In this paper, the new concept of partial model following control (PMFC )is proposed for multivariable linear mismatched uncertain systems. Based on the variable structure control theory,a specific structure and a design method of the variable structure PMFC systems are studied. Moreover,an independent design theorem between the sliding mode and the specific structure is proved .the maximum following ability of a PMFC system is also determined. So that the strict confinements of the invariance conditions are broken through,and the system steady-state following performances are greatly improved.


The main objective of this study is to evaluate the behavior of income distribution in the Amazonian States of Brazil from 2004 to 2015. As complementary objectives, we sought to determine the immediate causes of any differences of Household Income Per Capita (HIPC) distribution in the Legal Amazon, based on the static decomposition of the Gini Index, and to analyze the dynamic decomposition of the Gini Index considering HIPC portions. This methodology used microdata from the National Household Sample Survey (PNAD) for the analyzed period. As a result, the Gini index of the Legal Amazon HIPC performed differently from that of Brazil (without Legal Amazon). The HIPC portion formed by the income of military and civil servants from the Legal Amazon stood out for having the highest degree of negative progressivity when compared to the rest of the country, whereas "government transfers" had the highest degree of positive progressivity, being responsible for 36.7 of the Gini Index variation from 2004 to 2015.


Smart electronic contact lenses typically integrate communications modules, electronic circuitry, sensors and an energy storage reservoir. These smart contact lenses can be used in medical applications that include monitoring patient glucose and intraocular pressure (IOP). However, due to the health hazards associated with chemical batteries, as well as the inconvenience of consistently charging the energy storage reservoir, a sustainable and reliable energy harvesting system is required. Therefore, the aim of this research is to design and develop an optimised harvester for a contact lens application. In fact, this paper introduces a novel hybrid microenergy harvester concept, which aims to produce sufficient electricity to power an electronic contact lens using light and electromagnetic radiation that are scavenged from photovoltaic cells and radio frequency technology.


Adopting the theory of fuzzy maths and questionnaires,the author established the index and proportion of evaluating the mental load and set up the evaluation system to achieve an quantitative and objective evaluation of the students mental load.


We present results of experiments with high-intensity, ultrashort laser pulses with isolated, levitating microscopic plasmas. By means of a vacuum-compatible Paul trap, polymer spheres with diameters ranging from 100 nm to 50 μm can be positioned fully isolated and with micrometer precision into the focal spot of a high power laser pulse [1]. The primary interest of experimental campaigns at the Texas-PW laser in Austin and the Phelix-PW laser at the GSI, Darmstadt concerned the angular and spectral characteristics of emitted proton bunches. Employing plasma-mirror enhanced temporal contrast enabled the first clear observation of the transition from ambi-polar plasma expansion to Coulomb explosion [2]. Pre-expansion in the low contrast case resulted in a sub-critical density plasma with micrometer dimensions, resembling target parameter conditions not accessible by other means. The PW-laser pulse in this case accelerates a dense proton bunch with small energy spread and high directionality [3]. The talk will explain the target technology and illuminate the underlying physics based on experimental evidence in concert with simulation results. Our observations encourage optimism to exploit this new technology within the Centre for Advanced Laser Applications at the research campus in Garching (Munich), which accommodates the Advanced Titanium-Sapphire LASer ATLAS3000 enabling experiments with up to 3 PW peak power.


T poorest people in the world have a lot of wealth. According to Peruvian Economist Hernando de Soto of the Institute for Liberty and Democracy (ILD), the poor in developing countries have value in their homes and land worth about U.S. $10 trillion.1 However, the poor lack an integrated system of legal property rights that makes it difficult for this demographic to leverage their informal property wealth into capital. With formalized property rights, the poor could use the property they informally own as collateral for loans, borrow money for their business, and become entrepreneurs. Legal ownership of their property could form the basis for economic growth in the developing world. However, much of the property informally owned by the poor in developing countries remains legally worthless because it is not registered in a formal legal system. For example, a person living in a Calcutta ghetto has potential capital in the land that they informally own but they do not have an address for their property. When one does not have an address, one cannot establish legal title.2 In most cases, without a legal title, one cannot borrow money from banks with one's property as collateral for a loan to create a new business. This simple obstacle stifles entrepreneurship and retards economic expansion in many developing countries. The amount of potential capital held by the poor in developing countries is tremendous. For the entire developing world, the ILD calculates that the total value of all the property held, but not legally owned, by the poor is more than 90 times the volume of all foreign bilateral aid they receive. That is 50 times bigger than private, foreign, and direct investments and 40 times larger than all international financial-institution loans from institutions like World Bank and Asia Development Bank.3 The amount of wealth available within the poorest countries themselves vastly exceeds anything that the leading industrial countries have donated to them. So what prevents the poor from tapping into their wealth? The ILD researched the process of obtaining legal titles in developing nations and concluded that government bureaucracy is the main hindrance that prevents people from obtaining property rights. For instance, in Egypt a person who wants to acquire and legally register a property on state-owned desert land must wrangle through at least 77 bureaucratic procedures at 31 public and


Objective To study the effect of "cowboy hat" cold knife conization procedure on cervical columnar eversion.Methods A prospective randomized control trail was performed in 260 cervical intraepithelial neoplasia(CIN) Ⅱ-Ⅲ patients in Maternal and Child Health Hospital of Xinxiang from January 2008 to February 2011. Objects were randomly divided into research group(121 cases) and control group(139 cases), and they were used "cowboy hat" cold knife conization procedure and traditional cold knife conization procedure, respectively. The operation time, the bleeding voulme, the rate of cervical columnar eversion, the recurrence rate and cervcial adhesion or stenosis were compared between the two groups. Results ①The rate of cervical columnar eve rsion after surgery for 1, and 3 months in the study group(8.26%, 10/121; 1.65%, 2/121) were lower than those in the control group(23.74%, 33/139; 12.23%, 17/139), there were statistically significant differences(χ2=16.996, P = 0.035; χ2=23.545, P = 0.012); ②the bleeding volume in the study group [(48.59±1.64) mL] was lower than that in control group [(68.76±2.03) mL],there were statistically significant differences(t = 8.336, P = 0.014); ③compared between recurrence rate(4/121, 3.31%; 6/139, 4.32%) and cervcial adhesion or stenosisin in the study group and the control group(7/121, 5.79%;8/139, 5.76%), there were significantly statistical difference between two groups(χ2=4.364, P = 0.196; χ2=5.218,P = 0.210). Conclusion The cervical canal mucosa ring excision in LEEP can effectively prevent postoperative cervical columnar eversoin.


This document describes the mechanism of sleep mode control. The
router which manages a network can control IPv6 sleepy nodes and
deliver the packets from/to exterior networks. The IPv6 router can
keep the IPv6 sleepy node as sleep state and handle the packets from/
to the IPv6 sleepy nodes. Also, this document describes the mechanism
of sleep mode control using synchronization information.


Various kinds of image sensors capture a large number of images in Internet of Things (IoT) every day. It is increasingly concerned how to securely store and share these big image data from IoT. In this paper, we harness the hybrid cloud to provide secure big image data storage and share service for users. The basic idea is to partition each image into a small set of sensitive data and a large set of insensitive data, which are securely stored in the private cloud and the public cloud, respectively. Specially, the private cloud divides each image into the sensitive data (<20%) and the insensitive data (>80%) based on sensitivity identification approaches like Sobel edge detector. The sensitive data are encrypted in parallel at a counter mode and then stored in the private cloud. The insensitive data are encrypted-then-subsampled and then placed in the public cloud, in which the encryption employs the permutation-diffusion architecture and the subsampling utilizes compressed sampling technique. The keystreams used in encryption operations are managed by the tent-logistic system with high initial value sensitivity. Once users make a request for an image, the public cloud provides a privacy-guaranteed insensitive data reconstruction service, and the private cloud decrypts the sensitive and insensitive data and regroups them into a complete image. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed framework can provide secure big image data service.


We have detected the rare phenomenon of stable, drifting sub-pulse behaviour in two pulsars discovered in the recent Swinburne intermediate latitude pulsar survey. The pulsars, PSR and PSR J1919+0134, have approximate periods (P) of 1.873 and 1.6039 s respectively.

Both pulsars have multicomponent profiles, and distinct drifting is observed across them. We have identified a single drift mode in both pulsars: the drift rate for PSR being 5.4(1) ms P−1 and 5.8(2) ms P−1 for PSR 1919+0134. The drifting is linear across the profile with no departure from linearity at the edges within the sensitivity of our observations.


This report provides the current schedule of data collection for the routine environmental surveillance program at the Hanford plant, as conducted by the Environmental Evaluation Section of Battelle-Northwest for the Atomic Energy Commission. The intent of the program is to monitor compliance for the Hanford plant as a whole with applicable environmental, as well as to detect unusual levels and changing trends of environmental radioactivity. With N-Reactor as the only operating production reactor, a major de-emphasis of the river-associated portions of the routine surveillance program occurred in 1971. Although some effort continues in all media categories, specific measurement for short-lived nuclides is no longer done routinely, and the time-scale of any remaining sources of activity released to the river is such as to permit reduced measurement frequency. 15 tabs.


Mitchell himself confessed that he was vexed to a near-pathological extent by 'horrors' – incidences of human cruelty in past and present – which provided the emotional and ethical drive for his writing. This chapter explores the two novels that most acutely highlight this aspect of the author's mindset. Image and Superscription, his bracing picaresque novel of Rebirth, is presented as an unsuccessful attempt to dramatise and come to terms imaginatively with mankind's propensity for cruelty. While visceral scenes depicting human brutality in contemporary times are overstated, however, the graphic treatment of historical atrocities points forward to the success of Spartacus. The historical novel dealing with the legendary uprising of the slaves against the Roman Republic is adjudged a triumph in conception and execution. It is appraised as both a realistic account of an inspirational historical event and an emblem of revolutionary ardour. Further, Mitchell's permeating humanism is productively allied with a deeper lying philosophical scepticism to sustain a sanguine vision of humankind's destiny.


ABSTRACT In the context of the Warnock Report the literature on school refusal is examined and some of its emphases and assumptions are highlighted. It is suggested that in both normal and special schools in addition to exploring the psychological background of pupils, attention needs to be given to the curriculum, to teachers' attitudes to language and to the use of language in learning.


Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is a significant state that leads to progressive airflow obstruction and subsequent irreversible damage to the airways. It is a major factor causing death and has a very high mortality rate worldwide. In recent years, the mortality rate has increased due to Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and it is estimated to increase in the coming years. This paper reviews the emerging techniques using these technologies that can be used to detect and monitor the severity of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The Internet of Things can help to detect and monitor the condition of a patient suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease using sensors which are used to measure a particular parameter like concentration of different gases present in the exhaled breath and ensure that his condition doesn't get worse. Using an Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning based approach, a system can be developed where the data is collected from sensors, followed by pre-processing and feature extraction for further estimation using a model to identify a person suffering from this disease. The conventional methods used by medical practitioners for the detection of this disease are expensive, time consuming as a lot of tests are to be performed and can cause exposure to radiation. Therefore, research has been carried out in recent years to find other ways to detect this disease. It has been found that with the help of advancing technologies such as Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Signal processing techniques, it is possible to develop an easy, fast, non-invasive and cost-effective system that would help to diagnose and detect this disease and provide accurate results.


Poor performance of irrigation networks necessitates their improvement. One of the measures for performance improvement is application of automatic systems such as hydro‐mechanical gates. The decision‐making process for application of automatic systems is a complicated task. Reasons for this complexity are the wide range of existing technologies to be selected from, interactions between components and economic and social short‐ and long‐term impacts. Development of a suitable model which addresses all aspects of automation is needed. One suitable technique for coping with this is a system dynamic approach.


It's a momentous historical change of consumption institutions from controlling consumption to stimulating consumption in China.Based on the principles of new institutional economics and population economics,this paper explains the effects of demographic transition on the consumption institutional change in China,through the rapid declining population growth,the age structural change and its population dividend.In the primary stage,which is dominant by the decreasing of mortality,the demographic transition strengthened the controlling consumption institutions.Whereas,in the present stage,which is dominant by the declining of fertility rate,the interaction of demographic transition and rapid economic growth overlapping under opening and reform causes old consumption institutions unequilibrium.The empirical study points out that the inevitability of China's final consumption ratio diminishing in the process of demographic transition,and the essentiality of maintaining optimum population growth instead of zero or negative growth rate.


Large pulmonary veins (PVs) have the risk of excessive cooling when the cryoballoon is moved into them, whereas smaller PVs may not be isolated because of insufficient balloon‐tissue contact. We previously reported that the effective nadir balloon temperature (NBT) was <− 44°C for predicting early PV reconnections. However, the ideal PV and left atrial (LA) diameters for cooling temperatures during cryoballoon ablation (CBA) are unknown.


fifty miles to an inch), are beautifully clear and up to date. Rivers, canals, etc., and all names referring to water are printed in blue, the hills are in brown, and the place names in black. The provinces are coloured, the chief high roads and railways are shown, and by well designed variations in spelling the size of the towns and the political status of the states is clearly indicated. Especially considering its small price, only 7s. 6oL, this new atlas will be found most useful, and is in every way well worthy of the well-known publishers by whom it is issued.


In this rejoinder to Dragos Simandan's (2019) consolidated theory of the partiality of geographical knowledge, I draw on feminisms of colour, including Black and Chicanx feminisms, to re-place power at the heart of how we understand the situatedness and limitations of how we know, experience and produce worlds. Furthermore, dissatisfied with Simandan's binary construction of 'possible worlds' (in plural) and the 'realized world' (in singular), and his call to move beyond 'simply social difference' (my emphasis) in how we theorize the partiality of geographical knowledge, I centre creative practices by marginalized people as practices that conjoin navigating the unjust 'real' world and imagining different, more just worlds. The artistic works of Cree/Irish artist Kent Monkman provide powerful examples of art as geographical knowledge that makes room both for critiques of the gender, racial and sexual violence of settler colonial world-making and for the agentive production of alternate worlds by Indigenous people, including through their creative practices.


The recent development of the spectral method for correction of the Čerenkov light in plastic scintillation detectors (PSD) have led to the first commercial dosimeter of this type, the Exradin W1 (STANDARD IMAGING INC., Middleton, WI, U.S.). As any new commercial dosimeter, it had to be characterized and validated in different situations of radiation. The first purpose of this project was to perform this validation. The results of characterization have shown that PSD is an efficient dosimeter to make out-of-field doses measurements as required in the evaluation of the feasibility of using a lead sheet to reduce dose to Cardiac Implantable Electronic Devices, CIED. Measurements performed with PSD shown an important reduction of doses by the shielding for square anterior-posterior field (40 % to 80 %) and also for complex clinical treatments (5 % to 45 %).


Awkward Not upward or downward, backward or forward, but awkward. Awk-wards: a vector. The (now obsolete) word awk means out of the way, strange, even sinister in nature and disposition. As an adverb, awkward suggests an action in the wrong, or at least a tangential direction. It evokes disjuncture, discord and incompatibility. Things have gone awry. As an adjective, awkward describes the unfamiliar, the clumsy and the unskilled. It conveys embarrassment, inconvenience and risk. To be awkward is to be ill at ease, uncomfortable or untoward. Awkward offers a rich, polysemous term through which we might specify and explore creatures and modes of multispecies relations. As adjective and adverb it has at least two important valences for animal studies and the environmental humanities that I will explore in this short commentary. I open with some general observations before proffering another awkward creature and mode of relating. First, to be awkward is to be different and difficult. As the editors of this section make clear, attending to awkwardness draws attention away from the familiar subjects that have tended to preoccupy recent work in animal studies. The concern here is less with organisms that are 'big-like-us' and more with those that are 'smaller than a mouse' (to borrow the title of a 2014 meeting of the British Animal Studies Network), cryptic and remote. While awkward encounters are no doubt possible across all taxa and spaces, the interest in awkwardness exemplified in this strand of work foregrounds lifeforms that are corporeally, ecologically and socially strange—both in theory and in practice. Insects, fungi and other microbes feature prominently here. As do submarine, subterranean and nocturnal worlds alien to prevalent human geographies.  1 I take these definitions from The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) (2014). 2 Franklin Ginn, Uli Biesel and Maan Barua, "Flourishing with Awkward Creatures: Togetherness, Vulnerability, Killing," Environmental Humanities (2014): 113-123. 3 Myra Hird, The Origins of Sociable Life: Evolution after Science Studies (Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan, 2009). 4 See www.britishanimalstudiesnetwork.org.uk 5 For an illustrative range of examples see Chris Bear and Sally Eden, "Thinking Like a Fish? Engaging with Nonhuman Difference through Recreational Angling," Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 29 (2011): 336-352; Hugh Raffles, Insectopedia (New York: Random House, 2010); Astrid


Overview.- The Evolution of the Universe.- Elements of the Theory of Relativity.- The Theory of Fields.- Electrodynamics.- The Strong Interaction.- The Weak Interaction.- The Production of Elementary Particles.- Symmetries.- The Standard Model of Particle Physics.- Quantum Corrections and the Renormalization Group Equations.- Beyond the Standard Model.- Appendix.


The finite-length sequence whose non-periodic autocorrelation function takes zero sidelobes except at left and right shift ends can be called the shift-orthogonal finite-length sequence, and is effective to reduce the intersymbol interference in a direct-sequence spread-spectrum communication system. This paper proposes the synthesis of a set of real-valued shift-orthogonal finite-length sequences which has family size 2/sup /spl nu// or 2/sup /spl nu/+1/ and length 2/sup /spl nu//+1, /spl nu/=1, 2, 3, ... and is suitable for the fast correlation processing. A sequence is synthesized by convolving the /spl nu/+1 original or order-reversed elementary sequences from the sequences of lengths 2 and 5. The fast correlation for the sequence is decomposed to the (/spl nu/+1)-stage correlations.


The work here in was undertaken with two main objectives. The first has been to design and develop a bespoke pulsed laser deposition growth system to enable the growth of high quality transition metal oxide thin films. The system has been constructed to allow for the growth of multi-block or layered systems, such as the R, S and T-blocks of hexaferrites, by utilising an alternating target approach. Ultimately, the growth system's ability to grow complex oxide thin films has been tested and the
successful growth of an epitaxial M-type hexaferrite, with material properties that compare well to the literature, has been realised.
Additionally, the magnetoelectric effect in M-type Ti-Co doped strontium hexaferrite, SrCo2Ti2Fe8O19, has been studied using a combination of magnetometry and element specific soft x-ray spectroscopies. A large increase (>30x) in the magnetoelectric coefficient is found when Co2+ enters the trigonal bi-pyramidal site. The 5-fold trigonal bi-pyramidal site has been shown to provide an
unusual mechanism for electric polarization based on the displacement of magnetic transition metal ions. For Co entering this site, an off-centre displacement of the cation may induce a large local electric dipole as well as providing an increased magnetostriction enhancing the magnetoelectric effect.


In a prior Monthly paper [1], Campoli offers a relatively simple proof that Z[θ ] = {a+ bθ | a, b ∈ Z, θ = 1+ √−19 2 } is a principal ideal domain (PID) that is not a Euclidean domain. (The original proof that Z[θ ] is not Euclidean is a special case of a result of Motzkin [3], while the proof that it is a PID is what is called the Dedekind– Hasse criterion; see [2].) While the initial part of Campoli's proof which shows that Z[θ ] is not Euclidean is correct, his proof that it is a PID is incomplete. The proof was separated into several cases. The cases 1, 2(a), 2(b), 3(a), 3(b), and 3(d) are correct, but case 3(c) is incomplete. The example α = 15 + 11θ and β = 10 is not covered by case 3(c) or by any other case. We complete his proof as follows. We expand 3(c) to deal with the case in which 5b / ∈ Z but 10b ∈ Z (which is equivalent, within the conditions of 3(c), to 2a+ 10b ∈ Z). When we have 5b / ∈ Z and 10b / ∈ Z, within 3(c), we just take what the paper suggests in 3(c) for 5b / ∈ Z. For the case in which 5b / ∈ Z and 10b ∈ Z, within 3(c), there are q, r ∈ Z such that 10b = 10q+ r, and then b = q+ r/10,where r ∈ {0, 1, 2, . . . , 9}. Since 5b / ∈ Z and 2b / ∈ Z, r cannot be in {0, 2, 4, 5, 6, 8}. We deal with the remaining four cases individually.


Objective To observe and evaluate the effect of case teaching of Chinese internal medicine.Methods The students of TCM specialty (n=162) were chosen as the observation group and trained by case teaching method,and other 160 students of the same specialty were chosen as the control group trained by traditional teaching method.The advantages of case teaching were evaluated by using questionnaires and analysis on examination papers and medical records for one semester as a observation period.Results The evaluation of using questionnaires and analysis on examination papers and medical records showed that case teaching was superior to traditional teaching in popularity among students and teaching results.Conclusion Case teaching can improve the development of clinical thought,problem -analysing and problem -solving capability,and clinical ability of diagnosis and treatment.


Wireless and battery-less health monitoring of machinery and structures have been a dream in mechanical engi-neering. Particularly, simultaneous data collection from multiple sensors is required to detect failure or malfunction before it becomes fatal problem. In this paper, a concept of simultaneous data collection from multiple sensor RF tags with multiple subcarriers is proposed and its feasibility is examined. To facilitate the inclusion of sensor data in RF tag and to obtain the number of available communication channels, an analog modulation of digitally generated subcarriers is employed. The unavoidable mutual interference among subcarriers, stemming from the pulse shape of subcarrier in RF tags, is eliminated by a swift interference rejection method. We examined the feasibility and the performance of the concept with a two-subcarrier prototype in which the interference rejection is executed in a software defined radio platform. It is shown that the proposed concept is feasible. In order to evaluate the effect of the interference rejection method, we examined the correlation between the original sensor data and the recovered sensor data in a worst case interference environment. It is shown that the correlation coefficient is significantly improved from 0.00 to 0.91.


Non-performing loans management will necessarily take time. Banks have to invest in their internal structures in order to make them more functional to the size and importance of the phenomenon, also considering the opportunity to make partnerships with specialized servicers. Ecb Guidance recently published outlines measures, processes and best practices for banks when tackling Npls. The best practices in the industry highlight the factors to be considered, including, in particular, the development of appropriate It systems, specialized, motivated and adequately trained personnel, the availability of measurement models


The advent of multi-core processors has made parallel computing techniques mandatory on main stream systems. With the recent rise of hardware accelerators, hybrid parallelism adds yet another dimension of complexity to the process of software development. This article presents a tool for graphical program flow analysis of hardware accelerated parallel programs. It monitors the hybrid program execution to record and visualize many performance relevant events along the way. Representative real-world applications written for both IBM's Cell processor and NVIDIA's CUDA API are studied exemplarily. To the best of our knowledge, this approach is the first that visualizes the parallelism in hybrid multi-core systems at the presented level of detail.


ABSTRACT While considerable existing scholarship examines the degree to which Muslim Brotherhood affiliates have toned down their religious rhetoric to compete in electoral politics, very little of that discussion centres on how Brotherhood movements react when political space narrows. Even fewer studies have examined the recent behaviour of the Brotherhood affiliate in Kuwait. In this article, we demonstrate how the Kuwaiti Muslim Brotherhood has, in the face of increased government surveillance and restriction of political space, moderated its Islamist agenda to become part of the broader opposition agitating for structural political reforms, often at the expense of the traditional agenda of Islamizing society.


The article deals with the influence of the artistic element of the advertising message on the effectiveness of the commercial offer. Postmodernist aesthetics is presented as an important component of modern manipulative technologies in the world media. Contemporary advertising is presented as a high-tech art that is media oriented and focused on the emotional and image dominant element of the consumer audience. It determined the increased attention of advertisers to the philosophy and aesthetics of postmodernism. The techniques and methods that increase the effectiveness of the advertising message are explored. It is the use of the culture of laughter and innovative, creative and original verbal and non-verbal means of influence, which provide a postmodernist artistic approach to comprehending advertising images. The ways of depicting emotional and image elements that dictate the use of artistic creative methods in advertising discourse are presented. Postmodernism is defined as artistic behavior that is effectively used in the modern advertising business. Rejection of reality is one of the ideological precepts of the aesthetics of postmodernism, the aesthetics of a high level of consciousness and intellectuality. Cultural mediocrity involves citing marked by a slight irony, joke, and grotesque. The main directions of development of postmodern advertising genres, the directions of formation "citing" of advertising image created in aesthetics of postmodernism are presented in the work. It is stated that advertising created in postmodernist aesthetics makes the effect of fragmentation as one of the features. It is underlined that politics and language are the tools for targeting the audience, and the rejection of truth is the characteristics of postmodernist advertising. Intertextuality is defined effective in creating the effect of the unspoken providing the space for imagination to the consumer.


The use of reference is fundamental to monitor and evaluate the success of restoration interventions. As global changes influence ecosyste m composition, reference targets also change in tim e. Therefore the use of historical data provides deepe r insights into long-term trends of ecosystem chang es and helps determine realistic restoration goals. Large European data sets gathered from the early 20th cen tury on may be used for assessing changes in the natural st ate of vegetation in search for restoration potenti als. Pannonic rocky grasslands under the "Rupicolous pan nonic grasslands" 6190 habitat are among the most important Natura 2000 habitats because of their uni que species composition and high frequency of Annex II species of the Habitat Directive. The aim of our st dy was to detect long-term plant composition chang es in order to estimate redtoration potentials of these a ssociations. Phytosociological relevés sampled betw e n 1931 and 1961 served as historical reference to re-sampl ing between 1991-94. Historical and recent states w re compared using typical species occurrences and soci al behaviour characteristics of species. We detecte d a decrease in typical species' frequencies. Specialis t species richness decreased significantly, while n atural pioneers, disturbance tolerant and weedy species in creased their number. Our results showed a slight, but general degradation of Pannonic rocky grasslands. R ealistic reference species composition target for t he Rupicolous pannonic grassland habitat type has less typical species and more disturbance indicators co mpared to historical phytosociological descriptions.


Gestures represent an important channel of human communication, and they are "co-expressive" with speech. For this reason, in human-machine interaction automatic gesture classification can be a valuable help in a number of tasks, like for example as a disambiguation aid in automatic speech recognition. Based on the hand gesture categorization proposed by D. McNeill in his reference works on gesture analysis, a new approach is here presented which classifies gestures using both their kinematic characteristics and their morphology stored as parameters of the templates pre-classified during the training phase of the procedure. In the experiment presented in this paper, an average of about 90% of correctly classified gesture types is obtained, by using as templates only about 3% of the total number of gestures produced by the subjects.


Abstract Objectives The aim was to determine the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on access to health care among patients with scleroderma and to analyse the economic and psychosocial impacts and the infection prevention measures taken by them during the pandemic. Methods A 25-item questionnaire designed to assess the components of the objectives was tele-administered between October 2020 and January 2021 to the patients enrolled in the Indian Progressive Systemic Sclerosis Registry. Results Of the 428 patients in the registry, 336 took part in the study. A scheduled outpatient visit was missed by 310 (92.3%) patients, and 75 (22.3%) skipped prescription drugs. During the pandemic, 75 (22.3%) had a family member lose a job. Financial difficulties were reported by 155 (46.1%), with 116 (34.5%) patients having to spend an additional INR 4000 (2000–10 000) [USD 54.9 (27.0–137.4)] to continue treatment. Although 35 patients (10.4%) had at least one symptom suggestive of COVID-19, infection was confirmed in only 4. None of them needed hospitalization or had adverse outcomes. Worsening of scleroderma was seen in 133 (39.6%) individuals, with 15 (4.5%) requiring hospitalization. Most (96%) of the patients were aware of infection prevention measures, and 91 (27.1%) had taken unproven prophylactic medications. Conclusion Individuals with scleroderma in India have been affected during the pandemic owing to closure of hospital services, lack of transport, loss of jobs and the additional financial burden. Health-care providers should continue to educate patients to stay on their medications and encourage them to be vaccinated for COVID-19.


Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to meet the large demand for the new-generation intelligence monitoring systems that are used to detect targets within a dynamic background.

Design/methodology/approach

A dynamic target detection method based on the fusion of optical flow and neural network is proposed.

Findings

Simulation results verify the accuracy of the moving object detection based on optical flow and neural network fusion. The method eliminates the influence caused by the movement of the camera to detect the target and has the ability to extract a complete moving target.

Practical implications

It provides a powerful safeguard for target detection and targets the tracking application.

Originality/value

The proposed method represents the fusion of optical flow and neural network to detect the moving object, and it can be used in new-generation intelligent monitoring systems.


THE CIVIL WARON DECEMBER 20, 1860, A LITTLE more than six weeks after Lincoln's election in November, South Carolina seceded from the Union, soon to be followed by six more states. On April 12, 1861, Confederate guns fired on Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, and the war whose reverberations are with us to this day had begun. On September 28, Harper's Weekly published Walt Whitman's great poem of response to the advent of war and its horrors visited upon the people, "Beat! Beat! Drums!" The poem was set by Ernst Bacon and also by Richard Pearson Thomas as the first song in his song cycle of Walt Whitman poems, Drum-Taps.1 The Pearson Thomas setting opens with voice alone, a call to arms; then a roll of the drums in the piano part; another solo call to arms, and then the drumbeat of recruitment begins in earnest. It is a stirring, dramatic song built on various drumbeat patterns and bugle calls in the piano under the strong declamation of the vocal line.Beat! beat! drums!-blow! bugles! blow!Through the windows-through doors-burst like a ruthless force,Into the solemn church and scatter the congregation,Into the school where the scholar is study'ng;Leave not the bride-groom quiet-no happiness must he have now with hisbride,Nor the peaceful farmer any peace, ploughing his field or gath'ring his grain,So fierce you whirr and pound, you drums, so shrill you bugles blow.Beat! beat! drums! blow! bugles! blow!Over the traffic of cities-over the rumble of wheels in the streets;Are beds prepared for sleepers at night in the houses? no sleepers must sleep inthose beds,No bargainers' bargains by day-no brokers or speculators, Would theycontinue?Would the talker be talking? would the singer attempt to sing?Would the lawyer rise in court to state his case before the judge?Then rattle quicker, heavier drums-and bugles wilder blow.Beat! beat! drums! blow! bugles! blow!Make no parley-stop for no expostulation;Mind not the timid-mind not the weeper or prayer;Mind not the old man beseeching the young man;Let not the child's voice be heard, nor the mother's entreaties. Recruit! Recruit!Make the very trestles shake under the dead, where theylie in their shrouds awaiting their hearses.So strong you thump, O terrible drums-so loud youbugles blow.By April of 1862 the war had been raging for a year with famous battles already fought. On April 6 and 7 in Hardin County, Tennessee, near the Shiloh country church, a fierce battle was fought in which 23,746 men were killed, wounded, or missing. Herman Melville (1819-1891) commemorated the Battle of Shiloh in his poem "Requiem (April, 1862)." In his song cycle, Soldier Songs, Hugo Weisgall set the poem under the title "Shiloh: A Requiem. April 1862."2 The slow circling motion of the music evokes the skimming and wheeling of the swallows over the now quiet battlefield, while the shifting lightly dissonant harmonies reflect the utter incongruity of the peacefully circling birds over the place of such pain and dying. The chromatic vocal line turns downward at the end of each section, to end low in the register at "And all is hushed at Shiloh."Skimming lightly, wheeling still,The swallows fly lowOver the field in clouded days,The forest-field of Shiloh-Over the field where April rainSolaced the parched one stretched in painThrough the pause of nightThat followed the Sunday fightAround the church of Shiloh-The church so lone, the log-built one,That echoed to many a parting groanAnd natural prayerOf dying foemen mingled there-Foemen at morn, but friends at eve-Fame or country least their care:(What like a bullet can undeceive!)But now they lie low,While over them the swallows skimAnd all is hushed at Shiloh. …


Here you can learn more about how FranNet franchise consultants will help you find the right franchise opportunities based on you and your individual needs.


A device, the cerebral function monitor, provides a continuous record of the electrical activity of the brain occurring at frequencies from 2 to 15 Hz. It is relatively cheap, portable, and easy to use and interpret. The apparatus has proved of value in three circumstances: firstly, when the cerebral circulation is likely to be vulnerable during open heart surgery; secondly, as a measure of recovery or deterioration following brain damage or drug overdose; and thirdly, where information about more physiological changes in cerebral function is required, for instance when testing anaesthetic and hypnotic drugs.


The spectrum and asymptotic behavior of the non-uniform porous-thermo-elasticity of Lord-Shulman type is considered in this
 paper.
It is shown that the corresponding system operator generates a $C_0$
semigroup of contractions
 in an appropriate Hilbert space setting.
 By a detailed spectral analysis, the asymptotic
 expressions of the spectrum of the system is gotten.
 Based on the spectral property, the Riesz basis property of the (generalized) eigenvectors
 is proved, which implies that the system satisfies the spectrum-determined-growth condition. Then the
 exponential stability of this system is deduced from the distribution of the spectrum.


In view of virtual plant has practical demands on quality, image and degree of realism animation in growing process of plant, this thesis design the animation based on mechanism and regularity of plant growth, and propose the design method based on 3D MAX technology. After repeated analysis and testing, it is concluded that there are modeling, rendering, animation fabrication and other key technologies in the animation design process. Based on this, designers can subdivid the animation into seed germination animation, plant growth prophase animation, catagen animation, later animation and blossom animation. This paper compounds the animation of these five stages by VP window to realize the completed 3D animation. Experimental result shows that the animation can realized rapid, visual and realistic simulatation the plant growth process.


PurposeBased on Azjen's (1991) theory of planned behavior, the purpose of this paper is to complement the existing body of knowledge on entrepreneurial intentions (EIs) by comparing two different university environments in Spain (online and face-to-face) and their impact on EIs of university students using two components of social capital (SC), trust and network ties as variables with influence on the antecedents of EIs.Design/methodology/approachA survey was administered to online and face-to-face students yielding a total sample of 302 and 204, respectively. Partial least square–structural equation modeling is the technique employed to perform the analysis.FindingsSC has a significant influence on EIs in both environments with greater effects online, as a consequence of the mediated role played by network ties between trust and the attitude toward the behavior, the subjective norm and consequently, EIs.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors used a cross-sectional method. However, it would be interesting to obtain longitudinal data to provide a more valid support for the study.Practical implicationsThis study provides insight into the important role played by network ties based on trust in the entrepreneurship process and in the university environment.Originality/valueThis study contributes to understanding the differential impact of SC (trust and network ties) on the antecedents of EIs between the students enrolled in different university environments using two non-parametric techniques Henseler's multigroup analysis and the permutation test.


Abstract In this paper we apply the recently developed theory of information-based complexity to two-dimensional transport. For a model problem we obtain the radius of the cell-average information, which is the optimal (worst-case) error. The corresponding central algorithm that possesses this optimal error is developed. Further, we theoretically and numerically compare four algorithms, the step-characteristic, diamond-difference, (C, C) nodal-transport, and corner-balance algorithms, for a single cell. A number of figures and table are presented for those comparisons. Such results allow the best choice of algorithm to solve the model problem, depending on the angular variables (μ,η) and cell width h.


Importance sampling is a Monte Carlo technique that was designed in the 1940s for efficient estimation of expected values [A1]. The approach works as follows. Suppose we want to estimate the expected value of a function h of a random variable X, whose probability density function is p(x): E ` h(X) ´ = Z p(x)h(x)dx (41) One way to do so is to take n samples {x (1) , · · · , x (n) } from X and average the values taken by h on those samples E ` h(X) ´ ≈ 1 n n X i=1 h ` x (i) ´ (42) Instead of sampling directly from p(x), which may be intractable or computationally costly, in some cases it is desirable to obtain samples from a proposal distribution, π(x), from which samples can be drawn efficiently, and compensate by using importance weights that are proportional to the ratio of p(x) to π(x). To see why, note that E ` h(X) ´ = Z p(x)h(x)dx = Z π(x) p(x) π(x) h(x)dx = Z π(x)ξ(x)h(x)dx (43) where the importance weight, ξ(x), is the ratio of the values taken by the desired distribution and the proposal distribution: ξ(x) = p(x) π(x). (44) Thus, the corresponding importance sampling estimate would be E ` h(X) ´ ≈ 1 n n X i=1 ξ ` x (i) ´ h ` x (i) ´ (45) where now the samples {x (1) , · · · , x (n) } are taken from the proposal distribution π(x). Since the approach provides estimates for expected values of arbitrary functions h, it can be interpreted as providing an estimate for the distribution of X itself, i.e., ˆ p(x) = 1 n n X i=1 ξ(x)δ(x − x (i)), (46) where δ(·) is the Dirac delta function. When p(x) is only known up to a proportionality constant, then the importance weights ξ(x) are also known up to a proportionality constant. In this case we can rewrite (43) as follows: E ` h(X) ´ = R π(x)ξ(x)h(x)dx R π(x)ξ(x)dx (47) where ξ(x) ∝ p(x) π(x) is now known up to a normalizing constant. Since the ratio of two consistent estimators is also consistent, a standard estimate in this case is as follows [A2]: E ` h(X) ´ ≈


The Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland has an ongoing interest in understanding developments in the local economy so that these regional issues become a part of the national monetary policymaking process.

But in addition to this policy role, the Bank wears a lot of other hats in our region. We also function as a corporate citizen, a center of economic expertise, a bank supervisor, a payments provider, and a community development advisor. We want to provide a strong voice in the public dialogue that is so important to our continuing economic success as a city and a region.


This paper investigates the problem-solving capabilities of Large Language Models (LLMs) by evaluating their performance on stumpers, unique single-step intuition problems that pose challenges for human solvers but are easily verifiable. We compare the performance of four state-of-the-art LLMs (Davinci-2, Davinci-3, GPT-3.5-Turbo, GPT-4) to human participants. Our findings reveal that the new-generation LLMs excel in solving stumpers and surpass human performance. However, humans exhibit superior skills in verifying solutions to the same problems. This research enhances our understanding of LLMs' cognitive abilities and provides insights for enhancing their problem-solving potential across various domains.


On the basis of the performed theoretical researches variants of practical realization of means of multispectral remote monitoring for special and general technical application at the level of structural schemes and the basic technical characteristics are considered. The method of maximum likelihood was further developed, which synthesized optimal algorithms for multispectral processing of location signals for all stages of remote geomonitoring - exposure of enemy objects, as well as the method of hardware-algorithmic complexation of partial channels of geomonitoring to the level of integration of spatial-temporal processing. implementation. An integrated radio thermal system, a block diagram of a two-spectrum ground object detector with adaptation to telephone contrast and a block diagram of an integrated artillery reconnaissance complex are proposed. It is noted that the further development of the practice of multispectral geomonitoring is the development of a system for determining the physical characteristics of enemy observation objects (targets) and a method for determining the thermophysical characteristics of objects (targets) in remote monitoring and a system for its implementation. The main physical characteristics of materials suitable for mono and multispectral fairings and qualitative assessment of parameters on a five-point scale (excluding specific gravity) are presented at the level of advantages and disadvantages. The analysis of variants of the optimal on the criterion of efficiency / cost of constructive execution of components of the equipment of space-time processing of geoinformation is executed.
Keywords: geomonitoring; location monitoring, remote monitoring, radar channel; heat channel; complexation of observation channels, synchronization of observation channels, integration, detection (detection, recognition, identification) of objects (targets), telephone contrast; detector, antenna fairing.


Scarcity of water resources increases the pressure to develop methods for wastewater treatments. In this study, modifications of sand filter were made by installing vertical devices with different length to change the conditions inside the sand filter; consequently, the produced water may be suitable for reuse. We assessed the performance of modified sand filters cultivated with and without reed plant in changing the flow rate, removing biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5), chemical oxygen demand (COD), removal of ammonia, total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN), removal of nitrate, total suspended solids (TSS), and fecal coliforms (FC). Two types of sand filters were used in this study: one sand filter was planted with reed bed and the second without reed bed. Results showed that modified sand filters had the ability to reduce the flow rate nearly 10 times lower than regular sand filter (horizontal flow). Moreover, removal of BOD5, COD, nitrogen compound, TSS, and FC was also significant. An interesting outcome of the study is that sand filter removed 52% of BOD5, 32% of COD, 39% of TKN, 35% of NH4 as result of NH3 conversion to NO3, 93% of FC, and 71% of TSS. It is evident that modified filters have higher efficiency in removing pollutants from wastewater. It can be concluded that application of sand filters will significantly improve the quality of treated wastewater. The study revalued that increasing retention time in the sand filters considerably increased the removal efficiency.


1Department of Medical Education, Virtual School of Medical Education and Management, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran 2Master student of medical education, Department of Medical Education, Virtual School of Medical Education and Management, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran 3Research Department, National Agency for Strategic Research in Medical Education, Tehran, Iran


We posited student behaviors observed during the recruitment process may reveal a student's commitment to our institution and their initial motivation to succeed, which influences their level of integration and decision to leave college or remain. In particular, we examined the impact of participating in a college fair, visiting the campus before enrollment, and attending Welcome Weekend on stop-out times of students. Our findings suggest students who participate in these activities are significantly more likely to succeed. The time enrolled increases by 33.0% for college fair participants, 6.5% for campus visitors, and 18.0% for participants of Welcome Weekend.


We present a simple, visual approach to help developers view and navigate structural dependency information, aimed specifically at pragmatic reuse tasks. Our visual approach, implemented as the Gilligan tool, uses standard GUI widgets (such as lists and editors) that developers are familiar with. Gilligan represents complex dependency data in a simplified format, appropriate for investigating reuse tasks. We present a small-scale, semi-controlled experiment that indicates that the approach permits more accurate identification of relevant structural dependencies with a lower time investment, as compared to traditional manual approaches. Last, we discuss the potential for the approach to aid in other specific software understanding tasks.


During specific real-world events, some users of microblogging platforms could provide exclusive information about those events. The identification of such prominent users depends on several factors such as the freshness and the relevance of their shared information. This work proposes a probabilistic model for the identification of prominent users in microblogs during specific events. The model is based on learning and classifying user behavior over time using Mixture of Gaussians Hidden Markov Models. A user is characterized by a temporal sequence of feature vectors describing his activities. The features computed at each time-stamp are designed to reflect both the on- and off-topic activities of users, and they are computationally feasible in real-time. To validate the efficacy of our proposed model, we have conducted experiments on data collected from Twitter during the Herault floods that have occurred in France. The achieved results show that learning the time-series of users' actions is better than learning just those actions without temporal information.


Clean tile is a game investigated by Buffon (1777) in which players bet on the number of different tiles a thrown coin will partially cover on a floor that is regularly tiled. Buffon investigated the probabilities on a triangular grid, square grid, hexagonal grid, and grid composed of rhombi. Assume that the side length of the tile l is greater than the coin diameter d. Then, on a square grid, it is possible for a coin to land so that it partially covers 1, 2, 3, or 4 tiles. On a triangular...


of his workers, he usually assesses their efficiency on the basis of his long experience. This method is sometimes unjust, inexact, and weighted heavily by interpersonal relationships. The problem is to establish a more scientific basis for the measurement of supervision. Of the several ways in which the performance of crews engaged in the construction and maintenance of water systems may be evaluated, probably the simplest way is to determine a total cost for these func-


More than Stories: Indigenous Environmental Reciprocity in the Poetry of Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner Rebecca Purse Department of English, BYU Master of Arts This thesis brings to the forefront the traditional stories Marshallese poet, performer, and climate change activist Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner shares in her published poetry. Indigenous studies scholars agree that Indigenous stories have power—power to change, power to inform, and power to heal. The traditional stories in Jetñil-Kijiner's poetry reveal the power of the environment and the potential relationships that can exist between humans and natural beings. While these traditional stories work to disrupt the narrative that Indigenous perspectives, knowledges, and cultures are somehow inferior to their colonial neighbors', they also assert the need for a return to environmental reciprocity—or the establishment of mutually beneficial relationships between humans and the environment. Jetñil-Kijiner invites her audience to develop these relationships with natural beings as a way to combat the destructive effects of climate change. Seeing the environment as more than an inanimate resource to be exploited involves mindful interactions with natural beings—including plant, animal, water, and geologic life—through respecting their power and learning from their wisdom. Ultimately, Jetñil-Kijiner's invitation to adopt environmental reciprocity encourages global environmental healing by allowing traditional stories to transform the practice of human and natural interactions to allow for mutually restorative and enlightened relationships.


One of the hot research topics in propagation dynamics is identifying a set of critical nodes that can influence maximization in a complex network. The importance and dispersion of critical nodes among them are both vital factors that can influence maximization. We therefore propose a multiple influential spreaders identification algorithm based on spectral graph theory. This algorithm first quantifies the role played by the local structure of nodes in the propagation process, then classifies the nodes based on the eigenvectors of the Laplace matrix, and finally selects a set of critical nodes by the constraint that nodes in the same class are not adjacent to each other while different classes of nodes can be adjacent to each other. Experimental results on real and synthetic networks show that our algorithm outperforms the state-of-the-art and classical algorithms in the SIR model.


We examined what effect the reaching distance had on the prediction of a visually perceived location using reaching action. A system presenting a virtual object must execute the process of interaction when a body is directly at the visually perceived location of the virtual object to enable direct interaction between an observer's body and the virtual object. Conventional techniques assume that the visually perceived location is the same as the location defined by binocular disparity. However, both locations are often different. We proposed a new technique in our previous studies to predict the visually perceived location using an observer's action. We also demonstrated prediction using an action where an observer reached out to a virtual object. This study was an examination into the range of applications of our proposed approach. An observer in an experiment reached out to a virtual object, and the reaching distance was the experimental variable. The results did not support the effect of the reaching distance on prediction. We demonstrated that our technique could be applied to a wide range of reaching distances.


Teaching Campus Program Batch 4 is a continuation of the previous Batch Teaching Campus Programs, Batch 1, 2, and 3. This program is part of the Merdeka Learning Kampas Merdeka (MBKM) Policy issued by the Ministry of Education and Culture of the Republic. (Kemendikbud RI) of Indonesia. The existence of the Teaching Campus Program aims to help restore the quality of education after the Covid-19 pandemic and coordinate education across Indonesia so that there are no gaps between schools. Additionally, student literacy and numeracy have suffered setbacks due to lack of optimal education, lack of facilities, and lack of independent curriculum understanding during the Covid-19 pandemic. Nearly two years of his doing all activities at home, including home learning, in Indonesia. Home learning is enough to prevent transmission of the Covid-19 virus, but it has no effect on children's learning. This also happened to her Widya Gama middle school student who experienced declining literacy and numeracy. Dedicated methods are collaborative methods in which the research used is descriptive and qualitative. For five months, students teaching on campus undertook multiple work programs to improve their literacy and numeracy skills. Of course, there were various obstacles in the implementation, but we managed to keep the program running for five months and on schedule.


Medical classes meet four times weekly at the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute (RIMYI) in Pune, India. The people who attend these classes are often those whom health care professionals have written off as hopeless. Yoga is, for them, the last resort. Guruji BKS Iyengar, his daughter Geeta, assistant teachers, and family members help students in their efforts towards peace and, perhaps, healing.I experienced the healing process of medical classes when I arrived at RIMYI after receiving treatment for cancer. On my first trip to RIMYI, two years earlier, I had quickly become absorbed in the ebb and flow...


Terahertz polarization devices are an important part of terahertz optical systems. Traditional terahertz polarization devices rely on birefringent crystals, and their performances are limited by the material structures. In this work, we theoretically demonstrate that the metamaterial consisting of the medium and the periodic metal band embedded in the medium can control broadband polarization effectively. The transmission length of the subwavelength waveguide mode gives rise to a broadband transmission peak. The resonant cavity structure formed by the dielectric layer and the waveguide layer possesses a high transmission efficiency. By optimizing the metamaterial structure parameters, we design a high-efficient (>90%) quarter-wave plate over a frequency range of 0.90 THz–1.10 THz and a high-efficient (>90%) half-wave plate over a frequency range of 0.92 THz–1.02 THz. Besides, due to the anisotropy of the structure, the metamaterials with the same structural parameters can achieve the function of the polarized beam splitting with an efficiency of up to 99% over a frequency range of 0.10 THz–0.55 THz. Therefore, the designed metamaterial has a multifunctional polarization control effect, which has potential applications in the terahertz integrated polarization optical system.


Objective: To study the expression and significance of Pokemon,Ku70 in oral squamous cell carcinoma(OSCC).Methods: Immunohistochemical Envision method was used to detect the expression of Pokemon and Ku70 in 47 cases of nasopharyngeal carcinoma and 20 cases of nasal polyp,and to retrospectively analyze their correlations to the clinicopathologic characteristics of OSCC.Results: Positive rates of Pokemon in OSCC group and normal oral mucosa group are 68.1%(32/47) and 25.0%(5/20) respectively(P0.05).Positive rates of Pokemon between high differentiation and low-middle groups are 45.0% and 85.2% respectively(P0.05).In different TNM of OSCC,Ⅰstage +Ⅱstage group,and Ⅲ stage +Ⅳstage group,positive rates of Pokemon are 88.0% and 45.5% respectively,and the difference is of statistic significance(P0.05).The positive expression rate of Pokemon in OSCC tissues with or without lymphatic metastasis is 86.7% and 35.5% respectively(P0.05).Positive rates of Ku70 in OSCC group and normal oral mucosa group is 61.7%(29/47)and 30.0%(6/20)respectively(P0.05).In different types of NPC issues,positive rates of Ku70 between high differentiation and low-middle groups are 55.0% and 66.7% respectively(P0.05).In different TNM of OSCC,Ⅰstage +Ⅱstage group,and Ⅲ stage +Ⅳstage group,positive rates of Ku70 are 72.0% and 50.0% respectively(P0.05).The positive rates of Ku70 in NPC tissues with or without lymphatic metastasis are 73.3% and 35.5% respectively(P0.05).Conclusion: Pokemon and Ku70 may play an important role in OSCC occurrence and development.Pokemon and Ku70 may become prognostic biomarker.


ABSTRACT GRAIN sorghum grown in field lysimeters was flooded for three durations at the early reproductive growth stage. Reductions in yield of 2.5 percent, 12.9 percent, and 21.9 percent were obtained for the 7, 12, and 17 day flooding periods, respectively, as compared to a Control which was kept well-watered but was not flooded.


Tags may have multiple owners with different weights, and some owners may sell their own partial weights to other owners in practical applications. The proportion of shares owned by different owners may also change in the cycle of ownership transfer, so it is necessary to be able to convert ownership and update the key value dynamically. This paper proposes a Lagrangian-based RFID tag ownership dynamic conversion protocol to achieve multi-owner ownership transfer with different weights to solve this problem. When the owner's weight changes, according to the condition that the sum of the owner weights of the participating recovery keys is equal to or greater than the value t, the agreement restores the legality of the original key verification owner. The secret key is used to divide the new key into n shares, and the subkey is distributed based on the owner's new weight value. This way enhances the flexibility of the tag in the security and practical use of ownership transfer.


Enhanced spin injection efficiency and extended spin lifetimes are achieved in graphene spin valves. Spin injection efficiency is enhanced via tunneling spin injection into graphene through an MgO barrier. A large nonlocal magetoresistance of 130 Ω is observed for a single layer graphene (SLG) spin valve at room temperature (RT) with spin injection efficiency of ~ 26-30%. Extended spin lifetimes are observed using tunneling contact to suppress the contact induced spin relaxation. In SLG, spin lifetime as long as 771 ps is observed at RT. In bilayer graphene (BLG), we observe the spin lifetime of 6.2 ns at 20 K, which is the longest value reported in any graphene spin valve. Furthermore, contrasting spin relaxation behaviors are observed in SLG and BLG, which suggests that Elliot-Yafet spin relaxation dominates in SLG at low temperatures, while Dyakonov-Perel spin relaxation dominates in BLG at low temperatures.6


Abstract A Halin graph is a graph $H\,=\,T\,\cup \,C$ , where $T$ is a tree with no vertex of degree two, and $C$ is a cycle connecting the end-vertices of $T$ in the cyclic order determined by a plane embedding of $T$ . In this paper, we define classes of generalized Halin graphs, called $k$ -Halin graphs, and investigate their Hamiltonian properties.


This letter presents a low-cost (<;0.25 USD per device), easy-to-fabricated, and flexible microplasma generation device (MGD), and the use of this device to perform surface patterning. This dielectric-barrier-discharge-type MGD is made of double-side copper clad laminates and the electrode patterns were fabricated by a printed circuit board fabrication-based method, which allows the patterning without lithographic processes with good feature transfer fidelity. The MGD was utilized to create hydrophilic/hydrophobic contrast by a maskless patterning process, either creating hydrophobic patterns on hydrophilic surfaces or hydrophilic pattern on hydrophobic surfaces with sub-millimeter spatial resolution. In the former case, the hydrophobic fluorocarbon polymer (FCP) patterns were deposited on glass using c-C4F8 and He plasmas. In the latter case, hydrophilic patterns were created on a FCP-coated glass substrate using the MGD operated in ambient air. We also demonstrated that the flexibility of the device enabled non-flat surface patterning.


In this paper,we aim at the motorcycle engine modeling,the exhaust muffler modeling and the coupling simulation of the two models based on GT-Power platform,to get the insertion loss and the pressure loss.The result of the simulation indicates that a increase range of 5-9dB(A) was achieved for insertion loss on the condition of catalyst is inserted,with a plausible pressure loss.The reaserch shows a way for engine exhaust muffler design and optimization.


First of all Sentilkumar has to be congratulated for his paper [1]. In the paper, the author  presented the vibration of double walled carbon nanotubes. He claimed that the equations of motion given in [2]  are incorrect. The aim of this communication is to clarify this issue.


This dissertation focuses on the representation and reasoning about qualitative temporal relations between intervals. Traditional interval-based time representations of events assume interval convexity, i.e., intervals are uninterrupted. This assumption makes it difficult to represent the common sense notion of events that are interrupted in time or are collections of sub-events. It also lacks the ability to handle recurring events. Having a representation of time without the convexity restriction enhances the ability to solve certain tasks, such as scheduling, planning, or database manipulation.
In this dissertation we introduce a framework for reasoning about temporal non-convex intervals. We extend James Allen's interval-based calculus by relaxing the condition of convexity. This extension increases the expressive power and usefulness of the calculus while retaining its computational advantages. A matrix based model for representing binary relations between non-convex intervals is developed. Operations on matrix relations are defined to be used in the reasoning process for solving important tasks. One of the important tasks is finding the feasible relations between intervals in a network of non-convex intervals. For this specific task, we give an approximate solution (constraint propagation algorithm) that runs in polynomial-time.
We define the canonical form for a matrix relation to be a reduced equivalent matrix relation that satisfies certain conditions. An arbitrary matrix relation can be converted into a canonical form by using efficient linear time algorithms. We also show that dealing with canonical matrix relations improves the speed of performing the operations required for reasoning tasks in networks of non-convex intervals.
For the purpose of comparing our generalized model with the traditional convex interval model, we analyze their performances when running the constraint propagation algorithm (path-consistency) on the same data. The analysis shows that our model performs better than the traditional convex interval model in terms of space and time. The reason for this improvement is that when dealing with sequences of intervals certain assumptions about the domain (e.g. order) will be represented implicitly which results in a smaller knowledge base to be stored and better performance in terms of space. It also allows the temporal reasoner to internalize these assumptions, and not have to explicitly infer things about them during the reasoning process, which result in fewer operations to be performed and better time performance.


Infrared spectra of oxonium hydrate ions, generated by pulse radiolysis of argon containing small amounts of water vapor, have been measured using a signal averaging technique. The symmetric and antisymmetric OH stretch frequencies of the H3O+ part of H9O4+ are found at 3000 and 2660 cm−1. H11O5+ frequencies are found at 2180, 2860, and 3200 cm−1. In addition, bands at 3620 and 3710 cm−1, due to the outer water molecules are observed. Bands found during the growth of H9O4+ at low water pressures are at 3490, 3290, 3170, 2850, and 2700 cm−1. The 3490 cm−1 frequency is attributed to H3O+.


This article is a creative reconstruction of reflexivity as it operates for some practitioners of the ethnography of communication. Our central concern is conceptualized as "discursive reflexivity"; with that concept, we foreground communication both as primary data and as our primary theoretical concern. As a result, we treat reflexivity as a process of metacommunication, that is, as a reflexive process of using discourse at one level to discuss discourse on another. Following current and past research, we explore how dimensions of discursive reflexivity differently configure into five types of ethnographic practice, these being theoretical, descriptive, interpretive, comparative, and critical inquiry. Each is discussed as analytically distinct from the others, yet all coalesce experientially or, in other words, all coexist in one's experience as an ethnographer. Relationships are discussed between discursive reflexivity and self-reflexivity, including various modes of ethnographic reporting and future directions for inquiry.


We present a study that aims to know how the students of the Master's Degree in Secondary Teacher Training begin to build their Teaching Professional Identity, as well as what the main implications of this identification process are, in order to improve their training. Through an open questionnaire, a total of 355 opinions of students from the University of Cordoba have been analysed. The conclusions obtained highlight: a) the students show a professional identity that is significantly less developed than in other professional groups; b) it is important to develop activities to reflect on the nature of the teaching profession by improving the identification of students with the characteristics of the teaching profession. Some of the implications from this research point to the need to take into consideration the results obtained when designing the process of initial training of future secondary teachers. Particularly, it would be necessary to include the issue of Teaching Professional Identity more specifically in the curriculum of the new model of initial training. This, moreover, should be linked to the pedagogical knowledge of the contents and the acquisition of real teaching skills according to the development of the educational curriculum for each subject.


Rhodium(I)-catalyzed C-H functionalization of aryl ketimines and subsequent carborhodation of a terminal allene resulted in the formation of allyl rhodium intermediates, which underwent allylation of the imine to give cyclized products, e.g., I, with high regioselectivity and diastereoselectivity. Preliminary attempts to develop an enantioselective variant were also successful.


Glucagon peptide with improved solubility at pH 7 after 24 hours at 25 relative to native glucagon at the glucagon peptide consists of the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1 modified having: (a) a charged amino acid negatively at position 28, and (b) a negatively charged amino acid at position 29 or a negatively charged amino acid added at position 30 of the glucagon peptide, wherein an "amino acid negatively charged" refers to an amino acid comprising a side chain that is negatively charged in aqueous solution at pH 7, 10 and wherein the glucagon peptide is optionally modified to comprise up to 7 modifications of additional amino acids relative to SEQ ID NO: 1, said modification selected from the group consisting in: (a) conservative substitutions in one or more of positions 2, 5, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 and 24; (B) the amino acid at position 27 in SEQ ID NO: 27 is substituted by Leu or Nle; (C) the amino acid at position 15 is replaced by Glu, homo-Glu, cysteic acid, homocysteic acid; (D) a hydrophilic moiety is covalently bound at position 16, 17, 20, 21, 24 or 29 of the glucagon peptide; (E) a sequence selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NO: 20, SEQ ID NO: 21 and SEQ ID NO: 22 is attached to the carboxyl terminus of said glucagon peptide; (F) an amino acid at position 2 is selected from the group consisting of d-serine, alanine, glycine, n-methyl serine and amino isobutyric acid; or the amino acid at position 1 is selected from the group consisting of d-histidine, deaminohistidine, hydroxyl-histidine, acetyl-histidine and homohistidine; and (g) a combination thereof.


Purpose: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of an innovative prophylactic knee orthosis on postural balance. This prophylactic knee orthosis is designed with a compression that is oriented in a chosen direction. The purpose of this compression is to improve stability in dynamic situations. Orthoses are used to provide functional improvements to knee problems. However, more scientific validation is needed for this type of product. Methods: 20 sportsmen in team sports performed a functional test: the Y-Balance Test. This reliable and reproducible test allows to evaluate the postural balance of the lower limb. The subjects were tested in 3 conditions: prophylactic orthosis with innovative compression, control orthosis (with no compression) and without orthosis. The average of the three trials were collected in each direction and condition. Results: The prophylactic orthosis had a better standardized score in the anterior direction (p<0.05) and a better composite score (p<0.05) than the control orthosis (no compression). However, there were no differences in the normalized score in the other directions. There were no significant differences between the prophylactic orthosis and without orthosis. Conclusion: Wearing the prophylactic orthosis improves postural balance compared to a orthosis with no compression. But there is no difference between the prophylactic orthosis and without orthosis on postural balance.


Measurement of the electrostatic nature of materials is an essential step towards
understanding the underlying processes and to the eventual modification of charge
behaviour. Indirect monitoring was achieved by resistivity measurements, however, this
approach is limited to studying the material and not the electrostatic charge and is, in general,
not a satisfactory method. Electrostatic field meters allowed the electrical behaviour of
polyethylene to be monitored; its charge accumulation and decay processes were accurately
monitored, thus giving a good information base for material modification later in the
programme. The use of a data-logging system (based on the Apple//e computer) allowed the
manipulation and long term storage of information, whilst giving improved presentation of
results.
High Density Polyethylene is an intrinsically insulating polymer whose electrostatic properties
can be greatly modified by the use of internal antistats. Such additives migrate to a surtace
and become effective [at reducing surtace resistivity] over a period of time depending on the
diffusivity of the antistat species, and on the external atmospheric conditions, particularly
humidity. The effusion of antistat onto a surface was monitored by surtace analysis
techniques including X-ray photoelectron scattering, goniometry and infra-red spectroscopy,
however, whilst such techniques offered a direct indication of the surtace state and the effect
of any surtace modification, electrostatic testing was found to be the most sensitive technique
for following antistat action.
It is possible to tailor individual antistats to specific applications, however such usage provides
only specific protection (fast acting but short lived, or slow acting but long lived). Two single
antistat species were combined, and a synergistic effect was obtained for fast acting and long
lived systems.
It was found that antistats operate by welting (coating) an insulating surtace, and then
absorbing atmospheric water vapour, thus lowering the surtace resistivity. Complete surtace
coverage is not possible over an HDPE surtace due to its low surtace energy (28mNm'1),
however, more complete surtace coverage was achieved by surtace oxidation [raising the
polar surlace energy). Natural HDPE is not readily susceptible to surface oxidation; therefore
oxidation treatment had only a limited effect. An addition of the fully compatible polymer
LLDPE raised the oxidation level and allowed more complete antistat coverage, thereby
improving antistatic activity and raising the level of protection gained by using a standard level
of antistat. A patent is being taken out covering the use of LLDPE in conjunction with mixed
antistat systems.


The consideration of multi-modal inland ports to enhance trade corridor performance and improve the efficiency of global supply chains is starting to emerge in the transportation community. Ultimately, it is believed that inland ports have the capability to create local employment, enhance corridor efficiencies and thus trade competitiveness, and reduce both public and private costs. The objective of 4083-1 was to create a classification methodology to better understand how different inland ports can support efficient supply chains and enhance corridor performance. The first year study recognized the importance of inland ports as international trade processing locations. In addition to this function, inland ports relieve congested traditional ports of entry, facilitate value-added services, and enhance local and regional development. The objectives of 4083-2 are to demonstrate the role and benefits of inland ports, provide a brief overview of the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) highway planning and programming process, highlight the critical investments required and the level of TxDOT support that can be expected as the inland ports develop, consider the impacts of trade and trade truck flows on the locations of inland port developments, and finally, propose an evaluation framework that allows TxDOT planners to review potential inland port investment requests from a transportation planning perspective. Given the multi-modal components of inland port developments, it is foreseen that the findings of this study can be used to inform transportation planners considering the location of multi-modal terminals on the proposed Trans Texas Corridors.


This paper discusses the idea of blogs as protected spaces for language learners. Gumbrecht (2004) suggested that blogging provides the writer with more control over the communication episode and is therefore the preferred mode of interaction for some people. This study investigates the suitability of this concept for language learning. The discussion is based on the experience of 15 language learners who used a blog for self-reflection and peer-to-peer interaction as part of a tertiary German language course. The experience of these learners shows that blogging can provide language learners with a personal space in which they feel safe to express themselves and to interact with other learners. Blogging can therefore have a positive effect on their willingness to communicate, which is one of the main objectives in second language education.


One of the important items of study in radiation therapy of tumors is the radiosensitivity and acquired radioresistance of cancer cells. In the course of radiation therapy, cases have occasionally been experienced in which tumors became less effected by irradiation. Various opinions concerning the mecha nism of acquired radioresistance have been submitted; they are 1) selection of cancer cells, 2) induction of radioresistant mutation and its adaptation, and 3) connective tissue response or tumor bed response. Attempting to investigate the presence or absence of the factors 1) and 2), the author has conducted experimental studies using the Yoshida sarcoma, under the following assumption: the most suitable way to induce radio resistance is to expose tumor cells to such a dosage of radiation that only a few cells could survive. By repeating this procedure on the successive trans fers, radioresistance would be obtained. The experiment was initiated in 1955. Preliminary reports were published by the author and Muta (Kaneta 1959, Kaneta and Muta (1960)) stating that contrary to expectation, there occurred the rise of a radiosensitive subline in 1957. That subline developed, as described later, in a tumor-bearing rat in the 94th generation in which the tumor cells had received a total dose of 87,480r of X-rays. At the time of development, rather abundant polyploid tumor cells were observed in the tumor ascites. The present paper deals with the development of a mixed diploid-hypotetraploid subline from the Yoshida stock tumor and its radiosensitivity. It is the author's pleasant duty to express his gratitude to Professor Nobuyoshi Muta and Professor Sajiro Makino, under whose suggestions and guidance the work has been carried out, for their keen interest and for their improvement of this manuscript.


Combining an overview of the history of communication scholarship with lessons learned from 20 years of experience as a prison abolitionist and peace activist, Hartnett argues that the discipline of communication can be enriched intellectually and made more politically relevant by turning our efforts toward community service, problem-based learning, and new means of collective scholarly production. Drawing from his personal experiences to address the consequences and opportunities of engaging in such work, Hartnett calls upon communication scholars to forego heroic narratives of triumph, instead focusing on what he calls "joyful commitment," a Buddhist-inspired sense of seeking fulfillment via solidarity with others.


In Saudi Aramco, Information Technology operation departments are supporting oil and gas operations by providing and supporting IT services and infrastructure all over Saudi Arabia. This work is carried out across a vast geographical area that includes both onshore and offshore remote areas. To manage these challenges faced by IT management, a GIS solution was developed. It provides management and IT operational staff with new GIS tools to help with tracking, monitoring, and locating resources and assets. In IT there are more than 1100 employees and contractors supporting communication infrastructure operation, maintenance and IT services provisioning. The staff support around 60,000 users and workstations in more than 3,000 locations. They also provide services to a huge number of assets, including: telephones, radio devices, network devices, VSAT connectivity, etc.


This study aims to find out how the efforts made by LDNU in building public perception to prevent hoax news through the mass media. The research was conducted with a da'wah communication approach to build awareness of the phenomenon of hoax news. The research was conducted through a qualitative approach through a meta-analysis of the literature. Meta-analysis is a unique technique used to create an integrative or methodology review. First, LDNU creates social media accounts for news education and control; second, LDNU cooperates with the media and other institutions to narrow the space for slander and hoaxes; third, LDNU continues to use the basis of the ITE Law as a guide in the use of social media. Eight management principles are applied as an integral part in building awareness, perception, knowledge, skills, and social responsibility in preventing the spread of hoax news and other harmful content.


This article discusses the solution of some initial problems of equation a(t)+b(t-T)+cx(t)+dx(t-T)=0.and obtains that tk eλt(k=0,1)as initial function should satisfy a sufficient and necessary condition and gets the expressions of some solutions.


WC-Co ultrafine-grained cemented carbide with the combined addition of Ti(C,N) and Cr 3 C 2 was studied for microstructure and mechanical properties. In particular, the strength (transverse rupture strength) of the alloy was examined in detail comparing it with other kinds of cemented carbides. The WC grain size of the alloy with the single addition of Ti(C,N) or Cr 3 C 2 became finer with increasing the amount of the additive. The combined addition of Ti(C,N) and Cr 3 C 2 made the WC grain size further finer and the microstructure more homogeneous. The hardness of Ti(C,N)-Cr 3 C 2 added alloys increased with decreasing the average grain size of WC or the mean free path of the binder phase, but the fracture toughness decreased. The strength of Ti(C,N)-Cr 3 C 2 added alloy varied depending on the amount of the additive. It was noted that the strength of 3 vol%Ti(C,N)-0.5 vol%Cr 3 C 2 alloy was the best and reached 4.6 GPa on average and 5.0 GPa at the maximum. It was observed that such a high strength alloy was shattered after the transverse rupture strength test and so that it was difficult to detect the fracture origin. Based on the limiting strength that is generated in normal-grained cemented carbide, it was considered that a high strength level exceeding the limiting strength of normal-grained alloy was achieved in the ultrafine-grained cemented carbide obtained in this study. The WC-Co ultrafine-grained cemented carbide with Ti(C,N)-Cr 3 C 2 was superior in strength compared to conventional cemented carbide. New applications can be expected to take advantage of these characteristics.


Densities and isobaric heat capacities of about 25 aqueous solutions of magnesium perchlorate, Mg(ClO4)2(aq), have been measured at concentrations 0.01 ≲ m/mol·kg–1 ≲ 2.5 using vibrating tube densi...


The nuclear physics group at the University of Connecticut has undertaken the project of developing the photon tagger microscope using silicon photomultipliers (SiPM) as the basic scintillation detectors. We report on the initial stage of SiPM testing. Photons with energies up to 12 GeV will be produced in Hall D in Jefferson Lab via coherent bremsstrahlung (CB) of electrons in a diamond crystal. This technique produces a broad radiation spectrum: the energy of the photon is not known a priori. Its energy, however, can be measured (i.e. it can be "tagged") by measuring the energy of the postbremsstrahlung electron that produced it, which has a known initial energy equal to the beam energy: 12 GeV. This tagger will be implemented by dispersing the post-bremsstrahlung electrons in a magnetic spectrometer and detecting them on the focal plane. This spectrometer is equipped with a broad band detector array and a higher resolution detector "microscope" covering the narrow energy band of the primary CB peak. The latter detector is instrumented as a packed array of about 600 square 2mm scintillating fibers with SiPMs used for photon detection. The following are the principal advantages of SiPMs compared to the more commonly used photo-multiplier tubes (PMTs): 1. no high voltage required (bias voltages of order 50V are sufficient) 2. response times are about a factor two faster 3. geometric cross section comparable to that of the fiber Our group is presently concerned with developing a test setup in the lab and then testing and characterization of commercially available SiPM devices.


The aim of this work is to determine optimized conditions for treatment of polyolefines located downstream an oxygen microwave discharge (433 MHz). Therefore, we have studied the role of active neutrals impinging the surface (e.g. O 2 ( 3 Σ), O( 3 P), O 2 (a 1 Δ), and the plasma U.V). We can affirm that O 2 ( 3 Σ), O 2 (a 1 Δ) and U.V have no real influence on surface treatment and that the most important parameter is the atomic oxygen flow. Moreover, SEM, mass spectrometry and rheology proved that our surface treatments are not degrading treatments


The present study posits that auditors have weaker bargaining power when facing clients with ultimately controlling family members as opposed to clients without. By analyzing clients' magnitude of discretionary accruals in company with audit reports, the present study examines empirically the influence of family-controlled clients on the audit quality. The empirical results, as expected, reveal that the magnitude of discretionary accruals of a family-controlled firm, given receiving a standard unqualified audit report, is significantly larger than a firm that has no ultimately controlling family members. Moreover, family-controlled firms with larger positive discretionary accruals, as expected, are more likely to receive a standard unqualified audit report than clients without ultimately controlling shareholders. The above empirical results suggest that the audit quality is indeed deteriorated when an auditor faces a family-controlled client.


A possible resolution to prevent a strong tight-knit ethnic community from diminishing is through a reawakening to the heritage of the people. In this thesis I propose the creation of a CULTURAL EMBASSY to instill pride and arouse self-awareness of the welleducated Chinese first, and eventually the Chinese of all social levels in Boston to revitalize the entire Chinatown. Architecturally, this proposed building will carry a uniqueness of its own: a kind of cultural form and vocabulary containing the expression of today's technology and embodiment of the perpetual Chinese ideology in a Boston context. The appropriate "Chineseness" will be identified through the use of cultural vocabularies of the Chinese architectural language. Thesis Supervisor Yim L. Lim Title Lecturer in Architecture


Web-based distance learning programs are widely available. A few distance education platform and standards were developed or proposed. Among current software systems, it is hard to realize a strategic assessment of courseware quality. Since one of the difficulties of distance education is the load that an instructor needs to spend in courseware design, it is worthy to investigate an automatic mechanism to help an instructor to produce effective courseware. Thus, a distance learning program can proceed efficiently. We develop a mechanism for the construction of courseware structure based on the influence diagram. The mechanism can be implemented as a decision support system for the instructor to analyze the relation among course units and test units. The overall value of a courseware can be systematically analyzed.


BACKGROUND: The concept of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) conversion to formate has attracted increasing interest in recent years and various small-scale studies are present in the literature. However, upscaling of electrochemical CO 2 reduction comes with many challenges and there are very few reports available on it. In this study, we present a scalable three-chamber reactor system for electrochemical CO 2 reduction to formate, a precursor suitable for the production of fuels, pharmaceuticals and fertilizers and its extraction as pure formic acid by electrodialysis. RESULTS: The reactor produced 11.7 g L – 1 formic acid in 6 h, i.e. 1.95 g L – 1 h – 1 at − 1.8 V applied potential, 5 mol L – 1 KOH as an electrolyte, GDE (gas diffusion electrode) cathode with SnO 2 catalyst and Na fi on ™ 200 membrane. The maximum Faradaic ef fi ciency achieved was 38%. In addition, recovery of the formate is equally important as its production for use as feedstock to form chemicals. We therefore also investigated the extraction of formic acid through conventional electrodialysis (CED) and bipolar membrane electrodialysis (BMED). The formic acid was extracted with 88% recovery using CED and 46% with BMED. Further- more, BMED resulted in recovery of > 95% K + as base and 12 L pure CO 2 for possible recycling to the electrochemical cell. CONCLUSION: We consider this study to provide essential empirical evidence on factors in fl uencing the scale-up and subsequent performance of a liquid electrolyte-based electrochemical CO 2 reduction reaction (CO 2 RR) system to formate and its extraction at scale. However, optimized systems and operating strategies still need further investigation, and constituent materials, particularly in terms of membranes and cathode catalyst, need to be developed. © 2021 The Authors. Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry (SCI).


With the rapid development of modern logistics, the vehicle routing problem has become one of the urgent problems in the logistics industry. The rationality of distribution route planning directly affects the efficiency and quality of logistics distribution. This paper first introduces the definition of logistics distribution and the three methods of optimizing the distribution routes, and then analyzes the current vehicle distribution route by using a representative example, finally puts forward the optimization schemes of logistics distribution route.


Steel frame structure will be in nonlinear state under strong earthquake with its mechanic properties of stiffness and strength degraded. This degradation has significant effect on seismic performance of structure later on. So how to evaluate the mechanic properties of structures under several earthquakes becomes quite important for dynamic analysis of structure under earthquakes. To serve the purpose, it must establish the accumulated damage index of every storey under earthquakes, then using the damage index to establish the degraded stiffness and the degraded strength. In this paper,based on the shaking table simulating tests and the damage mechanics, the cumulated damage model of steel frame structures under earthquakes, as well as the program based on the method of Wilson-O for calculating the damage of each story are put forward. In comparison with the calculated result and the experimental result, the cumulated damage model is proved to be right and feasible, and can offer the help to renovate the damaged structures caused by earthquakes and to evaluate the aseismic ability of structures.


Abstract The nucleation and evolution of deformation patterns occurring during transgranular stress corrosion cracking (TGSCC) were studied in an attempt to produce new alternatives for addressing the nature of the embrittlement process. Flat, tensile α-brass (72% Cu-28% Zn) specimens were tested in 5 M aqueous ammonia (NH4OH) solution at a strain rate of 1 × 10−5/s. Slip-band spacing (SBS) and slip-band height (SBH) were measured as a function of strain by conducting interrupted experiments in the SCC environment and were compared with those developed during laboratory air experiments. The presence of the TGSCC-causing environment during straining promoted localized plastic deformation at the near-surface region and, more importantly, produced an entirely different deformation pattern from that developed in laboratory air. The deformation evolved in the presence of the TGSCC electrolyte was highly localized, exhibiting small SBS but large SBH. Also, a periodicity was exhibited by the crack initiation pro...