Respect for the values laid down in Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) was one of the primary reasons that led to the establishment of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA). While neither the Treaties nor the Regulation establishing FRA envisage an explicit role for the FRA with respect to Article 7 TEU, its assistance may be sought in this context even though the contours of such an eventual assistance remains to be clarified. By contrast, the European Commission may approach the FRA should the Commission require its assistance with respect to the application of the framework it adopted in 2014. The Council and the Parliament could similarly require the FRA's assistance. It is however submitted that a more structured dialogue and the regular provision of data and analysis, including via the FRA, would make the EU system of monitoring respect for EU values within the EU itself more operational and help prevent double standards. This article is part of the September 2016 Symposium titled 'The Great Rule of Law Debate in the EU', which also includes The Great Rule of Law Debate in the EU by Dimitry Kochenov, Amichai Magen and Laurent Pech (DOI: ), Cracks in the Foundations: Understanding the Great Rule of Law Debate in the EU by Amichai Magen (DOI: ), Better Late than Never? On the European Commission's Rule of Law Framework and its First Activation by Dimitry Kochenov and Laurent Pech (DOI: ), Strengthening the Rule of Law in the EU: The Council's Inaction by Peter Oliver and Justine Stefanelli (DOI: ), The European Parliament's Role: Towards New Copenhagen Criteria for Existing Member States? by Judith Sargentini and Aleksejs Dimitrovs (DOI: )


In this paper we present a new approach for the acquisition and analysis of background knowledge which is used for 3D reconstruction of man-made objects -- in this case buildings. Buildings can be easily represented as parameterized graphs from which p-subisomorphic graphs will be computed. P-graphs will be defined and an upper bound complexity estimation of the computation of p-subisomorphims will be given. In order to reduce search space we will discuss several pruning mechanisms. Background knowledge requires a classification in order to receive a probability distribution which will serve as a priori knowledge for 3D building reconstruction. Therefore, we will apply an alternative view of nearest- neighbor classification to measured knowledge in order to learn based on a complete seed and a noise model a distribution of this knowledge. An application of an extensive scene consisting of 1846 building cluster which are represented as p-graphs in order to estimate a probability distribution of corner nodes demonstrates the effectiveness of our approach. An evaluation using the information coding theory determines the information gain which is provided by the estimated distribution in comparison with no available a priori knowledge.


In response to escalating obesity in Manitoba, Canada, the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority (WRHA) formed a Bariatric Care Committee to address the issue of providing safe, efficient, and effective care for this population. The WRHA proposed that Deer Lodge Centre (DLC) be designated as the site for the management and care of bariatric patients requiring long-term chronic care. As a result, a DLC Bariatric Committee with several working groups was formed. The working groups were to provide plans for clinical program, communication, research and education, staffing, capital planning, and equipment. The Research and Education Working Group conducted literature reviews for each of the working groups. A selection of the most pertinent resources found for the DLC Bariatric Committee Working Groups are highlighted here. It is anticipated that this resource will provide assistance for others wishing to establish bariatric programs within their facility. Citations are categorized under the headings: clinical ca...


The development of the automotive industry, especially my vehicle transportation, has changed from a fuel motor to an electric motor vehicle. The purpose of writing is to get results from the simulation of frame design and power on an electric motorcycle. The simulation result from the design where the material used is low carbon steel that the frame of an electric motorcycle with a rider weight of 170 kg is safe based on the "machine element" book on the dynamic load safety factor, which is determined from 2.0-3.0 For static loads 1.25-2.0 and shocks 3-5 this frame construction includes dynamic loads, displacement resulting from the stress analysis of the electric motorcycle frame receiving a load of 1700 N which is assumed to be the weight of the rider. Based on the simulation results, the maximum displacement is 0.2118 mm, and the von Mises stress generated by the stress analysis of the electric motorcycle frame receives a load of 1700 N, which is assumed to be the weight of the rider. Based on the simulation results, the maximum von Mises is 101.3 MPa. The von mises voltage. This electric motorcycle uses a 48 V BLDC brushless motor, 1500 W, 550 rpm, and uses a 58 V and 24 Ah lithium-ion battery.


UraniumSA is the company which operates only in South Australia concentrating on single geological province with single regulatory regime. Its drilling work at Pirie Basin and its Kanaka Beds made it as a new uranium district.


Core–shell powders consisting of a tungsten particle core and thin alumina shell have been synthesized using atomic layer deposition in a rotary reactor. Standard atomic layer deposition of trimethylaluminum/water at 150 °C utilizing a microdosing technique was performed on four different batches of powder with different average particle sizes. The particle size of the powders studied ranges from ∼25 to 1500 nm. The high mass-thickness contrast between alumina and tungsten in transmission electron microscopy images demonstrates that the particle core/shell interface is abrupt. This allows for the uncomplicated measurement of alumina thickness and therefore the accurate determination of growth per cycle. In agreement with prior works, the highest growth per cycle of ∼2 A/cycle occurred on the batch of powder with the smallest average particle size and the growth per cycle decreased with increasing average particle size of a powder batch. However, the growth per cycle of the alumina film on an individual pa...


OZET Appendico-ileal fistula is a rare condition with acute ileus. We report a case of appendico-ileal fistule in a 46-year-old man patient who has undergone laparatomy for intestinal mechanical obstruction. Intraoperatively, an appendix with a lumen was found with a fistula to the terminal ileum. It has been observed that proximal ileal and jejunal intestinal anses were distended. Appendectomy, segmental ileum resection and end-to-end anastomoses were performed as a surgical procedure. This case describes an elderly man with acute ileus presenting with small bowel obstruction. We conclude that, appendico-ileal fistula should be kept in mind in cases with acute ileus presenting with small bowel obstruction.


Hokkaido has the highest harvest of fruitlets such as seaberry, haskap and aronia in Japan. Haskap and raspberry are native to Hokkaido, but blueberry, aronia and seaberry were introduced from abroad in the middle of the 20th century. The functional components of these fruits, such as polyphenols, are now attracting attention and their production is increasing. The Education and Research Center for Antioxidant Function has been analyzing and studying the antioxidant function of food materials produced in Hokkaido, and has revealed that many fruitlets have high antioxidant value. I will introduce the attractiveness of the antioxidant function of various fruitlets in Hokkaido such as seaberry, haskap, aronia. (Accepted Apr. 14, 2020)


The Social Dimension of Shin Buddhism. Ugo Dessi, Editor. Leiden: Brill, 2010, 286 pages; ISBN 978-90-04-18653-8 (Cloth), $153.00. For students of Japanese Buddhism, and of Buddhist ethics more broadly, scholarly writing on Jodo Shinshu has been quietly marked by the fact that while Shin is one of the largest distinct Buddhist groups in the world, claiming as adherents perhaps ten million people, Shin has nonetheless been relatively neglected within Buddhist Studies. This may be changing. In the past two years, a number of wonderful and engaging examinations of Shin texts and thinkers have been published, including but not limited to: The Promise of Amida Buddha: Honen's Path to Bliss, translated by Joji Atone and Yoko Hayashi (Wisdom, 2011); Cultivating Spirituality: A Modern Shin Buddhist Anthology, edited by Mark Bloom and Robert Rhodes (SUNY, 2011); and Shinran's Kyogyoshinsho: The Collection of Passages Expounding the True Teaching, Living, Faith, and Realizing of the Pure Land, D. T. Suzuki's translation edited under the supervision of Sengaku Mayeda (Oxford, 2012). This current focus on Shin's Kamakura founders, on textual translation, and on modern philosophical explication of Shin insights, has offered students a renewed sense of the depth of Shin thought, but also largely continues the aims and interests of previous scholarship. In the introduction to his recent edited volume, The Social Dimension of Shin Buddhism (Brill, 2010), Ugo Dessi notes that English-language works on Shin have largely "reflected a sectarian approach, namely, the interest of Shin Buddhist believers in their own tradition and their concern about promoting their religion within a wider audience of readers, or [these works] have attempted to develop forms of interreligious dialogue with Christianity and philosophical discourses" (l). Dessi writes that he and his contributors offer, instead, "a collective attempt to address the significance of the social dimension of Shin Buddhism ... through the lenses of religious studies, understood as the publicly testable explanation of religious phenomena as empirical and historical data" (10). It is possible to disagree with Dessi's view that past scholars and students of Shin have been "sectarian" in any narrowly apologetic sense. But certainly there have been relatively few examinations of Shin as it has functioned as a social ethos, embedded within a national history. (And the student of Buddhist ethics should have some sense of how those ethics have fared, when faced with sometimes intractable social challenges, and the problem of violence.) The Social Dimension of Shin Buddhism is a collection of seven essays, five of which focus on Shin and Japanese society in the twentieth century. I will offer brief thoughts on each essay here, before suggesting a brief critique of the book, and a view of the relationship between normative Buddhist ethics and the historical study of Buddhist social-institutional ethics, at the end of this review. Martin Repp begins the volume with a very fine historical review of Kamakura-period Tendai and Hosso criticisms of Honen's Jodoshu teachings, noting the ways that Honen's teaching of the exclusive "easy practice" of nembutsu in faithful gratitude to Amida Buddha was perceived by his religious opponents as both ultimately antinomian, and as a solvent to traditional institutional monastic control over ritual and income. (And precisely because these early institutional critics seem to have been surprised by the expansive popularity of Honen's teachings, this reader would have liked to have further hypotheses about reasons why these teachings were so welcome at precisely this time, and why the monasteries so easily lost control.) Most importantly for the rest of the collection, Repp's essay includes an extended discussion of the ideal equality of all practitioners in Honen's Jodoshu teaching. This theme of ideal equality, deepened by Honen's disciple, Shinran ("founder" of Jodo Shinshu), in his discussion of dobo (fellow companions), is implicit as a Shin category of potential and active self-critique throughout much of the rest of the book. …


Introduction: Government health care coverage in marginal population is usually low. They are not adequately covered by routine health care services e.g. slums in urban areas and brick kiln population, and migrant/floating populations in rural areas. These often provide a potent pocket of breeding ground for communicable diseases outbreaks because of poor hygienic conditions.


PURPOSE: To provide the automatic control system for a portrait pickup camera in a television conference system in which a position and a size of a portrait on a screen are automatically controlled by introducing the picture recognition technology to the television conference system. CONSTITUTION: The system consists of a contour extract means 4 extracting a contour of a portrait from an output picture of a portrait pickup camera, a sample data storage means 10 storing sample data 12 of a portrait picture, a pattern matching means 8 comparing extract data 6 extracted by the contour extract means 4 with the sample data 12 stored in the sample data storage means 10, a camera moving direction detection means 14 detecting the moving direction of the camera to set the extract data 6 to be close to the sample data 12 based on the comparison result by the pattern matching means 8, and a camera control means 16 controlling the portrait pickup camera in response to an output of the camera moving direction detection means 14. COPYRIGHT: (C)1993,JPO&Japio


Abstract The chemical composition of essential oil of Senecio vernalis (Asteraceae) from Turkey was analyzed by GC and GC-MS system. The yield of the oil is 0.4 ml. The essential oil composition of S.vernalis was studied and thirty nine components representing 91.5 % of the total oil were identified. The main constituents of S.vernalis were β-phellandrene (12.6 %), 1,8-cineole (9.2 %), caryophyllene oxide (7.3 %), β-selinene (6.3 %) and limonene (6.2 %). The chemical distribution of essential oil compounds in the genus pattern were discussed in means of chemotaxonomy and natural products.


Ideological warfare against authority, especially in the world of higher education, broke out in the 1960s, and continues into the 1990s. No source or symbol of authority escaped untouched-neither parents nor teachers nor the cop on the beat. While the hippies have gone underground or disappeared entirely, the assault on legitimate authority continues unabated. As familiar institutions crumble before our eyes, befuddled liberals and conservatives alike throw up their hands in despair. In Authority and Its Enemies, Thomas Molnar asserts that the Western world is reeling from an overdose of freedom without order or authority. "Prof. Molnar's densely written book demands concentration...In the much needed debate over this large, complex problem of authority in family, church, school, and state Prof. Molnar makes a sobering, closely reasoned presentation of a conservative view. That is a contribution." - Edmund Fuller, The Wall Street Journal "Once more Professor Molnar displays the clear-headedness and prescience we have come to expect from him as an analyst of the cultural and political plight of the Western world today." - David Levy, The Alternative: An American Spectator "From the pen of Dr. Thomas Molnar now comes a new and important book on authority in American society. Authority is one of those fundamental realities that we all know perfectly well-until we try to define it and explain it. A brilliant and reliable philosopher, Dr. Molnar has the exceptional ability to do both." -Kenneth Baker. S. J., Homiletic and Pastoral Review


ABSTRACT The present study was the first of its kind to examine the outcome of psychotherapy offered at youth clinics (YCs) in Sweden. YCs are unique services offering young people easy access to free treatment for physical, sexual, mental and social problems without the requirement for parental consent. The psychotherapies, conducted with 31 participants aged 13–20, were integrative psychodynamic, individually tailored to each patient. A strong emphasis was put on forming positive therapeutic relationships. Whole-group analysis showed significant improvement on the CORE-OM self-assessment questionnaire as well as on the clinician-rated C-GAS, despite relatively short treatment duration and a very heterogenic study population. Analysis of individual change suggested that a large proportion of participants had improved after therapy, even though some of the therapies were still ongoing at the point of follow-up. Interview data helped to shed light on factors within and outside of therapy that contributed to the experience of change. Moreover, the qualitative analysis helped to create a better understanding of some of the differences that had emerged between participants' and therapists' assessments. The results support the need for youth-oriented services that offer young people easy access to individualized psychological treatment conducted in a collaborative and flexible manner.


Different agencys in swedish administration daily comes to decisions which can be very significant, for both privat persons and comunity. For this to work well it demands that people accept this au ...


The paper states that the design of ultrasonic module level detection device which is able to shield filth floating covering layer and sewage level fluctuation can effectively shield the impact of filth floating covering layer on beam reflection of the ultrasonic sensor to ensure the reflection beam is the real liquid surface;meanwhile,it can effectively eliminate fluctuation of sewage liquid surface to ensure the liquid surface detected by ultrasonic sensor is relatively stable.


Robust and reliable quantitative proliferation assessment tools have the potential to contribute significantly to a strengthened nonproliferation regime and to the future deployment of nuclear fuel cycle technologies. Efforts to quantify proliferation resistance have thus far met with limited success due to the inherent subjectivity of the problem and interdependencies between attributes that lead to proliferation resistance. We suggest that these limitations flow substantially from weaknesses in the foundations of existing methodologies--the initial data inputs. In most existing methodologies, little consideration has been given to the utilization of varying types of inputs--particularly the mixing of subjective and objective data--or to identifying, understanding, and untangling relationships and dependencies between inputs. To address these concerns, a model set of inputs is suggested that could potentially be employed in multiple approaches. We present an input classification scheme and the initial results of testing for relationships between these inputs. We will discuss how classifying and testing the relationship between these inputs can help strengthen tools to assess the proliferation risk of nuclear fuel cycle processes, systems, and facilities.


The Development of Two Units for Basic Training and Resources for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages: "Basic Principles of Second Language Acquisition" and "Communicative Language Teaching and Information Gap Exercises" Paul Scholes Department of Linguistics and English Language Master of Arts A team of graduate students from Brigham Young University under the supervision of the main author Dr. Lynn Henrichsen collaborated on creating a book, as well as a website, Basic Training and Resources for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (BTR TESOL). The entire project consists of 10 sections with nearly 50 units addressing topics that novice teachers should know before teaching English to non-native speakers. The BTR TESOL program provides basic material for untrained novice teachers that will help them to be better prepared to face the challenges and responsibilities of teaching English. This write-up describes the creation of two units titled "Basic Principles of Second Language Acquisition" and "Communicative Language Teaching and Information Gap Exercises." The first unit, "Basic Principles of Second Language Acquisition," educates novice teachers about some of the basic theoretical concepts of second language acquisition that can be applied directly to teaching. It also includes a discussion of variables that can affect second language acquisition. The second unit, "Communicative Language Teaching and Information Gap Exercises," introduces novice teachers to basic principles of the communicative approach and the steps involved in the creation and implementation of information gap exercises. Both units include an opening scenario and a list of the objectives of the unit. Following the main content, there is an audio or video segment related to the theme of each unit as well as reflection questions. The final section directs readers to resources where they can go to learn more about the subject.


Background Antiretroviral therapy (ART) and condom use have been proven to reduce the risk of sexual transmission of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) among HIV sero-different couples, but its full implementation remains a challenge. This study aims to assess HIV seroconversion rate of HIV-negative spouse and its associated risk factors among HIV sero-different couples in rural China. Methods An open cohort of HIV sero-different couples enrolled in 30 counties in China between October 1, 2010, and September 30, 2012, and followed-up to December 31, 2012, was constructed retrospectively. A nested case-control study of risk factors of HIV seroconversion among sero-different couples was conducted in April and May of 2013, based on the open cohort. Sero-different couples with the HIV-negative spouse seroconverting at least 3 months after the previous negative diagnosis during cohort observation period were labeled as "case couples". The "control couples" were selected randomly from the same cohort that did not have the HIV-negative spouse seroconversion during the same period. The "case couples" and "control couples" were matched on gender, age, and region of residence. Sexual behaviors among HIV sero-different couples before and after the index spouses notifying their HIV infection status to their HIV-negative spouses were collected via face-to-face interview. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression models were used to assess factors associated with HIV seroconversion among HIV sero-different couples. Results Of 4481 HIV sero-different couples, a total of 53 seroconversions were observed within 5218 person-years of follow-up. The incidence rate was 1.02 (95%CI: 0.76–1.33) per 100 person-years. Forty "case couples" confirmed HIV-negative spouse seroconversions infected via marital sexual transmission, were matched to 80 "control couples". Of the 120 couples, 81(67.5%) were receiving ART, and 70 (58.3%) reported consistently used condoms during intercourse after the index spouse was diagnosed HIV infection. Multivariate conditional logistic regression analysis showed that the desire to conceive a child (OR = 5.18, 95% CI: 1.19–22.58) significantly increased the odds of HIV seroconversion. Protective factors of spousal HIV seroconversion were currently receiving ART (OR = 0.09, 95% CI: 0.01–0.67) and consistent condom use (OR = 0.05, 95% CI: 0.01–0.28). Conclusions Intention to conceive a child is the most important risk factor for HIV seroconversion among sero-different couples. Specific efforts on scientific use of ART to assist sero-different couples to achieve their wish to conceive a healthy child are needed to minimize the risk of HIV transmission.


Cold-water coral reefs are very abundant along the European continental margin in intermediate water depths and are able to build up large mound structures. These carbonate mounds particularly occur in distinct mound provinces on the Irish and British continental margins. Previous investigations resulted in a better understanding of the coldwater coral ecology and the development of conceptual models to explain carbonate mound build-up. Two different hypotheses were evoked to explain the origin and development of carbonate mounds, external versus internal control (e.g., Freiwald et al. 2004 versus e.g. Hovland 1990). Several short sediment cores have been obtained from Propeller Mound, Northern Porcupine Seabight, indicating that cold-water corals grew during interglacial and warm interstadial periods of the Late Pleistocene controlled by environmental and climatic variability supporting the external control hypothesis (e.g. Dorschel et al. 2005, Ruggeberg et al. 2007).


In the article, tha author analyses how different lines of developments in childhood research effect the Swedish child law. The focus is on the public child protection system. The author investigates what approach to children is construed in legal acts, in preparatory works an in cases from the Administrative Supreme Court of Appeal. The Young Persons Act (1990:52) constitutes the framework of the study.


An article or polishing pad for altering a surface of a work piece includes a polymer matrix created by reaction injection molding of size controlled gas bubbles within a polyurethane matrix. The proposed liquid urethane precursor is first injected into an actuated mold and cured. The molded product is then removed; from the mold and double side faced or ground o form a single thin polishing pad comprising a single layer of homogeneous material.


The present invention provides the use of a search apparatus, search method, and electronic device applications, in order to overcome search results when a search application for enterprise users to utilize existing technology to obtain search application can not satisfy user demand business problems. Application search device comprising: means for obtaining the current enterprise user registration information and their access to information application unit for the first browsing history and rating information of the intended application library; calculated based on the above information for the current business users of the application library book the first preference scores in each application a first calculating unit; and a preference score based on a first and a selection unit to determine a plurality of search results on the predetermined first enterprise application library second preference scores for each application. Application of a method for performing a search processing functions can be realized according to the application search means. The electronic device comprises a searching device according to the application. The above-described technique of the invention can be applied to information processing.


Architecture-Driven Modernization claims that MDA (Model-Driven Architecture) concepts should be used for modernization projects in the process. One of the largest challenges when contemplating ADM (Architecture-Driven Modernization) is the modernization of developed system in order to ensure interoperability between tools for maintenance, evolution, assessment and allow the success of modernization projects that preserving architecture quality. ADM supports reengineering by providing standard meta-models, such as Knowledge Discovery Metamodel (KDM). Modernizing a large legacy or existing system is therefore a complex and expensive process that requires a thorough understanding of the system design architecture and its components. However, legacy systems have also experienced several modifications that lead them to deviate from their original designed architecture and lose its properties of quality. To facilitate the analysis of the system, the projection process proposed as part of our approach is based on facet cutting which allows determining the views having anomalies in order to facilitate quality control. The proposed approach in this paper is of great importance in the context of the modernization process, since it is committed to improving the KDM framework as methods used to assist in the detection of architecture violation.


Abstract The values of coefficient of consolidation calculated based on time-settlement data from a laboratory consolidation test are influenced by both initial and secondary compression effects. The effect of secondary compression is predominant when the load increment ratio is less than 1.0. In this Note a method of estimation of coefficient of consolidation based on pore pressure measurement is suggested. Comparison of the values with those computed from independently measured permeability values shows closer agreement suggesting the validity of the proposed method. As time-settlement data is not used, the values are expected to be free from secondary compression effects.


A low-GI value specific nutritional flour enriched flour, which is characterized by the following ratio of ingredients formulated as: (1), the film grains, rice bran, bran, wheat bran powder made of 50-70 parts; (2), grilling 5 to 30 parts sesame; (3), 5 to 30 parts roasted peanuts cooked; (4), 1-40 parts by fry green soybean; (5), 20 parts soy flour 150 mesh; (6) , 20 parts wheat gluten; (7), the proportion of 100 mesh rye, oats, triple and bitter buckwheat flour 30 parts; (8), isolated soy protein powder 5-40 parts. The present invention is added to ordinary flour, add nutrients flour, wheat flour and is low GI values, good for your health, and the prevention of high blood sugar, high cholesterol and other diseases have better results.


The paper presents MIMO field performance results observed using a ultra mobile broadband (UMB) testbed network. We evaluate metrics such as antenna correlations and channel condition number to characterize the MIMO channel. Results show that low condition numbers, which are beneficial to MIMO, are prevalent for a majority of the coverage area in our network. We demonstrate that the use of MIMO provides gains of the order of 20-40% over SIMO transmissions. These gains are made possible by the use of cross-polarized transmit antennas and advanced UMB features that allow dynamic MIMO vs. SIMO transmission selection based on channel conditions. These results are obtained in a truly mobile, wireless wide-area deployment, which makes them unique. Our results point to the viability and value of MIMO in future mobile wireless networks.


Characterization testing of monolithic, dual beam visible diode lasers operating at 670 nm (at 20 degree(s)C) is reported for AlGaInP lasers with a 50-micron channel separation. Of particular interest for use in the design of laser scanning systems is an understanding of the characteristic behavior of the thermal droop and thermal crosstalk between channels as heatsink temperature, laser drive current bias, and output power are varied. The thermal droop and thermal crosstalk are both found to decrease as the laser output power is increased. Additionally, the thermal droop and thermal crosstalk increase as the temperature of the heatsink increases. Characterization of the laser wavelength dependence on temperature and output power must also be considered in laser scanning system design. The dual beam laser wavelength was measured to change with temperature 0.17 nm/ degree(s)C. Laser wavelength at a constant laser case temperature was found to increase by 2 nm as the output power was increased from 1 mW to 15 mW.


This article is devoted to the idiolect of Ernestina de Champourcin, a contemporary of the Generation-27, an iconic group of Spanish poets of the 20th century. The authors propose is to consider the poetess's idiolect in the aspect of cultural accommodation beyond the traditional translation discourse, through the analysis of two poetry collections - Presencia a oscuras and Primer exilio which stand at the turn of two stages of Ernestina de Champourcin's creative work. The authors analyse the aesthetic, cognitive and linguistic vectors of the poet's idiolect and systematise the reasons for its dynamics. On the basis of the comparative analysis of the elements of the poetic idiolect of her works of different periods, the authors note that the idiolect evolves in accordance with the conditions created by cultural accommodation, and therefore the consideration of cultural accommodation is possible not only in the context of translation adequacy and equivalence, but also chronologically, at the level of idiolect, as evidenced, in particular, by the use of regional variations of lexical units, syntax and the prevalence of this or that temporal plane. The analysis of idiolect makes it possible to narrow the perspective of the material under study, and thus represents the first link of the work on poetic translation. It is argued that the translation of a poetic text is impossible without considering the internal cultural accommodation of the idiolect, which takes place according to the cultural accommodation of the individual and independently of the translation. Based on their analysis, the authors emphasize the role of idiolect as a key factor in the studies devoted to the chronological description of the creative formation of any poet.


MPC generally needs a digital control system to implement in practical. It is a typical digital control method, and digital control systems generally have the problem of one-step delay. In motor control, the existence of a one-step delay in the system lead to undesirable consequences such as current ripple, increased oscillation, and weakened stability. In this paper, aiming at the one-step delay problem of the permanent magnet synchronous motor MPC control system, the extended state observer (ESO) is used for closed-loop delay compensation. This method can improve the anti-interference ability of the system, and has obvious suppression effect on parameter perturbation and unknown disturbance that appear during system operation. Finally, it was verified by Simulink, and compared with non-compensation and commonly used compensation methods based on the actual model of the motor. The results show that the proposed method has good one-step delay compensation characteristics and can effectively improve the control effect of finite set model predictive current control (FCS-MPCC).


A method for wideband measurement and for post-processing of mobile radio channel impulse responses which include unambiguous information about the directions-of-arrival in the azimuth is introduced. Based on this method, measurement results for outdoor macrocellular environments are presented. These results are essential for assessing, developing, evaluating and optimizing adaptive directional antenna concepts for future mobile radio systems and for extending conventional statistical wideband models of the mobile radio channel to take into account the directions-of-arrival.


Abstract Imperfect information in contingent markets can affect the validity and reliability of contingent values (willingness to pay, WTP) for changes in natural resource allocations. Survey respondents can acquire information about the natural resource to be valued from behavior such as on-site use of the resource, off-site use of the resource, and/or from the survey itself. In this paper we compare the validity and reliability of WTP from respondents who obtained information in these different ways. Using theoretical validity tests based on relative prices as well as income we find that WTP is valid for respondents with information from on-site and/or off-site use. Willingness to pay is less valid for respondents who had no information about the natural resource before they participated in the survey. Using an alternative form reliability test, we find that WTP is, in the technical sense, reliable for all respondents and somewhat more reliable for on-site users.


This article investigates the impact of education on economic growth in Guatemala for the 1951-2002 period. An error-correction model shows that a better-educated labor force has a positive and significant impact on economic growth. A growth-accounting framework demonstrates that human capital explains about 50 percent of output growth. The findings are robust to changes to the conditioning set of variable, while controlling for data issues and endogeneity. The results also compare favorably with the microeconomic evidence.


This comparative study considers global perspective by including developed and developing economies for exploring the social and economic impact of aging. Using stratified, purposive, and networking technique, the online opened-ended questions responses were gathered from the sample of 258. The findings confirmed that there is no age of retirement. Aging population contributions are significant and termed in this study as 'knowledge-gem' (GK). The older population rate is increasing at a greater pace in the emerging economies in comparison to developed economies. Interestingly, the social activities remain constant in both types of economies. Post-retirement, elderly women are significant contributors to social activities while men have significant contribution to economic activities. From the cultural perspective, the aging population is mainly found in the 'collectivism' on the grid-group cultural (GGC) model. The aging population is facing the challenges of in-equalities based on gender, class, and race in both developed and less-developed economies.


Objective: To explore the change of platelet indices namely plateletcrit, platelet distribution width and mean platelet volume among patients with recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL). Methods: The medical records of 45 women with a history of RPL and 45 women who gave birth without RPL were reviewed retrospectively from three governmental hospitals in Yemen. The personal, obstetric and complete blood count reports were analyzed. Results: Platelets' count and indices were significantly higher among RPL patients when compared to the control and the receiver operating characteristic curve for each platelet index showed significant area under the curve, with higher area for plateletcrit followed by platelet distribution width and then mean platelet volume. While the multiple logistic regression analysis for all platelets indices revealed that the platelet distribution width was the significant predictor for RPL in this study. Conclusions: The use of platelet indices may help gynecologists in predicting high risk pregnancy (pregnancy loss) in the low resources areas in Yemen.


Lack of legitimacy of land tenure institutions in the tropical Peten, Guatemala, contributes to tenure insecurity that encourages rapid colonization, deforestation, and forest conversion to agriculture. The author identifies social, political, and property rights trends that reduced the effectiveness of property rights in the Peten. Three case studies present the complexities of land tenure institutions. The first analyzes unregulated land invasions by small farmers, the second discusses land tenure barriers to protection of indigenous cooperatives, and the third analyzes attempts by the government and nongovernmental organizations to restrict settlements within the Maya Biosphere Reserve through negotiations. In the absence of operative legal land institutions, campesinos create land law by their invasions, presence, and practices. Unless campesinos are given a role within policy-making management decisions, there may be no means to restore legitimacy to land tenure in the Peten.


Over the past 25+ years, Nexceris has been developing solid oxide cell (SOC) technology for power generation, energy storage and hydrogen production applications. Nexceris is vertically integrated SOC technology provider that develops and manufactures solid oxide electrode materials, interconnect coatings, planar electrolyte supported cells, and solid oxide stacks. Nexceris stacks are designed for low-cost manufacture and pressurized operation, and stacks have large repeat unit area for efficient packaging into megawatt-scale systems. Nexceris' stacks are being tested in fuel cell, electrolysis, and reversible modes, with a focus on optimizing performance, efficiency, and durability. Current work at Nexceris includes long-term electrolysis stack durability testing, breadboard system testing of reversible SOC stacks, third-party stack validation testing, and SOC system design and demonstration testing. Nexceris also is exploring solid oxide co-electrolysis for converting steam and CO2 to syngas and the conversion of this syngas to fuels and chemicals. This presentation will provide an update on Nexceris' solid oxide cell technology development and commercialization activities.


Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an acute respiratory infection. Its virus called SARS-COV-2 which is an RNA virus with high homology to the bat coronavirus. In this review study, first the molecular and cellular characteristics and the proliferation and replication of SARS-COV-2 are investigated. Then, by reviewing bioinformatics studies regarding protected domain analysis, homology modeling, and molecular docking, the biological role of some specific SARS-COV-2 proteins are examined. The results showed that the open reading frame 8 (ORF8) and surface glycoprotein could bind to porphyrin. At the same time, ORF1ab, ORF10, and ORF3a can attack the heme part of hemoglobin to dissociate iron and form porphyrin. This attack reduces hemoglobin ability to carry oxygen and carbon dioxide. As a result, lung cells become severely inflamed due to their inability to exchange carbon dioxide and oxygen, which leads to large ground-glass opacities on CT scan images. Based on the bioinformatics results, chloroquine can prevent ORF1ab, ORF3a, and ORF10 from attacking hemoglobin to form porphyrin and avoid the binding of ORF8 and surface glycoprotein to porphyrin, which effectively relieves the symptoms of acute respiratory syndrome. In the current pandemic, bioinformatics studies are of great importance for preventing the spread of COVID-19, developing drugs and vaccines, and clinical practice.


Excessive and prolonged rainfall on Ravi and Chenab basin from 24–26 Sept 1988 due to orographically reinforced southwest monsoon resulted in largest precipitation depth. Highest peak flows at different gauging stations in both the basin were observed during this period. At Chamera dam site downstream of Chamera stage-II dam a flood discharge of 6290 cumec has been recorded, which is 2.2 times more than the ever recorded flood peaks at this site. Further at Madhopur on Ravi river peak flow of 16350 cumec has been recorded. In view of this revision of design flood of Chamera stage-II has been done. The study for computation of standard project flood has been carried out with the help of unit hydrograph derived by Collins method and Integer Nash model.


The tutorial system for undergraduates is a teaching system which aims to improve the quality of college undergraduates when the tutor gives comprehensive instructions to the individual on both research contents and methods.The Medical Physiology and Biochemistry Laboratory of Qingdao University selected some excellent senior students,who had participated in previous innovative experiments,to guide junior students to finish the innovative research.This adventure on college students' experiments tutoring,which has been believed to improve the scientific research ability of college students,will be brought into lab teaching reform plan.


This paper presents a robust particle filter approach able to handle a set-valued specification of the probability measures modelling the uncertainty structure of tracking problems. This method returns robust bounds on a quantity of interest compatibly with the infinite number of uncertain distributions specified. The importance particles are drawn and propagated only once, and the bound computation is realised by inexpensively tuning the importance weights. Furthermore, the uncertainty propagation is realised efficiently by employing an intrusive polynomial algebra technique. The developed method is finally applied to the computation of a debris-satellite collision probability in a scenario characterised by severe uncertainty.


Abstract Makers of strategy are not only responsible for prewar assessments, but must be responsive during war and capable of reassessing their enemy and their approach to the enemy. The record of French, British, and American counterinsurgency campaigns shows that this learning process can be aided by attention to lessons of past "small wars" and even to general principles of insurgency. Such distilled wisdom is difficult to apply to new situations, but the price for inattention to experience may be failure.


AbstractThe corrosion resistance of a number of stainless steels and nickel alloys in solutions of pure phosphoric acid boiling under reflux and in similar solutions under conditions of heat transfer has been investigated. The effect of phosphoric acid concentrationand alloy composition on the corrosion rates obtained has been evaluated. The effect of additions of impurities such as fluoride, chloride, silicate and ferric ions on the corrosion behaviour of a number of the alloys in concentrated phosphoric acid under conditions of heat transfer has also been determined; such impurities are often present in wet-process plant phosphoric acid at the evaporator stage. The work has demonstrated that the alloys of highest nickel content generally exhibit the best corrosion resistance in such environments. It has also been shown that whilst chloride ion additions considerably increase the aggressive nature of the environment, fluoride additions in general have very little effect.


A composite structure, including concrete antiarches and bolts, was designed to control the floor heave. This semiclosed structure may reinforce the floor and the two bottom corners of the roadway. Then, based on some relative assumptions, we established a model for this structure. We further analyzed this model and revealed the floor heave mechanism. In addition, based on the above analysis, we proposed the stability criterion for this structure. Moreover, with the practical conditions, we proposed a support system for the #1 roadway in S6 mining area of Changcun mine. Furthermore, the stability analysis and the numerical simulation verified the correctness of the design parameters. Simultaneously, the field investigation shows that the floor heave has been reduced by 78.7%, a close value to the mechanical analysis.


A method of estimating the electromechanical modes and mode shapes from multiple synchrophasors is presented in this paper. The approach is based upon identifying the transfer function representation of the state space model of the linearized power system through the estimation of a multichannel AutoRegressive Moving Average eXogenous (ARMAX) model. The relationship between the transfer function and the ARMAX model, which is fully derived here, is shown to be general enough that virtually any multichannel ARMAX estimation algorithm may be applied to this approach. The two-stage least squares (2SLS) algorithm is used here for illustrative purposes. The proposed method is validated with the Monte Carlo procedure using simulated data from a reduced-order model of the Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC) system. The performance of the new method is compared with existing multichannel mode and mode shape estimation techniques and is seen to provide increased estimation accuracy with a decrease in computation time. The proposed method is further validated with measured data from the WECC system.


I t is becoming increasingly apparent that uncontrolled resistant hypertension, especially in the primary care setting, is most often attributable to pseudocauses of treatment resistance, including inaccurate blood pressure (BP) measurement, white-coat effect, under treatment, and poor medication adherence. Of these, the latter two are likely the most common. In the current issue of the Journal, Durand et al. [1] provide insight into this important clinical issue by quantifying the range and overall degree of poor medication adherence among patients with resistant hypertension based on a rigorous systematic review and metaanalysis of studies that had reported adherence in patients with resistant hypertension. Inaccurate BP measurement, especially when done by auscultation, is known to be commonly inaccurate in routine clinical settings. Such inaccuracies have been shown recently to result in the common misdiagnosis of uncontrolled resistant hypertension. Bhatt et al. [2] compared the routine triage BP measurements with measurements done in the same patients by trained clinicians with use of an automated, oscillometric device in 130 patients referred to a university hypertension specialty clinic for uncontrolled resistant hypertension. The triage BP measurements were done by patient technicians using an automated device to obtain a single BP reading. These measurements were done in a busy patient intake area, immediately after having the patient sit down, and often during ongoing questioning of the patient's interval medical history. The BP measurement done by trained clinicians was done within 5min of the triage BP, after having the patient sit in a quiet, private room for 3–5min, and was the average of the final five of six serial readings taken 1-min apart with use of a properly sized cuff. The serial readings were done unattended, that is, without any clinical staff present. The investigators found that the triage or routinely done measurements tended to overestimate the levels obtained with use of rigorous BP technique, such that 33% of the


Deaths due to fall from height can be due to injury to head and spinal cord, thoracic injuries, abdominal injuries etc. Cardiac rupture following blunt trauma to the chest is a relatively uncommon diagnosis, however it is associated with a very high mortality rate. Successful management is based on a high index of suspicion, avoidance of unnecessary diagnostic studies and immediate surgical intervention once the diagnosis is made. Of all the injuries to the heart left auricular rupture is a rarity. Hence we present such a rare case.


The invention discloses low-halogen high-conductivity single-ingredient conductive gum and a preparation method thereof. Proper resin and curing agents are adopted, micron silver powder and nanometer silver powder are adopted and are mixed for forming conductive filling materials, K-570 coupling agents, phosphate defoaming agents, polybasic acid conductive promoting agents, trinonylphenol-phosphite (TNP) anti-aging agents and epoxy resin modified materials are respectively added to be used as storage stabilizing agents for preparing the isotropic silver conductive gum with low halogen, high conductivity, high aging resistance performance and storage stability. The silver conductive gum cannot be settled, laminated or discolored under the conditions of normal temperature storage and transportation, the halogen content is lower than 200ppm, the volume resistivity reaches 10 to 10 ohm*cm, the shearing intensity is higher than 6MPa, the heat resistance temperature is higher than 230 DEG C, and the anti-aging performance is good. The major application range relates to the fields of light emitting diodes (LEDs), quartz resonators, chip device bonding and micro electronic assembly and the like.


The 'literate' programming model is extended to include a concept of mechanical transformation. A prototype tool, FLP (formal literate programming tool), has been developed which uses this extended 'literate' programming model in both a formal program proof setting, and within a formal (refinement) program development setting. In both settings, FLP provides history, access to tools, and an easy-to-use interface. FLP is a system with (i) a tree structured revision control system allowing easy access to an entire software development history, (ii) a unifying semi-formal model encompassing both program proof and refinement, and (iii) a single simple mechanism for managing both formal transformations on programs (proofs, tests, refinements) and informal transformations (explanations). In this paper, we outline the underlying semi-formal model for this extended 'literate' programming tool, briefly show the system architecture, and demonstrate the tool's use during a sample program development.


We consider the communication complexity of finding the longest increasing subsequence (LIS) of a string shared between two parties. We prove tight bounds for the space complexity of randomized one-pass streaming algorithms for this problem. Our bounds are parameterized in terms of the LIS of the inputs. This resolves an open question in [19]. We also give the first bounds for approximating the LIS and its length.
 Next, we consider the communication complexity of finding the longest common subsequece (LCS) of two strings held by different parties, as well as the problem of approximating its length. We improve the existing lower bounds for these problems, even in the most difficult case when both parties have a permutation of N symbols. Our results yield tight space bounds for multipass deterministic streaming algorithms. For randomized mutlipass algorithms, our bounds are tight up to a logarithmic factor.


The effects of morphine, naloxone, and loperamide on the binding of [3H]naloxone to the opiate receptor site(s) in guinea pig brain and myenteric plexus homogenates in the presence of sodium were studied. Results obtained from morphine and naloxone binding studies were consistent with the hypothesis of a single population of receptor sites. Scatchard plots prepared from the data for loperamide binding, however, indicated two possible populations of binding sites, only one of which was readily accessible to loperamide. Loperamide- and morphine-induced inhibition of the electrically stimulated contracting guinea pig ileal longitudinal muscle indicated only one site of action. The results of these experiments suggest that loperamide is bound stereospecifically to two populations of binding sites, both of which may be involved in producing opiate-like pharmacological effects in the longitudinal muscle preparation.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The authors wish to thank Taft West, Ron Kochman, Arni Miller, Rosemary Auer, and Hitu Desai for their technical assistance.


Picture Tom: an enthusiastic fourth year medical student at the University of Glasgow; he is of a modest background, has two younger siblings, and receives little financial support from his cash strapped parents. He is therefore fully dependent on the Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS), which provides him with a bursary and student loan.

This money covers his rent in Glasgow, utility bills, and general subsistence—barely. He works a part time job at the weekend to make life a little more comfortable. And he gets by as students do: economically, frugally, carefully.

Tom is allocated a 10 week surgery rotation at Inverclyde Royal Hospital, 25 miles from his …


Abstract In our work, we obtained and studied the samples of porous piezoelectric ceramics based on lithium – sodium niobate (LNN) with a pore content of 10, 20, 30, and 40 volume percent. An analysis of the structure, temperature and frequency dependences of the permittivity of the samples was carried out. It was shown that in all samples there are two main relaxation processes: in the regions of high (1 − 7 MHz) and low (10 Hz − 1 MHz) frequencies. The frequency at which a change in the type of dispersion occurs depends on the pores concentration in the sample.


During Mary II's reign (1689-1694), several dialogue songs were written and performed in the Dutch Republic that featured her as a named character. This article studies five songs in which the character of Mary plays a number of roles, including daughter, wife, naval commander, and above all else, Queen of England. Building on previous research on queenship, studies of royal family loyalty, and recent work in performance theory, this article examines how these songs aided in constructing and interrogating queenship through performance. Through analysis of the songs, three intersections of power and performance, and how they overlap and interact, will be investigated. First, the wielding of power by a monarch as a form of performance. Second, performances that interrogate political power, as well as the possibilities and limitations of such acts. These two relations will then be combined to study the explicit use of performance as a metaphor by purposely 'casting' those in power into specific roles. This study will demonstrate how for a queen, especially Mary II, being cast in the role of wife whose husband is co-monarch, or a daughter whose father was forced to abdicate to make way for her, goes beyond stereotypical gender roles, as significant political relationships and governmental circumstances worthy of public discussion. Finally, this article explores how views of monarchy—and in particular, queenship—were constructed in the Dutch Republican context in which these songs were performed, thus providing an outsider perspective on the concept of queenship.


The Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) Minnesota Road Fee Test (MRFT) project is demonstrating the feasibility of collecting anonymous probe data through the use of Smart phone software in conjunction with other safety and user fee applications. The Smart Phone collects position data once per second and sends that data anonymously to Traffic Planners who can use the data to provide real-time enhanced traveler information to the public as well as to better understand roadway conditions impacting travel times. By implementing a solution on Smart phones, data can be collected anonymously at a significantly reduced cost (compared to traditional means) and cover a significant percentage of the transportation infrastructure using sensors that are already traveling with the general public.


Current collapse is suppressed up to 800 V of drain voltage in our proposed device, Hybrid-Drain-embedded Gate Injection Transistor (HD-GIT), where an additional p-GaN layer is grown on the AlGaN barrier layer and is connected to the drain electrode. We present, based on a device simulation and electroluminescence study, that the hole injection from the additional drain-side p-GaN at the OFF state compensates the hole emission in the epilayer. As a result, the gate-drain access region is not negatively charged at the OFF state, resulting in the drastic suppression of current collapse in HD-GIT.


Two aspects of the radionuclide source terms used for total-system performance assessment (TSPA) analyses have been reviewed. First, a detailed radionuclide inventory (i.e., one in which the reactor type, decay, and burnup are specified) is compared with the standard source-term inventory used in prior analyses. The latter assumes a fixed ratio of pressurized-water reactor (PWR) to boiling-water reactor (BWR) spent fuel, at specific amounts of burnup and at 10-year decay. TSPA analyses have been used to compare the simplified source term with the detailed one. The TSPA-91 analyses did not show a significant difference between the source terms. Second, the radionuclides used in source terms for TSPA aqueous-transport analyses have been reviewed to select ones that are representative of the entire inventory. It is recommended that two actinide decay chains be included (the 4n+2 ``uranium`` and 4n+3 ``actinium`` decay series), since these include several radionuclides that have potentially important release and dose characteristics. In addition, several fission products are recommended for the same reason. The choice of radionuclides should be influenced by other parameter assumptions, such as the solubility and retardation of the radionuclides.


This article analyses the naming practice in Fg—∆l`æk`æ&, a Bantu Grassfield language spoken in the West Re gion of Cameroun. Our interest in this paper can be stat ed in the following queries: what is behind the sou nds that make up the morphemes and the words used in Fg—∆l`æk`æ& language as Names? What are the morphological structure and the semantic implications of names in this area? Our objectives in this paper are manifo ld: first, we want to identify the various morphosyntactic struct ures of Fg—∆l`æk æ̀& names. Secondly, it is aimed to discuss their semantic implications. Thirdly we want to se n itize the native speakers to enhance the value of their culture and identity through their family names. And finall y to derogate the mental colonization and the exces siv attribution of borrowed names to Cameroonian childr en, which in fact is taking them away from their cu lture, language and identity. The data used in this resear ch were collected mainly from the central and South ern Ghóèmaàlaà' dialects. About one thousand (1000) nam es were collected and transcribed with IPA symbols. The analysis was carried out following the American School of structuralism (Bloomfield, 1933; Harris 1957) andAnthropo linguistics (Duranti 2003; Lévi-Strauss 1953-1973). The findings show that Fg—∆l æ̀k æ̀' names are mostly made up of a concatenation of Phrases and Clauses, namely NPs, VPs, and Non verbal Clauses. Fg—∆l`æk`æ& names are monosyllabic, disyllabic, trisyllabic and quadrisyllabic. Many linguistic processes such as derivation, verb flexion are also present.


insights the book offers into the multifaceted and intersecting experiences of all urban residents provide a strong and ethnographically informed response to the polarizing and discriminatory discourses that set migrants against the wellbeing of natives, by highlighting their common lived experiences of dispossession and displacement within the ongoing multiscalar processes of capital accumulation. Hence, Çağlar and Glick Schiller underlie "the necessity for social justice movements that speak of common struggles and aspirations to confront changing configurations of power and the contradictions of violent force" (p. 93). In this regard, the authors suggest moving beyond concepts of urban citizenship and the right to the city which take cities as units of analysis. They call for a holistic approach to social justice claims and the empowerment of the dispossessed which should be mobilized around multiscalar "anticapitalist struggles that confront the global power of capital" (p. 225). This book provides an inspiring example of theory production through long-term ethnographic study supported by a comparative analytical framework, reflective of the historical conditions that shape their theory. It not only challenges outdated methodologies, concepts, and units of analysis that have shaped contemporary literature on migration and urban restructuring but also prepares the ground for "further work on the relationship between historical conjuncture and theory production" (p. 215) by illustrating how to develop and employ conceptual tools that speak to the contingency of the conjunctural moment as well as to "theorize the temporal-spatial dimensions of their core concepts" (p. 216). Based on "multisighted rather than multi-sited" research (p. 10), the book makes a strong contribution to both migration and urban studies in many aspects some of which were outlined above. It challenges disciplinary divisions between migration studies and urban studies which limit our understanding of global processes of city-making, drawing attention to both the agency of migrants in city-making and the role of neoliberal urban restructuring processes in different forms of mobility and displacement. Above all, it underscores "relationships that all of us, everywhere, have to the dispossessive and reconstitutive powers of contemporary capitalism" (p. 210). I highly recommend this book especially for those who work at the intersections of migration and urban studies and want to go beyond the national and ethnic lens.


Physical eutectogels are appealing materials for technological devices due to their superior ionic conductivity, thermal and electrochemical stability, non‐volatility, and low cost. Nevertheless, current physical eutectogels are suffering from weak mechanical strength and toughness. Here, taking advantage of the distribution difference of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) in water and deep eutectic solvents (DESs), a simple and universal solvent‐replacement approach is proposed to regulate the spatiotemporal expression of intra/interpolymer interactions to prepare strong and tough physical eutectogels. The exchange of DESs with water can restrengthen the weakened interactions between PVA chains in water, enabling PVA to crystallize to construct a uniform and robust polymer network. Consequently, the resultant PVA eutectogel exhibits record‐high strength (20.2 MPa), toughness (62.7 MJ m–3), and tear‐resistance (tearing energy Σ42.4 kJ m–2), while possessing excellent stretchability (Σ550% strain), repairability, and adhesive performance. Furthermore, this strategy is proven to be universally applicable to various species of polymers, and even can be utilized to fabricate continuous and conductive eutectogel fibers, demonstrating potential as engineering materials and wearable sensors.


This paper presents a hardware efficient FFT implementation architecture using a novel data access scheme for OFDM applications. By conversion of digit-reversed to bit-reversed order addressing, continuous flow FFT processing can be achieved using 2 N-word memories by alternation between natural order and bit-reversed order addressing. An in-place multi-bank memory is adopted to accommodate high-speed applications such as wireless multimedia communications. Also the bank index generation is performed using bit-wise XOR operations instead of conventional modulo-r additions. The scheme supports scalable length FFT computation and achieves conflict-free memory access


Softwarized network resident functions have been extensively used to replace purpose-built appliances. However, there is a lack of alternatives for richer network resident functionality with a seamless combination of L2/L3 Network Function Virtualization (NFV) and L4/L7 middleboxes.We propose MiddleNet, a unified L2/L3 NFV and L4/L7 middlebox framework. MiddleNet uses DPDK in L2/L3 NFV to achieve high-performance, zero-copy packet delivery. MiddleNet exploits the event-driven capabilities of extended Berkeley Packet Filter (eBPF) to build up lightweight L4/L7 middleboxes with load-proportional overheads. MiddleNet constructs complex L2/L3 NF and L4/L7 middlebox function chains with low overhead using shared memory communication. With the integration of Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV), MiddleNet supports dynamically selecting packet processing layers (L2 to L7) based on the flow. In this demo, we show MiddleNet's operation.


Most database applications are designed according the ANSI/SPARC architecture. When it is used a large amount of semantics of data may be lost during the transformation from the conceptual model to a logical model. As a consequence exchanging/integrating various databases or generating user interfaces for data access become difficult. Ontologies seem an interesting solution to solve these problems, since they allow making explicit the semantics of data. In this paper, we propose an ontology-based approach for designing database applications, and then, for representing explicitly the semantics of data within the database. It consists in extending the ANSI/SPARC architecture with the ontological level. Note that this extension may also be added to existing applications designed according to the ANSI/SPARC architecture, since it preserves an upward compatibility.


Socialist system and ideology differ from that of capitalism, but both origining from modern industrial civilization, inevitably they face the same opportunity and challenge in many fields. Only by overcoming capitalist countries in the course of modernization of the world, can socialism surpass capitalism in respect of social systems.


With the punctual start of regular operations with the introduction of the new timetable on December 13, 2008, one of the last major train electrification projects in Germany was successfully accomplished. The modernization of the 85-kilometre line section between Hamburg, Lubeck and the Baltic Sea resort of Travemunde was carried out over a period of two and a half years while maintaining full traffic on the line. The electrification of the line and the adjacent track infrastructure of the ports of Lubeck was undertaken by Balfour Beatty Rail GmbH Germany on behalf of the Deutsche Bahn ProjektBau GmbH. The technologically demanding project of modifying the line presented the Balfour Beatty team with quite a few challenges. But the extensive construction project, one of Deutsche Bahn's largest infrastructure projects in Schleswig-Holstein, was completed not only on time but also within budget.


This paper introduces an innovative approach for incorporating environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors into AI-based financial decision-making processes. Recent developments in AI and NLP have predominantly focused on financial outcomes, often disregarding the significant impacts that corporations can have on society and the environment. This perspective overlooks potential business risks associated with environmental and social issues. We propose a task, the Multilingual ESG Issue Identification Task (ML-ESG), that seeks to integrate the ESG paradigm into financial NLP systems. The ML-ESG is designed according to the MSCI ESG rating methodology and requires systems to classify news articles into 35 key ESG issues. Moreover, systems must identify the target company and its industry, as the weighting of each issue varies accordingly. This paper presents an overview of the ML-ESG shared task, implemented as part of the FinNLP-2023 workshop, detailing the datasets, methods, and participant performances.


Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been used extensively to solve different types of pattern recognition problems such as disease diagnosis and classification problems. Due to poor performance in recognition of patterns, several methods have been used. Among them genetic algorithm (GA) have shown better performance than other algorithms. Microbial Genetic Algorithm (MGA) or Bacterial Genetic Algorithm is one of the newer branch of GA. MGA follows the evaluation procedure of microbial which gives better results in pattern recognition. In this paper, microbial genetic algorithm with neural network approach for fitness calculation has been developed and it is used for performance analysis of different pattern recognition problems. Proposed algorithm is named as Microbial Neuro-Genetic Algorithm (MNGA). Advantages of MNGA over simple genetic algorithm (SGA) have also been discussed. XOR, Breast Cancer, Diabetes, Heart Diseases, Glass and Card classification problems are taken from UCI machine learning repository dataset as sample problems for performance analysis which shows that this method provides good performance for different types of problems and thus reduces the need for different types of methods for different types of problems.


This document introduces a method to let receivers control the part of
the full video image that they wish to watch. It specifies an
extension to the messages defined in the Audio-Visual Profile with
Feedback (AVPF), and it can be applied to any RTP video applications.


Rational design of highly efficient electrocatalysts for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is critical for both water splitting and rechargeable metal–air batteries. Especially, developing excellent earth-abundant catalysts for OER is an ongoing challenge. We report a series of cobalt nitride (Co2N0.67)–carbon composites with different textural properties as high-activity OER materials herein. Experimental results demonstrate that the specific morphologies of different carbon matrices (such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs), graphene (GN), macroporous carbons (MPCs), and hollow carbon microfibers (CMFs)) play crucial roles in determining the overall OER catalytic efficacies of corresponding composites. Both SEM and TEM characterization results revealed that monodisperse and tiny Co2N0.67 nanoparticles (NPs) indeed grew uniformly over both the inner and outer walls of CMFs because of the widespread edges and defect sites. This is beneficial to fully expose and utilize active sites on each Co2N0.67 NP. In addition, ...


A high-polarization-degree and high-extinction-ratio polarization TM optical switch based on photonic crystal slabs comprises an upper photonic crystal slab and a lower photonic crystal slab that are connected to form a unity. The upper photonic crystal slab is a first tetragonal lattice photonic crystal slab with a TE band gap, and the unit cell of the first tetragonal lattice photonic crystal slab consists of a high-refraction-index rotary square rod, one first-slab dielectric rod and a background dielectric. The first-slab dielectric rod consists of a high-refraction-index dielectric tube and a low-refraction-index dielectric therein, or consists of a high-refraction-index slab film, or consists of a low-refraction-index dielectric. The lower photonic crystal slab is a second tetragonal lattice photonic crystal slab with a complete band gap, and the unit cell of the second tetragonal lattice photonic crystal slab consists of a high-refraction-index rotary square rod, one second-slab dielectric rod and a background dielectric. The frequency of the normalized TM optical switch ranges from 0.252 to 0.267.


Background: Side effect following vaccination usually ranges from mild to moderate and occasionally severe in a small proportion of people. Covid-19 vaccine is no exception as side effects have been reported which are mostly mild to moderate and transient. The chances of any of these side effect following vaccination differ according to the specific COVID-19 vaccine. Objective: To determine the side effect profile of the Health workers that received the COVID-19 vaccination in the Federal Medical Centre, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, Nigeria. Materials and Method: This study was a descriptive cross-sectional study. It was carried out between 15th and 30th April 2021 among 151 health workers that received COVID-19 vaccination in the Federal Medical Centre, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, Nigeria. The data were collected with a predesigned questionnaire and were analysed using IBM SPSS 23.0 version. Results: About 52.3% were female health workers, 49.0% were aged between 36–45 years. Side effects were reported in 9 of every 10 health workers who received the vaccine. Most side effects (53.0%) started on the day of vaccination. The most common side effect was pain at the injection site, and it was reported by 104 recipients of the vaccine (68.9%). Fever, headache, tiredness and chills were reported in 57.0%, 49.0%, 47.7% and 43.7%, respectively. Conclusion: As with medications and other vaccines, COVID-19 vaccines have side effects. Protective immunity against COVID-19 is developed following vaccination. In the face of a still rapidly evolving situation, what seems obvious is that vaccination currently remains the best route to achieving herd immunity.


It's a great honor for me to introduce Judge Jack B. Weinstein, the recipient of one of the inaugural Wigmore Lifetime Achievement Awards. It's also a little daunting to try to compress into a few minutes his remarkable career. Born in Wichita, Kansas, he grew up in Brooklyn, performed on Broadway as a child actor, delivered bread and other products by truck and horse-drawn carriage before he graduated from Brooklyn College, and then served on a submarine in World War II before going to Columbia Law School while working on the docks. Shortly after clerking for Judge Fuld on the New York Court of Appeals, he was invited to teach at Columbia, where he taught Evidence and Civil Procedure. He also found time to work on Brown v. Board of Education, advise the Kennedys, write articles and casebooks on Evidence and Procedure, and co-author Weinstein, Korn & Miller, a multi-volume treatise on New York civil procedure,. When he hired me in 1962 for four weeks to work on the last chapter he was writing for Weinstein, Korn & Miller, I don't think his co-authors had as yet completed their first chapters. In 1963, he took a leave of absence from Columbia and became the Nassau County Attorney. In 1965, Chief Justice Warren appointed him to an Advisory Committee charged with drafting rules of evidence for the federal courts. That project ended up taking quite a few years. As you undoubtedly all know, promulgation of the rules was held up by Congress in part because of Watergate, and the rules were ultimately enacted by Congress, rather than through rule-making. By then, Jack Weinstein had completed a treatise on the new rules, Weinstein's Evidence, and he was no longer a professor of law at Columbia. On May 1, 1967 he had become a federal district judge for the Eastern District of New York. So by the time the Federal Rules of Evidence became effective in January 1975, there was a treatise telling everybody what to do, and a judge who could make sure they did it.


The aim of this bachelor work is concept for innovation position Ceska posta, s.p. in the area parcel post in the marketplace. There is defined what is symbolic logic and her function. There are introduced some companies which have function in this branch and thein productions. One part of this work is paid to legislation. The other part of this work is about analysis mentioned logistic companies. The proposal of solution and more innovation for adapting to actual development in this area for Ceska posta, s.p. come from analysis.


Lumbar hernias of the lateroposterior abdominal wall have a low prevalence, being described in the scientific literature as sporadic cases or short series. Initially, they manifest as a painless tumor that can be confused with other more frequent pathologies such as soft-tissue tumors, lipomas, hematomas, or abscesses. We present the case of a 72-year-old female patient who, after removal of a lumbar lipoma by dermatology, was referred to our clinic for recurrence of tumor. An ultrasound scan showed a recurrence of the lipoma. The anamnesis and physical examination suggested lumbar hernia. Computerized axial tomography scan confirmed the clinical diagnosis, and surgery was indicated.


Abstract In the search for early-detectable selection criteria for growth at low temperature conditions in tomato, first the initiation and growth of individual leaves was analysed. Scanning electron microscopy revealed that the first four primordia had already developed during the germination period at 25°C. The primordium of the fifth leaf, however, was initiated after the transfer of seedlings to the experimental conditions. The increase in length of the first three leaves, and to a lesser extent of the fourth leaf, was considerably smaller in comparison with that of later formed leaves. Moreover, the morphology of the first three to four leaves was deviant, whereas the others showed the normal compound leaf architecture. All these results indicated that the fifth leaf was the earliest formed leaf with growth characteristics that might reflect the growth potential of the whole plant. Development of the fifth leaf was tested as a marker for whole plant growth. At three temperature, 18, 15 and 12°C, growth responses of the fifth leaf were similar to that of whole plants in four tomato genotypes: Line A, Line B, Premier and MXXIV-13. Significant differences in relative growth rate of dry weight of whole plants and fifth leaves (RGRW)and of leaf area of the fifth leaves (RGRLA between two fast growing and two slow growing genotypes were found. No genotype by temperature interaction for RGRW and RGRLA was found, indicating that the effect of temperature decrease was similar for the four genotypes. The structure of the mature fifth leaf of one fast and one slow growing genotype, Line A and MXXIV-13, was analysed. For both genotypes, leaves were small and thick at low temperature, 12°C. The total number of epidermis and palisade parenchyma cells per leaf was smaller but the size of the cells developed at 12°C was larger than at 18°C. Consequently, the slow growth at 12°C was due to a low rate of cell division. At both temperatures, the fifth leaf to MXXIV-13 was smaller compared to that of line A. Since the size of the cells were similar, the smaller leaf size was due to lower number of leaf cells. The results confirm the suitability of the growth, especially expressed as RGRLA , of the fifth leaf as a nondestructive market for vegetative development of tomato at low temperature. Growth differences between genotypes were mainly reflected by differences in cell number of leaves, which might be correlated with genetically determined differences in cell number of leaf primordia.


After deregulation of consumer credit and resultant availability, over-indebtedness became a problem for many countries. As a response to this many jurisdictions have departed from their "merchant oriented" bankruptcy law to include individuals giving them discharge and fresh start. Germany, United States, United Kingdom and France are some of the countries that adopted consumer bankruptcy laws after experiencing over-indebtedness problem.There are also several other reasons for using individual bankruptcy discharge and fresh start as an important policy tool. Accordingly, individual bankruptcy law, with discharge and fresh start, is justified out of entrepreneurship policy, development policy, social insurance function, debtor rehabilitation and reintegration and human act of forgiveness. These factors also determine the scope of one's individual bankruptcy law. The German and United States individual bankruptcy laws confirm this fact. In Ethiopia credit market is still highly regulated; nevertheless consumers have access to credit and are potentially exposed to risk of indebtedness and there is a move towards that. Adopting individual bankruptcy law can also be an ex ante solution. More importantly, introducing such law to Ethiopia is more convincing based on the entrepreneurship, social insurance, development policy and rehabilitative function of discharge and fresh start.It is, therefore, my thesis that Ethiopia also should follow the global trend by adopting individual bankruptcy with adequate discharge and fresh start. This law should be based on German model, repayment plan and then discharge. The discharge should be subjected to payment of certain portion of debt and the debtors should cover cost of proceeding. This will reduce the burden of financing the system.


The secondary rise of blood pressure produced by histamine has been attributed to the release of catechol amines from the adrenal medulla ever since Burn & Dale (1926) showed that, in cats, the response disappeared after bilateral adrenalectomy. Szcygielski (1932) injected small amounts of histamine into the arterial blood supply of the adrenal glands; after denervation of the glands there was still a pressor effect which was decreased but not completely blocked by nicotine. Bein & Meier (1953) further showed that after bilateral adrenalectomy an infusion of small amounts of adrenaline or noradrenaline restored the biphasic action of histamine but not that of nicotine or coramine. Slater & Dresel (1952) suggested that histamine also caused a release of noradrenaline from sympathetic nerve endings and that this would contribute to the pressor action. They showed that the pressor phase produced by injection of histamine was potentiated by hexamethonium and blocked by dibenamine or by tripelennamine but not by atropine. In all these experiments on the cat the secondary rise in blood pressure or the contraction of the nictitating membrane was used as an indication of catechol amine release. Comparatively few experiments been published on the release of catechol amines by histamine the dog. Slater & Dresel find a secondary pressor effect and Woods & Richardson saw no cardiovascular actions attributable to catechol amine release after histamine. found no change in the catechol amine concentration of arterial plasma after histamine.


This work describes, for the first time, the theoretical modeling of structure and interaction between Sm3+ ion and 1, 3-di(thiophene imino)benzoic acid (DTBA) as a chelating reagent in the membrane and solution which were performed using the PM6/SPARKLE semiempirical method in the MOPAC program. Computational modeling results can be predicted behavior of Sm-DTBA interactions which was used as an ionophore for construction of samarium-selective potentiometric membrane sensor. The best performance was obtained with a membrane composition of 31% (w/w) PVC, 62% tributylphosphate (TBP), 4.8% DTBA and 3.2% sodium tetraphenyl borate (NaTBP). This sensor has a Nernstian slope of 19.6 mV decade for Sm3+ ions in the range of 1.0 × 10-1 - 5.0 × 106 M and the detection limit was 3.1 × 10-6 M. The response time of the sensor is very fast (≤ 5 s) and the potentiometric response is independent of the pH of the solution in the pH range of 4.5-8.5. This sensor shows good selectivity for Sm3+ ion with respect to alkali, alkaline earth and heavy metal cations. The proposed sensor has been used for indirect determination of some drugs such as homatropine hydrobromide and hyoscine N-butylbromide in their pharmaceutical formulations and fluoride ions in mouthwash samples.


The primary frequency standard consists of two independent groups of piezo oscillators. Section I consists of four pieao oscillators with frequencies of 100 kc/s. Section I1 has two pieao oscillators, one with a frequency of 100 kc/s, the other 200 kc/s, from which a 100-kc/s output is obtained by means of a submultiple generator. The absolute frequency of one of the units of each sgction is checked daily against Arlington t i e signals by a synchronous-motor clock driven by the 100th submultiple of the frequency of the controlling unit. Daily measurements provide a check on the frequency variations of the standard over an extepded period. Frequency variations over short intervale are shown by an automatic recorder of the frequency difference between one of the units of section I and each of the other five units. CONTENTS Page


Objective To determine the effectiveness of ETCD ( endoscopic transpapillary cyst drainage) in treatmen! of pancreatic pseudocysts. Methods Twenty-six patients with pancreatic pesudocysts were selected. They are presented some indications for treatment and the pesudocyst were ranged in size from 1.5 to 15 cm. Of 23 cases 38 sessions of ETCD were performed. In two of thirty-eight cases the cyst bulges were invisible in the stomach or duodenum due to its compression. In one case ETCD was employed after percutaneous drainage of the pseudocyst, the other one was treated after combination therapy of plastic stent ing because of jaundice. Results Improvement of abdominal pain, changes in appetite, body weight and fat in stool were recorded in follow-ups of 60 ~ 850 days. There was only one asymptomatic recurrence. One case was complicated with pancreatic abscess. There was no mortality related to the procedure. Surgical intervention became necessary in three cases because of inadequate drainage or complication. Conclusion ETCD treatment of symptomatic pancreatic pseudocysts with ductal communication, the transpapillary pancreatic duct stenting is a safe, effective modality and should be considered as the first line therapy; on the other hand for those pancreatic pseudocyst without communication to the main pancreatic duct it is not effective.


It was in the 60th year of my mother's life, after she had smoked for four decades, that a routine chest x-ray changed everything. The doctor called to tell her, "There's a spot on your lung." Eleven months later, in the early spring of 1990, lung cancer claimed her as one of the 419,000 American casualties attributed to smoking (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 1993). The tobacco company marketing geniuses learned many years earlier how to lure women into their tobacco den. The "may be hazardous to your health" warnings on cigarette packages had been around for 25 years but were easily dismissed. Female consumers were reassured by the new improved low tar, ultra low tar, low nicotine, milder, mentholated, smoother tasting, filtered and "safer" cigarettes. There were stylish, feminine, slim brands of cigarettes marketed for weight control, sex appeal, sophistication, independence and empowerment. Their catchy slogans were everywhere, including You've come a long way, baby, It's a woman's thing and Find your voice (American Lung Association, 2009). So, my mother and her friends laughed and relaxed and smoked, oblivious to the cancer that patiently stalked her. By the time she died, lung cancer had surpassed breast cancer as the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in women and lung cancer mortality rates were climbing by 600 percent...a trend that continues today (CDC, 2009).


FIELD: medicine. SUBSTANCE: before the procedure of extracorporal fertilization the content of thyroid-stimulating hormone is determined in peripheral venous blood of women and when its value is greater than 2.1 Miu/l the development of intraventricular hemorrhage her unborn child is predicted. EFFECT: risk of intraventricular hemorrhage in newborns is predicted with high accuracy. 1 tbl, 4 ex


The regeneration of nicotinamide-adenine dinucleotide (reduced form, NADH) by the reduction of NAD with hydrogen gas was carried out in the presence of the hydrogenase from Alcaligenes eutrophus, and ketone hydrogenation was tried by the combination of the above system and alcohol dehydrogenase (ALDH). The ketones such as 2-butanone, 2-pentanone, and 2-hexanone were easily hydrogenated by hydrogen gas. After 65 h, the turnover number of NAD was 64 for 2-butanone showing a recurrence of NAD by hydrogen gas.


A convenient synthesis of a racemic A-ring precursor of dihydroxyvitamin D 3 (calcitriol) is described. The key step involves the singlet oxygen ene reaction of the Lythgoe lactone, which proceeds with excellent regio- and good diastereoselectivities. Strong polar interactions are operative during the attack of 1 O 2 to the double bond, which is important for the mechanism of such reactions.


This paper studies the online scheduling of shared autonomous electric vehicle (SAEV) fleets. The study includes charging management, routing and rebalancing strategies for SAEVs to serve the trip demands in the coupled power and transportation network (PTN). It aims to minimize the total social cost of PTN. The difficulty lies in how to deal with time-varying trip demands with the time-coupled SAEV scheduling and PTN operation considered. To address this challenge, for the first time, we propose a novel framework named the shadow-price deep reinforcement learning (shadow-price DRL), which combines the rigorous PTN operation model and the data-driven model-free DRL-based algorithm. Within the shadow-price DRL, the policy neural network adaptively learns the system dynamics and imposes its actions on the online SAEV scheduling problem as the dynamic shadow prices. By doing so, the SAEV schedule will be determined in the online manner. In addition, the connection between the proposed framework and Lagrangian Relaxation method is discussed, which illustrates the principles and effectiveness of the proposed method. The case studies include the practical Xi'an city which verifies the effectiveness of the shadow-price DRL and illustrates its significant superiority over the safe DRL and model predictive control (MPC) based methods.


The invention relates to a heterogenous double-preposition application system architecture in financial (bank) industries. An enterprise service bus is a base platform facing to a service-oriented architecture (SOA), preposition systems are core systems of the enterprise service bus to provide technique support for sharing and reusing services in an enterprise, enterprise technical architecture flexibility is improved through convenient system interaction, and the most value of using the SOA can be achieved. A preposition A system and a preposition B system coexist and can both meet capacity requirements, integration principle and integration mode requirements of the enterprise service bus so as to avoid design defects of a single preposition system and improve service capacity. Functions of a service logic processing system and functions of a bus system are separated to design the heterogenous double-preposition application system architecture. When one preposition system is in fault to cause service failure, the platform can be freely switched to the other system to achieve continuous service. Double insurances, double backups and double services of the SOA platform are achieved, and services are guaranteed to be operated smoothly, efficiently and safely.


The purpose of this study was to suggest actual strategy increasing sport competitiveness and added value of sport teams through investigating how professional sport team image factors improving corporate image and enhancing corporate marketing activity to affect buying factors of licensing products, and how to affect team loyalty. To complete this purpose, researchers chose the subjects 300 spectators living in Gwangju and Daegu in professional sports games in 2013 with convenience sampling method excluding insufficient respondents. Reliability test of the measuring instrument indicated the Cronbach`s α between .976 and .728, which was an adequate value for the objective of the study. Multiple regression analysis was performed for practical data analysis, and was able to acquire the following results. First, high quality, trusty, certainty, and interest of team image had distinct influence in product character and purchase circumstance. Second, high quality, trusty, certainty of team image had distinct influence in behavioral loyalty and attitudinal loyalty. Third, product character of buying factors and purchase circumstance had distinct influenced in behavioral loyalty and attitudinal loyalty. As a result of findings, because sport team image affected buying factors and team loyalty, operating sport teams was competitive and corporate could get profit through selling licensing products. To increase team image, the team needed to find and bring up local excellent athletes, show more positive team image through social responsibility activity to the fans. In addition, corporate need to produce licensing products emphasizing fuctionality, design, color, and price on demand of customers. Discount tickets sales and simplifying the rout of selling licensing products also could be good strategy.


It was shown previously that a crack in a weld line between two different steels may cause mode II type fracture, even under so-called mode I type loading, due to the difference of material properties. In this study, the fracture experiments of the specimen in which a crack parallel to a weld line between high-tension steel and mild steel exists in its neighborhood are carried out. It is shown that mode II type fracture occurs when a crack is in the heat affected zone, the fracture mode changes to mode I type with the distance of crack position from the weld line and mode I type fracture occurs when a crack exists in each mother material. After that, finite element analyses corresponding to the experiments are carried out taking material properties in the weld line and heat affected zone into account, and the CED (crack energy density) in an arbitrary direction is evaluated through the results of finite element analyses. The applicability of fracture criterion based on the CED in an arbitray direction is demonstrated to the crack growth initiation behavior of a crack parallel to a weld line between two different steels. Moreover, the effect of inhomogeneity by welding on the fracture resistance with the crack position is investigated based on the CED in an arbitrary direction.


The paper presents experience from the blended course "Computer programs" at Faculty of Civil Engineering in Rijeka. This course teaches students about CAD (Computer Aided Design) in general and how to design in AutoCAD in particular. Since 2006, lectures and course exercises have been carried out as face-to-face classes and lessons presented on LMS Moodle. By completing the individual exercises, students are expected to adopt and develop their technical drawing proficiency. Students are also involved in group activities requiring integration of their acquired technical skills, organizational skills and presentation skills. Furthermore, intention of group activities improvement by means of latest technologies implementation is presented: by applying the cloud-computing and real-time collaboration tool students can recognise the significant potential of those applications and utilise them in the future.


We propose a fast algorithm for constructing an optimal partition, in terms of mutually independent random vectors, of the components of a non-Gaussian random vector that is only defined by a given set of realizations. The method proposed and its objective are different from the independent component analysis that was introduced to extract independent source signals from a linear mixture of independent stochastic processes. The algorithm that is proposed is based on the use of the mutual entropy from information theory and on the use of graph theory for constructing an optimal partition. The method has especially been developed for random vectors in high dimension and for which the number of realizations that constitute the data set can be small. The proposed algorithm allows for improving the identification of any stochastic model of a non-Gaussian random vector in high dimension for which a data set is given. Instead of directly constructing a unique stochastic model for which its stochastic dimension, ...


Tissue-mimicking phantoms, including bovine serum albumin (BSA) phantom and egg white phantom, have been developed for, and in laboratory use for real-time visualization of HIFU-induced thermal coagulative necrosis since 2001. However, until now, very few data are available concerning their thermophysical properties. In this paper, a step-wise transient plane source (TPS) method has been used to determine the values of thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity, and specific heat capacity of egg white phantoms with elevated egg white concentrations (0 to 40 % v/v, by 10 % v/v interval) at room temperature (~20 °C). The measured thermophysical properties were close to previously reported values; the thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity were linearly proportional to the egg white concentration within the investigation range, while the specific heat capacity decreased as the egg white concentration increased. Taking account of large differences between real experiment and ideal model, data variations within 20 % were accepted.