Octavia Butler authored many science fiction novels and short stories, almost all of which have been associated with race and/or slavery. I argue that two of her works, Dawn and "Bloodchild," are not specifically about race and can be approached from a posthuman perspective. I discuss the place of black literature in the Western Literary tradition, and I highlight the literary reception of Butler's work. Since her novels and short stories have been compared to slavery, which I argue against, I point out the disparity between the lives of the characters in Butler's texts and historical accounts of the slave experiences. In this paper, I rely on the definition of Philosophical Posthumanism, as explained by Francesca Ferrando. Furthermore, I utilize this component of posthumanism from which to approach both texts, since the theory is inclusive of post-anthropocentrism and post-dualism, both of which are relevant to my critique of the humanistic tradition of Othering and setting strict, dualistic binaries to which humans conform.


Background/Aims Behcet's disease (BD) is a systemic disorder associated with a characteristic vasculitis that can involve both veins and arteries of all sizes. Endothelial activation or injury is a characteristic feature of BD. Endothelial dysfunction is widely regarded as being the initial lesion in the development of atherosclerosis. The carotid artery intima-media thickness (IMT) is a widely accepted marker of subclinical atherosclerosis. We aimed to determine the carotid IMT in BD patients with using high-resolution B-mode Doppler ultrasonography. Methods We studied 40 patients (24 males, mean age: 39.1±8.5 years) who were diagnosed by the international diagnostic criteria of Behcet's disease and 20 healthy controls (13 males, mean age: 40.2±5.1 years), and the two groups were matched by age and gender. No subject in either group had a history of atherosclerosis or its complications. The clinical data, including the age of onset, the duration of disease, a history of medication, the activity score and the laboratory data were analyzed. Results The carotid IMT in the BD group was significantly higher than that in the control group (0.71±0.22 mm vs. 0.59±0.09 mm, respectively, p<0.01). Cardiac and major vessel involvements were not identified in the BD group. However, minor vascular involvements were documented in 2 patients with deep vein thrombosis, in 4 patients with superficial thrombophlebitis and in 2 patients with pseudoaneurysm. The carotid IMT in the patients with posterior uveitis or retinal vasculitis was higher than that of the patients without these findings (0.85±0.21 mm vs. 0.64±0.10 mm, respectively, p=0.007), but there was no difference of the IMT according to minor vascular involvement. Conclusions Despite that there was no significant cardiovascular involvement in the BD patients, the carotid IMT was significantly higher in the BD patients as compared with the healthy controls.


SUMMARY

Significantly more eggs of Acleris comariana (Lienig and Zeller) were laid on the lower than on the upper surface of strawberry leaves (cv. Cambridge Favourite); most were found on the proximal half of the leaflets. Eggs were only noted on leaf laminae; none was found on petioles, stipules or stolons. Eggs were located on plants of all sizes, from well-established mother plants to young runners, but most frequently occurred on older plants and on inedium-sized leaves.


The present invention provides a system for obviating inter ference effects in packet detection within a wireless commu nications network. A plurality of reference signals is pro vided—a first of which corresponds to desired packets, and the remainder of which correspond to undesired packets or interference. A plurality of cross-correlation constructs cor responds, respectively, to the plurality of reference signals. Each cross-correlation construct correlates an incoming sig nal to a plurality of repetitions of its respective reference signal. An analysis construct compares output from each cross-correlation construct with other cross-correlation con struct outputs, and with a threshold value, to determine which incoming signal corresponds to desired packet data. Once this incoming signal is identified, packets from the signal may be reliably received.


The author studied the antimicrobial activity of photosensitizing dyes as food preservatives, and obtained the following results: 1) Antimicrobial activities of photosensitizing dyes to various sorts of microorganisms are in parallel with each other. 2) The following are the photosensitizing dyes which showed a relatively high antimicrobial activity to all the tested organisms: four kinds of monomethine cyanine, NK 266 (4.4'-dimethyl-3.3'-dihepthyl-2.2'-monomethine thiazolocyanine-3-iodide), NK 400 (4.4'-dimethyl-3.3'-diocthyl-2.2'-monomethine thiazolocyanine-3-iodide), NK 564 (4.4'-dimethyl-3.3'-dihepthyl-2.2'-monomethine thiazolocyanine-3-chloride), NK 570 (4.4'-dimethyl-3.3'-diocthyl-2.2'-monomethine thiazolocyanine-3-acetate); a kind of mesochlor pentamethine cyanine, NK 74 (3.3'-diethyl-10-chlor-2.2'-pentamethine thiocyanine-3-iodide); a kind of styryl type dye, NK 573 (2.6. bis (p-dimethylaminostyryl) pyridine-1-methylacetate). 3) Many photesensitizing dyes were proved to be of use as food preservatives. For the practical use, however, further tests on the toxicity and trial application to foods are necessary.


PURPOSE: To provide an air drying device which is able to increase drying and regeneration efficiency of air regardless of temperature change of the open air. CONSTITUTION: The device comprises a pair of drying towers (20,30) where a drying agent is packed, a dry air discharge pipe (21) which is connected with the upper side of the drying towers, a recyclable dry air pipe (31) which is connected with the dry air discharge pipe to transfer a portion of the dry air to one of the drying towers, an exhaust pipe (41) which is connected to the lower side of the drying towers, and a heat-exchanger (40) which exchanges heat between the recyclable dry air pipe and the exhaust pipe.


To study suburban rural tourism and its community development, the spatial structure of rural tourism community was analyzed from the perspective of urban social geography. Under the background of the rapid development of urbanization and urban-rural integration, "people-oriented" idea should be taken as the core idea to fully embody social justice, improve the quality of life of urban community residents, and reshape the regional functions of rural tourism scenic spots and communities in urban-rural integration, and construct corresponding management system.


Early British generals faced serious challenges in delivering and storing sufficient provisions for 18 th century British soldiers and colonial militia. This analysis investigates the influence of developed road systems that facilitated delivery of provisions and resulted in distinctive dietary patterning. The comparison of faunal data from forts located on major road systems with frontier garrisons and associated Native American villages like Fort Shirley and Aughwick Old Town, a short-lived (1754–1756) French and Indian War frontier fortification in central Pennsylvania, indicates a significantly reduced reliance on domestic livestock at these more inaccessible locations. These results suggest that road infrastructure heavily influenced military provisioning, encouraged adaptation to frontier living through reliance on wild game, and resulted in varied dietary practices at military installations in eastern North America.


This paper discusses a new algorithm of a univariate method, which is vitally important to develop a short-term load forecasting module for planning and operation of distribution system. It has many applications including purchasing of energy, generation and infrastructure development etc. We have discussed different time series forecasting approaches in this paper. But ARIMA has proved itself as the most appropriate method in forecasting of the load profile for West Bengal using the historical data of the year of 2017. Auto Regressive Integrated Moving Average model gives more accuracy level of load forecast than any other techniques. Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) has been calculated for the mentioned forecasted model.


Market competition forces manufactures to schedule their resources efficiently for on-time order delivery and low inventory. However, for companies such as textile and steel-making companies, optimizing schedules is difficult because of the NP-hard nature of the problem and the complex product structures: assemblies, disassemblies and couplings across orders. To address the difficulties, this paper extends the Lagrangian relaxation approach through selectively relaxing precedence constraints. The solution oscillation is identified and alleviated by adding auxiliary penalty and by nonlinear approximation. Furthermore, the normalized surrogate subgradient method is developed to accelerate the convergence of Lagrangian multipliers to obtain good solutions in computational efficient manner. Testing results demonstrate that better schedules are obtained when solution oscillation is alleviated. The newly developed normalized method significantly improves traditional methods


This thesis presents "The Unique Spirit of Aya Ikeuchi Found In Michiru
Egashira's 1 Litre Of Tears:As a Reader-Response Study". 1 Litre of Tears tells
about a unique spirit of a Japanese young girl, named Aya Ikeuchi who is
suffering from incurable Spinocerebellar Degeneration. The aim of this thesis is to
find out of Aya Ikeuchi's unique spirit in challenging her life, and to explain the
unique spirit from the reader's point of view.
This study applies reader-response theory and needs interpretation of the
text which also applies hermeneutics theory. The writer analyzes unique spirit of
the main character from the dialog of the movie.


The Markov model of reliability of a failover cluster performing calculations in a cyber-physical system is considered. The continuity of the cluster computing process in the event of a failure of the physical resources of the servers is provided on the basis of virtualization technology and is associated with the migration of virtual machines. The difference in the proposed model is that it considers the restrictions on the allowable time of interruption of the computational process during cluster recovery. This limitation is due to the fact that, if two physical servers fail, then object management is lost, which is unacceptable. Failure occurs if their recovery time is longer than the maximum allowable time of interruption of the computing process. The modes of operation of the cluster with and without system recovery in the event of a failure of part of the system resources that do not lead to loss of continuity of the computing process are considered. The results of the article are aimed at the possibility of assessing the probability of cluster operability while supporting the continuity of computations and its running to failure, leading to the interruption of the computational (control) process beyond the maximum permissible time. As a result of the calculation example for the presented models, it was shown that the mean time to failure during recovery under conditions of supporting the continuity of the computing process increases by more than two orders of magnitude.


This study examined the relationship between intimate partner violence (IPV), internalized homophobia, and psychological maladjustment in a convenience sample of young adult women. Rates of psychological and physical abuse in women's same-sex relationships were shown to be commensurate to previously reported rates of violence in the IPV literature; rates of sexual coercion were also ascertained. A relationship was found between Moral and Religious Attitudes Toward Lesbianism (MRATL), a dimension of internalized homophobia, and the perpetration of sexual coercion. As expected, internalized homophobia was connected to psychological maladjustment. In addition, both the perpetration of psychological aggression and physical violence were associated with emotional instability. The study findings are discussed within the current body of literature on IPV.


We introduce the theory of intracavity quasi-phase-matched three-frequency wave interactions in active-nonlinear periodically poled medium, and in particular, self-frequency doubling and halving. The combination of laser oscillation of active ions with nonlinear optical properties of the host material provides an opportunity for creation laser with self- frequency conversion. Quasi-phase-matched second harmonic generation at 0.542 micrometer by self-frequency doubling of fundamental radiation laser radiation at 1.084 micrometer in periodically poled Nd:Mg:LiNbO3 crystal pumping by diode laser at 0.810 micrometer has been observed experimentally.


Using a time-lagged independent source sample (N=181) consisting employee – peer dyads, we examined the combined effects of cynicism and psychological capital on counterproductive work behavior med...


Henry Collet Cammarillo1, Daniel Collet Salguiero2, Freddy Contreras3 and Manuel Velasco4* 1Director of the Catetherization Laboratory of the Collet Foundation, Clinica Avila, Caracas, Venezuela 2Assistant to the Laboratory Foundation, Caracas, Venezuela 3Clinical Pharmacology Unit, Vargas Medical School, Central University of Venezuela, Caracas, Venezuela 4Professor, Director, Clinical Pharmacology Unit, Vargas Medical School, Central University of Venezuela, Caracas, Venezuela


A kinetic model of the decoloration process based on the example of a water solution of the anthraquinone dye Acid Blue 62 was proposed. The importance of decoloring water solutions for the textile industry is emphasised. The wastewater remaining after yarns and fabrics are dyed is generally too coloured for re-use in technological applications or in surface water circulation. A common schematic of the reactions initiated by a hydroxyl radical was proposed for decolouring solutions during an irradiation process in the presence of nitrous oxide, a photochemical process with hydrogen peroxide and induced by ozone. In each version of the model, a different method was considered for generating hydroxyl radicals (HO). On the basis of experimental data, the model parameters describing the decoloration process were estimated, and the experimental data were compared with theoretical calculations. A relatively good agreement of the comparison was obtained.


In this study we investigated whether purified NK cells, derived from a group of nonagenarian healthy subjects, were able to produce the chemokines MIP‐1α, RANTES and IL‐8, and also characterized the effect of IL‐12 or IL‐2 immunomodulatory cytokines (that are among the most effective inducers of NK lytic activity and soluble factor secretion) on the induction, in vitro, of these chemokines and on the modulation of the corresponding receptors. This study provides evidence that human NK cells from healthy subjects over 90 years old retain the ability to synthesize MIP‐1α, Rantes and IL‐8 chemotactic cytokines, that NK cells isolated from these subjects can be activated to significantly up‐regulate the production of these chemokines in response to stimulation by IL‐12 or IL‐2 cytokines (even though production remains lower than that observed in young subjects), and that NK cells express the corresponding chemokine receptors.


Background: The role of stray dogs in the persistence of domestic dog rabies and whether removal of such dog is beneficial remains contentious issues for control programs seeking to eliminate rabies. Though rabies immunization of stray dogs is an important component of government sponsored stray dog control programs, vaccine coverage and efficacy are largely unknown. Objective: This study aimed to determine herd immunity in vaccinated stray dogs of Kerala, a southern state of India by estimating the level of antibody in a random vaccinated population. Methodology: The study was conducted in stray dogs captured for government sponsored Animal Birth Control (ABC) program. Animals were vaccinated against rabies. Dogs selected randomly were bled after one month of vaccination. Rabies antibody level was measured by Indirect ELISA. Results: The study revealed that 70% of dogs showed minimum required protective titer (≥0.5IU/ml) at one month post vaccination. However, strong immune response could not be detected in a major proportion of vaccinated dogs even at one month post vaccination and hence unlikely that sufficient titre would be maintained for one year, a matter of concern in endemic areas.


, 75 (2008); 319 Science et al. Bernard Marty, Cometary Matter Helium and Neon Abundances and Compositions in www.sciencemag.org (this information is current as of January 4, 2008 ): The following resources related to this article are available online at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/319/5859/75 version of this article at: including high-resolution figures, can be found in the online Updated information and services, http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/319/5859/75/DC1 can be found at: Supporting Online Material http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/319/5859/75#otherarticles , 7 of which can be accessed for free: cites 30 articles This article http://www.sciencemag.org/about/permissions.dtl in whole or in part can be found at: this article permission to reproduce of this article or about obtaining reprints Information about obtaining


Everyone's getting excited for the most awaited annual Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2012 that will be held at Barcelona Spain. And along with my previous posts that will be there in said event, HTC also have something on their sleeves as they revealed...


The results of a project which developed a rendering system to produce synthetic images of the Earth and its atmosphere using purely physical methods are presented. Two distinct features of this system are emphasised: (1) physically realistic models of the atmosphere's density distribution, the spectral energy distribution of solar radiation impinging on the atmosphere and the molecular scattering of light, which is accurately described by Rayleigh's theory, and (2) the use of wavelength sampling and reconstruction techniques for calculating spectra and colour conversion procedures to produce displayable values. Radiances leaving the atmosphere are calculated using a pseudo-parallel numerical integration technique on a restrictive version of the radiative transfer equation. Results are presented in a number of images of the Earth from various view-points including a sequence depicting the changing colour and brightness of the sky at sunset.


In the past decade, Gaussian mixture regression (GMR) has become one of the most successful methods used for the monitoring of multivariate systems. One of the major limitations in GMR is its lack of robustness to outliers, since the estimates of the means and the precisions can be severely affected by atypical observations. Another issue is the infinite trouble, which is using maximum likelihood to fit a Gaussian mixture model (GMM). To resolve these issues of GMR-based methods, a novel Bayesian robust regression (BRR) is proposed for the automatic supervision of a nonlinear process. Specifically, a prior is placed on the mixture component in order to identify outliers in the process. Moreover, a separate precision weight is used for the inverse covariance matrix to address the infinite trouble. The predictive distribution obtained by the variational Bayesian inference is a Student's t distribution, which makes the model more robust. The theoretical findings are fully supported by an empirical study perf...


Direct sequence (DS) code division multiple access (CDMA) is a promising technology for wireless environments with multiple simultaneous transmissions. However, the capacity of DS-CDMA systems is interference limited, especially when the multiple-access interference (MAI) is strong. The MAI can be cancelled blindly using minimum mean output energy (MMOE) adaptation. The conventional MMOE scheme has a linear structure and the performance is limited in most real life environments, which are nonlinear in nature. Therefore, a nonlinear MMOE scheme based on the Volterra expansion is proposed in this paper. In particular, the conventional Newton algorithm (RLS-recursive least square) is reformulated to fit the nonlinear case. An approximate Newton algorithm is developed to reduce the computational complexity and to improve the stability of the algorithm. A comparative performance analysis of the conventional matched filter, exact Newton algorithm and approximate Newton algorithm is carried out. The results show that the proposed approximate Newton method performs as good as an exact Newton method, both have great performance improvement compared to the conventional matched filter output.


FIELD: pharmaceutics. SUBSTANCE: invention relates to pharmaceutical industry and medicine and represents a drug of anti-tuberculosis action in the form of a lyophilisate for oral application weight 2.0±0.20 g, containing D-cycloserine 12.5±1.25 wt%, polymer PLGA 50/50 50±5.0 wt%, polyvinyl alcohol 12.5±1.25 wt% and D-mannitol 25±2.5 wt%, with content of D-cycloserine from 0.225 to 0.275 g, which when diluted with water in amount of 100±10 ml forms a suspension of particles with size of not more than 800 nm, components of not less than 90 %. EFFECT: invention provides high stability under conditions of long-term storage at temperature 5±3 °C for 18 months and accelerated storage at temperature 25±2 °C for 184 days, high bioavailability, including high tissue bioavailability in target organs of the infectious process, and low toxicity, neurotoxicity. 6 cl, 3 ex, 5 tbl


In this paper, a multiscale method based on the combination of the Integrated Radial Basis Function (IRBF) approximation and the Brownian Configuration Field (BCF) approach is used to simulate the mechanical behaviours of flow of fibre suspensions. The bulk properties of flow including velocity and stresses are governed by conservation equations in continuum mechanics. Meanwhile the evolution of fibres' configuration such as the position and direction of fibres are described by the Jeffery's motion equation in the Eulerian form. The decoupled calculations at two different scales are linked together through the formula of stress by Lipscomb, by which the mutual influence between the kinematic properties of flow and the dynamic behaviours of fibres is represented. In this work, the IRBF based approximations are employed in two separate processes of the numerical discretisation. While the IRBF high-order approximations yield higher accuracy and faster convergence of the method, they might enhance the stability of the fibre dynamics simulation as well, especially for the case of concentrated fibre suspension. The validity of the method is demonstrated by simulating flows of different fibre concentrations between two parallel plates.


Lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS) may be classic, pleomorphic, or florid. These four images illustrate an interesting case of lobular carcinoma in situ, composed almost entirely of signet ring cells, with nuclear atypia and comedonecrosis mimicking cribriform ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS). At low power (Figure 1A H&E, 40× magnification), large nests of cells with solid and cribriform-appearing areas were appreciated. At higher power (Figure 1B H&E, 400× magnification), the vast majority of these cells were discovered to be signet ring cells. Furthermore, intermediate-grade nuclear atypia, focally with up to a fourfold variation in size, was appreciated. Within the signet ring cells, mucicarmine and PAS stains demonstrated intracytoplasmic mucin. E-cadherin immunohistochemistry (Figure 1C) demonstrated absent staining within the cells but highlighted the surrounding myoepithelial cells. Also present in another core was a focus of invasive carcinoma forming small tubular structures (Figure 1D) that was negative by E-cadherin immunohistochemistry. A diagnosis of invasive lobular carcinoma, tubulolobular variant, in a background of pleomorphic lobular carcinoma in situ with signet ring cells, was rendered.


To realize highly productive parallel programming environments, newly designed parallel runtime system based on software distributed shared memory is proposed. It can provide a seamless parallel programming model from intra-node multithread programming to inter-node parallel programming. It overcomes the data inconsistent problem caused by multiple threads in a user program at remote page fetching. It provides node-shared data address space with a traditional relaxed memory consistency model as well as high-speed ad-hoc data copy interface between node-shared data and node-local data. User can easily extend their existing C, OpenMP and OpenACC programs to node parallel programs incrementally by directive-based programming API on this runtime system.


Structural and magnetic properties of Al substituted Li0.8Ni0.1Zn0.5AlxFe2-xO4 ferrites (x=0.0-0.40 in steps of 0.10) prepared by solid state reaction technique have been investigated. Characterization and phase identification of the samples were performed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) technique. The formation of cubic spinel structure without any secondary phase was confirmed by X-ray diffraction analysis. Lattice constant of the compositions decreased with the addition of Al content obeying Vegard's law. The average crystallite size of the samples calculated using Debye-Scherrer equation varied in the range of 19 nm-73 nm. Also, theoretical and bulk density decreased with the substitution of Al content. Besides, porosity showed opposite trend. The real part of initial permeability of the samples decreased the increase in Al content due to replacement of Fe 3+ ions by Al 3+ ions which prefer B-(octahedral) to A-(tetrahedral) sites in the AB2O4 spinel type ferrites. The higher resonance frequencies were observed with the increase in Al content. The doping of Al 3+ influences magnetic parameters due to modification of the cation distribution.


This research takes into account the conjunction of two often polemic topics when dealing with cinema studies: the film noir and the essay-film. More specifically, the essay-film 33 (Kiko Goifman, 2002) and its use of noir aesthetics, form and themes in order to develop the process of (thinking of) meeting a biological mother. Through bibliographical research about the two kinds of films here described and analysis of the films 33, The Maltese Falcon (John Huston, 1941) and Murder, My Sweet (Edward Dmytryk, 1944), it is plausible to say the noir tropes are rekindled with a documentary-ish style akin to the cinéma vériteé, stating that, actually, there is no truth at all. The blurred boundaries between right or wrong in noirs give place to the blurred boundary between questions and answers in 33.


Romantic Capabilities argues that popular new media uses of literary texts often activate and make visible ways the texts were already about their relationship to medium. Devising and modelling a methodology that bridges historicist literary criticism and reception studies with media studies and formalism, it contends that how a literary text behaves when it encounters new media reveals capabilities in media that can transform how we understand the text's significance for the original historical context in which it was created. Following an introductory chapter that explains and justifies its approach to the archive, the book analyses significant popular "media behaviors" exhibited by three major Romantic British literary corpuses: the viral circulation of William Blake's pictures and proverbs across contemporary media, the gravitation of Victorian panorama painters and stereoscopic photographers to Walter Scott's historical fictions, and the ongoing popular practice of writing fanfiction set in the worlds of Jane Austen's novels and their imaginary country estates. Blake emerges from the study as an important theorist of how viral media can be used to undermine law, someone whose art deregulates through the medium of its audiences' heterogeneous tastes and conflicting demands for wisdom. Scott's novels are shown to have fostered a new experience of vision and understanding of frame that helped launch modern immersive media. Finally, Austenian realism is revealed as a mode of ecological design whose project fanfiction grasps and extends.


Abstract : An algorithm is described for smoothly filling in a polygonal hole in a surface, with a parametric uniform Powell-Sabin spline surface patch. It uses interpolation and subdivision techniques for iteratively determining an approximating solution. No assumptions are made about the surrounding surface. The user has to provide routines for calculating the curve points and the unit surface normal along the edge, as well as the unit tangent vector of the edge curves, parametrized on the unit interval.


A flow-through electrode with a high conversion efficiency has been developed for chromatographic detection as well as other on-line electrochemical applications. A small length of reticulated vitreous carbon material of high pore density permits excellent conversion of so ne organic compounds. This can easily be employed in dual electrode applications with radial or cross flow thin-layer detectors. When used as a generator electrode, it can improve selectivity for electrochemically active compounds in chromatographic detection and microdialysis/biosensor combinations.


A test program was undertaken to determine the spacing and concrete cover requirements of 0.5 in. (12.7 mm) diameter seven-wire prestressing strand coated with a grit impregnated epoxy. Spacing and concrete cover requirements were studied by varying the parameters of strand spacing, concrete cover and number of strands. These requirements were then compared with the AASHTO Specifications. The transfer length of epoxy-coated prestressing strand was also investigated. It is concluded that strand spacing and concrete cover requirements should be increased somewhat in prestressed concrete members without confinement reinforcement. However, in bridge girders and other prestressed concrete members that typically carry confinement reinforcement in the form of stirrups and end zone reinforcement, increased strand spacing and concrete cover may not be warranted.


The local field enhancement is studied numerically in samples of metallic nanoparticles (NPs) randomly distributed over a metallic substrate. The sample was assumed to be irradiated by polarized laser beam. Based on dipole-dipole approximation (DDA), the electric field was calculated Two-dimensionally at the irradiated region. The results show that the optimized field enhancement is strongly depends on NPs characteristics, beam polarization and incident angle.


This research is motivated by mathematical thinking ability of students is still low, therefore carried out a study on the application of learning models in learning Mathematics Problem Solving. The purpose of this study was to find out: (1) whether there was an increase in students 'critical thinking skills in learning with the Problem Solving model (2) whether the improvement of students' mathematical critical thinking skills in learning with Problem Solving learning models was better than students learning by methods expository, quality improvement of students' critical thinking skills after using the Problem Solving learning model. The method used in this study is a quasi-experimental method. The population in this study were all students of class X in one of the Vocational Schools in Bandung, with samples namely class X AP 2 as the experimental class and class X AP 1 as the control class. The research instrument used in this study was a written test of students' mathematical critical thinking skills and non-test instruments, namely the observation sheet. The results of the study showed that (1) there was an increase in students' critical thinking skills in learning with Problem Solving learning models (2) an increase in mathematical critical thinking skills of students learning with the Problem Solving model was better than students who learned using the expository method.


With the development of chemotherapeutic agents and bone marrow transplantation (BMT), high-dose conditioning chemotherapy such as busulfan is more widely used before BMT. One of the most common cutaneous adverse reactions of these chemotherapeutic agents is alopecia, and chemotherapy-related alopecia can be recovered completely in most cases. It persists in some cases, however, and autologous hair transplantation can be a solution unless alopecia is severely involved. Herein, we report a case of chemotherapy-related permanent alopecia treated with allogeneic hair transplantation.


The objective of the project was to build a small scaled version of tethered hydrofoil to compare with the model simulation provided by Dr. Mario Gomes in MATLAB. The project was divided into two teams P12462 (Tow Tank) and P12463 (Tethered Hydrofoil). Team P12462's goal was to create a tow tank capable of moving a platform at a constant specified speed over the top of a stationary body of water in order to recreate a river flowing around the hydrofoil.


JPEG XS is an upcoming lightweight image compression standard that is especially developed to meet the requirements of compressed video-over-IP use cases. It is designed with not only CPU, FPGA or ASIC platforms in mind, but explicitly also targets GPUs. Though not yet finished, the codec is now sufficiently mature to present a first NVIDIA CUDA-based GPU decoder architecture and preliminary performance results. On a 2014 mid-range GPU with 640 cores a 12 bit UHD 4:2:2 (4:4:4) can be decoded with 54 (42) fps. The algorithm scales very well: on a 2017 high-end GPU with 2560 cores the throughput increases to 190 (150) fps. In contrast, an optimized GPU-accelerated JPEG 2000 decoder takes 2x as long for high compression ratios that yield a PSNR of 40 dB and 3x as long for lower compression ratios with a PSNR of over 50 dB.


Analyzing the present situation of competitive sports in west of China,the writer points out the results as follows: the western athletic level lies behind of the eastern and middle parts of China;the shortage fund in sports;the low contribution to Olympic Games;not enough advantage items;obviously unbalanced development,etc.According to the principle of step-by-step development,learn from other's strong points to offset one's weakness,moderate development and combining the characteristics of western geography and culture,the paper puts forward the target system and development strategy in west of China in the early 21st century.


In this thesis I set out to write the first in-depth study of Pessoa's detective stories. I approached this task in three steps: firstly, by tracing Pessoa's interest in the genre of crime fiction, his readings and influences. Secondly, by analysing the themes and structure of the Quaresma stories. Thirdly, by placing them in the context of Pessoa's written output. The first step is addressed in the first two chapters of the thesis, where I study the connections between Pessoa and Anglo-American detective fiction, as well as how he adapted foreign models to a Portuguese context. The second step of my approach is developed in chapters 3 to 5. In the first of these I focus on the construction of Quaresma as a literary character. My key finding is that the texts featuring him are composed by two kinds of writing: on the one hand narrative prose, including descriptions, actions and elements that further the plot; on the other, an essayistic prose which consists of Quaresma's long speeches expounding his theories on criminal investigation, philosophy, psychology, and reasoning. Chapters 4 and 5 study several of the Quaresma stories from the point of view of gender relations and how these shape the construction of plot and character. At this juncture I use Lacanian and Derridean readings on Poe's 'The Purloined Letter', having previously established that author's influence on Pessoa. The third and final step of my thesis is an attempt to interpret Pessoa's detective fiction in relation to his wider work: I propose a reading of the Quaresma stories, other prose texts and heteronymity as parts of a literary project of creating non-narrative fictions.


Commercial refrigeration systems consumed 1.21 Quads of primary energy in 2010 and are known to be a major source for refrigerant charge leakage into the environment. Thus, it is important to study the environmental impact of commercial supermarket refrigeration systems and improve their design to minimize any adverse impacts. The system's Life Cycle Climate Performance (LCCP) was presented as a comprehensive metric with the aim of calculating the equivalent mass of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere throughout its lifetime, from construction to operation and destruction. In this paper, an open source tool for the evaluation of the LCCP of different air-conditioning and refrigeration systems is presented and used to compare the environmental impact of a typical multiplex direct expansion (DX) supermarket refrigeration systems based on three different refrigerants as follows: two hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) refrigerants (R-404A, and R-407F), and a low global warming potential (GWP) refrigerant (N-40). The comparison is performed in 8 US cities representing different climates. The hourly energy consumption of the refrigeration system, required for the calculation of the indirect emissions, is calculated using a widely used building energy modeling tool (EnergyPlus). A sensitivity analysis is performed to determine the impact of system charge and power plant emission factor on the LCCP results. Finally, we performed an uncertainty analysis to determine the uncertainty in total emissions for both R-404A and N-40 operated systems. We found that using low GWP refrigerants causes a considerable drop in the impact of uncertainty in the inputs related to direct emissions on the uncertainty of the total emissions of the system.


Contemporary higher fine arts education in China now faces new challenges of employment pressure.The reform of higher fine arts education is imperative;breaking the limitation of traditional classroom teaching pattern,using modern facilities,combining the needs of career,training practical work and handling capabilities,are new way of higher fine arts education reform.


Abstract The effects of soil surface crust and sand columns (pits) on water infiltration and distribution were studied in soils affected by surface crust. Field experiments were conducted during 1994/95 and 1995/96 at Al-Muwaqqar watershed. Changes in soil water content for the natural soil profile as affected by rainfall were studied for five sites at Al-Muwaqqar watershed. Also, field experiments were conducted during 1995/96 and 1996/97 at the University of Jordan Research Station near Al-Muwaqqar village to investigate the effects of sand columns, sand columns spacing and soil ridges on soil water content and redistribution. In the natural soil profile, soil water content changed with time according to rainfall amounts and the interval between rainfall storms. For the 0–20 cm surface layer, maximum soil water content of 233 mm m −1 occurred on 11 December 1994 with a total rainfall range from 72·2 to 92·2 mm. The maximum changes in soil water content were 198·5 and 159·0 mm m −1 during 1994/95 and 1995/96, respectively. However, for the 20–40 cm depth, soil water content changes were less sensitive to rainfall amounts compared to soil water content changes in the 0–20 cm layer. Maximum changes in soil water content were 61·0 and 108·5 mm m −1 for layer 20–40 cm in 1994/95 and 1995/96, respectively. Also, there were no significant changes in soil water content for layers 40–60 and 60–80 cm. The maximum changes were 17·5 and 11·5 mm m −1 for layers 40–60 and 60–80 cm, respectively. The negligible changes in soil water content for layers 40–60 and 60–80 cm during winter were due to the low rainfall amount, and the very low soil surface infiltration and permeability owing to the surface crust formed after any wetting. Using sand columns within a plot completely surrounded by soil ridges increased moisture stored in the deep layers. Decreasing sand column spacing increased infiltration and moisture stored in the soil profile. After a 21·4 mm rainfall event the moisture stored in the deep layer (30–60 cm) ranged from 5·03 to 8·01 mm. Thus, sand columns with soil ridges might be the best technique to be used for orchards and deep rooted crops. Also, using sand columns without soil ridges resulted in a significant increase in moisture stored in the soil profile and decreased surface runoff. Sand column increased moisture stored in the 60 cm soil profile from 34·5 mm in control treatment to 54·7, 49·8 and 43·4 mm in treatments with 1, 2 and 3 m sand column spacing, respectively. Thus, this technique can be used in forage and field crops production.


Purpose. To compare the effects of "simulated" and "real" spherical and astigmatic defocus on visual acuity (VA). Methods. VA was determined with letter charts that were blurred by calculated spherical or astigmatic defocus (simulated defocus) or were seen through spherical or astigmatic trial lenses (real defocus). Defocus was simulated using ZEMAX and the Liou-Brennan eye model. Nine subjects participated [mean age, 27.2 ± 1.8 years; logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution (logMAR), −0.1]. Three different experiments were conducted in which VA was reduced by 20% (logMAR 0.0), 50% (logMAR 0.2), or 75% (logMAR 0.5) by either (1) imposing positive spherical defocus, (2) imposing positive and negative astigmatic defocus in three axes (0, 45, and 90°), and (3) imposing cross-cylinder defocus in the same three axes as in (2). Results. Experiment (1): there were only minor differences in VA with simulated and real positive spherical defocus. Experiment (2): simulated astigmatic defocus reduced VA twice as much as real astigmatic defocus in all tested axes (p < 0.01 in all cases). Experiment (3): simulated cross-cylinder defocus reduced VA much more than real cross-cylinder defocus (p < 0.01 in all cases), similarly for all three tested axes. Conclusions. The visual system appears more tolerant against "real" spherical, astigmatic, and cross-cylinder defocus than against "simulated" blur. Possible reasons could be (1) limitations in the modeling procedures to simulate defocus, (2) higher ocular aberrations, and (3) fluctuations of accommodation. However, the two optical explanations (2) and (3) cannot account for the magnitude of the effect, and (1) was carefully analyzed. It is proposed that something may be special about the visual processing of real astigmatic and cross-cylinder defocus—because they have less effect on VA than simulations predict.


Pangas fish (Pangasius hypophthalmus) is one of the most cultivated fishes in Bangladesh and exposed to various infectious diseases including bacterial diseases. An attempt was done to determine the most infectious bacterial pathogens and antibiotics susceptibilities of isolated bacterial pathogens. There are 52 infected pangas fishes that were collected from different ponds in the Mymensingh district for one year. The physicochemical parameters of water samples of fishes were noted, and it was found that the parameters did not show any significant impact on the disease development of pangas. Aeromonas spp (27%), Flavobacterium spp (25%), Edw ar dsiella spp (23%), Vibrio spp (2%), Enterococcus spp (2%), Pseudomonas sp (2%) were found from different body parts of pangas fish and rest of the isolates were normal flora. The antibiotic susceptibility test was performed by following KirbyBauer disc diffusion method, and it was found that the antibiotic susceptibility patterns of the bacterial pathogen differed slightly. Edw ar dsiella spp (67%) and Vibrio spp showed the most sensitivity to ciprofloxacin while other pathogens such as Aeromonas spp (57%), Flavobacterium spp (69%), and Enterococcus spp exerted the highest sensitivity to Levofloxacin. Additionally, 100% resistant cases were observed to amoxicillin by most of the isolates except Flavobacter spp (85%). Conclusively, levofloxacin was found as the most sensitive antibiotic (41%) for pathogens, but the isolates showed the most resistance against amoxicillin (41%) among all antibiotics. Multiple drugs resistant to Pseudomonas spp were also found, which paves the way to widen the use of the range of antibiotics and /or synergistic application of the most potential antibiotics.


A device for storing error information of a memory device includes a plurality of parent memories and a plurality of child memories. Each of the parent memories stores a row address and a column address of one defective cell. Each of the child memories stores a column address of a defective cell, having a row address identical to a row address stored in the corresponding parent memory, or a row address of a defective cell, having a column address identical to a column address stored in the corresponding parent memory. Herein, each of the parent memories stores information about information about whether a row repair must be performed to repair a defective cell stored in the parent memory and information about whether a column repair must be performed to repair a defective cell stored in the parent memory.


The invention of the service console (1), biometric various sensor data that is used to collect the service console for accommodating 31, 32 and 33 are attached storage chamber defined in (1) (3), attached to the storage chamber (3) providing biometric data interface unit including a display unit 12 formed on the upper surface of the lid 11 and the lid 11 to be mounted on the service console (1) to open and close the top opening.


In 1997, 271 scleractinian corals growing on a sewer outfall pipe were used in a transplantation study offshore from North Dade County, Florida, USA. Corals were removed from the outfall pipe and transplanted onto concrete armor mat tiles used to cover the pipe. Success (number of corals still attached and alive), mortality (number of dead corals), and growth rates of the transplants were assessed between December 1997 and December 1999. Colony surface area and radius length were measured on scanned photographs to estimate horizontal growth rate. After two years post-transplantation, success rate and overall mortality were 87% and 7.8% respectively. In comparison, seven sites of nearby natural substrate corals had mean success rates of 83% and mortality rates ranging from 11-17%. The two most numerous transplant species, Solenastrea bournoni and Siderastrea siderea, had comparable success and mortality rates; however, S. bournoni had a significantly faster growth rate (increase in horizontal radius and surface area). The colony size at time of transplantation was not related to the rate of growth; however, mortality and partial mortality rates increased with smaller size colonies. The methodology used in this investigation is useful for assessing transplanted corals because it is non-invasive, allows continual monitoring, and is applicable to corals growing on natural and artificial substrates.


The impact of economic globalization on the lives of poor Filipinos is so devastating and the need for jobs so pressing that despite the horrifying stories of injustices suffered by Filipino migrant victims Filipino workers cannot be dissuaded from leaving the country in search of overseas employment. In my particular case the threat of living in perpetual poverty unemployment and misery drove me to leave my own family in 1981 to work in Saudi Arabia. Today many years later these are still the same threats that push a lot of us to brave the violence against migrant workers abroad just to have the chance to find these better albeit elusive opportunities. Since the beginning of American neocolonial control of the Philippines in 1901 our natural and human resources have been reserved for American businesses and their partners to use and expropriate. Every time our laws are changed to accommodate foreign business interests the Philippine government and its transnational partners come up with promises of jobs and progress for the Filipino people. (excerpt)


The latest security trends assumed that conventional warfare between nation-states has been abolished and that the military roles have changed. Consequently the strategic planners somehow disregarded the importance of national defense heavily relying on NATO support as collective defense. But the events unfold in Ukraine point to some realities namely: the power of countries shifts; the status quo is unstable, and that Russia has hegemonic ambitions. Having admitted that Romania faces military vulnerabilities there are a series of necessary changes and the options identified are: evaluation of the current defense strategy, revisit forces' structure, military technology and forces training improvement. News is that there is a unanimous political engagement to increase the defense budget during the following years. With lessons learned from years with short funding on defense this money should be spent wisely after a thorough capability


Parents of quarrelsome siblings will know that the best rule for dividing up a cake is 'whoever cuts chooses last'. This rule uses a child's natural self-interest to engineer a fair outcome for all. As we grow up, such cunning strategies are no longer needed: generally, we seem to see virtue in fairness for its own sake, and share the cake accordingly. But when do we develop these desirable qualities? What is it about our biology or culture that leads us to be fair? Do other animals also tend towards selfless egalitarianism? In the past few years, compelling new evidence from the fields of economics, ethology and neurobiology has begun to provide us with answers to these questions.


Background :Pain after the excision of orthopaedic-oncologic lesions is intense, and its suppression requires special measures. Multimodal analgesia, the currently preferred methodology, consists of two or more drugs administered concurrently, an approach which induces better postoperative analgesia than if administered singly. Pregabalin is an analgesia adjuvant that is administered perioperatively. Its pre- versus post-incisional pharmacological capabilities have never been compared in orthopaedic-oncologic patients. Objectives :To assess postoperative analgesic requirements and numerical pain scoresof pre- vs . post-surgically administered pregabalin in patients undergoing bone tumour resection, and the levels of pre-surgery anxiety and quality of the night's sleep. Design : Prospective, double-blinded and randomised, comparative and controlled trial. Setting :A single tertiary care, university-affiliated, medical centre. Patients :One-hundred patients allocated into two study groups. Interventions : Fifty patients received 150 mg pregabalin twice before surgery and placebo after surgery (the PRE group), and 50 received placebo before surgery and pregabalin after it (the POST group) twice daily. Each protocol continued up to 72 h. Main Outcome Measures : The effects of both protocols on pain, on postoperative consumption of analgesics, and the effects of preoperative pregabalin on preoperative anxiety and on night's sleep. Results : Both groups had similar ASA class, age and weight values. Both protocols resulted in similar patient-rated pain scales during postoperative days 0-3. The total consumption of opioids and non-opioid analgesics was also similar. Preoperatively pregabalin-treated patients were less anxious and slept better the night before surgery compared to placebos. There were no significant adverse events. Conclusions : Two preoperative or six postoperative pregabalin 150 mg doses provided similar control of postoperative pain and usage of opioids/non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in patients undergoing surgery for orthopaedic-oncologic lesions. Each protocol was similarly safe and tolerable. Pre-surgical pregabalin reduced preoperative anxiety and improved preoperative night's sleep.


Objective To evaluate the diagnostic value of interleukin-6 in liver metastasis.Methods Serum interleukin-6 was determined in 42 patients with solid tumor without metastasis,48 patients with liver metastasis,and 50 healthy controls.The receiver operating characteristic curve was used to evaluate diagnostic value of interleukin-6.Results Serum interleukin-6 in liver metastasis was higher than solid tumor without metastasis and healthy controls(P0.05).Serum interleukin-6 in solid tumor without metastasis was higher than healthy controls(P0.05).The area under receiver operating characteristic curve of interleukin-6 was 0.846.The optimum cut-off value of interleukin-6 was 12 pg/mL.The sensitivity and specificity were 66.7% and 80.6%.Conclusion Serum interleukin-6 level is a potent clinical marker in solid tumor with liver metastasis through receiver operating characteristic curve evaluation.


In this paper, we investigate joint trajectory design and resource allocation algorithms to maximize the minimum average rate among ground users for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) communication systems, where both the orthogonal multiple access (OMA) and non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) modes are considered. We first formulate the problems for UAV communications with the OMA and NOMA modes, respectively, which contain binary variables and highly coupled nonconvex objective functions and constraints. In order to handle the challenging problems, we transform the original problems into more tractable forms and then develop novel algorithms based on penalty dual-decomposition technique to solve them. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithms outperform the benchmarks.


The main driving factor of soil salinization in the arid is seasonal freezing and thawing but the coupling relationship of freezing and thawing in soil water,salt and heat regulation mechanism are still unclear.In this paper the typical saline soil was selected,and collected the data from Manas River Basin,Xinjiang,China,to analyze the dynamic changes of water,salt and temperature at 160 cm soil profile from November 2009 to May 2010,further to investigate the hydrothermal and salt coupling effect between the different soil layers in freezing and thawing processes.Results showed as follows:the most soil freezing depth is 150 cm and its temperature is closely related to the temperature of the surface soil(0-40 cm);moisture contents showed the "C" distribution pattern,the topsoil and subsoil(100-160 cm) have a high moisture and the inner soil layer's(40-100 cm) have water contents less than 10%,in the freeze-thaw period,there was an average soil water content increased up to 12.91% and the beginning of the steamed period decreased to 10.01%.While the salinity was significantly gathered at the surface of the soil profile in the freezing period and beginning of steaming period,the inner soil and subsoil salt contents were stable,the whole process for soil salt contents appeared as salt accumulation- desalination- salt accumulation in the process of changes.The study found through hydrothermal and salt analysis that the heat transfer is a key factor in regulating water and salt transport with high degree of energy between the salt and water, furthermore,salt and water performance in the inner soil and subsoil goes side by side and the surface soil water removes by leaving the salt on it.In connection with the mechanism for seasonal water and salt transport in the study area,the research found a comprehensive set of methods to deal with the problems which caused by seasonal freezing and thawing of soil salinization.


It is known that the surface of dust paper bag is coarse, however, the requirement for printing in it is very strict. Formerly, the procedure can only be done by hand, but the method can't meet the need of large production. Now, we designed and developed a new technology that combines the flexible printing pleat with the paper bag forming machine. The new design can make the print to be more qualified and high efficient.


The product uses a set of standard time general data process planning,the standard operation method,proper staffing and line balance,making the production plan and product delivery and cost budget,provide scientific basis for the management of the company,and improve the competitiveness of the company.


There is a social concern for the low levels of physical activity of the population, especially of the children. Moreover, violent behaviours of aggression-victimization in schools are common, and there are defining personal traits depending on the role played. Therefore, a study was designed with two purposes: 1) identifying whether there are differences between the physical activity level, the perceptions of being considered strong, coward, aggressor, victim and to start fights, depending on the gender and grade of the student; 2) knowing the type of relationship between the levels of physical activity practice of Primary Education students and the perceptions of their classmates about being considered strong, coward, aggressor, victim and to start fights. The study design was ex post-facto of descriptive and correlational type, of epidemiological character. A total of 94 children aged 8-12 years (M = 9.73, DS = 1.24) from two rural centres in Zaragoza participed in the study. The instruments administered were PAQC (Physical Activity Questionnaire for Older Children) and Test de Evaluación de la Agresividad entre Escolares (BULL-S). The results showed that the boys obtain higher levels of physical activity, in being considered strong, coward, aggressor and start fights, compared to girls, being significant except to be considered a coward. Depending on the grade of the students, all the variables decrease from 3rd to 6st of Primary Education. In addition, it exits positive and significant correlation between the physical activity level and being considered strong and that start the fights.


Considering current exploration stage in the Qiangtang Basin, Carbonate reservoirs of the Jurassic are studied by "Weighting" method with both qualitative and quantitative data. Eight parameters which have great influence on carbonate reservoirs are chose including qualitative data such as lithogogy, diagnesis facies and pore space, and quantitative data such as thickness, pore structure, porosity and permeability. Evaluation on reservoirs has been conducted firstly using eight single factors, then weighting coefficient of different parameters for reservoirs evaluation are given according to their influence on reservoirs, scores for every reservoirs are calculated using "Weighting" method finally. Evaluations on reservoirs are conducted based on "Weighting" index. Studies show that this method is practical to this area and evaluation results are helpful to the next exploration.


Dear Sirs, As the efficacy of dual therapy with peginterferon and ribavirin for recurrent hepatitis C after liver transplantation is limited, direct-acting antiviral agents (DAA) should be considered. First-generation NS3/4A inhibitors, such as telaprevir or boceprevir, for liver transplant recipients are problematic because of their inhibitory action on cytochrome P450 3A (CYP3A), an enzyme responsible for the metabolism of calcineurin inhibitors including tacrolimus and cyclosporine. In fact, administration of telaprevir resulted in elevation of blood concentrations and increase in the elimination half-life of calcineurin inhibitors (CNI) [1]. Therefore, when telaprevir is used for recurrent hepatitis C after liver transplantation, the dose of the CNI needs to be reduced to maintain proper blood concentrations, resulting in a significant increase in the concentration/dose (C/D) ratio of the CNI after the administration of telaprevir [2]. Since January 2014, we started using the second-generation NS3/4A inhibitor simeprevir along with peginterferon


The basic problems of development of the market of services of Chernihiv region. A number of factors that contribute to the rapid development of the service sector in the region.


Nita Patel has come a long way from her beginnings in Sojitra, a farming village in India9s Gujarat state. There, when she was 4 years old, her family fell into poverty after her father nearly died from tuberculosis (TB). He never worked again and told Patel she should become a doctor and find a cure. Patel9s resulting quest to battle TB and other infectious diseases has led her to the position she occupies today: As a senior director of vaccine development at Novavax, a small firm among giant pharma companies racing to test a vaccine for the pandemic coronavirus, she and her all-female crew are an essential part of Novavax9s lab team. Their sophisticated tests verified that the heart of the company9s vaccine—its version of the virus9 spike protein—performed as it should in cells and generated virus-neutralizing antibodies in animals. "Nita is absolutely invaluable," says her boss, chief scientist Gale Smith. "She9s a genius."


In this paper, we studied absorbing boundary conditions in the Ux, Uy and Uz component forward Modelling with FDM (Finite Difference Method), and obtained partial differential equations for Ux, Uy and Uz component to eliminate artifical boundary reflection with absorbing condition, The reletion between reflection coefficients and incidence angle reveals that the ability of absorbing condition is powerful.


Charles C Thomas, in another one of this publisher's commendable and provocative volumes, has presented Money's work in a convenient and readable format. The book itself attempts a synthesis of some of the relatively disparate concepts in psychiatry and thinking about communication today. Money tries to draw together language and behavioral postulates and to place them in the cultural ground substance within which they are properly enclosed. He provides an exceedingly brief historical note and goes on to propose a biodynamic unity in place of the Cartesian mind-body duality. Mind, he defines as "the information and communication function of the human organism," but, as he says, these are intrinsically bound up with physiology, and thus he proposes a "body-mind" integrum. This is perhaps more semantic preciosity than a real conceptual advance, however. In the context of the human being as a signaling and receiving apparatus, Money fractionates the information agencies


Clinical neurology is a subject that has strict logicality and theory. Philosophical thinking plays an important role in understanding, diagnosing and treating nervous system diseases. It is of benefit to neurological practice to understand these philosophical thinking.


This paper presents exact approach to buckling analysis of SSSS and CCCC thin rectangular plates under vibration using split-deflection method. In this method, deflection function, is split into . Total potential energy functional for a thin rectangular plate subjected to both buckling load and vibration was formulated from principles of theory of elasticity. By direct variation, the total potential energy functional was minimized with respect to deflection coefficient to obtain the equation for critical buckling load under vibration. The deflection function is of trigonometric-polynomial family. Numerical analyses for plate with all edges simply supported (SSSS) and a plate with all edges clamped (CCCC) were performed. The non-dimensional critical buckling load results from the present work under no vibration at aspect ratios (0.1 were compared with ones from previous scholars. The average percentage differences from the previous works and the present study for SSSS and CCCC plates when compared stood at 0.013%; 0.066% and 1.654%; 3.538% respectively. This shows that this study gave very close values to the exact solution. Also, the non-dimensional critical buckling loads for SSSS and CCCC thin rectangular plates under vibration at aspect ratios (0. and the corresponding resonating frequency ratios (0 were determined.


A research use exemption enables companies or research institutions to apply patented know-how of third parties for research purposes for free without being sued for hurting patent rights.Depending on the extent of its implementation, the research use exemption may be positive or negative for stimulating innovation. The main task of patent policy is to find the right balance that fosters technological progress by contributing to the diffusion of newly generated knowledge while providing sufficient incentives to patent inventions. To disentangle these effects of research use exemption, we analyse two research questions: (a) Can a research use exemption contribute to technological progress by fostering firms' R&D activities? (b) Does the extent of a research use exemption have an impact on firms' propensity to patent? In order to answer these questions, we first model varying degrees of research use exemption in a setting of cumulative innovations. One innovation is based on a previous (pioneer) invention, which is either patented or kept secret. In a second step, we look for empirical evidence confirming our predictions using data generated by an online survey conducted in Germany and Australia.


The pressure dependence of the Raman frequencies of the internal modes is analyzed (T = 300 K) for the phases i and θ of solid nitrogen using the experimental data from the literature. Through the mode Gruneisen parameter, the isothermal compressibility κT, thermal expansion αp and the specific heat Cp–Cv are calculated as a function of pressure using the Raman data in these phases. We obtain that the αp varies linearly with the (1/υ)(∂υ/∂P)T and also that the Cp–Cv varies linearly with the αp for N2. Our results show that by means of the analysis given here, the αp, κT and Cp–Cv can be predicted from the Raman frequency shifts for the i and θ phases of solid nitrogen.


Use of CRX or chest X-ray images is the only way to perform the diagnosis of certain diseases, which can be difficult at times, thus it is crucial to interpret the displayed images with hundred percent accuracy. As a result of this issue, the usage of various algorithms and techniques to diagnose diseases automatically has increased. This research paper focuses on how deep learning, specifically the Convolutional Neural Network (CNN), can be used to diagnose thoracic disorders. We proposed customized CNN models with fine tuning, and applied the entire DenseNet architecture in CNN, including DenseNet-121, DenseNet-169, and DenseNet-201. The dataset included 14 thoracic disorders with no findings, and we chose six of them (Pneumonia, Emphysema, Pneumothorax, Fibrosis, Infiltrate and Pleural Thickening). With the DenseNet-121, DenseNet-169, and DenseNet-201 design, we were able to achieve accuracy of 0.839, 0.835 and 0.830 respectively.


Worldwide judicial decision making process helps resolve land disputes and its evolution dates back to when judges began resolving land disputes, Kenya and Nandi County are not an exception. Despite the existing judicial mechanisms for resolution, land disputes continue to exist between communities and individuals. Thus the quest for justice continues for the parties involved in land disputes. The study sought to examine the nature of land disputes in Nandi County . The study adopted the attitudinal model for judicial decision making process since it highlights the judicial process in resolution of disputes. It also adopted the social conflict theory which explains why the society conflicts over limited resources owned by the rich while the poor provide labor and are oppressed to the extent of causing conflict. The study targeted a population of 831. The study sampled 260 respondents including; 215 Counsels and 3 judicial officers, 21 community elders and 21 members of the National Land Commission (NLC). The study adopted simple random, census, purposive, convenient and snowballing sampling methods. Primary data collection methods were Questionnaires, Interviews and FGDs. The collected data was analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively through descriptive and inferential statistics. The analyzed data was presented in frequency distribution, tables and graphs. The results indicate that court officials 111(51%) handle land disputes on weekly basis, 40% on monthly basis,4(2%) few per month, and 2(1%) rarely. Unclear land rights was supported by 100(218) of the respondents as the major cause of conflicts, 205(94%) cultural practices, 148(68%) historical injustices, 183(84%) inequitable access to land, 116 (53%) population growths, while 78% (170) blamed boundary issues. The study recommends cooperation from both the national and county government to tackle land disputes and alleviate suffering among residents in Nandi County. The results reveal that there are frequent disputes in Nandi County that require the assistance of the counsels and judicial officers. On the same note, a moderate representation of the respondents representing 87 (40%) also revealed that they handle land disputes on monthly basis. This is a large number that shows the high occurrence of land related disagreements in the study area. Only a small percentage of 4(2%) handles conflicts after a few months, and a very small percentage of 2(1%) indicated that the disputes occur rarely.


Abstract In order to examine quantitatively the evidence for an index cycle, 21 years of daily 700-mb. zonal index data for the western longitudes of the Northern Hemisphere were subjected to cross-spectral analyses. The annual variation of the mean and standard deviation of the three zonal indices (polar, temperate, and subtropical) was removed by a standardizing procedure utilizing time-smoothed annual curves. The variance (power) spectra of the individual indices indicated that their correlation structure can be closely approximated by a first-order Markov scheme. No evidence was found for an excess of variance in the range of period (3 to 8 weeks) assigned to the index cycle by subjective means. The cospectra all indicated negative covariability among the indices as would be expected from circulation patterns characteristic of index-cycle-like behavior, but none showed an excess of negative covariability within the period range of interest. Coherence values, indicating the degree of relationship among...


Paleoclimatic sea-level analysis is based upon the evaluation of sparse indirect observational data, the sea-level indicators, and models for sea-level fluctuations, with a wide range of complexity. Individual records of paleo sea level depend not only upon the change in global ice volume, but also on the crustal deformation and gravity changes that are significant both near the glaciers and around the world. Understanding of these processes for the past is essential for interpreting the observations and generating better estimates of future changes.


The crystal structures of O-(fl-D-xylopyranosyl)-L-serine (monoclinic a=6.05, b=9-53, c=9-43 A, ?,=94.5°; space group P2~, Mo Ka radiation, linear diffractometer data, 907 independent reflexions, final R 0.058) and bis-[O-(fl-D-xylopyranosyl)-L-serinato]copper(II) (tetragonal a=9.82, c=21.28 A; space group P43212, Mo Ke radiation, linear diffractometer data, 733 independent reflexions, final R 0.093) have been determined and refined by the full-matrix least-squares method. The dimensions and conformation of the molecules are discussed.


The paper deals with a problem of modeling of dynamics of harmful emissions from motor vehicles using a mathematical model in the form of a difference equation. To build such models, a method of structural identification based on the bee colony behavioral models is widely used. It is shown that in order to reduce the time complexity of this method and simultaneously ensure the possibility of finding of a unified model that would be applicable for different points in the city, it is important to ensure the completeness of a set of structural elements. An example of building of such a model using the cluster analysis of experimental data to form the initial set of structural elements is considered.


As M-ary Position Phase Shift Keying (MPPSK) is a phase-based modulation and phase synchronization is particularly important in actual demodulation system. This paper presents a method of phase synchronization using signal characteristics of MPPSK modulation. The key step is to find the beginning of each symbol period, which will help to locate the correct decision interval and conduct the real-time phase trimming with feedback of demodulated signal. This method can eliminate phase deviation especially in the case of non-integer multiple sampling.


For ensuring grain circulation running in gear,the state has constituted a series of policies on finance and bank,yet there are many questions in the execution,especially on three facts.Firstly,the finance allowance fund resorts so overabundt as not to exert on grain circulation adequately and timely.Secondly,the stale grain not only engross the grain depots badly,but also occupy the grain special fund.Lastly the agriculture policy credit quality is very poor,and to improve rapidly.


In this paper we discuss development strategies that may be used by ports in the Mediterranean as we are about to enter the new century. Increased integration of ports within intermodal transport chains is expected to play a key role in that development. Issues such as infrastructure and superstructure improvement, financing, pricing, and optimal use of port resources are seen as critical factors that will influence future port competitiveness and performance. The container market is used as the main context of this paper, although other sectors are also mentioned.


Abstract This article considers the Czech cliché 'the heart of Europe' and its sentimentalization. It ends by linking the Czech heart with another nationalist symbol, the heart-leaved linden. The article derives the nationalist symbolism of the heart from medieval Saxon mysticism and its descendants, the Baroque cult of the Sacred Heart, taking in Cupid and his arrows on the way. Sources from the seventeenth to the twentieth century include belles-lettres, but also political writing from the Romantic historian Palacký to Václav Havel.


The present study is aimed at investigating the impact of code switching realized in the conversation of "Nebeng Boy" youtube vlog. This qualitative research is conducted by observing and analysing the conversations from four downloaded video as the data which then transcribed them in a written form. The data analysis also included the types and the functions of code switching which occurred in those four transcribed conversations in order to ease the researcher in determining the impact. The finding shows that intra-sentential code switching is the most frequent type and repetition is the most frequent function of code switching which occurred, and the impact is that the participants experienced language loss and language gain as the result of bilingualism through code switching. The English ability that is improving, results in the loss of Indonesian language ability. Bilingualism and oppression of using English language are external factors that also result code switching, which is then give impact to the loss of language that participants have learned before.
            The findings in this study indicated that three types of code-switching found in the conversations; inter-sentential code-switching (31.3%), intra-sentential code-switching (41.9%), and emblematic/ tag switching (26.8%). The participants also used code-switching for various functions. The most significant function was repetition which got the highest percentage (18.5%) among the other functions of code-switching in four transcribed conversations. It is also found that code-switching brought impact to the participants in term od language capabilities. It resulted in the loss of Indonesian language and the gain of English ability. The most significant factors that cause language loss and language gain were the bilingual settings they experienced and the oppression to use the English language in their daily life to communicate with others.
            An interesting phenomenon of code-switching that occurred in the bilingual community was shown in the analysis and findings. It is proven that the participants in this study performed code-switching as one of the strategies in communication. The existence of code-switching also open up a realistic view that by using alternative languages, it helps to reduce the gap of misunderstanding in a conversation, so that the intimacy or solidarity can be built among the participants


Objective To evaluate the safety and efficiency of autologous peripheral blood stem cell transplantation(APBSCT) on the treatment of malignant lymphoma.Methods Nineteen patients were treated with APBSCT which included 15with non Hodgkin′s lymphoma(NHL)and 4 with Hodgkin′s disease(HD).MOED regiment was used for PBSC mobilization.Conditioning regimens were CEAC regiment.Results All patients were engrafted and hematopoietic reconstitution was rapid:The mean days of ANC recovery up to 0.5×109/L were 8.6 days and PLT up to 20×109/L were 9.8 days.Followed-up to May 2009,4 cases relapsed post-transplantation,and 15 patients disease-free for one to twenty-three months.Conclusion Our study suggests that APBSCT is effective and safety in patients with malignant lymphoma.


The changes in body temperatures of students in physical trained and untrained colleges have been studied as a funtion of garment styles under three different environmental conditions (, , , RH, 0.25m/sec). Since exposures of the extremities of body affect the regulation of body temperature, two types of garments, i.e., the skirt and the slacks, were used in order to observe the effects of the garment styles on the regulation of body temperatures. The skirt exposed the calf of the leg, while the slacks did not. Because the body temperature is regulated better for healtier people, the subjects were divided into two groups. one group was consisted of 2 untrained female students, and the other of 2 healthier female physical college students. 1. The rectal temperatures for those in skirt were higher than for the ones in slacks at regardless of the groups. The untrained group showed higher rectal temperatures in skirt and higher in slacks compared to the physical trained group. 2. The skin temperatures rose with the environmental temperatures, and the skirt gave larger mean skin temperature by at . 3. At , the untrained group felt colder, more wet, and slightly more uncomfortable for both skirt and slacks. It is concluded that the skirt is more effective in physiological defense against cold stimuli than the slacks at , and that the regulation of body temperature takes place more efficiently to the physical trained students.


PURPOSE: The high quality multichannel audio encoder and decoding apparatus are compressed the high quality multi-channel audio signal by keeping the play system like AC-3 and compatibility. CONSTITUTION: The channel base audio encoding part(200) is proceed the channel base audio CODER based on the property of the inputted audio signal about the audio signal. The object-based audio encoding part(300) is proceed the object-based audio CODER based on the property of the audio signal about the audio signal.


The aim of the present study was to examine the influence of pregnancy on deterioration of retinopathy in patients with Type 1 diabetes mellitus. Sixty‐five pregnant Type 1 diabetic women attending the University Hospital in Lund were studied retrospectively. The degree of retinopathy, and levels of HbA1c and blood pressure 12 months before, during, and 6 months after pregnancy were compared of those of 56 non‐pregnant Type 1 diabetic women matched for age and duration of diabetes. For all patients, sight‐threatening deterioration of retinopathy did not differ between the pregnancy group (9/65) and the control group (6/56). Over time, pregnant patients had lower HbA1c levels than controls (p < 0.001). Pregnant patients with sight‐threatening deterioration of retinopathy had higher HbA1c levels than those without (p = 0.028 and the decrement in HbA1c between the 6–14th and the 20th week of gestation was more pronounced (p = 0.006). In those patients who developed pre‐eclampsia during pregnancy, deterioration of retinopathy ocurred more frequently compared to those without pre‐eclampsia (4/8 vs 5/65; p = 0.005). In conclusion, sight‐threatening deterioration of retinopathy was not more common during pregnancy in IDDM patients than among age‐ and duration‐matched control patients. In pregnant patients, deterioration of retinopathy was associated with the pregestational degree of metabolic control as well as with a rapidly improved glycaemic control acheived during pregnancy. Among those in whom deterioration occurred during pregnancy, pre‐eclampsia was a potent risk factor. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The study examined the sustainability of the clustersprojects after the funding agenciesmight have withdrawn. The two clusters projects were visited to collect primary and secondary data. Specifically, the members of the clusters were taken through exercises to assess the viability and the level of autonomy of the organizations. The structure beingoperatedby the clusters was also examined. Results of the study revealed that the areas of training needs of the two clusters varied between the clusters. clusters need training in fund raising, strategic planning, record keeping and human resource management. The study concludes that the clusters have the potentials of a sustainable organization the leaders have the trainings in the areas identified. It is recommended that training shouldbe need specific and the needs be analyzed using participatory methodologies. In order to ensure its sustainability, the involvement of stakeholders at everystage right fromplanningofclusterisparamount.


AIM: Religiosity has been associated with positive mental health. These activities have important role in promoting positive behaviors. Assessing the relationship religiosity with smoking behavior. Method: The Religious Background and Behaviors Questionnaire, Fagerstrom test of Nicotine Dependence and Smoking data sheet were administered on 32 male subjects in the age range of 30 to 60 years. Results : Subjects having high tobacco dependence were less likely to involve in religiosity. Conclusion: It has implications for involvement of religiosity and its practice in the promotion of positive health behaviors.


By exploiting new mathematical relations between Pandharipande-Thomas (PT) invariants, closely related to Gopakumar-Vafa (GV) invariants, and rank 0 Donaldson-Thomas (DT) invariants counting D4-D2-D0 BPS bound states, we rigorously compute the first few terms in the generating series of Abelian D4-D2-D0 indices for compact one-parameter Calabi-Yau threefolds of hypergeometric type. In all cases where GV invariants can be computed to sufficiently high genus, we find striking confirmation that the generating series is modular, and predict infinite series of Abelian D4-D2-D0 indices. Conversely, we use these results to provide new constraints for the direct integration method, which allows to compute GV invariants (and therefore the topological string partition function) to higher genus than hitherto possible. The triangle of relations between GV/PT/DT invariants is powered by a new explicit formula relating PT and rank 0 DT invariants, which is proven in an Appendix by the second named author. As a corollary, we obtain rigorous Castelnuovo-type bounds for PT and GV invariants for CY threefolds with Picard rank one. E-mail addresses: email@example.com, email@example.com, firstname.lastname@example.com, firstname.lastname@example.com, firstname.lastname@example.com. 1 ar X iv :2 30 1. 08 06 6v 1 [ he pth ] 1 9 Ja n 20 23 2 QUANTUM GEOMETRY, STABILITY AND MODULARITY


The analysis of live albums can clarify the dialectic between studio
 recordings and live performances. After discussing key concepts such as
 authenticity, space, time and place, and documentation, the author gives a
 preliminary definition of live albums, combining available descriptions and
 comparing them with different typologies and functions of these recordings.
 The article aims to give a new definition of the concept of live albums,
 gathering their primary elements: "A live album is an officially released
 extended recording of popular music representing one or more actually
 occurred public performances".


Taking water binder ratio,total cementing materials and other factors as variables,this paper designed the L 15(45) orthogonal test of five factors and four levels,measured the concrete carbonization depth of standard curing test pieces 28 d and 56 d,and through range and variance analysis,gained the influence degree ranking of each factor,and found out the best mix ratio,provides the experimental basis for the mix ratio design of high performance concrete.


We prove that, if a metric measure space admits a stratification so that each stratum satisfies the strong doubling condition, then the intrinsic distance induced from the Cheeger-type energy form coincides with the original distance. In other words, we can reconstruct the distance function by the Cheeger-type energy form. We also observe that this reconstruction does not work for the Korevaar-Schoen-type energy form.


Foreword by Robert Woodbury Introduction Versioning Iteration Mass-customisation Continuous differentiation The characteristics of a parametric system Object-orientation Case Study: The Austrian Pavilion Part I: Basic algorithmic concepts Algorithmic thinking Overall structure Data types and variables Expressions Logic and control Functions Iteration and recursion Objects, classes, attributes, and methods Events and callback functions Part II: Parametric patterns A note on the terms parametric, algorithmic, and generative Controller: Tutorial: A parametric circle Case Study: Aviva Stadium Force field: Tutorial: Attractor Repetition: Tutorial: Fibonacci number generator Tiling: Tutorial: Hexagonal tiling pattern Case Study: RK4 Tiles Recursion: Tutorial: Nested Geometry Tutorial: Simple Fractals Case Study: Genetic Stair Subdivision: Tutorial: Simple diagrid mesh Tutorial: Tutorial: Deriving a diagrid mesh from a NURBS surface Case Study: Screen for Eurocont Headquarters Packing: Tutorial: Circle packing Case Study: Material Ecology Weaving: Tutorial: A simple ribbon Tutorial: Weaving a NURBS surface Case Study: nonLin/Lin Pavilion Branching: Tutorial: Recursive branching Case Study: Pluripotent Design Strategies/PS_Canopy Next Steps Afterword by Brian Johnson


Empirical studies concerning face recognition suggest that faces may be stored in memory by a few canonical representations. In cortical area V1 exist double-opponent colour blobs, also simple, complex and end-stopped cells which provide input for a multiscale line/edge representation, keypoints for dynamic feature routing, and saliency maps for Focus-of-Attention. All these combined allow faces to be segregated. Events of different facial views are stored in memory and combined to identify the view and recognise a face, including its expression. In this paper, the authors show that with five 2D views and their cortical representations it is possible to determine the left-right and frontal-lateral-profile views, achieving a view-invariant recognition rate of 91%. The authors also show that the same principle with eight views can be applied to 3D object recognition when they are mainly rotated about the vertical axis. DOI: 10.4018/jcicg.2012010104 46 International Journal of Creative Interfaces and Computer Graphics, 3(1), 45-62, January-June 2012 Copyright © 2012, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. face-recognition system that overcomes the problem of changes in facial expressions in 3D range images by using a local variation detection and restoration method based on 2D principal component analysis. Ramirez-Valdez and Hasimoto-Beltran (2009) also related 3D facial expression to recognition. Berretti et al. (2010) took into account 3D geometrical information and encoded the relevant information into a compact graph representation. The nodes of the graph represent equal-width iso-geodesic facial stripes. The edges between pairs of nodes are labeled by descriptors, and referred to as 3D weighted walkthroughs that capture the mutual relative spatial displacement between all node pairs in the corresponding stripes. For the recognition of general 3D objects, there are also several approaches which have been explored. Some of these are based on 3D shape retrieval methods (Tangelder & Veltkamp, 2008), on 2D projected images (Su et al., 2006) and on multiresolution signatures (Lam & du Buf, 2011), including approaches that can be applied both to 3D objects and to faces (Passalis et al., 2007). State-of-the-art recognition systems have reached a certain level of maturity, but their accuracy is still limited when imposed conditions are not perfect: view-invariant object recognition is still problematic (Pinto et al., 2010), and for faces all possible combinations of changes in illumination, pose and age, with artefacts like beards, moustaches and glasses, including different facial expressions and partial occlusions may cause problems. The robustness of commercial systems is still far away from that of the human visual system, especially when dealing with different views of the same person. For this reason, despite the fact that the human visual system may not be 100% accurate, the development of models of visual perception and their application to real-world problems is important and, eventually, may lead to a significant breakthrough. In this paper we present a cortical model to recognise 3D faces from their 2D projections, i.e., exploiting their aspect ratio but without using stereo disparity. We consider all common degrees of rotation like pan (from frontal to lateral and profile views) and tilt (the face looking up or down). We study the number of 2D feature templates required to represent all views. In the recognition process we first detect the view and then match the input face with the view-based templates stored in memory. We also test the same model to elongated 3D objects, i.e., 4-legged animals, because their shape and view can also be inferred from the aspect ratio if they are rotated about the vertical axis (pan). The rest of this paper is organised as follows: we first discuss the cortical background of the model, before explaining the frameworks for 3D faces and then 3D objects. Recognition results are presented and discussed in the next section, and we end this paper with conclusions.


We found that adenosine 5′‐monophosphate‐activated protein kinase (AMPK), which is considered the "fuel sensor" of mammalian cells because it directly responds to the depletion of the fuel molecule ATP, is strongly activated by tumor‐like hypoxia and glucose deprivation. We also observed abundant AMPK activity in tumor cells in vivo, using subcutaneous tumor xenografts prepared from cells transformed with oncogenic H‐Ras. Such rapidly growing transplants of tumor cells, however, represent fully developed tumors that naturally contain energetically stressed microenvironments that can activate AMPK. Therefore, to investigate the induction of AMPK activity during experimental tumorigenesis, we used an established model of brain tumor (glioma) development in the offspring of rats exposed prenatally to the mutagen N‐ethyl‐N‐nitrosourea. We observed that immunostaining for a specific readout of AMPK activity (AMPK‐dependent phosphorylation of acetyl‐CoA carboxylase) was prominent during N‐ethyl‐N‐nitrosourea‐initiated neurocarcinogenesis, from the occurrence of early hyperplasia (microtumors) to the emergence of large gliomas. Moreover, we observed that immunostaining for activating phosphorylation of AMPK correlated with the same stages of glioma development, notably in mitotic tumor cells in which the signal showed punctate as well as cytoplasmic patterns associated with spindle formation. Based on these observations, we propose that neurocarcinogenesis requires AMPK‐dependent regulation of cellular energy metabolism.


At present,the cylindrical surface of engine rotor is processed by common CNC lathes,and the product quality depends on workers' operating skills.So current market demands on quality and capacity of the auto parts can't be met.A kind of CNC special lathe for engine rotor was developed.Constant tension system and automatic location system were adopted in this equipment.So the outside circular degree of the commutator can reach to less than 0.01 mm,the runout between segments is less than 0.004 mm,the runout between external circular and shaft neck is less than 0.03 mm.Flexible automation could be realized through numerical control system and PLC program.So the processing technique for the cylindrical surface of the engine rotor is more reasonable and effective.It has significance for improving production efficiency and product quality in auto electric appliances industry in China.


Polar codes have attracted much recent attention as one of the first codes with low computational complexity that provably achieve optimal rate-regions for a large class of information-theoretic problems. One significant drawback, however, is that for current constructions the probability of error decays sub-exponentially in the block-length (more detailed designs improve the probability of error at the cost of significantly increased computational complexity. In this work we show how the the classical idea of code concatenation - using "short" polar codes as inner codes and a "high-rate" Reed-Solomon code as the outer code - results in substantially improved performance. In particular, code concatenation with a careful choice of parameters boosts the rate of decay of the probability of error to almost exponential in the block-length with essentially no loss in computational complexity. We demonstrate such performance improvements for three sets of information-theoretic problems - a classical point-to-point channel coding problem, a class of multiple-input multiple output channel coding problems, and some network source coding problems.


This report describes laboratory development and process plant applications of Raman spectroscopy for detection of hydrogen isotopes in the Tritium Facilities at the Savannah River Site (SRS), a U.S. Department of Energy complex. Raman spectroscopy provides a lower-cost, in situ alternative to mass spectrometry techniques currently employed at SRS. Using conventional Raman and fiber optics, we have measured, in the production facility glove boxes, process mixtures of protium and deuterium at various compositions and total pressures ranging from 1000 - 4000 torr, with detection limits ranging from 1-2% for as low as 3-second integration times. We are currently investigating fabrication techniques for SERS surfaces in order to measure trace (0.01-0.1%) amounts of one isotope in the presence of the other. These efforts have concentrated on surfaces containing palladium, which promotes hydrogen dissociation and forms metal hydride bonds, essentially providing a chemical enhancement mechanism.


Ultraviolet (UV) radiation is a ubiquitous environmental agent that adversely affects human health and well being. UV-irradiation can result in sunburn, premature aging of the skin, cataract formation, damage to the immune competent cells of the skin, systemic immune suppression and the induction of skin cancer. Perhaps the most damaging effect of UV exposure from the perspective of human health are the induction of skin cancer and


We consider a general class of convex optimization problems over time-varying, multi-agent networks, that naturally arise in many application domains like energy systems and wireless networks. In particular, we focus on programs with separable objective functions, local (possibly different) constraint sets and a coupling inequality constraint expressed as the non-negativity of the sum of convex functions, each corresponding to one agent. We propose a novel distributed algorithm to deal with such problems based on a combination of dual decomposition and proximal minimization. Our approach is based on an iterative scheme that enables agents to reach consensus with respect to the dual variables, while preserving information privacy. Specifically, agents are not required to disclose information about their local objective and constraint functions, nor to assume knowledge of the coupling constraint. Our analysis can be thought of as a generalization of dual gradient/subgradient algorithms to a distributed set-up. We show convergence of the proposed algorithm to some optimal dual solution of the centralized problem counterpart, while the primal iterates generated by the algorithm converge to the set of optimal primal solutions. A numerical example demonstrating the efficacy of the proposed algorithm is also provided.


The classical motion of the relativistic harmonic oscillator driven by a sinusoidal force exhibits resonance overlap and chaos normally associated with driven nonlinear oscillators.


The Offshore Safety Division (OSD) of the Health and Safety Executive has developed an audit technique to assess the effectiveness of senior management in controlling operational risks. It is of necessity a free-format, non-mechanistic approach. The yardstick for management effectiveness is a clear and coherent linkage between the decision makers and the safety realities at the worksite. Included are examples of both strong and weak management of safety, which demonstrate the added value which this technique brings both to OSD and to industry.