25 years have passed since the  ̳Brundtland Report' defined sustainability as a possibility to equally meet current and future needs. 15 years later, the author of the definition stated that despite of the fact that the definition does not need to be changed, its understanding bettered off during the interval. 25 years later, the present paper takes an in-depth look at the concept and its practical implications. One of the issues being addressed refers to the pillars of sustainability; their number increased by 25% to include the cultural pillar in addition to the economic, social, and cultural one. Spatial thinking added a new dimension, translating into concepts like ̳sustainable communities' or  ̳self standing village' at the local level, and ̳polycentricity' and  ̳cohesion' at the regional one. Furthermore, practical implications include environmental impact assessment (evolving towards strategic impact assessment), internalization of externalities, ecological restoration, and a new view on conservation, different from the one addressed by the  ̳Zero Growth Strategy'. In addition, the paper discusses several criticism addressed to the concept and its implementation, attempting to reveal their underlying causes. Overall, the critical analysis shows that the attempts to achieve sustainability did not change the concept as much as its understanding. Introduction Twenty five years had passed since WCED published the report titled ―Our common future‖, but referred later as the Brundtland report, after its author (Brundtland, 1987). Approximately fifteen years after, Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland stated in an interview that her definition of sustainability should not change (Bugge and Watters, 2003). However, less than five year later, summing up an international view of development strategies, Steve Bass (2007) concluded that the 1 ―Ion Mincu‖ University of Architecture and Urbanism & National Institute for Research and Development in Constructions, Urbanism and Sustainable Spatial Development URBAN-INCERC, email@example.com; 2 Architect, firstname.lastname@example.com 25 years of sustainability. A critical assessment 176 evidence indicated that development did not turn sustainable. Nevertheless, from a theoretical viewpoint, Dr. Angheluţă Vădineanu (2009) refers to a certain theory of sustainability as a stage in the evolution of systemic ecology. Taking into account these milestones, the present research aims at seeing whether there is any progress in understanding sustainability and what is needed for its implementation. We are merely asking questions rather than answering them. Issues of interest include the pillars and dimensions of sustainability; how did they change over the last quarter of century? What are the new concepts developed in relationship to them? Other questions regard sustainability itself; did its definition change, or at least the understanding of its definition? What is actually needed to achieve sustainable development? What are the driving forces that oppose sustainability? 1. Sustainability: the Concept According to what Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland wrote, sustainability is the ―development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs‖ (Brundtland, 1987). According to what she said fifteen years later, the same definition is still valid today (Bugge and Watters, 2003), even though many authors attempted to redefine it; as a matter of fact, the website at http://www.reds.msh-paris.fr/communication/textes/devdur.htm collects some of the significantly different definitions proposed in the meantime. Their analysis reveals three trends; one is mathematical, suggesting the maintenance of specific indicators below or above some threshold value (Lester and Becky, 1987) or securing their monotonic growth (Beaud, 1994). The second addresses the wellbeing issue (Barbier, 1987), and the last one deals with the resilience of systems (Conway and Barbier, 1986). In addition to the author's understanding, other researchers propose different meanings of sustainability or emphasize some particular sides of it. If the definition did not change, then what else changed? According to Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, the understanding of sustainability bettered off. The question is,  ̳What particular aspect of sustainability needs to be better understood'? The definition focuses on human needs (Norton, 1992); as a matter of fact, the first principle of Rio de Janeiro Declaration stresses out this particular aspect, stating that ―human beings are at the centre of concerns for sustainable development‖ (United Nations, 1992c). Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland is underlining two issues which are now better understood; one is the nature of the pillars and dimensions of sustainability, and the other is their integration. The first issue is discussed extensively in the next chapter, and their integration in the following one. Alexandru-Ionuţ Petrişor, Liliana Petrişor 177 2. Sustainability: Pillars and Dimensions Many authors consider that sustainability has three traditional pillars – economic, social, and environmental (Basiago, 1999; OECD, 2004; Littig and Grießler, 2005; Gibson, 2006; Murphy, 2012). Nevertheless, other authors consider a fourth cultural one, acknowledging its potential for economic growth (Hawkes, 2001). Its recognition was the result of an intense lobby by the United Cities and Local Governments, who officially recognized it in 2010 (United Cities and Local Governments, 2010). Nevertheless, it has addressed been earlier; the Convention on Biological Conservation (United Nations, 1992b) acknowledges the role of traditional cultural practices, by recognizing ―traditional knowledge, innovations and practices relevant to the conservation of biological diversity and the sustainable use of its components‖. Elaborated descriptions are provided by Agenda 21: these people ―developed over many generations a holistic traditional scientific knowledge of their lands, natural resources and environment‖ (United Nations, 1992a). In a more generalizing way, the 2000 CEMAT ―Guiding Principles for Sustainable Spatial Development of the European Continent‖ recognize ―cultural heritage as a factor for development‖ (CEMAT, 2000). For this reason, it needs to be stressed out that the cultural pillar is considered equally important to the traditional ones, even though it has been added later (United Cities and Local Governments, 2010). Some of the dimensions of sustainability overlap with its, economic, social, environmental, and cultural pillars. Nevertheless, a fifth dimension, of equal importance, was added to acknowledge the fact that sustainability occurs in territories of different sizes, corresponding to different administrative divisions (Bottero and Peretti, 2010; Péti, 2012). Because of its importance and relative novelty, spatial sustainability is discussed in a separate chapter. Other dimensions are subor cross-sectors of the main ones; their interference is discussed in the next chapter. Examples include transportation, energy, housing, infrastructure, education, science, ethics, and management. Essentially, the guiding principle is the same, i.e. includes the ability of a system to self-sustain (autarky) after starting up by its own means, but evidence of (sustainable) growth is required in addition to it (Daly, 1990; Tofan, 1999; Curtis, 2003; Müller et al., 2011; McLellan et al., 2012). To simply enumerate few approaches, the Club de la Budapest, founded in 1993, focused on a change of conscience and ethics (László, 2004; Ianoş et al., 2009); others looked for technological solutions (such as the ones promoted by the 1996 issue of Daedalus), considered the environmental impact of megalopolises (Dansereau and Weadock, 1970), or proposed economic, social or political issues or mixed strategies (Petrişor, 2011b). 25 years of sustainability. A critical assessment 178 3. Spatial Sustainability A 2008 proposed definition of spatial sustainability is ―development providing for a territorial balance of satisfying at the same rate the economic, social and environmental needs of present and future generations‖ (Petrişor, 2009). According to Collignon (2009), its aim is to ―ensure the coherence of socioeconomic objectives in relationship with the territory and its ecological and cultural functions, aiming to enhance the quality of present and future generations' life by creating sustainable communities able to manage and use resources efficiently, exploiting the innovative ecological and social potential of the economy and guaranteeing the welfare, environmental protection and social cohesion‖. The spatial dimension has two important functions: (1) balances at different territorial levels cohesion and polycentricity, and (2) results into local  ̳sustainable communities'; at the same time, it is related to  ̳urban regeneration'. In the first case, territorial cohesion is defined as a ―balanced distribution of human activities in a territory‖ (DG Regional Policy, 2004:3). The balance is reached by reducing existing gaps (for example, between urban networks), prevention of territorial imbalances (for example, between regions), through sectoral policies with spatial impact and more coherent regional policies. The active process leading to cohesion is called convergence (van Well, 2006:4). Polycentricity, a ―spatial organization of cities characterized by a functional division of labor, economic and institutional integration, and political co-operation‖ (Nordic Centre for Spatial Development, 2003:3), is given by the morphology of a territory (number of human settlements, their hierarchy and distribution) and relationships (fluxes and cooperation) of these elements (Nordic Centre for Spatial Development, 2005:3). The second report cited distinguishes three levels of polycentricity: macro – the European alternative to the ―Pentagonal‖, mezzo – regional, two or


In Europe, including the United Kingdom, many cardiac laboratories perform coronary angioplasty without having on site facilities for surgery. They use a rapidly accessible surgical unit nearby for back up in the event of occlusion. This system was developed as a pragmatic response to balloon dilatation-a revolutionary change in the treatment of coronary disease that was based on angiography skills and facilities. It seemed a reasonable arrangement because Gruentzig and the pioneers of angioplasty had indicated that back up surgery should be provided within 90-120 minutes. The justification for continuing angioplasty with nearby off site surgery is the results obtained. Richardson et al reported that in Belfast the unit with off site surgery provided revascularisation for patients slightly sooner than the unit with on site surgery.' None of the 12 patients who had off site surgery died. At the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh our operating theatre for cardiac surgery is three miles away from the catheterisation laboratory.2 Of 407 angioplasties carried out up to 1989, seven patients had emergency coronary surgery. One, with a main stem dissection, died after operation. Of the six others, three have good left ventricular function and three have moderate function. All are in New York Heart Association symptom class I or II after surgery. The angioplasty mortality was 0 25%. These results are similar to those of centres with on site surgery.'> In Belfast and in Edinburgh travel in an ambulance, which had resuscitation facilities, did not seem to cause any clinical deterioration. In 1988 two sets of guidelines for carrying out coronary angioplasty were published.78 Both strongly emphasised on site surgery but neither indicated the time limit for surgical back up. I suggest that we should consider a recommended time limit, perhaps of 120 minutes, between final occlusion and revascularisation. Such a limit, irrespective of whether the surgery is on site or off site, would help to maintain good standards in coordinating the scheduling of angioplasty cases with the surgical list and in limiting the time spent on attempts to reopen the occluded artery, and in the surgical unit getting the patient speedily through to reperfusion. More data on survival and myocardial preservation are needed to define an appropriate time limit more precisely. Although a small series reported by Reul et al suggested that infarction could be avoided when operation was performed within 25 minutes of the onset of ischaemia,9 infarction rates of 27% and 44%"'O were found in large angioplasty centres where patients could be transferred directly to an operating theatre. O'Kane et al reported no deaths in 25 patients operated on at a mean of 285 minutes after occlusion." For most angioplasties the selection of cases is similar whether surgical back up is on site or off site. For both, the cardiologist and surgeon must judge that the patient has ventricular function and a coronary anatomy that will in the event of occlusion allow a viable circulation until cardiopulmonary bypass has been started. For very high risk angioplasty, in which occlusion might cause extensive myocardial impairment an aortic balloon pump or a femoral-femoral bypass support system is needed. The numbers of high risk patients treated by angioplasty are growing and such patients should only be treated with off site surgical back up if suitable transport with portable support systems is available and shown to be effective. This proviso also applies when the operating theatre is on site but remote from the cardiac laboratory. The need for surgical back up has been declining.'2 Although occlusion develops in 5% of patients treated by angioplasty our ability to reopen vessels has improved and only 3% need surgical back up while 97% do not. The use of stents, perfusion catheter/balloons, and other devices is likely to reduce the need further. I believe therefore that it is reasonable for experienced cardiac laboratory teams to perform coronary angioplasty using nearby off site operating theatres if back up can be obtained within an appropriate time limit. There are, however, difficult choices to be made about the plans for future facilities. There is much to be said in favour of combining invasive cardiology and cardiac surgery. Interventional cardiology will increase considerably and the choice of treatment will need closer medical and surgical discussion. Back up will be needed for various forms of non-surgical treatment. But should cardiology centralise or cardiac surgery decentralise? Should diagnostic angiography be separated from interventional cardiology? The management of recent onset and unstable angina Western General Hospital, Edinburgh T R D Shaw


Several memory B‐cell subclasses with distinct functions have been described, of which the most effective is the class‐switched (CS) memory B‐cell population. We have previously shown, using virus‐like particles (VLPs), that the proliferative potential of these CS memory B cells is limited and they fail to re‐enter germinal centres (GCs). However, VLP‐specific memory B cells quickly differentiated into secondary plasma cells (PCs) with the virtue of elevated antibody production compared with primary PCs. Whereas the induction of VLP+ memory B cells was strongly dependent on T helper cells, we were wondering whether re‐stimulation of VLP+ memory B cells and their differentiation into secondary PCs would also require T helper cells. Global absence of T helper cells led to strongly impaired memory B cell proliferation and PC differentiation. In contrast, lack of interleukin‐21 receptor‐dependent follicular T helper cells or CD40 ligand signalling strongly affected proliferation of memory B cells, but differentiation into mature secondary PCs exhibiting increased antibody production was essentially normal. This contrasts with primary B‐cell responses, where a strong dependence on CD40 ligand but limited importance of interleukin‐21 receptor was seen. Hence, T helper cell dependence differs between primary and secondary B‐cell responses as well as between memory B‐cell proliferation and PC differentiation.


The authors have measured the effects of added buffer gas on the ionization (MPI) signal of various arene chromium tricarbonyls and Cr(CO)/sub 6/. Using basic gaseous electronics theory and experimental results on ion multiplication behavior in pure buffer gases, they have found the simplest method for quantitative analysis of collisional effects in MPI systems. They have applied this discharge model to the multiphoton ionization signal of chromium compounds as a function of helium, argon, and xenon pressures at a number of wavelengths and ion collection plant voltages. Where simple ion multiplication behavior holds, the measured ion signal is directly proportional to the initial MPI yield. This is of crucial importance for MPI studies where product branching ratios are being determined. When multiplication theory does not model the ion signal pressure dependence, other processes which may influence ion production in the system must be considered.


Scientific performance is often evaluated by bibliometric indicators such as publication counts or citations. But this may neglect other relevant outputs from research units. An optimal evaluation would measure each dimension separately, but this would be costly. Luckily, cluster analyses show that units which specialise in other types of research activities (such as knowledge transfer or education of doctoral students), do not completely ignore publication-related activities. Publication-related outputs can also be disaggregated into quality (measured by citations) and quantity (measured by counts) dimensions. Thus, the performance of research groups can be screened using the Integral Citation (a new bibliometric indicator) which combines the quality and quantity dimensions. Units at the extremes need to be studied in more detail, to avoid measurement biases. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.


Eye movements can be used as a source to predict the user interest behavior in human computer interaction system. Oculomotor Plant Feature (OPF) values are the anatomical components of extra ocular muscles which are responsible for the eye movements. This paper is focusing on extracting the optimized oculomotor plant feature values from the saccadic trajectories generated by the two-Dimensional Oculomotor Plant Mathematical Model (2DOPMM) and selecting the best optimization algorithm to extract the optimized OPF values. The root mean squared error is used to minimize the error between simulated and classified saccadic trajectories and the existing algorithms such as Nelder-mead, levenberg-marquardt and trust-region reflective algorithms are compared to analyze the processing time for the optimization. This project concludes by analyzing results of optimized OPF values and the optimization algorithms used.


com ABSTRACT Background and Objective: Formaldehyde is a chemical substance used in the fixation of histological specimens and cadavers. This study was to see the adverse effect of formalin during regular Labex session in dissecting hall with formalin-fixed specimens/cadavers. Materials and Methods: The study was conducted among 129 medical and dental undergraduates in B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences who had cadaver dissection and practical sessions with 10% formalin-fixed specimen as a compulsory course during their 2 years basic science course. After participants were informed, consent was obtained from each participant; a self-administered semi-structured questionnaire was given to each participant. The experiences were categorized including general feelings, effects on eyes, nostrils, throat and skin. The estimates of duration for relieve of symptoms of effects of formalin were noted. Changes in symptoms were scored as 1 = increased, 2 = no change. The data was collected and entered in SPSS 17.0 (IBM SPSS 17.0 Inc.) and Pearson's Chi-square test was applied to see the level of significance, 95% CI, where P = 0.05. Ethical Clearance was taken as per the guideline of Institutional Ethical Review Board (IERB no. 036/014) of BPKIHS, Dharan, Nepal. Results: Results showed that the contact with formalin caused loss of smell sense and increase of runny nose, eye irritation and sore throat. These changes had direct relation with contact duration. Relation between contact with formalin and the nasal symptoms, eye irritation and sore throat was significant (P < 0.01). Conclusions: Formalin decreases smell sense and increases runny nose and sore throat. People should not have any direct contact with formalin.


Let Tn denote the length of the minimal triangulation of n points chosen independently and uniformly from the unit square. It is proved that Tn/√n converges almost surely to a positive constant. This settles a conjecture of György Turán.


DC offset and high flicker noise are the main problems for the direct conversion CMOS mixer design. A novel even harmonic switching mixer implemented in a standard 0.18 μm CMOS process for applications in 2.45 GHz direct conversion receivers is proposed. The mixer circuit overcomes the problems of DC offset and high flicker noise. It achieves -8.24 dB gain, 5.2 dB DSB noise figure at 100 KHz, 17.25 dBm IIP3 and zero DC power consumption.


The principle of democracy and nomocracy as state in the Constitution 1945 is the embodiment of the state that based o n civil sovereignty and state characteristics that uphold t h e law. Implemention of those two principle s changes the structure of the state that established the Constitutional Court. This institution known as the guardian of democracy of any process of political democatization and legal policy. The consitutional Court plays an important role in maintaining the state constitution (Constitution 1945) . Constitutional Court have an authority to solve dispute elections and general election . T his institution also have a role to judicial review of any statute that not synchronize with the Constitution 1945. Key w ords : Demoratization, Rule of Law, Constitution and Legal Policy


According to Food and Agriculture Organization, Mexico is one of the top five citrus producers in the world. In order to achieve the required quality control to export their products, citrus producers require sorting machines able to classify millions of fruits according to certain characteristics, as their size and color. Computer vision provides image processing tools, as image segmentation, that could be used as first stage in a classification process. Fruit classification must be fast in order to be able to process as much fruits per second as possible. In this paper, an FPGA architecture for image segmentation of orange images based on decision-tree models is proposed. A decision-tree model is proposed as an alternative to global thresholding and adaptive thresholding algorithms. It was observed that in this scenario, global thresholding fails due to the noise produced by the fast moving fruits in a classification line, and adaptive thresholding algorithms are not suitable for real-time applications, because of their high requirements in computing power and memory. A decision-tree model requires less hardware compared to both algorithms. The proposed model can achieve real-time segmentation because it is based on pixel serialization, and not on pixel neighborhood processing. The proposed architecture was implemented in a Spartan-6 FPGA. It runs at 60 fps and attains an accuracy of 97.1% of correct segmented pixels, compared to an offline manual segmentation of the frames.


Experimental teaching is one of the most important procedures in the course of Integrated Circuits Analysis and Design.Taking the experiment of design of D flip-flop as an example,this paper introduces a new method in experimental teaching which can help students to learn the design flow of custom integrated circuits and to use the EDA tools of integrated circuits design expertly so as that they can design the integrated circuits independently when they have finished learning the course.Facts have proved that this new method in experimental teaching is practicable and has brought about well teaching effects.


We lack signs of extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI) despite decades of observation of the universe in the whole electromagnetic spectrum. Could evidence be buried in existing data? To recognize ETI, we first propose criteria for artificiality based on thermodynamics and living systems theory. Then we extrapolate civilizational development to both external and internal growth. Taken together, these two trends lead to an argument that some existing binary stars might actually be ETI. Since these hypothetical beings feed actively on stars, we call them "starivores". We present an independent thermodynamical argument for their existence, with a metabolic interpretation of interacting binary stars. The jury is still out, but the hypothesis is empirically testable with existing astrophysical data. In 1960, Freeman Dyson proposed to search extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI) by looking for infrared radiation emitted by an artificial biosphere covering a star (Dyson 1960). Unfortunately, despite some searches, the results are negative (Jugaku, Noguchi, and Nishimura 1995; Carrigan 2009). We thus lack proof or even indication of ETI, a fundamental gap in our knowledge of the universe. Here I show that building on and extending Dyson's method leads to a new extraterrestrial account of known interacting binary stars. The jury is still out, but the hypothesis is testable with existing empirical data. The Dysonian SETI approach (Dyson 1966; Ćirković 2006; Bradbury, Ćirković, and Dvorsky 2011) opens new research agendas as it discards many implicit assumptions. Here in particular, I do not assume that putative ETIs necessarily use oxygen or carbon; that they live on a planet around a sun like-star or strive on temperatures or magnetic fields we know are suitable for life on Earth (see Sagan 1973, chap. 6; and Feinberg and Shapiro 1980 for debunking of such terrestrial chauvinisms). I also make no assumption regarding their communicative intent, nor that we should limit the search to our galaxy only. Free of these assumptions, we can start to think systematically about life-aswe-don't-know it (Freitas Jr 1981). A common denominator to definitions of life is that it requires a metabolism, a manipulation of matter-energy by a force. But which force? Freitas systematically analyzed four possible metabolisms respectively based on the four fundamental physical forces: nuclear force (chromodynamics), electromagnetism, weak force, and gravitation. Starting with such universal metabolic considerations, it follows that the substrate on which life or complex systems are based needs not to be unique. For


We discuss the consequences of the incorrectness [see the Erratum Phys. Rev. D 49, 1145(E) (1994)] of Cotsakis' paper and add two related remarks. The scope of this Comment is to encourage further research on ``which of the conformally equivalent metrics is the physical one.''


In accordance with the existing problem of lack of protection functions,Sifang Automation Co.developed CSC236D/B inverter motor protection device,which contains frequency differential protection and backup protection.Therefore,it enables the inverter motor protection more accurate and standardized.


The premise underlying this work is that introducing uncertainty considerations into simulation will facilitate risk assessment and that this, in turn, will help to improve designer confidence in simulation. Sources of uncertainty abound in building simulation and must be factored into the solution process. These sources have been identified and useful techniques for quantifying the effects of uncertainties are presented. Two approaches are described: the use of traditional statistical methods, and the use of alternative arithmetical methods. The theory behind these methods and implementation of appropriate methods into an existing simulation program is described. Uncertainty analysis, risk analysis, sensitivity analysis.


This paper aims to explore a set of institutional, organizational, and individual drivers of and barriers to the integration of sustainability into the corporate strategy of a European textile and clothing (T&C) company. The methodology is based on a case study of the exemplar VAUDE, a family-owned sustainable outdoor outfitter company. The results are in accordance with institutional theory and stakeholder theory as a theoretical framework explaining why companies deal with sustainability. The determined drivers depend on coherence at all levels of analysis, i.e., institutional, organizational, and individual. The barriers found are of an institutional and organizational nature only. The findings present significant practical implications for other T&C companies that seek to integrate sustainability into their corporate strategy and for the T&C industry to create a sustainability-friendly environment to drive more companies to become sustainable. It further supports T&C companies in identifying potential barriers, determining how to overcome them, and successfully integrating sustainability into their corporate strategy. To conclude, the results suggest that it only works if sustainability is strongly integrated into the corporate strategy and deeply anchored in all departments and daily tasks of a T&C company.


Transition metal monopnictides belong to the new class of semimetals where the bulk properties are determined by the presence of pairs of nodes with different chirality formed by linear dispersive states in the k-space. Beside the anomaly in the bulk magnetotransport superconductivity is frequently found in some Weyl semimetals. We found signatures of superconductivity in ac and dc magnetization measurements of highly pure and stoichiometric NbP powder. We determined the lower and upper critical field and the Ginzburg-Landau parameter. The relative small superconducting volume fraction is related to either effect of finite grain size and/or surface superconductivity. The last mentioned may originate from either off stoichiometric (Nb-rich) surface layers or a strained surface with different electronic properties. Furthermore the intrinsic normal state susceptibility is determined taking into account a paramagnetic contribution of a few ppm of magnetic impurities.


For a quality controlled application of the percentile sound evaluation index LX , its accuracy, limited by the stochastic level fluctuations, should be quantified. This is achievable by determining first the variance of the partition of the signal amplitude with respect to a fixed level, the expectation value of LX . Then the percentile's spread itself is accessible through the cumulative level distribution. As is still to be done, this paper presents a comprehensible proof of the partition variance formula, which is of fundamental importance for the evaluation of the LX confidence limits. Given a number of crossings within a given measurement time interval the probability that a definite total of the single continuous overshoots, i. e. "crossing up" time intervals occurs, depends as on the stochastic system's crossings up as on its crossings down, and further on the probability density function (p. d. f.) of the crossing number. Above an easily practicable minimum crossing number the p. d. f. of the total crossing time, and so of the partition itself, can be presented explicitly and straightforward in microstatistic terms applying the Central Limit Theorem of Statistics. Then step by step integration of the variance definition equation leads to the already known and applied final result.


At present, the Ministry of Education formulates the training plan for excellent engineers, and advocates cultivating excellent engineers of different levels in engineering colleges. Electronic information engineering(automatic identification technology) based on the national level comprehensive reform pilot project, in the construction process, emphasizes the training of students' practical ability by teaching process. In specific teaching, it changes educational ideas, transforms the old teaching mode and test mode. Driven by the project teaching, regarding the student as the main body, it pays attention to comprehensive training of students' ability, knowledge and quality and cultivates more qualified engineers.


Objective To establish a human biliary proteomic table of bile obtained from gallbladder adenoma patients for the purpose of selecting related markers.Methods Human gallbladder bile samples were obtained from gallbladder adenoma and gallstone patients.After removing the bile salts and lipids,peptide fragments were separated by 2D-HPLC,analysed by MS/ MS,and classified by the aid of the SwissProt database.Results A total of 221 proteins were identified from the bile gathered from a gallbladder adenoma patient,of which 54 were identified basing on two or more peptides.Twelve unique proteins such as cadherin-3 and PHD finger protein 20 may be specially useful for the precancerous gallbladder lesion.Conclusions A human biliary proteomic table of gallbladder adenoma is established.Newly discovered proteins may be chosen as candidate markers,which may serve to lay a foundation for further research on cystic carcinogenesis.


The synthesis of Ge nanocrystals (Ge-nc) prepared by 74Ge+ implantation into fused silica followed by co-implantation of Si+ has been investigated for annealing temperatures varying between 850 and 1150 °C. By limiting the thermal diffusion of Ge, co-implanting Si reduces the Ge desorption and affects the growth of Ge-nc, through a Ge trapping mechanism involving the formation of Ge-Si chemical bonds. This is supported by Raman analysis, providing information regarding the material composition for a large variety of fabrication parameters, as well as high resolution scanning electron microscopy imaging, indicating that the average dimension of the synthesized Ge-nc decreases for increasing doses of co-implanted Si. From the spectral analysis of Raman measurements, a systematic evolution of the Ge-Ge, Ge-Si, and Si-Si bond concentrations is characterized as a function of the co-implantation fluences. Two different regimes are clearly identified for each annealing temperature. The first is associated with a...


Source Citation Hauser AC, Derfler K, Balcke P. Progression of renal insufficiency in analgesic nephropathy: impact of continuous drug abuse. J Clin Epidemiol. 1991 Jan;44:53-6.


Early 20th century,the concept of criticism of Chinese literary criticism,methodology,discourse,activities and other levels of which construction of a modern paradigm of relations between Western and local,traditional and the modern relationship between the independent pursuit of literary criticism and aesthetic awareness of social care relationships,literary criticism own value system and the relationship between literary commercialization,is run through the issues,not only at the majority of critics must face,they are thinking for the world is still worthy of reflection and learn from criticism.


INTRODUCTION High technology applications for example in the semiconductor or the optical industry require positioning systems providing repeatability and uncertainty in the range of nanometers together with x-, ytravel ranges of several hundreds of millimeters. We contribute in this research by investigating the applicability of integrated planar direct drives for the realization of nanopositioningand nanomeasuring machines (NPM/NMM) [1].


This paper presents a case study of a teaching intervention designed to enrich Year 2 students' theory of biology through the introduction of causal mechanisms of inheritance such as the gene and DNA. The researchers worked collaboratively with the classroom teacher to design the intervention based on the students' prior knowledge of living things and inheritance. Methods used to evaluate the intervention included comprehensive pre‐instructional and post‐instructional interviews with all students in the class. Classroom observations were constructed as a reflective diary. Findings indicate that meaningful learning occurred as a result of the intervention for many of the students in the class. For these students, networks of knowledge were developed between their understandings of living and non‐living things, their understandings of inheritance, and concepts of the gene and DNA.


Vipera berus is the only venomous snake living in Belarus. Poison of a viper has a hemorrhagic and necrotizing effect. As a result of the poisoning with these poisons, hemorrhagic hypostases, blood clotting disorders, and destruction of tissues develop, which can lead to multiple organ dysfunction syndrome or even a fatal outcome. It is extremely dangerous when a viper bites a person into the area of the heart or neck. If medical aid is not provided in time, the person may die of suffocation as the edema on the neck will weigh upon the trachea [1, 2]. The article presents the observation of clinical cases of MODS development in children after a viper`s bite and the favorable outcome after performing a course of intensive care at ICU Gomel Regional Clinical Hospital.


Abstract
Yoga is a relaxation technique, breathing and body positioning to increase strength, balance and reduce pain. This is because when doing exercise the body will produce endorphins. This yoga exercise training is carried out in order to reduce menstrual pain in adolescent girls. According to WHO, the incidence of menstrual pain in the world is very large, on average more than 50% of women in every country had their periods. The prevalence of primary dysmenorrhea in Indonesia is quite high (60-70%) and 15% of them experience severe pain, generally occurring in adolescents and adults. This research service aimed to determine the effectiveness before and after yoga training on menstrual pain in adolescent girls at Husada Winaya Pratama Vocational High School (SMK) Pandeglang.


In this paper, we investigate how much information about user activity can be extracted from simple pressure sensors mounted under the legs of a chair. We show that it is possible to detect not only different postures (0.826 accuracy for 5 subjects and 7 classes), but also subtle hand and head related actions like typing and nodding (0.880 accuracy for 5 subjects and 5 classes). Combining features related to postures and such simple actions, we can detect high-level activities such as working on a PC, watching a movie or eating in a continuous, real-life data stream. In a dataset of 105.6 hours recorded from 4 subjects, we achieved 0.783 accuracy for 7 classes. Keywords—ubiquitous computing; smart chair; resistive pres- sure sensor; activity recognition


Information resource could increase technology service value and widen management function. Hospital library information resource construction included paper based literature, database based literature and network based literature. Hospital library was considered to analyze different types of literature and strengthen library cooperation to provide professional and individual service. Patient library construction could be explored to practice reading treatment model.


In this work we studied various aspects of DNA repair in plants, focusing mainly on point mutation repair and its interconnection with double-strand break repair. We were using transgenic point mutation and recombination substrates as a primary tool in our experiments. We have compared two transgenic homologous recombination assays (J3glucuronidaseand luciferase-based), analyzed the sensitivity of DNA repair machinery to ultraviolet radiation and assessed the involvement of AtKu80, Atm and AtXpd repair genes in point mutation repair. Our study revealed the following: the luciferase-based recombination assay is more sensitive then ft-glucuronidase-based; double-strand break repair machinery is sensitive to ultraviolet radiation, which results in increased point mutation formation; chosen DNA repair genes might be impaired in point mutation repair, however further experimentations are needed to confirm this.


This paper illustrates the concept of the dynamic link lisrang and its working reic under Windows environment.It also discusses the ways that establish and call DLL in DELPHI.The function code is drawn on the comparison between the static state call and dyrawic state call.


Taking Landsat remote sensing image as the main data source, the research on land use changes in Panjin City in 2005 to 2015 is made with the support of remote sensing platform and GIS platform in this paper; the range of land use changes and change rate are analyzed through the classification of remote sensing image; the dynamic analysis on land changes is made with the help of transfer matrix of land use type; the quantitative calculation on all kinds of dynamic change features of land changes is made by utilizing mathematical model; and the analysis on driving factors of land changes of image is made at last. The research results show that, in recent ten years, the area of cultivated land in Panjin City decreased, the area of vegetation increased, and meanwhile the area of road increased drastically, the settlement place decreased than ever, and water area changed slightly.


Introduction ETS-VII (Engineering Test Satellite VII) is a NASDA programme designed to test key rendezvous, docking and robotics technologies in space. The Japanese space agency has built, launched and operates this test satellite, equipped with a robotic manipulator and a small subsatellite, to carry out such experiments. In response to a NASDA call for co-operation, ESA proposed two experiments to be conducted on-board ETS-VII. The ESA proposal was accepted with the understanding that NASDA and ESA would jointly co-operate in the development and operation of the two experiments. The ESA rationale for the co-operation There are several reasons why the ESA Technical and Operational Support Directorate has pursued co-operation within the ETS-VII project. Firstly, earlier ESA research and development (R&D) activities have developed several space-robotics technologies to a high level of maturity. Their feasibility has been proven mainly through ground-based demonstrations. However, in-flight demonstrations are essential for full acceptance of these technologies, but are difficult to organise because they are expensive and not readily covered by R&D funding. Consequently, when the ETS-VII project opened its doors to international cooperation, it presented a unique flight-demonstration opportunity.


Summary The last 10-15 years the bacterial decontamination of dried egg albumen powder in the industry has traditionally been performed by hot room storage for several (7-15) days or by heating the powder at 80-90°C for ~24 hours during agitation of a vessel. Either method is time-, energy-, and storage capacity consuming. We have examined the possible use of a fluidised bed as an alternative heat treatment process in order to pasteurise de-carbohydrated egg albumen powder. The fluidised bed process is performed within shorter time and requires less energy. The process parameters studied were temperature (90, 115, 130°C), time (0, 1, 3 h) and air relative humidity levels (~2, ~20%). The resulting bacterial count, egg albumen gel texture and water holding capacity (WHC), and surface hydrophobicity (S0) were analysed. All gel parameters analysed were affected as function of time and temperature in the fluidised bed. This could partly be explained by an increased surface hydrophobicity of the egg albumen proteins contributing in the gel network formation. Furthermore, the high temperature resulted in a sufficient reduction in bacterial count within the applied time-range. When process temperature was held constant and air relative humidity was high the resulting gel texture, WHC and S0 increased significantly.


This paper presents an acquisition, filtering and real-time toll data processing system that provides a base for resolution and generation of studies and models of behavior on highways. Crossing points estimation, speed calculation, study traffic flow, travel time estimation and stopping points can also be provided. The complexity of processing with supplied data volume makes indispensable a less relevant information filtering. This filtering can be done through indicators such as speed or nullity of fields and a performance improvement job in database level using views, materializations, partitioning and parallelism. A web application called MODA has been developed. This application make easier and faster forecasting and Spanish highway maintenance tasks, improving the quality of roads and help to know the reasons for which incidents happens in order to put them a viable solution thanks to studying data and graphics provided. The data model, data extraction and filtering process, the application architecture, the software design and implementation model are described in detail.


Ventral temporal cortex (VTC) is critical for high‐level visual processing such as face and object recognition (Grill‐Spector & Weiner, 2014). Anatomically, VTC is bounded by the occipitotemporal (OTS) and collateral (CoS) sulci, and is also divided into lateral and medial partitions by the mid‐fusiform sulcus (MFS). The MFS is a critical microarchitectonic and functional landmark, in that the MFS identifies (i) cytoarchitectonic transitions among four distinct areas in the fusiform gyrus, (ii) transitions in large‐scale functional maps and (iii) the location of fine‐scale functional regions (Weiner, 2019). Morphologically, the shallowness of the MFS is very stable, while its length is much more variable, ranging from just under 3 millimeters to over 5 centimeters. Nevertheless, it is presently unknown if individual differences in MFS length predict individual differences in perception. To fill this gap in knowledge, we leveraged two previously published datasets of T1‐weighted magnetic resonance images (MRI) for 82 subjects consisting of 39 developmental prosopagnosics (DPs) and 43 typical controls (Dataset 1: 17 DPs (11 females, mean age: 30.9 y) and 18 controls (11 females, mean age: 28.9 y); Dataset 2: 22 DPs (15 females, mean age: 41.9 y) and 25 typical adults (15 females, mean age: 42.3 y; Garrido et al., 2009; Jiahui et al., 2018)). DPs are 2—2.5% of the population who have severe deficits recognizing the faces of familiar people without accompanying insult to the brain (Garrido et al., 2008, 2009; Jiahui et al., 2018; Duchaine and Yovel, 2015; Duchaine and Nakayama, 2005; Corrow et al., 2016). This condition runs in families suggesting a genetic origin. Each participant also participated in a behavioral face recognition test, the Cambridge Face Memory Test (CFMT). We implemented a fourfold analysis approach. First, we reconstructed the cortical surface for all subjects using FreeSurfer. Second, we manually defined the MFS, OTS, and CoS in each hemisphere. Third, for each of three sulci, we compared sulcal length and depth across groups. Fourth, we calculated the correlation between any metric that was different between groups and CFMT score. This approach revealed three main findings. First, the MFS was characteristically shallower in DPs and controls compared to the OTS and CoS (F(2, 480), p<.001) with no difference in depth between groups (F(1, 480), p=.97). Second, the MFS was consistently shorter in DPs compared to controls (F(1, 159), p<.03). Third, MFS length in the right hemisphere predicted CFMT score in controls (r=.34, p<.03), but not DPs (r=−.14, p=.38) in which a longer MFS predicted a higher CFMT score. In conclusion, our results document morphological differences in tertiary sulcal folding between DPs and controls. Since tertiary sulci in VTC emerge around 40–44 weeks in humans (Chi et al., 1977), this provides a developmental origin regarding when these morphological differences between DPs and controls may begin.


India achieved success in the elimination of leprosy (0.95/10000 population) by December 2005.(1) Elimination is not eradication and leprosy cases will continue to present even after the disease has been declared as eliminated. With epidemiological shift from elimination to post-elimination phase, surveillance systems should be strengthened at all levels to ensure that appropriate information on leprosy patients is collected and managed.(2)

Chamrajanagar district had prevalence rate as high as 89/10,000 population at the time of beginning MDT, following which there was a sustained decline in the prevalence. Shifting the case detection strategy post integration, from active case detection to voluntary reporting, has resulted in decreased opportunities for health system and patient contact. In final stages of the battle against this disease, pertinent epidemiological information regarding changes in disease characteristics and distribution is vital to monitor progress of elimination and formulate interventions. Hence, a study was conducted with the following objectives:

To assess the proportion and pattern of deformities among registered leprosy affected individuals in Chamrajanagar district; and

To assess the care needs for disability limitation and rehabilitation among leprosy affected individuals having deformity.


ABSTRACTRemoving near-surface effects in the processing of 3C data is key to exploiting the information provided by converted waves. Particularly for the case of the PS-mode, converted energy travels back to the surface as S-waves. Therefore, S-wave static corrections are needed for the receiver side. This is often done under the assumption of surface consistency. This implies a constant correction for all the traces recorded at a fixed receiver location. However, if the velocity change between the near-surface layer and the medium underneath is gradual, the vertical raypath assumption that supports the surface-consistent approach is no longer valid. This property results in a nonstationary change of the near-surface traveltimes that need to be addressed to properly solve the problem. We have determined how the delays introduced by the presence of very low S-wave velocities in the near surface can introduce raypath-dependent effects. The magnitudes of these delays can be larger than what can be considered...


This paper reviews the findings of research applying self-efficacy theory to athletic performance. The review reveals that although self-efficacy expectancies have been shown to adequately predict sport performance, further research is needed to compare self-efficacy expectancies with other predictors of behavior to determine their relative predictive ability. In addition, physical self-efficacy expectancies can be heightened through a variety of means with subsequent enhancing effects on athletic performance. Although the most powerful source of information about physical self-efficacy appears to be performance accomplishments, more research is needed to compare the relative effectiveness of other sources of self-efficacy information. Methodological problems inherent in the studies, and limitations of employing the self-efficacy construct for sports research, are discussed.


With rich natural resources,Hainan has the regional advantages in tropical agriculture development.However,the resources are not fully utilized.From ecologic point of view,the foundation for the development of tropical agriculture industry and the prominent problems of tropical ecological agriculture development,and principle and feature of ecological agriculture transformation was analyzed.The measures for ecological transformation of tropical agriculture in the back of Hainnan international tourist island was discussed.


Applications and functions of some additives in valve regulated lead acid(VRLA)batteries were reviewed.The principle and three adding methods of additives carbon for elevating utilization rate of electrode materials were introduced;The forming methods of barium plumbate membrane for preventing corrosion of positive electrode grid were analyzed;The effect and principle of additive calcium sulfate for improving the high rate discharge performance of VRLA batteries were reported.


The Stop & Shop Supermarket Co. has its first U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Energy Star certified store. The energy Star label is given to buildings that display superior energy efficiency. Energy Star-certified buildings use about 35% less energy than average buildings. Stop & Shop, along with its sister company Giant of Landover, MD, also has its focus on earning the prestigious designation of Energy Star Leader for its entire portfolio of stores. "By taking proactive steps to improve energy efficiency, Stop & Shop is cutting costs, reducing harmful emissions to the air and setting an example for other companies," said Robert Varney, regional administrator of EPA's New England office. The organization has been working for some time to create environmentally-friendly, energy-efficient stores, according to Jihad Rizkallah, Stop & Shop's vice president of design and engineering. Major efforts to construct such stores began in 1999 with the design of the low-energy Stop & Shop Superstore in Foxboro, Mass., which opened in 2001. Since then, the company has opened 94 stores incorporating many of the concepts tested in the Foxboro store, which continues to be the basis of today's store design. Built in 2005, the Southbury store features many energy-efficient attributes, which have reduced the facility's electrical load by 28% compared to similar stores built in 2000. Examples include skylights over the sales floor that provide natural light during the day and allow for the highly efficient T5 fluorescent lighting system to be dimmed automatically by a energy management system. Store back rooms and office areas are equipped with occupancy sensors, which turn the lights off when these spaces are unoccupied. The refrigeration systems utilize high-efficiency fan motors, variable-speed compressors, low-energy glass doors and non-ozone depleting refrigerant. Heat from the refrigeration system, which would otherwise be wasted, is reclaimed and utilized to heat the sales floor and the water used in the restrooms and prep areas. "While we are delighted to recognize Stop &Shop for its first Energy Star store, we are even more pleased about Stop & Shop's commitment to reduce energy across all their stores. The company has evaluated the energy performance of their entire portfolio of stores and is in the process of completing the final approval steps to be designated as an Energy Star leader reserved only for companies that make organization-wide achievements. Such recognition from EPA is not easy to earn," said Jean Lupinacci, EPA director of Energy Star's commercial and industrial branch.


Transmission loss through single‐layered partitions depends on the superficial specific mass m of the material. A multilayered partition has, at each interface, an impedance jump that improves its transmission loss. Due to these characteristics, multilayered partitions can provide better sound insulation than a single‐layered partition with the same thickness, being much lighter. In this work an experimental setup was built to study the transmission loss of a sample inside a duct. The partition is inserted between two sections of the duct and a pulse is generated at one side. The incident and the transmitted signals are captured by free‐field microphones, and the time domain series, acquired with a two channel digital oscilloscope, provides the transmission loss. The impedance of the materials tested was found experimentally and compared with tables, when available. The experiment was performed in order to evaluate transmission loss in single‐, double‐ and three‐layered partitions. The experimental result...


A reanalysis of several published reports indicates that when community-wide biannual treatment disrupts transmission of new infection, a profound macrofilaricidal effect of ivermectin (Mectizan) occurs that is accelerated for individuals treated 4 times a year (4x/yr). The effect is particularly obvious on adult male worms and suggests that this gender is susceptible to repetitive treatment after transmission has been blocked or greatly reduced as a result of community treatment.


The Menopause: Comprehensive Management, edited by Bernard A. Eskin, 2nd ed, 350 pp, with illus, $36, New York, NY, Macmillan Publishing Co, 1988. Menopause: Physiology and Pharmacology, edited by Daniel R. Mishell, 352 pp, with illus, $60, Chicago, III, Year Book Medical Publishers Inc, 1987. Because of the vast explosion of medical knowledge, certainly in the last 30 to 50 years, I have long since considered it a formidable challenge for a person to single-handedly take on authorship of a book. So I have to acknowledge the courage of the author who has written the tome Perimenopausal and Geriatric Gynecology , which indeed has an attractive cover and a most touching dedication to his parents. The contents, however, I must say, leave much to be desired. First, it is quite unclear to me as to whom it is directed. After rereading the preface, I think it is meant for nongynecologic gerontologists,


It is now well established that genes within the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) somehow affect the production of body odors in several vertebrates, including humans. Here we discuss whether variation in the intensity of body odors may be influenced by the MHC. In order to examine this question, we have to control for MHC-linked odor perception on the smeller's side. Such a control is necessary because the perception of pleasantness and intensity seem to be confounded, and the causalities are still unsolved. It has previously been found that intense odors are scored as less pleasant if the signaler and the receiver are of MHC-dissimilar type, but not if they are of MHC similar type. We argue, and first data suggest, that an effect of the degree of MHC-heterozygosity and odor intensity is likely (MHC-homozygotes may normally smell more intense), while there is currently no strong argument for other possible links between the MHC and body odor intensity.


The establishment of colonial college in British North America was driven by religious purposes as well as the puritans' sense of cultural mission. In order to purify their religion and culture and make knowledge serve their religious beliefs, the puritans established colonial colleges under the extremely difficult conditions at that time, which enabled the traditional educational ideas to take root and sprout in the North American continent, and initiated the precedent of higher education in the United States. British colonial college in North America is the inheritance and development of liberal arts in the west, which forms a unique higher education system in combination with the free soil of America.The establishment, preservation and development of colonial college had a great impact on the formation of the United States and the establishment of the American higher education system.The purpose of this paper is to sort out its formation characteristics, influencing factors and functions in order to reproduce its important historical value.


In this study, an on-orbit radiometric calibration campaign of the GF5-02 AHSI was performed at the RadCalNet Baotou site, based on the automated observation of reflectance and atmospheric parameters of a 300 m × 300 m homogeneous desert area. The consistency of the radiometric calibration coefficients was validated both at the Dunhuang calibration site and the Baotou site. The average relative difference between the calibrated top-of-atmospheric (TOA) radiance and the predicted TOA radiance were less than 7%. The R2 of these two TOA radiances were all higher than 0.99. These results showed that the accuracy of calibration coefficients could meet the requirements of hyperspectral quantification applications. The uncertainty of GF5-02 AHSI radiometric calibration was 6.18%. This study also demonstrated that automated observation data of the Baotou site were reliable for high-frequency radiometric calibration and radiometric performance monitoring of GF5-02 AHSI.


On vertical turning machining center all machining procedures of full laminative stator frame can be finished by only 2 times of positioning and clamping. In this paper,the technics process,clamping method and means to guarantee the accuracy of product dimensions are put forward to discuss.


The importance of software systems and their impact on all sectors of society is undeniable. Furthermore, it is increasing every day as more services get digitized. This necessitates the need for evolution of development and quality processes to deliver reliable software. For reliable software, one of the important criteria is that it should be fault-free. Reliability models are designed to evaluate software reliability and predict faults. Software reliability prediction is always an area of interest in the field of software engineering. Prediction of software reliability can be done using numerous available models but with the inception of computational intelligence techniques, researchers are exploring new techniques such as machine learning, genetic algorithm, deep learning, etc. to develop better prediction models. In the current study, a software reliability prediction model is developed using a deep learning technique over twelve real datasets from different repositories. The results of the proposed model are analyzed and found quite encouraging. The results are also compared with previous studies based on various performance metrics. Keywords—Software reliability; deep learning; performance metrics; prediction; dense neural network; fault prediction


Electric energy consumed by the public lighting represents a significant item in the city public sector energy consumption structure, which includes public buildings, public transportation and public lighting. Public lighting system is one of the most important public utility activities which is under control of local governments, which pay the costs of electricity, as well as maintenance costs. Public lighting affects the quality of life of citizens in cities through, among other things, reduction of traffic accidents by up to 35%, personal safety and reduction of social approaches. Cities and municipalities in Serbia are predominately using sodium and mercury bulbs for public lighting, but have been gradually replacing them with LED bulbs in the recent years. LED technology is a satisfactory, cost-effective solution due to low energy consumption, long service life, reduced investment and maintenance costs. Thus, there is not only a reduction in energy consumption of up to 70%, but also a large reduction in CO2 emissions. The modernization of the public lighting system is, in addition to being a useful means of achieving significant energy savings, also a means of improving the quality of lighting itself. The paper shows how much it is possible to reduce electricity consumption, and thus CO2 emissions, by replacing existing lighting with LED lighting. There are 2530 light bulbs in the public lighting system of the municipality of Priboj. Until recently, mercury high pressure bulbs dominated - there were 1241 of them, compared to 743 sodium ones and 546 LED lamps. After the reconstruction of public lighting, all light bulbs are LED. The paper compares the consumption of electricity for the four months of 2019 and the same four months of 2020. It is shown that electricity consumption for these four months was reduced by an average of 55%, the average reduction in CO2 emissions was 55%, while the reduction in electricity costs was an average of 58%.


The Wendelstein 7-X stellarator experiment is scheduled to complete construction in 2014 and begin operation in 2015. After the first operational phase, the inertially cooled test divertor unit will be replaced with an actively cooled high heat-flux divertor which will enable the device to increase its pulse length and its steady-state plasma performance. Plasma simulations show that the evolution of bootstrap current in certain plasma scenarios produce excessive heat fluxes on the divertor edge elements. It is proposed to place an additional "scraper element" in the ten divertor locations that will capture some of the plasma flux and reduce the heat load on these divertor edge elements. Each scraper element may experience a 500 kW steady-state power load, with localized heat fluxes as high as 20 MW/m2. Computational modeling has also been performed in order to model the thermal and structural integrity of the scraper element. The peak temperature in the CFC, the total pressure drop in the cooling water, and the increase in water temperature must all be examined to stay within specific design limits. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling is performed to examine the flow paths through the multiple monoblock fingers as well as the thermal transfer through the monoblock swirl tube channels. Finite element analysis is integrated into the CFD results in order to ensure the structural integrity of the component.


This is the first of two volumes based on papers presented at a March 1998 conference on "Contemporary Issues in Property Law" organized under the auspices ...


Implant stability is one of the important factors to provide successful osseointegration and is obligatory for the longtermsuccess.. Implant stability can be defined as the absence of clinical mobility, which is also the suggested definition of osseointegration. Primary implant stability at placement is a mechanical phenomenon that is related to the local bone quality and quantity, the type of implant and placement technique used. Secondary implant stability is the increase instability attributable to bone formation and remodeling at the implant/tissue interface and in the surrounding bone. There are many ways in which the implant stability can be evaluated such as Because of the invasive nature of histological analysis, various others methods have been proposed such asdental implant stability tests and radiographs. This review focuses on variousmethods to evaluate implant stability.


1 Birt AR, Hogg GR, Dubé WJ. Multiple fibrofolliculomas with trichodiscomas and acrochordons. Arch Dermatol 1977; 113:1674–7. 2 Toro JR, Glenn G, Duray P et al. Birt–Hogg–Dubé syndrome: a novel marker of kidney neoplasia. Arch Dermatol 1999; 135:1195–202. 3 Nickerson ML, Warren MB, Toro JR et al. Mutations in a novel gene lead to kidney tumors, lung wall defects, and benign tumors of the hair follicle in patients with the Birt–Hogg–Dubé syndrome. Cancer Cell 2002; 2:157–64. 4 Kawasaki H, Sawamura D, Nakazawa H et al. Detection of 1733insC mutations in an Asian family with Birt–Hogg–Dubé syndrome. Br J Dermatol 2005; 152:142–5. 5 Schmidt LS, Nickerson ML, Warren MB et al. Germline BHD-mutation spectrum and phenotype analysis of a large cohort of families with Birt–Hogg–Dubé syndrome. Am J Hum Genet 2005; 76:1023–33. 6 Toro JR, Wei M-H, Glenn GM et al. BHD mutations, clinical and molecular genetic investigations of Birt–Hogg–Dubé syndrome: a new series of 50 families and a review of published reports. J Med Genet 2008; 45:321–31. 7 Pavlovich CP, Grubb RL 3rd, Hurley K et al. Evaluation and management of renal tumors in the Birt–Hogg–Dubé syndrome. J Urol 2005; 173:1482–6. 8 Gunji Y, Akiyoshi T, Sato T et al. Mutations of the Birt Hogg Dubé gene in patients with multiple lung cysts and recurrent pneumothorax. J Med Genet 2007; 44:588–93. 9 Leter EM, Koopmans AK, Gille JJ et al. Birt–Hogg–Dubé syndrome: clinical and genetic studies of 20 families. J Invest Dermatol 2008; 128:45–9. 10 van Steensel MA, Verstraeten VL, Frank J et al. Novel mutations in the BHD gene and absence of loss of heterozygosity in fibrofolliculomas of Birt–Hogg–Dubé patients. J Invest Dermatol 2007; 127:588–93.


Doubts have been expressed about the long-term safety of vasectomy because studies conducted in the USA have claimed that vasectomy is associated with an increased risk of prostate carcinoma (1, 2). Recently, Farley et al. reviewed the epidemiological evidence and concluded that there is only a weak association between vasectomy and subsequent prostate cancer (3). Since weak associations may result from methodological shortcomings, Farley et al. pointed out the need for confirmatory studies, particularly in developing countries, where vasectomy is a widely used method of contraception. They also stated that there are, at present, no grounds for suggesting any change in family planning policies with regard to vasectomy. These apparent contradictions have created undue anxiety, especially in India.


On-the-job training takes the master-apprentice form so that those teachers can have a close observation in the real teaching environment,and deeply understand their guiding teachers ' teaching behaviour and the educational thoughts. This training is done through researching on the lesson and case study to promote those teachers' ability and broaden their professional field of vision,which can solve the problems such as the lack of pertinence in focus training, the irrelevance training theories to practical models,and unawareness of classroom teaching. This training has also played an important role in the variety of rural teacher training models and the expansion of teaching theoretical research in depth and width.


The invention discloses a test system and method for simulating ground loss extension in a shield tunnel vertical section. The system comprises a model test box, a ground loss model, an earth surface load loading device, a transfusion device, an earth center and earth surface displacement measuring device, a soil body displacement path monitoring device; the ground loss model comprises a polyurethane capsule (1); two water conveying ducts are connected on the polyurethane capsule (1); one water conveying duct is used for conveying a water flow into the polyurethane capsule (1), and the other water conveying duct is used for exporting the water flow out of the polyurethane capsule (1); the polyurethane capsule (1) is filled with solid powder capable of being dissolved in water, the solid powder is tightly accumulated in the polyurethane capsule (1) to support the polyurethane capsule (1) to form a ground loss model in an expected shape, the solid powder sodium carbonate capable of being dissolved in water is used to fill the polyurethane capsule, different shapes can be conveniently made, original shapes can be kept unchanged during test, and the method can effectively simulate the ground loss of different shapes and scales.


This report present results of observations of temperature and humidity on two relatively cloudy days in Kuala Lumpur. The results show that first, the city-core is generally warmer and drier than the countryside and large open areas; second, the highest daily temperatures are recorded in the city-core; third, the minimum temperatures everywhere are reached round about 0500-0600 hours and fourth, the physiological temperatures follow closely the patterns of the air temperatures and reach their highest values in the city streets.


Multiplication Semigroups J.M.A.M. van Neerven Centre for Mathematics and Computer Science P.O. Box 4079, 1009 AB Amsterdam, The Netherlands In this paper we characterise the linear operators on a Banach lattice which are generators of multiplication semigroups. The main result is as follows: Suppose A is a positive band preserving operator with D(A) a Riesz subspace which generates a dense ideal. Then −A admits a unique extension to a multiplication semigroup. If D(A) is a dense ideal, then this extension is the closure. We use this to prove the following: if A is a linear operator on E whose domain generates a dense ideal, then A generates a multiplication semigroup if and only if there is a real λ ∈ %(A) such that R(λ,A) = (λ − A)−1 is positive and band preserving. We also study the duality theory of multiplication semigroups. 1980 Mathematics Subject Classification: 47D05, 47B55, 46B30


Eleven students, enrolled in advanced instructional design courses at two universities, engaged in collaborative online discussions and video-conferences for the purposes of extending and enriching course activities and assignments. To determine the impact of our approach, we examined students' perceptions of learning, measures of higher-order learning, as well as perceptions of community. Similar to previous studies, results support the hypothesis that perceptions of community and perceived learning are related. However, evidence of a relationship between perceptions of community and higher-order learning was not found, suggesting that these relationships may be more complex and difficult to discern. Theoretical Framework Over the last few years, the number of postsecondary institutions offering distance education courses has grown tremendously. For example, in 2003, 81% of all institutions of higher education offered at least one fully online or hybrid course (Allen & Seaman, 2003), up 25% from the 2000-2001 figures (National Center for Education Statistics, 2003). Along with this growth in available courses have come dramatic increases in enrollment. In 20002001, total enrollments surpassed the 3 million mark, up nearly 200% from the 1997-98 figures. As the number of online learners has grown, so has the amount of attention given to the importance of establishing a sense of community among students in order to maintain motivation and increase learning (Palloff & Pratt, 1999). According to Rovai (2002b), a classroom community is defined as a "social community of learners who share knowledge, values, and goals" (p. 322) and is comprised of two main components: 1) connectedness— students' feelings of "cohesion, spirit, trust, and interdependence" (p. 325), and 2) learning—students' feelings "regarding the extent to which their learning goals and expectations are satisfied" (p. 325). Garrison, Anderson, and Archer (2001) observed that the community is "extremely valuable, if not essential" (p. 7) to the development of higher-order learning because it provides the social context in which learning occurs. Bielaczyc and Collins (1999) concurred, noting that community creates a culture of learning that can promote the kinds of higher-order learning currently being advocated in the literature (Bransford, 1993; Bransford, Brown, & Cockling, 1999; Newmann, Bryk, & Nagaoka, 2001; Resnick, 1987). According to Pea (1993), the mind rarely works alone. Although the importance of cognition "in solo" is often emphasized in schools, common events in everyday and professional communities highlight the importance of socially-constructed meaning (Dornisch & Land, 2002). According to situated cognition theorists, knowledge isn't located in an individual's mind, but is "embedded" within the specialized relationships that exist among people working together (Badarraco, 1991). According to this theory, learning is seen as a "dialectical process of interaction" among people, the environment, and the cognitive tools people create (such as language) to guide their thinking and action (Wilson & Myers, 1999). Recent research has established a clear link between a sense of classroom community and perceived learning in online learning environments (Picciano, 1998; Rovai, 2002b). For example, Arbaugh (2000) investigated five Internet-based MBA courses and found that students' perceptions of learning were most closely associated with the instructor's emphasis on interaction within the course, ease of interaction, and classroom dynamics. Haythornthwaite, Kazmer, Robins, and Shoemaker (2000) suggested three basic strategies for building this kind of community within online learning environments: (1) promote initial bonding, (2) monitor and support continual participation, and (3) provide multiple means of communication. Over the past several years we have applied these community-building strategies within our online educational courses. While the research described here was conducted within a graduate-level instructional design (ID) course, our findings have implications for other disciplines as well. The purpose of this study, then, was to extend the results of previous research by clarifying the relationships among sense of community, perceived learning, and learning outcomes for students enrolled in a case-based hybrid course. Using "the development of students' higher-order thinking" as the intended learning outcome, we examined changes in students' thinking and problem solving skills during the semester and investigated how these developing skills related to their judgments of perceived learning, as well as their perceptions of community. Methods and Procedures We gathered both quantitative and qualitative data to examine relationships among students' perceived sense of community, perceived learning, and higher-order learning. Students' perceptions of learning and sense of community were measured with self-report survey instruments. Indicators of higher-order learning included changes in the quality of students' bulletin board postings from the beginning to the end of the semester and comparisons between students' preand post-case analyses. Both quantitative (paired t-tests, correlations) and qualitative (constant comparative coding) analysis methods were used to describe and interpret our findings. Course assignments (including students' additional case analyses), discussion board postings, and midand end of course evaluations served as secondary data sources and were used to triangulate survey findings. Participants included 11 graduate students (3 PhD; 8 MS) enrolled in an advanced ID course at a midwestern (n=5) or northwestern (n=6) university during fall 2003. Students ranged in age from 27-52 years (x = 38) and had a broad range of backgrounds, knowledge, and experiences. Throughout the course, students from the 2 universities collaborated in 12 online case discussions via an electronic bulletin board, and in 7 face-to-face discussions via Internet-based videoconferencing. Data Collection and Analysis


Introduction: Blind cave fish are capable of sensing flows and movements of nearby objects even in dark and murky water conditions with the help of array of neuromasts present on their bodies called lateral-lines. Mimicking it, an array of flexible pressure sensor mounted onto an aquatic vehicles enables the detection, identification and tracking of obstacles in underwater and also provides information about the surrounding flows which could help in reducing the vehicle's hydrodynamic drag.


Abstract This paper utilizes the best available quality data from multiple sources to develop consistent surface boundary conditions (SBCs) for mesoscale regional climate model (RCM) applications. The primary SBCs include 1) fields of soil characteristic (bedrock depth, and sand and clay fraction profiles), which for the first time have been consistently introduced to define 3D soil properties; 2) fields of vegetation characteristic fields (land-cover category, and static fractional vegetation cover and varying leaf-plus-stem-area indices) to represent spatial and temporal variations of vegetation with improved data coherence and physical realism; and 3) daily sea surface temperature variations based on the most appropriate data currently available or other value-added alternatives. For each field, multiple data sources are compared to quantify uncertainties for selecting the best one or merged to create a consistent and complete spatial and temporal coverage. The SBCs so developed can be readily incorpor...


The major adhesin of Bordetella pertussis, filamentous haemagglutinin (FHA), is produced and secreted at high levels by the bacterium. Mature FHA derives from a large precursor, FhaB, that undergoes several post‐translational maturations. In this work, we demonstrate by site‐directed mutagenesis that the N‐terminal signal peptide of FHA is composed of 71 amino acids, including a 22‐residue‐long 'N‐terminal extension' sequence. This sequence, although highly conserved in various other secretory proteins, does not appear to play an essential part in FHA secretion, as shown by deletion mutagenesis. The entire N‐terminal signal region of FhaB is removed in the course of secretion by proteolytic cleavage at a site that corresponds to a Lep signal peptidase recognition sequence. After this maturation, the N‐terminal glutamine residue is modified to a pyroglutamate residue. This modification is not crucial for heparin binding, haemagglutination or secretion. Interestingly, however, the modification is absent from Escherichia coli secreted FHA derivatives. In addition, it is dependent in B. pertussis on the presence of all three cysteines contained in the signal peptide of FhaB. These observations suggest that it does not occur spontaneously but perhaps requires a specific enzymatic machinery.


Nonprofit organization has become one of the important driving forces for a national social and economic development. However, faced to resources scarcity, competition is the main ways and means veiwed as the pursuit of organizational goals and mission by nonprofit organization manager. Thus, it begins with competition nature of the exclusively nonprofit market and defing its competitive prerequisite, and uses Poter's Five Forces model to reveal the competitive environment and situation in this market, then analyzes its competitive intensity, which has important significance to guide nonprofits to compete effectively and avoid the inefficiency of competition.


: As a common means of political propaganda in China, slogans effectively convey information in a short and eye-catching form. Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2019, slogans have played a major role in alleviating influence of the epidemic. This paper will explore the language characteristics of China's "anti-epidemic slogan" with the theory of Cooperation Principle and Politeness Principle. At the same time, combined with the current situation of Chinese society, it will analyze the "hardcore slogan", a controversial topic, and comprehensively and objectively state why this is necessar. Therefore, it will be able to emphasize the importance of the Chinese traditional core of culture and grass-root culture to language used in propaganda, while helping the outside world to view China's "hardcore slogan" more objectively.


The nature of the turbulent transport in the edge region of ASDEX Upgrade and JET-ILW deuterium (D) and hydrogen (H) L-mode plasmas is studied using local gyro-kinetic simulations. For both devices the turbulence is found to be dominated by an electron drift-wave destabilized by the high collisionality in the plasma edge and strongly related to the kinetic electron dynamics. The isotope ion mass is found to have an important impact on the edge turbulence. In linear simulations, wider eigenfunctions of the electrostatic potential with a lower isotope mass translate in a lower threshold in the normalized electron temperature gradient and in a higher linear growth rate. In non-linear simulations, higher turbulent transport is predicted with a lower isotope mass. The effect of the isotope mass on the turbulent fluxes is enhanced by electromagnetic effects, which are found to be important in non-linear simulations. Remarkably, when considering all the effects in the non-linear simulations and the experimental uncertainties, the predicted fluxes can reproduce the experimental fluxes and their behavior with the isotope mass.


A description is given of the characters of certain streptococci which in small numbers are sometimes found in the milk of individual cows. Although the organisms possessed high haemolytic activity, they showed no evidence of pathogenic power, either for the cow's udder or for ordinary small laboratory animals. Not only are they different from the streptococci of bovine mastitis, but they are also to be distinguished from streptococci of the Str. pyogenes group which are occasionally found in milk. One of their principal characters is the formation on solid media of minute colonies, consisting of relatively minute cocci, which grow in broth as very short chains. The fifty-eight strains studied could be divided into two groups on biochemical grounds: (a) those fermenting glucose and lactose with production of small amounts of acid, (b) those which ferment mannite and salicin as well. The former are referred to as "low-acid" strains and the latter as Str. infrequens, as they bear a resemblance to the organism given this name in Holman's classification. Fermentation of sorbite and trehalose occurred with streptococci of both groups. The two groups could be distinguished from Str. pyogenes and the ordinary mastitis Streptococcus by direct agglutination. For distinguishing the two groups from each other, agglutinin absorption methods were required. It was then found that the low-acid Streptococcus possessed two antigens of which one only was represented in Str. infrequens.


Taekwondo is a Korean martial art and international sport, and its psychosocial benefits for its trainees have been studied extensively. Significant positive effects of Taekwondo training were found on sociality, character, etiquette, and school life adjustment.


In view of the inadequate information received from physical fitness evaluation,unbalanced development of students' physical fitness and insufficient attention attached to the results of the physical fitness evaluation,the physical fitness early warning system is a warning and analysis system which is developed on the basis of physical fitness evaluation data analysis and health forecast.The system is to analyze the weakening of physical fitness and the serious health crisis which may arise,and by monitoring the related health situation and issuing crisis warning,to psychologically spur students' health crisis awareness and thus to enhance their sense of urgency and crisis in improving physical fitness,and further to encourage active exercise and health self-management.


This paper describes how the estimation of containerized maritime freight demand is of capital importance in supporting tactical and strategic decisions connected to the allocation of private and public resources for the activation of terminal and shipping services and for the construction of port infrastructures. However, the container market by sea is a highly competitive market where private players and investors operate in a worldwide scenario whose decisions at tactical and operative levels are not easily accessible by analysts. Therefore, the use of aggregated data sources provided by consultants and international research institutes is an important element in understanding the described phenomena. This paper specifies a general procedure that allows an aggregate estimation of variables related to containerized maritime freight demand. The procedure has been calibrated and applied to the Mediterranean area in order to estimate the trajectories of the containerized maritime freight demand as expected before the crisis. It was then possible to define the new future trajectories from the elements that are occurring today in the container market. Aggregate estimations of throughput and transshipment refer to year 2006, while forecasts refer to year 2015, on the base of scenarios defined before and after the economic and financial crisis of years 2008-2010.


The low implementation of green building through building certification in Jakarta is responsible for the decreased achievement of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in 2020. This is observed in the energy sector through the efficient use of power in commercial buildings, which is only 37,789 tons (0.72 %) of the 5.26 million tons of CO2e expected in 2030, potentially causing the effects of a climate change-related disaster. In this case, the low prevalence of green buildings is due to the barriers preventing their implementation, with the provision of incentives being a suitable solution regarding its significant influence on rapid development. Therefore, this study aims to determine the influential relationship between barriers, incentives, and the level of green building implementation, to identify the most effective applicable benefits in Jakarta. In this context, path analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM) was used with 101 participants selected from developer/owner institutions, consultants, contractors, and the government experienced in implementing the experimental data of the buildings. These data were subsequently analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The results showed that cost-risk and knowledge-information barrier significantly impacted the level of green building implementation in Jakarta. This led to the recommendation of non-financial incentives as an effective regional benefit, which relevantly affected the level of green building implementation, as well as cost-risk and knowledge-information barriers. These results were expected to assist policymakers and practitioners in formulating effective incentive policies for the implementation of green buildings in Jakarta.


Spectroscopic observations are reported for 23 Luyten Half-Second degenerate star candidates and for 13 Luyten-Palomar common proper-motion pairs containing possible degenerate star components. Twenty-five degenerate stars are identified, 20 of which lack previous spectroscopy. Most of these stars are cool - Luyten color class g or later. One star, LP 77-57, shows broad continuum depressions similar to those in LHS 1126, which Liebert and Dahn attributed to pressure-shifted C2. A second degenerate star, LHS 290, exhibits apparent strong Swan bands which are blueshifted about 75 A. Further observations, including polarimetry and photometry, are required to appraise the spectroscopic peculiarities of these stars. Finally, five cool, sharp-lined DA white dwarfs have been observed to detect lines of metals and to determine line strengths. None of these DAs show signs of Mg b or the G band, and four show no evidence of Ca II K. The attempt to detect Ca MI in the fifth star, G199-71, was inconclusive.


This is a tutorial paper for those who wish to understand what role the Lorentz group plays in studying squeezed states and polarization optics. It is noted first that the basic underlying language of squeezed states of light is the Lorentz group. It is then shown that this basic language can also serve as the basic language of polarization optics. It is pointed out that phase-shift and rotation filters lead to the symmetry of SU(2), while rotation and attenuation filters lead to the symmetry of Sp(2) or SU(1,1) which are familiar to us through squeezed states of light. The combined effects lead to the six-parameter Lorentz group. From this, it is possible to derive a new subgroup having the symmetry as the two-dimensional Euclidean group. Optical filters exhibiting this new symmetry property are discussed in detail.


Full development of the problem of Entirety of the State and variability of its parts requires synthesis of knowledge obtained from philosophy, philosophical anthropology, cultural studies, political science, theory of state and law, sociology, psychology and other sciences. This comprehensive study is only possible within the framework of philosophical anthropology. The category of "entirety" has got significant development in the works of some thinkers (especially Russian) reflecting a combination, a degree of coherence of unity and diversity, integration and autonomy of the components that provide self-preservation and progressive development of social and cultural systems (including states). The entirety of the state is associated with both rational (the division and cooperation of citizens' labour, the need to ensure life safety and activity), as well as with cultural, symbolic and even playful factors.


Many organic materials have been synthesized recently, especially for electronic applications (light emitting diodes, solar cells, etc.), therefore new diagnostic methods and improvement of existing ones are needed for testing these materials. One of methods for charge carrier transport studies is double injection (DoI) current transient technique. It allows to investigate charge carrier mobilities, recombination [1, 2] and trapping features [3] in the disordered materials. This experimental technique is very simple as compared to other methods. If the trapping is not significant (or absent), the sum of charge carrier mobilities (μfast + μslow), the mobility of the slowest carriers and bimolecular recombination coefficient could be determined [4]. In this work we demonstrate new possibilities of DoI technique in the case when trapping cannot be neglected. DoI method was applied to investigate the charge carrier transport in a-Si:H. Because a-Si:H is the well investigated material, we can directly compare the obtained results with the known ones and make conclusion about its applicability. DoI technique was also used in the investigation of the trapping features of new organic materials for bulk heterojunction solar cells [5].


In order to accurately capture the variability of tourism demand, this paper proposed a new decomposition-ensemble framework for forecasting interval-valued time series (ITS) of tourism arrivals. The procedure consists of four main steps: ITS decomposition, determination of the optimal decomposition technique, component ITS forecasting, and ensemble. The investigation revealed the optimal theoretical approach for choosing the decomposition technique in terms of multi-scale complexity. In addition, a comparison was made between the performance of two types of models that predict the upper and lower limits of ITS separately versus simultaneously. Using the weekly ITSs of tourist arrivals to Mount Siguniang, in western China, and Hawaii, USA, during both COVID and non-COVID periods, an empirical study was conducted to illustrate the framework. The results demonstrated that the proposed model exhibits higher predictive accuracy and greater robustness, compared to other models. This indicates the model's effectiveness in forecasting the ITS of tourism demand.


Herpesviruses produce assembly proteins (AP) that act as scaffolding proteins for the assembly of the viral capsids. The products of the assemblin gene, which encodes both maturational protease and AP, have been established for herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV‐1) and human cytomegalovirus (CMV). We cloned an inframe ORF (encoding amino acids 304–605), found within the ORF 33 assemblin gene of VZV, into a yeast expression vector. The 34‐kDa AP was expressed as a fusion protein with the particle‐forming Ty p1 protein, resulting in high‐level production of hybrid AP‐virus‐like particles (AP‐VLPs). When AP‐VLPs were injected into mice and rabbits, antibodies were produced that reacted with, but that did not neutralise, native VZV. Three of four inbred strains of mice immunised with AP‐VLPs produced a VZV‐specific T‐cell response. The mouse and rabbit sera reacted with six bands on native VZV by Western blot analysis. The dominant bands were found at 34 and 38 kDa. Bands were also seen at 66, 63, 41, and 31 kDa. The 38‐kDa protein may represent the mature AP derived from the 41‐kDa precursor AP, itself the release product from the full‐length 66‐kDa assemblin. The 34‐kDa protein probably represents the product of the inframe co‐translational gene within ORF 33 encoding amino acids 304–605. The genetic organisation and proteolytic maturation of VZV assemblin are, therefore, analogous to those of other herpesviruses.J. Med. Virol. 53:332–339, 1997. © 1997 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


The Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerant (PBFT) algorithm is a common consensus algorithm for coalition chain, but it has some problems such as low efficiency, poor scalability and high communication complexity. To solve these problems, this paper proposes a PBFT consensus algorithm based on reward and punishment mechanism (RP-PBFT). Based on the PBFT algorithm, the algorithm rewards and penalises the performance of each node in the consensus process, and divides the nodes into three categories according to their reputation value. The two categories of nodes with high reputation value can participate in the consensus, reduce the scale of nodes participating in the consensus, improve the security and simplify the three-stage consensus to improve the efficiency. The experimental results show that the communication complexity of RP-PBFT algorithm is significantly reduced, the throughput is increased, the delay is reduced, and the system efficiency is improved.


A method of forming a semiconductor device includes providing a substrate in a vacuum processing tool, the substrate having a strained Ge-containing layer on the substrate and a Si-containing layer on the strained Ge-containing layer, maintaining the substrate at a temperature less than 700 DEG C., and exposing the Si-containing layer to oxidation radicals in an UV-assisted oxidation process to form a Si-containing dielectric layer while minimizing oxidation and strain relaxation in the underlying strained Ge-containing layer. A semiconductor device containing a substrate, a strained Ge-containing layer on the substrate, and a Si-containing dielectric layer formed on the strained Ge-containing layer is provided. The semiconductor device can further contain a gate electrode layer on the Si-containing dielectric layer or a high-k layer on the Si-containing dielectric layer and a gate electrode layer on the high-k layer.