An example is given of a character xr on a subgroup of G(y/2) or G{\ß) such that the kernel of xr is of finite index in G(\/2) or G(-\ß) but is not a congruence subgroup. In [7] K. Wohlfahrt exhibited a class of subgroups of the modular group which were not congruence subgroups although they were of finite index. These subgroups were the kernels of certain characters on r0(«). In this note we generalize K. Wohlfahrt's construction to the Hecke groups G(\/2) and G(\/3) in order to produce noncongruence subgroups of finite index in addition to those in [5] and to give examples of characters which are not congruence characters. Since G{\f2) and G(a/3) are the only Hecke groups commensurable with the modular group [3], K. Wohlfahrt's method cannot be extended to other Hecke groups. For notational convenience let m stand for 2 or 3. Then G{\fm) is the group of 2 X 2 matrices generated by (¿7) '-(."o') It is well known [1], [8] that G(\/m) consists of the entirety of all matrices of the following two types: (,— j ), a, b, c, d G Z, ad mbc = 1, cym a ) and (,/—), a, b, c, d G Z, mad — be = 1. c d\/m ) For n a positive integer, the principal congruence subgroup of level n is defined by T(n) = {M G G(y/m): M ■ ±/ (mod «)} Received by the editors July 22, 1975. A MS (MOS) subject classifications (1970). Primary 20H05. © American Ma:hematical Society 1976


The present invention discloses a method for the production of hydrochloric acid with waste wash Fe-Al-Ca agent for removing phosphorus, the method containing Fe2 + at a concentration of 9.0 to 10.0 mass%, the concentration of HCl in the waste to 7% hydrochloric acid wash 1000 parts by mass was placed in a reactor, under stirring added in one portion 40-55 parts by mass for industrial grade NaClO3 solution obtained after oxidation; 1000 parts by mass of this solution in the reactor, with stirring was added 200 -3000 parts by mass of Al2O3 having a concentration of 6.0 to 10.0 mass% of CaO, 2.5-4.0% by mass concentration of calcium aluminum solution polymerization, stirring continued for 1 hour to obtain Fe-Al-Ca agent for removing phosphorus. The present invention has simple process, low cost, without the advantages of the production process, "waste" emissions, and to ensure that treatment of wastewater discharge standard of GB18918-2002IA.


Understanding the state of stress in the elastic lithosphere is of fundamental importance for planetary geophysics, as it is the link between the observed geologic structures on the surface and the processes which form and modify these structures. As such, it can provide valuable constraints for the difficult problem of determining interior structure and processes. On the Earth, most large scale, organized deformation can be related to lateral tectonics associated with plate dynamics; however, the tectonics on many extraterrestrial bodies (such as the Moon, Mars, and most of the outer-planet satellites) appears to be primarily vertical in nature, and the horizontal stresses induced by vertical motions and loads are expected to dominate the deformation of their lithospheres. The largest stress contributions from vertical loading come from the flexure of the lithosphere, which induces both bending moments and membrane stresses. We are concerned here only with nonflexural changes in the state of stress induced by processes such as sedimentary and volcanic deposition, erosional denudation, and changes in the thermal gradient that induce uplift or subsidence. This analysis is important both for evaluating stresses for specific regions in which the vertical stress history can be estimated, as well as for applying the proper loading conditions to global stress models. It is also of interest for providing a reference state of stress for interpreting stress measurements in the crust of the Earth.


Chiral vinylogous sulfonamidopeptides (vs-peptides) were synthesized on TentaGel resin employing (S)- and (R)-N-Boc-vinylogous sulfonyl chlorides 2a–i as building blocks. Glycine and two different photocleavable molecules were used as linkers, and the corresponding cleavage conditions were optimized. According to preliminary studies in solution and on solid phase, three libraries were synthesized with the "split-mix synthesis" method. Taking advantage of the acidic character of the sulfonamides (RSO2–NHR: pKa = 10-11), mild conditions were developed to alkylate the sulfonamide nitrogen atom so as to reduce the acidity of the monomers and of the oligomers and increase their in vivo bioavailability. This synthetic methodology was employed to increase the diversity in a library of di-N-alkylated vs-dipeptides 26. The electron-withdrawing capability of the sulfonamido group pointed to the use of vinylogous sulfonamidopeptides as Michael acceptors. The sodium enolate of dimethyl malonate was used as nucleophile to obtain N-Boc-γ-lactams 35 in moderate yields and good diastereoselectivity.


Over the conventional limit equilibrium method and limit analysis method, the finite element method is advantageous, especially for slopes involving complex failure mechanisms where the critical slip surfaces cannot be represented by log spirals and other similarities. In the presence of tension cracks at slope crests, however, the finite element method encounters difficulties in convergence while handling Mohr–Coulomb's yielding surfaces with tensile strength cut-off. Meanwhile, the commonly used load-controlled method for the system of nonlinear equilibrium equations is hard to bring the slope into the limit equilibrium state. The two drawbacks drag down the finite element method in more extensive applications. By reducing the constitutive integration of plasticity with non-smooth yielding surfaces to the mixed complementarity problem, the convergence in numerical constitutive integration is established for arbitrarily large incremental strains. In order to bring the slope to the limit equilibrium state, a new displacement-controlled algorithm is designed for the system of nonlinear equilibrium equations, which is far more efficient than the load-controlled method. A procedure is proposed to locate tension cracks. Corresponding to the Mohr–Coulomb failure criterion with and without tensile strength cut-off, the failure mechanisms differ significantly, while the difference in the factor of safety might be ignorable.


From late last century there has been a great development of international standards and tools on environment, sustainability and corporate responsibility issues. This has been along with the globalization of economy and politics, as well as a shift in the social responsibilities of the private vis-a-vis the public sectors. Internationally, organisations have implemented a collection of these standards to be in line with such development and to obtain or keep their licence to operate globally. After two decades of development and maturation, the scenario is now different: (i) the economic context has changed dramatically with many of the world's economies facing downturn and a looming possible recession; and the global economic and political balance changing; (ii) most larger companies and quite a few SMEs now have a mature knowledge of these standards; and (iii) some standards are advocating for integration procedures, such as cases of for example ISO integrated management systems, mutual equivalences recognition of Global Compact-GRI-ISO26000, or the case of IIRC initiative to develop integrated reporting on an organization's Financial, Environmental, Social and Governance performance. This paper focuses on the role of international standards organisations, their partnerships, and how these may be key actors in not only the future of international standards and tools for Corporate Responsibility but also real drivers of a private sector realised sustainable development agenda.


In 2020, the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic caused huge social and economic upheavals around the world, at a time when the global economy has not yet fully recovered from the economic shocks caused by the effects of the 2008-2009 global financial crisis. Existing fundamental structural weaknesses have made the countries of Central Asia particularly vulnerable. The pandemic and the upheavals it caused have been catastrophic: many businesses have closed, global trade has been threatened, transportation and logistics have been disrupted, and more.
The article describes the results of post-pandemic economic research, such as: changes in real GDP growth and its impact on economic growth, economic activity, balance of payments, unemployment, and more. analyzed the depth and severity of the problems caused by economic stagnation. The barriers that act as a kind of obstacles to the policy of resuscitation of the economy are identified. Effective ways of solving existing problems are proposed. Important conclusions and recommendations are presented.
Keywords: Post-pandemic, pandemic economy.


The problem of monitoring ongoing technical condition of various vehicle subsystems from operational data is a subject matter for many modern armies. Due to the requirements on reliability of military vehicles and its failure-free operation during a mission; it would be advantageous to have a tool that enables a quick diagnostics of vehicles most important components. Present article shows one of the ways to quickly check the state and functionality of an automatic transmission of the LMV Iveco used within Army of the Czech Republic. The basis is a continuous operational data acquisition from the vehicle buses. Evaluation is based on creating a virtual model of the automatic transmission. The model is able to work with operational data and generate output characteristics of a properly functioning subsystem in all the possible operational modes pertaining to the vehicle. This allows to observe and evaluate progressive changes of various vehicle subsystems in operating conditions and prevent a sudden failure. Based on this information, it is possible to provide preemptive maintenance, before a deteriorating state of vehicle subsystems is indicated by common diagnostic tools, or before it shows in worsening vehicle characteristics (low power, imprecise shifting of gears, faulty differential valve switching, etc.).


The invention discloses an embedded sensing chip encapsulation structure with a vertical through hole and a manufacturing method of the embedded sensing chip encapsulation structure and belongs to the fields of integrated circuit encapsulation technologies, sensor technologies and the like. The manufacturing method comprises the steps that dielectric coating is performed on a complete sensor chip; wiring is performed on the surface of a dielectric, and the interior of the dielectric is drilled to be filled with conductive materials; a bonding pad on the surface of the sensor chip is led to a metal soldered ball on the reverse of the dielectric material and is interconnected with the outside through the metal soldered ball. According to the encapsulation structure, wiring is performed on the surface and the interior of the dielectric material, the operations like step etching on the sensor chip itself are avoided, and secondary encapsulation of surface-mounted glass, sapphire and other elements of the sensor chip is facilitated. Besides, through the structure, the cost is lowered, and the encapsulation yield and the reliability of products are improved.


A novel content-based feedback learning motion retrieval approach is presented. The approach includes two primary stages. (1) In the learning stage, fuzzy clustering is first utilized to get the representative frames of motions, and the body gesture features are extracted to build a motion feature database. (2) In the motion retrieval stage, the query motion feature is extracted according to stage (1). Similarity measurements are then conducted by employing a novel method that combines Manhattan distance dynamic programming (MDP) and support vector machine (SVM) feedback learning. The retrieval results are ranked according to the feedback learning values. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified experimentally.


An image forming apparatus that uses a thermal printing head (TPH) is provided. The image forming apparatus includes a platen roller. A TPH unit faces the platen roller and pivots to contact or separate from the platen roller. A first elastic member elastically biases the TPH unit toward the platen roller. A pair of cam levers are provided on both sides of the TPH unit. A pair of rotation cams contact the pair of cam levers and allow the TPH unit to pivot according to a rotation angle of the rotation cams.


For a completely regular space X, denote by Cp(X) the space of continuous real valued functions on X, endowed with the pointwise convergence topology. The spaces X and Y are t-equivalent if Cp(X) and Cp(Y) are homeomorphic. It is proved that, for metrizable spaces X, the countable dimensionality is preserved by t-equivalence. It is also shown that this relation preserves absolute Borel classes greater than 2 and all projective classes.


David Hoy's book The Time of Our Lives will not alleviate the anxiety that we experience as temporal beings, but then nothing can. What this book can do is help us to better understand where that anxiety comes from and various ways in which thinkers such as Kant, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, Nietzsche, and Derrida have grappled with issues related to human consciousness and time. Hoy puts aside questions about time as an objective reality and deals with time as human beings perceive it and their relationship to it, and deals with questions such as 'is human consciousness a product of time (is time prior to human consciousness) or is time a product of human consciousness?' How are we to think about the fact that the past and future do not exist but only the moment? Human beings understand themselves in relation to their past and future and yet these things, strictly speaking, do not exist. What do we lose with the passing of time, and can we really call it a loss? Do we view the past as a fixed memory defining who we are, or a set of memories that can be recreated in order to affect change in the present or the future? Human beings live in an in-between state in which we assume we always have more time but that time is also running out. How do we live with these two perceptions? Why is it that sometimes time seems to go slowly and other times speeds by? These are the types of questions that Hoy takes up in The Time of Our Lives. From one angle, Hoy's book is a history of thinkers who have dealt with issues of time and temporality. To that extent it is extremely useful in understanding some of the most important phenomenological and poststructuralist philosophers, and for understanding how important questions of time were to their philosophical enterprise. Hoy starts with Kant and the question of whether ''time is mind dependent or mind independent'' (2). Whereas Kant thinks that time is subjective, that human beings impose the concept of time upon their experience, Heidegger reinterprets Kant and ''reverses the relation and suggests that time is the source of subjectivity'' (19). So the author introduces the reader to the unsettling questions about who we really are, siding more with Heidegger than with Kant, and exploring from there the ways in which human beings confront time and how time in turn affects us. We are temporal beings—time is essential for our perception of ourselves, or we are time-conscious beings, according to Husserl. The anxiety that this consciousness can cause is an underlying concern that runs throughout the book and is especially noticeable in Hoy's discussion of Heidegger's treatment of the experience of boredom and Nietzsche's doctrine of eternal recurrence. Nietzsche's doctrine illustrates to what lengths the human mind will go to cope with the enormity of the question of time. In order to escape from the idea that time once lost is lost forever, Nietzsche invented the idea that all things happen again and again in exactly the same way. This idea is on the one hand comforting and on the other extremely disquieting, as is Hoy's book. This will be good reading for anyone interested in the concept of temporality and the question of human nature.


Evidence suggests delaying an appendicectomy for up to 24 hours does not increase the risk of complicated appendicitis. Appendicoliths are a risk factor for perforation. However, no study has explored the temporal relationship between appendicolith presence and time to perforation. This study aims to review pre-operative Computer Tomography (pCT) confirmed appendicoliths and their correlation with a shorter time to complicated appendicitis.

 Retrospective single centre study of patients admitted between 2018-2020. Inclusion criteria: age ≥18 years, appendicitis on histopathology following an operation and pCT scan. Complicated appendicitis was defined intra-operatively as an appendicular abscess, gangrenous or perforated appendix.

 310 patients were included in the study (45.5% with complicated appendicitis). Appendicoliths were present in 79 (25.5%) patients. Multivariate logistic regression identified an appendicolith as a significant risk factor for perforation (Odds Ratio 4.2, 95% Confidence Interval [CI] 1.3-13.6, p = 0.018). Within the first 12 hours of admission, those with an appendicolith accounted for a significantly greater proportion of patients with complicated appendicitis intra-operatively than those without (57.7% vs 42.3% respectively, p = 0.039). Within 12 hours of admission, those with an appendicolith were 2.2 times more likely to suffer from complicated appendicitis than those without (95% CI 1.4-3.7).

 Patients with an appendicolith found on CT should be prioritised for theatre within 12 hours of admission.


Measurements of the electrical conductivity and thermoelectrie pow er of nonstoichiometric uranium dioxide confirm the ionic description of nonstoichiometry in urania-base fluorite structures suggested on the basis of thermodynamic measurements and lattice energy calculations. Nonstoiochiometric urania-base solid solutions appear to be relatixely simple ionic solids containing U/sup 5+/ ions and interstitial O/sup 2-/ ions. The U/sup 4+/, U/sup 5+/ and substitutional cations (Th/sup 4+/, Zr/sup 4+/, Y/sup 3+/) may be considered to be randomly distributed in the cationic lattice. The specific electrical conductance, sigma /sub 0/, of nonstoichiometric uranium dioxide is adequately described by the equation sigma /sub 0/ = (3.8 x 10/sup 6//T) exp (-- 0.30 + 0.03/kT) STAU/sup 5+/! STAU/sup 4+/! where STAU/sup 5+/! an d STAU/sup 4+! are the concentrations of U/sup 5+/ and U/sup 4+ ions, respectively. The thermoelectric power, Q, for nonstoichiometric uranium dioxide is approximately represented by the equation Q = (k/e) ln STAU/sup 4+!/STAU/sup 5+! where k is Boitzmann's constant aid e is the electronic charge. Both equations are consistent with a simple ionic description in which activated electronic transfer occurs between U/sup 4+/ and U/sup 5+/ ions in the lattice. Other properties of uranium dioxide which were measured, such as magnetic susceptibilitymore » and oxygen diffusion, are briefly discussed in the light of the ionic model for UO/sub 2/. (auth)« less


Data have been gathered on 93 organizations and over 3030 individuals using a climate survey. This paper examines the related concepts of climate and culture and points to their importance as root metaphors for organizational analysis. Key research issues surrounding the use of climate surveys are highlighted and a range of strategic applications of climate survey data outlined. A twofold contribution to the literature is made by considering empirical and statistical approaches used in the field and by categorizing the various climates within and across industries. The Business and Organization Climate Index (BOCI) data are analysed statistically in order to examine the practicality and validity of using organizational climate maps as part of a typical management of change intervention. The findings show that the BOCI instrument can be used to create a reliable average profile with a high degree of inter-rater reliability. The methodological issues surrounding such assessments are discussed. Moreover, these organizational profiles can be classified, by use of agglomerative statistical techniques such as cluster analysis, into eight overarching climate maps. These generic climate maps reflect three negative, one neutral and four positive variations of climate. The membership of any particular organization in the cluster is not solely determined by industry sector. However, broad patterns of strategy and organizational process are reflected in the eight clusters. Given that climate surveys reflect individual perceptions, the eight climate maps may be as strong a measure of managers' and workers' cognitive frameworks and judgements as they are representations of organizational behaviour and action.


This study aims to find out the effect of immersion time in wuluh starfruit juice (Averrhoa bilimbi) and storage time of characteristics mackarel tuna fish (Euthynnus affinis), as well as to determine the right time of immersion in wuluh starfruit juice and storage time to produce mackarel tuna fish with still acceptable characteristics. The experimental design used in this study was a Completely Randomized Design with 5 level immersion treatments, namely: 0 minutes, 2 minutes, 4 minutes, 6 minutes, and 8 minutes, with the observation time in the 3 and 6 hour. The treatment was repeated 2 times to obtain 20 experimental units. The data obtained were analyzed by variance and if the treatment had an effect on the observed variables then it was continued with the Duncan test. The results of the study with duration of immersion time that produced with still acceptable mackarel tuna fish products was 4 minutes at the time of observation of the 6 hour the water content is 71,5%, the acidity was 5.35, the microbial total was 4,28 log cfu/g or 1.9x10 cfu/g, and the total volatile base was 21,57 mg N / 100g which was low and the score of color, smell, texture and scales, the eyes, gills, and body surface mucus can be accepted by the panelists as well as overall acceptance that was preferred.


The 6.3 kb Clostridium perfringens transposon Tn4451 encodes a 50 kDa protein, TnpZ, which has amino acid sequence similarity to a group of plasmid mobilization and recombination proteins that comprise the Mob/Pre family. Members of this family interact with an upstream palindromic sequence called an RSA site, and an RSA‐like sequence has been identified upstream of the tnpZ gene. In Escherichia coli, in the presence of a chromosomally integrated derivative of the broad‐host‐range IncP plasmid, RP4, TnpZ was able to promote plasmid mobilization in cis and was able to function in trans to enable the mobilization of a co‐resident plasmid carrying an RSA site. It was also able to mediate the conjugative transfer of plasmids from E. coli to C. perfringens. Site‐directed mutagenesis of two bases within the RSA site resulted in a significant reduction in mobilization frequency, demonstrating that the RSA site is required for efficient plasmid mobilization. TnpZ is the only Mob/Pre protein known to be associated with a transposable genetic element, and Tn4451 is the first mobilizable but non‐self‐transmissible transposon to be identified from a Gram‐positive bacterium.


DESCRIPTION: The TECNIS® multifocal foldable acrylic 1-piece lens, Model ZMB00, is an ultraviolet light-absorbing posterior chamber intraocular lens. It is designed to be positioned posterior to the iris where the lens should replace the optical function of the natural crystalline lens. The TECNIS® multifocal foldable acrylic 1-piece lens incorporates a proprietary wavefront-designed aspheric optic with a squared posterior edge designed to provide a 360-degree barrier. The edge of the optic has a frosted design to reduce potential edge glare effects.


Aims: Pectusexcavatum (PE) is a congenital condition characterized by inward depression ofthe chest wall. Significant PE can lead to heart compression and can affectexercise tolerance. Minimally invasive NUSS procedure is now replacing the opensurgery (Ravitch). We present the outcomes of this novel technique. Methods: Weretrospectively followed a series of 47 patients, mean age 38 (15-68, mode andmedian 27), 4% female, who underwent NUSS procedure at the Heart Hospital,London, UK, between February 2010 and July 2013. We recorded the reasons forthe operation, history of cardio-respiratory symptoms, results ofechocardiogram, pre and post-surgery chest radiographs and CT chest images, thelength of hospital stay, need for analgesia, complications and planned completionbar removal.Results: Reasonsfor the procedure: 72% cosmetic reasons alone, 19% breathlessness on exertion,4% palpitations, 4% chest pain on exertion and 9% other chest pain. 4 patientshad evidence of right ventricular compression on CT with normal function onechocardiography. Bar number and size: 50% 1 bar, 50% 2 bars, 42% size 10 and 35% size 11. The mean length ofhospital stay was 4.7 days (3-21). Requirement for analgesia: mean 17 days(5-28), 45% required opiate analgesia, 38 % tramadol, 62% required 3 or moretypes of analgesia. Complications (patient number): 5 incision site cellulitis(2 requiring intravenous antibiotics), 14 pleural effusions (12 resolved spontaneously,2 required drainage), 16 small pneumothoraxes which resolved spontaneously, 3 bar displacements and 1 bar infection requiring re-do NUSS. Completion bar removal was performed in2 patients at 2 and 3 years post insertion respectively.


Previous studies of the kinetics of dehydroxylation of kaolinite and halloysite point to first-order reactions, in approximate conformity with the Arrhenius relation. Isothermal weight-loss measurements have shown that the rate constants are markedly dependent on factors such as specimen size, shape, and compaction. A technique has been developed for determining the reaction kinetics of infinitely thin disk-type specimens. The reactions are then strictly first order and the Arrhenius relation is obeyed. Activation energies of 65 and 55 kcal. per mole are obtained for kaolinite and halloysite, respectively. Comparison is made between the behavior of kaolinite and halloysite on the one hand and of macrocrystalline anauxite on the other. For anauxite, nucleation and growth of nuclei produce a sigmoid-type reaction curve, but for the fine-grained minerals it is believed that nucleation alone is the rate-controlling process. The dependence of the reaction rate on geometrical factors is attributed to the retention of water vapor within the powder specimen. The influence of water vapor on these reactions is discussed generally.


VACCINATION AGAINST INFLUENZA The use of virus vaccines for protection against influenza has hitherto given either inconclusive or frankly disappointing results. Undaunted by these, the Commission on Influenza in the U.S.A. pursued endeavours in this direction in the early years of the war, and were able by the autumn of 1943 to stage a full-scale trial. A full description of this trial and its results has made a rather belated appearance in a series of 7 papers' which together form a massive contribution to the literature of this subject. The introductory paper by Francis gives a general account of the methods used and of their evolution. The vaccine was derived from egg allantoic fluid, and virus from this source was concentrated tenfold by adsorption on chicken erythrocytes: each dose of 1 ml. represented 2.5 ml. of allantoic' fluid containing the PR8 strain, 2.5 ml. containing the Weiss strain (both of type A), and 5 ml. of the Lee strain (type B). It was preserved with formalin and phenyl mercuric nitrate, and shown to retain its potency in this condition. Of the populations studied, one half received a single dose of 1 ml. of this vaccine, while the remainder were given an injection of saline with the same two preservatives added; thus not even the sensation produced by the inoculation enabled the recipient to guess whether he belonged to the treated or to the control group. The majority of the subjects were university students in "Army Specialized Training Programme" units; the status of such a student is not quite clear, but they appear to have been housed together and subject to discipline. Regular sick parades were held, and all men diagnosed as having influenza were placed in hospital. In a considerable proportion of vaccinated and controls and in most cases of clinical influenza repeated antibody titrations were carried out, sometimes by several methods and with the use of more than one strain of virus. The virus in cases of influenza which occurred was also identified at every centre. At each of six centres-two in New York State, and the remainder in the Universities of Minnesota, Iowa, California, and Michigan-the total number of men studied was over 1,000. Vaccination was done in November, 1943. The astonishing feature of this experiment is that influenza, proved at every centre to be due exclusively to type A virus, broke out almost immediately afterwards. In two centres the beginning of the outbreak was simultaneous with vaccination, and elsewhere the first cases occurred within a few days or up to a fortnight; only in California was there an interval of about a month before the first cases and two months before the epidemic reached its peak. From five centres the reports are unanimous in recording that vaccinated subjects had less influenza than controls: the experience of Minnesota is typical, the percentage of vacci-


In a recent paper by Li et al. (2003), we proposed a method to achieve desired sidelobe level for broadband 3D beamforming using a discrete concentric circular ring array. To achieve an ideal sidelobe level using the previously proposed method, a sufficiently large number of array elements are required. If there are not enough array elements, sidelobe level is increased and uncontrollable. This paper proposes a pattern synthesis method based on the minimum mean-squared error (MMSE) criteria to achieve a better design when only insufficient array elements are available. The proposed method finds the optimal beamforming solution by minimizing the mismatched error between the synthesized and desired beampattern, which includes the error introduced by insufficient number of array elements. Experiments confirm the improvement on sidelobe control using the proposed design method.


CYGNO is a project realising a cubic meter demonstrator to study the scalability of the performance of the optical approach for the readout of large-volume, GEM-equipped TPC. This is part of the CYGNUS proto-collaboration which aims at constructing a network of underground observatories for directional Dark Matter search. The combined use of high-granularity sCMOS and fast sensors for reading out the light produced in GEM channels during the multiplication processes was shown to allow on one hand to reconstruct 3D direction of the tracks, offering accurate energy measurements and sensitivity to the source directionality and, on the other hand, a high particle identification capability very useful to distinguish nuclear recoils. Results of the performed R&D and future steps toward a 30-100 cubic meter experiment will be presented.


ABSTRACT Regional and organizational cultures are commonly considered key enablers to innovation dynamics in organizations, in particular to small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Although this intersection is a crucial topic of research, studies addressing this issue remain limited in number and scope in the case of SMEs. In this article, a systematic literature review of that intersection is presented by gathering articles from ISI-WoS and Scopus databases. It combines a qualitative approach (content analysis) and a statistical procedure (HOMALS) to analyse the information from 1947 articles found. As a result, the contribution is twofold: a map of the intellectual structure of research and a codebook of descriptors. The study helps identify relevant gaps for future research, specifically the need for mixed approaches from a variety of social sciences with a particular focus on regional science. Future research should shift from a static to a dynamic perspective of culture in groups, organizations and territories. In the case of SMEs, this can be labelled as transformational culture: the study of how organizational and regional cultures may co-evolve along with the changes in the environment by seizing on the SMEs' flexibility and flattened organizational structure.


X-ray absorption measurements at the L 3 edge of Hg in solid and liquid HgTe have been performed under high-temperature and high-pressure up to 1000 K and 3 GPa using a large volume Paris-Edinburgh press. EXAFS spectra have been analyzed with GNXAS approach. The pressure dependencies of the nearest neighbor distance and the bond variance at room temperature as well as their variation with temperature at 0.6 GPa have been obtained. The temperature dependence of the bond variance has been fitted to the Einstein model and is consistent to the decrease of the bulk modulus with increasing temperature, which has recently been shown to occur by an X-ray diffraction study.


Background: Febrile thrombocytopenia due to various etiologies is very common in India. Its clinical manifestations range from asymptomatic infections to severe disease. Cardiac involvement in such systemic illness should be evaluated. Aim of present study is to evaluate cardiac involvement in patients with Febrile thrombocytopenia with platelets count less than 50,000/µL with the help of handheld echocardiography.Methods: Two hundred patients who had fever with thrombocytopenia were enrolled in the study. ECG and echocardiogram were done to all the patients. One-way ANOVA, Chi square test and correlation coefficient from Pearson correlation and P value of < 0.05 was taken as significant.Results: Out of 200 patients there were 146 males and 56 females. The mean age was 24.12yrs in males 28.32yrs in females .Rhythm abnormalities were present in 60 patients and the most common abnormality was sinus tachycardia; 17 patients had ascites and right pleural effusion; 24 patients presented with pericardial effusion and incidental diagnosis of CHD, RHD, and CAD were made; two patients had myocarditis as evidenced by global hypokinesia of left ventricle. All of those cardiac manifestations were common in Dengue Shock Syndrome.Conclusions: Cardiovascular manifestation in Febrile thrombocytopenia is relatively common ranging from pericarditis to myocarditis. Clinician should routinely screen patients with pyrexia with thrombocytopenia for cardiac manifestations. Early diagnosis at bed side may improve the outcome. Management of patients with pre-existing cardiac diseases should be individualized.


The research results on the derivation of equations of motion (a mathematical model) of a mechanical system constrained by holonomic constraints of the first and second kind, which contains only tangential components of the constraint of the second kind, are presented in the article. These tangential components are taken as control parameters. Besides, the controllability of the plate, considered in the Appel problem, is investigated.


Such implements, while no doubt of the Bronze Age, are difficult to date more closely by themselves. But if this example does originate in Germany or northern Europe, one would incline to a date for it in the Early Bronze Age, when connexions with those regions were especially strong. Such a conclusion, as Miss Chitty suggests, would point to the possibility of placing early in sequence this whole broad square hammer-butt type, of which the Horning implement is another example. Yarmouth may well have been one of the portals of entry.


A previously healthy 16-year-old girl referred for investigation of exercise-induced back pain was found to have L5-S1 spondylolisthesis. Symptoms were sufficient to justify stabilization of the spondylolisthesis by alar-transverse fusion. Preoperative assessment of the respiratory, cardiovascular, and digestive systems was within normal limits. Medical history was noncontributory; the patient did not consume alcohol.


Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2), has become a global pandemic worldwide. Long non‐coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are a subclass of endogenous, non‐protein‐coding RNA, which lacks an open reading frame and is more than 200 nucleotides in length. However, the functions for lncRNAs in COVID‐19 have not been unravelled. The present study aimed at identifying the related lncRNAs based on RNA sequencing of peripheral blood mononuclear cells from patients with SARS‐CoV‐2 infection as well as health individuals. Overall, 17 severe, 12 non‐severe patients and 10 healthy controls were enrolled in this study. Firstly, we reported some altered lncRNAs between severe, non‐severe COVID‐19 patients and healthy controls. Next, we developed a 7‐lncRNA panel with a good differential ability between severe and non‐severe COVID‐19 patients using least absolute shrinkage and selection operator regression. Finally, we observed that COVID‐19 is a heterogeneous disease among which severe COVID‐19 patients have two subtypes with similar risk score and immune score based on lncRNA panel using iCluster algorithm. As the roles of lncRNAs in COVID‐19 have not yet been fully identified and understood, our analysis should provide valuable resource and information for the future studies.


Intensifying migration flows add new material dimensions to agrarian change in Southeast Asia, with novel forms of livelihood for out-migrants from rural areas, remittance flows for those left behind, and new sources of agricultural labor in places of in-migration. But migration also brings other processes of change that push the analytical boundaries of traditional agrarian political economy. Gender identities are brought into question as men and women move and the masculinities and femininities of migrants and those left behind are reworked. The household is stretched across space and seen more clearly as a contested domain. The spatiality of the village is reworked through long-distance linkages, so that scales of analysis are not quite what they used to be. Issues of ethnic identity are foregrounded as different groups come into contact in the same place. The role of the state (and private recruiters) in regulating migration and in defining and controlling access to citizenship rights requires that new forms of regulation and institutionalism be addressed. In each of these ways, migration provides challenges to understanding rural change. In contextualizing the articles that appear in these two issues of Critical Asian Studies (December 2011 and March 2012), this introduction spells out both the empirical processes of migration and rural change in Southeast Asia and the analytical approaches that are relevant to studying them.


A 20-year effort to expand schooling in the Third World has largely succeeded: in 1960 there were 144 million pupils in developing country (excluding the People's Republic of China and Korea) primary and secondary schools, and in 1976, 335 million; university-level enrollment increased from 2.6 million to 12.5 million in the same period.' Even in relative terms, the figures are impressive: 46.8 percent of 6-11-year-olds in developing countries attended school in 1960 and 61.8 percent in 1975.2 Yet schooling was supposed to do much more than expand. Twenty years ago, "experts" implied that educational growth not only would contribute forcefully to economic development3 but would also equalize opportunities between social classes and income distribution4 and develop a more employable labor force. It may be that additional schooling in labor force did increase productivity--indeed there is some reason to believe that it has.5 But at the same time, the absolute number of illiterates in the Third World has increased;6 the poorest 50 percent of the population remained essentially as poor as before; income distribution, if anything, became more unequal;7 and open unemployment increased.s Poverty has been transferred more and more from rural to urban areas, while rural areas have continued to remain desperately poor. It is tempting to argue that the increased education brought to Third World populations was not relevant to the development of their societies


Colonia River, as other glacial streams influenced by global warming, is affected by Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (OF). We present a study on geomorphologic features of Colonia River to comprehend the impact of OFs in sedimentary processes, analysing erosion and deposition linked to OF phenomena and frequency (since April 2008, more than 12 OFs have occurred). Interpolation analysis is carried out to create an elevation surface (DTM) from a set of sample measurements, given by contour line (2007 LiDAR) and rtkGPS point (2011 and 2012) data. These were used to create DTMs applying Delaunay triangulation. A comparisons between morphology during the current OF cycle that started on 8 April 2008, and the previous morphology (after 40 years without OFs, since end of previous cycle in 1968), is carried out through the creation of DEMs of Difference (DoDs) based on TINs. We created two DoDs, respectively between 2011-2007 (before/after the OFs cycle) and 2012-2011 (during the cycle, after the events of January and April 2012) to provide a high-resolution, spatially distributed surface model of topographic and volumetric change through time. The floodplain has been classified on the basis of the morphological characteristics: main and secondary channel(s), bars, braided area, island and delta fan features. The changes evidenced in the DoD are segregated according to these categories plus the geomorphic change taking place in each category (using GCD; Wheaton et al 2014). Issues regarding data quantity and quality will be discussed, and implications for the planned mega-dam that would flood the confluence.


Based on literature review, electronic systems design employ largely top-down methodology. The top-down methodology is vital for success in the synthesis and implementation of electronic systems. In this context, this paper presents a new computational tool, named BD2XML, to support electronic systems design. From a block diagram system of mixed-signal is generated object code in XML markup language. XML language is interesting because it has great flexibility and readability. The BD2XML was developed with object-oriented paradigm. It was used the AD7528 converter modeled in MATLAB / Simulink as a case study. The MATLAB / Simulink was chosen as a target due to its wide dissemination in academia and industry. From this case study it is possible to demonstrate the functionality of the BD2XML and make it a reflection on the design challenges. Therefore, an automatic tool for electronic systems design reduces the time and costs of the design.


III. Status A. Three basic measurers of UPC implementation 1. Code conversion Membership in UGPCC Use on shippers, paper work Kroger Technology Conference IMS Test Installation AD HOC Committee formed (8/70) Code Selection Announced (5/71) Code Council Formed (3/72) First Number Issues (5/72) First U.S. Scanner Test (7/72) Symbol Selection Announced (4/73) Symbol Specifications Published (5/73) First UPC Scanner Announced (10/73) First UPC Scanner Installed (6/74) 50 Percent Source Symbol Marking (5/75) First Price Mark Legislation (6/75)


ultrahigh-pressure (UHP) metamorphic rocks in orogenic belts, subduction and exhumation of continental crust has been a hot topic in the past two decades. However, the mechanism for the exhumation of subducted continental crustal rocks remains controversial (see Liu and Li, 2008 for a review). The Dabie orogen is located in the intermediate segment of the Qinling−Dabie−Sulu orogenic belt formed by the collision of the North China Block and South China Block (SCB) in the Triassic. It consists of a series of faultbounded rock units with varying metamorphic grades. The Dabie orogen is now recognized as consisting of an eastern and a western parts separated by the ShangchengMacheng fault, hereafter called as eastern and western Dabie, respectively. It is generally subdivided into five major lithotectonic units from north to south (Xu et al., 2005; Zheng et al., 2005; Liu et al., 2007, 2011): (1) the Beihuaiyang zone (BZ); (2) the North Dabie complex zone; (3) the Central Dabie UHP metamorphic zone; (4) the South Dabie low-T eclogite zone; and (5) the Susong complex zone. Among them, the BZ and the Susong complex zone are low-grade units. The eastern segment of the BZ mainly comprises the meta-flysch formation of the Paleozoic Foziling Group, Carboniferous Meishan coal series and the Luzhenguan complex. Recently, the protolith ages for the Luzhenguan complex were identified as at 720 to 780 Ma (Jiang et al., 2005; Wu et al., 2007). In contrast, the western segment of the BZ is composed of Paleozoic meta-flysch of the Nanwan Formation, Carboniferous coal series of the Meishan Formation, Paleozoic metavolcanics of the Dingyuan Formation, and metavolcanic sediments of the Guishan Formation. They are considered to be the Paleozoic magmatic arc in the southern margin of the North China Block (Li et al., 2001). It is well accepted that the Huwan mélange zone denotes the suture between the SCB and North China Block in western Dabie because it is a mélange zone composed of both Carboniferous eclogite formed by oceanic subduction and Triassic eclogite formed by continental subduction (Li et al., 2001; Sun et al., 2002; Liu et al., 2006). In the western BZ, numerous low-grade metabasites occur as blocks or slices in the metavolcanic zone located in between the Chunqiumiao-Baiqueyuan fault and the Dingyuan-Sujiahe-Balifan fault (western segment of the Tongbai-Tongcheng fault). Their country rocks are metavolcanics, that is, garnet-bearing epidote-mica-quartz schist, generally at epidote-amphibolite facies. The metagabbros have tectonic contacts with the metavolcanics (Ye et al., 1993; Liu et al., 2006). The metavolcanic rocks belong to the Dingyuan Formation (Ye et al., 1993; Liu et al., 2006). Arc-type metavolcanics of the Dingyuan Formation were originally dated by Li et al. (2001) who obtained whole-rock Sm-Nd and Rb-Sr ages of 446 ± 23 Ma and 445 ± 31 Ma, respectively. Recently, a zircon SHRIMP U-Pb age of 464 ± 7 Ma for the schist (Liu et al., 2006), which is consistent with the ages for metavolcanic rocks and diorites (magmatic zircon age of 463.5 ± 3.4 Ma and hornblende Ar-Ar age of 462.7 ± 1.4 Ma; Ma et al., 2004) in the area, suggesting their similar genesis, i.e. forming in a magmatic arc setting (Li et al., 2001). Thus, the Ordovician magmatic arc occurred in the Beihuaiyang zone and may belong to the eastern segment of the Paleozoic arc in North Qinling, the southern active margin of the North China Block (Li et al., 2001; Ma et al., 2004). Ye et al. (1993) obtained a Sm-Nd mineral age of 261 ± 8 Ma for the metagabbro and interpreted this age as its emplacement time. However, our initial work obtained a 635 ± 5 Ma age of zircons from the metagabbro (Liu et al., 2006), which contradicts their Sm-Nd age. LIU Yican, LI Yuan, LIU Lixiang, GU Xiaofeng, DENG Liangpeng and LIU Jia, 2013. Neoproterozoic low-grade metagranites and metabasites in the Dabie orogen: Implications for detachment within subducted continental crust and multi-slice exhumation. Acta Geologica Sinica (English Edition), 87(supp.): 499-502.


The purpose of the present paper is to give a lichen flora of Newfoundland, especially of the brief history of the lichenological exploration coastal and upland areas, is obtained from the of the island of Newfoundland. A complete lichen flora of the adjacent French islands St. bibliography and catalogue of the literature recPierre and Miquelon compiled by Le Gallo ords of Newfoundland lichens is in preparation (1952). It is mainly based on the records of elsewhere (Brodo et al. 1973) and therefore atNylander (1885), Arnold (1887, 1888) Hue tention here will mainly be paid to the most (1888) and Delamare et al. (1888), but the important literature, the existing lichen colnomenclature is more up to date. However, lections, and the general state of knowledge of this list also requires numerous revisions, the lichens of the island. This is intended to be The lichen records in most of the early papers a continuation of the series entitled 'Notes on on the Labrador flora were summarized by the lichens of Newfoundland', largely based on Lynge (1947). my personal collections and field records. It In general, the knowledge of the lichen flora is a basic paper of reference, since my main colof Newfoundland is very inadequate. It is lecting localities are listed here in full. mainly based on poorly available publications from last century. Scattered records are found in monographs and taxonomic revisions, but 1. Publications Newfoundland is always badly underrepresented in distribution maps and the like. The existing Eckfeldt (1895) published an enumeration of collections are widely scattered in European the lichens of the province (then colony) of and North American herbaria, the most iin Newfoundland, including Labrador. It is now portant treated in the literature being those of completely out of date, although it certainly the Rev. A. C. Waghorne. contains most of the common species found in It is clear that the core of the lichen flora of Newfoundland. There are numerous obviously Newfoundland consists of very widespread bo erroneous records and in general no distinction real and arctic species. However, there is reason is made between the records of Labrador and to expect that there are also a considerable insular Newfoundland. The most useful floristic number of species which are absent from other lichen lists with records of localities are those parts of eastern Canada, and even the rest of published by the German lichenologist Arnold North America. Examples of such species are (1896, 1899). Although he was generally fairly known among the bryophytes (Buch & Tuomi reliable in his identifications, I could find several koski 1955, Tuomikoski et al. 1973) and vas unexpected misidentifications in his material cular plants of the island. Many of them re preserved in Munich (M), even on a brief exapresent a flora which favours a mild, more or mination. less oceanic boreal climate, which in eastern In fact, the best information on the common North America is well developed only in eastern


The importance of gender equality and women empowerment has become the central piece in numerous development agenda around the globe.  In the Gambia, as part of the national development agenda, the government has eye marked key priority areas to champion the course of women empowerment.  In addition, the government has enacted laws and ratified several other international goals including the Agenda 2030 to support this course.   However, women entrepreneurs especially those in the agriculture value chain have faced numerous financial management challenges in conducting business activities.  On one hand bank loans are expensive for them, and other the other hand those with surplus got minimal returns on their savings and investments.  Thus, this paper aims to deliver the intended outcome of Maqasid Al Shariah by harnessing Islamic social financing and utilizing funds from the surplus side to provide sustainable and impactful financing for women on the deficit side via Islamic Blended finance. In addition to de-risking investment towards women empowerment, our proposed model offers a better return for those on the supply side and cheaper rate for those on the demand side by minimizing intermediation and transaction cost.    It is anticipated that this paper will contribute to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda in The Gambia and also has the potential to be replicated in other developing countries.


We have begun to colonize space, even to the extent of early space tourism. Our early Vostok, Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, Spacehab, Mir and now ISS are humankind's first ventures toward colonization. Efforts are underway to provide short space tours, and endeavors such as the X‐Prize are encouraging entrepreneurs to provide new systems. Many believe that extended space travel (colonization) will do for the 21st century what aviation did for the 20th. Our current concerns including terrorism, hunger, disease, and problems of air quality, safe abundant water, poverty, and weather vagaries tend to overshadow long‐term activities such as Space Colonization in the minds of many. Our leading "think tanks" such as the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the Brookings Institute do not rate space travel high on lists of future beneficial undertakings even though many of the concerns listed above are prominently featured. It is the contention of this paper that Space Colonization will lead tow...


In this paper we propose different representations of a source code, which attempt to highlight different aspects of a code; particularly: i) lexical, ii) structural, and iii) stylistics. From the lexical view, we used lavenstien distance without considering all reserved words for the programming language in revision. For the structural view, we proposed two similarity metrics that takes into account the function's signatures within a source code, namely the data types and the identifier's names of the function's signature. The third view consists on accounting for several stylistics' features, such as the number of white spaces, lines of code, upper letters, etc. At the end, we combine these different representations in several ways. This was one of the approaches presented ins the SOCO competition in year 2014. Obtained results indicate that proposed representations provide some information that allows to detect particular cases of source code re-use.


A defining feature of capitalism has been its 'annihilation of space by time' in the constant reduction of geographical barriers to rapid exchange. Overviewing how the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown has triggered a financial crisis staunched only by massive government bailouts, this commentary points to a need to orient analysis to the annihilation of time by space.


Innovation is basically defined as improvements and changes which provide added value to the enterprises. The impacts of innovation are generally seen as positive by business owners and executives, but in some cases this perception may be negative as well. The aim of this study is to research the effect of the perception that innovation will create a competitive advantage, will increase the product quality and is considered as an escape from a crisis, which are indeed positive perceptions of innovation, on transformational, interactional, charismatic, servant and strategic leadership styles. For this purpose, a survey was conducted on 108 SMEs operating in and around Bursa province. As a result of the related survey and further studies, the effect of the positive perception of innovation on the innovation-oriented leadership styles was determined as follows: on transformational leadership 51.9%, on interactional leadership 14%, on charismatic leadership 79.4%, on servant leadership 46.4% and on strategic leadership 40.2%.


We compared anesthetic doses of three popular opiates, morphine (n = 10), fentanyl (n = 9), and sufentanil (n = 9) in patients undergoing cardiac surgery. Opiate administration after induction was based upon EEG and cardiovascular signs of the depth of anesthesia. Total doses were morphine, 4.4 ± 0.71 mg/kg, fentanyl, 95.4 ± 9.9 μg/kg, and sufentanil, 18.9 ± 2.2 μg/kg. Comparisons among opiates included times for induction of anesthesia, return of consciousness, return of spontaneous ventilation, return of adequate cardiovascular status, and extubation. The following times (mean and SEM) were significantly (P < 0.05) shorter for sufentanil than for fentanyl or morphine: induction (15 ± 2.3 min, 5.9 ± 0.7 min, and 3.0 ± 0.2 min for morphine, fentanyl, and sufentanil, respectively); return of consciousness (morphine 109.7 ± 34.4 min, fentanyl 62.3 ± 17.9 min, sufentanil 77 ± 8.7 min); return of acceptable and stable cardiovascular status (morphine 587.3 ± 239.3 min, fentanyl 537.9 ± 144.8 min, sufentanil 173.7 ± 56.8 min); and extubation (morphine 1122.3 ± 61.8 min, fentanyl 1005.7 ± 77.7 min, sufentanil 533.3 ± 67.8 min). We conclude that sufentanil administered in the dosage range of 19 μg/kg allows more rapid induction, earlier emergence from anesthesia, and faster extubation of patients than either morphine or fentanyl.


LODE is a web tool for deaf children, which aims at stimulating global reasoning on written estories. This paper reports on the design of LODE, and an initial prototype application of LODE. First, we motivate the need of an e-tool such as LODE for deaf children, explain its reasoning exercises and the expected learning outcomes. Then the paper describes the design of the clientserver architecture of LODE: the server employs a constraint-based automated reasoner; the client is a web user interface. Finally, we report on the assessment of the initial prototype of LODE with expert users and two deaf children, laying the groundwork for the development and a long-term evaluation plan of LODE.


This paper examines the civil action known as criminal conversation or 'Crim Con'. This allowed a husband to obtain damages from his adulterous wife's lover. No similar action existed for women whose husbands engaged in adulterous relationships. The crim con action ceased to exist in England after 1857 but continued to be available -- and used -- in Ireland until the late 20th century. This paper examines the evolution of the action from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries, its shifting rationale, its increasing popularity among the middle classes, and the nature and purpose of the damages awarded.


The enrollment rate of large online open courses (MOOCs) is increasing, but due to the lack of external control, the problem of high dropout rate has been difficult to solve. However, most of the existing methods for coding and feature extraction of dropout rate prediction models rely on manual work, and the performance of the models is not very good. This paper proposes a WCLSRT model algorithm which uses word2 vector to encode, then uses Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) to extract features, then uses Long Short-Term Memory network (LSTM) to combine the temporal characteristics of each input vector, and finally uses Random Forest (RT) to predict. It can automatically extract time series, and make full use of the advantages of the above algorithms to improve the performance of the model. Experiments on common datasets show that the AUC of the model is significantly improved compared with the existing algorithms.


There comes a time in every scientist's career when one's mind seems to hit a wall. You can't think of a new experiment that hasn't been done before or figure out how to crack a problem that is blocking your progress. The easy questions have been answered. You go back to the wellspring of your creativity and find it dry. What to do? Collaborating with investigators who are investigating problems from a different data or analytical perspective is the best way I know to kick-start research creativity. They not only can provide new data, but they can also bring an expertise on how to get the most "flavor" out of the ingredient that they bring to your problem. As the complexity of the important biological problems continues to grow, too many cooks will never spoil the broth, but become a hallmark of the most creative research.


Research background: Globalization and digitalization of society are leading to fundamental alterations in the labour sphere. Global trends and turbulent times are changing the work environment, stipulating the emergence of new forms of labour relations and employment models. Thinking on the on-going transformation processes requires a monitoring study of new phenomena, as well as the creation of a knowledge system about the directions and prospects of human resources management and labour relations development.
Purpose of the article: The article presents the interim results of the current monitoring changes in labour relations conducted by the international research team members. The empirical data obtained are considered in the context of the social and cultural features of respondents from different countries that contributes to a deeper understanding of the phenomena under study.
Methods: In 2020, the authors carried out a sociological survey involving employees of enterprises operating in various sectors of the economy in the Russian Federation, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Turkey and Kazakhstan. The total number of respondents formed by random sampling is amounted to 1138 people. For the purpose of a comprehensive typology of the surveyed workers from different countries, a cluster analysis of the collected data was carried out.
Findings & Value added: A comparative analysis of the sociological survey results reflects the trends in work transformation and labour relations that have developed under the Covid-19 pandemic. Cross-cultural analysis reveals the impact of social and cultural factors on respondents' assessment and companies' human resource management practices.


Generally, the turbulent-flame velocity of natural gas is significantly lower than diesel in the combustion process, which results in the thermal loads of natural gas engines being significantly higher than those of diesel engines under the same stoichiometric condition without EGR. In this study, a heavy-duty natural gas engine is taken as the research object, which is used to measure the temperatures to analyze the heat transfer characteristics in the cylinder head water jacket around the valve bridges, under different speeds and loads, as well as different coolant temperatures and pressures. Twelve thermocouples are inserted by drilling through the metal in the cylinder head with different heights to measure the metal temperatures at thermally critical areas such as the valve-bridge regions. Therefore, the local heat flux and the extrapolation to coolant wall temperatures are obtained by Fourier's Law under different engine operating conditions. In addition, the thermal balance tests of the engine are also carried out, and the energy distributions are analyzed in different parts of the engine. The results of the research show that: a) the engine cooling condition has a direct impact on the engine cylinder head temperature. If the cooling temperature is low, the temperatures of the cylinder head's measuring points have the same increases as the increasing coolant temperature. When the coolant temperature is high, the measuring temperatures have hardly any difference from the increases in cooling temperature. With increasing cooling pressure, the temperature increase at all measuring points, and the temperature of the measuring points varies substantially under high load conditions compared with the low load condition. The results indirectly indicated that local nucleate boiling appeared in the water jacket. b) The heat transfer characteristic curve of the water jacket was obtained from the processing of experimental data. Wall heat flux increases with increasing load, and the relationship between wall heat flux and wall temperature is no longer linear. The heat transfer characteristic curve indicates that the convective heat transfer and boiling heat transfer both appeared in the cooling water jacket. c) With the decrease of engine load, the percentage of crankshaft power in the combustion heat gradually decreases, then the percentage of the heat taken away by the cooling water increases gradually. At the same time, the percentage of the heat taken away by exhaust has changed little. d) The engine cooling temperature has a substantial influence on the engine thermal balance, and the cooling pressure has little effect on the engine thermal balance. With increasing cooling temperature, the heat taken by the cooling water decreased, which lead to an increase in the proportion of crankshaft power. It can be concluded that properly increasing the coolant temperature of the engine can improve the fuel economy of the machine.Copyright © 2015 by ASME


The paper is aimed at studying the potential of the technology in making the most of the digital communication space for the development of cross-cutting intercultural skills. . Among the conclusions drawn, two issues truly stand out. On the one hand, the need to create new approaches could enhance the level of involvement of education authority and agents. On the other hand, there is the need to rush the teachers' training in making the most of the educational potential of digital media.


The irritating effect of amalgams, silicate cement, methyl methacrylate, composites, and glass ionomer cement on animal and human dental pulp was discussed. If the foundation is appropriate, pulpal alterations can be reduced or even eliminated.


Discipline is an important factor in educating vocational high school students to achieve life goals. One indication of student discipline is attendance to take part in learning activities at school. To get graduates who have a high discipline attitude so that later they can be applied in the real world of work. In this study, several variables were used, namely the finger print mechanism, finger print procedure, finger print achievement targets and student discipline. The data collection method used a questionnaire with a sample of 50 people who were taken randomly at 3 vocational high schools. This study aims to determine how much influence the variable finger print mechanism, finger print procedure and attendance achievement targets on student discipline. student discipline. This is evidenced by (t = 3.374, 2.093) > (table = 1.66515) and P Value (Sig) = 0.000 < 0.05 while the finger print mechanism variable has no positive and insignificant effect (t = 0.226 < 1.66515) and (Sig) = 882 > 0.05.


Studies of Maltese society have observed a shift in the values of the family, the secularization of sexuality and an increase in the incidence of marriage failure. In late modernity, Malta is fast turning into a city-island at the crossroads of Mediterranean and Western European cultures. On the European map of values, however, Malta remains an exception in its overall resistance to the civil settlement of unsuccessful marriages by the legalization of divorce, but shares with other neighbouring Southern European countries a predominant Catholic family culture. In the late 1990s, the demands of a signiŽ cant minority for a right to divorce was strongly opposed by a Catholic majority in its claim to protect Maltese society from the negative consequences as experienced by divorced families overseas ( Gouder, 1997) . A church survey ( N = 530) reported that the majority of respondents ( 63%) are against divorce legislation ( Discern, 1998) . This is true even if a minority posit signiŽ cant reasons in favour of divorce ( see Appendix) . After the study results were available, the Church Family Commission took a Ž rm stand against divorce. It mobilized public opinion, where church ofŽ cials and individuals, including members of parliament, publicly aired their views on the issues. Such arguments, however, failed to convince a national commission which, in its report to the prime minister, recommended the introduction of divorce by a free vote in parliament ( Peralta, 1998) . On the one hand, the Church Family Commission slammed the report of the then prime minister's commission as superŽ cial and extremely negative ( The Times, 13 May 1998) . On the other hand, liberal journalists and people in the movement for divorce urged the government to publish a bill for the legalization of divorce. In the process, pro-divorce and anti-divorce movements contradicted each other, and through results from opinion polls and public debates claimed to be gaining support for their respective positions. In such a confusing situation, the study of changing values in a comparative perspective can contribute towards an appraisal of the issues under consideration. This paper undertakes a comparative study of marriage values and divorce in Malta relative to other Catholic Western European countries through an analysis of data from the Maltese ( 1984, 1991, 1995, 1999) and European ( 1981, 1990) Values Studies. It tests the hypothesis of the signiŽ cance of a Catholic family culture for the upkeep of traditional marriage values and a restrictive morality on divorce. It examines country-speciŽ c factors and social In tern a tion al Rev iew of Sociology—Rev u e In tern a tion ale de Sociologie, Vol. 11, No. 1, 2001


Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) under Assam Agricultural University situated at Napam, Gossaigaon, Arunachal, (Silchar) and Khumtai were selected for the study on the knowledge level and extent of adoption of selected technology by rural youths purposively as they are oldest and represent separate agro climatic zones. Out of various trainees in KVKs, rural youth and trainers were selected as respondents, making a total sample size of 100. Frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, co-efficient of variance, co-efficient of correlation and 't' test were the statistical techniques used for analysis of collected data. Majority of respondents 52% had medium knowledge level and 68.75% had medium extent of adoption of the selected technology practices that were imparted in the training conducted by the KVKs. While designing training programmes and distance learning courses, such findings may be considered for better adoption of technologies as a result of higher gain in the knowledge level of trainees.


The TGV planning philosophy was so far strictly oriented towards lines. Interchanges to local railways or integrated frequency planning were so far not on the agenda. But this planning approach comes to its limits because the capacity of the high speed tracks between Paris and Lyon is overloaded. RFF is therefore considering more and more a frequency based approach. Another reason is the financial contribution of the regions for the TGV-projects. The Regions vote for a better integration with regional railway services. Planning examples show which problems TGV planning in France face today and how this philosophy is changing over time.


To achieve phase locking of high power microwave oscillators on a relatively weak coupling strength, an inducing phase locking method is investigated. With an external signal injected from the end of relativistic backward wave oscillator, the frequency and phase of the output microwave is pulling in the starting oscillation process and remaining stable in the later stationary oscillation process. The simulation results indicate that injecting of inducing signal prior to the onset of natural oscillations is necessary, while the duration of injection, power of injection and locking bandwidth are not limited by classic Adler's law.


Background: Social psychology is to explore interpersonal relationships from the level of individuals and social groups. It explores behavioral and psychological changes between individuals and groups. Man is the unity of phy siology, psychology and society. People's mental health is affected by family environment and social life factors. Social psychology attaches importance to the analysis of individual psychological factors and emphasizes the interaction between individual and society. The most basic organizational form of social life is the family. The first cradle of personal growth after birth is also the family. Personal mental health problems are closely related to family environment. Parents' socio -economic status, family structure and family relations, family rearing style, childhood life experience and early education are important factors affecting individual mental health. Social life factors include social culture, knowledge, wealth, social competition, interpersonal relationships and so on. When individuals are in mental health, they can actively adapt to social life and natural environment through psychological activities and mental state. Mental health is easy to be affected by social life factors. The influence of social culture on individual mental health mainly has two ways: one is standardized social culture, the other is non standardized social culture. Standardized social culture is the objective compulsion of social culture and the consciousness of individual self-regulation. In the process of social survival, individuals will consciously restrict their behavior according to social norms and make individuals gradually socialized. However, due to the particularity of individuals, in the process of socialization, their social culture will collide with their emotions, resulting in individual


Orthotropic anisotropic elasticity theory is adopted to calculate the deflection of a rectangular reinforced concrete plate simply-supported at four edges,and a digital example is also put forward to give an illustration.The result shows the feasibility of this treatment,and it also indicates that the sequence converges so fast that,in ordinary cases,only a few series or even one series of the sequence should be taken to meet the precision in engineering.


Hereditary hemochromatosis is a condition characterized by iron overload, which is both treatable and preventable. It's mainly related to hepcidin deficiency related to mutations in genes involved in hepcidin regulation. Iron overload increases the risk of disease such as liver cirrhosis, heart disease and diabetes. Two HFE genotypes have been commonly described in cases of iron overload, C282Y homozygosity and C282Y/H63D compound heterozygoty. The diagnosis of this rare disease now can be explored by biological and imaging tools. We report a case of compound heterozygous C282Y/H63D discovered by family screening for elevated serum ferritin.


Background: Evaluating the sentiments of tweets, blogs, comments and posts have become a crucial part of many applications. Sentiment analysis of social network data is very helpful for decision-making in application areas like movie reviews, product feedback and impact of the speech of a politician etc. The users often comment in their native languages or in slang languages or more often they use abbreviations and do not even stick to grammatical rules of the language. The bilingual and multilingual community often mixes two or more than two languages in their comments. Unavailability of annotated code-mixed data for native language adds to the difficulty in performing sentiment analysis. Objectives The motive of this article is to present the process of creating annotated corpus for codemixed social media text in Hindi, English andHinglishwhich is collected from twitter. Ambiguousmeaningwords and inconsistent spellings of both the languages have also been included in the study to provide wide spread canvas. Method: This study will provide significant elements that should be considered while developing the annotated corpus of Hindi, Hinglish & English dataset. The annotation is calculated on the basis of polarity of words in three categories as positive, negative and neutral. There are words which have mixed feeling i.e. these words have positive as well as negative sentiments. To consider these words, inner agreement among the polarities has been considered. The words used for sarcasm or slangs have also been taken into account. The study has included ambiguous meaning and inconsistent spelling words of both languages as well. Findings: The proposed work provides a standard annotated corpus for code switched socialmedia text inHindi-English (Hinglish). The process of developing the corpus and calculating the polarity has been shown. It is found that if one considers the code-mixed text, the accuracy can be enhanced. Application: The proposed corpus can be utilized in the area of market analysis, customer behavior, polling analysis, brand monitoring, etc. The corpus serves as dataset which can further be extended according to the problem definition.


This article aimed to gather, evaluate and synthesize studies on symptoms and general care in women with premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD),as well as the interference of such symptoms in the fields of social actions and in the quality of life of these women. The diagnosis of PMDD is based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V) and is characterized by a group of manifestations with severe exacerbation in the week prior to menstruation. The consequences of PMDD on the quality of women's lives are, especially in the care of relationships and work, with the possibility of serious outcomes, such as suicide. The results indicate that PMDD is a serious disorder that influences the patient's private and professional life and, therefore, an accurate interview and anamnesis should be conducted in order to recognize the clinical presentation and, therefore, to follow up the appropriate treatment for a better prognosis and overall well-being of the patient.


Traditionally, learning about spatial layout has been based on text descriptions or 2-dimensional layouts, such as maps. Recent developments in technology have provided a new tool for such learning and navigation, virtual reality (VR). This study examined how people use VR in developing spatial mental models and compared that approach with other visual tools. Five types of representation were used to train people on the layout of a simple VR building. The Text condition was a narrative description of the environment. The 2D condition was bird's eye view with sequential selection of rooms. The Movie condition was a prerecorded movie displayed on a computer monitor. Passive-VR was a guided walkthrough of the prerecorded movie presented on a Head Mounted Display (HMD) with no user control. Active-VR was the prerecorded movie presentation on the HMD with user control of rotational motion. Learning was measured as number of trials to correctly identify all objects. Resultant spatial mental models were assessed by a reaction-time task indicating whether two objects were in the same or different rooms and by drawings of the objects and layout of the virtual space. Movie condition participants learned the location of items more rapidly than did participants in any of the other conditions. Movie and Active-VR reaction times were faster than the other three conditions. Speed of response was related to distance of objects along the path taken through the building, suggesting that route distance was represented in the participants' mental models. The Movie and Active-VR conditions also had the highest scores on drawing. The results suggest that learning rate may be a function of familiarity with a particular tool, whereas the character and accessibility of spatial mental models may be due to a combination of prior experience and immersion.


The damage morphologies that occur in matrix dominated (±45/90) s and (90/±45) s glass fibre reinforced polymer laminates under quasi-static tensile loading and their effect on the laminate stiffness have been considered. Observations of the damage were made in situ and by microscopy of polished sections. The 90° and 45° ply matrix cracking damage in the laminates was modelled using finite element analysis and hence predictions of the normalised stiffness as a function of increasing damage density were made for both laminates. Agreement between models and experiment was good and in particular the greater amount of stiffness reduction observed experimentally in the (90/±45) s laminate, associated with a staggered' matrix cracking damage morphology, was modelled successfully. Information regarding the stress profiles in the 90° plies of the cracked laminates has also been obtained from the finite element analyses. There are distinct differences in the profiles between the stacking sequences, which are discussed with reference to the experimental results and other analyses from the literature.


Our laboratory isolated three defensin molecules from the circulating neutrophils of healthydonors.The three molecule mixture was conjugated with BSA and immunized New Zealand rab-bit.ELISA showed that the rabbit antisera was of a very high titters,which were specific for hu-man defensins.Immunoperoxidase staining with this rabbit antisera indicated that normal humanneutrophils,acute myeloid leukemia cell lines KG1 and HL-60 were highly positive.In con-trast,normal mononuclear leukocytes,erythrocytes,erythroleukemia cell line K562 were all neg-ative,even rabbit and guinea pig neutrophils had no response to this rabbit anti-human de-fensins antisera.Our preliminary experiments suggested that the rabbit antisera was highly spe-cific for human defensins.Probably,defensin is a differentiation antigen of granunocyte lineage,and antibody against human defensins would be a candidate immunological reagent specific for a-cute myeloid leukemia.Further work for this should be done.


The exposure rate due to the gamma-ray natural background in some representative areas of the Country was studied by means of a portable high-pressure ionization chamber. In a limited area such study was integrated by a survey on the quality of background radiation, carried out by gamma spectrometric measurements. The spectrometiric study permitted the determination of the contributions to the total by the individual natural radioactive series and by cosmic rays, while the ionometric method measured the total values of the gamma exposure. The measurement areas were chosen on the basis of joint geological and demographical considerations : they are, in fact, representative of the main geological formations, preferentially chosen in the parts of the peninsula characterized by a significant population density. The results of the measurements are therefore indicative of the maximum range of gamma exposure to which the Italian population is subjected from natural causes. This range appears to be rather wide, in close correlation with the geologic features of the soil, the values of exposure rate ranging from a few yR/hr on the alluvia up to 50-60 pR/hr on the volcanic rocks. The authors also measured the exposure rate due to gamma-ray background in a large city, as an introduction to a future investigation of the contribution to the exposure rate by the v building materials of roads and houses.


Service function chaining (SFC) is an indispensable technique for Internet service providers to efficiently manage their networks. However, SFC poses requirements of additional processing time of service functions (SFs) and increased routing time owing to detoured paths. In this paper, we introduce the use of a programmable data plane (PDP) to reduce the additional processing and routing times in SFC. We first classify the existing PDP-empowered SFC schemes and analyze their pros and cons. An optimization problem, to find the optimal SF embedding strategy minimizing the SFC completion time while efficiently utilizing the PDP switch resources, is formulated and a flow-aware SF embedding (FASE) algorithm that complementarily combines the redundant SF and re-circulation approaches is devised. FASE is implemented over a commercial PDP switch and experimental results demonstrate that FASE can reduce the SFC completion time by up to 33% compared with conventional approaches while utilizing the switch resources efficiently.


Regular cost functions offer a toolbox for automatically solving problems of existence of bounds, in a way similar to the theory of regular languages. More precisely, it allows to test the existence of bounds for quantities that can be defined in cost monadic second-order logic (a quantitative variant of monadic second-order logic) with inputs that range over finite words, infinite words, finite trees, and (sometimes) infinite trees.


It is important and challenging to achieve accurate time synchronization in wireless sensor networks. Various noises, e.g., communication delay, clock fluctuation and measurement errors, are inevitable and hard to be estimated accurately, which is the main challenge for achieving an accurate time synchronization. In this paper, we focus on how to achieve accurate time synchronization by considering a practical noise model, bounded noise, which may not satisfy any known distributions. The principle that a bounded monotonic sequence must possess a limit and the concept of maximum consensus are exploited to design a novel time synchronization algorithm for the network to achieve accurate synchronization under bounded noise. The proposed algorithm is fully distributed, with high synchronization accuracy and fast convergence speed, and is able to compensate both clock skew and offset simultaneously. Moreover, we prove that the algorithm converges with probability one, which means that time synchronization is achieved completely, and the probability of the complete synchronization converges exponentially.


Due to advancement of technology, remote sensing plays very important role in satellite based communication. Satellite gives images in digital format. The digital images are corrupted by impulse noise due to errors generated in camera sensors, analog-to-digital conversion and communication channels. The noise density varies depending on various factors namely reflective surfaces, atmospheric variations, noisy communication channels etc. Impulse noise corruption is very common in digital images. Therefore it is necessary to remove impulse noise in-order to provide further processing such as edge detection, segmentation, pattern recognition etc. Filtering a noisy image, while preserving the image details is one of the most important issues in image processing. The images captured by different sensors, producing different impulse noisy images are considered and they undergoes iterative filtering algorithm, search for the noise-free pixels within a small neighborhood. These filtered images are combined to a single image called image fusion, which retains the important features of the images from individual sensors. In this paper, we introduce an image fusion technique for impulse noise reduction, where the fused image will combine the uncorrupted pixels of the filtered noisy images. The performance of the Image Fusion is evaluated by using a reference image quality metric, Structural similarity Index (SSIM), to estimate how well the important information in the de-noised images is represented by the fused image. Experimental results show that the fused image has more quality than other filtered images.


We study a PDE modelling a compressed beam with small friction and subjected to a periodic forcing of small amplitude. We assume that the load of the beam is resonant to the i-th eigenvalue of the associated unper- turbed problem and prove that, when both forcing and damping are sucien tly small the equation exhibits chaotic behaviour.


Today, we live in a world of connectivity and wish to keep ourselves informed of each ongoing scenario from everywhere in the world. Such an awareness of ongoing activities becomes more important in remote areas that are to be monitored in order to maintain connectivity and security. The use of satellite monitoring for this is complex and expensive. The objective of this paper is to propose a means of communication using ZigBee sensors, Pyroelectric Infrared (PIR) sensor, Cameras, Arduino UNO R3 (the base station) and cloud computing programs. We are using ZigBee for this project as it is inexpensive, low-power consuming, less complex and reliable; most importantly because they can be used without licensed frequency band. ZigBee works without a network connection which may be exploited in the remote areas, devoid of network coverage. Hence two ZigBee modules in addition with cloud computing and Arduino UNO could be of use in monitoring the conditions of a selected area. This monitoring system can be used to sense the temperature change, unexpected movements etc., and hence they may be of use in defence and forestry departments.


Major literary works are, as is generally admitted,
a mirror in which multiple currents of any particular
age are faithfully reflected. Upon reading
Goldsmith's The Vicar of Wakefield (hereafter
referred to as The Vicar, 1766), one cannot resist an
impression that this is especially true of the work.
What strikes us is a pervasive atmosphere of harmony
between man and nature and a keen sense of
poetry to be enjoyed heartily in the characters' daily
life. These are reflected in the narration by
Primrose the protagonist and Anglican clergyman.
True we see in the work signs of an uneasy relationship
between the haves and the have-nots due in
part to the abuse of power by the former at the sacrifice
of the latter; and due in part to the age's legacy
of surviving brutality, the miserable condition of life,
and the resulting social ills in the lower order of
society. Also, we discern in it signs of the incipient
decay of the traditional village community. Still, the
village life retains its wholeness and integrity in the
fabric of a close-knit human network based on its
agricultural way of life.


Abstract Large heat storage capacity in the western equatorial Pacific has played an important role in modulating global climate. The fluctuation in pollen and spore abundances, together with organic matter (OM) and lithogenics sedimentation, was investigated to reconstruct terrestrial and marine environmental change around New Guinea during the Late Pleistocene. Although appreciable contribution from Indonesian Maritime Continent was expected, the majority of the pollen and spore grains found in core C4402 was transported from New Guinea. Fern spores accounted for 70% (46–90%) of the total pollens and spores. Positive correlation between lithogenic content and the relative abundance of fern spores suggests that lithogenics could be derived from coastal lowland. The mass accumulation rate (MAR) of pollen and spores varied from 44 to 7,031×10−3 grains cm−2 yr−1 with maxima in oxygen isotope stages (OIS) 2, 3, 4, and around the OIS 4/5 boundary. Less rainfall during glacial times generally enhanced transport of pollen by wind to Site C4402. Their scavenging from the water column was promoted by high activity of the biological pump. Pollen record from core C4402 suggests that lower montane group vegetation was dominant relative to lowland vegetation and upper and mid-montane group during glacial times. Although appreciable contribution by terrestrial OM is expected from high correlation of MAR between organic carbon (OC) and pollen and spores, fairly low COrganic/N ratios and δ13C values (around −20‰) of OM demonstrate that OM in core C4402 is mainly of marine origin.


Abstract The thermodynamics of the opening/closure process of a GC base pair located at the stem-loop junction of the SL1 sequence from HIV-1Lai genomic RNA was investigated in the context of a loop-loop homodimer (or kissing complex) using molecular dynamics simulation. The free energy, enthalpy and entropy changes for the closing reaction are 0 kcal·mol−1, −11 kcal·mol−1and −0.037 kcal·mol−1-K−1 at 300° K respectively. Furthermore it is found that the free energy change is the same for the formation of a 11 nucleotide loop closed with UG and for the formation of a 9 nucleotide loop closed with GC. Our study evidences the high flexibility of the nucleotides at the stem-loop junction explaining the weak stability of this structure.


This paper presents a study of traffic data collected at the telephone exchange (PABX) of The Norwegian Institute of Technology. A recording system primarily designed for accounting purposes [1] collects a set of data for each outgoing call and stores it on digital magnetic tape. Based on these data a statistical study is carried out emphasizing the properties of traffic sources, single subscriber sources, as well as groups of subscribers. After a survey of the system and the general traffic situation, studies of the call-generation process follow. Called number repertoires are treated, using the concept of entropy. The major part of the paper is devoted to the study of repeated calls. Comparisons are made with results from France and the U.S.A. An important scope of the paper is to point out the potentials of the applied method, implying the high efficiency of data collection as well as processing by means of computer techniques.


"A significant contribution to the history of the Caribbean and to the comparative study of slavery and transitions to free labor systems" (Nigel O. Bolland, Colgate University), this book "shifts the focus of interest from the islands' elites to the common people...with special reference to the black populations" (Richard Sheridan, University of Kansas at Lawrence).


PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a technique by which a clathrate hydrate slurry can be stably produced over a long period of time while maintaining a merit in which a clathrate hydrate adherent to a heat exchange surface of a heat exchanger has the effect of accelerating the fresh formation of a clathrate hydrate. SOLUTION: A method for producing the clathrate hydrate slurry has a step in which either an aqueous solution of a guest compound for a clathrate hydrate or a slurry obtained by dispersing or suspending the clathrate hydrate in the aqueous solution or water is made to flow in a heat exchanger tube to yield the clathrate hydrate in the aqueous solution or the slurry through heat exchange with a refrigerant surrounding the outer periphery of the heat exchanger tube. The amount of the clathrate hydrate adhering to the inner wall surface of the heat exchanger tube in the course of heat exchange with the refrigerant is inhibited from increasing by the force of flow of the aqueous solution or slurry running in the heat exchanger tube. COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT


Currently, E-smoking cigarettes are widely used and occur within all classes of society. This work investigated the use of E-smoking liquids for the synthesis of Nitroglycerin (NG) and 1,2-Propylene Glycol Dinitrate (PGDN), both considered as nitroester liquid high explosives. Two kinds of E-smoking liquids (10 mL) were investigated: nicotine free and with nicotine (10 mg/mL). Quantitative analysis of the glycerin and propylene glycol (PG) present in the E-smoking liquids was carried out by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GCMS), with calculation of the accuracy and precision parameters. The percentage of glycerin was (10-13 wt.%) and percentage of propylene glycol was (40-70 wt.%) The synthesis of pure NG and pure PGDN were performed with laboratory grade glycerin and propylene glycol and compared to the samples obtained from the E-smoking liquid. Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) was used for the determination of the activation energy and the heat of decomposition for each synthesized explosive, using the Ozawa and Kissinger models. The brisance index was assessed by the witness plate test and compared with some conventional explosives (TNT and C4). Finally, the influence of nicotine (less than 2 wt.%) on the synthetic process and the detonic properties of the explosive mixture was studied.


Many countries have developed sophisticated mechanisms to advise and assist governmental decision making as it is affected by and affects science and technology at the national level. In the United States such mechanisms include the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP)--which is directed by the President's Science Advisor, the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), and the National Research Council (NRC). In this age of interdependence it is natural that the question of science advising at the international level also arises. This report focuses on international needs for science advice in the field of the Environment. Environment and health are among the fields in which the need for information and advice, developed and provided in a multilateral way, are most obvious and pressing. One need only mention such problems as stratospheric ozone depletion, climate change, loss of biological diversity, AIDS, and tuberculosis, to see the large number of opportunities for international cooperation.


The use of three different calorimeters made it possible to measure the overall kinetics of isotactic polypropylene in the α-phase in a wide temperature range. Original results concerning the growth rate of α spherulites were also obtained by optical microscopy by using a prototype hot stage developed in our laboratory. A new growth regime seems to exist at low crystallization temperature. The number of nuclei shows a smooth evolution with temperature with no rupture in the nucleation behavior in the low-temperature range. Combination of experimental results and an appropriate extrapolation procedure lead to an overall kinetics law valid in the whole domain of existence of the α-phase. This law is based on Ozawa's formalism. It will be used in polymer processing. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2012


The risk of perineal injury during childbirth continues to affect the majority of women. About 40% of primiparous women and 20% of multiparous women will sustain some degree of perineal injury (James et al, 1999).


Software Product Lines (SPLs) are families of products whose commonalities and variability can be captured by Feature Models (FMs). T-wise testing aims at finding errors triggered by all interactions amongst t features, thus reducing drastically the number of products to test. T-wise testing approaches for SPLs are limited to small values of t -- which miss faulty interactions -- or limited by the size of the FM. Furthermore, they neither prioritize the products to test nor provide means to finely control the generation process. This paper offers (a) a search-based approach capable of generating products for large SPLs, forming a scalable and flexible alternative to current techniques and (b) prioritization algorithms for any set of products. Experiments conducted on 124 FMs (including large FMs such as the Linux kernel) demonstrate the feasibility and the practicality of our approach.