This is an open access journal, and articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution‐NonCommercial‐ShareAlike 4.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non‐commercially, as long as appropriate credit is given and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms. How to cite this article: Gupta B, Khan A, Ghosh D. Lung isolation for lobectomy in an elderly, post radiation fibrosis of a difficult airway‐pediatric double lumen tube and pediatric ureteroscope as rescue devices. Saudi J Anaesth 2020;14:281‐3.


We have recently reported the use of ion-implantation to form planar waveguide lasers in Nd:YAG crystals. Here, for the first time, we report diode pumped operation using a 500 mW diode array. We also describe the use of ion implantation to form planar waveguide lasers in Nd:YAP and Nd:MgO:LiNbO3.


In contrast to general-purpose programmable fabrics, such as PLAs, we develop nano-fabrics that, while also programmable and hierarchical, are more tuned towards an application domain. Our goal is to achieve denser designs with better fabric utilization and efficient cascading of circuits. We call these designs NASICs: Nanoscale Application-Specific Integrated Circuits. We believe NASICs are a more natural fit to implement microprocessors, out of semiconductor nanowires and crossed carbon nanotubes, than PLA style designs. A key challenge in nanoscale designs in general is to preserve the density advantages of the fabric once topological, interconnect, and faulttolerance constraints are considered. In this paper we demonstrate possible optimizations, within the constraints of sub-lithographic fabrication, that improve NASIC fabric utilization. We show designs that are based on dynamic evaluation approaches, rather than static ratioed logic, that can provide the scalability necessary to build larger-scale pipelined architectures. We describe NASIC dynamic circuit styles that allow pipelining and temporary storage on the wire, called nano-latches, without requiring explicit latching.


The ferrous sulphate is obtained in the way that pyrite cinder is first deoxidized via roasting;then leached with acid,treated through pH value adjustment,provided with flocculant and finally settled.The ferrous sulphate with add of potassium ferrocyanide is used as raw material for producing iron blue(a kind of dye).Through systematical tests,the optimum proportioning of raw material and the ideal technological process are found out under which the iron blue produced reaches indexes stipulated by GB 1860-88 Standard with advantages of short reaction duration and high dispersivity compared with traditional iron blue producing technology.


TPS5095Background: Given recent advances in the management of de novo metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer with both docetaxel and abiraterone, as well as evidence of significant activity o...


As the mine transfers to deep zone,the mine pressure increases,the support way of roadways will change largely.Through the evdution of roadway support way in Peigou mine area,the roadway support step by step closes the support principle of common bearer of roadway support and rock.The support strength is largely raised.The rate of disrepair and back repair is reduced.


We present measurements of the magnetic field dependent complex resistivity at 48 GHz in a nearly-optimally doped thin YBa2Cu3O7-δ film. Below Tc the application of the magnetic field leads to a detectable magnetoresistivity. The real part is clearly measurable from our lowest temperature up to Tc, while the imaginary part can be distinguished from zero only for T>87 K. The magnetoresistivity arises from the combined effects of fluxon motion and field-induced superfluid depletion. We discuss whether our data can be described or not by models for the magnetic response in an s-wave or d-wave superconductor.


In this book, terrorism, sabotage, and subversion are analyzed to challenge the dominant views that a 'new conflict' is now posing unprecedented threats to U.S. homeland security. Since 9/11, the dominant view is that we have entered an era of 'new conflict' in which technology has empowered non-state actors who now pose unprecedented and unmanageable threats to U.S. national security. From homegrown and foreign terrorism to the possibility of cyber sabotage and fears of religious subversion, David Tucker challenges every aspect of this 'new conflict' argument, writes Maria Kuecken.


This work describes the synthesis, antinociceptive and anti-inflammatory effect of O-prenyl derivatives: O-prenyl derivatives 2-(3-methylbut-2-enyloxy)acetophenone (L1) and 3-methoxy-4-(3-methylbut-2-enyloxy)benzaldehyde (V1). Treatment with L1- or V1-produced antinociceptive effect on classical pain models: acetic acid abdominal contortions and formalin test (first and second phases), and in hot plate or tale flick models in mice without changing the locomotors performance, and anti-oedematogenic or anti-inflammatory effect in vivo: carrageenan-induced paw oedema and peritonitis in mice. In addition, L1 and V1 derivatives reduced nitric oxide production on RAW 264.7 cells stimulated with lipopolysaccharide without changing the cell viability. Taken together, our results show for the first time that L1 and V1 can produce antinociception and modulate inflammatory response when administered in mice.


Ruminant livestock like cattle, sheep, goat, and camel, have a unique digestive system with complex microbiota communities that facilitate feed conversion and production of various secondary metabolites including greenhouse gases, which are significant in livestock-vector and livestock environment interactions. However, there is limited understanding of the diversity of rumen microbes and secondary metabolites that have advantageous traits to livestock physiology, productivity, climate, and defense across different ruminant species. In this study using metagenomics and metabolomics data from four evolutionary distinct livestock species, we show that there are signature microbes and secondary metabolites for each species. For instance, camels host a unique anaerobic fungus(F) called Oontomyces, cattle harbor more unique microbes like Psychrobacter (F) and three unique bacteria genera Anaeromyces, Cyllamyces, and Orpinomyces. Goats have Cleistothelebolus (F), while sheep host Liebetanzomyces (F). This phenomenon may indicate that there are species-specific microbes that requires host rumen-microbes' environment balance. Additionally, there are conserved core bacterial microbes present and in equal abundance regardless of the host genetics, indicating their essential role in maintaining crucial functions. The studied livestock fed on diverse plant materials, including grass, shrubs to acacia trees. Regarding secondary metabolites camel rumen is rich in organic acids, goat with alcohols, and hydrocarbons, sheep with indoles and cattle with sesquiterpenes. These results have implications for manipulating the rumen environment to target specific microbes and secondary metabolite networks, thereby enhancing livestock productivity, resilience, reducing susceptibility to vectors, and environmentally preferred livestock husbandry. IMPORTANCE Rumen fermentation that depends on feed component and rumen microbes plays a crucial role in feed conversion and production of various metabolites, important for physiological functions, health and environmental smartness of ruminant livestock, in addition to providing food for humans. However, given the complexity and variation of the rumen ecosystem and feed of these various livestock species combined with inter-individual differences between gut microbial communities, how they influence the rumen secondary metabolites remains elusive. Using metagenomics and metabolomics approaches, we show that each livestock species has signature microbe(s) and secondary metabolites. These findings may contribute towards understanding rumen ecosystem, microbiome and metabolite networks, that mayprovide a gateway to manipulate rumen ecosystem pathways towards making livestock production, efficient, sustainable and environmentally friendly.


In this paper, the background of the structural design course and the methodology of partially flipped classroom approach are presented. Details of the learning activities and the various assessment components are discussed. These activities and components involve 1) a set of tailor-made, pre-class, self-learning videos that demonstrates the concepts and usage of a software that facilitates the structural design process; 2) a set of inclass design tasks which coverage aligns with the content of the self-learning video and the curriculum and 3) an after-class, building design project that offers an opportunity for students to demonstrate what they learn in class and to create an innovative and effective solution to a practical problem. The effectiveness of the flipped classroom and its learning environment were evaluated through the use of student surveys. Overall, student survey about the flipped classroom approach is positive. In addition to the survey results, analytics extracted from Youtube channel give direction as to how the pre-class video could be improved in future. Based on the experience gained from this course, some of the essential elements for success in implementing flipped classroom are summarized. Key Word:Flipped Classroom; Structural Design; Computer-aided Design. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Date of Submission: 26-05-2020 Date of Acceptance: 13-06-2020 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Billy the Kid spoke his last words in Spanish. Calling out "¿Quién es? ¿Quién es?" before he was killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett, the young outlaw's final moments signal his diverse ethnic context. This article examines the Kid's close contact with the Southwest's communities of color – New Mexico's Mescalero Apache Indians, African American soldiers, and Hispano farmers – and why these communities have been removed from countless popular representations of the Kid's story. Their omission has helped to perpetuate a uniquely Western and white American ideal of individualism and served to legitimize a libertarian and ahistorical ideal of violence: the rebellion of an outlaw who defies the rest of his society and his times.


In research the concept «Natural-science Education of the Teacher of Humanitarian Subjects» is specifi ed; three groups of pedagogical conditions for formation of natural-science education of students of humanitarian profi les, the pedagogical direction of preparation are revealed: selection of the content of training; organizations of educational professional activity of students; material support of process of training of students. Three stages of formation of natural-science education of students of humanitarian profi les, the pedagogical direction of preparation are allocated: preparatory, activity, analytical and related stages three stages: information, operational, integrating. Is marked outspecifi cs of formation of natural-science education of students of humanitarian profi les Specifi cs of formation of natural-science education of the students of humanitarian profi le, pedagogical directions of training depending on the profi le of training is manifested in the direction of the creative tasks – the students are offered to choose (or write) and review the text to the scientifi c content to profi les of training:- «foreign language» – from art and literature in Russian and foreign languages; the presentation of the creative tasks occurs in two languages;«preschool pedagogy and psychology» – from fairy tales, children's encyclopaedias, scientifi c-popular books for kids; from the scientifi c content;- «pedagogy and psychology» – from art and literature, encyclopedias for adolescents;- «Russian language and literature» – from literature, poetry, popular scientifi c literature and so on. Methods of scientifi c and pedagogical researches are allocated and the assessment of dynamics of change of levels of natural-science education of students of humanitarian profi les, the pedagogical direction of preparation is made.


Through literature study and statistics,the paper evaluates the technical structures of the NBA excellent power forwards and expatiates on the functions of the power forwards in the modern basketball matches.


This article proposes an efficient heuristic in accelerating the column generation by parallel resolution of pricing problems for aircrafts in the tail assignment problem (TAP). The approach is able to achieve considerable improvement in resolution time for real life test instances from two major Indian air carriers. The different restrictions on individual aircraft for maintenance routing as per aviation regulatory bodies are considered in this paper. We also present a variable fixing heuristic to improve the integrality of the solution. The hybridization of constraint programming and column generation was substantial in accelerating the resolution process.


The contextual influences on technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) enactment and the method of TPACK assessment remain to be important research topics. Discourse data of 81 teachers in an online professional learning community were collected and analyzed based on the framework of TPACK. Frequency distribution and time series characteristics of teachers' knowledge domains were analyzed. In addition, epistemic network analysis was used to compare the epistemic network characteristics of teachers in the higher‐score and the lower‐score groups, different age groups, and post and reply groups. Results showed that teachers' knowledge domains enacted in the context of online discourse were mainly pedagogical content knowledge and general pedagogical knowledge. The teachers in the higher‐score group had a rich, organized and flexible knowledge structure of TPACK. Younger teachers had more connections between pedagogical knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge, while senior teachers had more connections between technological knowledge and pedagogical knowledge. The teachers in the reply group had more connections among the different categories of knowledge as compared to the post group. Finally, implications, limitations and future research were discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]


Newton's third law has been proved to be wrong, there are experimental evidence of the video, there are rigorous proof of a strong paper. Further obtained based on this, that is, Newton's second law to prove is wrong. Therefore, the Newton law of correcting wrong, there are new second law of motion and new third law of motion, to be produces. So including Newton's first law the New three laws of motion, will become more accurate, more efficient mechanical principles, guiding the new mechanical system is derived and the establishment. No one would doubt that Newton's second law and Newton's third law would be wrong. But a surprising discovery was produced in a simple mechanic's experiment. The earliest experiments showed that two objects interact, acting force and reaction force, Is not the same size. Therefore, Newton's third law seems to be wrong. Using conventional methods, considering objects with different masses, the inertia is also different. It can also provide a reasonable explanation for the unequal force and reaction force. But when It was further discovered that when Newton's second law was also wrong, the introduction of the new second law made the establishment of the new third law also perfect. A series of extremely important new discoveries were successively produced and realized.


Logistics note is an important part of logistics net. Hub node is the center node of its level which acts as transshipment and circulation link. To choose the node has the practical significance in the application field of distribution. The model of multiple allocation hub location which has two hub notes and combines with p-median problem is given here. It integrates the factors-grade method which can give the analysis with the greed-taken heuristics to solve the problem. By the application in the example, it proves the model's effect and the method's feasibility.


The British Heart Foundation (BHF) will fund 75 community heart failure nurse specialists to help 900,000 patients in the UK cope with the chronic condition.


1. Tool for oral care, comprising: a plurality of lighted segments for indicating two or more zones intraoral oral care and! a processor configured to sequentially highlight segments over predetermined time intervals. ! 2. Tool for oral care according to claim 1, wherein at least some of the lighted segments have a shape resembling teeth or parts of teeth. ! 3. Tool for oral care according to claim 2, wherein at least one of the lighted segments is shaped resembling a tongue. ! 4. Tool for oral care according to claim 1, further comprising a plurality of additional lighted areas. ! 5. Tool for oral care according to claim 1, wherein the processor is programmed to perform memory games after the predetermined time intervals. ! 6. Tool for oral care, comprising: a display that displays an image associated with the intraoral areas of the oral care; and! an input device configured to provide user interaction with the images. ! 7. The implement for the treatment of an oral cavity according to claim 6, further comprising a processor which causes the display to display successively, at least two different images for predetermined time intervals. ! 8. Tool for oral care according to claim 7, further comprising a plurality of lighted areas. ! 9. An instrument for the care of mouth cavity according to claim 8, wherein the lighted areas are grouped in sections, and wherein the processor causes lighted areas in a glow ce


What proportion of aggregate expenditures for food in the U.S . economy is made by lower income groups, and what proportion by the highest? How much of total fuel and utilities is purchased by urban residents of the Northeast region? The answers to these and similar questions about the distribution of consumption among diverse population groups can have important implications for social and economic policy or for organizational marketing strategies . This report presents estimates of aggregate expenditure shares,' developed from the Bureau's ongoing Consumer Expenditure Survey, that can help to clarify such issues . It is one of a series of reports which focuses on alternative ways of examining the expenditure survey data and presenting previously unpublished results .


Abstract : Results from an elementary heat transfer analysis show that certain bore coatings, on the order of 10 micrometers in thickness and acting only as insulative thermal barriers, can reduce bore surface heat transfer to levels significantly below that present in gun barrels having no such coatings. A necessary aspect of the analysis was the determination of the convection coefficient applicable to the inside exposed surface of a gun barrel at a given axial location. The time-dependent value of this coefficient was based upon a solution to an inverse conduction problem in which the convective heat flux at the barrel inside surface was estimated by using a measured history at the bore surface.


Abstract This article includes a translation, facsimile, and analysis of a typescript fragment by Bazin, which is evidence of his engagement with Sartre9s The Imaginary .


The prisoner in the dock in a recent trial at the Old Bailey stood accused of a particularly brutal murder. Medical opinions were divided: the defence had put forward a plea of diminished responsibility, which the prosecution had rejected. There was to be a fight. In the adversarial process which followed the lawyers were in their natural element; but for the two doctors, one representing each side (I was a witness for the prosecution), it was an embarrassing, if not humiliating, experience, irrespective of which side won. Leading counsel for the prosecution began his opening speech to the jury. At one point he changed the tone of his voice and with great deliberation warned, "In this country we have trial not by doctors, but by juries," a warning he was to repeat in the same ominous tones in his closing speech. What counsel was doing in effect was pinpointing for the benefit of the jury precisely where doctors stood in the judicial process and how much value to attribute to their evidence. In so doing he echoed the direction to the jury given by Mr Sergeant Shee in 1863: "You are not to be deprived of the exercise of your common sense because a gentleman [Dr Harrington Tuke] comes from London and tells you scientific sense." Trial by Medicine from which the above quotation is taken, traces the fluctuating fortunes of doctors who, inadvertently or by choice, have become caught up in the defence of insanity, which, incidentally, did not exist before 1800 as a distinct medicolegal problem and which, for all practical purposes, is bound up with indictments for murder. Roger Smith, a lecturer in history of science in the University of Lancaster, is at pains to point out that the criminal law reached different verdicts about insanity between 1800, when James Hadfield fired twice at King George III, and 1843, when Daniel McNaughten shot and killed Edward Drummond in mistake for Sir Robert Peel. The public outcry following the special verdict of not guilty on the ground of insanity brought in by the jury in the McNaughten trial led to the formulation of the famous rules without, it should be noted, medical opinion being sought or given. The rules incorporated the "right/wrong" test and rejected the concept of "irresistible impulse." It is on the rack of the "right/wrong" test that so many medical reputations have been broken including, in our own time, that of Dr WV H de B Hubert, who appeared for the defence in the trial of the infamous Neville Heath, the psychopathic killer. Throughout the 19th century jurists made little attempt to conceal their suspicions about "mad doctors," whom they variously accused of being "hired advocates," of bending over backwards to diagnose insanity, and of being deceived by simulation. They were further accused of using the defence of insanity as an "escape" for dangerous criminals and so by their nefarious efforts posing a threat to society. Not unnaturally, psychiatrists did do their utmost to save an insane man from the gallows. The mere fact that as doctors they were more conscious than lawyers of the grim reality that a man's life was at stake certainly aggravated the medicolegal conflict. In 1874 the great Henry Maudsley, who had himself engaged in titanic struggles with his legal opposites, made this clear when he pronounced: "Abolish capital punishment, and the dispute between lawyers and doctors ceases to be of practical importance." He was wrong. He was wrong in the same way as present-day psychiatrists were wrong when they believed that introducing the concept of diminished responsibility in the Homicide Act, 1957 (which thereby rendered the treacherous McNaughten rules virtually obsolete), would heal the rift between the two professions. Nevertheless, undoubtedly during the 20th century the relationship between jurists and doctors has improved considerably. The precariousness of this rapprochement was painfully illustrated in the recent trial of the "Yorkshire Ripper," a trial in which the opinion of 12 men and women on the Clapham omnibus was preferred to the unanimous opinion of no fewer than four experienced psychiatrists. Forensic psychiatry was itself on trial and, rightly or wrongly, was found sadly wanting. To all those interested in the history of forensic psychiatry this is an important book. It has been well researched and excellently annotated. Its somewhat pedantic prose style may not, however, be to everybody's liking, and I for one object to being styled "an alienist." HENRY R ROLLIN


NiZnCu ferrite has been widely used in high-frequency power converters due to its higher electrical resistance than MnZn ferrite. However, the permeability of NiZnCu ferrite is lower than MnZn ferrite. It is possible to get higher permeability and take higher frequency for NiZnCu ferrite by doping with MnZn ferrite. In this paper, the effects of MnZn ferrite doping on magnetic and electrical properties of NiZnCu ferrite toroid cores were investigated. The microstructures of the toroid cores were characterized by SEM. The permeability and inductance versus frequencies and DC-bias were tested by an impedance analyzer. The results show that both the permeability and the inductance versus frequencies and DC-bias are improved by doping appropriate of MnZn ferrite. However, the permeability and the inductance are not further improved when adding more amount of MnZn ferrite. The optimum amount of MnZn ferrite is about 7.5 wt%.


The Santa Barbara Urban Hydrograph (SBUH) method is a simple means of developing runoff hydrographs from urban watersheds using local data. To use the method, the watershed is divided into pervious and hydraulically connected impervious portions. Rain falling on the impervious portion is considered to be 100% runoff. Rain falling on or flowing across pervious portions is subjected to infiltration losses, the magnitude of which depend on antecedent rainfall. The resulting rainfall excess for each time period is converted to a rate of flow. The instantaneous hydrograph thus obtained is routed through an imaginary linear reservoir with a routing constant equivalent to the watershed time of concentration to obtain the final hydrograph.


The article is devoted an exposition of methodological and methodical aspects of the ekspertno-analytical approach to an estimation of risks of capital investment projects of the industrial enterprise based on two methods of the system analysis a method of analytical hierarchies and a method of analytical networks. Comparison of results of ekspertno-analytical modelling by means of these methods is conducted. On an example of the analysis of risks of capital investment projects of an active industrial enterprise of the food-processing industry it is shown that the account of a feedback network components introduces serious corrective amendments in a parity of priorities as directions of investments, and kinds of risk of investment in modernisation of productions of the enterprise.


A Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model is used in order to simulate the hydrodynamics and flow behaviour in an actual sedimentation tank for potable water treatment. The main objective of the present investigation is to evaluate the influence of temperature variations on the flow field and as a consequence on the efficiency of the tank. A series of experimental measurements in that sedimentation tank of temperature variation between the free surface and the bottom and between the influent and the effluent of the tank has been also conducted. The operation of the tank has been examined for low (winter) and high (summer) temperatures. The combination of the density variations with the horizontal stream produces a mixed convection problem. This mixed convection problem is very complicated because the variation of water density at low temperatures (0-10 C) is strongly non linear (parabolic). A series of numerical simulations that reproduced the experimental data are presented. All simulations have been conducted for a transient, turbulence flow field and the equations describing the water thermophysical properties (density, viscosity, thermal conductivity and specific heat) have been incorporated into the CFD code ANSYS FLUENT using the programming language C. The momentum exchange between the primary and the secondary phase (particles) is taken into account, using a Lagrangian method (Discrete Phase Model) with two-way coupled calculations. Contours of stream function and concentration are presented, as well as velocity profiles, for parabolic (winter) and linear (summer) density region. It was found that the generated density and turbidity currents have a strong influence on the tank flow. At high temperatures new vortices are generated and the particles are transferred by the density currents. As the water temperature decreases the flow is influenced significantly, the turbidity rises and the efficiency of the tank decreases.


A comprehensive study of the effect of the combustion fuel (i.e., glycine and sucrose), ignition source (i.e., furnace and microwave radiation), and nickel content is carried out for the dry reforming of methane (DRM) using La0.6Sr0.4NiyAl1-yO3 (LaSrNiAl) (y = 0.1; 0.2 and 0.3) perovskite-type catalyst precursors synthesized by solution combustion synthesis (SCS). The composition of the catalyst precursor and the combustion fuel rather than the ignition source affected markedly the crystalline phase composition, crystallite size, morphology, specific surface, and reducibility. Those changes are also reflected in the catalytic performance of the SCS-prepared catalyst in the reaction of DRM. The results clearly show that the SCS approach can effectively tune the dry reforming of methane and the reverse water-gas shift reactions by varying the combustion fuels. Dry Reforming of Methane on LaSrNiAl PerovskiteType Structures Synthesized by Solution Combustion


Crambe (Crambe abyssinica Hochst, Ex. R. E. Fries) is a new industrial oilseed crop with a high eontent of erucic acid and a considerable agronomie potentiaL A set of eleven accessions of crambe was subjeeted to field trials from 1988 to 1991 at Gross Enzersdorf and from 1990 to 1991 at Gleisdorf, Austria. Both the agronomie performance as weIl as seed composition were investigated as influenced by genetic and environmental factors, Seed yields in the broad range of 972 to 3328 kg/ha were observed across all genotypes and environments. Variation in seed yield was predominantly due to environmental effects whereas broad sense heritability estimated among genetic entries was low. Oil content of pods (seed + pericarp) was in the range of 22.6 to 38.4 % of pod dry matter and erucic acid content made up 53.9 to 63.1 % of seed oiL Erucic acid content was significantly affected by genotype and location, highest contents of erucic acid were found in BGRC 34311 and BelAnn. Generally, variation in erucic acid content was lower than in other fatty acids such as oleic, linoleic or linolenie acid, which were significantly influenced by temperature during the period of seed development.


A new model is presented for the calculation of passive intermodulation (PIM) in waveguide connections. The model considers the roughness of interconnecting waveguide surfaces and the presence of an insulator layer (oxide and contaminants) on these metal surfaces. This results in the generation of a contact resistance, which can excite the PIM level. In particular, the case in which metal-insulator-metal regions are the PIM source is especially investigated. The intermodulation level response is calculated for different waveguide junction parameters like applied mechanical load, surface finish, or metal properties showing qualitative agreement with the measured data published by previous authors.


In the scenario where pure pixels exist, pure-pixel search is well known to be a simple and effective approach for hyperspectral unmixing. However, in the noisy case, the performance of a pure-pixel search algorithm usually depends on the conditioning of the endmember matrix. This paper describes several data preconditioning methods for mitigating the aforementioned issue, including a newly proposed heuristic approach. The development is based on a pure-pixel search algorithm called successive projection algorithm (SPA). Simulations based on synthetic data sets show that preconditioning makes SPA much more robust against noise.


Described herein is an eye tracking system comprising an image display configured to display an image of a surgical field to a user. The image display is configured to emit a light in first wavelength range. The system further comprises a right eye tracker configured to emit light in a second wavelength range and to measure data about a first gaze point of a right eye of the user. The system further comprises a left eye tracker configured to emit light in the second wavelength range and to measure data about a second gaze point of a left eye of the user. The system further comprises an optical assembly disposed between the image display and the right and left eyes of user. The optical assembly is configured to direct the light of the first and second wavelength ranges such that the first and second wavelengths share at least a portion of a left optical path between left eye and the image display and share at least a portion of a right optical path between the right eye and the image display, without the right and left eye trackers being visible to the user. The system further comprises at least one processor configured to process the data about the first gaze point and the second gaze point to determine a viewing location in the displayed image at which the gaze point of the user is directed.


In the late 1990s, the OECD launched its report on Harmful Tax Competition - An Emerging Global Issue. The goal of the OECD was to eliminate or regulate harmful preferentail tax regimes for mobile financial captial, including tax havens. By 2001, the OECD consensus, already shaky as a result of abstention by Switzerland and Luxembourg, was breached by the United States and the OECD backed away from strong sanctions against tax havens. The focus of the OECD project subsquently shifted towards less onerous exchange of information obligations. This reveiw essay discusses recent research into the OECD's attempt at regulating harmful tax competition.


Within minutes of the March 2011 earthquake in Japan, news media provided unprecedented coverage of an unfolding natural catastrophe. Events such as this place natural disasters firmly in the public eye but only for a short time. It falls to the research community to learn the lessons offered by these events and turn them into opportunities for developing more effective risk management and mitigation strategies and identifying the factors that contribute to the vulnerability and resilience of communities and response and recovery agencies. Disasters such as the Japanese tsunami also highlight the ever-present need for systematic, rigorous research into the risk posed by natural hazards and how these risks can be managed. Of course it is vital to ensure that the findings from such research endeavours are disseminated to those who can use the findings.


This chapter reports on research work that aims to overcome some limitations of conventional community engagement for urban planning. Adaptive and human-centred design approaches that are well established in human-computer interaction (such as personas and design scenarios) as well as creative writing and dramatic character development methods (such as the Stanislavsky System and the Meisner Technique) are yet largely unexplored in the rather conservative and long-term design context of urban planning. Based on these approaches, we have been trialling a set of performance based workshop activities to gain insights into participants' desires and requirements that may inform the future design of apartments and apartment buildings in inner city Brisbane. The focus of these workshops is to analyse the behaviour and lifestyle of apartment dwellers and generate residential personas that become boundary objects in the cross-disciplinary discussions of urban design and planning teams. Dramatisation and embodied interaction of use cases form part of the strategies we employed to engage participants and elicit community feedback.


In view of the common question in the project practical application of frequency changer,the match of frequency changer and electrical machinery and control shaping are elaborated with emphasis,as well as the questions which should be paid attention to when connected to the PLC.A better mentality for the highly effective application is proposed.


It is well known that the height profile of a critical conditioned Galton–Watson tree with finite offspring variance converges, after a suitable normalisation, to the local time of a standard Brownian excursion. In this work, we study the distance profile, defined as the profile of all distances between pairs of vertices. We show that after a proper rescaling the distance profile converges to a continuous random function that can be described as the density of distances between random points in the Brownian continuum random tree. We show that this limiting function a.s. is Hölder continuous of any order

$\alpha<1$

 , and that it is a.e. differentiable. We note that it cannot be differentiable at 0, but leave as open questions whether it is Lipschitz, and whether it is continuously differentiable on the half-line

$(0,\infty)$

 . The distance profile is naturally defined also for unrooted trees contrary to the height profile that is designed for rooted trees. This is used in our proof, and we prove the corresponding convergence result for the distance profile of random unrooted simply generated trees. As a minor purpose of the present work, we also formalize the notion of unrooted simply generated trees and include some simple results relating them to rooted simply generated trees, which might be of independent interest.


The oil and gas pipeline system is currently the most common way to transport oil and gas. One of the main hazardous areas of this system is the T-joint connection. The object of my research will be a T-joint connection. Branch nodes and taps are the most dangerous sections of the pipeline system. The tee assembly, which includes the main pipe and pipe, experiences a stress-strain state caused by a number of reasons, which relates it to tasks requiring increased control and attention. Such reasons include the operating conditions of the pipeline system, constant loads, the environment in the pipes and the presence of defective areas. One of the ways to strengthen the T-joint connection is the use of special reinforcing elements, which have their own manufacturing and assembly technology with the pipeline.


Today, the busy clinician will benefit from a philosophy of practice that brings together the best applicable evidence and the experiences of clinical work in an effort to provide the best care for individual patients. Evidence-based medicine (EBM) provides a structured approach that recognizes the contributions of both. An EBM practice will be efficient and effective in meeting the goal of assuring optimum care. The concepts of EBM make sense for veterinary medicine, even if there are limited numbers of randomized, blinded studies, and they can be applied by clinicians in all types of practice.


The Tunka-133 Cherenkov array has been deployed with nearly 3 km2 effective area to measure the primary CR energy spectrum and mass composition in the 1016 1018 eV energy range. It records EAS Cherenkov light using the atmosphere of the Earth as a calorimeter. Goal of the fluorescent light detector is to improve data quality at the E > 1017 eV. The movable platform for the technological model of the TUS detector mirror is produced at JINR (Dubna) and its completion and test is in progress. This year movable platform has to be delivered to the Tunka and mirror and photo-detector to be tested.


The Decadal Survey identified Titan as one of the top priority science destinations in the large moons category, while NASA's proposed Design Reference Mission Set ranked a Titan in‐situ explorer second, after a recommended Europa Geophysical Explorer mission. This paper discusses a Titan rover concept, enabled by a single advanced Radioisotope Power System that could provide about 110 We (BOL). The concept targets the smaller Flagship or potentially the New Frontiers mission class. This MSL class rover would traverse on four 1.5 m diameter inflatable wheels during its 3 years mission duration and would use as much design and flight heritage as possible to reduce mission cost. Direct to Earth communication would remove the need for a relay orbiter. Details on the strawman instrument payload, and rover subsystems are given for this science driven mission concept. In addition, power system trades between Advanced RTG, TPV, and Advanced‐Stirling and Brayton RPSs are outlined. While many possible approaches e...


There is increasing demand worldwide for application of biochar from crop residues to croplands as a key countermeasure for enhancing soil C stock and reducing greenhouse gases emission from agriculture. This paper reviewes the basic properies and the decomposition stability of biochar,the benefial effects on soil reclaimation as well as in both enhancing crop yield and soil C stock by using biochar in crop-lands. Many works done have inidcated that the biochar produced from crop residues with pyrolysis under moderate and high temperature in absence of oxygen,has a highly aromatic chamical structure,physical and biological stability against thermal and biological decomposition,increases nutrient efficiency as well as improving soil habitat for soil biota. Thus,it is believed that application of biochar will reach a win-win effect for improving soil productivity and soil C stock in agriculture.


Due to the accurate and relatively easy control magnetron sputtering is an attractive technique for the synthesis of metallic particles. This work describes a new method of nickel powder production by depositing nickel on the surface of sodium chloride particles which were used as the template and are soluble in water. Ni powder with flake-like structure was obtained after washing Ni coated salt particles in ultrasonic cleaner. Salt particles and nickel powder were characterized using scanning electron microscope (SEM), energy-dispersive x-ray spectrometer, XRD and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) techniques. SEM images showed that thickness of the received Ni particles varied in the nanoscale and depended on the magnetron deposition time but did not depend on the size of salt particles. On the other hand initial size of the salt particles was successfully employed a measure to control lateral dimensions of Ni powder. XRD and XPS analysis results revealed that Ni particles had metallic core and oxidized shell which was a cause of the slightly deteriorated magnetic properties.


This paper presents a data structure developed to track the network topology of electrical power systems with the purpose of interconnecting the supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) with a generic alarm processor. The interface between SCADA and alarm processor is achieved by identifying the adjacencies of each disconnected component due to the fault. A network topology tracking methodology is proposed to treat logical measurements of switching devices status and the information of data-base describing the network connectivity. In the fault diagnosis problem, this paper demonstrates that the proposed approach is significantly more efficient than processors reported in the literature because it allows to map and to estimate the origin of a fault using a group of suspect equipment.


Good corporate governance is considered a building block of success for microfinance institutions (MFIs) as it is presumed to help them in achieving their social and financial goals. This study analyzes the corporate governance and financial performance relationship for MFIs in Vietnam. We construct a corporate governance index based on seven measures pertaining to board size and composition, CEO characteristics, and ownership type. We then estimate the two-way relationship between this index and each of five different financial performance indicators. To address the likely simultaneity between corporate governance and financial performance, we adopt a two-stage least squares estimation approach with instrumental variables. The results confirm the endogenous nature of corporate governance and financial performance. We conclude that profitability and sustainability of MFIs improve with good governance practices and conversely that more profitable and sustainable MFIs have better governance systems. Keywords: Corporate governance, financial performance, microfinance. DOI : 10.7176/EJBM/12-3-12 Publication date: January 31 st 2020


This PhD dissertation in cross-cultural management relies on an ethnographic study of a Florida-based Franco-Latino-American company producing perfume oils. The study indicates a long-lasting, well-balanced situation between social well-being and economic wealth. The research questions the link between intercultural understanding and business efficiency, due notably to a deep analysis which shows differences between the interpretations of the product, the market, and the client by the people involved. This study reveals that a similar language pattern can indicate different realities and an identical behavior can be determined by different logics. These observations could cause difficulty given that they contrast with the apparent easiness and simplicity of the efficient, as well as successful, business organizational structure. By studying individuals' sense-making processes and the underlying meanings given to each item, the research demonstrates that success lies upon compatible positive understanding of a similar situation rather than upon similar visions. Mutual adjustments between people from different cultural backgrounds are complex and generally performed without their being aware of it. Beyond a so-called understanding of the "other", the real foundations of relation and adaptation mechanisms differ from what people think they are; finally, efficiency seems to be obtained not in spite of misunderstandings but thanks to them. We contend that multicultural team members' cultural "reading" of the product should be shared and compared beforehand at the strategic level. This research highlights the relevance of frameworks of meanings to shed light on cooperation.


Software development effort estimation is a critical activity of the project management process. In this study, machine learning algorithms were investigated in conjunction with feature transformation, feature selection, and parameter tuning techniques to estimate the development effort accurately and a new model was proposed as part of an expert system. We preferred the most general-purpose algorithms, applied parameter optimization technique (Grid- Search), feature transformation techniques (binning and one-hot-encoding), and feature selection algorithm (principal component analysis). All the models were trained on the ISBSG datasets and implemented by using the scikit-learn package in the Python language. The proposed model uses a multilayer perceptron as its underlying algorithm, applies binning of the features to transform continuous features and one-hot-encoding technique to transform categorical data into numerical values as feature transformation techniques, does feature selection based on the principal component analysis method, and performs parameter tuning based on the GridSearch algorithm. We demonstrate that our effort prediction model mostly outperforms the other existing models in terms of prediction accuracy based on the mean absolute residual parameter.


While rock desertification continues to show the expanding tendency of poor prevention and control situation,the domestic legal systems of the prevention and control of rock desertification are in short supply. In order to promote ecological civilization construction and comprehensive sustainable development in rock desertification districts,attention should be paid to strengthen the legal construction of the prevention and control of rock desertification in China. In the course of strengthening the legal construction of the prevention and control of rock desertification in China,we should choose the model which can call all possible forces of the prevention and control of rock desertification of the legal systems of the prevention and control of rock desertification.


Abstract In Sino-foreign cooperative education, high-quality introduced educational resources must benefit the growth and development of students, facilitate the school's capacity building and the improvement of overall educational standards, and promote national socioeconomic development. It is necessary to establish and perfect the various working mechanisms for Sino-foreign cooperative education, restructure the strategic distribution of high-quality introduced educational resources, formulate relevant policy measures, explore new paths for cooperative education, strengthen initiative in cooperative education, and establish central planning and coordinating mechanisms for high-quality introduced educational resources; at the same time, it is necessary to strengthen capital investment, build a good social environment and atmosphere, establish a high-quality corps of talent for Sino-foreign cooperative education, and reinforce theoretical research on Sino-foreign cooperative education.


This paper discusses graphical interfaces to improve equipment control in construction and facility/infrastructure maintenance environments. Most large construction and maintenance machines are difficult to control because of insufficient visual feedback to equipment operators. In many emerging applications such as hazardous waste cleaning, it is also necessary to control such equipment from a distance using teleoperation techniques. Initial evidence indicates that real-time updated graphical representation of equipment and work environments can enhance equipment control by providing better spatial perception to the equipment operator. Real-time simulation and task planning with graphical models can also ensure safe and reliable operation of equipment. However, graphical control interfaces require careful design for successful results as it is very difficult to generate exact graphical models of unstructured and dynamic environments such as construction and maintenance. Design of graphical control interfa...


The bottleneck of highly integrated software development environments (SDEs) could still be the use of an underlying central data store. An environment is called highly integrated, if the included tools support most of the life-cycle phases and especially inform, analyse and check document interdependencies and even propagate changes on basically any level of granularity. In that case a central data store for documents and document interdependencies is the necessary key information base. A number of so-called object management systems (OMSs) have recently been developed to address the needs of SDEs. In order to support an environment builder to select the most appropriate one, this paper presents a new benchmark for such databases. We precisely de ne that benchmark in an abstract way in terms of its conceptual schema, possible initial database states and the benchmark operations. The benchmark was implemented twice to allow for a comparison of the OMSs GRAS and GemStone. We describe these two implementations as well as the results we gained when we performed the benchmark.


Communication between heterogeneous systems is difficult to be achieved without affecting the existing systems in Enterprise Application Integration. A kind of dynamic web services publishing software based on CXF is proposed in this paper. The purpose of this software are twofold. Firstly, it encapsulates specified data called by other systems into web service published dynamically which unifies customization among heterogeneous systems. Secondly, the function of service monitoring provided allows users to get the real-time information of published web services. The proposal software has been deployed in a Chinese large-scale military enterprise. Practice in the enterprise shows that the software can simplify web service development, quickly build a web service which encapsulates large amounts of data, and achieve information sharing within the enterprise environment.


LassoNet is a neural network framework proposed by Robert Tibshirani et al. and published in the "Journal of Machine Learning Research" in 2021. The model generalizes the existing Lasso regression and its feature sparsity to a feedforward neural network, and performs feature selection and parameter learning at the same time under the premise of unknown optimal number of selected features. In order to verify whether the classification efficiency of LassoNet is efficient, LassoNet is first compared with four shallow learning methods (logistic regression, Fisher linear discriminant, random forest and support vector machine) and three deep learning methods (CNN, Inception and Residual Module), respectively. For the classification of high-dimensional and large-sample datasets in five different fields, the experimental results show that LassoNet has a significant classification effect, which is significantly better than the general shallow learning method, and is comparable to the deep learning method. It can be seen that LassoNet has strong versatility and It is easy to use, but it takes a lot of time to run. In the follow-up work, the feedforward neural network can be optimized or replaced to further improve the classification efficiency.


Secretory protein neural EGFL like 1 (Nell-1) has been shown to exert potent osteogenic effects in multiple small and large animal models. Here, we identified and validated contactin-associated protein-like 4 (Cntnap4) as the first Nell-1 specific cell surface receptor. Cntnap4, a transmembrane neurexin superfamily protein member, has critical functions in neurodevelopment but no known function in osteogenesis. In the present study, we demonstrate that: 1) Nell-1 and Cntnap4 co-localize on the surface of osteogenic-committed cells, 2) Nell-1 and Cntnap4 exhibit high-affinity interactions, 3) Cntnap4 knockdown reduces Nell-1-responsive osteogenesis, and 4) Cntnap4 mediates Nell-1-activated MAPK and Wnt signaling in osteogenic-committed cells.


We compare the performance of three different stochastic optimization methods on two analytic objective functions varying the number of parameters, and on a 1D elastic full waveform inversion (FWI) problem. The three methods that we consider are the Adaptive Simulated Annealing (ASA), the Genetic Algorithm (GA), and the Neighbourhood Algorithm (NA) which are frequently used in seismic inversion. The application of these algorithms on the two analytic functions is aimed at evaluating the rate of convergence for different model space dimensions. The first function consists in a convex surface, and the second one is a multi-minima objective function which also permits to verify the ability of each method to escape from entrapment in local minima. Our study shows that among the three optimization methods GA displays the better scaling with the number of parameters. The ASA method is often the most efficient in case of low dimensional model spaces, whereas NA seems to perform less efficiently than the other two and to be more prone to get trapped in local minima. Tests of 1D elastic FWI on synthetic data, inverting for density, P and S-wave velocity for a total of 21 unknowns confirm the conclusions drawn from the previous examples.


The influence of admixture to plastic shrinkage cracking was studied.The results show that the content of air-entraining agent and anti-cracking index are proportional when the content of air-entraining agent is lower than 200×10-6.The cement mortar cracks when air-entraining agent content is up to 250×10-6.Early strength accelerator counts against reducing the plastic shrinkage cracking of cement mortar,water-reducing agent,water-retaining agent and retarder can reduce the plastic shrinkage cracking of cement mortar.The constitutive relations between the content of air-entraining agent,content of early strength accelerator,content of water-reducing agent,content of water-retain agent,content of retarder and its anti-cracking index have been built.


In an era of environmental change leading to rising sea levels and increased storminess, there is a need to quantify the volume of beach sediment on the coast of Britain in order to assess the vulnerability to erosion using cheap, easy-to-deploy and non-invasive methods. Horizontal-to-vertical spectral ratio (HVSR) is a technique that uses the natural background seismic 'noise' in order to determine the depth of underlying geological interfaces that have contrasting physical properties. In this study, the HVSR technique was deployed at a number of settings on the coast of England that represented a range of different compositions, geomorphology, and underlying bedrock. We verified the results by comparison to other survey techniques, such as ground-penetrating RADAR, multichannel analysis of surface waves (MASW), and cone penetration tests. At locations where there was sufficient contrast in physical properties of the beach material compared to the underlying bedrock, the beach thickness (and therefore the volume of erodible material) was successfully determined, showing that HVSR is a useful tool to use in these settings.


Under the system of municipality-over-county,the power of county-level government is in a weakened state for a long time,with the imbalance of power and responsibility,of financial and administrative power,of power and function.The reform of county level increase of power aims to strengthen the power of the county level government;meanwhile,the strengthened power should be restricted.


This paper proposes a new solution for the braking of electric locomotive.By making use of the sufficient braking power delivered by the pneumatic-hydraulic power cylinder,it can fulfill the stable running and reliable braking for the carriage group on the high gradient and long falling slope.


Aim. The presented study aims to conduct a comprehensive phenomenological analysis of creativity as a resource for the development of a service enterprise through the example of the creative activity of event agencies. Tasks. The authors examine the phenomenon of creativity and develop a theoretical framework for considering creativity as a resource for the development of a service enterprise through the example of event agencies; identify the indicators of creativity of a service enterprise; develop a scale of creativity of event agencies operating in the modern services market. Methodology. The theoretical and methodological basis of this study includes the works of Russian and foreign scientists and experts in the field of creativity and its use as a resource for the development of service enterprises. The authors use the phenomenological method (to examine the phenomenon of creativity as a whole), comparative (comparison of approaches, ideas, and experience of different countries in the field of creative activity), hermeneutical (interpretation of various aspects related to the analysis of creativity), and systems analysis. To examine the indicators of creativity of event agencies, this study uses quantitative and qualitative analysis of information materials published on the official websites of the examined cities, convention and event agencies, statistics of professional associations of congress and exhibition organizations, including the International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA), as well as other analytical reports, expert opinions, and applied research on the topic. The study analyzes statistics on the number and themes of events held in each city, event infrastructure, the range of provided services, and the level of service. The cities are then comparatively analyzed based on the results of examination of each city, and general conclusions are formulated. Results. The main problem addressed by this study is associated with the concept of "creativity", its content, degree, limits, and risks. The scientific novelty of the study is predicated upon the insufficient investigation of the problem of creativity as a resource for the development of a service enterprise. This study is one of the first attempts to develop a methodology for comprehensively analyzing the phenomenon of creativity with regard to event agencies. The results obtained during the study are vital for the theoretical conceptualization and practical solution of the problem of creativity in the context of economic knowledge: the key indicators of creativity of an event agency are identified and a creativity assessment model is developed based on the range of possible manifestations of creativity in the professional activity of event agencies. Creativity is analyzed as a resource for the development of a service enterprise through the example of the activity of event agencies. Eight indicators of creativity of an event agency are identified and an assessment scale is developed. The creativity indicators include "fluency", "flexibility", "originality", "elaboration and synthesis", "redirection", "redefinition", "reinitiation", and "generation". These eight indicators are incorporated into a creativity scale based on the Likert scale, which makes it possible to assess the degree (level) of creativity of an event agency on a scale of one to ten. As a result, the following problems are solved: the essence of the concept of "creativity" is determined and its main features are identified by analyzing the specific aspects of the modern MICE industry landscape. Scientific information on the topic is analyzed, systematized, and generalized. Russian and foreign experience of using creativity as a resource for the development of a service enterprise is comparatively analyzed. Conclusions. The special role of creativity as a resource for the development of an event agency is revealed, and the indicators of the agency's creativity are formulated. A creativity scale is developed. The correlation between the competitiveness of a service enterprise and the use of the creative resource in its development is determined. This study is one of the first attempts to develop a methodology for comprehensively analyzing the phenomenon of creativity with regard to event agencies. The results of the study are important for the theoretical conceptualization and practical solution of the problem of creativity in the context of economic knowledge.


In Indian education system, learning English language is a second language (L2) which is unavoidable and undividable apart from their mother tongue (L1). An intellectual, physical and emotional contribution is necessary to learn a second language successfully and to communicate a linguistic message. Especially, the rural area of engineering students used L1 (Telugu) as a way of communication tool in some of the engineering colleges as they are facing many challenges while speaking English as a second language (L2). The present study would investigate the causes, problems and difficulties faced by the rural area students who came to study engineering courses in VIIT (A) College in Visakhapatnam, AP. The researcher has used a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews for 40 students includeing 32 male and 8 female rural area students for data collection. The collected data analyzed statistically and graphically. In the data analysis, the results revealed the reasons for failure like due to less time to learn English in the classroom, inadequate encouragement from teachers, family and friends. It is also found that the Teaching of English language in bilingual method and late foundation of English medium studies in previous academics. This piece of writing also facilitates the researchers who aim to investigate similar problems in speaking skills for rural area engineering students. The study also presented some of the suggestions and recommendations to overcome the struggle for the language teachers and students.


Source levels (SLs) of Weddell seal (Leptonychotes weddellii) underwater calls near Mawson, Antarctica, were determined using a two hydrophone array. SLs were 161 ± 10 dB re 1 μPa m (range 135–179, n = 280). SLs from 0.1–6 kHz varied little with frequency (r2 = 0.02, t = −2.46, P = 0.01, n = 251). One‐sixth octave ambient noise levels (ANLs) from 0.1–6 kHz were measured on low (n = 1), medium (n = 7), and high (n = 7) noise level days. The ANLs were flat (0.1–6 kHz) and the mean 1/6 octave ANLs were 77 ± 2.8, 96 ± 6.5, and 110 ± 6.1 dB re 1 μPa. SLs were randomly paired against ANLs in a Monte Carlo (n = 100 000) model to calculate the seal communication ranges (m), assuming spherical spreading and received levels 20 dB above threshold. The mean communication ranges for low, medium, and high ANLs were 2806 ± 2718, 428 ± 662, and 83 ± 124 m, respectively (median distances were 2006, 205, and 43m). The distributions were highly skewed toward the shorter distances. The high amplitude calls of Weddell seals m...


n May 12, 2000, in Varna on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast new Chapter of the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA) was founded. This second Bulgarian Chapter of AFCEA will pursue the objectives and abide to the principles of AFCEA International paying special attention to the Navy and marine technologies and, thus, contributing to the success of the Bulgarian military reform, as well as to strengthening the maritime power and national security.


Physical interactions generally respect certain symmetries, such as reciprocity and energy conservation, which survive in coarse grained isothermal descriptions. Active many-body systems usually break such symmetries intrinsically, on the particle level, so that their collective behavior is often more naturally interpreted as a result of information exchange. Here, we study numerically how information spreads from a "leader" particle through an initially aligned flock, described by the Vicsek model. In the low-speed limit of a static spin lattice, we find purely conductive spreading, reminiscent of heat transfer. Swarm motility and heterogeneity can break reciprocity and spin conservation. But what seems more consequential for the swarm response is that the dispersion relation acquires a significant convective contribution along the leader's direction of motion.


Three kinds of interpolation methods including Inverse Distance Weight(IDW),Ordinary Kriging(OK) and Thin Plate Smoothing Spline(TPS) were used to interpolate monthly average air temperature,precipitation and relative humidity at the spatial resolution by 1.0 km×1.0km in 1971-2000 in 92 meteorological stations,which covered the mountainous areas of the Southwest China.The results were verified by the cross validation and the random validation.The results showed that TPS was of the best accuracy of three methods for temperature,precipitation and relative humidity,significantly for air temperature and precipitation.The difference of the accuracy of three interpolation methods for the aestival relative humidity was not significant.However,the interpolation accuracy for the temperature and relative humidity were greatly improved as the number of samples increased,but it was not obviously for the precipitation.


Objective:To compare contents change of of nootkatone,cyperotundone and α-cyperone in raw Cyperi Rhizoma and its different vinegar-processed products,to investigate effect of vinegar processing methods on its quality starting from material base.Method:HPLC was employed to determine contents of nootkatone,cyperotundone and α-cyperone in vinegar-processed products with mobile phase of methanol-water(68 ∶ 32) and detection wavelength at 242 nm.Result:Comparing to contents of nootkatone,cyperotundone and α-cyperone in raw Cyperi Rhizoma,contents of these three components in vinegar-steamed product decreased by 12.9%,14.2%,12.5%;in vinegar-boiled product,they decreased by 23.1%,12.8%,18.7%;in vinegar-fried product,cyperotundone increased by 14.4%,but contents of the other two components decreased substantially,nootkatone and α-cyperone decreased by 62.5% and 44.9%,respectively.Conclusion:Stir-baking with vinegar can increase the content of cyperotundone.Each vinegar processing method can decrease contents of nootkatone and α-cyperone.In term of the lowest change of total contents of these three components as the principle,vinegar steaming method is the best process.


Thephotolyzable sucrose derivative 6'-deoxy-6'44-azido-2-hydroxy)benzamidosucrose (6'-HABS), competitively inhibited theinflux of114(1 sucrose into protoplasts fromdeveloping soybean (Glycine maxL.Merr cvWye)cotyledons. Photolysis of"2'I-labeled 6'-HABS inthepresence of10millimolar dithiothreitol andmicrosomal preparations fromdeveloping soybean cotyledons ledtolabel incorporation into amoderately abundant membrane protein withanapparent molecular massofabout 62kilodalton (kD)bysodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gelelectrophoresis. The62kDprotein waspartially protected fromlabeling bythe inclusion of100millimolar sucrose inthephotolysis medium andalso by theinclusion of10millimolar phenyl a-D-thioglucopyranoside. Glucose, raffinose, orphenyl a-D-3-deoxy-3-fluoroglucopyranoside didnotafford evenpartial protection fromlabeling. Whenthephotolyzable moiety of 6'-HABS wasattached to6-deoxy-6-aminoglucose and"2I labeled, the resulting photoprobe didnotlabel the62kDprotein above background. Thelabeled protein at62kDistherefore apparently aspecific, sucrose binding protein. Sucrose influx into cotlyedons ofless than25milligrams fresh weight (approximately 10daysafter flowering) occurred bypassive processes, butmetabolically dependent uptake became dominant overthe next5to7daysofdevelopment. BoththeCoomassie staining protein at 62kDandlabel incorporation atthat position inanalysis ofmembrane proteins appeared concomitant withtheonset ofactive sucrose influx. Polyclonal antibodies tothepurified 62kDprotein boundspecifically to aprotein intheplasmalemma ofthin sections prepared fromcotyledons anddensity stained withcolloidal gold-protein A.Theresults suggest that the62kDmembrane protein isassociated with sucrose transport andmaybetheplasmalemma sucrose transporter.


The classroom management is a very complex process and depend on different variables. It is important to describe this factors by the school managers. This is a descriptive study on how administrative effectiveness works in providing the effectiveness of classroom management with a scanning model. In this study the aim is, to describe the factors which depend the classroom management effectiveness by the school managers. Qualitative data were collected by the interview that we delivered to the 11 school managers. Data obtained from the interviews were resolved using the technique of descriptive analysis and the findings were interpreted. Results of this study are listed as, the findings from data collected by " The Effectıveness of Classroom Management In Prımary School Scale". As a result, school administrators said that family, the area where schools in and the teacher quality is important on the classroom management effectiveness. This researh data is expected to help teachers about providing an impressive teaching& learning duration and developing the skills of classroom management.


We reconstruct the expansion history of the universe using type Ia supernovae (SN Ia) in a manner independent of any cosmological model assumptions. To do so, we implement a nonparametric iterative smoothing method on the Joint Light-curve Analysis (JLA) data while exploring the SN Ia light-curve hyperparameter space by Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling. We test to see how the posteriors of these hyperparameters depend on cosmology, whether using different dark energy models or reconstructions shift these posteriors. Our constraints on the SN Ia light-curve hyperparameters from our model-independent analysis are very consistent with the constraints from using different parameterizations of the equation of state of dark energy, namely the flat ΛCDM cosmology, the Chevallier–Polarski–Linder model, and the Phenomenologically Emergent Dark Energy (PEDE) model. This implies that the distance moduli constructed from the JLA data are mostly independent of the cosmological models. We also studied that the possibility the light-curve parameters evolve with redshift and our results show consistency with no evolution. The reconstructed expansion history of the universe and dark energy properties also seem to be in good agreement with the expectations of the standard ΛCDM model. However, our results also indicate that the data still allow for considerable flexibility in the expansion history of the universe.


This paper discusses the growth and the properties of semiconductor nanostructures based on self-assembled quantum dots (QDs). These QDs confine electrons or excitons in zero-dimension (0D), similar to an artificial atom or to an artificial molecule in the case of coupled QDs with vertical alignment. They are obtained in a simple step during the epitaxy of strained III-V semiconductors such as InAs on GaAs, or InAs on InP. We will elaborate on the unique optical properties and the physics of self-assembled QDs and their applications, including QD lasers.


The invention discloses a method for reducing the contents of zinc and copper in smelting ash acid leaching residues. The method is characterized in that the method comprises a pretreatment technology and a leaching technology of the smelting ash acid leaching residues, wherein the pretreatment technology comprises the following steps: stacking the smelting ash acid leaching residues, carrying out hot air baking through utilizing the waste heat of a smelting smoke, overturning with a forklift once every 2-3 days, and airing for 10-30 days; and the leaching technology comprises a step that aired residues undergo oxidation leaching through filling with air under a low acid condition. The method which allows the aired acid leaching residues to be leached again enables the zinc leaching rate to be improved by 10% and the copper leaching rate to be improved by 20%; the method adopting stacking airing does not need special equipment, and basically does not consume energy; and no need of high acid condition and low acid consumption are realized in the leaching of the aired leaching residues.


The City of Tallahassee and Leon County (FL) have a long history of coordination in planning. A joint City/County Planning Department has been in place since 1968, and the jointly adopted local comprehensive plan sets policy directions for both communities. The two jurisdictions coordinate on regional transportation planning through the metropolitan planning organization (MPO) and the Blueprint 2000 Intergovernmental Agency (IA). The Blueprint IA complements the MPO and is governed by the Board of County Commissioners and the City Commission, who oversee projects identified through a citizen-initiated visioning process called "Blueprint 2000". The goal of "Blueprint 2000" was to develop a coordinated plan for more effective management of infrastructure and natural resources in the region. The effort culminated in the Blueprint 2000 and Beyond Project Definitions Report, which included transportation, conservation, and stormwater management projects. This report was instrumental in obtaining citizen support for an extension of the one-cent sales tax in the Fall of 2000. Eighty percent of these revenues are dedicated to Blueprint projects, with the remaining 20% split equally between the City and County for other high priority sales tax eligible projects. In May of 2002, the Blueprint 2000 IA initiated a project to develop a comprehensive corridor management program for the City of Tallahassee and Leon County. One goal of the project was to preserve right-of-way for future transportation projects as development occurs (corridor preservation). Another goal was to strengthen local policies and regulations for managing access on the community's major transportation routes (access management). In this way, both communities could advance the Blueprint mission of more effective infrastructure management and in turn help make the most of public sales tax revenues. The Center for Urban Transportation Research at the University of South Florida was retained to prepare comprehensive plan amendments, ordinances, and design standards to accomplish these goals. The project involved a comprehensive set of policies, standards, and procedures for local corridor management. It also involved numerous jurisdictions, agencies, and stakeholders. This paper provides an overview of the project, highlights of the proposed policies, and issues faced in program development.


Counseling governing bodies have defined what should be prioritized in multicultural counseling courses, including students' multicultural knowledge and awareness; however, best practice regarding how to teach these multicultural concepts has largely been left up to the counselor educator. Counselor educators have begun implementing expressive arts techniques in the classroom, but very little literature exists related to using such techniques in a multicultural course in a manner that positively influence counseling students' multicultural competency. The purpose of this study was to explore master's-level counseling students' experience of expressive arts techniques utilized during their multicultural counseling course. Ten student participants took part in this study. Transcendental phenomenological inquiry guided the research design. Using phenomenological reduction, findings were synthesized into thematic labels, individual textural and structural descriptions, and a final essence of the participants' lived experience. Thematic labels resultant from data analysis included process over product, comfort in discomfort, connection, emotional evolution, experiential process, identity, and multiculturalism. The findings reveal implications for counselor educators and counselor education programs. Recommendations for future research are also included. ©2019 by Cameron Houin All Rights Reserved


In recent years, almost all poor regions of the world, especially Latin America, have witnessed a relative increase in malnutrition occurring during the first year of life (1). This is particularly true in urban areas. Large numbers of poor peasants migrate to the cities, in the hope of finding a better life. This migration, together with the rapid natural increase in population, has exceeded the possibilities of an organized and organic growth of the cities. Almost all cities are now surrounded by belts of poverty, where families lack adequate housing and live in overcrowded facilities in very bad sanitary conditions. In addition, the habit of breast-feeding has been lost, thereby exposing children to a highly contaminated environment at a very early age (2). Poverty, ignorance, infection, and diarrhea explain the high incidence of malnutrition during the first and second years of life. The treatment of severe malnutrition during the first year of life is difficult and its mortality very high (3-5). This can be explained in several ways: (a) malnutrition produces a series of metabolic disturbances, affecting both the absorption and utilization of different nutrients (6); (b) the immunologic mechanisms are also affected, increasing susceptibility to infection (7); and (c) the mechanisms that regulate acidbase balance are altered. Acid-base balance is particularly precarious during the first months of life when there is an increased susceptibility to severe dehydration (8).


[1] We determine the precise hypocenter distribution of deep low-frequency earthquakes (LFEs) in the Nankai subduction zone and compare it with the local geometry of the subducting Philippine Sea plate. We apply a new hypocenter determination method utilizing the summed cross correlation coefficient over many stations, termed a network correlation coefficient (NCC), to 112 LFEs in the western Shikoku and 1566 LFEs in the whole Nankai subduction zone. While the catalog depths are widely distributed in some regions, the relocated hypocenters in every region construct a plane surface several km above the oceanic Moho interface and quite consistent with the geometry of the oceanic Moho. This result strongly supports the hypothesis that LFEs in the Nankai subduction zone occur on the subducting plate boundary and are directly generated by shear slips. If LFEs are indeed direct indicators of the locations of the plate interface, they might be useful to investigate the minute structure of the plate interface. The thin distributions of LFEs indicate that the interface between the subducting and the overriding plates is a distinct very thin boundary, and not a distributed shear zone.


Some risks to population health are so grave that any opportunity to reduce or eliminate them should be taken. The accidental or deliberate use of nuclear weapons is one such risk.

Physicians have played an important role in the effort to eliminate the threat of nuclear catastrophe by insisting


There have been considerable interests in the relationship between hormone secreting endocrine cells and microvessel network patterns in human pituitary gland. However, its 3D microcirculatory networks have not been studied extensively. Therefore, this study was designed to visualize hormone secreting endcrine cells and microvessels in 3D by CLSM and to reveal relationship between hormone secretion and microvessel networks in the rat pituitary gland. CLSM has been an exciting new apparatus because of its more powerful resolution than conventional light microscopy and the high-performance on 3D optical sectioning. The images taken with CLSM can be digitized and made susceptible to image analysis manipulation and computer-assisted 3D reconstructions. The female normal adult Wistar rats were used in this study. To demonstrate microvessels, fluorescent probe( 30 mg/ml)-conjugated gelatin solution was injected to left ventricle of the heart After complete perfusion, the pituitary glands were resected and immediately fixed in cold graded PFA(0.5- 8 %) containing 15 % picric acid solutions (4 °C. GH, ACTH cells or S100 protein positive fcfliculostellate (FS) cells were demonstrated by indirect TRTTC-labeled or HRP labeled antibody methods.


From the first century AD, Khorasan has been popular as one of the bases of Arabic poetry and this era has been the heyday of Arabic poetry in this place. As the study of poems based on literary genres enables people to study these works more cohesively, we have divided the Arabic poems of the 4th century into four genres, namely lyrical, epic, dramatic and didactic. Then, we discuss the history of each of these types among Arabs and afterwards analyze the Arabic poems of Khorasan. We concluded that lyrical and didactic genres are the most widely used types of poetry among Khorasani poets and that their poems did not have the dramatic genre. Also, epic poems did not exist in the poetry of this period, neither in the world literature sense, nor in the sense that was considered among Arabs. We just observed boasting and praise poems that are a subset of epic poetry.


Limbic Morphometry in Individuals with Schizophrenia and Their Nonpsychotic Siblings Rachael Olivia Slate Department of Psychology, Brigham Young University Master of Science The limbic system is hypothesized to play a critical role in pathophysiology of schizophrenia, with abnormalities thought to contribute to the expression of various aspects of the cognitive deficits and clinical symptoms. Psychosis is understood as highly heritable and family members, specifically non-affected siblings, while not displaying overt signs of the disorder, often exhibit features similar to those observed in patients, though to a lesser degree. The overarching aim of this project was to investigate the integrity of limbic circuitry in a sample of patients with schizophrenia and their non-affected siblings and examine its potential relationship with various clinical features of the illness. Cortical thickness of the entorhinal, parahippocampal, cingulate, and orbitofrontal cortices; as well as subcortical surface shape of the hippocampus and amygdala were the focus of this study. Findings from this study reveal relative similarity in limbic integrity between individuals with schizophrenia and their non-affected siblings, which are both disparate from healthy individuals. This suggests aspects of the neurobiological underpinnings of psychosis, particularly limbic regions, are genetically influenced regardless of symptom expression and are latent features in non-affected family members. Relationships between positive symptomatology and shape abnormalities of subcortical structures suggest a potential substrate for clinical characteristics in psychosis not evident in non-ill siblings.


Electron density and temperature in the CDX-U low aspect ratio tokamak are too low to allow observation of fast magnetohydrodynamic activity using soft x-ray continuum emission. However, spectroscopic measurements show that extreme ultraviolet (XUV) line emission of intrinsic impurities is bright enough to observe such activity. In addition, a fast monitoring system for local temperature changes in the plasma core is required for planned auxiliary heating experiments. We present a spectrally resolved tomographic system for fast imaging of O VI 2s–np, 2p–nd (n⩾3), C V 1s2–1s2p and C VI 1s–2p XUV transitions. Using this emission, we can study both core and edge MHD activity, while the C VI to C V intensity ratio can indicate local changes in electron temperature. To achieve maximal throughput together with the needed spectral resolution, we use arrays of surface barrier diodes filtered with bandpass elemental filters. Using M edge filters (Zr, Pd, and Ag), we achieve both good discrimination between the abo...


Scaled model and wind tunnel test were used to research on the aerodynamic performance of the box-car on 5 m high embankment and 15 m high bridge,and the relationship between the aerodynamic coefficients and the side sliding angle was gotten.Based on this,math models were built of the whole train overturning on the track and the car-body overturning on the bogie according to static moment balance,and the relationship between running speed and critical overturning wind speed was also gotten when they are running on straight and curve lines.The results show that the aerodynamic coefficients of the whole train increase with the increase of side sliding angle,and reach the maximum when the side sliding angle reaches 75° and decrease a little while on bridge.The critical wind speed of car-body overturning on bogie is less than that of train overturning on track,so train speed regulation should be based on car-body overturning on bogie.If train stays on a curve embankment or bridge,the critical wind speeds are 37.0 and 39.5 m/s separately,and if train speed is 100 km/h,the critical wind speed is near 30 m/s.If train stays on a straight embankment or bridge,the critical wind speeds are 45.0 and 49.0 m/s separately.If train speed is 120 km/h,the critical wind speed is near 33 m/s.


All-position welding is often used in many welding manufacturing occasions.Rotating arc welding can produce good bead geometry in overhead position.There are many process parameters in rotating arc CO2 welding,which have a great role in weld bead geometry.The relations between process parameters and bead geometry in rotating arc welding are studied.The sensitivity analysis technique is used to investigate the influences of process parameters on weld bead width and penetration.The results show that the absolute values of the sensitivities of rotating diameter and welding speed are larger than other values,which means that bead width can be controlled by adjusting rotating diameter or welding speed.The weld bead width will increase with the increase in rotating diameter and the decrease in welding speed.On the other hand,the bead width will decrease with the increase in rotating frequency and contact-tube to workpiece distance(CTWD).The results of this study can provide theoretical instructions for the determination of process parameters of rotating arc CO2 welding.


This paper deals with theoretical approaches to the harmonization of family life and work based on the Esping-Andersen's typology of the welfare state. In the first chapter we characterize three basic types of the welfare state: liberal, conservative-corporatist and social democratic. We focus on the essential features, on the relationship between the state and the market, the level of stratification and decommodification in these different types. In the second chapter we analyze familiarization of the welfare state typology, refering to the criticism, which calls into questioning the ability of commodification by which Orloff underestimates this ability for some members of the society; we discuss approaches to social welfare, to the issues of decommodification and defamiliarization; we stress the term "women friendly" as one of the fundamental basis for the problem of reconciliation of work and family life. Systems of the social states vary widely in how they support parents in their efforts to balance work and family care, integration of mothers into the labor market, which subsequently affects the birth rate and the aging of the population.


This paper investigates Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) combustion on an engine that is fuelled with ethanol, iso-octane, and ethanol/iso-octane. The engine is a four-stroke three cylinder in-direct injection type diesel engine converted to a single cylinder HCCI operation. In order to clarify the effects of fuel chemistry on HCCI combustion, the trials were done at a constant engine speed, a fixed initial charge temperature and engine coolant temperature. The HCCI engine was fuelled with a lean mixture of air and fuel (ethanol, iso-octane or mixture of ethanol/iso-octane). The engine performance parameters studied here include indicated mean effective pressure (IMEP) and thermal efficiency. Heat-release rate (HRR) analysis was done to determine the effect of fuels on combustion on-set. The experimental results demonstrate that the addition of iso-octane to ethanol retards the on-set of combustion and subsequently leads to a reduction of the IMEP and thermal efficiency. For a particular fuel, the on-set of combustion depends closely on the intake charge temperature (as reported by several other researchers) and any increase in the initial charge temperature leads to advances in the on-set of combustion. Furthermore, the experimental results demonstrate that operating the engine on a lean charge reduces engine-out NOx emissions significantly.


According to one embodiment of the present invention, the method by means of which a mobility management entity (MME) determines the communication mode of a terminal in a communication system includes the steps of: receiving, from the terminal, an access request including information on the position of the terminal; transmitting a message to a home subscriber server (HSS) on the basis of the received access request; receiving, from the HSS, specific position information for setting a first mode; comparing the information on the position of the terminal with the specific position information; and determining the communication mode of the terminal according to the result of the comparison. According to the present invention, the frequent transmission of small amounts of data can be supported in an efficient manner.


The aim of the article is to analyse the sources concerning the legal regulations of secrets in ancient Rome. Keeping the secret was an obligation regulated by the customs of the forefathers. If a secret concerning the state interest was revealed the perpetrator, if he acted involuntarily, was admonished by the consuls, but if he acted on purpose, he could be punished in a more severe manner. Keeping the secret had extreme importance in case of the closed Senate meetings.


Purpose To assess the influence of anemia on health-related quality of life (HRQL) in COPD patients receiving long-term non-invasive ventilation (NIV). Patients and Methods In this prospective single-center cohort study, COPD patients on long-term NIV were analyzed between June 2015 and May 2020. Linear multiple regression analyses were performed using the results of the Severe Respiratory Insufficiency Questionnaire (SRI) along with the following variables: sex, age, body mass index, duration of NIV, exacerbation history (≤1 versus >1 in the previous year), the updated Charlson comorbidity index, hemoglobin levels and anemia (WHO criteria). Results Anemia was identified in 32.8% (N=128). Anemia (mean difference −8.4, 95% CI −2.0/-14.9 SRI points, P=0.011) and exacerbations (mean difference −9.9, 95% CI −4.3/-15.5 SRI points, P=0.001) each had a negative impact on SRI summary scores. Exacerbations were negatively associated with six out of seven SRI subscale scores, while anemia was negatively associated with four out of seven. SRI summary scores dropped by 1.5 points for every g/dl of hemoglobin (P=0.08). No other variables had an influence on the SRI scores. Conclusion The present study has shown that within a cohort of COPD patients undergoing long-term NIV, one-third were identified as anemic. Furthermore, anemia, like exacerbation history, was found to have a considerable negative impact on HRQL that is specific to patients with chronic respiratory failure. Clinical Trial Registration German Clinical Trials Registry (DRKS00008759).


Different methods of estimating macroscopic traffic properties is expected to have varying results even when they are carried out on the same road and during the same time interval. A comparative assessment was carried out between traffic data collected at a point and that collected over a short section; Moving car observer method(MCO). Student's t-test was used to evaluate both data and it was observed that there was no significant difference between them. The MCO method correlates well with conventional data collection method and it can be used as a substitute for it, assuming conventional data collection method is true H.S. ABDULRAHMAN et.al: COMPARATIVE ASSESSMENT OF MACROSCOPIC TRAFFIC FLOW PROPERTIES ... Copyright ©2017 ESTIRJ-VOL.1, NO.2 (11-15) 12 stream data collection method and point data collection method of macroscopic traffic flow properties assuming the point measurement is a true representation of existing flow condition. 2. Methodology This study area has a mild traffic condition; thus, traffic flow properties were estimated using moving car observer (MCO) method in accordance with the Manual of Transportation Engineering Studies [8]. In this driving style, the test vehicle is driven within the traffic stream under study and overtakes as many vehicles as overtaking it; through this, the test car estimates the behavior of an average vehicle in the traffic stream [6]. Also, a point measurement of the traffic flow properties was estimated concurrently.Figure 1 and 2 shows Google earth image of the study route as well at a stationary point. Figure 1: Google map of Skudai Highway 5Km for MCO data collection Figure 2: Google Map for Stationary Point data collection 2.1 Theory Figure 3: Illustration of Moving Car Observer Method Section q = U × k(1) Where q = traffic flow in Vehicle/Hour, u= speed in Km/Hour and k = density in Vehicle/Km. Let"s take Mo, Mp and M be number of vehicles which overtake the test vehicle and the number of vehicles the test car over takes, and the difference between them respectively. Mo = q × T


The utility model provides a clamp device of an underwater adamas rope sawmill, which comprises a framework, a clamping part and a guide part. The framework is formed by jointing of four V-shaped gap mainboards and a connecting board; the clamping part comprises a clamping hydraulic pressure cylinder and a clamping piston, and a piston rod of the clamping hydraulic pressure cylinder is connected with the clamping piston and is arranged between a first mainboard and a second mainboard as well as between a third mainboard and a forth mainboard; the guide part is arranged on the first mainboard, and comprises a guide way and a guide sleeve, wherein, the guide sleeve and the guide way are vertically arranged and are corresponding to each other. The clamp device of the utility model has reasonable structure, is suitable for underwater operation mode and special requirement of environment, is used for large pipe diameter holding, can perform guide function for the cutting operation, and is suitable for the cutting operation of standpipes; simultaneously, a radial force of a transversely arranged part of the rope sawmill generated during the cutting process can be caused to finally act on the clamp device and the standpipes, thereby avoiding the deformation of transverse parts, and ensuring the normal operation of the adamas rope sawmill. The use effect is perfect.


Abstract Due to hardening in autoclaves and mechanical processing of autoclaved aerated concrete (AAC) massive, the process of production of AAC unavoidably generates waste. Up to now, there were no ways for utilisation of this type of waste. The article deals with the adsorption effectiveness of crushed autoclaved aerated concrete waste (CAACW). It was established that the ability of CAACW to adsorb certain liquids (water, diesel fuel, used engine oil) depends on viscosity of liquid which, in its turn, influences the depth of adsorption. Subject to this index, the CAACW was divided into two fractions: powder (size up to 2.50 mm) and crumbs (size from 2.50 to 10.0 mm). It was found that oil products of different kinematic viscosity are fully adsorbed by CAACW powder, i.e. diesel fuel 0.52 g/g in 18 min, and used engine oil 0.39 g/g in 1 h 15 min. The CAACW crumbs, processed by 2.00% FeSO4 solution and dried to 3.50% of residual moisture are suitable as litter for cats. The practical use of CAACW will help...


Although this study highlights improvements in speed of treatment delivery, the suggested benefits of cost-reduction had no costing data at all. There were no comments on additional costs, such as time to review referral letters, send out Boston questionnaires and book them into the one-stop clinic. I assume that the clinical assessment of the patients taking approximately 1 h would mean that the allocated operating theatre would be empty and unused for this time, hence under-using theatre time resources. The nursing and clinic costs for monitoring the patients pre- and postopera-tively may be less than a day-surgery bed but no costs are given. A presumption is made that the surgeon routinely arranges wound care follow-up with the general practitioner but, again, this is not clear. It is obviously beneficial to have treatment as soon as practicable but I think proper cost-analysis would have added weight to this study.