The RELAP5 transient thermal-hydraulic code is a widely accepted analysis tool for light water nuclear reactor safety studies. Three numerical schemes are presented for enhancing the diagonal dominance of the coefficient matrix, and it is shown that for all three schemes the same solution strategy can be repeated from one time level to another. These schemes, therefore, give grind times that can be considerably smaller than the scheme originally used in the code. Numerical results confirm the findings


The present paper proposes a methodology for engineering requirements in a precise, comprehensive, understandable and time-saving way based on concepts and principles of natural language syntax and semantics (NLSS). The NLSS methodology copes with the following phases: (i) requirements discovery, by emphasizing on the creation and application of specific questions sets; (ii) requirements analysis, by stressing issues such as classification, decomposition and terminology of requirements; and (iii) requirements specification, by focusing on the writing formalization of the requirements.


The main goal of this work is to propose the application of the concept of equivalent diameter in the calculation of the hydraulic pressure required to conduct an hydroforming process in non-circulars pieces. Although this approach was carried out initially for the conventional stamping process, this paper demonstrates that it can also be applied in hydroforming.
In a first phase experimental tests were carried out to form a part using this methodology, measuring the reduction in resulting thickness. It was found that difference between the calculated pressure and the experimental required pressure was 2.6%.
To perform a numerical-experimental comparison, the simulation of the process was carried out using several material models by explicit finite element method in a commercial software. It was observed that using the material model HILL'90 deviation between experimental and numerical results for the thickness reduction was lower than 5.5%.


Abstract At a time when the Commonwealth of Nations and the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) are investigating their long-term relevance and identity in the face of current international challenges, relatively little attention has been paid to the small yet growing number of countries that are now joint members of the two organisations. This group has increased in recent years and 11 countries now have a link with both organisations. As programmes are being implemented in the same polities and as the reflection on global governance progresses, there is a growing need for more comparative studies of Francophonie and Commonwealth commitments that take into account the institutional history of these organisations. In this context, this article investigates the challenges and opportunities created by Commonwealth–OIF programmes in the fields of democracy, human rights and development, in their drive for good governance and new forms of multilateralism.


Aberrant expression of N-cadherin is associated with tumor progression in squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs). Consequently, we examined the regulation of N-cadherin by TGFβ1, an important mediator of keratinocyte and SCC function. N-cadherin expression was increased in oral SCC (OSCC) cell lines, regulating motility and correlating with TGFβ1 production. Moreover, in normal keratinocytes TGFβ1 increased expression of N-cadherin to regulate motility. TGFβ1-mediated N-cadherin expression in the oral keratinocytes was blocked using siRNA targeting Smads. Unexpectedly, we found that EGF blocked TGFβ1-mediated N-cadherin expression in oral keratinocytes and not in OSCC cells. Mechanistically, EGF enhanced Smad phosphorylation in the linker region, and attenuated TGFβ1-mediated phosphorylation of Smad at the C-terminus, localization of Smad to the nucleus as well as Smad-driven promoter activity exclusively in oral keratinocytes but not in OSCC cells. The effect of EGF on TGFβ1-mediated Smad-driven promoter activity and N-cadherin expression was reversed when activation of ERK1/2 was blocked. Although EGF and TGFβ1 independently promoted migration of both oral keratinocytes and OSCC cells, EGF decreased TGFβ1-mediated migration of oral keratinocytes but enhanced migration of OSCC cells. Together, these data support a model wherein EGF signaling has an important negative regulatory role on TGFβ1-mediated N-cadherin expression and motility in normal oral keratinocytes, and in which loss of this regulatory mechanism accompanies malignant transformation of the oral epithelium.


MEMS Optical Switches and Systems J. Li and A. Q. Liu Design of MEMS Optical Switches J. Li and A. Q. Liu MEMS Thermo-Optic Switches J. Li and T. Zhong PHC Microresonators Dynamic Modulation Devices S. T. Hwee Gee and A.Q. Liu MEMS Variable Optical Attenuators X. Zhang, H. Cai, and A.Q. Liu MEMS Discretely Tunable Lasers X. Zhang and H. Cai MEMS Continuously Tunable Lasers X. Zhang and A. Q. Liu MEMS Injection-Locked Lasers X. Zhang and A. Q. Liu Deep Etching Fabrication Process J. Li and A. Q. Liu Deep Submicron Photonic Bandgap Crystal Fabrication Processes S. H. G. Teo and A. Q. Liu Control Strategies for Electrostatic MEMS Devices B. Borovic and F. L. Lewis Control of Optical Devices B. Borovic and F. L. Lewis


Aims. Large amplitude MHD perturbations are generated in magnetized tenuous relativistically moving plasmas, such as winds emitted by compact stellar objects or galactic nuclei, when a rapid change occurs at their boundaries or when an obstacle is present in them. These perturbations may involve relativistic motions in the rest-frame of the unperturbed plasma. In this paper, we calculate the characteristics and the structure of relativistic non-linear Alfven waves. Methods. We establish these properties for special-relativistic perturbations occurring in a particular type of non-linear waves, the simple waves. Results. We derive the conditions applicable to Alfvenic perturbations in a cold flow. We calculate the characteristics of these perturbations and the structure of wave trains of finite extent in the propagation direction of these characteristics, as observed in the unperturbed fluid proper frame. We determine the velocity of the characteristics with respect to any observer. This velocity is found to be a first integral, constant in time and space. This implies that relativistic Alfvenic perturbations are channeled, in the unperturbed fluid proper frame, by the unperturbed magnetic field and travel along this field neither steepening nor breaking into shocks. For finite wave trains, the Lorentz factor is found to be limited by some maximum value that we calculate and that depends on the ratio of proper magnetic energy density to material energy density in the unperturbed fluid.


A preliminary analysis of the distribution of vascular plants in the central Pyrenees is presented. The study area comprises two biogeographical regions (eurosiberian and mediterranean), and 3000 meters of altitudinal range (from 400 to 3400). A total of 2620 taxa have been recorded (103 endemics of the Pyrenees, 10 located exclusively in the study area) from 150000 records of presen- ce/absence. They represent a third of the Iberian flora in just 3% of the spanish ibe- rian territory. Of them, 6.5% are rare, and 7% are aliens. Grasslands, in particular those above the timberline, are the richest habitats in terms of number of species. Wetlands and tall herb fringe communities, as well as cliffs and screes, however, stand out when taking into account the extension of habitats. More than half of the plants can be found between 1000-1300 m.a.s.l., and only 17% in very well preser- ved habitats. These later ones shelter plants of highest interest from a taxonomic, bio- geographic, and conservation point of view. Protected areas constitute 34% of the studied territory, and contain more than 90% of the flora, endemisms, and rare plants, as well as 80% of the localities of endangered species. Surprisingly, however, only 22% of "rare" plants are also catalogued as "endangered", suggesting that the Regional Catalogue of Endangered species should be reviewed.


: The portion of the power representing the losses in the hydraulic system during operation will be converted into heat to heat the working fluid. Simultaneously with the process of heating the working fluid, heat is transferred from this system to the environment. Thermodynamic equilibrium of the hydraulic system in open-pit mining machines is achieved when the amount of energy loss, converted into heat in the hydraulic system, becomes equal to the value of the heat flux released to the environment from this system. Thermodynamic equilibrium of the hydraulic system significantly affects the efficiency of operation, reliability and frequency of hydraulic system failures, service life of the working fluid and hydraulic elements. When thermal equilibrium is established, the temperature of the working fluid becomes stable and maximum for a given operating mode of the hydraulic system. The thermodynamic equilibrium of a hydraulic system can change due to the influence of many factors, two of which are the ambient temperature (external factor) and the type of working fluid (internal factor). The article presents the results of a study of the influence of these two factors on the change in thermal equilibrium, as well as the maximum operating temperature of the working fluid in the hydraulic system of a mining excavator.


The application of Nitrous oxide-ethane flame atomic absorbing spectral method to measure the content of Calcium in the positive electrode powder of thermal batteries is presented. A synthetic consideration to conditions for Calcium and interference factors are introduced. The method has the advantages of high sensitivity,simple operation, easy master, short analyzing cycle and less interference. The relative standard deviation of measurements are less than 1.0%(n=10).The range of standard adding recovery is between 97.0% and 102.0%,the practice shows that the method is suited to measure the Calcium content in the positive electrode powder of thermal batteries.


Thanks to advances in the quality of wide bandgap AlxGa1-xN semiconductors, these materials have emerged as the most promising approach for the realization of photon detectors operating in the near ultraviolet from 200 to 365 nm. This has in turn spurred the need for such devices in an increasing number of applications ranging from water purification to early missile threat warning systems. Nevertheless, the control of the material quality and doping, and the device technology remain tremendous challenges in the quest for the realization of high performance photodetectors. Design of the photodetector structure is one of the key issues in obtaining high performance devices; especially the thickness of the intrinsic region for p-i-n photodiodes is a crucial value and needs to be optimized. We compare the performance of the p-i-n photodiodes with different widths for the depletion region, which shows a trade-off between speed and responsivity of the devices. Furthermore, another challenge at present is the realization of low resistivity wide bandgap p-type AlxGa1-xN semiconductors. We present here recent advances and propose future research efforts in the enhancement of the AlxGa1-xN p-type conductivity through the use of polarization fields in AlxGa1-xN/GaN superlattice structures.


Melatonin plays key roles in a wide range of mammalian body functions, which are mediated by the melatonin-specific cell surface receptor (MTNR1A and MTNR1B). To better understand the role of MTNR in the yak (Bos grunniens), we determined the melatonin receptor mRNA expression level. The analysis showed that the MTNR mRNA expression level was higher in the pineal gland tissue than in the hypothalamus, pituitary gland, and ovary ( P < 0.01) during the breeding season. Immunofluorescence analyses showed that yak MTNR was located in the pinealocyte, synaptic ribbon, and synaptic spherules of the pineal gland and that melatonin interacts via nerve fibres. In the hypothalamus, MTNR was located in the magnocellular neurons and parvicellular neurons. MTNR was localized in acidophilic cells and basophilic cells in the pituitary gland. In the ovary, MTNR was present in the ovarian follicle, corpus luteum, and Leydig cells. The domestic yak (Bos grunniens) is a rare bovine species found at high altitudes in the Qinghai- Tibetan Plateau and adjacent regions. Yaks have unique biological and economic characteristics that make them resistant to cold. They have evolved a unique body structure and physiological adapta - tion mechanisms. The reproductive mechanism may be the most important requirement for yak survival in this situation. The yak breeding season runs from July to January in China. This period is perfectly synchronized with the long nights and short days between the summer solstice and winter solstice. The pineal gland is the only endocrine organ that can transform light into endocrine informa - tion (Binkley, 1993). Melatonin is a polypeptide hormone, which is synthesized primarily in the pineal gland. The day length is the main factor to initiate the yak breeding season each year via melatonin. Melatonin has an important role in the maturation of oocytes where the melatonin


Hyperplane arrangements are very interesting combinatorial objects and many results can be found in the literature. For instance, several papers [1, 2, 6, 7] are concerned with the characteristic polynomials and the number of regions of a hyperplane arrangement. In his paper [9], Stanley reviewed various hyperplane arrangements raising interesting questions, one of which is related to the following hyperplane arrangement:


School counselors have been encouraged to adopt a family systems perspective in schools (Amatea, 1989; Amatea & Brown, 2000; Carns & Carns, 1997; Fish & Jain, 1997; Hinkle, 1993; Widerman & Widerman, 1995). A major concept of this approach suggests that problems demonstrated by individuals are often a reaction to distress in the family unit (Carter & McGoldrick, 1999) and the consequence of patterns of interactions with others rather than singular events (Carns & Carns, 1997). Gladding (1995) suggested that individuals do not develop or interact in isolation from significant others, while others have noted that the unit of intervention is the social context rather than the individual (Haley, 1986, 1987; Hinkle, 1993; Peeks, 1993). Since individuals impact and are impacted by the systems of which they are a part (Minuchin, 1974), an appropriate strategy for working with students is to analyze problems from a systems perspective. The school is conceptualized as a system, and students are members of a family system. Schaef and Fassel (1992) described a school district as a mega system, a school as a system, and classrooms as subsystems. Several authors described families and schools as a coupled system (Amatea & Brown, 2000; Caffery, Erdman, & Cook, 2000). They saw each as a system in its own right with distinctive memberships and predictable ways of interacting. Thus, students bring to school the dynamics of their family systems, and they must function in another system. This larger ecosystem provides the environment in which student problems evolve and the social context in which they can be analyzed and addressed by school counselors (Peeks, 1990). Finally, family systems and school systems are subsystems of yet a larger ecosystem--the community (Walsh, 1982). The American School Counselor Association (1997, 1999) encourages a developmental approach to working with students and advocates that school counselors understand how academics are related to the world of work, the family, and the community. Thus, a systemic perspective appears to be an effective framework for delivering guidance and counseling services in schools (Davis, 2001; Hinkle & Wells, 2001; Keys, Bemak, Carpenter, & King-Sears, 1998; Keys & Lockhart, 1999; Kraus, 1998; Nicoll, 1992; Sink & Yillik-Downer, 2001). The challenge is to help school counselors approach their work through such a perspective. The purpose of this article is to describe an approach used at Seattle Pacific University to provide school counseling students with a systemic perspective for delivering guidance and counseling services to schools and to suggest ways this type of learning experience could be adapted by school counselors to enhance school- and district-wide collaboration in implementing and managing a comprehensive school counseling program. The Blakely Island Learning Experience At Seattle Pacific University, future school counselors are provided an opportunity to implement and analyze an ecosystem of their own making by creating a new community at the university's science field station on Blakely Island. As one student said, "When we landed on the island, it became obvious that we were the only ones around. We had to develop relationships with each other." The need for students to develop relationships with each other begins with a boat trip to the island. Students soon distinguish several subgroups on board--fellow students, faculty members, families of faculty, and the boat's crew. Upon arrival at Blakely Island, the field station resident managers welcome everyone to the island and take them to the facility. Thus, another subsystem is introduced and comes into play. Without their consciously knowing it and analogous to a family and school working together to resolve a problem (Amatea & Brown, 2000), students are becoming members of an emerging ecosystem. Elements of the Learning Experience This island experience is designed to provide an introduction to systems theory and encourage students to create and maintain an open and collaborative community (i. …


ABSTRACT A computerized clinical log was developed and revised over a period of three semesters by the family nurse practitioner students at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, Texas. Students entered data on a disk formatted in Microsoft Access®, and results were analyzed by the Statistical Packages for the Social Sciences (SPSS®). More than 4,000 patient encounters were documented during three semesters. The development and refinement of the computerized log are described. Results are presented and the implications of the database for educational, curricular and employment purposes are discussed.


9555 Background: The European Medicine Agency (EMEA) stated that the degree of pre-treatments can modify the patient's tolerance to new treatments in pediatrics oncology, and then suggested that ex...


Empirical models of the Earth's bow shock are often used to place in situ measurements in context and to understand the global behavior of the foreshock/bow shock system. They are derived statistically from spacecraft bow shock crossings and typically treat the shock surface as a conic section parameterized according to a uniform solar wind ram pressure, although more complex models exist. Here a global magnetohydrodynamic simulation is used to analyze the variability of the Earth's bow shock under real solar wind conditions. The shape and location of the bow shock is found as a function of time, and this is used to calculate the shock velocity over the shock surface. The results are compared to existing empirical models. Good agreement is found in the variability of the subsolar shock location. However, empirical models fail to reproduce the two‐dimensional shape of the shock in the simulation. This is because significant solar wind variability occurs on timescales less than the transit time of a single solar wind phase front over the curved shock surface. Empirical models must therefore be used with care when interpreting spacecraft data, especially when observations are made far from the Sun‐Earth line. Further analysis reveals a bias to higher shock speeds when measured by virtual spacecraft. This is attributed to the fact that the spacecraft only observes the shock when it is in motion. This must be accounted for when studying bow shock motion and variability with spacecraft data.


Higher vocational education,one type of higher education,should carry out the teaching reform which focuses on the construction and reform of courses,break down the limitation of disciplines,develop courses with vocational characteristics and constantly improve the teaching quality.This paper introduces not only the general objects of the construction and reform of core courses in the mechatronics technology which are based on work processes,work tasks or products,but also the implement of the courses,the construction of text-books,the reform of the teaching and testing methods and the courses characteristics etc.Some thoughts about the courses constructon and reform are put forward as well.


Essential oil compositions of the leaf and inflorescences of Pogostemon benghalensis (Burm.f.) Kuntze were investigated by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS). P. benghalensis oils were found to contain few monoterpene hydrocarbons, a moderate content of sesquiterpenes and high content of aliphatic hydrocarbons. The inflorescences oil are rich in transcaryophyllene (8.52%), germacrene B (4.50%), δ-cadiuene (4.37%), β-ocimene (4.30%), χ-elemene (3.54%), caryophyllene oxide (3.27%), curzerene (1.70%), α-humulene (1.68%), α-guaiene (1.54%) and germacrene (1.28%), whereas leaf oil is rich in cadinene isomer (2.615%), elemol (1.458%), α bulnesene (2.184%), χ-elemene (2.118%) and germacrene D (1.190%). The compositions of both oils varied qualitatively and quantitatively.


SUMMARY: Adenocarcinomatous growths comprising glandular cavities surrounded by cuboidal to low columnar cells and a large amount of mucus produced by the mucous cells, were observed in the the gastric lymph nodes of a harbor seal Phoca largha. The seal was stranded on the coast of Toyama Bay, Sea of Japan, on 2 March, 1998. Necroscopic examination also showed the animal had significant signet ring cell carcinoma in the stomach, as has been reported elsewhere. The adenocarcinoma may have developed from metastatic cells arising in the gastric carcinoma.


ALLIED HEALTH MANPOWER: Trends and Prospects. By Harry I. Greenfield, with the assistance of Carol A. Brown. New York and London: Columbia University Press, 1969. Pp. 195. Price 72s. The health services of an advanced country employ many professional and other workers, of whom doctors form only a small proportion. This book surveys the United States scene as it concerns a wide range of technicians as well as three groups of assistants (licensed practical nurses, nurses' aides and psychiatric aides). Most of those concerned are female and have had substantially less education than have such groups


Malnutrition during the perinatal period has been linked to increased binge eating, preference for palatable foods and risk of obesity developing in adulthood. Appetite is controlled by several physiological systems, including the neural reward system. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter in this system and it is involved in relations of pleasure provided by foods and drugs, acting through its binding to neuronal receptors of two classes: D1-like and D2-like. The goal of this study was to evaluate the expression of dopamine D1 receptors in the striatum and Nucleus Accumbens, areas related to feeding behavior, in malnourished rats. Two experimental groups were formed: the control group (CF - rats coming from normonutridas mothers during pregnancy and lactation) and group-malnourished (DF - coming rats of mothers who received low protein diet during the perinatal period). The animals began to receive standard laboratory diet after weaning and had the weight assessed at different times of life. In 120 days, they were sacrificed and submitted to perfusion, to remove the brains. After the cuts of the brains in freezing microtome, it proceeded to Immunohistochemistry for counting neurons marked for DRD1. The images were obtained through camera coupled to an optical microscope and morphometry performed on the Free Software ImageJ. Statistical data were expressed as mean ± standard deviation and analyzed the free software GraphPad Prism 5. Malnourished animals showed lower weight compared to well-nourished from birth to the sacrifice. There was no significant difference between groups in the expression of DRD1 the analyzed brain areas (Striatum: CF: 230.0 ± 86.40, n = 4; DF: 225.50 ± 89.90, n = 4; Nucleus Accumbens: CF: 109.80 ± 41.40, n = 4; DF: 128.0 ± 49.50, n = 5; Student's t test, p <0.05). These data suggest that the expression of D1 receptors is directly related to the amount of dopamine released in the synaptic cleft, which amount is higher in presenting new and palatable food.


Background: A neurogenic pathway, involving TRPV1 expressed in the airways, has been hypothesized to be implicated in acute cardiovascular events occurring after peaks of air pollution. Aims: To test whether inhaled prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) and bradykinin (BK) modulate TRPV1 activity in vivo by changing cough response to capsaicin (CPS) and whether sensitization of TRPV1 by PGE2 and BK affects heart rate variability (HRV). Methods: 17 healthy volunteers (median age 35 IQR, 29.5-47) inhaled 100 μg PGE2, 200 μg BK or diluent in a randomized double-blind fashion. Subsequently, the response to CPS was assessed by cough challenge. The results were expressed as n° of coughs caused by 30 μM of CPS. HRV, expressed by low (0.04–0.15 Hz) and high (0.15–0.40 Hz) normalized frequency components (nLF, sympathetic component, and nHF, vagal component), as well as nLF/nHF ratio (sympathovagal balance), was evaluated after inhalation of diluent, PGE2 and BK. Results: Inhalations of PGE2 and BK were associated with a highly significant increase in cough response induced by CPS: PGE2 (n° cough=4.20±0.42; p Conclusion: Inhalation of PGE2 and BK sensitizes TRPV1 and is associated with autonomic dysregulation of cardiac rhythm in healthy subjects.


Weiss etal. Cloning of murine IL-22 receptor alpha 2 and comparison with its human counterpart. Genes and Immunity vol. 5, 330-336 (2004).* Sano et al. Stat3 in Thymic Epithelial Cells Is Essential for Postnatal Maintenance of Thymic Architecture and Thymocyte Survival. Immunity, vol. 15, 261-273 (Aug. 2001).* Xie et al. Interleukin (IL)-22, a Novel Human Cytokine That Signals through the Interferon Receptor-related Proteins CRF2-4 and IL-22R. The Journal of Biological Chemistry vol. 275/40:31.335 31339 (2000).* Aujla and Kolls, "IL-22: A Critical Mediator in Mucosal Host Defense." J Mol Med (Berl), 87(5):451-454 (2009). Awasthi, et al., "Cutting Edge: IL-23 Receptor Gfp Reporter Mice Reveal Distinct Populations of IL-17-Producing Cells."J Immunol. 182(10):5904-5908 (2009). Boniface, et al., "IL-22 Inhibits Epidermal Differentiation and Induces Proinflammatory Gene Expression and Migration of Human Keratinocytes."J Immunol. 174(6):3695-3702 (2005). Cella, et al., "A Human Natural Killer Cell Subset Provides an Innate Source of IL-22 for Mucosal Immunity." Nature, 457(7230):722-725 (2009). Cella, et al., "Expansion of Human NK-22 Cells with IL-7, IL-2, and IL-1beta Reveals Intrinsic Functional Plasticity." Proc Natl AcadSci USA, 107(24): 10961-10966 (2010). Gray, et al., "Developmental Kinetics, Turnover, and Stimulatory Capacity of Thymic Epithelial Cells." Blood, 108(12):3777-3785 (2006). Gray, et al., "Unbiased Analysis, Enrichment and Purification of Thymic Stromal Cells."J Immunol Methods, 329(1-2):56-66 (2008). Guo and Topham, "Interleukin-22 (IL-22) Production by Pulmonary Natural Killer Cells and the Potential Role of IL-22 During Primary Influenza Virus Infection." J Virol, 84(15): 7750-7759 (2010). Heng, et al., "Getting Back at Nature: Understanding Thymic Devel opment and Overcoming Its Atrophy." Curr Opin Pharmacol, 10(4):425-433 (2010). Hollander, et al., "Emerging Strategies to Boost Thymic Function." Curr Opin Pharmacol, 10(4):443-453 (2010). Hughes, et al., "Interleukin-1beta Selectively Expands and Sustains Interleukin-22+ Immature Human Natural Killer Cells in Secondary Lymphoid Tissue." Immunity, 32(6):803-814 (2010). Kim, et al., "Ox40 Ligand and CD30 Ligand Are Expressed on Adult but Not Neonatal CD4+CD3—Inducer Cells: Evidence That IL-7 Signals Regulate CD30 Ligand but Not Ox40 Ligand Expression." J Immunol. 174(11):6686-6691 (2005). Liang, et al., "Interleukin (IL)-22 and IL-17 Are Coexpressed by Th17 Cells and Cooperatively Enhance Expression of Antimicrobial Peptides."J Exp Med. 203(10):2271-2279 (2006). Mak, et al., "Knockout Mice: A Paradigm Shift in Modern Immunol ogy." Nat Rev Immunol. 1(1):11-19 (2001). Manley, "Thymus Organogenesis and Molecular Mechanisms of Thymic Epithelial Cell Differentiation." Semin Immunol. 12(5):421 428 (2000). Manley and Condie, "Transcriptional Regulation of Thymus Organogenesis and Thymic Epithelial Cell Differentiation." Prog Mol Biol Transl Sci,92: 103-120 (2010). (Continued)


Laboratory sessions offer students an opportunity to develop creative problem-solving skills and to better understand the nature of the scientific process through hands-on learning. Unfortunately, traditional procedures are often written in such detail, they require students to do little more than follow step-by-step directions. Under those circumstances, students do not have the opportunity for creative and critical thinking and often lose appreciation for the laboratory setting.1 To encourage student creativity in the lab, I assign a free-form exercise that requires students to measure their power output when performing an activity of their choosing. Students develop their own experimental procedure and analysis restricted only by equipment availability and safety. The short handout I provide for my students contains no formal procedure or guidelines; it simply lists the requirements for their reports.


Nanotechnology deals with the physical, chemical, and biological properties of structures and their components at nanoscale dimensions. Nanotechnology is based on the concept of creating functional structures by controlling atoms and molecules on a one-by-one basis. The use of this technology will allow many developments in the health sciences as well as in materials science, bio-technology, electronic and computer technology, aviation, and space exploration. The science of nanotechnology has become the most popular area of research, currently covering a broad range of applications in dentistry. This review describes the basic concept of nanomaterials, recent innovations in nanomaterials and their applications in restorative dentistry. Advances in nanotechnologies are paving the future of dentistry, and there are a plenty of hopes placed on nanomaterials in terms of improving the health care of dental patients.


This clinical manual provides a practical, problem-oriented approach to all aspects of ocular inflammatory disease. Divided into five sections, it discusses general principles of uveitis, traumatic uveitis, ocular inflammations associated with infectious diseases, with autoimmune diseases, and finally, with masquerade and idiopathic conditions. Etiology, epidemiology, pathogenesis, clinical presentation, diagnosis, differential diagnosis, treatment and prognosis are provided for each disease syndrome. For the ophthalmologist and the ophthalmology resident, the text should be a useful diagnostic and patient-management resource for the challenges of ocular inflammation as presented in daily practice.


We examine whether and to what extent the health insurance system in Turkey provided adequate protection against high out of pocket expenditures in the period prior to "The Health Transformation Programme" (HTP) for the non elderly population. We measure health care burdens as the share of out of pocket health care expenditures within family income. We define high burdens as expenses above 10 and 20 percent of income. We find that 19 percent of the nonelderly population were living in families spending more than 10 percent of family income and that 14 percent of the nonelderly population were living in families spending more than 20 percent of family income on health care. Furthermore, the poor and those living in economically less developed regions had the greatest risk of high out of pocket burdens. More significantly, we find that the risk of high financial burdens varied by the type of insurance among the insured due to differences in benefits among the five separate public schemes that provided health insurance in the pre-reform period.


In the face of the growing requirement for remote,distributed and real-time test system,this paper proposed a kind of netwok distributed virtual instrument test structure based on mixed C/S mode and B/S mode.For the real time demand,combined with the technology of ActiveX and DataSocket,develop ActiveX client control and server instrument testing application server.Users can transmit command and parameters to the Web server through the B/S browser,realizing remote control the actual equipment,and real-time observation of the test results.


The study of gluon radiation in QCD, in the limit of small ("soft") momentum, remains an active research area, with a variety of phenomenological and theoretical applications. Soft gluon emission leads to large logarithms in perturbation theory which have to be summed up to all orders in the coupling, and also governs the structure of infrared singularities. Recently, new techniques and mathematical structures have been discovered, which enhance our understanding of these all-order properties. This contribution will review a number of key topics, including the relationship between QCD and gravity.


Married women have a higher probability of experiencing a first birth or making the transition to parenthood than unmarried women but less is known about how cohabitation prior to a marriage effects marital fertility behavior. This analysis describes the three phases that characterize changing patterns of cohabitation behavior in the 20th-century US and notes that the increased prevalence of cohabitation underscores the importance of taking it into account as a discrete union status in fertility models. Event history techniques were used to examine the relationship between the type of union a woman is in and the probability that she experiences a first birth. Special consideration was paid to the variation in this probability by the duration of the womans union. Marriages that result from cohabitation were treated separately from other marriages in an attempt to empirically model the continuation of a relationship as it proceeds from a cohabitation to a marriage. Consideration of variation in cohabitation patterns by the mothers birth cohort revealed that premarital cohabitation lowers the probability of an early first birth in the marital union. A subsequent set of analyses incorporated fertility intentions into the model and revealed different effects of union status for unintended versus intended births. The effect of union status was much more pronounced for women who have a birth by choice. Unintended first births were unlikely to occur in a marriage that immediately follows cohabitation and these patterns vary by birth cohort of the mother. (full text modified)


A survey was performed in two public schools of Porto Alegre, with the purpose of demonstrate the presence of erupted permanent teeth in children with age ranging from 6 to 10 years old. The sample consisted of 327 patients and the variables examined were age, sex and race. In the 6 year old group, the lowers incisors (78,7%) erupted earlier than the first molars (75,9%) and the teeth on the lower arch erupted before the teeth on upper arch. It was not observed a significant difference (p<0,05) in the time of eruption of the teeth for the variables sex and race. A literature review of teeth evolution process and related factors were also described.


Carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) extraction from Musa paradisiaca (MP) pseudo stem by alkaline treatment and their properties were examined in the current research work. One of the most well-known types of lignin biomass waste that is readily available globally is MP. In many nations, including Taiwan, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, India, and the Philippines, these plants have been used for traditional reasons. Whole plant parts have been used as food, including the pseudo-stem, flower buds, trunk, fruits, and leaves. Sequestration of cellulose was attained by alkaline treatment and bleaching from raw fibers. Cellulose fiber is a biodegradable, naturally occurring, and renewable polymer that is used in a variety of industries, including the food, paper, cosmetic, and pharmaceutical sectors. The cellulose obtained from forest and agricultural residue has numerous advantages such as being environmentally safe, recyclable, and economically feasible respectively. The main process of cellulose extraction from MP pseudo stem are digesting process using a digester, bleaching, and neutralization which shows a zero-waste process. The alkali treatment takes less time to get a final product whereas enzyme treatment, and steam explosion treatment takes high energy and more cost. Hence, cellulose extract from alkaline treatment is economically feasible and environmentally friendly.


The initial-boundary value problem for the Korteweg–de Vries equation posed on a finite interval of the spatial variable is considered. Using the method of simultaneous spectral analysis of the associated Lax pair, this problem is mapped into a Riemann–Hilbert problem formulated in the complex plane of the spectral parameter, but with explicit dependence on the space-time variables appearing in the Korteweg–de Vries equation. It is shown that, under certain conditions, the solution of this Riemann–Hilbert is uniquely determined by certain functions of the spectral parameter, which are defined by the initial and boundary data of the original problem. In turn, the solution of the Riemann–Hilbert problem provides the solution of the initial-boundary value problem for the Korteweg–de Vries equation, for which an integral representation is derived.


There are huge numbers of implicit knowledge in the large quantity of result data,on which further induction analysis still can not be played through effective methods,that's why the waste of knowledge is caused.A method of knowledge discovery which is based on rough sets is studied in this paper,and also a way how to distill new technical knowledge from the result data of digitized analysis of stamping process through the proposed method of knowledge discovery is discussed in detail.Combined with square box experiment,its validity has been validated and an effective new approach to the knowledge discovery in the field of stamping has been provided.


Pulmonary sequestration is development mass of nonfunctioning bronchopulmonary tissue that is separate from the normal tracheobroncheal tree and receives arterial blood from the systemic circulation. Pulmonary sequestration has an excellent prognosis and frequently can be seen to regress spontaneously on serial prenatal sonogram. But in cases with hydrops the prognosis is poor and associated with a high rate of perinatal mortality and severe respiratory insufficiency in the newborn. We report the case of a fetus presenting at 31 weeks with generalized hydrops, bilateral hydrothorax and a left pulmonary hyperechogenic mass, successfully treated by thoracoamniotic shunting using a catheter and amniodrainage. Serial ultrasound showed normal growth and normal amniotic fluid volume. The newborn did not require surgery and long-term outcome was normal. Based on this observation, the natural history of pulmonary sequestration and prenatal management options are reviewed and discussed.


Accounts of the parallel psychiatric treatment of identical twins are relatively rare. This case is especially unusual in two respects, first in the uncommon nature of the particular problem which they presented as their major symptom (i.e. homosexual attraction to elderly men), and secondly because they were treated together as a family group.


Indonesian private university associations still use conventional system. this can be seen there is no registration of members online and registration work and this data collection is still using file system in the form of printout form. Then performed a system of checking and inputting data. If there is an error in charging the data, then do the system repetition. Things like this are deemed very ineffective because it will cause the buildup of files. This process is the one that until now runs in the association of Indonesian private universities. Therefore, Indonesian private university associations utilize google forms to support member registration activities online on the website of Indonesian private college association. Google form is a form facility that can be used to get the data of someone either in the form of questionnaire or registration, provided google platform which can easily be used for free in Google Drive. By making observations in the form of data collection, by doing a direct observation of an existing problem, it is considered less effective and efficient in managing a member report conducted conventionally through several convoluted processes and tend to require a long time so it is less effective. So that the need for a conventional system to be online so that with the online registration is aimed to improve the effective and efficient workers in managing data collection and registration of members previously done conventionally at the association of Indonesian private universities.


This paper presents a general theory of neologisms capable of describing and explaining them in their complexity, without limiting the analysis to a single dimension (e.g. the linguistic one). Within this multidimensional theoretical framework, adapted to complex objects such as neologisms, the author develops their linguistic dimension, highlights the explanatory limits of other dimensions (psychological, social, etc.) and specifies the information that speakers associate, for each neologism, within their mental lexicon. The classification of neologisms. A critical overview and proposal for a multivariable and functional typology " The classification of neologisms is a complex task that has not yet been satisfactorily resolved. This article has the following objectives: first, to provide a critical review of the different classification of neologisms made so far; second, to establish the most relevant criteria that determine each classification and, finally, to justify the advan-tages of a multivariate classification established on explicit, systematic, complete and unambiguous criteria. sometimes lacunary, with ambiguities and terms with more than one meaning. In this paper a number of generally recent terms and concepts will be examined from several complementary viewpoints: the conditions in which these terms appeared, their different phases, their morphosemantic aspects, the shortenings which produced them and their relations with other languages (loans and their equivalents). certains propres. de The complexity of neology is amplified by its terminology. Far from conforming to the univocity principle, terms used often have one or more synonyms or quasi-synonyms. Others seem to be synonymous but represent different concepts. Finally, some concepts have not yet been given a specific name. While not claiming to fully list all the terminological difficulties of neology, this article describes some of them. conventionnalisation, addressed by presenting social factors of institutionalisation and conventionalisation suggested and tested in the literature. the terms usual word formation, occasional word formation and neologism will be defined and distinguished from each other, then the methodological approach will be justified and the distribution of occasional word formation between orality and literacy will be demonstrated. This article presents an overview of research on German neologisms. Lexicographers compile and describe new words. Here German research is strong. Linguists provide us with insights about functions and reasons why neologisms are constructed. In this respect, knowledge is sketchy. Research is characterized by the dominance of lexicographic and, thus, descriptive aspects and divergence of focus and objectives. Various results, ideas and approaches still have to be brought together. accepted into mainstream language dictionaries. Pierre Ragot, The notion of neologism applied The of The verbal adjective ἁγήλατος (Lyc. 436) is accounted for as a neologism, a concept perfectly suitable for Ancient Greek. Although we cannot use the experience of Ancient Greek-speaking people, it is possible to prove the neological nature of ἁγήλατος , if we simultaneously take into consideration the derivational category to which it belongs, the context in which it is used and the literary tradition from which it was created.


Abundances of the larval caddisfly Dicosmoecus gilvipes and epilithic algae were compared at 9 sites (5 exposed to extensive recreational activity and 4 with minimal activity) in Quartzville Creek, Oregon. Recreational impacts on caddisfly densities were apparent for instars 3-5, but effects were greater on earlier instars than later instars. In 1995, sites with low human use had significantly higher densities of D. gilvipes than those sites exposed to intense recreation. Chlorophyll a biomass was not correlated with either D. gilvipes densities or intensity of human activity. In February 1996, an 85-y flood event forced closure of the study area to the public throughout the 2nd sampling season. Recreational impacts from 1995 were apparent at more localized spatial and temporal scales than were effects of flooding in 1996. The flood reduced D. gilvipes densities by 83% (±23% SE) and chlorophyll a biomass by 41% (±28% SE) across all sites. These results emphasize the need for additional studies on how multiple recreational activities impact lotic food webs.


Abstract For a while since the inception of economic system reform programs in 1980s, China's government investment in health was weakened. This resulted in healthcare provider's increasing reliance on user charges for their income, poorer access to healthcare for the vulnerable population groups, and increasing socioeconomic disparities in health and healthcare. To address these problems, China initiated a series of health sector reforms since late 1990s. Our comprehensive review study has found that indeed Chinese government spending on health has been increasing in recent years, especially since 2009, when the new Healthcare Reform Plan was announced. Still, China needs to both further strengthen government investment in health and address the structural imbalances in government health financing, in order to make the overall Chinese health system more equitable and more efficient.


Public relations has an important role in school organizations, but there are many problems in implementing the roles and functions of public relations at Al-Falah Elementary School. This will be the focus of study in this research. This research uses a qualitative approach, in which the researcher tries to describe what happened in the field (field facts) into a narrative. public relations has roles and functions including as a mediator with external parties, promoting the existence of schools and maintaining harmony with the community by sticking to the eight principles of public relations. As for carrying out his public relations duties at Al-Falah Elementary School, there are three main problems in carrying out their roles and functions, namely multiple positions, miscommunication and lots of extortion. The solution is to work with school principals, utilize technology and cooperate with authorized agencies.


The history of how the current control strategy against the Classical Swine Fever (CSF) in the EU came into being is described as well as the possibilities for applying conventional vaccines in the framework of this strategy. Concluding from these considerations, the preconditions for the permission of the application of marker vaccines are discussed and measures to be taken already before the registration of a marker vaccine are proposed.


The Siguanyingzi Basin,the Kazuo Basin,the Dapingfang-Shaoguozhangzi Basin and the Beipiao-Haernao Basin were used as investigation areas to study the groundwater enrichment rules in fragmental rocks.Based on the hydrogeological conditions of the Mesozoic basins in western Liaoning Province,the groundwater in fragmental rock is divided into efflorescent fracture water,interstratified fracture pore water and structural fracture pore water,of which the structural fracture pore water accounts for the most groundwater.According to the distribution of wells in the fragmental rock area,more than 70% of the wells are located in the fold belt and are rich in water.Study on the enrichment law of groundwater in all kinds of fragmental rock will not only offer a guide for seeking groundwater,but also provide scientific evidence for groundwater exploration in the area.


Compilers, amongst other programs, often work with data that (slowly) changes over time. When the changes between subsequent runs of the compiler are small, one would hope the compiler to incrementally update its results, resulting in much lower running times. However, the manual construction of an incremental compiler is very hard and error prone and therefore usually not an option. Attribute grammars provide an attractive way of constructing compilers, as they are compositional in nature and allow for aspect oriented programming. In this work we extend previous work on the automatic generation of incremental attribute grammar evaluators, with the purpose of (semi-)automatically generating an incremental compiler from the regular attribute grammar definition, by adding support for incremental evaluation of higher order attributes, a well known extension to the classical attribute grammars that is used in many ways in compiler construction, for example to model different compiler phases.


The invention discloses an alcohol alkali extraction method of aspartic polysaccharide and a production process. The extraction method comprises the following steps: taking radix asparagi decoction pieces; adding extraction solvent into the radix asparagi decoction pieces according to the mass volume ratio of 1:15-1:6, wherein, the alcohol concentration of the extraction solvent is 5-50%; adjusting the pH value to be 5-13; extracting for 0.5-2.5 hours in water bath at the temperature of 60-100 DEG C after soaking for 0.5-2.5 hours and filtering; and processing the residues at least once according to the above steps; and combining all the filtrates to obtain the extracting solution. The production process by adopting the extraction method also comprises the following steps: concentrating the extracting solution, adding 95% of alcohol for precipitating; discarding supernatant; adding water with the same amount as the concentrated solution, heating, dissolving and precipitating, centrifuging and collecting the supernatant; then adding 95% of alcohol with the volume 5 times than the concentrated solution for precipitating, centrifuging, and discarding the supernatant; adding a proper amount of 95% of alcohol and stirring, centrifuging and discarding the supernatant; adding proper amount of absolute ethyl alcohol and stirring; collecting the deposit after centrifuging, and freeze drying to obtain the finished products. The method of the invention obviously improves extraction efficiency of aspartic polysaccharide and total sugar content.


This study investigated how hand tricks influenced the students' achievement in trigonometric ratios. Using a quasi-experimental design and purposive sampling, twenty students were the survey respondents: ten of whom took as a control group, and ten took as an experimental group. Through limited face-to-face classes, the researcher selected respondents from Grade 9 students at Bonifacio National High School. The research instruments used in this study are two sets of lesson plans, a pretest, and a post-test. The study revealed that the traditional method and hand tricks effectively teach trigonometric ratios. However, results also found that it was more effective to teach trigonometric ratios when using the hand tricks. The study concluded that the traditional and hand tricks were considered effective in teaching trigonometric ratios. Though, those students who participated in the use of hand tricks in teaching performed better in solving trigonometric ratios than those students who trained using the conventional method. The use of hand tricks helps students with difficulty in memorizing trigonometric ratios. The researcher recommended that we always use hand tricks in teaching trigonometric ratios. It is also recommended for complete and thorough teaching of mathematics topics throughout the year to reinforce mathematics teaching and learning. Moreover, hand tricks are used in learning trigonometric ratios and preparing for advanced trigonometric lessons.


2LS ("tools") is a verification tool for C programs, built upon the CPROVER framework. It allows one to verify user-specified assertions, memory safety properties (e.g. buffer overflows), numerical overflows, division by zero, memory leaks, and termination properties. The analysis is performed by translating the verification task into a second-order logic formula over bitvector, array, and floating-point arithmetic theories. The formula is solved by a modular combination of algorithms involving unfolding and template-based invariant synthesis with the help of incremental SAT solving. Advantages of 2LS include its very fast incremental bounded model checking algorithm and its flexible framework for experimenting with novel analysis and abstraction ideas for invariant inference. Drawbacks are its lack of support for certain program features (e.g. multi-threading).


Background. Epoxy resin compounds (ERG) include a large number of sensitizing chemicals such as epoxy resins (ER), hardeners (curing agents), and reactive diluents. Allergic contact dermatitis (ACD) caused by ERCS is often occupational.


Based on three kinds of classical non-isothermal kinetics processing methods,PET/N100 curing reaction data(TIR curves)obtained by the heating in-situ FTIR cell technology were dynamically investigated,and some kinetic parameters of PET/N100 curing reaction were obtained.The TIR method on curing reaction was established.The results show that the kinetic parameters of PET/N100 binder system at different test conditions were consistent by using the integration method,derivative method and the iso-conversion rate method.The integration method is superior to the other two methods by comparison of linear correlation coefficient.The curing reaction mechanism of PET/N100 binder systems meets g(α)=-ln(1-α)function relationship and belongs to first-order reaction.TIR methods is applicable to study on curing reaction kinetics.


Teaching evaluation contributed to the improvement of teaching quality and f have the potential to affect professional and career advancement. It is also important to medical education systems because is often used as the basis for evaluations of teaching effectiveness and improves the quality of manpower performance. This study goal was to compare two methods of student evaluations of faculty, the traditional method versus online. This was a crosssectional study. The study population was 658 students. The data gathering instrument was a questionnaire to evaluate the quality of faculty teaching gathered through paper-based approach or completed online. The findings showed that students preferred the online method for evaluating the quality of teaching (p<0.001) over the traditional method. Compared to traditional evaluation, online evaluation tends to have significantly greater advantages. The findings suggest that online evaluation of faculty may be a suitable alternative to the paper evaluation.


New technologies, such as ICT, are developing rapidly and are used by ever larger parts of the population, including elderly people. The rapidly ageing population has increased the interest towards smart home technologies and "ambient-assisted living" (AAL) for a safer and more independent living. Indeed, according to the World Health Organization, 7% of the world's population is now over 65 years and approximately 20% of it will be aged 60 or older by 2050. This paper describes the outcome of a co-financed research project, aimed at developing a prototype of a smart home system designed to improve daily life of cognitively auto sufficient elderly people living on their own. The activity was carried out by an Italian consortium established within the Design Department of Politecnico di Milano, a household-appliances manufacturing company (Whirlpool Europe), an ICT company (MR&D) and a non-profit organization for disabled people caring (Fondazione Don Gnocchi). The objective of the research was to develop a smart environment made up of a user interface, several home appliances and a home sensors network. The authors will illustrate the activity led by Design Department: the design of the system interface that represents the medium between the user and the all-smart home system. The paper will go through the main phases of the research: the definition of user requirements for the system interface, the design of the user interface and the usability tests of the developed prototype with elderly people. Finally the results will show how the main challenge of the research activity was designing a user interface able to provide a simplified interaction with the system, avoiding negative impacts for those elderly not used to interacting with high-tech products.


gests a very casual approach to the literature. Proper acknowledgement needs to be made of how the present model builds on previous work, especially the crevasse depth model developed by Benn (2007a, b) and Nick (2010). Indeed, the present model is not so much a 'new framework', as a refinement of the existing crevasse-depth model framework, using more sophisticated treatments of damage and fracture.


We have fabricated Si nanopowder from Si swarf using the simple ball milling method, and applied to Li-ion battery electrodes. Limitation of the delithiation capacity after deep lithiation at 0.01 V is the most effective to achieve a constant high capacity for long cycles. The delithiation capacity keeps constant at 1500 mAh/g until the 290th cycle, and it slightly decreases to 1480 mAh/g at the 300th cycle. However, without limitation of the lithiation and delithiation capacities in the voltage range between 1.5 and 0.01 V, the delithiation capacity monotonically decreases with the cycle number, and it becomes 950 mAh/g at the 300th cycle. With limitation of the lithiation capacity at 1500 mAh/g after deep delithiation at 1.5 V, the delithiation capacity keeps 1470 mAh/g until the 137th cycle, and then decreases monotonically with the cycles to 860 mAh/g at the 300th cycle. With limitation of the delithiation capacity, the overvoltage estimated from the lithiation and delithiation curves is the lowest, and peeling-off of Si nanopowder from the Si electrode is suppressed because of limited size changes of Si nanopowder during lithiation and delithiation of Si nanopowder.


The α-distonic sulphur-containing ion has been generated by transfer of CH from ionized oxirane to dimethyl thioether and distinguished from the molecular ion of ethyl methyl thioether by collision induced dissociation (CID) experiments. In particular, the α-distonic ion expels CH2 to a minor extent following collision, whereas the molecular ion of ethyl methyl thioether does not undergo this reaction. The metastable C3H8S+˙ ions formed by CH transfer to dimethyl thioether and ionization of ethyl methyl thioether decompose by competing losses of CH3R˙, CH4 and C2H4. The elimination of ethene is taken as evidence for isomerization of the α-distonic ion to the molecular ion of ethyl methyl thioether prior to spontaneous dissociation. Evidence for the formation of stable α-distonic sulphur-containing ions by transfer of CH from ionized oxirane to methyl phenyl thioether has not been obtained. The collision-induced and spontaneous reactions of the ions formed by CH transfer to methyl phenyl thioether indicate that a mixture of the radical cations of CH3C6H4SCH3, C6H5SCH2CH3 and C6H5CH2SCH3 is generated implying that attack on the phenyl group occurs in addition to a formal insertion of a methylene entity in a CS bond.


Previous studies of grain size distributions within sediments on Long Island have produced puzzling results. The data obtained during these studies showed consistent bimodal grain size distributions in the 10-40 micrometer and 300-400 micrometer ranges. These sediments, which are of glacial or eolian origin, also displayed unusual poor sorting. In many cases pebbles have been found within the loess layer. These pebbles may be the result of cryoturbation, but may also have another origin. The research discussed within this paper sought to obtain similar bimodal grain size distributions in varying depths of sediment collected on Long Island, and provide a possible explanation for this occurrence. It is the hypothesis of this author that the poor sorting and bimodal grain size distributions observed in sediments on Long Island may be the result of a shockwave, associated with an extraterrestrial collision over the Laurentide Ice Sheet approximately 13,000 years ago. This impact has been proposed by others (Firestone et al., 2007; Wittke et al., 2013) as a possible trigger for the onset of the Younger Dryas cooling period, which began abruptly ~12.9 ka. 11 different sediment samples were collected in this study from 3 sites along an exposed streambed in Stony Brook, NY. The results obtained correlate well those previously found in other studies. Bimodal grain size distributions existed in 9 of the 11 samples with primary modes in the fine-medium silt range (8-40 um) and a secondary mode in the medium sand range (250400 um). Pebbles with diameters up to 5cm were also found within samples of loess. The data was obtained using very replicable methods and further research into the topic should be considered. While the data obtained within this study does not prove an impact theory, it does support the hypothesis that a tremendous shockwave produced by an extraterrestrial collision disturbed and resorted sediments on Long Island ~13 ka. Introduction The purpose of the research described in this paper is to determine whether bimodal grain size distributions in the 10-30 and 300-400 micrometer range existed in loess and glacial sediments on Long Island. Soil samples were taken from a well-exposed streambed on the campus of Stony Brook University in Stony Brook, New York. The stream site provided accessible and well-defined sections of loess, glacial till, and glacial outwash, all of which were sampled. This study also sought to discover whether or not pebbles existed within the loess layer and provide possible explanations for this occurrence. Previous research on this topic is limited, especially on Long Island, providing little data to compare results to. However Olaofe (2012) and Zhong (2000) conducted similar research on glacial sediments on Long Island and displayed that bimodal grain size distributions existed within their samples. These modes were consistently in the fine-medium silt and mediumcoarse sand size ranges. Olaofe (2013) also describes the unusual poor sorting of glacial sediment on Long Island, where coarser sediments, including pebbles, exists within the loess. If the loess were a true, undisturbed eolian sediment layer one would expect a well sorted grading from coarse to finer sediments. That is not observed on Long Island. Kay (1931) describes and provides possible evidence for a distinct pebble band on the surface of the Iowan till in northeastern Iowa, similar to what we observe on Long Island. Kay (1931) believes the pebble band is either residual coarse material from the Iowan till that was quickly weathered or eroded material from the till that had been broken down over a longer period of time. Neither explanation seems plausible, however, as violent windstorms during the period immediately following deposition would have covered the till with finer sediments. It also does not address why such poorly sorted coarse material is found mixed within a layer that should either be outwash or loess. Leverett (1932) also describes this pebble layer on the Iowan till in Minnesota, determining that; the pebbly concentrate on Iowan drift prior to deposition of the Peorian loess was a hasty process requiring a negligible amount of time, an assumption that is open to serious question (Leverett, 1932). At this period of time an impact theory was not documented as a possible cause for the pebble layer. Firestone et al. (2007) provide the first evidence of several low-density


Mammalian cells contain three closely related heterochromatin protein 1 (HP1) isoforms, HP1α, β and γ, which, by analogy to their unique counterpart in Schizosaccharomyces pombe, have been implicated in gene silencing, genome stability and chromosome segregation. However, the individual importance of each isoform during normal cell cycle and disease has remained an unresolved issue. Here, we reveal that HP1α shows a proliferation‐dependent regulation, which neither HP1β nor γ display. During transient cell cycle exit, the HP1α mRNA and protein levels diminish. Transient depletion of HP1α, but not HP1β or γ, in tumoural and primary human cells leads to defects in chromosome segregation. Notably, analysis of an annotated collection of samples derived from carcinomas reveals an overexpression of HP1α mRNA and protein, which correlates with clinical data and disease outcome. Our results unveil a specific expression pattern for the HP1α isoform, suggesting a unique function related to cell division and tumour growth. The overexpression of HP1α constitutes a new example of a potential epigenetic contribution to tumourigenesis that is of clinical interest for cancer prognosis.


ABSTRACT Despite a rapid proliferation of conflict-sensitivity approaches and tools over more than two decades, a key question is largely unanswered: Why does conflict sensitivity remain a resisted concept in post-conflict peacebuilding? Regardless of socio-political contexts of armed-conflict termination, authorities in post-conflict countries, such as Nepal and Sri Lanka, often deny the existence of conflict, despite situations in which social division and polarisation continue to threaten peace and stability. This conflict denialism at the political level often engenders a type of conflict-sensitivity dilemma. This article highlights two types of conflict-sensitivity dilemma: operational dilemma and thematic dilemma. It argues that implementing conflict sensitivity requires peacebuilding and development actors to overcome these dilemmas and enhance their engagement with political elites, with consideration of the political settlement framework that shapes peacebuilding and the dynamics of conflict denialism.


A Nano-tip as a cold field emitter for inducing a field emission current has manufactured in many ways. In the paper, the electrochemical etching method is used. Thus, in order to optimize the final shape as the field emitter, the reliable fabrication system for electrochemical etching was constructed. In addition, the effective parameters such as applied voltage, submerged length, meniscus height, electrolyte concentration and environmental condition(vibration, humidity, cut-off time) have investigated in detail. By controlling the parameters, reliable tungsten tip for field emitter was fabricated. And the fabricated tungsten tip was evaluated optically. Finally, the very sharp apex of the tungsten tip was observed with scanning electron microscope.


This paper deals with master-slave robust H 1 synchronization of identical chaotic systems with the disturbance and time-delay via state feedback control, but the uncertain disturbance of the slave system is different from the master system. The sufficient conditions for achieving synchronization of two chaotic systems are derived on the basis of the Lyapunov theory and the linear matrix inequality technique, which is not only to guarantee the asymptotic synchronization but also to attenuate the effects of the perturbation on the overall error system to a prescribed level. Finally, an illustrative numerical simulation is also given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme


Abstract : The purpose of this paper is to survey, from an historical perspective, how technological considerations have figured in Soviet political choices. The paper focuses on two specific issues: (1) Soviet interpretations of the technological and military competition with the West, and (2) Soviet attitudes toward the utilization of Western technology.


Numerical simulations were conducted to examine the effect of episodic rainfall on nearshore groundwater dynamics in a tidally influenced unconfined coastal aquifer, with a focus on both long‐term (yearly) and short‐term (daily) behavior of submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) and seawater intrusion (SWI). The results showed nonlinear interactions among the processes driven by rainfall, tides, and density gradients. Rainfall‐induced infiltration increased the yearly averaged fresh groundwater discharge to the ocean but reduced the extents of the saltwater wedge and upper saline plume as well as the total rate of seawater circulation through both zones. Overall, the net effect of the interactions led to an increase of the SGD. The nearshore groundwater responded to individual rainfall events in a delayed and cumulative fashion, as evident in the variations of daily averaged SGD and salt stored in the saltwater wedge (quantifying the extent of SWI). A generalized linear model (GLM) along with a Gamma distribution function was developed to describe the delayed and prolonged effect of rainfall events on short‐term groundwater behavior. This model validated with results of daily averaged SGD and SWI from the simulations of groundwater and solute transport using independent rainfall data sets, performed well in predicting the behavior of the nearshore groundwater system under the combined influence of episodic rainfall, tides, and density gradients. The findings and developed GLM form a basis for evaluating and predicting SGD, SWI, and associated mass fluxes from unconfined coastal aquifers under natural conditions, including episodic rainfall.


A thesis and supporting creative work submitted in partial fulfilment of the
requirements of the University of Wolverhampton for the degree of Doctor of
Philosophy.


Abstract The poems published and studied here - most of them for the first time - represent literary tastes of East Syriac educated circles of the Ottoman period. These text collections appeared as later additions in the manuscripts written by ʿAbdīšōʿ of Gāzartā, the Uniate East Syriac Church poet and the second patriarch (1555-1570). These small texts, usually having very little or even nothing to do with the main manuscript text, represent a kind of verse notes made by different pilgrims, and reflect popular poetic tastes of the period. Short poems, especially quatrains, are an ideal form for such poetic activities. Judging from their great number, the spread of short poems was constantly increasing since the time the Syriac Renaissance, when they were first borrowed from Arabic and Persian poetry. Apparently, the multi-lingual poems of the Mongol period (second half of the 13th-early 14thcentury) - the heyday of the Syriac tradition in the Islamic period - were treated as appropriate models to portray contemporary cultural life of the multi-lingual Christian communities in the Ottoman Empire.


Family farm succession methods vary considerably due to individual family dynamics. This study uses qualitative research methods to investigate the impacts of farm business structure, division of managerial responsibility, and family decision-making processes on the matter of business transfer from one generation to the next. Interview methods were employed to investigate succession methods in the northern and southern high plains of Texas. Results indicate that succession methods vary across individual families. The method by which the younger generation becomes involved in farming, as well as family dynamics, are found to impact farm succession.


The article deals with the 'spaces of power' in Siena between the 11th and the first decades of the 14th century. In this context, the buildings that represent the "protagonists" of urban developme...


Unstable vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication connections are a vital phenomenon in connected vehicle (CV) environments which lead to the change of communication topologies and delays among electric connected vehicles (ECVs). This paper aims to evaluate the effects of the switching period of communication topology and delay on the dynamic performance and energy consumption of an ECV traffic stream considering the characteristics of car-following (CF) theory. To this end, a communication topology characterization method is developed by using the beacon transmission mechanism, graph theory, and probability theory. Then, a new CF model incorporating the effects of the communication topologies and delays is proposed to capture the interactions under a CV environment. The stability of the proposed model is analyzed by using the perturbation method. Finally, extensive simulations are implemented to be separately discussed by considering the effects of different switching periods of communication topologies and delays.


Degradation of a sonar display may arise due to a variety of forms of unintentional acoustic directional interference such as, for example, ship propeller noise, engine noise, or maritime seismic activity etc. In contrast, and within a military role, interference in the form of acoustic countermeasures (ACMs) may be adopted deliberately as a defensive tactic to evade active sonar tracking. In the literature, for example Coates (1990) and Owsley (1992), it is shown that theoretically, in the context of active sonar analysis, standard adaptive beamforming (ABF) techniques may be used to decrease the effects of countermeasure activity. The difficulty, however, in applying these adaptive beamforming algorithms to real sonar data, stems from inherent practical limitations, particularly in terms of sample estimation errors and suppression of the target signal within the processing frame. In this paper, the performance of two such standard ABF algorithms, namely, minimum variance distortionless response (MVDR) and unbiased adaptive response (UAR), is investigated through their application to real sonar ACM trials data. In light of the practical limitations of such adaptive algorithms, two modifications are presented, to (a) combat the effects of sample estimation error, and (b) circumvent the partial nulling of the target signal.


The invention discloses a current loading method and current loading equipment for current-carrying friction stir welding, which aim to realize the welding by adopting a unique current loading method in a current-carrying-friction stir welding process and introducing current into friction stir welding areas of work pieces to produce endogenous resistance heat and friction stir heat to perform heating and friction plastic deformation on the work pieces. The welding equipment consists of an outer shaft sleeve shoulder (1), a stirring head (2), a stirring needle (3), the welded work pieces, a conductive strip (6), an insulating strip (7), a workbench (8), a conductive ring buckle (9), a cable conductor (10) and a power supply (11). The method and the equipment have the following advantages that: 1, the external current is simply and efficiently loaded into the welded areas to realize the current-carrying friction stir welding; 2, the friction stir welding can be used for conveniently welding structural materials, such as black metals, high-temperature alloys and the like; and 3, the service life of the stirring head is prolonged, and welding efficiency is improved.


Modern distributed systems deployed over wireless ad-hoc networks are inherently dynamic and the issue of designing dependable services which can cope with the high dynamics of these systems is a challenge. Byzantine failure detectors provide an elegant abstraction for implementing Byzantine fault tolerance. However, very few works have been proposed for the new distributed system scenario. This paper presents a model and a protocol able to implement an unreliable Byzantine failure detector adequate for dynamic networks with unknown membership. The protocol has the interesting feature to be time-free, that is, it does not rely on timers to detect omission failures. To the best of our knowledge, the adoption of a time-free Byzantine failure detection is novel and this paper provides a first insight towards the understanding and implementation of such an approach in networks with unknown membership.


An analysis was conducted of 2,167 pedestrian-car crashes reported by the Philadelphia Police Department in 1994. Age, sex, location, type and severity of injury, and neighborhood of victim and driver were taken directly from the police reports. The pedestrian's actions were coded into 43 categories using the description in the police report. The unique aspect of this research is that the distance to the nearest school was measured and included in the database. The impetus to create this database was a politician's demand that School 15 mph flasher signs be installed at the over 500 schools in Philadelphia. Only three schools in Philadelphia had school flashers when these data were collected in 1994. Most schools had School Crossing signs and School 15 mph speed limit signs where appropriate. There were about 600 school crossing guards in 1994. The data indicate that few children are injured by cars near schools during opening, recess, and closing times. More children are injured en route to or from school, but not near the school. A greater number are injured while playing after returning home from school than are injured during the trip to or from school combined. Thus, an implementation of in-school child traffic safety education, installation of new strong yellow-green School Crossing signs, and targeted and advertised enforcement of motor vehicle laws would be better responses to child traffic safety than the wholesale installation of flashing school speed limit signs. The data also confirm that dart-outs, other nonintersection crossings, traffic signals, and playing in the street are the principal crash types for children. Philadelphia has a very high rate of unlicensed, unregistered, and uninsured drivers (estimated at over 40 percent). Enforcement is lax, and the traffic court dismisses most moving violation cases. Children deserve to be made safer 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Flashers cannot do that because only a small percentage of crashes occur near schools during school hours and because flashers are ineffective in reducing speeds and car-pedestrian crashes near schools.


This paper aims at unearthing the social and business repercussions that are associated with application of socio-technical systems theory to broadband at a workplace. A socio-technical environment has inherent unique attributes that any business unit assaying to employ it has to preempt and provide for. This research is focused at such attributes as may not contribute positively to business. These ramifications include potentially enormous social corollaries from IT, complexity of contexts such as matrices of business, services, people, technology history, location, demographics, languages etc, implicitness of knowledge and expertise, socio-technical support, complexity of relationships, open-endedness of implementation process, difference in time scales and indirectness of technological effects. Interviews will be conducted to establish the degree of effect of some of the above mentioned attributes on business and hence propose a solution in a form of framework as a business tool and policy guideline. While socio-technical approach can be adopted for any technological utilization by any organization from micro to macro levels, for the purpose of this paper, research is done in the context of broadband and the delimitation of the research data collection area is South Africa. Apart from coming up with a framework to address the unique socio-technical environmental attributes, this paper will also discuss the principles for implementing socio-technical systems theory as applied to the South African environment.


In medical sciences, to ascertain the origin of a sickness, professionals utilize their expertise and knowledge to analyze a person's symptoms and indications. These symptoms (indicators) are threshold values that health specialists use to determine the cause of the illness by comparing a specific proportion of measurements to where a healthy population would fall. Consequently, diagnostic mistakes occur as a result of inaccuracy and imprecision. This study utilizes machine learning to categorize haemoglobin variations. Specifically, the data set used in this study includes 752 complete blood count laboratory analyses of adult patients aged eighteen and above obtained from Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH). Multiple machine learning methods were utilized for classification from which five of the methods employed were examined and assessed. Comparative analysis was done using the five algorithms (K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN), Support Vector Machine (SVM), Decision Tree (DT), Random Forest (RF), and Naive Bayes (NB)). Contrary to work done by previous researchers, it was observed that the SVM model showed the best classification accuracy of 94.7%, with an F1-score of 94.5%, precision of 94.8%, recall of 94.7%, specificity of 97.3%, and area under curve (AUC) of 99.0%. Among the other models considered, the RF model gave the least accuracy result of 87.4%. The study shows that the support vector machine algorithm outperforms the other classifiers in terms of accuracy when predicting haemoglobin variants given the haematological parameters.


Advocating a customer focus, the Total Quality Management model of leadership has led to success in raising performance levels throughout various manufacturing and service industries. Many education stakeholders, however, are resistant to the notion that postsecondary students benefit from being treated like customers. While many critics oppose the traditional business philosophy that 'the customer is always right' and maintain that pandering to students' short-term demands is damaging to the learning process few studies explore alternative notions of what it means to ensure student satisfaction. This paper promotes a conceptual interpretation that is not governed by the philosophy that 'the customer is always right'.


Objective To investigate the operation time decision for acute intestinal obstruction in the adults. Methods Retrospective analysis was carried out in our hospital from September 2006 to December2012. There were 158 cases of acute intestinal obstruction,in whom 105 patients( 66. 5%) were performed emergency laparotomy. Results 105 patients in this group were confirmed by emergency laparotomy in mean28 hours. Postoperative intestinal fistula occurred in 3 case,in whom 2 patients recovered with conservative treatment,and one died. Conclusion It is the key of the prompt early diagnosis and the accurate surgery decision-making to improve the prognosis and reduce the complication rate for the acute intestinal obstruction.


Data for the exploratory study on web link analysis were extracted using the AltaVista search engine. A sample of 2395 links was selected using proportional-to-size sampling technique while individual link was selected using systematic sampling. The data were analysed using the frequency and percentage distributions. The results of the analyses showed that 73.7% of the links were from the Top Ten African Universities to the Top Ten World Universities; whereas these Ten African Universities received only 26.3% inlinks from the Top Ten World Universities. It was also found that most of the outlinks from the Top Ten African Universities were to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (27.3%) while the highest number of inlinks were from Stanford University (21.8%). The study concludes that African universities showed more interest in linking to the world class universities; a trend that was not reciprocated by the world universities. The low level of links received by the African universities was probably due to the fact that African universities in general have only recently embraced the many features of the World Wide Web. It is recommended that African universities should improve their presence on the web and incorporate ranking in their web relationship with other universities which should significantly be tailored to benefits that could be received from academic activities.


The present invention is a position error detecting apparatus and method for an information storage system using a probe, relates to information tracking apparatus and method for a data storage system using the same, the position error of the probe from the position error detecting apparatus of the read signal by the probe position error decomposition unit for decomposition; Position error summing unit for summing the detected position error as a predetermined unit of time; And it summed, and stores the position error of the previous time unit, characterized in that it comprises a signal processing unit to the position error of the previous time unit and processing the position error signal of the current time unit for generating a position error of the probe. The following information is the scanner device for moving the information storage medium; Reading information from an information storage medium which is moved by the scanner TM probe; To from the read signal by the probe is a predetermined error signal decomposition to decompose the position error of the probe unit of each half-cycle decomposition of the error signal error detector for detecting a position error of the probe; And a compensator for compensating the error detected position characterized in that it comprises. According to the present invention, it is possible to continuously detect the error components for each axis component caused by external disturbances, without the need highly accurate pattern by using a special extraction signal, unlike the conventional information follower principle through the simple control information central position and It can be easily synchronized with the recording / reproducing time, and can easily compensate for the tracking error.


The present study deals with the male female flower ratios and quantitative study of floral parts. Jatropha curcus L. had more male-female flower ratio (21.38±0.47:1) than that of Jatropha gossypifolia L. (20.44±0.15:1). In Jatropha curcus L. the male/female flower ratio in the rachis of the inflorescence varied from 17.50:1.08 to 23.75:1.Whereas, in Jatropha gossypifolia L.,the rachis of the inflorescence showed a range of male/female flower ratio varied from 16.67:0.07 to 23.08:0.83. The male and female flowers of Jatropha curcus L. were bigger than those of Jatropha gossypifolia L. The male and female flowers of Jatropha curcus L. was of same length while the male flower of Jatropha gossypifolia L. was smaller than female flower. The investigation revealed the different in male/female flower ratiosignificantly of Jatropha curcus L. and Jatropha gossypifolia L. which seems tocritical for the improvement of Jatropha seed yield


Context has been recognized as an important factor to consider in personalized Recommender Systems. However, most model-based Collaborative Filtering approaches such as Matrix Factorization do not provide a straightforward way of integrating context information into the model. In this work, we introduce a Collaborative Filtering method based on Tensor Factorization, a generalization of Matrix Factorization that allows for a flexible and generic integration of contextual information by modeling the data as a User-Item-Context N-dimensional tensor instead of the traditional 2D User-Item matrix. In the proposed model, called Multiverse Recommendation, different types of context are considered as additional dimensions in the representation of the data as a tensor. The factorization of this tensor leads to a compact model of the data which can be used to provide context-aware recommendations.
 We provide an algorithm to address the N-dimensional factorization, and show that the Multiverse Recommendation improves upon non-contextual Matrix Factorization up to 30% in terms of the Mean Absolute Error (MAE). We also compare to two state-of-the-art context-aware methods and show that Tensor Factorization consistently outperforms them both in semi-synthetic and real-world data - improvements range from 2.5% to more than 12% depending on the data. Noticeably, our approach outperforms other methods by a wider margin whenever more contextual information is available.


............................................................................. iv Vita Auctoris ......................................................................... vi Acknowledgements ................................................................ vii List of Tables ....................................................................... viii List of Appendices .................................................................. x Chapter One: Introduction ........................................................ 1 Chapter Two: Review of Related Literature ................................. 28 Chapter Three: Methodology ................................................... 55 Chapter Four: Results ........................................................... 86 Chapter Five: Summary and Conclusions ............................... 104 References ...................................................................... 152 Appendices ....................................................................... 164


The present investigations entitled "Effect of Fertigation on Granulation in Kinnow mandarin" was carried out in the Horticultural Garden, Bihar Agricultural University, Sabour, Bhagalpur during the year 2016-2018. The experiment was laid down in Randomized Block Design with 5 treatments and 4 replications. The study comprises of one experiment in which Kinnow trees under investigation were subjected to different level of fertigation, viz. T1120% of RDF as fertigation; T2100% of RDF as fertigation; T380% of RDF as fertigation; T460% of RDF as fertigation; T5100% of RDF as soil application and fruit samples were harvested monthly starting from the month September till December for analysis. The results revealed that the degree of granulation found maximum (1.75 %) in 60% RDF as fertigation (T4) which is at par with T3 and minimum degree in 120 % of RDF as fertigation. Enzymatic activity linked to granulation as like diastase activity was recorded highest (24.80 mol/min.) in 100% RDF as fertigation and lowest (16.81mol/min) in 60% RDF as fertigation and with advancement in fruit ripening diastase activity decreases. However, for the pectin esterase activity, there was non significant effect of the different ferigation treatments and its value decreases as fruit undergoes maturation.


AbstractThis paper presents new models for computing the chloride-induced corrosion period based on combining Monte Carlo simulation and statistical analysis methods. The study is divided into two ...


The erratic bits phenomenon has been extensively characterized in the last decade due to its massive burden on the performance and reliability of Flash memory devices. From a statistical standpoint, it has been possible to describe a Markov-chain-based model of this phenomenon in large arrays suitable for Monte Carlo simulation. This model, however, is based on the assumption of complete independence of the probabilistic parameters characterizing each erratic bit from the testing temperature. The goal of this letter is to provide, through the electrical characterization of nor Flash arrays, the statistical tools necessary to perform a correct simulation of the erratic bits under different temperature conditions.


Markov Chain Monte Carlo methods are statistical tools that have been recently proposed for the resolution of the MEG inverse problem [1]. Their main advantages are easy incorporation of a priori knowledge, and an adequate response to the ambiguity of the ill-posed MEG inverse problem. However, since simpler MCMC schemes might have difficulties in escaping from local modes, adequate research is needed to assess the most efficient MCMC algorithms for the resolution of the MEG inverse problem [2,3]. We present here both our results concerning MCMC scheme comparison, and the imaging tools we have developed for source computation and display. We first describe the probabilistic MEG model and the MCMC algorithms we have used (Parallel Tempering [4] and Reversible Jump [5]). In a first simulation study with a spherical head model, the combination of these MCMC schemes is shown to be superior to Simulated Annealing, both in accuracy and in its ability to estimate an unknown number of sources. We then apply Parallel Tempering to simulated data in a real head model obtained from MRI data. We describe how the MRI data are automatically processed to extract the brain, so that the source positions can be restricted to the cortex layer. We then compare Parallel Tempering with Simulated Annealing and show that PT exhibits a better robustness to noise level. We then use the 3-dimensional information previously extracted from the MRI images to display the MCMC results with this 3-dimensional morphological information. This further demonstrates how MCMC answers the MEG inverse problem by giving it a probabilistic solution.


Amorphous silicon superlattice structure films were fabricated by the photo-CVD method for the first time; also, the structural, optical and electrical properties of the films were investigated. A comparison of the photoluminescence intensities indicated that low damage to the interface was accomplished by using the photo-CVD method. A new type of solar cell was also developed using a superlattice structure as the p-layer of an a-Si solar cell. A conversion efficiency of 10.5% was obtained for a glass/TCO/p-superlattice structure/in/Metal a-Si solar cell.


To analyse the narrative art of "Silver Pigeon" ,this article starts with the three poetic
concepts——Metaphor, Metonymy and Symbol. The novel displays the excellent narrative
pattern, such as varied narrative perspective, complicated narratorial intrusion and narrative levels. Moreover,a vision on "triangular desire"is beneficial to the further comprehension between the leading characters.


Add (3) and (4) to get the result. If p is a positive constant, then equality holds. In a certain sense, the above is the best possible for strictly positive p. If p is bounded away from zero and bounded above, then p2-fl >1 uniformly, and consequently the smallest eigenvalue X. of problem (1) has limit (r/T)2. The above theorem gives X.i<?X'(T/w)2 and equality holds in the limit. As an example, for p=x, it is known that Xo=9a9/4T3, where ao is the smallest positive zero of J113, the Bessel function of order 1/3. The above theorem implies that Xi?81oh4/167r2T4. In [3, Theorem 2] it is


Architectural, engineering and construction (AEC) industry has large amounts of data, the analysis of which can predict risks such as project delays, project budget overruns, low resource use efficiency, environmental damage, reduced safety, and the like. Research has shown that 98% of construction projects are realized with the contracted budget and deadline exceeded. This paper aims to show the significant potential and possibilities of applying artificial intelligence (AI) in the AEC industry, pointing out the benefits and obstacles faced by the AEC industry during the implementation of AI. The benefits of applying AI in the AEC industry relate to increasing efficiency, reducing costs, increasing productivity, increasing safety, better planning and providing timely and accurate information. The key obstacles that hinder the implementation of AI in practice are high implementation costs, incomplete data, job loss due to automation, mistrust of AI technology, cyber vulnerability, and lack of understanding field of AI.


We propose a security-enhanced communication scheme with time delay signature suppression and phase encryption, by using cascaded random phase modulation for the feedback. Moreover, the low frequency signature is well hidden in the frequency spectrum.


Traditional visual SLAM systems are stable in static environments, but have low accuracy and unstable in dynamic condition, which affects positioning accuracy and mapping effects. To solve this problem, CBAM-SLAM is proposed in this paper which is a semantic SLAM system based on attention module in dynamic environment. First, we integrate the CBAM (Convolutional Block Attention Module) into the feature extraction network of Mask R-CNN to extract key features such as dynamic objects better and enhance the segmentation accuracy of dynamic objects. Subsequently, the masks generated by the improved Mask R-CNN network are input into the SLAM system as prior information. Next, the dynamic feature points are eliminated according to the prior information, and the static feature points are kept to tracking in VSLAM system. Finally, we conduct comparative experiment on the public dataset. The result shows that CBAM-SLAM effectively reduces the error of the real trajectory and the estimated trajectory, improves the accuracy and keep VSLAM system robust especially in high dynamic condition.


Electronic population analyses for selected diatomic molecules of the first row of the periodic table are tabulated. The tentative value of population analyses in relation to accuracy of approximation is discussed briefly.