Catheter ablation is common for patients with symptomatic, drug‐refractory atrial fibrillation (AF). Obesity is a known risk factor for incident AF. The impact of obesity on AF ablation outcomes is incompletely understood. We sought to determine the impact of elevated body mass index (BMI) on pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) procedural outcomes and associated complications.


Vehicle trajectory data play an important role in autonomous driving and intelligent traffic control. With the widespread deployment of roadside sensors, such as cameras and millimeter-wave radar, it is possible to obtain full-sample vehicle trajectories for a whole area. This paper proposes a general framework for reconstructing continuous vehicle trajectories using roadside visual sensing data. The framework includes three modules: single-region vehicle trajectory extraction, multi-camera cross-region vehicle trajectory splicing, and missing trajectory completion. Firstly, the vehicle trajectory is extracted from each video by YOLOv5 and DeepSORT multi-target tracking algorithms. The vehicle trajectories in different videos are then spliced by the vehicle re-identification algorithm fused with lane features. Finally, the bidirectional long-short-time memory model (LSTM) based on graph attention is applied to complete the missing trajectory to obtain the continuous vehicle trajectory. Measured data from Donghai Bridge in Shanghai are applied to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the framework. The results indicate that the vehicle re-identification algorithm with the lane features outperforms the vehicle re-identification algorithm that only considers the visual feature by 1.5% in mAP (mean average precision). Additionally, the bidirectional LSTM based on graph attention performs better than the model that does not consider the interaction between vehicles. The experiment demonstrates that our framework can effectively reconstruct the continuous vehicle trajectories on the expressway.


Full text: Phaeochromocytomas are a neuroendocrine tumor of the medulla of the adrenal glands (originating in the chromaffin cells), or extra-adrenal chromaffin tissue that failed to involute after birth. These tumors secrete excessive amounts of catecholamines(epinephrine and norepinephrine) and patients most commonly present with palpitations, anxiety, diaphoresis and hypertension. Diagnosis is established by measuring catecholamines and metanephrines in plasma (blood) or through a 24-hour urine collection, and imaging procedures like ultrasound, CT, {sup 131}I - MIBG Scintigraphy and newer modalities like {sup 18}F-DOPA PET/CT. In this present study we present our initial experience with of {sup 131}I-MIBG scintigraphy and {sup 18}F-DOPA PET/CT in the evaluation Phaeochromocytoma/paraganglioma. Sixteen patients with suspicion for phaeochromocytomas/paraganglioma were prospectively enrolled and scheduled for {sup 131}I - MIBG and {sup 18}F-DOPA PET/CT over a period of 14 months. Whenever possible, tissue diagnosis was attempted. Images were analyzed by two independent nuclear medicine physicians. {sup 131}I- MIBG scintigraphy identified eight positive lesions whereas {sup 18}F - DOPA PET/CT identified eleven positive lesions. At present, in our clinical experience either of the two tests do not appear to be clearly superior rather they mutually provide additional information in the given clinical setting and should be offered to patient whenever possible


In the context of the university's current identity crisis, this essay analyzes the implications of creating a "post-disciplinary" university. A critical discussion of texts by Frank Lentricchia, James Sosnoski, and Judith Butler reveals the institutional and epistemological stakes of postdisciplinary views of the University structure. Against this backdrop, the essay concludes by showing how idealizing knowledge as separable from all strife leads to a systematic underestimation of the disciplines' importance for the philosophical, physical, and administrative structures that undergird the university and the disciplines themselves.


This paper described a polarization detection method to compress the lager dynamic range of laser returned signals in airborne laser bathymetry system. The experimental results show that the method can compress the dynamic range of returned signals more than one order, restrain the laser backscattering largely, and haven′t influence too much on detecting laser returned signals from the underwater.


X- [Y] The reactive compound having Pigment reacts with substituted reactive intermediate X may be a sulfonyl, phosphoryl, or 1,3,5-triazinyl group, Y may be halogen leaving group, N represents may be a basic nucleophilic groups, S is an organic radical may even, ZM may be an ionizable end group. Also, n is an integer of 1-3, b is an integer of 1 to 3, which is a = nb. n is a greater than or equal to b b, if b is 2 or 3, NS-ZM may each be the same or different. .FIELD 1


In the autumn of 2004.? a remarkable gathering of 102 scholars took place at St Antony's College, Oxford: they had come for an interdisciplinary symposium on 'Trees, rain, and politics in Africa: the dynamics and politics of climatic and environmental change'. Symposium papers were grouped into panels that focused on either particular resources (such as trees and water) or particular aspects of social relationships (such as politics and discourses). This format resulted in a series of dialogues between the natural science and social science paradigms, and this first half of the present issue o? Africa takes as its theme just one of those interdisciplinary conversations. Taken together, these authors demonstrate how the hybridization of natural science and social science can benefit understandings of the African past, interpretations of the African present and planning for the African future.1 All three articles focus on the unexpected social and ecological effects of physical boundaries in the semi-arid Karoo region of South Africa, but in different historical contexts. For both people and wildlife, life in the Karoo had long centred on mobility and flexibility as adaptations to the area's scarce and unpredictable rainfall. In the late nineteenth century, however, South African farmers increasingly inscribed social organization upon the landscape by enclosing land with fences (van Sittert 2002). This reorganization of space had, as this group of articles shows, severe long-term consequences because enclosure made relationships between society and ecology in the region increasingly inflexible. As the Karoo system 'hardened' through the physical means of fencing, the social means of institution building and the ideological means of apartheid policies, particularly fragile landscapes became less resilient. Current efforts to conserve the unique vegetation of the Karoo are building new physical, social and ideological structures atop a complex history of ecological disruption, social differentiation and ideological contestation. Each of the following articles on the region shows the complex local legacy of boundary making in the Karoo. Together, however, they show a regional process and point out


The Framingham risk score (FRS), although useful for assessing 10-year risk for coronary heart disease (CHD) events, relies more heavily on advancing


Post emergence application of herbicides reduced weed growth, enhanced kenaf agronomic traits and fibre yield. A study was conducted to determine the efficacy of some herbicide formulations for post emergence weed control in kenaf at Ibadan (0.7.38N; 003.84E- Derived savanna agro-ecology) station of the Institute of Agricultural Research and Training (IAR&T), Obafemi Awolowo University, Ibadan in 2016 and 2017 rainy seasons.  Herbicides applied were Quazilofop-P-ethyl (100, 150, 200 ml/ha), Oxyfluorfen (0.96, 1.20 and 1.44 kg ai/ha) and Fluazifop-p-butyl 150, 225 and 300 g ai/ha) at three rates each, while weed-free and weedy were the control treatments. Weed flora composition before land preparation was dominated by annual weeds; broadleaves (70%), grass (20%) and spiderwort (10%). At 10 weeks after sowing (WAS), weed flora composition comprised of 64% broadleaf, 14% grass, 8% spiderwort and 14% sedge. Weed flora dynamics after treatments application might have been influenced by herbicide formulations applied. Oldenlandia corymbusa, Cyperus escunlentus, Desmodium scorpurus and Cyperus rotundus were identified as prevalent weeds across the treatments applied while Mimosa pudica, was a minor weed.  Herbicides improved kenaf agronomic traits (plant height, stem-butt girth and number of leaves/plant) due to minimal weed competition; reduced weed flora composition and weed weight relative to weed infested kenaf plants in weedy control. Oxyfluorfen (0.96, 1.20 and 1.44 kg ai/ha); fluazilof-p-butyl (225 and 300 g ai/ha); Quazilofop-P-ethyl (100 and 200 ml/ha) reduced weed dry weight by 60-70%. Weed-free plots had the highest weed control efficiency (WCE %). Evidently, acceptable WCE of ≥ 80% and comparable gross fibre yield with the maximum in weed-free recorded in Oxyfluorfen (1.20 and 1.44 kg ai/ha) and Fluazilofop-p-butyl (300 g ai/ha) showed their efficacies. However, low WCE 50 -65% in Quazilofop-p-ethyl (100, 150, 200 ml/ha) might reflected a review of the doses applied for better efficacy.  Kenaf gross fibre yield was reduced by 65% in the weedy check plot, due to superior weed infestation and utmost weed dry weight accumulation. Notwithstanding, the benefit-cost ratio and environmental impact assessment of the study must be carried out for economically viable kenaf production and environmental friendliness.


The energy sector has become priority around the world with developing technology and increasing power and energy demand. That all sources for energy production are not renewable increases greenhouse gas emissions and causes global warming. Turkey's dependence on foreign sources in terms of vital energy resources and the suboptimality of the energy distribution has increased the need for optimum design of energy grids and long-term production planning of established grids. Microgrid is an energy grid consisting of distributed generators, storage units and loads. In this study, optimum design and generation planning of microgrids using mixed integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) is investigated. The optimal design under conditions such as excess electricity, CO2 emission, and water shortage are examined. Finally, the constraints of the optimization models and the empirical equations for each equipment are investigated. Keywords: Mixed integer nonlinear programming (MINLP), Energy grid optimization, Microgrid, Excess (surplus) electricity, Carbon dioxide emission, Water shortage


Jiang Guangci's "Des Sans-culottes" is a a example study of revolutionary masculinity. Compared with "A Week," by Yury Liebedinsky , the stories show the intersection of masculinity, gender, revolution, and modernization. The study was based on the two stories to analyze the process of revolutions, and it presents shared ideology and gender identity.


In the process of cow excrement zymolysis, through the excrement fermentation mixer turning over the cow excrement, reproduces microorganism under the oxygen condition, and produces heat energy, in addition the greenhouse heat preservation function, urges the cow excrement to carry on the fermentation. In the fermentative process, the cow excrement's temperature may be elevate 60-70 ℃, the high temperature time can sustain 5-7 day, can kill the germ and the insect egg, except the fetid odor, causes the moisture content rapidly to evaporate, and achieves the dry goal. And produces aseptic, is harmless and the not smelly dry cow produce, enhances the cow dung the operational safety. Compares with the fast drying cow dung, after the fermentation does the cow dung to have the employment not burn root and the characteristic of moisture absorption the basic non-fetid odor, is suitable to in the big awning, the use of greenhouse and the flowers, plants or planter of the sod.


Jiangsu coastland had abundant wind power reserve which had wide developing vistas.Especially the middle and southern parts had wide coastal mudflat and radial sand ridges,which brought advantages for developing coastal wind power station and "the Three Gorges on the sea" new resource base in Jiangsu.This article demonstrated the important meaning of developing wind power in Jiangsu coastland area and analyzed the natural endowment and distribution features of coastal wind resource,then pointed out the abundance of wind power of Jiangsu coastal area.The area had wide mudflat which was perfect to build large wind power station.On the basis of this,this article put forward the notion of developing green resource base in Jiangsu coastland.


Libya is one of the oil producing countries, Oil is the main supplier of the country economy. Libya has wind energy resources. Is available in many areas in Libya in reasonable quantities sufficient to solve the crisis that Libya is going through the power cuts for long hours. This paper examines wind energy, the most important renewable energy resource in Libya.
 The objective of the paper evaluates the wind energy in the capital city of Tripoli, Libya. The data of the Climate Data Station was collected at the Solar Research Center in the capital Tripoli during at a height of 65.14 meters and 32.48 latitudes.


Functional traits can be used to describe the composition of communities through indices that seek to explain the factors that drive community assembly, biotic effects on ecosystem processes or both. Appropriately representing functional composition is therefore essential for predicting the consequences of environmental context and management actions for the provisioning of multiple ecosystem services (ESs) in heterogeneous landscapes. Functional indices can be constructed from single or multiple traits; however, it is not clear how they differ in information content or ability to predict biodiversity – ecosystem function relationships in complex landscapes. Here, we compare the utility of analogous single‐ and multi‐trait indices in linking environmental variation and functional composition to ESs in a heterogeneous landscape, relating functional indices based on three plant traits [height, relative growth rate and root density (RD)] to variation in the physical environment and to two ESs (forage production and soil carbon) and their net ES level. Two orthogonal gradients, elevation and soil bulk density (BD), explained significant variation in several dimensions of functional composition comprised of single traits. These traits in turn significantly predicted variation in ESs and their net values. Only one index measured with multiple traits (functional richness) varied with the physical environment, while none predicted variation in ES or net ES levels. One ES, soil carbon, increased with the community‐average value of RD, while the other, forage production, was related to the range and community‐average value of height. In turn, average RD increased with soil BD while the average and range of height declined with elevation. Due to these environmental patterns, soil carbon and forage production did not covary strongly, leading to moderate net ES levels across the landscape. Synthesis: Single‐trait indices of functional composition best linked variation in environmental gradients with productivity and soil carbon. Because the environment–trait functioning relationships were independent of one another, the ESs were independently distributed across the landscape, providing little evidence of synergies or trade‐offs. Single‐ and multi‐trait indices contained unique information about functional composition of these communities, and both are likely to have a place in predicting variation in ESs under different scenarios.


Our cells contain common molecules, such as water or oxygen, that can damage DNA. In his studies Tomas Lindahl has shown how specific repair enzymes remove and replace damaged parts of DNA in a process of vital importance.


The ODFF controlled methods inject the voltage, when sag occurs. The injected voltage is in-phase with supply voltage. This method is economical by energy storage but it has the phase shift mismatch at the time of voltage injection to the grid and needs more membership function, in turn injection time is increased. To overcome this drawback PAFC implementation in DVR is described in this chapter. The PAFC parameters are analysed through the mathematical modelling and calculations. The PAFC shows better performance in voltage sag compensation and THD reduction.


Abstract This research was initiated to determine whether the interaction at the interface between the surface of finely divided solids, such as carbon black, and cured elastomers is primarily physical or chemical in nature. Further, it was desired to correlate some physical property of the reinforced stock with the surface properties of the solid pigment. Through an examination of the thermodynamic changes accompanying the deformation of loaded stocks it is shown that physical adsorption of the van der Waals type occurring at the interface between pigment and polymer is inadequate to account for the experimental observations. However, if chemical bonding occurs at the interface between polymer and pigment, then the entropy of deformation of the stock may be correlated with the extent of this bonding. By a calorimetric method it was demonstrated that the surface of a carbon black particle contains sites that react with bromine to liberate the same amount of heat as low molecular-weight olefins. It is, the...


: The prediction of thunderstorm activity is not only significant for weather forecasting but also for the standardization of risk assessment as in the aviation industry or emergency unit purposes. This paper aimed to develop a prediction of thunderstorm occurrences using a nonlinear model. For this work, the data used for a case study is one-year (1 January 2012 to 31 December 2012) located in a tropical area. The Jacobi algorithm has been employed to construct a prediction model with six combinations of input and one output (target). The predicted target is thunderstorm occurrence. The parameter input is surface pressure, air temperature, relative humidity, clouds, precipitable water vapor, and precipitation. The result obtained a better fit prediction model with four optimum parameters and estimation errors of 5.73%. May and October are the highest occurrences of thunderstorms where prediction errors were found high during the intermonsoon season.


The Voice Activity Detector(VAD) of G.729B in VoIP can only work well in the high SNR,while in the low SNR or with a strong background noise it works poorly. To tackle this problem,the VAD2 mechanism of AMR is researched in detail and the possibility of introducing it into the G.729B is discussed. At the same time,some optimization work is also done. Through Matlab simulation,the optimized VAD2 is proved better by comparing it with the VAD algorithm of G.729B in both the high and low SNR,and its detection time is shortened greatly. So the optimized VAD2 can be used in G.729B.


The objective of this study is to present a bibliometric approach to current research trends and a historical review of technology transfer from 1964 to 2012. The bibliometric analytical technique is used to examine the literature productivity, based on the scope of 3,779 literatures of technology transfer both in SCI-EXPANDED and SSCI journals. This study implemented and classified those literatures of technology transfer using eight categories for different distribution status in order to explore how technology transfer trends and applications have developed in this timespan. Also, the study will perform Bradford-Zipf plot. The analysis provides a roadmap to guide future research and abstract the trend information so that researchers can study more efficient since kernel knowledge has been concentrated in major categories. This study also implies that the phenomenon "success breeds success" is more common in higher quality research publications.


The body complete surface three-D restoration equipment comprises several digital stereovision heads distributed on a polyhedral support, IEEE 1394 high-speed serial bus and computer; every digital stereovision head can be used to obtain stereoscopic picture pair of different sides of body, the steroscopic picture pair can be transferred into computer by means of IEEE 1394 high-speed serial bus, the computer can be used to process said sterescopic picture to obtain three-D web surface expression of every side of body, and convert the three-D web surface of every side of body into same coordinate and splice to obtain the three-D expression of complete surface of body. Said invention not only can high-accurately restore complete three-D surface of static body, but also can high-accurately restore complete three-D surface of dynamic body or deformed body.


Abstract Merope tuber Newman, 1838, commonly known as earwigflies or forcepflies, are an enigmatic member of Mecoptera that are known from eastern North America. Outside of collection localities and anatomy, relatively little is known about their behavior, reproduction, or any other aspect of their biology. In this manuscript, we report a new collection record of these uncommonly collected insects in Southold, Suffolk County, New York. While M. tuber are known from Ontario to Florida, their distribution is very discontinuous - this easily accessible field site represents new opportunities for future research, including the ongoing hunt for their larvae, which are currently unknown.


There is widespread agreement that theories of teaching, learning, and assessment should be consistent with a certain theory of learning, whether it be constructivism or some other theory. This paper describes the creation and development of the working draft of the assessment standards for school mathematics published by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Examination of this document shows that, although constructivism may be the current buzzword in mathematics education, those leading the effort to reform mathematics instruction are not necessarily aligned with that theory. It is further argued that, while consistency may be a laudable goal, it may not be a practical one. As a document, the Assessment Standards is neither constructivist or nonconstructivist. The draft was written by 22 different people in 3 working groups, and, as such, represents a compromise. (Contains 19 references.)


We extend previous analytical calculations of 2D high-β equilibria in order-unity aspect ratio tokamaks with toroidal flow to include pressure anisotropy, assuming guiding-center theory for a bi-Maxwellian plasma and the ideal MHD Ohm's law. Equilibrium solutions are obtained in the core region (which fills most of the plasma volume) and the boundary layer. We find that pressure anisotropy with p∥>p⊥ ( p∥ Ωmin) were previously found to suppress the field-free region (diamagnetic hole) that exists in static isotropic high-β equilibria. We find that all equilibrium solutions with pressure anisotropy suppress the diamagnetic hole. For the static case with a volume-averaged toroidal beta of 70%, plasmas with max(p∥/p⊥)>α1=1.07 have equilibrium solutions. We find that α1 decreases with increasing toroidal flow speed, and above the flow threshold Ωmin we fin...


Abstract The notion of an almost Krull domain is extended to rings satisfying a polynomial identity. Some general structural results are obtained. We also prove that skew polynomial rings R [ X, σ] remain almost Krull if R is an almost Krull ring. Finally, we study when semigroup ring R[S] are almost Krull rings, in the case when the group of quotients of S has the ascending chain condition on cyclic subgroups. An example is included to show that the general (semi-) group ring case is much more difficult to deal with.


John 5:37–40 concerns a central problem of the Gospel of John: the relationship between understanding and faith. Translational choices appear to have had a strong influence on the interpretation of this passage. This contribution discusses alternative options for translating the passage. This alternative understanding of the passage allows the author to argue in favour of close links between John 5:37–40 and Jewish tradition.


This study aims to examine the relation between organizational intelligence and crisis management in managers and experts of Fasa University of Medical Sciences in 2015. Research method was descriptive of correlation type and the statistical population in this study included all managers and experts of Fasa University of medical sciences (364 persons) who were serving there in 2015. The research sample included 212 ones of managers and experts of medical sciences university who have been selected by relative stratified method. For collecting data Albrecht standard 49question questionnaire is used for assessing organizational intelligence and 18-question inventory derived from three-stage model of crisis management. For relation assessment, Spearman correlation test was used. For data analysis in the level of descriptive statistics, the statistical index of absolute frequency and percent and in inferential statistics level Pearson correlation test and t-test were used. The most important results of this study are as follows: there is a significant and positive relation between organizational intelligence and all its heptad dimensions including strategic insight, courage and dare, tendency to change, unison and agreement, knowledge utilization, performance pressure and joint fate. World Journal of Pharmaceutical Research SJIF Impact Factor 6.805 7105 – 2277 ISSN Article view Re . 1 9 3 2 38 Volume 5, Issue 10,


tend to be commuters who work at least part-time, and nearly all of the graduate students work full-time. Moreover, it seems unlikely that any one subgroup would be more or less interested in or affected by the Tylenol story. On the other hand, two differences that did emerge may be indicative of differential interest (presumed or real) for women and men. Women most frequently first heard about the cyanide-laced Tylenol from family members, whereas men most frequently first heard about it from close friends. Also, women were more likely than men t o seek additional information about the story. These differences may reflect women's role as primary caretakers of their family's health. Unfortunately, such a n explanation can only be speculative, especially since further demographic data (e.g., marital status) was not obtained.


One of the key episodes of the Life of St. Alexy Metropolitan of Moscow and the church-historical story of P.A. Rossiev "St. Alexy" is the healing in the Golden Horde of Queen Taidula. Processing the hagiographic narrative for a secular work, the writer saturates his story with interior and portrait characteristics, develops plot episodes, filling them with dialogues and subject details. At the same time, P.A. Rossiev does not deviate from the hagiographic tradition in depicting both the saint and his antagonists, emphasizing the psychological motivations of their actions.


This paper expounds such theories of knowledge supply chain as its concept,features and models,analyzes its peculiarity and the complication,and finally probes into the issues,such as its construction principles and the mechanism of knowledge innovation.


1.0 INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS AND INTERNATIONAL POLITICS Imagine two large firms, both diversified across product lines, organized by strategic business unit, and with vast geographic distances separating corporate headquarters from operating subsidiaries. They are identical save for one respect: the first operates entirely within Canada or the United States and a significant proportion of the second's business is international. If over two thousand miles separate New York headquarters from the petrochemical operating division why should it matter if the latter is located in Los Angeles or Caracas? What difference does it make in terms of strategy formulation and implementation, organization structure or control? There are marked differences in culture, language and social organization between New York and both Los Angeles and Caracas. (In fact, one might expect greater cultural and linguistic diversity in the work-force in California than in Venezuela.) At the end of the day, there is only one meaningful distinction between the two firms: national borders intervene in the second case. As John Fayerweather has observed, the essence of international business is that the multinational firm operates simultaneously across a number of different political jurisdictions: Although one can construct elaborate definitions of international business, it would appear to have only one central distinguishing characteristic--it is business involving two or more nations. Thus concepts unique to international business must stem directly from business processes intersected in some way by national borders (Fayerweather 1982, p. 3) The only irreducible difference between domestic and international business is that the latter involves cross-border economic transactions. Theories of monopolistic competition, internalization and/or transaction cost economics have provided a rich understanding of the motives for foreign direct investment and the multinational firm. However, they explain integration or internalization, not internationalization. The arguments are equally valid within or across countries. Even John Dunning's eclectic theory which explicitly considers location specific advantages, could well apply within a resource, demographically, and geographically diverse country such as Canada. I do not mean, by any means, to understate the critically important contributions made by the various theories of the multinational firm. However, as Dunning (1992, p. 3) himself has observed, application of the internalization paradigm has done better explaining the multi-activity firm than the MNC per se. "This is because...its main tenets take some of the more interesting influences on the behavior of MNEs, qua MNEs, as exogenous parameters; the result of which is that many of the aspects of market failure, which are uniquely cross-border, have received less attention than those which are not." What are national borders? While borders may well represent cultural, linguistic, and social frontiers they are political boundaries dividing one sovereign state from another. Modern international politics entails the dual concept of the nation and the state ideally (in a philosophical sense) combined in a nation-state reflecting the principle of self determination. The state is a relatively clear political concept which I will deal with in more detail below. The concept of the nation(1) has proved more difficult to define objectively or precisely. However, it involves the idea of a people, of culture in the broad sense: language, history, belief systems and the like. There have been multinational empires in the past (Habsburg, Ottoman and Soviet) and there are certainly multi-"nation" states today (Canada and Belgium are two Western examples). Furthermore, many countries such as the United States are multi-cultural. I would argue that dealing with cultural diversity in the U.S., more substantial inter-group or even inter-nation differences in Canada or Belgium, or cross-cultural differences across national borders represent changes in degree rather than kind. …


This paper describes the design and initial validation of a computerized decision process model simulating the operating environment, behavior and performance of defense contractors. The conceptual foundations of this research are presented in Cohen, Lewin and Morey (1979). The model employs feedback adaption and search mechanisms to simulate the internal decision making structure of defense contractors at the project, corporate and DOD levels. The objective of this research is to develop a capability to model the impact of various contract incentive schemes on the performance of DOD contractors.


The article aims to provide how electronic distribution channels and more and more modern products are changing the face of banking. The transformation is about customer expectations, ways to cooperate with them, but also the bank's internal processes. Banking has become increasingly dependent on the Internet and information systems – at present the majority of services offered is based on the network. In connection with this fact also are changing the organizational structures of banks and required skills of employees.


The curing kinetics of thermotropic liquid crystalline polyester(TLCP)/phenol formaldehyde resin(PF)blends was studied by non-isothermal DSC.The curing kinetics of TLCP /PF blends and pure PF resins was compared and the effect of TLCP contents on the curing kinetics was investigated by three phenomenological models(including Ozawa and Kissinger simple models and Kissinger-Akahira-Sunose(KAS)isoconversional method).The results showed that the activation energy(Ea)datas of the TLCP /PF blends calculated by Kissinger and Ozawa models were consistant.The Ea of TLCP /PF blends at different curing degree were calculated by KAS model.The addtion of TLCP accelerated the curing process of PF and reduced Ea.The Ea of TLCP /PF blends with 10% TLCP reached the minimum.


Based on Chinese arable land remote sensing survey data of 1990 and 2000,and 14 explain variables of natural and socio-economic,we constructed a Simultaneous Auto-regression(SAR) model to predict Chinese arable land changes of 2005,2010,2015 and 2020,with arable land in 2005 and 2010 for testing.According to the 2005 Gazette of the Ministry of Land and Resources of China's arable land change,the absolute error of the predictive value of arable land at the end of year 2005 is 1.501 million hectares,the relative error is 1.22%;relative error of the predictive value of arable land at the end of year 2010 is-0.04%.At the end of year 2015 and year 2020,Chinese arable land area of predictive value is 119.8461 million hectares and 117.9619 million hectares.


This book examines the intellectual interaction between African America and Spain, from the onset of the Spanish-American War in 1898 to the late 1950s. Of particular interest to Robert F. Reid-Pharr are the ways in which Spain functions as a geopolitical space of "slippage," a site where the demarcation of whiteness and the European enlightenment becomes destabilized when seen through the eyes of African American writers. As Reid-Pharr argues, "Spain becomes a particularly creative means by which to deliver us all from the choking hold of the racialist, anti-black conceits that structure so much of humanistic inquiry" (26). Working through Cedric Robinson (Black Marxism: The Making of a Radical Tradition [1983]) and María DeGuzmán (Spain's Long Shadow: The Black Legend, Off-Whiteness, and Anglo-American Empire [2005]), Reid-Pharr locates the Iberian Peninsula as not only the center of "what eventually came to be known as globalization and humanism" (11), but also as a space with cultural forms that pre-date modern iterations of racialism. These conditions offer an ideal space for African American intellectuals who see Spain as "an opening by which the vulgar fiction of white superiority might be mitigated through access to not yet properly defeated Spanish flesh" (11). The book's Spanish-African American archive enables such a critical endeavor by way of troubling lines of racialism and nationalism drawn by power seeking to buttress white supremacy and capitalist enterprise. Flesh becomes the key term through which Reid-Pharr organizes his texts and poses his critique of Western humanism. In doing so, he aligns his work with Alexander Weheliye's Habeas Viscus: Racializing Assemblages, Biopolitics, and Black Feminist Theories of the Human (2014). Accepting Hortense Spillers' definition of flesh as the "zero degree of social conceptualization" (Spillers, Black, White, and in Color: Essays on American Literature and Culture [2003], 206), Weheliye theorizes flesh as a space of possibility that offers "lines of flight, freedom, dreams, practices of liberation, and possibilities of other worlds" (Habeas Viscus, 1–2). Similarly, Reid-Pharr views flesh as a precursor to the socially constructed body, and therefore an important window through which to unpack racialization andWestern humanist bias. Accordingly, he critiques Giorgio Agamben's theorization of the anthropophorous animal, the subhuman figure that Man must transcend to achieve humanity, rejecting what he considers as Agamben's inability to "imagine a conception of history in which the anthropophorous animal, the slave, the flesh, might be recognized as an actor" (15). As a correction, Reid-Pharr seeks out depictions of black subjects deemed by Western discourse


Lactate monooxygenase (LMO) catalyzes the conversion of l-lactate to acetate, CO2, and water with the incorporation of molecular oxygen. Arginine 187 of LMO is highly conserved within the family ofl-α-hydroxyacid oxidizing enzymes (Lê, K. H. D., and Lederer, F. (1991) J. Biol. Chem. 266, 20877–20881). By comparison with the equivalent residue in flavocytochrome b2 from Saccharomyces cerevisiae (Pike, A. D., Chapman, S. K, Manson, F. D. C,. Reid, G. A., Gondry, M., and Lederer, F. (1996) inFlavins and Flavoproteins (Stevenson, K. J., Massey, V., and Williams, C. H., Jr., eds) pp. 571–574, University of Calgary Press, Calgary, AB, Canada), arginine 187 might be expected to have an important role in catalytic efficiency and substrate binding in LMO. Histidine 240 is predicted to be close to the substrate binding site of LMO, although it is not conserved within the enzyme family. Arginine 187 has been replaced with methionine (R187M), and histidine 240 has been replaced with glutamine (H240Q). l-Lactate oxidation by R187M is very slow. The binding ofl-lactate to the mutant enzyme appears to be very weak, as is the binding of oxalate, a transition state analogue. The binding of pyruvate to the reduced enzyme is also very weak, resulting in complete uncoupling of enzyme turnover, with H2O2 and pyruvate as the final products. In addition, anionic forms of the flavin are unstable. The K d for sulfite is increased nearly 400-fold by this mutation. The semiquinone form of R187M is also thermodynamically unstable, although the overall midpoint potential for the two-electron reduction of R187M is only 34 mV lower than for the wild-type enzyme. H240Q more closely resembles the wild-type enzyme. The steady-state activity of H240Q is completely coupled. The k cat is similar to that for the wild-type enzyme.


The Mio-Pliocene succession of Andalusia on the Atlantic coast (Guadalquivir Basin) is known as one of the former stratotype candidate for the Andalusian Stage, proposed during the seventies as the last stage of the Miocene. Its type section, located in Carmona, a small town east of Seville, has been the subject of mainly stratigraphic, sedimentological and micropaleontological studies. We carried out several field campaigns in this locality from 1987 to 1999, including the drilling of three cored boreholes, which allowed the acquisition of bio- and magnetic-stratigraphic data, and a high-resolution palynological analysis (including pollen, spores and dinoflagellate cysts). The pollen flora and its climatic quantification provided the mean to climatically correlate the section to the oxygen isotope curve from the Montemayor-1 borehole, located about 80 km to the West of Carmona. The variations in the ratio between dinoflagellate cysts and pollen grains were used to identify high and low oceanic levels, the two lowest levels being successively marked by the deposit of a littoral calcarenite (the Calizza Tosca Formation on which the city of Carmona is built) then by a subaerial erosive episode. Based on the correlation with the Montemayor-1 regional drilling, the two major lowering in oceanic levels observed at Carmona are linked with the two episodes of the Messinian Crisis. The interlocking position of the high-energy sandstone deposits inscribed in the Messinian valley leads to an assessment of a drop in the global oceanic level of at least 114 m at the beginning of the paroxysm of the Messinian Crisis. Comparisons are discussed with the amplitude of the Messinian Erosion Surface in the West-Alboran Basin which potentially remained suspended and fed with Atlantic waters during the height of the crisis and isolated from the rest of the almost totally dry Mediterranean Basin. The quantified climate constructed from the pollen records, compared between the Atlantic province and the Mediterranean area, confirms the climatic predisposition of the Mediterranean to desiccation. Atlantic sea-level variations observed in the Guadalquivir region and measured at Carmona suggest that global glacio-eustatism somewhat contributed to the onset and completion of the Messinian Crisis in the Mediterranean Basin.


Objective: To characterize the community of aquatic macroinvertebrates associated with the bottom and macrophytes of three swamps of the municipality of Quibdo, Choco, Colombia. Materials and methods: In October 2013 and February 2014, samples were taken in three swamps of the middle Atrato basin. For the sampling of the macroinvertebrates associated to the macrophytes a quadrant of one m 2 , with a mesh of 0.5 mm was used, and for the benthic ones an Ekman dredge (225 cm 2 ) with three launches in each station was used. The physicochemical variables were measured with multiparameter equipment in the eld and with a spec - trophotometer in the laboratory. Results: We collected 165 individuals, 55.4% associated with the bottom of the swamps and 44.6% in the macro- phytes. The fund community was distributed in two orders, four families and ve genera; whereas in the macrophytes ve orders were registered, 14 families and 17 genera; being the order Ephemeroptera the most representative in both zones. Ecological indices presented high values in La Grande I swamp and low in the La Grande II swamp for both macrophyte and background organisms. The physical-chemical variables did not show signi cant di erences between swamps except for nitrates, being within the normal ranges; however, there is a strong association between abundance of aquatic macroinvertebrates and physical-chemical variables. Conclusions: The highest number of organisms was found in the background, while the highest taxonomic richness was observed in the macrophytes; being this substrate the one that presented the highest values of diversity. The physical-chemical parameters showed a typical behavior of tropical zones and indicated oligotrophic waters in all swamp. A high percentage of the families registered in the study were signi cantly correlated with the physical-chemical parameters studied.


Background and Objectives: Spleen is known as the largest lymphoid organ in human body and is responded orthe blood filtration; strengthen the immune system activity, hematopoiesis. Trauma and congenital problems are the most common indications for splenectomy. The aim of this study was evaluation the ten-year indications of splenectomy in Tabriz Children's Hospital. Materials and Methods: In this retrospective study that the hospital recors of all cases who underwent splenectomy in Tabriz Children's Hospital was studed and the indications of splenectomy in these children evaluated. Results: Thirty four children were boys and 35 of studied children were girl. Mean age of boy children was 99.20 ± 42.77 months and the mean age of girl children was 125.42 ± 35.24 months (P=0.007). Major beta-talassemia (n=23) was the most common indication for splenectomy in studied children. Spleen size in 22 children was normal and in 47 children spleen size was great. Platelet drop in two cases, port vein thrombosis in 3 cases, heard failure in two cases, sepsis, recurrent meningitis, sepsis and CVA in one of the studied children were postoperative complication of study. Only seven cases of studied children were died after surgery that two cases of mortality causes was heart failure due to talassemia. In our study, trauma in 3 cases (4.34%) of the studied children was the splenectomy indications that one of these children had died. Conclusion: Major beta-talassemia, hereditary spherocitosis and idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura were the most common causes of spelenctomy in the studied children and in our study, 5 of children with talassemia were died that 2 causes was heart failure due to talassemia, 2 cases due to port vein thrombosis and one case due to CVA. Postoperative complication rate was 23.18% and risk of infection and sepsis in our study was 3.07% and also the mortality rate in our study was 10.1%.


The analysis published in Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation evaluated for the first time the association of a large number of demographic, HD treatment and laboratory variables with mortality in patients on chronic hemodialysis treatment since childhood. The variety of retained risk factors identified by the analysis highlights the importance of multimodal intervention strategies in addition to adequate HD treatment.


The peculiarities of the accounting for hedging corporate derivatives oriented to the capital maintenance through system risk
management have been disclosed. The suggestions on the accounting for hedging in the modern legal environment have been made.


The paper presents the results of investigations concerning the influence of the titanium-boron modifier quantity on the structure and mechanical properties of ZnAl27Cu2 alloy. The modification has been performed with the use of AlTi5B1 master alloy, thus introducing into the molten alloy 0.015%Ti and 0.003%B; 0.025%Ti and 0.005%B; 0.035%Ti and 0.007%B and eventually 0.045%Ti and 0.009%B. Samples for examination have been cast in sand moulds. The optimum mechanical properties Rm=440MPa and A5=8% have been achieved by introducing 0.035% Ti and 0.007% B into the alloy. It has been found that morphological changes of the primary crystals of α solid solution take place due to the modification. The dendrites with widely outspread arms take the shape of rounded, globular crystals. The size of α phase crystals decreases, but to the rather small degree, proportionally to the quantity of added modifier.


In this paper, the synchronization of discrete-time linear multiagent systems is studied with finite communication data rate and switching topology flows. A class of quantized-observer-based communication schemes and a class of certainty-equivalence-principle-based cooperative control laws are proposed with adaptive encoders and decoders. It is shown that if the pairs of agents' state matrices and control matrices multiplied by Laplacian eigenvalues of the weakly connected components are simultaneously stabilizable, and the communication topology flow is frequently connected, then there exist such protocols leading to synchronization exponentially fast. Furthermore, only finite bits of information exchange per step are required to guarantee the synchronization if the communication channels are frequently active. For first-order dynamics, the dwell time and the number of bits are both related to the unstable mode of agent dynamics, the number of agents, the frequency of connectivity, and the Laplacian eige...


The rheological, mechanical, morphological characteristics, and aging resistance in hot oil of thermoplastic elastomer based on multi-block thermoplastic copolyester elastomer (CPET)/nitrile rubber (NBR) have been in vestigated. The nitrile rubber is dynamically vulcanized during blending with thermoplastic copolyester elastomer. The etching technique was explored to conduct the SEM studies. The prepared thermoplastic elastomers possess ex cellent mechanical properties and good oil resistance.


Study of The Influence Of Eco-Enzim Towards The Growth And Results of Sweet Corn ( Zea mays var. sacharata sturt ). Sweet corn ( Zea mays var. sacharata sturt) is food crop that has high economic and nutritional value. However, the productivity of sweet corn can still be increased to meet the increasing demand for food, one of which is the use of eco-enzymes. Eco enzymes are the result of a fermentation process from waste in the form of vegetable and fruit waste plus sugar and water. This study aims to evaluate the effect of eco-enzyme administration on the growth and yield of sweet corn (Zea mays var. sacharata sturt) in the Kalumbuak subdistrict, Kuranji District, Padang City, West Sumatra. The study was conducted from April to July 2022. The experimental design used was a completely randomized design (CRD) with six treatments and four replicates, so there were a total of 24 experimental units. Observational data were analyzed using the F test at a significance level of 5%, and if there were significant differences between treatments, followed by the


The conservation agriculture has changed the winter wheat planting method and custom in the dryland farming area. Basing on the comparison experiments, the thesis studies and analyzes the situations of the soil moisture, diseases & insects and weeds protection, the natural disaster resistance, crops growth and development, production input and planting benefit for the winter wheat by means of the dryland farming and conventional technologies. The conclusion is that the key elements to promote the winter wheat growth & development and increase the planting benefit are the technologies of crop residues covering and sewing after rotation plow in the planting belt in the area that the wheat and maize are two harvests in one year in the dryland farming area.


PSPI has been applied to the end-fab process for better efficiency. However, it causes process time to increase, which can be a serious problem in the photo process. Excessive exposure time results in lower efficiency and lower productivity as well. It is also blamed for a damage of expensive equipment lens. Existing countermeasures have yet to clear those problems. As an alternative, DHP temperature control is expected to reduce exposure time by adjusting the hardness of PSPI. Consequently, exposure time per shot can be sharply reduced, enhancing productivity of photo process where many shots are repeatedly exposed to a wafer.


In this paper a method is introduced and applied to calculate the effects of an external field on a circular symmetric microstrip transmission line. The primary/secondary field idea is used for this purpose. The primary field is determined analytically for the cases of normal TMz and TEz incidence. The secondary field is determined using multi-conductor transmission line theory. The method is applied to a special structure and some useful results are obtained.


Abstract: The Ximenez Polyglot Bible was part of a larger educational project—the University of Alcala—implemented by Cardinal Cisneros at the turn of the sixteenth century in order to revive learning and encourage the study of the Scriptures. Following a brief biography of Cisneros, his reforms, and the social-religious context in which the Bible was produced, this article goes on to discuss the project itself, the manuscripts consulted, the printing, and the scholars involved. Cisneros's focus on biblical studies at the University of Alcala developed into an interest in Christian humanism and the writings of Erasmus, which would later bring forth fruit in the evangelical movements in Seville and Valladolid in the 1550s. KEYWORDS:


A new class of both inviscid and boundary layer self-similar solutions for conical swirling flows at high Reynolds numbers is analysed. For the case of one-cell solutions, the flow consists of an inviscid, but in general rotational, core with a velocity field, in spherical polar coordinates, of the form u = r m-2 V(θ), where m is any real number. Due to the known existence of two integrals to Euler's equations, the vector function V(θ) is obtained by the integration of a second-order ordinary differential equation, containing the two integration constants K and K 1 associated with the intensities of the swirl and the meridional motion, respectively. This inviscid flow is, however, singular at the axis and must be regularized through a thin viscous layer, which also has self-similar structure. A variety of flow regimes are obtained for different ranges of m, all of them exhaustively analysed. In particular, for 0 < m < 2, the solution to the near-axis boundary layer equations has the interesting property of losing existence when a certain inviscid swirl parameter, D ∼ K 1 /K 4 , is either larger or smaller than a critical value, depending on m


Postsecondary Online Students' Preferences for Instructor Feedback by Joseph J. Gredler MA, University of Minnesota, 1990 BA, Mercyhurst University, 1985 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Education Walden University May 2016 Abstract Misalignment between student preferences and instructor assumptions regarding feedback may impede student learning. Researchers have investigated postsecondary students' preferences for types of instructor feedback including written, audio, and video. However, postsecondary online students' preferences have not been explored in a largesample study. This sequential explanatory mixed-methods study was conducted toMisalignment between student preferences and instructor assumptions regarding feedback may impede student learning. Researchers have investigated postsecondary students' preferences for types of instructor feedback including written, audio, and video. However, postsecondary online students' preferences have not been explored in a largesample study. This sequential explanatory mixed-methods study was conducted to describe postsecondary online students' preferences and the reasons for those preferences. Vygotsky's social-constructivist theory was used to frame instructor feedback as a scaffolding tool to promote self-regulation in student writing. A survey containing quantitative and qualitative questions was used to collect 93 responses from undergraduate and graduate students attending a large private online university; data collection also included interviews with a subsample of 4 volunteer participants who were selected using maximum variation sampling according to their degree program. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive frequencies; qualitative data were analyzed for emerging themes. Findings indicated that students preferred proximal, detailed, supportive feedback. Students' preferences were based on the desire to enhance their writing skills and understand point deductions assessed by instructors. Implications for social change include increasing instructor awareness of students' preferences and enhancing collaboration in the feedback process to promote writing skill development and improve academic outcomes among postsecondary students, especially those matriculated in online programs. Postsecondary Online Students' Preferences for Instructor Feedback by Joseph J. Gredler MA, University of Minnesota, 1990 BA, Mercyhurst University, 1985 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Education Walden University May 2016 Dedication To my parents, Frank and Claire Gredler, for their steadfast love and unwavering support for their children's education. To my daughters, Olivia and Isabel, may you realize your dreams with the help of a good education. Acknowledgments I thank my committee members, Dr. Cheryl Keen and Dr. Tina Dawson, for their support. Dr. Keen taught me the importance of suggestive feedback that empowers writers to find their own answers. Dr. Dawson's expertise in quantitative and qualitative methods helped me shape a respectable study. I was fortunate to have committee members who worked well together and who served as excellent role models for my professional development. Thanks also to Dr. Gary Lacy, who provided additional feedback to ensure the quality of my study. A special thanks to my friends and colleagues, Jeff Zuckerman and Bill Levine, who provided support when I needed it most.


This paper focuses on the social and emotional needs of children and young people who are refugees. It was inspired by casework undertaken by the author involving a 13‐year‐old boy who was a refugee from Montenegro. A vignette of the case is presented in addition to a review of relevant literature to illustrate and discuss the various sources of trauma experienced by children and young people who are refugees, and the potential impact of these on psychological functioning and emotional wellbeing. Child refugees' experiences of trauma are seldom restricted to experiences of loss, violence or persecution in their country of origin. Rather, there are multiple experiences in the country of origin, during migration and on arrival in a country of "refuge" that are potentially traumatic, and can have adverse effects on a child or young person's development. Drawing on research with children and adults who are refugees, as well as research into post‐traumatic stress disorder and into the educational effects of trauma, the paper advocates interactionist and ecosystemic perspectives for understanding the difficulties encountered by refugee children, and considers possibilities for therapeutic intervention.


Conservation agriculture has recently been a hot topic of agricultural research and has generated significant global interest. Conservation agriculture has three core principles: minimal soil disturbance, permanent soil cover, and crop rotations. The research on this topic has also witnessed a boom in recent years as the number of peer-reviewed literature on conservation agriculture is rising exponentially. This study critically examines all the peer-reviewed documents published on conservation agriculture from the 1990s to 2021 and indexed in the web of science core database. The search returned 3023 documents, which were then processed in the R-based bibliometric package for annual scientific production trend, source, author, document, citation, keyword analysis, and co-occurrence networking using VOSviewer. Our findings show remarkable growth in conservation agriculture research in recent times, although it witnessed a shortfall in 2021. Notably, 15 core source journals contribute the most to the field, while 8692 researchers have authored or co-authored at least a document on conservation agriculture. While the USA, India, and Australia are front runners in conservation agriculture research, the spread of the topic is worldwide.


For many years linguists have operated under the assumption that Australian English (AusE) is regionally uniform in its pronunciation with variations occurring mainly in the lexicon (Bryant, 1989). Any accent variability was thought to be along a well-described socio-stylistic continuum from Broad to Cultivated, reflecting affiliation with either a local or a British standard. This variability was not considered regionally significant apart from the suspicion that there were rural/urban correspondences such as those suggested by Mitchell and Delbridge (1965). The "broadness continuum" was primarily associated with an individual's pronunciation of six main vowel types, /e, i, a, o, a, u/, although the architects of this classificatory system acknowledge that other aspects of production such as degree of assimilation, elision and nasality were also important parameters in categorisation.


The 1984 Sti pulation of Settlement of Geierv. McWherter, the State of Tennessee's deseg reg ation case, mandated the development of a series of prog rams that would provide access to the state public hig her institutions for all of its residents. These initiatives were developed to remedy the vestig es of a dual sy stem of hig her education that practiced leg al discrimination and seg reg ation. The Tennessee Pre-Professional Prog ram (TPP), one of the deseg reg ation mandates, was desig ned to increase the representation of black Tennessee residents in the state-supported professional schools of law and medicine. Under the state's dual sy stem of hig her education, these opportunities were nonexistent for the state's black population. Specifically , the g oal of TPP was to increase the number of the state's black residents who enroll in and g raduate from Tennessee's professional schools of medicine, veterinary medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, and law. This research project was desig ned to evaluate TPP to determine its effectiveness in meeting its g oals from 1984


When the OpenCV GPU method and the existing CUDA kernel function are mixed, memory copying occurs frequently between the main memory and the GPU device memory. In order to solve this problem, we tried to reduce the effort of programmer and reduce memory copies by using modules for implementing GPU in OpenCV environment. As the experimental result of the proposed method, it turned out that the predetermined processing can be handled without a serious influence to the whole system.


This research aims to contribute to the development of theory regarding inter-organizational designs for these care-cure conditions through a combination of case study research and simulation. The case setting chosen is that of perinatal care in the Netherlands. The research consists of three phases and combines both qualitative and quantitative methods (mixed methods approach). The first phase focuses on what goes wrong in Dutch perinatal care (what-question). The second phase focuses on understanding why it is going wrong (why-question). The third phase focuses on gaining insight into how Dutch perinatal care can be improved, on what inter-organizational design would work best for Dutch perinatal care (how-question). As such, this research combines three layers of a healthcare system: firstly, the structure of the system, the inter-organizational design, secondly, the inter-organizational dynamics, such as collaboration and trust between organizations and professionals, and thirdly, the flow of patients between organizations.


In this paper, we propose an image segmentation method using depth histogram. A color image is divided into regions which are homogeneous in terms of depth. Since histogram-based segmentation is a global operation, an object can be over-segmented. In the proposed algorithm, over-segmented regions with similar hue and saturation are merged together. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can produce satisfying segmentation results with simple operation.


Accessing written math content can be difficult for students with Developmental Learning Disorders. Through a user study with 19 representative participants, we investigate how text-to-speech access compares to reading for these students in terms of math syntax memorability, as well as the perceived accessibility, ease of access, and usefulness. Results show that text-to-speech is regarded as significantly easier and more useful for accessing math content, compared to reading access. The perceived accessibility of math content is also higher for text-to-speech access, but actual improvement could not be verified as much of the content was correctly memorized in both conditions. However, some of the considered content was consistently better memorized through text-to-speech, indicating promising future applications of this technology.


The authors investigated the relationship between the job turnover and job satisfaction of ARL university library directors relative to faculty status. The findings were that there did, in fact, seem to be a positive relationship between job satisfaction and faculty status. The provision of staff release time to pursue scholarly endeavors was correlated positively with the directors' reported job satisfaction, whereas hollow faculty status, defined as nominal faculty status but without the provision of release time, was correlated negatively (both significant at the.05 level). Job turnover by itself was quite unrelated to the issue of faculty status.


A study is presented of 329 records of patients on whom angiography had been performed.

Fifteen complications were found (4.6%). These are listed in Table IV

The five complications occurring in connection with nephroangiographies performed in the investigation of hypertension are assessed against the benefit obtained. Only three patients out of 101 investigated have derived any benefit from the resulting operation.

Some of the literature is reviewed and the authors conclude that the indications for nephroangiography in the investigation of hypertension might be modified by the inclusion of other selective investigations.


While Germany had been developing the Re330 overhead contact system for speed of 330 km/h to 400 km/h,it had developed the Cu-Mg contact wire and acquired success.Our country had introduced Germanic Rim120 Cu-Mg contact wire in 2003 at Qinshen passenger special line and in 2007 at High-speed Beijing-Tianjin railway.On the foundation of studying foreign experiment,our Cu-Mg contact wire had been produced by means of the innovating technology which is held complete independence intellectual property right.It is better than the similar product of Germany in strength,toughness,conductivity and the evenness of the properties,because it had been achieved grain refining.This work is a representativecase of introducing foreign technology and independent innovating for constructing our national high-speed railways.


POSITORY TIES contains, as usual, a wealth of interesting and useful matter. But if it contained nothing else than the article by Principal Davies on ' The Study of Theology in British Baptist Colleges,' it would still be a notable number. The I article is, in brief, an outspoken condemnation of i the present college system among the Baptists, with some suggestions for reform, and should be read by all interested in the college question' of the Free Churches. We can congratulate our Baptist brethren that so candid and competent a critic as Principal Davies has taken up this matter for them, and that the Baptist Union is actually moving in the direction of college reform. We would even venture to hope that someone may be found ere long to perform the same office for ~ I the Congregational body. Certainly the colleges 1 question' is at the bottom of much of our present distress as a denomination. And we shall look in vain for much improvement in the denominational outlook until we have set on foot a root and branch


The application of Rational Choice Theory(RCT) in economics,according to some economists,has proved to be "a great success",leading to clear and rigorous insights unattainable from less precise methods.Behind the idea of "success" lies some specific biased system of academic values.This system of values emphasizes parsimony over richness and rigor over reality,reflecting serious mescaline's biases.Economics,to be a real science,should balance between these values.


Spectral methods can be successfully used in many particular tasks. This report details the application of such methods for separating mixtures of data, that is, the data is the union of k different and subsets each of them generated by a different underlying distribution. Separating mixtures is a generalization of certain types of clustering, hence its importance within the Machine Learning community. Some classical results will be presented as an introduction to the topic followed by more recent developments [5, 4] in the area. The actual seminar session will be devoted to discuss and prove mathematically the results described. Overheads with the detailed proofs will be handed to the audience. 1 A quick look. A finite mixture mode for an unknown distribution is a weighted combination of a finite number of distribution of a known type. The problem of learning or estimation a mixture model is formulated as follow. We assume that we get samples from a distribution F on a multidimensional real space, which is a convex combination of unknown distributions F1, F2, . . . , Fk, with mixing weights w1, w2, . . . , wk. That is F = ∑k i=1 wiFi and ∑k i=1 wi = 1. The goal is then to classify all available samples according to their underlying distribution Fi and estimate the individual distribution parameters. As usual the problem has been heavily targeted when each distribution is Gaussian. Common sense tells us that proper separation and distribution parameter estimation are heavily depending on features like inter-mean separation (the further apart each individual distribution is the easier the problem becomes), intra-class variance (the more concentrated a distribution is the smaller the chance of overlapping), the number of different distributions and of course their sample size. Early results by Dasgupta [2] show that of each mixing weight is Ω(1/k) then one can learn the mixture efficiently if: |μi − μj | = (σi + σj) · Ω∗(n1/2) (1) This result however was further improved to [3, 1]: |μi − μj | = (σi + σj) · Ω∗(n1/4) (2) 1 A nice breakthrough is achieved by using a spectral algorithm for the special case of spherical Gaussian, making the performance depend on the number of mixtures rather than on the sample size: |μi − μj | = (σi + σj) · Ω∗(k1/4) (3) In the rest of this report we will state theoretical results on the filed of spectral learning in addition to stating algorithms in this filed for solving this sort of problems. The actual seminar session will be devoted to demonstrate some of the theorems and lemmas. Before we start however a small introduction on the mathematical foundations of all this follows. 2 Mathematical appetizer 2.1 In the beginning it was the variance... In order to illustrate spectral methods we will use the following notation: μ is a multidimensional variable defining the expected E[x] of the underlying distribution where x ∈ Rn is drawn from. σ2 = E[(x−μ)2] corresponds to the variance which for zero mean variables can also be stated as σ2 = E[x2]. The covariance is defined as σxy = E[(x− μx)(y − μy)] or σxy = E[xy] for zero mean variables. Actually one can define the covariance matrix C as a the matrix where its individual entries are of the form Cij = σij which can be easily constructed by means of the matrix multiplication. That is given X ∈ Rm×n a matrix with m zero mean samples of dimensionality n then CX = 1 nX T X. We also define two matrix norms: ‖A‖2 = max |x|=1 ‖Ax‖2 = λmax (4) ‖A‖F = √√√√ (m,n) ∑ (i,j)=(1,1) ai,j (5) where λmax is the largest eigenvalue of CA. The Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) of a matrix A ∈ Rm×n (m ≥ n) is defined as A = UΣV where U ∈ Rm×m and V ∈ Rn×n are orthogonal matrices and Σ ∈ Rm×n is a diagonal matrix that holds s1,1 = σ1 ≥ s2,2 = σ2 ≥ · · · ≥ sn,n = σn There are several conditions applying to the SVD that will be used along the rest of the report. Among them are: CA = V ΣV T = V ΛV T a.k.a. eigenvalue decomp. (6)


Computer networks have become ubiquitous and integral part of the nation's critical infrastructure. How to grasp the real-time overall situation of the network security is very noteworthy to study. Current network security systems make great contributions in enhancing the network security. Nevertheless, these products are independent and autonomous, so they fail to share the results of the detected attacks. Consequently, such solutions cannot figure out an overview of the network security situation. In another perspective, building a new global monitoring system from scratch will suffer from redundant construction, more cost, and longer deploying time. To address the dilemma, we propose a novel solution called GS-TMS which reuses the log data generated by the existing widely-spread security systems. By introducing the data stream and data integration technologies, GS-TMS provides a desirable capability of quickly building a large-scale distributed network monitoring system. Furthermore, GS-TMS has additional notable advantages over current monitoring systems in scalability and flexibility.


The Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Fusion Energy Division (FED) negative ion development program has concentrated on the use of Penning discharges in a strong magnetic field. Extraction from the discharge has taken place both perpendicular and parallel to the confining magnetic field. The former has received by far the greater development effort. The ion source produced is called VITEX for Volume Ionization with Transverse EXtraction. Attempts to extract parallel to themagnetic field have recently begun and the ion source principle has been labeled Ringatron. A plan view of a Penning discharge as used in VITEX is shown in Fig. 1. An elevation view is shown in Fig. 2. A thin sheet plasma of thickness D(1) is formed with energetic electrons of density on the order of 1013 cm-3. A secondary cold plasma of thickness D(2) is formed in the region immediately surrounding the energetic electron sheet due to diffusion. Negative ions formed in the discharge may be extracted transverse to the magnetic field with suitable electrodes as shown in Fig. 2. Probe studies coupled with geometrical variations on the thickness of D(1) and D(2) indicate that the two chamber model of Hiskesl is a valid production mechanism. A variation to the extraction geometry of VITEX is to take the sheet plasma of energetic electrons and wrap it around into a cylinderical annulus as shown in Fig. 3. Thus, excited molecular neutrals are fed into the core of the discharge from the entire annulus. The core is similar to the region D(2) of the VITEX geometry. Negative ions produced in the core are free to drift along the magnetic field to the extraction electrodes at which point they are accelerated parallel to the magnetic field. This source is called Ringatron due to the ring or annular nature of the discharge.


The main objective of the society in historical gardens and parks is to maintain the historical and artistic values. Researching on what has happened and what is happening to historical gardens and parks in Latvia, neighboring countries and Western Europe, it can be observed that in many places smaller or larger changes are being made in order to transform the gardens to serve for contemporary use. They are restored, renovated and reconstructed objects, the majority has been supplemented with various functions and activities, according to the understanding about what is and what is not appropriate for the historical environment. However, there is still a lack of understanding about what is needed and can be incorporated in the historical garden or park. It was observed that the structure of gardens has been supplemented with various elements and activities while inspecting around 50 historical parks and gardens in Western Europe, Baltic States and Latvia. Authors of these elements have divided them in the following categories: the required: parking lots, information centers and ticket office, restrooms, cafeterias and restaurants, souvenir stores. The possible: Children's playground, boating, internal transport, place for concerts, exhibitions or fairs. The discutable: New monuments, new buildings (pavillions, gazeebos, tea houses, etc.), modernt art objects and installations, sports court. The goal of this research is to investigate what benefits would be possible to obtain from new structural elements in historical parks and gardens and which structural elements could be recommended and exposition of which should be prevented in the historical Latvian environment. To assess the situation in historical parks and gardens and to develop recommendations for historical garden and park revitalization measures, visitors of these objects were surveyed. The group of respondents was formed of persons who are related to landscape architecture, architecture, restoration and history, in total 40 respondents were surveyed. Survey questions were very simple, most of which with yes and no answers, were illustrated with various comparative examples. The majority of respondents are supportive towards creation of new structural elements in historical parks and gardens, as such elements should serve for the convenience, wellness and enjoying of the beauty of historical heritage for visitors. These structural elements are parking lots, cafeterias, restrooms, internal transportation and water leisure. Very seriously should be thought about such objects as new monuments, new buildings, contemporaneous works of art and installations, as they can disturb the landscape space of the historical object with their firm volume and form. Although new structural elements might be very beneficial for the sustainability of the historical parks and gardens and their economic existence, the creation and maintenance of such elements has to be established in accordance to the regulatory enactments related to the cultural heritage protection.


The recent articles in SIGPLAN Notices (V21 #9, V22 #2, V22 #6) on passing procedures as parameters in Pascal reveal the need for a good model of program execution. The established contour model of Johnston is of no help in recursive situations because it is textually based and cannot shed much light on multiple instances of procedures. What is required is a dynamic model that displays procedure instances as they are created, allows you to depict several in existence at the same time, and deletes them when they are done. Such a model has been around for some time (Simula begin, 1973), but does not seem to be well known. In this paper, we show the model in action by following the execution of the program in V21 #9. It covers the intricacies of recursion, parameter passing, and calling formal procedure parameters. We are allowed to explain program execution in terms of Pascal code because of the Pascal compiler will guarantee (!) the equivalence of Pascal source code and the code executed by the machine. Since the model mimics the way programs are actually executed, it both aids in arguing the correctness of the program itself and also serves as an introduction to basic implementation techniques.


Objective To evaluate the current situation in the diagnose and treatment of chronic cough in community medicine in Tangxia town of Dongguan city. Methods Questionnaires were completed in 18 public service stations of community health services(1 community health service center and 17 health service stations) in community medicine in Tangxia town of Dongguan city. A total of 37 doctors were randomly recruited from the 18 public service stations of community health services, with 3 from the community health service center and 2 from each health service station. Results Only 5.4%(2/18) public service stations of community health services launched X-ray examination, and no public service station of community health services can perform pulmonary function test. All the general practitioners selected antibiotics and Chinese patent medicine as first choice drugs. No doctors expressed that they understood and carried out the directory of chronic cough, only 8.1% doctors expressed that they heard but not understand it. 94.6% doctors were not satisfied with the current diagnose and treatment of chronic cough, 81.1% of which believed that the main reason was the patients' economic status. Conclusion It is imperative to spread the experience treatment of chronic cough in public service stations of community health services.


The University of Cambridge could be home to five students currently studying at Harrogate Grammar School. This talented group of Sixth Formers have ...


A natural laminar flow (NLF) wind tunnel model has been designed and analyzed for a wind tunnel test in the National Transonic Facility (NTF) at the NASA Langley Research Center. The NLF design method is built into the CDISC design module and uses a Navier-Stokes flow solver, a boundary layer profile solver, and stability analysis and transition prediction software. The NLF design method alters the pressure distribution to support laminar flow on the upper surface of wings with high sweep and flight Reynolds numbers. The method addresses transition due to attachment line contamination/transition, Gortler vortices, and crossflow and Tollmien-Schlichting modal instabilities. The design method is applied to the wing of the Common Research Model (CRM) at transonic flight conditions. Computational analysis predicts significant extents of laminar flow on the wing upper surface, which results in drag savings. A 5.2 percent scale semispan model of the CRM NLF wing will be built and tested in the NTF. This test will aim to validate the NLF design method, as well as characterize the laminar flow testing capabilities in the wind tunnel facility.


Fingerprints have been used as a means to identify individuals uniquely for a very long time in various situations. In order to achieve robust performance of an automatic fingerprint identification/verification system, it is essential to be associated with a fingerprint enhancement algorithm in the minutiae extraction stage. We present a novel fingerprint enhancement system based on the directional filter bank. The directional filter bank is a maximally decimated filter bank with perfect reconstruction property that is able to decompose wedge-shape frequency components by using an 1-D filter prototype. By using the newly improved visualizable subbands in addition to the previous features of the directional filter bank, an efficient enhancement can be achieved in terms of both computation and memory saving.


Abstract In this work we derive surface integral formulae for the frequency dependent power operator in arbitrary geometries. This operator is combined with layer representations and measured pressure (or normal velocity) near-field holograms to construct a non-negative intensity distribution quantifying the areas of the vibrating structure that produce radiation to the far-field. It is demonstrated that the sound producing regions of the structure are clearly revealed using the derived formulae and that the spatial resolution is limited to a half-wavelength. We validate our methodology using numerically generated data that corresponds to the excitation of an elastic spherical shell by a point force.


Seizure is the result of excessive electrical discharges of neurons, which usually develops synchronously and happens suddenly in the central nervous system. Clinically, it is difficult for physician to identify neonatal seizures visually, while EEG seizures can be recognized by the trained experts. By extending our previous results on multichannel information fusion, we propose an automated distributed detection system consisting of the existing detectors and a fusion center to detect the seizure activities in the newborn EEG. The advantage of this proposed technique is that it does not require any priori knowledge of the hypotheses and the detector performances, which are often unknown in real applications. Therefore, this proposed technique has the potential to improve the performances of the existing neonatal seizure detectors.


Objective To establish methods of qualitative identification and quantitative detection for total paeoniflorin in Granula Self-cleaning. Methods TLC and HPLC method were carried out respectively to identify and determine paeoniflorin.The HPLC analysis was performed using SHIMADZU HPLC system.An Agilent C18(250 mm×4.6 mm,5μm) column coupled with guard column C18(Shim-pack GVP-ODS ×4.6 mm,5 μm) was used at 40 ℃.The mobile phase was consisted of acetonitrile and 0.1% phosphate aqueous(17 ∶83) at flow rate of 1.0 mL·min-1.The detection wavelength was 230 nm. Results The linear ranges of paeoniflorin was 14~140 μg·mL-1(r=0.999 9) and its average sample recovery of paeoniflorin was 103.12%(RSD 3.37 %).RSD value of reproducibility and precision was respectively 2.20% and 0.38%. Conclusion The established method was simple,accurate,reliable and low cost,thus it is applicable for the quality control of Granula self-cleaning.


), e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com. With the toughening of the emissions standard, a la rger fraction of the total hydrocarbon emissions (up to 70-90%) from the driving cycle procedure is emitted du ring the cold start and warm up of the engine. Tailpipe hydrocarbon (HC) emissions during the cold start are high because the catalyst is not at its light-off temperature (about 300


Neonatal mortality remains a problem worldwide, despite the existence of low-cost and evidence-based interventions. Unfortunately, the translation of these interventions into practice is deficient. ...


The production of fluorine-18 labeled organic compounds prepared from F/ sup 18/ fluoride ions by synthetic methods and that of compounds labeled by F/sup 18/ produced in situ by the O/sup 16/(H/sup 3/,n) and F/sup 19/(n,2n) nuclear processes are compared. The advantages of each method are evaluated and the potential application of labeled organic fluoroderivatives in biological studies is discussed. (auth)


Climate change is reshaping our physical and social world in countless ways (Reidmiller et al 2018). The most universally relevant of these impacts is the harm it is causing to human health and to the underlying environmental conditions necessary to sustain human health and well-being. Climate change is already harming human health in communities across America and the world. Research on the impacts of climate change on human health is a relatively new and a surprisingly under-funded element of the climate science research enterprise (Ebi et al 2016). Although many pressing research questions remain unanswered, the broad outlines of what is known are clear and profoundly important. Climate change is already harming human health in communities across America and the world—in myriad ways large and small (Paavola 2017, Ebi et al 2018, Masson-Delmotte et al 2018, Watts et al 2019). These harms are the result of the increasing frequency and intensity of heat waves and other extremeweather events like hurricanes and floods, worsened air pollution, increases in vector-borne diseases, contaminated food and water (including algae blooms), mental health impacts, and reduced nutrition and food security—all of which are caused or exacerbated by our changing climate (Ebi et al 2018). If left unchecked, these harms are almost certain to become far worse. Climate change has been described as a public health emergency and the 21st century's greatest threat to public health (Solomon & LaRocque 2019; Watts et al 2015). In a recent report, experts assembled by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded that, to protect humanhealth andwell-being, 'it is necessary and even vital to maintain the global temperature increase to below 1.5 ◦C' (Masson-Delmotte et al 2018). Even if the nations of the world achieve their stated goal of limiting global warming to below 2 ◦C—an outcome that is very much in doubt—serious public health harms will continue to escalate for many decades to come (Masson-Delmotte et al 2018). These public health harms are unfairly distributed. In communities around the nation, and in nations around the world, the 'frontline' communities—the communities whose members are being hurt first and worst, and who have benefited least from the economic prosperity of the fossil fuel era—are typically low-income, marginalized ethnic, and/or racial minority communities (WhiteNewsome et al 2018, Crear-Perry and Mcafee 2020). This profound inequity is also intergenerational: today's youth—and future generations—will suffer a much greater cost to health and well-being than their parents and grandparents (Treves et al 2018).


The objective of the current study was to compare the execution of hygiene and safety management according to the characteristics of children's food service stations, with the ultimate objective of providing sanitary and safe food service to children. To this end, the study conducted surveys of 73 public and private pre-schools with fewer than 100 children in district A from July 30 to October 31 2015. The differences were evaluated by t-test and analysis of variance. The confidence and validity of the results were analyzed by six food ingredient and facilities management questions, three personal hygiene and facilities management questions, four environmental management questions, and five storage and treatment management questions; for a total of 18 questions. The cumulative distribution of the four factors was 61.569%, and the Cronbach's alpha was 0.821, which indicated that the results were reliable. The results revealed that public pre-schools (a) and home-based pre-schools (b) had different levels of food ingredient and facility management, but no differences in the number of cooks, number of children served, type of food distribution, and the existence of mass food service facilities. The results of the study may be used to develop hygiene and safety management manual and educational contents to promote the health of the children served.


The capacity of 3D printing (3DP) technologies to initiate speedy polymerization of solvent free resins accounts for their utility in the manufacturing of medical devices. Nonetheless, independent biological evaluation of 3D printed materials is recommended due to the unique parameters of the manufacturing process, which can influence their physical, chemical, and biological properties. In this study, E-Shell 450 material indicated for 3DP of hearing aid shells and inner ear devices was examined for biological safety using zebrafish bioassays adapted to OECD fish embryo test. In addition, the proprietary material was characterized for composition using headspace gas-chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS). To initiate test, newly fertilized zebrafish eggs were cultured on non-treated and ethanol-treated materials in glass petri dishes with ultrapure water, incubated at 28.5°C and assessed for developmental endpoints of toxicity at 24h interval until 96h. Data confirmed non-treated material was extremely toxic in bioassays within 24h whereas ethanol-treated material showed a relative lower toxicity possibly due to ethanoic-aqueous interactions as observed by GC-MS. With the current influx of 3D printing materials, users are urged to exercise caution. Operators must also take cognizance of the potential toxicity of the chemicals used in 3DP and implement safety measures to limit their exposure.


This work presents the results of an intensity-based fuel–air calibration for a range of charge pressures for gasoline fuel. The radical intensity ratio of diatomic carbon (C2*) to methylidene (CH*) was acquired through line-of-sight chemiluminescence imaging at pressures up to 10 bar. Certified gasoline (99% iso-octane, 0.9% n-heptane, and 0.1% other additives) and air are injected into an optically accessible pressure vessel capable of handling pressures up to 200 bar and ignited with an automotive spark plug. Line-of-sight images of C2* and CH* are recorded simultaneously on a single image sensor utilizing an intensifier, a high-speed camera, and various optical components to split the light signals associated with C2* and CH* (centered at 513 and 427 nm, respectively). The ratio of the signals (C2*/CH*) are acquired and compared to the measured equivalence ratio of the exhaust gases and charge pressure. The approach allowed for characterization of the behavior of the intensity ratio at various charge ...


Based on the idea of Health Level Seven International (HL7) version 3 and its initial architecture and database design, a generic data model for the Integrated Intelligent Computer-Assisted Language Learning (iiCALL) environment has been developed. Open technologies for communication and a knowledge-based and service-oriented architecture (SOA) are key factors of iiCALL. The development process of iiCALL concentrates on object-oriented analysis and object-oriented design. According to the development process of HL7, use-case driven development yields to a message information model which is explained in detail for exemplary use cases.


Although there is increasing interest in American archival history, there has been no precise definition of its value. This essay is an effort to provide such a definition, arguing that the study of archival history is important for the following reasons: it addresses contemporary concerns of and issues facing the archival profession; it is an important tool to be used in self-evaluation and planning by archival programs; it can be used to develop a body of case studies that could facilitate a better understanding of the life cycle of cultural institutions such as archives; it is an excellent means of introduction for graduate students preparing to be archivists; it is a gateway through which to examine some fundamental questions about the nature of records and information; and the study of archival history provides an outlet for the scholarly interests of individual archivists.


Length of stay (LoS) prediction is considered an important research field in Healthcare Informatics as it can help to improve hospital bed and resource management. The health cost containment process carried out in Italian local healthcare systems makes this problem particularly challenging in healthcare services management. In this work a novel unsupervised LoS prediction model is presented which performs better than other ones commonly used in this kind of problem. The developed model detects autonomously the subset of non-class attributes to be considered in these classification tasks, and the structure of the trained selforganizing network can be analysed in order to extract the main factors leading to the overcoming of regional LoS threshold.


We report a 29−year old woman with the history of a generalized tonic−clonic seizure eight years ago and complex partial seizure half a year later. She is seizure−free under carbamazepine mono− therapy since 7 1 / 2 years. Each EEG showed continuous rhythmic sharp waves and sharp slow waves bitemporo−occipital after eye closure without visual ictal phenomena during observation. The main characteristic of the EEG−pattern was the special rela− tionship to the visual system with prompt inhibition by eye opening or photic stimulation leading to the diagnosis of fixa− tion−off sensitivity (FOS). Symptomatic cases of this visual−rela− ted epilepsy in adults are rare. Since childhood she suffers from a celiac disease with slight symptoms under gluten−free diet and no calcification in CCT. Italian study−groups showed a higher prevalence of epilepsy (1.5±5%) suggesting a correlation bet− ween glutenenteropathy and temporo−occipital epileptic disch− arges. Regarding these data similar to our patient a causal rela− tionship between FOS and celiac disease seems to be reasonable.


School-enterprise cooperation model not only can improve the relevance and effectiveness of personnel training,but also can improve the quality of practice oriented talents. Introduction of undergraduate medical colleges of pharmacy school-enterprise cooperation model is a way to train qualified talents, is an innovation to professional training model of higher pharmaceutical, and is the need for the rapid development of higher pharmaceutical education.


public profile of this issue continues to grow and political constituencies surrounding the issue shift, it appears that climate change is likely to prove the most complex environmental issue yet tackled through domestic or international policy. Developing countries have been vocal in calling on industrialized countries to change their greenhouse gas-emitting ways. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the effects of a changing climate could disrupt critical economic progress in many developing countries and could even submerge some Pacific Island states. Regardless of one's personal views regarding the solidity of climate change science or the prudence of taking potentially costly actions in the near term to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, political momentum appears to be carrying us toward development of a domestic and international mitigation regime. In December 1997, parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC or Convention) are scheduled to sign a protocol to the Convention that would establish binding targets and timetables for GHG emissions reductions. In industrialized countries particularly, legally binding commitments would almost certainly result in increased publicand private-sector spending on mitigation measures. From a sustainable development perspective, a key question is how this money will be spent and whether these activities will promote sustainable development objectives. This article reviews the potential impacts of a climate change mitigation regime on developing countries and on the achievement of sustainable development goals. The article also examines climate change mitigation approaches with which the private sector has been experimenting and will discuss the importance of private-sector involvement in any program intended to achieve sustainable development benefits.


Successive interference cancellation (SIC) is a promising practical scheme for increasing the capacity of CDMA systems. The interference cancellation is never perfect, and the residual cancellation errors propagate because of the successive nature of the decoding. In fact, these residual errors are the principle capacity-limiting issue in SIC systems. Until now, the statistics of these errors have been assumed to follow standard probability distributions such as lognormal and Gaussian. In this paper, the actual statistics of cancellation error are derived. A mathematical expression for the probability density function and the second order statistics is presented, and shown to depend closely on the channel statistics. These expressions were verified through simulations. A Gaussian distribution allowing accurate modelling of cancellation error is also found. The results will be useful to future research and to industry, allowing accurate modelling of cancellation error when designing CDMA systems with successive interference cancellation.


Prediction feedback was used to control of spatiotemporal chaos in a coupled map lattice(CML). The prediction feedback controller of CML is presented in detail. Computer simulation verified the method. Control modes of CML were derived theoretically and analyzed numerically.