A machine learning system is described that enables a device (e.g., a wearable device or a mobile device) to personalize gestures for a user of the device based on movements of the user. Various motion sensors of the device may generate motion data that represents movements of the device. The device may utilize machine learning models to process the motion data to determine whether the user has performed a particular gesture (e.g., a tilt-to-wake gesture, hereinafter "TTW"). If the device determines that the user did preform the particular gesture, the device may perform an action corresponding to the particular gesture (e.g., the device may activate a display of the device in response to the user performing a tilt-to-wake gesture). The device may determine whether the determination of gesture performance was accurate (e.g., did the use interact with the device after the display was activated, which would indicate that the user intended to perform the tilt-to-wake gesture). If the device determines that the determination of gesture performance was accurate, the device may utilize the motion data to further train the machine learning models to process subsequent motion data. In this way, the device may personalize machine learning models to a user. BACKGROUND Currently, smartwatches and other wearable devices use a pre-defined algorithm in order to detect tilt gestures and other gestures. When the user lifts and tilts their wrist towards their face to look at the display (e.g., performs a TTW gesture), the accelerometer and other motion sensors in the device detect this movement and turn on the display so that the user can view the time, notifications, or other information being displayed. Typically, the display and processor (e.g., CPU) defaults to being turned off or in a low-power "ambient mode" when the user is not looking at the display. In order to save battery life in these extremely power-limited wearable devices, the display and processor may turn on to full power mode when the user performs the TTW gesture. Unfortunately, since TTW is typically a pre-defined, hardcoded algorithm, the gesture may be hard to perform. There is a tradeoff to making the algorithm more permissive (and thus increasing false-positives and thus decreasing battery life because the screen/CPU will wake up even when the user did not intend to look at it), and too strict (where even a deliberate gesture by the user may not actually be recognized as the "proper" TTW gesture, thus resulting 2 Freeman: TRAINING FOR MACHINE LEARNING MODELS TO PERSONALIZE GESTURES IN W Published by Technical Disclosure Commons, 2019 in user frustration and poor user experience). Devices often provide little room for error or variation in the gesture which may be caused by body type, clothing, activity (like biking or running or sitting or standing), tightness of the watch band, or other situations that are unique to a single user. DESCRIPTION Techniques are described that enable a low-power and/or embedded device to perform personalized training of machine learning models. The device may include one or more motion sensors that collect motion data. The collected data may be stored in a memory or other storage device of the device. In operation, the device may utilize one or more machine learning models to process the motion data to determine whether the user has performed a gesture. Each time the device determine that the user has performed a gesture, the device may determine whether the determination was accurate. The machine learning models may be updated based on stored motion data corresponding to accurate gesture determinations. The device may utilize the updated machine learning models to process motion data to determine whether the user has performed a gesture at a later time. This process may repeat over time. As such, the machine learning models may become more and more personalized to the user. Consider system 1 (referred to simply as "system 1"), shown below in FIG. 1 that includes an example wearable or mobile device (referred to simply as "device 2") configured to facilitate personalization of machine learning models for gesture recognition, in accordance with the techniques described herein. As shown in the example of FIG. 1, system 1 includes device 2. In other examples, system 1 may include one or more devices/systems in addition to device 2. For instance, system 1 may include one or more cloud computing systems. 3 Defensive Publications Series, Art. 2122 [2019] https://www.tdcommons.org/dpubs_series/2122 While illustrated as a wearable computing device, device 2 may be any type of wearable or mobile device. Examples of device 2 include, but are not limited to, smartwatches, visors (e.g., head-mounted computing devices), fitness trackers (e.g., wrist-worn, ankle-worn, waistworn, or other devices worn by users that track various movement or other athletic activity), mobile computing devices (e.g., smartphones, tablets, and the like), or any other device that uses machine learning models. As shown in FIG. 1, device 2 may include processor(s) 4, sensor(s) 5, storage device(s) 6, power source(s) 7, and model training module 8. Processors 4 may implement functionality and/or execute instructions within device 2. Examples of processors 4 include, but are not limited to, digital signal processors (DSPs), 4 Freeman: TRAINING FOR MACHINE LEARNING MODELS TO PERSONALIZE GESTURES IN W Published by Technical Disclosure Commons, 2019 general purpose microprocessors, application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), field programmable logic arrays (FPGAs), or other equivalent integrated or discrete logic circuitry. Sensors 5 may generate data representative of various measurands. Examples of sensors 5 include, but are not limited to, microphones, cameras, accelerometers, gyroscopes, thermometers, heart beat sensors, pressure sensors, barometers, ambient light sensors, altimeters, and the like. Storage devices 6 may store information for processing during operation of device 2. As one example, storage devices 6 may store data generated by sensors 5. As another example, storage devices 6 may store machine learning models used by device 2. As another example, storage devices 6 may store an operating system, applications, or other programs for execution at device 2. Examples of storage devices 6 include, but are not limited to, volatile memories (e.g., random access memories (RAM), dynamic random access memories (DRAM), static random access memories (SRAM), and other forms of volatile memories known in the art) and nonvolatile memories (e.g., magnetic hard discs, optical discs, floppy discs, solid-state memories such as flash memories, or forms of electrically programmable memories (EPROM) or electrically erasable and programmable (EEPROM) memories, and other forms of non-volatile memories known in the art). Power sources 7 may provide power to one or more components of device 2. For instance, power sources 7 may include a battery that provides power to processors 4, sensors 5, and storage devices 6. Power sources 7 may be re-chargeable via a charger. For instance, to recharge power sources 7, device 2 may be connected to a charger via a power link. The power link may be a wired link, such as a charging cable, or may be a wireless link, such as an inductive coupling. Power sources 7 may be sized such that device 2 may be operated all-day without requiring recharging. As such, device 2 may typically be connected to the charger at night, when device 2 is not likely to be used (e.g., as the user of device 2 is likely sleeping). Device 2 may include gesture recognizer 9, which may be executable by processors 4 to identify the performance of one or more gestures. For purposes of discussion, gesture recognizer 9 will be described being able to identify the performance of a TTW gesture. However, gesture recognizer 9 may be capable of recognizing any gesture or combination of gestures. Gesture recognizer 9 may utilize a machine learning model ("ML model") to perform the gesture recognition. The ML model may include one or more coefficients, one or more neural networks, or any other type of machine learning model. 5 Defensive Publications Series, Art. 2122 [2019] https://www.tdcommons.org/dpubs_series/2122 As shown in the example of FIG. 1, device 2 may include model training module 8, which may be executable by processors 4 to train one or more machine learning models used by device 2. In other examples, model training module 8 may be located "off-device" in that such that computing resources external to device 2 can be used to perform the model training. Model training module 8 may train the models based on data generated by sensors (e.g., sensors 5), user actions, and context. For instance, model training module 8 may be executable by processors 4 to train a machine learning model used to determine whether or not to activate a display of device 2 using motion data generated by sensors 5 and user actions that indicate whether or not the user viewed or otherwise interacted with the display when it was activated. When a user first uses device 2, gesture recognizer 9 may implement a default TTW algorithm. For instance, gesture recognizer 9 may implement a neural network machine learning model trained to respond similarly to the hardcoded TTW algorithm discussed above. That is, gesture recognizer 9 may initially utilize a generic algorithm that should perform reasonably in generic cases for average body types and user gestures. Gesture recognizer 9 may lean conservative/strict, in order to save power by filtering out suspected false-positives. However, each time the user tilts device 2 in order to interact with it, device 2 will save that motion data (e.g., accelerometer data from one or more accelerometers of sensors 5) in storage devices 6. Model training module 8 may apply the gathered data (i.e., the stored motion data) to train ML model utilized by gesture reco


IFN-I provide a rapid antiviral defense, but they limit antigen availability during priming. Here, the authors demonstrate that short-term IFN-I blockade after primary viral infection improves adaptive immunity and protection against reinfection. This "adjuvant" effect is generalizable to viral vaccines.


H Film is the designation for a new high-temperature polyimide film under development by the Film Department of the Du Pont Company. It is a product of the same research effort which produced the Fabrics and Finishes Department's "Pyre-M.L."1 enamel and "Pyre-M.L." varnish, both of which are being used by the electrical industry for high temperature insulation. A chemically different polyamide product is also being developed by the Textile Fibers Department in the form of HT-1 paper and yarn for high temperature use. Both "Pyre-M.L." and HT-1 were described at the Fourth Electrical Insulation Conference in February, 1962. The purpose of this paper is to describe the properties of the latest member of this high temperature polymer family, H Film.


Current Web-based Services are highly heterogeneous not only on data but also with respect to service interaction. Despite their heterogeneity, composition of these services is required in order to achieve additional functionality. Semantic descriptions and composition algorithms for heterogeneous services have been proposed. However, existing techniques either ignore event-oriented services, which employ Publish/Subscribe or related paradigms, or do not offer sufficient support for interaction through hypermedia controls (i.e., links, forms and URI templates) as required in the REST architectural style. This dissertation presents a software architecture and two techniques, forking and adaptation, for automatic composition of heterogeneous services. Unlike current proposals, by combining a intermediary description, a composition algorithm and a middleware, all interaction constraints related to RESTful and event-oriented services are respected. Two experiments with a prototype implementation of the architecture were performed. The first compared it against a fast algorithm for composition of SOAP services, and the second compared it against the only algorithm found in the literature that supports the Hypermedia As The Engine Of Application State (HATEOAS) constraint of RESTful services. In the first experiment, consisting in eight scenarios, the prototype was faster in 7 scenarios. The second experiment showed that the prototype is more scalable than the RESTful services composition algorithm and less sensitive to the number of I/O parameters.


The present invention relates to a food product comprising one or more cocoa bean products and a carotenoid compound, and in particular to a food product that is or contains chocolate. The food products of the present invention can be used to reduce elevated total cholesterol, triglycerides, and inflammatory disorders, and to improve tissue microcirculation and tissue oxygenation.


This study focuses on the effects of carbon dioxide (CO2) dilution on the formation of soot and soot precursors in oxygen enhanced environment. Four axi-symmetric laminar coflow diffusion flames stabilized on a Yale burner are studied. CO2 is injected either in the jet stream, or co-flow stream, or both streams. Ultraviolet and Infrared range pulsed lasers are utilised to excite soot-precursors and soot particles respectively. Timeresolved laser induced fluorescence (LIF) and laser induced incandescence (LII) are employed to emissions from excited particles. The reference flame has jet composition as 60% Ethylene/ 40% Nitrogen, and coflow composition as 21% oxygen/ 79% Nitrogen. In other flames, nitrogen is replaced with CO2 either in jet, or in coflow, or in both streams. This replacement leads to a change in the adiabatic temperature, luminosity and flame length. It is observed that the both incandescence and fluorescence signals decreases with CO2 dilution. It is also observed that CO2 dilution not only shrinks the sooting region but also delays the formation of scatterers in non-sooting region. The effects of CO2 dilution are higher when injected in the coflow stream leading to longer flames. However, when CO2 is injected in both jet and coflow streams, the effects are further enhanced.


The expression feeling is the essential poetical theory in The Poetical Categories, which Zhong Rong refutes the bad writing style at that time. And it is the command proposition in his poetical theories. This article aims to talk about its position and function in his poetical theories.


Radiofrequency catheter ablation is a mainstay in the treatment of a variety of symptomatic arrhythmias. It has proved to be safe and effective in this application. Heating of tissue with radiofrequency energy in the intracardiac environment leads to interesting thermodynamic phenomena. Most of these are favorable, some are not, but they are frequently not recognized, and sometimes misunderstood.

Article see p 838

The mechanism of tissue injury in response to radiofrequency energy ablation is thermal.1–3 During catheter ablation, radiofrequency electric current passes into tissue and results in resistive heating of that tissue, in a manner similar to the heating of a filament in an incandescent light bulb. This direct resistive tissue heating (also referred to as "volume heating") is proportional to power density and, therefore, falls off rapidly with increasing distance from the electrode source (1/r4).4,5 Most tissue heating, in turn, is not due to direct resistive heating, but rather is a result of conducted heat from the narrow rim of resistive heating into deeper tissue layers. If the depth of resistive heating can be increased, the depth of conductive heating increases proportionally, and the lesion size and volume are increased. Unfortunately, the maximum power that can be delivered to the catheter tip is limited by the risk of overheating at the electrode-tissue interface. If 100°C is exceeded, then boiling of blood will occur, with protein denaturation, and the formation of coagulum and char. …


For establishing an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method for rhodamine B determination, a complete antigen R123-BSA and a coating antigen R123-OVA were prepared by coupling rhodamine123 with the carrier proteins of bovine serum albumin (BSA) and ovalbumin (OVA) using glutaraldehyde method, respectively. The synthesis of rhodamine123 artificial antigens was confirmed by animal experiments. A novel anti-rhodamine123 polyclonal antibody was prepared, which was successfully applied to the determination of rhodamine B in food with a limit of detection of 0.001 ng/mL. The development of anti-rhodamine123 antibody will provide a valuable tool for the determination of rhodamine B in food seasoning products.


The first ideas of convex sets date as far back as Archimedes but it was not until the end of the last century that a systematic study was made which gave rise to the subject as an independent branch of mathematics. At the turn of the century, Minkowski [4] published his famous Convex Body Theorem which is the basis for the Geometry of Numbers. The idea is to interpret integer solutions of equations or inequalities as points with integer coordinates (lattice points). In simple terms, Minkowski's result states that a convex set in the plane which is symmetric about the origin and contains no other lattice point in its interior must have an area not greater than 4. From the point of view of the research, Minkowski's Theorem is an example of a geometric extremal problem, that is, a problem concerning an inequality stated in terms of geometrical concepts. His work suggests a more general class of geometric extremal problems concerning sets with lattice point constraints. This thesis is a collection of new inequalities for lattice constrained convex sets in the plane. Let K denote the set of all planar, compact, convex sets. Let K be & set in K with area A, perimeter p, diameter d, width w, inradius r and circumradius R. Let K° denote the interior of K. Let A denote the lattice generated by the vectors u and v. In the case where u = (1,0) and v = (0,1), we have the integral lattice denoted by F. The lattice point enumerator, G(K°, A) is the number of points of A contained in K°. In the case where the origin O is the only point of A in K°, we say that K is A-admissible. This thesis is concerned with obtaining new inequalities concerning the geometric functionals A,p, d, w, r and R for a set K having G(K°, F) = g where g = 0,1, 2. The natural starting point for the research is to investigate problems for a set K having G(K°,r) = 0. What geometric inequalities occur for such sets? Can these results be extended to sets having G(K°,T) = 1 or G(K°,T) = 2? We discover that a number of such problems may be readily solved by reducing the problem to one concerning no point of a special rectangular lattice.


Ninth Annual Meeting The ninth annual meeting of the Board of Governors of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development was held in Washington from September 24 to 29, 1954, under the chairmanship of J. van de Kieft (Governor for the Netherlands). Two of the five plenary meetings were held jointly with the Board of Governors of the International Monetary Fund, and on September 28 an informal panel discussion was held on the prospects for private international investment.


Antibiotic production by dermatophytic fungi was demonstrated. Among 10 anthropophilic dermatophytes strains tested for their ability to produce antibiotics, four were found to be producers. The outcome for a qualitative identification of the produced antibiotics reveals four types ; a penicillin-like substance produced by Trichophyton gourvillii, and two different types of unknown substances obtained from two strains of Trichophyton mentagrophytes var. interdigitales and the kojic acid-like antibiotic substance produced by Trichophyton verruccosum.


Femtosecond laser machining was employed to trim the surface roughness of diamond coating and to sharpen the edge corner of diamond coated punch toward fi ne piercing and embossing processes in metal forming. CVD-diamond coated WC (Co) punches with the head diameter of 2mm were prepared for this laser-trimming process. The initial coated diamond fi lm was 9µm thick; the curvature of coated punch shoulder was 12µm. The rotating jig was utilized to attain the homogeneous trimming of punch side surface as well as punch head. SEM (Scanning Electron Microscopy) and Raman spectroscopy were employed to describe the microstructure evolution with trimming as well as the e ff ect of trimming on the nanostructure of diamonds. Fine embossing process into 0.1mm thick AISI304 sheets with narrow clearance, was utilized to describe their plastic fl ow around the punch shoulder as well as the geometric distortion by elastic recovery. In addition, EBSD (Electron Back-Scattering Di ff raction) was also employed to analyze the di ff erence in plastic fl ow of AISI304 sheets during micro-embossing between the untrimmed and trimmed punches. The applied load to stroke relation, the plastic strain distribution and the phase mapping as well as the shear droop were compared between two diamond-coated punches to investigate the e ff ect of laser-trimming on the quality of embossed product.


The effect of six phenylhydrazides (general formula: R-Ph-NH-NH-COR') on the photographic characteristics of silver halide emulsion has been studied. The results show that there are relations between the effect of infectious development and the structure of phenylhydrazides. Additionally, the effect and mechanism of contrast-promoting agents (alcohols and amine derivatives) has been investigated in detail. The fact indicates that it can not only eliminate the feed back inhibition effect which is caused by the use of phenylhydrazide alone, but also accelerate the infectious development greatly and enhance the contrast and speed of photographic development when a little amount of contrast-promoting agent is added in PQ developer. Furthermore, the mechanism of infectious development and contrast-promoting action is explained more definitely on the basis of analyzing the reduction rection products and intermediates of phenylhydrazides by means of LC, GC-MS and ESR spectrometry.


Background: Static grip strength has been a reliable method for assessing the functional capacity of the individual and can be a useful marker for identifying elderly people at risk of functional deterioration leading to a fall. However, static grip strength alone may not represent the true maximum strength that an individual could exert in his/her daily life, especially if the task requires simultaneous forces from gripping and a forearm twisting action, which is termed as functional isometric grip strength. Hence, the objectives of this study were to determine the differences in the fallers' grip strengths at static-neutral grip position and during isometric forearm pronation/supination, as well as the differences between the maximum and sustained isometric grip strengths. Methods: Data were analysed from 31 elderly people (11 males and 20 females) aged 70 and over. Using a custom-made hand strength measurement device, three measurements were taken: (1) grip strength in neutral forearm position; (2) grip strength during isometric forearm pronation; and (3) grip strength during isometric forearm supination. Results: Elderly fallers could only achieve approximately 60%–80% of the maximum normative strength. Additionally, it was found that their functional isometric grip strengths were generally weaker than their static maximal grip strength, especially during isometric supination as either maximum or sustained isometric supination grip strengths (Dominant hand: 10.6 kg and 8.5 kg, respectively (males); 6.0 kg and 4.4 kg, respectively (females)). Conclusion: Elderly fallers are weaker when their grip is subjected to additional torque, endurance or both. Hence, these findings have potential implications for designing better screening tools for the geriatric population.


XYZ Machine Tools was established in 1984 by managing director Nigel Atherton, who has steered the company through four recessions, including the 2008/09 financial crash and now the Covid-19 pandemic. Justin Burns visited the firm to find out how business has been


** Honorable Seyboum H. Lynne, U. S. Diitrict Judge for the Northern District of Alabama, sitting by designation. 1. For purposes of class certification the district court defined the plaintiff class as "all Haitian nationals who have applied for political asylum on or before May 9,1979 under 8 C.F.R. f 108, and whose applications were or may be denied by the INS District Director or his designee in INS District Office No. 6, Miami, Florida." Record, vol. 4, at 860. fendants were the Attorney General, the Secretary of State, the Commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), and the District Director of Office No. 6 of the INS in Miami, Florida.


OBJECTIVE Time preferences, also referred to as impatience, is a personal characteristic that has been found to influence different types of decisions, from financial investments to schooling decisions. The present study is the first that empirically explores whether this trait represents a determinant of human reproductive behaviors. BACKGROUND Fertility decisions, as all life actions, imply a balancing of anticipated costs and benefits whose expectations are formed under uncertainty. Fertility research has addressed the backward reasonings (e.g., socioeconomic, psychological, biological factors) influencing fertility decisions. Yet, the role of forward factors, such as the preference for immediate but lower benefits versus future but higher benefits, in influencing fertility decisions has been overlooked. METHOD Data are from the Survey on Household Income and Wealth carried out by the Bank of Italy every two years on a sample of about 8,000 households. In particular, we make use of a question included in the 2004, 2008, 2010, and 2012 waves to examine whether, controlling for backward factors, impatience affects parity progressions. RESULTS Results from logistic regression models indicate an inverse U-shaped association between impatience and the transition to the first and second child during the observation period, meaning that for very impatient and very patient individuals the probability of having a first and second child is lower than for individuals within intermediate levels of impatience. 1 Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna, Italy. Email: email@example.com. 2 Università degli Studi di Firenze, Italy. 3 Università degli Studi di Firenze, Italy. Bellani, Arpino & Vignoli: Time preferences and fertility: Evidence from Italy 1186 https://www.demographic-research.org CONCLUSION The empirical finding points to the importance of considering time discounting preferences (as well as other forward-looking factors) in fertility research to gain a more complete understanding of fertility behaviours.


We discuss various experimental tests of the left-right symmetric model possible to perform in the next generation linear colliders. We consider processes which provide sensitive probes of the basic ingredients of the model: right-handed gauge bosons, right-handed Majorana neutrinos, lepton number violating interactions and triplet Higgs scalars. A supersymmetric version of the left-right model is also studied and some distinctive experimental tests for it is proposed. One of the main messages of this talk is to emphasize the usefulness of the collision modes $e^-e^-$, $e^-\gamma$ and $\gamma\gamma$ for the tests of the left-right symmetric model.


Favored interpretations of "compensatory" movements of the lips to unanticipated resistances applied to the jaw during a closing gesture have focused on afferent feedback control [e.g., Folkins and Abbs (1975)] or feedforward, open‐loop control processes [e.g., Abbs and Cole (1982)]. The present experiments sought to identify and analyze, using dynamic perturbation techniques, functional constraints among several articulators when they cooperate to produce n desired utterance. A brushless DC torque motor coupled to the subject's lower teeth via a custom‐made prosthesis was programmed to inject a 500‐g torque load to the jaw for 1.5 s during the vowel‐consonant transition in /baeb/ and /baez/ on 20%–25% of trials. Infrared L.E.D.s were attached to the lips and jaw and monitored using a modified SELSPOT optical tracking system. In experiment 1, increased downward displacement of the upper lip occurred in perturbed conditions for /b/ (p < 0.01) but not for /z/. Experiment 2 replicated this result and also showed, through hooked wire electrode recordings from a tongue muscle, a significant increase in electromyographic activity for /z/ prior to occlusion, but not for /b/. Closure and frication were attained on all trials without any obvious changes in timing. These highly distinctive patterns suggest that the jaw, lips, and tongue may be controlled and coordinated as a single, functional unit (a coordinative structure) that is unique and specific to the intended act. [Work supported by NINCDS and BRSG.]


This paper generalizes the global economic growth model with any number of countries and each country with any number of regions recently proposed by Zhang (2016). Zhang?s model extends Uzawa?s two-sector growth model to a global economy for examining dynamic interactions between international trade, national and global growth, interregional migration, wealth accumulation and regional amenities. This study generalizes Zhang?s model by allowing all the time-independent parameters to be time-dependent. The generalization makes it possible to examine effects of any types of exogenous time-dependent shocks on the dynamic system cross regions and countries over time. We simulate the model with three countries and each country with two regions. We demonstrate the existence of equilibrium point and confirm (local) stability of the equilibrium point when all the parameters are time-independent. We conduct comparative dynamic analysis with regard to exogenous periodic shocks in the total factor productivity of regions? capital good sectors, the total factor productivities of the service sectors, the propensity to save, the amenity parameters, and the propensity to consume housing. Our comparative analysis shows how business cycles are generated by periodic exogenous shocks.


SUMMARY

Positive photoblastic seeds of Chenopodium album need the action of the active form (Pfr) of phytochrome (P) during nearly the total length of the overall germination process. The first Pfr dependent processes require a Pfr/P ratio above the level being present in darkness. The different requirement for the length of the red irradiation indicates that these first processes have a different Pfr requirement in the individual seeds of one population. Simultaneous irradiations with narrow wavelength bands of red (643 nm) and far-red (768 nm) light, which established different Pfr/P ratios, supported this conclusion. The Pfr requirement is a function of the thickness of the seed-coat.

The germination of half operated seeds (the outer seed-coat layer is removed in the area overlying the radicle) can be induced by the dark level of Pfr, being approximately Pfr/P = 0.07.

The required Pfr level for the germination processes after the escape from the antagonistic effect of short far-red irradiations, decreases from 0.07 to below 0.02. Osmotic stress increases the Pfr requirement. Prolonged irradiations with far-red light inhibit the germination processes when they are already in the phase of the embryo elongation. The elongation process is supposed to consist mainly of cellular expansion. The process which induces the secondary photodormancy is only related to the first Pfr dependent processes.


The technological progress in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) has brought new opportunities and challenges to the intelligent development and innovative research in fuzzy spatial relations, fuzzy theory is the basic theory of intelligent information processing, and the paper gives a brief analysis of fuzzy calculation method in spatial analysis and spatial relation calculation. In particular, the spatial relations of fuzzy objects are more difficult to express and describe accurately. This paper proposes a method to calculate the topological relations between fuzzy objects with 4-Intersection model and 9-Intersection model, in the analysis of spatial relations, the extension from deterministic entity to uncertain entity is realized with fuzzy set theory, the fuzzy space matrix is constructed, then fuzzy topological relations and fuzzy membership are calculated and output, the model simplifies many complex relations, and it can describe eight topological relations including disjoint, meet, overlap, covers, contains, covered-by, inside and equal. In practical application, the position of spatial objects can be controlled and adjusted according to topological relations. Through analysis of algorithm and fuzzy membership calculation, the model is effective in theory.


The role of spray application of three inorganic fertilizers MnSO4, ZnSO4 and CaCl2 at three concentration each viz: 50, 100 and 150 mg/l of the first two elements and 100, 200 and 300 mg/l for the latter fertilizer three times at one week interval in comparison with oxamyl at the recommended dose (0.39/plant) on development and reproduction of M. incognita infecting tomato plants cv. Castle Rock and plant growth was studied under greenhouse conditions (29±7oC). Obviously all tested nutrient minerals with their concs. significantly improved plant growth parameters and reduced nematode criteria, respectively as well to great extent. Among the tested inorganic fertilizers, CaCl2 at 200 mg/l/plant overwhelmed other treatments, followed by that of MnSO4 at 150 mg/l in the increments values of plant growth parameters such as shoot dry weights (30 and 21.1%). whereas, ZnSO4 at 100 mg/l application had the lowest value (9.6%) in this respect, respectively. Similar trend was noticed regarding reduction of nematode criteria such as population density (90.8, 90.7 and 90.2%) respectively. Likewise, nematode multiplication was also affected by the tested nutrient elements performing the above trend, where CaCl2 at 200 mg/l and ZnSO4 at 50 mg/l/plant represented of minimum and maximum values that averaged 0.13 and 0.16 vs 1.39 for nematode alone respectively. N, P, K concs., chlorophyll and total phenol contents in leaves of tomato either infected with M. incognita or not as influenced by foliar spraying of the tested inorganic fertilizers were reported and discussed.


Reversible data hiding (RDH) together with sorting is one of the key goals for reducing image distortion. This paper presents an improvement in sorting based on the double-layered RDH algorithm by modifying the dynamic variance mean (DVM) sorting models and applying an effective predictor. Seven models are investigated to achieve suitable sorting with the best prediction error (PE) for each capacity and image. The fitting weight rhombus (FWR) predictor and two-pass testing (TPT) strategy are significantly utilized to achieve small PEs and reduce distortion. The performance of the proposed RDH algorithm is compared with other similar methods using eight different images. Experiment results demonstrate that the sorting performance of the proposed method is superior to those of the previous methods.


In the "JOYO" initial power ascension tests to 75 MW, unexpected large negative power coefficients were observed during ascension to new power levels beyond 50 MW, which results in approximately a 40¢ permanent loss in reactivity. This anomaly was studied from the viewpoint of radial dimensional change in the core using a three-dimensional structural analysis code along with a whole-core thermal-hydraulic analysis code. Conclusions drawn from the study can be summarized as follows: (1) The absolute value of the power coefficient increases sharply beyond the 50 MW power level due to the outward leaning and thermal bowing of core elements, but the calculated increase in the coefficient is less than 20% of the observed value. (2) At most, an 80 permanent loss in reactivity is caused by this outward leaning, which is 20% of the observed value. (3) These results confirm that the radial dimensional change can not be the main cause for the power coefficient anomaly.


The aim of this article is to provide an integral view of the problem of vacant land in La Plata District, introducing analysis variables that account for the characteristics of the urban expansion process in the peripheries of the city. The methodology adopted identifies the vacant lands in case study, to analyze them according to two variables: the intensity and dominant occupation modes of territory, and the normative legal framework that governs the future potential use of these lands. In function of this analysis, the results obtained synthesize relevant aspects of the current process of expansion of the urban peripheries, identifying the characteristics of the growth axis where they are located, in relation to the forms of land occupation and the vacant interstitial lands.


This paper was to have been Wu Hung's contribution to the conference "Contemporaneity in the History of Art" at the Sterling and Francine Clark Institute, Williamstown, Mass., October 8 and 9, 2009. However, he was unable to attend. The paper is presented here in the form in which it would have been presented. See also, in this issue of Contemporaneity, notes from this conference by its convener, Terry Smith.


Beijing and Europe. There is a marvelous piece from Xiang Biao's outstanding and incisive four-year study of how the "marketization of traditional networks" enabled Wenzhou natives in Beijing to carve out a social, "non-state space" outside the state, where they gradually have managed to resist the state and run their lives relatively autonomously. Mette Thuno provides an insightful comparison of the stone carving migrants in France from Qingtian with the later and much sparser resettlement in Wenzhou. Covering Germany, Karsten Giese's paper is an extraordinary inside story of forged, multiply-used visas and false passports, where the "boundaries between ... mutual assistance and exploitation and chain migration and human trafficking are fluid and often indistinct" (p. 211). Pal Nyiri provides an engrossing case study of the "patriotic" and authoritarian Hungarian Chinese Association, which has managed to "reconstruct the political environment of Communist China" (p. 258). Finally, Luigi Tomba acutely compares the community of Wenzhou people who exported Wenzhou's model of private business to Tuscany, Italy, with the community who took it to Beijing. The third part, on identity and belonging, is highlighted by Nora Sausmikat's intriguing and sympathetic treatment of the shifting meanings women attached to their rustication of the 1960s and 1970s when they returned home later. Based on her interviews with these women (and on other types of data), she finds that in autobiographical recountings, distance in time from the event and official propaganda but especially the later status of the woman rewrites memory and stamps the current identity of these once "sent-down" females. The Pieke and Mallee volume is a major contribution to Chinese migration research, suitable for teaching at any level. Anyone who reads both of these books will come away with a thorough understanding of all the issues entailed in this branch of research.


An investigation was undertaken on 60 mothers of Almora district to document special foods given to promote lactation. Milk with ghee was consumed by more than 50 per cent of the pregnant women prior to delivery. Most common special foods given during lactation upto first week were ginger kada, black tea and ajwain kada while, atta ka halwa was consumed during second week (58). Consumption of dalia (56), Moong dhal khichadi (36) and milk with honey (10) was slowly reduced from first week to third month. Normal diet was resumed after one month. Mothers consumed lesser quantity of water when the girl baby was born as compared to boy baby. Avoidance of fast foods (57), garlic (46), pumpkin (45), onion (44), brinjal (43), green chilies (43) and pickle (30) were reported by majority of the mothers from Almora.


From the Publisher:
The CCDA: Cisco Certified Design Associate Study Guide is the most affordable, effective way to prepare for the CCDA exam (640-441). Written by Cisco design experts who know what it takes to pass the test, this study guide provides: focused coverage of Cisco network design issues; hands-on labs that enhance and consolidate your knowledge, and more than 250 challenging review questions, in the book and on the CD.. "Authoritative coverage of the key elements and concerns of Cisco network design, including: the OSI reference model; Ethernet; segmentation; TCP/IP; IPX; network topology design; fault tolerance; security; load balancing; Cisco LAN and WAN hardware; network addressing; naming standards; routing and bridging protocols; Cisco IOS software; compression; encryption; queuing; design prototyping; design implementation.


Gombe State in North Eastern Nigeria is one of the states in the region that records the highest maternal and newborn death rates in the world. Poverty incidence is 72.2% in the state and a great deal of women in the villages don't have tangible means of livelihood and heavily rely on their husbands. Empowering these women through formation of women groups saving schemes, literacy, maternal health and vocational training, will improve their economic power and enhance their utilization of these vital maternal services. The study was a quasi-experimental one with non-equivalent experimental and comparison groups. Data for this study were collected using quantitative and qualitative methods through household survey and focus group discussions (FDGs) in two purposively selected intervention Local Government Areas (LGAs) of the state at baseline and 6 months after intervention. Iterative bidding technique was employed to determine the women's willingness to pay. The main outcome variables are willingness to pay (WTP) and utilization of antenatal care (ANC), facility delivery and post-natal care (PNC) of the women. An association between women's characteristics and their WTP and utilization of maternal health care services was analysed. The findings show statistically significant changes in the income (z=-6.983, p < 0.001) and the willingness to pay for delivery (z=-2.623, p = 0.009) and PNC (z =-2.465, p = 0.014) services. The correlations between WTP and income with all the services were found. Decision of women independently or jointly with husbands on their health care, religion, ability to read and write local languages were factors found to be associated with WTP for maternal services. Utilization of maternal services was found to be associated with age, current pregnancy, decision on health care, and prices for ANC and PNC services. The FGDs revealed that the groups understand empowerment as a combination of economic power, literacy and ability to take decisions independently. Willingness to pay for maternal care is associated with higher income, autonomy in taking decision for health care needs. Empowering women economically and educationally has potential for improving their willingness to pay for maternal health care needs. Government needs to look at the feasibility of aiding the proliferation of women savings groups especially in rural areas, which are the abodes of women without the ability and willingness to access health care services.


This article surveys the literature examining the earnings management behaviour of Australian corporations. While numerous motivations for earnings management are proposed in this literature, current period CEO turnover is the only phenomenon for which there is consistent empirical support. A number of studies report discontinuities in the distribution of earnings around benchmarks such as the zero profit level. However, there is no evidence that these discontinuities are associated with abnormal accrual behaviour. Evidence regarding the ability of various governance mechanisms to constrain earnings management is also mixed. While several studies report a negative relation between auditor size and earnings management, no Australian studies attempt to control for the likely endogenous nature of this relationship. Papers report that board independence and audit committee independence constrain earnings management in Australian corporations, although evidence is not consistent across studies. The article shows that many Australian studies of earnings management use very noisy and, in some cases, biased measures of abnormal accruals which may partly explain the inconsistency of results across studies, adding further uncertainty regarding the implications of this field of research for standard setters, investors and scholars.


Abstract Background: Recent clinical trials have shown that adjunctive glucocorticoids is associated with inhibiting excessive inflammatory response and modulating cytokines release offering several advantages over conventional therapy on relieving clinical symptoms, reducing mortality, and improving prognosis. However, given the severe complications triggered by glucocorticosteroid, whether similar benefits may be achieved by patients undergoing glucocorticosteroid intervention remains controversial. Our meta-analysis aimed to investigate the efficacy and safety of adjunctive glucocorticoids in the treatment of severe community acquired pneumonia. Methods: A search of PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, EBASO, Medline, Google Scholar, Science Dicet, CBM, and CNKI databases was performed to analyze all relevant randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of corticosteroids in patients with severe community acquired pneumonia (CAP) up to January 2018. All-cause mortality, C-reactive protein (CRP) level, incidence of septic shock, and requirement of mechanical ventilation were selected as efficacy outcomes. Major adverse events involving super infection, upper gastrointestinal bleeding, and hyperglycemia were safety outcomes. Meta-analysis was conducted with RevMan 5.3 software. Results: A total of 10 RCTs comprising 665 patients were included for analysis. Regarding efficacy outcomes, adjunctive corticosteroid seemed to be superior compared with conventional treatment in terms of all-cause mortality (relative risk [RR]: 0.47, 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.3–0.74, P = .001), CRP level on day 8 after administration (standard mean difference [SMD]: −0.8, 95% CI, −1.11 to −0.5, P < .001), incidence of septic shock (odds ratio [OR] 0.15, 95% CI, 0.07–0.29, P < .001) and requirement for mechanical ventilation (OR: 0.32, 95% CI, 0.20–0.52, P < .001). Meanwhile, we found that low dose (≤86 mg) (RR: 0.41, 95% CI, 0.21–0.82, P = .01) and prolonged (>5 days) (RR: 0.35, 95% CI, 0.15–0.81, P = .01) use of corticosteroids in dosage modus of a maintenance dose after a bolus (RR: 0.28, 95% CI, 0.14–0.55, P = .002) obtained better results in death through subgroup analysis. Regarding safety outcomes, no difference was observed between 2 groups in terms of upper gastrointestinal bleeding (OR: 0.83, 95% CI, 0.27–2.52, P = .74), hyperglycemia (OR: 1.3, 95% CI, 0.68–2.49, P = .42), and super infection (OR: 1.11, 95% CI, 0.14–9.13, P = .92). Conclusion: Adjunctive corticosteroid yielded favorable outcomes in the treatment of severe community acquired pneumonia (SCAP) as evidenced by decreased all-cause mortality, incidence of septic shock, and requirement for mechanical ventilation without increasing risk of adverse events. Low dose (≤86 mg/d), prolonged use (>5 days) of corticosteroid in dosage modus of a maintenance dose after a bolus can be recommended as preferred regimen to guard against SCAP.


The term Condition Monitoring is in this context used to describe instrumental aids for evaluating functioning and physical condition of vital components during normal running of an engine. The objectives of such systems are reviewed, and some considerations on economical and operational sequences of main engine failures are presented as experienced by a shipping company. Based on a survey of typical failures of cylinder units of large diesel engines and their most probable causes, a series of possible monitoring parameters are reviewed.


In the management of water there are certain applications in which compacted soil is used (i.e., dams, embankments, levees, spiliways, and channels). Engineers rely primarily on field measured water content (wc%) and dry unit weight (γ d ) to verify proper compaction of soil. This approach evolved from the practice for structural fills for which strength and compressibility are of primary concern. In water management the erosion resistance of the compacted soil is also an engineering concern. In this paper a submerged jet testing apparatus and procedure are used to measure and compare the erosion resistance of a soil prepared in the laboratory and in the field at varied wc% and γ d . The basic premise is that erosion of a material is dependent on the hydraulic stress applied and the resistance of the material. A jet index, J 1 is determined from the tests, indicating erosion resistance. A jet index greater than 0.015, between 0.005 and 0.015, and less than 0.0005 are nonresistant, moderately resistant, and resistant respectively. Equations to predict J based on laboratory prepared samples tested in the prewetted state and at the prepared wc% state are developed. Both equations tend to be upper bounds for samples tested from the constructed fill. The results from the fill tests indicate that at the compaction energy level used in construction, a wc% of approximately 15% would be required to be consistently resistant to erosion. The optimum wc% for this compaction energy and soil appeared to be 14–15%. Therefore, in order to achieve consistently erosion resistant material, a compaction wc% greater than optimum would be required for this compaction energy.


As a form of innovation in a promotion media Tourism Objects in Indonesia especially at Purbalingga District, one is through Mobile Augmented Reality (MAR). The utilization of technology application of MAR, give the impression of interactive and real towards an object tourism and provide a special experience for tourists to get the information completely including the tourism location. To deliver care facilities to users, we need the evaluation to development or improvement for next application. The method used in this research is evaluation of user satisfaction towards the multimedia elements. The result of MAR user satisfaction showed that almost all respondents are well satisfied.


Hybrid vehicles are an important technology for reducing oil use and transportation-related emissions, and there has been recent renewed interest in mild hybrid powertrains due to their ability to provide moderate fuel savings at a relatively low cost. Simulation plays a major role in the design of hybrid vehicles, but slow simulation run times can sometimes be a limiting factor in the optimization process. This paper proposes a fast script-based optimization process that speeds up optimization iterations by 130 times compared to running a full Simulink model in rapid accelerator mode. This increase in speed can allow larger amounts of real-world data to be used in the design process. To investigate the use of real-world data in the design process, 5400 km of pick-truck driving data is used to optimize one plant and one controller parameter in a mild hybrid powertrain, and the results are compared to the optimal parameters found using three standard drive cycles. It was found that when testing on a 500-km validation dataset, the optimal designs from the UDDS, HWFET, and a created combination cycle led to 2.1%–3.8% higher fuel consumption than the optimal design from the large real-world dataset.


It has been observed by one of us (G. I. W.) when making the nitrate reduction test on bacterial cultures that there is sometimes a fading or disappearance of the red color of the positive test. The test used was the sulfanilic acid-alpha-naphthylamine method, according to the Manual of Methods of the Society of American Bacteriologists. In extreme cases the color appeared only at the point of contact of the incoming naphthylamine solution and the test broth. The question arose as to whether or not the test could properly be called positive and the following investigation was made to find the cause of, and if possible a remedy for, this fading. The fading was always noticed at a time when such organisms as E8cherichia coli, Aerobacter aerogenes, Proteus vulgaris and the typhoid-paratyphoid group were being studied in the laboratory. Knowing that these organisms all produced more or less hydrogen sulfide, this compound was suspected as the bleaching agent. Accordingly a series of sixteen organisms were inoculated into lead acetate agar and nitrate broth tubes. Observations, after five days incubation, showed the following complete correlation between hydrogen sulfide production and the instability of the nitrite color (table 1). Where there was a very slight hydrogen sulfide production, the nitrite test color was permanent and where there was a large amount of hydrogen sulfide formed the nitrite test color faded immediately. It was also found by using a series of sodium sulfide dilutions to which equal amounts of nitrite had been added that there was


This article describes the construction of the Fernando Noriega, Jr. Palm Avenue garage in Ybor City, a popular historic district of Tampa, Florida. A new parking facility was needed to accommodate the growing local scene as well as the resident and floating population of Hillsborough Community College. Officials felt that a suitable garage design would appear congruous with its surroundings and highlight the pedestrian feel of the landscape. With this in mind, a 1,200 parking space, stylish brick facade building with bricked arches and steel staircases was built for a relatively low cost construction cost of $11 million, or $9,166 per parking space. Other details of the parking structure, including its architecture, structural qualities, provided amenities, daily operations, functionality, and photographs are also included in the article.


This paper proposes a heuristic optimal solution of multicommodity transportation problem. The proposed algorithm has 3 steps. First the proposed algorithm transforms multicommodity transshipment problem to a general transportation problem, but if the problem is a multicommodity transportation problem, it is not transformed. And the multicommodity is disassembled to a single commodity. Second if it is a multicommodity transportation problem, the algorithm selects the minimum cost according to commodity, on the other hand if it is a multicommodity transshipment problem, the algorithm directly selects the minimum cost based on demand area. And the algorithm assigns carloadings to be satisfied the supply and demand quantity. The algorithm repeats these processes until a given demand quantity is satisfied. Last if it has a condition that is able to reduce the transportation expense, the proposed algorithm controls the assignment quantity of the initial value that got from the step 2. The proposed algorithm was applied to two multicommodity transportation problem and three multicommodity transshipment problem and it got more good result than an existing linear programming method.


In this paper, we describe a fast wavelength hoped optical code division multiple access (CDMA) scheme employing a balanced detector to enable bipolar signaling and achieve true orthogonality in non-coherent systems. The idea can be used to construct secure wavelength hopped CDMA systems. We give the interference analysis for randomly chosen codes.


This paper explores hope as a dominant framing for critical social theory in the era of the Anthropocene. It suggests that with the dissolution of modernist assumptions of human exceptionality, universal causality and temporal progress, critical social theory can be understood as having shifted fields. This shift is from the field of the seen – the field of appearances (i.e. the world of politics, of rational subjects, instrumental rationality and aspirations of progress) – to the field of the unseen (towards approaches which can be understood as working with or drawing upon a world which is beyond or below appearances). It will be argued that the Anthropocene is central to this shift from the centrality of questions of transparency and of politics to those of opacity and hope. This is in part because the Anthropocene is seen to have emerged behind the backs of political reason, unseen and unintended. If the Anthropocene as a condition is the product of taking a narrow reductive approach to the world, as framed in the modern ontology, then access to the unseen world becomes a necessity. The different forms of hope engaged with in this paper articulate distinct understandings of this 'other world' beyond appearances.


Based on the development characters of sequences in typical inversion seismic sections and wells of Songnan region, nine sequences and twelve system tracts are identified.Under the direction of the theory of sequence stratigraphy,by applying the technology of seismic inversion constrained by well combing with data of well log and core, the authors predicted subtle traps. The results of researches indicate:sandstone lens-shaped lithology trap mainly distributed in highstand system tract of member 2 of Qingshankou Formation and member 2 and 3 of Yaojia Formation; sandstone updip-pinch-out lithology traps mainly distribute in transgressive system tract and highstand system tract of Yao1 section; stratigraphy overlap traps mainly distribute in transgressive system tracts; structure-lithology traps and fault-lithology traps can be seen in every system tracts, which depends on the development of structures and faults.


The invention provides a top cover main control panel installation assembly for a refrigerator, a refrigerator top cover and the refrigerator. A main control panel installation groove is arranged on the top cover of the refrigerator, and a first clamping groove and a second clamping groove are arranged in the main control panel installation groove. The first clamping groove and the second clamping groove are matched with a first buckle and a second buckle which are arranged on two opposite sides of a main control panel installation box respectively so as to fix the main control panel installation box in the main control panel installation groove. The top cover main control panel installation assembly has the advantages that the main control panel installation box is a back-loaded part and does not need additional installation of molds during foaming, so production cost is reduced; the main control panel installation box is fixed on the top cover of the refrigerator through the buckle and needs no installation of screws, and therefore the work load of workers is reduced and the production efficiency is improved.


In case of combined pathology, in particular aphakia and regmatogenic retinal detachment, an important point is the leveling of changes in the iridocrustal apparatus. When analyzing the morpho-anatomic parameters of the angle and depth of the anterior chamber using optical coherence tomography, distinctive features were revealed in patients with various methods of correcting the defect of the iridohrustal barrier. Purpose. of the study was to evaluate anatomical changes in the angle and depth of the anterior chamber in patients with various types of intraocular correction of the defect of the capsule-binding apparatus under conditions of tamponade of the vitreal cavity with silicone oil. Material and methods. Studies were conducted on 74 eyes of patients aged 56 to 75 years with various methods of correction of aphakia and silicone tamponade of the vitreal cavity. Results. There was a significant decrease in the anterior chamber angle in various sectors in patients with aphakia, in contrast to patients with anterior chamber and transclerally fixed intraocular lenses. A similar trend is observed in patients with anterocameral intraocular lenses, relative to the group of patients with artifacia. A decrease in the depth of the anterior chamber was revealed in patients with anterior chamber lenses relative to patients with transcleral fixation and articulation was revealed in the upper sector. In the temporal sector, there is a decrease in this indicator in patients with aphakia relative to patients with artifakia. Conclusion. In the conditions of silicone tamponade of the vitreal cavity, the technique of transcleral fixation of intraocular lenses provides the most physiological indicators of the anterior chamber angle comparable to single-format indicators of patients with artifacia. Keywords: intraocular lens, aphakia, regmatogenic retinal detachment


In the first part of this thesis, we study subtrees of specified weight in a tree $T$ with vertex weights $c: V(T) \rightarrow \mathbb{N}$. We introduce an overload-discharge method, and discover that there always exists some subtree $S$ whose weight $c(S) := \sum_{v \in V(S)} c(v)$ is close to $\frac{c(T)}{2}$; the smaller the weight $c(T)$ of $T$ is, the smaller difference between $c(S)$ and $\frac{c(T)}{2}$ we can assure. We also show that such a subtree can be found efficiently, namely in linear time. With this tool we prove that every planar Hamiltonian graph $G = (V(G), E(G))$ with minimum degree $\delta \geq 4$ has a cycle of length $k$ for every $k \in \{\lfloor \frac{|V(G)|}{2} \rfloor, \dots, \lceil \frac{|V(G)|}{2} \rceil + 3\}$ with $3 \leq k \leq |V(G)|$. Such a cycle can be found in linear time if a Hamilton cycle of the graph is given.
In the second part of the thesis, we present three cut trees of a graph, each of them giving insights into the edge-connectivity structure. All three cut trees have in common that they cover a given binary symmetric irreflexive relation on the vertex set of the graph, while generalizing Gomory-Hu trees. With these cut trees we show the following: (i) every simple graph $G$ with $\delta \geq 5$ or with edge-connectivity $\lambda \geq 4$ or with vertex-connectivity $\kappa \geq 3$ contains at least $\frac{1}{24}\delta |V(G)|$ pendant pairs, where a pair of vertices $\{v, w\}$ is pendant if $\lambda_G(v,w) = \min\{d_G(v), d_G(w)\}$; (ii) every simple graph $G$ satisfying $\delta > 0$ has $O(|V(G)|/\delta)$ $\delta$-edge-connected components, and there are only $O(|V(G)|)$ edges left if these components are contracted; (iii) given a simple graph $G$ satisfying $\delta > 0$, one can find some vertex subsets in near-linear time such that all non-trivial min-cuts are preserved, and $O(|V(G)|/\delta)$ vertices and $O(|V(G)|)$ edges remain when these vertex subsets are contracted.


Current species distributions are shaped by present and past biotic and abiotic factors. Here, we assessed whether abiotic factors (habitat availability) in combination with past connectivity and a biotic factor (body mass) can explain the unique distribution pattern of Southeast Asian mammals, which are separated by the enigmatic biogeographic transition zone, the Isthmus of Kra (IoK), for which no strong geophysical barrier exists.


For several decades, dental implants have largely been used for the rehabilitation of completely and partially edentulous ridges with success. For this reason, implant dentistry has been the object of numerous investigations to further improve the effectiveness of this kind of device.1, 2 Titanium is the material most often utilised for dental implants because of its favourable properties, such as its biocompatibility.3, 4 However, aesthetic concerns may arise when restoring anterior teeth owing to the grey colour of this metal.


Chronic tendinopathy is a significant burden in physically active populations. High-volume image-guided injection (HVIGI) proposes to strip away associated neovascularity, disrupt painful nerve ingrowth and facilitate rehabilitation.The objective was to investigate the efficacy of HVIGI with and without steroid relative to placebo. The study design was a three-arm block randomised control trial in a tertiary rehabilitation centre. Sixty-two participants were recruited between 25 May 2016 and 5 March 2020. Participants were men aged 18–55 with, Achilles or patellar tendinopathy of at least 6-months chronicity who had not improved with conservative management including shockwave, Ultrasound (US) evidence of neovascularisation, tendon thickening and echogenic changes.Participants were randomly assigned to control (3ml subcutaneous 0.5% Bupivacaine) or HVIGI (10 ml 0.5% Bupivacaine and 30 ml normal saline US guided between tendon and underlying fatpad) or HVIGI with steroid (0.25 ml 100 mg/ml hydrocortisone). Clinicians and assessors were blinded. All participants were supervised through a pain-guided progressive loading programme for 6-months post injection. The primary outcome measures were the Victoria institute of sport assessments for Achilles and patellar tendinopathy (VISA-A and VISA-P) and visual analogue scale (VAS)-pain at 6-months.VISA improved by 22.8 ((95% CI) 10.4 to 35.3, effect size (ES) 1.51) in control (n=21), 18.6 (9.1 to 28.0, ES 1.31) in HVIGI (n=21) and 18.5 (3.4 to 33.6, ES 0.88) in HVIGI with steroid (n=20) groups. VAS-pain improved by 15 ((IQR) -38.75 to 8, ES 0.39) in control, 13 in HVIGI (-34.0 to 3.75, ES 0.47) and 27 (-38.0 to-1.0, ES 0.54) in HVIGI with steroid groups. Main effects for time were significant (p<0.001) but not group (p≥0.48) with no group-time interaction (p=0.71). One participant was lost to follow-up from each group for whom multiple imputation was used. No adverse events occurred.Data does not demonstrate superiority of HVIGI over control injection. Pain-guided progressive loading remains the mainstay of treatment.


We explore the tree limits recently defined by Elek and Tardos. In particular, we find tree limits for many classes of random trees. We give general theorems for three classes of conditional Galton–Watson trees and simply generated trees, for split trees and generalized split trees (as defined here), and for trees defined by a continuous-time branching process. These general results include, for example, random labelled trees, ordered trees, random recursive trees, preferential attachment trees, and binary search trees.


Clearly, we all share the goals of respecting—not "medicalizing"—ordinary grief; as well as recognizing and treating clinically significant depression. We differ with Dr Frances in how to achieve these goals, while remaining faithful to the best available scientific data.


Constitutive equations are reviewed and presented for low alloy ferritic steels which undergo creep deformation and damage at high temperatures; and, a thermodynamic framework is provided for the deformation rate potentials used in the equations. Finite element continuum damage mechanics studies have been carried out using these constitutive equations on butt-welded low alloy ferritic steel pipes subjected to combined internal pressure and axial loads at 590 and 620 °C. Two dominant modes of failure have been identified: firstly, fusion boundary failure at high stresses; and, secondly, Type IV failure at low stresses. The stress level at which the switch in failure mechanism takes place has been found to be associated with the relative creep resistance and lifetimes, over a wide range of uniaxial stresses, for parent, heat affected zone, Type IV and weld materials. The equi-biaxial stress loading condition (mean diameter stress equal to the axial stress) has been confirmed to be the worst loading condition. For this condition, simple design formulae are proposed for both 590 and 620 °C.


The shift towards cyber operations represents a shift not only for the defense establishments worldwide but also cyber security research and education. Traditionally cyber security research and education has been founded on information assurance, expressed in underlying subfields such as forensics, network security, and penetration testing. Cyber security research and education is connected to the homeland security agencies and defense through funding, mutual interest in the outcome of the research, and the potential job market for graduates. The future of cyber security is both defensive information assurance measures and active defense driven information operations that jointly and coordinately are launched, in the pursuit of a cohesive and decisive execution of the national cyber defense strategy. The cohesive cyber defense requires universities to optimize their campus wide resources to fuse knowledge, intellectual capacity, and practical skills in an unprecedented way in cyber security. The future will require cyber defense research teams to address not only computer science, electrical engineering, software and hardware security, but also political theory, institutional theory, behavioral science, deterrence theory, ethics, international law, international relations, and additional social sciences. This paper is the result of an ocular survey of the U.S. 48 academic CAE-R research centers, evaluating the collective group of research centers' ability to adapt to the shift towards cyber operations, and the challenges therein.


The "Two-Wide and One-High" (wide-band, wide azimuth and high-density) Seismic Technique provided high-quality seismic data for more accurately identify the lithologic reservoirs, with low frequency information and broadband data being beneficial to the petroleum detection in the reservoirs. Hydrocarbon reservoir is a typical two-phase (solid and fluid phases) media. The seismic wave can display the characetristics of obvious low-frequency resonance and high-frequency attenuation in the seismic record after propagating through the two-phase media. Based on the theory and the "Two-Wide and One-High" Seismic data, the hydrocarbon detection is carried out in AMG block's two carboniferous sets of main reservoirs in the eastern Precaspian Basin. Three methods are useded to analyze variation in the low-frequency and high-frequency after the seismic wave propagating through the exploration target strata, such as area difference method, time-frequency method of three primary colors method, instantaneous bandwidth method. The petroleum detection result accords well with the drilling testing data in the area, which means that this detection method based on the "Two-Wide and One-High" Seismic data could lower the exploration drilling risk and provides the advantageous basis for well location deployment of hydrocarbon reservoir exploration in the area.


In the practice of counterterrorism,the forerunner is intelligence,the basis is prevention,the key is to meet an emergency and the goal is safety. The legislation of counterterrorism should be evaluated from its value orientation,the collection and analysis of intelligence,involvement of military forces and the safeguard of safety goal.To be specific,the value of order is the primary aspect in the contradiction between order and freedom.The connotation of intelligence is equal to that of information.The issue of administration resulted from the involvement of military forces should be specified.The awareness of counterterrorism,counter-sympathy,counter-nationality of the whole society should be set up in the legislation of counterterrorism.


From the Publisher:
Minimizing theoretical background and mathematical formalism, Image Analysis provides basic principles of image acquisition, enhancement, measurements, and interpretation in a very simple form, using an oriented toward applications and properties of the available tools. The singular study lists different tasks to do and offers complete solutions to these tasks, based on the author's experience with the procedures described.


In March 2014, Congress passed legislation delaying the phasing in of premium increases on discounted flood insurance policies that had been authorized in July 2012 by the Biggert-Waters Act. This reversal highlights the tension between risk-based premiums and affordability of flood insurance for homeowners in flood-prone areas. This study seeks to understand how the tension can be resolved using a voucher program coupled with required mitigation in Charleston County, South Carolina. It specifically focuses on home elevation as the mitigation method. Compared to a voucher for insurance alone, the joint program can reduce government expenditure on flood insurance vouchers by more than half when mitigation costs are around $25,000 and insurance policies are located in high hazard flood zones. In the most hazardous flood zones (V Zone), cost savings are achievable even when the cost to elevate the house is as much as $75,000. We found several conditions under which mitigation does not lead to reductions in voucher cost, such as when the policyholder's household income is below $10,000 or when elevation cost is unusually high.


AbstractContractors attempt to manage optimal collection of human capital that can optimize the company's performance. The skills and competency of human resources contribute considerably to the co...


A Front-End system composed of an instrumentation amplifier with common-mode feedback and a second-order sigma-delta analog to digital converter is proposed. Chopping techniques are used to remove offset and low-frequency noise to guarantee a noise floor below the signal of interest. Measurements show that common-mode feedback adds 71 dB to the CMRR at 50 Hz and the input referred noise is 1.17 μVRMs over the frequency range of 0.1 Hz to 400 Hz.


Nanomycins are new antibiotics produced by the strain OS-3966 which was designated Streptomyces rosa var. notoensis. Nanomycins A and B were isolated from the culture filtrate by extraction with organic solvent and silica gel chromatography. The physical and chemical properties suggest that nanaomycins A and B are quinone-related compounds having the molecular formulae, C16H14O6 and C16H16O7, respectively. Nanaomycins A and B inhibit mainly mycoplasmas, fungi and Gram-positive bacteria. The acute toxicities (LD50, ip) of nanaomycins A and B in mice are 28.2 and 169 mg/kg, respectively.


Experimental approaches used for architecture exploration and validation are often based on configurable logic device such as FPGA. NoC architectures require multi-FPGA platforms as the resources of a single FPGA are not big enough. Partitionning a NoC on multi-FPGA requires special techniques for allocating communication channels, physical links and suitable resource allocation scheme. We present a scalable emulation platform and its associated design flow based on a multi FPGA approach that allows quick exploration, evaluation and comparison of NoC solutions. The efficiency of our approach is illustrated through the deployment of the Hermes NoC and its exploration on several FPGA platforms.


Here we present, quantification of volatile organic compounds in human breath for early detection of lung cancer to increase survival probability. Graphene oxide nanosheets synthesized by modified Hummer's method were employed as a sensing element to detect the presence of toluene in the sample. Optical and morphological characterization of synthesized nanomaterial was performed by UV-Visible spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) respectively. Spectroscopic assay shows a linearly decreasing intensity of GO absorption peak with increasing toluene concentration with a linear range from 0-200 pM. While impedimetric sensor developed on a graphene oxide nanosheetsmodified screen printed electrodes displayed a decreasing electron transfer resistance increasing toluene with much larger linear range of 0-1000 pM. Reported techniques are advantageous as these are simple, sensitive and cost effective, which can easily be extended for primary screening of other VOCs.


The present invention provides an inter-network device which can increase the capability of data flow that can be simultaneously processed and has high safety. The inter-network device comprises the following components: an interface card which is provided with a plurality of input-output interfaces and executes the procession aiming at the low layer of data flow; a high-level processing card which executes high-layer procession; and an inter-network connection card which takes part in the information transmission between the cards. The interface card is provided with a setting part which prescribes the information of input-output interfaces with two forming a group and conversation information in constructing. Additionally the inter-network device comprises the following components: a low-level processing part; a path setting part which sets other input-output interface in the same group as output interface when input dada flow comes from a certain input-output interface; and a requirement procession determining part which determines whether inputted data flow should be executed with high-level procession according to the set conversation information related by the input data flow and controls the transmission aiming at the high-level processing card.


HgCdTe is one of the dominating materials for infrared detection. To pattern this material, our group has proven the feasibility of SiO2 as a hard mask in dry etching process. In recent years, the SiO2 mask patterned by plasma with an auto-stopping layer of ZnS sandwiched between HgCdTe and SiO2 has been developed by our group. In this article, we will report the optimization of SiO2 etching on HgCdTe. The etching of SiO2 is very mature nowadays. Multiple etching recipes with deferent gas mixtures can be used. We utilized a recipe containing Ar and CHF3. With strictly controlled photolithography, the high aspect-ratio profile of SiO2 was firstly achieved on GaAs substrate. However, the same recipe could not work well on MCT because of the low thermal conductivity of HgCdTe and CdTe, resulting in overheated and deteriorated photoresist. By decreasing the temperature, the photoresist maintained its good profile. A starting table temperature around -5°C worked well enough. And a steep profile was achieved as checked by the SEM. Further decreasing of temperature introduced profile with beveled corner. The process window of the temperature is around 10°C. Reproducibility and uniformity were also confirmed for this recipe.


The case of Richard Simon and the suppression of his book, Histoire critique du Vieux Testament in 1678 stands at a point where the interests of both Church and State in maintaining control of the book trade intersected. As such, the case is of interest in two important areas: first, from the point of view of the social and political history of the ancien régime in France, this case exhibits the intense concern for maintenance or extension of the powers of jurisdiction of the authorities which is so characteristic of the reign of Louis XIV. In some instances this preoccupation with autorité and droit led to an unseemly public jockeying for power, and it is interesting to see how the book trade is seen as a vital element in this struggle.


Cassava has gained attention as a potential industrial crop. The roots
are processed into cassava flour for bakery and confectioneries. With the ever
increasingly expensive level of wheat flour import for bread production in developing
countries like Ghana, the need for other highly nutritious yet readily
available and less expensive source of composite flour is important. The aim of the study was to investigate
consumer acceptability of bread developed from cassava flour and wheat flour. A
4 × 3 factorial design was used to develop bread samples
(A = 100% wheat flour, control, B = 10% cassava flour + 90% wheat flour, C =
20% cassava flour + 80% wheat flour and D = 30% cassava flour + 70% wheat flour). Sensory evaluation was performed
on the bread samples using the 9-point hedonic scale to evaluate sensory
attributes like colour, gumminess, mouth-feel, taste, flavour, and overall acceptability.
The proximate compositions of the products were also evaluated using the A. O.
A. C (2005) official methods. Statistically, there was significant difference among the protein and carbohydrate of all
flour products developed. However, the energy content of products with 30%
cassava flour replacement was significantly higher than other replicates. The
control had the lowest moisture content of 17.5% with product 20% cassava flour
replacement having the highest moisture content of 18.2%. In terms of overall acceptability 10% cassava flour replaced bread
was rated like extremely ahead of the control sample which was rated as like
very much. These results showed that the 10 and 20% wheat/cassava composite
flour bread recipe could be a viable alternative to achieve the desired
economic, food security and health.


Published by the American Geophysical Union as part of the Geophysical Monograph Series, Volume 155. As we become a space-faring culture, there is an increasing need for reliable methods to forecast the dynamics of electromagnetic fields, thermal plasma, and energetic particles in the geospace environment, as all these factors affect satellite-borne systems. From the electrodynamics viewpoint, on the other hand, the inner magnetosphere is a key element in the Sun-Earth connection chain of processes. Most notably, it is a region where a significant part of the storm-time energy input from the solar wind is deposited and dissipated.


writing or publication of this article. We thank the Hunter Valley Research Foundation, NSW, for assistance in survey administration and data collection; Dr Megan Cock for constructive criticism of the manuscript; and Professor Graeme Hugo and Mr Errol Bamford (National Centre for Social Applications of Geographic Information Systems [GISCA], University of Adelaide, SA) for providing the Accessibility and Remoteness Index of Australia (ARIA) database.


(49), ranking them such that Protestant Christianity becomes the only normal referent. "Assurances of salvation" might be a culturally defined Christian product. But a universal theory requires firmer conceptual ground (and a more thorough reading of cognitive research on religion). The book also inadequately defines the "shifters" of religious demand. For example, it neglects to acknowledge varied forms of learning, some "scientific," others tied to religious tradition—each with a potentially different impact. Every model simplifies, but statistical correlations are only as valid as the underlying categories. Another frustration comes from the authors' limited use of economic theory. Neo-classical concepts make sense of some religious competition. But they seem ill-suited to explain how religion shapes people's desires (explorable through marketing research) or how information flow constrains markets (approachable via network analysis). Perhaps the defense of one theory misses the descriptive potential of economics as a whole. Greater frustrations arise when Ekelund, Hebert, and Tollison present historical evidence. The authors deal in unexplored generalizations. For instance, they describe Catholic societies as "semi-feudal," with a traditionbound, parasitic nobility that by nature limited economic growth (124-25). They also leave gaps of logic—assuming that land-based primogeniture, for instance, should hinder urban migration and commerce (130-34). The authors rely heavily on one episode of religious change. To refine their theories, they might examine other situations, like competing cults of the Roman Empire, or confessions of the early Caliphate. All along, they ignore historians' debates, preferring to present (assumed) facts. With sparse citations, the reader is often left to wonder from where the authors derive their simplifications and their certainty. The prime value of The Marketplace of Christianity may be to inspire conversation about religion and economic theory. The book contributes helpful terminology (for example, "price discrimination") and some conceptual insight. The suggestion that Protestantism was cheaper and released capital should interest historians. This volume also showcases how much scholars need a broader methodological discussion. To be descriptive as well as testable, economic approaches require nuanced definitions. To be historically supported, they demand sophisticated readings of sources and scholarship. Historians can benefit from economic theory, but economists also benefit when they appreciate historians' methods.


The intercalation and photocleavage of DNA by N-[β-(N′,N′-dimethylamino)ethyl]dithiono-1,8-naphthalimide (2) were extremely effective compared to the use of the oxygen-containing counterpart (1). Their photocleavage action under 366 nm UV light is proposed to proceed by electron transfer from bases to the triplet state of the naphthalimides. The enhancement of the intercalation of DNA and the photocleavage of DNA were also observed for other compounds possessing a thiono or thio group compared with their oxygen-containing counterparts.


Due to the relatively fixed shape and color, head detection is widely used in many computer vision tasks, such as finding people and crowd counting. In this paper, we propose a method to detect human heads including: (1) A pairwise CNN model based on key parts context of human head and shoulder. (2) A fusion algorithm by using the priority of scene geometry structure. (3) To further test our approach, we collect a dataset about the passengers inside the bus with head annotations. This dataset composed of 2316 representative images extracted from a total of twenty hours of video. We evaluate our method on two indoor human head datasets and achieve state-of-the-art performance.


I know of no other strategy which has taken 20 or more schools and shown this level of success — even more quickly than we thought possible — and in a cost effi cient way. (M. Fullan) Since 1991, a number of secondary schools in the Canadian province of Manitoba have been part of an experiment in school improvement. The result? Many of these secondary schools have really moved — they have shown gains in student achievement and have become the kinds of schools that are likely to sustain improvement. Of the 22 schools that were involved in MSIP at the time of our intensive evaluation, one third showed substantial improve ment and half had made considerable movement along the continuum. Although the improvement in schools was excit ing, as evaluators we were particularly interested around how the schools 'got there' and whether or not they could sustain their movement. In our evaluation, we set out to look inside the 'black box'to describe how specific schools actually went about changing their schools, in practice with the hope of uncovering some general principles that could guide schools as the approach any improvement initiatives.


In this work, the Stackelberg concept is widened to include multilevel games where the decision makers ( DM ) are assumed to be divided into two groups: a group of leaders (multiple coordinators) and a group of followers (local controlers), and every DM may or may not be cooperating within his own group. In this sense, we propose a convex optimization methodology that involves temporal decomposition schemes with coordination paradigms based on open-loop Stackelberg, Nash and Pareto strategies.


The objectives of this study are to analyze how mass television represents the news about corruption news as well as why mass television creates the corruption news itself. the mass television were Metro TV and NET as the objects of this study. The approach was descriptive qualitative by using critical discourse analysis by Norman Fairclough. There are three steps of critical discourse analysis by Norman Fairclough, including description, interpretation, and explanation. Based on this study, there are three aspects of creating news at Metro TV and NET. The first aspect is situational aspect, news discourse is influenced by politic situation in the beginning 2017 by holding Governor selection in DKI Jakarta and the owners of mass television use their authority to support their choices of Governor. Moreover, there is agreement about Peraturan Presiden (Perpres) No. 87 in 2016 about Satuan Tugas Sapu Bersih Pungutan Liar by Joko Widodo at October 2016. The second aspect is institutional aspect, there is the rival among the owner of mass television, KPK, and institution of corruption. The third aspect is social aspect, including economic, politic, and social context that become enthustiasm by citizens to support the institution of corruption itself.


Si/SiGeC superlattices are used in the construction of new generation devices such as multichannel transistors. The incorporation of C in the SiGe layers allows for a better control of the strain and the Ge content. However the formation of β‐SiC clusters during annealing at high temperature limits the thermal stability of the alloy. It leads to a strong modification of the strain due to the reduction of the substitutional carbon content. Here, we investigated the behavior of Si/SiGeC superlattices that have been annealed using different characterization techniques: dark‐field electron holography for the evaluation of strain; infrared spectroscopy and ToF‐SIMS for the determination of the composition. It was found that after annealing at 1050 °C, the reduction of the substitutional C proportion leads to a recovery of the perpendicular strain in the superlattice. It was also proposed that the local arrangement of C atoms in a third nearest neighbor configuration is an intermediary step during the formation...


The 31 stations in the Swiss GPS network are located at altitudes between 330 and 3584 m and have provided hourly Integrated Water Vapour (IWV) measurements since November 2000. A correction based on an exponential relationship is proposed for the decrease in IWV with altitude. The scale height depends on the ratio of IWV measured at Jungfraujoch (3584 m) to that measured at Payerne (498 m). An additional coefficient, dependent on the east‐west and north‐south spatial differences in the IWV, improves the fit to the data. The IWV at heights between 750 and 3500 m was estimated from GPS measurements at Payerne and compared with the Payerne radiosounding. The altitude correction introduced an additional bias of 0.2 to 0.4 mm between GPS and radiosonde. The IWV was normalized to 500 m and the increases and decreases due to the passage of a series of frontal systems between 11 and 14 January 2004 were mapped. A four‐year climatology of IWV normalized to 500 m showed that the Alpine stations are more moist in spring, summer and autumn than the stations in the Swiss plains to the north of the Alps. This was attributed to more moist Mediterranean air being blocked by the Alps. Copyright © 2007 Royal Meteorological Society


The United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) policy statement (FR 49, 9016, 9 March 1984) for the development of water quality based permit limitations includes toxicity testing of effluents as an important part of a water quality approach to controlling toxics (Pickering, 1988). To assure that state waters are free of toxics, both chemical and biological methods were recommended for assessing effluent quality. The US EPA validated bioassay procedures for toxicity testing of wastewater discharges use three distinctive organisms groups: vertebrates, invertebrates, and algae (Weber, 1989). The specific species for these three groups are fathead minnow, Pimephales promelas; water tea, Ceriodaphnia, dubia; and the green algae, Selenastrum capricornum, respectively. Definitive testing estimates the concentration atwhich a certain percentage of organisms exhibit a certain response. The definitive test exposes several replicate groups of organisms to the target substrate for a predetermined time period effluent concentration. The overall goal of this study is to develop an acceptable protocol for operational biomonitoring based on constant pressure respirometry for LANL. The specific objectives include: Development an appropriate toxicity testing protocol based on constant pressure respirometry for whole effluent toxicity testing, and evaluate the protocol based on factors such as sensitivity, response time, costmore » of analysis, and simplicity of operation.« less


I employed multi-voxel pattern analysis to fMRI data from two functionally defined clusters in the Fusiform Face Area (FFA); mFus and pFus. Stimulus information was decoded from hemodynamic response patterns evoked by three fictional identities. These were comprised of sets of semantic person information and corresponding faces. By presenting identities with overlapping visual and semantic features we could attribute successful decoding to the differentiating feature. Our data suggest a functional differentiation between pFus and mFus. Analysis of response patterns in pFus indicated that this cluster is engaged in perceptual analysis during face presentation and in retrieval of the corresponding face representation during presentation of semantic stimuli. In mFus semantic items appear to evoke a single corresponding face representation whereas during face perception this cluster is likely to be engaged in retrieval of semantic features by activation of a collection of corresponding visual representations. I propose that mFus supports conceptual knowledge of people by activating visual features that correspond to semantic categories.


Eclipse is a popular open-source software development workbench, and is suitable for the integration of experimental research tools. It includes a state-of-the-art plug-in technology, and so it can be considered as a platform for reusable components, or composition environment. We evaluate the Eclipse platform from this point of view, and discuss strengths and weaknesses of its plug-in


A series of polyether block amide copolymers based on poly(tetramethylene oxide) of molecular weight 1000 or 2000 and polyamide 12 of molecular weight between 600 and 4000 with varying PE/PA weight ratio (from 80 to 20%) were studied by using dynamic mechanical spectroscopy and differential scanning calorimetry. Dynamic mechanical experiments showed three main relaxation peaks related to, the subglass transition of the soft segments, the glass transition of the soft segments, and the glass transition of the hard segments. A quench, carried out on a 70% PA copolymer from 110 to 15°C, leads to a decrease in the storage modulus. This result should be related to the destruction of physical ties.


A field infrared method has been developed to distinguish oil due to natural seepage in the Santa Barbara (California) Channel region from closely similar oils derived from spills at offshore drilling platforms or from shipping accidents. Differences between seep and non-seep oils have been found to persist in weathering studies carried out in outdoor tanks for one week. This method involving simple infrared instrumentation and a minimum of sample preparation. It permits rapid on-site analysis without special training. The major differences between seep and non-sweep oils appear in the comparison between the 13.8 micrometers and 13.5 micrometers peaks (for both weathered and unweathered oils) and in the carbonyl region at 5.85 micrometers (for unweathered oils only).


During the last few decades many Arabic question answering systems have been developed. These systems may extract answers from texts or web-pages. None of these systems make use of question answering database where user can present questions in natural language which differ from the stored questions. The proposed system uses information retrieval approaches to get to the closest answers to the input question, so the system gives partially or totally correct answers. The Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) is implemented to enhance the resultant selections. Arabic natural language processing is used in the proposed system along with LSI.


Scientific development outlook takes people as the basis and is a complete, coordinated and sustainable outlook. Persisting in the outlook, which takes people as the basis needs to improve the complete development of people, that is, to improve the complete development of people's quality and achieve the coordinated development of people, society and nature. It has significance for our socialism modernization construction to understand and insist on scientific development.


Purpose: High‐resolution radionuclide imaging is an important method for noninvasive assessments of small animal models of human disease. To improve the quantitative accuracy of small animal SPECT/CT, we have developed methods to calibrate the imaging geometry and energy response, and to perform attenuation correction. Method and Materials: All studies were performed using the X‐SPECT (Gamma Medica, Inc.), which consists of a compact scintillation camera and microCT system on a common gantry. Attenuation correction was performed developing a method to convert CTimage values into attenuation coefficients by imaging a calibration phantom containing materials having known linear attenuation coefficients, and was assessed by acquiring SPECTimages of phantom containing an aqueous solution of iodine‐125. The pinhole imaging geometry parameters were determined by scanning three point sources, and using a fitting algorithm to determine the values of the parameters. A pixel by pixel energy calibration was performed by acquiring data in list mode from flood phantoms. Results:CTcalibration curves were obtained showing the correlation between CTimage intensity and the linear attenuation coefficient for photons emitted by iodine‐125 and technetium‐99m. SPECT data reconstructed with attenuation correction improved uniformity, by eliminating the cupping artifact that otherwise decreases image intensity at the image center by 30%. The calibration for the imaging geometry resulted in a 10% change in image dimensions compared to imagesreconstructed using the nominal values for the geometric parameters. The energy calibration corrected for photopeak changes that varied as a function of spatial position and radionuclide photon energy, and produced images with improved uniformity. Conclusion: We are able to improve the quality and quantitative accuracy of SPECTimages by applying improved image reconstruction and list mode processing techniques. Conflict of Interest: Bruce Hasegawa receives research support from Gamma Medica. Brad Patt, Joshua Li, and Koji Iwata are Gamma Medica employees.