In this paper, we pay attention to a particular phenomenon of group decision-making. Following on from earlier work, reported at ISAHP2001, in which the issues of conformity and deviance, which concern group interaction, were discussed, we now focus on the process of Social Influence, which occurs when group interaction causes members to conform. Particular attention will be given to the Group Polarization Effect. The critical element of group decision-making is the process of aggregation in which the individual members' preferences are combined into a single group preference set. The question is how the use of the AHP influences the social processes involved. The empirical results reported in the earlier work are re-analyzed from this perspective demonstrating the effect while using the AHP. It will show that the 3-phase AHP approach is an excellent vehicle allowing full social influence while simultaneously eliminating domination.


ABSTRACT Researches on hydrologic extreme events have great significance in reducing and avoiding the severe losses and impacts caused by natural disasters. When forecasting hydrologic design values of the hydrologic extreme events of interest by the conventional hydrologic frequency analysis (HFA) model, the results cannot take uncertainties and risks into account. In this article, in order to overcome conventional HFA model's disadvantages and to improve hydrologic design values' forecast results, an improved HFA model named AM-MCMC-HFA is proposed by employing the AM-MCMC algorithm (adaptive Metropolis-Markov chain Monte Carlo) to HFA process. Differing with conventional HFA model, which is seeking single optimal forecast result, the AM-MCMC-HFA model can not only get the optimal but also the probabilistic forecast results of hydrologic design values. By applying to two obviously different hydrologic series, the performances of the model proposed have been verified. Analysis results show that four factors have great influence on hydrologic design values' reliability, and also indicate that AM-MCMC-HFA has the ability of assessing the uncertainties of parameters and hydrologic design values. Therefore, by using the AM-MCMC-HFA model, hydrologic designs tasks can be operated more reasonably, and more rational decisions can be made by governmental decision-makers and public in practice.


Eupachypterus eocenicus gen. et sp. nov. from the Lowermost French Eocene Amber is described. The genus is most similar to the genera Neopachypterus and Pseudolamus from the tribe Opatrini by the shape of trochanters, but differs in the large eyes, presence of a row of spines along protibiae, very long spurs of protibiae (about as long as tarsomere 3), narrow subcylindrical apical maxillary palpomere, shape of apical labial palpomere and acute apex of penis trunk.


Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease mainly affecting women of childbearing age. The interplay between genetic and environmental factors may contribute to disease pathogenesis1. At today, no robust data are available about the possible contribute of diet in SLE. Caffeine, one of the most widely consumed products in the world, seems to interact with multiple components of the immune system by acting as a non-specific phosphodiesterase inhibitor2.In vitrodose-dependent treatment with caffeine seems to down-regulate mRNA levels of key inflammation-related genes and similarly reduce levels of different pro-inflammatory cytokines3.We evaluated the impact of caffeine consumption on SLE-related disease phenotype and activity, in terms of clinimetric assessment and cytokines levels.We performed a cross-sectional study, enrolling consecutive patients and reporting their clinical and laboratory data. Disease activity was assessed by SLE Disease Activity Index 2000 (SLEDAI-2k)4. Caffeine intake was evaluated by a 7-day food frequency questionnaire, including all the main sources of caffeine. As previously reported, patients were divided in four groups according to the daily caffeine intake: <29.1 mg/day (group 1), 29.2-153.7 mg/day (group 2), 153.8-376.5 mg/day (group 3) and >376.6 mg/day (group 4)5. At the end of questionnaire filling, blood samples were collected from each patient to assess cytokines levels. These were assessed by using a panel by Bio-Plex assays to measure the levels of IL-6, IL-10, IL-17, IL-27, IFN-γ, IFN-α and Blys.We enrolled 89 SLE patients (F/M 87/2, median age 46 years, IQR 14; median disease duration 144 months, IQR 150). The median intake of caffeine was 195 mg/day (IQR 160.5). At the time of the enrollment, 8 patients (8.9%) referred a caffeine intake < 29.1 mg/day (group 1), 27 patients (30.3%) between 29.2 and 153.7 mg/day (group 2), 45 patients (51%) between 153.8 and 376.5 mg/day (group 3) and 9 patients (10.1%) >376.6 mg/day (group 4). A negative correlation between the levels of caffeine and disease activity, evaluated with SLEDAI-2K, was observed (p=0.01, r=-0.26). By comparing the four groups, a significant higher prevalence of lupus nephritis, neuropsychiatric involvement, haematological manifestations, hypocomplementemia and anti-dsDNA positivity was observed in patients with less intake of caffeine (figure 1 A-E). Furthermore, patients with less intake of caffeine showed a significant more frequent use of glucocorticoids [group 4: 22.2%,versusgroup 1 (50.0%, p=0.0001), group 2 (55.5%, p=0.0001), group 3 (40.0%, p=0.009)]. Moving on cytokines analysis, a negative correlation between daily caffeine consumption and serum level of IFNγ was found (p=0.03, r=-0.2) (figure 2A); furthermore, patients with more caffeine intake showed significant lower levels of IFNα (p=0.02, figure 2B), IL-17 (p=0.01, figure 2C) and IL-6 (p=0.003, figure 2D).This is the first report demonstrating the impact of caffeine on SLE disease activity status, as demonstrated by the inverse correlation between its intake and both SLEDAI-2k values and cytokines levels. Moreover, in our cohort, patients with less caffeine consumption seems to have a more severe disease phenotype, especially in terms of renal and neuropsychiatric involvement. Our results seem to suggest a possible immunoregulatory dose-dependent effect of caffeine, through the modulation of serum cytokine levels, as already suggested byin vitroanalysis.[1]Kaul et alNat. Rev. Dis. Prim.2016; 2. Aronsen et alEurop Joul of Pharm2014; 3. Iris et alClin Immun.2018; 4. Gladman et al J Rheumatol. 2002; 5. Mikuls et alArth Rheum2002Valeria Orefice: None declared, Fulvia Ceccarelli: None declared, cristiana barbati: None declared, Ramona Lucchetti: None declared, Giulio Olivieri: None declared, enrica cipriano: None declared, Francesco Natalucci: None declared, Carlo Perricone: None declared, Francesca Romana Spinelli Grant/research support from: Pfizer, Consultant of: Novartis, Gilead, Lilly, Sanofi, Celgene, Speakers bureau: Lilly, cristiano alessandri Grant/research support from: Pfizer, Guido Valesini: None declared, Fabrizio Conti Speakers bureau: BMS, Lilly, Abbvie, Pfizer, Sanofi


Color conversion algorithm of CMYK and CIE L a b is the key technique in output device characterization and color management module.In this paper the forward and reverse color space conversion models between CMYK and CIE L a b based on Generalized Regression Neural Network GRNN were built using the color data of the digital proof.Then the accuracy of the models were tested.Finally The result shows that it is an efficient method to build the color space conversion between CIE L a b and CMYK using GRNN which gains an advantage over BP network not only in training convenience speed but also precision.network not only in training convenience speed but also precision.


Ubiquitous computing combined with web 2.0 technologies might contribute to develop a culture of participation in emergency management (EM) by aligning the efforts and capabilities of official agencies and citizens. For citizen participation to be possible organizations in charge of EM need to realize that involving citizens does not interfere with their protocols and citizens need to be empowered to move beyond the role of passive informants. In this paper we describe how organizations perceive this participation as a step further to understand how to reach a more participative model and the benefits that technology and sociotechnical systems might bring to such model.


The fine microstructures of medium and medium-high carbon bainitic steels were observed and analyzed by high resolution electron microscope (HREM). The investigation results show that there are retained austenitic films with different appearances and sizes in bainitic ferrite laths. The boundaries of different structure levels are separated and encircled by retained austenitic films. The fine structure units and their sizes of different structure levels in the bainitic ferrite were determined by retained austenitic films. The bainitic ferrite laths are composed of different structure level sublaths, subunits and elementary units (or so called sub-subunits). The dimensions of most sublaths, subunits and elementary units are 25-80 nm, 25-80 nm and 5.0-30 nm, respectively.


This paper proposes an Markov decision process (MDP) based pilot placement optimization approach for the radio access in 5G vehicle to everything (V2X) communications. The optimal placement problem of pilot symbols is based on a typical pilot-assisted OFDM transmission and simplified to a finite state-space representation. We propose and formulate a finite MDP so as to determine an appropriate pilot pattern from a set of candidate pilot configurations. Additionally, an enhanced pilot placement scheme is developed to reduce the complexity of solving MDP problems. We derive analytical expressions of the mutual information, which to some extent allow us to jointly evaluate the dynamics of the channel state in time and frequency domain. Numerical results show that the proposed pilot optimization policy is capable of improving the channel estimation, and the mutual information based measurement criteria can yield more accurate evaluations in fast time-varying vehicular channels.


Objectives: To define the prevalence of inner ear anomalies in aural atresia patients and to recognize patterns of developmental anomalies in aural atresia patients. Study Design: Retrospective review. Setting: Academic medical center. Intervention: Physical exam, audiometry, and temporal bone CT in selected patients. Patients: Pediatric patients with aural atresia. Main Outcome Measure: Prevalence of inner ear anomalies and coexisting facial paralysis or sensorineural hearing loss. Results: In this series of 118 patients with aural atresia, associated facial palsy was seen in 13%, whereas inner ear anomalies were present in 22%, including all patients with facial palsy. Interestingly, the inner ear anomalies often did not display a significant sensorineural hearing loss. Bilateral inner ear anomalies were frequently encountered despite unilateral atresia. Most anomalies involved the semicircular canals including several uncommon variants of posterior semicircular canal anatomy. Conclusion: Inner ear anomalies are common in the presence of aural atresia, especially when there is concurrent congenital facial palsy. The presence of inner ear anomalies should be recognized as a common feature of craniofacial microsomia.


The corrosion rates of AISI 316L and AISI 321H austenitic stainless steel, immersed in a stagnant isothermal mixture of 60% NaNO 3 and 40% KNO 3 molten salt at 550°C in atmospheric air are 8.6 and 9.0µm/yr, re-spectively. The corrosion mechanism was proposed by recording the weight changes of the steel coupons at di ff erent time intervals up to 3000h, and by the characterization of multilayer oxide scales formed on the steel surface. Multilayers made of di ff erent oxides, mainly Fe 2 O 3 and Fe 3 O 4 , are the principal scale products. At 3000h, the thickness of the scale layer formed on AISI 321H (7.5 ± 2.9µm) is slightly higher than the one formed at the AISI 316L (6.9 ± 2.1µm). This small di ff erence might re fl ect the partial spallation of the cor- rosion layer on AISI 321H, which is seen for times longer than 1000h. A minimal change of the composition of the molten nitrate salt is observed in time and is predominantly due to the appearance of soluble chromate products and nitrite compounds (0.004wt% and 1.4wt% at 3000h, respectively). The observed corrosion be-haviour of these alloys shows that they are good candidate for usage as containers of molten nitrate salts in the thermal energy storage (TES) system for a CSP plant.


tion, but most of the contaminants can be eliminated with the use of laminar flow hoods for setup and reading. It is important, however, that similar pathogenicity models be used in analyzing contamination rates. For instance, one common model uses the physician's decision to treat as evidence of pathogenicity. Such a model would favor bottled systems because Isolator's quantitative ability can assist the physician in the determination of contaminant status, whereas with bottle systems the physician is more likely to treat the isolate as a pathogen. The operational aspects of the bottle and plate systems are noteworthy. BacT/Alert offers a semiautomated system, whereas Isolator does not. However, unless the laboratory is open 24 h a day, the constant monitoring of the cultures performed by semiautomated systems is wasted and the reported time to positivity is meaningless. We found that by shifting the reading of plated cultures to low-workload shifts, we can use Isolator without an increase in staff. Thus the individual workloadandschedulingaspectsmustalsobeconsideredwhensuch systems are compared. Inconclusion,thecomparisonofsystemssuchasBacT/Alert and Isolator can no longer be a simple matter of comparisons of organisms isolated. A clear analysis of utility, contamination, and actual clinical impact is required. We hope that investigators and reviewers will take these aspects into account in future publications.


OBJECTIVE To investigate the distribution of pathogens for respiratory tract infections after traumatic brain injury after tracheotomy.METHODS A total of 60 patients underwent tracheotomy due to traumatic brain injury in our hospital were chosen.After sputum culture examination of sputum specimens,their sputum culture results were analyzed retrospectively.RESULTS Positive results were obtained in 45 cases of 60 cases of sputum specimens,with the positive rate of 75.0%.There were totally 83 pathogens cultured,including 61 gram-negative strains,accounting for 73.5%,consisted of 21 strains of calcium acetate Acinetobacter baumannii(25.3%),15 strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa(18.1%),13 strains of Klebsiella coli(15.7%),8 strains of Escherichia coli(9.6%),4 strains of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia(4.8%).18 Gram-positive bacteria were found,accounting for 21.7%,including 9 strains of gold Staphylococcus aureus(10.8%),5 strains of S.epidermidis(6.0%),3 strains of hemolytic Streptococcus(3.6%),and 1 strain of Enterococci(1.2%).CONCLUSION The main pathogens for respiratory tract infections are gram-negative bacteria,gram-positive bacteria and fungi in patients with traumatic brain injury after tracheotomy.For respiratory tract infections,holding the principles of early detection and early treatment,and making rational use of antibiotics can effectively reduce the mortality rate of respiratory infections for patients with brain injury undergoing tracheotomy.


With the rapid development of micro/nanomanufacturing technology, a variety of multifunctional micro/nanorobots have emerged. In particular, magnetic actuation‐based micro/nanorobots have attracted much interest due to their advantages of untethered contact, remote control, noninvasiveness, and high tissue‐penetrating capability. Various magnetic micro/nanorobots have been designed and applied in biomedicine, which indicates the great potential of clinical transformation. This article reviews the new advancements of engineering magnetic micro/nanorobots for versatile biomedical applications, ranging from targeted delivery, minimally invasive surgery, cellular and intracellular measurement, and intelligent sensing to detoxification and antibacterial applications. The controllability, visualization, and biosafety aspects of magnetically manipulated micro/nanorobots are summarized. In particular, the challenges being faced are discussed to outlook future prospective development.


Due to the rapid growth of the ageing population and the shrinking of family size in China, there has been a steady increase in the demand for nursing homes. The Chinese government has encouraged the development of nursing homes. However, there is no clear understanding of the thermal environment of nursing homes and the thermal comfort of their residents. Therefore, this paper describes a pilot study that was undertaken to investigate the thermal comfort of senior residents living in nursing homes. A wireless sensor network system was developed to continuously monitor the thermal environment of nursing homes for an entire year. Site measurements and a questionnaire also were conducted. The results revealed significant seasonal variations in the thermal environment of nursing homes and in the thermal comfort, thermal sensation and adaptive behaviours of older adults. The calculation of thermal comfort was modified according to the older adults' behaviour patterns. The knowledge acquired in this initial study will enrich knowledge of the thermal comfort of older adults living in nursing homes. It also will provide preliminary insights for caregivers, designers and policymakers in their efforts to deliver a more comfortable, healthy and sustainable environment in nursing homes in China.


Since the mid 2000's wearable technology (WT) has been available for consumers to use for health and fitness purposes. WT fitness devices are small, easily portable and can be worn on clothing or any part of the body. These devices have an interactive display which allows its users to track and record their physical activities. With the advancement in technology for WT devices and the exponential consumer adoption rate, it is important to understand the various factors that would lead a consumer to adopt these devices for health and fitness purposes. There are many international studies, focusing on using smart watches and smart wristbands, to test the devices' features during physical activities. However, there is minimal research conducted from a South African consumer perspective around adoption of these devices. This research study uses the second generation of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2) model to investigate the factors of adoption which would influence an individual's behavioural intention towards using a wearable device, focusing on health and fitness purposes. The results from the study identify Performance Expectancy and Habit as important factors of adoption of wearable devices for health and fitness purposes. An important outcome of the results however, indicates that individuals did not enjoy using their wearable devices during physical activity and therefore Hedonic Motivation was not shown as an important contributing factor for the intention to adopt these devices.


the objective of this paper is to determine the improvement in transient stability of IEEE 9Bus system using STATIC VAR compensator. SVC is one of the FACTS devices which can make the power supply more efficient and reliable. Power systems are continuously subjected to various types of disturbances which in turn cause the problem of losing stability. Transient stability is one of the most important stability of the power system. The loss of Transient stability is due to varies disturbances like faults, sudden change in loads and tripping off the lines after fault or heavy loss of loads. Power systems are Operating nearer to their stability limits due to economic and environment reasons. In under damped Power systems disturbances lead power system into unstable state. So, the tools for mitigating such a sensitive problem have an important significance. Static VAR Compensator (SVC) can control reactive power and therefore it is used to improve transient stability as well as the voltage profile. The proposed work includes IEEE 9-Bus Test system incorporated with SVC controller using Mipower Software. The simulation shows how the oscillations are damped out with SVC controller. KeywordsPower system modeling; Mipower software techniques; Simulations; Transient stability; SVC


The present work describes the study of the biomineralization process of biohybrid composite for bone substitution and repair. The material was developed nucleating apatitic phases on self assembling collagen fibers, acting as a template. Using cryogenic transmission microscopy (cryo-TEM) it is possible to freeze material specimens at different times of the mineralization process and then observe the vitrified samples at cryogenic temperature. The preparation procedure of the specimens was set up. The nucleation of the apatitic phase on the collagen was observed from the beginning of the synthesis and the time needed for the complete assembling of the collagen fiber was determined.


For the last four decades the miniaturization of the microchip has been the driving force behind developments in all kinds of technology, from home entertainment to space exploration. At the heart of this revolution lies the metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) transistor, which has evolved in two ways. First, it has become smaller, with the latest devices measuring a thousandth of their original size. Second, the number of transistors that can be interconnected on a single chip has risen from a few tens to hundreds of millions.


2014 The absorption of very thin gold, silver and copper layers is inqestigated under a vacuum of about 10-6 torr in the spectral region between 0.2 and 0.7 03BC. It is shown that the absorption bands, in the ultraviolet region for silver and in the visible part of the spectrum for gold and copper, are due to electron transitions ; the other anormal absorption bands, the position of which in the spectrum depends upon the thickness of the layers are due essentially to the granular structure of the layers. LE JOURNAL DE PHYSIQUE TOME 25, JANVIER-FÉVRIER 1964,


Mao Zedong has pointed out the concept "popularization of Marxism" in his book Oppose Stereotyped Party Writing.From the point of view of Mao Zedong,all party members and cadres as the subject should realize Marxism totally.At the same time,he believed that party members should pay attention to the method and the ways to realize Marxism,studying both the characteristics of Chinese background and authenticity and objectivity of localized Marxism.The expression of Marxist theory should be accurate and vivid.During the process of promoting the development of contemporary popularization of Marxism in China,we can use the thoughts in Oppose Stereotyped Party Writing for reference,focusing on the party's ideological construction,avoiding the subjectivism and the formalism and thus doing well in the construction of the main platform of popularization.


We show that an example of a nonhyperreflexive CSL algebra recently constructed by Davidson and Power is a special case of a general and natural reflexive subspace construction. Completely different techniques of proof are needed because of absence of symmetry. It is proven that if y and ¿T are reflexive proper linear subspaces of operators acting on a separable Hubert space, then the hyperreflexivitv constant of (5"x ®3~\ ) -1 is at least as great as the product of the constants of y and ST. This paper was inspired by the interesting " key example" in the recent paper [2] by Davidson and Power in which a nonhyperreflexive CSL algebra was constructed. In an attempt to completely understand this result we obtained a distance constant inequality of a more general nature, which we present here. Let H, K be separable Hubert spaces—finite or infinite dimensional—and let y, ST be linear subspaces of £(//), L(K), which are reflexive in the LoginovShulman sense, (if is reflexive iff whenever T G L(H) is such that Tx G [Sx], x g H, then F g y, where [•] means closure.) Let c€(Sf), Jf(¿T) be the constants of hyperreflexivity of if and 3~ as defined in [4]. We recall that a subspace if of £(//) is hyperreflexive if there is a constant C such that for operators T in £(//), i/(F,y)< Csup{||F±Fö||: P, Q are projections with P^ifQ = 0}. and the optimal constant is denoted ff(if ). If if is reflexive but not hyperreflexive, then we define 3i~(if ) = + oo. We make use of preannihilator techniques, and refer the reader to [1, 4, 5, 7] for details. As shown in [4], the reflexive subspaces of L(H) are precisely those for which the preannihilator in £P* = Cx is the || ■ ||,-closed linear span of rank < 1 operators, where || • ||, denotes trace-class norm. Since ¿f± , ¿F± are generated by rank < 1 operators, so is the tensor product of preannihilators if^ ®y± . By this we mean the || • ||,-closed linear subspace of the ideal of trace-class operators on £(// ® AT) generated by the elementary tensors {/®g: f^ifx, g g Sf±), where H <8> AT denotes the usual tensor product Hilbert space. (When we write if®3~, we will mean the cr-weakly closed linear subspace of £(// ® A") generated by {S ® T: S g if, T g y}.) Thus the annihilator (<fx ®f±)x = [A G L(H ® K):Tr(Ah) = 0, h g if± ®T±) Received by the editors April 15, 1985. 1980 Mathematics Subject Classification. Primary 47D25; Secondary 47A15. 46L10.


As p r i c e s con t inue t o d e c l i n e , i t i s i n e v i t a b l e t h a t more and more s t u d e n t s , market ing managers, and market ing educa to r s w i l l own o r have access t o micro computers.1 market ing educa to r s t o ignore. Not only w i l l t h e r e be new o p p o r t u n i t i e s f o r t h e use of "micros" i n t h e classroom, t h e r e w i l l be growing expectat i o n s by a d m i n i s t r a t o r s , co l l eagues , and s t u d e n t s t h a t t e a c h e r s l e a r n how t o make c o n s t r u c t i v e u s e of t h i s new t o o l . Th i s new technology w i l l n o t be easy f o r


Sol-gel processing pathways allow us to develop materials with specific chemical compositions, structures, and microstructures starting from small molecule precursors in the solution phase. In thes...


Objective To explore the effects of pinacidil(Pin) on the expression of ATP-sensitive K+(KATP) channel protein and phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase1/2(ERK1/2) of primary cultured human pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells(PASMCs) induced by endothelin-1(ET-1).Methods The experimental models of proliferation of primary cultured human PASMCs induced by ET-1 in vitro were established.The influence of Pin on the expression of SUR2B and Kir6.1,subunits of KATP channel protein of PASMCs,and the phosphorylation level of ERK1/2 induced by ET-1 were all detected by Western blot analysis.Results ET-1 downregulated the SUR2B subunit expression.Pin upregulated the SUR2B subunit expression in a concentration-dependent manner.Glibenclimide,a selective KATP channel blocker,abolished the effect of Pin.However,there was no significant difference in Kir6.1 subunit expression among the groups.ET-1 induced the phosphorylation of ERK1/2 with a peak response observed at 10 min in a time-dependent manner.Pin(10 μmol/L) inhibited ET-1-induced ERK1/2 phosphorylation.Glibenclimide antagonized the effect of Pin.Conclusion Pin inhibits the phosphorylation of ERK1/2 induced by ET-1 through upregulating the expression of KATP channel protein in primary cultured human PASMCs.


Protein−protein interactions (PPIs) are key biological targets for next-generation drug discovery. Peptide-derived molecules are ideal for targeting PPIs because they can closely mimic the binding surfaces presented by the proteins in the PPI. Conformational control represents a major challenge in advancing peptides as PPI modulators for pharmaceutical development. In this issue of ACS Central Science, Philip Dawson and co-workers report an efficient approach to access "stretched" peptides, namely, those with an enforced geometry resembling that of a β-sheet. They accomplish this by installing a strained diyne-containing macrocycle and establishing the role of various modifications to the macrocycle's structure in altering both the conformation of the peptide backbone and the antibiotic activity.


Visual Odometry (VO) is increasingly a useful tool for robotic navigation in a variety of applications, including weed removal for agricultural robotics. The methods of evaluating VO are often computationally expensive and can cause the VO measurements to be significantly delayed with respect to a compass, wheel odometry, and GPS measurements. In this paper we present a Bayesian formulation of fusing delayed displacement measurements. We implement solutions to this problem based on the unscented Kalman filter (UKF), leading to what we term an unscented multi-point smoother. The proposed methods are tested in simulations of an agricultural robot. The simulations show improvements in the localization RMS error when including the VO measurements with a variety of latencies.


Observing quantum phenomena in macroscopic objects, and the potential discovery of a fundamental limit in the applicability of quantum mechanics, has been a central topic of modern experimental physics. Highly coherent and heavy micro-mechanical oscillators controlled by superconducting circuits are a promising system for this task. Here, we focus in particular on the electrostatic coupling of motion to a weakly anharmonic circuit, namely the transmon qubit. In the case of a megahertz mechanical oscillator coupled to a gigahertz transmon, we explain the difficulties in bridging the large electro-mechanical frequency gap. To remedy this issue, we explore the requirements to reach phonon-number resolution in the resonant coupling of a megahertz transmon and a mechanical oscillator.


Based on Huygens-Fresnel principle, a general expression for the average image intensity of a heterodyne and a direct-detection imaging system in turbulent media is derived under the assumption of a Gaussian rough-surface model. From the formulation, we find that the object size, turbulence strength, wavelength, and object roughness affect image intensity dramatically in the image plane.


Electric power is one of the important pillars to safeguard the national economy. Accurate identification of power transmission channel faults is an important means to ensure the normal power supply. In recent years, due to the continuous expansion of the scale of transmission lines, the coverage of the terrain is increasingly complex, resulting in the traditional manual inspection method, has been unable to meet the power supply. Based on this, this paper proposes a power channel intelligent operation and maintenance diagnosis method based on RCNN algorithm. Focus on some objects that are not vertical or parallel and occupy a large proportion across the image. The first challenge was to accurately label such targets. Then the RCNN algorithm model is designed to identify the defects. The experiment shows that it improves the accuracy of recognition to a certain extent.


The new Nursing and Care Quality Forum will identify ways for nurses to have more time to show care and compassion towards patients with existing staffing levels, according to health secretary Andrew Lansley.


The article considers general methodology and architecture of hybrid system models for prediction of economic indicators and its implementation in the form of an integrated information system on the example of research and innovation indicators of the Russian economy. The scheme of the distributedinformation-analytical system is demonstrated. The general verification process algorithm of the modelprediction unit is presented, which contributes significantly to the credibility of the forecast results. The object of the study is a unified system of hybrid models, combining econometric and neural network modelsinto a single system of hybrid economic models. The structure of the hybrid forecasting system consists of two subsystems: the subsystem of the distributed econometric forecast models and subsystem of the distributed neural network prediction models. The objective reasons, under which the level best of regression modelsis reached, are identified. The subsystem architecture of the distributed neural network models developedin the programming language Python with the use of the web framework Django is described. The stages of indicators forecasting in a hybrid model are shown. The hybrid models functional structure based on the use of software modules are considered. The use of such a system allows not only to improve the accuracy and quality of the forecasts, but also to apply them in the control loop foreaching the targets.


In the past few years the Australian government has "got science'in the way that some people get religion. Research has ceased to be seen as a drain on the public purse and is now viewed as the engine of the future economy. Fear of being shut out of foreign markets and recognition of the vulnerability of depending so much on agricultural products and natural resources gave rise to the "clever Australia" policy that was pushed by the Labor party in its election campaign in early 1990 (fig 1). Australia will compete on brains, not muscle and niinerals. These ideas together with sophisticated campaigning by scientists (see first two boxes) have led to science being given more prominence. Health research has not been at the centre of the debate because it has done better than other sectors. While Commonwealth funding of research in sectors other than health was stable or even fell in real terms during the '80s the funding ofhealth research increased (fig 2).' This is a tribute to the "medical mafia" fighting their corner (usually by personal contact) and to the Australian Society for Medical Research, a "young turks" organisation that has campaigned tirelessly and effectively for medical research (see second box). In November I visited Australia to look at the organisation and funding ofmedical research in general and at the unique Australian institutes in particular. I travelled to Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, Adelaide, and Brisbane; visited seven institutes (including all those with block grants); and met the Minister of Health, the present and immediate past chairpersons L We are hamessing the great pool ofscientfictantin ourni veesitir, the CSIRO and psivateindustry to make us an xporter of the prducts of our ideas.


The article give some improvement in the PLC design of NC machine tool . In this way, designwill be more regular. when the faults occur we are easy to find them. It will improve the efficiency of machine tool.


This study aims to determine the effect of class-based assessment on students' interest and learning outcomes in mathematics. In addition, it can be used as consideration for teachers in an effort to increase student interest in mathematics through an assessment system that can make students more active in learning in order to improve their learning outcomes. This research was conducted by selecting research samples from the existing population of two classes, namely experimental and control, applying class-based assessment to the experimental class. The instruments used are questionnaires to measure interest in learning mathematics and tests to measure mathematics learning outcomes. The questionnaire consists of 24 statements in the form of a Likert scale and the test consists of 10 questions in the form of descriptions. Questionnaires and tests were administered at the end of the study. The results of the analysis obtained for students' interest in learning is 3.295 while for learning outcomes is 5.604.


The invention relates to a fire retardant and relative epoxide resin used to seal semi-conductor, wherein they are nontoxic and will not reduce the reliability of semi-conductor; the fire retardant comprises: porous inorganic particles which carry the phosphazene compound as formula (1) and the resin layer covering said porous inorganic particle; resin, in thermobalance and the room temperature increase at the speed as 10Deg. C/min, will reduce the weight to 10% at the temperature as 300-500Deg. C, caused by heat decomposition; X is single bond or the group selected from CH 2 , C(CH 3 ) 2 , SO 2 , S, O and O(CO)O; n is the integral between 3 and 1000; and 2d+e=2n.


Today's network is notorious for its complexity and uncertainty. Network operators often rely on network models to achieve efficient network planning, operation, and optimization. The network model is responsible for understanding the complex relationships between the network performance metrics (e.g., latency) and the network characteristics (e.g., traffic). However, we still lack a systematic approach to developing accurate and lightweight network models that are aware of the impact of network configurations (i.e., expressiveness) and provide fine-grained flow-level temporal predictions (i.e., granularity).In this paper, we propose xNet, a data-driven network modeling framework based on graph neural networks (GNN). Unlike the previous proposals, xNet is not a dedicated network model designed for specific network scenarios with constraint considerations. On the contrary, xNet provides a general approach to modeling the network characteristics of concern with relation graph representations and configurable GNN blocks. xNet learns the state transition function between time steps and rolls it out to obtain the full fine-grained prediction trajectory. We implement and instantiate xNet with three use cases. The experiment results show that xNet can accurately predict different performance metrics while achieving over two orders of magnitude of speedup compared with the conventional packet-level simulator.


8 strains were isolated from 40 specimens collected from suspected
in·fluenza patients during November l993-February l994, and the isolated po, sitive rate was
45%, Of the l8 strains,14(77.8%)were influenza B viru,ses,and 4(22.2%)were influenza A (H3N2)
viruses. The antigenicity of the new variantB/Hebei/11/94)was significantly different from that of
national reference strain(B/Hufang/1/93),and the antigen ratio was ll.2。The positive rate of
antibodies against the new variant(B/Hebei/11/94)in human sera was 68.1%, and the
GMT(Geometric Mean Titer)was 72.2。The new variant-like viruses would not cause outbreak or
epidemic in Bao一ding district recently if its antigenicity did not vary remarkably。


Date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) can be propagated clonally by somatic embryogenesis method. Successful regeneration of plantlets from the young leaf lamina of the in vitro plants has been reported. Somatic embryos developed directly on the leaf lamina of the in vitro plants when transferred from media containing NAA, 2iP and K to hormone-free media. Plantlets were obtained from somatic embryos transferring to hormone-free MS media. Adventitious roots were induced in media containing 0.1 mg/l NAA. Rooted plants were successfully transferred to soil. This method holds good chances for the production of true-to-type plants since the callus stage is avoided


Article is devoted a substantiation of criterion of an estimation of result of execution of a civil-law duty from a position of the mechanism of realization of the rights. Applying positions of the concept of the guaranteed reception of the legal blessing, affirms that crucial importance for the legal maintenance of the civil obligation, has not so much given having the right to the person possibility to demand certain behavior from the obliged person, how many actual and formal realization of the similar right. Therefore opening the conceptual positions devoted to actual criterion of an estimation, affirms about necessity of a reality, efficiency and productivity of execution of a civil-law duty. In turn the maintenance of formal criterion of an estimation contacts interconditionality of procedure of discharge of duty, to establishments about the form and qualification of application of the law or other regulatory legal act (external expression). Thus, full execution of a subjective civil duty, her appropriate protection (in necessary cases), demands not only formal, but also actual realization of the internal maintenance. In the presence of a similar conglomerate of requirements and the bases, from this point on, probably to consider a subjective duty executed, realized and stopped. The designated vision should be connected with the differentiated understanding of the purposes within the limits of the civil-law obligation. With reference to procedure of discharge of duty the directed development on a number of purposes private, concrete, base and ideal is marked. Speaking about the ideal purpose, the valid reception of the blessing that is peculiar to each element of obligations system means and distinguishes not a concrete element, and system as a whole. Allocation of the base purpose, contacts necessity of formation of a result for each period of the obligation, occurrence, change and execution. The specific communicate with a result, there is a necessity of efficiency and qualities each legal procedure. The private purpose is connected with realization of potential of auxiliary transactions. At the same time, only execution of a civil-law duty provides and influences all set of target bases of construction of the legal-obligation form.


1. An apparatus, comprising: a fitting coupled to the housing, said fitting has an engaging portion which comprises a channel formed in its peripheral surface and the axis, and the housing includes an axial layer disposed around at least a portion of the peripheral surface of the engaging portion of the terminal fitting and an annular layer disposed around the axial layer on a portion corresponding to at least part of the channel, so as to direct at least part of the axial part of the channel layer, the channel vypol nen so that at least a portion thereof forms a path nonorthogonal fitting axis so that at least part of the area of the channel surface forms a surface carrying the load to transmit torque between the fitting and the housing when one of them is a force of rotation, wherein the path of at least part of the channel has a nonlinear konfiguratsiyu.2. The apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that the channel comprises a plurality of parts, each of which forms a trajectory, fitinga.3 nonorthogonal axis. The apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that the channel surrounds the peripheral surface of the engaging portion fitinga.4. The apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that at least a portion of the channel has a planar side wall adapted to sense the axial forces applied to ustroystvu.5. The apparatus according to claim 4, characterized in that it comprises a ring adapted for mechanical connection to the fitting so as to cover a portion of the housing adjacent to kanalu.6. Device according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the at steps


Facebook and Twitter are part of most trainee doctors' social lives.1 The General Medical Council has recently issued guidelines on their use because of concerns about violations of confidentiality and professional boundaries. If it had not been for two Facebook experiences I may not have …


For aerospace applications, such as an air-to-air missile, the system specifications are very high, since the target is a supersonic aircraft capable of sharp manoeuvring. Fin actuation system of such missiles is known as Electro Mechanical Actuators. Unlike general motion control systems, noise level and speed of response are critical. In Electro Mechanical Actuator there is no trajectory generator. The target position has to be reached at the earliest. There is no luxury of a controlled acceleration and declaration. The common challenge in EMA design of various Aerospace projects is that they generally have poor frequency response, primarily due to phase lag. Phase lag results due to reciprocator nature of these actuators across a NULL position .Control systems such as Proportional Integral Differential (PID), Pole Placement , Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR), Linear Quadratic Gaussian are not ideal for this class of actuators since on their own, they cannot solve the primary problem of phase lag .The main theme of this paper is to reduce the phase lag of an Electro Mechanical Actuator (EMA) by a novel concept, "Piecewise Predictive Estimator (PPE)". The PPE technique in conjunction with an existing controller can increase the frequency response by up to 15% without any adverse effects on noise characteristics of the EMA. An experimental result based on EMA of an air-to-air missile has been used and instrumentation based on Lab View is used. There is an increase in performance and it matches with the simulation results we achieved using Simulink.


Fiber Bragg grating sensor for detecting the slant of structure is demonstrated in the paper. The sensitivity obtained by the grating sensor is about 0.295㎚/degree.


Introduction: Malignant melanoma (MM) represents 1% of all cancers and has an incidence of 3% - 7% in the female genital tract, the majority of cases being reported in the vulva. The cervico-vaginal region is an unsual primary location of the malignant mela-noma. Case report: The clinical and morphologic findings of 3 MM patients with cervico-vaginal tumours mimicking cervical polyp in third case. Histologically, the neoplasia was formed by nodules of broad cytoplasmic cells with poorly defined borders with pleomorphic nuclei with prominent nucleolae. Tumor cells were positive for S-100 protein, Melan A, HMB 45 and CD117. The authors discuss three cases of cervico-vaginal melanoma and analyze clinical and prognostic aspects of this disease. Conclusion: Primary MM of the cervix should be considered in the differential diagnosis of cervical malignancies. Early diagnosis is essential in order to warrant a better prognosis, although there are no cases of cure described.


Groundwater is the main need of society in everyday life. Groundwater is one of renewable resources but it doesn't mean that it can be exploitated without limit. Several factors that affect the availability of groundwater derived from nature such as geological conditions, rainfall, and green areas should be considered. Water in the soil is stored in a porous layer and has a good permeability is called an aquifer. Cisarua area is located in West Bandung regency, West Java which is a hilly area that has a topography with a slope ranging from normal to steep. The land use in this area is still dominated with plantation and forest as green area. Groundwater aquifer characteristics in that area needs to be examined and analysed for the needs of the community and agricultural business. In this research, the writer used inversion modeling technique of geoelectric data to visualize the condition of subsurface. Resistivity inversion modelling of apparent resistivity data as a result of resistivity method with Wenner-Schlumberger configuration is then carried out with least-square method. The initial model is modified in an iterative manner such that the sum of square error of the difference between the model response and the observed data values is minimized. The result of resistivity modelling is used for analysis of aquifer characteristic such as lithology, depth and structure along with considering geological reference. As the result of modelling, the area of measurement is divided into three zones which are Zone of aeration, Zone of Saturation, and endapan formasi. Zone of aeration is located at depth 0-25 m with resistivity 20-100 Ohm.m and the predicted lithology is gravel or weathered soil. Zone of Saturation (akuifer) is located at depth 25-60 m with resistivity 4-30 Ohm.m and the predicted lithology is sandstone or clay. Endapan Formasi Cibereum is located at more than 60 m from ground with resistivity more than 100 Ohm.m and the predicted lithology is sandy tuff or dry breccia.


Barbara Groff A Comparison of the Effectiveness of Reading Instruction in a Resource Center Pull-Out Program Versus a Regular Education Program


Graphic symbol mentioned in this article is a symbol which will be used in the Thai Picture-based Communication System. The interpretation of graphic symbol should be carefully considered as the picture-based communication system uses a set of icons to create messages, depending on the characteristics of polysemy and redundancy in the language. This article focuses on combination of icons in order that the graphic symbols could be selected to represent the concepts appropriately. It is an attempt to describe the idea underlying the icon combination whereas the various interpretations of the Thai graphic symbols are used. The utility of icons might be different according to the experience of the users. However, the systematic description of Thai iconicity will be helpful in choosing icon sequences.


Graduation thesis presents behavior of steel structures and structural elements under the influance of fire. The main focus in this work was to present all the methodes of fire protection for steel structures that are current in the market and to show all advantages and disadvantages for each fire protection system. In addition fire protection systems for plumbing penetrations are also presented, which have important role in providing sufficient fire resistance of the buildnigs. The thesis also present an example of designing fire protection for the steel column HEB 180 in accordance with European Standard Eurocod 3 – Part 1-2: General rules – Structural fire design [SIST EN 1993-1-2]. In the end of the thesis there is an overview of the standards for structural fire design.


Oriented-core samples (74) from eight sites collected from the Late Permian basaltic Cam Thuy formation exposed at Thuan Chau locality, Son La Province, northwestern Vietnam yield interpretable magnetizations in progressive demagnetization. The characteristic remanent magnetization (ChRM) components carried by magnetite and hematite are successfully isolated from secondary components reveal a mean, stratigraphic coordinates paleomagnetic direction of Ds = 216.1, Is = 10.5 (α95 = 8.9, k = 107.8, N = 7 site mean directions), corresponding to a virtual geomagnetic pole located at λ = 45.6 N, = 226.8 E and a paleolatitude for the study area situated at ±5.3 N during the Late Permian. A comparison of the pole we report in this study with the Late Permian pole of South China Block shows that this basaltic terrane of northwest Vietnam has been close to if not a coherent part of the South China Block since Late Permian. This result implies that insignificant cumulative displacement has occurred along the Ailao Shan/Red River fault system during the Cenozoic India-Eurasia collision. ©2015 Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology


Health outcomes primarily depend on the health literacy of patients. It is important to assess the readability of patient health related materials like prescription information. The objective of this review was to evaluate readability of FDA approved Drug Trials Snapshots in order to determine if they are likely to be useful to consumers and patient advocacy groups. The reading ease and average grade level was measured of 59 currently FDA approved Drug Trials Snapshots and their corresponding Prescription labeling and Medication guides to evaluate the overall readability. The Flesch-Kinkaid Reading Ease test showed that the Snapshots had a higher reading ease than the Prescription labeling (p<0.01), but a lower reading ease than the Medication guides (p<0.01). In terms of the mean average grade level, the Snapshots had a lower grade level than the Prescription labeling (p<0.01) and a higher grade level than the Medication guides (p<0.01). The average grade level of the Snapshots was the 10 grade which does not meet the recommended 6 – 8 grade level. The Drug Trial Snapshots are improvement readability wise in comparison to the Prescription labeling but are not better than the Medication guides. Hence, the Drug Trials Snapshots content may be useful for patients, but it may not be comprehensible for limited literacy patients.


In Africa, prosthetic repair of inguinal hernias with commercially available mesh is often considered too expensive. Brian Stephenson and Andrew Kingsnorth investigated whether mosquito net mesh is a plausible alternative


Objective To observe the late side reactions in nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients who survived long after radiotherapy Methods 336 patients were evaluated. The median follow-up time was 14 years (range, 5-38 years). The nasopharyngeal region was given radiotherapy with a median of 70Gy (range,55-86Gy) in one course. Eighteen patients had re-irradiation for local recurrence. One patient treated by radiotherapy in three courses. The neck with lymph node metastasis was given radical radiotherapy with a median of 64Gy(range,46-72Gy). Node-negative neck was given prophylatic radiotherapy with a median of 55Gy(range,21-67Gy). Forty-eight patients were given chemotherapy. Results According to 1995 SOMA criterion to evaluate the late side reactions for nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients, 109 patients had neurological injuries,4 patients had brain injuries,and 1 patient had spinal cord injury. Among 107 patients with cranial nerve injuries: the 5- and 10-year cumulative occurrence rate was 11% and 23% respectively; the 5-year, 5-10 years, 10-15 years and 15-20 years accounted for 11%,12%,14% and 10% , respectively. 260 patients had grade 3 and 4 other injuries, including 55 skin, 79 muscles/soft tissue, 36 mucosa, 79 xerostomia and 11 trismus. Among 320 patients who suffered from caries of teeth, it involved all teeth in 192 patients. Two patients had mandible necrosis. 225 patients had decline of hearing. Among 672 ears in 336 patients,194 ears had severe deafness. The overall side reaction occurrence rate was 84.5%. Conclusions Different late side reactions do exist in nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients(84.5%) with long-term survival after radiotherapy, and some patients suffer side reactions so serious as to affect their quality of life. Cranial nerve injuries are not rare, and it may occur anytime after radiation, but it dose not stop as the patients survive along.


In recent trends of attributing any kind of illness to a Bio- Psycho- Social model, the psyche and physiology are interrelated in the context of psycho- social pressures resulting in patho-physiological outcomes. Within this context, an integrated treatment approach has been welcomed by health professionals in a variety of clinical settings. This has led to the introduction of Complementary Therapies which take care of the often unmet psychological and social needs of the patients. In a country like India, known for its rich cultural heritage and traditions, many traditional healing systems like Yoga and Ayurveda have been welcomed globally and have been given scientific endorsements for their therapeutic values. One such approach called nada yoga refers to the study of the powerful influence that nada exerts on one's mind or consciousness. Dr. T V Sairam has been extensively working on nada yoga for quite some time. This interview is an attempt to answer the question if traditional healing systems like nada yoga can integrate with Music Therapy. We hope that this will be of interest to many present-day music therapists. Note that all Sanskrist terms (in italics) used in the interview are described in more detail in the Glossary at the end of the interview.


This paper presents a disturbance rejection-based solution to the problem of robust output regulation. The mismatch between the underlying plant and its nominal mathematical model is formulated by two disturbance classes. The first class is assumed to be generated by an autonomous linear system while for the second class no specific dynamical structure is considered. Accordingly, the robustness of the closed-loop system against the first disturbance class is achieved by following the internal model principle. On the other hand, in the framework of disturbance rejection control, an extended state observer (ESO) is designed to approximate and compensate for the second class, i.e., unstructured disturbances. As a result, the proposed output regulation method can deal with a vast range of uncertainties. Finally, the stability of the closed-loop system based on the proposed compound controller is carried out via Lyapunov and center manifold analyses, and some results on the robust output regulation are drawn. A representative simulation example is also presented to show the effectiveness of the control method.


This paper focuses on an innovative topology of FACTS device, namely UPQC whose nomenclature is interline UPQC (IUPQC). The new topology of iUPQC includes all previous topology functionalities, including the voltage regulation at the load-side bus, and now providing also voltage regulation at the grid-side bus, like a STATCOM to the grid. The new equipment is only a mere extension of the existing FACTS device features like Distributed Static Compensator which does not limit to better voltage regulation at the gird side as well as load side bus. In iUPQC; Series Active Filter (SAF) works as a current source and Parallel Active Filter (PAF) works as a voltage source and due to these there is a high and low impedances occurs which is indirectly compensates the harmonics and disturbances of the grid voltage and load current and also impedance path is low harmonic at load current. The main difference between these compensators is the sort of source emulated by the series and shunt power converters. The structure, control and capability of the IUPQC are discussed in this paper with the fuzzy logic controller. The efficiency of the proposed configuration has been verified through simulation studies using MATLAB/Simulink.


and functional state of the left ventricle and renal function in 110 patients with chronic ischemic heart failure. Methods and results. It was found that in patients with chronic ischemic heart failure with reduced ejection fraction compared with the group with preserved ejection fraction higher levels of NT-proBNP, galectin-3, ST2, cystatin C were revealed. Conclusion. Direct correlation between level of the cystatin C and new fi brosis markers (galectin-3, ST2) was detected. In patients with preserved ejection fraction cystatin C had direct correlation with indicators of structural and functional remodeling of the left ventricle (LAVi, LVEDV, RVPs) and reverse with renal function.


Transport and retention of multi-sized suspended granules are common phenomena in fracture media of oil, gas and geothermal reservoirs. It can lead to severe permeability damage and productivity decline, which has a significant impact on the efficient development of underground resources. However, the granule transport and retention behaviors remain not well understood and quantified. The novel stochastic model is proposed for the multi-sized suspended granule transport in naturally fractured reservoirs accounting for granule retention and fracture clogging kinetics. A percolation fracture network is proposed considering fracture connectivity evolution during suspended granule transport. Granule retention and fracture clogging dynamics equations are proposed to account for incomplete fracture clogging by retained granules. The microscale stochastic model is allowed for upscaling to predict the multi-sized granule transport behavior in naturally fractured reservoirs. The model solution exhibits preferential plugging of fractures with sizes equal to or below the granule size. Multi-sized suspended granule shows great advantages over mono-sized suspended granule in the control of permeability damage induced by granule retention and fracture clogging. The retained granule concentration and permeability damage rate decrease with fracture network connectivity improvement. The experimental investigation on size-exclusion suspended granule flow has been performed. The model-based prediction of the retained granule concentration and permeability variation history shows good agreement with the experimental data, which verifies the developed model.


The paradox of Maxwell's demon was proposed in a letter from James C. Maxwell to Peter G. Tait for the first time. In the letter, Maxwell mentioned his gedankenexperiment of "a being whose faculties are so sharpened that he can follow every molecule" [1]. The being may be like a tiny fairy, and may violate the second law of thermodynamics. In 1874, William Thomson, who is also well-known as Lord Kelvin, gave it an impressive but opprobrious name—"demon." Later, Leo Szilard proposed an important model of the demon, which quantitatively connects the thermodynamic work to information [2]. Since then, numerous researchers have been discussed the foundation of the second law of thermodynamics in terms of Maxwell's demon [3–16]. In this chapter, we review the historical arguments and the basic ideas related to the problem of the demon. The modern aspects of the demon [5, 6, 17–25] will be discussed in the following chapters. 2.1 Original Maxwell's Demon First of all, we consider the original version of the demon proposed by Maxwell (see also Fig. 2.1) [1]. A classical ideal gas is in a box that is adiabatically separated from the environment. In the initial state, the gas is in thermal equilibrium at temperature T . Suppose that a barrier is inserted at the center of the box, and a small door is attached to the barrier. A small being, which is named as a "demon" by Kelvin, is in the front of the door. It has the capability of measuring the velocity of each molecule in the gas, and it opens or closes the door depending on the measurement outcomes. If a molecule whose velocity is higher than the averaged one comes from the left box, then the demon opens the door. If a molecule whose velocity is slower than the average one comes from the right box, then the demon also opens the door. Otherwise the door is closed. By repeating this operation again and again, the gas in the left box gradually becomes cooler than the initial temperature, and the gas in the right box becomes hotter. After all, the demon is able to adiabatically create the temperature T. Sagawa, Thermodynamics of Information Processing in Small Systems, 9 Springer Theses, DOI: 10.1007/978-4-431-54168-4_2, © Springer Japan 2013 10 2 Review of Maxwell's Demon Fig. 2.1 The original gedankenexperiment of Maxwell's demon (reproduced from Ref. [25] with permission). A white (black) particle indicates a molecule whose velocity is slower (faster) than the average. The demon adiabatically realizes a temperature difference by measuring the velocities of molecules and controlling the door based on the measurement outcomes difference starting from the initial uniform temperature. In other words, the entropy of the gas is more and more decreased by the action of the demon, though the box is adiabatically separated from the outside. This apparent contradiction to the second law has been known as the paradox of Maxwell's demon. The important point of this gedankenexperiment is that the demon can perform the measurement at the single-molecule level, and can control the door based on the measurement outcomes (i.e., the molecule's velocity is faster or slower than the average), which implies the demon can perform feedback control of the thermal fluctuation.


The influence of compound noun splitting on a German-Polish bilingual vocabulary extraction task is investigated. To accomplish this, several unsupervised methods for increasingly accurate compound noun splitting are introduced. Bilingual evidence from a parallel German-Polish corpus and co-occurrence counts from the web are used to disambiguate compound noun analyses directly. These collected splits serve as training data for a probabilistic model that abstracts away from the errors made by the direct methods and reaches an f-measure of 95.10%. Furthermore, these methods are evaluated in terms of word alignment quality and extraction accuracy where linguistically accurate methods are found to outperform the corpus-based methods proposed in the literature. A comparison of alignment quality achieved with the best splitting method and the baseline implies that the effort to build supervised splitting methods might result in minimal or no performance gains.


1 MeV ion implantations of 4H SiC have been performed to various doses with ion probes of 5 µm diameter. Defect introduction has been studied by microscopic photoluminescence.


In nearly twenty years of inditting,LIU Qing-bang always paid his attention to and seek after human nature which he incessant deeply digged into.His writing mainly represent the common human nature which show that people love their lives,such as love and beauty,hate and sex,but not attract others by strange thing.Digging from the point of kind and evil,LIU Qing-bang stress more on the detail and change the evil to kind which make the human nature singleness but not monotony and intensify the impression of taste.It will continuously appear more unusual significance that he perseverly explore the humanity on the background of currently literature.


The synchronous digital hierarchy the integrated services digital network asynchronous transfer mode video transmission telex communications facsimile transmission modems multiplexers.


Variability of assembly operations (MURA) in a high quality production line is one of the main sources of losses in assembly operations. Typically it is caused by difficult operations which the operator cannot always perform in the same time. Common causes are product tolerances, method weakness, weak tooling design or balancing not efficient. Moreover, on top of variability in timing of the operations in a workplace caused by difficult operations one must add that caused by vehicle and logistic complexity (different combinations of product features and optional). A high level of variability negatively affects the stability and robustness of line balancing since operators could be unable to perform the required operations in the expected time and therefore potentially exceed the set tack-time. The result of such situation is the generation of multiple micro stoppages (loss in line productivity), quality issues due to an increase in stress of the operator and workplaces non accessible to everyone. However, identifying such losses is difficult since it requires multiple (usually at least thirty records a operator) and accurate measurements of the duration of operations. Traditionally, Industrial Engineering identifies those stations where the variability is suspected to generate problems and spends a considerable effort in measuring the real duration of operations during a shift or throughout different shifts. Even if this approach is accurate and effective, it is very time-consuming especially when it comes to identify variability and can therefore not be used to cover all stations. Conversely, in the new generation of Manufacturing Execution System (MES) of FCA (Fiat Chrysler Automobiles) Plants, timestamps of various operations are stored. Therefore, the aim of this work is trying to give a different approach to the Mura analysis, different from the traditional one, thanks to the new Industry 4.0 paradigms, through building a tool able to perform statistical analysis able to describe operations' features and detect the variability contributors, by using also machine learning techniques.


We use a recently derived gauge-invariant formulation of the problem of a two-level system coupled to an optical cavity, to explore the transition between the weak, and the ultra-strong coupling regimes of light-matter interaction. We explore this transition using the intensity correlations $g^{(2)}(\tau)$ of the emitted light, and find strong, unbounded bunching of the emission from systems governed by the Rabi Hamiltonian. Surprisingly, this effect is observed not only in the ultra-strong coupling regime, but also for weakly coupled systems, where the Jaynes-Cummings Hamiltonian would predict the opposite, antibunched emission. This suggests that the higher-order correlations are a particularly sensitive probe of the divergence between the Jaynes-Cummings and Rabi Hamiltonians, and can serve as an indicator of the breakdown of the rotating wave approximation. Our findings indicate also that the boundary between the weakly, strongly, and ultra-strongly coupled dynamics, is much richer than currently accepted.


The properties of rosin ethoxylation products with a polyoxyethylene chain containing on average from 0.5 to 15.0 ethoxy groups were studied. The content of water-soluble matter, appearance and viscosity of the ethoxylated resin samples obtained from the addition reaction between ethylene oxide and resin acids were analyzed and the water solubility of the principal reaction products was determined. The suitability of the ethoxylated materials for the production of oil-in-water emulsions was tested. The results of investigations into the effect of the concentration of rosin ethoxylation derivatives and/ or their sulfosuccinates in aqueous solution on surface tension are presented.


Lo, Philippe, and Sameh have presented a version of Givens' bisection algorithm for the symmetric tridiagonal eigenvalue problem, addressed to the case in which the number of eigenvalues to be found is significantly more than the number of processors. The algorithm combines multisection and bisection, and uses a secant method to accelerate convergence. We compare it to an approach in which multisection is avoided and the acceleration is done by strict linear interpolation on an appropriate root of the magnitude of the determinant, and indicate why this earlier approach may be preferred in certain cases.


The standard EN 12354 gives prediction models for the airborne and impact sound transmission between rooms in buildings. For buildings with mainly heavy, monolithic structures the standard has proven to be quite useful. However, in case of lightweight building elements the standard only gives global indications about the appropriate modelling. In principle various possibilities exist, each with their own advantages and restrictions. It is important to realize that the way the transmission is modelled has consequences for the kind of input data needed and hence for the quantities determined by the flanking measurement methods as described in ISO 10848. Questions as how to measure the vibration reduction index (K ij), when and how to the apply the flanking level difference (A nf or L nf) and even how to measure or adjust the sound reduction index (R) can only be answered in the context of their use in the modelling of the sound transmission. A future revision of the standard will have to deal with these questions in more detail. Based on ongoing research and reported research over the past years on the subject of lightweight building elements, some possibilities are presented.


Botulinum toxin A is the treatment of choice for mimic wrinkles in the glabellar area. From the several products available efficacy and safety have been only established for Botox®/Vistabel® and Dysport® so far. The optimal dosage for Dysport® is 50 U distributed over 5 injection sites. The distribution of the injection sites should be "swallow-shaped".


In this busy world most of the working people are failed to care about their health. They think that is not the big issue, but the truth is, this leads to severe health problems. These are due to the lack of routine monitoring the health. this system is mainly used to monitor the person's health who are busy at their work. In this innovative project, we monitor the patient's health routinely by using the respective sensors. By using our project we can know whether the person is having the danger of cardiac arrest, fever. The parameters here we measured are temperature, heartbeat, and pulse by using respective sensors. The data from the sensors are given to the Arduino Uno. The biomedical sensors here are connected to Arduino UNO to read the data which in turn interfaced to an LCD /serial monitor to see the output .The LCD gives information about parameters continuously. The Arduino sends the info to the wifi module. The patient's parameters are transmitted to the smartphones and laptops of authorized person using cloud server. Form the cloud we can access the data over the internet anywhere at any time. The data can be access using any android device or ios. This system doesn't have any issues like limited range, high energy consumption due to the concept called clustering.


The author explain the importance of the early diagnosis of breast cancer and introduce the surgery treatment of early stages of breast carcinoma, especially of DCIS (ductal carcinoma in situ) in the last years on the 1st Surgery Department of First Medical Faculty, Charles University and General Faculty Hospital in Prague.


humankind. Creation encloses and orders the world, while forces of chaos attempt to torture, up-end1 and destroy that order. In order to reach to the argument she wants to make, Weh1au is obliged at times to build her own edilice on potentially slippery foundations. For example, she must start with the assumption, a generally accepted one among Anglo-Saxonists but nonetheless disturbing, that the surviving poetry is a monolithic whole, reflecting and refracting a set group of images with a patterned vocabulary. This allows a metaphor's manifestations to be plucked from a variety of texts and considered without much regard to the individual context of the poem. Similarly, because Wehlau focuses so exclusively on the imagery of Creation, figuring its opposite as antiCreation, she fails to note that another root metaphor of 0 ld English poetry is that of judgment, of decay and destruction, and the Day of Judgment itself. Further, with her extended analysis of fcest as an image of firnmess and stability, she is unable to acknowledge that, more than occasionally, fcest or fi£sle is an adjective or adverb placed at the head stave as alliterative filler or in the fourth stress to eke out a line. She is even obliged, concerning The Wanderer, to interpret the /wall wondrously high' as an image of 'unbinding and the destruction of the right.' Finally, much of the analysis in the poem depends upon Wehlau's own translations (generally very good), so that, for example, Ja?6m is given, somewhat unusually, as 'outstretched or encircling arms' and thus metaphorically 'power' or 'protection'; some etymological analysis and consideration of the range of usage might be useful for the words central to the argument. The author has prepared the camera-ready copy generally expected by Lang with some skilt save for an inability to produce Old English thorn and eth in italics and an absence of some German accents. A comma occasionally goes walkabout only to reappear in somewhat unorthodox manner, but there are very few typographical errors, the bibliography is of an appropriate length and includes relevant texts, and the index is both useful and short. The book is an admirable example of its genre, the monograph picking up and elucidating carefully a slightly different and interesting way of approaching Old English texts. In particular1 those who teach Old Engbsh poetry would be well advjsed to refresh their lectures with the judicious inclusion of some of the texts and ideas Wehlau addresses. (JANE TOSWELL)


Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present the findings from two recent reviews on food aid use in the UK and discuss their implications and the challenges they posed for researchers, policy makers and the voluntary and community sector. Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws on two research reviews conducted in 2013 and 2014. Findings – Whilst it is possible to draw important insights into key drivers of food aid use, how food aid is draw on by recipients and some of the perceived outcomes of the provision from the research that is available, ultimately the reviews highlight the emergent and largely unsystematic nature of the UK evidence base. The lack of agreed definitions and measures of food insecurity/food poverty further limits the knowledge base. Even where such evidence may be forthcoming, in terms of implementing effective solutions to the need for food aid, UK researchers, policy makers, NGOs and others face considerable challenges in terms of identifying responsibilities for addre...


Abstract This study is based on the premise that in order to create better schools, good leadership must be developed. This study believes that Authentic Leadership (AL), as propounded by various authors in the past 15 years, provides a useful framework for effective school leadership. Furthermore, Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) of teachers in schools could be improved if provided AL. The purpose of the study was to explore the correlation of AL and Organizational Citizenship behavior in the context of educational setting such as secondary schools. Thirty-two schools were randomly selected. Two different questionnaires for two research variables were adapted to collect data from 500 teachers and 32 heads. Correlation between AL and OCB of teachers was calculated by applying Pearson coefficient. To measure the effect of the AL on the OCB of teachers Linear Regression was used while for finding out differences between responses on self-reported version and rater version of scale, t test was used. Mixed relationship found between two variables indicates that these constructs are important for teaching and learning in the context of secondary schools, with special reference to teacher satisfaction. This study is important as it combines previous literature from business management and education fields exploring two main constructs AL and OCB to inform education policy and practice in the area of school leadership. Secondly it informs education policy and practice to use these two constructs for leadership development and school improvement through greater teacher satisfaction and motivation.


Investigations of margins for the interplay of a readout system dedicated to neutrons detection and discrimination using a digital testing tool is presented. The readout system and the developed tool are detailed. The different results of simulation provided by this tool and related characteristics of the processing chain are also presented.


Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) is emerging as a promising approach to generate adaptive behaviors for robotic platforms. However, a major drawback of using DRL is the data-hungry training regime that requires millions of trial and error attempts, which is impractical when running experiments on robotic systems. Learning from Demonstrations (LfD) has been introduced to solve this issue by cloning the behavior of expert demonstrations. However, LfD requires a large number of demonstrations that are difficult to be acquired since dedicated complex setups are required. To overcome these limitations, we propose a multi-subtask reinforcement learning methodology where complex pick and place tasks can be decomposed into low-level subtasks. These subtasks are parametrized as expert networks and learned via DRL methods. Trained subtasks are then combined by a high-level choreographer to accomplish the intended pick and place task considering different initial configurations. As a testbed, we use a pick and place robotic simulator to demonstrate our methodology and show that our method outperforms a benchmark methodology based on LfD in terms of sample-efficiency. We transfer the learned policy to the real robotic system and demonstrate robust grasping using various geometric-shaped objects.


..................................................................................................... vi Review of the Literature...........................................................................1 Incidence........................................................................................ 1 Head Injury: Causes and Effects................................................2 Concussion.................................................................................... 6 Neuropsycholoical Deficits..........................................................8 Information Processing................................................................ 9 Memory and Learning.................................................................. 11 Definition/Classification of Mild Head Injury............................. 12 Postconcussion Syndrome..........................................................19 Sleep Deprivation........................................................................ 23 Summary and Hypotheses.......................................................... 26 Method....................................................................................................... 29 Subjects and Subject Selection.................................................. 29 Selection Materials....................................................................... 31 Dependent Variables....................................................................37 Laboratory Procedures................................................................ 44 Experimental Hypotheses........................................................................48 Results ................................................................................................ 49 Discussion..................................................................................................61 Summary and Implications.......................................................... 70 References.................................................................................................74 Appendix A: Informed Consent...............................................................85 Appendix B: Neurological Screening.....................................................88 Appendix C: Postconcussion Syndrome Checklist.............................. 90 Appendix D: Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised (Form L).. 92 Appendix E: Beck Depression Inventory...............................................94


The purpose of this research is to investigate the flexure-shear behavior of bridge columns under seismic loads. Four full scale circular reinforced concrete columns were tested under cyclic lateral load with constant axial load. The selected test variables are aspect ratio(1.825, 2.5, 4.0), transverse steel configuration, and longitudinal steel ratio. Volumetric ratio of transverse hoop of all the columns is 0.0023 in the plastic hinge region. It corresponds to of the minimum requirement of confining steel by Korean Bridge Design Specifications, which represent existing columns not designed by the current seismic design specifications or designed by limited ductility concept. The columns showed flexural failure or flexure-shear failure depending on the test variables. Failure behavior and seismic performance are investigated and discussed in this paper.


In one of the final texts written before this death, an essay devoted to Kant's essay "What is Enlightenment?", Michel Foucault defined the ethos of modernity as a "permanent critique of ourselves".1 By this Foucault meant a critical social ontology, an attitude of critical experimentation with the established limits of knowledge and social practice. Such a model of critique, Foucault argued, must be understood as an ethos, a "historicopractical test of the limits we may go beyond, and thus as work carried out by ourselves upon ourselves as free beings".2 The later Foucault's qualified affiliation with the critical Enlightenment tradition can be fruitfully compared with the model of philosophical and social critique developed within the critical theory tradition. According to latter, a critical theory of society not only diagnoses the pathologies of modernity, reflecting upon the experience of injustice motivating social movements, but also attempts to offer a positive alternative to prevailing forms of social domination and political injustice. The challenge for critical theory today, as Axel Honneth remarks, concerns "the question of how we are to obtain the conceptual framework for an analysis which is capable both of coming to grips with the structure of social domination as well as with identifying the social resources for its practical transformation".3 Such a model of critique implies a diagnosis of the present, an unmasking of the operations of power, an exposure of the disturbing proximity between instrumental rationality and social domination. Not only for Foucault and Adorno, but for Honneth as well, as Jean-Philippe Deranty argues in his paper, the point of a critique of rationality is to expose the subtle complicity between reason, power, and "the infliction of violence upon the human body".4


They say that the increase of pocket fluid combine with aggravation of periodontal disease. This mechanism and component are generally considered, however, the lipid substance in exudate still remains unknown, except for the report of WATANABE. His report contained that the amount of triglyceride in human serum and pocket fluid tend to increase, on the other hand in human gingiva was tend to decrease in propotion to the aggravation of the disease.From his report, the authers investigate about the amount of diglyceride (DG) and monoglyceride (MG).By way of study material, a total of 29 patients (13 males and 16 females) who visited the Department of Periodontology, Nihon University Dental Hospital, were selectively used. The subjects, who ranged from 20 to 72 years in age, were free from any systemic disease except for some kind of periodontal complaint.The areas of pocket fluid collection (facial of 3-3 or 3-3) studied according to PMA index. In collecting the exudate from the periodontal pockets, filter paper strips (Whatman Co., No. 2, 1×12mm) was used. Total lipids were extracted with chloroform/methanol (2: 1v/v). The separation of the extract was achieved by thin-layer chromatography. The amount of diglyceride and monoglyceride in them was determined by the enzyme method-the endpoint method (reagents: Boehringer Mannheim) using the ultraviolet absorption spectrophotometry.As a result of the study, the authors arrived at the following conclusions:1. In this study identified that DG and MG were concluded in pocket fluid by use of thin-layer chromatography.2. The amount of DG and MG were inclined to increase in proportion to the aggravation of the disease.


The baker's yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a single celled eucaryote that is gaining appeal for studies of fundamental processes in cellular and molecular biology. This article describes three examples of the use of yeast to study problems of importance to human medicine. Specifically, the enzymes involved in neuropeptide processing, the RAS oncogenes, and the regulation of cholesterol biosynthesis in humans are shown to have remarkable similarities to their equivalent processes in yeast. In several cases the yeast and human enzymes are functionally interchangeable, emphasizing the unity of basic principles in biology.


(57) [Summary] Formula (I): In the formula, Y is an oxygen atom or H 2, halogen one of R 1 and R 2, an alkyl group, an alkoxy group, an alkylamino group, a dialkylamino group, a cyano group or a carbamoyl group,, R 1 and The other of R 2 is independently a hydrogen atom, a halogen, an alkyl group, an alkoxy group, an alkylamino group, an azialkylamino group, a cyano group or a carbamoyl group, and R 3 is a hydrogen atom, an alkyl group or a benzyl group. 1-oxo and 1,3-dioxo-2- (2,6-dioxopiperidin-3-yl) isoindoline represented by: And, a method of reducing the levels of tumor necrosis factor α and other inflammatory cytokines by administering to a mammal such derivatives and pharmaceutical compositions containing such derivatives.


Article is devoted to the use of Internet resources in foreign language teaching. We consider the numerous advantages of using the World Wide Web, and use of information to improve teaching and practice of certain types of speech activity. Examples of the application of online resources to practice writing, speaking, listening and reading are given. As an example, certain websites are mentioned, where teachers of foreign languages may find some useful information to enhance and improve the teaching of foreign language. There are various aspects of Internet resources for practice of improvement lexical and grammatical material for different levels of foreign language. Attention is focused on good practice and opportunity of live communication with native speakers is excellent, the use of accumulated material and the ability to expand vocabulary and knowledge. For students it is important to hear not only the teacher but also a true native speaker. In addition, the English language itself, is very versatile and varied. So, the British pronunciation markedly differs from American or Australian pronunciation. Thus, the student can hear the different tones and features of pronunciation by communicating with native foreign language speakers from different countries.


Like many other things, science has been touched by recent fads and trends. For some time now, a topic that was at the heart of social science debates in the 1970s has now returned to the limelight: the political influence of large companies and their role in political decision-making processes. The titles of books such as All Power to the Companies (König 1999) remind us of the early 1970s, when large corporations appeared as symbols of monopoly capitalism, controlling the state and public policy-making. In particular, during the 1970s the power of big business was a broadly discussed topic in the US and in Europe. Not only were radicals alerted by the "rise of the corporate state," but distinguished sociologists and economists (Coleman 1974, Marris 1972) also raised public attention to "corporate" features of contemporary society. Older and newer strands of critical analysis—from neo-Marxism to elite theory—have emphasized the political influence of business in the last few decades. However a major shortcoming of these studies often was that they failed to distinguish between diverse forms of political actions; that is, between direct lobbying versus collective action through business associations. Firms and associations were simply lumped together under the category of capital or business interests. After many of these studies were criticized for their instrumentalist view of power, social and political science analysis subsequently focused on encompassing economic structures favoring business interests or on big business associations. This was the case, for example, in the debate on neocorporatism in the 80s. In both analytical perspectives, the political effects of individual firms have been considered only in an aggregated form. The major


As an alternative to focusing nanosecond pulses for stand-off LIBS detection of energetic materials, we use self-channeled femtosecond pulses from a Ti:Sapphire laser to produce filaments at 12 meters and create a plasma on copper, graphite and polyisobutylene film. We show the possibilities of this Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy configuration for thin organic sample detection on a surface at a distance.


Across angiosperm families, the area occupied by a family is strongly correlated with its richness. We explore the causes of this area‐richness correlation using the cosmopolitan family, Cyperaceae Juss., as a model. We test the hypothesis that, despite a proposed tropical origin, temperate lineages in the family diversified at elevated rates. We test the hypothesis that the area‐richness correlation is maintained within intrafamilial clades, and that this relationship could be described as a function of niche space. We also test the hypothesis that the partitioning of geographical and ecological space, not the extent of this space, is the factor most closely associated with clade richness.


Bioadhesive fluoride tablets arefluoride-releasi ng devices that canbeapplied totheoral mucosabythepatient andrelease fluoride forseveral hours. Fromearlier research, itisknownthat asingle fluoride source inthemouthcan lead toanunevendistribution offluoride intheoral cavity. Inthis study, fluoride concentrations weredetermined at different sites oftheoralcavities of13healthy human volunteers after theapplication ofabioadhesive fluoride tablet containing 0.5mg fluoride. Thesites were:(1)labial surfaces oftheuppercentral incisors, (2)lingual surfaces of thelower central incisors, (3) labial surface ofthefirst upper left molar, and(4)labial surface ofthelowerright first molar. Thetablet wasfixed either centrally onthepalate or inthelowerlabial sulcus intwoconsecutive experiments. Saliva wassampled withpolyethylene sponges 5,10,20,30, 60,120, 180, and240minutes after tablet insertion. Fluoride wasdetermined electrochemically. Itcould beshownthat theareaunderthecurve(AUC)values weresignificantly (p <0.05) higher after tablet insertion inthelower labial sulcus atsampling site 1,atrend (p=0.06) could becalculated for sampling sites 2and3,andnodifference wasfoundat sampling site 4.Fluoride could bedetected inconcentrations above0.01mmolL-1atallsampling sites after tablet insertion inthelower labial sulcus. Thislocation seemstobe amoreappropriate tablet location thanthepalate.


We study the case of a home-biased equity trader based in Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, or Latin America, who is looking at diversifying his/her investment risks internationally within his/her region and three other emerging/frontier regions. We focus on explaining the dynamic conditional correlations between equity markets from 3 January 2002 to 11 November 2016. Timevarying opportunities for diversification are found in several nations across regions. However, diversification opportunities outside a region are largely reserved for bad times, such as during the global financial crisis and the European sovereign debt crisis.


This paper considers the potential and importance of a transdisciplinary approach to design education. It discusses the framework necessary for such an approach to succeed, one which allows engagement across traditional disciplines. To this end it proposes the concept of the Generative Research Interface Device or Grid. As a conceptual generative design tool, the Grid provides means by which meta-concepts of practice can be mapped and understood, but which at the same time can be flexible and adaptive to the particular design task at hand. The paper proposes this concept in the context of the creation of a design course at the University of Brighton, one which offers a truly transdisciplinary framework. The paper presents four case studies from the seemingly distinct feelds of coding, interior architecture, 3D design and narrative. The Grid reveals and generates connections between these, suggesting an underlying network of issues around reuse and generative form through which design concepts and propositions emerge. We conclude that such a programme of study is not a weakening of specialisms, but instead of profits from the effects of its transdisciplinarity and brings a new sense of what a designer is educated to become.


Understanding the spatial variation in intact and defected rock strength is critical to geomechanical mine design. At the Newcrest Cadia East mine, systematic point load testing (PLT) was used to measure the strength of intact rock and individual defects (e.g., veins) at regular closely spaced intervals along several boreholes. The systematic PLT data collection covers only 1.3% of the 590 km of hole logged at Cadia East. A procedure was developed to homogenize the available geotechnical and geological logging data, infill missing values, and encode raw data into engineered features for use in a machine learning model. A random forest classifier was applied to predict point load index (Is50) from core logging data where tests were not performed. The random forest model predicts the rolling average Is50 value within 1 MPa 48% of the time. The model gives insights into which core logging quantities have the strongest controls on rock strength and provides the basis for developing more detailed geospatial models of intact and defected rock strength.


Organic halides and polyoxometalates (POMs) were studied as catalyst systems for the insertion of carbon dioxide into epoxides originating from plant oils as biogenic feedstock. In the formation of methyl oleate carbonate, synergistic rate acceleration and increased cis-selectivity were observed using ammonium halide and transition metal substituted silicotungstate POMs catalysts in a combined system. Mechanistic insight into the cooperative action was gained by kinetic measurements and analysis of the stereochemical outcome of the reaction. For poly-epoxidised oleochemicals as substrates, the simple ammonium halide catalyst gave better performance as side reactions were encountered with the POM-containing system.