1Assistant Professor, EEE Department, Velammal College of Engineering and Technology, Madurai, Tamil Nadu. 2,3UG student, EEE Department, Velammal College of Engineering and Technology, Madurai, Tamil Nadu. -----------------------------------------------------------------------***-------------------------------------------------------------------Abstract: In India most of the cities has underground system and also the facility is maintained by Municipal Corporation to form the environment clean and healthy. Sometimes because of poor maintenance of the system, the water within the system gets mixed up with the pure water and infectious diseases may spread on the environment. In an existing system the PH level of drainage water, humidity and temperature is measured manually. It needs a lots of dedicated persons who are only able to record limited report with low accuracy. These weaknesses causes the slow handling of drainage systems and increases the death rates of sewage workers. The proposed system aims at monitoring the drainage systems using the Robot with various sensors that are meet its entire region. These sensors will monitor the PH water level, gas level, temperature and humidity level within the sewage environment. The minimum and maximum levels are set and uploaded within the controller and also the sensor keeps on monitoring the extent of varied parameters within the sewage. As the level reaches the atmost point, the buzzer sounds. And the information are send to the user through Ai thinker module using IoT. If any obstacles are detected the robot can move away automatically using the ultrasonic sensors. The robot are often applied to varied fields of monitoring. It also can be accustomed to detect the leakage or fault within the unmanned service positions.


Recently, the introduction of deep convolutional neural networks has achieved great performance in low-level vision tasks like single image super-resolution. However, deeper networks tend to have larger number of parameters and be more difficult to be trained. Considering massive low-frequency information in low-resolution inputs, we propose a self-adaptive weighted skip connections (SAWSC) structure to make full use of both the low-level and high-level features in order to better the representation ability of super-resolution networks. In our proposed network, we follow a coarse-to-fine strategy, which reconstructs high-resolution images progressively based on the Laplacian pyramid. At each upscale level, feature maps of each block are connected to subsequent blocks with self-adaptive weights. During each block, several residual channel attention layers are cascaded. Evaluations on five public benchmark datasets show that this algorithm achieves better performance than some other existing methods.


reaching the uterine serosa was seen. Both ovaries and fallopian tubes were grossly normal. A transverse incision was made in the uterine serosa followed by enucleation of the cystic lesion which was filled with chocolate-colored fluid (Figure 1). Visible vessels were coagulated and no communication between the cyst and endometrial cavity was seen. The myometrium was closed using an interrupted absorbable suture. Total operating time was 45 minutes and the estimated blood loss was less than 50 ml. Histopathologic examination objectified a cystic structure lined by endometrial epithelium and surrounded by a region of myometrial hyperplasia confirming the diagnostic of an adenomyotic cyst. The postoperative course was uneventful and no recurrence was seen with a follow up period of 3 years. ABSTRACT Adenomyotic cyst is a rare form of adenomyosis caused by extensive menstrual bleeding into the ectopic endometrium. Exceptionally, they can show massive growth resulting in what is called large adenomyotic cyst. We report a case of a 35-year-old woman presented with chronic pelvic pain and severe dysmenorrhea appeared five months after her last caesarean section. Abdominopelvic ultrasound showed a large cystic lesion in the posterior uterine wall suggestive of an adenomyotic cyst which was confirmed after surgical enucleation.


that are peculiar to it, including the House of Lords and more ceremonial roles, therefore keeping the discussion within the realms of wider applicability to an ideal type. The book is largely successful in the argument, looking at the development of procedure through the tracts and also the changing views of the existing procedure and the key changes that need to be made; for example, the use of time and the degree of public view given to parliamentary deliberations. Highly analytical, this study is, in fact, very good at highlighting the older procedural tracts and the changing priorities. It also shows the changing views of procedure, with the authors of the tracts themselves moving from within Parliament itself to become outsiders examining the procedures. Issues highlighted by the tracts over time are pointed out. However, while some analysis of reform potential as a legislative issue is provided, there is a lack of analysis given to the political need or desire for reform. The work is ultimately successful in providing an overview of the historical changes through studying procedural tracts and the changes in the politics of procedure. However, it is less successful in its aim of showing 'The formation of Westminster as an ideal type'. The evidence throughout is not tied back to this overarching theme until the final chapter, where the development of adversarial politics moving towards deliberative politics is indicated. The book is of interest for anyone trying to gain an understanding of Parliamentary procedure, as it contemporises procedure as opposed to historical procedure, and it will be useful for those British scholars who are interested in the changing procedure of Westminster.


We analyze V-, I-, and H-band HST images and two seasons of R-band monitoring data for the gravitationally lensed quasar SDSS 0924+0219. We clearly see that image D is a point-source image of the quasar at the center of its host galaxy. We can easily track the host galaxy of the quasar close to image D because microlensing has provided a natural coronograph that suppresses the flux of the quasar image by roughly an order of magnitude. We observe low-amplitude, uncorrelated variability between the four quasar images due to microlensing, but no correlated variations that could be used to measure a time delay. Monte Carlo models of the microlensing variability provide estimates of the mean stellar mass in the lens galaxy (0.03 h2 M☉ ≲ ⟨M⟩ ≲ 2.0 h2 M☉), the accretion disk size (the disk temperature is 5 × 104 K at 1.3 × 1014 h-1 cm ≲ rs ≲ 4.7 × 1014 h-1 cm), and the black hole mass (6.6 × 106 M☉ ≲ MBH h3/2 η (L/LEdd)1/2 ≲ 4.4 × 107 M☉), all at 68% confidence. The black hole mass estimate based on microlensing is mildly inconsistent with an estimate of MBH = (2.8 ± 0.9) × 108 M☉ from the Mg II emission-line width. If we extrapolate the best-fitting light curve models into the future, we expect images A and B to fade and images C and D to brighten. In particular, we estimate that image D has a roughly 16% probability of brightening by a factor of 2 during the next year and a 40% probability of brightening by an order of magnitude over the next decade.


The work deals with acoustic imaging applied to biomedical engineering, in particular imaging of soft tissues, such as breast tissues, in order to detect cancer pathologies. The project consists in the numerical feasibility study of inversion technique in near field. The use of spherical waves combined with a filtered elliptical back projection algorithm (diffraction tomography) led to a major improvement of the quality of images compared to the techniques currently used in plane back-projection tomography or in ultrasonography. The use of this algorithm contributes to a qualitative but not quantitative image, which implies the use of a second approach : transmission tomography. The latter is based on a layer stripping algorithm which enables the definition of the speed of the inspected medium layer by layer. By coupling the data obtained by diffraction (elliptical back projection) and transmission (layer stripping), the image gives a double information : speed geometry and mapping.


The current research situation about sparse coding is summarized.According to the different starting points,most of the methods are divided into two types.According to the different modeling objectives,characteristics,the sparse coding models for simulation of the visual system are classified into the following six categories,those are maximum likelihood models,the optimization models of the objective functions,the function model of Gabor wavelet basis,super-complete basis models,the models of neural networks,and the level sparse coding model.In accordance with learning methods for models,the statistical analysis models are divided into independent analysis models,non-negative matrix factorization models,as well as specific characteristics of sparse coding models.All the various models are introduced,analyzed and studied,the main features of different models are Summarized and compared,and their future prospects are proposed.


One of the central narratives in the study of Spanish Romanesque art is that of the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, the medieval pilgrimage to the tomb of St. James. While the Camino has been conceptualized primarily as a conduit of people and ideas, the monuments of the pilgrimage city of Carri�n de los Condes demonstrate an intra-referentiality that challenges this unilateral construct. Pilgrimage must be understood as a binary phenomenon, comprised of not only the moving, transitory parties, but also the infrastructure that at once supports and is supported by them. This dissertation examines the three extant medieval monuments built during Carri�n's period of greatest growth and prominence, ca. 1050-1200: the monastery of San Zoilo and the parish churches of Santa Mar�a and Santiago. Each addresses distinct audiences corresponding to its particular moment in Carri�n's development and position within the city. Reframing the pilgrimage city as a crucial site of social and economic interaction, this dissertation situates the three monuments in relation to one another within a single, evolving urban fabric, one that had to negotiate and address multiple audiences—transient and enduring—through its artistic production. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group History of Art First Advisor Larry Silver Subject Categories History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2411 BIOGRAPHY OF A CITY: ART, URBANIZATION, AND SHIFTING STRUCTURES OF POWER IN CARRIÓN DE LOS CONDES, 1050-1200 Elizabeth A. Lastra A DISSERTATION in History of Art Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2017 Larry Silver, James & Nan Wagner Farquhar Professor of History of Art Supervisor of Dissertation Michael Leja, Professor of History of Art Graduate Group Chairperson Dissertation Committee Robert Maxwell, Professor, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University Renata Holod, Professor, University of Pennsylvania Sarah Guérin, Assistant Professor, University of Pennsylvania


We revisit the notion of flatness for semimodules over semirings. In particular, we introduce and study a new notion of uniformly flat semimodules based on the exactness of the tensor functor. We also investigate the relations between this notion and other notions of flatness for semimodules in the literature.


13 The development of strut-and-tie models (STM) for the design of reinforced concrete deep beams 14 considering a general multi-material and multi-volume topology optimization framework is 15 presented. The general framework provides flexibility to control locations/inclination/length scale 16 of the ties according to practical design requirements. Well-understood optimality conditions are 17 applied to evaluate the performance of the optimized STM layouts. Specifically, the Michell 18 number 𝑍𝑍 (or load path) is used as a simple and effective criterion to quantify the STM. The 19 experimental results verify that the STM layout with the lowest load path 𝑍𝑍 achieves the highest 20 ultimate load. Moreover, significantly reduced cracking is observed in the optimized STM layouts 21 compared to the traditional STM layout. This observation implies that the optimized layouts may 22


An important change took place in the income distribution system for Party and government officials around 1949: the egalitarian system of provision of goods was replaced by a strict wage hierarchy based on administrative rank and characterized by relatively large differences. This was not only opposed to CPC tradition but was also contrary to Marxist tenets. The degree of inequality in distribution was even greater than that existing under the Nationalists and among civil servants in the capitalist countries of Europe, America and Japan. Mao was unhappy with such a hierarchical distribution system from the outset and tried several times to correct it, but he failed to change it just as he had failed to prevent its initial implementation. Even the Cultural Revolution did not succeed in changing it.


Nowadays, neurosurgeons have access to 3D multimodal imaging when planning and performing surgical procedures. 3D multimodal registration algorithms are available to establish geometrical relationships between different modalities. For a given 3D point, most multimodal applications merely display a cursor on the corresponding point in the other modality. The surgeon needs tools allowing the visual fusion of these heterogeneous data in the same coordinate system but also in the same visual space in order to facilitate comprehension of the data. This problem is particularly crucial when using these images in the operating room. The goal of this paper is to analyze different methods to obtain this visual fusion between real images and virtual images. We discuss the relevance of different solutions depending on (1) the type of information shared between these different modalities and (2) the hardware location of this visual fusion. Two new approaches are presented to illustrate our purposes: a neuro- navigational microscope which provides an augmented reality feature through a microscope and a new technique for matching 2D real images with 3D virtual data sets. We introduce this second technique illustrated by the mapping of a 2D intra-operative photograph of the patient's anatomy onto 3D MRI images. Unlike other solutions which display virtual images in the real worked, our method involves ray traced texture mapping in order to display real images in a computed world.


Cooperative communication is one of the fastest growing areas of research. It is likely to be a key enabling technology for efficient spectrum use in future. Cooperation not only leads to improve data rate but also results in a system that is more robust to variations in the channel parameters. Relay selection scheme for cooperative communication aims to achieve full cooperative diversity gain while maintaining spectral and energy efficiencies. Relays receive and retransmit the signal between two base stations. Infrastructure of relay does not need wired connection to network, thereby, offering reduction in operator's backhaul costs.  A relay facilitates an alternate channel for flow of duplicate information corrupted by any kind of error. In this paper we have studied the role of relay towards benefits in cooperative communication under increased relay requirements, and derived exact expression for the outage probability of various DF protocol. We have verified the results using MATLAB simulation which are in full conformity with our analysis.


was given a specially-prepared booklet and engaged in a discussion of his life-styleand health. This sought to help him evaluate the drawbacks of his recent drinking and to come to a decision about his future consumption with the object of guiding him towards problemfree drinking. A control group that was chosen at random from those persons who screened positively received no advice. When interviewed 12 months later, the counselled group had a significantly-better (P< 0.03) outcome than did the control group. A great deal has been written both in Australia and overseas about the reluctance of medical practitioners, both inside and outside hospital, to make a critical assessment of alcohol usage. Skinner recently has sought to answer three questions which relate to the early (perhaps one should say the earlier) detection of alcohol and drug problems. 12


In this work, we are designing a energy efficient memory circuit on 28nm FPGA. Four different LVCMOS are used to validate the energy efficient design. There is 40.67% power reduction when LVCMOS25 is used in place of LVCMOS33. LVCMOS25 is better than LVCMOS33 IO Standard according to our experiment. With LVCMOS15 there is 75.70% total power reduction in compare with the LVCMOS33. LVCMOS15 is most energy efficient IO Standard and LVCMOS33 is most power consuming IO Standard. To design a power efficient memory we are using Verilog as HDL, Xilinx ISE 14.6 simulator with kintex-7 FPGA.


The invention relates to a construction desulfurizing gypsum coating material, which comprises desulfurizing construction gypsum 90-99.8 wt%, hydraulic cementing material 0-9.8 wt%, set retarder 0.1-0.5 wt% and water-loss reducer 0.1-0.3 wt%.


A distinctive region can be defined on southern Cyprus in the Late Bronze Age. It includes the major portion of the modern districts of Larnaca, Limassol and Paphos, with Cape Pyla being its eastern and Paphos its western boundaries. T h e whole region is characterized by a discontinuous series of small plains, with the coastline repeatedly broken by numerous rivers: the Tremithios, Pouzis, Xeropotamos, Pendaskinos, Maroni, Vasilikos, Garyllis, Kourris, Khapotami, Dhiarrizos and Ezuza; these rivers drain the Troodos Range, which occupies the greater part of western Cyprus, on this side of the island. O n geological grounds, this region can be treated together with the Chalk Plateaus of southern Cyprus.


. The major objective of this paper is to solve a synthesis problem, namely the design of a mechanism with a double oscillating slide that has the role of rotating a rocker at 180°; the relationships between the lengths of the elements that ensure its rotation without blocking are established. The geometric model of the mechanism was made in the Autodesk Inventor program and imported in the Altair Inspire program. The kinematic analysis of the mechanism was performed in Altair Inspire program and its working was validated.


Lower concentrations of serum albumin appear to be associated with an increased risk of all‐cause and cardiovascular mortality, coronary heart disease, heart failure and stroke. However, little is known about the relationship between serum albumin level and prolonged QT interval.


This article is about modelling causal-relationship factors related to disaster preparedness. A model identifying the relationships between person- and community-level factors and intention to prepare for volcanic risks is tested in communities surrounding the Mt Merapi volcano, Indonesia. The analysis extends the test of a model developed by one of the authors in an individualistic culture, New Zealand, to members of a collectivistic culture. Using the data obtained from communities situated around Mt Merapi (n = 322), analysis revealed that community-level (collective efficacy and community participation) and variables describing the quality of the relationship between community members and civic agencies played significant roles in predicting intentions to prepare for volcanic hazards. The analysis also revealed that individual-level variables (outcome expectancy) were less influential compared with studies applying the model in individualistic countries. Some policy implications related to the findings are discussed.


A process for the preparation of alkenes by partial hydrogenation of alkynes in the liquid phase at temperatures of 20 to 250 ° C and hydrogen pressures from 0.3 to 200 bar on palladium-fixed-bed support catalysts obtained by heat treatment of the support material in the air, cooling, applying a palladium compound and optionally additionally for doping purposes other metal ions, molding and processing to monolithic catalyst elements are available, which is characterized in that use is DOLLAR AA) alkynes of 10 to 30 carbon atoms, as starting compounds, DOLLAR AB) the palladium compound and optionally the other Matellionen by impregnating the annealed and cooled support material with a palladium salts and optionally other metal ions applying containing solution and subsequent drying of the carrier material and DOLLAR AC) that is added or a corresponding amount of CO the hydrogenation 10 to 2000 ppm of carbon monoxide (CO) in fluss leaves, caused by slight decomposition of an added to the reaction mixture compound which eliminates CO under the reaction conditions strength phase. DOLLAR A particularly advantageous designed, the method, when performing the partial hydrogenation in a tubular reactor in a downflow or upflow mode with product recycling at cross-sectional loadings of from 20 to 500 m 3 · · / m · 2 · * h. Particularly suitable is the method for the preparation of 3,7,11,15-tetramethyl-1-hexadecen-3-ol (isophytol), ...


Imparting whole insurance of sensing field as long as possible and retaining the connectivity among the nodes is the primary motto of the Versatile Sensor networks. The proposed device is carried out to offer maximum connectivity and extension in community-lifetime along with presenting secured information transmission that's required for plenty packages. Most connected load stability cowl tree algorithm (MCLCT) with enhanced leach set of rules is used in the proposed system on this paper to benefit complete coverage in addition to Base station connectivity of every sensing node with the aid of dynamically organizing load balancing routing cover trees. We are the usage of greater leach algorithm for cluster-head formation based totally on clustering-diploma and residual energy and AODV (adhoc On-demand for Distance vector) algorithm for routing and for locating the shortest course shape the supply node to the BS using multi-hop technique. More suitable leach and AODV are utilized in creation of dynamic most connected load balanced netwok. To gain more safety and to lessen the electricity consumption malicious node detection is completed through the use of SET IBS scheme. Vast simulation results suggests that the proposed technique outperforms all of the results of existing techniques in terms of strength intake and network lifetime and connectivity. Keywords— Versatile sensor networks, connectivity, coverage, protection, network lifetime maximization.


Nerine was originated from South Africa and around 30 kinds of species are distributed in worldwide. In present study we have characterized the division methods and growing conditions for the bulb propagation of Nerine. Result indicated that new bulb formation, and growth of N. bowdenii cultivars was better after dormancy stage compared to post-harvest and dormancy stages, under twin-scale method at 20℃. Similarly, new bulb tissue density was higher at 20℃ compared to other temperatures. Moreover, N. bowdenii 'Favourite' exhibited better growth than N. bowdenii 'Stepanii' and vermiculite was found to be most suitable growing medium for Nerine bulb propagation.


R EN E WELLEK, whom no one could accuse of indifference to history, opens the chapter on "Literary History" in The Theory of Literature with a question which even he finds difficult to answer: "Is it possible to write literary history, that is, to write that which will be both literary and a history?" Though he would very much like to give an affirmative reply, he is unhappily aware that literature is not sequential, that the literary works of 1922 are not conditioned by those of 1921, in the sense that political, social, or economic events are sequentially conditioned. A purely literary history which took works in their chronological sequence would be irrelevant if not impossible because its temporality would correspond to no principle of development or causality. But if one deviates from chronology, from a purely sequential version of literary history, one must discover some other principle on which to base a historical series.


Applications, such as the long term in-situ monitoring of geotechnical structures and of agricultural soils, motivate the use of wireless sensors that are of a passive design. However, the effectiveness of such passive devices will be dependent on the power received via a forward interrogation link and the power returned to a data collector via a reverse link. For these applications, link losses will be determined by the transmission medium, i.e., soil. This paper presents a pathloss study of microwave attenuation versus soil type and moisture. Then, we present results for a passive frequency doubling reflectenna (FDR), operating at 1.3 GHz for the forward link and 2.6 GHz for the reverse, buried at various depths in agricultural soil of different moistures. Results indicate that a FDR-based wireless sensors operating in this frequency range could be effectively embedded to a depth of 0.5 m or more, significantly deeper than reported for other passive technologies.


PURPOSE: An endless hot rolling system and a method which prevents winding errors due to the rapid cutting of an ultrathin strip is provided to reduce an equipment investment cost and remove the high speed cutter facility of the winding device. CONSTITUTION: An endless hot rolling system comprises a high-speed continuous caster facility, a roughing mill(200), a heater(400), a rolling mill(700), a winding device(900), and a cutter(600). The high-speed continuous caster facility produces the slab of the first thickness. The roughing mill rolls slab to the rolling bar of the second thickness thinning than the first thickness. The upper heating apparatus heats the rolling bar. The rolling mill rolls the heated rolling bar to the strip of the third thickness thinning than the second thickness. The winding device reels the strip. The cutter is at least arranged among the domain of the between heater and roughing mills.


Yakima, Washington is located 150 miles southeast of Seattle, on the eastern side of the Cascade Mountains. With a population of 120,000 in Yakima (223,000 in Yakima County), this region provides a rich diversity in terms of residents, agriculture, and eco-tourism. The county's main industry is agriculture, with Yakima Valley (producer of Concord grapes and apples) reporting sales of $15 million. As a result of the dominance of steady agricultural opportunities, many migrant farmers permanently settled there beginning in the 1980s. Now, 36% of the population in this medium-sized urban area today is Hispanic. Research on minority travel patterns has found that travel patterns for minority groups differs from those of non-minority groups. Preliminary research using the 2000 CTPP data suggests a higher carpool rate for Hispanics than non-Hispanics for work trips in the Los Angeles area. In addition, Zmud showed that while the proportion of travel for consumer activities is the same for minorities and non-minorities, Hispanics are more likely to make these trips by walking or using public transit. This same study suggests that travel party size is much higher for shopping trips made by Hispanics as compared to those made by non-minority travelers and that the time of day shopping trips are made also varies significantly between the two population groups. The bulk of this research has primarily focused on travel by minorities in large urban areas or at the national level. The purpose of this paper is to explore the differences in travel behavior among minorities and non-minorities in Yakima in order to determine the extent to which the travel behavior of Hispanics in a medium-sized urban area compares with those differences documented for Hispanics in larger urban settings. The analysis focuses on travel characteristics as documented in the 2003 Yakima County Household Travel Survey. The results will be useful for transportation planners in smaller urban areas with large Hispanic populations as they plan for the transportation needs of this regional subgroup. This is important since the travel data included in NCHRP Report 365 (intended to provide smaller MPOs with comparable trip rates) is mainly from larger urban areas (only one data set is from a smaller urban area). In addition, the average proportion of population indicating Hispanic origin for these regions was only 12%, on average. Thus, particularly in smaller urban areas with large Hispanic populations, the long-range transportation planning process cannot rely entirely on these general statistics.


With the development of medical imaging equipment and technology,medical imaging plays a more and more important role in clinical medicine.Postgraduate students with highly skilled education are in high demand.Based on the consideration of tutor's team,research fields,experiment facility and school administration,this paper discussed construction and development of the master post of medical imaging and nuclear medicine.


collected and its European counterpart. Consequently, there is limited discussion of how these stories then manifest themselves in the modern day, which would have demonstrated exactly how folklore is in a state of constant flux and would have helped to legitimate the relevancy of this study. Unfortunately, therefore, it feels as though the final chapter is rushed and not given due attention despite relevant and pertinent points being made, especially in the personal testimonies of descendants of emigrant Cornish miners in the United States. Nevertheless, James should be commended for the sheer depth of research and how he successfully places Cornwall within a broader international context. The Folklore of Cornwall certainly adds to the growing body of literature in Cornish studies and will be an important reference book for those wishing to take up the mantle of Cornish folklore studies in the future.


Profile-driven optimizations and dynamic optimization through specialization have taken optimizations to a new level. By using actual run-time data, optimizers can generate code that is specially tuned for the task at hand. However, most existing compilers that perform these optimizations require separate test runs to gather profile information, and/or user annotations in the code. In this thesis, I describe run-time optimizations that a dynamic compiler can perform automatically — without user annotations — by utilizing real-time performance data. I describe the implementation of the dynamic optimizations in the framework of a Java Virtual Machine and give performance results. Thesis Supervisor: Martin Rinard Title: Assistant Professor


Contraceptives is one of the products of the government program for controlling the population. The government has established the Department of Population Control and family planning and empowerment of women and child protection that specifically manages the dissemination and socialization of the apparatus. But to choose the appropriate contraceptives for himself The Community of people still feel trouble. Not only prospective of common people who feel difficulties, sometimes the KB officers also feel uncertain in giving advice of tool contraceptives. That is because, sometimes the condition of the user does not comply with the existing rules, the latest knowledge about the development of contraception has not been owned by the officer, thus resulting in uncertainty in the suggestion of selection of contraceptives. In this study proposed a knowledge-based system to assist the public in providing an overview of the type of contraceptive equipment suitable for theyself and can be used by the KB officers the as interactive media and in the handling of the uncertainty problem that mentioned before. Then for the handling of uncertatinty problems will use dempster shafer method. dempster shafer method is Chosen because this method can provide an estimate of the value of confidence against a result of the diagnosis, by conducting the calculation of the combination of the same symptoms will be obtained the highest confidence value, or the most dominant. In the testing process, there will be 40 cases compared to the results. This research aims to solve the uncertainty problems of the suggestion the selection of contraceptives tools. The results of this research can provide a consulting medium that is able to provide selection of contraceptives that solve the problem of uncertainty and confidence level of the system to the tool. The test showed an accuracy rate of 95%


The invention discloses a convex-concave assembling structure of a jaw body and a jaw insert. The structure comprises the jaw body, the jaw insert and a micro-adjustment bolt; the convex portion and the concave portion of the jaw body correspond to the concave portion and the convex portion of the jaw insert correspondingly, and the micro-adjustment bolt is rotated in a micro-adjustment threaded hole in the jaw body to fasten the jaw insert with micro force. The convex-concave assembling structure is simple in structure, the round bar is simple in clamping process, the jaw insert fixed mounting process is simple, the efficiency is high, reliability is high, the service life of the jaw body and the jaw insert is long, the cost is low, and the problem that a jaw body and a jaw insert of an existing horizontal electric heating upsetting machine are not likely to be fixedly assembled, and the service life of the jaw body and the jaw insert is low is effectively solved.


Objectives: The objectives of the study were to evaluate changes in 25(OH) Vitamin D levels and some biochemical parameters in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients compared with healthy controls and assess the correlation of 25-hydroxy Vitamin D, calcium, magnesium, and disease activity. Study the effects of anti-RA drugs on these biochemical parameters and also the role of supplements calcium and 25-OH Vitamin D in RA patients.
Methods: This study conducted between 60 patients for RA and 20 healthy controls according to the American College of Rheumatology standards in 2010. In this study, 25-hydroxy Vitamin D was measured using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and also some biochemical parameters were measured with a spectrophotometer (Humalyzer 2000).
Results: Serum 25(OH) Vitamin D, calcium, magnesium, and albumin levels were significantly lower in RA patients compared with healthy controls. Serum alanine aminotransferase aspartate aminotransferase levels were significantly increased in RA patients compared with healthy controls. The correlation was non-significantly among 25-hydroxy Vitamin D and clinical disease activity index (CDAI), while the results showed significantly inverse correlation calcium and magnesium concentrations with CDAI.
Conclusion: 25-OH Vitamin D, calcium, albumin, and magnesium deficiency appear to be widespread in patients with RA. Thus, biochemical changes in RA are reflected in the pathogenesis of RA. Furthermore, in these results, there is no relationship between Vitamin D and the disease activity, while there is a relationship between calcium and magnesium with disease activity.


Two robust optimization NP-Hard problems are studied in this thesis: the min-max regret Weighted Set Covering Problem (min-max regret WSCP) and the min-max regret Maximal Coverage Location Problem (min-max regret MCLP). The min-max regret WSCP and min-max regret MCLP are, respectively, the robust optimization counterparts of the Set Covering Problem and of the Maximal Coverage Location Problem. The uncertain data in these problems is modeled by intervals and only the minimum and maximum values for each interval are known. However, while the min-max regret WSCP is mainly studied theoretically, the min-max regret MCLP has an application in disaster logistics which is also investigated in this thesis. Two other robust optimization criteria were derived for the MCLP: the max-max MCLP and the min-max MCLP. In terms of methods, mathematical formulations, exact algorithms and heuristics were developed and applied to both problems. Computational experiments showed that the exact algorithms efficiently solved 14 out of 75 instances generated to the min-max regret WSCP and all realistic instances created to the min-max regret MCLP. For the simulated instances that was not solved to optimally in both problems, the heuristics developed in this thesis found solutions, as good as, or better than the exact algorithms in almost all instances. Concerning the application in disaster logistics, the robust models found similar solutions for realistic scenarios of the earthquakes that hit Kathmandu, Nepal in 2015. This indicates that we have got a robust solution, according to all optimization models


The software architecture AUTOSAR has become a standard in the automotive domain in recent years. It supports the development of reusable standardized software components that can be easily assigned to electronic control units (ECUs) at design time. At the end of the development process the AUTOSAR middleware is configured and compiled into a static configuration. However, future automotive systems will be based on components that are spread over more than one vehicle. Examples therefore are car-to-x applications as well as assistance systems for truck and trailer combinations. This kind of systems is characterized by changes on the architectural level at runtime since components may join and leave the network dynamically. Research has shown that Service-oriented computing can be used to introduce runtime adaptation to automotive systems. In order to support such systems in AUTOSAR architectures three different approaches to add runtime adaptation are described and discussed.


A poly-methylene blue/multi-walled carbon nanotubes/glassy carbon(pMB/MWNTs/GC) electrode was fabricated by electropolymerization of methylene blue at a multi-walled carbon nanotubes modified glassy carbon electrode.The electrochemical performance of three dihydroxybenzenes,e.g.hydroquinone,catechol and resorcinol at the pMB/MWNTs/GC electrode was investigated by cyclic voltammetry.In pH 7.0 phosphate buffer solution(PBS),hydroquinone,catechol and resorcinol yielded the oxidation peak at 0.104 V,0.203 V and 0.609 V(vs.SCE),respectively.The differences of the oxidation peaks(ΔE) were 99 mV and 406 mV,respectively.The pMB/MWNTs/GC electrode showed excellent electrocatalytic activity and selectivity for dihydroxybenzenes.Based on their voltammetric behavior,a linear sweep voltammetry(LSV) was proposed for the simultaneous determination of three dihydroxybenzenes at the pMB/MWNTs/GC electrode.The experimental conditions,such as the acidity,supporting electrolyte and the interference on the determination of dihydroxybenzenes have been studied.Under the optimal conditions,the calibration curves showed good linear relationship for three dihydroxybenzenes in the range of 5.0×10-6-1.5×10-4 mol·L-1,and their detection limits were 1.0×10-6 mol·L-1.The proposed method had good repeatability and sensitivity,and was successfully applied in the determination of dihydroxybenzenes in real water samples.


The invention concerns recombinantly produced parapoxviruses which carry in their genome deletions or insertions in the form of foreign hereditary information and contain other hereditary information. The invention also concerns the production of such constructs and their use in vaccines.


Background Fiberoptic bronchoscopy (FOB) is standard as a pre-eminent technique for diagnostic, palliative, and curative purposes in variable pulmonary insults. Objectives The objectives of this study were to identify the causation, technical aspects, pathophysiological impacts, and complications of FOB in critically ill patients, to discover the correlation between FOB outcomes and independent risk factors, and ultimately to anticipate predictors of mortality in critically ill patients who underwent FOB. Patients and methods This prospective cohort study was carried out in ICUs on 52 critically ill patients who were subjected to FOB for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes. They were grouped into the mechanical ventilation (MV) (28/52) and non-MV (24/52) groups. FOB outcomes and complications were encountered. Results Diagnostic indication of FOB was seen in 40/52 (77%) cases, while the therapeutic purposes of FOB were seen in 12/52 (23%) cases. FOB had a particular indication in the management of 12/52 cases (13.6%) for both pneumonic and inhalation lung injury cases, 10/52 (19.2%) cases for underlining focal lung lesion, 8/52 (15.4%) cases for hemoptysis, and 5/52 (9.6%) cases for either acute respiratory distress syndrome or atelectasis condition. There was a highly considerable variation between the MV and non-MV groups. Hypoxemia, bleeding, arrhythmia, bronchospasm, and laryngospasm were the most prevalent side effects of FOB, with unremarkable differences between both groups. FOB outcomes were as follows: 31/52 (59.6%) cases improved, 11/52 (21.2%) died, and 10/52 (19.2%) were referred to a tertiary health unit. There were significant negative correlations between outcomes and reasons for admission, time of onset of FOB, and radiological pattern. Older age, respiratory insult, immune-compromised state, nonventilatory assessment, and less frequency of FOB performance were predictors of mortality among critically ill patients who underwent FOB. Conclusion Flexible bronchoscopy is a safe and effective procedure for the diagnosis and treatment of pulmonary pathology in critically ill patients.


Due to their recent reestablishment at the generic level, some species of the genus Varronia need to be (re-)allocated and their names and respective nomenclature types reviewed. One new combination (V. serratifolia) and a new synonym (V. intonsa) are proposed here. To promote nomenclatural stability, the historical of the names of widely distribute species is discussed and a lectotype is assigned to V. globosa, a lectotype and an epitype for V. curassavica. The names V. hermanniifolia, C. hermanniifolia var. calycina, Cordia sessilifolia var. macrantha, and V. villicaulis are also lectotypified. A neotype is designated to V. paucidentata.


A crystal of Tm-1, which is an inhibitor protein of Tomato mosaic virus RNA replication, was obtained using the hanging-drop vapour-diffusion method at 293 K and diffracted X-rays to 2.7 Å resolution. It belonged to space group P1, with unit-cell parameters a = 77.97, b = 105.28, c = 110.62 Å, α = 94.6, β = 109.3, γ = 108.0°.


This study is a qualitative study which aimed to know oral corrective feedback and learners' uptake in the 5 th grade of an elementary school. The source of data was the teacher's talks with the students in class and the analysis was focused on teacher's oral corrective feedback and learners' uptake. In order to reach the research objectives, the writer used the theory of oral corrective feedback and learners' uptake by Panova and Lyster (2002). From the study, the writer found that five out of seven types of oral corrective feedback were used by the teacher, namely Recast, Metalinguistic Feedback, Elicitation, Explicit Correction, and Repetition. Furthermore, types of learners' uptake following the teacher's corrective feedback were Self Repair, Peer Repair, Repetition, Same Error, Different Error, Partial Repair and Hesitation. It can be concluded that oral corrective feedback may lead the students to show signs of learning or understanding implied in the students' reaction to the teacher's feedback.


† Many thanks to the participants in the Conference in Honour of John Willis. I am grateful to Eric Adams, Zoe Sinel, and Christine Shalaby for research assistance and to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for continued financial support. 1 Jane Jenson, 'Fated to Live in Interesting Times: Canada's Changing Citizenship Regimes' (1997) 30 Can. J. of Pol. Sc. 627 at 633 ['Fated']. 2 Ibid. at 634. 3 Ibid. at 635. 4 Ibid. at 628. 5 Michael Adams, Fire and Ice: The United States, Canada, and the Myth of Converging Values (Toronto, ON: Penguin Canada, 2003). More helpfully, the complex factors resulting in both convergence and divergence are canvassed in Richard Simeon, George Hoberg, & Keith Banting, 'Globalization, Fragmentation, and the Social Contract' in Keith Banting, George Hoberg, & Richard Simeon, Degrees of Freedom: Canada and the United States in a Changing World (Montreal, QC: McGill-Queens University Press, 1997) 389. 6 Daniel Drache, 'The Return of the Public Domain after the Triumph of Markets: Revisiting the Most Basic Fundamentals' in Daniel Drache, ed., The Market or the Public Domain: Global Governance and the Asymmetry of Power (London: Routledge, 2001) 37 ['Return']; Daniel Drache, Borders Matter: Homeland Security and the Search for North America (Halifax, NS: Fernwood, 2004) at x.


Over the last decade many sophisticated and application-specific methods have been proposed for transcription of polyphonic music. However, the performance seems to have reached a limit. This paper describes a high-performance piano transcription system with two main contributions. Firstly, a new onset detection method is proposed using a specific energy envelope matched filter, which has been proved very suitable for piano music. Secondly, a computer-vision method is proposed to enhance audio-only piano music transcription, using the recognition of the player's hands on the piano keyboard. We carried out comparable experiments respectively for onset detection and overall system based on the MAPS database and the video database. The results were compared with the best piano transcription system in MIREX 2008, which still kept the best performance in piano subset till MIREX 2012. The results show that the system outperforms the state-of-art method substantially.


Nepal and India have had trade relations since time immemorial. Nepal was known as an exporting nation in the ancient times. Before thetrade agreement between Nepal-Britain Treaty in1923, Nepal's trade with India was more than 95 percent. Despite various treaties and agreements between Nepal and India, Nepal's trade with India now accounts for around 65 percent of total trade. Despite the trade and mutual relations between Nepal and India, India has been treating Nepal on the basis of benefits. In different time periods, India has been creating problems in trade and transit, contrary to international norms and trade and transit treaties, under various pretexts.The objective of this paper is to review of Indo-Nepal trade and transit treaties and analyzing the present status.Descritptive and analytical research design is applied and simple statistical tools are used to analyze the growth and direction of foreign trade of Nepal. Linear regression model is applied to measure the total trade with India and total volume of foreign trade of Nepal. This study has found that there has been significant contribution of total trade with India to the total volume of foreign trade of Nepal. The import trade of Nepal with India is extremely high in comparison to export trade and total trade balance and trade balance with India has been increasing with a huge deficit.


So-called hybrid mirrors, consisting of broadband metallic surface coated with dielectric reflector designed for specific wavelength, becoming more important with progressing development of broadband mid-IR sources realized using parametric down conversion system. Multiple pulse nanosecond laser induced damage on such mirrors was tested by method s-on-1, where s stands for various numbers of pulses. We show difference in damage threshold between common protected silver mirrors and hybrid silver mirrors prepared by PVD technique and their variants prepared by IAD. Keywords: LIDT,


Spoilage rates in India's grain supply chains have been estimated to be 25% to 30%. The price "mark-up" rates, i.e., service charges over crop costs, have been estimated to be over 240%, with a whopping 210% incurred by wholesalers, retailers and the intermediaries. The two rates in developed nations are approximately 3% and between 50% and 100%. This paper focuses on supply-chain portion from wholesalers through consumers and proposes service, information technology and logistics concepts to help reduce the two rates. In particular, cloud computing may help India bring the full benefit of IT to their small merchants through leap-frogging.


Heteroepitaxial GaP films were grown on (100) oriented Si substrates by molecular beam epitaxy. During the growth, the substrates were irradiated with a Zn molecular beam. At growth temperatures lower than 450°C, a broad band luminescence due to Zn–O complexes was observed at room temperature.


The achievement of high level personalized sets of comfort parameters is contemplated within the more general context of so-called smart buildings, where people, by means of the new communication technologies, become active actors to the process of the singling out and control of the best indoor conditions. This dynamic intelligence approach would usefully contribute to better energy-efficient and environment-friendly management of buildings. Multi-agent schemes are suitable tools in this aim, since they are able to manage the user–building–plant system, where adaptivity of people to indoor conditions is suitably achieved. In this article, a contribution to the development of the classical Fanger's model is presented, embodying a user's personal preferences referring to his/her cognitive–emotive–relational ambit. The proposed algorithm is based on a particular multi-agent aimed at the assessment of subjective indoor comfort. Such a subjective–adaptive model is meant herein as a tool for achieving an optimal control of thermal comfort conditions in buildings.


Preface Acknowledgements 1. Introduction - culture, communication and interaction 2. Direct and indirect messages 3. Politeness and face 4. Speech acts and politeness across cultures 5. The analysis of conversation 6. Power, racism and stereotyping 7. Naming and addressing 8. Cultural differences in writing 9. Translating and interpreting 10. Intercultural communication issues in professional and workplace contexts 11. Towards successful intercultural communication References.


The formation of the system of powerful territorial and industrial clusters, the so-called "poles of growth", can result in global competitiveness of Russia and its regions. The article discusses the possibility of Krasnodar region to become one of these poles, based on its involvement in international economic relations. The analysis of foreign trade of the region is given in this article, as well as analysis of the volume of foreign investments into the economy of the region, considering factors of investment potential of the region.


The Bell Curve has probably attracted more public attention than any other single psychological-scientific work in recent memory. Because one of the authors, Richard Herrnstein, was a psychologist, and because much, although certainly not all, of the content of the work is psychological, the book reflects, in the public eye, not only on the authors, but also on the field: It is one of the few highly visible exposures the public sees of psychology at work. The Bell Curve can be reviewed as a work of psychological science, as a popularization of psychological science, or even as a sociopolitical policy statement. The goal of this review is primarily to comment on the book as a work of psychological science, and secondarily to comment on it as a popularization. At the end, I briefly comment on the book as a sociopolitical policy statement. Because there seems to have been some confusion, in various public statements of the surviving author (Charles Murray) and of reviewers, as to exactly what the book does and does not claim, I frequently cite page numbers, which refer to the pages in the book where various claims are made.


Composite microemulsion of anionic polyurethane acrylate polymerizable emulsifier (APUA) and MMA was polymerized with AIBN and K 2S 2O 8 as initiator respectively,and the nanometer core shell latex particle was synthesized.In the latex particles polyurethane is as the shell of the latex particles and PMMA as the core.Effects of APUA content and polymerization temperature on polymerization kinetics were studied.Influences of different initiators and emulsifier concentration on morphology and size of latex particles were observed by TEM.The results suggest that stable core shell P(MMA UA) nanometer latex particle can be synthesized by polymerizable emulsifier APUA,and the particle size is about 50 nm; with increasing APUA emulsifier content,size of latex particles decrease. Effects of different kind of initiators on properties of latex were significant.When APUA was used as emulsifier and K 2S 2O 8 as initiator,hydrogel of P(MMA UA)may appear during polymerization or storing.


Between 1979 and 1984, many haemophiliacs in the UK were exposed to the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) by transfusion of blood products, in particular clotting factor concentrates, especially those imported from the USA. In the UK 1025 haemophiliacs are HIV-antibody-positive, of whom 75 are in Scotland. Thirty-one UK haemophiliacs have developed the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), of whom 23have died. The clinical progress ofHIV infection appears similar in haemophiliacs and in other risk groups, except that Kaposi's sarcoma is rare. There is evidence that transfusion of blood products is immunosuppressive in the absence of HIV antibody. Blood donor selection and heat treatment of clotting factor concentrates were introduced from 1985, and so far these measures appear to have largely prevented new HIV infection in haemophiliacs. Meanwhile a tragic toll ofiatrogenic disease and death continues to increase. Prevalence of viral and HIV infection in haemophilia pARTLY due to the ignorance or irresponsibility of the media, the general public is confused about the relationships between AIDS, haemophilia, and other risk factors for AIDS such as male homosexuality and intravenous drug abuse. There is no evidence that haemophiliacs have any increased prevalence of homosexuality, nor of intravenous drug abuse. Their increased prevalence of HIV infection and AIDS is associated with transfusion of infected blood products between 1979 and 1984, the time-period when HIV infection was spreading in the population of the Western world, including its blood donors. Twenty years ago, the life expectancy of a severe haemophiliac was only half that of a non-haemophiliac. Many died prematurely from uncontrollable bleeding, especially bleeding which was intracranial, gastrointestinal, of following trauma or surgery. From 1967, the therapeutic use of cryoprecipitate, a plasma concentrate rich in factor VIII (antihaemophilic factor), allowed control of such bleeding and greatly reduced the premature mortality. From the mid-1970s, the therapeutic use of lyophilised clotting factor concentrates allowed more predictable correction of the coagulation defect; the performance of major surgery; and self-administration of home treatment, which prevented serious joint bleeds and hospitalisation, and reduced disability and time off work. Factor VIII concentrates were used for the 80% of congenital bleeders who have classical haemophilia, and factor IX concentrates for the 10% who have congenital factor IX deficiency or Christmas Disease. Cryoprecipitate remained the treatment of choice for the other 10% of congenital bleeders with von Willebrand's disease, since it is rich in von Willebrand factor. Whereas one therapeutic or prophylactic infusion of cryoprecipitate comes from about 20 blood donors, one infusion of lyophilised clotting factor concentrate (factor VIII or factor IX) originates from several thousand blood donors. It follows that exposure to bloodborne viruses which are reasonably prevalent in the population is inevitable. This was first apparent for viral hepatitis: a spate of clinical hepatitis (usually non-A, non-B) followed the introduction of clotting factor concentrates in the mid1970s, and thereafter the majority of concentrate-treated haemophiliacs were noted to have intermittently or continuously elevated serum transaminases (again their viral status was usually non-A, non-B). Recent serial studies have shown that hepatitis is a constant finding after only one exposure to clotting factor concentrate; and that the histological picture on liver biopsy tends to worsen with time: from normal or chronic persistent hepatitis, to chronic active hepatitis or cirrhosis. 1


Abstract An α-galactosidase (α-galactopyranoside galactohydrolase, EC 126.96.36.199) has been isolated from the red seaweeds Gracilaria tenuistipitata Zhang et Xia from China and Gracilaria sordida W. Nelson from New Zealand, and its properties have been investigated. The isolated enzyme displayed high activity towards p-nitrophenyl-α-D-galactopyranoside and fioridoside (O-α-D-galactopyranosyl-(1–2)-glycerol), and low activity towards isofioridoside (O-α-D-galactopyranosyl-(1-1)-glycerol). It showed little activity towards melibiose, raffinose and other glycosides tested. The enzymes from G. tenuistipitata and G. sordida had Km values of 2.47 and 2.23 mM, respectively, towards p-nitrophenyl-α-D-galactopyranoside, and exhibited no substrate inhibition at the concentrations tested. The optimal pH range for enzyme activity was 7.4–7.9, and 2-mercaptoethanol was essential for both activity and stability. Stability was also improved at pH 8.2–8.5 and in the presence of 15% glycerol. The molecular weight of the enzy...


Abstract : With support from the Office of Naval Research and the Office of the Secretary of Defense High Performance Computing Program, the Naval Sea Systems Command and the Naval Surface Warfare Centers have been collaborating on the development of a Ship Design Process Reference Model (SDPRM). Through a series of workshops and separate meetings expert knowledge on the design process has been captured using new process modeling tools. The practice and discipline of process modeling has provided immediate benefits and promises longer range benefits in process planning, software assessment, process improvement, and training. Better understanding and management of the design process will enable more cost effective design.


This system introduces the structure and functions of MSCCM,and explains how the management and maintenance of the computer software and hardware systems are implemented through MSCCM net structure which promotes the management level of computer labs and its operating efficiency.


Although research into the use of the first language (L1) in second language (L2) learning has grown in strength in recent years, the majority of ESL teacher-training courses still provide little to no information regarding L1 use in L2 teaching. This paper investigates the perspectives of pre-service ESL teachers regarding the use of the L1 in L2 learning, the potential reasons underpinning these views, and what, if any, further education is needed in ESL teacher training courses regarding L1 use in the L2 classroom. The results of this study suggest that, although the pre-service teacher participants were accepting of L1 use at times, their acceptance was limited, implying a lack of a complete understanding overall. The author recommends ESL teacher-training courses equip future teachers with more information regarding L1 use in L2 learning so that they can to make their own informed decisions on effective L1 use in their classrooms.


The licensing of two inactivated hepatitis A vaccines for persons 2 years or older necessitates development of recommendations for pediatric use, as well as a review of the current indications for immune globulin (IG) in hepatitis A prophylaxis.'4 Both vaccines are immunogenic and protective in children and adults. A single dose of vaccine induced antibody in 88% to 96% of subjects by 2 weeks and 97% to 100% by 1 month, and protected against subsequent hepatitis A virus (HAV) disease occurring 21 days after receipt of the dose in a community with endemic hepatitis A infection. However, completion of the full vaccine schedule is recommended to assure high antibody titers and likely longterm protection. The major pediatric indications for vaccine are: (1) travelers to areas with intermediate to high rates of endemic hepatitis A, (2) children living in defined and circumscribed communities with high endemic rates or periodic outbreaks of HAV infection, and (3) patients with chronic liver disease. Immune globulin is recommended for postexposure prophylaxis, as vaccine has not yet been demonstrated to be protective for this purpose. Except for travelers, recommendations for IG use are not changed from those in the current edition of the Red Book, and include contacts of cases in the home, child care centers, and other selected sites. ABBREVIATIONS. HAV, hepatitis A virus; CDC, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; CCC, child care center; HIV, human immunodeficiency virus; IC, immune globulin; IVIC, intravenous immune globulin; FDA, Food and Drug Administration; 5KB, SmithKline Beecham, mc; EL.U., enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay units; IgG, immunoglobulin C; 1gM, immunoglobulin M. EPIDEMIOLOGY OF HEPATITIS A INFECTIONS Hepatitis A virus (HAV) is a 27-nm RNA picornavirus (enterovirus) with only one serotype. Humans are by far the most important reservoir, but rarely, nonhuman primates may serve this role. Spread is usually by the fecal-oral route through personal contact, but common-source outbreaks from fecally contaminated food or water have been reported.5 Fecaloral transmission also may occur between sexual partners, and seroprevalence surveys indicate higher rates among homosexual men than among heterosexual men.6 Nosocomial infections have been reported, particularly in newborn intensive care units.7 The recommendations in this statement do not indicate an exclusive course of treatment or serve as a standard of medical care. Variations, taking into account individual circumstances, may be appropriate. PEDIATRICS (ISSN 0031 4005). Copyright © 1996 by the American Academy of Pediatrics. Blood transmission during the viremic phase rarely occurs. After exposure to HAy, the incubation period is 15 to 50 days, with a mean of 28 days.8 Maximal infectivity occurs during the latter half of the incubation period and continues for a few days after the onset of jaundice. Most clinical cases are noninfectious after the first week of jaundice. The major source of infection for clinical cases reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from 1990 to 1992 is personal contact, but the source is unknown for close to half of the cases (Table 1). Personal contact is considered to have occurred for anyone who has frequently slept or eaten in the same dwelling with the index case, is a sexual contact, or shares food or drink with the HAV-infected person. Most HAV infections in the United States occur during prolonged community-wide outbreaks characterized by extended, person-to-person transmission, especially from children to adults. Most HAV infections in young children are asymptomatic.5 In outbreaks in child care centers (CCCs), spread frequently has occurred by the time the first clinical (index) case is recognized.9 The index case is usually a child-care provider, a parent, or other adult household contact.9 The incidence of HAV disease for unprotected international travelers, including those staying in luxury hotels, is estimated to be 3 per 1000 travelers per month of stay in a developing country.1#{176} Travelers eating and drinking in inadequate hygienic conditions have an HAV infection rate of 20 per 1000 per month. Although the source of infection in users of injection drugs is unknown, it is likely related to fecal-oral spread because of inadequate hygienic conditions or to contaminated blood from shared needles and syringes.11 In cases in which the source is unknown, HAV is likely to be spread by individuals with asymptomatic infections, particularly young children.5 Prevalence of HAV antibody in the United States is approximately 25% to 35% in individuals 20 to 35 years, 35% to 70% in those 35 to 50 years, and greater than 80% in those older than 50 years. Prevalence is generally higher among Native Americans and Mexican-Arnericans.5'8 Certain populations in the United States have high endemic rates of HAV infection, particularly Native Americans, Alaskan natives, and Latinos and Haby guest on November 9, 2017 http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/ Downloaded from TABLE 1. Source of Hepatitis A Virus Infection for Reported Clinical Cases in the United States, 1990-1992


The complexation of bridged di-terpyridine ligands with iron(II) leads to new metallo-supramolecular assemblies. Di-terpyridine ligands were synthesized using nucleophilic substitution of 4'-chloro-2,2':6',2"-terpyridine with different dialcoholate alkyl and dithiolate alkyl nucleophiles. Upon addition of iron(II) chloride the formation of metallo-polymeric structures via metal-to-ligand complexation is observed. The metallo-polymeric assemblies presented here contain low molar mass (cyclo)-alkyl bridged di-terpyridine ligands of which one is achiral and two others are enantiomers. For both cases, characterization using NMR and UV/ Vis spectroscopy shows complex formation and indicates the formation of metallo-supramolecular polymers. For the non-polymeric system, formed at room temperature, it could be shown that upon heating exchange takes place and that the thermodynamically favored product is formed. Using column chromatography, the first two major fractions of the mixture could be separated and analyzed. MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry and 1 H NMR spectroscopy confirmed the formation of metallo-macrocyclic assemblies. For the chiral system, circular dichroism (CD) experiments showed the formation of an optically active material, with the spectra of the enantiomeric assemblies being mirror-symmetric.


Exclusively air‐driven operation is an essential feature of the cyclic activated sludge process BIOCOS. Switching the air‐flow between diffusers, agitation, and recycle air‐lift keeps operation and maintenance simple and leads to significant energy savings used for mechanical devices. The overall energy demand for the whole biological system with settling was found to be below 20 kWh/PE.a. This hybrid technology shows a constant water level characteristic for continuous flow systems and time‐based control. Modular rectangular tank configuration and high solids operation targets a compact footprint. Process wise, the settling sludge blanket in the two alternating settling tanks was found to contribute considerably to post‐denitrification and enhances phosphorus removal. During the last years, approximately 200 BIOCOS plants have been implemented mainly in Germany, Austria, Spain, and China, some of the operational results are presented in this paper.


Optical disk and optical tape offer very high data storage capacity for a low-cost-per-megabyte compared with other online storage devices. This technology is being applied to a variety of applications in the data and image processing arena for different industries. They are banking, insurance, healthcare, and a wide range of engineering applications such as document management and engineering drawing management. This paper evaluates different storage media for long-term archival of large amounts of data for any of the above applications. The cost effectiveness and performance of different storage media is evaluated for three different models based on document storage requirements


: Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is a significant civilian health problem. TBI triggers complex changes on the central nervous system. NSE and GFAP may provide drug target identification. We aim in this study to investigate the possible effects of pyrimidine derivatives in the recovery of TBI. Materials and methods: Research was conducted on 80 male animal rats, with body weights varying from 200-220g with experimental brain injuries ("weight-drop method"). The concentration of NSE and GFAP and the level of cerebral edema were estimated after the injury in animals that were treated with pyrimidine derivative (50 mg/kg) and choline alfoscerate (50 mg/kg). Results: The level of biomarkers in group of negative control was elevated. After the treatment the experimental animals with pyrimidine


The software defined networking is attracting significant attention from business and private end-users. With characteristic of virtualization and programmability, Service Providers (SPs) can pay for the resources in the term of virtual data centers (VDCs) to deploy their services without maintaining expertise. Despite advantages the new paradigm brings, offering VDCs as a service still faces a new challenge. It is the VDC embedding problem which is known as NP-hard. In this work we propose VDC embedding methods considering the tradeoff among multiple requirements, such as the reliability, revenue and bandwidth occupation. Our goal is to reduce resource occupation rate, increase the acceptance ratio of VDCs and improve the revenue for infrastructure providers (InPs). To reduce embedding cost and ensure the reliability requirement, our proposals try to group VMs with more traffic to a cluster based on topological potential and modularity and embed the VM clusters to distinct servers near to each other. Extensive simulations show that our proposed methods can embed more VDCs efficiently with higher resource utilization.


This study investigates structural and fatigue analyses at bicycle pedal. Maximum deformation at model 1 is 2 times as much as model 2 at static analysis. Models 1 and 2 have the possibility of the weakest strength at the part of contact with chain gear. Among the cases of nonuniform fatigue loads at Models 1 and 2, 'SAE bracket history' with the severest change of load becomes most unstable but 'Sample history' becomes most stable. In case of 'Sample history' with the average stress of 0 to -10 4 MPa and the amplitude stress of 0 to 10 4 MPa, the possibility of maximum damage becomes 4%. This stress state can be shown with 5 to 7 times more than the damage possibility of 'SAE bracket history' or 'SAE transmission'. The analysis result of this study can be effectively utilized with the safe design of pedal.


China takes precautions against conflicts in the East China Sea The Japanese Government ultimately decided against publishing the socalled"related evidence"collected by the Japanese Self-Defense Forces regarcling Chinese ships using fire control radar(FCR) against its warships.A Chinese proverb says that he who makes the initial offense always files the suit first—which may also describe the fuss recently made by Japan.However,Japan's attempt to hype the FCR incident also brings to the forefront issues that should be considered.


Given that drinking >2–3 units of alcohol daily might already have adverse health effects, regular screening of at‐risk drinking is warranted. We aimed to select and pilot a short instrument to accurately screen for at‐risk drinking in transplant patients.


The electron reflectivity from NiO thin films grown on Ag(001) has been systematically studied as a function of film thickness and electron energy. A strong electron quantum interference effect was observed from the NiO film, which is used to derive the unoccupied band dispersion above the Fermi surface along the Γ−X direction using the phase accumulation model. The experimental bands agree well with first-principles calculations. A weaker electron quantum interference effect was also observed from the CoO film.


Reeta Jayasankar and J .R.Ramalingam Regional Centre of Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute Mandapam Camp, 623 520, India Thirty species of marine algae collected from different localities of Mandapam coast (Gulf of Mannar) were analyse!! for their photosynthetic pigments suct. as chlorophyll and carotenoids. The lowest value. of chlorophyll as well as carotenoids content were found in Rhodophyceae. The grouping and separation of algae based on coloration has been practiced for over 100 years (Harvey, 1841). Pigments such as chlorophyll and carotenoids play important roles in photosynthesis. Several studies have been conducted in the algal pigment by Ramus el al. (1976); Brody el al. (1959); Jones el at. (1965) and Waaland el al. (1974). As there is no detailed work in this line on India.l seaweeds, the present study.of thirty species of marine algae belonging to Chlorophyta, Phaeophyta and Rhodophyta from Mandapam coast has been carried out. Materials and Methods The plants were collected from different Iqcalities of Mandapam coast (Gulf of Mannar) and transported to laboratory in plastic bags containing seawater. The plants were washed thoroughly , blotted, weighed, pulverised in 90% acetone and kept in dark for complete extraction. Pigments analysis were carried out by the method of Jaffery and Humphery (1975). Result and Discussion Results of the pigment analysis in different species of Chlorophycean, Phaeophycean and Rbodophycean algae are given in Table I.


The dispersion relation of surface quasistatic waves for a semibounded dusty plasma containing elongated and rotating dust grains is obtained. The analytic modes in the frequency range of dust acoustic waves are derived and discussed with the aid of some graphical solutions. It will be shown that surface dust acoustic waves become unstable when the dust rotation frequency is smaller than the dust acoustic frequency.


Supernatants from allogeneic spleen cell mixtures contain factors that replace both thymus‐derived lymphocytes and adherent macrophage‐equivalent cells in the in vitro primary antibody response to sheep erythrocytes The making of these cell‐replacing products requires the initial presence of allogeneic thymus‐derived lymphocytes, but the final producer appears to be the adherent cell Inhibition of DNA synthesis of allogeneic spleen cell mixtures prevents formation of these cell‐replacing factors It is the late maturation processes leading to the formation of high‐rate antibody‐producing cells among the antigen‐specific bone marrow‐derived splenic lymphocytes that are amplified by soluble products from supernatants of allogeneic spleen cells, because such supernatants are most active when added to purified splenic bone marrow cells that have been in contact with antigen for 48 hr. Both these early and late maturation processes of splenic bone marrow cells are sensitive to mitomycin C and require the continuous presence of antigen. A model is presented where activated thymus‐derived lymphocytes alarm macrophages to secrete a product that helps bone marrow‐derived lymphocytes that have been in primary contact with antigen to develop and mature into high‐rate antibody‐forming cells.


Myelomeningocele (MMC) is the most frequent of the Neural Tube Defects, with 85% of the cases. The etiology is unknown, but it has genetic and environmental characteristics. The diagnosis can be achieved in the prenatal period through the morphological ultrasonography. The closing of the defect within the first hours after birth is recommended as well as the early control of hydrocephalus. Objective: To describe the profile of the patients treated at the Myelomeningocele Clinic of the Assistance Association to the Defective Child - AACD – SP and assess their clinical condition upon admission at the Institution, aiming at verifying whether the early diagnosis has been attained and improving treatment procedures. Methods: To review the files of patients seen at the initial assessment of the MMC Clinic of AACD – SP during the year of 2000, aged younger than one year. The information was obtained from patients' files through a research protocol and consisted of personal data, neurological level at the first assessment, prenatal diagnosis, age at the closing of the defect and presence or absence of ventriculoperitoneal shunt (VPS). Results: A total of 230 patients were assessed in the year 2000. Of these, 64 (27%) were younger than 1 year at the initial assessment. Mean age at the initial evaluation was 5 months and 44% of the patients were females, whereas 56% were males. Diagnosis at the prenatal period had not been achieved in 37% of the patients. The closing of the defect was performed within the 24 hours after birth in 51% of the patients. Only 17% of the patients had not undergone VPS at the time of the initial assessment. The neurological assessment at the initial evaluation disclosed 35% thoracic, 29% high lumbar, 24% low lumbar, 11% asymmetric and no patient at the sacral level. Conclusion: The AACD - SP is a Reference Center in the treatment of MMC and this might account for the fact that the center receives a large number of children with higher functional levels. It is important to try to stimulate not only the prevention, but also the diagnosis and early treatment of this pathology, aiming at decreasing its impact on society. The lack of or late diagnosis of MMC was an expected finding in the present study, as the morphological ultrasound is not routinely performed in Basic Health Units in our country during the prenatal follow-up. The survival of patients with MMC has increased due to the early closing of the defect and hydrocephalus control through VPS, associated with posterior control of the neurogenic bladder.


Summary Alfalfa silages prepared by the A.I.V. and molasses methods were compared during three years. The comparison was based upon chemical analysis of the product and the quantity and quality of milk produced in feeding trials. Chemical studies showed no pronounced differences, although protein and carotene were better preserved by the A.I.V. method. Good preservation of alfalfa containing 20 to 25 percent of dry matter was obtained by both methods. Carotene and protein losses were somewhat larger when the forage contained 30 percent dry matter. Rations containing either A.I.V. or molasses alfalfa silage, or corn silage and linseed meal, were equally satisfactory for milk production. The carotene and vitamin A contents of the butterfats produced on the legume silage rations were high but only in 1937 appreciably different from those produced upon the control ration. It is probable that under average farming conditions the vitamin A potency of the butterfat can be greatly increased by the use of legume silages. The milks from the three lots had approximately the same growth promoting properties when tested on rats. All of the milks in 1936 were superior to most winter milks. None of the milks in 1937 would support growth of guinea pigs. Molasses alfalfa silage appears to be equal to A.I.V. alfalfa silage, and conditions of farm practice probably make molasses silage more suitable for general use.


Solar steam generation (SSG) system has been a promising solution to water scarcity by evaporating seawater in a low-cost and eco-friendly way. However, small molecule-based photothermal materials utilized on SSG...


For diagnosis of heart disease such as myocardial infarction, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and dilated cardiomyopathy, noninvasive myocardial tissue characterization is important. Integrated backscatter (IB) from the heart wall, which is able to measure the phenomenon at wavelength less than about 500 �m, is getting attention as a quantitative tissue characterization method. IB is obtained by averaging ultrasonic scattering power from a region in tissues. IB from the heart wall shows cyclic variation, i.e., the magnitude decreases during systole and increases during diastole. In conventional methods for measurements of IB, a region of interest (ROI) is manually assigned in a B-mode image and, thus, it is difficult to obtain IB from the same site during a cardiac cycle. In this study, by applying the phased tracking method to multiple points, which were set in the heart wall along an ultrasonic beam, we measured IB in the same site of the heart wall during a cardiac cycle with better time resolution and spatial resolution in the axial direction. Furthermore, the interference cycle of the IB signal was calculated to estimate the rate of change in thickness of the wall.


Objective To investigate the apoptosis of human lung adenocarcinoma cancer A549 cells induced by casticin(CAS) and the mechanism. Methods The inhibitory effect of CAS on the proliferation of A549 cells was measured by agar colony formation assay. CAS-induced apoptosis rates of A549 cells were observed by flow cytometry(FCM) with propidium iodide staining. The cell apoptosis morphology was observed by AO/EB fluorescence staining. FoxM1 expression was analyzed by Western blot. Results CAS had a significantly inhibitory effect on the cell proliferation in A549 cells in a concentration-dependent manner, and the IC50was 7.26 μmol L- 1. CAS treated A549 cells presented typical apoptotic morphology, and CAS induced the apoptosis of A549 cells in a concentration-dependent manner. Western blot demonstrated that expression of FoxM1 was down-regulated in a concentration-time-dependent manner. Conclusion CAS can inhibit the proliferation of A549 cells and induce the apoptosis of A549 cells, which may be due to the down-regulation of FoxM1 expression.


The work begins with more general issues of pedagogical teleology what objectives are, which their function is who they are determined by and what their contents is. Talking on the objectives from the point of view of their accomplishment the author suggests that a difference necessarily be made between the general And the specific (operative) objectives i.e. tasks of education. There of course must be present a correlation among various levels of objectives (tasks) and program contents. What is being changed and adapted to pupils are the operative tasks, so that the intervention flows in three directions: working out program contents, adapting program requirements to pupils and evaluating pupils' work. Starting from these principles the author analyses the Elementary school curriculum with the aim to find out whether and to which extent it provides for the individualization of objectives and tasks of education.


We are undoubtedly living in an age where we are exposed to a remarkable array of visual imagery. Nowadays, accepting digital images of official documents is common practice. Image authenticity is important in many social areas. For instance, the trustworthiness of photographs has an essential role in courtrooms, where they are used as evidence. In the medical field, physicians make critical decisions based on digital images. The technology today makes it convenient to quickly exchange contracts, photographs or other documents. While we may have historically had confidence in the integrity of this imagery, today's digital technology has begun to erode this trust. With the advent of low-cost and high-resolution digital cameras, and sophisticated photo editing software, digital images can be easily manipulated and altered. It is possible to change the information represented by an image and create forgeries, which are indistinguishable by naked eye from authentic photographs and documents. In the proposed method Harris Interest Point detector along with SIFT descriptors are used to detect copy move forgery. KD-Tree is used for matching.


The effect of magnetic field on the austenite (γ) to ferrite (α) transformation kinetics is studied in iron by means of dilatation measurements under magnetic field. In the frame of the Johnson–Mehl–Avrami-Kolmogorov analysis and considering a spherical growth mode for the ferrite grains, the Avrami exponent and the activation energy for the interface mobility are calculated. These parameters are found to be weakly influenced by the application of a 16 T magnetic field. This indicates that they are related mainly to the total amount of energy available for the transformation whatever its origin (whether magnetic or chemical). Whereas the magnetic field strongly affects the α/γ thermodynamic equilibrium through the Gibbs free energy of phases, it has a non noticeable influence on the transformation kinetics itself.


In a recent meta-analysis, Kavale (1982) reported reliable significant correlations between auditory-perceptual skills and reading achievement, arguing that auditory skills should be taught to learning disabled children. This paper reviews his work, citing several erroneous interpretations made by the author. Kavale fails to report that the mean correlation between perceptual skills and reading achievement is merely .358, consistently weaker than correlations found between math computation scores and reading scores. Furthermore, the one ITPA subtest with the highest correlation is Sound Blending, the only auditory-perceptual skill taught in many reading programs. We conclude that Kavale fails to provide evidence that the teaching of auditory-perceptual skills is useful to learning disabled children … unless the skills are functional reading skills.


In many cases, visual and optical methods can be used in defectoscopy for different materials and products. With the development of microprocessor components and significant expansion of usage of computer technologies and image processing and analysis techniques in different areas, the use of visual and optical methods in defectoscopy for production and research purposes is rapidly developing. In this paper, the author proposes a computer vision system for experiments and research in the area of studying defects of materials and products. The system uses modern methods of image processing and object identification based on their images. The system allows to install the object so that it can be rotated horizontally, take high-quality images of the object using a digital video camera, pre- process images to enhance image quality using a local computing module, transfer images to the main computing module to identify defects and make decisions about rejection of the material or product. To install and rotate the material or product, the author uses the stepper motor 17HS4401 and a horizontal platform fixed on the vertical axis. The stepper motor is controlled using Microstep Driver TB6600 and a local computing module based on a microcontroller with an ARM Cortex-M7 core. The video stream is recorded using a USB microscope video camera which provides sufficiently high image resolution allowing to find defects on the object surface of size 50 micron and larger. Rotation speed can be controlled using a local computing module. The input data for the local computing module can be provided in the form of a video stream or a sequence of images. The local computing module has an LCD screen based on the ВС1602А indicator, programmable LEDs, a keyboard to select operating modes for the stepper motor, a USB port to connect the microscope video camera and an SWD port to program the Flash memory and debug the firmware in real time. Original images or the images after quality enhancement are passed to the main computing module using the SPI interface. The author has developed software for the local computing module to control the stepper motor, record a video stream or series of images of the object area with possible defects, quality enhancement and passing the video stream or images to the main computing module for further processing and analysis. The results can be used in scientific research and in development of automated systems for non-destructive defectoscopy for materials and end products.


The competition to secure articles of clerkship is fierce. The fact that most law firms target students in their second year of studies means that it is increasingly important for them to excel as early as possible.


The redesign strategy for Hydraulic Control System (HCS) is discussed in this paper. It is presented that the Backtracking Problem Solving(BPS) of redesign is controlled by means of dynamic response of HCS. Meanwhile, the redesign of HCS is accomplished automatically by Multi layer Inference Engine(MIE).


Robotic applications in human environments are usually implemented using a cognitive architecture that integrates techniques of different levels of abstraction, ranging from artificial intelligence techniques for making decisions at a symbolic level to robotic techniques for grounding symbolic actions. In this work we address the problem of simultaneous learning at different levels of abstractions in such an architecture. This problem is important since human environments are highly variable, and many unexpected situations may arise during the execution of a task. The usual approach under this circumstance is to train each level individually to learn how to deal with the new situations. However, this approach is limited since it implies long task interruptions every time a new situation needs to be learned. We propose an architecture where learning takes place simultaneously at all the levels of abstraction. To achieve this, we devise a method that permits higher levels to guide the learning at the levels below for the correct execution of the task. The architecture is instantiated with a logic-based planner and an online planning operator learner, at the highest level, and with online reinforcement learning units that learn action policies for the grounding of the symbolic actions, at the lowest one. A human teacher is involved in the decision-making loop to facilitate learning. The framework is tested in a physically realistic simulation of the Sokoban game.


Over the last few years a number of distributed social networks with content management capabilities have been introduced both by academia and industry. However, none of these efforts has so far focused on supporting both information retrieval and filtering functionality in a distributed social networking environment. In this work we present a social networking architecture that offers both functionalities –in addition to the usual social interaction tasks– in distributed social networks, outline the associated distributed protocols, and introduce a novel data source selection mechanism for identifying good data sources. This novel data source selection mechanism is designed to take into account a combination of resource selection, predicted publication behaviour, and content cost to improve the selection of information producers by users. To the best of our knowledge our approach, coined AGORA, is the first work to model the price of content and to study its effect on retrieval efficiency and effectiveness in a distributed social network setting. Finally, our work goes beyond modelling by providing proof-of-concept experiments with real-world corpora and social networking data.


Effective elastic moduli and thermal expansion coefficients for a composite containing transverse cracks through the middle layers are determined analytically. The laminate portion of the layered composite is treated as a single plate with effective properties (global laminate model), and the ply clusters are modeled as a homogeneous, orthotropic material (local model). The global model is a displacement based, higher order laminated plate theory, while the local model is a stress based homogeneous plate theory. Both models include the effect of transverse shear and normal stresses. This global/local scheme leads to considerable flexibility in modeling cracked laminates without resorting to an inordinate number of degrees of freedom. Numerical results are compared to other approaches.


Acknowledgements It is seemingly ironic that the first page of a thesis is normally the page that is written the last.The end of a thesis signifies the end of a journey. A journey of education, a journey of discovery and inevitably a journey with little or no sleep. Part time courses are always challenging. To be working and studying at the same time leaves one in a state of constant panic. Add pregnancy to that equation and you have one very tired woman. That was me. Juggling teaching, studying and my first pregnancy was by far the most challenging situation I have allowed myself to be in. Alas, I have come out at the end of the journey armed with a beautiful baby daughter and hopefully a Masters degree. I would like to thank firstly my supervisor, Prof Helmer Alsaksen. He was patient and understanding which was much needed just before my delivery. Thank you for your guidance and your constant quest for perfection. I would also like to thank Prof Sue Stocklmayer. A lecturer from ANU, she was here briefly for a two-week course in which I attended. Her thoughts and her opinions were what guided me to this topic for my thesis. She opened my eyes to beyond teaching and learning. Last but definitely not least, I would like to thank my family. My sisters and my brother stood by me despite my short temperedness during my time of " hardship. " Your vote of confidence was what kept me through when all else seemed to fail. There is no doubt in my mind that this would not be possible without your unwavering support and belief in me. Nights spent finishing up last night minute assignments while my husband had quality daddy-daughter time. He is the man behind this woman. His words and sometimes just his smiles could and would erase the pain and stress of a perilous day. The inspiration behind why I chose to embark on this adversity laden journey was my father, the ever determined, eternally optimistic perfectionist. What he would give his daughters were the stars and the moon, and that was exactly what he wanted us to aim for. And of course, my beautiful daughter, your smile lights up the room as it has my life.


Convolutional neural networks(CNN) has shown tremendous ability in classification problems, because it can extract abstract features for improving classification performance. In this paper, we use CNN to compute feature hierarchy layer by layer. With the layers deepen, the extracted features become more abstract, but the shallow features are also very useful for classification. So we propose a fuse multi-scale features of different layers method, which can improve performance of acoustic scene classification. In our method, the logmel features of audio signal are used as the input of CNN. In order to reduce the parameters' number, we use xception as the foundation network, which is a CNN with depthwise separable convolution operation (a depthwise convolution followed by a pointwise convolution). And we modify xception to fuse multi-scale features. We also introduce the focal loss, to further improve classification performance. This method can achieve commendable result, whether the audio recordings are collected by same device(subtask A) or by different devices (subtask B).


Epithelial tissues are composed of a sheet of adherent cells and are present in all metazoans. Their broad function is to compartmentalize tissues and enable the regulated exchange of nutrients and waste between the internal and external environments. To accomplish this function, cells require a specific organization: an apico-basal polarity that provides directionality and intercellular adhesion mediated by adherens junctions that hold cells together. How the epithelia architecture is initiated and maintained remains to be fully elucidated. Adherens junctions and the polarity proteins are functionally linked, as a loss of the main component of AJs: E-cadherin leads to a loss of apico-basal polarity, while disturbing apico-basal polarity results in a re-localization of E-Cadherin. Therefore is challenging to study either pathway in isolation.During my thesis I explored the role of Crumbs, a polarity protein, in the regulation of E-Cadherin in both AJ maturation and maintenance. During maturation of AJs in Drosophila embryo, I demonstrated for the first time by using quantitative high-resolution microscopy PALM that Crumbs regulates E-Cadherin clusters size and their homogenous distribution along the junction. In conclusion, my thesis work provides the first dissection of polarity proteins in E-Cadherin regulation apart from polarity pathways.


The availability today of electricity in Oil & Gas application is a key factor in process production, evaluation and maintainability. The use of IEC61850, a mature communications technology, as a toolbox to develop applications in an open environment is now possible beyond what was permitted by the former generation of communication protocols. The benefits of IEC 61850 have become more apparent since innovative applications of utmost importance can now be materialized as compared to the traditional legacy technology. The paper focus is two advanced applications for the Oil & Gas industry that benefit from IEC61850: — Distributed Fast load shedding, i.e. managing on the same site multiple substations and generation machines. — Data optimization between substation HMI's and the Control Room DCS (Digital Control System). These applications use GOOSE (Generic Object Oriented Substation Event) messages, a multi-casted message defined by the IEC 61850 standard, to replace traditional wiring between protection relays, digital meters, bay computers etc.


Although the current galaxy models yield calculations consistent with much of the data, many irregularities exist, exceptions have been found to the current models, the $\Lambda$CDM model apparently fails on galaxy scales, dark matter remains elusive, the phenomena at the center of galaxies are only beginning to be addressed, and many observations and empirical relationships are unexplained. A changing universe model (CUM) is proposed that posits the stuff of our universe is continually erupting into our universe from sources at the center of galaxies. In this first test of the CUM, a single equation that describes the rotation velocity curve of spiral galaxies is derived. The equation is also used to correlate the measured mass of the theorized, central supermassive black hole with other galaxy parameters. The equation adds one parameter for each mature galaxy and one parameter for each particle (atom nucleus and smaller) species to Newtonian dynamics. Rising, flat, and declining rotation velocity curves are explained without unknown dark matter. Ten previously unknown parametric relationships are discovered. Also, the CUM integrates several heretofore unrelated observations. The CUM model is in an early development stage and has already predicted new relationships among galaxy parameters.