Miniaturized third order stripline bandpass filter (BPF) with high dielectric constant substrates ε<inf>r</inf> = 92 and quasielliptic frequency response is proposed and studied. The filter uses steped-impedance resonators (SIRs), between them there are mixed couplings, which leads to the generation of two transmission zeros (attenuation poles) f<inf>z1</inf> and f<inf>z2</inf> located on opposite sides of the center frequency f<inf>0</inf>. To minimize the size of the filter, its resonators are separated from each other by small gaps of 0.2 mm. The problems of obtaining the minimum interval between transmission zeros f<inf>z1</inf>, f<inf>z2</inf> and fo, as well as the symmetrical arrangement of f<inf>z1</inf> and f<inf>z2</inf> with respect to fo are considered. The measured and simulated responses of the stripline BPF with dimensions 5.8 mm × 4.2 mm × 2 mm and parameters f<inf>0</inf> = 1.85 GHz, BW = 100 MHz are presented.


Most robotic/prosthetic hands lack the ability to harvest energy, and as a result they rely on the batteries to provide the required energy for their operation. Recently solar cells have been explored to meet the energy requirements. However, most solar cells are brittle, and their chances of getting damaged during robotic operation are high. The work presented in this paper addresses this challenge through a transparent 3D printed package covering three photovoltaic cells. The package protects the cells from impact and prevents dust accumulation while ensuring minimal loss of light reaching the cells. The effect of the protective 3D printed cover on the performance of photovoltaic panel have been evaluated. This solar cell package is integrate on a 3D printed robotic hand to harvest energy from the environmental illumination and utilizes it to power the small peripheral electronic and sensing components on the hand.


Frequency conversion studies conducted upon polycrystalline ferrites and yttrium iron garnets have established that microwave mixing displays a linear dependence upon input powers. Sum and difference signal powers generated in ferrites and garnets were examined as a function of rf power and sample shape. Conversion efficiencies of −14 db for sum signal output and −36 db for difference signal output were achieved for magnesium manganese ferrite at X band.


In order to improve the quality of the Preparatory Education of Undergraduate Foreign Students Founded by the Chinese Government Scholarship, the author wants to compare the effect of formative assessment and the traditional summative assessment. This study experimentally investigated the zero-based preparatory foreign students in our college, the results of the study showed that the examination results of the experimental group evaluated with formative assessment are significantly better than those of the control group evaluated with traditional summative assessment. It shows that formative assessment is a better way to evaluate the preparatory education in China. 中国政府奖学金本科来华留学生预科教育形成性 评价效果实证研究 许宏鉴 北京语言大学 汉语国际教育学部 预科教育学院,中国 北京 100083


ABSTRACT Teacher education and civic education are scholarly fields characterised by an abundance of writings that offer numerous frameworks, visions, and practices. Whereas several studies already presented theoretical models of the civic education process, the goal of this paper is to offer a conceptual framework of preservice civics teacher education. This framework, based on interviews with nine Israeli civics teacher educators, yielded four distinct models that include: (1) Technical Training; (2) Critical Thinking; (3) Patriotic; and (4) Social Change. As will be developed, the theoretical exploration of these models touches on foundational aspects of citizenship and education, relating to the fundamental question of good citizenship promoted as part of the civic education process and to the goals of teacher education. This heuristic approach emphasises processes of self-reflection as a critical element of the civics teacher education process.


Children's and adolescent literature of recent decades is increasingly addressed to the events of the past and invites young readers to reflect on those periods of modern history that have become a kind of collective trauma. The article presents an overview of works of art that interpret the events of World War II and which are addressed to Czech and Slovak children and teenagers. The article considers the specifics of writers' turn to historical discourse, describes how the figures of participants, contemporaries and heirs of historical events are represented in the works, and reveals the educational potential of books. Since the child reader exists today in the context of the digital environment and easily assimilates information from "different cultural channels", the review includes not only literary texts, but also visual narratives close to modern children and adolescents (comics).


The electronic implementation of a highly parallel neuromorphic circuit which processes and classifies dynamic signals is described. The authors discuss the silicon implementation of an artificial dendritic tree that has a spatiotemporal processing capability that is modeled after biological neurons which have extensive passive dendritic branching. Background material is presented on biological neuron behavior that is important in processing dynamic signals. The architecture and circuit details of artificial dendrites and artificial synapses are presented. The properties of both active and passive biological dendritic trees as well as the dynamic and static behavior of chemical synapses were studied. A simple and scalable electronic circuit implemented in standard CMOS technology is described.<<ETX>>


external work.1 Disturbances of skeletal muscle innervation have been found by electromyographic studies in patients with clinical signs of a pyramidal tract lesion or paralysis agitans. The abnormal innervation patterns in these two clinical states may be associated with alterations in temperature of skeletal muscle. This problem has been investigated in a group of subjects without neuromuscular abnormality and patients with chronic unilateral cerebral hemiplegia or paralysis agitans syndrome. TECHNIC Temperature measurements were made in 57 experiments on 52 subjects, 18 of whom served as normal controls. The normal controls were ward patients at the Neurological Institute who showed no evidence of neuromuscular abnormality of the upper extremities by history, clinical examination and laboratory tests. Pertinent data on the subjects in the disease groups are given in tables 1 and 2. Standard thermoelectric technic was used for temperature measurements; sensitivity of the circuit allowed a relative precision of temperature measurement of ± 0.01 degree (C). Needle thermocouples of 40 gage (B. and S.) copper and constantan wire were used in standard 26 gage polished stainless steel tubing. All subjects were in the basal state, nude except for a small sheet over the trunk and reclining prone in an ordinary hospital bed during the experiments. Experiments were begun about 8:00 a.m. and usually lasted three to five hours. Subjects received no medication for at least forty-eight hours prior to the experimental determinations. Most of the temperature determinations were made in the biceps brachii muscle of both sides, the arms being supported free of contact with the bed ; the needles were introduced horizontally into the medial aspect of each biceps muscle at two or three points (table 4). Rectal temperatures were measured thermoSubmitted in partial fulfilment of requirements for the degree of Doctor of


Neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's Disease (AD), Parkinsons's Disease (PD) and Cerebral Ischemic Stroke (CIS) are responsible for morbidities in almost a billion people and it is rising with increase in older population. AD is responsible for most dementia cases reported worldwide and is marked by the loss of memory and aggregation of Amyloid beta peptide (AsP) and Neurofibrillary tangle (NFT). Oxidative stress, apoptosis are few of the factors that influence the pathophysiology. PD is characterized by genetic abnormalities, mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative stress, excitotoxicity, calcium and iron overload and neuroinflammation and manifests as rigidity and bradykinesia. CIS is caused by reduced cerebral blood flow and impaired metabolic processes. The generation of free radicals and elevation of Ca2+ levels along with inflammatory cytokines, carries out the process. The use of plants for various disease condition is as old as history. The recent advancements in scientific drug development has hastened the discovery process and has opened doors to new discoveries having potential in treatment of neurological disorders such as AD, PD and CIS. These investigations has resulted in discovery of plants and plant extracts with potential neuroprotective effects. However, these discoveries require further validation and scientific proofs to be applied in clinical scenario. Interestingly, these plant based treatments can be co-administered with existing drugs or can be even used as monotherapy, depending on the advancements in this field.


Vehicle drive arrangement with - an internal combustion engine (1) having a plurality of cylinders, - means (11) for switching off a part of the cylinders at partial load, and - an electric machine (4) for the active dampening of rotational non-uniformity of the internal combustion engine (1), wherein the combustion engine (1) without Drehungleichformigkeitsdampfung in the cylinder cut-off points in one or more speed ranges substantially increased rotational irregularities in comparison to other speed ranges, and wherein the drive assembly is arranged so that the electric machine (4) acts during operation with a cylinder deactivation in a speed range with increased rotational irregularities first as active dampers, and after a delay period, provided that the internal combustion engine (4) then runs in the speed range with increased rotational nonuniformities , then a reconnection at least a portion of the deactivated cylinders, characterized, in that the reconnection of disabled cylinders is only initiated if smaller with the currently present load condition of the internal combustion engine, the induced by the reconnection of the cylinders in fuel consumption when the fuel consumption ...


A new method to automatic recognition of the industrial parts is presented. Given images taken from different viewpoints of designated 3-D objects, a system is developed to interpret them as the same object. This study mainly involves the generation of the unique model of the viewed object from it input image, followed by the verification between the stored model and the generated model.


We examine the magnetic field dependence of the muonium- ({mu}{sup +}{ital e}{sup -}) antimuonium ({mu}{sup -}{ital e}{sup +}) conversion in the models which accommodate the dilepton gauge bosons. The effective Hamiltonian for the conversion due to dileptons turns out to be in the ({ital V}-{ital A}){times}({ital V}+{ital A}) form and, as a consequence, the conversion probability is rather insensitive to the strength of the magnetic field. The reduction is less than 20{percent} for up to {ital B}{approx_equal}300 G an 33{percent} even in the large {ital B} limit. {copyright} {ital 1995 The American Physical Society.}


The article addresses the problems of reliability and efficiency of modern information management systems. An analysis of the current state of theory and practice of a new section of computer science, called Incident Management, is carried out. It is shown that one of the main groups of reserves of high-quality and timely execution of requests in the service request management system is the group associated with taking into account the human factor, that is, the group of ergonomic reserves. It is also shown that a comprehensive consideration of all factors affecting the efficiency is possible if the method of functional networks developed by a scientific school under the leadership of professor Anatoly Gubinsky is used to describe incident management processes. Principles and basic models for the decision support system for ergonomic quality assurance are proposed. For the case of a multi-ergatic service request management system, typical for outsourcing companies, and the need to analyze work in queue conditions, a complex analytical-simulation model is proposed. Examples of computer simulation of incident management processes taking into account the human factor are given.


Digital library has the characteristics of small space and large quantity in information storage,and not easy to be destroyed,network of information resources, rapid and convenient long distance transmission and the resources to be shared together etc. Digital library in university can change from service contents and method to meet the needs of readers.


This report provides data on the numbers of soldiers who served in the principal wars of U.S. history, from the Revolutionary War to the Vietnam War, and the numbers of casualties in each war by branch of service and home state (from WW1 onward).


This paper focuses on how national identities have recently been negotiated in different European countries (EU member states, one EU candidate state, and one EU opt-out member), mainly in relation to EU identity, refugees, religion, and LGBT rights. We will document instances of media discourse, revolving especially around digital media, to point out the quite dissimilar ideas on who 'we' are and the ideologies underpinning various 'us' versus 'them' binaries applied in relation to different social groups using strategies of Othering in the construction of national identities.


Alkenylsilanes, on treatment with iodosylbenzene activated by co-ordination of boron trifluoride–diethyl ether to the oxygen atom, give the corresponding alkynes in good to excellent yields, presumably via vinyliodine(III) intermediates.


We propose to study, in this work, the semantic functioning of phraséological adverbial units. How can they make sense in their external combinatorics? What relationship do they have with the units around them? Do they impose semantic constraints on the units constituting their co-text? What are the factors of semantic variation of these units? By changing direction, do these units change their function? We will attempt to answer these questions by describing a corpus of adverbial units according to the methodological approach of the theory of the three primary functions.


Innovation is a basic concept of innovation theory;however,confusion on its usage has already affected the normal exchange of innovative study and smooth development of innovative practice in recent years. It has collected and analyzed the typical definitions of innovation and its main classifications in order to clarify innovative connotation and its basic types and to understand the development of contemporary social economy as well.


These Ecole polytechnique federale de Lausanne EPFL, n° 954 (1991) Reference doi:10.5075/epfl-thesis-954Print copy in library catalog Record created on 2005-03-16, modified on 2016-08-08


We consider a "continental" mixed oligopoly in which public firms maximize national surplus. In the unique Cournot-Nash equilibrium the countries with a public firm are net exporters and the price lies above the constant marginal cost. Moreover the objective of the public firms may be expressed uniquely in terms of exports. Nationalization, privatization, and creation of a public firm may increase the continental and national welfare under some conditions on the industry structure which we explicitly determine.


Due to its size, its strategic location in the body and its once mysterious production of a yellow and bitter fluid [today the underlying mechanisms of bile secretion has been greatly clarified (1)], the liver has attracted significant attention by the non-medical, non-scientific community over the history of mankind. This is reflected in its representation in the Etruscan and Egyptian cultures, as well as in Greek and Roman mythology (2). In the latter cultures, the liver was often associated with metaphorical meanings, including being the seat of life or bitter anger or offering signs to predict the future (soothsaying with entrails). Since then, the liver has been represented in art in different forms including painting. Perhaps the bestknown pictorial representation of the liver is in Prometheus Bound (1618) by Peter Paul Rubens, which hangs in the Philadelphia Museum of Art and is present in most lectures and articles on liver regeneration (3–5). The purpose of this note is to briefly comment on another of the few examples of liver representation in paintings and bring to the attention of the hepatological community a very particular liver-related pictorial work as I recently did in a previous article with Neruda's poem 'Ode to the Liver' (6). The chosen painting is The Liver is the Cock's Comb (Fig. 1) by the Armenian painter Arshille Gorky, which offers an interesting collection of unusual liver-resembling shapes with a unique 'hepatic title'. This work is considered by many experts to be a masterpiece of abstract expressionism.


A series of cotton samples with different humidity and temperature were analyzed by self-ignition method and TGDTA.It was proved that thermal analysis method can represent the self-ignition process of cotton.The effect of humidity in cotton's degradation process was studied,and the 3exothermic methods of cotton in the process were discussed.Furthermore,the thermal analysis curves were calculated by kinetics method.Results showed that the self-ignition temperature of cotton is 260~280 ℃;The initial decomposition temperature in air atmosphere is 20℃earlier than that in nitrogen atmosphere,and the whole degradation process is different too;the self-ignition risk increases with the relative humidity,while the self-ignition temperature is still above 220 ℃;Mildew reaction is the main reason of self-ignition risk increasing.


. The Sesame system-level simulation framework targets efficient design space exploration of embedded multimedia systems. Even despite Sesame's efficiency, it would fail to explore large parts of the design space simply because system-level simulation is too slow for this. Therefore, Sesame uses analytical performance models to provide steering to the system-level simulation, guiding it toward promising system architectures and thus pruning the design space. In this paper, we present a mechanism to calibrate these analytical models with the aim to deliver trustworthy estimates. Moreover, we also present some initial evaluation results with respect to the accuracy of our calibration mechanism using a case study with a Motion-JPEG encoder.


Sustainable building practices are a response to environmental issues. Businesses and industries are assessing how their activities affect the environment. The architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industries have significant impacts on the environment and economy, while the industry is considered one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and has, therefore, been highlighted by researchers as a key area of intervention with a great potential to reduce environmental impacts. This paper critically reviews and evaluates the current state of sustainable building certification systems with the purpose of having a good understanding of the status quo and possibilities for future directions in Saudi Arabia. It reviews the academic literature on Saudi Arabia's green/sustainable building codes, standards, certification systems, methods and tools. It starts by addressing sustainability in the broadest sense. Then, it investigates sustainability strategies and evaluates the building certification systems in Saudi Arabia, followed by an introduction to the new practice of sustainable healthcare building assessment. Life cycle assessment (LCA) and building information modelling (BIM) techniques have also been investigated. The paper introduces the updated Saudi Building Code (SBC) with further evaluation of the Saudi Green Building Code (SBC 1001-CR). Finally, the paper clearly highlights the key role of sustainable building practices and the need to develop a certification system that considers the new trends and the local context.


This paper addresses the Line Pack Management of the "GZ1 Hassi R'mell-Arzew" gas pipeline. For a gas pipeline system, the decision-making on the gas line pack management scenarios usually involves a delicate balance between minimization of the fuel consumption in the compression stations and maximizing gas line pack. In order to select an acceptable Line Pack Management of Gas Pipeline scenario from these two angles for "GZ1 Hassi R'mell- Arzew" gas pipeline, the idea of multi-objective decision-making has been introduced. The first step in developing this approach is the derivation of a numerical method to analyze the flow through the pipeline under transient isothermal conditions. In this paper, the solver NSGA-II of the modeFRONTIER, coupled with a matlab program was used for solving the multi-objective problem.


Due to dry weather in Argentina, soybean prices showed recent strength despite rising ending stocks projections for the current marketing year. At 530 million bushels, the current forecast for soybean ending stocks represents a 228 million bushels increase over last marketing year's ending stocks. The development of soybean prices over the next year depends on the size of the 2018 U.S. crop and a more robust pace of consumption than produced thus far this marketing year.


The place in the history of medicine in Germany of Nazi sterilization policy and the massacres in which medicine and medical doctors were involved, especially the politics of "euthanasia," is by no means self-evident. Sterilization is a form of birth control that may be contested but is today usually considered legitimate; the concept of euthanasia has oscillated, from the late nineteenth century, between voluntary and nonvoluntary death, between one's own and someone else's control over one's death. The question therefore is that of birth control and death control, of the agents, circumstances, and purposes of such control. Birth and death are multifaceted issues, and many of their aspects are dealt with by medical theory, practice, and the medical profession, particularly in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It was (and is) the task of medical theory and practice to help new creatures come into the world and help them and the other human beings to live and survive by curing and healing. But it is not this task that defines the place of sterilization and euthanasia in the history of medicine from 1933 to 1945 but the fact that medical theory and practice largely took an opposite turn. Medicine and many doctors came to be involved in the National Socialist crimes. Furthermore, they were among the most important agents of these crimes, precisely because procreation and death came to be objects of National Socialist policy, of race hygiene, eugenics, or, to use the specifically Nazi term, Erb- und Rassenpflege (genetic and racial hygiene).


This collection of essays was originally presented, with one exception, at a conference on Dworkin's work at the University of Cape Town in 2002. Dworkin, arguably the pre-eminent legal philosopher alive today, was present at the conference and gave an unscripted address, which was recorded and transcribed and appears as the first chapter.


Results: The subjects reported 63% of receivable scores of seat belt use.Statistically significant differences were found in seat belt use by parent education. there was a significant correlation between all the the variables of TPB and HBM (except perceived severity) and intention to wear sealt belt(p<0.01).The variables of TPB(Attitude,Subjective norms and Perceived Behavior Control)explained 37.9% of variance of intention to wear seat belt among the subjects,For intention, subjective norms was the strongest predictor(β=0.313).Also the variables of HBM (Perceived Barrier and Cue to action and Perceived Sensitive)explained 15.4% of variance of intention to wear seat belt among the subjects,among these variables,cue to action was the strongest predictor(β=0.210). Conclusion:The results indicated a average level of seat belt use among the subjects,but is should be promoted because the high prevalence of mortality among drivers and great importance seat belt on decrease of mortality rate.TPB could be used as a theoretical framework in the instructional programs than HBM in order to predict the intention and wearing of seat belt use by drivers.


ABSTRACT Singularity of strain field at the crack tip of elastomeric material has recently attracted considerable attention. For SBR filled with four different types of carbon black, the strain dis...


Abstract HER3 is a unique member of the EGFR family of tyrosine kinases, which is broadly expressed in several cancers, including breast, lung, pancreatic, colorectal, gastric, prostate, and bladder cancers and is often associated with poor patient outcomes and therapeutic resistance. U3-1402/Patritumab-GGFG-DXd is the first successful HER3-targeting antibody–drug conjugate (ADC) with clinical efficacy in non–small cell lung cancer. However, over 60% of patients are nonresponsive to U3-1402 due to low target expression levels and responses tend to be in patients with higher target expression levels. U3-1402 is also ineffective in more challenging tumor types such as colorectal cancer. AMT-562 was generated by a novel anti-HER3 antibody Ab562 and a modified self-immolative PABC spacer (T800) to conjugate exatecan. Exatecan showed higher cytotoxic potency than its derivative DXd. Ab562 was selected because of its moderate affinity for minimizing potential toxicity and improving tumor penetration purposes. Both alone or in combination therapies, AMT-562 showed potent and durable antitumor response in low HER3 expression xenograft and heterogeneous patient-derived xenograft/organoid models, including digestive system and lung tumors representing of unmet needs. Combination therapies pairing AMT-562 with therapeutic antibodies, inhibitors of CHEK1, KRAS, and tyrosine kinase inhibitor showed higher synergistic efficacy than Patritumab-GGFG-DXd. Pharmacokinetic and safety profiles of AMT-562 were favorable and the highest dose lacking severe toxicity was 30 mg/kg in cynomolgus monkeys. AMT-562 has potential to be a superior HER3-targeting ADC with a higher therapeutic window that can overcome resistance to generate higher percentage and more durable responses in U3-1402–insensitive tumors.


The Cauchy problem in Rd,d≥1, for a non-local in time p-Laplacian equations is considered. The nonexistence of nontrivial global weak solutions by using the test function method is obtained.


Background/Aim: Chronic wet cough suggests endobronchial infection. We aimed to investigate the relation between the initial radiological findings and clinical course as well as the evolvement of radiological findings in patients whose clinical findings persisted despite treatment. Methods : We retrospectively reviewed 90 patients aged 0.6 to 16.4 years, with chronic endobronchial infection. In 25 (27.8%) patients follow up HRCT scan was performed (1 st group), 6-38 months apart (median 13 mo) based on clinical grounds, mainly on the duration of symptoms despite long courses of antibiotic treatment and physiotherapy; the remaining 65 (72.2%) had a remitting course and a second scan was not considered necessary (2 nd group). Severity of involvement was assessed with Bhalla score and presence of bronchiectasis, per se . Results: Radiological findings on the first HRCT did not differ between the 2 groups (Bhalla scores: 2.7±0.3 and 2.6±0.3, p=0.80; presence of bronchiectasis: 10 and 27, p=0.9 in the 1 st and 2 nd group, respectively). In 1 st group 10 children had bronchiectasis in the 1 st HRCT scan compared with 14 in the second scan (p=0.10). Bhalla scores did not differ between the 1 st and the 2 nd CT-scan (mean values±sd: 2.7±0.2 and 2.9±0.4, respectively, p=0.60). There was no difference in bronchoscopic / bronchoalveolar lavage findings. Conclusion: Radiological findings do not suffice to predict the clinical course of protracted bacterial bronchitis. Although the literature suggests that radiological findings may be reversible, this is not the rule. Apart from the intensity of treatment, there are probably other - as yet unidentified- factors that determine the final outcome of the disease.


Raffinose accumulation is positively correlated with plant chilling stress tolerance; however, the understanding of the function and regulation of raffinose metabolism under chilling stress remains in its infancy. RAFFINOSE SYNTHASE (RAFS) is the key enzyme for raffinose biosynthesis. We report here that two independent maize (Zea mays) zmrafs mutant lines, in which raffinose was completely abolished, were more sensitive to chilling stress and their net photosynthetic product (total soluble sugars and starch) accumulation were significantly decreased compared with controls after chilling stress. A similar characterization of the maize Dehydration Responsive Element (DRE) Binding Protein 1A mutant (zmdreb1a) showed that ZmRAFS expression and raffinose content were significantly decreased compared with its control under chilling stress. Overexpression of maize ZmDREB1A in maize leaf protoplasts increased ZmDREB1A amounts which consequently up-regulated the expression of maize ZmRAFS and the Renilla LUCIFERASE (Rluc) which was controlled by the ZmRAFS promoter. Deletion of the single drought responsive element (DRE) in the ZmRAFS promoter abolished ZmDREB1A's influence on Rluc expression while addition of three copies of the DRE in the ZmRAFS promoter dramatically increased Rluc expression when ZmDREB1A was simultaneously overexpressed. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays and CHIP-qPCR demonstrated that ZmDREB1A directly binds to the DRE motif in the promoter of ZmRAFS both in vitro and in vivo. These data demonstrate that ZmRAFS, which was directly regulated by ZmDREB1A, enhances both raffinose biosynthesis and plant chilling stress tolerance.


In this work we analyze the tension, a constitutionalism characteristic, between Rule of Law and Democracy, as well as the revitalisation of constitutional normativity as a real and effective norm, equipped with a specifi c jurisdiction of legitimacy. The


The invention provides a motor-driven steering lock apparatus which can improve a reliability of locking and unlocking operations, with a simple circuit structure. A power supply line from a battery and a driving means are connected by a switching means only at a time when a feed signal from a host first control means to a drive control means (CPU), a power supply-enabling signal from the host first control means and a power supply-enabling signal from a host second control means are input to the switching means.


As the field of remote sensing is evolving, we witness the accumulation of information from several modalities, such as multispectral (MS), hyperspectral (HSI), LiDAR etc. Each of these modalities possess its own distinct characteristics and when combined synergistically, perform very well in the recognition and classification tasks. However, fusing multiple modalities in remote sensing is cumbersome due to highly disparate domains. Furthermore, the existing methods do not facilitate cross-modal interactions. To this end, we propose a novel transformer based fusion method for HSI and LiDAR modalities. The model is composed of stacked auto encoders that harness the cross key-value pairs for HSI and LiDAR, thus establishing a communication between the two modalities, while simultaneously using the CNNs to extract the spectral and spatial information from HSI and LiDAR. We test our model on Houston (Data Fusion Contest – 2013) and MUUFL Gulfport datasets and achieve competitive results.


We introduce a scenario for CP-violating (CPV) dark photon interactions in the context of non-abelian kinetic mixing. Assuming an effective field theory that extends the Standard Model (SM) field content with an additional $U(1)$ gauge boson ($X$) and a $SU(2)_L$ triplet scalar, we show that there exist both CP-conserving and CPV dimension five operators involving these new degrees of freedom and the SM $SU(2)_L$ gauge bosons. The former yields kinetic mixing between the $X$ and the neutral $SU(2)_L$ gauge boson (yielding the dark photon), while the latter induces CPV interactions of the dark photon with the SM particles. We discuss experimental probes of these interactions using searches for permanent electric dipole moments (EDMs) and di-jet correlations in high-energy $pp$ collisions. It is found that the experimental limit on the electron EDM currently gives the strongest restriction on the CPV interaction. In principle, high energy $pp$ collisions provide a complementary probe through azimuthal angular correlations of the two forward tagging jets in vector boson fusion. In practice, observation of the associated CPV asymmetry is likely to be challenging.


correlations that were not present in LS sub- jects. Structurally, subjects with HS showed GMV decreases in the rolandic operculum/superior temporal gyrus (P < 0.05) at the whole-brain level, and significant increases in GMV were also detected using ROI in the precuneus and ACC (both P < 0.05). Furthermore, in HS subjects ACC glutamate levels were negatively correlated with GMV in the ACC (P < 0.05). Such association was absent in LS. These findings provide, to our knowledge, the first evidence that brain glutamate levels are associated with emotional hyper-responsivity and volumetric changes in HS in brain regions thought to be critical in the pathophysiology of psychotic symptoms. Discussion: Collectively, these results are in line with a dimensional view of psychosis by suggesting that interactions between brain structure, neu-rochemistry, and functional response to emotion within a corticolimbic circuit are involved in the expression of psychotic-like experiences at non-clinical and clinical levels. These findings may also serve as evidence of potentially protective mechanisms, as our studies involved high-functioning individuals with HS and some of the observed effects are opposite to what would have been predicted from studies in clinical groups. Background: To detect schizophrenia-related anatomical changes that are not confounded by antipsychotic treatment and to establish clinically iden-tifiable subgroups that differ in underlying neuroanatomical patterns. Methods: This case-control study was conducted at West China hospital in China, and analysis was undertaken in Robarts Research Institute, London, Canada. 206 patients with schizophreniform psychosis and schizophrenia and 170 healthy controls were scanned on a Signa 3.0-T MR scan-ner; 137 patients with schizophreniform psychosis and schizophrenia and 172 healthy controls were scanned on a 3.0 T MR scanner. All the patients were first-episode and treatment-naïve. Source based morphometry (SBM) performed to analyze the gray matter (GM) concentration. Latent class analysis used to identify clinical subtypes of patients using the scores of symptom dimensions. GMC component-based connectomes were con-structed to study the graphic organization of structural brain network of subtypes of schizophrenia. Results: Patients showed prominent reduction in GM in two components; one including anterior insula, inferior frontal gyrus, anterior cingulate and another with superior temporal gyrus, and precuneus, inferior/supe- rior parietal lobule, cuneus, and lingual gyrus. Increased GM was seen in one component of cerebellar tonsil and inferior semi-lunar lobule, and the other component of middle temporal gyrus, superior temporal gyrus, middle frontal gyrus and putamen. Greater GM of latter component was associated with less severe positive symptoms and better performance on cognitive tests. Reduced global efficiency only existed in a subgroup of patients with severe negative and disorganization symptoms. Discussion: These findings delineate a common pattern of gray matter changes in schizophrenia, and a subgroup of patients with robust corti- cal reorganization suggestive of compensatory plasticity after first episode. Background: Frontal and temporal lobes abnormalities are often reported in schizophrenia. In the present study, we tested whether or not these abnormalities exist in individuals at clinical high risk for psychosis (CHR), and whether they distinguish between those CHR who convert to psychosis versus those who do not convert to psychosis at one year. We analyzed both cortical thickness (CT) and surface area (SA) given the fact that CT and SA develop along different developmental genetically mediated pathways. Since CHR individuals also experience a deterioration of cognitive func-tions and sub-threshold psychotic symptoms, we also explored the relationship between cognition and symptomatology and the two brain regions. Methods: Magnetic resonance images, clinical and cognitive data were acquired in 130 CHR who did not convert to psychosis (CHR-NC), 22 CHR who converted to psychosis (CHR-C) and 92 healthy controls (HC) at the Shanghai Mental Health Center, in Shanghai, China, who were tested as part of a NIH funded China and Harvard Medical School col-laboration. An internal pipeline developed at the Psychiatry Neuroimaging Laboratory (PNL), Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, was used to process the scans. The pipeline includes several quality and temporal showed no significant differences among the three groups, while specific and significant group differences were found in CT. More specifically, for the temporal lobe a main effect of Group (p=0.021) and a significant interaction of Region x Group (p=0.01) were found. Post analyses showed that CT of gyrus and of the of the superior temporal sulcus distinguished CHR-C from CHR-NC (p=0.027) from NC (p=0.002), with CT of CHR was also significantly smaller in than in NC (p=0.004) at respect to no significant main effect of Group was found but a significant region Group interaction was Post hoc analyses showed smaller CT of the pars triangularis in CHR-C with CHR-C<CHR-NC (p=0.02) NC A significant and positive correlation was also found between CT of the pars opercularis (rho=0.7; p=0.002) and the Brief Visual Memory test. The same correlation was also present with the pars triangularis. None of these correlations were present in NC or CHR-NC. Discussion: These results indicate that specific CT abnormalities in cir- cumscribed areas of the frontal and temporal lobes at baseline distinguish between CHR individuals who convert to psychosis versus those who do not at one-year follow-up. The brain regions involved belong to language circuits and their CT abnormalities correlate with verbal learning suggest- ing that these brain circuits are among the first affected by processes leading to frank psychosis. Background: Schizophrenia is associated with cortical thinning and breakdown in white matter microstructure. Whether these pathological processes are related remains unclear. We used multimodal neuroimaging to investigate the relation between regional cortical thinning and breakdown in adjacent infracortical white matter as a function of age and illness duration. Methods: Structural magnetic resonance and diffusion images were acquired in 218 schizophrenia patients and 167 age-matched healthy controls to map cortical thickness (CT) and fractional anisotropy (FA) in regionally adja- cent infracortical white matter at various cortical depths. Results: Between-group differences in CT and infracortical FA were inversely correlated across cortical regions (r=−0.5, p<0.0001), such that the most anisotropic infracortical white matter was found adjacent to regions with extensive cortical thinning. This pattern was evident in early


Study Objectives. To determine the frequency of reduced susceptibility to penicillin, and to compare the in vitro activity and pharmacodynamics of oral β‐lactam antibiotics against clinical isolates of Streptococcus pneumoniae from southeast Missouri.


Crosslinked Sago Starch (CSS) was prepared by crosslinking native starch with Sodium Trimetaphosphate. As a biodegradable adsorbent, CSS was used to remove methylene blue (MB) from the aqueous solution based on its characterization, including the granule morphology, crystalline nature and molecular structure. The adsorption capacity of CSS was evaluated as a function of pH, adsorbent dosage, initial concentration and time. It was favorable for adsorption under condition of neutral and at high initial concentration. The adsorption capacity trend was decreased with increasing the adsorbent dosage. The equilibrium isotherms were conducted using Langmuir, Freundlich and Tempkin model. It has been demonstrated that the better agreement was Langmuir isotherm with correlation coefficient of 0.99, equilibrium adsorption capacity of 3.75 mg g-1, chi-square test, χ2 of 0.03% and corresponding contact time of 4 hours. The pseudo-first-order, pseudo-second-order and intra-particle diffusion were used to fit adsorption data in the kinetic studies. And results showed that the adsorption kinetics was more accurately described by the pseudo-second-order model with correlation coefficient, R2 of 0.99 and standard deviation, SSE of 0.12%. The obtained results suggest that CSS could be promising candidates as an adsorbent for dye removal.


The stability analysis and evaluation on high slope is of great significance. The stability analysis on the slope of ZHANG-ZHUO highway is carried on in this paper by using the strength reduction method and ABAQUS software. According to the stress and plastic deformation calculated by ABAQUS software, the paper gives evaluations for the stability of slope. It turns out that safety factor of the slope is greater than three; the stability of the slope is well.


The CZO of Orgeval is one of the most instrumented observatory. It is representative of actual issues, such as the environmental impact of intensive agriculture. Data is being recorded every two days since 1969 (50 years), and more recently (2015) every 30 minutes for major elements and every minute for physico-chemical parameters with the installation of a RiverLab. That makes more than 2.2 million records of probes data and more than 30,000 records of major elements in 6 years. Besides, Deep Learning are state-of-the-art AI algorithms omnipresent in almost all industries nowadays; they can detect and highlight trends and patterns by learning on data, and reproduce them for different applications (e.g. Tesla autopilot, Pl@ntnet's plant recognition, music generation, insurance scoring). Amongst the variety of different neural network combinations, Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs) are rather fit to learn temporal-dependant data because of their cyclic neuronal structure, particularly the Long Short-Term Memory model (LSTM). LSTM is widely used in research applications that involve time series forecasting, such as weather forecasting [1], wind power forecasting [2], rainfall-runoff modelling [3] etc... The coupling of the Deep Learning's predicting power and the CZO's high frequency and historic data shows a strong potential for reproducing the behaviours of the measured elements through time. We discuss here the extent and limits of DL applied to geochemical problematics. We review the predictions through different time spans (10min, 1 day, 1 month, 1 year) into the future or in the past, and for different input parameters (size of the trainset


and customary fishers mainly take white sharks as bycatch in gillnets, and occasionally on longlines (Duffy unpubl. data). Sport fisheries for white sharks in New Zealand are largely undeveloped and fishers often tag and release those they do catch (Mossman 1993; Wilson 2002). A protective beach meshing programme run by Dunedin City Council (DCC) operates seasonally off Brighton, St. Clair and St. Kilda beaches. Although targeted, no white sharks have been taken since 1975. All sharks taken are disposed of at sea unless requested for research (L. Bell, DCC, pers. comm.). White sharks are not considered capable of sustaining a target fishery in New Zealand and commercial fisheries regulations prohibit directed fisheries (Francis 1998). They are taken as bycatch, however, in bottom-set longline, dropline and gill net fisheries, and occasionally in trawl and tuna longline fisheries (Ministry of Fisheries Catch Effort Database, Duffy unpubl. data). Landings and sale of bycatch is permitted.


A sensitized solar cell introduced by O'Regan and Grätzel in 1991 was one of the milestones in third generation hybrid solar cells because of the novelty of its architecture, ease of its fabrication, cost effectiveness and good efficiency. Despite persistent efforts made by various groups around the world for over 20 years, the efficiency of DSSCs had not crossed 13%. Very recently however, a major path-breaking advance has been realized in the domain of solid state sensitized solar cells with the introduction of organometal halide perovskites as efficient alternatives to liquid electrolyte based DSSCs. These new systems have already shown efficiency values of about 15–16% and hold great promise for even higher efficiency (20%) at lower cost. Interestingly, the optoelectronic properties of organometal halide perovskites can be tuned by varying the organic cation sizes, metal ions, or the halide anions. Several research groups have shown that complete replacement of I with other halide ions such as Br or Cl leads to increase in the energy gap and therefore lower photocurrents and efficiency. However the presence of mixed halides in the perovskite structure such as CH3NH3PbI2Cl can lead to higher photovoltaic performance because of the increase in the carrier diffusion length (B1 mm) without an appreciable increase in the band gap. Chung et al. showed that doping inorganic perovskite CsSnI3 with 5% fluorine could dramatically improve the photocurrent density by nearly 40%. However, to the best of our knowledge, there are no reports of mixed halide organometal perovskite systems with I and F ions applied in solar cells. Importantly, Mosconi et al. have shown that the mixed halide perovskite system consists of two different structures whose stability decreases from I to F along the column VIIA in the periodic table. Therefore it is difficult to stabilize I and F based mixed halide perovskite systems. Herein, we report an interesting strategy to incorporate fluoride ions in the perovskite structure via partial substitution of I by BF4 . Importantly, I and BF4 both have nearly the same ionic radius, which makes the incorporation of BF4 feasible in the structure. We further show that I and BF4 based mixed halide perovskite possesses an order of magnitude higher low frequency conductivity than I based perovskite without an appreciable change in the absorption onset. In order to incorporate BF4 within the perovskite structure, the organic salt CH3NH3BF4 was prepared using methylamine and tetrafluoroboric acid solutions. The hybrid perovskite films were prepared using chemical vapor deposition of organic salt CH3NH3BF4 on preheated PbI2 films whereas the powder of hybrid perovskite was prepared using the solid state route with a mixture of organic salt and PbI2. The detailed experimental procedure is given in the ESI.† The phase of the synthesized perovskite was confirmed using X-ray diffraction measurements. Fig. 1(a) shows the XRD pattern of synthesized CH3NH3PbI(3 x)(BF4)x perovskite film on glass. The crystal structure of CH3NH3PbI(3 x)(BF4)x perovskite is found to be identical to the conventional CH3NH3PbI3 tetragonal perovskite structure as indicated by the appearance of peaks at 14.01, 28.31, 31.81 and 43.21 for the (110), (220), (310) and (330) planes, respectively. The presence of sharp peaks in the X-ray diffraction pattern indicates the highly crystalline nature of the perovskite film. In order to confirm the presence of BF4 groups in the perovskite structure, we carried out the ATR-FTIR study of the CH3NH3PbI(3 x)(BF4)x films on glass. Fig. 1(b) shows the characteristic stretching vibration peaks of BF4 at 1135 cm , 967 cm , 524 cm , 1084 cm , 952 cm 1 (for symmetric stretching), and 1053 cm 1 (B–F stretching), which are otherwise absent in the CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite. a Centre of Excellence in Solar Energy, National Chemical Laboratory (CSIR-NCL), Dr. Homi Bhabha Road, Pune, India b Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Network Institute of Solar Energy (CSIR-NISE), New Delhi, India. E-mail: email@example.com, firstname.lastname@example.com † Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Experimental details and Fig. S1–S4. See DOI: 10.1039/c4cc04537h Received 15th June 2014, Accepted 4th July 2014


Discretization of continuous-time diffusion processes is a widely recognized method for sampling. However, the canonical Euler Maruyama discretization of the Langevin diffusion process, referred as Langevin Monte Carlo (LMC), studied mostly in the context of smooth (gradient Lipschitz) and strongly log-concave densities, is a considerable hindrance for its deployment in many sciences, including computational statistics and statistical learning. In this paper, we establish several theoretical contributions to the literature on such sampling methods for weakly smooth and non-convex densities. Particularly, we use convexification of nonconvex domain [22] in combination with regularization to prove convergence in Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence with the number of iterations to reach ǫ-neighborhood of a target distribution in only polynomial dependence on the dimension. We relax the conditions of [29] and prove convergence guarantees under isoperimetry, degenerated convex and non strongly convex at infinity.


The software developed should be based on a particular model. The model selected should have low risk factor. Though the risk factor is low on certain aspects, there may be some critical aspects for which the same model cannot reduce the risk. In this paper, a hybrid approach has been proposed to reduce the risks through agile principles. The agile principles are applied over incremental and prototype model. Tautological implications are used to prove that the spiral model is a crossover of incremental and prototype model.


Two new species, Lasianthus fansipanensis V.S. Dang & Naiki and Lasianthus sapaensis V.S. Dang & Naiki (sect. Nudiflorae), were discovered in the Hoang Lien National Park of northern Vietnam and are here described and illustrated. Colour photographs, preliminary conservation assessment, and tables comparing these two new species against two closely related species are also presented.


Objective To explore the effect of miR-9 on the expression of NRP1 and its radiation effects in A549 cells.Methods Bioinformatics was used to analyze the potential binding sites of has-miR-9 and NRP1-3'UTR.The miR-9 sequence was inserted into pcDNA-DEST-47 plasmid to construct the eukaryotic expression vector (pcDNA-DEST-miR-9) and to construct the NRP1 gene 3'UTR luciferase reporter plasmid (pEZX-MT05) at the same time.They were simultaneously transferred into A549 cells for analysis of the regulatory effect of miR-9 on the expression of NRP1.Meanwhile miR-29b was used as a negative control to observe whether or not NRP1 gene was a target of miR-9.After 10 Gy irradiation,the expression of NRP1,and the inhibitory effect of miR-9 on it was confirmed by Western blot assay.The expression of miR-9 was detected by real-time PCR.Results It was found that miR-9 reduced the luciferase activity of NRP1-3'UTR wild plasmid (t =3.906,P < 0.05) but not NRP1-3' UTR mutant plasmid.This luciferase activity was not inhibited by other types of miRNA (miR-29b).The expression of NRP1 protein in A549 cells was decreased after the cells were transfected with miR-9 mimic.After irradiation with dose of 10 Gy,the expression of miR-9 were decreased (t =37.319,P < 0.05) and the expression of NRP1 protein were increased.Conclusions miR-9 regulates the expression of NRP1 by targeting 3'UTR site of NRP1 gene in A549 cells.

Key words:
miR-9;  NRP1 ;  A549;  Targeted regulation;  Ionizing radiation


This paper presents design and comprehensive analysis of high-performance crossbars where crossbars can be asymmetrical in size, buffered at all crosspoints, and capable of multipath routing and crosspoints are fault-tolerant. A crossbar, as a building block of switching networks, with the mentioned features in its structure can demonstrate fault-tolerant property. This property is a major factor for crossbars to perform efficiently in modern data networks. A generic condition of n /spl times/ k crossbar with n inputs (rows), k columns, and n outputs (rows) under which a crossbar becomes multipath is examined. In a multipath crossbar a packet can be routed through k different paths to an output. The multipath feature ensures the property of fault-tolerance and provides a faster congestion resolution especially under the multicast traffic. This paper also describes a two-dimensional Markov chain associated with the crossbar's queueing model, and presents the performance evaluation of crossbars.


The article is devoted to the analysis of the legislative decision on strengthening criminal liability for looting. According to the results of the study, firstly, he presented his own vision of those controversial provisions, the mastery of which can cause the greatest difficulties for both ordinary citizens and law enforcement, and secondly, identified and proposed proposals to eliminate inherent shortcomings of the Act. will most likely have a negative impact on the effectiveness of the relevant criminal law prohibitions.
In particular, it is proved that under parts four of Articles 185, 186, 187, 189, 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine as "committed under martial law (state of emergency)" should be qualified as the terrain and circumstances of their commission, ie whether they were directly related to the use of the mentioned conditions (in case of martial law or state of emergency).
At the same time, it was concluded that the differentiation of liability should be associated only with the commission of criminal offenses against property in question "using the conditions of martial law or state of emergency", which should be mentioned in the improved versions of the ban in question. provisions".
In addition, the provision is substantiated that the list of acts provided for by the Law of Ukraine of March 3, 2022, for which responsibility should be strengthened in case of their commission in martial law or state of emergency, should be supplemented by violations of Article 190 ("fraud"), 262 (" illegal possession of firearms (except smooth-bore hunting), ammunition, explosives, explosive devices or radioactive materials") and 289 ("illegal possession of a vehicle") of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.


The P–T–t path of high‐P metamorphic rocks in subduction zones may reveal valuable information regarding the tectonic processes along convergent plate boundaries. Herein, we present a detailed petrological, pseudosection modelling and radiometric dating study of several amphibole schists of oceanic affinity from the Lhasa Block, Tibet. The amphibole schists experienced an overall clockwise P–T path that was marked by post‐Pmax heating–decompression and subsequent isothermal decompression following the attainment of peak high‐P and low‐T conditions (~490°C and 1.6 GPa). Pseudosection modelling shows that the amphibole schists underwent water‐unsaturated conditions during prograde metamorphism, and the stability field of the assemblage extends to lower temperatures and higher pressures within the water‐unsaturated condition relative to water‐saturated model along the prograde path. The high‐P amphibole schists were highly reduced during retrograde metamorphism. Precise evaluation of the ferric iron conditions determined from the different compositions of epidote inclusions in garnet and matrix epidote is crucial for a true P–T estimate by garnet isopleth thermobarometry. Lu–Hf isotope analyses on garnet size separates from a garnet‐bearing amphibole schist yield four two‐point garnet–whole‐rock isochron ages from 228.2 ± 1.2 Ma to 224.3 ± 1.2 Ma. These Lu–Hf dates are interpreted to constrain the period of garnet growth and approximate the timing of prograde metamorphism because of the low peak metamorphic temperature of the rock and the well‐preserved Mn/Lu growth zoning in garnet. The majority of zircon U–Pb dates provide no constraints on the timing of metamorphism; however, two concordant U–Pb dates of 222.4 ± 3.9 Ma and 223.3 ± 4.2 Ma were obtained from narrow and uncommon metamorphic rims. Coexistence of zircon and sphene in the samples implies that the metamorphic zircon growth was likely assisted by retrogression of rutile to sphene during exhumation. The near coincident radiometric dates of zircon U–Pb and garnet Lu–Hf indicate rapid burial and exhumation of the amphibole schists, suggesting a closure time of c. 224–223 Ma for the fossil ocean basin between the northern and southern Lhasa blocks.


Case i Thomas, 56-years-old, attended the E.N.T. Out Patient Department on 6 April 1972, complaining of dyspnoea of one week's duration. He gave a history of nasal obstruction and a mass in both nostrils of fifteen years' duration, and a mass in the 'mouth' of ten years' duration. He had had an altered voice with mild dyspnoea for three years; but the dyspnoea had become worse during the preceding week. On examination the patient was in moderate dyspnoea, with rhinosporidial masses filling both nostrils and a huge rhinosporidial mass was seen hanging from the nasopharynx into the oropharynx, and the lower end could not be seen as it extended into the laryngopharynx. Indirect laryngoscopy was not done because of the difficulty in performing it and because it was thought that the dyspnoea might be due to the huge size of the mass in the oropharynx. The patient was operated upon the next day. Under heavy sedation the mouth was sprayed with 4 per cent xylocaine and both nostrils were packed with gauze soaked in xylocaine. The tongue was depressed and the rhinosporidial mass was caught with two long pairs of artery forceps, one above the other, and the mass was pulled out. The rhinosporidial mass was 5 in. X 3 in. in size. Bleeding was insignificant as the whole mass with its pedicle came out entire; it was noticed that its attachment was in the left inferior meatus and what had been seen in the left nostril was part of the mass. Next, the rhinosporidium in the right nostril was also excised; and this mass was attached to the floor and the inferior turbinate. Both nostrils were packed with vaseline gauze. In spite of removal of the rhinosporidium from the pharynx, the patient continued to have dyspnoea and hence an indirect laryngoscopy was done, a fin. X \in. rhinosporidial mass was attached to the left ventricle and vocal cord, and was seen to be hanging into the trachea, and this mass moved up and down through the glottis during respiration. Direct laryngoscopy was done and the mass excised; a small piece of this mass was sent for histopathological examination and the report was of rhinosporidiosis.


Musculoskeletal disorders related to repetitive work practices are a major problem in modern societies and refer to all types of tissue damage in the musculoskeletal system and nerves; Dentists are more likely to have musculoskeletal disorders due to their work. Such discomfort is more frequent in the neck, shoulders and back, but it also affects other body parts. (Taib MFM, 2017). In our study, 96 dental professionals who work in the city of Loja were selected; they were surveyed in order to establish the prevalence of musculoskeletal injuries as a result of working in dental clinics, and assess the scale of pain; besides, to define which are the most affected areas the visual analog scale (VAS) was used. A 61% prevalence of discomfort in the musculoskeletal system was identified in the study population. In addition, the injuries that were mostly diagnosed are: muscle fatigue in men with 22% and 27% in women and muscle contracture in women with 15% and 20% in men. Moreover, 35% of the sample population reported that the most affected part was the cervical area, and the discomfort caused was perceived as tolerable 17%.

Keywords: skeletal muscle disorder, work practices, occupational health


We briefly review a number of major features of the approach to quantum measurement theory based on environment-induced decoherence of the measuring apparatus, and summarize our observations in the form of a couple of general principles that, unlike the wave function collapse hypothesis, emerge as ones consistent with the unitary Schr\"odinger evolution of wave functions. We conclude with a few observations of a philosophical nature, to the effect that that quantum theory does not purport to describe reality but constitutes an {\it interpretation} of our phenomenal reality within a context -- one where the Planck scale is not crossed. Beyond the Planck scale, a radically new interpretation of reality is likely to emerge.


The use of gadgets to support the learning process during this pandemic has become necessary, such as cellphones, tablets, laptops, and various other gadgets. The blue light on the gadget is one of the causes of asthenopia: tired eyes, symptoms of blurred vision, difficulty focusing, dry eyes, watery irritation, headaches, neck or back tension, and makes the mind tired quickly. This study aims to determine the impact of using gadgets on eye health and how to control it. The research design was cross-sectional in a purposive sample with a survey on 48 students of Universitas Widya Husada Semarang (UWHS) Semarang City Indonesia. Data was taken by surveying a sample of students who took part in online learning using gadgets in smartphones, laptops, and desktop computers. The greatest effect occurred in decreased visual acuity (76.7%) and the smallest on perceptual speed (37.5%). Negative effects were felt by students in the range of close to 50%, but a small number of students only felt effects with high severity. Measures to control the dangers of using gadgets are carried out by arranging gadget duration for learning purposes. © 2023 Author(s).


Assessment of energy intake and expenditure is an important criteria for nutrition care plan. Equation for predicting Resting Energy Expenditure (REE) or Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) is based on body weight, height, sex and FFM. Resting Energy Expenditure (REE) is an important parameter, which estimate metabolic rate in obese and underweight individuals. Different formulas are used to estimate energy requirements in Indian health clinics. But to our no precise study has has been done in this area, so far. The aim of the present paper was to develop and predict Resting Energy Expenditure, for Indian subjects. For this 100 Indian subjects, participated in the study whose Human Body composition parameters, like sex, Impedance, RMR, BMI (Basal Metabolic Index), were measured experimently by Maltron-II Body composition Analyser. Two different sets of Resting Energy Equations were developed. First with sex, age, weight and Impedance Index at different frequencies of 5 KHz, 50KHz, 100KHz and 200 KHz. Second with independent variables as FM, FFM and age and sex.The results obtained were then validated with the Maltron-II Body composition analyser and it was found that the results were in close proximity with the results obtained from instrument. In addition to this statistical Analysis of the data is carried out with the help of statistical software R version (2.9.2) which is useful to study the correlation obtained from the the Instrument, and that obtained by scientists. Further different other parameters of statistics is formulated in tabular form.


In 802.11 WLAN, the competition stations number is a very important parameter for optimizing the performance of the network. Aiming at the problem of that the current methods of probability measurement and interruption measurement have good performance in terms of real-time, but less in measurement accuracy. Aiming at the problem, this paper proposes a method based on back off time measurement. It improved interruption measurement considering the effect of back off time. Simulation experimental result shows that it is a efficient method.


Method for controlling an apparatus (20) for processing blood outside the human body, with a view to improving the operation of said apparatus (20), said apparatus (20) a semi-permeable that membrane (22) performs an exchange of solutions, called dialysis and liquid, called ultrafiltration, blood, said method including at least one iteration of the following steps: Determination of a value, called flash, a coefficient corresponding to the ultrafiltration ratio of an ultrafiltration flow rate and a pressure difference, called trans-membranous pressure on both sides of said semi-permeable membrane (22), - comparing said instantaneous value to at least one predetermined characteristic value, and - control of said apparatus (20) for processing so that a maximum value of said ultrafiltration coefficient is reached, said control including one a variation of the ultrafiltration rate to a value corresponding to said maximum value of said ultrafiltration coefficient.


The kinetic and thermodynamic parameters of the decomposition of 10-methyl-10-phenyl-phenoxarsinium iodide in 1-propanol, determined by the conductometric method, indicate that the reaction has an S/sub N/2 mechanism.


This paper describes the diet and feeding habits of southwestern Atlantic wreckfish Polyprion americanus (28o-34o40'S, 70-510m deep). Stomach contents and on deck regurgitates from commercially caught wreckfish were examined. Sixteen species of fish, eight of cephalopods and one crab were identified among the 429 food items examined. Main wreckfish prey included the hake Merluccius hubbsi, the argentine shortfin squid Illex argentinus and the red-crab Chaceon notialis. Wreckfish juveniles consumed fish (79%) and squid (21%). Adults consumed less fish (13%), and more crab (47%) and squid (40%). At spawning areas and season, adult wreckfish consumed mainly ommastrephid squids (80%). Half of the prey species were pelagic or benthic-pelagic which agrees with fishers' statement that wreckfish performs some vertical movement (100-150m), at night. Teeth are small and villiform. Five patches of teeth were observed on the tongue: a large posterior one and four smaller anterior ones; different from three patches arranged in a triangle, described for North Atlantic stock. The mouth is protractile and preys is swallowed whole by suction. For each fishing trip sample, there was only one dominant prey species suggesting that feeding strategy must include efficient location of food concentrations.


This study is a profile of the elderly in the United States. Its 2 central themes are the aging of the population and the growing propensity for early retirement. Attention is directed to the following: forces underlying demographic shifts implications of an aging population dependency ratios the decision to retire (older men and older women in the labor force retirement patterns in the 1980s why people do not work why people retire gradual retirement assessment of the retirement experience and work after retirement) and income after retirement (sources of income earnings replacement rates inflation and retirement benefits and poverty). At this time in the United States 16 out of every 100 persons are at least 60 years of age compared with only 12 out of every 100 in 1950. The middle-range projections of the Bureau of the Census indicate that 24 out of every 100 persons in the population will be 60 years old or older by 2030. The increase in the proportion of older persons in the population has been accompanied by a marked trend toward early retirement. 30 or 40 years ago most people did not retire before age 65 but in recent years the vast majority has been retiring earlier. The environment that has provided the impetus for early retirement along with the implications of this phenomenon is examined. The final report focuses in on several policy options that require study in the immediate future. Particular emphasis is placed on the need for planning now for the large increase in the numbers of older persons between the years 2010 and 2030. Policymakers in the private and public sectors will be reassessing retirement policies pension policies social security legislation and other influences that impinge on retirement decisions and on the costs of supporting the nonworking elderly population.


With the development of international trade,the Beneficiary of L/C(Exporter) often meets new problems in L/C business.UCP500 has not been able to satisfy or adapt to the requirement of real business,while the implementation of UCP600 and its innovation on words structures overcomes the shortcoming of UCP500.UCP600 is more suitable for requirements of foreign business,and it is also more favorable for the Beneficiary,and so in L/C business,the exporters should use UCP600 so as to avoid the dishonor risks because of the discrepancies.


these triterpenoids, their potent anti-inflammatory and the molecular mechanism(s) underlying the various biological activities of triterpenoids which range from inhibition of acute and chronic inflammation, inhibition of tumor cell proliferation, induction of apoptosis, suppression of angiogenesis and metastasis. However systematic analysis of various pharmacological properties of these important classes of compounds has not been done. In this review, we describe in detail the pre-clinical chemopreventive and therapeutic properties of selected triterpenoids that inhibit multiple intracellular signaling molecules and transcription factors involved in the initiation, progression and promotion of various cancers. Molec- ular targets modulated by these triterpenoids comprise, cytokines, chemokines, reactive oxygen interme-diates, oncogenes, inflammatory enzymes such as COX-2, 5-LOX and MMPs, anti-apoptotic proteins, transcription factors such as NF- j B, STAT3, AP-1, CREB, and Nrf2 (nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor) that regulate tumor cell proliferation, transformation, survival, invasion, angiogenesis, metastasis, chemoresistance and radioresistance. Finally, this review also analyzes the potential role of novel synthetic triterpenoids identified recently which mimic natural triterpenoids in physical and chemical prop- erties and are moving rapidly from bench to bedside research.


BACKGROUND
Parkinson's disease (PD) is characterized by both motor and non-motor symptoms. The presynaptic neuronal protein, α-Synuclein, plays a pivotal role in PD pathogenesis and is associated with both genetic and sporadic origin of the disease. Ursolic Acid (UA) is a well-known bioactive compound found in various medicinal plants, widely studied for its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities.

OBJECTIVE
In this research article, the neuroprotective potential of UA has been further explored in Rotenone-induced mouse model of PD.

METHODS
To investigate our hypothesis, we have divided mice into 4 different groups, control, drug only control, Rotenoneintoxicated group, and Rotenone-intoxicated mice treated with UA. After the completion of dosing, behavioral parameters were estimated. Then mice from each group were sacrificed and the brains were isolated. Further, the biochemical tests were assayed to check the balance between the oxidative stress and endogenous anti-oxidants; and TH (Tyrosine Hydroxylase), αSynuclein, Akt (Serine-threonine protein kinase), ERK (Extracellular signal-regulated kinase) and inflammatory parameters like Nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) and Tumor Necrosis Factor- α (TNF-α) were assessed using Immunohistochemistry (IHC).Western blotting was also done to check the expressions of TH and α-Synuclein. Moreover, the expression level of PD related genes like α-Synuclein, β-Synuclein, Interleukin-1β (IL-1β), and Interleukin- 10 (IL-10) were assessed by using Real-time PCR.

RESULTS
The results obtained in our study have suggested that UA significantly reduced the overexpression of α-Synuclein and regulated the phosphorylation of survival-related kinases (Akt and ERK) apart from alleviating the behavioral abnormalities and protecting the dopaminergic neurons from oxidative stress and neuroinflammation.

CONCLUSION
Thus, our study puts forward the neuroprotective potential of UA which can be further explored for possible clinical intervention.


Doping in metal oxide systems is being chased by many researchers since it is enhancing their properties. In the present study, Cu1-xMgxO nanoparticles, capped with EDTA were synthesized by the chemical co-precipitation method, with x = 0.000, 0.005, 0.010, 0.015, and 0.020, and further characterized by different techniques. The impact of doping by Mg2+ ions on the structural, optical, and magnetic properties of CuO nanoparticles was investigated and the antibacterial activity of the synthesized nanoparticles was studied by antibiofilm screening. The x-ray Powder Diffraction (XRD) patterns show the formation of a pure CuO phase with a good incorporation of Mg-dopant into the CuO lattice due to the comparable ionic radii of Cu2+ and Mg2+ ions. The Mg-dopant increases the crystallite size from 25 nm (at x = 0.000) to 28.12 nm (at x = 0.020). The Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) images reveal the effect of Mg-doping on the morphology of CuO nanoparticles by decreasing their agglomeration, resulting in more uniform spherical-shaped nanoparticles. Energy Dispersive x-ray (EDX) and x-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) confirm the purity and the successful development of Mg-doped CuO nanoparticles. The changes in the characteristic vibrational modes of CuO are studied by Raman spectra, upon Mg-doping. Furthermore, the optical properties explored by Ultraviolet-Visible (UV–vis) spectroscopy reveal a redshift of the absorption peaks of CuO nanoparticles due to the Mg-doping. The energy gap (Eg) is affected by Mg-doping, where its broadening is attributed to the quantum confinement effect in CuO. The magnetic properties were investigated by Vibrating Sample Magnetometer (VSM) at room temperature. Cu1-xMgxO nanoparticles have combined paramagnetic and weak ferromagnetic behaviors. Besides, Cu1-xMgxO nanoparticles exhibited significant antibiofilm effects. These results highlight the potential use of Mg-doped CuO nanoparticles as antibiofilm agents.


With the Semiconductor technology developing speedly, micro-electronic products have stepped into highly speed and frequency scope, coming with the challenges of micromation and lower power, etc. Digital circuit design is confronted with greater challenge. On one hand, the process technology of integrated circuits turn towards submicron-scale feature sizes, that results in pulse's edge time descending to microsecond-level or even picoseconds-level. Meanwhile, the level of signals' keep-time shortens seriously[1]. Based on differential routing principles, simulate software is applied on founding differential routing model. For comparison, simulation and testing methods are adopted to researching impedance of differential traces. Large-scale IC ceramic packages SPGA256 was used to differential impedance simulation and testing.


This paper analyzes the image blurring effect caused by the size of radiation source in Digitai Radiography (DR) Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) system, and introduces method of measuring the oulse response function. Based on a new arithmetic of calculating power spectrum of signal and noise, Wiener filter is designed to perform blurred image restroing.


This report describes progress in an ongoing project, "Domestication and Selective Breeding of Penaeus monodon in Thailand". Fast-growing and white-spot syndrome virus (WSSV)-free shrimp were selected from commercial grow-out ponds. They were reared for one year to become F 0 pond-reared broodstock which were then bred to produce F 1 offspring. These F 1 offspring were screened to be free of WSSV before being reared onward for another year to become F 1 broodstock. From these broodstock the F 2 offspring presently comprise nine full-sibling families. Fecundity of the F 1 broodstock was lower than, but approaching that of wild, captured broodstock. The improvement was sufficient to make commercial scale production of postlarvae from these broodstock foreseeable.


Excerpt To the editor: The observation that rheumatoid factors may reflect the immune nature of Graves' disease (1) is of interest, but unfortunately the authors did not consider the even more prov...


A kind of novel multi-layer piezoelectric actuator is proposed and integrated with control- lable constrained damping treatment to perform hybrid vibration control.The governing equation of the system is derived based on the constitutive equations of elastic,viscoelastic and piezoelectric materials,which shows that the magnitude of control force exerted by multi-layer piezoelectric actua- tor is the quadratic function of the number of piezoelectric laminates used but in direct proportion to control voltage.This means that the multi-layer actuator can produce greater actuating force than that by piezoelectric laminate actuator with the same area under the identical control voltage.The optimal location placement of the multi-layer piezoelectric actuator is also discussed.As an example,the hybrid vibration control of a cantilever rectangular thin-plate is numerically simulated and carried out experimentally.The simulated and experimental results validate the power of multi-layer piezoelectric actuator and indicate that the present hybrid damping technique can effectively suppress the low fre- quency modal vibration of the experimental thin-plate structure.


A full-color image is obtained from the interpolated RGB images by use of an appropriate demosaicing algorithms but some interpolation errors can not be avoidable. In this paper, new image capturing system is proposed which has an actuator to move the image sensor in two-axis and very simple image reconstruction algorithm, and can enhance the image quality since it does not involve any demosaicing process.


Site conditions (i.e., depth to bedrock and intermediate horizons within the soil column, and the shear wave velocities of-the soils and bedrock) have been investigated using and SH-wave velocity data at eight sites in Illinois and Indiana where the June 10, 1987, southeastern Illinois earthquake was recorded on blast monitors. The site effects have been calculated using the site conditions and the one dimensional response analysis program WAVES (Hart and Wilson, 1989), and it was found that the site conditions caused the peak particle accelerations to be amplified by a factor of 2.7 to 4.8. It is suggested that the records of ground motions obtained at sites not on rock be considered inadequate for usage at other sites unless accompanied by a quantitative description of the site conditions.


This paper explores some of these issues and briefly considers their implications for antitrust policy toward cooperatives. Two central questions are: What is the extent of restricted as opposed to open membership cooperation in the United States? If an observable pattern in membership policies exists among cooperatives, what might explain it? These questions require observation and analysis of numerous market factors, an important one being the extent to which marketing cooperatives have gained market power in their final product markets. The full significance of the empirical findings and their policy implications requires an understanding of certain basic theoretical considerations. Theoretical Considerations Recent advances in theory of cooperation make considerable use of an average revenue product (ARP) function which shows for alternative levels of an input the maximum price which a firm can pay for that input, given that all other costs have been met.1 The corresponding marginal revenue product (MRP) function shows the rate of change in total revenue product associated with various levels of input. That part of the MRP


The kinetics of nucleophilic bimolecular substitution reactions of γ-functionalized allyl bromides with non-substituted and p-substituted sodium arenesulfinates has been studied. Both the structure of allyl bromides and nucleophilicity of arenesulfinate ions exerted a significant effect on the values of the kinetic parameters such as the second-order rate constants k, activation energy EA, and changes in the entropy ΔS≠, enthalpy ΔH≠, and free energy ΔG≠ of the formation of the activated complex from reactants. Based on the evaluation of kinetic parameters, the reactants could be arranged, according to their decreasing reactivity in the SN2-reactions as follows: p-toluenesulfinate ion > benzenesulfinate ion > p-chlorobenzenesulfinate ion and 4-bromo-2-butenenitrile > 1,3- dibromopropene, respectively. Comparison was also made between the kinetic data obtained and some delocalization reactivity indexes for both the substrates and nucleophiles. The enthalpy–entropy compensation effect was observed for the reactions of sodium arenesulfinates with γ-functionalized allyl bromides. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The publication contains memories of the acquaintance and joint activities of the author of the article and Demin M. A. His merits as the scientific director of the Altai Regional Pedagogical Lyceum are noted.


We investigated very long-term bowel function after total mesorectal excision (TME) with or without preoperative short-course radiotherapy (PRT) for rectal cancer, the risk factors for bowel dysfunction, and the association of bowel dysfunction with health-related quality of life (HRQL). In the TME trial (1996-1999), 1530 Dutch rectal cancer patients were randomised to TME preceded by 5x5 Gy PRT, or TME alone. A set of questionnaires was sent to surviving patients (n=583) in 2012. The questionnaires included the Low Anterior Resection Syndrome Score (LARS score), European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire Core (EORTC QLQ-C30) and colorectal module (QLQ-CR29). The LARS score range is divided into 'no LARS', 'minor LARS', and 'major LARS' categories in ascending severity of bowel dysfunction. Potential risk factors for Major LARS were tested on multivariable analysis. HRQL was compared between LARS score categories.


The Yarlung Zangbo Suture Zone (YZSZ) in southern Tibet includes the remnants of Neotethyan oceanic lithosphere and marks a major suture between the Indian Plate to the south and the Lhasa Terrane of Tibet to the north (Dupuis et al., 2005; Yang et al., 2011). In the western part of the YZSZ, the Northern and the Southern sub-belts form two sub-parallel zones of mafic – ultramafic rock assemblages with overlapping crystallization ages (Xiong et al., 2011; Hebért et al., 2012; Liu et al., 2015). The upper mantle section of the Cuobuzha ophiolite in the northern sub-belt of the Yarlung–Zangbo Suture Zone (YZSZ) in SW Tibet comprises mainly clinopyroxene (cpx)–rich and depleted harzburgites. Spinels in the cpx-harzburgites show lower Cr# values (12.6–15.1) than the spinels in the harzburgites (26.1–34.5), and the cpx-harzburgites display higher heavy rare earth element concentrations than the depleted harzburgites. The harzburgites have subchondritic Os isotopic compositions (0.11624–0.11699), whereas the cpx-harzburgites have suprachondritic 187Os/188Os ratios (0.12831–0.13125) with higher Re concentrations (0.380-0.575 ppb). The cpx-harzburgites plot in a Re vs. Al2O3 diagram as a result of subsequent addition of Re following the last partial melting event that occurred during mid-ocean ridge melt evolution processes (Uysal et al., 2015). Although these geochemical and isotopic signatures suggest that both peridotite types in the ophiolite represent mid-ocean ridge type upper mantle units, their melt evolution trends reflect different mantle processes. The cpx-harzburgites formed from low-degree partial melting (~5%) of a primitive mantle source, and they were


Abstract During a study on the plant samples of Trifolium pratense L. (Leguminosae) collected in Iranian historical village, Kandovan of Osku region, Aculus haddadi Lotfollahi & Tajaddod sp. nov. was identified as a vagrant species and herein described and illustrated. In addition, a key to the known Aculus mite species collected on Leguminosae plants worldwide and information about their type host, type locality and habitus and figures of their prodorsal shield patterns are provided.


Oxydation of ketones, aldehydes and formiates in the presence of radicophilic olefin α-tert-butylthioacrylonitrile 3 with captodative (cd) substitution does not give the usual radical decay products: The radical adducts dimerize, thus building a four carbon-bridge between the original radicals R°.


LAST YEAR, PRESIDENT OBAMA SIGNED A POLICY DIRECtive on global development, the first by a US president. It provides a common framework for the US government, emphasizing economic growth as "the only sustainable way to accelerate development and eradicate poverty." Its health pillar is the $63 billion Global Health Initiative, launched in 2009. The initiative builds on existing programs, such as the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, and increases support for maternal and child health, family planning, and nutrition programs. The initiative targets problems that impede development in the poorest countries. But even there, new health threats are arising with economic growth. The United States needs a new, forward-looking global health strategy that sustains progress against traditional priorities while confronting emerging impediments to global development.


At present, the task of Ideological and moral education for college students is very arduous, and many problems of the college students are closely related to their psychological states. Students' mental health is the basis and content of Ideological and moral education. Students' psychological acceptance is the premise and effect of the Ideological and moral education. In this paper, from the understanding of students' psychological states, I try to know their needs and then use some psychological theories to provide a methodological guidance for the Ideological and moral education.


Computational models of cardiovascular function depend on the specification of parameters, whose values can depend quite strongly on particular subject characteristics (e.g., age, height, weight, disease state). In this study, we present a scaling scheme, based on the principle of elastic similarity, that allows for referencing of cardiovascular parameters to different anthropometric profiles. Combined with a sampling procedure, this scaling scheme allows for simulations of subjects of different body size. Simulated steady-state mean values, standard deviations, and ranges of important hemodynamic variables match their experimental analogs of the normal healthy adult population quite well. We conclude that scaling of cardiovascular parameters on the basis of elastic similarity provides a valid basis for incorporating the effects of size in population simulations.


Possibilities of using Vienna Test System to estimate rhythm abilities in high level 110-m hurdlers

Introduction. Rhythm is an important element of achievements in 110-m hurdle run. So far the study of rhythmic abilities in group of high level hurdle-runners were rather intuitive than empirical.
The aim of this investigation was to find accurate forms of laboratory tests to assess rhythm abilities in high level hurdles.
Material. In this study participated 13 best Polish 110-m hurdlers (personal best:13,87?0,79 s, age:23,1?2,9 years, height:185,3?4,2 cm, weight:76,9?5,9 kg) and , as a control group, untrained students of physical education from Katowice (age:21,6?1,7 years, height:178,3?10,1 cm, weight:77,9?5,3 kg).
Methods. To determine the level of rhythmic abilities we used Vienna Test System (Austria) with addition system TAP (version 4.00) produce sequence of two sorts of sound (S - ?slow? ? 72 beats/min. and F - ?fast?- 144 beats/min.). The tests consisted of three phases: preparation, guided and unguided; in this study we used results only in the last one.
To predict rhythmic abilities we created 10 basic tests. Between them were 6 general trials (right leg ? R, left leg-L and both lower limbs-B; every test in slow and fast version) and 4 specific, simulate hurdle race (1 hurdle clearance + 3 inter-hurdle steps) ? 3R1L and 3L1R, both in variants S and F, too.
From above tests we separated 4 similar groups variables contained four tests:
- first: one leg movement (in versions LS, RS, LF and RF),
- second: two legs variants (BS,BF; in variants started from L and R leg),
- third ? specific hurdle rhythm with using left leg as a lead leg (3R1L and 1L3R, both in versions S and F),
- fourth ? specific hurdle rhythm with right lower limb as a lead leg (3L1R and 1L3R).
Additionally we used 2 types of assess rhythmic abilities: ?reproduce error? (=average time differences with rhythm pattern) and ?defused error? (=average time differences between own, individual rhythm).
Two-way analysis of variance (sport level ? group of tests) was used to examine significance differences.
Results. ANOVA revealed a significant sport level interaction (F=4,64, p≤0,035) only in one-leg complex of tests (first variant) in range of ?reproduce error?. There were no differences in group of hurdlers and control in specific block tests (third and fourth versions). Assess of ?defused error? showed that there were significant differences between all groups of tests (p≤0,001). The study showed that using laboratory tests to estimate rhythmic abilities in professional hurdles is difficult and required more experiences and scientific studies.


One of the most perplexing problems in human resource management is how to satisfy and motivate employees who originally joined an organisation with hopes of becoming "stars", but who discover with time that their aspirations are unlikely to be matched by opportunities. The conventional pyramidal organisational structure guarantees that these opportunities will diminish as employees ascend the hierarchy and that therefore "stuckness" is a problem increasingly to be found the longer is employees' tenure or the higher their level. Faulkner's case studies of an ice hockey team and a symphony orchestra provide vivid examples of this process and its problematic consequences. They also serve as a useful analogue of what may be found in many business organisations.


The House Sparrow, Passer domesticus, is invasive in many areas of the world, but is listed as a species of conservation concern in parts of its native range. This study assessed the effect of land-use type on the relative abundance of House Sparrows in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, an urban area where they are invasive. It was predicted that House Sparrows in an urban environment would be more abundant at shopping malls compared with other habitats. Spot counts were done at shopping malls, schools, factories and suburban gardens throughout the year. House Sparrows were recorded frequently at shopping malls and rarely in suburban gardens. Type of urban land use appears to determine food and possibly nest site availability. This in turn affects the density, relative abundance, and distribution of House Sparrows. There appears no need to regulate this urban House Sparrow population because it has different feeding and breeding requirements to native birds, is not predatory, and is largely restricted to heavily transformed landscapes.


This paper addresses the design of a control law for vision-based robot navigation. The method proposed is based on a topological representation of the environment. Within this context, a learning stage enables a graph to be built in which nodes represent views acquired by the camera, and edges denote the possibility for the robotic system to move from one image to an other. A path finding algorithm then gives the robot a collection of views describing the environment it has to go through in order to reach its desired position. This article focuses on the control law used for controlling the robot motion's online. The particularity of this control law is that it does not require any reconstruction of the environment, and does not force the robot to converge towards each intermediary position in the path. Landmarks matched between each consecutive views of the path are considered as successive features that the camera has to observe within its field of view. An original visual servoing control law, using specific features, ensures that the robot navigates within the visibility path. Simulation results demonstrate the validity of the proposed approach


Spun poly (vinyl alcohol) with different degrees of alcoholysis by gel-spinn ing method and drew them,then got a series of PVA fiber with alcoholysis degree 99.5%,93% and 86%.Analyzed these fibers with FT-IR and NMR,and measured the stren gth of them.The results showed that partially alcoholized PVA with lower degree of alcoholysis could decrease the chance of H-bond formation,and increase dr aw ability and fiber strength.


Traditional communication theory that marketers are active and consumer is passive is going to be obsolete. Instead, by developing participatory culture with Web 2.0, Co-creation and engagement marketing are suggested. By entering the Conceptual age which game and fun in life and work is emphasized, Gamification can be effective tool to motivate customers to collaboration. Accordingly, with review the theoretical background of gamification, the paper aims to evaluating the potentials of gamification in online tourism marketing. The results of review of gamification literatures showed that, gamification by boosting data driving, customer loyalty, brand awareness, user generated content, viriality, online engagement and of course revenue can be useful tool for success of online advertising activities.


Trust is measured using both survey questions and a trust experiment among a random sample of Muslim and Hindu household heads in rural Bangladesh. We found no significant effect of the social distance between Hindus and Muslims in the trust experiment in terms of the proportions sent or returned. However, the survey responses do indicate significant differences. Both Hindus and Muslims were found to trust others from their own religion more than they trust people from other religions. Moreover, Hindus, the minority, trust other people less in general, and Hindus trust Muslims more than Muslims trust Hindus.


Wind noise is caused by the turbulence around the body of a car, when it runs at high speed. Though the wind noise is produced from several regions on the body, its generation mechanism is scarcely investigated except for the one behind the A-pillar. In recent years, the wind noise at the front end is receiving special attention because the engine noise etc. has decreased very much.The generation mechanism of the wind noise from the front end has been investigated and reported here. The flow pattern is visualized by an open-type single-return water tunnel with aluminum tracers and a 2-dimensional model. The experimental results show that the vortices generated at the front end collide with the edge of the hood, which is thought to correlate with the wind noise.


Utilizing finite element software-Plaxis the parameters for numerical calculation of soft soil in soft soil creep model are determined. Based upon those parameters the deformation value of the soft soil foundation in one excavation work is calculated, which is in good agreement with the experimental data. Results show that application of SSC model in soft soil analysis is reasonable and practicable.


Three cases of bullous pemphigoid are described who presented with haemorrhagic pompholyx on their palms and soles. This feature may be an indication that only low‐dose prednisolone therapy is required for control of the disease.


The Massachusetts Department of Public Health announced earlier this month that 15 suspected cases of covid-19 in the state had a direct connection to a meeting of staff from the biotech company Biogen, held in Boston in late February In a letter to the UK prime minister the BMA's chair of council, Chaand Nagpaul, said that any agreement must not reduce the ability of UK organisations and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control to cooperate for patients' benefit (Full story doi:10 1136/bmj m1050) Clinical trials Denmark rolls out sanctions for non-reporting of results Sponsors that fail to report clinical trial results in Denmark could be fined or even face prison sentences as part of a crackdown on non-publication of results, said the Danish Medicines Agency 1 The move follows a statement published by the agency in November 2019 highlighting that non-commercial sponsors in Denmark such as universities had published the results of only 23 6% of their clinical trials of medicinal products on the European database