As defined in BS EN 350-1 [1], natural durability is 'the inherent resistance of wood to attack by wood destroying organisms'. Eaton and Hale [2] defined natural durability or decay resistance as the ability of the Heartwood of any wood species to resist decay. Normally, natural durability is measured by exposing the wood to biological agents such as termites, beetles, fungi and marine borers (e.g., [3,4]. While the natural durability of Heartwood is important for situations either to be used partially or fully exposed to the weather, sapwood is always regarded as having low natural durability (perishable or non-durable) except if treated. Certain types of timber are noted for their marked resistance to deterioration and are commonly used as untreated material. In contrast, non-durable timbers generally require preservative treatment if they are to be used in exposed conditions, adding significantly to their cost.


With the progress of science and technology, computer information technology has been widely used in various fields in our country. Artificial intelligence computer assisted instruction plays a very important role in enriching the form and means of basketball training. The concepts of artificial intelligence computer aided teaching technology and its main function in the actual basketball training teaching were introduced in this paper. Meanwhile, the content of basketball training and the application of artificial intelligence in basketball training methods were also elaborated. Finally the research results of artificial intelligence computer assisted instruction in basketball training were analyzed by means of a questionnaire survey. The expected goal consists of two aspects. One is to have the basic understanding the current application of artificial intelligence computer assisted teaching technology in China's basketball training. Another one is to find out the existing problems of the technology in basketball training. In this way, we can provide a favorable direction for the future development of the application of artificial intelligence computer assisted instruction as well as enhance the student's enthusiasm for basketball knowledge.


This paper characterises and compares the spatial distribution of air traffic in the US and Europe across the network of airports for both continents for the period 1996 to 2006, using annual airline schedules from the Official Airline Guide databases. Several measures of traffic concentration are presented. By decomposing the overall spatial distribution of traffic, aspects of individual airline behaviour may be measured and contrasted, along with measures of multi-market contact among groups of carriers. European and US airlines are characterised in terms of their network strategies and the extent of network competition that they face.


Using MATLAB software,some white noise excitation signals with different distribution characteristics were produced.Based on commercial program ANSYS,a simply supported beam was excited in the environment and the dynamic response simulation was implemented.According to the structural dynamic response of the beam,modal parameters of the beam was identified using SSI.The analysis of different degree of dispersion of white noise excitation signal and the zero mean error on the modal parameter identification method SSI effects were produced.


Abstract A primary limit to crop production in extended regions of northern Greece is the infertility of acid soils, especially nutrient element unavailability or toxicity. An experiment was conducted to determine under greenhouse conditions which buffer pH method selected in a previous laboratory experiment is best suited to predict the lime requirement (LR) of acid soils which is most appropriate in relation to plant growth and nutrient element uptake of sorghum plants. The lime needs of three naturally occurring acid soils were estimated by three methods: Adams‐Evans (AE), Shoemaker‐McLean‐Pratt single buffer (SMP‐SB), New Woodruff (NWOOD), and the calcium hydroxide [Ca(OH)2] equilibration procedure. Two greenhouse experiments were conducted: (i) Experiment I during the 1996 season with ORESTIAS a sandy loam soil, and (ii) Experiment II during 1997 and 1998 season with XANTHI a loam sandy soil and DRAMA a sandy clay loam soil, respectively. The following results were obtained. Differences were noticed between the soils as well as within the LR methods. The ORESTIAS soil needed 63% more calcium carbonate (CaCO3) than the XANTHI soil and 70% more than DRAMA soil to achieve the target pH. Among the three LR methods, results showed that in two of the three soils the highest LRs were determined by the NWOOD and the lowest by the Ca(OH)2 methods. After six weeks of incubation, no one method gave exactly the needed amounts of CaCO to achieve the target pH, the estimated amounts being mostly higher than tiiat needed except for the DRAMA soil. Among the methods, in general the SMP‐SB method predicted lime rates that raised the soil pH nearest to the target pH and the NWOOD soil seemed to be the more consistent for the three soils. The smallest LRs were predicted by the Ca(OH) method. Based upon plant production and nitrogen (N) uptake in the 1996 season, the shoot yields were significantly higher using the SMP‐SB method and lower with the NWOOD method. Similar results were obtained for the XANTHI and DRAMA soils during the 1997 season. On the contrary in the 1998 season (2nd experimental year), the highest yields were obtained with the NWOOD buffer method. For the 1996 and 1997 seasons, tissue N concentrations were partly significantly higher using the SMP‐SB method. In the 1998 vegetation period, the N concentrations were low and the control plants had significantly higher N contents.


Several applications of VCSEL-based SPA systems are being developed at the Optoelectronic Computing Systems Center (OCSC). These include a crosspoint switch, an FFT processor and an ATM switch. All of these applications are based on 8/spl times/8 VCSEL and detector arrays forming a bi-directional free space optical interconnect between two planes of processors. Two identical optoelectronic modules are placed at the front and back focal planes of a Fourier transform lens. Each module has 64 smart pixels with optical input (detectors) and output (VCSELs), electrical connections to nearest neighbors and a processing element.


"Chiral switching" is generally defined as the marketing of a single-enantiomer (enantiopure) derivative of a racemic drug that has already been approved.1–3 For example, the proton pump inhibitor omeprazole, which received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval in 1989, gave rise to esomeprazole in 2001. A major commercial objective of chiral switching is to extend the effective patent life of a successful product, sometimes characterized as an aspect of "evergreening." Typically, single-enantiomer drugs are also proposed to have improved safety and/or efficacy profiles compared to the corresponding racemic drugs. For a given chiral molecule, pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic properties, as well as pathways of metabolism and clearance, may differ among component stereoisomers.4–6 However, the clinical importance of these differences has been disputed.7 Single-enantiomer drug patents have been targets of litigation and out-of-court settlements, even in cases in which the racemic precursor was not actually marketed.8 In psychopharmacology, enantiopure derivatives of milnacipran, zopiclone, and amphetamine, among others, have been marketed worldwide.4,9,10 Some enantiopure psychotropic drugs, such as armodafinil11 and esketamine,12 may have clinically important pharmacokinetic and/or pharmacodynamic differences from the corresponding racemic mixtures. Benefits of some enantiopure drugs (eg, eszopiclone) relative to racemic mixtures are uncertain.10,13,14 Regardless, newly patented enantiopure drugs are likely to have high dollar costs.


ABSTRACT Objective To identify the food environment healthy eating potential in the authorized food services on the campus of a Brazilian university. Methods This is an observational study carried out between March and April 2014 on a campus of a public university in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The elements of the food environment were evaluated using an audit instrument, containing 86 questions: availability (amount of food services and types of food offered), convenience (days and hours of operation), incentives and barriers to healthy eating (nutrition information, payment strategies and food advertisements). Preparations based on whole grains and fresh or minimally processed products were considered healthy foods; and, preparations with high caloric density, sugar-sweetened beverages, sweets, desserts, cookies, and savory snacks were considered unhealthy food. The questionnaire allowed us to calculate a score for each service, which could range from 0 to 36 points, and indicates the potential for promoting healthy eating in the establishment, with higher scores indicating a greater presence of elements that contribute to healthy eating. The different types of food service facilities were compared based on the scores (p<0.05 for statistical significance). Results Among the establishments evaluated, 24% were snack bars/cafeterias, 26%, restaurants, and 50% offered mixed services. Healthy food items were scarcely available in the establishments (fruits: 24%; vegetables: 20%; brown rice: 15%); while added-sugar beverages (98%), sweets and treats (76%) were widely offered. There was a higher frequency of advertising encouraging consumption of unhealthy items than that aimed at healthy foods (44% vs 30%). In general, the score was 13,2 points (SD=3.3) and the mean score for snack bars/cafeterias (9.3 points) was lower (p<0,05) than that of restaurants and mixed establishments (14,4 points). Conclusion On the campus assessed, the food environment had limited potential for healthy eating, since elements that did not favor healthy food choices were more frequent.


ABSTRACT On the upper Niger, two river sections in Mali and Guinea are affected by family and entrepreneurial seine fishing practices leading to seasonal migration phenomena. Although the physical, cultural, social and political contexts are obviously not the same, the existence of entrepreneurial fishermen, owners of large seines – the joba – in Mali and of a smaller size in Guinea – the jolé – is the result of similar processes in terms of their economic organisation and their exploitation of the river environment. The different practices of fishing with the jolé and joba seine nets are important technical indicators of the degree of cohesion and consultation between fishing villages in the same region. In fact, the study of their practices and the places where they are practised informs us of the state of power relations existing on the river and the management of common aquatic territories.


Charge-transfer (CT) emission energies of adenine-thymine dinucleotide are calculated by two commonly used polarized continuum models (PCM): linearresponse PCM (LR-PCM) and state-specific PCM (SS-PCM). Time-dependent functional theory is used. The SS-PCM method is found to underestimate the CT emission energy relative to the LR-PCM method. The underestimation degree is more significant as the amount of transferred charges is larger. As a result, the SS-PCM method should be used with great caution when dealing with electronic transitions with significant CT characters. AMS subject classifications: 82B21, 82C21,92C45


We analyze the insurgence of black intellectual women's networks in Latin America with  emphasis on their organizational dynamics, besides considering the ongoing identification processes anchored on the idea of Afrodiasporic belonging. We noticed an urgent need to review the scope already consolidated by culture disciplines with regard to studies about networks. Our intention was to promote cross-sectional approaches favoring theoretical frameworks that contemplate the daily traumatic experiences which are recollected as a form of violence. We have also seen how transnational community perspectives are emerging in the debate about black women´s development and culture. It is argued that studies on the African diaspora in Latin America are underrepresented.


The pumping rate dependence of the peak intensity of the individual lasing mode in two-dimensional (2D) active random media is investigated. The results show that these modes have a typical threshold gain behavior and different threshold pumping rates. There exists a certain correspondence between the mode's threshold pumping rate and its lifetime, and the longer the lifetime is, the lower the threshold is.


This study introduces new time-stepping strategies with built-in global error estimators. The new methods propagate the defect along with the numerical solution much like solving for the correction or Zadunaisky's procedure; however, the proposed approach allows for overlapped internal computations and, therefore, represents a generalization of the classical numerical schemes for solving differential equations with global error estimation. The resulting algorithms can be effectively represented as general linear methods. We present a few explicit self-starting schemes akin to Runge-Kutta methods with global error estimation and illustrate the theoretical considerations on several examples.


The lack of organisation on Middle Palaeolithic sites is a very frequent phenomenon, and often restricts spatial studies to mere distribution plans. The author applies to two sites with large excavated surface areas a study method of spatial distribution based upon the frequency of gene ric kinds of artefacts, and a relatio nal analysis calling on a recreated random grid.


Cattle of conserved breeds are more resistant, healthier, and more adaptable to unfavour- able environmental conditions, with less rigid feed requirements. In contrast, cattle of highly productive breeds are more sensitive to deviations in environmental conditions and therefore are assumed to re- quire a wider range of preventive actions. The aim of the study was to present the differences and simi- larities in the use of preventive measures in herds of cattle of conserved and high-yielding breeds. The data for the study were collected by means of an Internet survey. A total of 150 responses from dairy cattle farmers were obtained, from four producer groups. Statistical analysis of the results was per- formed by the chi-squared test. It was concluded from the responses that farmers raising high-yielding breeds more often make use of prophylactic tools such as regular veterinary and zootechnical checks, microclimate measurements, TMR and PMR feeding systems, balancing of feed rations, feed quality testing (especially haylage and maize silage), and use value assessment. However, high-yielding cows had access to pasture much less often than cattle of breeds included in a genetic resources conservation programme. Breeding progress is important in the development of a breeding farm, and therefore farmers should be aware of the value of genetic and cytogenetic testing as additional tools broadening the range of preventive measures that could improve the genetic pool in the dairy cattle population in Poland.


We define for an associative algebra an $A_{\infty}$ category whose objects are automorphisms of this algebra. This construction has some resemblance with Fukaya'a categories related to Floer cohomology.


Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate predictors (stated motivation and reported leisure activities) of health travel as opposed to a control group incorporating all other travel of the Swiss resident population, a well‐matured market.Design/methodology/approach – An a priori segmentation of more than 11,000 trip cases (health travel as opposed to non‐health travel) was chosen as means of methodological concept, and stepwise logistic regressions of 25 types of motivations and 72 types of activities towards group membership served as means of analysis.Findings – There appears to be a mature perception of health travel in the developed Swiss market, comprising rewarding elements of beauty, indulgence, and regeneration combined with demanding elements such as (challenging and stimulating) sports, including mountain biking, hiking, and golf.Originality/value – The paper enhances the still slim body of knowledge on health travel.


A new integrated secondary air device, that is multi-orifices stratification and stagger-arrangement jet secondary air, was put forward to organize upper space combustion based on two main problems of low thermal efficiency and serious smokes emission for traditional layer coal-fired industrial boilers. The new secondary air theory was discussed and the comparative industrial experiments between the coal gasification-smokeless combustion and the traditional hand-fired fashion have been conducted at the same 0.3 t/h vertical hand-fired boiler. It showed that the smoke self-prevention and dust self-control was obviously obtained and smokes discharge could accord with Ⅰ class region given in GWPB3-1999 environmental protection standard under directing burning raw coal. It is rather effective to eliminate black smoke and to decrease dust and NO x emission.


Wilhelm Wadl has given us a social history that is also intellectual in its focus: he dissects the political-social expression of liberalism in Austria from 1867 until 1873 by examining the varied meanings that the concept "liberalism" assumed among its adherents in that period. Wadl's approach to ideas as generational expressions is resonant with the contemporary "relativistic" treatment of concepts and causes within the discipline of history, as well as within other branches of the social sciences and humanities (cf. Richard Harvey Brown, "Positivism, Relativism, and Narrative in the Logic of the Historical Sciences," The American Historical Review, 92(October, 1987): 908920). One of the first theorists on the generationally bound concept, the Austrian physicist Ernst Mach, lived through the liberal era that Wadl dissects, and one may assume Mach learned firsthand the "relativity" that Wadl reintroduces.


A single crystal of L-arginine Hydrobromide Monohydrate (LAHBr) with excellent crystalline perfection was grown by a modified way of unidirectional technique. The criteria behind this modified version were to reduce the temperature gradient of the solution which will enhance the quality of the single crystal. The formation of the crystal was confirmed by calculating lattice parameters from powder x-ray diffraction technique. The quality of the single crystal was analyzed by high-resolution x-ray diffraction which suggests that single crystal was free from grain boundaries and have the value full width half maxima is 9.36 arc second. Owing to high crystallinity, the single crystal was further underwent mechanical analysis using nanoindentation technique. Its structural, as well as physical transformation have been assessed by laser and shock damage threshold techniques. The presence of surface defects was examined by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and it is in tune with the high resolution x-ray diffraction method.


The ancestry of Nanman(南蛮) is not a dog, but a vessel made of calabash. The eatable and useful calabash became the sign of Nanman since Nanman was the first Yan Tribe to grow calabash. When Yandi(炎帝) was defeated by Huangdi(黄帝), the winner made most of the opportunity to prettify himself while belittling his rivals with allegation that Nanman descended from dogs.


Measurements have been made evaluating the switching and conduction characteristics of the first commercially available 600-V MCT (MOS controlled thyristor), the second-generation, 600-V MCT still under development, and a fast commercially N-IGBT (insulated-gate bipolar transistor). The data presented indicate that great strides have been made in improving the electrical performance of the P-MCT in the generation 2 device. Using the fmax curve as a figure of merit, the lower switching losses of the N-IGBT are favorable, under the test conditions used, compared to the generation 1 P-MCT up to approximately 50 A. The lower conduction losses of the MCT become the predominant factor for larger current levels. The generation 2 P-MCT combines the same conduction loss characteristics as its predecessor, with drastic reductions in turn-off switching times and losses. The combined effect gives the generation 2 P-MCT the lowest losses over the whole current and frequency range evaluated. The N-IGBT provides a better safe operating area than either of the P-MCTs, though capacitive snubbers can be employed to improve this situation.<<ETX>>


The present study provides a comparison of an adaptive versus a robust baseline pseudoinverse control allocation method on a 20,110 lb compound helicopter post-actuator failure. Failure scenarios such as locking of the main rotor swashplate actuators and aerosurface actuators are taken into consideration in forward flight. A range of tolerable positions for locked-in-place actuator failures is established for the aircraft at a cruise speed of 150 knots. A full authority model following linear dynamic inversion control architecture is implemented for the nonlinear simulation model. Stability margins, phase delay, bandwidth, and disturbance rejection specifications for the aircraft were evaluated under different actuator failures with adaptive and robust control allocations. Nonlinear simulations are used to examine the benefits and drawbacks of an adaptive and robust control allocation schemes when the aircraft is subjected to different actuator failure at their extreme positions.


This paper presents two sets of the Hamiltonian for checking errors of approximated solutions. The first set can be applied to those problems having any number of independent and dependent variables. This set of the Hamiltonian can effectively indicate the errors of approximated solutions when requiring a high accuracy. The second set of the Hamiltonian has the invariant property when the Lagrangian is not an explicit function of time, even for non-conservative systems. Both sets can be formulated as error indicators to check errors of approximated solutions. Three illustrative examples demonstrate the error analyses of finite element solutions. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


This paper describes a hybrid method to analyze the soil-pile-raft interaction.The piles and the soil between piles are modeled as elastic springs below the raft.The interaction coefficients for pile and soil are based on Mindlin solution and Boussinesq solution to avoid the stress concentration near the pile toe,an integration for stress at pile toe is carried out.Parameters are imported to considering the squeezing effect.The raft is analyzed by Finite Element Method with universal quadrilateral elements which are sufficient to irregular plane shape and thickness.The stiffness matrix of soil - pile - raft system is formed by assembling the soil - pile stiffness matrix to raft' s stiffness matrix. The settlement computation and parameter decision are the same as for the code and suitable to the piles with different lengths and diameters in layered soils.Compared with other typical methods,the rationality and practicability of the proposed method are obvious.


Objective To evaluate diagnostic value of magnifying chromoendoscopy(MCE) and FICE in early gastric cancer.Methods Microstructures of gastric mucosa in 70 patients with gastric erosion were examined using magnifying endoscopy.And the results of histopathological biopsy taken from gastric erosion were regarded as the gold standard.Results The diagnosis rates of intestinal metaplasia,atypical hyperplasia and early gastric cancer by MCE are 96.8% 、 92.6% and 91.7%.Conclusion Early gastric cancer could be accurately and effectively identified under magnifying chromoendoscopy and FICE.


Objectives A notable, although relatively uncommon, finding during feline ovariohysterectomy is the presence of parovarian nodules, located proximal to the ovary, near or within the ovarian vascular bundle. They are usually 2–3 mm in diameter, white-to-tan in color and glandular in appearance. The objective of this study was to either decisively reinforce the existing findings reported in the literature, which suggest that these parovarian nodules are incidental adrenocortical nodules that are clinically and surgically insignificant, or capture any samples that were not ectopic adrenal tissue in order to characterize them histologically. Methods Ninety-one formalin-preserved tissue sections containing parovarian nodules were collected during routine feline elective ovariohysterectomy and evaluated histologically. Results Definitive histologic information was obtained from 73/91 (80.2%) submitted samples. Fifty-two of 73 (71.2%) samples were determined to contain accessory adrenal gland cortex. Twenty of 73 (27.4%) samples were determined to contain residual mesonephric structures. While accessory adrenocortical nodules were found bilaterally in cats of all ages, mesonephric structures were predominantly right-sided, and only found in one cat over the age of 1 year. Ectopic or accessory ovarian tissue was not found in any of the samples. Conclusions and relevance This study adds to the existing body of data which suggest these nodules are incidental structures that do not need to be removed during surgical sterilization. However, further in vivo studies with larger sample sizes and years of follow-up would be required to more definitively prove this theory.


Globalization is shaping new societies, new kinds of communication, intensification of travels, pervasion of media, acceleration of information, at the same time as the news become outdated in few seconds. The rapidity of media exchanges is relentlessly dragging technology, like technology circularly increases the frequency and speed of news. The waves of information will change our attitude of thinking, even the brain mechanisms, forging a new social order. All this imposes new practices of teaching, in general, and in environmental, in particular, correlated to new procedures of teachers' training. The new teachers should be instructed in technology, like they must instruct apprentices, to know the influence of the Web on identifying different appearances of society. There is a need of specialists, suitable for organizing the students, navigation into the ocean of information, at the same time, instructors must protect the youngest from the ultra-infiltration and dominance or pervasion of the Web. The educators' job is progressively complicated, since education occurs yet more outside the school's room in an amazing number of ways. The global world has open windows and open doors: everything (or almost) enters and everything goes out, creating opportunities, but also risks.


The way in which the teaching autonomy is materialized, considered as part of the path traveled by the teaching community on their way to become owners of the disciplinary knowledge and the required pedagogical competencies to practice their role has motivated this paper.  For success, Commercial Education requires the urgent transformation of the teaching role and the development of key competences to promote interdisciplinary integration, academic and administrative leadership and the use of contemporary pedagogies.  The level of awareness reached by the teaching group about the impact of the learning that is promoted within the educational context will allow the empowerment of the knowledge that comes from the relationship between theory and practice-key element for professional autonomy.


An efficient multiplexing method for fiber Bragg grating sensors based on a broadband mode-locked laser source and interferometric interrogation is described. The system has the capability to interrogate several hundred fiber Bragg grating sensors on a single fiber, whilst achieving sub-microstrain resolution over bandwidths greater than 100 kHz. A demonstration system with 8 sensors is presented, which achieves strain resolutions less than 213 nε/Hz1/2 up to 100 Hz.


How can settings realistically put together a long-term, in-depth programme of CPD and not break the bank? Pen Green shows how it can be done. By Annette Rawstrone


Planar microtracking concentrating photovoltaic systems allow higher power generation in area-constrained applications. Maintaining the form factor of traditional solar panels requires a high-accuracy integrated lateral-microtracking system. We constructed a shape memory alloy-based actuator which can translate the microcells between a catadioptric pair of lenslet arrays using a few of the cells offset for feedback. This motorless approach provides a simple mechanical microtracking system with $10~\mu \mathrm {m}$ precision over a 14mm throw powered by $ < 1$ % of the panel-generated power.


Last year I wrote a two-part essay on herpes simplex virus infections. 1z In it, I noted that although herpes has been known for over 2,000 years, it has only recently attracted the attention of medical researchers. But herpes, specifically HSV2, is just one of several sexually transmitted diseases (STDS) whose incidence has recently reached dramatic levels. This "new generation" of STDS, as they are popularly labeled, includes not only genital herpes, but also nongonococcal urethritis (an inflammation of the urethra not due to gonorrhea), pelvic inflammatory disease, candidiasis (a vaginal yeast infection), and trichomoniasis.s.'l Although they have probably existed since antiquity, they are "new" in the sense that modem laboratory techniques to discover their prevalence, method of transmission, and health consequences have only recently been developed.3 By far the most widespread of the new STDS is trichomoniasis. The incidence and virulence of trichomoniasis in men is currently a matter of dispute in the scientific community. But this heretofore little-known disease, still often unreported by public health agencies, s is estimated to occur in over 50 percent of women with abnormal vaginal discharges, ~ or about 20 percent of the female population of the US.' In fact, the Centers for Disease Control estimates that there are three million new cases of trichomoniasis each year, thereby surpassing the incidence of syphilis, gonorrhea, and genital herpes combined. ~ May 17,1982


The wide spread of English as the dominant language in higher education around the world due to the processes of globalization and internationalization, opposed to the emerging trend for 'nationalism' or 'de-globalization', has recently led to new interest in the role of languages other than English in teaching and learning processes. This article investigates the beliefs and attitudes of Russian university students and teachers concerning the value of English language teaching and the language of instruction in ELT to explore their perceptions of ELT in a Russian monolingual university. The participants of this study were 581 students and teachers of two Russian universities. The research questions were approached from a quantitative perspective with the analysis of data obtained from a questionnaire. The main statistically significant findings include the following: the value of ELT, supported by English-medium instruction is high for all groups of respondents; translanguaging practices in ELT with the minimized use of Russian as the mother tongue are a top priority both for the students and the teachers; additional language learning experience makes students more committed to more intensive language studies and increases their confidence in their ability to study non-language subjects in English.


Department of Biology, Yonsei University, Seoul 120-749, KoreaReceived July 4, 2000The biological functions of oligosaccharides in glycopro-teins and glycolipids have been extensively investigated bychemists, biochemists and biologists. The cell-surface oli-gosaccharides are known to contribute to many importantbiological roles including cell-cell communication, cell adhe-sion, cell growth, bacterial and viral infection.


F.B., and M.L. contributed equally but not as first authors. Y.B. contributed to model coding, developed the cut-and-flow and root intercept approaches, and contributed to phenotyping characterizations. C.P. supervised the coding of the HydroRoot model and contributed to data analyses. F


Locality-sensitive hashing (LSH) usually consumes large memory in similarity search, which limits its scalability for large scale applications. In this paper, we propose a novel cluster-based locality-sensitive hashing (CLSH) approach, which extends the conventional LSH framework and aims at indexing and searching large scale high-dimensional datasets. We first utilize a clustering algorithm to partition the raw feature dataset into clusters, and map these clusters to a distributed cluster. Then, LSH method is applied to construct the index for each cluster, and we present two criteria to choose the cluster(s) for further detailed search in order to improve the search quality. This proposed framework comes with following properties. Firstly, CLSH can cope with large scale feature dataset. Secondly, the generated clusters can guide the feature dataset automatical mappings to a distributed cluster. After that, the search time can be reduced a lot by searching on multiple computing nodes. Experiments show that the proposed approach outperforms the existing approaches in terms of efficiency and scalability.


In this study, a push-pull Class B configuration is used to demonstrate the fruitful use of a new proposed power combiner adopted from the previous aperture-coupled differential antenna structure. This structure differs from the previous aperture-coupled technique in that it comprises identical harmonic traps on either side of the aperture, using resonant stubs to form bandstop filters (BSF) whose residual susceptance at fundamental frequency is absorbed into the antenna matching network. The proposed design suppresses harmonic voltages at 2fo and 3fo, whilst also optimising the load line impedance seen by the two amplifiers at the fundamental frequency in odd mode at fo (2.062 GHz). This technique offers advantages of tight integration of a Class B push-pull transmitting amplifier with an aperture fed antenna. It can produce well-shaped output waveform, enhance immunity from common mode interference and reduce the total loss as well as improve the overall efficiency for a wide range of system configurations.


Background—Despite the high prevalence of peripheral artery disease (PAD) in women, risk factors for PAD in women are not well understood. Methods—Gender-specific risk factors for PAD were examined in a prospective cohort study of 1024 patients (184 women and 840 men) with stable coronary artery disease who were recruited between 2000 to 2002. Logistic regression models were used to evaluate associations between traditional and non-traditional risk factors and PAD in both men and women. Results—11% of women and 13% of men were found to have PAD. Women with PAD had a similar prevalence of traditional risk factors (hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and smoking) compared to women without PAD. Women with PAD were significantly more likely to suffer from depression than women without PAD. Men with PAD were more likely to have hypertension, diabetes mellitus, a history of smoking, a worse lipid profile and higher levels of inflammatory biomarkers compared to men without PAD. In a multivariate model, depression was the only significant factor associated with PAD in women while smoking and elevated fibrinogen were independently associated with PAD in men. Conclusions—The current findings suggest gender differences in risk factors for the development of PAD. Further research is needed to understand the role of depression in PAD. Address for Correspondence: S. Marlene Grenon, MDCM, MMSc, FRCSC Department of Surgery, University of California, San Francisco Surgical Services, Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Mail Code 112G 4150 Clement St, San Francisco, CA 94121 phone: (415) 221-4810 fax: (415) 750-6667. CONFLICT OF INTEREST DISCLOSURES None NIH Public Access Author Manuscript J Vasc Surg. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2014 October 16. Published in final edited form as: J Vasc Surg. 2014 August ; 60(2): 396–403. doi:10.1016/j.jvs.2014.02.013. N IH -P A A uhor M anscript N IH -P A A uhor M anscript N IH -P A A uhor M anscript


Psychological research on emotion perception anchors heavily on an object perception analogy. We present static "cues," such as facial expressions, as objects for perceivers to categorize. Yet in the real world, emotions play out as dynamic multidimensional events. Current theoretical approaches and research methods are limited in their ability to capture this complexity. We draw on insights from a predictive coding account of neural activity and a grounded cognition account of concept representation to conceive of emotion perception as a stream of synchronized conceptualizations between two individuals, which is supported and shaped by language. We articulate how this framework can illuminate the fundamental need to study culture, as well as other sources of conceptual variation, in unpacking conceptual synchrony in emotion. We close by suggesting that the conceptual system provides the necessary flexibility to overcome gaps in emotional synchrony.


The functional role of corticosterone (CORT) in regulating migratory hyperphagia and lipogenesis was investigated in an annual migrant, the dark‐eyed junco (Junco hyemalis). Intraperitoneal injections of either dexamethasone (9 μg DXM/500 μL of 5% EtOH in saline,
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\end{document} %). Controls began to increase baseline CORT and mass about 2 wk after photostimulation. DXM‐treated birds maintained low CORT and did not increase mass or CORT until injections ceased, at which time they gained mass at the same rate shown earlier by controls. DXM‐treated birds did not show greater levels of migratory activity despite experiencing an increase in energy intake during the CORT‐inhibited period. Collectively, the results support the migration modulation hypothesis, illustrating how an increase in baseline CORT is needed to support the development of migratory condition. We address the apparent conflict with earlier studies on CORT and migratory food intake and propose a model in which migratory hyperphagia is supported by changes in centrally regulated responses to CORT that can occur even if CORT remains low and lipogenesis is regulated predominantly by peripheral mechanisms that require an increase in baseline CORT.


In nowdays IT field,data base programming has become more and more important.When applied programs are to use these data resources in different contacts, it will be annoying to develope applied programs.The techndogy of ODBC in microshoft will solve this problem.By using ODBC, we can deal with many data bases in the same screen.This article especially discusses the basic points of ODBC and the practical structure of ODBC API and shows the course of using ODBC API function.


Carbonic anhydrase(CA;EC 22.214.171.124)is a zinc-containing metalloenzyme that catalyzes the reversible conversion of CO_2 to bicarbonate. The paper dealed with the activities of carbonic anhydrase of leaves from different plants,different position of same plant,different times of the same position of same plant. The difference of the activies of carbonic anhydrase and extracellular carbonic anhydrase between Orychophragmus violaceus and oilseed rape was also studied,and the relationship between the activities of carbonic anhydrase of leaves and aridity-resistance was investigated. The results of this study offer the theoretical foundation for the study of O.violaceus's adaptiblity to Karst.


The vast majority of the Canarian people do not know of the existence of Tamazight, a language spoken in North Africa in the area known as Tamazgha by the Amazigh people for thousands of years. it was also spoken by the Canarian aborigines in these North African islands. Furthermore, the existence of the Amazigh people, whose language and legacy was similar to that of the Canarian aborigines is also largely unknown. This is one of the main reasons for choosing Tamazight as content to teach / learn in the application developed in this work. Amsawal, which means dialogue in the same language. This work analyzes the creation of a virtual learning environment compatible with mobile devices and desktop environments. It is focused on the use of H5P to generate the interactive educational activities, all integrated in a gamified environment and with social tools. The use of WordPress is essential to fit all the pieces of the puzzle in one application.


Objective
To explore the clinical effect of pediatric occult penis treated with modified Devine surgery.

Methods
Seventy children with concealed penis who underwent surgical treatment in our hospital from January 2015 to September 2016 were retrospectively analyzed. According to the operation method, 35 cases were divided into modified group (treated with modified Devine operation) and conventional group (treated with traditional Devine operation). The operation time, bleeding volume, penile length and complications were compared between the two groups.

Results
The operation time of the modified group was shorter than that of the conventional group(P 0.05). The penis of the modified group and the conventional group before surgery. The difference in length was not statistically significant(P>0.05). The length of penis in the modified group was greater than that in the conventional group(P<0.05). The length of penis extension in the modified group was greater than that in the conventional group(P<0.05). The clinical effect was evaluated after operation. The surgical outcome of the modified group was better than that of the conventional group(P<0.05). The surgical complication rate of the modified group(20.00%) was lower than that of the conventional group (45.71%). The difference was statistically significant(P<0.05).

Conclusions
Pediatric occult penis with improved Devine surgery has the advantage of a positive surgical effect and less complications.

Key words:
Penile Diseases; Surgical Procedures, Operative


In the end of the 4 th Century A.D, Ambrose, Bishop of Milan (374-397 A.D), was one of the authors that used his abilities in the protection of the catholic Christianism and in the elaboration of pertinent behaviors to the catholic Christians, including the clergymen. In this article, I investigate some of the conducts that the Milanese requested from these clergymen. Such analysis has its main document the ambrosian treaty De officiis . I wonder why the author exhorted the public from this work to remain silent and preserve fellowship? For the proposed analysis in this work, I consider that practice and theory are inseparable in the construction of examples of conduct and that this binding was present in the ambrosian work.


Cathodoluminescence and microprobe analyses show that carbonates in Y791198 exhibit complex zoning. Cr-Mn dating suggests formation of carbonates 10 Ma after CAI formation Additional information is contained in the original extended abstract..


Square meshes,hexagonal meshes and honeycomb meshes are three regular planar meshes.Based on the character of the regular planar meshes,we give an optimum total coloring method which made the three kinds of meshes have the smallest total chromatic number.And we get the total chromatic number of square meshes、 honeycomb meshes and hexagonal meshes is equal to the maximum degree of the meshes plus 1,respectively.


This study investigated the optimal cutoff points of three psychological tools for screening psychiatric disorders in women with high‐risk pregnancy.


A 3-dimension constraint surface mechanical model, which can predict the forces and moments of large amplitude liquid sloshing in containers of spacecraft, is developed to solve the coupled problems between liquid sloshing and attitude dynamics of spacecraft. The mechanical model portrays the liquid as a point mass moving on a constraint surface, which is the locus of locations of liquid center of mass when rotating the container slowly. And the Newton-Euler method was used to derive the coupled dynamic equations. The numerical simulation results are in good agreement with the orbit experimental results of the Sloshsat FLEVO satellite launched in 2005.


In this paper, we determined the effect of fiscal deficit on selected macroeconomic variables in Nigeria by specifically evaluating the effect of fiscal deficit on gross domestic product, money supply and inflation. To achieve these objectives, we employed various econometric techniques such as unit root test, Johansen co-integration, granger causality test in which variations in gross domestic product, money supply and inflation were regressed on fiscal deficit and exchange rate using time series data from 1981 to 2015. Secondary data casing the time frame were collected from Central Bank of Nigeria statistical bulletin. The result of the analysis revealed that fiscal deficit has no significant effect on gross domestic product, money supply and inflation in Nigeria. The finding also shows that there is a positive insignificant relationship between fiscal deficit and gross domestic product. This is in line with the Keynesian postulation of the existence of positive relationship between fiscal deficit and macroeconomic variables. Based on the findings, government should allocate and effectively monitor funds sourced as a result of fiscal deficit to providing critical economic infrastructures such as electricity, access road, health, communication among others to reap the benefits associated with fiscal deficit. Monetary policy should be structured in such a way as to compliment fiscal policy so that the level of inflation would be lowered whenever government relies majorly on fiscal deficit as an instrument of fiscal policy. Article visualizations:


Onychocytic matricoma (OCM) is a benign epithelial acanthoma derived from the nail matrix. It is a rare and relatively new disease of the nail first described in 2012, with only 14 cases published in English literature so far. Here, we reported the first two cases of OCM in Taiwan, presenting as longitudinal streaks of nail thickening with yellowish-white discoloration and various amount of splinter hemorrhages. A brief introduction of the pathological characteristics of various subtypes and clinical differential diagnoses were provided through literature review. OCM should be included among the differential diagnoses of longitudinal pachymelanonychia or xantholeucopachyonychia.


We determined the doubly-excited-state resonances of both the singlet and triplet S-wave series of B3+ at energy below the N=2 threshold of B4+ using an accurate Harris-Nesbet variational calculation of electron-B4+ scattering. The widths of many of these resonances were obtained for the first time by us. Graphical presentation of these resonances were also given.


During resonant heating of the plasma particles, anomalous nonlinear absorption of nonresonant waves takes place. The nonlinear dielectric constant method and the Landau method are used to calculate the effect. If the waves or resonant particles are anisotropic, there may be a new type of nonlinear growth of electromagnetic waves (an instability).


In most air cooled data centers the required air for cooling of IT equipment is supplied from a raised floor to server racks through perforated tiles; therefore, an understanding of tile impact on flow features is an essential step for designing an efficient air delivery scheme. In recent years, different approaches have been implemented to increase the efficiency of air delivery through tiles such as the use of directional tiles or adding understructure scoops. In such tiles, the approaching angle of the cross flow to the tile, the angle of approach, becomes very important, since it may result in different velocity stratification patterns. Although many studies have focused on the use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) for predicting tile airflow delivery to the racks, very few controlled experimental results are available. An important factor that has been often ignored in perforated tile modeling is the direction of the flow approaching the tile. In this study, an experimental setup has been designed and built to examine the effects of the direction of the approaching airflow to the tile on the airflow rate and resulting jet of coolant for different types of perforated tiles. In the designed setup, rotating the tile on a horizontal surface changes the angle of approaching airflow. The effect of angle of approach (AoA) on the direction of the jet is visualized by creating a laser sheet and performing airflow smoke visualization tests for four different types of tiles. Visualizations showed that the airflow direction changes significantly with AoA. Furthermore, the velocity distribution of air after the tiles at various AoA are measured, presented, and compared using a vane anemometer and a velocity sensor grid. Finally, the airflow rates for each case is calculated from the measured velocities by a grid of velocity sensors and a vane anemometer, which are then compared with flow rates measured by a commercial flow hood.


Reduction of torque ripple in Brushless DC motors (BLDC) due to phase current commutation is the main focus of this work. The causes for the development of torque ripple are described in detail with necessary equations. It is found that by injecting additional voltage at the time of commutation, torque ripple can be minimized. From the derived equations for phase currents, the magnitude and duration for which the additional voltage that has to be injected is established. A new topology is proposed to supply additional voltage at the time of commutation and thereby reducing the torque ripple at the time of commutation. It is observed that, with the new topology for the same input power, the percentage torque ripple has reduced from 13.71 to 6.5. Furthermore, the new topology gives the benefit of an increased steady state speed and negligible speed ripple.


ICEM members and associates of the German–speaking countries (the Federal Republic of Germany, Austria and German–speaking Switzerland) held a conference in the Institut fur Film und Bild (FWU), Grunwald, in December 1977, in which topical questions on developments in the spheres of software and hardware were discussed. Media producers and educationalists, hardware producers and representatives from printing laboratories met to discuss problems together which are otherwise only dealt with in specialist associations.


The explicit formula for the characteristic function of all-pole lowpass filters with monotonic passband magnitude response is derived. It is shown that the characteristic function of Legendre, Halpern, LSM and other known classes of monotonic magnitude all-pole filters that are synthesized from the magnitude squared function, can be obtained by assigning different values to a variable parameter in the general expression obtained. The approximation method consists of using a weighted least-mean-square norm to minimize the area under the first derivative of the characteristic function.


Zero-trust security is a novel concept to cope with intricate access, which can not be handled by the conventional perimeter-based architecture anymore. The device-to-device continuous authentication protocol is one of the most crucial cornerstones, especially in the IoT scenario. In the zero-trust architecture, trust does not rely on any position, person or device. However, to the best of our knowledge, almost all existing device-to-device continuous authentication relies on a trust authority or a node to generate secret keys or secret values. This is betrayed by the principle of zero-trust architecture. In this paper, we employ the blockchain to eliminate the trusted node. One node is chosen to produce the public parameter and secret keys for two entities through the practical Byzantine fault tolerance consensus mechanism. Additionally, the devices are categorized into three folds: trusted device, suspected device and untrusted device. Only the first two can participate in authentication, and they have different lengths of security parameters and intervals to reach a better balance between security and efficiency. Then we prove the security of the initial authentication part in the eCK model and give an informal analysis of the continuous authentication part. Finally, we implement the proposed protocol on simulated devices. The result illustrates that our scheme is highly efficient, and the continuous authentication only costs around 0.1ms.


In this paper, an analytical formula is introduced to determine the transient voltage distribution in ladder-network representations of a transformer winding or a transmission line following the impact of a step function of voltage at the input terminal of the winding or the line.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the efficacy and safety of compound pseudoephedrine [corrected] hydrochloride (New Contact sustained release capsules) in the treatment of the nasal symptoms associated with common cold or influenza.

METHOD
Open label multi-center clinical trial was adopted: one capsule twice daily with an interval of 12 hours, successively for 4 days to treat the nasal symptoms associated with common cold or influenza.

RESULTS
A total of 416 patients were eligible for efficacy and safety analysis. The cure rates for nasal congestion from day 1 to day 4 were 7%, 31%, 64% and 88%, cumulatively; for runny nose were 9%, 36%, 68% and 89%; for sneezing were 20%, 51%, 76% and 93%, and for watery eyes were 36%, 68%, 89% and 96%, respectively. There were no serious adverse events during the study. Forty adverse events (AE's) with an incidence of 8% were developed in 35 patients. The most frequent AE's were drowsiness (24/416, 6%) and dry mouth (5/416, 1%). All AE's were in mild or moderate degree.

CONCLUSION
The results indicated that New Contact sustained released capsule was effective in controlling the nasal symptoms associated with common cold or influenza and it was well-tolerated.


Crop models are useful for evaluating crop growth and yield at the field and regional scales, but their applications and accuracies are restricted by input data availability and quality. To overcome difficulties inherent to crop modeling, input data can be enhanced by the incorporation of remotely sensed and field observations into crop growth models. This approach has been recognized to be an important way to monitor crop growth conditions and to predict yield at the field and regional scale. In recent years, satellite remote sensing has provided high-temporal and high-spatial-resolution data that allow for generating continuous time series of biophysical parameters such as vegetation indices, leaf area index, and phenology. The objectives of this study were to use remote sensing along with field observations as inputs to the Decision Support System for Agro-Technology (DSSAT) model to estimate soybean and maize growth and yield. The study used phenology and leaf area index (LAI) data derived from Planet Fusion (daily, 3 m) satellite imagery along with field observation data on crop growth stage, LAI and yield collected at the United State Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Beltsville Agricultural Research Center (BARC), Beltsville, Maryland. For maize, a total of 17 treatments (site years) were used (ten treatments for model calibration and seven treatments for validation), while for soybean (maturity groups three and four), a total of 18 treatments were used (nine for calibration and nine for validation). The calibrated model was tested against an independent, multi-location and multi-year set of phenology and yield data (2017–2020) from BARC fields. The model accurately simulated maize and soybean days to flowering and maturity and produced reasonable yield estimates for most fields and years. Model run for independent locations and years produced good results for phenology and yields for both maize and soybean, as indicated by index of agreement (d) values ranging from 0.65 to 0.93 and normalized root-mean-squared error values ranging from 1 to 20%, except for soybean maturity group four. Overall, model performances with respect to phenology and grain yield for maize and soybean were good and consistent with other DSSAT evaluation studies. The inclusion of remote sensing along with field observations in crop-growth model inputs can provide an effective approach for assessing crop conditions, even in regions lacking ground data.


A short echo time (30 milliseconds) MR spectroscopic imaging pulse sequence was implemented for applications of neonatal brain imaging. Multiple spatial saturation bands were used to eliminate strong signals originating from the subcutaneous lipids to enable volumetric region coverage. Metabolite signal intensity-to-noise ratio < or =40 was acquired in 9 minutes of scan time over an 8 x 8 x 8 spatial matrix with 1 cm(3) isoresolution.


Classi cation is a key function of many \business intelligence" toolkits and a fundamental building block in data mining. The best known results indicate that immense data may be needed to train a classi er for good accuracy. The state-of-art classi ers [21, 25] need an in-memory data structure of size O(N), where N is the size of the training data, to achieve e ciency. For large data sets, such a data structure will not t in the internal memory. The best previously known classi er does a quadratic number of I/Os for large N . In this paper, we propose a novel classi cation algorithm (classi er) called MIND (MINing in Databases). MIND can be phrased in such a way that its implementation is very easy using the extended relational calculus SQL, and this in turn allows the classi er to be built into a relational database system directly. MIND is truly scalable with respect to I/O e ciency, which is important since scalability is a key requirement for any data mining algorithm. We built a prototype of MIND in the relational database manager DB2 and benchmarked its performance. We describe the working prototype and report the measured performance with respect to the previous method of choice. MIND scales not only with the size of the datasets but also with the number of processors on an IBM SP2 computer system. Even on uniprocessors, MIND scales well beyond the dataset sizes previously published for classi ers. We also give some insights that may have an impact on the evolution of the extended relational calculus SQL.


Polaron effective mass and radius are investigated by using path integral methods. The calculations are performed in the framework of the variational principle for the free energy. At low temperatures, a generalization of Feynmans expression for the effective mass and an expression for the polaron radius at arbitrary coupling are obtained. It is shown that at low temperatures, the effective mass increases and the radius decreases with increasing temperatures. This behaviour of the effective mass agrees satisfactorily with cyclotron resonance experiments and is easily explained qualitatively.

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In this article, a simple preliminary method called Bounce and Explore Method for solving linear programming problems is presented. To date, several methods for solving this problem have been published besides the widely known simplex
method.


To reflect on the eruption of articles, opinions, blogs and counter-blogs about the Liverpool Care Pathway for the Dying (LCP) and Baroness Neuberger's Review2 feels Sisyphean but necessary. While it is time to move on, in doing so, palliative care must think very deeply about what should change about ourselves. This is not to imply that nothing is being done already, to undermine current initiative where it is to be found, nor to pre-empt the engagement work being undertaken by the Leadership Alliance for the Care of Dying People. (This is an expert group being led by Dr Bee Wee, National Clinical Director of End of Life Care charged by the Minister and National Health Service (NHS) England to respond to Baroness Neuberger's Review of the LCP.) So we intend through hyperbole to catalyse constructive self-examination and criticism. Disagree, of course, but reflect as you do on why that may be. Metaphorically, it has turned out to be a story about elephants, and in the end, also about a horse. Come the 21st century in the United Kingdom, palliative care was almost mainstream from its birth in the hospice movement. Medicine, generally, was beginning also to assert its clumsy footprint with mixed effect. On the positive side, the specialist palliative medicine training programme had produced a healthy and growing crop of consultants, and many hospitals had palliative care teams. Research was also beginning to gain traction as a necessity, not a hobby. On the negative side, the complexity of suffering was seeming to take second place to medical diagnostics and drugs; the means and skills to manage suffering proactively with the necessary sophistication was beginning to wane. Engagement with the meanings of people's distress through early, holistic diagnostics, purposive dialogue and trans-disciplinary working was being overwhelmed, in hospitals at least, by a default to medical diagnostics, drugs and a hierarchical biomedical model. Palliative medicine was trying to be acceptably medical, and the holistic care bit was somewhat uncool – silos were imperceptibly being built. Nursing too was moving towards the medical model with the introduction of advanced assessment skills and prescribing. The recognition of dying was still being left to the last minute, and sedation appeared to be moving up from the last to first choice in managing distress. Furthermore, care seemed no better: the experiences of the dying, reflected by those who remained, were still far from ideal.3 In the United Kingdom, dying well and with dignity remained the domain of our hospices – the place where holism still holds sway and specialist beds remain concentrated. In defence of palliative care in the NHS, it would be unfair not to acknowledge that referrers were beginning to realise that all dying people were entitled to decent care, not just those with cancer,4 and inevitably, services were becoming more stretched and dilute as they sought to respond with what little resource they had. In 2000, the NHS Cancer Plan was explicit that 'The care of all dying patients must improve to the level of the best' (para. 7.21, p. 66)5 and set a programme to support this. Of importance, it was here that care pathways for the cancer journey were discussed widely as "individualised" to that person's unique cancer journey covering referral through diagnosis to treatment(s). Dying was not included as a pathway (para. 5.7, p. 50).5 A particularly English thing also happened. As some limited, additional resource became available, it was allocated for 'end of life care', and almost overnight an arbitrary separation from palliative care occurred as practitioners were appointed with roles in 'end of life care' separate from established palliative care services (which meant it was no longer our responsibility). While the intention was to help, in hindsight, this split was arguably the seedbed for our current difficulties. Against this background, the Liverpool team used established integrated care pathway methods to birth the LCP as 'a response to the poor care and suffering of dying patients in hospitals in the UK, [with] a simple aim: to bring the best care ... that people experienced in 514706 PMJ28110.1177/0269216313514706Palliative MedicineGeorge et al. research-article2013


'Gently rumbling without direction', a programme note appended to the first part of Cassandra Miller's solo for piano Philip the Wanderer, might equally have stood in as descriptor for tonight's programme tout court. This is not meant as a criticism. Time's arrow, the vector of narratives real or implied, may well be the most burdensome yet most easily sloughed off (and perhaps least missed) item of nineteenth-century baggage to be jettisoned by composers over the last century or so. What tonight's collaboration between An Assembly and Ensemble x.y (led and programmed by the increasingly omnipresent wunderkind of British new music, Jack Sheen) offered up was a quite different approach, a different way through the passage of time. Less music as organised sound; more sound in itself a means for organising time.


The combination of local search heuristics and genetic algorithms has been shown to be an effective approach for finding near-optimum solutions to the traveling salesman problem. Previously proposed genetic local search algorithms for the symmetric and asymmetric traveling salesman problem are revisited and potential improvements are identified. Since local search is the central component in which most of the computation time is spent, improving the efficiency of the local search operators is crucial for improving the overall performance of the algorithms. The modifications of the algorithms are described and the new results obtained are presented. The results indicate that the improved algorithms are able to arrive at better solutions in significantly less time.


The aim of this present work is to generalize the notion of weakly isotone increasing mappings and prove an α- fixed point theorems for α -weakly isotone increasing self mappings which satisfy some inequality in complete metric spaces endow with partially ordering.


The usage of online social networking sites has become a integral part of our lives. It helps us to communicate with
our dear and distanced ones. We can also use these sites for various media sharing purposes such as music, videos,
etc. Also, these days these sites are gaining much more popularity due to the third party applications that exist on
these platforms. However, intruders have realized the potential of these applications and use it as a medium to spam
users. In a lot of cases, according to a survey done these applications are malicious. A spammer can benefit from
these applications in various ways like, can reach a large number of users, can obtain user's personal information,
and also with the help of a single user, he can spam a lot other users too. As the research goes on, research
communities have focused on detecting malicious URLs and online social campaigns which are fake or spam. Here
we develop an application, SecureU app, we help detect malicious application, fake or spam messages, hide pictures
and posts which are inappropriate and it will also help us to give real time notifications.


ABSTRACT Much health-disparities research focuses on race and ethnicity, but nativity has proved to be a crucial factor in explaining the immigrant health advantage. Foreign-born subgroups with certain immigration statuses, such as refugees, may have an initial disadvantage. Using nationally representative survey data, we explore differences in health outcomes by analyzing two visa category subgroups in the United States: refugees and nonrefugee immigrants. Our findings show that refugees have a significant disadvantage across multiple health outcomes. This suggests that current refugee health-screening practices should be changed to take into account broader issues, such as chronic disease and functional limitation.


Background: Protection of health care workers and prevention of intra-hospital transmission of infection are important aspects in COVID-19 epidemic response, and this requires that they must have updated knowledge regarding the source, transmission, symptoms, and preventive measures. Lack of knowledge and misunderstandings leads to delayed diagnosis, spread of disease, and poor infection control practice. Objective: To identify the status of knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding COVID-19 among physicians in Egypt. Subjects and Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional survey-based study was carried out on 160 physicians who participated in the study which was conducted in May and June 2020. Self-administered questionnaire shared on social media groups of Egyptian physicians to assess knowledge, attitude, and practice among physicians regarding COVID-19. Results: Participants have good knowledge (98.8%), a positive attitude means 9.76 ±1.70, and good practice (77.5%). physicians working in clinical departments had greater knowledge than physicians working in academic departments (p =0.003) also physicians with work experience ≥ 5 years have greater knowledge (p=0.002). 88.75% of physicians perceived that limited infection control material and 84.37% of them perceived that Lack of policy and procedures of infection control practice were the major barriers to infection control. Conclusion: There is good knowledge regarding COVID-19 among Egyptian physicians. Appropriate practice correlates with better knowledge and a positive attitude towards COVID-19 infection. More training programs on protective measures to improve attitude among physicians and healthcare workers are necessary to win the fight against COVID-19 infection.


Mode characteristics and spectral linewidths are investigated for single-mode and dual-mode AlGaInAs/InP square microlasers. For a single-mode square microlaser with a side length of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$22~\mu \text{m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>, connected with a 2-<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-wide waveguide, a linewidth of 20 MHz is obtained by means of a non-zero delayed self-heterodyne method. Dual-mode square microlaser linewidths are also analyzed using an optical heterodyne, and a strong mode correlation is experimentally demonstrated. Furthermore, we successfully realize the narrow-linewidth microlaser and microwave signal generation through a dual-loop optical feedback technique.


A new procedure which is called double suction straining coating method for the preparation of gas-liquid chromatographic stationary phase was reported.The result of the study showed that at the percentage(mass of liquid phase/mass of support)of 1%,2% and 3%,the analytical speed and the HETP(height equivalent to theoretical plate)of the column prepared by the double suction straining coating method are always higher than those prepared by the suction and evaporation method.At the percentage of 1%,2% and 3%,the analytical speed of the two columns prepared by the new coating method is 10%,20%and 26% faster than the columns prepared by the compared coating method respectively and HETPs of the two new columns are 12%,5%,12% lower than the compared columns.At the percentage of 5 % and 7%,there are no apparent difference between the two compared methods. The chromatographic condition is H2 Carrier gas,6201 red support(60~80 mesh),Apiezon-L stationary phase,stainless steel column(1 m×3 mm i.d.),TCD detector and the mixture of test sample of n-hexane,n-heptane,n-octane and n-nonane.


Harmful substances, such as particulate matter (PM), nitrogen oxides, and sulfur compounds in exhaust gas emitted from marine diesel engines have a great impact on the air environment. Among them, especially black carbon in PM has a negative effect on global warming. The exhaust gas from marine diesel engines using fuels containing heavy fuel oil has a high PM concentration and high temperature. Therefore, a commonly used diesel particulate filter is not suitable for collection because it tends to cause clogging and reduce efficiency. Furthermore, it is often the case that ships are at sea for more than one month, so it is difficult to replace the filter, that is, maintenance is difficult. On the other hand, an electrostatic precipitator (ESP) has the advantages of a simpler structure, lower pressure loss, and higher collection efficiency of high concentration particles. This suggests that the ESP is suitable for collecting harmful substances from the marine diesel exhaust gas. At high temperatures, corona discharge is unstable, and a flashover tends to occur at low applied voltage. Therefore, it is necessary to study the stable corona discharge generation range for the stable operation of the ESP. The purpose of this research is to analyze the optimal electrode structure and its corona discharge characteristics under the simulated exhaust gas of a diesel engine in the range of 100 °C – 400 °C using a negative dc power supply.


This article is devoted to the contrastive analysis of semantic organization of the newspaper speech in the French and Tatar languages. Peculiarities of the semantic extension in verbal phraseological units within phraseological configurations and variety of connections between verbal phraseological unit and its phraseological context are determined.


Students with Hearing Impairment experience learning problems in most institutions of Higher Learning in Zimbabwe. Access to college and university facilities is often limited and hence their needs are not catered for. Those learning through distance education are the most affected since they have to endure these problems alone. Thus for an institution like the Zimbabwe Open University (ZOU), where Open Distance Learning (ODL) is the mode of instruction, there is need to develop learning materials that would enable these students to learn effectively though they may be few in number. Students with hearing impairment in most higher learning institutions (ZOU included), have expressed experiencing difficulties in coping with their studies partly due to the fact that the learning materials used are tailor made for the mainstream form of education. This research is a descriptive survey meant to extract information from students with hearing impairment; so that solutions can be found on how to develop effective learning materials for ODL in Zimbabwe. A qualitative design was adopted as a way of assessing the needs and feelings of the hearing impaired students. By virtue of the small population involved, this approach was the most useful though besides Interviews, questionnaires were used to triangulate the findings from students, lecturers and support teachers.


The paper gives a description of the hitherto unknown larvae of Silo chrisiammos Malicky 1984 and Lithax musaca Malicky 1972 (Trichoptera: Goeridae). Information on the morphology of the larvae is given and the most important diagnostic features are illustrated. In the context of published keys, both larvae belong to the group of goerid species with 6 mesonotal and 8 metanotal sclerites. Within this group, both species can be easily diagnosed by their unique pronotum morphology: The nose-like hump of S . chrisiammos descends stepwise posteriorly and stays clear of the caudal pronotal border, whereas in L . musaca the ridgelike hump descends gradually and touches the posterior pronotal border at center; in addition, in both species pronotal muscle attachment spots are not bordered by dark-pigmented dots. With respect to distribution, S. chrisiammos is a micro-endemic of the Greek Cyclades island of Andros whereas L. musaca is known from Anatolia, the European part of Turkey and Bulgaria. In addition, ecological characteristics are briefly discussed, and a key to the Goeridae larvae of European Ecoregions 6 and 7 (Hellenic western Balkan and Eastern Balkan regions) is included.


BACKGROUNDThe leaves of African plants are widely employed in Nigeria to control bleeding from wounds. This work is aimed at evaluating the haemostatic effects of Vernonia amygdalina (VA/bitter leaf) and Chromolaena odorata (CO/sunflower) leaves on some haemostatic parameters.METHODSA laboratory study of experimental design was conducted involving 35 Wistar rats that were randomized into seven groups. Groups 1 and 2 received leaf extracts of VA at concentrations of 150 and 250mg/kg BW, respectively; groups 3 and 4 received leaf extracts of CO at 150 and 250mg/kg BW; groups 5 and 6 received combined leaf extracts of VA and CO at 150 and 250mg/kg BW, respectively, for 30 days. The last group 7 as control group received only water. Parameters investigated were clotting time (CT), fibrinogen concentration, prothrombin time (PT), activated partial thromboplastin time test (APTT), factor VII, protein C and D – dimer.ResultsThere was a significant reduction in CT, fibrinogen concentration and PT in the intervention groups compared to controls (p<0.01). There was no significant difference in APTT, factor VII and protein C in the intervention groups compared to the controls (p>0.05). D-dimer levels were observed to increase significantly in rats treated with 150mg/kg BW of VA and 150mg/kgBW of the combined leaf extracts (VA/CO) compared to the controls (p<0.05).ConclusionThe VA and CO extracts reduced CT, PT, fibrinogen concentrations and increased D-dimer levels in rats. This study suggests the possible incorporation of the leave extracts of VA and CO in bleeding diathesis as well as in coagulation studies.


This paper proposes a new Fuzzy Gain Scheduled Proportional, Integral and Derivative (FGPID) controller by using Takagi-Sugeno (TS) fuzzy system to the load frequency control problem in multi-area power systems. The TS fuzzy inference engine is chosen and the range of the controller is selected suitably to enhance the output performance of the system. Simulation results demonstrate the ability of the proposed control model in damping the frequency oscillations and tie line power deviations due to area load changes. The approach is compared against two controllers in the literature; Fuzzy Gain Scheduling Integral and Derivative (FGID) controller, and Fuzzy Gain Scheduling Proportional and Integral (FGPI) controller. Settling times, overshoots, undershoots and Integral Square Error (ISE) of frequency deviation are used as comparison criteria. Nonlinear simulation results show that the proposed controller provides better performance than the other two models.


Electronic device test apparatus comprising: a Prufvorrichtungshauptteil for testing electrical characteristics of an at-in testing the electronic device; to the to connect exploiting Dende in testing electronic component and the electric power Prufvorrichtungshauptteil plate; and a pressing means for pressing said that are available in the test electronic component against the power board to connect The spa located in the test device and the electronic power board electrically, wherein the electronic device testing apparatus further comprising: an abutment means extending in the direction of a rear surface of the power board and abutting the back surface of the power board; and a fixing means to fix an amount of extension of the conditioning means in a state in which the abutment means on the rear surface of the power plate is applied.


Abstract The results of a field test of time‐domain reflectometry (TDR) to measure apparent liquid soil water contents and to locate the unfrozen‐frozen interface during thawing conditions is presented. The apparent liquid water content was observed in the fall and through a late winter thaw on two sand sites, one with a natural snow cover and the other with snow removed throughout the winter. Temperatures were monitored at intervals throughout the profile. The results indicate that TDR provides a method for monitoring apparent liquid water content andfreeze‐thaw processes.


he compression is an important area of research in image processing and has been widely studied in the last decades. Compression algorithms can restitute the exact information (Lossless methods) or introduce a little distortion (lossy methods). The Lossless image compression is designed to reduce or remove the image's redundancy. They have weak compression ratio but benefit from an exact reconstruction of the image. The purpose of lossy image compression is to minimize the number of bits needed to represent an image without introducing an important degradation. Natural images have an important redundancy among the space-image pixels. A linear transformation is applied to minimize redundancy in the images since it can decorrelate pixel values in the transform domain. The international standard for still image compression, called Joint Photographic Experts Group or JPEG standard [1]-[2], uses the Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) [3]-[4]. The JPEG2000 [5] uses The Discrete Wavelet Transforms (DWT). The quantization assigns to each transform coefficient a number of bits according to its position. This step is not conservative and attempts to reduce the number of samples. Finally, an entropy encoder codes these samples [6]-[8]. The main objective of the image compression is to achieve the lowest bit rate without loss of the visual information. It implies a distinction between the visible and invisible information contained in an image. This distinction is done by the exploitation of a human visual model, incorporated within the compressive process, precisely at the quantization stage. The key element of such a model is the Contrast Sensitivity Function (CSF). This Function describes the human visual sensitivity to different spatial frequencies by varying their contrast. Its curve shows essentially that the


Purpose: This study analysis how employee socialization and employee specialization effect to the job rotation in health sector of Lahore, Pakistan? Methodology: Primary data source is used to investigate this objective. Total 266 applicable samples are selected for empirical investigation. Descriptive study and correlation analysis are used for inquiry of results. Findings: The empirical results show that employee socialization and employee specializationare positively related with job rotation. But employee specialization contributes more with job rotation as compare to employee socialization in health sector in Pakistan. Recommendations: But we recommend more study on job rotation with specialization with large sample size and another sector for deeply observation of this topic.


The later development of the interatrial region of the human heart (from about 25 mm. onwards) has not been so extensively studied as the earlier stages, a fact which is rather surprising when we consider the relatively greater difficulty of obtaining young embryos. During the later period the growth of the various contributing structures to form the definitive foetal interatrial septum occurs, and it is with the formation of one particular part of this septum-the limbus fossae ovalis-that this study is particularly concerned. The limbus is generally described as being formed cranially by the septum secundum, and caudally by the left venous valve fused to the right side of the septum primum (Retzer, 1908; Waterston, 1918). Variations on this general theme are found in papers by Favaro (1913), Morrill (1916), Odgers (1935), Patten (1960), Thyng (1915), and Walmsley (1929), all of whom introduce extra elements into the limbus.


Observations of NGC 7027 in the range 10 to 12 mu are presented, with a spectral resolution of DELTA lambda / lambda = 0.005. The S IV line at 10.5 mu is clearly seen, and also the feature at 11.3 mu which has been observed by Gillet, Forrest, and Merrill (Astrophys. J.; July (1973)) and which may be due to thermal emission from MgCO/sub 3/ grains. A previously unobserved sharp feature is seen at 11.9 mu . A sulphur abundance between 6.86 and 7.12 (relative to H = 12.00) is deduced from the intensity of the S IV line, and the possibility that the 11.3 and/or the 11.9 mu features are due to unresolved clusters of lines is briefly discussed. (auth)


women focused on, but at the time of the author's involvement with them they were not, in Wright's terms, disposable. Each woman's experiences, and in some cases her own strategies, emphasize the importance of the myth both for everyday life in the companies and for this analysis, as well as for analyses of globalization in general. Notwithstanding the ethical and practical difficulties of including the most vulnerable workers in research, the argument would have been considerably strengthened by the inclusion of their words. A second criticism is that the book lacks even a single map. Fieldwork areas in southern China and northern Mexico; the route walked by protestors against the unsolved disappearances of working-class women in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico; and diagrams of gendered and nationalized spaces within production facilities would all have enhanced Wright's often detailed descriptions. In their place, the reader might find herself imagining or even sketching these. Wright's engaging fieldwork-based storytelling is shot through with sophisticated yet accessible theory and this will beckon me to her volume again and again. Students, scholars from a range of disciplines, and activists will all find ideas with which to engage. The book should be read by those with interests in globalization, geographies of manufacturing, Mexico, China, and U.S. trade with these countries. In addition, this a must read for anyone with an interest in gender and work. The volume would be suitable for use in courses in feminist geography, globalization, gender and work, women's studies, social theory, and economic geography. Meticulous fieldwork and deft theory-building craft make this a fascinating study that deserves a wide audience.


Now-a-days, hackers are using many techniques to steal passwords such as shoulder surfing, guessing, snooping, sniffing, etc. There is no strong authentication to protect user data. Proof of identity for authentication serves as the frontline of cyber security. The proposed system provides authentication through three-factor credentials using an IoT testbed. The three factor credentials are password, smart card and biometric scanner for providing more security to user details. This system can be used anywhere, where security is the critical issue. This paper describes encryption and decryption process using AES algorithm and the authentication is provided to the user data using smart card and biometric scanner.


Food insecurity in Australia is increasing. Organisations within the charitable food sector aim to manage, and in some cases are implementing strategies to prevent, food insecurity, such as food literacy programmes. This pilot study describes the challenges and opportunities for evaluating the impact of a food literacy programme, FoodMate by SecondBite™, which aims to reduce food insecurity amongst 'at risk' young people. Three community agencies working with 'at risk' young people delivered an 8-week food literacy programme in Melbourne, Australia. A pre-test/post-test design was used and outcome measures included: (i) food intake, (ii) diet quality, (iii) cooking confidence and (iv) food independence. These were assessed via questionnaires and 24-hour recalls at three time points: pre-programme (T1), post-programme (T2) and at 4 to 6-week follow-up (T3). Twenty-one young people aged 16–25 years participated in this pilot study. The response rate for the questionnaire and 24-hour recalls declined across the study: T1 (n = 21), T2 (n = 11) and T3 (n = 9). Some positive effects were associated with the programme but attrition rates were high and the majority of participants did not complete all measures. Although results were inconclusive, this study describes some common challenges of conducting a food literacy intervention with vulnerable young people and highlights the benefit of nutrition researchers and practitioners working together to conduct evaluation of such programmes.


Fire research activities are an important part of the complex system of disaster management; the found causes of fires and the experience gained can effect fire prevention, industrial safety and the protection of citizens. The hypothesis of the authors is that the research of fires happening during hydrocarbon processing requires to be looked at from a completely different point of view than the fire researches carried out in other areas of life. The second part investigates improvement opportunities, new technologies, the usability of the fire spreadsheet and the extended reality of incidents of hydrocarbon-processing applicable to fire examination.


This paper discusses the impact of macroeconomic factors on the activities of agricultural organizations. In particular, this paper examines the issues of forecasting the bankruptcy of agricultural organizations in modern conditions (for example, sanctions) of the Russian Federation. In the course of their activities, agricultural organizations in modern conditions may face the problem of bankruptcy. In order to avoid such a problem, agricultural organizations take into account many factors in their activities. To achieve results in this work, the following indicators were analyzed: the structure of exports of the Russian Federation for January 2021–January 2022; the monthly inflation rate in 2022; the population of the Russian Federation for 2018-2021 and June 2022; the number of agricultural organizations by value for 2021. The analysis showed that agricultural organizations need to take into account macroeconomic indicators in their activities, since such factors can lead to bankruptcy


Coastal archaeological sites in Newfoundland and Labrador are currently under considerable threat, with important knowledge of the province's history and prehistory potentially lost to erosion. Climate change will exacerbate existing coastal hazards, thus causing even greater loss of archaeological resources in the future. Action is needed now to protect or retrieve the information from significant sites under threat in coastal areas before they are completely eroded. In responding, cultural resource managers face potentially tough questions about which sites are at risk, how to prioritize at-risk sites for action, and what management option is most appropriate. A 2011 study by Westley et al. estimated that one-fifth of the coastal archaeological sites in three study regions of Newfoundland were highly vulnerable to the impacts of relative sea-level rise (SLR), storm surges or coastal erosion over the next 15-50 years. The Coastal Archaeological Resources Risk Assessment (CARRA) project aims refine the site vulnerability assessment approach and inform management decisions about at-risk sites. This includes employing high resolution coastal topography (e.g. LiDAR), revised SLR projections, updated coastal erosion estimates and resurveyed site positions in our improved vulnerability classification. Once at-risk sites have been identified, prioritizing action at these sites is especially difficult. A review of the published literature revealed few examples of applied processes and those identified rely heavily on the quantification and ranking of risk factors with less emphasis on the nature and rarity of the archaeological resource. The CARRA project is reviewing current practices in at-risk site prioritization with the goal to create best practice scenarios for one of our Newfoundland study areas. This process will involve detailed hazard assessment of two at-risk sites, including coastal erosion and shoreline retreat studies, as well as an impact assessment of known archaeology resources at each site under future hazard scenarios. The final step in the management of at-risk archaeological sites is the design and implementation of an action plan. The CARRA project aims to inform this step through a review of current case studies and management actions at threatened sites across Canada. Two case studies from Newfoundland are briefly introduced to illustrate the types of local actions taken to mitigate erosion at archaeological sites. These case studies will be reviewed in detail with the intention to share adaptation strategies as part of a new community of practice for heritage managers responsible for coastal archaeology resources in Canada.


This article presents a wiring inspection method and steps of high-voltage electric energy metering device with the phase volt-ampere meter and application of phasor analysis.Its characteristic is it can be used either for grounding and un-grounding of voltage secondary circuit.


This paper provides a comparison between two direct torque control techniques which can be applied to the doubly fed induction generator; direct torque control using the switching table and model predictive direct torque control. Direct torque control using the switching table is a favorable control algorithm, due to its simplicity. However, it is known to produce unfavorable results. Finite Control Set Model Predictive Control is an emerging tool in the electrical drives industry. It is a simple control method; it is void of complex parameter tuning. The aim of the research is to investigate the effectiveness of model predictive direct torque control as an alternative to direct torque control using the switching table. The relevant theory, research methodology and results of implementation are provided. The control strategies are analyzed in terms of steady state and dynamic response, as well as the quality of stator currents. An in-depth comparison between the two control algorithms is provided.


J.C. Maier – a previously known aide to Bluhme in the transcription of the Veronese pa limpsest of Justinian's Code. This paper calls into question the idea that in the summer of 1823 Maier worked together with Bluhme at the decipherment of the palimpsest of Gaius' Institutes preserved in the Capitular Library of Verona (Verona, B. Cap., Cod. XV). Rather, a comprehensive analysis of the sources*) leads to the conclusion that Maier helped Bluhme in the same library for the transcription of the palimpsest of Justinian's Code (Verona, B. Cap., Cod. LX).


The posterior lumbar interbody fusion (PLIF) originally described in the 1940s has had varying degrees of acceptance. With the advent of newer PLIF constructs and the use of posterolateral fixation in combination with PLIF a renewed interest in PLIF has developed. The current indications for PLIF include spondylolysis, spondylolisthesis, transitional syndrome, recurrent disc disease, postlaminectomy instability, and traumatic/postinfectious instability. These indications are shared with other interbody fusion techniques, including transforaminal posterior lumbar interbody fusion, anterior lumbar interbody fusion, and posterior lateral fusion. Therefore, the selection of which radiographic and diagnostic studies as well as which constructs to utilize has become increasingly more complicated. This article identifies the most accepted indications for PLIF and a discussion of the accepted evaluations to be performed before PLIF is made. Finally, a brief description of one possible PLIF construct is presented


The present study aims at characterizing the end-gas auto-ignition of n-decane – air mixtures induced by a flame propagation in a constant volume chamber. A numerical tool is developed, and the study is first focused on academic compressions, e.g. at constant rate of pressure rise. Thermodynamic conditions of transition from deflagration to auto-ignition are first determined, and the involved physical processes are highlighted. A square section combustion chamber is then employed: a deflagration front is initiated at high pressure (2-5 bar) and low temperature (425 K) at the top of the chamber. As it propagates downwards, auto-ignition can occur near the end wall depending on the conditions. The end-gas compression and auto-ignition phenomenon are numerically modelled. The study confirms the strong influence of compression history on the auto-ignition delay values.