-Flight Model phase hardware. With the fusion of a new platform, we perform thermal simulation of the rover to justify its performance within the temperature tolerant range.


Spirituality in social entrepreneurship has formed a considerable awareness among the Muslim scholars in
recent times. Although much scholarly work exists regarding spirituality, however, most were carried out
from the western perspective. A previous Social entrepreneurship literature has been based on behavior,
intentions, and contextual variables and ignores or subordinates spiritual concepts. As social
entrepreneurship includes innovative programs to improve livelihood to those who have no financial
power, thus, it is the duty of the Muslim entrepreneurs to take initiative and innovate social security to
satisfy the needs of the society. Realizing the current situation regarding spirituality in Islam and its
effects on entrepreneurial outcomes, this exploratory study aims to explore how spirituality effects on
social entrepreneurship from Islamic perspective which continues to create meaning for the Muslim
entrepreneurs. Based on the feedback of 20 women social entrepreneurs in Klang Valley, there are six
reasons for them to venture into social entrepreneurship. These reasons are paired with the key Islamic
spirituality for social entrepreneurship that is in line with the objective (maqasid) of the religion on the
social responsibility. The results from the qualitative research method are not generalizable, but they
could give some insights to Muslim scholars, policy makers and lawmakers to focus more the social
entrepreneurship. The future study should use triangulation method and to involve all stakeholders to
produce more rigorous and comprehensive results and contribution to the theory and practice.


Acromegaly is characterized by GH excess and insulin resistance. It is not known which of these disorders is responsible for the increased atherogenic risk in these patients.


In the presented paper an application of the inverse method for post-processing of PIV data have been discussed. The aim of the study is to develop a new methodology for filling of missing values in the experimental data. The problem concerns filling of large gaps in the vector velocity field caused by the limited optical access to the test section of high speed wind tunnel. The inverse procedure involves fitting of the PIV data with a CFD simulation results. In order to estimate unknown parameters of the flow the procedure utilises a multi-parametrical identification algorithm. The paper presents results of the numerical test performed in order to validate the proposed methodology. The simulated flow over an airfoil in a test section of a high speed wind tunnel has been locally masked in order to reproduce the limitations of the actual measurements. The recovered vector velocity filed is in very good agreement with the masked model data. The results of the numerical studies proved the feasibility of the proposed methodology for post-processing of vector velocity fields corrupted with large areas of missing data. The developed method will be applied for PIV measurements of the flow over an airfoil in a high speed wind tunnel. The location of the lightsheet optics do not allow to perform measurements of the flow over the leading edge of an airfoil, therefore the inverse method has been proposed.


Induction of lineage-specific gene programs are strongly influenced by alterations in local chromatin architecture. However, key players that impact this genome reorganization remain largely unknown. Here, we report that removal of special AT-rich binding protein 2 (SATB2), a nuclear protein that binds matrix attachment regions, is a key event in initiating myogenic differentiation. Deletion of SATB2 in muscle cell culture models and in vivo, accelerates differentiation and depletes the muscle progenitor pool, respectively. Genome wide analysis indicates that SATB2 binding is both repressive and inductive, as loss of SATB2 leads to expression of differentiation regulatory factors and inhibition of genes that impair this process. Finally, we noted that the differentiation-specific decline in SATB2 protein is dependent on a caspase 7-mediated cleavage event. Taken together, this study demonstrates that temporal control of SATB2 protein is critical for shaping the chromatin environment and coordinating the myogenic differentiation program. Graphical Abstract


The first objective of this study is to examine the finanacial management practices of rural housewives. The second objective is to determine the effects of sociodemographic characteristics on financial management practices. The Deacon & Firebaugh's model of family resource management framework and previous studies were used to determine the effects, regarding age, income, number of family, education level, and farming/nonfarming as independent/input variables, and monthly saving and managerial behavior index as dependent/throughput variables. A sample of 179 rural housewives aged less than 60 was selected from Shihung-Si Gyonggi-Do Province. Results showed that rural housewives more frequently did keeping bills, making purchase-list, and verifying purchase need than recording where money spent, making financial plan, and evaluating spending. With regard to household debt use, 60% of the sample had debt, the most borrower used debt for farming, 73% of borrowers paid for their debt behind the schedule, and the main source of borrowing was NACF(NongHyup). Using installment credit, the rural housewives mainly bought cosmetics, 25% of the sample had credit cards. Average debt was 6,070,000 won, and 81% of annual income. In terms of saving, 85% of the sample saved, and 23% of the sample lived with the money after save. The main reasons of saving were for education and marriage of children and emergency. The main saving institutions were NACF and NLCF(ChukHyup). The regression showed that income was negatively associated with monthly saving, and age was identified as the positive determinants of managerial behavior index.


The  supply  of  energy  and  the  protection  of  the  environment  have  been  two  of  the most  important problems  to have affected mankind  in  recent decades.The waste management  is become ...


Image segmentation approaches have contributed a lot to help people interpret Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images well. Fuzzy C-means (FCM), as a clustering method, is the most popular one of SAR image segmentation. However, classical FCM is quite sensitive to speckle noises included in the SAR images, and adding the spectral information is still not enough to improve the performance. Hence, there is a need to take advantage of other useful information to improve segmentation results. In this paper, first of all, Gabor filter is adopted to extract texture features. And then, the SAR image is divided into several patches as the unit to process. At last, FCM with improved nonlocal spatial information (FCM_INLS) is modified with Gaussian kernel distance instead of the Euclidean distance, called FCM_KWINLS, and it can be more robust to speckle noises. In our experiments, the results demonstrate that the proposed method effectively improves the performance of SAR image segmentation.


In this paper, a solution procedure is proposed to solve Fully Fuzzy Quadratic Fractional Programming problem (FFQFPP) where all the variables and parameters are triangular fuzzy numbers. Here, FFQFPP transformed into an equivalent Multi- Objective Quadratic Fractional Programming problem (MOQFPP). Then MOQFPP converted into an equivalent multi objective Quadratic programming problem by using Mathematical programming approach. The proposed solution illustrated through numerical examples


Recently, heat-related diseases like COVID19, Chickenpox, Typhoid, and others are increasing significantly;therefore, the need for portable devices to measures the heat of the human body accurately, quickly, easily with low cost has become very necessary to preserve the life of patients For this reason, a smart system has been developed to monitor the patient's heat, in addition to temperature and humidity of the critical environment such as surgical operating rooms, patients' isolation rooms and pharmacies, because it can help propagate infectious agents like viruses and bacteria The proposed system divided into four parts: Transmitted part (arduino, heat sensor, and hygrometer sensor), alarm part consists of lights and alarm bell, emergency part (doctors and nurses), and the medical application has been used as the last part The application can be used only by authorized persons and through the accounts which are granted to them, in order to protect the data from sabotage and maintain the privacy and confidentiality of it © 2021 Institute of Advanced Engineering and Science All rights reserved


One of the main reasons of project failure is poor scope management. A project with a poor scope management will likely suffer scope creeps, conflicting and vague statement of requirements, compromised quality and rising costs.


Technology has invaded all spheres of life, including education and providing a lot of facilities. It has played a great role in managing education during the COVID-19 crisis. However, technology might prove detrimental if there is too much of it which may negatively affect its users in some way. This study aimed to investigate final-year students' technology fatigue in distance project-based learning environments during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. The study employed an online survey approach to collect data from 86 final-year students. The results showed that technology does not highly fatigue final-year students in distance project-based learning environments. Still, the study reported some factors that contribute to increasing and decreasing final-year students' technology fatigue level, which may inform project supervisors and decision-makers on the best practice for implementing distance project-based learning without putting students under great pressure and fatigue resulting from technology. This study adds to a limited yet growing body of literature on a very important topic, technology fatigue, that has recently arisen in the academic sector especially during the COVID-19 pandemic when technology was the quickest and most ideal response to the global lockdown.


respects agrees with the characters of this genus, so far as they are given in the Eeport. The variety of Diplodus with a single spine also exhibits the same peculiar feature. The characters of the four other genera, described in the paper, are too concisely given in the Eeport to enable me to form any decided opinion respecting them, though I venture to think that more than one are apparently only varieties of previously described forms.


The first climax of the collation and commentary on "A New Account of the Tales of the World" appeared in the Song Dynasty. Almost all reviewers on the collation and commentary of "A New Account of the Tales of the World" in Song Dynasty are related to Jiangxi Poetry School. Jiangxi Poetry School has adored "A New Account of the Tales of the World" since Huang Tingjian. Jiangxi Poetry School may have contributed to the collation and commentary of "A New Account of the Tales of the World" in Song Dynasty to some


Let Pn(x) be a polynomial of degree n,a0≠0,m≥2 and m∈N.A necessary and sufficient condition is obtained which makes the following antiderivative formula holds∫Pn(x) m a0x3+a1x2+a2x+a3dx=Qn-2(x)·m(a0x3+a1x2+a2x+a3)m-1+C,where Qn-2(x) is a polynomial of degree n-2.The coefficients of Qn-2(x) can be found by the method of undermined coefficients.


A secondary remedial/resource teacher undertakes a program of instruction with the assistance and cooperation of the class teacher. It involves the teaching of complete classes as opposed to withdrawal groups.


The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy of antireflux therapy with both conventional management and those with no treatment in children with chronic otitis media with effusion (COME). In this prospective randomized clinical trial ninety children with COME which lasted more than 3 months or more, documented by physical examination and Type B tympanogram in at least one ear without clinical signs and symptoms of active infection that were refractory to 3 period of antibacterial treatment, were randomly allocated to receive a 3 month course in three groups of antireflux treatment (AR group, Cisapride 1 mg/kg/day), conventional antibacterial treatment (AB group, Co-amoxiclave 40 mg/kg/day TID) and those with no treatment (Control group, no medication). All patients were followed every month. The favorable response was considered as complete resolution of effusion clinically and type A or more than -200 peak in tympanometry. Of the 30 patients assigned to AR group, 10 (33.3%) were judged to be clinically cured and in AB group 12 (40%) were cured while only 3 (10%) in control group were cured. The cure rate in AR and AB groups was significantly higher compared with control group but there was no significant difference between cure rates in AR and AB groups (P=0.59). No subjects experienced complications during or after the study. There may be a possible role for GER medical management in patients with COME. Further investigations are necessary in order to confirm this hypothesis.


By experimental research about the heat conductivity of diatomite modified asphalt mixture,the thermal conductivity coefficients and the thermal capacities of the asphalt mixture with different contents of diatomite were obtained.With these parameters and FE method,the variations of temperature field of highway in the permafrost were analyzed.The results from indoor experiments show that the conductivity of asphalt mixture decreases when the diatomite being added in the asphalt mixture,especially when the content of diatomite is 25%,the thermal conductivity coefficient decreases 10%,while the thermal capacity does not change.The FEM analysis proves that the temperature field of top of the permafrost subgrade varies with the temperature of pavement surface.When the diatomite modified asphalt mixture is adopted,the maximum temperature on top of the permafrost subgrade is colder.As the content of diatomite up to 25%,the temperature on top of the permafrost will reduce 1.5 ℃.So the diatomite modified asphalt mixture has good heat insulation property,it is useful to keep the stability of permafrost.


This chapter is devoted to the control of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). Based on the dynamic models, three AUV control problems are investigated including longitudinal gliding stabilization, yaw angle regulation, and spiral path tracking, using passivity‐based control, sliding mode control, and two‐degree‐of‐freedom (2‐DOF) control, respectively. The chapter reiterates that a dynamic model of AUVs is a necessity when the control of AUVs are considered where a kinematic model is insufficient due to system nonlinearity and coupling effects between control inputs. The control problems are thus challenging due to the resulting increased system complexity compared to the kinematic models adopted for surface vehicles. Given desired trajectories of curvature, torsion, and velocity, simulation is conducted to test the effectiveness of the proposed 2‐DOF control algorithm. For the purpose of comparison, the simulation are conducted with pure inverse mapping control and Proportional‐Integral control.


A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T Article history: Received: 08 June, 2020 Accepted: 13 September, 2020 Online: 17 September, 2020 A data analytic approach presented in this work covers both data descriptive and predictive modeling with two main objectives: (1) discovering factors related to longevity of populations in the two most populated nations, China and India, and (2) generating life expectancy predictive models for both countries. Descriptive modeling methods to explore major environmental and economic factors anticipating to affect longevity patterns of people are web graph analysis and chi-squared automatic interaction detection (CHAID) techniques. Web graph analysis has been applied for the ease of visualization and CHAID is for discovering factors leading to longevity. From the analysis results, particulate emission including ozone pollution and PM2.5 concentrations are the most important factor threatening life of populations in both China and India. To predict number of years an individual is expected to live based on the available environmental and economic factors, several statistical and machine learning techniques are applied and it turns out that a linear regression model yields the most accurate prediction result.


Let's start with an example: The Fossil Forum (www.thefossilforum.com) is a discussion board-based global forum that specialises in the collection, study, and appreciation of fossils. With nearly 25,000 members from around the world, the forum serves the function of uniting an otherwise disparate group according to a passion for palaeontology – professional and avocational. Registered members will have varying degrees of expertise, from amateurs to established researchers. The forum does not rely on advertising revenue, and instead funds its operations through direct donations and member-created auctions. The forum also prohibits the posting of commercial links, and does not provide commercial appraisal of fossils. Members have the opportunity to post their finds for the community to assist in proper identification, engage in a wide range of fossil-related topics, exchange advice on preparation and collecting, share open access documents, and allows members to post personal galleries. In terms of online social capital, the only visible metric is the accumulation of 'informative points' awarded by the community when a member posts content that is considered informative. The non-metric forms of online social capital in this community can be considered the shared assets of expertise, experience, and informative resources. In addition, members who initially met on this forum have organised collecting trips offline. Members can be awarded forum badges for being 'member of the month' (decided by staff), 'fossil of the month' (chosen among several competitors by community voting), and 'paleo partner' (awarded to any member who has contributed meaningfully to palaeontology, such as publishing an article, volunteering at a museum or donating a specimen of scientific significance). Like many social media sites, The Fossil Forum is a high-trust network. Its narrow focus affords greater consensus on vision, mission, and values. New members are not granted immediate access to some features until a number of posts of substance have been made. The community is moderated by a team of volunteers to prevent spammers, provide positive encouragement to new members and ensure that the forum's policies are enforced. A forum such as


Although the agri-food sector has a huge potential to offer attractive employment opportunities for Africa's burgeoning youth, a negative perception of agriculture persists among Cameroonian youths, such as in many other African countries. The paper assesses the determinants of university students' choices and preferences for agricultural sub-sector engagement in Cameroon. A multistage random sampling technique was used to select 550 students from two state universities. We used the SWOT analysis to evaluate students' perceptions of challenges and opportunities within the agricultural sector in Cameroon, the binomial probit analysis to assess the determinants of students' choices of agriculture as a university major, and an ordered probit analysis to evaluate the determinants of students' preferences of agricultural sub-sector engagement. Findings reveal that choice of agriculture as a university major is significantly determined by sex, pre-university farming experience, pre-university academic background, mother's level of education, and household income. Likewise, preference of agricultural sub-sector engagement is significantly determined by the student's level of study and location of a childhood home. Improving the attractiveness of, and working conditions in, the agricultural sector could increase youth engagement in agribusiness and rural economic activities. The results also reinforce the need to increase household income in Cameroon, as this could lift families out of poverty and offer them more economic opportunities. Policies that regulate levels of education can equally be used to allocate human resources into different agricultural sub-sectors, subject to felt needs.


Objective
To investigate the surgical methods, safety and clinical value of pelvic peritoneal reconstruction in three- dimensional laparoscopic Dixon for low rectal cancer.

Methods
The clinical data of 178 cases of low rectal cancer which were made pelvic peritoneum reconstruction in 3D laparoscopic assisted Dixon from Mar. 2015 to Jul. 2016 were retrospectively analyzed. The surgical techniques, safety and clinical value were summarized.

Results
178 patients underwent 3D laparoscopic assisted Dixon without laparotomy and the pelvic peritoneum were reconstructed successfully. The mean operation time was (150.78 ± 30.20)min, the pelvic peritoneum reconstruction time was(18.13 ± 6.71)min, the intraoperative blood loss was(61.00 ± 12.67)ml, the postoperative hospitalization time was(10.34 ± 2.65)days, the bed ambulation time was(2.85 ± 1.14)days and the ileostomy ventilation time was(2.96 ± 0.83)days, the postoperative eating time was (3.45 ± 1.30)days, the time of drainage tube was(4.69 ± 1.71)days, the distal margin was (2.87 ± 0.70)cm, and the circumferential incised margins were all negative. 2 patients were occurred anastomotic leakage. The patients were followed up for one year, the adhesive intestinal obstruction, radiation enteritis, pelvic peritoneal cleft hernia and other complications were not found.

Conclusions
The pelvic peritoneal reconstruction in 3D laparoscopic assisted Dixon for low rectal cancer were safe and feasible and has important application value. The pelvic peritoneal reconstruction in 3D laparoscopic assisted Dixon were worthy of clinical promotion.

Key words:
Rectal cancer; Pelvic peritoneal reconstruction; Three- dimensional laparoscopy; Dixon


Enclosure experiments with phytoplankton communities from the Northern Adriatic Sea: effects of N, P or Si-limitation and copepod grazing on phytoplankton species composition biomass and polysaccharide production