In recent years, the lecture format has been the subject of numerous criticisms and cast aside as an old-style pedagogical method that has no place in the modern college classroom. One reason that lecture has gained such a bad reputation among many in the educational community is the idea of providing a 'learning-centered' approach in the classroom. In 1995, Barr and Tagg described a paradigm shift in higher education where institutions should exist to produce learning rather than to provide instruction1. Since this article, there have been many initiatives that have embraced this learning-centered approach. A few examples include Greater Expectations2 and the Pew Grant Program in Course Redesign3. Note that ABET's Criterion 2000 is an example of this paradigm shift as engineering programs must now assess how well students are learning and not what we as instructors are teaching.


PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a magnetic disk wherein uniform coercive force distribution can be obtained and high recording density can be obtained and to provide a manufacturing method therefor and a magnetic storage device. SOLUTION: In a step of forming an under layer, the under layer is formed while an insulating substrate 11 is supported by support springs 43 provided at a substrate holder 40 and made of a conductive material. In a step of forming a recording layer, a movable electrode 45 is brought into contact with an end face 11a of the insulating substrate in the state of the insulating substrate supported when the under layer is formed and the recording layer is formed by a sputtering process while a bias voltage is applied. Since the under layer is formed on the end face of the substrate 11, the electric conduction between the movable electrode 45 and the under layer is made satisfactory. Moreover, the under layer formed on the surface of the substrate is bridged to a part of a contact section of the support springs 43 by an under layer material and thereby the support springs 43 and the under layer is electrically connected. A bias voltage is applied to the under layer through the movable electrode 45 and the support springs 43. COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI


Data on the harmfulness of the Xylechinus pilosus in coniferous forests are presented; feeding preferences of this xylophage and information on the centres of its mass reproduction are given. It is shown that the invasion of the Polygrahus proximus in the fir forests of Siberia can significantly transform the role of the X. pilosus and other xylophages associated with fir in the life of coniferous forests.


Innovation products from historical cultural architectural have widely adopted 3D printing technology in recent years. To study the applicability of existing 3D printing materials, it is necessary to analyze the performance indicators of 3D printing materials and carry out material science experiments. Step 1: the material performance index composition of cultural innovation products was derived by integrating the literature of cultural heritage, product design, quality system, and material science. Step 2: The columns of Chengs' Miyake in Huizhou were taken as the creative source. Its geometric shape model was obtained through 3D scanning, and the design of the cultural innovation products was completed. Step 3: Photosensitive resin, nylon, and stainless steel, three commonly used 3D printing materials, were used to make samples, with one sample of each material. Finally, we carried out material science tests according to the material performance index. The experimental data of three materials were obtained and compared. The properties of the three 3D printing materials, photosensitive resin, nylon, and stainless steel, have advantages and disadvantages. Still, they all struggle to meet the needs of cultural and creative products in historical buildings. It is necessary to integrate the three materials' properties to develop new 3D printing materials.


This research aimed to determinate ethanol in a distillate sample of Arenga pinnata. We have determined, by the means of spectrophotometer UV/VIS, ethanol contained by the distillation process of a series of samples. The results of these researches will analyse the ethanol contained in a distillate sample, qualitatively. Experiment method with 12 samples of Arenga pinnata series has been done. The samples found by varying day of the fermentation process and continued with the distillation process. Further, a distillate sample has been measured by UV-VIS Spectrophotometry. Wavelength 277 nm found as maximum wavelength with absorbance range (0.1 A-0.5 A). Samples in day 2nd to day 17th have these data. This means that a sample in day 2nd to day 17th of samples contained ethanol. Furthermore, the percentage of ethanol in a series of samples and the pharmacology effect of palm sugar as hypoglycaemic are still investigating in this research.


The intestinal microbiota helps to maintain the integrity of the blood-brain barrier in fetal and adult mice. The Gut Microbiota and the Blood-Brain Barrier The blood-brain barrier is an important gateway that controls the passage of molecules and nutrients in and out of the brain. An intact blood-brain barrier is a crucial checkpoint for appropriate development and function of the brain. Braniste et al. now show that germ-free pregnant dams, devoid of maternal microbes, have offspring that show increased permeability of the blood-brain barrier. This elevated permeability was also observed in adult germ-free mice. However, fecal transplants from mice exposed to bacteria into adult germ-free mice reduced blood-brain barrier permeability, possibly through the regulation of tight junction proteins. These findings suggest that crosstalk between the gut microbiota and the brain, initiated during the intrauterine period, is perpetuated throughout life. Pivotal to brain development and function is an intact blood-brain barrier (BBB), which acts as a gatekeeper to control the passage and exchange of molecules and nutrients between the circulatory system and the brain parenchyma. The BBB also ensures homeostasis of the central nervous system (CNS). We report that germ-free mice, beginning with intrauterine life, displayed increased BBB permeability compared to pathogen-free mice with a normal gut flora. The increased BBB permeability was maintained in germ-free mice after birth and during adulthood and was associated with reduced expression of the tight junction proteins occludin and claudin-5, which are known to regulate barrier function in endothelial tissues. Exposure of germ-free adult mice to a pathogen-free gut microbiota decreased BBB permeability and up-regulated the expression of tight junction proteins. Our results suggest that gut microbiota–BBB communication is initiated during gestation and propagated throughout life.


Watrous, Larry E., and Quentin D. Wheeler (Division of Insects, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, Illinois 60605, and Department of Entomology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853) 1981. The out-group comparison method of character analysis. Syst. Zool., 30:1-11.-An operational rule for analyzing character polarity with out-group comparison is presented and a series of observations, including potential problems in applying the rule, are discussed. The "commonality principle" (="frequency of occurrence," "common equals primitive") for determining character polarity is reviewed and dismissed as a reliable alternative to out-group comparison. Based on the rule and observations, a general method for character analysis is synthesized. [Cladistics; character analysis; out-group comparison; polarity.] Although many authors have discussed criteria for distinguishing plesiomorphic (primitive) and apomorphic (derived) character states (see Maslin, 1952; Hennig, 1965, 1966; Kluge and Farris, 1969; Marx and Rabb, 1970, 1972; Lundberg, 1972; Ross, 1974; Munroe, 1974; Ekis, 1977; Crisci and Stuessy, 1980; and references therein), there has been little discussion of the deficiencies of some of these criteria, and in some instances there is considerable misunderstanding of what we consider to be the most reliable criterion, that of out-group comparison. Our goals here are to discuss some problems with one criterion in particular, the so-called "commonality principle" (Eldredge, 1979), and to develop a general method of character analysis based on out-group comparison. Many authors have fully understood out-group comparisons (e.g., Kluge and Farris, 1969; Lundberg, 1972; Ross, 1974), but others have confused the concept with that of commonality. Because out-group comparison can often be invoked where commality is arbitrarily used, and because the resultant hypotheses are subject to rigorous testing, its central position in character analysis is assured. It is because of the importance of out-group comparison and because of its confusion with commonality (e.g., Crisci and Stuessy, 1980), that we attempt to formalize the criterion and synthesize the method. PROBLEMS WITH COMMONALITY From the following quotations, abstracted from a cursory review of some recent literature, it is apparent that the ''commonality principle" for determining in-group character polarity receives wide support in both botanical and zoological circles. At least some authors (Crisci and Stuessy, 1980; Eldredge, 1979) consider this to be the most widely accepted and applied of all criteria. "The character state that consistently appears in many members of each of the taxa being studied is deemed most likely to be primitive for the group of taxa."-H. B. Boudreaux (1979:8). "Criterion of Frequency of Occurrence .... The objective is to determine how extensively a character state is distributed within the taxon under study . . ." -G. Ekis (1977:117). "A primitive state is more likely to be widespread within a group than is any one advanced state."-A. G. Kluge and J. S. Farris (1969:5). "... the relatively more primitive states are likely to be distributed more generally throughout the group under study. . ."-G. Estabrook (1972: 439). "The criterion of common is primitive is not only the oldest, but also the most widely used of all the criteria of primitiveness ... the concept is a good one to employ in most groups."-J. V. Crisci and T. F. Stuessy (1980:119, 130).


This article explores the potential of social media as a tool for water management. With the increasing challenges of climate change, droughts, and social inequities, the need for efficient water management is critical. However, social media is underutilized in this regard. The paper discusses the opportunities for social media to collect and disseminate information about water concerns and examines a data set of water utility tweets using AI and Machine Learning tools. The study concludes that social media is crucial for addressing global issues, and AI analytics can guide the effective use of social media for positive change.


Women can contribute to the perpetuation of sexual violence when they support victim-blame. Participants were 155 college women who completed a questionnaire assessing hostility toward women; the beliefs that rape is caused by victim precipitation, male sexual needs, and male pathology; and victim-blaming sexual harassment beliefs. Significant relations were found for hostility toward women and the other measures, controlling for general hostility. The tendency of some women to support rape and sexual harassment myths may be based on the level of hostility toward women as a group.


This paper presents the results of a study based on virtual team. The aim of the research is to analyse the links between virtual team and virtual organisation. First, virtual corporation is described and showed in its diversity. Second, a model of virtual team is proposed. This model is based on three elements : virtual people, object, links. Each element gathers three variables, for a total of nine variables in the model. Four cases studies are described to analyse the importance of each variable in four differnet contexts of virtual corporation. The study shows variables have different intensities, in the different contexts. So, to manage a virtual team, it is necessary to understand its environment. Does the team belong to a mono-organisation or not ? Does the team belong to a permanent organisation or not ?


Hyde M. Russell, Constantine D. Mavroudis, Carl L. Backer, Constantine Mavroudis Division of Cardiovascular-Thoracic Surgery, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago,y Chicago, Illinois; Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Johns Hopkins Children's Heart Surgery, Florida Hospital for Children, Orlando, Florida, United States of America


The present application relates to a binding formed recessed drain and source regions and the silicide advanced transistors. In the manufacturing process of the transistor elements to form a complex, the height of the gate can be reduced, but also prior to the respective metal silicide regions are formed, resulting in a common drain and source electrode configuration etching sequence. Because during the etching sequence, the corresponding sidewall spacer structure may be maintained, and therefore controllability systemic siliconized enhance the gate electrode, whereby the threshold level to reduce variability. Further, to provide a recessed drain and source configuration to reduce the overall series resistance and increasing the stress transfer efficiency.


This part is the second part of this article and mainly presents the sampled-data modeling method for the dc–dc converters with the constant on-time (COT) and constant off-time (COFT) controls. Compared with the constant frequency control in the first part, the duty cycle perturbation signal in the COT/COFT control is found to have two sets of narrow pulse signals in each switching period. Then, by establishing the relationship between the two sets of signals and using Shannon's sampling theorem, the transfer functions of the modulator and the loop gain are derived. Based on the theoretical results, the phenomenon that a current-mode constant on/off time controlled buck converter is stable at any duty cycle, and the instability of a voltage-mode constant on/off-time controlled buck converter with the smaller time constant of the output capacitor could be predicted. Moreover, the sampled-data modeling method is further extended to the digital control by taking a digitally current-mode controlled buck converter as an example. Simulation results are provided to confirm the validity of the proposed modeling method.


Low latency and high availability of an app or a web service are key, amongst other factors, to the overall user experience (which in turn directly impacts the bottoniline). Exogenic and/or endogenic factors often give rise to breakouts in cloud data which makes maintaining high availability and delivering high performance very challenging. Existing breakout detection techniques are not suitable for cloud data owing to not being robust in the presence of anomalies. To this end, we developed a novel statistical technique to automatically detect breakouts in cloud data. This technique employs Energy Statistics to detect breakouts in both app and system metrics. Further, the technique uses robust statistical metrics, viz., medians, and estimates the statistical significance of a breakout through a permutation test. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work which addresses breakout detection in the presence of anomalies. We demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed technique using production data and report precision, recall, and f-measure measure. The proposed technique is 3.5× faster than a state-of-the-art technique for breakout detection and is being currently used on a daily basis at Twitter Inc.


Considering that Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) in developing countries is not solely a veterinary problem, especially in backyard flocks, and an acceptable control can only be successful with the involvement of those small holders a research agenda was developed by an international expert team in collaboration with national partners from four African countries (Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia, Ghana) and Indonesia. The team includes veterinary and economic scientists. Despite significant scientific advances made towards understanding of HPAI, knowledge gaps remain on e.g. disease epidemiology and economic impact of HPAI and its control with specific emphasis on the effects of alternative mitigation strategies on livelihoods. Moreover, there is a limited understanding of the institutional arrangements most suited for disease control in different production systems. To address the knowledge gaps several components were developed and implemented in all five countries consisting of (a) Risk assessment, (b) Livelihood and (c) Institutional analysis. A planned cross-country analysis will allow to identify similarities and differences in HPAI control and its success between the project countries. The submitted paper will present used approaches for each research component with special emphasis on implemented activities in Indonesia, a country where HPAI is considered to be endemic in many parts of the country and conventional control measures have failed to limit substantially the spread of the disease. Beside of this a situation overview on HPAI will be provided.


&NA; During tumor imaging research, the authors incidentally discovered that Tc‐99m MIBI is taken up by pulmonary sarcoidosis. In order to evaluate this uptake, they performed Tc‐99m MIBI planar and SPECT imaging in 7 patients and compared it with Ga‐67. Six out of 7 patients showed evident uptake of Tc‐99m MIBI in enlarged hilar lymph nodes. One of the patients, who had been on corticosteroid treatment, showed only faint uptake (negative result), in whom Ga‐67 uptake was seen in hilar lymph nodes although it was less evident than the uptake in the other patients. The lymph nodes were better demonstrated with Tc‐99m MIBI. The fact that enlarged hilar lymph nodes in a patient on corticosteroid treatment showed faint uptake suggests that Tc‐99m MIBI could be helpful for assessing the response to treatment. The preliminary experience in a limited number of patients showed that Tc‐99m MIBI is taken up by pulmonary sarcoidosis and it appears to be a potential alternative to Ga‐67. Further study is necessary to evaluate its ultimate role in pulmonary sarcoidosis imaging.


The poetic trend in 1976 not only serves as a pioneer but also exerts an immediate influence on literary creation of the new age. The main body of the trend is the young generation who witnessed the decade of disturbance. Their poems indicate that they are more concerned about the fate of the country and nation than individual solicitudes. Meanwhile, their disbelief and disappointment pave the way for the generation of the postmodern aesthetic consciousness.


Documenting, quantifying, intervening in and preventing interpersonal violence is a leading global public health challenge of this decade. Apart from HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria - where violence arguably plays an exacerbating role - what other disease process claims more than half a million lives annually, generating a burden of 'approximately 1400 deaths a day, the equivalent of three long-haul commercial aircraft crashing every single day'? Yet even death may not be the most sensitive measure of the profound impact of interpersonal violence on the lives of individuals, communities, societies, nations, regions and our very humanity. With interpersonal violence occurring anywhere that humans function, both publicly and privately - at home, at work, in the streets, markets and cinemas, and on the battlefield - this social problem poses an increasing threat to the quality of our lives and the planet. The urgency of confronting this issue cannot be clearer.


In a time of global economic and climate uncertainty the expansion of resource exploitation projects in Australia is unprecedented. The consequent value of the minerals sector to Australian prosperity is in stark contrast to the economic poverty experienced by many Indigenous Australians, particularly those residing in mine hinterlands. This contrast is evident despite the existence of beneficial agreements between Indigenous groups and the mining industry, and in some cases the state, concerning the very mining that is generating such extraordinary profit. Indigenous poverty is only minimally ameliorated by such agreements (O'Faircheallaigh 2000, 2003a, 2004a, 2006; Taylor 2004a; Taylor and Bell 2001; Taylor and Scambary 2005). This chapter draws on doctoral research of three agreements to highlight that poor agreement outcomes arise from the limitations that agreements impose on Indigenous livelihoods and aspirations (Scambary 2007). The agreements considered by this research are the Ranger Uranium Mine Agreement in the Kakadu Region of the Northern Territory, the Yandicoogina Land Use Agreement (YLUA) in the Central Pilbara of Western Australia, and the Gulf Communities Agreement (GCA) in the southern Gulf of Carpentaria in Queensland. All three agreements are considered best practice by the mining industry, the state and select Indigenous leaders, for their perceived capacity to deliver substantial and sustainable benefits to Indigenous people. However a combination of the scale of Indigenous disadvantage and the mainstream development parameters of the agreements themselves limit the attainment of sustainable outcomes for Indigenous people associated with all three agreements. This chapter argues that a fundamental limitation of these mining agreements is their incapacity to engage with and augment the diverse livelihood objectives of Indigenous people. This motivates ambivalent responses to mining on the part of Indigenous people. The invisibility of Indigenous cultural dispositions is further compounded by a growing policy emphasis on mainstream economic engagement, which entails many negative assumptions about Indigenous people and their capacity for economic engagement. Such assumptions are in tacit opposition to Indigenous cultural dispositions that ultimately underlie notions of identity and a claim to rights on the basis of cultural difference.


In this paper we consider the problem of the bidirectional state transfer of a 2-qubit and a 3-qubit quantum state unknown to the parties, respectively, who intend to send the respective states in the site of the other party. These states are intended for transfer but are not possessed by the intender. The protocol has a Mentor whose role is in the fabrication of entangled channels, distribution of qubits through the noisy environment in order to create entanglement sharing and finally fixing one of the several courses of the protocol. The role of the Mentor is thereby completed. The protocol is overseen by a controller whose action signals the final steps to be taken in the protocol. Three types of noises are considered through three different Kraus operators. There is an analysis of the fidelity of the protocol corresponding to three types of noises.


Background: Preschool screening is one of the services provided by primary healthcare centers, in the Kingdom of Bahrain, for children aged 5 to 6 years. This service includes assessing growth and development parameters, which includes measuring hemoglobin levels, conducting vision examinations, and administering Purified Protein Derivative (PPD) tests. Objectives: To evaluate the prevalence of anemia, reduced visual acuity, and positive PPD tests, in children's preschool screening. Methodology: This survey was conducted in 25 primary healthcare centers, between the period of January to March 2020, with a total sample size of 2,637 children. Electronic preschool screening visit sheets, of children who attended the health centers for screening, were reviewed and evaluated. Results: Out of the 2,637 records reviewed; anemia, reduced visual acuity, and positive PPD tests, were found in 19.9%, 4.7%, and 0.45% of children, respectively. Conclusion: The overall prevalence of reduced visual acuity and positive PPD tests was low. On the other hand, although the overall prevalence of anemia was also low, at about 20%, this can be reduced further by raising physicians' adherence to anemia management guidelines, at earlier ages. Moreover, further studies are needed to assess the causes and risks of anemia in this age group.


Ferrofluids are conventionally used in such DC magnetic field applications as rotary and exclusion seals, stepper motor dampers, and heat transfer fluids. Recent research demonstrates ferrofluid use in alternating and rotating magnetic fields for MEMS/NEMS application of microfluidic devices and bio-applications such as targeted drug delivery, enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging, and hyperthermia. This thesis studies ferrofluid ferrohydrodynamics in uniform and non-uniform rotating magnetic fields through modeling and measurements of ferrofluid torque and spin-up flow profiles. To characterize the water-based and oil-based ferrofluids used in the experiments, measurements were made of the mass density, surface tension, viscosity, magnetization curve, nanoparticle size, and the speed of sound. Initial analysis for planar Couette and Poiseuille flows exploit DC magnetic field effects on flow and spin velocities with zero spin viscosity. Above critical values of magnetic field strength and flow velocity, multiple values of magnetic field, spin velocity, and effective magnetoviscosity result, indicating that zero spin viscosity may be non-physical. Torque and spin-up flow profile measurements show the effect of volume torque density and body force density in uniform and non-uniform rotating magnetic fields. Ferrofluid "negative viscosity" measurements in uniform and non-uniform rotating magnetic fields occur when magnetic field induced flow creates torque that exceeds the torque necessary to drive a viscometer spindle. Numerical simulations of torque and spin-up flow in uniform and non-uniform rotating magnetic fields, including contribution from the spin velocity and spin viscosity terms, are fitted to measurements to estimate the value ranges of relaxation time r 1.3-30 gs and spin viscosity n' 1-11.8x10 9 Nos in waterbased ferrofluid. Based on the ferrohydrodynamic theory and models, theory of the complex magnetic susceptibility tensor is derived, which depends on spin velocity, that can be a key to external magnetic field control of ferrofluid biomedical applications. Preliminary impedance analysis and measurements investigate complex magnetic susceptibility change of ferrofluid in oscillating and rotating uniform magnetic fields and allow calculation of the resulting dissipated power or mechanical work in pumping fluid. Thesis Supervisor: Markus Zahn Title: Professor Acknowledgements I would like to thank my thesis advisor, Dr. Markus Zahn, for being a superior mentor and generously sharing his knowledge, experience, and time. He has helped me become a better researcher and technical writer. I also thank Mr. Thomas F. Peterson for his generous support of my ferrofluid research; and to the US National Science Foundation (Grant # CTS-0084070), and the Lemelson Foundation (Grant # 1575-03) for their support of my research. This research was also partially supported by a grant from the United States Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF), Jerusalem, Israel (Grant # 2004081). I would like to thank Wayne Ryan, my best friend, who makes graduate student life easy in the N10 laboratory. All of the experiments described in Chapters 6-8 were in some way supported by his ideas, his labor, and his creations. I would like to thank Shihab Elborai for standing together with me to fight against all the numerical simulation puzzles in our "War Room". With his help I have learned and understood more about ferrofluids and their modeling using Femlab. I would like to thank Professor Carlos Rinaldi for his collaboration and help to understand the theory that models my experiments. I would like to thank my colleagues Se-Hee Lee, Shahrooz Amin and Zachary Thomas for their helpful support. Thanks to Prof. Caroline Ross of the Department of Chemical Engineering of MIT for allowing use of the Vibrating Sample Magnetometer for magnetization measurements; and to Dr. Anthony Garratt-Reed for helping me use the TEM scanner; and to Stephen Samouhos for his help with viscometer measurements. Thanks also to Ferrofluidics Corp. (now FerroTec Corp.) for supplying the ferrofluids that were used in my experiments and to Brookfield Corp. for donating a viscometer to the Zahn laboratory. On a personal level, I thank my wife, Lei Jiang, the most important person in my life. Without her support my thesis would not be yet completed. I also thank my parents, Xusheng He and Zishu Xiao for opening my eyes to the world of science and engineering and supporting me all the time across the Pacific Ocean.


The strategic development of the Republic of Tatarstan determines its development prospects for the coming 10–20 years. Its land zoning has shown that Kazan, Kama and Almetyevsk are the three fastest developing agglomerations in the republic. Nonetheless, many areas cannot benefit from the flow of goods and resources. A research on logistics allows to assume that the development of a road transportation network, including the construction of bridges, tunnels and the use of the river transport (as the cheapest means of transport) is a must. Along with the development of transport arteries, the republic needs advanced development points, the construction industry growth triggers, modernization and reconstruction of construction industry enterprises.
In the article, the co-authors analyze the natural resources, available in Tatarstan and the prospects for the establishment of enterprises for the production of construction materials in Tatarstan.
The co-authors consider alternative cement delivery routes, key products needed for the development of housing and industrial construction to ensure the economic prosperity of Tatarstan. The co-authors have also analyzed the economic efficiency of investment projects to be implemented in Tatarstan Republic, including the launch of a cement production facility that will take advantage of the mineral resources in the Ulyanovsk region minerals and the imported clinker to be delivered from Iran by water. The co-authors have also considered the potential construction of the toll highway "Shali (M-7) – Bavly (M-5)".


Duoyihe Scenic Spot(including Sanjiangkou Spot),Jiulong Waterfall Group Scenic Spot and Zhuanchanghe River are 3 typical karst river valleys in Luoping County,Yunnan Province,China.This study investigated the taxa,community,ecology and environmental accommodating of the bryophytes in the 3 river valleys.The results showed that,in the studied area,there were 281 bryophyte taxa(including subspecies and varieties) in 110 genera and 45 families,among which there were 1 species of Athocerotae in 1 genus of 1 family,38 taxa of Hepaticae belonging to 21 genera and 13 families,242 taxa of Musci belonging to 88 genera and 31 families.Bryophyte life-forms were dominated by Wefts and Turfs(including both Short and Tall turfs) which aggregately occupied 87.7% of the total species amount;the most bryophyte communities were Hydrophytia and Petrophytia.Both life-form spectrum and community were corresponding with the natural circumstance which was warm,moist and rich in tufa.Among the 281 species of bryophytes,tufa bryophytes were classified into 77 species(37.8% of the total species) belonging to 39 genera(37.3% of the total genera) and 16 families(27.4% of the total families).Although tufa bryophytes were abundant,regional specificity was not presented clearly at family,genus or species level.


The corporate culture of the Guangxi Road Bridge Engineering Corporation can be summed up to"one spirit"(The Tiejun Spirit,which refers to the strong will,including strong discipline,perseverance and self-restraint) and"three cultures"that including competition culture (in the areas of bidding,project quality,security,and efficiency),learning culture and enforcement culture.The construction and development of corporate culture can enhance the cohesion and solidarity of the employees.


Quantum-walk-based algorithms that search a marked location among $N$ locations on a $d$-dimensional lattice succeeds in time $O(\sqrt{N})$ for $dg2$, while this is not found to be possible when $d=2$. In this paper, we consider a spatial search algorithm using continuous-time quantum walk on a two-dimensional square lattice with the existence of additional long-range edges. We examined such a search on a probabilistic graph model where an edge connecting non-nearest-neighbor lattice points $i$ and $j$ apart by a distance $|i\ensuremath{-}j|$ is added by probability ${p}_{ij}={|i\ensuremath{-}j|}^{\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\alpha}}\phantom{\rule{1em}{0ex}}(\ensuremath{\alpha}\ensuremath{\ge}0)$. Through numerical analysis, we found that the search succeeds in time $O(\sqrt{N})$ when $\ensuremath{\alpha}\ensuremath{\le}{\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{c}=2.4\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.1$. For $\ensuremath{\alpha}g2$, the expectation value of the additional long-range edges on each node scales as a constant when $N\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty}$, which means that search time of $O(\sqrt{N})$ is achieved on a graph with average degree scaling as a constant.


Has been known a throttle device which is disposed in the through passage having a bypass passage around the throttle valve and the throttle valve, and a bypass is at least partially accommodated in the chamber for controlling the idle speed control bypass flow the bypass passage comprises a bypass chamber the bypass chamber connected to the outlet chamber and is connected through the through passage of the throttle valve located downstream of the chamber via an inlet located upstream of said throttle valve through passage. The stepping motor through the chamber opening into the bypass chamber and having an axially adjustable valve element, the valve element and a valve seat configured on the bottom of the bypass cavity interaction. Opening the chamber after assembly of the stepping motor is hermetically closed. The disadvantage is that the idle speed controller is implemented as a stepping motor, and thus is more expensive compared. The throttle device according to the present invention may reduce manufacturing costs. According to the invention, the idle speed controller (9) configured to separate valve, the valve having a valve inlet (9.1), an outlet valve (9.2), to see the arrangement of the inlet valve (9.1) in the flow direction a valve seat between the outlet (9.2) (9.3) and the valve seat (9.3) interacting valve body (9.4), wherein said outlet valve (9.2) extending into said outlet chamber (6) and said inlet valve (9.1) opens into the bypass chamber (4).


The principle and it's merit of sheet metal dieless incremental forming process as well as how to make the moving track of tool have been introduced.


Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis——a protein separation technique and can be used for separating sperm proteins. The objectives were to develop an optimal two-dimensional gel electrophoresis, and the bovine sperm proteins were isolated with the developed technique. Isoelectric focusing electrophoresis program was optimized, and various sample preparation methods, different loading quantities and strip length were studied. The results indicated that the better proteins map was obtained when the bovine sperm were lysed by two step method of urea-guanidine hydrochloride and the 13cm N-linear IPG strip was used to conduct the isoelectric focusing electrophoresis. More than 800 protein spots could be detected by the imaging analysis system, and the analysis result indicated that molecular weight and isoelectric point of most proteins were from 10 to 100kDa and 4.0 to 9.0 respectively. So it provided a basis for detecting and analyzing the differential proteins of the X,Y sperm.


The apple maggot, Rhagoletis pomonella (Walsh), is a serious pest of apples in the northeastern United States and adjacent portions of southeastern Canada. Indigenous to this region, it is thought to have originally used native hawthorne ( Crataegus spp.) berries for larval development, undergoing a host transference to Malus after its introduction into the New England area (Dean and Chapman 1973). Bush (1966) reports that this host shift was relatively recent, since this species was first described in 1867 (Walsh 1867), ca. 200 years after the apple was brought to our country from Europe. Host diversification has continued, and R. pomonella is currently known to infest a number of introduced rosaceous plants, including cultivated plum in Florida (Herrick 1920), sour cherry in Door County, Wis., and a small area in northwestern Michigan (Shervis et al. 1970), and recently, rose hips in southern New England (Prokopy and Berlocher 1980). Adult flies have also been reared from apricot (Lienk 1970) and pear (Prokopy and Bush 1972), although permanent populations were never established in these fruits. Apple and hawthorne infesting races are now generally distributed over the eastern half of the continent, extending from New York south to Florida and west to North Dakota and eastern Texas. Another disjunct population is known to occur in the highlands of central Mexico. The apple race does not extend as far north as the hawthorne race. Southward it follows the Appalachian Mountains into northern Georgia. No apple infesting forms are known from the remaining tier of southern states (Bush 1969).


An obvious step on the road to establishing Hexaplaric readings is, of course, to call in the aid of the Syro-Hexaplar version 2) which best of all has preserved for us the Aristarchian signs used by Origen; the asterisk to mark his additions to the Greek, where the Hebrew had a fuller text, and the obelus to mark the passages which, while being present in the xow( Septuagint, were lacking in the Hebrew text.


An adequate and varied diet is important for normal growth and development, maintenance of good health and the prevention of chronic disease; as is the need for up-to-date, reliable and timely data to provide a basis for informed decision making and regulation by government. Despite this, and clear evidence for the contribution of nutrition to the considerable burden of preventable ill health, Australia's policy makers do not have adequate information to develop cost-effective food and nutrition policy and regulation. The need for a national food and nutrition monitoring and surveillance system has long been recognised and it has been identified as a priority in several public health nutrition, obesity, physical activity and chronic disease-related policy documents. This report provides a framework and cost estimates for establishing a national food and nutrition monitoring surveillance system (FNMS). The development of the framework follows extensive consultation with a diverse range of stakeholders: Australian, State and Territory Governments, non-government organisations, professional associations and industry bodies. The framework was also informed by a review of selected international approaches to food and nutrition monitoring. Overwhelming support for an ongoing, sustainable FNMS emerged from these consultations. Government agencies, policy makers, regulators and industry representatives state that they do not have adequate information on the following: • the nutritional adequacy of the food supply; • equity of food access; • effects on health of changes in the composition of foods in the food supply; • use of nutritional supplements and their effect on nutrient intake, nutritional status and health; final report: national food and nutrition monitoring and surveillance system April 2006 5 www.nexusmc.com.au • differences in nutritional status between different population sub-groups; • alignment of food and nutrient intakes in the population with dietary targets and guidelines and nutrient reference values developed for Australia and New Zealand; • trends in eating patterns and their effect on food industry growth and innovation; • implications of technological and regulatory changes on the composition of the food supply; and • risks associated with exposure to bioactive compounds in foods at current levels of consumption. The consultation process also identified a range of significant costs and risks associated with not having an ongoing system, including: • reduced ability to appropriately develop, target and monitor the outcomes of public health nutrition interventions; • late detection of new, or accelerating, nutrition problems in the community, and the lack of trend information about the possible causes; • increasing reliance on outdated data to undertake effective risk assessment for food additives, fortification with vitamins and minerals, chemical residues etc; and • an inability to monitor the objectives of public health nutrition policies and programs. For the majority of stakeholders the costs and risks of not having a system far outweighed the costs of establishing an ongoing monitoring system. THE FRAMEWORK The framework presented in this report provides a basis for providing the information identified by stakeholders as necessary for making informed decisions about food and nutrition policy in Australia.


The present invention relates to a cleaning robot system of a satellite type. The present invention provides a cleaning robot system of a satellite type that includes a flat autonomous cleaning head, a hose assembly, and a cleaning main body. The flat autonomous cleaning head includes a suction inlet formed in a bottom thereof, a side connector communicating with the suction inlet, travel wheels provided on both side thereof, and variable speed drive motors for driving the travel wheels. The hose assembly is connected to the cleaning head and is at least partially flexible. The cleaning main body is connected to the hose assembly and includes a vacuum pump, a dust collector, a discharge air separator, a power supply, and a controller. Since the cleaning head of the cleaning robot system according to the present invention has a simple structure, it is possible to make the cleaning head thin. Further, since the cleaning robot system has high output of power and high vacuum sucking performance, it is possible to satisfactorily clean the house. Furthermore, the cleaning robot system can perform wet cleaning by ejecting steam, hot water, and wash water, unlike a disk-shaped robot cleaner. Therefore, the cleaning robot system can satisfactorily perform all kinds of cleaning options that can be performed by a manual cleaner. In addition, the cleaning robot system can have a self-washing function to perform self-washing.


An automatic design environment is implemented for the aerodynamic design of wind turbine blades. This tool involves the integration of evolutionary techniques and a simple, fast, and robust aerodynamic simulator which was developed for the prediction of the performance of any turbine blade produced by the evolutionary process. The aerodynamic simulator is based on blade element theory in which a panel method is combined with an integral boundary layer code to calculate the blade airfoils' characteristics. In order to reduce computations some simplifications have been applied and the results corrected by means of the application of neural network based approximations. Results of the simulations obtained using this technique, of the application of the automatic design procedure and of the operation of the wind turbines thus obtained are presented.


In the framework of one-carrier space-charge-limited currents, exact equations are derived for the evaluation of arbitrary field-dependent mobility. A differential method, which simply needs the first and second derivatives of measured current–voltage (I–V) curves, is presented for a trap-free case. Extension to a mixed case of exponentially distributed traps and field-dependent mobility is also outlined. In addition, a tool based on a combination of capacitance–voltage and I–V measurements was developed to certify the applicability of this method by checking whether the device tested is actually in the space-charge-limited regime. The extraction of the mobility from measurements can be a valuable tool for use in the theory: theoretical predictions of mobility field dependence can be easily compared to experimental results, thus permitting improvement of the models and fostering the development of transport theories. This method can also be of particular relevance for organic semiconductors whose field-de...


Narrow-bore column liquid chromatography coupled on-line with capillary gas chromatography (LC/GC) is used for the determination of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in sediment via a heart-cutting technique. This method is compared with a method in which two off-line column clean-up steps are used with subsequent analysis by capillary gas chromatography. For the LC/GC analysis the recovery of PCBs was 90–100%. For two sediment samples from the river Meuse the LC/GC and the other, more laborious method showed good agreement.


With energy demand increasing gradually,offshore wind turbines of 5 MW or bigger are required in offshore wind farms.The fixed foundation structure cannot meet the requirements,and development of the floating offshore wind turbines(FOWTs) becomes the new trend.The general characteristics of two FOWT prototypes were presented.The features of different floating foundations were compared.Performences of model experiments were analyzed and the key technologies involved are investigated.Some suitable suggestions on theoretical and experimental researches of floating wind turbines in China were provided.The theoretical foundation for constructions of large-scale offshore wind farms in China was offered.


A pavement management system (PMS) should tackle all aspects of the pavement managementprocess from planning and programming through project development and implementation(Shahin 2005). Geographic ...


Preface.Contributors.List of Abbreviations.1. Growth of Human Lung Tumor Cells in Culture (Reen Wu).2. Culture of Normal and Malignant Gastric Epithelium (Jae-Gahb Park, Ja-Lok Ku, Hee-Sung Kim, So-Yeon Park and Michael J. Rutten).3. Establishment of Cell Lines from Colon Carcinoma (Robert H. Whitehead).4. Pancreatic Cancer-Derived Cultured Cells: Genetic Alterations and Application to an Experimental Model of Pancreatic Cancer Metastasis (Haruo Iguchi, Kazuhiro Mizumoto, Masaki Shono, Akira Kono and Soichi Takiguchi).5. The Establishment and Characterization of Bladder Cancer Cultures In Vitro (Vivian X. Fu, Steven R. Schwarze, Catherine A. Reznikoff and David F. Jarrard).6. Long-term Culture of Normal and Malignant Human Prostate Epithelial Cells (Robert K. Bright and Jennifer D. Lewis).7. The Development of Human Ovarian Epithelial Tumor Cell Lines from Solid Tumors and Ascites (Anne P. Wilson).8. Culture of Cervical Carcinoma Tumor Cell Lines (Peter Stern, Catherine West and Deborah Burt).9. Primary Culture of Human Mammary Tumor Cells (Valerie Speirs).10. Myoepithelium: Methods of Culture and Study (Sanford H. Barsky and Mary L. Alpaugh).11. Multistage Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma (Kirsten G. Edington, Isabella J. Berry, Margaret O'Prey, Julie E. Burns, Louise J. Clark, Roy Mitchell, Gerry Robertson, David Soutar, Lesley W. Coggins and E. Kenneth Parkinson).12. Culture of Melanocytes from Normal, Benign, and Malignant Lesions (Ruth Halaban).13. Establishment and Culture of Human Leukemia-Lymphoma Cell Lines (Hans G. Drexler).14. In Vitro Culture of Malignant Brain Tumors (John L. Darling).15. Culture of Human Neuroendocrine Tumor Cells (Roswitha Pfragner, Annemarie Behmel, Elisabeth Ingolic and Gerhard H. Wirnsberger).Suppliers).Index.


Evolutionary Algorithms (EAs) have been quite successful both in constrained and unconstrained single-objective optimization. However, in the constrained case little attention has been paid to controlling the diversity explicitly with the aim of avoiding premature convergence. This paper proposes Differential Evolution with Clustering-based Diversity (DECD). DECD uses a novel replacement strategy that controls the diversity explicitly. Particularly, the replacement strategy forces the selection of some distant individuals but it simultaneously allows the survival of some other individuals that form clusters to promote intensification. The experimental validation shows the important benefits provided by the explicit control of diversity.


The methods of obtaining evidence in ancient China are perfected gradually along with the evolution of civilization.To sum up,these methods mainly include "the inquisition by sentiment method","the inquisition by torture method","the investigation and identification method","the inquiry method " and some superstitious methods.Some of the methods are rational,and some are totally defective.


On the basis of the limit failure conditions of the section of eccentric compression member ,this paper uses a parallel-method to calculate the position of neutral axis when the angle of neutral axis changes and uses finite element method to study the ultimate axial compression ratio for cross-shaped R.C. columns. Then useful advices for design and construct is given .


"The end of the South African commercial farmer" is often proclaimed, mainly as a result of land reform and the lack of encouraging agricultural policy measures. This paper draws attention to a similar tendency, not related to South Africa's positive actions, however, but to a profound agrarian restructuring related to new agricultural investment models. These models, promoted by macro-actors such as banking corporations, investment funds, asset management companies and agricultural engineering companies, often foreign to the agricultural sector, integrate the primary agricultural production within well-connected, totally integrated, finance-value-chains. In these models, macro-actors oversee, control and own the entire process (supply of inputs, monitoring of the harvest, hedge and sale of the production) whereas independent farmers become 'service-providers' of these institutions, as they do not possess their harvest, nor do they engage in decision-making and in several cases do not even own the land. The paper describes and analyses the different agricultural production models being developed in the South African context and discusses their application and implications for the country's agricultural development trajectories. As such, it poses significant questions regarding the "financiarisation and corporisation" of the agricultural sector, the concentration process on-going in the sector, the regulation of the sector by often foreign controlled non-agricultural entities and, probably most importantly, the status of the independent farmer in South Africa. (Resume d'auteur)


The growth of the modern economy to a large extent requires consumption Natural resources, many of which are non-reproducible. These natural resources, as a rule, are limited, at least in the short term, and therefore, with their growing consumption, there is an increasing deficit. The urgency of the work does not cause doubts - the deficit of natural resources greatly influences the development of the economy. The limitation of factors affecting economic growth is often included in macroeconomic models, for example, the Solow model, the Romer model, etc. However, numerous studies in this area generally do not include an analysis of which innovations with which properties and what type should be implemented to overcome certain limitations. Nevertheless, in the economic literature such questions were raised more than once (see, for example, Shilova NV, 2011), where numerous examples of this type of innovation were cited. In the work below, an attempt will be made to simulate a situation in which at least two options for investing in innovations are possible, and the firm chooses which scenario to follow. The model is quite simple, but it gives interesting practical results.


In this paper we develop a $g$-analytic function and a $g$-harmonic function theory for one-dimensional wave equation in the Minkowski space. In terms of the Minkowskian polar coordinates we can derive a set of complete hyperbolic type Trefftz bases, which can be transformed to polynomials as the bases for a trial solution of wave equation. The Cauchy-Riemann equations and the Cauchy theoremfor $g$-analytic functions are proved, and meanwhilethe existence of Cauchy integral formula is disproved from thenon-uniqueness of the Dirichlet problem for wave equation under the boundary conditions on whole boundary, which isalso known as the backward wave problem (BWP).Examples are used to demonstrate these results.


Using data from the Health and Retirement Study and the Survey of Consumer Finances, we show that households that experience adverse financial shocks worry more about the adequacy of their financial resources in retirement, even after controlling for the effects of these shocks on overall wealth. We find supporting evidence that suggests that at least part of the increased worry about retirement is due to general pessimism rather than changes in an individual's own circumstances. Specifically, experiencing idiosyncratic financial shocks is also associated with greater pessimism about the general future of the economy.


Aiming at the landfill leachate with high concentration,refractory and biotoxicity,coagulation and sedimentation were used to treat it,taking liquid CODCr as index.According to orthogonal experiment,suitable dosage of PFC-PDMDAAC was determined.Influence of different reaction conditions on the CODCr removal rate was discussed,operating conditions were optimized.The experimental results show that the best dosage of PFC-PDMDAAC is 1 250 mg/L PAC and 1 500 mg/L PFS and 50 mg/L PAM,the best conditions are as follows:pH is 7.0,the stirring time is 15 min,the settling time is 20 min,underabove conditions,the CODCrremoval rate can reach 66.9%.


This study aimed to verified knowledge received from the development of models and algorithms campaign to prevent AIDS and to empower workers through participatory learning process among project administrators, community leaders and stakeholders in the community. Body of knowledge identification was verified in many aspects. Verification on leadership demonstrated that all projects implemented leadership development or prepared and obtained for project staff and workers to drive the campaign. In overall potential capacity, the project staff or leaders had abilities to transfer knowledge and stimulate HIV prevention awareness. For networking aspect, it showed that leaders and workers were working mainly in their responsible area. For sustainability aspect, it was found that sustainability was depended on "innate knowledge" transferring and expanding to target population and the continuous growing of knowledge and information. To develop "natural volunteers", it was essential to include people in all groups and all ages to have knowledge and awareness on AIDS, to allow people for advising each other and to have continuous budget support from local administration. It was found that leaders and staff had capacity and strengths to work, however the picture on working together and in the same direction is still not clear. For capacity building, sharing on knowledge, media and innovations is needed in all groups in the community. The ultimate goal is to have continuous attitude adjustment and explanation implemented in everyone in com-munity and to develop collaborations among and across networks for working synchronization in the same direction. Key words: identification, participatory learning for health development, AIDS


Introduction 1. Visual theory 2. God-gazing and homovisuality 3. Heterovisuality, face-bread and cherubs 4. Visual eros 5. Eyeing idols 6. Seeing sages Conclusion.


We introduce the notion of Optimal Patterns (OPs), defined as the best patterns according to a given user preference, and show that OPs encompass many data mining problems. Then, we propose a generic method based on a Dynamic Constraint Satisfaction Problem to mine OPs, and we show that any OP is characterized by a basic constraint and a set of constraints to be dynamically added. Finally, we perform an experimental study comparing our approach vs adhoc methods on several types of OPs.


An asymptotic distributed transfer function method for linear elastic static and dynamic analysis of conical shells is presented. In this method, three shell displacements are first expanded in Fourier series in the circumferential direction, then an infinite number of decoupled partial differential equations containing a spatial variable and a time variable are obtained. Using Laplace transform with respect to time t, these partial differential equations can be simplified to ordinary differential equations containing a complex parameter s, and these ordinary differential equations' coefficient are the functions of spatial variable x. Taking sinα as a small parameter, the perturbation method has been used to obtain a series of constant coefficient ordinary differential equations. The distributed transfer function method is employed to solve the equations. Combined shells composed of several conical shell segments are then synthesized using the transfer functions of sub-segments. Numerical mathods are presented and compared with that of finite element method.


Ireland is committed to substantial reductions in CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions. A target reduction in emissions of 3% per year to 2012 was included in the 2007 Programme for Government. This is a sharp rate of emission reduction, particularly in the short term when substitution possibilities are technology-constrained. The effort implied in the EC's proposals for 2020 is similarly demanding, with a 20% reduction on 2005 levels in Ireland,1 and possibly 30% in the event of other developed countries making a comparable commitment (EC, 2008). Integrated climate-assessment models, which attempt to identify the economically optimal pace of emission reduction worldwide, typically do not imply sharp immediate reductions. They proceed on the basis that the best pace of emission reduction is the outcome of an inter-temporal welfare-maximising calculation, not a deus ex machina (Nordhaus 2007a).


Thirteen nearby stars from the former University of Virginia Southern Parallax Program were tested for possible astrometric perturbations that might indicate very low mass companions. For 12 of these stars—LHS 34, 271, 337, 532, 1134, 1565, 2310, 2739, 2813, 3064, 3242, and 3418—no clear indication of any unseen companion was detected. One star, LHS 288, however, may have a perturbation meriting further investigation. These high proper motion stars are all members of the solar neighborhood, lying within 25 pc. Other than the white dwarf LHS 34, these stars are early M dwarfs (M0.5–M5.5 V). After a minimum of 50 observations spread over at least three years, the relative parallax solutions for these stars have errors less than 3 mas. Following the calculation of relative parallaxes and proper motions, time-series analyses using Lomb-Scargle periodograms tested the astrometric residuals for any additional periodic signals. An upper limit to the mass of companions that could remain undetected was estimated for each star individually.


UNLABELLED
The National Public Health Program has established the organized mammography screening in Hungary.

AIM
The aim of our study was to determine the quality assurance of breast aspiration cytology.

METHOD
Cytology results were rated to 5 categories (C1, C2, C3, C4 and C5). All cytology reports were compared with the final histology diagnosis.

RESULTS
1361 women had aspiration cytology diagnosis performed from a total of 47718 mammography non-negative lesions. There were 805 (59.1%) benign and 187 (13.7%) malignant alterations. Sensitivity was 91%, specificity 88%, positive predictive value 96.6% and negative predictive value turned to be 71% (p<0.001).

CONCLUSION
The auditing values of fine needle aspiration cytology in our laboratory meet, or in certain aspects exceed the proposed minimum threshold values.


Christophe Bouton's Time and Freedom addresses the problem of the relationship between time and freedom as a matter of practical philosophy, examining how the individual lives time and how her freedom is effective in time. Bouton first charts the history of modern philosophy's reengagement with the Aristotelian debate about future contingents, beginning with Leibniz. While Kant, Husserl, and their followers would engage time through theories of knowledge, Schopenhauer, Schelling, Kierkegaard, and (later) Heidegger, Sartre, and Levinas applied a phenomenological and existential methodology to time, but faced a problem of the temporality of human freedom. Bouton's is the first major work of its kind since Bergson's Time and Free Will (1889), and Bouton's "mystery of the future," in which the individual has freedom within the shifting bounds dictated by time, charts a new direction.


In many practical geotechnical problems,soils are always subjected to the stress path involving the principal stress rotation.A hollow cylinder apparatus(HCA) was used to study the properties on strength and pore pressure of typical Hangzhou intact clay during the variation of principal stress direction.It was revealed that due to the inherent anisotropy in structure of soils,the strength was greatly affected by the direction of the major principal stress and the parameters of intermediate principal stress but the influence of principal stress rotation(PSR) was not ecident.Shear band formed when samples failed no matter whether PSR had happened or not,meanwhile the angle between the shear band plane and direction of the major principal stress nearly kept constant.PSR could cause pore pressure accumulation due to PSR which couldn't be neglected as compared with limiting pore pressure caused by shear with fixed stress direction,and the quantity of accumulation was decided by amplitude of rotation,value of shear stress and shear stress level.


The main goal of this paper is to review and evaluate how we can take advantage of state-of-the-art machine learning techniques and apply them in wind energy operation conditions monitoring and fault diagnosis, boosting wind turbines' availability. To accomplish this, we focus our work on analysing the current techniques in predictive maintenance, which are aimed at acting before a major failure occurs using condition monitoring. In particular, we start framing the predictive maintenance problem as an ML problem to detect patterns that indicate a fault on turbine generators. Then, we extend the problem to detect future faults. Therefore, this review will consist of analysing techniques to tackle the challenges of each machine learning stage, such as data pre-processing, feature engineering, and the selection of the best-suited model. By using specific evaluation metrics, the expected final result of using these techniques will be an improvement in the early prediction of a future fault. This improvement will have an increase in the availability of the turbine, and therefore in energy production.


SUMMARY A method for isolation and quantification of fecal bile acids is described which allows sterol balance studies to be made in man or in small laboratory animals without requiring the use of radioisotopes in vivo. Bile acids are purified by column and thin-layer chromatography, converted to the trimethylsilyl ethers of their methyl esters, and quantified by GLC with detection by hydrogen flame ionization. Recoveries are complete when internal standard corrections are applied, with an error <+3%. The claim that the final fecal bile acid fraction accounts for all the bile acids and nothing but bile acids is validated in several ways. The sensitivity is such that fecal aliquots containing as little as 50 pg of mixed bile acids can be analyzed accurately, but the procedure lends itself well to preparative scale work for more definitive study of individual bile acids. After oral administration of cholic-24-Cl4 and chenodeoxycholic-24-CI4 acids to one patient, 9801, of the administered radioactivity was excreted in the bile acid fraction of the fecal extracts over a period of 38 days, and 2% in the urine. This experiment indicated the stability of bile acid structure during intestinal transit and provided additional evidence for the completeness of the described method of determining fecal bile acids.


The purpose of this paper is to investigate critical heat flux(CHF) during forced convective subcooled and saturated boiling in the free water jet system impinged on rectangular heated surface, which is supplied with subcooled or satured water through the rectangular jet. Experimental conditions considered are width of heated surface, height of supplementary water and subcooled degree. Incipient boiling point is observed at the superheat of about from six to eight degree. CHF depends on jet velocity for various coolant systems involving boiling. And it is proportional to the nozzle exit velocity to the power of n, where n is 0.55 and 0.8 for subcooled and saturated boiling, respectively. CHF is increased by increasing jet velocity or subcooling and by decreasing heated surface width. By comparing the case of various coolant systems, this present study is ambient to enhance CHF.


This research study was to develop a valid and reliable school crisis prevention/ preparedness and management scale in the context of managing educational crisis. A blended research approach was utilized to accomplish the goals' exploration. As a feature of the foundation to this examination, the instructive setting of Punjab Province is considered. The school crisis communication theory (SCCT), itself holding a solid reason in regards to its applications and qualities, which were steady in giving the method of reasoning for this investigation. Five point Likert scale was used for this purpose. The scale, would therefore explore the perceptions of 278 sampled primary school teachers of the Punjab responsible for the management of educational crisis against School Crisis Prevention/Preparedness and Management Scale (SCPP&M). As they were already seven major elements (Crisis Identification, Challenge, Communication, Reduction, Reconstruction, Sustainability and Evaluation). Each construct measured through Exploratory Factor Analysis. The results of the scale development comprised on four factors (Prevention, Preparedness, Response & Recovery). This study is based on the claim that it is one of the pioneer efforts in developing school crisis management strategy at all educational levels.


The aim of this paper is to provide an analytical model of the power devices turn-off in a Silicon Carbide (SiC) MOSFETs-based inverter leg. In the proposed modeling approach, different methods have been evaluated to characterize the transconductance profiles, which playa key role in the switching behavior of the power devices. The proposed modeling method represents a good compromise between computational efforts and accuracy. The last has been evaluated by comparing simulation results with experimental tests, under different operating conditions.


Time-domain NMR is a well known tool for assessing the molecular dynamics in soft matter by measuring the excitation and subsequent decay of 1H nuclear magnetization. It is widely used, e.g., to quantify the composition of heterogeneous soft matter systems like semicrystalline polymers or emulsions. Further applications, known from academic research and industrial application, include measuring the moisture content in solids, the residual magnetic dipolar coupling for quantifying molecular motion in crosslinked systems, or diffusometry. We report the integration of a permanent magnet based pulsed NMR spectrometer into a modern, commercially available high-end shear rheometer. The setup allows for the first time to simultaneously conduct time-domain 1H NMR and steady shear or dynamic rheological measurements on one sample and to directly correlate the results from both, without concerns about differences in the sample history or temperature calibration. Moreover, the new in-situ combination allows the full...


not personally divine), and the conviction of God's deep involvement in our situation rests upon the delusion that the Father has glorified His Son. K. admits that this is not the understanding of the NT or of Christian tradition; but he sincerely thinks that modem science and culture have made the earlier position incredible. In keeping with this, K. offers many radical reinterpretations of Christian belief—most notably, one about God and another about man. God is Trinity, not in Himself or His own inner life, but only in relation to us; for all our knowledge of God is relational, and hence we are unable to know anything about Him in Himself. And man is wholly mortal. Neither Jesus nor any other man personally survives the encounter with death. The Christian hope of eternal life is likewise a delusion, a mythical persuasion that points to an eventual terrestrial paradise, a community of love to come about at some unknowable time in the future. K. had said that Christian faith is a challenge to believe that God's loving power is at work in the world through Christ, even though empirical evidence may not support this. In spite of his manifest sincerity, he seems to have accepted this challenge only halfheartedly; for it is not at all clear how modern developments have made Jesus' victory over death more difficult for us to accept than it was for the Athenians who turned away from Paul when he preached on the Areopagus.


This paper is aimed at providing an insight into the torque vectoring concept which will be incorporated into the dual-motor drive system of the Electric Arc vehicle. The torque vectoring algorithm is based on Ackerman steering geometry and will become the basis of electronic differential which will vary the speed of the two rear driving wheels while cornering. The electronic differential acquires steering and vehicle speed data before computing the corresponding cornering response for each rear driving wheel using yaw rate prediction from the Ackerman steering geometry. Several series of Excel simulations were done to illustrate neutral steer, understeer and oversteer cornering cases for different cornering radius with varying vehicle speed and the cornering responses for each case was analyzed. This paper will also highlight how on-track testing of Electric Arc can verify the Excel simulation results and consequently determine tire cornering properties.


English is an international language. It is used by many people all over the world. They use it as the first language, the second language, or the foreign language. Moreover, most of the sources of information, including book, science, and technology are written in English. Therefore, people need to master English both in oral and written forms. English is considered as a foreign language in Indonesia. It means that Indonesian people do not use English for daily life. They only learn and practice English when they have English subject at schools. Consequently, mastering English is very difficult for the learners because there are many differences between English and their mother tongue. Based on 2006 curriculum, reading is one of the four skills that should be learn by the students of junior and senior high schools. [1] This skill has a great function in mastering English since reading is a way to get knowledge and information about something. By reading, the students are able to get some information stated in the text. From the explanation above, it can be inferred that mastering reading skill is very important for the students because most activities of English at school usually involve reading. From the preliminary study that was conducted in MTs N Arjasa by doing informal interview with the English teacher on December 5th 2014, it was revealed that most of the grade eight students especially class VIII C still could not achieve the standard requirement score (KKM) of English which was 75. The mean score of the last reading test in class VIII C was 71.3. There were only 45.1 % or 13 students out of 30 students who got the standard score. Their scores were between 75 up to 85. They got the standard score because they always paid attention to the teacher and they could answer the teacher's questions better than the rest of the students. Obviously, there were 54.9% or 17 students out of 30 students got under the standard score. Their scores were between 65 up to 70. The English teacher said that they found some difficulties in comprehending the words meaning, sentences meaning, and paragraph meaning of the text. Based on the classroom observation done by the researcher on December 8th2014, it was found that those students were passive in the teaching learning process. There were some students who did not pay much attention to the teacher. Moreover, they never answered the teacher's question seriously. When the teacher delivered a question, they only smiled and talked to each other. Besides, they asked their mates to answer the teacher's question. It can be said that, the students were less motivated in learning reading comprehension, and actually they did not understand well about the text although the teacher repeated the explanation several times. Based on the problems above, it is important to overcome the students' participation and their reading comprehension achievement. There are many teaching strategies that can be used to teach reading comprehension. One of them is


A series of eight new polyquinolines and polyanthrazolines with pyrrole isomeric units in main chain were synthesized and characterized. The new polymers showed high glass transition temperatures (Tg = 242−339 °C) and excellent thermal stability (T5% = 398−536 °C in air, TGA). Compared to the series of polyanthrazolines, the series of polyquinolines exhibited higher thermal stability, better solubility in common organic solvents, and lower maximum absorption wavelengths (λamax). Polyanthrazolines with 2,5-pyrrole linkage showed an unusually high λamax (565 nm) and small band gap (2.02 eV). All polymers in solution had low photoluminescence quantum yields between 10-2% and 10-5% and excited-state lifetimes of 0.28−1.29 ns. The effects of molecular structure, especially pyrrole linkage structures, on the electronic structure, thermodynamics, and some of the optical properties of the polymers were explored. A model of hydrogen bonds in the main chain of the polymers was suggested to explain the difference in...


Objective To investigate the contents of toluylene and archen in polygonum multiflorum with RP-HPLC.Method The contents of toluylene and archen in polygonum multiflorum were determined by HPLC.Results The contents of toluylene were 5.512% and 3.518%,respectively.The contents of archen were 0.094% and 0.126%,respectively.Conclusion The results can be provided as a reliable reference for the quality control and the processing standardization for the processed and unprocessed polygonum multiflorum.


Toward a Saner World In his seminal book Science and Sanity, Alfred Korzybski, on page xxxvii wrote: Science and Sanity: An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics, ... was intended to be a textbook showing how in modern scientific methods we can find factors of sanity to be tested empirically." The main goal of general semantics study-and-practice is "the development of 'consciousness of abstracting' toward increasing sanity in the way we manage our personal and human affairs." We can train ourselves in "consciousness of abstracting" through practicing "conscious abstracting." Conscious abstracting involves practicing being attentive to whatever is going on, in and around us. Being more attentive, provides opportunities to change, modify, correct, improve, stop, etc., whatever we happen to catch ourselves thinking, feeling, imagining, saying, and "doing." Since "success" (whatever our goals whatever we do), depends on the quality of our thinking, planning, decision, etc., we could think of consciousness of abstracting and general semantics practice as "a general behavioral paradigm for improving anything we do--including improving ourselves. Consciousness of abstracting can also be thought of as a "proposition, and appeal": if you want to become a more intelligent, wiser, saner, more gracious, human being. If you want to become a more intelligent, wiser, saner, more gracious, more creative human being Practice is being conscious of abstracting. "Consciousness of abstracting"--a master principle of general semantics--is a label for a seemingly simple, but quite profound "self-reflecting-self-correcting-critical-thinking-time-binding operation." Consciousness of abstracting involves remembering that: We cannot sense, think, imagine, understand, know, say, do, all about anything--including ourselves (principle of "non-allness"). In recognizing, remembering, and behaving from the standard we cannot know all, we do not identify (treat as being the same) our thoughts, feelings, opinions, beliefs, ideas, theories, etc., as being the same as (no different from) what they are about (principle of "nonidentity"). In applying the principles of "non-allness" and "non-identity" to modify our "behaviors," we remember to include ourselves as agents-subjects playing important parts in our abstractions-evaluations. We can apply general semantics principles as standards, and tools to modify the ways we think-feel about things; and to help us make more sense of anything--including our notions of "knowledge," "objectivity," "meaning," and "truth." From applying these principles to our abstracting and abstractions, Korzybski arrived at a "theory of evaluation, a theory of values, a theory of psychotherapy, a theory of knowledge, and 'epistemology." These theories provide foundations for us to pursue ways to "improve the level of intelligence in our interactions and relationships in dealing with our human affairs, at personal, societal, ecological, and international levels." On Abstracting and Consciousness of Abstracting Our beliefs, decisions, policies, institutions, and actions emerging from our uncritical notions of "meaning" and "truth," contribute a great deal to our increasingly "unsane," confused, and violent human world. "Abstracting" (what we "do") and "abstractions" (consequences) are general semantics terms for our sensing, experiencing, thinking, feeling, doing, planning, deciding, talking, imagining, hoping, desiring, expectations, beliefs, values, notions of knowledge, meaning and truth, and so on. In abstracting, we select and we leave out. (Think of the function of a sieve or strainer.) We do what we do mainly non-self-consciously--but we can train ourselves to be more aware that in our "doings," we select and leave out a great deal. From training ourselves to be more attentive, and to be conscious that we abstract, we develop a "heuristic approach": We do what we do to discover what we are doing. …


Two units of broiler production were compared, one in the municipal district of Videira-SC and the other one in the municipal district of Rio Verde GO (Brazil). The data collection was made through interviews with managers who take decision and questionnaires with integrated from the two regions. The new model production located in Rio Verde presented larger compe-titiveness, in function of established integration with a minor quantity of classified integrated like mediums and big producers, with larger lodging capacity for farm e for shed, using technology utilization 100 percent acclimatized. It also observed that there are more dependent of the income poultry, so much to compose the family income as well as to pay financiamentos assumed


Metallic uranium alloys are candidate materials for use as the fuel phase in very-high-density LEU dispersion fuels. These ductile alloys cannot be converted to powder form by the processes routinely used for oxides or intermetallics. Three methods of powder production from uranium alloys have been investigated within the US-RERTR program. These processes are grinding, cryogenic milling, and hydride-dehydride. In addition, a gas atomization process was investigated using gold as a surrogate for uranium. Grinding was found to be inefficient and introduced impurities into the fuel. Cryogenic milling of machine chips in a steel vial was found to have similar shortcomings. The hydride-dehydride process has historically been used to produce very fine powder that may not be suitable for fuel fabrication. Uranium is made to form its hydride by heating in a hydrogen atmosphere. Subsequent heating under vacuum drives off hydrogen gas and returns the hydride to a metallic state. The volume change on hydride formation results in a fine powder upon dehydriding. The effects of alloying elements, partial hydriding, and subsequent milling treatments on particle size distribution are being explored. Inert gas atomization is used on an industrial scale to produce metal powder. Current designs are not suitable for use with uranium. A system was specifically designed for uranium atomization. A prototype was built and tested using gold as a surrogate for uranium. The system operates efficiently and can produce powder in a variety of size ranges by changing the atomization nozzle.


Abstract Recently, cases of plagiarism in education have been on the rise with the underlying causes of their appearance being numerous. Due to the large extent of this phenomenon, specialised software has been developed and is available for users to check the presence or absence of plagiarism. The purpose of this paper is to study cases of plagiarism in education, as well as the available plagiarism software. Also, this case study presents a practical example of the implementation of the control process using plagiarism software, as well as its results, in an already published article. This case study points out the importance of performing a further quality control to those parts of the text where a textual coincidence was spotted by the plagiarism detection software.


We present a method for solving the following problem: Given a set of data points scattered in three dimensions and an initial triangular mesh M0, produce a mesh M, of the same topological type as M0 , that fits the data well and has a small number of vertices. Our approach is to minimize an energy function that explicitly models the competing desires of conciseness of representation and fidelity to the data. We show that mesh optimization can be effectively used in at least two applications: surface reconstruction from unorganized points, and mesh simplification (the reduction of the number of vertices in an initially dense mesh of triangles). CR


Objective It is to investigate the effect of high dosage of vitamin D3 on Cardiovascular and renal pathological change in rats.Methods SD rats were randomly divided into 2 groups,group A were given normal saline and group B given vitamin D3 400 000 IU/(kg·d) by intragastric administration once per day and for 3 days.Both groups were given Calcein with hypodermic injection at dose of 7 mg/kg on seventh day.On eighth day,heart,aortic arch,kidney of the rats were get to be stained with HE method to observe the pathological changes.Renal calcification was also observed by fluorescence microscope.Results The pathological observation showed that cardiovascular system and kidney were both suffered from multiple calcifications.Conclusion Hypervitaminosis of vitamin D3 can cause cardiovascular and renal multiple calcification in rats.


TAMPERE UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY Master's Degree Program in Industrial Engineering and Management BAUMGARTNER, PETTERI: DEMAND RESPONSE ECOSYSTEMS IN THE NORDIC ELECTRICITY MARKETS Master of Science Thesis, 96 pages, 4 appendices (10 pages) January 2014 Major: Industrial Management Examiners: Professor Saku Mäkinen and Associate Professor Marko Seppänen


High-performance thin-layer chromatographic (HPTLC) assays for pomalidomide (PMD) measurement are lacking in the published database. Furthermore, eco-friendly stability-indicating analytical assays for PMD measurement are also lacking in the published database. In order to detect PMD in commercial products more accurately and sustainably than the conventional normal-phase HPTLC (NP-HPTLC) assay, an effort was made to design and verify a sensitive and eco-friendly reversed-phase HPTLC (RP-HPTLC) assay. The silica gel 60 NP-18F254S and 60 RP-18F254S plates were used as the stationary phases for NP-HPTLC and RP-HPTLC methods, respectively. The solvent system for NP-HPTLC was chloroform–methanol (90:10 v/v). However, the solvent system for RP-HPTLC was ethanol–water (75:25 v/v). The greenness scores for both assays were measured by AGREE approach. PMD measurement was performed for both assays at 372 nm. In the 50–600 and 20–1000 ng/band ranges, the NP-HPTLC and RP-HPTLC methods were linear for PMD measurement. The RP-HPTLC assay was superior to the NP-HPTLC method for measuring PMD in terms of sensitivity, accuracy, precision, and robustness. The ability of both methods to identify PMD in the presence of its degradation products suggests that both methods have stability-indicating features. When employing the NP-HPTLC and RP-HPTLC assays, respectively, the assay for PMD in commercial capsules was 88.68 and 98.83%. The AGREE scores for NP-HPTLC and RP-HPTLC assays were calculated to be 0.44 and 0.82, respectively, suggesting an outstanding greenness characteristic of the RP-HPTLC method than the NP-HPTLC method. The RP-HPTLC method was found to be superior to the NP-HPTLC method based on these findings. Therefore, the RP-HPTLC method could be successfully applied for the determination of PMD in pharmaceutical products.


This article describes, with an emphasis on the lack of adequate security funding for transit organizations, the recently awarded $212 million contract by the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) for a security upgrade of its subway and commuter rail facilities. The upgrade consists of installations of about 1,000 cameras, 3,000 sensors, and related infrastructure at priority locations. It will include closed-circuit television systems, motion sensors, intelligent video surveillance, and perimeter sensors all coalesced into a seamless operating network. These upgrades, which will be monitored by operators at a centralized location with an overhead detail of the New York transit system, will have real-time monitoring that can zoom in on specific platforms to monitor the site. This specific contract, which is alongside another $500 million the MTA has budgeted for upgrades, represents an exemplary infrastructure security upgrade at the local level. Federal support for security funding remains questionable, as the U.S. Senate in the early summer of 2005 slashed $50 million from the homeland security budget's proposed $150 million in transit security grants


Abstract Sashihara, K., Bungo, T., Ando, R., Ohgushi, A., Kawakami, S.-I., Denbow, D.M. and Furuse, M. 2002. Role of central serotonergic systems on the regulation of feeding behavior of chicks in two different strains. J. Appl. Anim. Res., 21: 17–23. Significant role of 5-HT for control of feeding behavior in mammalian and avian species is well known. To study the strain difference in the mechanisms of serotonergic systems on food intake, effects of intracerebroventricular (ICV) injection of serotonin (5-HT) or 8-hydroxy-2-di-n-(propylamino) tetralin (8-OH-DPAT: 5-HT1A receptor agonist) on two strains of chicks (Cobb and Ross Chunky) was examined. Central administration of 5-HT suppressed food intake of chicks in both strains, but 5-HT induced anorexia lasted longer in Cobb than in Ross Chunky. Food intake in Ross Chunky enhanced by the highest dose of 8-OH-DPAT, but not in Cobb. The difference of sensitivity for 5-HT between two strains could be because of the density or binding affinity of 5-HT1A receptor. This evidence suggests that there are some genetic differences in central serotonergic systems between two strains on the regulation of food intake.


Thalidomide was introduced in 1954 by the drug manufacturer Chemie Grunethal as a sedative/hypnotic agent and was used to ameliorate nausea in pregnancy (1). Initially, it had no apparent toxicity or addictive properties. A large increase in the incidence of limb malformations (amelia and phocomelia) was observed in newborn children as a result of thalidomide use during pregnancy (2,3). Thalidomide was withdrawn from the market by the end of 1961. Soon after thalidomide withdrawal, an immunosuppressive activity of thalidomide in the treatment of reactive lepromatous leprosy was reported (4). Further therapeutic trials in dermatological diseases over the last four decades showed thalidomide to have activity in the treatment of cutaneous lupus erythematosus (5–7), recurrent erythema multiforme (8,9), prurigo nodularis (10), and aphthous ulcers (11–13). Recently, thalidomide was found to have activity in the treatment of several inflammatory and auto-immune diseases such as Behcet's syndrome (14 – 16), inflammatory bowel diseases (17), rheumatoid arthritis (18,19), sarcoidosis (20), and graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) (21–23). Thalidomide also had activity in the treatment of chemoresistant multiple myeloma (MM) (24) and some solid tumors as gliomas (25) and Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) (26). The reports on thalidomide activities have been wide and sometimes unpredictable, as in the treatment of congestive heart failure (27), porphyria cutanea tarda (28), and macular degeneration (29–31). In 1998, thalidomide was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of cutaneous manifestation of moderate to severe erythema nodosum leprosum (ENL).


This research was conducted to empirically test the effect of the independent variable on the dependent variable. In this study, the independent variables used are leverage, average billing period, sales growth and profitability, while the dependent variable is financial distress proxied by Interest Coverage Ratio (ICR). The population used in this study is the food and beverage sector which is listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) in 2015-2019. The method used is purposive sampling in the form of 125 samples. The type of data used is secondary data. File investigation using descriptive statistics and logistic regression analysis with SPSS 26 software. The conclusion of this study is that leverage, profitability, and the average billing period have a positive effect on financial distress, while sales growth has no effect on financial distress.


ABSTRACT This paper is intended as a contribution to the debate and evaluation activity which in the UK is following Dearing's recommendation that more work experience should be provided for more higher education students. The paper gives an instrument for researching students' perceptions of the roles their workplace supervisors play. Two surveys using the instrument and involving a total of 669 students on different courses in the field of teacher education are reported. In the surveys, the responses of many students suggested that they had received 'good' (i.e. theoretically desirable) supervision in the workplace but this was not the case for all students. There were for example clear differences across courses and, in addition, the course whose students appeared to have experienced the least desirable kind of supervision subsequently suffered the highest rate of student drop‐out. In contrast, students who had apparently received the 'best' kind of workplace supervision tended to be happier with their...


The supposedly 3-phonems roots of Biblical Hebrew are shown to be redutcible to 2-phonem basic groups, which are for a large part of onomatopoetic or phono-iconic origin.


The heading response of rice plants to daylength, temperature and nitrogen level was analysed under controlled environments in phytotron. 1. The heading response of rice plants (japonica) to temperature depended on daylength, and on the other hand, the response to daylength depended on temperature. The photo-sensitivity became duller under high temperature and more conspicuous under low temperature condition. These results indicated that the expression of thermo- and photo-sensitivity in heading response of a certain strain may vary with alternative conditions. 2. Nitrogen levels of culture medium did not influence on the growth duration from sowing to heading. No interaction was observed between nitrogen level and temperature or daylength in the heading response. 3. Under short day condition the sensitivity to temperature did not differ between early and late strains. But that of late strains was affected more strongly than early ones under long day condition. The heading of early strains was not affected by daylength under high temperature but affected slightly by daylength under low temperature. The heading of late strains was affected by daylength under high temperature, while it was more affected by daylength under low temperature than under high temperature. 4.These results may suggest that the rice plants in high latitudes have been lowered in the heading responsibility to daylength and growth temperature at several steps of the breeding Process


Stochastic gradient descent (SGD) is an optimization method typically used in deep learning to train deep neural network (DNN) models. In recent studies for DNN training, pipeline parallelism, a type of model parallelism, is proposed to accelerate SGD training. However, since SGD is inherently sequential, naively implemented pipeline parallelism introduces the weight inconsistency and the delayed gradient problems, resulting in reduced training efficiency. In this study, we propose a novel method called TaylorPipe to alleviate these problems. The proposed method generates multiple model replicas to solve the weight inconsistency problem, and adopts a Taylor expansion-based gradient prediction algorithm to mitigate the delayed gradient problem. We verified the efficiency of the proposed method using the VGG-16 and the ResNet-34 on the CIFAR-10 and CIFAR-100 datasets. The experimental results show that not only the training time is reduced by up to 2.7 times but also the accuracy of TaylorPipe is comparable with that of SGD.


The main aspiration of the current study is to explore the determinants of university performance. The study also explored the mediating effect of career success between human resource management practices and university performance. Data were collected from 265 faculty members working in public sector universities of Punjab, Pakistan; by online survey, using Google docs through random sampling. The results demonstrate the partial mediation of career success between human resource management practices and university performance. Structural equation modelling-Partial least square (SEM-PLS) technique has been applied to acquire the results. The results will be helpful for policy makers in devising policies for universities and monitor the university performance. The results will also be helpful for faculty members working in public sector universities of Pakistan to know about their career success. Perceived university performance and human resource management practices have been found associated positively with university performance and individuals' career success. In the study both motivation and skill enhancing practices are included to acquire accurate results.


Magnetite, also known as iron ferrite, is a mineral iron and a natural magnet found in iron deposits. In addition to its magnetic intrinsic behavior, the magnetite has the capacity to remove the metallic ions from aqueous medium by adsorption phenomena. The strong magnetic character of magnetite distinguishes it from other adsorbent types, which it allows to be readily removed from solution by magnetic separation. In this work, uranium (VI) adsorption, as U02^* ions, from nitric solution by synthetic magnetite was investigated. It was prepared by simultaneous precipitation process, adding a NaOH solution into a solution containing Fe^'" and Fe^"" ions. The synthetic magnetite, a black powder, has exhibited a strong magnetic response in presence of a magnetic field, without nevertheless becomes magnetic. This typical superparamagnetic behavior was confirmed by magnetization measurements. Adsorption parameters of U02^"' ions such as pH. the adsorbent dose, contact time and equilibrium isotherm were evaluated. Maximum uranium adsorption was observed in the pH 4.0-5.0 range. It was noticed that increase in magnetite dose increased the percent removal of uranium, but decreased the adsorption capacity of the magnetite. It was observed from the relation between adsorption and contact time that the removal has increased very fast with time, and achieved the equilibrium within 30 minutes. The results of equilibrium isotherm agreed well with the Langmuir model, and so the theorical saturation capacity of the magnetite was determined for uranyl ions. The interaction between U02^"' ions and the magnetite was defined as a spontaneous chemical adsorption.


Image quality assessment is always a hot research topic in the field of image processing. Structural Similarity Image Measurement (SSIM) is an image quality assessment algorithm with the advantages of simplicity, high efficiency and better consistence. Its evaluation of performance is better than PNSR and MSE. However, it often fails when assessing badly distorted or cross distorted images. In this paper, we proposed a new method on the improved method of SSIM and the method of based on visual region of interest combination. This improved method of SSIM takes the histogram concentration as the main structural information of an image. It used histogram concentration to calculate the fuzzy degree of the image. Finally, we can obtain the structure similarity value of the image. The experiment results show that, compared with the SSIM model, the proposed RoiHSSIM model is more close to the human visual system and can access the quality of fault images more precisely.