Children undergoing HSCT are at risk for vitamin D deficiency due to lack of sun exposure, the recommended use of sunscreen, dietary insufficiency, and the effects of medications such as glucocorticoids and calcineurin inhibitors. We assessed the prevalence of 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25-OH vitamin D) deficiency in pediatric post-HSCT patients in an outpatient oncology clinic during 4 weeks in May 2008. Patients found to have low 25-OH vitamin D levels were referred for dietary counseling and given supplementation or repletion as needed. 25-OH vitamin D and parathyroid hormone (PTH) levels were measured in 62 (88.6%) of 70 eligible patients. 83.8% of patients had a 25-OH vitamin D level less than the institutional lower limit of normal, 30 ng/mL. 29% of patients were 25-OH vitamin D insufficient with levels 20–29 ng/mL (range of 20–29). 54.8% of patients were 25-OH vitamin D deficient with levels


In a supply chain, the supplier frequently offers the retailer a trade credit period, and the retailer in turn provides a trade credit period to her/his customer to stimulate sales and reduce stock inventory. Also, many products such as fruits, vegetables, high-tech products, pharmaceuticals, and volatile liquids not only deteriorate continuously due to evaporation, obsolescence and spoilage but also have their expiration dates. However, only a few researchers take the expiration date of a deteriorating item into consideration. This paper proposes an economic order quantity model for the retailer where: a) the supplier provides an up-stream trade credit and the retailer also offers a down-stream trade credit; b) deteriorating items not only deteriorate continuously but also have their expiration dates. We then show that the retailer's optimal cycle time not only exists but also is unique. Furthermore, we discuss several special cases including for non-deteriorating items. Finally, we run some numerical examples to illustrate the problem and provide managerial insights.


The gigahertz transverse electromagnetic (GTEM) cell has been widely adopted to calibrate the detection sensitivity of ultra-high-frequency (UHF) sensors, which are used in the online monitoring and live detecting of the partial discharge (PD) for gas-insulated metal-enclosed switchgear (GIS). Unlike the GTEM cell used in the traditional electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) tests, a measurement aperture is opened at the top of the GTEM cell used in the calibration of UHF sensors. In this paper, the influences of the position and the size of the measurement aperture on the electrical characteristics of GTEM cell were studied, by means of simulations based on the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. For a GTEM cell with the size of 3.62 m×2.03 m×1.34 m, it was advised that the distance from the measurement aperture to the feed point of radio-frequency source and the diameter of the measurement aperture should be designed as 3m and less than 300mm, respectively. Measuring results of the voltage standing-wave ratio (VSWR) and the characteristic impedance using a vector network analyzer verified the effectiveness of design. Finally, the effective height curve of a 50 mm monopole antenna was measured using the designed GTEM cell, which was in good agreement with its theoretical curve.


NOTCH3 -Negative Patients Eur Neurol 2014;72:125–131 DOI: 10.1159/000360530 131 41 Adib-Samii P, Brice G, Martin RJ, Markus HS: Clinical spectrum of CADASIL and the effect of cardiovascular risk factors on phenotype: study in 200 consecutively recruited individuals. Stroke 2010; 41: 630–634. 42 Tournier-Lasserve E, Joutel A, Melki J, Weissenbach J, Lathrop GM, Chabriat H, et al: Cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy maps to chromosome 19q12. Nat Genet 1993; 3: 256–259. 43 Joutel A, Dodick DD, Parisi JE, Cecillon M, Tournier-Lasserve E, Bousser MG: De novo mutation in the Notch3 gene causing CADASIL. Ann Neurol 2000; 47: 388–391. 44 Markus HS, Martin RJ, Simpson MA, Dong YB, Ali N, Crosby AH, et al: Diagnostic strategies in CADASIL. Neurology 2002; 59: 1134– 1138. 45 Singhal S, Rich P, Markus HS: The spatial distribution of MR imaging abnormalities in cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy and their relationship to age and clinical features. Am J Neuroradiol 2005; 26: 2481–2487. 46 Ruchoux MM, Guerouaou D, Vandenhaute B, Pruvo JP, Vermersch P, Leys D: Systemic vascular smooth muscle cell impairment in cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy. Acta Neuropathol 1995; 89: 500–512.


This paper clarifies and defends the Kripkean view of na tural kind terms, with some help from Kaplan. Natural kind terms fall into two categories. Vernacular terms such as 'water', 'gold' or 'tiger' are directly referential, designate rigidly and are non-descriptive. They contrast in semantic properties wit h non-rigid descriptive terms such as 'mammal', 'species', or 'acid' which are clearly defined. Scientific terms are descriptive. A few descriptive terms ('the smallest prime', 'H2O' and perhaps others) may be regarded as rigid de facto. A descriptive term locks the properties of the referent into an analytic, a priori definition, thus entailing change of meaning and referent with each new discovery or theory change. A directly referential term such as 'water' has no descriptive content, thus ensuring continuity of referent when new properties of that referent are discovered or theory change occurs. [M]y argument implicitly concludes that certain general terms, those for natural kinds, have a greater kinship with prope r names than is generally realised. This conclusion holds for certain for various species names, whether they are count nouns, such as 'cat', 'tiger', 'chunk of gold', or mass terms such as 'gold', 'water', 'iron pyrites'. It also applies to certain terms for natural phenomena, such as 'heat', 'light', 'sound', 'lightning', and, presumably, suitably elaborated, to corresponding adjectives – 'hot', 'loud', 'red'. (Saul Kripke, Naming and Necessity p.134)


In this paper we propose an actor-oriented computer platform, which is a natural outgrowth of our Dynamic Monitoring and Decision Systems (DYMONDS) modeling, communications and control paradigm for smart grids. We summarize this approach which is physics-based and explain how its actor-oriented structure can support a possible multi-level computer platform. By combining principles of model-based Ptolemy II computer platform with these models, we sketch out the basis for implementing a DYMONDS-based computer platform for smart grids. Both the dynamic internal models of polymorphic actors, as well as the system model of computing and communication protocols relating their external interfaces are described. Perhaps, most important is the fact that the proposed computer platform can evolve dynamically as operating conditions and status of actors vary, and, longer-term, as different components are added to the physical system and different smarts are being embedded, rather than having to re-program every time as the physical system changes; this is because new semantics are introduced at the component interaction level rather than at the programming language level.


An algorithmic platform is proposed in this paper to randomly generate and validate a set of basic morphologies of planar robotic manipulators, with combinations of serially connected links and loops. To design a robot for specified tasks of following a trajectory and possessing a prescribed stiffness, there are possibilities of working with several hybrid morphologies. Normally, one such basic morphology is selected with experience and the robot is designed for the given tasks. In the present work, basic structures of planar robotic manipulators are generated randomly, while varying the number of links and number of degrees of freedom (dof), within a stipulated number of links. This set will serve as an initial population for the evolution of an optimal mechanism for given tasks, using evolutionary algorithms. A novel concept of Mechanism Assembly Matrix has been introduced to randomly generate planar hybrid manipulators. The proposed algorithm is executed for various number of links and dof. The resultant structures are successfully matching to the possible solutions for the given number of links and the dof. The second phase involves the scrutiny of generated morphologies for validity and retain only the viable structures in the database. A brief discussion is included on the morphology selection during the process of task-based design of a robot.


The objectives of this study were to examine how clothing design preference and clothing attitude vary according to gender of the aging. Using the data collected through interview with 200 subjects who were 60years of age and older residing at Kunsan city area in Korea. These data were analyzed by frequency and χ^2-test. The tendency of the gender on jacket style preference showed that men liked the soutien collar jacket, two button single jacket, and four button double jacket, women liked two button single jacket, three button single jacket and four button double jacket. The general preference did not depend on the practical purchasing. Men preferred more the soutien collar jacket than the women. On the shirts pattern preference, men liked thick horizon and plaid pattern, while the women liked polk dots pattern and small flowered one. The practical clothing purchase was done by themselves directly. The important criteria depended on the appearance style like simple and smart. For the main complaining factor to purchase the clothes, men considered the color, and women complained not to have suitable shopping stores. The most of all complaining was the expensive prices.


[See related article at [www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.181504][2]][2]

KEY POINTS
An updated Canadian guideline on the management of Parkinson disease, produced by a collaboration of specialists, with sponsorship from Parkinson Canada, represents a great effort to streamline the management of


Nine years ago we designed the prototype of a microperfusion pump for calibrated perfusions of tubular segments in vivo(l). The apparatus consists, in principle, of a metal pin whiclh is driven into the fluid-filled shaft of a micropipet. Since the base of this pipet is sealed, the fluid may escape with a constant flow rate only through the tip of the capillary. In the meantime many improvements were developed both in the apparatus and in the perfusion technique. I should like to start this review with a brief description of new details in the equipment. Formerly the pump was driven by an electric synchronous motor and the pump rate was adjusted by regulating the speed of the motor. This resulted in a reliable reproducibility of the pumping rate. However, the constancy of perfusion rate was dependent on a highly stable electric power supply. Furthermore, calibration of the pump was somewhat troublesome since it had a sigma-shaped calibration curve with only a relatively short region in which the pumping rate could be precisely established (Fig. 1). In the new system, constancy of perfusion rate is stabilized by a self-regulating electronic device. Because the calibration curve has a linear characteristic, the calibration procedure is simplified. The new apparatus was built by V. Roslicek and Wolfgang Hampel, the engineer who previouisly had helped us to develop the first type of microperfusion equipment. The new principle is depicted schematically in Fig. 2. In spite of the great advantages whlich the new apparatus provide, it should be emphasized that the most frequent pitfalls encountered with the microperfusion pump remain the same. The most critical point is the careful mounting of the microcapillary to the pump. When the base of the glass capillary does not exactly fit into the Teflon seal around the forward-moving metal pin, then the fluid displaced by the pin does not quantitatively escape througlh the tip of the


The changes affecting farming, operating between local and global, are important concerning milk processing. How these changes express themselves locally? What consequences concerning strategies of processing firms and concerning livestock farming systems? Developing diachronic studies we analyze interactions between marketing strategies of milk processing factories, livestock farming systems and consequences of these changes at local scales. Comparing contrasted situations (France, South America, Vietnam and Senegal), we found mostly two contrasted dynamics: (1) a process of globalisation (concentration of operators, increasing importance of long food chains, location of farms in high productivity areas, intensification of farming practices); (2) a process of strengthening relationship between product and local specificity (emphasizing local image and the link between product and the 'terroir', handicraft processes of transformation), increasing of local marketing channels, farming practices valorizing a diversity of local resources. Intermediating between production and distribution, dairy factories are at the core of these two dynamics. We will present the methodologies employed to characterize the studied situations. From examples we will illustrate how these two dynamics are emerging and operate. We will discuss then how in a same place complementarity, tensions or exclusions may appear between these two dynamics. (Resume d'auteur)


Abstract Background Women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) are at an elevated risk of endometrial cancer, which may be associated with the continuous proliferative state caused by the interaction between hormones and metabolic factors. Objective To investigate the impact of hormones and metabolic factors in the proliferation and death of endometrium during the proliferative phase. Methods Cross-sectional study with 11 women with PCOS and eight normal-cycling non-PCOS controls at the Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro from February 2011 to June 2019. Clinical, biochemical, and hormonal data were collected to analyze their influence on the expression of biomarkers related to the endometrial tissue breakdown. Hysteroscopy and endometrial biopsies were conducted, and the endometrial samples underwent immunohistochemistry for markers of apoptosis B-cell lymphoma 2 (BCL2), cleaved caspase-3 (CASP3), fas cell surface death receptor (FAS), FAS ligand (FASLG), BCL2 associated X (BAX), marker of proliferation Ki-67 (MKI67), and cell death using terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase dUTP nick and labeling (TUNEL). Results CASP3 and TUNEL expressions were lower in both stroma and endometrium gland of PCOS women than in controls. MKI67 and homeostasis indexes (BCL2/BAX; FASLG/FAS) in the endometrium of the PCOS group were significantly higher. Body mass index (BMI) values were positively correlated with the expression of MKI67 and MKI67/TUNEL ratio in the endometrial stroma compartment. Fasting insulin levels were positively correlated with the expression of BCL2, and DHEA-S levels were negatively correlated with the expression of CASP3 of women with PCOS. Conclusion BMI, insulin, and DHEA-S influence the endometrial homeostasis breakdown in PCOS in the endometrium stroma.


Professional periodical is a special product of spirit culture ,and it plays an active and irreplaceable role in the development and construction of profession. And it should suit for new request of times development and innovate ideas of periodical , enhance service consciousness , as well as intensify competition consciousness and develop greater function in the construction of profession innovation.


The major part of the state of art routing proposals have a limited view of the NoC congestion, since each router takes decisions based on few neighbors' status. Such local decision may lead packets to other congested regions, therefore being inefficient. The goal of this work is to propose and evaluate an adaptive source routing algorithm, where the path between source and target PEs may be modified due to congestion events. The proposed method requires QoS session establishment and traffic monitoring. A QoS session establishes a connection between two IPs, applying application constraints. Traffic monitoring carries congestion information to the target, leading to a global view of the routing path. Evaluated performance figures include latency, traffic distribution and the delay to switch to a new path. For hot-spot traffic scenarios, the average latency is reduced by 10%. The proposed routing method also achieved a better network occupation.


Two-phase flow hydrodynamics in vertical capillaries of circular and square cross sections were experimentally studied, using air as the gas phase and water, ethanol, or an oil mixture as the liquid phase. The capillary hydraulic diameters ranged from 0.9 mm to 3 mm, with the superficial gas and liquid velocities covering a span of 0.008−1 m/s, which is typical of that obtained in monolith reactors. Using a high-speed video camera, four distinct flow regimes were observed within the range at which experiments were conducted:  bubbly, slug-bubbly, Taylor, and churn flows. Annular flow was observed at excessively high gas and low liquid flow rates, well beyond those of interest to this study. Based on the definition of a two-class flow regime, the combination of two parametersthe slip ratio (S) and the ratio of the superficial gas velocity to two-phase superficial velocity (UG/UTP)was observed to be suitable for determining the transition from homogeneous flow to nonhomogeneous flow. The influence of capill...


The content of Se in grape seeds was determined by hydride generation-AFS.The results showed that microelement Se can be accurately and reliably determined at the selected optimum condition in the grape seed,and the recovery was between 93.5% and 108.9% with RSD in the range of 2.02%—4.63%.This method is accurate,fast,simple,and suitable for determining the similar kinds of samples with satisfactory results.


This report describes an efficient and reproducible protocol for large-scale multiplication of Hedychium coronarium plantlets. Axillary bud explants were cultured on Murashige and Skoog medium supplemented with 3 mg/l benzylaminopurine, 3 mg/l kinetin (KIN), and 0.2 mg/l thidiazuron, yielding a maximum of 13.2 ± 0.3 number of shoots. Sub-culturing of shoots every 4 weeks on fresh multiplication medium yielded a consistent proliferation rate. Shoot clusters containing three to five shoots were successfully rooted in KIN (3 mg/l) and indole acetic acid (0.5 mg/l), yielding a maximum of 6.3 ± 0.5 number of roots. Plantlets grown in vitro were acclimatized and subsequently transferred to the field for phenotypic evaluation. Random amplified polymorphic DNA and inter-simple sequence repeat analysis has confirmed the genetic uniformity of in vitro plantlets up to 2 years. After 2 years, these plantlets were transplanted to field, and evaluation of phenotypic characteristics was done. This study is of high significance as these could be commercially utilized for large-scale production of true-to-type plantlets.


vs 4.6±0.7 mg/dl, p<0.001), hypercalcemia (10.1±0.7 vs 9.3±0.7 mg/dl, p<0.001). Soluble ICAM (1096±346 vs 802±224 ng/ml, p<0.001) and sE-selectin (191±171 vs 95±73 ng/ml, p<0.01) levels were significantly higher in patients with an elevated Ca x PO4 product. High risk group patients also tended to have a higher sVCAM levels (952±252 vs 819±292 ng/ml, p>0.05). After 3 years of follow-up, 20 patients died. The mortality rate was 20% and 35% in low risk and high risk groups, respectively. All three soluble CAM levels were higher in patients who have died, compared to patients who were still on treatment. These results suggest that patients with elevated Ca x PO4 product have higher sCAM levels and an increased mortality rate. These findings provide further support to our previous hypothesis that association of elevated Ca x PO4 product with increased sCAM levels may be a link to elevated cardiovascular risk.


We estimate a cointegrated VAR of consumption, household money and their determinants in Chile.We find two long-run relations that can be specified as a classic money-demand equation and aconsumption equation that is homogenous in disposable income. We find that the household money overhang has indeed a significant effect on future consumption, while consumption deviations do not affect money holdings. The dynamic properties of the system, namely Granger causality and the weak exogeneity criteria developed in Urbain (1992), allow the estimation of a marginal system for consumption and money as well as conditional forecasts on exogenous paths of income, interest rates, and inflation. Our system tracks the in-sample dynamics of consumption well, and better than other consumption equations estimated in Chile without money in the past. And out of sample tests show that our model has better forecast performance than univariate models, or systems without money. However, this does not hold for larger horizons


The problem of computing the number of reachable states of arbitrary Petri nets without building reachability graphs has never been investigated before. This paper deals with a simple class of Petri nets, called marked graphs. We express and find the number of reachable states of a marked graph in an algebraic way, which is the first result of this problem as far as we know.


In this work, we propose a new approach to the solution of parametric identification problems. Our approach combines meas ured displacements of a structure extracted from a computer vision system and computed displacements predicted by a FEM-based computer program. The parametric identification problem is solved se quentially using both sources of information about displacements and the dynamic Bayesian network with the particle filter based infe rence. The proposed solution strategy is illustrated by solving material parameter identification problem of Young modulus es timation for a homogeneous isotropic laboratory-scale aluminum frame. Our approach is also verified by comparing the particle filter solution with the analytical solution obtained using the Kalman filter. Th e current results confirm that the proposed combination of co mputer vision techniques, finite element method and sequential estimatio n using dynamic Bayesian network can be successfully applied for solving similar parametric identification problems in mechanics of structures and materials.


A previous test of zirconia THR with water as the lubricating medium demonstrated catastrophic wear of the femoral head and the acetabulum liner aft er only 6,100 cycles. In this investigation, a new improved alumina-doped zirconia was studied water as the lubricating medium. After 3, 000 cycles the simulated test was stopped due to dislocation of the cup adaptor. SEM revealed extensive cracking perpendicular to wear scars, large m aterial cavitations accompanied by complete disruption of the surface in the wear zone. The effects of lubricating medium for Zirconiaon-Zirconia in THR simulated tests still have little known. The ai m was a preliminary investigation of Alumina-doped Zirconia in water bearing environment under hip simulation testing. The test reinstates previous concerns that water testing is not a suitable lubricant for evaluating Zirconia for use in THR systems.


Two patients diagnosed as having acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) and disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) were closely followed from the day of admission until completion of the first course of chemotherapy with serial coagulation studies including plasma levels of functional antithrombin III activity (AT III) by fluorometric analysis and anti‐activated Factor × activity (anti‐Xa) by coagulation assay. Both patients were treated with intravenous heparin and the presence of heparin in plasma was followed by the thrombin time. Consistently normal levels of AT III (<80%) were found despite evidence of intravascular coagulation. However, plasma levels of anti‐Xa were often low (<70%) and increased only in the presence of heparin. The significance of these results in relationship to heparin therapy for disseminated intravascular coagulation of APL is discussed.


In this paper, we propose a method to segment regions in three-dimensional point clouds. We assume that (i) the shape and the number of regions in the point cloud are not known and (ii) the point cloud may be noisy. The method consists of two steps. In the first step we use a deep neural network to predict the probability that a pair of small patches from the point cloud belongs to the same region. In the second step, we use a convex-optimization based method to improve the predictions of the network by enforcing consistency constraints. We evaluate the accuracy of our method on a custom dataset of convex polyhedra, where the regions correspond to the faces of the polyhedra. The method can be seen as a robust and flexible alternative to the famous region growing segmentation algorithm. All reported results are reproducible and come with easy to use code that could serve as a baseline for future research.


In 1967, Alexander Thorn gathered in book form the results of many years work on the geometry of the prehistoric stone circles and other Megalithic monuments in Britain.' His most startling conclusion was that these sites were set up with almost unbelievable accuracy, using a standard of length, which Thorn calls the Megalithic yard, which remains constant from one end of the country to the other, and which he establishes to be 2·720 ± 0·003 feet. The purpose of this note is to question this conclusion, which I believe to be based on a misunderstanding of a statistical technique, and to suggest that an alternative hypothesis, that the circles were set out by pacing, is a more serious contender than Thorn realised. Lest, however, an archaeologist should read this far and say, with a sigh of relief, "so Thorn is part of the lunatic fringe after all", let me quickly say that this does not invalidate much of his other work, especially his astronomical observations; indeed, for me at least it raises the credibility level of his general philosophy. Thorn also deserves ~reat credit for the thorough and painstaking analysis he has done, and he sets the standard for future research work of this kind. In this he is in sharp contrast to some of his predecessors such as Watkins with his theory of "leys" or straight tracks," Tyler with his concentric circles" or Mitchell with his numerology.' Watkins collected a mass of data, which looks very promising, but he confines his statistical analysis to a single experiment (p.203). Tyler unfortunately did not appreciate the difference between exact and approximate accuracy and merely quotes an irrelevant mathematical theorem suggested to him by a "mathematical friend" (p.32). Mitchell makes outrageous claims for chance coincidences, but allows himself so many possibilities that they are not very surprising. A 'Thorn' approach to these theories would soon sort out the sheep from the goats.


Measurement of the pressure-flow relationships of the human respiratory tract is basic to the study of ventilatory mechanics. The relationship of respiratory air flow to the total pressure drop along the respiratory tree (alveolus to mouth) has been extensively studied and been shown to depend on lung inflation (1-3) and the type and degree of airway disease (4). Recently the total pressure drop has been partitioned into that occurring along the lower or intrathoracic airways (alveolus to trachea) and that along the upper or extrathoracic airways (trachea to mouth) (5, 6). The resistance of the upper airway with mouth breathing was found 1) to comprise a significant portion of the total airway resistance in normal subjects, 2) to vary from subject to subject as well as in a given subject, 3) to depend on the type of breathing maneuver employed, and 4) to vary inversely


Among the more significant problems of current moral philosophy is the distinction between Fact and Value, if value judgments can receive objective force. Some have proposed that there is no objectivity in value judgment. Others, the realist ones, claim that value judgments are as objective as the factual judgment. Hence, we will approach the realist standpoint, more strictly the MacIntyre's natural realism and how that standpoint deals with the fact/value distinction.


Part of scholars of the academe has tremendous bias on the understanding and grasping of the Marxist philosophy nowadays: some minify the unity of dialectical materialism and historical materialism to historical materialism of human society;some deny the material unity of universe and nature and human society and try to deprive of the Marxist philosophy of dialectical materialism and the content of the material ontology.Many important theoretical issues in philosophy and aesthetics of interpretation fall into Abstract subjective idealism mostly.


A key problem of an Image Based Visual Servo (IBVS) system is how to identify and track objects in a series of images. In this paper, a scale-invariant image feature detector and descriptor, which is called the Scale-Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT), is utilized to achieve robust object tracking in terms of rotation, scaling and changes of illumination. To the best of our knowledge, this paper represents the first work to apply the SIFT algorithm to visual servoing for robust mobile robot tracking. First, a SIFT method is used to generate the feature points of an object template and a series of images are acquired while the robot is moving. Second, a feature matching method is applied to match the features between the template and the images. Finally, based on the locations of the matched feature points, the location of the object is approximated in the images of camera views. This algorithm of object identification and tracking is applied in an Image-Based Visual Servo (IBVS) system for providing the location of the object in the feedback loop. In particular, the IBVS controller determines the desired wheel speeds ω_1 and ω_2 of a wheeled mobile robot, and accordingly commands the low-level controller of the robot. Then the IBVS controller drives the robot toward a target object until the location of the object reaches the desired location in the image. The IBVS system is implemented and tested in a mobile robot with an on-board camera, in our laboratory. The results are used to demonstrate satisfactory performance of the object identification and tracking algorithm. Furthermore, a MATLAB simulation is used to confirm the stability and convergence of the IBVS controller.


With the rapid development of computer science, fast and secure transmission of data has gained great importance. Undoubtedly, one of the most common data types is digital images. The attractiveness of digital images is result of wide range usage from social media to defense industry. In order to transmit through correct and secure channels, images must be encrypted before they are sent. The relevant process is realized by means of encryption algorithms. Symmetric steams encryption algorithms which have been proposed so far have weaknesses in terms of speed and processing power. Therefore, encryption quality drops dramatically in certain scenarios. A novel symmetric stream encryption algorithm called XorShiftAnd has been proposed in this study.


From the Revolutionary War to the Big Dig, Boston and its people have played a colorful and often controversial role in shaping the nation's political, economic, and cultural landscape. In this sweeping history of the Hub's rich heritage, Thomas H. O'Connor reveals an ever-changing and resilient city that has adapted to many significant upheavals without losing its distinct personality. Filled with dramatic local events as well as intriguing characters, this engaging account evokes the spirit and soul of Boston, both yesterday and today.


Destination image is an important factor in tourism marketing. Harmonious destination image between local residents, tourists, and Tourism Marketers Organization allows for a sustainable development model for tourism marketing. This study aims to examine differences of Jakarta's destination image in the perception of tourists and local residents. Methodology used is quantitative research. Research instruments are developed by reviewing relevant literature on destination image factors for Jakarta. Data collection is done through questionnaires distributed online. Different test conducted is Mann-Whitney test. Results show that local residents and tourists have similar destination image about culinary tourism and shopping. But they have different destination image about recreation, cultural tourism, beach tourism, historical tours, local people, infrastructure, affective destination image, and conative destination image. Researcher suggested to Tourism Marketers and Tourism Department of Jakarta to educate, to give information, and to involve local people especially to destination images that still considered low by local residents. Tourism Marketer Organizations, Jakarta Tourism Office, and Local Residents must maintain and even improve the quality of culinary tour and shopping experience so as to increase the satisfaction of tourists when visiting Jakarta, which in turn will make tourists want to re-visit.


To the Editor:

We were very interested to read the recent study by Johnston et al1 regarding the use of contrast-enhanced MRA (CEMRA) for carotid stenosis. The authors correctly highlight in their introduction the limitations of many current studies of noninvasive tests. We, however, remain to be convinced that their own study is an adequate reflection of the performance of CEMRA in "routine clinical practice."

Up to 55% of MRA studies reported in the literature may include a significant proportion of carotid arteries with minor stenosis.2 These populations may not reflect the true population in which CEMRA would be used. It is thus quite possible that such studies actually tend to overestimate the overall performance of CEMRA compared with routine clinical practice.2 It is difficult to know whether the significant misclassification rate of 24% quoted by Johnston et al may be a reflection of that because the study population is not clearly defined in …


partly in prose and partly in metre. The Circius not merely discussed such usual topics of treatises on computus as the era, leapyears, lunar cycle and golden number, but also told when to marry and when not. Not from the first Sunday in Advent to the octave of Epiphany, but yes from the latter to Septuagesima Sunday. Not from it to the first Sunday after Easter, but yes from the latter to Rogations. Not from Rogations till Trinity Sunday, but yes from Trinity Sunday to Advent. It also identified these days by the responses sung on them: namely, Aspiciens, Veterem, Circumdederunt me, Quasi, Quia, and Benedicta sit sancta Trinitas. Below are reproduced the Latin text of the opening paragraph of the commentary on the Circius and the first few lines of that on the Palma.


Hydrodechlorination technology is not only a green conversion process of the key technologies to deal with chlorinated organic compounds,especially chlorofluorocarbons,but also an important way to synthesize high value fluorine-containing chemicals and fluorinated monomers.This paper reviews a detailed significance and mechanism of the hydrodechlorination reaction,catalysts research deveolpment of the hydrodechlorination and the application of the hydrodechlorination.


Abstract. Global Positioning System interferometric reflectometry
(GPS-IR) is a relatively new technique which uses reflected GPS signals to
measure surface elevation changes to study frozen-ground dynamics. At
present, more than 200 GPS stations are operating continuously in the
Northern Hemisphere permafrost areas, which were originally designed and
maintained for tectonic and ionospheric studies. However, only one site in
Utqiaġvik, Alaska (formerly Barrow), was assessed to be usable for studying permafrost by GPS-IR.
Moreover, GPS-IR has high requirements on the ground surface condition, which
needs to be open, flat, and homogeneous. In this study, we screen three major
GPS networks in Canada and identify 12 out of 38 stations located in
permafrost areas as useful ones where reliable GPS-IR measurements can be
obtained. We focus on the five Canadian Active Control System stations and
obtain their daily GPS-IR surface elevation changes. We find that the ground
surface subsided in Alert, Resolute Bay, and Repulse Bay respectively by
0.61±0.04 cm yr−1 (2012–2018), 0.70±0.02 cm yr−1
(2003–2014), and 0.26±0.05 cm yr−1 (2014–2019). At the other
two sites of Baker Lake and Iqaluit, the trends are not statistically
significant. The linear trends of deformation were negatively correlated
with those of thaw indices in Alert, Resolute Bay, and Repulse Bay.
Furthermore, in Resolute Bay, we also find that the end-of-thaw elevations
during 2003–2012 were highly negatively correlated with the square root of
thaw indices. This study is the first one using multiple GPS stations to
study permafrost by GPS-IR. It highlights the multiple useful GPS stations
in northern Canada, offering multi-year, continuous, and daily GPS-IR
surface deformation, which provides new insights into frozen-ground dynamics
at various temporal scales and across a broad region.


Co-operative Banks are organized and managed on the principals of co-operation, self-help, and mutual help. These have been playing imperative role in Indian financial system with broad network in both urban and rural areas. Around three hundred and seventy two District Central Co-operative Banks (DCCBs) with large number of branches and extension counters cater to the needs of nearly one lakh societies in rural India. In Haryana nineteen DCCBs with more than two hundred branches have been facilitating self-sufficiency in food grain production, creation of


This article reports a study aiming to determine the perceptions of older adults needing formal care about the usefulness, satisfaction, and ease of use of CaMeLi, a virtual companion based on an embodied conversational agent, and the perceptions of formal caregivers about the potential of virtual companions to support care provision. An observational study involving older adults needing formal care was conducted to assess CaMeLi using a multi-method approach (i.e., an auto-reported questionnaire—the Usefulness, Satisfaction, and Ease of use questionnaire; a scale for the usability assessment based on the opinion of observers—the International Classification of Functioning Disability and Health-based Usability Scale; and critical incident registration). Moreover, a focus group was conducted to collect data regarding the perceived utility of virtual companions to support care provision. The observational study was conducted with 46 participants with an average age of 63.6 years, and the results were associated with a high level of usefulness, satisfaction, and ease of use of CaMeLi. Furthermore, the focus group composed of four care providers considered virtual companions a promising solution to support care provision and to prevent loneliness and social isolation. The results of both the observational study and the focus group revealed good perceptions regarding the role of virtual companions to support the care provision for older adults.


To arrive at some viable product design, product development processes frequently use numerical simulations and mathematical programming techniques. Topology optimization, in particular, is one of the most promising techniques for generating insightful design choices. Topology optimization problems reduce to an NP-hard combinatorial optimization problem, where the combination of the existence or absence of the material at some positions is optimized. In this study, we examine the usage of quantum computers as a potential solution to topology optimization problems. The proposed method consists of two variational quantum algorithms (VQAs): the first solves the state equilibrium equation for all conceivable material configurations, while the second amplifies the likelihood of an optimal configuration in quantum superposition using the first VQA's quantum state. Several experiments, including a real device experiment, show that the proposed method successfully obtained the optimal configurations. These findings suggest that quantum computers could be a potential tool for solving topology optimization problems and they open the window to the near-future product designs.


Diamond materials in different forms, including single crystal, polycrystalline, or nanoparticles, feature a number of very attractive physical/chemical properties for the development of both chemical or biochemical sensors. In the last decade considerable work has been carried out to process diamond (seeding, etching, patterning, controlling surface chemistry, etc.) so that it has now become a serious candidate material for implementation in advanced sensor technologies. In this article we report on some of the work achieved by our team in this area, focusing more particularly on diamond based transducers used for the detection of small organic compounds, such as odorant molecules, both in the liquid or gas phase.


Monte Carlo calculations were made to analyze the results of an integral experiment with a sample of SiO/sub 2/ to determine the adequacy of ENDF/B-IV neutron scattering and gamma-ray production cross-section data for silicon and oxygen. The experimental results analyzed included energy-dependent NE-213 detector neutron and gamma-ray count rates at a scattering angle of 90 deg and pulse-height spectra for scattered neutrons and gamma rays. The experiments were carried out with the ORELA 1- to 20-MeV pulsed neutron source. The pulse-height data were unfolded to generate secondary neutron and gamma-ray spectra at 90 deg as a function of incident neutron energy. Multigroup Monte Carlo calculations using the MORSE code and ENDF/B-IV cross sections were made to analyze all reported results. No outstanding discrepancies between calculated and measured responses were found on the neutron data below 12 MeV. Possible discrepancies in the inelastic scattering data above 12 MeV are indicated. This is consistent with a previous analysis of an oxygen experiment. A more detailed analysis will have to be performed before any definite conclusions can be drawn from these comparisons.


This article focuses on the phenomenon of middle leadership in a university context and directs attention to the significance of learning as a central facet of leadership development. Drawing on the reflections of two of the authors as new middle leaders (chairpersons of departments), this article critically examines how middle leaders learn aspects of their role. Two tenets underpin our analysis: learning is fundamentally a social process – we learn with and from others; and learning is relational – what and how we learn is determined to some extent by others and affects others. Our experiences point to learning constraints and affordances arising from events, practices and artefacts. Constraints were largely associated with transmission learning experiences, while affordances were found in collaborative knowledge-sharing contexts that arose as information grounds in response to an information need. We argue that both those we lead, and the organisation itself, would likewise benefit from a knowledge-sharing perspective on learning.


Utilization of agricultural waste toward sustainability has increase a value-added product from a natural resources nowadays. Metroxylan sagu pith waste (MSPW) is a residue from starch extraction process. This research aim to investigate the potential of MSPW as a biodegradable fillers to replace sago starch in Natural Rubber (NR) latex films. The MSPW flour is characterized and compared with sago starch. Results shown MSPW has almost similar properties with sago starch with high content of starch (60%) and moisture (80%). Spectra of MSPW and Sago Starch (SS) are very closed to one another due to the similarity of functional groups. SS has granular shape while MSPW has irregular shape under SEM analysis. The addition of MSPW shown slightly lower tensile properties and tear strength as compared to SS but still within the acceptable value. Thus, MSPW has high potiential to replace SS as biodegradable fillers in NR latex films.


Rough set theory, a mathematical tool to deal with vague concepts, has originally described the indiscernibility of elements by equivalence relations. Covering-based rough sets are a natural extension of classical rough sets by relaxing the partitions arising from equivalence relations to coverings. Recently, some topological concepts such as subbase, neighborhood and separation axioms have been applied to study covering-based rough sets. However, the topological space on covering-based rough sets and the corresponding topological properties on the topological covering-based rough space are not studied. This paper studies some of these problems. We defined open sets, closed sets, rough inclusion, rough equality on covering-based rough sets and some of their properties are studied. Then, we give the definition of topology on covering-based rough sets. Finally, we study the properties of rough homeomorphisms. This research not only can form the theoretical basis for further applications of topology on covering-based rough sets but also lead to the development of the rough set theory and artificial intelligence.


The rapid development of modern economy has put forward higher requirements for financial engineering education. This paper analyzes the status and problems in undergraduate financial engineering education in china, such as indistinct training objective, rigid curriculum structure, and superficial teaching methods, etc. and puts forward suggestions to improve undergraduate financial engineering education in China.


Bulk organic nonlinear optical single crystal of 2-(2,4-dimethoxybenzylidene) malononitrile (DMM) with size up to 24×18×13 mm 2 was successfully grown by slow evaporation solution growth technique. The single crystal X-ray diffraction studies of the grown crystal exhibit that the crystal belongs to a monoclinic system with P21/n space group. The FT-IR spectrum confirms the various functional groups present in the grown crystal. The optical properties of the grown crystals were analyzed by UV–Vis-NIR spectral analysis. Third-order nonlinear optical behaviour of the title crystal was studied by Z-scan technique. All the finding results in the present work indicate that DMM has a potential application as a useful NLO candidate. Introduction. In recent years, organic non-linear optical (NLO) crystals have gained considerable attention due to their relatively high nonlinearity and fast response. Particularly, third order nonlinear optical (TONLO) organic materials have gained much consideration because of their promising applications in optical switching, optical data processing, optical limiting, signal processing and ultra-fast optical communications, etc [1,2]. The centrosymmetric organic crystals with good stability lead to third order susceptibility (χ (3)) and higher nonlinear absorption coefficient (β) and fast response time for nonlinear optical properties. However, only very few organic materials could so far be crystallized in reasonable crystal size and optical grade to realize various applications. For the first time, we present here investigations on the bulk growth of DMM organic crystals and its different characterizations.


ABSTRACT In Between the Acts, Virginia Woolf exposes a bleak and chilling vision of the police. Bulge, an actor disguised as a policeman, presents his work as a 'whole-time, white man's job' supervising the toil and suffering of the oppressed. The violence of this statement begs the question: what was Woolf's own attitude towards the police? In this respect, it is possible to find a certain continuity in her fiction. Although they mainly appear as banal, sometimes reassuring, background presences, policemen are also keepers of the social order. Their actions are shown to buttress ideological forces, especially those of patriarchy and Empire. However, this paper argues that Woolf's understanding of the role of the police in relation with these powers evolved throughout her works – from a mere analogy in Jacob's Room, to a much more concrete system of rituals and interpellations, resembling those theorised by Louis Althusser and Jean-Jacques Lecercle. Furthermore, this change in style accompanied a change in stance: as she realised the extent of ideological power on individuals, Woolf's notion of resistance also shifted, from a focus on wandering and personal evasion to a more communal and political approach, which crystallised in a form of artistic 'counter-interpellation'.


Singing from choirbooks was once an unremarkable, even humdrum, part of everyday performance practice. Although they varied greatly in size and splendour, the common feature of choirbooks was their placement upon a lectern, visible to a single group of singers huddled around the same book. Although this mode of performance fell from favour in the Protestant countries of northern Europe, it persisted in some cultures until within living memory. Very few modern performers sing ad lectrinam, however, while academic interest in Renaissance choirbooks has tended to focus more on the notational syntax of their contents than the practical and spatial implications of their formats. Recent investigations suggest that lectern singing brings practical benefits to performers (in terms of ensemble and confidence); the lectern also provides a strong focal point within the performing space, and therefore a context for certain polyphonic genres which combined lecterns and desks in the same musical formation, such as the ...


The hardness of the enamel in the incisors of three species of shrew, Sorex araneus, S. minutus and Croidura russula, was tested using a special ultra-low load indentation instrument. Two different measuring areas were selected; the first area was situated in the anterior part of the incisor (covered with pigmented enamel in the Sorex spp.), the second area was in the posterior unpigmented part of the same tooth. Large local variations in the mechanical properties occur, and possible reasons for these are discussed. The results do not clearly confirm any hypothesis concerning differences in hardness between the pigmented and unpigmented enamel, although there there is some tendency showing the unpigmented enamel to be slightly harder than the pigmented


The paper illustrates the meaning and functions of constructing the loading station of railway in new Shanghai No.1 coal mine,mainly researches the selection scheme for the station's location and finally concludes the optimized scheme,so as to be convenient for unloading and transporting with the condition of meeting the transportation needs and to achieve the purpose of sending the empty and taking the heavy.


WhenWilkie Collins launched the 'sensation novel' with the publication of The Woman in White in 1859, he reworked late eighteenth-century gothic motifs and plot-patterns, and adapted them to the mid-Victorian modern world. In The Woman in White, mysterious, secretive and dangerous characters abound, from the ghostly virgin dressed in white who wanders at night and threatens to reveal secrets, to the Italian count and the British baronet who incarcerate the heroine under her half-sister's name in a lunatic asylum in order to inherit her fortune. However, behind the domestic plot, anxieties related to foreigners and to the fears of foreign invasion seep through. The discovery of Sir Percival Glyde's real identity or the recovery of Laura Fairlie's identity fade behind the mysteries revolving around Collins's modern villain, Count Fosco and many other Italian spies who endanger the British nation. This paper examines the fears and anxieties on which Collins's novel hinges. From mere domestic secrets to anxieties related to national security, Collins describes a modern world ruled by suspicions, and constructs his characters as paranoid patients


Sedimentary organic matter is an important component of the metabolism of a lake's ecosystem, and it is generally derived from both the watershed and the primary productivity of a lake. Understanding the sources of organic matter in lakes and lake trophic status is important when evaluating the quality of lake ecosystems. We summarize the spatial distribution of total nitrogen (TN), total organic carbon (TOC), TOC/TN (C/N) molar ratios, and organic carbon isotope (δ13Corg) of the surface sediments of Fuxian Lake, Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau, Southwest China, which is the second deepest freshwater oligotrophic lake in China. The results show that the distributions of TN, TOC, C/N, and δ13Corg of the surface sediments are spatially heterogeneous, which is also the case for the trophic conditions of the lake. Compared with the adjacent eutrophic lakes and typical lakes in other areas with strong human activities, the content of organic matter is at a low level. Meanwhile, the autochthonous organic carbon in the surface sediments was characterized by lower δ13Corg (−25.3~−28.5) and C/N (8.7~12.9), suggesting that the biological carbon pump effect plays a significant part in the stability of carbon sinks by coupling with carbonate weathering. Our results emphasize the importance of the carbon sink of coupled carbonate weathering and aquatic photosynthesis in the evolution of the carbon cycle in lakes. Although modern monitoring shows that Fuxian Lake is an oligotrophic lake, there are potential risks of organic nitrogen pollution with respect to surface sediments, especially in northern and southern shallow-water areas. The organic pollution of lakes can be reduced by controlling the discharge of wastewater and reducing the nutrient loading of agricultural runoff.


Morningness–eveningness is the dimension most commonly used to describe individual differences in circadian preference [1] People with more morningness have usually been described as "larks" who get up early, go to bed early, perform mentally and physically best in the morning hours, and are characterized as morning types. In contrast, people with more eveningness have usually been described as "owls" who prefer to stay out late, get up at a later time, perform best in the evening, and are characterized as evening types [2]. Morningness–eveningness has been considered an indicator of individual differences in circadian phase position and has been reported to be influenced by a variety of factors, such as age, sex, culture, and genetic profile [3]. Socio– environmental factors, such as social schedule or sunlight exposure, also affect circadian rhythms [4]. Association between Morningness–Eveningness and Defense Mechanisms in Community-Dwelling Korean Adults


Streaming media has contributed to a significant amount of to day's Internet
traffic_ Like conventional web objects (e_g_, HTML pages and images), media
streaming need fast internet connection speed to transfer their data over the Internet.
This project is about to analysis the performance of Multimedia Streaming over
Internet. The project is about an analysis of two popular streaming providers that
involves in streaming technology. This two streaming provider is Microsoft
Windows Media and Real Networks_ The project are focuses on analyze the
performance of both Windows Media Player and Real Player. Unique features such
as huge size and high bandwidth demand for streaming over Internet is one of the
problems that usually face by Internet users_ Different streaming file format also be
tested and analyze to shows how it impact the quality and performance of streaming
media over Internet. The important part of the project is to choose the best internet
connection type between broadband and dial up access in accessing the multimedia
streaming file_ An analysis done will shows the effectiveness, advantage and
disadvantages of the streaming performance over Internet using two different internet
medium that distinguished by the speed, bandwidth, and the medium


Review of:Voinea, Camelia F. (2016) Political Attitudes: Computational and Simulation Modeling (Wiley Series in Computational and Quantitative Social Science). WileyBlackwell: Hoboken, NJ


Abstract : The USCG R and D Center sought to develop a bench top system to determine the amount of total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) in underwater bottom sediment in situ. As a bench top system, this design would not have meet all of the final requirements needed for a fully deployed system, but the concept allows preliminary evaluation in a laboratory setting. This scenario can occur whenever oil is weathered and mixed with silt or sand. The result is that the oil sticks to the silt and sinks to the bottom. Poles were used to agitate the bottom during the Kalamazoo River spill in 2010 and the detection measure of the oil locations was whether sheening did or did not occur. Currently, the only reliable method to determine the exact concentration is to obtain a full sample and perform an analysis in a laboratory. During the Deepwater Horizon spill response, a large amount of samples were needed because oil only comprised about 10-20 percent of the tar mats and were sometimes very scattered. The approach here is to sample the interstitial water between the grains of sand and attempt to determine the amount of oil in and on thesurrounding particles. This effort focused on locating diluted bitumen (Dilbit), due to limited response experience with Dilbit spills. However, the study sought a system that could also be applied to the other types of crude oil and environments. This report describes the equipment and process followed for the demonstration and includes recommendations for further efforts needed to develop a fieldable system for use in subsequent testing. This system would need to function at depths of up to 100 feet, in currents of up to 0.5 knots, and perform at least five (5) samples per hour during a 12-hour operating window without bringing a sample to the surface. These performance criteria are based on the experiences during the Deepwater Horizon and Kalamazoo River Spills.


Objective: Compare wet distiller's grains plus solubles and wet corn gluten feed with dry-rolled or wholeshelled corn in a novel programmed-feeding strategy being developed at the Kansas State University Beef Stocker Unit. Description: A total of 320 crossbred steers were used to determine the effects of two corn by-products and methods of corn processing, utilizing a high-energy limit-fed feeding strategy. The Bottom Line: Kansas producers have the option of feeding corn by-product and whether or not to process corn in a high-energy limit-fed feeding strategy without the risk of negatively affecting performance.


Congenital absence of the vermiform appendix is a rare anomaly. Its infrequence is illustrated by the following data: Of 8,102 cases examined in the autopsy and dissecting room, in which the presence or absence of the appendix was noted, only two showed congenital absence. The source of these figures is shown in table 1. Further evidence of the rarity of the anomaly is found in the fact that, according to Dorland, 1 who reviewed the literature in 1925, only thirty-seven authentic cases have been reported. Other authors regard true cases of complete congenital absence as even more rare; thus, Dailey, 2 in 1910, accepted only ten of the twenty-six cases reported up to that time. The literature has been reviewed by Schridde 3 (1904), by Dailey 2 (1910) and Dorland 1 (1925). The first reference to the subject is credited to Morgagni 4 in 1719. In 1762, W. Hunter 5


Radial Basis Neural (RBN) network has the power of the universal approximation function and the convergence of those networks is very fast compared to multilayer feedforward neural networks. However, how to determine the architecture of the RBN networks to solve a given problem is not straightforward. In addition, the number of hidden units allocated in an RBN network seems to be a critical factor in the performance of these networks. In this work, the design of RBN network is based on the cooperation of n + m agents: n RBN agents and m manager agents. The n + m agents are organized in a Multi-agent System. The training process is distributed among the n RBN agents, each one with a different number of neurons. Each agent executes a number of training cycles, a stage, when the manager decides about that is the best RBN agent and sends it the corresponding message. The m manager agents have in charge to control the evolution of each problem. Each manager agent controls one problem. Manager agents govern the whole process; each one decides about the best RBN agent in each stage for each problem. The results show that the proposed method is able to find the most adequate RBN network architecture. In addition, a reduction in the number of training cycles is obtained with the proposed Multi-agent strategy instead of sequential strategy.


The routing protocol for MANET uses cryptographic technology to heighten its security, which makes it possible to use formal method. Considered the property of routing protocol for MANET, the security is analyzed based on BAN logic. The condition that the protocol should be met is given. The formalization of the protocol is described and the method is presented. Taken example of SADSR, the security of routing protocol is analyzed by using the method, which proves the method is valid.


On account of the impacts of various social circumstances,many medical disputes were increased gradually,especially the medical disputes with no-medical defects.In this article,the influential factors of medical disputes with no-medical defects were analyzed,and then the strategies were proposed accordingly.


Abstract In his paper on cephalopods from the west coast of Norway Grieg (1933) reported Graneledone verrucosa (Verkill, 1881) as occurring in Norwegian waters. According to Grieg 3 specimens were caught in 1931 and 1 specimen in 1932 near the Biological Station at Herdla. On examining the material of Eledone cirrosa in the Zoological Museum in Bergen Grieg found 4 specimens which he considered as Graneledone verrucosa: 2 specimens from Bergen without further references, 1 specimen from Herdla taken c. 1900 and i specimen from a locality near Mandai (on the south coast of Norway), caught in 1925. All the specimens mentioned above were found in depths from 20–200 metres.


Based on the EU animal welfare laws, the conventional production of laying hens will have to change some aspects in Brazil. Eggs produced in alternative systems are being increasingly demanded by consumers. Despite this, there is still no accurate information on criteria regarding the quality of egg shells of this type in our country. The objective of this study was to characterize the eggshell quality of agro-ecological's production eggs produced by hens of Isa Brown ® line of a property of the state of Rio Grande do Sul / Brazil. Six eggs were collected, every two weeks, from hens among were 28 until 54 weeks of production, totalizing 14 evaluations. The variables studied were shell egg weight, specific gravity, percentage of shell and shell thickness. Eggs produced by agroecosystem's hens had parameters of egg weight and shell percentage affected by age of hens. Regarding the other parameters studied, there was no evidence the influence of bird age. The analysis of specific gravity of eggs showed lower mean values than other studies with commercial eggs.


In contrast to river floods, the enormous erosion potential in catchments contributes significantly to the extent of damage to infrastructure in valleys. This paper investigates the impact of the heavy precipitation event of 14–15 July 2021 on the railroad in the Ahr valley in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. In a first step, a detailed overview of the climatological and hydrological drivers using spatially high-resolved precipitation distribution and peak discharge modeling is provided, and the event is placed in a broader context by comparing it to past flash flood events from 1910 and 2016. In a second step, a detailed mapping of damages along the railroad line is performed using aerial photographs. The mapping revealed that bridges are the weakest point during a flood event and that they contribute to an increase and modification of the flood wave through backwater effects. Since flood events are expected to increase in the future, there is an urgent need to increase the resilience of transportation to this hazard and to answer the question of what magnitudes and return periods of events should be used in future sizing of rail infrastructure.


Vehicle collisions with wild animals are acknowledged as a non-negligible source of death of wild birds and often affect their spatial-temporal distribution, abundance and diversity. However, data to ascertain the impact of road kills on wild birds are scarce, especially around the Serengeti Ecosystem in Tanzania. This work aims to investigate the impact of road kills on wild birds and their spatial-temporal distribution, abundance and diversity in the Serengeti ecosystem in Tanzania. Five road transects each with a length of 40 km were established within the main roads of the Serengeti ecosystem. Bird surveys were conducted in the morning and afternoon in both wet and dry seasons (March and August 2015), respectively. The study results indicated that, 1472 birds have been inventoried which belong to 42 families, 62 genera and 98 species. Mean number of individual birds was the highest in wooded grassland and species richness was also the highest in grassland habitats. In addition, more birds were observed during the wet than dry season. Birds' mean abundance was higher during the morning than afternoon, especially in the grassland. In the ecosystem, 31 individual birds belonging to 19 species that were distributed in five families were found killed along the road networks. In the Seronera-Fort Ikoma transect, more bird species were killed in roads with higher traffic volume during the morning than afternoon compared to other transects in the area. On the contrary, the extent of the road kill was the highest in wooded grassland. This study recommends that increased road kills could be regulated within the ecosystem by placing signposts at the entrance and visitors' centre in conjunction with educational programs to raise road users' awareness on the impact of road kills for biodiversity conservation in the area.

 Key words: Birds' roadkill, traffic volume, richness, distribution, diversity, habitat type, conservation, Serengeti ecosystem.


− The Micro-tracking System in development at the Physics Department, University of the West Indies is aimed at providing an effective vehicle and asset tracking system which will cover the entire island of Jamaica. The system uses Global Positioning System (GPS) technology in determining location of an asset equipped with a processing unit which was develop at UWI. We aim to improve this system by increasing the accuracy and efficiency of the system and adding navigational capabilities [1]. This is a cost effective GPS error correction system designed to work with a GSM cellular network. Several factors introduce errors in GPS based positioning calculations. This system is geared towards reducing and/or eliminating these errors and thus increasing the accuracy of the GPS system. This system is able to provide the same services as the Differential GPS (DGPS) systems which are in use today. The DGPS systems use Radio Frequency (RF) transmitters to broadcast error correction information. Our system which uses the existing cellular phone network will eliminate the expensive RF transmitter and the limitations associated with them, thus drastically reducing cost and increase efficiency significantly. Errors in the psuedorange measurements affect the quality of the GPS solution. These errors can be modelled, and by using DGPS techniques the errors can be removed. Neural Networks and Kalman Filters show much potential in implementing an elegant and efficient solution to the problem. Mapping information and software is needed for both tracking and navigation. The paper is describing implementation of a mapping-software which is able to pin point accurately the GPS receiver position on a digital map. This software will also implement a route planning algorithm, which will be able to generate the "shortest path", whether shortest time or shortest distance, from point A to point B by considering distance, number of turns, traffic lights, traffic congestion and other dynamic information.


Titania-based 1,8,15,22-tetra-phenoxy-cobalt phthalocyanine(namely orTPCo(E) Pc/TiO_2)and 1,8,15,22-tetra-phenoxy-copper phthalocyanine(namely crTPCu(E)Pc/TiO_2) were synthesized successfully by the method of in-situ chemical synthesis.The samples were characterized by means of TG,XRD and UV-Vis.The photocatalytic activity was determined through the degradation of Rhodamine B(RhB).The results showed that the photocatalytic activity of TiO_2 could be improved effectively while α-TPMPc existed as the sensitizer,and crTPCo(II)Pc/TiO_2 was more active than α-TPCu(E)Pc/TiO_2.


The UK pandemic lockdowns left enduring legacies in time use: paid work time up, travelling time down, and leisure time up. This paper uses evidence from the special pandemic series of time use surveys to show how the lock-down experience changed the lives of men and women, age groups and income bands, in different ways. There was a substantial shift of paid work into people's homes. Time use became relatively genderless. Men increased and women reduced time spent on unpaid housework. Differences in time use between 18 - 60 year olds and senior age groups widened, as did differences between the top income band and the rest. These findings are used to illustrate the irreplaceable contributions that time use surveys make in leisure studies while at the same time drawing attention to their limitations which help to explain their under-use.


The authors try to reconstruct the women's status in the ancient Turk societies. A review of studies in the field as well as the analysis of written sources and archeological data help to specify the observations referring the female status in the nomadic communities in the 6th – 10th centuries.


The aim of the present study was to assess variations in blood flow parameters from month to month during functional tests in conditionally healthy individuals. Ten volunteers (age: 36.4 ± 14.3 years) were included in the study. Cutaneous blood flow was assessed using incoherent optical fluctuation flowmetry (IOFF). Each study was performed monthly for 9 months (March to November). Blood flow was recorded simultaneously in perfusion units (PU) from 3 channels on the right and left sides of the body (6 in total) during an occlusion (index finger) and local thermal (dorsum of the foot and big toe) functional tests. As a result, we found clear differences in perfusion values from month to month. We also found a significant correlation between perfusion and temperature in the test room. Thus, we can conclude that when measuring skin blood flow, it is not sufficient to maintain a constant probe temperature, but that the temperature of the test room must be carefully controlled. In addition, multidirectional differences in vascular reactivity were observed depending on the month on the glabrous (index finger, big toe) and nonglabrous (dorsum of the foot) skin. The study will be continued.


This article seeks to describe the process of cultural reclaiming created through the relationship that the Pataxo constructed with the lines of text of travel and objects left by the naturalist Maximilian Wied-Neuwied, especially through the contact with the book "Travels in Brazil" and his artifact collection in ethnographical museums. We argue that while Wied in 1816 sought to describe the Pataxo and other indigenous peoples as natural, and savage, as opposed to "civilized", in a context of the construction of the colonized other, the American inferior to the European; the Pataxo, 200 years later went to meet the original manuscripts and the collection of Wied to reclaim their "culture", to affirm, through the writings of the naturalist – among other actions – their condition of contemporary persons and not of savage or acculturated people: a denaturalizing and therefore decolonizing act.


In this paper, a distributed multi-agent system (DMAS) for cold roll forming is proposed. The system consists of agents such as common service agent, roll pass design agent, knowledge management agent, product description agent, simulation agent, artificial intelligence agent; also there are two user interfaces: user mediator and designer mediator. So, this distributed multi-agent system has been implemented the cold rolled steel production input, roll pass design, simulation for cold roll forming and established an integrated intelligence knowledge base which assist users to design more rapidly and more efficiently. A case study is given at the end of this paper to describe the course of using this multi-agent system.


As a low cost adsorbent source, a mixture of activated animal bones has been investigated on their efficiency in chromium ion removal from aqueous solution. Adsorption parameters such as contact time, biosorbent size, pH, biosorbent dosage, temperature and concentrations were investigated. Maximum adsorption of hexavalent chromium occurred at 35minutes, 53µm size of adsorbent, pH = 6, 70mg/L of chromium ion, 3g of adsorbent dosage and 303K. The experimental data from the adsorption processes were all tested with Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms. Both isotherms showed good correlations. The higher value of R2 = 0.9938 from Freundlich isotherm over the R2 = 0.99 value of Langmuir isotherm showed a better fitness of the adsorption process to Freundlich isotherm over Langmuir model. It can be concluded that any activated carbon from the bones of Cow, Donkey, Chicken and Horse are effective and can be used in industries for removal of hexavalent chromium.


Adrian Ashurst provides some ideas for developing in-house staff training for staff during lockdown, when external trainers are not permitted, in order to effectively care for and support older peo...


Studies suggest that socioeconomic status is a strong predictor of academic achievement. This theoretical paper proposes that despite the fact that low-socioeconomic status represents a risk factor that seems to undermine attentional skills and thus academic achievement, emerging evidence suggests the potential of new approaches, interventions and cognitive training programs to reverse the negative effects of poverty. The evidence presented in this paper may be of particular interest for teachers because it provides a larger scope to better understand the implications of socioeconomic status on learning and school achievement. This paper intends to make teachers aware that today more than ever they count on important knowledge and valuable resources like cognitive training intervention programs to help students. These intervention programs correct dysfunctional attention bringing hope to socially disadvantaged students who struggle in school.


It is a truism that Charles Le Brun (1619-1690), First Painter to King Louis XIV (1638-1715), was one of the most prolific French tapestry designers. As director of the Manufacture Royale des Gobelins (est. 1662), he designed sets such as The History of Alexander, The Seasons, The Elements, The Months, Les maisons royales, Les enfants jardiniers, and V histoire du roi, all of which were repeatedly woven in Paris throughout the last decades of the seventeenth century and the first half of the eighteenth century.1 Other projects had preceded these royal sets, however, for around 1660 Le Brun had supplied Nicolas Fouquet's (16151680) tapestry workshops in France at Maincy (1658-1662) with designs depicting the Portières des Renommées, the Portières de Mars, the Portières du Char de Triomphe, Verdures, The History of Constantine, and The History of Meleager and Atalanta.2 The latter set presents some intriguing problems as most Meleager tapestries designed by Le Brun were produced in Brussels rather than France. In his pioneering study of 1878 on Brussels tapestry, Alphonse Wauters paraphrased a passage in a "Mémoire pour mettre à la suite d'un livre touchant l'origine de la famille des Leyniers" stating that Jan II Leyniers (1630-1686) wove sets of Le Brun's Meleager and Atalanta.3 According to the document, the designs had been transferred to Brussels by Jean Valdor (1616-1675), an engraver and entrepreneur from Liège living in Paris. Henry Jouin's monumental monograph on Le Brun (1889) presented the first concise synthesis of the data on Meleager, yet no reference was made to Jan II Leyniers.4 Based on the Vie de Charles Le Brun compiled by Le Brun's former collaborator Claude III Nivelon (1648-c. 1720), Jouin argued that around 1658 Jean Valdor commissioned the set, which was also known as The Hunts of Meleager and included eight or at most ten scenes. He further stated that the Meleager tapestries might have been woven in the workshops at Maincy and that an edition was produced in the Gobelins before 1668. Finally, Jouin identified two full-scale oil paintings now in the Louvre, The Hunt of Meleager and


Rayleigh wave survey is an important method to solve the near-surface geological problems,and an important technical aspect of this method is the extraction of the Rayleigh wave phase velocity. Based on the conventional reflection wave velocity analysis method,an effective phase velocities analysis method of Rayleigh wave in pan f-k domain is proposed. In the method proposed,the relationship among phase velocity,frequency and wave number,and the relationship between penetration depth and wavelength are employed in order to transform the frequency-wave number ( f-k) spectrum into depth-phase velocity (H-vR) spectrum. The effectiveness of the method is proved by the analysis of one example model data and one set of real seismic data for urban active fault survey. The analysis results show that the method can effectively extract near-surface geological information with high precision and strong resistance to noise.


This paper presents an optimization-based method for scheduling hydrothermal systems based on the Lagrangian relaxation technique. After system-wide constraints are relaxed by Lagrange multipliers, the problem is converted into the scheduling of individual units. This paper concentrates on the solution methodology for pumped-storage units. There are, many constraints limiting the operation of a pumped-storage unit, such as pond level dynamics and constraints, and discontinuous generation and pumping regions. The most challenging issue in solving pumped-storage subproblems within the Lagrangian relaxation framework is the integrated consideration of these constraints. The basic idea of the method is to relax the pond level dynamics and constraints by using another set of multipliers. The subproblem is then converted into the optimization of generation or pumping; levels for each operating state at individual hours, and the optimization of operating states across hours. The optimal generation or pumping level for a particular operating state at each hour can be obtained by optimizing a single variable function without discretizing pond levels. Dynamic programming is then used to optimize operating states across hours with only a few number of states and transitions. A subgradient algorithm is used to update the pond level Lagrangian multipliers. This method provides an efficient way to solve a class of subproblems involving continuous dynamics and constraints, discontinuous operating regions, and discrete operating states. >


This paper develops the procedure for the analysis of the production systems with quality control devices. The evaluation of the production system requires an expression for the system performance measures as functions of the machine and buffer parameters. This paper presents a method for evaluating these functions and illustrates their practical utility using a case study at a production plant.


1. The reaction system suitable for the production of polyurethane foams which have reduced release of the isocyanate and comprises: (A) a polyisocyanate component comprising polimetilenpoli (phenylisocyanate) having a content of polymeric isocyanate than or equal to 55%, and the total content of monomeric isocyanate less than or equal to 45% by weight, wherein the total amount of polymer and monomer content is 100% by weight polimetilenpoli ( phenylisocyanate); ! with ! (B) an isocyanate-reactive component; ! in the presence ! (C) at least one catalyst! and! (D) water! where the isocyanate index is less than 100! 2. The reaction system of claim 1, wherein (A) said polimetilenpoli (phenylisocyanate) has a polymeric isocyanate content of greater than or equal to 60% by weight, and a monomer content of less than or equal to 40% by weight, wherein the total amount of polymer and monomer content is 100% by weight polimetilenpoli (phenylisocyanate). ! 3. The reaction system of claim 1, wherein there is less than 10% by weight of the 2,4'-isomer of diphenylmethane diisocyanate. ! 4. The reaction system of claim 2, wherein in the monomeric isocyanate contains less than or equal to about 30% by weight of the 4,4'-isomer, less than or equal to about 10% by weight of 2,4'-isomer and less than or equal to 2% 2,2'-isomer, with the sum of the 2,2'-isomer, 2,4'-isomer and 4,4'-isomer of the total content of monomeric isocyanate. ! 5. Reaction system according to claim 1, wherein (A) polimetilenpoli (phenylisocyanate) has a polymeric isocyanate content of greater than or equal to 70% by weight and a monomeric isocyanate content of less than or equal to 30% by weight, wherein the monomeric isocyanate is contained in less or equally


The American Thyroid Association (ATA) recommends thyroid lobectomy for 1 to 4 cm tumors without adverse features. We studied the prevalence of adverse pathological features in patients eligible for unilateral lobectomy.


StorSeismic is a recently introduced model based on the Transformer to adapt to various seismic processing tasks through its pretraining and fine-tuning training strategy. In the original implementation, StorSeismic utilized a sinusoidal positional encoding and a conventional self-attention mechanism, both borrowed from the natural language processing (NLP) applications. For seismic processing they admitted good results, but also hinted to limitations in efficiency and expressiveness. We propose modifications to these two key components, by utilizing relative positional encoding and low-rank attention matrices as replacements to the vanilla ones. The proposed changes are tested on processing tasks applied to a realistic Marmousi and offshore field data as a sequential strategy, starting from denoising, direct arrival removal, multiple attenuation, and finally root-mean-squared velocity ($V_{RMS}$) prediction for normal moveout (NMO) correction. We observe faster pretraining and competitive results on the fine-tuning tasks and, additionally, fewer parameters to train compared to the vanilla model.


This invention relates to wireless data collection and process method and system, which orderly comprises data adjuster, analogue low pass filter, A/D converter, main processor, wireless communication module and receive antenna and memory connected to main processor and power module with power parts. The method comprises the following steps: adjusting digital signal form digital filtering and processing analogue low pass filter converted into digital signals; after filtering on digital signal and processing time zone signal compression and property extracting to realize wireless receive and send of data.


Purpose: Although the standard treatment of diaphyseal forearm fractures in children is conservative treatment with closed reduction and cast immobilization, unstable or irreducible fractures are usually needed by surgical intervention. The aim of this article is to determine the efficacy of the percutaneous transphyseal intramedullary K-wires fixation for the forearm diaphyseal fractures in children. Materials and Methods: In this retrospective study, we reviewed 18 cases of forearm diaphyseal fractures in children, which were treated with percutaneous transphyseal intramedullary nailing using K-wires from January 2001 to December 2004. We analyzed the period for radiologic bone union and the complications until the last follow-up. Results: The average period of follow-up was 15 months with mean age of 7.8 years. The average time to bone union was 6.2 weeks and nonunion, malunion, radio-ulnar synostosis and refracture were not found, just 2 local pin site infections were seen but healed by conservative treatment. Postoperative scar was small and the complications until the last follow-up were not found. Conclusion: In the operative treatment of the forearm diaphyseal fractures in children, we think percutaneous transphyseal intramedullary K-wire fixation is one of the effective methods because of the minimal invasiveness, simplicity and easiness in removal.


This paper presents the stability and robustness analysis of an indirect adaptive control based variable structure algorithm for uncertain plants with relative degree one. The indirect approach has been proposed as a way to get an easier design of the switching laws, compared to the direct relationship between the plant transfer function parameters and the physical parameters of the system. Here, a singular perturbation approach is used to establish the robustness of the controller in the presence of unmodelled dynamics and disturbances. It is shown that, for sufficiently small parasitics, the system remains stable with respect to some small residual set.


The aim of the study was to investigate the morphometric characteristics of Obibia drainage basin which is wholly located within the Awka Capital territory of Anambra State, Nigeria. The basin was delineated with conventional method from topographic map (Udi SW) on the scale of 1:50,000 published by Federal Survey office. Field survey was conducted for 9 months between April and December 2015 and data were obtained on linear, areal and relief aspects of the basin to ascertain the morphometric characteristics of the basin. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) reduced our 19 variables into 5 while Principal Component Regression (PCR) was employed to reveal the relative contributions of morphometric variables. Result shows a bifurcation Ratio R (Rb) of 3.00 around the month of the river basin indicating higher risk of flooding. The relationship between mean stream length and stream order shows that order 2 drifts too far away from straight line on plotted graph suggesting some structural imbalances. The study recommends proper urban land use planning within the basin that would preserve the natural condition of the basin.


Objective To observe the growth and osteogenic property of cultured rabbit bone mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs). Methods The bone marrow were obtained by aspirating from a healthy male rabbit, mononuclear cells were then isolated by Percoll density gradient centrifugation. The adhesive cells were preserved for passage. After passaging stably, the BMSCs were subcultured in a condition medium including dexamethasone, vitamin C and β-glycerophosphate. An inverted microscope, immunocytochemical staining for alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and immunocytochemical staining for osteonectin and osteopontin expression were applied to measure the BMSCs proliferation capability and osteogenic property. Results The BMSCs reached confluence and started to form multilayers on the 7th or 8th day, passaged stably as well. The BMSCs passaged within 5 or 6 days. The BMSCs in induced culture showed immunocytochemical staining for ALP and osteonectin and osteopontin expression. Conclusion The induced cultured rabbit BMSCs have the morphological and biological property of osteoblasts, which provides autogenous seeding cells for in vitro construction of tissue engineered bone.


In general, we should like to express our lack of sympathy for the expressed purpose of this Symposium, which is the planning of epidemiological studies for the evaluation of effects of major pollutants on humans. Carcinogenesis and leukemogenesis are two particularly worrisome long term effects which deserve consideration with respect to any pollutant. From our experience with ionizing radiation as a pollutant we have derived some lessons that we believe are extremely important to understand if society is to avoid paying a very high, probably unacceptable, price for the introduction of environmental pollutants. One such lesson centers around the prevalent notion that human epidemiological evidence concerning carcinogenesis should be required before technological promoters are willing to admit the serious potential hazards of a pollutant. Ionizing radiation is a classic example of this fallacious notion. In our opinion it is neither appropriate nor good public health practice to demand human epidemiologic evidence to evaluate carcinogenic or leukemogenic hazard of a pollutant. First, in a civilized society, there should never exist an ideal set of human epidemiologic data. What epidemiologic data do become available are always subject to serious reservations with respect to equivalence of controls and exposed groups upon variables other than the specific pollutant variable under study. The net result is that controversy persists interminably. Peculiarly, but not unexpectedly in the face of promotional bias, the presumption is all too commonly made that, where uncertainty exists about the magnitude of effect, it is appropriate to continue the exposure of humans to the potential pollutant. It would indeed be sad if this Symposium helped contribute to this pernicious philosophy, which can only be described as that characteristic of a society bent upon ecocide in the name of ostensible technological progress. In the case of radiation as a pollutant, we may consider some of the major epidemiological samples that have become available for study and relate the reservations that have been raised concerning acceptance of the results derived


(57) Abstract: inflammatory diseases, for example coronary artery disease, osteoporosis, diabetic nephropathy, alopecia areata, Graves disease, systemic lupus erythematosus, lichen sclerosus, ulcerative colitis, diabetic retinopathy, periodontal disease , juvenile chronic arthritis, particularly iridocyclitis chronic psoriasis, insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, and methods for detecting the susceptibility of a patient to other diseases associated with IL-1 gene component, assays and kits to disclose. The method includes from the patient was collected biological sample, and detecting the presence or absence of a particular haplotype of IL-1 gene derived associated with inflammatory diseases. Detection of at least one allele in its haplotype is indicative of susceptibility to an inflammatory disorder.


Abstract : 1. Model-based software synthesis for large systems. 2. Wave propagation during high velocity impact on composite materials. 3. Transport delay measurement in flight simulators. 4. Determination of the Redox capacity of soil sediment by specroelectro chemical coulometric titration. 5. The effects of anisoplanatism on shear coherent interferometric photography.


Objective: To investigate the inhibitory effect on Ieucemia of the extract from Lysima-chia clethroides Duby in vivo and in vitro. Methods: The inhibitory effects of the extract in vivo were observed on the transplantable tumor model of L1210. The inhibitory effect on growth of K562 cells in vitro was observed by methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium (MTT) and 3H-TdR assays. Results: The inhibition rate of the extract against L1 210 was 45% when treated with 200 mg/kg.The result from MTT assay indicated that the half inhibitory concentration (IC50) at 48 h was 39.87μg/mL. Conclusions: The extract had a significant anti-leucemia effect.


In this paper an imaging approach for non-intrusive evaluation of civil structures is discussed. The approach is based on the inversion of scattering data measured in near field. Cylindrical geometries are considered under transverse magnetic (TM) illumination conditions. The integral relationships of the inverse scattering problem are discretized and solved by an Inexact-Newton method, which has been found to be very effective in solving ill-posed inverse problems. The approach takes into account the nonlinear nature of the electromagnetic inverse scattering problem, since no approximations are applied (except the ones related to the discretization of the continuous model). After the inversion of the measured data, the imaging method provides images of the dielectric properties of the cross section of the civil structures under test. The mathematical formulation of the method is briefly discussed and the results of numerical simulations are reported. Simplified geometrical configurations are considered, but with dielectric properties close to those of real materials employed in the field of civil engineering.


Malaysia pharmacies are still using the conventional system in retrieve stock record and managing their pharmacy stock. This system actually less efficient to implement and somehow it increase the responsibilities of the pharmacy management. Using a document can have a risk where this document may be lost or misplace. Staff have to make a new record that definitely time consuming. A system using a computer is not very practical to implement as for the crrent quantity of the stock remain to be change manually. Staff will check the current quantity of each stock at its places and referring again to the record file before inserting the data into the computer. Therefore, this project is use to create an alternate system in retrieve and record stock, integrated with RFID to replace the existing system. RFID had been chosen as its behavior that is more efficient in tracking product wanted. There is also implementation of many branches of pharmacy under one database. Activity on selling stock of the pharmacy also integrated with RFID technology in this system. This system also will overcome problems on stocks availability. Rational Unified Process (RUP) is the best method to develop this project as its behavior allowing project to start without waiting for the whole necessity fulfill. The programming language use is VB.net while for the database is Microsoft SQL Server 2005.


C10HI4NOPS, Mr= 227-27, orthorhombic, P2~2~2~ at 105K, a= 11.654 (3), b= 13.301 (4), c=7.193(3)/~, V=lll5.0(ll)A 3, Z=4, Dm(293 K)= 1.26 (1), Dx(105 K)= 1.354 (1) gcm -3, 2(Mo Ka) = 0.71073/~, /t(Mo K~t) = 3.88 cm -~, F(000) = 480, T= 105 (1) K, R = 0.032 for 2645 observed reflections. On crystallization the compound spontaneously resolves into enantiomers. The absolute configuration found (R,R) confirms previous interpretations of NMR data. The hetero- cyclic five-membered ring is only slightly puckered. The P-S and P--N bond lengths are 1.9382(5) and 1.6536 (14)/k respectively. Comparisons with similar structures show that these exocyclic bond lengths correlate inversely with the endocyclic X-P-Y angle. Introduction. The stereochemistry of substitution reac- tions at trivalent phosphorus in a series of cyclic compounds has been investigated by Nielsen & Dahl (1984). From the magnitude of certain NMR coupling constants an assignment of the configuration around P was made. For the compounds (1) the diastereomers with small NMR coupling constants 3Jpocu were assigned a structure with the substituent on P trans to the methyl group of the five-membered ring.


Current routing protocols for cognitive radio networks are severely affected by the frequent activity of primary users. Nodes that are in the interference range of an appearing primary user are not allowed to transmit, and therefore existing routes which utilize such nodes are obliged to undergo a route maintenance phase. This naturally provides other routes to the destination that may incur extra delay or increase packet queuing overhead. In this work, a novel route maintenance protocol is proposed that allows existing routes to endure the event of primary user presence by forming cooperative links between neighboring nodes and nulling out transmission at the primary receiver using cooperative beamforming. Our proposed protocol can be used in conjunction with any of the existing routing protocols, thus achieving modularity. Extensive simulations are done which prove that our proposed protocol outperforms existing route maintenance techniques in terms of end-to-end delay and loss ratio, with minimal incurred overhead.


Boutique hotels are hotel businesses dedicated to addressing a well-defined segment of customers. The development of the concept is an ongoing process, these accommodation units are already well known on the hotel market, thus reflecting their attraction among the guests. The paper highlights the main features of the boutique hotels, the specificity of the offer and analyzes the major global hotel groups in order to highlight their concerns in the direction of developing their own chains of boutique hotels. Aiming to identify the development of this hotel concept in our country, the paper also analyzes the units that fall into this category of establishments which operate in Brasov city.


This article explores the Reading Apprenticeship framework as a support for instructors to orchestrate dynamic, contextualized literacy instruction that supports both student engagement and deeper learning about the discipline of writing studies.


This paper presents a monolithic bandpass filter implemented in a 0.8um, double-poly CMOS process. The 6th order, 1dB passband ripple Chebyshev bandpass filter has a 4kHz passband centered around fc = 26kHz, while frequencies lower than fc/2 are suppressed by more than 60dB. The proposed
parasitic insensitive filter architecture is suitable for the implementation of
bandpass filters over a very large range of frequencies.
The bandpass filter is part of a circuit developed for conditioning the signal
of a CMOS-compatible
fluid density sensor.