The research is of quantitative quasi-experimental type, was carried out during the months of October to November of 2017, in the Hospital Victor Lazarte Echegaray, with the purpose of determining the effectiveness of the educational program in the level of maternal knowledge About breastfeeding in preterm infants. The sample was made up of 20 mothers of prematurity of the neonatal service, for the collection of data the instrument was used: Questionnaire on the level of knowledge of breastfeeding in prematurity and the educational program was implemented in 6 sessions The data were tabulated and presented in tables and statistical charts of simple and double entry. The effectiveness of the educational program was done through the T-Student test. The results indicated that: before the educational program 50% of the mothers had low knowledge level, 35% average and 10% high, after the educational program 75% had high knowledge level and 25% average. The educational program was highly significant (P = 0.00).


: Erwin Schrödinger's work on wave mechanics started in late 1925, stimulated by his study of Louis de Broglie's thesis. It is well known that in his initial attempts to formulate a quantum theory of the atom Schrödinger tried to develop a relativistic theory, following de Broglie's ideas, and only afterwards he looked for a non-relativistic wave equation. It is straightforward to derive the wave equation corresponding to de Broglie's phase waves. both in the relativistic and non relativistic realms. In the case of his relativistic attempt, Schrödinger did indeed follow a simple approach, using de Broglie's theory. In the non -relativistic approach, he attempted to produce an independent derivation of the wave equation, following several different lines, instead of using de Broglie's results in the classical limit. This paper analyses Schrödinger's derivations of the wave equation, showing the differences and similarities between his theory and de Broglie's. It will be shown that, although it is formally possible to derive the wave equation from de Broglie's theory, there is an incompatibility between the two theories: it would be impossible to make any sense of de Broglie's ideas in the case of the rigid rotator, for instance. Schrödinger's approach was, in this sense, independent and incompatible with de Broglie's theory, and it could be easily applied to many different physical situations. This heuristic value of Schrödinger's wave equation is another very important distinction between the two theories, since de Broglie's theory only led to a single new prediction: the wave behaviour of electrons in diffraction experiments.


With the popularity of computer network, the remote password authentication becomes an important research topic once again. In 2003, Wu et al. proposed an efficient and user friendly remote password authentication scheme based on the one-way hash function and discrete logarithm problem. However, there still exists a security flaw in their scheme. In this article, we propose a new password authentication scheme which inherits the advantages of Wu et al.'s scheme and withstands the security weakness from which Wu et al.'s scheme suffered. In addition, our proposed scheme can confirm mutual authentication between the remote system and users. The security of our scheme is also based on the one-way hash function and discrete logarithm problem.


: The structures arranged in sloping regions are substantially more inclined to seismic condition in contrast with the structures that are situated in level districts. Structures on slants contrast from different structures since they are sporadic both vertically and on a level plane hence forth torsionally coupled and are vulnerable to serious harm when exposed to seismic activity. The sections of ground story have shifting tallness of segments because of slanting ground. In this investigation, conduct of two storied inclined structure with various slant points i.e., 15 o , 20 o , 25 o with a test set up. From the examination, it has been seen that as the incline point builds, solidness of the model increments because of abatement in tallness of short section and that outcomes in increment of seismic tremor powers on short segment which is about 75% of absolute base shear and odds of harm is expanded significantly because of the arrangement of plastic pivot in this way legitimate investigation is required to evaluate the impacts of different ground slants.


1. Introduction 2. Ground water 3. Surface water 4. Air quality 5. Emergency planning and response 6. Risk analysis 7. Public health 8. Waste management 9. Policy making and government decision making.


DFA is an effective tool to reduce cost, time and improve perf ormance and quality. DFA is widely applied in many industries and in many countries especially in the United States, United Kingdom and Japan. In Malaysia, companies 'will benefit greatly from this approach, however little is known about the extent ofDFA awareness and application in Malaysian industries . This paper reports on the results ofa survey carried out as part of an ongoing research at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) on the implementation of DFA in Malaysia. The survey was done to determine the level ofawareness and implementation ofDFA in assembly-related companies.


NiTi endodontic rotary instruments subjected to alternating tension and compression stress in root canals may fracture without prior warning. Once broken, extracting the fractured part from the canal is a difficult job and is annoying to both the patient and the dentist. Warning of an imminent fracture during clinical use will be a great help to avoid medical and legal complications. A monitoring system employing Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensors has been attempted. The reason of using FBG is its small size which is very promising in integrating with the handpiece of the endodontic equipment. When cracking developed in an rotary instrument, we expect the natural vibration frequency of the instrument changes. If we can pick up the stress wave transmitted through the structural components of the rotary instruments, we may be able to detect the occurrence of a crack. In the current work, we found that we can successfully locate the operation period in the time domain by picking up and analyzing the sound wave using FBG. Furthermore, by employing Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) on the signal, we can reveal the energy variation and the frequency shifting phenomenon in specific section of frequency domain. For some characteristic frequencies, it was found that the energy and frequency varied in a well-defined pattern during the period of crack growth. It is hoped that with these information, the fatigue failure of rotary instruments can be closely monitored to avoid/alleviate the occurrence of unexpected fracture during clinical use.


The COVID-19 health crisis has brought back the name "Vietnam". Vietnam is cited by global institutions as an example of public management of the pandemic, yet it is located at the gateway to China, the "eye of the storm", and only had limited resources. This paper proposes an analysis of the Vietnamese state's management of the Covid-19 crisis by taking a cultural approach. The aim is to understand to what extent socio-historical-cultural elements are perceived in Vietnam as explanatory factors for the successful implementation of public actions


[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] AFTER OVER A decade of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan combating a violent insurgency of extremists, the U.S. military is now facing a new fight with another violent enemy--one hidden within our own ranks. Failures in leadership and the lack of personal accountability within our formations ensure this enemy's survival. Leaders fail to create a culture of respect and professionalism, provide an environment that is safe and supportive of victims, deliberately investigate accusations, and ruthlessly prosecute offenders. While the battlefield and enemy have changed, the principles of warfare remain the same. The Army should use the lessons learned in Iraq and Afghanistan to more effectively combat the current war against sexual predators in the Armed Forces. Counterinsurgency (COIN) operations are very complex and have been the topic of numerous books, articles, and debates over the last decade. There are six fundamental principles of COIN that apply to all counterinsurgency operations. Examining these principles and applying them in conjunction with lessons learned in Afghanistan may help the military to end sexual assault. Fundamental Principles of COIN Department of the Army Field Manual (FM) 3-24, Counterinsurgency, defines COIN as military, paramilitary, political, economic, psychological, and civic actions taken by a government to defeat an insurgency. (1) COIN is a combination of offensive, defensive, and stability operations spanning multiple agencies. To be successful, COIN requires cooperation on all levels. Just like COIN, the Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention (SHARP) program includes multiple organizations, such as the Army Community Service, Family Advocacy Program, and the Criminal Investigations Division. FM 3-24 devotes an entire chapter to discussing the importance of integrating civilian and military activities into counterinsurgency operations. (2) It also investigates how insurgents strive to disguise their intentions, and when successful, make COIN operations extremely difficult. Insurgencies take many different forms, and while each is unique, they tend to share certain commonalities. (3) Although the structure, level of organization, and goals of each insurgent group may vary, fundamental COIN principles are applicable to all insurgent groups. * Identify insurgent motivations and depth of commitment. (4) * Identify likely insurgent weapons and tactics. (5) * Identify the operational environment in which insurgents seek to initiate and develop their campaign and strategy. (6) * Stabilize the area of operation to facilitate the local government's ability to provide for the local populace. (7) * Conduct education and information operations targeting insurgents, victims, and potential victims. (8) * Train the indigenous government and security forces to conduct effective COIN operations independently. (9) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Identify insurgent motivation and depth of commitment. An insurgent's level of commitment and drive correlates to various motivating factors. For example, a hardline Islamic extremist who is motivated by a convoluted view of religious duty, a hatred for Western culture, and disgust of the basic concept of freedom will not negotiate. (10) However, myriad factors motivate large numbers of the local population in Afghanistan to cooperate with insurgents. In many cases the Taliban intimidate the local populace and coerce them into action by providing or limiting certain resources or services. In many villages, the Taliban demand cooperation and support from the population--resistance results in threats to destroy homes, crops and livelihood, or even death. Another motivating factor is economic necessity. Afghan families typically depend on the men for survival. Many of the men have no ideological commitment to the insurgent cause, but monetary compensation is incentive enough to convince them to plant improvised explosive devices (IEDs) or become an informant for the Taliban. …


In China,the college students' subject contests have its unique connotation and been a new growth point for the higher education research in the respects of the relationship between the subjects and the innovative talents training since the new century.The subject contests meet the needs of the undergraduates' self-value realization and have brought the new vitality and vigor to the university spirit construction and the education reform and development.As an important carrier of cultivating creative talents,the status and role that the subject contest plays in the innovative talents training has been valued increasingly.


Abstract : The lack of adequate smoke with JP-8 in the Vehicle Engine Exhaust Smoke System (VEESS) is detrimental to the effective use of JP-8 as the single battlefield fuel. The VEESS is considered a force multiplier and is very critical in armor strategies. Efforts of this study centered on quantifying the obscuration of smoke produced by FRF blends. All fuel blends were examined in a diesel VEESS screener that was developed to emulate actual VEESS parameters. Results indicated that FRF blends did not produce more smoke than the base fuels.


In this study, a novel soft-switched high step-up DC/DC converter is presented. This converter is suitable to be employed in photovoltaic and fuel cell systems. The proposed topology is based on coupled inductors and switched-capacitor techniques to provide high step-up gain. Also, due to high conversion ratio, and symmetrical structure of the proposed topology, the voltage stress of semiconductor elements is low; therefore, high performance metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistors with low ON-resistance, and also low-voltage rating diodes can be utilised to reduce the circuit cost, conduction, and reverse-recovery losses which improve the converter efficiency and power density. Furthermore, by adopting an active clamp circuit, the stored energy in the leakage inductance of coupled inductors is recycled and zero-voltage-switching turn-on condition for both main and clamp switches are provided. Operating principle and steady-state analysis of the converter are discussed in detail. Finally, an experimental prototype of the proposed converter with 200 W output power is implemented which verifies the theoretical analysis.


The Diwei bridge is situated in Damaoxia river reach of Chongqing,and borders on the Diwei cement Co.,Ltd.In order to study that the bridge makes influence on the ability to traveling flood of the Yangtze river,in this paper,2 D flow mathematical model is used,the calculation achievements tally with actual situation more better.In addition,the dispose of water retaining structure at mathematical model calculation is researched theoretically.


Abstract Lommel's theory of light focusing is here extended to an examination of the distribution of critical points near the focus of a uniform, converging, monochromatic spherical wave diffracted at a circular aperture with a range of different values of the Fresnel number. It is found that all the off-axis intensity maxima and minima lie on the straight lines that pass through the centres of the dark rings of the Airy pattern. Moreover, these intensity extrema are located near those geometrical wavefronts which have radii that are integral multiples of 2π, as measured in a dimensionless coordinate system. These results not only provide us with a comprehensive knowledge of the structure of a focused field, but also with a method of constructing a sketch map of the three-dimensional intensity distribution near the focus of systems of different Fresnel number.


This paper assesses the implications that the Asian Crisis, as it impacts on the Republic of Korea, has for foreign MNEs. The paper is based on some 100 interviews conducted with the CEOs and other senior personnel of companies operating in South Korea. Although the Crisis initially appeared to portend badly for all concerned with the Korean market, a window of opportunity opened for foreign enterprise. However, this opportunity is not of a "blanket" nature. It requires an in-depth understanding of the Korean business environment and the pitfalls that lurk. In this mixed scenario, opportunities, among others, include importation of foreign capital and technology, manufacture and distribution of branded goods. They also include mergers and partnerships with Korean enterprises as well as acquisitions.


The present invention relates to a bottle cap, in particular a drinks bottle cap capable of freshness, including, phenols reaction layer, a porous permeable membrane and a sealing membrane, the internal cap and the bottle cap is provided with a sealing member body tighten matching threads; at the top of the cap body is provided with a reaction layer phenols; the permeable membrane is covered with a porous reaction layer on the outer phenols, four sides of the porous permeable membrane against the top of the cap body; permeable porous membrane provided with a number vent; permeable porous membrane coated on the outside with a sealing film, and the transparent cap central body, provided with tear strips in the sealing film side, tear strip is fixedly connected to the sealing film, a reaction layer in a circular phenol shaped strip, containing the above polyphenol oxidase. The porous permeable membrane has a number of vent opening. The cap structure is simple, easy to observe, and low cost.


In article strategic reference points of increase of competitiveness of the enterprises of agrofood sector of Russia which treat innovative and investment updating of a food complex of regional agrofood systems of the Russian Federation, external relations and so on are defined. It is revealed that the sustainable development of agrofood systems of regions has to be directed on complex and system use of reserves of increase of their efficiency, on ensuring competitiveness and food security, and also quality achievement of life of the population of regions.


Learning style, as one of the learners' factors which have a great influence on the foreign language teaching, has been laid on more emphasis by some linguists, researchers and teachers in the recent years. According to Keefe, it refers to "cognitive, affective and physiological traits that are relatively stable indications of how learners perceive interact with and respond to the learning environment" (Keefe, 1979, p.4). Making some research on learning styles will facilitate the teachers' further realization on the students' learning prevalence and promote the improvement of their teaching constantly to satisfy the students' demand and raise the foreign language teaching level. Starting with the introduction of the definition and categories of learning styles, the thesis mainly elaborates the researches on learning styles abroad and at home, in the hope of providing most teachers with some references for their further study in the future work and pushing forward the improvement of the foreign language teaching level.


Achievements and advances of research on the physiological adaptation in altitude training home and abroad recently were summarized by documentation Results:the human body can produce a series of advantaged or disadvantaged antihypoxia reactions The purpose is discuss whether training at altitude improves performance at sea level more than training at sea level itself


Introduction - Philip John Davies & Paul Wells 1. American cinema, political criticism and pragmatism: A therapeutic reading of Fight Club and Magnolia - Paul Watson 2. 'Ask not what America can do for you.': Views from the White House: Hollywood in elections and elections in Hollywood - Philip John Davies 3. Oliver Stone's presidential films - Albert Auster 4. '.in order to form a more perfect union': some manifest destinies: Gender and family values in the Clinton presidency and 1990s Hollywood film - Carol R. Smith 5. '.and crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea': crossing boundaries: New York City in American film - Leonard Quart 6. Dixie's land: Cinema of the American South - Ralph Willett 7. '.into the crucible with you all, God is making the American.': melting pots and pans: Independent Cinema and modern Hollywood: pluralism in American cultural politics - Brian Neve 8. 'I wanna be like you-oo-oo': Disnified politics and identity from 'The Little Mermaid' to' Mulan' - Paul Wells 9. 'Oh! Say, does the star-spangled banner yet wave, o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?' : contemporary conflict and contradiction: Ambiguity and Anger : Representations of African Americans in contemporary Hollywood film - Mary Ellison 10. The Adversarial Imagination - Phil Melling


Matesih Market concentrates on activities that consider locations that are very strategic and make it easy for the community in Matesih Subdistrict and surrounding Subdistricts. Matesih Market is able to provide all kinds of household needs, so this market is very crowded and shows interrelated social differences. As one of the markets that has a fairly high trading activity, Matesih Market has a varied vegetable trading network. Variations from traders that will show a complex relationship with traders to buyers or vice versa. Overall activity in the market will form a trading network. This is what will be issued there will be a distribution that is distributed. The population in this study is a vegetable trader in Matesih Market. This research is intended to: (1) definition Characteristics of vegetable traders in Matesih Market, (2) Analyzing variations in the network of vegetable traders on their distribution. The method used uses the census and interview methods. To find out the characteristics and variations of the network is done by recapitating the results of in-depth interviews and classification in the form of frequency tables. For the results of this research are (1) vegetable traders in Matesih Market are traders with female sex, education is relatively low, and are purchased from neighboring regions. (2) Variations in the network of vegetable traders in Matesih Market come from direct farmers and collectors


AbstractDifferences in housing expenditure-to-income and utility expenditure-to-income ratios are compared among groups of rural home owners by selected socioeconomic, household, and housing characteristics. Personal interviews were conducted with 506 rural households in communities of less than 20,000 in six midwestern states. Of the 506 households interviewed, 399 were home owners. The responses of the 399 rural home owners were examined using analysis of variance with the least significant difference test. The authors found that young home owners and low-income home owners pay a higher proportion of their income for housing than other groups. Lower-income households also pay a higher percentage of income for utility costs as do one-person households. This is true for those with less than a high-school degree and those living in older, less expensive housing. The findings suggest that housing and utility expenditure, in relation to income, should be analyzed separately since different segments of the po...


With the rapid development of customer relationship management, more and more user recommendation technologies are used to enhance the customer satisfaction. Although there are many good recommendation algorithms, it is still a challenge to increase the accuracy and diversity of these algorithms to fulfill users' preferences. In this paper, we construct a user recommendation model containing a new method to compute the similarities among users on bipartite networks. Different from other standard similarities, we consider the influence of each object node including popular degree, preference degree, and trust relationship. Substituting these new definitions of similarity for the standard cosine similarity, we propose a modified collaborative filtering algorithm based on multifactors (CF-M). Detailed experimental analysis on two benchmark datasets shows that the CF-M is of high accuracy and also generates more diversity.


The monkeypox virus is an orthopoxvirus, which is in the same family of viruses as the variola virus that causes smallpox. The United States (US) has documented the largest number of monkeypox globally with a reported 28 000 people infected. The greatest number of cases in the United States have been reported in men, ages 31–40. More than 90% of US cases between 17 May and 22 July 2022 were reported in men who reported recent sex or close contact with a man. Because of New Mexico's unique experience with pharmacist‐administered tuberculin skin testing, pharmacists and pharmacy students were in a position to fill a community needs to provide intradermal monkeypox vaccinations. Pharmacy students at the University of New Mexico administered 355 subcutaneous doses and 534 intradermal doses of the monkeypox vaccine. The purpose of this manuscript is to highlight how pharmacy student interns can be successfully trained to vaccinate using the intradermal route of administration and provide patient care during this public health outbreak.


Abstract This paper discusses the prevalence of mental disorder In the People's Republic of China and the delivery of mental health services to the Chinese population. The Chinese do not regard mental health as a major priority In their allocation of medical resources. They claim that the prevalence of mental disorder In China Is relatively low, but It Is difficult to evaluate this situation because of a lack of epidemiological data The Chinese utilize neighborhood study groups and units of workers to provide social support and participate in therapy to a much greater extent than Is possible for community mental health programs In the West. The effectiveness of this approach and other aspects of mental health In China await further research.


Workload, response rate, data yield, and data quality of travel diaries are interacting variables. It has long been suspected that it is impossible to maximize all variables at the same time. Still, empirical work trying to improve understanding of the trade-offs among them has been rare. Results are reported of experiments with long-distance diaries, which aim to clarify some of the possible relationships. The object of experimentation is surveys of long-distance travel behavior, which are currently of particular interest in Europe and elsewhere. The development of the tourism industry, deregulation of the long-distance modes, and infrastructure concerns require improved data about long-distance travel, both in improved inventories and in improved behavioral understanding. The experiments undertaken varied the workload of the respondents by varying the number of items to be reported about any long-distance journey, the duration of the survey period, and the temporal orientation of the survey. The results indicate that the response rate and the data yield, that is, the number of reported journeys and stages, change systematically with changes in the experimental variables (reduced response rates for prospective surveys, reduced number of reported journeys, and stages for retrospective surveys). Detailed results for these trade-offs are given. The trade-offs force the designer of such surveys to choose carefully and to invest time and effort in correcting for the potential biases resulting from this systematic behavior.


This paper sums up and analyzes the problems found during the security assessment process of thermal control specialty in fossil-fired power plant,such as the problems existing in environment of thermal control system,thermal protection,distributed control system and thermal automation etc.aspects,and brings forward the corresponding improvement method,which has a certain reference value for the secu-rity improvement of thermal control specialty of fossil-fired power plant.


Based on the study of tanh function method and the coupled projective Riccati equation method, we propose a new algorithm to search for explicit exact solutions of nonlinear evolution equations. We use the higher-order Schrodinger equation and mKdV equation to illustrate this algorithm. As a result, more new solutions are obtained, which include new solitary solutions, periodic solutions and singular solutions. Some new solutions are illustrated in figures.


A sensitivity analysis method which is an extension of the conjugate direction method developed by Davidon, Fletcher and Powell is presented. Sensitivity means the change of an objective function caused by the deviation of independent variables in an arbitrary direction from the optimum point. Furthermore, by this method we can know whether a local optimum point has been really attained or not after termination of successive iterations. A numerical example of successful application to an optimization problem in chemical engineering is shown.


For maneuvering target tracking, the interacting multiple model Gaussian particle filter is proposed without resampling, which can avoid the degeneracy in the effective number of particles. The basic idea is to combine the interacting multiple model approach with a Gaussian particle filter and this approach is easy of parallel implementation. Finally, simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms.


Caseload (student-to-staff ratio) is a metric commonly used by upper level administrators to inform budgetary allocations. Using a national, random sample we found that the average caseload is 133.0 students per disability practitioner. Institutions with one disability practitioner had a caseload of 154.9 students; institutions with two or three practitioners carried a caseload of 140.7 students. Practitioners working in offices with four or five full-time staff averaged 126.6 students and those with six or more full-time professionals carried a caseload of 135.2 students. Relying solely on caseload metrics to inform budgetary decisions is problematic because practitioners often have extensive workload responsibilities beyond student caseload, current caseloads may reflect overwork rather than socially-just staffing, and caseload metrics assume students use similar accommodations and these accommodations take comparable amounts of time to administer. Thus, we describe eight additional data-driven tools and illustrate how disability leaders can employ these tools for budgetary advocacy.


For a long time, Vidal de la Blache was considered an opponent of Friedrich Ratzel's ideas, especially in Brazil. Analysis of several Vidal's texts has shown that it did not exist and that Ratzel had a important influence in some of the French geographer conceptions. This is the fact that the article aims to detach, besides exposing the reasons of putting this "rivalry" and analyzing Vidal's writings to demonstrate this last one's respect for the Prussian geographer conceptions.


The photoionization studies have resulted in the determination of new heats of formation of the following molecules or ions: H/sub 2/S/sub 2/, C/sub 2/H/sub 5/S, C/sub 4/H/sub 9/SH/sup +/, C/sub 3/H/sub 7/S/sup +/. In addition, the dissociation mechanisms of diethyldisulfide and t-butyl sulfide have been investigated. These data clearly show that the ion t-butyl disulfide dissociates via a two component rate indicating that there exists an isomer which is lower in energy than that of t-butyl disulfide. During this contract period, we have also examined in considerable detail the /sup 17/O and /sup 33/S NMR spectral properties of numerous organosulfur compounds in an effort to identify substituent effects and trends which might serve as predictive parameters for the identification and verification of unknown organosulfur compounds. We have found new and convincing /sup 33/S NMR evidence favoring the dipolar description of the sulfinyl bond in sulfoxides. We have successfully established the analytical potential of both /sup 17/O and /sup 33/S NMR as useful methods for determining the composition of mixtures containing various oxidized organosulfur constituents. For the first time, we have applied the /sup 33/S NMR technique to the evaluation of organosulfur components in ''extracted'' coal samples, successfully observing a /supmore » 33/S resonance consistent with a family of aryl sulfonates. 19 refs., 3 figs., 5 tabs.« less


The infrared spectra of the water (H2O,HDO,D2O) complexes with HCl, HBr, HI, Cl2, Br2 and I2 have been studied in argon matrices in the 11 to 25 K interval. In all cases, water acts as a lone‐pair donor. The hydrogen halide complexes are effectively planar and rotate around the axis through the heavy atoms. For the water halogen complexes, the results are less clear, but a similar rotation, coupled to low wave number bending motions, seems possible.


AIMS/OBJECTIVES
The aim of this study was to investigate the association of extractions by the diagnoses of caries, pulpal/periapical infection and periodontal disease, controlling for visit type, insurance and age.

DESIGN
Cross-sectional analysis of the 1993-94 wave of a longitudinal study.

SETTING
Private general dental practice.

PARTICIPANTS
A random sample of Australian registered dentists, (response rate = 74%).

METHODS
Practitioners completed service logs over one to two typical clinical days.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE
Percentage of patients receiving extractions.

RESULTS
Overall, 7.05% of patients received extractions, with the highest percentages occurring for persons with caries (7.90%), periodontal disease (17.45%) and pulpal/periapical infection (17.54%). Odds of extraction were higher at emergency visits for insured and uninsured patients compared to non-emergency visits by insured patients, while odds of extraction (Logistic regression: OR = Odds ratio; 95% CI) were higher for 18-44 year-olds with caries (OR = 1.44; 1.09-1.89), for 18-44 (OR = 1.84; 1.34-2.54) and 45+ year-olds (OR = 1.83; 1.27-2.63) with pulpal/periapical infection, and for 45+ year-olds (OR = 6.82; 4.68-9.95) with periodontal disease.

CONCLUSIONS
There were different age-specific causes of extraction, controlling for visit type and insurance. Effect sizes were highest for pulpal/periapical infection and periodontal disease, but caries remained a major cause of tooth loss due to the higher prevalence of this condition.


Synopsis Tests conducted on eight T beams subjected to negative moments at the ends and positive moment near midspan are described. The moment-curvature relationships for various sections and the distribution of flexural rigidity, EI, along the beam are discussed. A simplified design procedure is suggested to determine the equivalent EI value for T beams to be used in the limit design of reinforced concrete frames.


Delayed-feedback control is applied to stabilize the noise-induced chaotic behavior of a Duffing oscillator and a parametrically excited pendulum with noisy harmonic excitations. We first follow the standard pullback procedure of obtaining random invariant measure (RIM) and then intuitively construct Poincare maps of RIM. Nonchaotic and chaotic sample processes are stabilized similarly to deterministic delayed-feedback control. The fractal structures of chaotic random processes are stabilized into point structures.


This study was designed to explore medical students' and primary school teachers' experiences of a new community teaching project. Academic staff and students from the School of Medicine Dundee, National Health Service partners, local education department, and primary school teachers engaged in a collaborative project which has embedded community engagement in the curriculum while encouraging interprofessional education through multiagency working. Influenced by evaluative inquiry, this qualitative study used an online questionnaire, designed to give participants the freedom to respond, and give their own opinions, via free text responses. The results show the value of a real primary school–based situation, and the merit of experiential learning gained throughout the program, in which students interacted with children about health promotion in a meaningful way. The interprofessional and collaborative nature of the project enhanced the value of the experience for all participants in relation to the benefits of teamwork, dispelling the doctor authority and recognition of the roles of others. The experience was an interactive, enjoyable, and expressive way to facilitate learning, and has helped prepare the health care students for future practice.


W hile the current collapse of our economies is threatening and unsettling and seems apocalyptic in nature, there are also signs that we are in the midst of a huge shift of consciousness. Instead of seeing destruction as a circumstance to be feared, this article explores the notion that turbulence and change are natural parts of life. Chaos points—choice points— occur when transformation, arising out of destruction, is possible. Our future depends on how we make our choices: for comfort, profit, and unsustainable greed or for peace, cooperation, and the strength of love.


In order to explore the clinical pathways that fit the actual situation of our country and department of infectious diseases, an analysis was performed to evaluate the effectiveness of clinical pathways for varicella, acute bacillary dysentery, measles, scarlet fever and rubella when compared with traditional standard medical care. Using a retrospective comparative study design, varicella, acute bacillary dysentery, measles, scarlet fever and rubella patients who were managed on a clinical pathway (clinical pathway group) were compared with a retrospective group of patients who received traditional medical care (control group) prior to the pathway's implementation. The following outcomes were measured: length of hospital stay, hospitalization costs. There was a significant reduction in the median hospitalization costs in the clinical pathway group patients in all five infectious diseases (P<0.05). The clinical pathway group's length of hospital stay for varicella, measles, acute bacillary dysentery and rubella were significantly shorter than the control group (P<0.05). The implementation of clinical pathways in varicella, acute bacillary dysentery, measles, scarlet fever and rubella might contribute to better quality of care and cost-effectiveness.


Chitosan supported on the surface of large particle silicas to prepare silica-supported chitosan-platinum complex was characterized by SEM and EDS.The hydrosilylation of styrene with triethoxidesilane was studied as a model reaction.The optimized reaction condition was obtained when the diameter of the carrier was 3 mm and temperature was 60 ℃ with n(St):n(TES):n(Pt)=1:1.1:4.0×10-4.The conversion of styrene was reached to 99.5% in 6.0 h,which was close to the yield in homogeneous reaction catalyzed by Speier catalyst.The catalyst was filtrated and reused for 3 times without significant loss of activity and also showed a high catalytic activity after being placed for 6 months.


1. Tocantins Institute President Antonio Carlos (ITPAC), College of Medicine. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9837-4403. E-mail: pedroduranmarq@ gmail.com. 2. Federal University of Tocantins (UFT), College of Medicine. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3319-7367, E-mail: email@example.com. 3. University of Gurupi (UNIRG), College of Medicine. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1750-2173, E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com. 4. Federal University of Tocantins (UFT), Medical Residency Gynecology and Obstetrics. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5382-2671, E-mail: cissavilela@ hotmail.com. 5. Dona Regina Hospital and Maternity, Gynecology and Obstetrics Department. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6129-2348, E-mail: sonalysantiago@ yahoo.com.br. Correspondence: Laís Rodrigues Valadares. E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com. ABSTRACT: Introduction: Herlyn-Werner-Wunderlich syndrome (HWWS) is a rare congenital disease of the Mullerian ducts, in which there was a didelphys uterus, hemivagina obstructed by the septum, and ipsilateral renal agenesis. The most common clinical presentation is progressive pelvic pain, dysmenorrhea, and a palpable mass. In some cases, the patient may have normal menstruation due to a hemivagina obstruction, which ends up delaying the diagnosis. Case Report: Female patient, 13 years old, admitted with complaints of pelvic pain, intermittent and progressive, a year ago, associated with menstrual irregularity. Performed a radiological propaedeutics and the initial gynecological physical examination was suppressed, the patient is misdiagnosed with ovarian cyst torsion and submitted to exploratory laparotomy. In the postoperative period, after reassessing the clinical history and undergoing a gynecological exam, an anatomical abnormality was observed in the region of the vaginal vestibule, compatible with the vaginal septum and hematocolpo. Colpotomy was performed with drainage of approximately 900 ml of chocolate-like blood and marsupialization of the vaginal septum. Conclusions: The importance of clinical examination for early diagnostic completion and to avoid unnecessary surgical procedures is noted, especially in the management of rare and intriguing cases such as HWWS.


This paper focuses on noise pollution problems of a small town Cavle (suburbs of Rijeka), located near highway Rijeka - Zagreb. Namely, during the construction work of the highway, no noise barriers were planned within the project on this location. Today, 12 years after the construction, traffic load are much higher and so are the noise levels which have exceeded the limits defined by the law. The local population has written petitions to the ARZ Company, which is responsible for the highway maintenance, asking them to find a solution to the problem. In order to meet these demands, the noise levels have been measured and a traffic noise prediction model has been developed. The model incorporates all significant variables, such as traffic load and topographic characteristics of the area. After calibration based on the noise measured and the verification, model has been used in making a solution proposal for noise protection.


Rutted pavements pose a safety hazard to the public and a costly liability for transportation agencies that must be remediated with limited funds. A sustainable solution, pavement preservation, addresses pavement system needs by "keeping good roads good". Microsurfacing and Portland cement slurry seal are pavement preservation treatments that can be used to fill ruts, whereby extending pavement life and stretching the budget. Microsurfacing has been shown to be a cost effective pavement treatment solution when compared to traditional methods. Portland cement slurry seal is a newer rut filling technology. Although these two treatments can address various serviceability aspects for both asphalt and concrete pavements, their potential for rut filling remains underutilized. Many factors influence what makes a treatment the "right treatment" for a given project, such as traffic volume and technical factors, in addition to cost and material price volatility. Therefore, having a variety of tools in the pavement preservation toolbox enhances a pavement engineer's ability to select the "right treatment for the right pavement at the right time". This paper presents and compares friction data, a common performance indicator related to safety, for microsurfacing and Portland cement slurry seal based upon field trials. Preliminary results show that both treatments are performing sufficiently and comparably. A life cycle cost comparison is also conducted to evaluate the cost effectiveness of the treatment alternatives. The paper concludes that either treatment could be a viable option for rut filling to preserve asphalt and concrete pavements depending upon project specific performance and cost factors.


Utilization of renewable energy is becoming increasingly important from the viewpoints of environmental protection and conservation of fossil fuel. However, the generating power of renewable energy is always fluctuating due to the environmental status. Energy storage systems are indispensable in compensating these fluctuating components. An energy capacitor system (ECS) composed of an electric double‐layer capacitor (EDLC) with power‐electronics devices is useful for compensation of fluctuating power, since it is capable of controlling both active and reactive power simultaneously. This paper proposes a current‐source ECS (CS‐ECS), which consists of an EDLC, a bidirectional buck‐boost DC‐DC converter, and a bidirectional inverter. We present the control systems for active/reactive power control of CS‐ECS, and show the effectiveness of CS‐ECS through computer simulations for the case of a wind power generation system. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 154(4): 34–41, 2006; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/eej.20181


Although delta wings have been known for some time in aeronautics (1)(2) their introduction into a hydrodynamic context has been quite recent. As in the flow of air, the delta wing provides a simple but useful configuration for investigating three-dimensional problems in cavity flows. At the start of the present work (1960), only one theoretical study on this subject was known (3). No information on flow patterns, force characteristics or other properties were available for these shapes. It was accordingly decided to embark on an experimental program with the aim of providing the basic characteristics of the cavitating flow past delta wings, to observe and outline any interesting features of these flows and, finally, to provide a physical basis for any mathematical analysis of the flow that might be undertaken. Measurements of lift, drag and pitching moment and pressure distributions were made on a family of simple flat plate delta shapes of varying apex angle; several configurations outside this family were also tested. These included a diamond plan form, reverse delta, and a delta with a 90 degree bottom. All were without camber and were tested with no yaw angle.

After completion of this work, the exhaustive treatment of Reichardt and Sattler (4) appeared which also deals with cavitating delta wings. It is believed, however, that the current report and that of Reichardt are sufficiently different in scope and method to justify the presentation of the present results.


A meta-analysis was conducted to synthesize existing research published between 1995 and 2004 comparing student achievement in online distance education (ODE) and face-toface education (F2FE) at the post-secondary level. The purpose of this study was to investigate how the development of technology contributed to student achievement in ODE within the last ten years. The result of comparing overall weighted mean effect size of student achievement showed no significant difference between the two settings (d = .023, k = 20, N = 1617, p = 0.640). However, the student achievement comparison revealed an interesting result when the primary studies were categorized by whether the experimental study conducted a pre-test or not. In the pre-tested group of studies, student achievement in ODE was significantly higher than F2FE (d = 0.211, k = 9, N = 631, p 0.05). On the other hand, student achievement from the no pre-test group of studies resulted in no significant difference between the two settings (d = -0.106, k = 11, N = 986, p > 0.05). Discussion and suggestion for further studies are provided focusing on methodological weakness of primary studies and differences of teaching and learning in ODE and F2FE.


Section 6 (c) of the Resource Management Act 1991 states that persons exercising functions and powers under the Act shall recognise and provide for "the protection of areas of significant indigenous vegetation and significant habitats of indigenous fauna". In February 2000 the government published a New Zealand Biodiversity Strategy (DoC/MfE, 2000). The Strategy includes as one of its four national goals, to "halt the decline in New Zealand 's indigenous biodiversity" (D.o.C. and M.f.E. 2000, 18). Because of the severe loss of native ecosystems and species in lowland areas, protection of biodiversity by landowners on private land is presented in the Strategy as a key means to achieve the goal.


In this paper, we developed hybrid mode algorithms to hasten the convergence of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) equalizers with a cross-correlation cost function. In particular, we implemented a maximum a-posteriori (MAP) based single-input single-output (SISO) hybrid algorithm to this MIMO case and found that it exhibits superior performance in terms of the convergence speed and low steady state errors.


This case study will provide details on how the operating room inventory management process was improved prior to implementing the ERP Operating Room Management (ORM) module of MEDITECH software at a small rural hospital. The methodologies included reviewing/observing existing processes, interviewing personnel, and reviewing documentation associated with materials/inventory management. Several different supply rooms were observed and the current processes were documented. A number of interviews of OR staff were conducted, both formally and informally. The outcomes included an overall reduction in the number of inventory items through the use of kits, establishment of a bin system commonly used in hardware stores and manufacturing was implemented to better locate supplies and manage the inventory, and a locational system to quickly locate inventory. After the process was streamlined, the inventory management portion of the module was successfully implemented.


The purpose of this research is to know how the accounting treatment for the scrap materials at PTPN 1 unit PKS Tanjung Seumantoh Aceh Tamiang. The scrap material from the palm oil production process at PTPN 1 unit PKS Tanjung Seumantoh Aceh Tamiang are in the form of palm shells and fiber. The type of this research is qualitative research with descriptive analysis method. The result of shows that the scrap  material for palm kernel shells was recognized as other income and presented in the company's income statement, while fiber was used as boiler fuel as well as a reduction in manufacturing overhead costs


Cyclically utilized electronics provide an interesting challenge for thermal management. Phase Change Materials (PCM) are ideal for cyclic operations due to their high capacity to store heat, however, many phase change materials do not exhibit sufficient conductivity to be effective in larger sizes. Conductivity enhancement can be done in a number of ways including the use of foams or nanomaterials. This experimental study examines the thermal behavior of PCMS with carbon nanofibers conductivity enhancement during solidification. The enhanced PCM is found to exhibit lengthened melt times and shortened cool-down times.


<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$L_{1}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-gain control design is investigated in the brief for positive two-dimensional (2D) continuous delayed systems in the form of Roesser models. A new approach based on 2D Laplace transformation is presented to analyze <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$L_{1}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-gain stability performance. By using the method of singular value decomposition, linear programming effectively solved the <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$L_{1}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-gain controller design problem. Finally, an example is provided to prove the correctness of the result.


The COVID-19 pandemic further outlined the importance of global healthcare services provisioning for diagnosing and treating patients who tend to travel and live for large periods away from home and can be anywhere at any given time. Advances in technology enable healthcare practitioners to access critical data regarding a person's health status to provide better services. Medical data are sensitive in nature, and therefore, a reliable mechanism should ensure that only authorized entities can access data when needed. This paper, through a layered consideration of a Globalized Healthcare Provisioning Ecosystem (GHPE), reveals the interdependencies among its major components and suggests a necessary abstraction to identify requirements for the design of an access control suitable for the ecosystem. These requirements are imposed by the nature of the medical data as well as by the newly introduced potentials of Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) devices. As a result, an attribute-based access control framework is proposed aiming to provide prompt and secure access to medical data globally by utilizing state-of-the-art technologies and standards, including Next-Generation Access Control (NGAC), blockchain and smart contracts. Three types of smart contracts are proposed that enable access control to implement attribute and policy stores where policy classes and attributes are decentralized and immutable. In addition, the usage of blockchain-based distributed identities allows patients to be in control of access to their medical data and also enables healthcare service providers to access medical data promptly and reliably through the proposed access control framework. The qualitative characteristics of the proposed approach toward a decentralized and patient-centric access control in GHPE are demonstrated and discussed based on an application paradigm.


In our continuing efforts to develop a compound, coated vascular prosthesis, combining the best characteristics of biologic and nonbiologic materials, we have produced a hybri graft with pseudo biological coating. Five types of velour and knit dacron prostheses, have been cross linked subsequently with negatively charged proteins. Albumin and gelatin were used to coat the prosthesis or the combination of both. Following electrochemical characterization coated prostheses were implanted into the carotid and femoral arteries of dogs for 1 sec. 2 hr. and 1 mo. Preparations that showed promising short term results were implanted in the abdominal aorta of dogs for 18 months. Controls included uncoated prostheses and prostheses that had been coated but not negatively charged. Upon removal, the grafts were examined for thrombi and other luminal narrowings (photography, light and scanning electron microscopy). Fifty two uncoated and coated grafts have been examined. These exhibit a range of thrombus formation, from none to complete occlusion, in the various knit/coating combinations. We believe these hybrid prostheses will prove to be very useful in vascular reconstructive surgery due to (i) the nonthrombogenic characteristics of the negatively charged protein structure, (ii) more uniform healing and (iii) ease of implantation since preclotting is not necessary.


Food is the ecological factor assumed to drive the evolution of broodmate aggression and siblicide, but how does food actually influence agonism? Two hypotheses specify a proximate role of food in controlling aggression among avian broodmates. According to the food amount hypothesis, aggression increases with food deprivation; according to the prey size hypothesis, aggression increases when small food parcels are passed directly to chicks' mouths. The food amount hypothesis is confirmed by descriptive information and experiments on four ecologically and taxonomically diverse species (a sulid, a larid, an accipitrid and an alcid), but studies of ardeids supposedly contradict it. It is argued that the descriptive and experimental studies of ardeids are inconclusive, and actually contain evidence supporting the food amount hypothesis. Food-sensitive aggression may be universal in facultatively siblicidal species and appears to constitute an exception to the general rule that aggressiveness of birds and other vertebrates does not increase with food deprivation. There is no convincing evidence that the prey size hypothesis can explain variation among species or during development, and studies showing that heron chicks are more aggressive when prey are small are inconclusive because they did not exclude food deprivation as an alternative explanation. New formulations of the two hypotheses and new research directions are proposed.


The on product overlay specification and Advanced Process Control (APC) is getting extremely challenging particularly after the introduction of multi-patterning applications like Spacer Assisted Double Patterning (SADP) and multipatterning techniques like N-repetitive Litho-Etch steps (LEN, N ≥ 2). When the latter is considered, most of the intrafield overlay contributors drop out of the overlay budget. This is a direct consequence of the fact that the scanner settings (like dose, illumination settings, etc.) as well as the subsequent processing steps can be made very similar for two consecutive Litho-Etch layers. The major overlay contributor that may require additional attention is the Image Placement Error (IPE). When the inter-layer overlay is considered, controlling the intra-field overlay contribution gets more complicated. In addition to the IPE contribution, the TWINSCANTM lens fingerprint in combination with the exposure settings is going to play a role as well. Generally speaking, two subsequent functional layers have different exposure settings. This results in a (non-reticle) additional overlay contribution. In this paper, we have studied the wafer overlay correction capability by RegC® in addition to the TWINSCANTM intrafield corrections to improve the on product overlay performance. RegC® is a reticle intra-volume laser writing technique that causes a predictable deformation element (RegC® deformation element) inside the quartz (Qz) material of a reticle. This technique enables to post-process an existing reticle to correct for instance for IPE. Alternatively, a pre-determined intra-field fingerprint can be added to the reticle such that it results in a straight field after exposure. This second application might be very powerful to correct for instance for (cold) lens fingerprints that cannot be corrected by the scanner itself. Another possible application is the intra-field processing fingerprint. One should realize that a RegC® treatment of a reticle generally results in global distortion of the reticle. This is not a problem as long as these global distortions can be corrected by the TWINSCANTM system (currently up to the third order). It is anticipated that the combination of the RegC® and the TWINSCANTM corrections act as complementary solutions. These solutions perfectly fit into the ASML Litho InSight (LIS) product in which feedforward and feedback corrections based on YieldStar overlay measurements are used to improve the on product overlay.


Left atrial appendage (LAA) occlusion is an effective strategy for thromboembolism prevention in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF), and the novel methods of occlusion is various. The acute thrombosis after percutaneous LAA occlusion devices has been recently reported, but thrombus formation after surgical LAA occlusion is still unclear.

 This study aimed to analyse the incidence and prognosis of thrombus formation on closure stump line in patients with AF who underwent surgical LAA occlusion.

 This study retrospectively analised the data from patients treated with two methods of surgical LAA closure, resection or clipping, from January 2014 to November 2018.

 A total of 187 consecutive patients with AF underwent surgical LAA closure (31 clipping and 156 stapler resection). 170 patients (91%) underwent cardiac CT for LAA imaging on postoperative day 2. The incidence of acute procedure-related thrombus formation in full cohort was 19% (35 cases). The incidence of acute thrombus in patients with clipping and resection was 19% and 16%, respectively (Fisher's exact test, p=0.8). All of 35 patients who had thrombus on LAA closure stump line underwent cardiac CT again 3 months after the primary CT. In all patients with secondary cardiac CT, thrombus on LAA closure stump line disappeared. No symptomatic thromboembolism occurred during the follow-up from operation to secondary CT scan.

 Thrombus formation on stump after surgical LAA closure may often occur on acute phase. The optimal LAA imaging and anti-coagulation therapy after surgical LAA occlusion will prevent patients with acute thrombus from thromboembolism.


Abstract:  Protein electrophoresis has recognized applications in determining the health status of various species. While reference intervals for electrophoresis have been determined for psittacine and raptor species, there are none reported for Phoenicopteriformes species. Reference intervals for haptoglobin and protein fractions obtained by electrophoresis were determined for the American flamingo (Phoenicopterus ruber) based on plasma samples from 39 captive birds. The reference intervals were as follows: haptoglobin, 0.17–0.8 mg/ml; total protein, 3.65–6.38 g/dl; prealbumin, 0.26–1.9 g/dl; albumin, 1.51–3.12 g/dl; α-1 globulin, 0.06–0.38 g/dl; α-2 globulin, 0.17–0.67 g/dl; β globulin, 0.38–1.33 g/dl; γ globulin, 0.26–0.68 g/dl; albumin : globulin ratio, 0.93–2.17. As captive flamingos often suffer from pododermatitis, feet of all flamingos were scored to determine if pododermatitis would be reflected in the acute phase proteins. Spearman rank correlation was performed on each of the protein fractions and pododermatitis scores, and only albumin had a significant correlation. This indicates that albumin, as a negative acute phase protein, may be a marker for this disease process.


The preconditions for social work changes rapidly in South Africa and the country  is characterized by pervasive inequality with extremes of wealth and poverty.  Access to employment is difficult i ...


The perception of spatio-temporal pattern is a fundamental part of visual cognition. In order to understand more about the principles behind these biological processes, we are analyzing and modeling the presentation of spatio-temporal structures on different levels of abstraction. For the low- level processing of motion information we have argued for the existence of a spatio-temporal memory in early vision. The basic properties of this structure are reflected in a neural network model which is currently developed. Here we discuss major architectural features of this network which is base don Kohonens SOMs. In order to enable the representation, processing and prediction of spatio-temporal pattern on different levels of granularity and abstraction the SOMs are organized in a hierarchical manner. The model has the advantage of a 'self-teaching' learning algorithm and stored temporal information try local feedback in each computational layer. The constraints for the neural modeling and data set for training the neural network are obtained by psychophysical experiments where human subjects' abilities for dealing with spatio-temporal information is investigated.


This study aims at describing and summarizing various conditions, various situations, or various phenomena of social reality that exist in life of society which are objects in this research and try to attract that reality to the surface so that it can be seen how social reality actually exists and is happening in life of society. This research was conducted in the Petisah Tengah Village, Medan Petisah village, Medan, North Sumatra Province. The researcher chose this village as the research location because of the diverse plurality of the people and the high level of socio-political dynamics because in this village there was the Medan Mayor's Office, as well as some government offices and Regional House of Representatives (DPRD) in Medan. This study used descriptive qualitative method. The type of research used by researchers in this study is a qualitative approach with descriptive studies. Qualitative research is a research procedure that produces description data in the form of words (both written and oral). This qualitative research method was chosen because it can present directly the nature of the relationship between researchers and respondents and is more sensitive and can adjust to the patterns of value faced. Data collection is done by observation and interview. The results of the study are more emphasized in giving an objective description of the actual state of the object under investigation, using a qualitative approach, the researcher will obtain more in-depth information or data.


Enhanced Heat Release Rate (HRR) methodology has been extended to the Mass Loss Calorimeter (MLC) and the Modified Schlyter flame spread test to evaluate fire retardant effectiveness used on wood based materials. Modifications to MLC include installation of thermopile on the chimney walls to correct systematic errors to the sensible HRR calculations to account for radiant energy losses to the chimney walls. Additionally, pure ethylene glycol for low flame radiant losses and the PMMA for high flame radiant losses supplanted the use of methane for calibrating the sensible HRR. The FPL 3 MW HRR hood facility, updated with fast and accurate O2, CO2, and CO gas analyzers, was shown to provide accuracy within 0.5 kW as determined with the pure ethylene glycol burned in the MLC under the HRR hood. Thus the performance measure in the modified Schlyter fire test has been objectively determined with the HRR measure of upward fire growth, rather than based on the manually observed maximum flame height. Using the MLC for initial Fire Retardant (FR) screening and the modified Schlyter flame spread test for emulating severe fires should provide a low cost approach to evaluating fire retardant effectiveness. * This article was written and prepared by U.S. Government employees on official time, and it is therefore in the public domain and not subject to copyright.


. Equipment is described for measuring the resistance of fleshy plant tissue to textura breakdown during heating. A cylindrical sample of tissue is heated at a selected temperature up to 100°C while under a known compression load. The time required for the sample to break down by a predetermined amount is automatically recorded. The equipment has been used to measure the time to breakdown (TTB) of almost 2000 samples from apples and potatoes. The TTB is useful for assessing the suitability of fruits or vegetables for cooking or processing methods involving heating.


The continued development of integrated photonic devices requires low-power, small volume all-optical modulators. The weak nonlinear optical response of conventional optical materials requires the use of high intensities and large interaction volumes in order to achieve significant light modulation, hindering the miniaturization of all-optical switches and the development of lightweight transmission optics with nonlinear optical response. These challenges may be addressed using plasmonic nanostructures due to their unique ability to confine and enhance electric fields in sub-wavelength volumes. The ultrafast nonlinear response of free electrons in such plasmonic structures and the fast thermal nonlinear optical response of metal nanoparticles, as well as the plasmon enhanced nonlinear Kerr-type response of the host material surrounding the nanostructures could allow ultrafast all-optical modulation with low modulation energy. In this thesis, we investigate the linear and nonlinear optical response of engineered effective media containing coupled metallic nanoparticles. The fundamental interactions in systems containing coupled nanoparticles with size, shape, and composition dissimilarity, are evaluated analytically and numerically, and it is demonstrated that under certain conditions the achieved field enhancement factors can exceed the single-particle result by orders of magnitude in a process called cascaded plasmon resonance. It is demonstrated that these conditions can be met in systems containing coupled nanospheres, and in systems containing non-spherical metal nanoparticles that are compatible with common top-down nanofabrication methods such as electron beam lithography and nano-imprint lithography. We show that metamaterials based on


The present invention relates to means of identifying a value document comprising a region PAPER OR POLYMER IN PARTICULAR BANKNOTES, passports, ID cards or any other document of sufficient value to MAKE YOU EXPOSED TO BE COPIED OR COUNTERFEIT, in which a liquid crystal material IS APPLIED TO THE REGION FOR PRODUCING OPTICAL EFFECTS dIFFER WHEN THAT ARE CONSIDERED BY TRANSMITTED LIGHT AND REFLECTED LIGHT. The invention also relates to a method of producing such identification means a valuable document and a method of verifying the authenticity of an identification of a value document.


After a firm decides to finance itself with debt, it has to decide on the duration of the maturity of debt: short, medium or long term. This study attempts to illustrate the effects of Growth Option, Firm Size, Leverage, Liquidity and Assets Maturity on a firm?s debt maturity structure. The data of variables under study has been drawn from the 60 random sample companies taken from non-financial sector of Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE). Data is taken from KSE and State Bank of Pakistan websites for ten years (2004-2013). Descriptive analysis, correlation and regression are run to show the relationship between the variables using SPSS and Stata. Both pooled regression and fixed effects model is run to analyze the data.Pooled regression results show that Growth Option, Firm Size, Leverage and Assets Maturity have positive relationship whereas liquidity has negative relationship with debt maturity. Only leverage and liquidity have significant relationship. Fixed effects model show positive relationship of Firm Size, Leverage and Assets Maturity with debt maturity and negative relationship of growth options and liquidity with debt maturity. Company size, leverage and liquidity have significant relationship whereas growth option and assets maturity have insignificant relationship. No such study has been conducted for Pakistan. There are options for further research on the topic by adding variables like short and long term debt, assessment of market value of growth options, firm?s credit ratings, information of flotation costs etc.


This Article explores whether public participation could be used to enhance the fairness and democratic legitimacy of plea bargaining in the United States. In particular, the Article focuses on a proposal made by Jason Mazzone for the use of grand jury-like panels to evaluate plea bargains. Although some scholars have praised Mazzone's proposal, neither they nor Mazzone has argued that citizen review of plea bargains would be feasible. This Article defends the proposal of citizen review panels and offers practical ways to implement this proposal to avoid plea bargaining excesses and to render plea bargaining more democratically legitimate.


world. This was the result of complex political negotiations. In the immediate post-war years, the medical establishment opposed any medical reform, and the compromise with governmental commitment to providing Americans with better health care was massively to increase federal spending on medical science. The practical development and deployment of the results of this research were left to the private sector, which then went on to create a massively profitable health care system. Similarly, Americans decided after the war that the major challenge confronting them was not to produce safer civilian aircraft, but to win the Cold War by building aircraft to surpass any designed by the Red enemy. This decision offered unique opportunities for scientists in Cambridge and Palo Alto to create and advance their own agenda for physics and engineering, often with the help of aircraft manufacturers, who saw a very profitable venture in the making. Along the way, ironically, Americans also got one of the most accessible and safest air transport systems in the world. There are, then, many reasons for Americans to be concerned about this massive investment to create a more powerful military establishment, and how it might constrain present ability to respond to the changing socio-economic challenges of the late twentieth century. One needs, however, to recognize the political consensus that first motivated this investment: everyone gained something from the "military-industrial-academic complex." To focus, as Leslie does, on just science at MIT and Stanford (or any other university) and its purported corruption by the military, to explain even if only tentatively, the current problems of the American economy implies not only insidious technological determinism, but an extremely whiggish historical perspective as well.


Older adults consume a disproportionate amount of medicinal products. Polypharmacy may increase the risk of adverse effects, result in poor medication adherence and unfavorable outcomes. There is considerable evidence that older adults are prescribed unnecessary or excessive medications. Treatment outcomes can be improved owing to controlled discontinuation of medicinal products. The deprescribing principles include analysis of all current prescriptions, detecting the medications that must be discontinued, dosage replacement or reduction, discussing the deprescribing regimen together with a patient, patient's control and support. Clear comprehension of indications and benefit of the conducted pharmacotherapy, objective risk assessment by prescribing physicians and by a patient, and a deliberate deprescribing plan can improve treatment outcomes of the elderly.


The invention provides a welding seam ultrasonic detecting system and method for a turbine rotating shaft (1). The system and the method are designed by aiming at rotating shafts in various specifications; a probe is not in mechanical contact with a workpiece; the abrasion is avoided; in addition, good coupling performance and complete scanning coverage rate are ensured; display, recording, statistics and analysis on type A, type B and type C real-time scanning images of the rotating shaft are provided; liquid for spreading ultrasonic media is contained in an immersing water tank (14); a main shaft (15) is arranged in the immersing water tank (14), and comprises a tool (16) used for installing the turbine rotating shaft (1) and a main shaft motor (17) used for driving the tool (16) to do clockwise/anticlockwise rotation along the horizontal direction; an X-axis step stepping air cylinder (32) is connected with an X-axis ultrasonic probe (21), and drives the X-axis ultrasonic probe (21) to send longitudinal waves along the radial direction of the turbine rotating shaft (1), a Y-axis ultrasonic probe (22) sends longitudinal waves along the axial direction of the turbine rotating shaft (1), and welding seams and positions around the welding seams are covered.


We document that firms whose compensation peers experience weak say on pay votes reduce CEO compensation following those votes. Reductions reflect proxy adviser concerns about peers' compensation contracts and are stronger when CEOs receive excess compensation, when they compete more closely with their weak-vote peers in the executive labor market, and when those peers perform well. Reductions occur following peers' disclosures of revised pay and are proportional to those needed to retain firms' relative positions in their peer groups. We conclude that the spillover effects of shareholder voting occur through both learning and compensation targeting channels. (JEL G34, G38, J38, M12, M52)
 Authors have furnished an Internet Appendix, which is available on the Oxford University Press Web site next to the link to the final published paper online.


An investigation has been conducted in the Langley free-flight tunnel at low-subsonic speeds to provide some basic information on the stability and control characteristics in the high angle-of-attack range of an airplane configuration typical of current design trends. The investigation consisted of static- and dynamic-force tests over an angle-of- attack range from -10 to 90 deg. The dynamic-force tests, which consisted of both linear- and rotary-oscillation tests, were conducted at values of the reduced-frequency parameter k of 0.10, 0.15, and 0.20. The configuration was directionally unstable for all angles of attack above about 15 deg but maintained positive effective dihedral, control effectiveness, and damping in roll and yaw over most of the angle-of-attack range tested. The effects of frequency on the oscillatory stability derivatives were found to be generally small, but in a few cases the effects were relatively large.


A survey for the rat lungworm, Angiostrongylus cantonensis, a nematode parasite of rats and potentially injurious to humans, was conducted in Florida in 2011-2013 in concomitance with an eradication program of the giant African snail, Lissachatina fulica, an invasive snail recently found in southern Florida. Twenty-four percent of the giant African snail samples examined were infested by the coiled second- and infective thirdstage juveniles of the nematode. These life stages embedded in or dislodged from comminuted snail tissue in water were detected using both molecular quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction and morphological analyses. Nematode recovery from snail tissues was greater when both methods were concomitantly used on tissue samples from the same giant African snail specimen. More rat lungworms were extracted from the mantel than from the foot tissues of nematode-infested snails. The results of these analyses were validated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, GA. To our knowledge, this is the first identification of the juveniles of A. cantonensisinfecting L. fulicamade in Florida using integrated morphological and molecular analyses.


With the continuous advancement of economic reforms, China's economy has developed by leaps and bounds, and its comprehensive national strength and international influence have rapidly increased, and it has become an important power in the world. As its neighbor, China's rise has had far-reaching effects on Southeast Asian countries. Therefore, this article conducts an in-depth study of the rise of China on the changes in the political structure of Southeast Asia. While analyzing the advantages of China's rise, the characteristics of China's geostrategy, and the characteristics of the political situation in Southeast Asia after the rise of China, it also studies the economic cooperation between China and Southeast Asia after the rise of China. The research results show that from 2003 to 2016, China's investment in Southeast Asia has been steadily increasing, and the asset stock has continued to grow. Especially after 2015, the annual increase is more than 10 billion U.S. dollars. As of the end of 2016, China's direct investment stock in Southeast Asian countries has reached US$71.553 billion.


Abstract This work is the second part of an investigation dedicated to produce a Ni–Co nanostructured alloy. The route begins with the coprecipitation of the NiO–Co3O4 from dissociation of the respective nitrates followed by a hydrogen reduction of these oxides. Preliminary thermodynamic studies have been carried out in order to evaluate the viability of the process as well as to select experimental conditions for the individual reductions. The oxide reduction was studied in the range from 200 to 500°C. This paper is then related to the production of isolated Co3O4 from Co(NO3)2·6H2O dissociation followed by its hydrogen reduction, which showed a good agreement with the topochemical model. The apparent activation energy was found to be 33·7 kJ mol−1. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) has been used to observe the morphology and size of the cobalt oxide. This material is composed by particles having a 40 nm average size. The cobalt in oxide and metallic form was both analysed by X-ray diffraction in which the presence of these crystallised species was confirmed.


Improvement of water and sanitation services to the rapidly growing urban population in developing countries is among the key challenges of this millennium. In general, international consensus exists that the private sector has a role in provision of urban water and sanitation services. Although a number of industrialised countries have gained considerable experience in the use of various forms of private sector participation (PSP), experience in developing countries is relatively rare and not widely documented, particularly in the water sector. This paper draws on exploratory research on the experience in the use of various forms of PSP in developing countries, with a focus on sub-Saharan Africa. The paper provides the rationale for using PSP, and presents results of research in the use of PSP in the urban water sector in developing countries. Research shows that in many instances where PSP has been used, there has been considerable improvement in both service delivery and cost recovery. There are, howev...


When we debate the appropriate role of the private sector in health care, we often tend to stray from the evidence base and become ideological. To focus the debate it is imperative to use a clear definition of what we mean by a private sector role in health financing or service delivery. An easy to understand taxonomy, which is rooted in the real world also helps. Alone the word: 'privatization' immediately triggers an emotional response when it comes to health care. The appropriate role of the private sector in health care should be seen as a continuum, ranging from private financing and provision in one extreme, to full public financing and provision in the other extreme—and anything in between.

The paper by Albreht cites a taxonomy used by Saltman, which largely focuses on care provision. However, in the real world, service delivery is much more complex: for example, in almost any country in Europe we see vibrant private markets in the health sector, irrespective of the general orientation of the health system. Usually such markets …


This paper provides a review of the reasons for the development of standards of service and operation for urban public transport, the kinds of standards that can be struck, how they can be quantified and their impact upon a community. It places public transport services in the context of what a community might expect from them and then presents a reasonably comprehensive explanation and summary of those standards proposed for action, Canberra's bus service. Finally it points out areas where research effort would provide communities with a greater understanding of the roles their public transport services play. /TRRL/


The strategie alliance between universities and businesses runs efficently under the directions of the Small Business Development Center (shortened form SBDC) in America. According to the advanced management experiences in foreign countries and the current situation of China, this article puts forward some good suggestions about the efficient ways of Chinese universities industrialization in the following as pects: the research productiontransformation, the necessary industrialization reform, and industrialization model.


Electronic word of mouth (eWOM) has been gaining popularity pertaining to its numerous benefits and ability to be applied in various fields. It helps consumers in making informed decisions and aids service providers in delivering an enhanced service or product. Despite all these benefits, dealing with the huge amounts of eWOM is a consistent problem. eWOM helpfulness comes handy in order to address this issue. In this study, we utilize 16699 hotels related eWOM written by 1099 reviewers which are collected from TripAdvisor.com. Our main objective is to analyze which factors impact eWOM helpfulness and how. For this purpose, eight unique variables belonging to three different categories are selected (eWOM length, eWOM subjectivity, eWOM polarity, eWOM readability, eWOM recency, hotel rating, reviewer badge and reviewer helpfulness) and are analyzed using econometric modelling. Our findings show that hotel rating as well as reviewer badge and helpfulness enjoy a positive significant relationship with eWOM helpfulness. It also suggests that eWOM


Another restructuring is underway in Russia, this time digital. Almost all sectors of the economy began to transform in order to keep up with progress and increase their efficiency. The development of the digital economy in the country will improve the quality of life of citizens and increase the global competitiveness of domestic industries. The state began its activities in this direction with the formation of the Digital Economy program, which was developed in 2017 by the joint efforts of the state, business and the expert community. The article presents the main indicators of the development of the digital economy in Russia and its position in international ratings. The indicators characterizing research and development in the field of ICT; personnel of the digital economy; ICT, content and media sectors; telecommunications development.


We aimed to investigate maternal serum angiogenic marker profiles within 1 week prior to delivery in cases of gestational hypertension (GH), pre‐eclampsia (PE), and/or fetal growth restriction (FGR) with different clinical conditions.


Dogs were prepared by injecting subcutaneously I gram of phlorhizin suspended in olive oil once every twelve hours until the G: N ratio was constant, then every 24 hours. It has been observed by Lusk 1 that fasting and phlorhizin alone do not remove all glycogen from the body. This was confirmed for dogs prepared in the manner described. Such animals were narcotized with ether, nitrous oxide and other narcotics. Narcosis with ether and nitrous oxide was always followed by a large increase of the glycosuria with a rise in the G: N ratio. When ether and chloroform were used, there was as a rule, a fall in the output of nitrogen and acetone bodies and a fall in sugar following the initial rise, but with nitrous oxide the rise in sugar was unaccompanied by such changes. In one of the ether experiments also the fall in nitrogen was very slight and there was no lessening of the glycosuria following the initial increase. An animal prepared in the usual way was given a cold bath for 20 minutes followed by 6 hours of moderate shivering. After this 1 mg. of epinephrine was given intravenously once every 6 hours. At first there was a marked increase in the glycosuria, but ultimately the G : N ratio resumed the normal level and was little affected by epinephrine. Nitrous oxide narcosis was then induced as before. The extra sugar for :24 hours was now 1.8 g. as compared with a minimum of 7 g. in two previous experiments. It is concluded that the "extra" sugar which is eliminated when phlorhizinized dogs are narcotized with ether and nitrous oxide has its origin in glycogen; that the increase in glycosuria incidental to narcosis is a phenomenon which can occur independently of any fall in nitrogen or decrease of the acetone body output.


Abstract Both jet impingement and forced convection are attractive cooling mechanisms widely used in cooling gas turbine blades. Convective heat transfer from impinging jets is known to yield high local and area averaged heat transfer coefficients. Impingement jets are of particular interest in the cooling of gas turbine components where advancement relies on the ability to dissipate extremely large heat loads. Current research is concerned with the measurement and comparison of both jet impingement and forced convection heat transfer in the Reynolds number range of 10,000 to 30,000. This study is aimed at experimentally testing two different setups with forced convection and jet impingement in rotating turbine blades up to 700 RPM. This research also observes Coriolis force and impingement cooling inside the passage during rotating conditions within a cooling passage. Local heat transfer coefficients are obtained for each test section using thermocouple technique with slip rings. The cross section of the passage is 10 mm × 10 mm without ribs and the surface heating condition has enforced uniform heat flux. The forced convection cooling effects were studied using serpentine passages with three corner turns under different rotating speeds and different inlet Reynolds numbers. The impingement cooling study uses a straight passage with a single jet hole under different Reynolds numbers of the impingement flow and the cross flow. In summary, the main purpose is to study the rotation effects on both the jet impingement and the serpentine convection cooling types. Our study shows that rotation effects increase serpentine cooling and reduce jet impingement cooling.


This paper describes the development of a highway pavement performance model. Concepts of failure time models and systems reliability are applied to developing a stochastic approach for modeling two simultaneous processes: pavement deterioration, and repair intervention and its effect on condition. Prediction accuracy of the model is proved to be better than other deterministic models.


Seventy-six lines of various clovers, representing all extant species of the section Calycomorphum, were assayed at the commencement of flowering stage for their concentrations of the oestrogenic isoflavones formononetin, genistein, and biochanin A. All species tested contained substantial quantities of isoflavone, a characteristic rarely found outside this section. Although most species showed considerable variation in concentrations of the different isoflavones, there does appear to be a characteristic pattern for some of them, and in most of the species there was at least one line with an acceptably low formononetin concentration. T. batmanicum lines generally were high in genistein and low in biochanin A, a characteristic shared with T. subterraneum subsp. brachycalycinurn. This supports other evidence that T. batmanicum is the ancestral species of T. subterraneum, and suggests that T. subterraneum subsp. brachycalycinum may have been the earliest form of subterranean clover.


Abstract : The unified theory of explosions offers simple methods for analyses of blast and absolute hydrodynamic yield of explosions in general and similar energy releases. The concepts and techniques apply at any shock strength, in virtually any medium and ambient conditions, and are adaptable to a gamut of burst geometries and warhead configurations. The methods are conveniently summarized by two separate BASIC machine programs, with complete instructions for prediction and evaluation of explosions in air; machine time and research effort are many times more cost effective than with present machine or hand calculations. The methods are illustrated with nuclear and TNT data. Present results indicate that the concepts and techniques are probably valid within a few percent for measuring yield, predicting peak pressure and distance; results are well within the natural variations of blast and well-suited to diagnose non- ideal explosions.


ETM which is short for Engine Thermal Management is a research field dealing with the energy flow from the combustion. The model of the paper consists of mainly 6 sub models: thermal mass model, coolant model, lubricant model, heat transfer model, friction model and exhaust model. The sub models are coupled each other and they exchange heat and signals. We can estimate the engine temperatures by the thermal mass model. Coolant model and lubricant model calculate the heat energy which is transferred from the engine parts to working fluids. Heat transfer model estimates how much energy transfers into the engine parts such as head, liner and piston. The friction model calculates the heat generation from the various mechanical friction sources such as PRA(Piston Ring Assembly), bearings and valve train. Lastly, the exhaust gas enthalpy flow is considered by the exhaust model. A systematic analysis for engine thermal management will be possible by the abovementioned model.


We present a theoretical model of option‐implied preferences with model uncertainty. An option‐implied risk aversion function with model uncertainty has a higher and a steeper level of risk aversion than an investor without model uncertainty. Based on the theoretical model, we try to extract empirical option‐implied risk aversion functions with S&P 500 index options. Our empirical option‐implied risk aversion with model uncertainty and option‐implied uncertainty premium show a decreasing and a smirk pattern across wealth. After subprime crisis, the shape of option‐implied risk aversion function with model uncertainty is not quite different, and both the level of option‐implied risk aversion function and the option‐implied uncertainty premium become slightly lowered. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 34:498–515, 2014


According to WHO and UNICEF recommendations, one way to prevent stunting is exclusive breastfeeding until the baby is six months old. The aim of the study was to strengthen family food security through local food and nutrition literacy using behavior-based nutrition education methods (social cognitive theory). Action research is the method used, and the participants are pregnant women who moderately work as housewives, originate from food-insecure families, and have family incomes below the regional minimum wage of 30 people. Prior to the intervention, the consumption of pregnant women was measured using a 24-hour food recall and measurements of haemoglobin levels. For 12 weeks, community health professionals provided home visits and face-to-face lectures for pregnant women on local food literacy and nutrition interventions. Pregnant women consumed an average of 1926.3 calories prior to the intervention; 2315.2 calories were consumed after the intervention. Before the intervention, there were 19 pregnant women with anaemia (63.3%); after the intervention, there were only 4 (13.3%). There were 20 breastfeeding mothers (66.7%) on the first day. Pregnant women's nutrient consumption and dietary diversity increased as a result of the local food literacy and nutrition intervention, which was implemented for 4 months.


The Cerro de los Batallones (Los Batallones Butte) is located in the central-northern area of the Madrid Basin, central Spain. Nine vertebrates localities containing a large variety of mammals of Upper Vallesian Age (Late Miocene) have been found associated with the sediments forming the butte. From bottom to top, these sediments consist of magnesian lutite beds (Unit I), paleosols formed of sepiolite and opal (Unit II), and siliclastic, marlstone and carbonate beds (Unit III). The set of ERT profiles developed in Los Batallones Butte have demonstrate that electrical imaging techniques are an estimable tool for the characterization and prospecting of fossil sites developed in fine-grained siliciclastic sequences. These localities contain an exceptionally rich, varied and well-preserved vertebrate fauna together with invertebrate and plant fossils. Carnivore species are strikingly well represented at Batallones 1 and 3, and large herbivore species, such as mastodons, rhinoceros and giraffes, at Batallones 2, 4, 5 and 10. The taphonomical studies, together with the morphological features shown by the sedimentary fills of the mammal localities, permit an overall interpretation of these deposits as vertebrate traps. The study of these localities should offer a significant contribution to our understanding of the formation pattern of trap-like paleontological sites - which so far have been typically reported in karstic-type systems -, as well as an important source of paleobiological information about numerous vertebrate groups.


This paper examines whether the decline in loans to the private sector in Trinidad and Tobago from mid-2009 was caused by a demand-induced or the credit crunch phenomenon. The study presents an alternative methodology for estimating the credit crunch. The new methodology emphasizes an aggregate banking model in which excess liquidity and interest rate spread are important stylized facts. The analytical framework is used to identify shocks to loans and deposits that are found to be empirically related to excess liquidity. Using Two-Stage Least Squares (TSLS), we estimate auxiliary regressions of random deposit and loan shocks. The results suggest that weak loan demand instead of a supply-induced credit crunch best explains the decline.


The concept and experimental validation process of the Web-of-Cells (WoC) based Post-Primary Voltage Control (PPVC) developed in EU FP7 project ELECTRA IRP is presented in this paper. The main objective of PPVC is to provide an optimal and local voltage control replacing the conventional secondary and tertiary voltage control. The Power Hardware-In-the-Loop (PHIL) setup and the experimental results comparing the PPVC approach to traditional voltage control techniques are presented and discussed. The PPVC has demonstrated lower number of tap-changes and faster response to topology changes. To avoid simulation overrun in real-time environment, a slower simulation step is adopted for the electrical network model than the converter and grid emulator controller models in the Simulink model. The PHIL test conducted gives insight to the potential obstacles that may arise with increased number of cells and increased number of nodes in the network.


Under the current conditions in our country,gradually establishing a system of investigator appearing in court as a witness,has its theoretical foundation,legislative base and realistic basis.Investigator appearing in court as a witness is useful for the efficiency of the proceedings and can ensure judicial fairness,and protect the legitimate rights and interests of the accused.Investigator appear in court is bound to become a trend.