A deep analysis of discrete Fourier transform - rational dither modulation (DFT-RDM), developed to cope with linear time invariant filtering, is here presented. This study has been motivated by the significant increase of the error probability suffered by DFT-RDM for non-white hosts, in spite of the low bit-error rate achieved for white hosts under the same attack filter. The theoretical analysis of DFT-RDM has been generalized to non-white Gaussian hosts providing an explanation to the measured performance degradation. Afterwards an extension of DFT-RDM, named whitened DFT-RDM, is proposed to achieve the same bit-error rates for white and non-white Gaussian hosts. Experimental results are also presented that validate the developed analysis and illustrate the performance enhancement provided by the proposed extension of DFT-RDM, with both non-white Gaussian signals and real audio clips.


The utility model discloses a tubular polycondensation reaction kettle. A tube plate (4) is arranged in a vertical shell (8) and connected with a tube nest (5), a nozzle at the upper end of the tube nest (5) is provided with a material distributer (6), and an annular gap (7) is remained between the nozzle at the upper end of the tube nest (5) and the material distributer (6); the top end of the vertical shell (8) is provided with a feeding hole (1), and the lower end of the vertical shell (8) is provided with a discharging hole (10); the lower part of the side of the vertical shell (8) is provided with a heating medium inlet tube (2), and the upper part of the side of the vertical shell (8) is provided with a heating medium outlet tube (3); and the middle-lower part of the side of the vertical shell (8) is also provided with a vacuum extraction opening (9). Materials naturally flow downwards by means of gravity, therefore, only if the tube nest is large enough, sufficient filming on the inner wall of the tube nest can be realized, and no blocking phenomenon is caused. The tubular polycondensation reaction kettle is good in filming effect, reliable in use, high in work efficiency and capable of being used in production of high-viscosity polymers such as PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate) and the like. A plurality of tubes can be exposited on the tube nest.


This study examines the relationship between speech characteristics and personality traits by drawing on pseudo-naturalistic conversations and on personality dimensions identified by the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) model which assesses four personality dimensions of introversion-extroversion, sensing-intuiting, thinking-feeling, and judging-perceiving. The speech of 30 participants was recorded and transcribed, after which a number of speech features including pitch, loudness, response time (i.e., how fast one responds to a prompt), speech rate, and discourse markers were extracted and analyzed. Results show that several speech features correspond to different personality dimensions. Specifically, speech rate as measured by words per minute reveals significant differences between judging individuals and perceiving individuals (perceiving individuals speak faster than judging individuals); there is a significant difference in response time for extroverts and introverts (extroverts respond faster); a significant difference is observed in loudness between judging and perceiving individuals (judging individuals are louder). The frequency of discourse markers is significantly higher for intuiting individuals than sensing individuals. The study discusses these findings in further inquiring the relationship between language and personality.


This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Undergraduate Research Posters at EngagedScholarship@CSU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Undergraduate Research Posters 2018 by an authorized administrator of EngagedScholarship@CSU. For more information, please contact email@example.com. Recommended Citation Knyszek, Nicholas, "Construction and Applications of an Inexpensive Muon Detector" (2018). Undergraduate Research Posters 2018. 35. https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/u_poster_2018/35


CASE Tools have been considered as the most advanced technique to derive quality products. The cost associated with CASE tools is generally high due to their steep learning curves and is a matter of concern for software engineering houses. This makes it imperative that the right set of CASE tools are evaluated and selected for a particular set of tasks. This research paper proposes a methodology for the purpose of comparison and selection of various CASE tools available in the market. The proposed methodology allows its users to easily identify and select the best CASE tool suited to their purpose. The paper proposes a matrix based model, mapped across parameters and their attributes that produces an optimised score card that supports the decision making process.


This paper presents a procedure for commissioning and start-up of Power Plants and Load Centers in the National Transmission Network and General Distribution Network in the electrical power system. On February 9, 2018, the Ministry of Energy ("SENER") published in the Official Journal of the Federation, the "Manual for Interconnection of Power Plants and Connection of Load Centers" (Manual para la Interconexión de Centrales Eléctricas y Conexión de Centros de Carga). This Manual establishes the procedures applicable to the National Energy Control Center ("CENACE") for the interconnection and connection applications in different modalities, as well as the procedures for the interconnection of power plants and the connection of load centers to the National Transmission Network and the General Distribution Network. It also presents a procedure to determine the infrastructure studies and it finishes with the criteria and mechanisms to establish the refund of financial guaranties, as well as, the execution process for interconnection and connection agreements. However, this Manual does not mention activities for commissioning and startup of Power Plants and Load Centers. Therefore, this paper aims to cover this loophole in the legislation, by proposing a procedure that includes all activities needed to commission and start-up power plants and load centers in the electricity Market, from the assignation of the official code name to the reimbursement of the financial guarantees to the market participant candidate. Currently, CENACE is creating a Manual for commissioning and start-up for the interconnection of Power Plants and the connection of Load Centers in the National Electric System. Meanwhile, the information found in this paper will be a guideline for Market Participants.


The Saddest Man in the World She'd met him buying Angel cakes up at the Newtown Bakery. She'd just paid for a dozen of her favourite strawberry, lemon and chocolate flavours for afternoon tea and then had dropped the whole packet of them tripping over a crack in the footpath just outside the entrance. The next thing she knew her knee was gushing blood through her ripped black tights, her twelve angel cakes were splattered over the bitumen and she was looking up into the saddest eyes she'd ever seen. From that moment I was lost Yearning To be drowned In the cruel dreaming sea Emerald Green had painted a picture then; one dark eye drawing in the energy of everything around it, swirls of soft, dim colours, washes of reddish grey, ropes of deep ink swirling, pulling tighter, a secret bondage, an inexpressible attraction for surrender and abandonment. No, Emerald, Sophie said softly after looking at the painting in silence for almost an hour, That's not it, when you think you know yourself, know your shape and its boundaries and to see it, feel it dissolve. You haven't captured the drowning feeling Justine, who was a rational determinist when it came to emotional matters reckoned, against her better judgement, that he must have cast a spell over her. But we all knew Sophie King was no pushover. She always knew exactly what was going on. Even when she didn't, she was aware that she didn't. Space opens up verbal falls through dissolving thoughts boundaries liquefied through limits of tissue and bone. Apparently outside the Newtown Bakery, surrounded by sticky crumbs and a cream smeared footpath, Sophie King then said fuck me fuck me fuck me. And again. Fuck me fuck me. Over and over. And he took her hand without a word, led her up King St to the door of his warehouse, carried her up the stairs to his loft and did just that. He fucked her and fucked her and for a while she was lost to all of us. Of course, it may have been, as Justine liked to rationalize later, that Sophie, like some experimental scientists, was willing to swallow poison herself in order to find a cure. But that never washed with any of us. Sure, she'd led a solitary life till then, a private private investigator of the soul is how the blurb on her first little book of poetic narratives described her, but you only had to look at the hint of yellowish red in the cool green of her eyes to know that, like any slowly burning fuse, she might burst into flames one day. But drowning in unintelligible desire, I guess, was another matter completely. No need for panic, Emerald Green says. It's just biological But surely we have our brains for a reason, Justine replied. If we don't think we may as well kneel down in front of a bloody cave man and ask to be raped. Emerald continued mixing up a palette for her new work. Oh my dear girl, brains don't come into it at all. And with that she began to stretch a piece of blank canvas, her unborn painting, stapling it to the frame with such unusual concentration that she bit her lower lip. We watched the little pearls of blood fall onto the stark white material, tiny crimson blots creating the points of origin for what would become Emerald's most troublesome work. We haven't come this far to succumb to a complete stranger, to not be able to think or decide for ourselves, Justine sneered. No, we have come this far to be strong enough to succumb...if we want to, pronounced Emerald Green, pricking the tip of her index finger with a knife, smearing the thin trails of dark blood round the little dots that had already begun her painting. Uneasy, Justine makes a move towards Emerald who pricks herself again, this time dragging her newly wounded finger down the curve of Justine's cheekbone. We have claimed the right to know and understand anything we want to. …


The influence of an external electrical field and annealing on the polarization state in the surface layers of strontium-barium niobate (SBN) single crystals is studied. The investigation was carried out by pyroelectric method and method of thermal Barkhausen effect (TBE). Essential difference was found to exist in the switching behaviour of pure SBN crystals and SBN doped with Cr, Ce and Cr/Ce impurities.


Laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) can be used to analyze hazardous samples and samples in remotely accessible or hazardous environments without handling the sample or exposing the analyst to hazards. Thus, nuclear engineering applications became one of the fast-growing fields of LIBS 1,2 In this paper, we report the development of the LIBS systems in the nuclear power plant applications.


Photograph of W. T. Grant Company on 701 Procter Street. The display windows are filled with products and signs. Some of the signs say "Air Conditioned" and "44 [cents]." Text above the entrances says "W. T. Grant Co." Columns in front of the entrances say "Grants."


ABSTRACT The missions of most institutions of higher education have changed since the release of the American Association of University Professors academic freedom statement in 1966. Although generating and disseminating knowledge remains the core mission, other missions and demands have been placed on institutions by internal and external factors and constituencies. Using a 1-model-fits-all approach, many institutions have continued to use traditional governance models, regardless of the changes in their mission. This article provides an example of how interpersonal relationships can be used to create equilibrium in higher education.


In an effort to create an inclusive culture, the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) has been attempting to eradicate sexism within its ranks (Scoppio, 2019). Despite these efforts, female soldiers continue to face discrimination in the CAF. At the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC), cadets must complete a physical performance test (PPT), in which male and female cadets are scored differently according to sex due to biological differences. Evidence shows that the separate marking scheme creates a divide between the sexes, as female cadets feel that their PPT scores are taken less seriously than male cadets and male cadets denigrate the PPT scores obtained by female cadets (Scoppio, 2019). Right wing authoritarianism (RWA), ambivalent sexism (AS), and its two subscales, benevolent sexism (BS) and hostile sexism (HS) may help explain attitudes regarding gender fairness of PPT scores. Results from a sample of  169 cadets' revealed that the relationship between RWA and BS and RWA and AS do not significantly predict opinions on the PPT and the indirect effects were not significant. However, the indirect effects between RWA, HS, and attitudes regarding the PPT were significant.


The Cramer-von Mises test statistic for the general k sample problem can be rewritten in terms of Gini's mean difference with repetition, and this in turn leads to a derivation as a score test from a self-exciting point-process model. It also leads to a computationally useful form of the test statistic as a correlation between a function of an observation's rank within its own group, and its rank in the ordered combined sample. The practical benefits of this viewpoint are: a better correction for ties; a recommended form for the corresponding stratified test; a new large-sample approximation for p-values, and a new test sensitive to localised differences between samples. The new correction for ties remedies a flaw in the existing test, in that when observations are tied, the p-value of the test is not invariant under a change in direction of measurement of the random variable X → −X.


Background: Gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) plays critical roles in the progression of sex hormone-dependent cancers. Results: Activation of protein kinase D1 (PKD1) by protein kinase C was necessary for activation of the tyrosine kinase pathway. Conclusion: PKD1 is involved in signal transduction in GnRH-induced activation of extracellular signal-regulated protein kinase. Significance: Modification of PKD1 activity may be a new strategy for a therapy of sex hormone-dependent cancers. The receptor for gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) belongs to the G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), and its stimulation activates extracellular signal-regulated protein kinase (ERK). We found that the transactivation of ErbB4 was involved in GnRH-induced ERK activation in immortalized GnRH neurons (GT1–7 cells). We found also that GnRH induced the cleavage of ErbB4. In the present study, we examined signal transduction for the activation of ERK and the cleavage of ErbB4 after GnRH treatment. Both ERK activation and ErbB4 cleavage were completely inhibited by YM-254890, an inhibitor of Gq/11 proteins. Down-regulation of protein kinase C (PKC) markedly decreased both ERK activation and ErbB4 cleavage. Experiments with two types of PKC inhibitors, Gö 6976 and bisindolylmaleimide I, indicated that novel PKC isoforms but not conventional PKC isoforms were involved in ERK activation and ErbB4 cleavage. Our experiments indicated that the novel PKC isoforms activated protein kinase D (PKD) after GnRH treatment. Knockdown and inhibitor experiments suggested that PKD1 stimulated the phosphorylation of Pyk2 by constitutively activated Src and Fyn for ERK activation. Taken together, it is highly possible that PKD1 plays a critical role in signal transduction from the PKC pathway to the tyrosine kinase pathway. Activation of the tyrosine kinase pathway may be involved in the progression of cancer.


The development of new computer technologies such as new media technologie and the Internet has greatly promoted the reform of college English teaching. Today, Internet-based distance education has greatly optimized the environment for students to learn English. The development of it has established a more open teaching platform through emerging technologie such as the Internet, breaking through the unreasonable allocation of resources under the traditional teaching mode and promoting education. The booming development plays a vital role. This paper introduces the relationship between each subsystem and their functions and uses UML technology to model college English teaching systems.


In this paper, we propose a joint framework for target localization and classification using a single generalized model for non-imaging based multi-modal sensor data. For target localization, we exploit both sensor data and estimated dynamics within a local neighborhood. We validate the capabilities of our framework by using a multi-modal dataset, which includes ground truth GPS information (e.g., time and position) and data from co-located seismic and acoustic sensors. Experimental results show that our framework achieves better classification accuracy compared to recent fusion algorithms using temporal accumulation and achieves more accurate target localizations than multilateration.


The objective of this work is to use the concept of energy harvesting i.e. to receive Radio Frequency (RF) and Microwave signals present in the atmosphere and converting these signals into DC, in order to store it or power some circuit like charging a mobile. To implement this concept, an antenna is required to capture RF and microwave frequencies of GSM and WiFi signals in the surrounding. Designing an antenna is the focal point in realization of wireless cellular charging device. RF signals cannot be used to drive a load such as battery of a mobile phone, therefore rectification and a boost up is required done in the third phase which is Voltage Boosting and Rectification. A complete implemented system is being proposed in this paper with successful demonstration of using GSM-900 and GSM-1800 signals for charging a cellular phone. The research paper is a contribution towards the concept of wireless energy transmission at the same time it proves the idea of collecting and converting GSM and WiFi signals, to drive our low power consuming devices, from Radio towers and other wireless transceivers that is of no use otherwise.


ost of the teachers in my high school think philosophy of education is both useless and boring. They regret having been forced to waste time studying it and ask me: "How could a guy like you possibly have earned a Ph.D. in philosophy of education and have been a professor of that subject for eight years?" They like me and talk freely about all sorts of personal matters, yet they rarely bring up anything remotely connected with philosophy of education. The subject is mentioned in a tone of humor and mutual embarrassment, as one might mention a rip in the seat of the pants. The chairman of our department, the principal, and the superintendent of our school system all enthusiastically supported my candidacy to be a teacher of mathematics and recommended that I be paid in accordance with my doctorate and my eight years of professorial teaching experience. Yet no teacher or administrator has ever initiated a "consultation" with me for philosophical or theoretical advice on a practical matter, and the response to my occasional initiatives has been polite but reserved. At the time I was interviewing for a job, my doctoral specialty in philosophy of


In attempts to prepare crystals of Fremy's salt K4[(SO3)2NO]2 suitable for X-ray structural analysis, it has been found that the salt exists in two distinct crystalline forms, monoclinic yellow-orange needles, and triclinic orange-brown rhombs respectively. We describe the results of an X-ray structural analysis of the triclinic form.


A serum-free culture system for bovine granulosa cells was developed. Effects of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), luteinizing hormone (LH), insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I), and insulin-like growth factor-II (IGF-II) on steroid production by bovine granulosa cells were determined. Bovine granulosa cells from small (< 5 mm), medium (6-10 mm), and large (>10 mm) follicles were cultured for 48 h. Concentrations of estradiol-17p (E2) and progesterone (P4) were measured by radioimmunoassay. For granulosa cells from all classes of follicles, the basal E 2 production was high during day 1 culture. With time of culture, E 2 production decreased dramatically in granulosa cells from all classes of follicles. Estradiol-170 production increased significantly with increasing follicle size (p < 0.01). Basal P4 production increased with the time of culture and with increasing follicle size (p < 0.01). These results indicated that a serum-free culture system can support basal granulosa cell steroidogenesis and can be used to study the effects of FSH, L H , IGF-I, and IGF-II on bovine granulosa cell steroidogenesis. Only a low dose of FSH (1 ng/ml) stimulated E 2 production by granulosa cells from medium and large follicles (p < 0.05); high doses of FSH (10, 100 ng/ml) inhibited E 2 production by granulosa cells from large follicles (p < 0.05). Follicle-stimulating hormone stimulated P 4 production from granulosa cells of all classes of follicles (p < 0.05). Luteinizing hormone inhibited E 2 production in medium and large follicles (p < 0.05). Luteinizing hormone increased P4 production in medium and large follicles (p < 0.05).


Among the agents of deterioration considered particularly damaging to cultural heritage objects are light, ultraviolet (UV) and infrared. The high-energy UV is the most damaging of the three, as it can cause irreversible visual, chemical and structural changes in cellulose-based materials. Known for its photocatalytic properties, TiO2 can absorb UV and is thermally and chemically stable. In this study, we propose an innovative bilayer coating composed of starch, methyl cellulose and nano-TiO2 to utilize UV blocking properties of TiO2. The results of the treatments were assessed by determining physical, optical and surface properties, as well as the degradation degree of the samples, prior and post accelerated ageing. The results show that an increase in the weight concentration of TiO2 enhances the colour difference, but the colour of samples coated by lower concentrations of TiO2 after accelerated ageing is closer to the original value than the colour of the uncoated ones. An increase in both the contact angle and the absorption time is also present, but after ageing, both parameters significantly decrease due to the presence of TiO2. To conclude, the presented nanocomposite coating can protect historic paper from UV, but one should bear in mind that a higher weight concentration could lead to a higher water sensitivity after exposure to UV.


Although information technology has positively influenced operations in the Ghanaian financial sector, there is still a high operational cost in performing KYC procedures due to duplication of efforts during clients' onboarding. The decentralized nature of blockchains makes them ideal for addressing these challenges. In this paper, the blockchain maturity model was used to assess the maturity and readiness of Ghanaian banks to adopt blockchain technology for KYC processes. Using primary data obtained via questionnaires and interviews, the individual components of the blockchain maturity model were assessed. The results indicate that the network, hardware, and software components are at repeatable, defined, and managed stages, respectively, while the people component lags in the initial stage due to a lack of adequate staff training. Finally, security and privacy are at the defined stage, whereas policy and regulations are at the initial stage.


Abstract : The Sound Protective Helmet-4 (SPH-4), a derivative of the Navy SPH- 3, has been used by the Army since1970. As our knowledge of crash environments and human impact tolerance has increased through analyses of aircraft accidents and laboratory research, the performance of the standard SPH-4 helmet has been continuously reappraised, and the helmet's shell, liner, retention, earcups, and suspension have been upgraded to provide more impact protection. This report includes a discussion of improvements made in the SPH-4 helmet and the effects these improvements have had on its performance. The SPH-4, SPH-4B, and HGU-56/P are compared in terms of major design features, impact protection, and retention capabilities. The development of helmet impact testing methodology used at the U.S. Army Aeromedical Research Laboratory, Fort Rucker, Alabama, also is discussed.


Objective To investigate the effects of acupuncture combined with movement therapy in the treatment of acute lumbar muscle spasm. Methods One hundred and sixteen patients with the acute lumbar muscle spasm were randomly assigned into the observation group and the control group(n=58 each). Both groups received the acupuncture treatment,meantime the observation group are given movement therapy. The pain degrees of both groups were evaluated before and after all of the treatments by using the Visual Analogue Scale(VAS),and the clinical effects were tested as well. Results After four weeks treatments,the VAS scores of the patients of both two groups after these treatment were increased significantly,more better in the observation group than the control group(P0.05). For the clinical effects,the total effects of the observation group were higher than the one of the control group. Conclusion The acupuncture combined with movement therapy can obviously alleviate the pain and swelling,and significantly improve the clinical effects for the treatment of acute lumbar muscle spasm.


Strontium plays an important role in the treatment of osteoporosis, but the detailed chemistry is still in doubt. In particular, the effect of strontium on the stability of natural bone is not well understood. To simulate the context of strontium intake as a drug, simulated body fluid solution containing various strontium concentrations [Sr] was seeded with biological apatite. No significant incorporation of strontium in the resulting apatite was detected for [Sr] < 0.1 mM, but crystal morphology changed dramatically and crystallinity increased for [Sr] ≥ 0.3 mM due to the formation of strontium-substituted apatite, with substitution increasing with an increase of solution [Sr].


This report presents the first attempt at a national
assessment of an Environmental Quality Standard (EQS) for
dissolved oxygen (DO) in estuaries with the objective of allowing the passage of migratory salmonids.
Under the Control of Pollution Act, Water Authorities and
River Purification Boards have powers to control discharges to estuaries and need to define an EQS for the calculation of consent conditions. The object of any such standards is to permit the existence of good quality salmonid fisheries with only very occasional restrictions to the passage of fish.
The report gives brief summaries of the DO regime in
estuaries, the oxygen requirements of salmonids, and of tentative standards proposed by various authorities. These standards are then compared with DO and fishery data from UK estuaries, provided by the appropriate regulatory authorities. It concludes that a minimum annual lower 95-percentile of 5.0 mg/1 will meet the objective in most estuaries, and that a lower value of 3.0 mg/1 will permit the establishment of a more restricted fishery.
However, more stringent standards may be needed in estuaries containing high concentrations of toxic pollutants.
containing high concentrations of toxic pollutants.


Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) is a modern wireless transmission technology that can dramatically increase communication speed and capacity. Since the computational complexity of received signal detection increases with the number of antennas, various improvement methods have been investigated. This paper focuses on Markov chain Monte Carlo methods and proposes a new signal detection method based on the Hamiltonian Monte Carlo. The proposed method can improve the signal search efficiency by intentionally expanding the discrete signal detection problem into a continuous-valued one. Simulation results show that the proposed method outperforms the conventional method using the Gibbs sampling method and achieves near-optimal performance, especially when the modulation order and spatial correlations are high, which are generally difficult for signal detection. This result suggests that the proposed method is a promising candidate for a practical MIMO system.


A series of 1-substituted 2, 4, 5 triphenyl imidazoles were synthesized by the reaction equimolar mixture of 2, 4, 5 triphenyl imidazole with chloro compound in the presence of anhydrous potassium carbonate. The newly synthesized compounds were characterized on the basis of UV, IR and H 1 NMR spectra. The synthesized compounds were screened for antiinflammatory, antimicrobial activities. Antiinflammatory activity was screened by carageenan induced rat paw oedema method. Compounds T4 & T5 showed highly significant activity. Antimicrobial activity was screened by disc-plate method. All the compounds showed mild to moderate activities.


AT THE BEGINNING of 2022, I was proud to receive an invitation from Professor Nalini M. Guda (USA), Chair of WEO's News and Communication Ad hoc Committee, to contribute as guest editor to this issue of the WEO-DEN newsletter. The chance to contribute to this publication is highly appreciated and provides the opportunity to share relevant information and resources from the Americas and beyond. First, however, despite the passage of time, I would like to comment on the historic ENDO 2020 collaboration between the World Endoscopy Organization (WEO) and the Interamerican Society for Digestive Endoscopy (SIED). ENDO 2020 was the largest endoscopy congress in history, with more than 3000 participants on site, in a comprehensive and exclusive event dedicated solely to digestive endoscopy. That congress set a milestone in the history of endoscopy and, as if fate had decided, ENDO 2020 ended a day before the pandemic took over our continent. Undoubtedly, these will be everlasting memories in WEO and SIED records. Moving on to the present, in this (and the next) issue of the WEO-DEN newsletter, we have been honored with the kind support of distinguished authors from all over the world, who have generously contributed their expertise, addressing a wide range of topics in endoscopy. In these two issues we will cover a broad range of content with a common framework, which is to provide basic and advanced updates on relevant issues in our field. Dr Roque Saenz from Chile will share his expertise in basic techniques in colonoscopy with essential tips and tricks, a must-read article for beginners. Dr Noriya Uedo from Japan addresses an important topic of current relevance: the validity of on-site observership and person-to-person interaction, despite the high penetrance of online activities. Last but not least, we are excited to have input from the Radiation Protection of Patients Unit of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA): the article by Dr Jenia Vassileva (Austria) covers basic information about radioprotection that every interventional endoscopist must take into account. With this information, we intend to spread the word about radiation protection, increasing the awareness of Asadur Tchekmedyian, MD, FASGE, FSIED, Endoscopy Department, Asociacion Espa~ nola, Montevideo, Uruguay


An application of the direct variational method to the determination of steady temperature field in the laminar flow with a radiative heat transfer on the duct wall has been presented in this paper. The course of calculations as related to a specific numerical case has been reproduced here. The results obtained furnish a starting point for further thermal calculations.


It is a long time task for vocational education to cultivate intellectuals with high quality and vocational skills.The traditional mathematical teaching mode is turning into the mode,which aims at improving the students' vocational ability and quality.Hunan Vocational College of Railway Science and Technology advocates that mathematical teaching in vocational college should be improved continuously,mathematical teaching in vocational college should serve for the major teaching,the content of mathematical teaching should be improved in order to be fit with major demand.Hunan Vocational College of Railway Science and Technology also effectively probes and reforms teaching methods,teaching medium and evaluation ways of mathematical teaching in vocational college.


Burn scar identification is usually made in order to appraise injury degree of the forest after obtaining the fire spots. The most effective remote sensing methods for burn scar identification rely upon analysis of two MODIS near-infrared (NIR) channels centered near 1.24 and 2.13 um data. Due to burned-unburned separability and apparent reflectance of the two channels, the Global Environment Monitoring Index (GEMI) calculated by these two bands data was extensively used to burn scar detection. In this paper, using this parameter we establish burn scar identification algorithm flowchart on the assumption of burn scar identification model based on forest fire spread rules. Through the verification of the algorithm, the results show that the algorithm is consistent with the spread laws of forest fire and meet our needs of assessment of forest affected.


Point patterns can be represented by rank ordered lists of interpoint distances. This use of ordinal (i.e. nonmetric) information, combined with the independence of the representation from any coordinate system, means that the resulting representation, and reconstruction as well, is indifferent to scale, translation, rotation, and reflection. This paper focuses on establishing a measure of similarity between non-identical patterns of P points. In doing so, it considers two cases. The first, and simpler, includes an a priori specification of the point correspondences between the two patterns; in the second no such a priori specification is made and it thus requires first determining the best assignment of point correspondences.


Evaluation of low calorie sweetener aspartame for its foetotoxicity was carried out on female Wistar rats. The dose permitted for human consumption viz., 7 mg/ Kg body weight, was fed to rats prior to and during gestation day 20. Results indicate that aspartame is toxic to growing foetus; hence its use should be curbed for human.


Provided are an energy-saving control method, apparatus and system for a station device. An energy-saving management system receives operation state information about a base station main device reported by a station controller and operation state information about a companion device related to the base station main device in a station device; the energy-saving management system acquires a first energy-saving control parameter for the base station main device and acquires a second energy-saving control parameter for the companion device according to the operation state information about the base station main device and/or the operation state information about the companion device; and the energy-saving management system sends the first energy-saving control parameter and the second energy-saving control parameter to the station controller.


EXPERIMENTAL VALIDATION OF A ROBUST SURGE SPEED CONTROLLER FOR MARINE SURFACE VESSELS by JOHN V. FOEHR December 2014 Advisor: Prof. Nabil Chalhoub Major: Mechanical Engineering Degree: Master of Science The focus of the current work is on providing experimental validation for the robust performance and good tracking characteristic of a surge speed controller for autonomous piloting of an under-actuated 16 ft boat in the completely uncontrolled setting of open-water Lake Saint Clair, Michigan. The controller is designed based on the sliding mode methodology and completely ignores the dynamics of the marine surface vessel (MSV) in its formulation. The testing was conducted under considerable unstructured uncertainties and unpredictable environmental disturbances induced by waves, sea-currents, and wind. The experimental results serve to validate the robust tracking characteristic of the controller and prove the successful implementation of the controller without prior knowledge of the system dynamics; thus, yielding a robust model-less controller.


Abstract We give a progress report on a programme of observations to obtain flux densities at 8.4 GHz for a large sample of radio sources selected from the Parkes 2700 MHz Survey. So far, about 1000 flux measurements have been made with a typical accuracy of 10%.


Air supply system is a significant subsystem of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC). In order to avoid affecting the service life of the fuel cell, the control objective is to make the oxygen excess ratio of the system track the desired value. In this paper, a robust control method is proposed for the air supply system of PEMFC. Firstly, a differential observer is designed to estimate the cathode pressure. Secondly, in view of the high nonlinearities and measurement noise in the model, an H∞state feedback controller is used to monitor the oxygen excess ratio. Compared with existing control methods for the air supply system, the proposed robust control approach considers disturbances in the model and measurement. In addition, the controller parameters can be rapidly calculated through the convex optimization technique. Finally, simulation results for a PEMFC control system are given to show the robustness of the proposed controller.


By using attributes core and indiscernibility relation in rough sets,attributes reduction algorithm is given;expert knowledge system is simplified;the minimal set of effective rules is acquired;and a fuzzy Petri net is built.The Petri net can effectively decrease the complexity of the net structure.The algorithm proposed can be used in fuzzy reasoning by using a fuzzy Petri net,and an example illustrates the efficiency of combining rough sets and fuzzy Petri net.


There are many worthy undertakings for the world's space-faring nations to pursue into the future. However, the expense, particularly for manned projects, is driving space agencies to consider cooperation. International cooperation will be a large issue for the remainder of this decade. This article discusses the projects, programs and philosophies in the United States, Europe and Asia that will determine the interntional space infrastructure of the future.


Abstract Drawing on Joseph Kosuth's characterisation of the artist as an engaged anthropologist, Maet argues that nowadays we can consider visual artists, such as Xu Bing, Takashi Murakami and Shahzia Sikander, as artist-anthropologists who express and research how cultural imagination is affected by globalisation. First, in line with De Saussure's distinction between signifier and signified, the author stresses the relativity of the cultural references that are present in their artworks. Because the considered artists cut across the divisions between different cultural expressions of art, he argues that they bring an enlarged modernisation process into view, called global modernity. Next, the article elaborates on the connotations of signifiers. The author maintains that Xu Bing, Murakami and Sikander play with forms of cultural expressions, as well as with the cultural connotations attached to them, and that in doing so they create a new cultural imagination. Finally, the discussed artworks are typified as balancing acts respecting different cultural influences. In reference to Papastergiadis, this is interpreted as an aesthetic cosmopolitanism and it is argued that the discussed artists respect aesthetic and cultural limits to enable this ethical stance.


Ranajit Guha, a founder of Subaltern Studies Group, deals with Hegel`s philosophy of history in his fourth work, History at the Limit of World-History. In early time, his main concern as an subalternist historian was about the elitism of South Asian historiography and politics. In this context, he now argues that Hegel`s concept of World-history(Weltgeschite) has come to be synonymous with `Reason as the essence of Spirit in History`, and that the colonial thought brought with it has dominated Indian historiographies for a long time. Guha`s critique shows that the concept of World-history, because of its consequent statism, has reduced narrowly the historicality as the true historical existences of men in the world. For this, he discriminates the prose of the world from the prose of history. The former invites all of man`s being in time and his being with others. The latter, that is, another name of Hegel`s World-history, concentrates on the state as the only means of realizing Reason and thus operates as a strategy of containment with its exclusive and selective approach to the past. Guha says that, in India, there had been Itihasa as a narrative of wonder before the arrival of the Hegelian modern history under British colonial rule. But the battle of narratives resulting in World-history or the prose of history triumphed over Itihasa or the prose of world. The consequence was that the story as history was dislodged from the people`s world and relocated in the state, and so the noise of World-history and its statist concerns has made historiography insensitive to the sighs and whispers of the subaltern`s everyday life. On the basis of Rabindranath Tagore`s comments about the creative insights and plentiful historicality in literature, Guha argues that historicality has not been assimilated to statist concerns in literary representation. He, like Tagore, calls for a creative engagement with the past as a story of man`s being in the everyday world. He insists that this alternative engagement would make it possible for modern historiography to be rescued from its containment in statist World-history.


A new design of water cooled heat sink with micro-channels and diamond heat spreader for high power diode laser (LD) is presented. The design mainly discusses heat sink made of pure copper plates with micro-channels of three sizes (75 μm, 150 μm and 300 μm). And the design is simulated with Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and Numerical Heat Transfer (NHT) methods, the influences of the size, numbers of the cooling channels and the flow rate of the cooling water to the temperature and the flow resistance characteristics of the heat sink are investigated. In general, decreasing of characteristic size, or, increasing of channel numbers, or, increasing of the flow rate of the cooling water can reduce thermal resistance of heat sink; meanwhile increase the pressure drop significantly. The performance with a diamond heat spreader is numerical calculated for all three sizes of micro-channels as well. The results indicate that the diamond heat spreader can play an important role on decreasing the maximum temperature of the heat sink. The whole thermal resistance of heat sink can be reduced 10 % to 20 % with a 100 μm thickness diamond heat spreader compared with a heat sink without it.


Self-assembled GaInNAs/GaAsN single layer quantum dot (QD) lasers grown using solid source molecular beam epitaxy have been fabricated and characterized. Temperature-dependent measurements have been carried out on the GaInNAs QD lasers. High-temperature operation up to 65°C was demonstrated from an unbonded GaInNAs QD laser (50 × 1060 μm 2 ), with high characteristic temperature ( T 0 ) of 79.4 K in the temperature range of 10-60°C. For comparison, temperature-dependent operation has also been studied on the GaInNAs single quantum well (SQW) lasers. Unlike the relation between the cavity length and T 0 in GaInNAs SQW lasers, longer-cavity GaInNAs QD laser (50 × 1700 μm 2 ) showed lower T 0 of 65.1 K, which is presumably believed due to the nonuniformity of the GaInNAs QD layer.


On January 24, 2018, the European Commission announced that it had fined Qualcomm EUR 997,439,000. The Commission thinks that Qualcomm had abused its dominant position to become Apple's sole…


Control of unwanted low-energy emission originating due to trap states is crucial for improving the emission efficiency and for maintaining the color purity in blue light-emitting diodes. Here, a truxene-based emitter (T-pyrene) that is a good candidate for the blue emitter is investigated using photophysical studies. Steady-state absorption of the emitter reveals the presence of a charge-transfer state, and the photoluminescence spectrum suggests an occurrence of a strong interchain/exciplex state. Time-resolved photoluminescence (TRPL) and fluence-dependent measurements of the material in the dilute solution show the presence of multiple excitonic processes contributing to the delayed fluorescence. Similar studies on the pristine film suggest that the delayed fluorescence is dominated by the presence of the traps. By blending the oligomer with a higher bandgap polymer matrix, poly(9-vinyl carbazole) (PVK), a type I heterojunction at the T-pyrene:PVK interface is obtained that confines the generated excitons in T-pyrene. With this architecture, device efficiencies with T-pyrene (20 wt. %):PVK show significantly enhanced efficiency than those of the pristine device. We elucidate the relevance of the matrix:T-pyrene system using TRPL and fluence-dependent studies on T-pyrene (20 wt. %):PVK. Time-resolved emission spectra on the T-pyrene (20 wt. %):PVK films do not show red-shifted emission with time delays, which suggests the passivation of the quenching sites due to the dispersion of T-pyrene in PVK to prevent the intermolecular interactions.Control of unwanted low-energy emission originating due to trap states is crucial for improving the emission efficiency and for maintaining the color purity in blue light-emitting diodes. Here, a truxene-based emitter (T-pyrene) that is a good candidate for the blue emitter is investigated using photophysical studies. Steady-state absorption of the emitter reveals the presence of a charge-transfer state, and the photoluminescence spectrum suggests an occurrence of a strong interchain/exciplex state. Time-resolved photoluminescence (TRPL) and fluence-dependent measurements of the material in the dilute solution show the presence of multiple excitonic processes contributing to the delayed fluorescence. Similar studies on the pristine film suggest that the delayed fluorescence is dominated by the presence of the traps. By blending the oligomer with a higher bandgap polymer matrix, poly(9-vinyl carbazole) (PVK), a type I heterojunction at the T-pyrene:PVK interface is obtained that confines the generated exci...


Gears are machine elements that transmit motion by means of successively engaging teeth. In purely scientific terms, gears are used to transmit motion. A faulty gear is a matter of serious concern as it affects the functionality of a machine to a great extent. Thus it is essential to diagnose the faults at an initial stage so as to reduce the losses that might be incurred. This necessitates the need for continuous monitoring of the gears. The vibrations produced by gears from good and simulated faulty conditions can be effectively used to detect the faults in these gears. The introduction of Variational Mode Decomposition (VMD) as a new signal pre-processing technique along with the different decision trees have provided good classification performance. VMD allows decomposition of the signal into various modes by identifying a compact frequency support around its central frequency, such that adding all the modes reconstructs the original signal. Alternating direction multiplier method (ADMM) is used by VMD to find the intrinsic mode functions on central frequencies. Meaningful statistical features can be extracted from VMD processed signals. J48 decision tree algorithm was used to identify the useful features and the selected features were used for classification using the decision trees namely, Random Forest, REP Tree and Logistic Model Tree algorithms. The performance analyses of various algorithms are discussed in detail.


Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text Abstract Background: A deep learning model (DLM) that enables non-invasive hypokalemia screening from an electrocardiogram (ECG) may improve the detection of this life-threatening condition. This study aimed to develop and evaluate the performance of a DLM for the detection of hypokalemia from the ECGs of emergency patients. Methods: We used a total of 9908 ECG data from emergency patients who were admitted at the Second Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University, Jiangxi, China, from September 2017 to October 2020. The DLM was trained using 12 ECG leads (lead I, II, III, aVR, aVL, aVF, and V1–6) to detect patients with serum potassium concentrations <3.5 mmol/L and was validated using retrospective data from the Jiangling branch of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University. The blood draw was completed within 10 min before and after the ECG examination, and there was no new or ongoing infusion during this period. Results: We used 6904 ECGs and 1726 ECGs as development and internal validation data sets, respectively. In addition, 1278 ECGs from the Jiangling branch of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University were used as external validation data sets. Using 12 ECG leads (leads I, II, III, aVR, aVL, aVF, and V1–6), the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of the DLM was 0.80 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.77–0.82) for the internal validation data set. Using an optimal operating point yielded a sensitivity of 71.4% and a specificity of 77.1%. Using the same 12 ECG leads, the external validation data set resulted in an AUC for the DLM of 0.77 (95% CI: 0.75–0.79). Using an optimal operating point yielded a sensitivity of 70.0% and a specificity of 69.1%. Conclusions: In this study, using 12 ECG leads, a DLM detected hypokalemia in emergency patients with an AUC of 0.77 to 0.80. Artificial intelligence could be used to analyze an ECG to quickly screen for hypokalemia.


We consider the bosonic fractional quantum Hall (FQH) effect in the presence of a non-Abelian gauge field in addition to the usual Abelian magnetic field. The non-Abelian field breaks the twofold internal state degeneracy, but preserves the Landau level degeneracy. Using exact diagonalization, we find that for moderate non-Abelian field strengths the system's behaviour resembles a single internal state quantum Hall system, while for stronger fields there is a phase transition to either two internal state behaviour or the complete absence of FQH plateaus. Usually the energy gap is reduced by the presence of a non-Abelian field, but some non-Abelian fields appear to slightly increase the gap of the ν=1 and ν=3/2 Read–Rezayi states.


MIMO antennas are widely used in wireless communications because of their spectral efficiency for the total transmitted power. In this paper, a single antenna is used to design MIMO antenna array made of four identical planner bowtie antennas with reduced mutual coupling. Each antenna element in the array has 2 U shaped metal strips with fixed sizes and 4 rectangular metal strips with a fixed vertical dimensions and variable horizontal width. The resultant MIMO antenna can operate at 9.25 and 10.5 GHz frequency bands. The four antenna array elements are separated by two slot lines to reduce the mutual coupling among antennas. The performance for the proposed single and MIMO bowtie antennas is simulated using HFSS to obtain the return losses, impedances, radiation patterns, radiation efficiencies and current distributions. The results show that the loaded MIMO antennas have a very low mutual coupling without additional parasitic or reactive elements.


Aim To observe the medical effect of hypertension with combined treatment of isosorbide 5-mononitrate and carvedilol,especially the change of the pulse pressure because of its relation to large artery elasticity.Method The thirty-seven old patients who were diagnosed with isolated systolic hypertension and treated with isosorbide 5-mononitrate and carvedilol.We collected respectively data for the blood pressure,pulse pressure,blood lipid,serum glucose,heart rate and the change of electrocardiogram before and after treatment for 1st,3rdand 6thmonth,and analyzed the change of blood pressure and side-effect.Result Pulse pressure significantly variability decreased after 3 month of there was little medical treatment and side-effect and hardly any influence on body metabolism.Conclusion It is an effective medical treatment for isolated systolic hypertension,and it is one of the effective ways of improving large artery elasticity.


The United States Department of Energy (DOE) Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) is developing metallic actinide-zirconium alloy fuels for the transmutation of minor actinides as part of a closed fuel cycle. The molten salt electrochemical process to be used for fuel recycle has the potential to carry over up to 2% fission product lanthanide content into the fuel fabrication process. Within the scope of the fuel irradiation testing program at Idaho National Laboratory (INL), candidate metal alloy transmutation fuels containing quantities of lanthanide elements have been fabricated, characterized, and delivered to the Advanced Test Reactor for irradiation testing.


Introduction An autoimmune disease constituting of hyperthyroidism due to circulating auto-antibodies against thyrotropin (TSH receptor) is delineated as Graves Disease.1 An upsurge in thyroid hormone synthesis, secretions and glandular enlargement is elucidated. Aberrant glandular stimulation ensues with thyroid stimulating immunoglobulin (TSI) which activates the thyrotropin receptor.1 Coexisting manifestations are diffuse goitre, infiltrative opthalmopathy and the limited infiltrative dermatopathy, including pretibial myxedema (red/ thickened skin at the shins/top of the feet) and thyroid acropachy (swollen extremities, clubbing of fingers and toes with periosteal new bone formation).2 The presence of serum thyrotropin receptor antibodies and orbitopathy on clinical exam categorizes and classifies typical Graves disease. Maternal Graves disease influences neonatal thyroid in 1 to 5% cases, pertinent to the trans-placental transfer of the anti TSH receptor auto-antibodies.3 Concurrent autoimmune diseases such as Type I diabetes mellitus, rheumatoid arthiritis. Addison's disease, pernicious anaemia, vitiligo and lupus are expounded.3


Open-system quantum dynamics described by non-Hermitian effective Hamiltonians have become a subject of considerable interest. Studies of non-Hermitian physics have revealed general principles, including relationships between the topology of the complex eigenvalue space and the breakdown of adiabatic control strategies. We study here the control of a single non-Hermitian qubit, similar to recently realized experimental systems in which the non-Hermiticity arises from an open spontaneous emission channel. We review the topological features of the resulting non-Hermitian Hamiltonian and then present two distinct results. First, we illustrate how to realize any continuous and differentiable pure-state trajectory in the dynamics of a qubit that are conditioned on no emission. This result implicitly provides a workaround for the breakdown of standard adiabatic following in such non-Hermitian systems. Second, we use Pontryagin's maximum principle to derive optimal trajectories connecting boundary states on the Bloch sphere, using a cost function which balances the desired dynamics against the controller energy used to realize them. We demonstrate that the latter approach can effectively find trajectories which maintain high state purity even in the case of inefficient detection.


These days, company workers have a lot of opportunity to collaborate with remote coworkers. In this study, we focused on "virtual same room" systems which provide a sense of co-existing virtually and enable real time interaction among remote offices. While many systems have been proposed, system effect was not fully evaluated in actual enterprise organization which has diverse workers and work context. To evaluate it, we conducted case study of implementation of SmoothSpace (SS) which is a teleconference type system, in remote offices of a Japanese manufacturing company. Survey was conducted in order to clarify the effects of SS and impact of two worker's attributes, 1) job position and 2) working location on the effects. Results indicated that SS led frequent interaction between remote offices, and encouraged behaviors for knowledge creation. Frequency of interaction was depended on workers' job position. Results also suggested that SS implementation had more significant impact on behaviors for knowledge creation of branch offices workers, rather than main office workers. These findings might be valuable to know environmental conditions in order to maximize a benefit of the systems implementation.


Abstract The speech and language performance of three groups of brain-injured children, a closed-head injured (CHI) group, children treated for posterior Fossa tumour (PFT), and children treated for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), was compared to a matched control group. The subjects were administered a battery of speech and language assessments including general measures of motor speech abilities, and speaking and listening performance, as well as specific skills tests in the domains of confrontation naming and verbal fluency. Performance of the experimental groups was compared with that of a control group matched for age, sex and educational level. Results indicated that all areas of language competence assessed appeared to be compromised by the various types of brain injury. With the exception of two members of the PFT group, motor speech skills appeared to be spared for all other experimental subjects.


Marton's work was exhibited at the 7th International Small Form Porcelain Exhibition of the Riga Porcelain Museum, Latvia, between October 18 and December 9th, 2012. Curator Ieva Naglina selected and invited 25 Latvian and 39 international artists to exhibit ceramic works of 15 x 15 x 15cm dimensions. The porcelain studies examine the tactile and visual detailing and stylisation available to artists working with these size constraints. Thus, Marton's work confronts phenomenologies of sizing and materiality as equal enablers of artistic expression.

Sited in an ex-Soviet state, the work's exhibition contributes to discussions of national and global identity. Riga is an important location in the history of ceramic artwork; the museum is in close proximity to the famous Kuznetsov (est. 1841) and Jessen (est. 1886) porcelain factories. The opportunity to present work in Riga contextualises artworks as commentaries on historicity shaped by trans-national ideologies. The museum extended this narrative by documenting and accepting donations of the work for permanent display.


Summary This paper examines fertility behaviour in Sturbridge, Massachusetts between 1730 and 1850. The substantial decline in fertility over the period resulted from a combination of a rising female age at marriage and declining fertility within marriage. The authors suggest that declining marital fertility represents the onset of deliberate family limitation and put forward the hypothesis that it is related to the interaction of the culmination of the settlement process and the commercialization of economic life in the early nineteenth century. The change in fertility in Sturbridge, then, is explained by the combination of traditional controls over family formation and new means of fertility control.


The effect of electric current pulse on the casting ZA12 alloy was investigated.The results show that the primary phase in the solidification structure with electric current treatment evolves into nearspherical fine particle from normal dendrite and the tensile strength is improved.The accelerated particledrift and heat transfer causedby electropulsing pressure during electric current pulse treatment may result in these changes.


Abstract A numerical study is conducted for a thermal-hydraulic performance analysis and secondary side screw-type tube inlet orifice design of a once-through steam generator. Various tube-plugging conditions and power levels are considered, and the secondary coolant flow rate is adjusted to maintain a constant level of thermal power. Comprehensive numerical solutions are acquired to evaluate the thermal-hydraulic performance and minimum orifice length of the once-through steam generator under various operating conditions. The results obtained show that constant thermal power can be maintained by properly adjusting the secondary coolant flow rate with variation of the steam outlet superheat degree and secondary coolant pressure drop when the once-through steam generator operates at a high power level. The secondary coolant flow rate curve for constant thermal power operation is determined, and the required minimum orifice length to suppress the flow oscillation below the allowable level is evaluated. The lowest power level results in the highest minimum orifice length, and the non-plugged condition practically limits the orifice length criterion. This orifice length and corresponding pumping power are compared with those when the secondary coolant pressure at the tube outlet is controlled for constant thermal power operation.


The Application of Query/Report in FsKsM are specially develop to help student, clerk and management in solving problem at Reception Counter. Through this system, user especially student would be able to get answers there needed as information without going to reception counter. It's also make clerk job easier where always busy and feel board by the same question from student. The development of this system are base on the research at the faculty reception and few information from the clerk. The methodology which use is evolution prototype- The software are chosen for developing this system are ASp.Net and structured Query Language (sql server) for there database. Hopefully this system can increase much of problem in the manual system recently and finally built up new effective and efficient application


The power of ideas and language is not to be underestimated-ideas do matter,  both "good" and "bad" ideas. John Maynard Keynes was right when he proclaimed that the "ideas of economists and political philosophers. both when they are right and when they are wrong. are more powerful than is commonly understood." Whether it is ideas associated with Marxism-Leninism, responsible for the deaths of untold millions in revolutions gone awry. or expansionist liberalism in the guise of colonialism, the consequences of ideas and the language that accompanies them reverberate well beyond the realm of abstract theory or the ivory tower-they can have a very real impact on actions and outcomes. Civilization is a powerful idea and ideal; as is the language of civilization. This paper explores how the ideal of civilization, the norm of civilization, along with antithetical terms such as barbarism and savagery. have been used and manipulated to explain. rationalize. and justify decisions and actions that shape the course of history. Civilization is a concept that Quentin Skinner would describe as an "evaluative-descriptivet"e rm. That is, it is a concept that performs both evaluative and descriptive functions in our daily language. The nature of such concepts is that they can be used to either  commend or condemn the actions or peoples they are used to describe.Throughout its history the word civilization has proven to be a term of considerable power that is used both to commend and condemn, often with serious consequences.


We have previously shown that elimination of buffer Ca2+ markedly reduced maximum 5‐HT‐induced contractions. We have now investigated the effect of L‐type Ca2+‐channel blockers and 5‐HT2 receptor antagonists on 5‐HT‐ and K+‐induced contractions in rat aorta to explore the possibility of a relationship between blockade of L‐type Ca2+ channels and 5‐HT2 receptor antagonism.


To guide the patients to follow the designed training trajectory precisely, an omnidirectional intelligent walking training robot (IWTR) is being developed in our laboratory. However, in the clinical experiments, the users usually walk with stumbling gait and at times fall behind the designed walking training trajectory of IWTR due to the incomplete walking ability. If the IWTR keeps tracking original trajectory continuously without considering user's walking steps, it will cause dangers for the users when they stop or fall behind the designed trajectory. To guarantee the patients' safety during the walking rehabilitation, a user's steps considered motion control approach of IWTR was studied in this research. A vision-based measurement of feet motion was proposed to detect user's feet position and orientation. With the measured feet information, the user's body center position and orientation were estimated relative to IWTR. A safe distance was defined to ensure the user's position in the safe walk space of IWTR during the walk training. The experimental results showed the effectiveness of the proposed method.


Abstract The objectives of this retrospective study were to (1) examine the predictive value of employer's disability management (DM) perceptions and DM policies in return-to-work outcomes for the injured worker, (2) examine factors that influence employer's DM perceptions, polices and return-to-work outcomes, and (3) examine the relationship between demographic factors of the individual and return-to-work outcomes. Employers from a northern British Columbia, Canada community were randomly selected to participate. The findings of the study supported the hypothesis that company perception towards DM is a significant contributing factor to the presence of DM policies in the workplace and that DM polices are predictive of return-to-work outcomes for injured workers.


Information on the design of a power divider with unequal division is presented in this article. The directional coupler, in which the length of each of the line segments connecting the nodes of the circuit, is equal to a quarter of the wavelength in the line has been reduced in size through the use of planar structures. These structures have characteristics comparable to replaceable segments in the working band of the coupler. However, due to the fact that the structures consist of segments of different widths, this introduces additional losses at the directional coupler, and due to the denser arrangement and differences in the phase change of the segments and the structures used, the working band of the device narrows. The coupler area has been reduced by 70.3% and the 20 dB isolation bandwidth reduction is 11.9%.


Compact Sandwich Specimen (CSS) is the best specimen to test the fracture toughness of bone from small laboratory animals. There exists a direct method to calculate the stress intensity factor (K) of bone using CSS. However, energy release rate (G) is the fundamental measure of fracture toughness of a material. The direct relation between K, G, Young's Modulus (E), and Poisson's ratio (ν), defined for homogeneous materials may not apply to bone, which has a non-homogeneous microstucture. Therefore, a direct test method is required to calculate G of bone using CSS. Elastic compliance technique is used to measure G of a material. This paper presents an experimentally tested and reliable procedure to simulate the elastic compliance technique by finite element analysis. The procedure may eventually be used in formulating the direct test method to calculate G of bone and bone-biomaterial interface, using CSS.


We introduce a new framework for studying clustering and for calculating alpha partial widths using ab initio wave functions. We demonstrate the formalism for $^{20}$Ne, by calculating the overlap between the $^{16}$O$+\alpha$ cluster configuration and states in $^{20}$Ne computed in the ab initio symmetry-adapted no-core shell model. We present spectroscopic amplitudes and spectroscopic factors, and compare those to no-core symplectic shell-model results in larger model spaces, to gain insight into the underlying physics that drives alpha-clustering. Specifically, we report on the alpha partial width of the lowest $1^-$ resonance in $^{20}$Ne, which is found to be in good agreement with experiment. We also present first no-core shell-model estimates for asymptotic normalization coefficients for the ground state, as well as for the first excited $4^{+}$ state in $^{20}$Ne that lies in a close proximity to the $^{16}$O$+\alpha$ threshold. This outcome highlights the importance of correlations for developing cluster structures and for describing alpha widths. The widths can then be used to calculate alpha-capture reaction rates for narrow resonances of interest to astrophysics. We explore the reaction rate for the alpha-capture reaction $^{16}$O$(\alpha,\gamma)^{20}$Ne at astrophysically relevant temperatures and determine its impact on simulated X-ray burst abundances.


Disopyramide is an antiarrhythmic drug withpharmacological properties qualitatively similar toquinidine and procainamide which showsconcentration dependent plasma binding within themanufacturer's recommended therapeutic range of3.3-7.5mg/l(Heel, Brogden, Speight&Avery, 1978).Disopyramide kinetics are altered withcardiovasculardisease (Ward&Kinghorn, 1976)andnon-linear behaviour has been reported, with


Part I) Part I of this case describes a small MIS department responsible for medical information systems that support an occupational health clinic situated in a major university. Their customers are primarily medical and administrative professionals who, for a long time, have been disappointed with the team and the systems. The environment is rather hostile. A new MIS department head is hired and is in a quandary how to ensure success with major MIS projects that are critical to their medical community customers. This part of the case is suitable for discussion in a single class period, separated from the discussion of Part II, which follows.


Individual LS multiplet energies are calculated using a relativistic atomic Hartree-Fock procedure. The results obtained are in excellent agreement with non-relativistic values. The approach outlined enables the relativistic contribution to the individual multiplets to be evaluated. Extension of the procedure to problems of interest within the intermediate-coupling framework is straightforward.


The influence of solid-state drawing on the photo-actuation stress of oriented semi-crystalline polymers is explored experimentally and theoretically. Photo-responsive and ultra-drawn linear polyet...


Double-gated silicon field emission arrays (FEAs) are fabricated with the tip 400 nm below the extraction gate and 600 nm below the focus. The diameters of the gate and focus apertures are 0.4 /spl mu/m and 0.7 /spl mu/m respectively. For this structure, an abrupt drop in anode current is observed when the focus voltage V/sub f/ is less than 12 V. For the range of focus voltages 4 V < V/sub f/ < 12 V, the anode current initially increases with the gate voltage because the net repulsive force is still small. The emitted current increases with V/sub G/ due to repulsion by the focus. Eventually, the anode current peaks and a negative resistance region ensue. Further increase of V/sub G/ shuts off the anode current. For focus voltage > 12 V, the balance between the emission and repulsive forces is such that there is a monotonic increase in anode current with V/sub G/ and shows no negative resistance region.


This paper highlights two evidence-based views in understanding the nature of cities in globalization. The first view is that cities are forming a world city network with a particular geography that is city-centered (command power remaining in core-located cities and network power in non-core cities) to impinge on future social change. This world city network is a part of globalization processes that are inevitable and irreversible. It is conceptualized as an interlocking network with cities as the nodes in spaces of flows linking localities in the whole network. It constitutes the knowledge constellations for the production of services, and agencies, such as business firms, as the sub-nodal level that creates and provides the services as the prime agency of network production and reproduction. US cities are command power centers but are always most strongly connected to other cities within the US (dominance of space of places) and less prominent in the world city network (prominence of spaces of flows) – a pattern of emerging freedom of cities, especially those in weak states. The world city network is not inherently regressive in nature; it can service global capital as well as create a new economical politics (concern for networks of trade and finance) operating through the principles of cooperation and mutuality.


The interaction of electromagnetic plane wave with multilayered semiconductor-dielectric structure with diffraction grating is studied. The algebraic set of equations of Fredholm type of second kind has been obtained. The reflection coefficient is numerically determined. It is shown that it can be less than unity (wave amplification) as well as less than unity (wave absorption).


We consider the zero viscosity limit of long time averages of solutions of damped and driven Navier-Stokes equations in R. We prove that the rate of dissipation of enstrophy vanishes. Stationary statistical solutions of the damped and driven Navier-Stokes equations converge to renormalized stationary statistical solutions of the damped and driven Euler equations. These solutions obey the enstrophy balance. Mathematics Subject Classification 35Q35, 76D06. key words Inviscid limit, statistical solutions, anomalous dissipation.


Objective: This study was implemented to assess various types of violent incidents involving emergency medical technicians (EMTs) working in Tehran, Iran. Furthermore, the characteristics of violent people and possible causes of their violence were assessed.
Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 500 EMTs working in the capital city of Tehran were randomly invited. The participants were asked to fill out a questionnaire of workplace violence. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression were also performed for identifying the possible risk factors of violence. In addition, the distribution and association of violence patterns were also analyzed considering demographic features and characteristics of violent people.
Results: In total, 320 EMTs with the mean age of 31.8 ± 6.7 years participated, 315 (98.4%) of whom were men. Overall, 279 (87.2%) out of the 320 participants experienced 654 episodes of violence, mostly bullying, in the last 4 months. The relationship between the level of education and experiencing violent incidents was statistically significant (p=0.035). Also, non-Persian EMTs had experienced significantly more violent behaviors than Persian EMTs [171 (91.0%) vs. 108 (81.8%); p=0.016]. Nonetheless, the prevalence of violent incidents was not significantly correlated with marital status, years of work experience, employment situation, and working hours. The odds of facing violent behavior among EMTs with associate degree was 2.9 times higher than those with technical diploma (p=0.048). Furthermore, the odds of experiencing violence among non-Persian EMTs was 2.2 times higher than Persian EMTs (p=0.039).
Conclusion: We found that EMTs had faced numerous episodes of violence in their workplace, especially verbal threats, which were more prevalently committed by patients' relatives during night shifts.


The title of my lecture is, I am afraid, probably misleading and certainly too ambitious. For, on the one hand, the connection between arithmetic and geometry suggested by it is not the modern development in divisors theory, but an application of algebraic geometry for arithmetical purposes. On the other hand, I shall confine the subject of this lecture to cubic surfaces in ordinary space, considered in the rational domain, so that a proper title would be for instance The geometry of ternary cubic Diophantine equations. I prefer, however, the more ambitious and inaccurate one, as suggesting the possibility of similar investigations for other surfaces, possibly considered in more general arithmetical fields. The short time at my disposal does not allow me to dwell on such extensions. I mention only that I have already completed an extensive arithmetical research on quartic surfaces; and that the whole subject—arithmetic upon an algebraic surface—seems to me to be so wide in scope, that I can envisage the possibility of further important developments. Let us consider an ordinary space, where coordinates (x, y, z) are introduced and points at infinity are defined in the usual way. I call rational an algebraic surface, or curve, or point set of this space when it can be represented by one or more algebraic equations with rational coefficients,


The paper is a about the special writing mechanism,unique writing manner, exceptive writing pattern, and specificexamining method and standard for self-simulating handwriting.In the first part, differences of the concepts of simulating hand-writing and self-simulating handwriting, their writing manners,mechanism and resultant patterns are investigated. In the secondand third parts, illustrated by cases, four characteristics of self-simulating handwriting and the corresponding rules are induced,and the highlights for recognizing the specific writing aresummarized. In the last part, the examining method and stan-dard for self-simulating handwriting are discussed.


A new process for the production of instant red jasmine rice was investigated using fluidized bed drying with the aid of swirling compressed air. Drying characteristics were evaluated using the operating parameters of fluidizing air temperature (90–120 °C) and pressure of swirling compressed air (4–6 bar). Appropriate air pressure was determined based on the highest value of model parameters from the semi-empirical Page equation and effective diffusivity. Influences of supply time of swirling compressed air (2–10 min) and drying temperature of 90–120 °C were investigated and optimized based on the quality attributes using response surface methodology. Drying at 120 °C and compressed air pressure of 6 bar gave the highest rate constant and effective diffusion coefficient. Drying at 120 °C combined with injecting swirling air for 2 min was the most suitable approach, while drying at 90 °C and supplying compressed air for 10 min was the best choice to preserve antioxidant properties. Air temperature of 98.5 °C with 2 min supply of swirling compressed air suitably provided high physical and rehydration properties and retained high health benefits of antioxidant compounds. Finally, after rehydration in warm water at 70 °C for 10 min, the textural properties of the rehydrated rice sample were comparable to conventionally cooked rice.


ABSTRACT DNA computing techniques have interesting properties such as vast parallel computation attainment, organic edges, and tiny parts. These properties have attracted researchers from various fields (Bioinformatics, Biochemistry, and others). These techniques mainly rest on biochemical responses of molecules of DNA. Nonetheless, these biochemical responses might anneal in unsystematic fashion and conceivably generate inappropriate computations. This motivates prospects to utilize evolutionary computation as it lays importance on probabilistic and optimization search approaches. In this research study, the ability of DNA computing is demonstrated and verified by selecting the job scheduling problem (JSP). JSP can be easily tackled by a human or by using standard computers. A proposed evolutionary DNA algorithm is presented in this paper to solve the JSP; the proposed technique produces promising and better results than the standard DNA computing algorithm. Through adding supportive operations to the evolutionary operations, the performance becomes better; in addition, it has more solutions at the end, and therefore, the possibility of having an optimum or near optimum solution is increased, and the average number of solutions is improved.


This research aims to describe the extent of the work based stressor on funding officer in several banks in Makassar area and to understand which stressor is the most significant in triggering stress among these officers. A quantitative method employed in this reseach by using questionnaires distributed to 100 employees, the sample selection in this study used the purposive sampling method. The analytical method used is to use validity and reliability tests, and calculate the average score of each stressor variable. Work stressors that are on the low criteria are interpersonal factors and career development variables. While the variables of work conditions, role stress, organizational structure, and home life-work problems are very low criteria. The highest level of work stressor experienced by employees is the career development variable, this is because most of the funding officers were only temporary employees with probation period status.


There has been a fast development of transport infrastructure to support the economic growth in China, which calls for more study on the relation between them. This study employs a production function method and a VAR (Vector AutoRegression) approach to study the relation with national empirical data. The result of production function method is discussable because the elasticity of infrastructure to the output is negligible and may be contradict to common knowledge. The explanation for this includes the data limitation and potential unfixed effects. It is also shown that the more developed areas benefit more from infrastructure than undeveloped areas. The VAR method shows that the infrastructure counts for a significant part of economic growth and a shock in infrastructure might lead to significant short-term effect on economic growth but small long-term effect. The causality of the infrastructure and economic development is vague in statistic meaning but it seems more likely the infrastructure explains the economic growth but not reversely.


This article deals with some initial statements and it follows afterwards with the value of moods of the verbe. At the beginnig language is considered as a functional structure of which the values are established inside the system and remain unchanged in themselves inside the syntagme. At the end of the paper the authoress copes with the block indicative / potential / irreal, and imperative in equipolent opposition to the previous block.


A seat driving apparatus includes: a gear transmission mechanism, preventing a backlash by means of the wedge member applied with a biasing force of a biasing member and transmitting a torque; an actuator, operating a seatback of a seat; and a control unit, controlling driving of the actuator. The control unit includes a seat operation mode in which the actuator is driven to operate the seatback at a predetermined speed and a creep mode in which the actuator is driven at a slower speed than a speed in the seat operation mode. The actuator is driven in the creep mode until a load for releasing the holding of the gear transmission mechanism is applied to the wedge member and subsequently the actuator is driven in the seat operation mode when the seatback is operated in an opposite direction from the previous operational direction thereof.


Professional Services Firms promote knowledge sharing cultures to maintain consistency in the internal flow of organizational knowledge. Building a knowledge sharing culture takes tough time. Enter ...


Due to its cheap price and no line of sight requirement, the RFID has emerge the field of indoor localization. Many algorithms have been developed, the classical ones have used the received signal strength informations as a metric, but due to the low degree of accuracy, we propose in this paper an other algorithm known as MUSIC algorithm which estimate the direction of arrival to determine the coordinates of the tag, then we will apply a spatial smoothing to eliminate the problem of interference.We will show through some simulations on Matlab software the most improvements like the accuracy that this technique has brought. Keywords—Indoor localization; RFID; MUSIC algorithm; Spatial smoothing.


This work developed a learning framework for perceptive legged locomotion that combines visual feedback, proprioceptive information, and active gait regulation of foot-ground contacts. The perception requires only one forward-facing camera to obtain the heightmap, and the active regulation of gait paces and traveling velocity are realized through our formulation of CPG-based high-level imitation of foot-ground contacts. Through this framework, an end-user has the ability to command task-level inputs to control different walking speeds and gait frequencies according to the traversal of different terrains, which enables more reliable negotiation with encountered obstacles. The results demonstrated that the learned perceptive locomotion policy followed task-level control inputs with intended behaviors, and was robust in presence of unseen terrains and external force perturbations. A video demonstration can be found at https://youtu.be/OTzlWzDfAe8, and the codebase at https://github.com/jennyzzt/perceptual-locomotion.


O2 activation for the green conversion of chemicals has attracted a great deal of attentions in the field of chemistry. Developing catalysts for aerobic oxidation with both prominent instinct activ...


This proceedings consists of  thirty-nine revised papers, first presented at the fourteenth Uddevalla Symposium & the Third International Symposium of Entrepreneurship of E-Lab at University of ...


Transient convective motion and heat transfer in a square cavity driven by combined temperature gradient and imposed lid shear are analyzed. The cavity is filled with a low Prandtl fluid, and the vertical walls are maintained at different but constant temperatures. The horizontal connecting walls are adiabatic. The upper wall is moving and either aids or opposes the buoyancy-driven motion. A control volume method is employed to compute the flow and temperature fields. Numerical results are reported for Pr = 0·005, Gr = 1 × I07, and a range of Reynolds numbers for both aiding and opposing flow situations. The evolution of unsteady flow in a cavity is discussed. For GrIRe2 ≥ 1 the effect of inertia is insignificant. For GrIRe2 ≤ 1 the inertia stabilizes the flow, regardless of the direction of the applied shear force.


Experimental work to study the effects of balance ratio, seal face divergency, shaft speed and number of pockets on leakage and tilt stability, for a 9.5 cm pocket-type, hydrostatic rotary end face seal in high-pressure water, is described and discussed. It is shown that leakage and tilt stability, for a given pressure, both depend primarily on balance ratio and parallelity of the sealing gap. It is also shown that seal face separation prevails even if the sealing gap is slightly divergent. For the seal, the data indicate that at least six pockets are required to obtain close to maximum tilt stability. Presented as an American Society of Lubrication Engineers paper at the ASLE/ASME Lubrication Conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota, October 24–26, 1978


Carrichtera annua a plant belonging to family Brassicaceae was evaluated for the antimicrobial activity against a number of microorganisms. The powdered plant was extracted with ethanol. The concentrated ethanol extract was tested against a number of fungi, gram positive and gram-negative bacteria. The results revealed that the extract showed a significant and promising activity towards Aspergillus fumigatus, Proteus vulgaris, Enterococcus faecalis and Staphylococcus aureus with inhibition zones equal 17, 15, 13 and 11 mm. respectively. Additionally, the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) was determined and illustrated that, the most susceptible organisms to C. annua were Aspergillus fumigatus and Proteus vulgaris with MIC of 2.5 mg/mL and 5 mg/mL respectively. Therefore, C. annua could be considered as a promising source for effective antimicrobial agent.


Server Routing(SR) in high rate IEEE 802.15.5-based WPAN Mesh has redundant overhead and operations in the link state registration and route establishment stages of SR.A high-efficiency and low-delay routing algorithm(HLRA) was proposed.Two new mechanisms which are the broadcasting Link State Registration commands and decreasing the length of relay list in retransmission were introduced to improve the speed of building the route.Theoretical analysis and simulation results show that the network overhead and the average end-to-end delay were reduced in HLRA and the packet delivery ratio was almost kept unchanged.


This research affords the basic material to build a strategy for sports marketing as accurate research the pro basketball spectator's involvement and product knowledge and how its effect on re-purchase intelligent. After setting the population as a anycall pro basket ball spectator, I draw samples using the convenience sampling method. I research the difference of pro basket ball spectator and product knowledge, after make a Question, except the insufficient and non-credibility data from the collected Question paper and enter the possible to analyze and useful material on a case-by-case basis. This research execute the t-test and regression to analyze pro basketball involvement and product knowledge how effect on re-purchase intelligent. The followed conclusion was given from the procedure and research method above First, in difference of professional basketball involvement according to sex, relation, necessity, profit, and attraction were showed significant difference. Second, in difference of professional basketball knowledge according to sex, the record, the player or coach, team, and rules were showed significant difference. Third, the intention of re-purchase was affected by importance, profit, interest, entertainment, and necessity of professional basketball involvement factors. Lastly, the intention of re-purchase was affected by the record, the players or coaches, and teams of professional basketball product knowledge factors.


The short-term frequency jitter of a single-mode solid-state laser is caused mostly by fluctuations of the optical length of the laser resonator owing to mechanical vibration and acoustic noise. This jitter can be greatly reduced when the resonator mirror coatings are applied directly to the Nd:YAG crystal. The coupling of mechanical and acoustic room noise into length fluctuations of the Nd:YAG crystal itself is small.


In this paper we are investigating folded waveguide traveling wave tubes (FWGTWT). These FWGTWTs combine the power density and high frequency advantages of vacuum microelectronics with the powerful microfabrication methods of MEMS and solid state electronics. Experimental, theoretical and computer simulation investigations of a FWGTWT oscillator have been performed, including microfabrication tests of a variety of methods.


Recently a realtime photoacoustic microscopy system has been demonstrated. Unfortunately, however, displayed B-scan images were sometimes difficult to interpret as there was little structural context. In this work, we provide structural context for photoacoustic microscopy images by adding ultrasound biomicroscopy as a complementary and synergistic modality. Our system uses a voice-coil translation stage capable of 1" lateral translation, and can operate in excess of 15 Hz for 1-cm translations, providing up to 30 ultrasound frames per second. The frame-rate of the photoacoustic acquisitions is limited by the 20-Hz pulse-repetition rate of the laser, but can be increased with a faster-repetition-rate laser. Data from the system is streamed in real time from a 2GS/s PCI data acquisition card to the host PC at rates as high as 200 MB/s. The system should prove useful for various in vivo studies, including combined ultrasound Doppler and photoacoustic imaging.


Objective To study the clinical significance of C-reactive protein(CRP)in evaluation of the curative effect of pulmonary tuberculosis.Method 100 cases of patients with pulmonary tuberculosis were selected,who were divided into 40 patients with smear-positive and 60 smear-negative and the variations of CRP and erythrocyte sedimentation rate(ESR)in those patients were analyzed.Results(1)No significant differences were found in the average values of CRP and ESR between the two groups(all the P values0.05).(2)A significant difference was found in the average value of CRP(P0.05),but no significant difference in that of ESR(P0.05)in smear-negative group between prior treatment and post-treatment.(3)The statistical differences were not observed in the average values of CRP and ESR in smear-negative group between prior treatment and post-treatment(P0.05).Conclusion The variations of CRP can be employed between prior-and post-antituberculosis treatment for the patients with active pulmonary tuberculosis,especially the patients with smear-positive,which is used a marker of evaluating the curative effect of antituberculosis treatment.


A pressure compensating flow control hydraulic circuit having a holding valve is disclosed. The pressure compensating flow control hydraulic circuit can perform the function of a holding valve so as to prevent the naturally lowering phenomenon of a working unit due to the leakage of a hydraulic fluid when the working unit is located in a neutral position, and can perform the function of a flow control valve when the working unit is operated. The pressure compensating flow control hydraulic circuit includes first and second hydraulic pumps; a boom cylinder for being supplied with a hydraulic fluid from the first hydraulic pump when a control valve of the boom cylinder is switched over; an arm cylinder for being supplied with the hydraulic fluid from the second hydraulic pump when a control valve is of the arm cylinder is switched over; a holding valve for preventing an arm from being naturally lowered due to a load pressure; an auxiliary spool for being switched over in response to a pilot signal applied from an outside to release a load of the arm cylinder; and a flow control valve for controlling a flow rate of the hydraulic fluid to drain from the small chamber of the arm cylinder to the hydraulic tank constantly when the auxiliary spool is switched over.


The Finite Element Method (FEM) is one of the most e cient tools used, in computational solid mechanics, for the numerical solution of Partial Differential Equations (PDE). This numerical technique has been extensively used in the past decades for nding approximate solutions to PDE in both engineering and science elds. A main feature of the FEM is the subdivision of a continuum into a discrete set of elements, being these elements connected by a topological map, usually referred to as the nite element mesh. The FEM can generally be used to model and predict the behaviour of continuous structures. However, problems arise when FEM is used on a domain with a discontinuity (like a crack). In this case, it is usual to use adaptive mesh re nement around the discontinuity. This process works ne, but has a very high computational cost. Alternatively, the eXtended Finite Element Method (XFEM) is a numerical method for modelling strong and weak discontinuities using local enrichment. It is a FEM generalization that enables the incorporation of local enrichment of approximation spaces. This enrichment is done through the partition of unity concept by adding special functions to the nite element approximation. For crack modelling in isotropic linear elasticity, the Heaviside function is used to enrich the completely cut elements and an asymptotic function is used to enrich the crack tip elements. This enrichment creates new degrees of freedom that must be integrated into the analysis during a post-processing step. This enables the domain to be modelled without explicitly meshing the crack surfaces and without a remeshing process for the crack propagation. In this context, this work addresses the main concepts of FEM and XFEM, the creation of a pedagogical XFEM software (with its numerical implementation process and software manual) and the di erences between a standard FEM implementation and a XFEM program. Finally, some numerical results of the XFEM application are presented.


Within health informatics, it has for years been an objective to substitute double documentation of health data with data reuse. The elimination of double documentation potentially reduces unnecessary, additional work, and thereby releases human resources. To meet these potentials it is necessary to have a clear delineation of the involved concepts as well as a method to distinguish between double documentation and documentation of distinct data. With the incidence of double documentation in Danish health registries as a starting point and on the basis of a qualitative literature review, the present paper explores the meaning of double documentation and proposes a definition. With clinical examples and the proposed definition, key issues for the distinction between double documentation and documentation of distinct data are highlighted, and it is argued that the identification of double documentation necessitates a semantic analysis of the registered data.