Soft operations research (OR) methods have the potential to provide deep qualitative insights into the complex problems that face our world. However, the propagation of soft OR has, at best, stagnated in recent years and it has been rejected from mainstream academic hard (quantitative) OR. In this paper, it is proposed that there is a need for simple educational example that actually shows the benefit of soft OR. The paper suggests that these examples should be real-world case studies that do not include convoluted graphics or verbose prose descriptions. An example case study has been included in this paper. This case study investigates the impact of beer price changes to two virtually identical restaurant-bars in the Hampton Roads region of the USA. The case study shows that a simple quantitative analysis results in erroneous conclusions which could be avoided by conducting a simple qualitative analysis.


It is well known that human bones are viscoelastic bodies. The theological properties that give rise to viscoelasticity may have a fundamental behavior based on fractional rather than integer calculus. So various constitutive models based on fractional calculus have been put forward, including two higher-order fractional models. In this paper, we recommend two higher-order fractional models (FVMS model and FVMP model), and used the relaxation function of FVMP model and creep function of FVMS model to fit the relaxation experimental data and creep experimental data from Wang et al, respectively. The fitting curves are plotted and show that, the higher-order fractional models are successful and efficient in describing the viscoelasticity of human bone, and may have good potential of applications in research on the property of human bones and tissues, and other biologic viscoelastic materials.


Under normal circumstances, fertilization occurs in the fallopian tube. The fertilized egg divides at the same time by mitotic divisions and travels to the uterus. A few days after fertilization, the embryo is implanted in the uterus. In ectopic pregnancy, implantation occurs outside the uterus. In 95% of cases, an ectopic pregnancy is located in the fallopian tube. Very rare are the locations of ectopic pregnancy in the vagina, ovary, abdominal cavity, as well as in the cervix. The symptoms of an ectopic pregnancy depend on where it is located, but also on the duration of the pregnancy, ie the time that has elapsed since fertilization. The clinical picture can be varied and can mimic a number of early pregnancy disorders. The classic triad of symptoms includes absence of menstruation, abdominal pain, and vaginal bleeding. Abdominal pain is most often unilateral and located in the lower part, and dark-colored bleeding and irregular. Goetz Egloff1*, Isabella Bender2, and Jasmin Roemer3


This research is an action research which aims to improve students' ability to perform steps of stock opname using demonstration method for students of class XII BDP3 of SMK N 1 Bantul batch 2019/2020.This research using Kemmis and Taggart model which used cycles. The subjects of the research were students of class XII BDP 3 and the object of the research was ability to perform steps of stock opname using demonstration method. The data collection was done through tests, observations, field notes, interviews, documentations, and questionnaire. The data analysis techniques employed in this research were qualitative descriptive and quantitative. The data validities used were democratic validity, process validity, and dialogic validity. The results of the research show that demonstration method could improve the students' ability in steps of stock opname through two cycles. In cycle 1, students had increased the ability which shown the average score of the pre-test before the treatment was 44,69 and after the students were given treatment in cycle I, the average score was 80,16 with 19 students were reach the Minimum Learning Mastery Standard (KKM) and only 13 students were not reach KKM, meanwhile, based on the results of the practice, 16 students were capable of performing steps of stock opname and 16 students were not capable yet. In cycle 2, the results of the written tests were shown the average score 86,09 with 28 students or 87,50% passed the Minimum Learning Mastery Standard (KKM) and 4 students or 12,50% had not pass KKM. Meanwhile, the results of the practice show 32 students or 100% were capable of performing stock opname's steps.


Current family policy suggests that in order to restore family values we, as a society, need to focus on reviving a child-centered household. Full-time mothering is lauded as an honorable choice that will advance this goal and ultimately strengthen traditional family values. However, current welfare policy is contrary to this notion in that mandatory welfare-to-work programs deny women receiving public assistance the choice to be full-time mothers. Based on in-depth interviews with female welfare recipients in four rural Appalachian counties, this paper evaluates the problems women face as they confront the difficult choices of being either a "good mother" or a "good recipient." From a feminist perspective, findings suggest that welfare reform programs in rural communities have put poor women in a proverbial "catch-22" with regard to effective parenting. Although many of the women strive to be ideal mothers as defined by societal standards, they often find that they cannot carry out the role effectively because of welfare reform regulations.


Objective This study compares the performances of new-molecule (NM) launches in Turkey with those in the European Union and United States for the years 2007–2013. Methods The Thomson Reuters Newport Horizon for Innovators Database is used to identify NMs with a launch date after January 1, 2007, worldwide and marketing authorization approval after January 1, 2007, in the European Union. The launch dates for the European Union, the United States, and Turkey were retrieved from the same database. Data for Turkey were confirmed via IMS and RxMedia. Results Out of 183 records identified that are launched in the European Union, the United States, or both, 44 of the NMs are launched in Turkey (24%). Conclusions The results of this study show that 24% of the NMs that are launched in either the European Union or United States were able to be launched in Turkey with a mean delay of 821 days (2.25 years).


With the expansion of population number and the development of large-scale agricultural cultivation in the Ming Dynasty,Qing Dynasty and Republic of China in the middle reaches of the Heihe River,human activity had a profound impact on environment.Due to the limited historical records,it's difficult to analyze human activity intensity quantitatively.Cultivated land area,population number,channel length,grain yield and other indicators were selected as evaluation parameters.Based on the data which were collected and estimated from history documents,human activity intensity in the middle reaches of the Heihe River in the period of early and late Ming Dynasty,early and late Qing Dynasty and Republic of China were quantitatively analyzed by using 4 different objective weighting methods which include variation coefficient method,entropy method,standard deviation method and CRITIC method.Some conclusions were as follows: the absolute index of human activity intensity in five study periods was 0.46,0.47,1.13,1.55 and 1.39,respectively,indicating that human activity intensity in Ming and Qing Dynasty had increased continuously and slightly weakened in Republic of China.All the results obtained by four methods had the same sort order,suggesting that the results had good consistency.


The austenite steel after rolling was radiated by the alternating magnetism, and the effects that alternating magnetic on the austenite transition was studied. The result shows that the alternating magnetism promotes the austenitic grain growth of low carbon steel. If the magnetic field intensity is increased, it could provide better performance of raw materials to cold rolling processing.


of Machines and Mechanisms (IFToMM'95) Milano, Italy, Aug. 29/Sept. 2, 1995 Workspace boundaries of Complex Robotic Mechanisms Viviane PASQUI and Philippe BIDAUD Laboratoire de Robotique de Paris 10-12, Avenue de l'Europe, 78 140 V elizy Villacoublay Abstract : This paper proposed a general method for the determination of the workspace boundaries of complex mechanisms. For that, the mechanism is considered as an arrangement of sub-structures (parallel and serial kinematic chains). Force and motion transmission models are compute in their symbolic form. These models are expressed in terms of screw systems. We make use of geometrical properties between screw axes to determine stationary con gurations. Those de ning the sub-structure extreme reaches are then extracted using the fact that they de ne a stable static equilibrium position of the structure. The structural decomposition is applied to obtain the complex mechanism workspace limits. As illustration a macro/mini-manipulation system is studied.


The active sidestick is a mechanical sidestick assembly for fly-by-wire flight control that uses motors, electronics and a high bandwidth closed loop control system to provide grip feel of spring return, breakout forces, and soft-stops. The grip feel characteristics can be user-configured. Also, advanced features such as two-stick cross-coupled operation can be implemented using only electronic feedback signals instead of a mechanical link connecting the two sticks. The goal of this project is to develop a proof of concept system that implements the most important functional requirements of the active sidestick. Safety-critical issues and other flight-worthiness issues are not considered here. The intention is to demonstrate the functionality of the active sidesticks to potential customers in order to generate interest in a request for proposal. This paper describes the system architecture and functional operation of the proof of concept system.


The objective of the present research is to develop a fast and robust tool for the parametric design and optimisation of S-shaped ducts. In contrast to the inherently three-dimensional nature of the duct flow, current design practice for inter-turbine ducts still employs standard performance maps derived from annular diffusers. As a consequence these low fidelity methods produce duct shapes, which are far from the optimum in terms of minimum duct length and maximum area ratio. The present work aims at improving the design process by extensive use of CFD and the introduction of shape optimisation methods.


Elevated plasma total homocysteine (tHcy) concentrations have been confirmed as a risk factor for ischemic heart disease and other vascular disorders. High plasma homocysteine concentrations can be largely attributed to inadequate intake of folic acid and vitamin B 12 . On the other hand, data from several studies indicate that plasma homocysteine increases with age, independent of vitamin status. 56 subjects (30 males and 26 females) similar in socio-economic class (upper-middle), with an age range of 60– 70 years completed the study course. All were healthy working professionals. Clinical, nutritional and anthropometric evaluations were carried out. Biochemical analysis for blood homocysteine, vitamin B 12 and folic acid were performed. All the evaluated parameters were performed at the beginning of the study and after four months of supplementation with biscuits and dietary intake rich in vitamin B 12 and folic acid. The results of study show that before the supplementation, the plasma homocysteine level was 13.8 ± 2.2 μmol -1 this level was significantly high, which indicating a state of mild hyperhomocysteinemia, then returned to its normal values after four months of supplementation with increased dietary intake of vitamin B 12 and folic acid. Significant decrease in plasma tHcy and increase in vitamin B 12 and folic acid levels is recorded after the four months of supplementation P (< 0.01). In conclusion, the daily consumption of B 12 and folic acid supplements appears to be the most effective factor for reducing tHcy concentration. As a result vitamin B 12 and folic acid supplementation for elderly is recommended


Insomnia is a commonly reported clinical symptom. The annual prevalence of insomnia symptoms has been reported to range from 35–50% of the population,1 including cases of insomnia disorders occurring at 10–22%,2,3 although the exact frequency depends on the diagnostic criteria applied. The prevalence of insomnia symptoms in Korea was reported to be 17– 23%,4,5 including Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition diagnosis in 5% of the patients.4 Insomnia is predictive of psychiatric disorders, including depression, anxiety disorders, and alcohol or drug abuse, and is also associated with physical function and quality of life. The prevalence of insomnia is greater in the elderly population.4,5 Insomnia shows a female predisposition which is consistent and progressive with age, becoming more prevalent in the elderly.6 Additionally, it has been reported that chronic benzodiazepine or hypnotic drug users are most often elderly.7,8 The pharmacokinetics and clearance of hypnotic drugs may be altered in elderly individuals compared to younger individuals. It is well known that benzodiazepine, which has a long half-life, may be associated with an increased incidence of adverse events, such as confusion or falling down, among the elderly.9-11 Several hypnotic drugs have been approved by the Korean Food and Drug Administration (KFDA). Physicians can also prescribe many hypnotic medications for insomnia without KFDA indication, including antipsychotics, benzodiazepine, and sedative antidepressants such as amitriptyline and trazodone antihistamine. Many people who suffer from sleep problems do not Received: July 18, 2014 Revised: September 15, 2014 Accepted: September 26, 2014


The death penalty,as the most severe punishment of criminals,has been in a unique position in the criminal law.However,current death penalty charges too much and covers too broad a scope,which should be revised in order to meet the demand of social development.According to the current situation of China,death penalty for some of the non-violent economic crimes were canceled in the Criminal Law Amendment(Ⅷ),and death penalty sentences were strictly limited,thereby human rights situation in China was improved to follow international trends,which effectively promoted the reform of China's judicial system.


Multiplicity distributions of intermediate mass fragments observed in the reactions {sup 18}O+{sup nat}Ag and {sup 18}O+{sup 197}Au at {ital E}/{ital A}=84 MeV are compared to statistical model calculations. The emission of intermediate mass fragments from a highly excited ({ital E}{sub {ital x}}/A{ge}6 MeV) {ital A}=100 nucleus is found to be suppressed compared to the predictions of a sequential statistical evaporation model. This deficiency may be interpreted as resulting from dynamical constraints imposed by the finite time necessary to emit complex fragments.


Rates for NO chemisorption were measured on different samples of Snot in the temperature range 25-150°C. Kinetic measurements revealed that the extent and the rate of NO adsorption on different surfaces increase in the order SnO 2(otidized) e SnOP(actlvated) < SnO2(reduced). It w&s found that preadsorbed NO promotea the adsorption of CO, which was attributed to the formation of a surface isocyanate complex. Electrical conductivity measurements during NO adsorption revealed that both negatively and positively adsorbed species are present on activated surfaces. The catalytic reduction of NO with CO on SnOz proceeded with reproducible rates only above 360°C. The reaction was of zero order with respect to CO and first order with respect to NO. The value of the activation energy is 36.6 kcal/mole. It w&s found that the catalytic reaction takes place on a weakly reduced surface. It is postulated that the reduced centers play an important role in the activation of NO, and NO dissociates upon adsorption. A possible mechanism of the catalytic reduction of NO is discussed.


Summary form only given. The world is becoming more complex everyday, so problem solving often requires global teams of experts working together. To do this effectively there is a need for collaborative tools, and so a variety of teleconferencing and telepresence technologies have been developed. However, most of them involve some variation of traditional video conferencing, which has limitations, such as not being able to effectively convey spatial cues. This workshop focuses on how Augmented Reality (AR) [1] and Mediated Reality (MR) [2] technology can be used to overcome these limitations and develop radically new types of collaborative experiences. In combination, AR and MR technologies could be used to merge the shared perceived realities of different users, as well as enrich each user's own individual experience in a collaborative task. Several studies have explored the effectiveness of using AR and MR for complex tasks. For example, AR has been shown to improve the effectiveness of individual manual assembly tasks [3], while MR systems have been shown to improve the performance time and mental effort in collaborative design tasks [4]. Recent research on using MR for collaboration among crime scene investigators indicates that using shared visual feedback promotes mutual understanding, leads to consensus, and supports hypothesis testing [5]. There are many examples of collaborative AR applications. The Studierstube system [6] targets face-to-face presentations and allows users to walk around virtual 3D scientific data. WearCom [7] enables users to see remote users as virtual avatars in real space. Höllerer et al. [8] allow indoor AR users to visualize the locations and paths of outdoor AR users, and all users to create shared annotations. Poelman et al. [5] present an AR system that allows remote experts to collaborate with local investigators on a crime scene investigation in order to secure evidence. Datcu et al. [9] present an AR system that supports the distributed situational awareness of cross-organisational teams in the security domain. Gauglitz et al. [10] introduce a tablet-based system that incorporates a touchscreen interface through which a remote user can navigate a physical environment and create world-aligned annotations for supporting remote maintenance. In summary, MR and AR technology is becoming mature enough to support a variety of collaboration scenarios. However, there are still a number of open issues that need further research. One major issue concerns the presence of remote users and how they can interact with the system and each other. Partial answers can be found in the areas of human-computer interaction, social interaction, affective computing, and task domain analysis. This workshop brings together researchers who are developing or interested in creating collaborative systems using AR and MR technologies. Starting with a keynote from Prof. Tetsuro Ogi from Keio University, Japan, workshop participants will discuss open research issues in relation to: Case studies using MR/AR for collaboration; Tools for building collaborative MR/AR systems; Effects of MR/AR on trust, presence, and coordination; Interaction models for collaboration in MR/AR; Tools for collaboration in MR/AR; Collaboration awareness in MR/AR. The goal is to build a picture of current and prior research on collaboration in AR and MR, as well as set up a common research agenda for work going forward. This, in turn, can be used to grow the research community.


A comparative study of biogas potential of some selected kitchen wastes within Kaduna metropolis was carried out. The Volatile Solid, Total Solid, Moisture Content and Ash Content were examined. The materials used as feedstock were Food waste (yam peels, plantain peels, and potatoes peels) and fruit waste (orange and pineapple peels). Varying volumes of digesters were employed for biogas generation. The digestion process was carried out under ambient temperature for a retention period of 30 days. Anaerobic digestion is very sensitive to change in pH therefore pH was maintained at 6.7 6.9 for a healthy system. The result of the study showed that yam peel gave the highest value of 89.37ml/week of biogas and the lowest yield was observed with orange peel having 18.26ml/week of biogas. The mean values were within the range of 32.15ml 92.43ml weekly for all the food wastes. While all the fruit wastes gave a mean value of 18.26ml – 36.20ml weekly. This showed that the type of waste had significant effect on the quantity of biogas produced thus, anaerobic digestion process a viable option for effective degradation of organic wastes.


With hydrogenated rosin as raw material,the purification of hydrogenated abietic acid was studied by organic amine salt method in coordination with ultrasonic wave.The effects of different organic amines,aminating solvents,reaction temperature,reaction time,ultrasound power,agitating speed,ethanol concentration for extraction,extraction times,ethanol concentrateion for recrystallization and recrystallization times on the purity of hydrogenated abietic acid were investingated and then the isolated hydrogennated abietic acid products were determined with GC.The optimum conditions obtained were as follows: ethanol amine as organic amine,ethyl acetate as reacted solvent,ultrasonic power of 400 W,reaction temperature of 40 ℃,agitating speed of 400 r/min,reaction time of 40 min,ethanol concentration of 50% for extraction,extraction times of three,ethanol concentration of 50% for recrystallization,recrystallization times of three.Under above reaction conditions,the purity and yield of the hydrogennated abietic acid obtained were 94.5% and 10.48% respectively.


The technological improvement of neuroradiological diagnostic procedures occurred in the last few years has lead to a growing interest in spine and disk pathologies. Most interestingly, many papers concerning the pathophysiology of the back pain, the sciatica and the disk pathology have been published by radiologists. However, even though the diagnosis has become more accurate and detailed, the exact mechanism of the pathology and the correct way to treat it are controversial. Recent papers, for instance, indicate that mechanisms other than the pure mechanicalcompressive should be considered as able to induce symptoms (i.e. vascular, chemical) and that high incidence of disk pathology is found in asymptomatic subjects, protrusions having been detected in 27% and bulging in 52% of volunteers 1• On the other hand, however, disk herniations are not statistically present in normals, and consequently can always be considered pathological. Considering the above, it is not surprising that unequivocal protocols related to the treatment of this pathology do not exist. Moreover, since the modern trends in performing surgery in disk diseases is reduced in comparison with the last 20 years, the possibility of spontaneous clinical and anatomical regression of disk herniations has been assessed 2-8• Long term follow-up studies of surgically and non-surgically treated patients indicates that after a 5 to 10 years period the successful rate is similar, and even after a 1 year period, a good clinical outcome is registered up to 95 % of untreated patients 2-3-9• In the following reports we will try to resume conditions and hypotheses involved in the mechanism of spontaneous regression of disk herniation and sciatica. Some additional considerations concerning post-surgical outcome will also be taken into account.


Based on the stress characteristics of squeezed rock and the plane strain similarity material tests to simulate squeezed rock deformation, the damage evolution equation of rock is deduced and a softening model which can well simulate the post-peak stress behavior of rocks is developed with the assumption that the strength of micro-element rock obeys Weibull distribution. The model can reflect the softening characteristics and whole process of rock′s deformation and failure, and the influences of surrounding stress on rock′s strength.


The substance SS-68 relaxes smooth muscles cells of tracheal rings of guinea pig in vitro. Such effect is selective for β 2-adrenergic receptors, and type of this influence depends on method of stimulation on insulated trachea. The duration of effect substance SS-68 is not so long (about 15 min for toning after this exposure in concentration 10 -7 M or about 60 min after maximum concentration in compare to super selective β 2-adrenomimetic substance indacaterol maleate (the tonus of tracheal rings after washing away the substance SS-68 was not resorted. An amplitude of relaxation smooth-muscle cells on influence of the substance SS-68 in concentration 10 -7 M is about 47% of the amplitude of relaxation witch has been maded by indacaterol maleate.


Low frequency electronic circuit is an important technology-based course for the major of Electronics and Communication.The significance and urgency of the reform are discussed,and around the outline of the training objectives,the overall planning reform of the teaching methods is given based on the characteristics of the course.The two steps of knowledge-transference based on problem and exercise simulation experiment are included in the teaching procedure,and the teaching methods problem-based classroom teaching,small class cooperative exercise lesson,the demonstration and simulation experiments based on Multisim are adopted,and the reform scheme implementation procedures are given.By the teaching methods and means reforming,the teaching quality is improved,and the ability of analyze and problem-solving are effectively trained for students,which provides a reference for other course's teaching reform.


This study was conducted to investigate the lifestyle of post-graduate students. The purpose of the present study was to fi nd out opinion of the post-graduate students how signifi cant are physical activities and healthy eating in their life. The study was initiated due to the growing knowledge of the importance of healthy food. The study was carried out by using empirical methods and the opinion of post-graduate students living in Latvia analysed. The authors have used questionnaire method and in February 2008 received answers from 86 respondents who are the post-graduate students of Latvia University of Agriculture (LLU). Studies showed that the biggest part of research subjects appreciates the importance of physical activities and healthy eating, and treats it as a positive part of the post-graduate studies process.


Ashrifa AMIR Department of Architecture Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, UKM Bangi, Malaysia. firstname.lastname@example.com Mohd. Farid MOHAMMED Department of Architecture Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, UKM Bangi, Malaysia. firstname.lastname@example.com .my Mohd Khairul Azhar Mat SULAIMAN Department of Architecture Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, UKM Bangi, Malaysia. email@example.com u.my Wardah Fatimah Mohammad YUSOFF Department of Architecture Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, UKM Bangi, Malaysia. email@example.com. my Abstract— Indoor air temperature is one of the most notable variables to determine indoor thermal comfort. In Malaysia, occupants' of low-cost houses still have an issue of overheating due to poor design. It is important to measure several parameters of thermal comfort in order to identify the existing indoor thermal condition of a low-cost house. The main objective of the research is to reveal the current indoor thermal condition of the typical low-cost single story detached houses. Therefore, this paper focuses on the measurement and analysis of indoor air temperature of a low-cost single story detached house in Malaysia. Field measurement was conducted using thermal comfort meters and a weather station under two different conditions: (a) windows and the door closed and (b) windows and the door opened. Results revealed that the indoor air temperature (Ta) is statistically significant with time but not with the conditions. The indoor environment condition is unsatisfactory even when the door and windows were opened. A simulation with Integrated Environmental Solutions (Virtual Environment) software to initiate a strategic design solution by changing the roof insulation materials and enlarged windows to improve the indoor thermal environment of the house. Findings show that when the window sizes were enlarged and bubble foil insulation material was added, indoor air temperature reduced to some extent but still not in the comfort range. Hence, more emphasis should be given to design layout and material selection to improve the indoor environmental quality of the low-cost single story houses of Malaysia.


The introduction of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology provides new opportunities that the Global Positioning System (GPS) could not provide for indoor localization. In this article, we propose a real-time indoor tracking and positioning system using BLE beacon and smartphone sensors. Up to now, most of the system is using Pedestrian Dead Reckoning (PDR). The initial position is considered to have a high impact on the accuracy of PDR, so, based on the analysis of received signal strength (RSS), we present a method to estimate the approximate distance, then, estimate the initial position through Trilateration technique. Next, we propose a lightweight and reliable fingerprint method. This method addresses two problems: (1) to correct errors due to the initial position error and orbital drift of PDR, (2) to reduce the amount of data, number of reference points and collecting data time. The proposed system is implemented on the smartphone as an application. To verify the accuracy of the system, we performed some experiments. The results show that the system not only achieves high accuracy but also the high performance with average complexity and low cost.


Abstract. Research on power line extraction technology using mobile laser point clouds has important practical significance on railway power lines patrol work. In this paper, we presents a new method for automatic extracting railway power line from MLS (Mobile Laser Scanning) data. Firstly, according to the spatial structure characteristics of power-line and trajectory, the significant data is segmented piecewise. Then, use the self-adaptive space region growing method to extract power lines parallel with rails. Finally use PCA (Principal Components Analysis) combine with information entropy theory method to judge a section of the power line whether is junction or not and which type of junction it belongs to. The least squares fitting algorithm is introduced to model the power line. An evaluation of the proposed method over a complicated railway point clouds acquired by a RIEGL VMX450 MLS system shows that the proposed method is promising.


describe an evaluation experiment on GeoTemporal Document Retrieval created for the GeoTime evaluation task of NTCIR 2011. This work describes the retrieval techniques developed to accomplish this task. We describe the collections used in the workshop, detailing the composition of the collections in terms of geographic and temporal expressions. The first contribution of this work is the collections' statistics, which by itself reveals the relevance of this subject. Our parsing techniques found millions of references related with the dimensions of relevance time and space. Those references were used to index the documents in order to score them in those dimensions. We also introduce a technique to find extra references in Wikipedia using Google Search Service and the same parsers used in the collections. Those references were used in four different scenarios depending on the queries: first we used the references found in topics to filter documents without geographic or temporal expressions and used pseudo relevance feedback to expand topics with no references using the indexes created for places and dates; in other approach we used the Wikipedia references to filter documents from the result set, in a last approach we expanded all topics with the Wikipedia references. Finally we used another technique based on metric distances calculated through coordinates (latitudes and longitudes) and dates in order to create a scope for documents and topics, and rank them according to the distance between each other.


This paper proposes a forecasting model of monthly electricity consumption based on chaotic optimization by means of the initial value sensitivity,ergodicity and randomness of chaotic motion and the analysis of chaotic optimal searching process.On this basis,parameters of the forecasting model for monthly electricity consumption are determined by using chaotic optimization,and the concrete procedure to implement the pro-(posed) model is presented.The forecasting results of practical monthly electricity consumption show that this model can forecast monthly electricity consumption more rapidly and accurately.


Among the surviving papers of the indefatigable journalist, parliamentary barrister, and Cambridge "Apostle" George Stovin Venables (1810–88) recently deposited at the National Library of Wales are five delightful letters to Venables from Matthew Arnold – two written in 1879 and 1880 and three during the last full year of his life in 1887. The first two, being concerned with Arnold's 1879 book of selections from Wordsworth and with Venables' review of it in the Saturday Review, give us Arnold's reaction to published criticisms of his Wordsworth book and its well-known introductory essay. The three 1887 letters anticipate a visit by Arnold to the Venables family seat, Llysdinam, at Newbridge-on-Wye, in Radnorshire, Wales, hoping to include fishing in the river.


The invention discloses a method, a system and a device for transmitting an enhanced type multimedia broadcast multicast service (EMBMS), which are applied to improving the EMBMS receiving quality of a user terminal. A method for receiving the EMBMS is applied to the process of receiving the EMBMS by the user terminal in an idle state by using multi-cell point-to-multipoint mode resources in a multicast broadcast single frequency network, and comprises the following steps that: the user terminal sends an EMBMS request message to a network side; the user terminal receives configuration information of single-cell point-to-multipoint mode resources established by the network side for transmitting the EMBMS; and the user terminal acquires the new resources allocated by the network side for transmitting the EMBMS, and uses the resources to receive the EMBMS. The method, the system and the device are mainly applied to transmitting and receiving the EMBMS in the multicast broadcast single frequency network, improving the EMBMS receiving quality, and ensuring the EMBMS receiving continuity.


Prior research has emphasized the major role of innovation capacity (IC) for public sector organizations (PSOs). Nevertheless, what constitutes IC for PSOs is under-conceptualized. Based on a systematic literature review (112 records) and an expert survey (18 experts from 13 countries), this article is designed to develop an integrative and dynamic framework for IC in PSOs. The framework proposes to integrate six interrelated dimensions of IC: learning capacity, connective capacity, ambidexterity, risk monitoring, leadership and technological capacity. These six collective capacities are variously activated according to the innovation phases. The framework suggests that a lack of or a failure of innovation in PSOs might result from unbalanced attention to one or more of these six dimensions of IC. Therefore, this IC framework provides a diagnostic tool to identify such capacity gaps. Finally, this article identifies management strategies that might contribute to overcoming gaps in PSO ICs.


Aryl chlorides are converted to aniline derivatives using catalytic amounts of Ni(COD)2 (COD = 1,5-cyclooctadiene) and DPPF (DPPF = 1,1'-bis(diphenylphosphino)ferrocene) or 1,10-phenanthroline in the presence of sodium tert-butoxide. This procedure has a broad substrate scope:  electron-rich or electron-poor aryl chlorides, as well as chloropyridine derivatives, can be combined with primary and secondary amines to give the desired aryl amine products in moderate to excellent yields. Additionally, a procedure which utilizes the air-stable precatalysts (DPPF)NiCl2 or (1,10-phenanthroline)NiCl2 is also described.


An Investigation into Irish State Patronage of the Visual Arts. Rona O'Reilly The focus of this research is in ascertaining how and why the Irish state patronises the visual arts. The framework that the state puts in place for the support of the arts influences the creation of art. The initial standpoint from which to evaluate the system is founded on the belief that art is of social good. The second source of belief is in the necessity for an autonomous setting in which it can be created. These two beliefs underpin state patronage of the arts in contemporary society. Therefore they have to be examined carefully in order to see if they hold up. This requires an investigation into the formation of value. This is undertaken by looking into the social development of western society and its influence on the placement of arts value. Establishing how arts value to society is defined provides a means by which to investigate the manner in which the state patronises the visual arts. Two case studies provide the evidence in how the state supports the arts and why it chooses to do so. The Irish Museum of Modem Art is used as an example of the state's role in the maintenance of the canon of art. The second case study looks at the work being done by Breaking Ground. Breaking Ground is an extensive art project as an element of the regeneration process happening in Ballymun funded by the state. It provides and insight into how the state utilises art in the unification of a social group.


The calculation of the one-electron finite nuclear size corrections to the energy levels of multicharged ions by the known nuclear charge distribution moments (r2) and (r4) using the effective radius method is considered. Approximative formulae which allow calculation of the one-electron nuclear size corrections at intervals Z=1-100 (Z is the nuclear charge) with a relative error approximately=0.2% using the known moments (r2) and (r4) are proposed.


In this study, virulence properties of L. monocytogenes strains isolated from food and food environments were evaluated. In particular, adhesion and invasion efficiencies were tested in a cell culture model (HeLa). Half of the isolates (9/18) exhibited a high invasion index. In particular, the strain isolated from smoked salmon had the highest invasion index. The remaining isolates showed an intermediate invasion index. All environmental isolates belonged to this group. Finally, no isolates revealed a low invasion index. Regarding intracellular growth, all tested isolates had a replication time between 2 and 6 hours. For this reason, they can be considered virulent. In spite of its capability to invade HeLa cells with a medium/high invasion index, a non-haemolytic rabbit isolate did not show any intracellular growth. In conclusion, differences in invasion efficiency and intracellular growth did not seem strictly related to the origin of the strains. Moreover, invasiveness of an organism is not the only requirement for establishing an infection. Virulence of L. monocytogenes also depends on ability to grow intracellularly and to spread from cell to cell. For these reasons, PCR detection of known virulence genes has the potential to gain additional insight into their pathogenic potential. A comprehensive comparative virulence characterization of different L. monocytogenes strains in studies that include tissue culture models and PCR detection of virulence genes will be necessary to investigate differences in human-pathogenic potentials among the subtypes of this bacterium.


Introduction Crohn's disease is a condition which may invalve any part of the gut. Fistulae are common but free perforation is much rarer and has until recently only been recorded in the ileum, jejunum and Meckel's diverticulum (Nasr et al., 19(9), although it is listed by Avery Jones amongst the possible complications of Crohn's disease (Avery Jones et al., 1968; Avery Jones, 1970). The following case is of interest as colonic perforation was not associated with toxic megacolon, which has been incriminated in the latest reports (Javett and Brooke, 1970; Shah· manesh and Wilken, 1970).


A new geometrical configuration for superconductive tunnel junctions as high energy resolution particle detectors is presented. The proposed configuration is based on annular junctions, in which fluxons are trapped in the central hole during the superconducting transition. Such a configuration overcomes some important drawbacks of the traditional geometries. The suppression of the Josephson critical current by a magnetic field that does not need to be sustained during the whole detection time and the absence of Fiske steps, which compromise the stability of the bias point, are automatically reached with the new configuration.


Two methods of computing the fractal dimension of biopolymer chains are compared for 50 proteins. The chain fractal dimension dc is the scaling exponent of the contour length with respect to the end‐to‐end length, while the reentrant fractal dimension dr scales the total mass with respect to distance. Electron spin relaxation data, which yield the spectral dimension d, reveal a strong correlation between dc and d. A study of the apparent value of d for myoglobin azide under 11 solvent conditions is presented and explained in terms of a variation in the protein‐solvent coupling. A sharp transition in the effective spectral dimension at T=6 K is interpreted as reflecting a crossover from vibrational modes of the solvent to those of the protein.


The main purpose of this study was to identify key plays in a 3D cadastre citation network. To achieve the research objective, this article examined theories and previous studies on 3D cadastre and...


Traditionally, the main source of data used to measure countries' participation in international production networks or global value chains (GVCs) has been conventional international trade statistics. However, international fragmentation of production has weakened the analytic interpretability of these data as intermediate goods but also services cross borders many times on the way to their final destination. This is often referred to as the double (or multiple)-counting problem of international trade Statistics. This, in turn, has led to the development of a new branch of trade statistics, referred to as Trade in Value-Added (TiVA) providing new insights on GVCs, and corresponding databases, notably the OECD-WTO TiVA database, which provide a measure of international interdependencies through the construction of global input-output tables that show how producers in one country provide goods and/or services to producers and consumers in others. But with the field still relatively new, many users are struggling to fully understand how these new indicators should be used and indeed how they have been constructed. This document is designed to address those difficulties, providing, where appropriate guidance on "dos" and "don'ts". It also reviews many other typical GVC indicators derived outside of input-output frameworks; recognising that gross measures of trade, and indicators derived from them, remain important and relevant for policy making.


A new wild bean found in the mountainous range "Fila Cruces" of southeastern Costa Rica is described. To date, only four populations are known from different sites on the slopes of Cerro Anguciana and "Fila Cruces" where it seems to be endemic. The differences (slender curved racemes, small oval acuminate primary and pedicelar bracts, lilac inner face of standard, white wings) are presented with closely related species such as P. hygrophilus and P. oligospermus of the section Brevilegumeni to which it may belong.


Manufacturers of cars and their parts will counter the effects of electromobility, autonomous driving, connectivity and digitization in the years to come. These are so far unrecognized risks threatening their activities; for example from the point of view of sales, up to 30% of car parts manufacturers will be at risk in the Czech Republic. It seems that the new trends will significantly impair the standard models of the current vertical structure of the automotive production and the supply chain. Car makers will also have the chance to develop and expand new technologies, business activities and leadership within the new trends.


→ Doing otherwise has the potential to overgenerate relative to the target language. ◦ No further positive evidence will ever push learner back to the more restrictive target language. • In phonology, this reduces mainly to a preference for the higher ranking of markedness constraints than faithfulness constraints, e.g., ◦ Biased Constraint Demotion (BCD; Prince & Tesar 2004) ◦ Low Faithfulness Constraint Demotion (LFCD; Hayes 2004) • Most researchers agree that the phonological learning procedure should capture the Subset Principle.1 ◦ i.e., little reason to think that phonological learning does not universally adhere to the Subset Principle → Capturing the Subset Principle is thus taken as one of the key arguments in favor of BCD and LFCD over simple Recursive Constraint Demotion (RCD; Tesar 1995, Tesar & Smolensky 1998, 2000).


Objective: This study was conducted to determine the outcome of medical treatment with vaginal misoprostol in missed miscarriage.
Methods: A randomized controlled study was performed in Benha Teaching Hospital between April 2016 and June 2017. Eighty patients diagnosed with miscarriage before 13 weeks of gestation and wanted to try medical treatment were included. A detailed ultrasound scan was performed to confirm the diagnosis. Patients took 400 microgram (mcg) of misoprostol  vaginal as an initial dose, and repeated the same dose 4-6 hours apart. Successful medical abortion was defined as spontaneous expulsion of gestational products (including gestational sac, embryo, fetus, and placenta). Ultrasonography at least 24 hours later from the initial dose to assess the uterine cavity if gestational products were not expelled, surgical evacuation was performed.
Results:  About two-thirds of patients (77.5%) had a successful outcome. The median interval time from pill to expulsion was 18 hours in the successful medical treatment group.
Conclusion: Medical treatment with vaginal misoprostol should be a proper option for the first trimester miscarriage, especially for the patient who want to avoid surgical procedure. We can reduce the unnecessary sedation or surgical intervention in the patients with the first trimester miscarriage.


Vehicular Ad-hoc NETworks (VANETs) are rapidly increasing their popularity and ductility, being an essential element for smart cities and smart driving. Layer three standards have already been approved, but they do not pursue optimality in terms of high throughput. This paper aims to identify a new algorithm to put on top of the standard routing layer, namely Self hEaling Infotainment and safetY Application (SEIYA), in order to create a vehicular distributed backbone, able to stay up as long as possible (thus reducing the election phase overhead). The main objective is to enable high speed data routes for several kinds of safety and infotainment applications of a stable vehicular cloud: traffic monitoring, emergency signals, augmented reality information are just few examples. Our approach is validated through simulations on real maps with realistic vehicle flows and high throughput demands.


TERRORIST HEALTHDOG AND OTHER STORIES by Alan Solis This thesis, Terrorist Healthdog and other Stories, consists of fourteen short stories which cover a wide range of subjects: reminiscences by grandparents with vastly different views of their shared lives ("Ed and April Joy"); racism in 1970's Arkansas ("Blood Will Tell"); obsessions with numbers and machines and error ("Pleasure is Finite" and "The Weight Distributor"); frustration ("Exercise," "I'm On My Way," and "A Hand in the Bird"); madness ("Groundskeeper," "In Plain View," "Sam's a Prick," and "Timeless"); revenge ("Fable #4"); political intrigue concerning a plot to assassinate the President ("Terrorist Healthdog"); and life as a fugitive in Guatemala ("Solola").


Abstract Background Non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants (NOAC) have superior safety and comparable efficacy profile compared to vitamin-K antagonists (VKAs), with more convenient dosing schemes. However, issues with adherence to the NOACs remain unsolved. Aims We sought to investigate the adherence to oral anticoagulation (OAC) and baseline factors associated with poor adherence after ischaemic stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). Methods We recruited hospitalised patients (2013–2019) from two prospective stroke registries in Larissa and Helsinki University Hospitals and invited survived patients to participate in a telephone interview. We assessed adherence with the Adherence to Refills and Medications Scale (ARMS) and defined poor adherence as a score of over 17. In addition to demographics, individual comorbidities, and stroke features, we assessed the association of CHA2DS2-VASc and SAMe-TT2R2 scores with poor adherence. Results Among 396 patients (median age 75.0 years, interquartile range [IQR] 70–80; 57% men; median time from ischaemic stroke to interview 21 months [IQR 12–33]; median ARMS score 17 [IQR 17–19]), 56% of warfarin users and 44% of NOAC users reported poor adherence. In the multivariable regression model adjusted for site, sex, and age, poor adherence was independently associated with tertiary education, absence of heart failure, smoking history, use of VKA prior to index stroke, and prior ischaemic stroke. CHA2DS2-VASc and SAMe-TT2R2 scores were not associated with poor adherence. Conclusions Adherence was poor in half of AF patients who survived an ischaemic stroke. Independent patient-related factors, rather than composite scores, were associated with poor adherence in these patients. KEY MESSAGES Adherence was poor in half of the atrial fibrillation patients who survived an ischaemic stroke. Independent patient-related factors rather than composite scores were associated with poor adherence. The findings support the importance of recognising adherence support as a crucial part of holistic patient care recommended by recent AF guideline.


: STACK is an online system for computer aided assessment. It was designed for mathematics teaching, but STACK is able to do more than mathematics. It can be applied to all disciplines were mathematics is somehow involved, which is especially the case in the technical courses in engineering programs. This contribution reports about the implementation of STACK-problems to mechanics and electrotechnics at Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences (HsKA).


This paper computes the information of region division,presents a stencil shadow volume algorithm based method to render the road net to solve the problems when rendering road net in the 3D virtual scene especially in the LOD terrain based virtual scene.Simulation result shows that this method can render the roads exactly on the terrain surface.


The automatic flight control system is a desirable aid to the handling qualities, stability augmentation, and safety of the present day VTOL aircraft. This has been verified in recent flight tests of the VJ101C VTOL built for the German Defense Ministry. Flight and simulator experience gained on this program emphasizes the need for stability augmentation in at least the pitch and roll axes. Other features, such as control stick steering and engine failure protection, were also provided. Since some of the flights were performed on a telescopic simulator, the range of control parameters could be expanded to permit a wider range and better separation of the control variables. All three phases of the VJ101 program as well as three distinct prototypes are described.


Molder for office flags. # Is a device attached to the mast I molded the flag to give the office properly, getting better appreciate colors and shields, and being hidden behind it.


mesalazine at the upper gastrointestinal tract because of a delayed gastric emptying, with the failure to achieve an adequate amount of drug into the colon. The stress situation linked to the BIB procedure may have played an adjunctive significant role. Mechanical action of the intragastric balloon together with stressinduced contractions, without a specific role of Pentasa tablets for the antiphlogistic effects of mesalazine, may have caused upper gastrointestinal mucosal injury. In conclusion, BIB seems unsafe in morbidly obese patients with UC especially because of the possible delayed gastric emptying that influences the release of preparations containing mesalazine for the treatment of the intestinal disease, and for other possible complications also related to the presence of the intragastric balloon not desirable in patients with UC.


Modular multilevel converters (MMC) are emerging to be an alternative approach for realizing power converters for a variety of high power applications because they allow series-cascaded levels and/or parallel-connected branches. However, the design of communication interface between system controller and individual modules became increasingly complicated as more modules been added into the system, and advantages brought by the MMC topology become compromised by the disadvantages from its data connection complexity. This paper aiming at reduce communication stress by using delta-sigma (or sigma-delta) modulation (DSM) strategy, and carrying out studies from the aspects of both performance and feasibility with classical approaches.


Research is progressing fast to find safe and effective methods of delivering therapeutic genes to patients afflicted with a range of genetic and acquired diseases that either do not respond at all, or respond poorly, to treatment with small‐molecule drugs or protein‐replacement therapy. A technical barrier that remains relates to the need for scalable operations that can consistently and reproducibly make large quantities of the therapeutic gene vectors under the current Good Manufacturing Practice ('cGMP'). The present investigation focuses on these issues and introduces a new method of assessing the engineering effects of process and material factors on the colloidal properties of plasmid‐DNA delivery systems based on response surface methodology (RSM) and experimental techniques. Previously, experiments have shown that several factors can reduce the physical stability of non‐viral delivery systems. Specifically, it has been demonstrated that the mean size and charge of plasmid DNA condensed by cationic agents are affected by many factors, including the pH and ionic strength of the buffer, and the method of preparation. For example, the method and intensity of mixing of the DNA with condensing and conjugating agents have been shown to be important. Using RSM to analyse new experimental data in the present paper, we report on the impact of these factors and, more crucially, the effects of interaction between the factors on the colloidal properties of the DNA–vector complexes. Specifically, for plasmid DNA condensed by poly‐l‐lysine, interactions between ionic strength, pH and DNA concentrations play a critical role. Whether poly‐l‐lysine should be used as a condensing agent in the final delivery system remains to be demonstrated. However, the use of RSM combined with the scaleable experimental approach described in this paper may be applied to other delivery systems.


Micro-Raman imaging along with other techniques are applied to study the morphology, structure and crystalline quality of various types of InAs nanowires (NWs). The NWs of low and high densities are formed using metal organic vapor phase epitaxy. Raman mapping is effectively used as a local probe to gain information about the structure and crystalline quality of low-density NWs where the conventional characterization techniques are not very useful. However, for high-density NWs, the image and crystalline quality obtained from the LO phonon strongly corroborate with scanning electron microscopy and x-ray diffraction (XRD) results, respectively. These low-density (104 cm−2) and high-density (108 cm−2) NWs are grown on Si(0 0 1) under various growth conditions such as catalyst-assisted and catalyst-free growth, growth on native oxide-covered and oxide-cleaned Si, grooved Si surfaces and also varying the V/III ratio and growth temperature. NWs (1 µm long and 50–100 nm wide) with high density and tapered NWs (50–80 µm long and 200–500 nm wide at the tip) with low density are formed under different growth conditions. The growth of hillock- and wire-like structures is observed under the same growth condition. Raman, XRD, scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy analyses confirm that the hillocks are grown along the 〈0 0 1〉 direction, whereas the wires are grown along [1 1 0] directions in the plane of Si(0 0 1). Furthermore, the Raman analysis of these NWs confirms that the smaller NWs have much better crystalline quality (half-width of LO phonon frequency ∼6 cm−1) compared to the larger NWs (half-width of LO phonon frequency ∼15 cm−1) although both NWs are oriented with the Si(0 0 1) surface.


The purpose of conducting this research was to compare mathematics curriculum documents of two different systems for secondary education namely SSC (Secondary School Certificate) and O Level. The objectives were: to compare the mathematics curriculum at GCE (General Certificate of Education) O Level and secondary school certificate system with special reference to; objectives, content and teaching method; and to find out comparative strengths and weaknesses in curriculum objectives, content and teaching methods suggested for teaching mathematics both in the GCE O Level system and SSC system. Research method included survey technique and documentary analysis. The curriculum documents of both the systems were analyzed to collect data about objectives of mathematics teaching, the content offered and methods of teaching as recommended by the document. Text-books were analyzed by the teachers with the help of an evaluation scale. Data analysis involved Mann Whitney U test, t test and documentary analysis. Results showed that O Level system of secondary education has more comprehensive objectives for mathematics teaching and better textbooks. The methods of teaching suggested in both the documents however, were found same. It was recommended to revise objectives, set for mathematics teaching and the text-books taught in SSC system of secondary education.


TAP - the philosophy the must knows what you have to have jump start training, analysis and planning (TAP) registrar selection measuremens quality system documentation life after registration.


As to the limit question of integral included in sequence terms,the paper summarizes two adequate conditions for integral limit from the theorem and provides some examples.


The lack of sufficient labeled data is a key bottleneck for practitioners in many real-world supervised machine learning (ML) tasks. In this paper, we study a new problem, namely
 selective data acquisition in the wild for model charging
 : given a supervised ML task and data in the wild (e.g., enterprise data warehouses, online data repositories, data markets, and so on), the problem is to select labeled data points from the data in the wild as additional train data that can help the ML task. It consists of two steps (Fig. 1). The first step is to discover relevant datasets (
 e.g.
 , tables with similar relational schema), which will result in a set of candidate datasets. Because these candidate datasets come from different sources and may follow different distributions, not all data points they contain can help. The second step is to select which data points from these candidate datasets should be used. We build an end-to-end solution. For step 1, we piggyback off-the-shelf data discovery tools. Technically, our focus is on step 2, for which we propose a solution framework called
 AutoData.
 It first clusters all data points from candidate datasets such that each cluster contains similar data points from different sources. It then iteratively picks which cluster to use, samples data points (
 i.e.
 , a mini-batch) from the picked cluster, evaluates the mini-batch, and then revises the search criteria by learning from the feedback (
 i.e.
 , reward) based on the evaluation. We propose a multi-armed bandit based solution and a Deep Q Networks-based reinforcement learning solution. Experiments using both relational and image datasets show the effectiveness of our solutions.


The authors study the performance of mean-variance optimized (MVO) equity portfolios for retail investors in various markets in the U.S. and around the world. Actively managed equity mutual funds have relatively high fees and tend to underperform their benchmark. Index funds such as exchange traded funds still charge appreciable fees, and only deliver the performance of the benchmark. The authors find that MVO portfolios are relatively easy to manage by a retail investor, and that they tend to outper- form their benchmark or, at worst, equal its performance, even after adjusting for risk. Moreover, they show that the performance of these funds is not particularly sensitive to the frequency at which they are rebalanced so that, in the limit, an investor might have to rebalance his/her portfolio only once a year. This last finding translates into very low trading costs, even for retail investors. Thus, the authors conclude that MVOs offer an easy, cheap alternative to invest in the world's equity markets. this venerable methodology, preferring instead to invest either in actively managed portfolio or index funds. In order to demon-strate the value of mean-variance optimization (MVO), we apply this methodology in its simplest form in various markets around the and find that, at worst, the resulting portfolios obtain the same level of performance as their respective index benchmark and, at best, beat these benchmarks with long-term results that are statistically, as well as economically significant 1 .


This paper analyzes a flexible manufacturing system (FMS) and presents a new scheme to find the optimal operational parameters settings of two of the mostly used performance measures in assessing manufacturing and production systems, namely the throughput rate (TR) and the mean flow time (MFT). The scheme uses an off-line model that combines discrete-event simulation, robust design principles and mathematical analysis to uncover the optimal settings. The research suggests a two-level optimization procedure that uses an empirical process followed by an analytical technique. In a first level, the empirical approach serves to derive the near-optimal values of the two individual performance measures of interest. These values are then used as targets in the second level of the optimization procedure in which, a Taguchi quality loss function (QLF) is applied to the FMS mathematical model derived through simulation-meta-modeling to find the optimal parameter settings. As advocated in Six Sigma Methodology the optimization of the modeled system is implemented and achieved through a minimization of the performance variation followed by an optimal adjustment of the performance's mean if necessary, in order to minimize the overall loss incurred due to the deviation of the mean from target.


Models and techniques for the extraction and analysis of communities from social network data have become a major area of research. Most of the prominent approaches exploit the link structure among users based on, e.g., information about followers or the exchange of messages among users. However, there are also other types of information that are useful for extracting communities from social network data, such as geographic information associated with postings and users. In this paper, we present a novel approach to discover so-called regional communities. Motivated by the fact that more and more postings to social networks include the geo-location of users, we claim that communities also form even if their users do not necessarily interact but are posting (similar) messages in both spatial and temporal proximity. To discover such regional communities we propose a generative probabilistic model based on spatial latent Dirichlet allocation (SLDA) that unveils not only regional communities but also topics associated with these communities. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach using Twitter data and compare the properties of communities detected that way with communities discovered by approaches using link graphs.


The purpose of this paper is to study how the surviving spouse's inheritance rights and other financial guarantees in case of death of the other spouse are constructed and from a gender perspective's analyse this legislation in order to gain a deeper understanding of why the rules are designed in this specific way. In order to discuss the gender perspectives impact on the Swedish law it's important to have knowledge about the historical development of marriage- and inheritance law.
 The Swedish inheritance law is based on old and traditional principles derived from the medieval provincial laws. The basic idea of inheritance was, and still often is, kinship. The blood connection determined who was the legal heir. Real property was the main economic and social asset to man, this is why the kin and the family played such an important role in the society. It was important to keep the real property within in the family and this led to that inheritance- and marriage law in some parts was designed to meet the family's need to keep the real property within the family. The idea of kinship as the basis for inheritance was intact until the early 1900's. At this period the kin and the family lost its position in favour of the individual. Real property was no longer the most important social and economic asset for all people. An idea that not only the blood relation would determine who was the legal heir was born, the social cohesion between the deceased and the heirs would also be considered. This resulted in two reforms, the cousin's right to inherit was cut off and the surviving spouse received right to inherit after her deceased husband.
 The main argument for the inheritance right of the surviving spouse was that it was considered important to protect a surviving spouse from an excessive financial change in connection with the other spouse's death. The children's inheritance right, were in some extent, put back for the surviving spouse's needs. The legislature found that children were no longer dependent on their parents' legacy for their livelihood. Instead widows and widowers were in greater need of the estate of the deceased so they wouldn't have to suffer excessive financial changes in the event of death of a spouse. The consequence of this discussion was that the surviving spouse was heir to her deceased husband's estate before the joint heirs, who in turn had to wait for their inheritance until the surviving spouse also passed away. There is also other rules that work together with the surviving spouse's right of inheritance to ensure that the surviving spouse can live a fulfilling life with the same economic standards. The right to marital property, the rule of a base amount and the joint will are all examples of rules that are there to even out the property relationship between spouses and thereby protect the surviving spouse.
 The rules of succession for the surviving spouse are gender neutral, but there are factors that indicate that it is mainly women who are in a great need of the rules of this kind and that it's women that the legislature had in mind in the enactment of these rules. Statistically, women live longer than men and therefore more likely is the one who occupies the position as surviving spouse. Women have generally also worked less, been paid less and spent more time on unpaid domestic work than men. This leads to the social rights reprocessed through gainful employment will be lower for women, such as retirement, and that women generally have less wealth than men.


In this article we describe our experiences with designing online auction software. We present a clientserver software model for conducting standard online English auctions. The model is based on an existing auction server developed at James Cook University called the "Research Auction Server" (RAS). RAS is used to perform both simulated and real auctions to gather data on the performance of key areas of auction research. RAS has been used to conduct research in auction security, fraudulent bidding behaviour, bidding agent design and market clearing algorithms. RAS is available online at http://auction.maths.jcu.edu.au.


The linear stability of the Batchelor (1964) vortex is investigated. Particular emphasis is placed on modes found recently in a numerical study by Khorrami (1991). These modes have a number of features very distinct from those found previously for this vortex, including (i) exhibiting small growth rates at large Reynolds numbers and (ii) susceptibility to destabilization by viscosity. In this paper these modes are described using asymptotic techniques, producing results which compare very favourably with fully numerical results at large Reynolds numbers.


In order without destroying the transparent conductive layer is coated with a resist is peeled off easily and reliably resist. In one embodiment of one embodiment of the present invention for manufacturing a transparent printed circuit comprising: providing a transparent base material 1 and the transparent conductive thin plate 3 a transparent conductive layer is formed on a transparent base material 2; transparent conductive layer 2 forming a resist having a prescribed pattern 4; 4 using the resist as a mask to etch the transparent conductive layer 2; 4 on the resist and by etching the transparent conductive layer 2 and the transparent base material 1 is exposed peeling film 5 is formed so as to cover areas of the resist 4 is formed; and the peeling film 5 is peeled off together with the resist 4.


Authors developed a system to evaluate dementia from responses to questions about the elderly's daily life events that a communication robot asks to them. For example, the communication robot asks the elderly person what he/she gave for his/her grandchild's birthday in a few days. At the same time, the robot asks the grandchild via Social Networking Service (SNS) what the present was. Dementia is evaluated by storing the response results in Neo4j, a graph database, and comparing them. The results are also informed to families of the elderly person via SNS.


The present study analyzed economics of milk production among small holder dairy farmers in Punjab. Amritsar district was selected purposively because the average milk production was quiet high in the district than state average and has well developed milk cooperative societies. A sample of 80 dairy farmers consisting of 20 dairy farmers each from landless (LL), marginal (MR), small (SM) and other (OT) categories were selected from two blocks and four villages of Amritsar district. The average herd size was 6.35, 7.70, 9.40 and 10.05 dairy animals for LL, MR, SM and OT dairy farmers, respectively. The total variable cost was 145948.90, 170122.85, 200487.20 and 204122.60 for LL, MR, SM and OT dairy farmers, respectively. The average variable cost was to the tune of 180762.60. Feed and fodder cost was accounted for 83.84 per cent out of the total variable cost. The total fixed cost accounted was 32733.5, 37537.59, 42640.5 and 46723.75 for LL, MR, SM and OT dairy farmers, respectively. Gross income from dairying was accounted to be 306946.80 for LL, 397644.90 for MR farmers, 458120.60 for SM and 511401.50 for OT dairy farmers, respectively. The cost and income had direct relationship with herd size for different categories of dairy farmers. To estimate the resources use efficiency in milk production, Cobb Douglas Production Function was used. The variables included in regression model were green fodder, dry fodder, concentrates, labour hours and veterinary and insemination charges considered as independent variables and milk production per farm per day as dependent variable. The coefficient of multiple determination (R2) was 0.80 and indicating that about 80 per cent of total variations in milk productivity were explained by the variables included in the selected regression model. The coefficients of dry fodder and concentrates were positive and significant indicating increase in feed and fodder inputs will increase the milk productivity.


LAURENSIUS SITANGGANG. Fatty Acids and Tissue Profile in Baby Carp (Cyprinus carpio) by Different Age. Supervised by AGOES M. JACOEB and NURJANAH. Common carp is a freshwater fish which commonly consumed by Indonesian people. One of important nutrient contained in carp fish is fatty acid. The aim of this study was to determine the differences in chemical composition, the type and amount of fatty acids, and the baby common carp tissue at various harvesting times. The results of the analysis of fatty acids was that the baby common carp contain 5 types of SAFA, 1 type of MUFA and 3 types of PUFA fatty acids. The fatty acids contained in baby carp tends to vary at each harvesting times. Based on the observations of baby common carp tissue, it can be concluded that the number and size of myomere in baby fish increased as the increasing of the harvest time. The digestive system of baby common carp fish also depends on its harvesting time, mucus-secreting cells and absorber cells production increased as the increasing of the age. Baby common carp with older harvesting time also tends to have a more stable tissue. Key


Summary The chemical nature of element 72, subsequently named hafnium, is generally regarded as a prediction from Bohr's theory of the periodic system and hence as a prediction from quantum theory. It is argued that both of these views and in particular the latter are mistaken. The claim in favour of Bohr's theory is weakened by his accommodation of independent chemical arguments and the claim in favour of quantum theory is untenable since the prediction is not strictly deductive.


Deep learning-based approaches have been widely used for environmental sound classification tasks in recent years due to the growth and development of this field, creating the technical groundwork for the research of environmental sound classification. However, the presence of noise in the ecological environment leads to a dramatic decrease in its recognition rate. The major goal of this study is to improve the classification accuracy of the model in the presence of noise interference. It does this by proposing an ecological environmental sound classification approach in a noisy background. The input audio is first noise-reduced by spectral subtraction, and then the Mel frequency cepstral parameter features are extracted and fed into the fine-tuned VGG16 model for classification training. The classification of five environmental sounds in the western black-crowned gibbon habitat of the Mourning Mountain was identified with an accuracy of 98.76%.


Many business colleges offer specialized marketing majors in addition to the general marketing major. Given the extra resources needed to maintain multiple majors, in a time when higher education budgets are being strained, a need exists to understand how students make choices among these majors and what students perceive to be the advantages of general marketing majors versus specialized marketing majors. Using social cognitive theory, we examine how students make selections among choices in marketing-related majors, focusing on influence and compatibility factors. We surveyed 608 marketing majors representing one general and five specialized marketing majors. The findings indicate that, compared with general marketing majors, students' choice of a specialized major is significantly more likely to be influenced by faculty and other students in the major. Also, the results show that students rate specialized majors better than a general marketing major in terms of self-efficacy, culture, and professional fit. On the other hand, students rate the general marketing major better than specialized majors in flexibility. These results have implications for supporting the priorities of students in both general and specialized majors.


Knowing the temperature behavior of the photovoltaic parameters in multi-junction (MJ) solar cells (SCs) can give information suitable for comparing different cell structures and for estimating a potential of their operation in various environmental conditions. As a rule, the cell structures are designed specifically for terrestrial (with high sunlight concentration), or space (sometimes with relatively low concentration) applications, differing in certain, but not principal, details. Structural improvements introduced in one of the cell types may highlight the effective ways for improvements applicable for another cell type. In this work, a set of the state-of-the-art concentrator triple-junction SCs were investigated to analyze the influence of temperature in a very wide range of −170 ≤ T ≤ +85°C, together with the sunlight concentration ratio variation, on the cell performance. In particular, the PV conversion efficiencies as high as 50 – 52% (AM1.5d) have been measured in the temperature range of −120...


Abstract A review of Metaphors of Anger, Pride and Love: A Lexical Approach to the Structure of Concepts by Z. Kovecses (1986). Philadelphid/Amsterdam: John Benjamins, p. vii, 147. ISBN 1-55619-009-3 (US); ISBN 90-272-2558-3 (Europe). $34


The invention relates to a guide apparatus (1) for a turbomachine (10), in particular a compressor (10), and a turbo machine (10) with such an inlet guide vane (1). The distributor (1) has at least one umstrombares one of a fluid (2) the airfoil (3) comprising the blade (4). To an increase of an efficiency of the turbo machine (10) is provided, that a curvature (5) has a profile center line (6) of the blade leaf (3) at least one turning point (7).


A derivation of the compressibility of metals is presented using a general local pseudopotential based on second-order perturbation theory. The formula so obtained for the Hartree screening is specialised for the linear potential. A good agreement between the theoretical values calculated for eight metals and the experimental data justifies the motivation envisaged in the present investigation.


Background IL‐10 plays an immunosuppressive role in inflammatory responses. Increased plasma levels of IL‐10 have been detected in patients under glucocorticoid (GC) therapy, indicating that steroids may exert their suppressive effect, in part, by increasing IL‐10 production.


Features of renovation of built-up areas are considered. The main difficulties in carrying out the renovation process are identified. The concept of the constraint factor of the building is defined. Methods. A method for analyzing and assessing constraints for selecting optimal organizational and technical solutions for the renovation of territories is proposed. Results. An analysis algorithm is proposed, based on the consideration of the constraint factor as an array of actions of individual "objects of influence" on the corresponding "subjects of influence". Conclusion. Сonducting such an analysis will provide the most effective and optimal organizational and technological solutions reflected in the relevant sections of the renovation project in high-rise construction (development of a construction master plan, preparation of calendar and network work schedules). The implemented rational version of the design solution ensured the reduction of the prime cost and the reduction of the terms of the preparatory works for the renovation of housing construction projects taking into account seismic uncertainty. Renovation is one of the varieties of this reconstruction of high rise construction.


India embarked on its new tryst with destiny with a massive reforms initiative twenty years ago largely dismantling the restrictive industrial environment. Bringing almost an end to the license raj, nearly finishing up MRTP restrictions and reservations the government of India aimed at empowering the country's private sector with a view to making India a star growth economy along with Brazil, Russia and China. Reforms delivered in terms of overall growth. With a modest growth of 5.5 per cent during 1980-2002, the Indian economy in the last almost one decade has graduated to the 8th fastest growing economy in the world with China leading the race. How much of the credit of such growth can be assigned to the private sector of the country? Has this been largely because of an enhancement in the ability of the private sector in terms of an increase in its financial performance? The present study makes a careful attempt towards answering such questions. Using the time series data on the standard performance indicators and ratios reflecting the extent of performance of this sector from the on-line source of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) the present paper tries to study the following: the growth trend of the non-financial private corporate sector of India; extent of influence of number of companies on the sales growth in the sector; and the magnitude of impact of growth in sales on other leading performance parameters of the sector.


The telephone system is a great national resource, and the Lovell alarm system is one proposal to utilize the telephone as an inexpensive alarm arrangement in the densely populated metropolitan centers. The operation of a sensor or a button on the customer's premises would transmit the telephone number immediately from the telephone central office to the alarm bureau. This is accomplished by piggybacking the alarm service on the individual line much as if it were a two party line. The alarm service does not interfere with the use of the line for normal telephone individual line service and only minor changes are required at the telephone central office.


In this paper we document that "frictional wage inequality" (i.e. due to pure luck in the matching process in the labor market) is large and that both the standard McCall search model and the simplest Diamond-Mortensen-Pissarides matching model, reasonably calibrated, are strikingly unable to generate the amount of dispersion observed in the data. Next, we discuss some extensions of the model that do not work (e.g. risk-aversion) and others that are more promising (e.g. on-the-job search and heterogeneity in the value of leisure)


The need for removal of particulates, either biological or inert, in clean rooms of hospitals involved in preparation and control of sterile dosage formulations and intravenous additive solutions, prompted an investigation of the methods used to aid in controlling contamination. This was accomplished in large part by the use of laminar flow hoods in clean rooms. Evaluation of laminar flow hoods and clean room ultraviolet hoods, along with advantages and disadvantages of each, is reported. Selection of equipment for specific operations is discussed.


Microprocessors and Microcontrollers.Numbering Systems and Binary Arithmetic.The 8051 Architecture.Basic Assembly Language Programming Concepts.Moving Data.Logical Operations.Arithmetic Operations.Jump and Call Instructions.An 8051 Microcontroller Design.Applications.Serial Data Communication.Appendix A: 8051 Operational Code Mnemonics.Appendix B: How to Use the A51 Assembler.Appendix C: Using uVision2.Appendix D: The 8255 Programmable I/O Port.Appendix E: The Rest of the Family.Appendix F: Control Registers.Index.


Over the years, a plethora of theories have been advanced regarding the geography of the Book of Mormon. No doubt that many Latter-day Saints who have inquired on the subject have felt much like the young Joseph Smith: caught between a "war of words and tumult of opinions," he or she wonders "What is to be done? Who of all these parties are right; or, are they all wrong together?" And how is one to know; how does one go about trying to judge between the competing views?


Spur dykes also known as Groynes are often used to either divert or attract the flow from the main structure to safeguard their life. Those structures may be bridge piers, abutments or any similar hydraulics structures. Spur dykes are also used to save the cutting of banks on concave side of stream. Lots of work have been done in recent past on spur dykes by many investigators in which various hydraulic and geometrical parameters of spur dykes such as discharge, sediment size, flow velocity, shear stress, spur dykes shape, size and submergence etc. are studied in detail. But mostly all the studies were pointed out in straight open channels. Very few studies were done in curved channel and only their similar effects were studied. In present thesis main emphasis is given to study the effect of orientation and location of spur dykes in meandering channel on the bed of downstream side. In the present study experimental work has been carried out in 80° bend and constant discharge (Q = 4.5 l/s) is allowed to pass in channel without spur dyke. It is found that maximum scouring occurs at angular displacement θ = 60° to 80° in the vicinity of outer bank. To minimize this scouring, spur dyke has been installed at angular displacement θ = 20°, 40° & 60° by changing the dyke angle α = 60°, 90° & 120° respectively. It is found that scouring at θ = 60° is reduced by installing spur dyke at angular displacement θ = 40° which is oriented at α = 60° and scouring at θ = 80° is reduced by installing spur dyke at angular displacement θ = 60° which is oriented at α = 60°.


Preface: Duckworth R. M On the Relationship between Calculus and Caries: Duckworth, R.M. Huntington, E The Structure, Function and Properties of the Acquired Pellicle: Hannig, M. Joiner, A Model Parameters and their Influence on the Outcome of in vitro Demineralisation and Remineralisation Studies: Lynch, R.J.M Tooth Wear Version 3.3: 16th February 2005: Pickles, M.J Nanomechanics, Chemistry and Structure at the Enamel Surface: Mann, A.B. Dickinson, M.E Plaque as a Reservoir for Active Ingredients: Duckworth, R.M. Gao, X.J Author Index Subject Index.


Objective: To investigate the bacterial distribution and antibiotic resistance of lower respiratory tract infections in liver transplantation patients. Methods: Retrospective investigation from the lower respiratory tract bacterial infections of 182 liver transplant patients and the drug-sensitivity results were analyzed. Results: The total percentage of the detected pathogens was 75.4% ,of all these strains,60.8% was Gram-negative bacteria,28.9% was Gram-positive bacteria and 10.3% was fungi.The main bacteria were Escherichia coil?Klebsiella pneumoniae?Staphylococcus aureusand Pseudomonas aeruginosa,and the majority was drug-resistant. Conclusion: Types of pathogens of lower respiratory tract bacterial infections in liver transplantation as well as their antibiotic resistance increase , it is very important to decrease the postoperative infection of the liver transplantation by using antibiotics rationally and properly.


The fern life cycle includes a haploid gametophyte that is independent of the sporophyte and functions to produce the gametes. In homosporous ferns, the sex of the gametophyte is not fixed but can vary depending on its social environment. In many species, the sexual phenotype of the gametophyte is determined by the pheromone antheridiogen. Antheridiogen induces male development and is secreted by hermaphrodites once they become insensitive to its male-inducing effect. Recent genetic and biochemical studies of the antheridiogen response and sex-determination pathway in ferns, which are highlighted here, reveal many similarities and interesting differences to GA signaling and biosynthetic pathways in angiosperms.


The invention relates to a treatment device of radioactive contaminated wastewater. The treatment device comprises a wastewater conveying system and a gas conveying system; the wastewater conveying system comprises a water collecting tank (6), a circulating pump (7) and a high-pressure micro-fog system (5) which are sequentially connected; the gas conveying system comprises an air draft tower (1) and a steam heater (2); one end of the steam heater (2) is connected with the air draft tower (1), and the other end of the steam heater (2) is connected with the high-pressure micro-fog system (5); an exhaust device is arranged on the high-pressure micro-fog system (5). The treatment device of the radioactive contaminated wastewater can be used for treating the radioactive contaminated wastewater efficiently and controllably, is compact in structure and little in secondary wastes, and accords with the environment-friendly requirement; the defects caused by a scheme that air is heated to blow through hanging cloth and then exhausted towards the atmosphere is overcome, so that the contaminated wastewater enters the infinite acceptor of atmosphere to ensure that the contaminated wastewater is not accumulated, and continuous and smooth operation and safety of the surrounding environment of factories are ensured.


We investigated if one category of birds, prospectors, i.e. those likely to seek future breeding sites, attempt to gather information on the local reproductive success of their conspecifics. If prospecting is an important information-gathering process, it should occur when reliable estimation of the local reproductive success can be made. We tested this prediction in a colonial seabird, the Kittiwake Rissa tridactyla, by monitoring the number of prospectors and the value of the information available on local reproductive success in a series of breeding cliffs during two breeding seasons. We found that the bulk of prospecting occurred when the best information on local reproductive success was available. The pattern was very similar in the two study years (1985 and 1992); prospecting occurred late in the season, as reported for most bird species. This result is consistent with the potential use of conspecific reproductive success as a proximate cue for habitat selection.


In this paper, we propose a new subcarrier index modulation scheme for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), which incorporates the Reed-Solomon (RS) encoding in a visible light communication (VLC) system. In this scheme, the incoming bits are first encoded using the RS encoder, then a set of symbols in the resulting RS codeword are punctured, and the remaining symbols are modulated and mapped onto the OFDM subcarriers. This system is referred to as RS-OFDM-IM. Unlike the traditional subcarrier index modulation (SIM) schemes, the proposed scheme operates based on conveying extra information by inactivating the selected subcarriers, which facilitates simultaneous clipping noise reduction and spectral efficiency enhancement in OFDM-VLC. The bit error rate (BER) and throughput of the proposed technique is theoretically and numerically analyzed. The simulation results show the superiority of the proposed technique as compared to the coded DCO-OFDM without SIM and the classical SIM in OFDM-VLC in a system with practical clipping conditions.


This paper discusses the notion of researching our own practice. It presents two examples of such research from the activity of a study group on teachers' research that included teachers of all grade levels and teacher educators. One of these examples refers to mathematics teaching in the middle grades and another to preservice teacher education. The paper concludes with an analysis of the potential and issues concerning this kind of research and its meaning in terms of the relationship between theory and practice.


The question of how the human visual system processes information from moving objects, making possible precise eye-to-limb coordination, has long been one which has perplexed scientists (e.g., Gibson, 1950; Regan, Beverley, & Cynader, 1979). Numerous studies (e.g., Lee & Reddish, 1981; Wagner, 1982) have indicated that across changes in the approach velocity of objects or surfaces, the initiation of interceptive movements or coincidence timing skills seems to be most consistently geared to the remaining time-to-contact (h). It is how one perceives this information however is where question arises. One body of theorists believing that estimation is obtained from cognitive computation, the other suggests that its estimation is a direct process arising from interpretation of an optical image displayed on the retina. This has led to the emergence of two differing perspectives about the specific visual information used in the perception of, and in the regulation of action towards moving objects. The primary objective of this study was to determine exactly what perceptual information sources may be used to initiate and regulate coincidence timing tasks. Specifically, whether estimation is obtained through direct processes via the optic variable tau or from independently obtained distance and velocity information. Additionally, the effect of task constraints upon the control strategy adopted were investigated. Two experiments were conducted. The first experiment was to determine both the effect of varying the object approach velocity and the influence of constraining the task by predefining the point at which the object must be intercepted. The second to examine the effects of constraining viewing time, thus limiting the amount of optical expansion. Experiment 1 yielded little evidence to support the use of a constant tau strategy, although selected movement kinematics did provide some indication that optical expansion information was the perceptual source of information best utilized by subjects. Experiment 2 produced support for the use of a constant tau strategy, but only in conditions of severe task constraint such as that provided by a diminished viewing period and relatively fast object approach velocity. Movement kinematics provided inconclusive evidence as to the type of perceptual information utilized by subjects. "Perception and action are interwoven and we are likely to loose perspective if we attend to one and neglect the other; for it is in the manner of this union that properties of each are rationalized. After all, there would be no point in perceiving if one could not act, and one could hardly act if one could not perceive". Turvey, (1977), p. 21 1 To my parents Angela and David, Thanks for everything.


A composite material, namely, graphene/ Pt nanoparticles (GR/PtNPs) was prepared in this work. This composite material was characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Based on GR/PtNPs modifed glassy carbon electrode (GR/ PtNPs/GCE), a sensitive and simple sensor was developed for simultaneous measurement of tryptophan (Trp) and tyrosine (Tyr) in the presence of 5-hydroxytryptophan(5-HTP). Under optimized measurement conditions, the oxidation peak current of Tyr increased linearly within a concentration range from 5.0 × 10 −7 to 2.0 × 10 −5 mol/L with a detection limit of 1.25×10 -7 mol/L. The linear response of Trp was also obtained in the range from 2.0 × 10 −7 to 1.2 × 10 −5 mol/L, and the detection limit was 8.22×10 -8 mol/L. When Tyr and Trp samples were measured, the recovery rate of tyrosine was 98.4% to 103.5%, and the recovery rate of tryptophan was 98.7% to 102.9%, which indicates that the accuracy of GR/PtNPs/GCE was high. Additionally, the GR/ PtNPs/GCE demonstrated suitable selectivity for the determination of tryptophan (Trp) and tyrosine (Tyr), making it practicable for their measurement of Trp and Tyr in pharmaceutical formulations.


Linguists have often remarked upon the polysemous nature of love, whereby the term encompasses a wide diversity of emotional relationships. Several typologies have been constructed to account for this diversity. However, these tend to be restricted in scope, and fail to represent the range of experiences signified by the term 'love' in discourse. In the interest of generating an expanded typology of love, encompassing its varied forms, an enquiry was conducted into relevant concepts found across the world's cultures, focusing on so-called untranslatable words. Through a quasi-systematic search of published and internet sources, 609 relevant words were identified. These were organised through a version of grounded theory into 14 categories, representing 14 different types of love. The result is an expanded theoretical treatment of love, allowing us to better appreciate the nuances of this most cherished and yet polysemous of concepts.


ABS TRACT Objective: To compare the efficiacy of two types of silicone hydrogel bandage contact lenses (BCLs) after corneal collagen crosslinking (CXL) in keratoconus patients. Material and Methods: In this prospective study, 36 keratoconus patients received CXL in both eye. Each patient received a BCL composed of balafilcon A (Pure Vision; Bauch&Lomb) (14.0 diameter, 8.6 base curve) in 1 eye and lotrafilcon B (Air Optix Aqua; Ciba Vision) (14.2 diameter, 8.6 base curve) in the fellow eye. Patients were masked to the lens type in each eye. Postoperative medication regimen was the same with both eye. Epithelial defect size, contact lens debris, conjunctival and limbal hyperemia, reepithelization and responses to a subjective-comfort questionnaire were assessed postoperatively at 1, 3, and 5 days. A paired Student's t test and chi-square tests were used when appropriate. Results: Seventy-two eyes of 36 keratoconus patients who underwent CXL were analyzed. There was no statistically significant difference in epithelial defect size, conjunctival or limbal hyperemia between the 2 lenses at any postoperative visit. Three days postoperatively, re-epithelization was complete in 77.8% of eyes (28 eyes) in the balafilcon A group and 83.3% of the eyes (30 eyes) in the lotrafilcon B group. Lens deposition and patient discomfort was significantly higher with the balafilcon A group 5 days postoperatively (p<0.01 for both comparisons). Conclusion: There were no differences in corneal re-epithelization between the 2 types of BCLs (p>0.01). However, lens deposition and patient discomfort was higher with balafilcon A (p<0.01).