This paper presents a rolling horizon optimal energy management mechanism using real-time grid monitoring data. The proposed mechanism includes novel approaches in terms of real-time data processing, net-load forecasting, and optimal scheduling of battery energy storage systems. The proposed real-time data processing and net-load forecasting techniques use fast training and computationally efficient methods based on grid monitoring data. The data processing and parameter forecasting methods are based on auto-regressive with exogenous variables (ARX). Two sets of features including similar values in previous hours, days, and weeks as well as calendar effects are used for training the forecast model. Furthermore, the impact of additional non-synchronized weather features adopted from meteorology databases on the forecasts' accuracy is discussed. Finally, a real-time optimal scheduling is proposed to optimize battery energy storage systems (BESS), maximizing the self-consumption at grid and community levels. The application of real-time grid measurement in the proposed algorithm allows handling the impacts of loads and generators behind the meter without having their detailed information. The developed method is being effectively used in a real low voltage distribution grid in Switzerland.


A central issue in studies on developmental speech disorders, especially with regard to childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) and phonological disorder (PD) is the distinction between phonological and motoric processes. Acoustic studies suggest that children with CAS produce incorrect realizations of correctly selected phonemes, whereas the opposite is postulated for children with PD. Thus conceived, the underlying impairment is located at different levels of speech production in these two groups of children.


A malignant melanoma of the choroid was observed in an 11‐month‐old fair‐skinned Danish boy — one of the youngest cases ever published. There was no evidence of pre‐existing melanosis of eyes or skin. The tumour showed histopathologically a typical "adult" pattern and was classified as a mixed tumour. The melanin content was marked.


English reading comprehension is the key criterion to evaluate English learner's overall level.It is also one of the most important activities in college English teaching.To improve college students' English reading comprehension,teachers should probe into all factors concerned that restricts the English reading competence of college students and further explore the students' learning styles,motivations and learning methods so as to apply proper teaching strategies into English teaching.The paper attempts to find some ways and corresponding measures to remove the difficulties by analyzing some factors resulting in the students learning difficulties in English reading.


Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) was investigated for its reaction to melt processing. Studies were done in a lab scale micro extruder and injection molder. It was found that during typical processing times, the ABS begins to undergo a hydrogen abstraction reaction in the presence of oxygen in its polybutadiene (PB) phase. This leads to a crosslinking of the PB chains, which in turn can have an effect on the performance of the polymer. The ABS also was shown to undergo chain scission, opposing the crosslinking effect on the viscosity of the polymer. With higher temperatures, it was found that the crosslinking occurred earlier and at a faster rate. Crosslinking preceded chain scission such that the higher temperatures had the highest peak viscosities. Ultimately, chain scission became the dominant mechanism, decreasing the viscosity. Similar results were seen with changing retention time. Higher retention times in the melt increased the viscosity to a point before decreasing again. During processing, it was found that temperature and shearing both have an effect in progressing the reaction.


In the palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling reaction of halopyrimidines with terminal acetylenes, 2- and 4-chloropyrimidines can be used as starting compounds, though their reactivity is inferior to that of 2- and 4-iodopyrimidines. The conversion of the 2- and 4-alkynylpyrimidines thus obtained into the corresponding pyrimidinylmethyl ketones was successfully achieved by consecutive treatment with piperidine and oxalic acid dihydrate.


It is estimated that 12,900 of the 39,200 Australians who sustain an acquired brain injury (ABI) each year live on with severe or profound permanent disability (). This project explores parental grief in response to the loss of normative lifespan development associated with ABI sustained in late adolescence or adulthood. While many people with ABI lack insight regarding the impact of their brain injury, for their parents, there is often an acute awareness of the loss which has occurred: the loss of a 'normal' future, and the loss of all the hopes and dreams associated with such 'normal' development. Moreover, it has been argued that this loss is ongoing: it is nonfinite, with parents having to make adjustments as the full impact of their child's injury is realized across the lifespan. Available literature predicts parental grief as a response to this kind of loss, but there is a lack of empirical evidence about the incidence, nature or longevity of grief among this population due to the research focus on care-giver burden and stress rather than family grief. This paper discusses the experiences of parental grief and resilience as reported by a non-random sample of affected families, and the implications for social work practice.


Analytical models of stress and deformxation of through-silicon vias (TSV), relative to numerical ones, have the advantage of being inexpensive to evaluate and in providing insight. They have the additional advantage of allowing one to embed them in ECAD tools for real time design decisions. Motivated by this reasoning, in this paper, an analytical model for the three-dimensional state of stress in a periodic array of TSVs is developed. The model accounts for the onset of plasticity in the copper via and predicts the out-of-plane protrusion that occurs in the via due to differential thermal expansion with the surrounding Si matrix. Excessive out-of-plane deformation of the top surface of the via has the potential to induce fracture causing stress in the brittle dielectric layers that lie above the via. The predictions of the model are consistent with experimentally determined values reported in the literature. The process and design parameters that are critical to limiting the extent of protrusion are identified, and these in turn are used to develop design guidelines.


When analyzing geographical phenomena, two properties need to be considered. One is the spatial dependence structure and the other is a variation or an uncertainty inhibited in a geographic space. Two problems are encountered due to the properties. Firstly, spatial dependence structure, which is conceptualized as spatial autocorrelation, generates heterogeneous geographic landscape in a spatial process. Secondly, generic statistics, although suitable for dealing with stochastic uncertainty, tacitly ignores location information im plicit in spatial data. GIS is a versatile tool for manipulating locational information, while spatial statistics are suitable for investigating spatial uncertainty. Therefore, integrating spatial statistics to GIS is considered as a plausible strategy for appropriately understanding geographic phenomena of interest. Geographic hot-spot analysis is a key tool for identifying abnormal locations in many domains (e.g., criminology, epidemiology, etc.) and is one of the most prominent applications by utilizing the integration strategy. The article aims at reviewing spatial statistical perspective for analyzing spatial processes in the framework of GIS by carrying out empirical analysis. Illustrated is the analysis procedure of using spatial scan statistic for detecting clusters in the framework of GIS. The empirical analysis targets for identifying spatial clusters of breast cancer incidents in Erie and Niagara counties, New York.


We have performed extensive simulations of response of gaseous disk in barred galaxies using SPH method. The gravitational potential is assumed to be generated by disk, bulge, halo, and bar. The mass of gaseous disk in SPH simulation is assumed to be negligible compared to the stellar and dark mass component, and the gravitational potential generated by other components is fixed in time. The self-gravity of the gas is not considered in most simulations, but we have made a small set of simulations including the self-gravity of the gas. Non-circular component of velocity generated by the rotating, non-axisymmetric potential causes many interesting features. In most cases, there is a strong tendency of concentration of gas toward the central parts of the galaxy. The morphology of the gas becomes quite complex, but the general behavior can be understood in terms of simple linear approximations: the locations and number of Lindblad resonances play critical role in determining the general distribution of the gas. We present our results in the form of 'atlas' of artificial galaxies. We also make a brief comment on the observational implications of our calculations. Since the gaseous component show interesting features while the stellar component behaves more smoothly, high resolution mapping using molecular emission line for barred galaxies would be desirable.


most, if not all, chapel libraries in federal prisons around the coun try (Goodstein). The Associated Press reported on 10 June 2007 that this metaphoric book burning stemmed from an April 2004 review of the problem of radical Islam in federal prisons by the United States Department of Justice (Neumeister). The lawsuit was filed on First Amendment grounds by a Christian and a Jew, convicts at the federal prison in Otisville, New York, who were affected by this Me morial Day massacre of religious literature (Goodstein). When the news of the suit broke, it stirred up considerable criti cism among Republicans, liberal Christians, and callers to evan gelical talk shows. The Federal Bureau of Prisons reversed itself in September and returned the books to the libraries. On 27 September 2007 the New York Times reported that "[t]he Bureau will begin im mediately to return to chapel libraries materials that were removed in June 2007, with the exception of any publications that have been found to be inappropriate, such as material that could be radical izing or incite violence" (Banerjee). The bureau continued review ing the literature, however, and compiled lists of approved reading; it also reserved the right to remove any religious literature that it found offensive or a threat to security. Convicts still could order re ligious and other materials directly from publishers, as they could even under the original order. Given that library rights for prisoners are severely limited, it is doubtful that the plaintiffs will gain relief from the lawsuit, which is still in the courts. The Prison Litigation and Reform Act of 1996 al lowed removal of many prisoner privileges, as well as restricting cor rectional court orders by reducing the number of lawsuits convicts could file unless they exhausted prison administrative channels first. United States Supreme Court decisions from the late 1970s on also se verely curtailed prison privileges. (See Bounds v. Smith, 1977; Rhodes v. Chapman, 1987; Wilson v. Seiter, 1991; and esp. Lewis v. Casey, 1996,


Comorbidity, especially cardiovascular disease, is frequent in people with dementia. At the same time, access to healthcare professionals and appropriate treatment might be more difficult to obtain. We used the Austrian prescription claims database to analyse the treatment of common comorbidities in patients with dementia and controls.


The article proves the advantage of applying the criteria of institutional approach in the analysis of auditing activity in the Russian Federation and its regions. It presents the ranking of audit firms at the regional level in the context of self-regulatory organizations. The article also identifies the cause-effect relations of the changes in audit activities and substantiates the necessity for the further existence of the audit institution in Russia and its regions on the basis of institutional approach.


In the present study, the compressible flow around a circular cylinder in proximity to the wall is investigated. By using direct numerical simulation approach, the flow behavior with the Reynolds number 100 and the Mach numbers 0.1–0.6 are examined. The numerical result shows that the compressibility effect would enhance the flow stability, whereas the strength of shedding vortices, the shedding frequency, and the fluctuation of aerodynamic force are reduced by increasing the Mach number. Through the examination of signed enstrophy and shear steepness in the cylinder boundary layer, it is found that the vortices shedding from the free-stream side and the wall side are concurrently inhibited by the wall when the cylinder is fully embedded in the wall boundary layer, and the strength of the wall-side vortices is relatively weaker. This imbalance would be intensified when the cylinder gets closer to the wall, and thus a reduction in the shedding frequency is produced. Based on this effect of wall proximity on frequency, the flow behavior is divided into three regimes, i.e., high-frequency, low-frequency, and completely suppression regimes. Finally, from the observation of mean forces, the trend of mean drag and lift force coefficients with regard to the Mach number and gap ratio is described as the scaling behavior in terms of two piecewise functions.


By using the melting method,the samples were made and matrix effect was overcom. This method is convenient and reliable to determine a multi element in ore by XRF.


With the rapid development of economic after the innovation in 1978,the system of Urban Agglomerations in China are in the process of formation and continue evolution. This paper based on the data in 2005,using of fractal theory,analyzes the spatial distribution Urban Agglomerations in China indicate that the axes characters is obviously.


Background: GM1 gangliosidosis is an autosomal recessive lysosomal storage disease due to a lack of β-galactosidase activity, exactly because of mutations in the GLB1 gene. GM1 gangliosidosis is a rare disease that could occur either during infancy (infantile type 1), as a juvenile (type 2), or in adulthood (type 3) in both nervous and skeletal systems. Type 1 is characterized by premature psychomotor deterioration, visceromegaly, macular cherry-red spot, skeletal deformities, and death in the first 2 years of life.
Case Presentation: We reported an Iranian infant who, on initial check-up, had coarse face, visceromegaly, dystonia, and hepatosplenomegaly that increased at 15 months of age. At the initial check-up, a genetic test was performed and GM1 gangliosidosis type 1 was diagnosed.
Conclusion: infant form is characterized by early-onset before the age of 6 months and rapidly progressive psychomotor deterioration, facial abnormalities, and visceromegaly.


With the rapid development of agricultural production,how to improve the land utilization and the yield per unit area of land is becoming more and more important for people.Reinforcing the field management of crop is an important measure to increase production,meanwhile,advanced production technology and ancillary equipment are necessary.This machine is a combined type of management machinery,through replacing different working parts.It can accomplish field spraying,application of foliage,fruit spraying,rotary preparation,dressing earth,field transport and other operations.Field test results show that:the operating efficiency of this machinery is 10 times than that of the manpower;each machine can cultivate more than 1 hm2 field.It can be a mechanized field management machinery for corn,peanut,cotton and other crops.


In Smart Cities, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication has been found to be the best way to cut down on traffic accidents. A lot of different wireless communication methods are used by the Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) to exchange data (ITS). Because there will be a lot of cars on the road, there will be a lot of accidents. Li-Fi (Light-Fidelity), which uses light-fidelity technology to send and receive data quickly and reliably between cars, is becoming more and more popular. Using Li-Fi in-vehicle communications could be a cheap way to communicate that has a high data rate and a lot of bandwidth efficiency.


The bronze spearhead at the end of a long shaft is traditionally seen as a thrusting or throwing weapon, as seen in the movies. By examining the damage on a group of Late Bronze Age spearheads from Britain, and replicating their use in combat, the author shows that the spear was an even more versatile weapon — for throwing, thrusting and slashing (with a short shaft). The research puts a spotlight on the formidable skills developed in a Bronze Age life-time.


By comparison with Bandits,there is similarity in Border Town.The aesthetic thought of Schiller has an impact on the literature creation of Shen Congwen.They try their best to achieve the perfection of human nature,and then to realize the national transformation of the political ideals.They rethink the national crisis and bridge the divisions of humanity as a cornerstone to solve the national problems.


Recent observational and theoretical investigations have emphasised the importance of filamentary networks within molecular clouds as sites of star formation. Since such environments are more complex than those of isolated cores, it is essential to understand how the observed line profiles from collapsing cores with non-spherical geometry are affected by filaments. In this study, we investigate line profile asymmetries by performing radiative transfer calculations on hydrodynamic models of three collapsing cores that are embedded in filaments. We compare the results to those that are expected for isolated cores. We model the five lowest rotational transition line (J = 1-0, 2-1, 3-2, 4-3, and 5-4) of both optically thick (HCN, HCO$^+$) as well as optically thin (N$_2$H$^+$, H$^{13}$CO$^+$) molecules using constant abundance laws. We find that less than 50% of simulated (1-0) transition lines show blue infall asymmetries due to obscuration by the surrounding filament. However, the fraction of collapsing cores that have a blue asymmetric emission line profile rises to 90% when observed in the (4-3) transition. Since the densest gas towards the collapsing core can excite higher rotational states, upper level transitions are more likely to produce blue asymmetric emission profiles. We conclude that even in irregular, embedded cores one can trace infalling gas motions with blue asymmetric line profiles of optically thick lines by observing higher transitions. The best tracer of collapse motions of our sample is the (4-3) transition of HCN, but the (3-2) and (5-4) transitions of both HCN and HCO$^+$ are also good tracers.


The paper by Thorpe et al. (above) follows on from our own paper (Winder et al. 2013); in setting out their view that bipedalism has arboreal origins, they present a critique of our hypothesis, which we address below. We begin by observing that their views and ours are not in contradiction. We criticised 'forest hypotheses' of human evolution, not because we think they are wrong but because we think they are incomplete. In fact we agree with Thorpe et al. about the arboreal origin of bipedalism amongst certain groups of apes. What we are interested in, and what they do not address, is a different set of issues: how and why some apes, already perhaps pre-adapted to bipedalism in their anatomy, became committed to a terrestrial (non-arboreal) pattern of existence. We do not argue that upright posture cannot be explained by arboreal selective pressures, rather that such an explanation is not ipso facto sufficient to explain all hominin adaptations or produce all the features needed to survive on the ground. We reject their view that our model suggests "a single newly identified driver; adaptation for 'complex topographies'" (Thorpe et al. above, p. 911; emphasis in the original). We wrote about ecologically and structurally complex landscapes, and used 'complex' or 'rough' topography as a proxy. Rough terrain is one of several characteristics all complex landscapes might be expected to share and which can be identified (at least to a degree) in the palaeoenvironmental record. We do not suggest that all terrestrial landscapes with rough terrain exert a uniform selective regime on their inhabitants—let alone a single selective pressure—not least because rough landscapes vary considerably in their vegetation cover. We also clearly stated that our model requires no assumptions about the anatomy or behaviour of the last common ancestor. It is thus not in any way incompatible with an arboreal, bipedal ancestry. On the contrary, it adds another layer to such a model, providing a 'missing link' between existing theories that work well for the earliest and latest periods of hominin evolution but not for the transition between them. Thorpe et al. also criticise our hypothesis for not explaining why different characteristics of terrestrial bipedalism appeared piecemeal in the fossil record. However, it is a misconception to suppose that we proposed a single, simple selective pressure, which must necessarily act at a specific time in our evolutionary history. In fact, our model specifies a multi-stage trajectory, involving adaptation to complex landscapes as a first stage, and expansion beyond them through tactical use of terrain in a later stage. Central to our hypothesis is the importance of


ion, transcendentalism, and the mainstream. These contradictory rhetorical commitments inhere within the work of particular CLS scholars, and also throughout the movement as a whole. Moreover, there has been a gradual shift over time toward a heightened reliance on the rhetoric of security and a corresponding deemphasis of the rhetoric of freedom. This analysis thus reveals something deeper about Critical Legal Studies. While it claims to be a radical, utopian movement, CLS ultimately fails to offer a consistent radical vision. One CLS scholar, having identified fundamental tension within critical legal thought, has declared: "[W]e should not be dispirited because what we need is makeshift work surfaces, not Platonic tables."171 Yet this is simply a version of the most common liberal response to the CLS critique.'72 What, then, fundamentally distinguishes critical legal theory from liberal theory? Makeshift work surfaces should be left to the liberals. If anyone has the luxury of being internally consistent and philosophically pure, it is a visionary radical movement. Otherwise the requisite "leap of faith" is not really a leap, and demands no faith. 170. See, e.g., M. KELMAN, supra note 2, at 4, 15-85; R. UNGER, supra note 74, at 3 (describing liberalism as "a single mode of thought [of which the] premises.. . are few"). 171. Boyle, supra note 15, at 778. 172. See, e.g., A. ALTMAN, CRITICAL LEGAL STUDIES: A LIBERAL CRITIQUE 145-47 (1990) (arguing law does not require perfect determinacy and clear foundations); Kress, supra note 117, at 320-36 (same). 2228 [Vol. 100: 2209


Waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE or e-waste) is growing significantly in importance, especially in the last decade. However, they do not yet receive due attention from the general population or from public power, largely because the information about environmental harm and human health brought about by inadequate waste disposal does not grow as fast as the generation. Reverse logistics, regulated by the Brazilian Policy on Solid Waste (BPSW, Law 12,305 of 2010), which main focus is the responsibility for managing the life cycle of the post-consumer products to manufacturers, importers, distributors, and traders, from the disposal to the end-of-life. The e-waste represents one of the categories with the highest added value among the post-consumer materials, being considered secondary raw material. The state of Rio de Janeiro has specific regulations for the management of electrical and electronic waste since 2008, Law 4,969 of 2008. From the bibliographical survey, field research and interview with managers, the present research proposed the identification of the main actions implemented in the management of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) in the city of Rio de Janeiro, to identify the recovery potential of materials according to the concept of urban mining and circular economy.


Among the three functions of higher vocational colleges,social service function is the extension and expansion of teaching and scientific research function,which in turn promotes the ascension of college teaching and scientific research function.To greatly improve quality and ability of shipyard hull assembly workers,the college must rely on abundant resources of shipbuilding major,clear thoughts and methods,rationally carry out the concrete practice,and provide necessary conditions to better conduct social training work of hull assembly workers,thus cultivate high quality talents,and serve local economic development.


In this paper we consider words in a finite totally ordered alphabet which, restricted to a two consecutive letters subalphabet, are either Yamanouchi or dual Yamanouchi. We introduce coordinates or indexing sets of words and we show that there is a monoid isomorphism between words and classes of sequences of finite sets in N. Considering words in a two consecutive letters subalphabet, we define maps acting on pairs of indexing sets which, by fixing a longest self-dual Yamanouchi subword, transform a Yamanouchi into a dual Yamanouchi word, and reciprocally. The pairs of indexing sets of Yamanouchi and dual Yamanouchi words are, respectively, comparable under an ordering and its dual in the power-set of {1, . . . , n}. This family of transformations is induced by the witnesses of the comparable pairs. When minimal and maximal witnesses are considered, we recover those operators which satisfy the conditions of the symmetric group, defined by A. Lascoux and M. P. Schutzenberger in [10], [12]. Starting with given indexing sets of a Yamanouchi word, in a three-letters alphabet, we generate, under the action of these transformations, a set of indexing sets which gives rise to an action of the symmetric group S3. This group action of S3 is equivalent to an explicit decomposition of the given indexing sets of a Yamanouchi word in a three-letters alphabet. For transformations induced by minimal and maximal witnesses, we use this decomposition to define, recursively, an action of the symmetric group St, t ≥ 3, on a set generated by indexing sets of all Yamanouchi words in a t-letters alphabet. This group action coincides with the one described by A. Lascoux and M. P. Schutzenberger in [10] and [12], when restricted to the words under consideration. The action of the symmetric group S3, on words or Young tableaux, has a natural matrix translation afforded by the obvious permutation action on a sequence of matrices over a local principal ideal domain with maximal ideal (p). Moreover, such a permutation action gives rise, directly, to the mentioned decomposition of the indexing sets of a Yamanouchi word in a three-letters alphabet. This is the content of a subsequent paper. Work supported by CMUC/FCT. Work supported by CMUC/FCT.


This paper presents a configuration control of a forklift vehicle using a camera-based vision system with limited angle-of-view (AOV). The configuration (i.e., position and orientation) of the vehicle is transformed to navigation variables, which are the distance left to the goal position, the angle made by the x-axis of the target coordinate and the vehicle-to-target (v-to-t) vector, and the angle made by the x-axis of the body coordinate of the vehicle and the v-to-t vector. The kinematic equations of the forklift are derived in the navigation variables and the constraint of the motion due to the limited AOV of the camera is formulated. The control law is derived using quadratic and barrier functions as a Lyapunov function candidate. The asymptotical stability of the origin of the navigation variables is assured using the Lyapunov method. From the property of the barrier function, it can be guaranteed that the motion of the vehicle does not violate the constraint due to the limited AOV of the camera. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified through numerical simulations.


Paul's apocalyptic ideas were formed first of all by his Jewish heritage and his study, as a Pharisee, of the traditions of his ancestors. He reshaped and extended such ideas in light of his acceptance of Jesus as the Messiah of Israel and his understanding of Jesus' death and resurrection as eschatological events. The authors of Colossians, Ephesians, and 2 Thessalonians, by writing in Paul's name, analogously adapted the teaching of Paul to address changed circumstances and convictions, as they each perceived them. Paul's apocalyptic expectations are reflected in his earliest letter, 1 Thessalonians. The seemingly small changes in imagery made in Colossians in relation to the undisputed letters of Paul had profound consequences for the reception of Paul's apocalyptic ideas. The treatment of apocalyptic hopes in 2 Thessalonians differs greatly from that in Colossians and Ephesians. Keywords: 2 Thessalonians; Colossians; Ephesians; Jesus; Paul's apocalyptic ideas


The oxygen reduction reaction plays an important role in the performance of high-temperature proton exchange membrane (HT-PEM) fuel cells. In this study, a molecular dynamics model, which is based on the density functional theory and couples the system's energy, the exchange-correlation energy functional, the charge density distribution function, and the simplified Kohn–Sham equation, was developed to simulate the oxygen reduction reaction on a Pt(111) surface. Additionally, an electrochemical reaction system on the basis of a four-electron reaction mechanism was also developed for this simulation. The reaction path of the oxygen reduction reaction, the product structure of each reaction step and the system's energy were simulated. It is found that the first step reaction of the first hydrogen ion with the oxygen molecule is the controlling step of the overall reaction. Increasing the operating temperature speeds up the first step reaction rate and slightly decreases its reaction energy barrier. Our resul...


The system has proved itself as an invaluable laboratory tool for the characterisation of the polarisation properties of optical fibres. The system is described and an example is given of the measurements which have been made. The linear birefringence results are accurate to within 0.5 degrees for a wide range of birefringence.


The purpose of this paper is to identify the dynamic properties of a building with an active control device for the case when the control device is in operation. We utilize the Output Inter-Sampling Approach for system identification as a theory for closed-loop system identification which has been applied in other engineering fields. A building equipped with an active control device (AMD) which has a linear motor as an actuator is considered as an example. The accuracy of our approach was carefully examined by the numerical analyses and experiments. Our proposed approach was found to be suitable for online system identification tools for systems with feedback control devices.


Abstract : A study was conducted to determine the effects of uncertainties in wind tunnel test data on the point performance predictions for a typical fighter at medium altitude and subsonic velocity. The equations of motion of selected parameters were formulated in terms of the aerodynamic coefficients and thrust model. A computer code was written to calculate the performance parameters from the aerodynamic and thrust model inputs. An aerodynamic model closely approaching a typical fighter flying at 30,000 ft mean sea level was developed from wind tunnel, flight test, and flight manual data. The effects of the uncertainties in the aerodynamic coefficients on the performance parameters were determined by varying the aerodynamic coefficients input to the computer code. Keywords: Wind tunnel test data; Aerodynamic coefficients; Computer code.


gentamicin in the blood of patients with end-stage kidney disease, and the authors conclude that in such patients, having dialysis twice a week, a therapeutic effect can be maintained by giving a dose of 1 mg. per kg. body weight at the end of each dialysis. It is important to recognize that from adequate data a safe and effective dose of almost any antibiotic can be calculated even for a patient with total anuria. These authors have also verified that gentamicin, like other aminoglycosides, is eliminated by renal dialysis. The two other contributions appear to be more discouraging therapeutically. Drs. A. Pines, H. Raafat, and K. Plucinski (page 543) administered gentamicin both intramuscularly and by inhalation to 23 patients with long-standing purulent bronchitis and Ps. aeruginosa or K!. pneumoniae in their sputum. Of 36 courses of such treatment only seven produced benefit, but this result must appear favourable by comparison with that of administering colistin by the same routes, which benefited none of 17 patients. Such unpromising clinical material, the late stage of an inevitably progressive disease with irreversible structural changes, is a hard test for any antibacterial drug. Several patients in whom the blood level of gentamicin exceeded 10 pug./ml. had dizziness and ataxia, indicating an effect on the vestibular apparatus, but these symptoms subsided when treatment was stopped. The clinical results reported by Dr. J. H. Darrell and Miss Pamela M. Waterwotth (page 535) are only incidental to their argument that the dosage of gentamicin now being recommended may often be inadequate. Blood assays in normal subjects and in patients under treatment showed that concentrations adequate to deal with Ps. aeruginosa may be maintained for only two to three hours after a dose, the usual interval between doses being eight hours. Still more disturbing is the observation that in three patients in whom treatment failed to eliminate the organism its resistance to gentamicin increased by 8-, 8-, and 16-fold. This was accompanied in each case by an increase in resistance to all other available aminoglycosides, including streptomycin, an interesting example of one-way cross-resistance, since increased resistance to kanamycin is compatible with sensitivity to gentamicin. The fact that gentamicin is more ototoxic as well as antibacterially more active than related antibiotics is recognized in the very modest scale of dosage at present recommended. This is a maximum of about 240 mg. daily, whereas the regular daily dose of kanamycin is 1 g., which may even be exceeded for a short time. How far can this dose of gentamicin safely be increased ? The probability is that in a patient with perfect renal function it could be exceeded considerably. There is, so far as we are aware, no record of vestibular damage except in patients with known impairment of renal function, such as the five reported by R. L. Jao and G. G. Jackson,4 or of such age that some impairment must exist even if not demonstrable by ordinary means, an example being their patient aged 69 successfully treated for pseudomonas septicaemia. It is well established that ototoxic antibiotics are more dangerous in patients over 40, and it may well be that capacity to excrete them is impaired earlier than any other function of the kidney, certainly than the capacity to excrete urea. Further studies of the blood levels attained after different doses are evidently desirable, and another aim should be to examine carefully the relationship between vestibular impairment and dosage and duration of treatment. The fact that early changes are apparently reversible is encouraging to such study. This must mean that exploration in the field of higher dosage should be undertaken only where full facilities exist for control by blood assays. These facilities are indeed desirable, at least for the present, whenever this antibiotic is given parenterally. This further addition to the burden of the clinical laboratory is second in importance only to the tests on which the choice of a suitable antibiotic for treatment can be based.


Cashew Nut Shell Liquid (CNSL) which has been known as a waste of processing cashew fruits which is contain phenolic compounds have activity as larvicides. Cashew nut shell liquid is not soluble in the water where the larvae grow. Cashew nut shell liquid mixed with water-soluble extract of soapnut fruit which serves as a natural surfactant that can emulsify oil in water. The test subjects were larvae of Aedes aegypti third instar. Test subjects were divided into treatment group and control group. In the treatment group, test subjects were  the mixture of CNSL and Ethylacetat Soluble Extract (ESE) in tap water. The Larvae mortality observations were done 24 hours after the treatment. LC 50 and LC 90 as final test data were analyzed using probit analysis. Extract constituents   of CNSL and Water Soluble Extract of SoapNut fruit (WSEoSN) were  investigated using Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC) method. The effect of CNSL as larvicides against third instar larvae of Ae. aegypti with were LC 50 of 14,12 ppm, while the LC 90 of 24,85 ppm.


The algorithm for moving target tracking in clusters of sensor networks is presented. The aim of the proposed architecture is suitable for large-scale area tracking; the technique is based on received signal strength indication (RSSI) and time of arrival (TOA) measurements. Here we use the extended Kalman filter (EKF) to estimate the moving target's trajectory by TOA measurement. The handoff decision is executed on clusters of sensor networks, being switching through RSSI measurements. The simulation results show that our proposed technique is effective and practical.


The variation of effective stress ratio of stratfied soil with semi-pervious boundaries and under cyclic loading was analyzed on the basis of Terzagh's one-dimensional consolidation assumptions. A solution by Laplace Transform was obtained for the case when the soil was under time-varied loading. With numerical inversion of Laplace Transform, some useful results were obtained for several kinds of commonly encountered loadings. The results can be meaningful in engineering practice.


Mental health is important for health and well-being at every stage of life and disease. Mental health problems are common and bothersome in chronic kidney disease (CKD). Mental health problems of CKD are poorly understood and evaluated. To address the importance of mental health in CKD, we analyzed a prospective cohort database from prospective CKD cohort.

 We analyzed 1897 participants from the KNOW-CKD cohort. We evaluated 4 items as indicators of patient-reported mental health: sleep duration, perceived stress, depressive symptoms, and suicidal ideation. To facilitate interpretation of the mental health problems in CKD, we measure a scaled effect size (ES) for the Kidney Disease Quality of Life Short Form (KDQOL-SF) differences among the groups of mental health problems. We investigated the association between patient-reported mental health problems and clinical outcomes of incident end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) all-cause death in non-dialysis CKD.

 The mean age was 53 ± 12 years and 62% were male. The participants had mental health problems of inadequate sleep duration (17.4%), subject distress (27.3%), experience of depression (13.2%), and suicide ideation (16.8%), but had not well taken care (psychiatric counselling 1.9%, antidepressant therapy 2.8%). The 4 item indicators of mental health showed large effect size between-groups KDQOL mental component summary (ES = 1.67). In the fully adjusted Cox proportional model, poor mental health (≥2 mental health problems) was associated with high risk of ESKD [HR = 1.46; 95% CI (1.18∼1.08)] and death [HR = 1.55; 95% CI (1.04∼2.32)] compared to good mental health (no mental health problems). Among 4 item indicators of patient-reported mental health, suicide ideation was the most predictive indicator of clinical outcomes.

 Mental health problem is common and undertreated in CKD. Poor mental health is associated with high risk of ESKD and death in non-dialysis CKD and the single question of suicide ideation is significantly associated with high risk of ESKD and death. It suggests that the evaluation and management of mental health problem is important to the clinical outcomes in CKD.


In the cylindrical resonant cavities of Electron Cyclotron Resonance Ion Sources (ECRIS) microwave fields are used to generate and sustain the plasma. The design of resonant cavities and the related microwaves injection lines play a key role in the creation of intense electromagnetic fields, to generate and sustain the magnetized plasma. This paper presents an innovative geometry, as an alternative to the conventional cylindrically shaped plasma chamber, whose aim is the improvement of the microwave-to-plasma coupling, and the consequent optimization of the on axis electric field. The geometry has been numerically validated by joining COMSOL Multiphysics®, for the calculation of the electromagnetic fields and MatLab® to implement the plasma through its 3D dielectric tensor. The results are very promising and could be applied to any ECRIS.


A stochastic way using continuous time Markov process is presented to model the one-dimensional nuclide transport in fractured rock matrix as an extended study for previous work [1]. A nuclide migration model by the continuous time Markov process for single planar fractured rock matrix, which is considered as a transient system where a process by which the nuclide is diffused into the rock matrix from the fracture may be no more time homogeneous, is compared with a conventional deterministic analytical solution. The primary desired quantities from a stochastic model are the expected values and variance of the state variables as a function of time. The time-dependent probability distributions of nuclides are presented for each discretized compartment of the medium given intensities of transition. Since this model is discrete in medium space, parameters which affect nuclide transport could be easily incorporated for such heterogeneous media as the fractured rock matrix and the layered porous media. Even though the model developed in this study was shown to be sensitive to the number of discretized compartment showing numerical dispersion as the number of compartments are decreased, with small compensating of dispersion coefficient, the model agrees well to analytical solution.


The line-transect method was employed in a survey to investigate the community structure,species composition and species diversity in Qinggang wetland of Dulan county,Qianhai,where enclosure has been practiced for regeneration starting since 2006.The results showed that the rainfall of 2007,2008 and 2009 was abundant,being 275.2 mm,234.3 mm and 289.1 mm,respectively,higher than the average annual rainfall(188.7 mm) in the region.The vegetation coverage and biomass of the fenced area increased steadily and reached 34% and 3495 kg/ha in 2009.The average height of the community increased by about 67% in 2008,compared with 2007,and remained little changed in 2009.Plant species in the region grew vigorously in 2008,the number of species reached 31 and the species diversity indicators D and H were 8.682 and 2.538,respectively.Due to the scarce rainfall in June of 2009,the number of species was reduced to 12 and the importance value of most plant species decreased.But the reduction occurred largely in non-major species,the number and importance values of major species such as Oxytropis aciphylla Ledeb,Stipa tianschanica Roshev.var.gobica(Roshev.) P.C.Kuo et Y.H.Sun,Allium polyrhizum Turcz.ex Regel and Nitraria tangutorum Bobr remained stable.Species diversity in the fenced area also decreased in 2009.


Mango germplasm comprising of forty three varieties was evaluated for the level of the panicle malformation disease intensity. The intensity varied significantly among the genotypes. Out tested varieties four were tolerant, 27 were moderately tolerant, five were moderately susceptible while seven were recorded highly susceptible to malformation. Disease incidence frequency was highest in 'Lab-e-Mashooq' (68.70 %) followed by 'G.M. Wala' (64.28 %) and lowest in 'Sensation' (7.20%) and 'Gulab Khas' (7.8 %). The lowest affected varieties may be used for incorporating their tolerance in the other commercial varieties through breeding program. The incidence rate was higher (38.69%) in six commercial varieties under Central Punjab ecological conditions than that of (26.70%) in the Southern (Multan) region. However, the tolerance in genotypes seems specific to ecological regions and the growers of the highly susceptible varieties should be very careful and regular in carrying the control measures


OF SERVICES OCP purchases approximately $1.2 billion in goods and services on behalf of more than 60 different District agencies and programs. OCP buying teams include goods, services, transportation and specialty equipment and information technology. The agency provides oversight and monitoring of agencies with delegated contracting authority, contract administration support and manages the District's Purchase Card Program. OCP also provides surplus property management for all District agencies.


In its first-ever guidance on non-pharmacological interventions for pediatric mental health disorders, American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) provides guidance, as well as a roadmap for future advocacy work.


Hemifacial Microsomia (HFM) is a congenital anomaly involving embryological derivatives of the first and second branchial arches and characterized mainly by mandibular hypoplasia and unilateral or bilateral microtia; although, other facial structures may be affected. It may have long-term effects on psychological development and social well-being, due to unaesthetic facial appearance, functional disturbances and complex medical treatments.


Meaning of "One big and four small" was explained,and then after reviewing the history of forestry development in Jiangxi Province,the practical significance and theoretical value of the afforestation "One big and four small" project were expounded.


Noodles served with fried bean sauce is now an ordinary wheaten food popular among people,but its derivation remains a knot.By consulting documents and tracing the production time of soybean pastes,noodles, water cooling noodles,specific ways of eating noodles at different times,especially outlining the ways of producing and eating water cooling noodles,the key dietary custom of cooling food with cold water for over a thousand years is unveiled.Analysis of the subjective factors such as Beijing city development in Qing and Ming dynasties,food supply,climate,people' s living conditions comes to a conclusion that Bean Paste Noodles and Old Beijing Noodles with Fried Bean Sauce occurred at the same time.The symbolic sign"Old Beijing Noodles with Fried Bean Sauce"is hidden but rich in profound cultural connotation.


Excerpt To the editor: Dr. Rizza is to be congratulated on his editorial ( 1 ) presenting a thorough and balanced review of the evidence relating rigid control of blood sugar levels to the microvas...


The neurobiological mechanisms of both sleep and circadian regulation have been unraveled partly in the last decades. A network of brain structures, rather than a single locus, is involved in arousal state regulation, whereas the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) has been recognized as a key structure for the regulation of circadian rhythms. Although most models of sleep regulation include a circadian component, the actual mechanism by which the circadian timing system promotes—in addition to homeostatic pressure—transitions between sleep and wakefulness remains to be elucidated. Little more can be stated presently than a probable involvement of neuronal projections and neurohumoral factors originating in the SCN. This paper reviews the relation among body temperature, arousal state, and the circadian timing system and proposes that the circadian temperature rhythm provides an additional signaling pathway for the circadian modulation of sleep and wakefulness. A review of the literature shows that increased brain temperature is associated with a type of neuronal activation typical of sleep in some structures (hypothalamus, basal forebrain), but typical of wakefulness in others (midbrain reticular formation, thalamus). Not only local temperature, but also skin temperature are related to the activation type in these structures. Warming of the skin is associated with an activation type typical of sleep in the midbrain reticular formation, hypothalamus, and cerebral cortex (CC). The decreasing part of the circadian rhythm in core temperature is mainly determined by heat loss from the skin of the extremities, which is associated with strongly increased skin temperature. As such, alterations in core and skin


This article contributes to an understanding of why national leaders voluntarily accept the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, granting it the right to prosecute them. It theorizes that leaders trade off the risk of unwanted prosecutions against the deterrent threat that prosecutions pose to political rivals and patrons of domestic enemies, who may conspire to violently oust leaders. The risk of unwanted prosecutions and the court's deterrent threat both arise because the court's prosecutions credibly communicate guilt for atrocities and may trigger leader-specific economic punishment by wealthy donor states that prefer to keep atrocity-doers out of office. Empirical analysis of all leaders (1998–2008) with panel-data methods demonstrates, as hypothesized, that a greater receipt of development capital increases the probability that a leader accepts the court's jurisdiction only when he can obstruct his own prosecution, and that the court's jurisdiction prolongs a leader's tenure and prevents violent challenges to the regime.


Abstract The effect of temperature on the rate of development of Anax junius Drury was studied. Monthly larval samples were carried out for 2 years and laboratory experiments were conducted at constant temperatures. Field studies, at a eutrophic pond near Toronto, showed that in Canada populations of A. junius are not only maintained by migrants each year but also by residents. Two distinct populations were found, a summer (non-resident) population which developed from oviposition to emergence in approximately 3 months, from June to September, and an overwintering (resident) population which overwintered as half-grown larvae and developed in approximately 11 months from mid-July of one calendar year to the end of June of the next year. The former population was larger and comprised approximately 48% males and the latter was smaller and comprised approximately 41% males. A threshold temperature of development of 8.7° ± 0.1 °C was determined in the laboratory for the development of final-instar larvae of the summer population. The rate of development of final-instar larvae, reared at constant temperature, was similar to that of the entire summer aquatic stages which developed in fluctuating temperature. An average of 1332 degree-days ± 1% was required for development from the onset of oviposition to the onset of emergence of the summer population; whereas 20.5% more degree-days were required for the development of the overwintering population, employing the threshold temperature of 8.7 °C as determined for the summer population.It is recommended that correlation between degree-day totals and duration of larval development be used in further studies as a means for understanding the migration pattern and also the climatic limit of distribution for A. junius.


Solutions of a perturbed Korteweg-de Vries equation are investigated both numerically and analytically for the case when the perturbation terms representing wave amplification and damping are given by the Hilbert transforms. Numerical simulations of the initial value problem indicate that ultimate states consisting of a row of interacting nearly identical pulses become irregular and non-steady even when the perturbation terms are sufficiently small. Individual pulses with equilibrium amplitude arising in numerical simulations can be explained by approximate quasi-stationary solutions derived by the energy balance relation. Certain special or approximate solutions are examined in terms of the pole expansion.


Abstract H3PW12O40-amino-functionalized CdFe12O19@SiO2 nanocomposite has been applied as an effective nanocatalyst for the preparation of imidazoles by three-component reactions of benzil, ammonium acetate, and benzaldehydes under solvent-free condition. H3PW12O40-amino-functionalized CdFe12O19@SiO2 nanocomposites has been identified by powder X-ray diffraction, scanning electronic microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, vibrating sample magnetometer, thermal gravimetric analysis, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. This method provides several benefits including easy work-up, the use solvent-free conditions, the low catalyst loading and the reusability of the catalyst. Recently the use of environmental and green catalysts which can be easily recycled has received significant attention. Besides environmental advantages, such recoverable catalysts can also provide a platform for heterogeneous catalysis, green chemistry, and environmentally benign protocols in the near future. Graphical abstract


Mean‐sea‐level‐pressure patterns of the main atmospheric circulation for Australia were created using principal component analysis and non‐hierarchical cluster analysis. The patterns are related to dust storm occurrence from 95 meteorological stations across Australia during the period 1960–99. Dust storm stations were separated into two groups with distinct dust storm seasons: the spring–summer (September–February) dust storm group and the summer–autumn (December–May) dust storm group. Spring–summer dust storms are most likely controlled by the timing of non‐precipitation cold fronts over southern and central Australia and limited by summer precipitation. The summer–autumn dust storms are most likely controlled by the length of the driest period of the year. The stations of the first group are located mainly in the interior of the continent, and those of the second group are located mainly near the coastal regions of southern and western Australia. The location of the subtropical Indian Ocean high is shown here to influence dust storm occurrence during both seasons. A more westward displacement of this pressure centre in the Great Australian Bight allows cold fronts to enter the continent and increase the potential for dust storm activity. Copyright © 2004 Royal Meteorological Society


Organic-inorganic composite coatings on hot-dip galvanized steel sheet were prepared by adding different contents of nano-SiO2 into acrylic resin emulsion.The electrochemical behaviors of nano-SiO2 modified acrylic resin film in 5% NaCl solution were studied by electrochemical measurement techniques.The results indicated when there were 8%~12% SiO2 in organic film,the anodic polarization curves showed an analogous passivation property and increased the anodic polarization action of the galvanized coat,prohibited the electrode reaction better.The reason is might result from the chemicaal reaction of SiO2 in organic film with Zn and production of zinc silicate compound,with stable performance;or result from dissolution-redeposition of sol SiO2 in the film.


The rapid growth of renewable generation in power systems imposes unprecedented challenges on maintaining power balance in real time. With the continuous decrease of thermal generation capacity, battery energy storage is expected to take part in frequency regulation service. However, accurately following the automatic generation control (AGC) signal leads to more frequent switching between charging and discharging states, which may shorten battery life. Because battery life is a consequence of long-term operation depending on the depth of discharge, it is difficult to model battery health in frequency regulation problems. This paper establishes an online operation policy in response to the real-time AGC signal considering battery health. Based on the empirical relation between cycling number and depth of discharge, a cost function is suggested to approximate the impact of charging-discharging action on battery life in the long run. Then, Lyapunov drift-plus-penalty technique is employed to derive an explicit online policy compromising the revenue of frequency regulation and battery life without requiring future AGC data. The offline operation problem after knowing the entire sequence of AGC signal is cast as a difference-of-convex program and solved by a sequential convexification algorithm. The gap between the offline and online optimum is shown to be a constant, which quantifies the value of knowing future information. Case studies based on AGC data from the PJM market validate the proposed method.


This longitudinal study investigated the outcomes of DREAMzone, an educational intervention designed to prepare higher education professionals to respond to the presence and needs of undocumented students. Qualitative surveys were administered to DREAMzone participants at three different time points (post-, 2-months, and 8-months). Five outcomes were salient within and across time points: awareness, knowledge, skills, contact, and self-efficacy. Findings from this study demonstrate efficacy in the delivery of DREAMzone and raise implications for institutions of higher education.


Agency problems occur because of conflicts of interests between the management and stockholders not only at companies that separate ownership and...


5-(Trifluoromethyl)oxazoles (3) and 5-(trifluoromethyl)thiazoles (4) were conveniently as well as effectively synthesized from 3-(N-tert-butyl-N-methylhydrazono)-1,1,1-trifluoroalkan-2-ones (1) via 5-(trifluoromethyl)-3-oxazoline (2). One-pot conversion of 1 to 4 also proceeded successfully


A major barrier to the use of formal methods in software practice is the difllculty software developers have understanding and applying the methods. To overcome this barrier, a requirements method called SCR (Software Cost Reduction) offers a user-friendly tabular notation to specify software requirements and a collection of easytouse tools that automatically detect many classes of errors in requirements specifications. This paper describes our experience in applying the SCR method and tools to a safety-critical military application-the problems encountered in translating the original contractorproduced software requirements specification into SCR and the lessons learned in applying the SCR technology to a practical system. The short time required to apply the SCR method, the serious safety violation detected, and the working system prototype produced demonstrate the utility and potential cost-effectiveness of SCR for developing safety-critical systems.


In the present work, the extraction of resin from the cashew nut sludge (agro-Industrial waste) was done using three different solvents namely methanol, propanol and diethyl ether. Among the three solvents propanol shows the better results for extraction of resin and it was further confirmed with FTIR, TGA and DSC. The FT-IR (Fourier Trsnsform Infra Red Spectroscopic analysis was used to structural changes during the extracted resin using propanol. The maximum peak obtained using propanol as a solvent for the extraction of resin was 14-16 min intensity. All the experimental study throughout the present study indicated that the obtained resin has wide application on waste water treatment. In future, it can be used as a cheap substitute instead of commercial resin for a better environment.


Objective: To study on the influence of gansui with different extracting manners in Gansui Banxia decoction on aldosterone and functions of kidneys on rat models of malignant ascites. Methods: 80 Wistar rats were divided into four groups: blank group, model group, Gansui Banxia Decoction(gansui decocted together with other herb), Gansui Banxia Decoction(gansui powder into the ready decoction). The walker-256 carcinosarcoma cells were injected intraperitoneally into the rats except blank group. Examine changes of aldosterone, renal function and morphology of rats. Results: The levels of ALD in each medication groups were significantly lower than in model group. Gansui Banxia decoction(gansui decocted together with other herbs) was with less nephrotoxicity. Conclusion: Gansui Banxia Decoction(gansui decocted together with other herbs) with less nephrotoxicity at the same time reduces the level of ALD significantly. The experiment also proves the theoretical basis for clinic.


We examine the variation of energetic electron pitch angle distribution at the magnetic equator and loss rate of precipitated electrons into Saturn's atmosphere through pitch angle scattering due to elastic collisions with neutral H2O along Saturn's magnetic field line around Enceladus. To examine the variation of those, we perform one‐dimensional test‐particle simulation when the co‐rotating electron flux tube passes through the dense H2O region in the vicinity of Enceladus (~6.4 min). We focus on 1 keV as a typical kinetic energy of the electrons in this study. The initial pitch angle distribution is assumed to be isotropic. Results show that the equatorial electron pitch angle distribution near the loss cone (<20° and >160°) decreases with time through pitch angle scattering due to elastic collisions. It is found that the electrons of ~11.4% to the total number of equatorial electrons at the initial condition are lost in ~380 s. The calculated loss time is twice faster than the loss time under the strong diffusion.


It can be troublesome and challenging to diagnose and resolve problems caused by improper individual user account configurations on supercomputer systems. To assist individual users and those who support them in handling these issues efficiently and conveniently, we designed and created a new lightweight system utility named Sanity Tool. Sanity Tool includes a group of generic and machine-specific tests that are used to evaluate the correctness of a user's account configurations. It has played an important role in user support since its emergence on supercomputers at the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC). This tool can also be installed on almost any supercomputer system effortlessly, and it can be extended with customized site-specific tests with a reasonable amount of work.


The trend toward portable electronics is a major driving force in the need for miniaturisation of electronic components. Tantalum capacitors are becoming a product of first choice where high electrical and mechanical stability along with long service life and volumetric efficiency are demanded. The latest generation of ultra-high surface area tantalum powders in combination with an efficient constructional and encapsulation system provides a new solution for the next generation of component downsizing. This paper describes the main challenges and limitations in processes and materials that have been necessary to overcome for increased capacitance and voltage ratings. Comparison of materials and technologies and their potential development for the future are also discussed.


The real estate investment market in France reflects that country's peculiarities. Highly centralized in the Paris region and heavily influenced by Government control, real estate has had a particular value to the French. Responding to the convergence of European Union and the development of global markets, France has been liberalizing its economy and privatizing government enterprises. The deregulation through the eighties of the French financial sector lead banks to lend heavily in the property sector so as to increase their yields, just as the Savings and Loans had in the US. This available capital in conjunction with increased demand created an oversupply of product. The recession in the nineties bankrupted many developers and left banks holding large pools of non-performing loans and assets. To preserve their risk-based capital reserves banks were unwilling to write down these assets and just now are beginning to deal with the problem. As the US real estate market heats up, American investors are looking to find new opportunities. France has been receiving a lot of their attention. The French property market is coming out of six years of recession. The bottoming out of the market and the $60 billion of distressed portfolios are of great interest. However, the French market is comparatively illiquid, nontransparent and burdened with high taxation. Even though economic recovery in France is tenuous and strong demand is not forthcoming, the maturing of the real estate market is providing numerous investment opportunities. Thesis Supervisor: Blake Eagle Title: Chairman, Center for Real Estate aux petits Nicolas et Simon Special Thanks: to Blake Eagle for his patience, guidance and encouragement.


Introduction: Stature is a crucial parameter in the definition of the physical identity of an individual, along with age, gender, and race. The purpose of this study was to create a regression equation for estimating stature from hand-finger measurements in a young adult population, and use it actively in forensic sciences. Material and Methods: In this study, stature, hand lengths (HLs), hand widths (HWs), and second and fourth finger lengths (SFLs, FFLs) of the individuals were measured among 420 students aged 18-25 years. Results: The mean values in males and females, respectively, were stature: 178.24 ± 6.55 and 165.57 ± 5.31; right HL: 18.97 ± 0.94 and 17.68 ± 0.67; left HL: 19.01 ± 0.98 and 17.84 ± 0.76; right HW: 8.59 ± 0.42 and 7.73 ± 0.41; left HW: 8.57 ± 0.42 and 7.67 ± 0.39; right SFL: 7.28 ± 0.44 and 6.75 ± 0.42; left SFL: 7.32 ± 0.43 and 6.74 ± 0.41; right FFL: 7.33 ± 0.44 and 6.71 ± 0.40; and left FFL: 7.34 ± 0.44 and 6.71 ± 0.40 cm. Measurements between genders were statistically significantly different (P < 0.001). There were statistically significant differences between right and left HWs and SFLs in males, and HWs in females (P < 0.05). The strongest correlation with stature was in right HLs in males and right SFLs in females. Conclusion: The regression equations obtained exhibited potential for use in many areas, especially quite successfully in Forensics and Forensic Anthropology in estimating stature from hand dimensions in Turkish society.


Solar collector technology is looking for expansion towards low cost collectors. When low cost collector markets are increasing also the competition between manufacturers is reaching higher levels. ...


The Palaeontological Scientific Trust (PAST) and its Scatterlings of Africa Programmes
NRF South Africa
DST-NRF Centre of Excellence in Palaeosciences


Two different groups of subjects--incarcerated adult offenders and freshman nursing students--participated in an academic experiment which employed an individually prescribed learning system. The system featured programmed instructional materials and contingency management procedures to obtain stable cumulative records of learning performance. Contingency contracts and backup reinforcers were used to achieve optimum motivation, as indexed by test scores and ratios of empirically derived estimates to actual times for task completion. Intercorrelations between learning rate, various measures of educational achievement, and I.Q. were not significant. It was suggested that a behavioral analyais of other functions should be explored. (Author) U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH. EDUCATION & WELFARE OFFICE OF EDUCATION THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRODUCE0 EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM THE PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIG. INATING IT POINTS OF VIEW OR OPINIONS STATED DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENT OFFICIAL OFFICE OF EDUCATION POSITION OR POLICY. THE EFFECT OF CONTINGENCY MANAGEMENT PROCEDURES ON THE RATE OF LEARNING' John M. McKee W. 0. Jenkins Michael A. Milan Rehabilitation Research Foundation Elmore, Alabama Previous studies (Clements & McKee, 1968; Jenkins et al., 1969; Ens len, 1969) have demonstrated the effectiveness of contingency management (CM) procedures on basic education performance. In these studies, CM (defined as the systematic arrangement of reinforcing consequences of behavior) took the form of a contingency contract which specified a given amount of programmed instructional (PI) material to be mastered by S. Criterion measures of performance obtained were those of (1) time required to learn the material and (2) test score accuracy. Reinforcers employed included money and items selected from a "Reinforcing Event Menu" (Homme & Tosti, 1965). The recent development of a highly individualized and structured learning system2 has permitted the study of individual learning rates across diverse and complex academic subject matter. Moreover, the learning rate obtained by an individual under CM conditions appears to show considerable stability, regardless of the subject matter being learned. Since characteristic learning rites can be demonstrated for each learner, it is possible to compare these rates with variables that are generally held to correlate highly with them. Thus, this study sought to determine the relationship between learning rate, I.Q., reading ability, and academic grade level.


Optical label switching testbed has been demonstrated to realize an NGI network with ultra-low latency, simplified protocol stacks, and data transparency. Packet applications have been successfully sent, with less than 1 msec switching node delay, over a label-switched network.


The real-time acquisition and displaying of signals is a m ain problem in the physiologic parameter tester. To solve this problem completely, a common object module based on windows is proposed. And several difficulties in realizing this common module are also accounted.


Failure detection and isolation (FDI) is an essential part of any fault-tolerant control system: it is needed to remove the impact of the failed component and to adapt the system through a reconfiguration of control and filtering algorithms. There exists a large body of literature on the FDI problem but unfortunately many of these methods are inapplicable when, as is most often encountered in practice, the process parameters are poorly known, before as well as after the incident. Exploiting the potential of adaptive estimation, the purpose of this paper is to propose a new approach, based on a master slave pair of algorithms where the slave is triggered during the transient stage. Initial analysis and simulations show that this method offers simplicity, with few coefficients to tune, and performance, with fast and reliable detection.


On the basis of process characteristics of reheating furnace,the article analyzes detailed selection of reheating furnace heat supply scheme,and describes design features of reheating furnace and the actual operation status.It also points out that if well-designed and carefully construction is carried out based on a reasonable selection of heat supply scheme,it can make sure regenerative technology produces good economical and social benefits.


The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for performing communications via power lines of a power supply system using a plurality of frequency bands; for receiving at least one signal in each case at least one frequency band of the plurality of frequency bands, during communications via power lines of the power supply network, for fixed Ellen, whether at least one signal of the at least one received signal having a predefined noise component, and for lowering a transmission power in at least one frequency band in wherein a predefined noise component has been found for a received signal, while the communication over power lines of the power supply network.


An encounter with adult learners of English as a second language (ESL) acquires a new focus for the teacher when those learners have minimal, if any, experience of being literate in their first or any other language. Instead of adopting a 'deficit' view of these learners, it is possible to view them as facing an 'opportunity' for literacy. However, this opportunity may dissipate if the specific needs of such learners are not addressed. These needs include: an opportunity to access basic reading and writing skills, bilingual support, and acknowledgment by the teacher that this is likely to be the learners' first experience of formal education. This paper describes the outcomes of an action research project funded by the Adult Migrant English Program (AMEP) which attempted to optimise this opportunity for a group of learners from the Horn of Africa and southern Sudan. Changes occurred in three major areas: in teacher attitudes and approaches, in the school's relationships with the learners' communities, and in the general curriculum and environment in which such learning was experienced. Adult learners of English as a second language who have minimal, if any, experience of being literate in their first or any other language, have embarked on a 'journey twice as far' (Gunn 1994), not only adding another language to their repertoire, but also learning a new way to transmit it. This is usually happening in a highly pressurised context, where issues of resettlement in a new culture, family responsibilities, and the need for employment combine with an increasing awareness of the demands of a literate society.


One of the central challenges of hadron physics in the regime of strong (non-perturbative) QCD is to identify the relevant degrees of freedom of the nucleon and to quantitatively explain experimental data in terms of these degrees of freedom. Among the processes studied so far Compton scattering plays a prominent role because of the well understood properties of the electromagnetic interaction. Different approaches to describe Compton scattering have been discussed up to now. It will be shown that the most appropriate ones are provided by nonsubtracted dispersion theories of the fixed-t and fixed-θ types, where the properties of these two versions are complementary so that advantage can be taken from both of them. In the frame of fixed-t dispersion theory it was possible to precisely reproduce experimental differential cross sections obtained for the proton in a wide angular range and for energies up to 1 GeV. At energies of the first resonance region and below, precise values for the electromagnetic polarizabilities and spin-polarizabilities have been determined for the proton and the neutron. As a summary we give the following recommended experimental values for the electromagnetic polarizabilities and backward spin-polarizabilities of the nucleon: αp = 12.0±0.6, βp = 1.9∓0.6, αn = 12.5±1.7, βn = 2.7∓1.8, in units of 10−4fm3 and γ (p) π = −38.7± 1.8, γ π = 58.6± 4.0 in units of 10−4fm4. These data show that diamagnetism is a prominent property of nucleon structure. It will be shown that the largest part of diamagnetism, or equivalently (α−β), is not related to the conventional isobar-meson structure of the nucleon as showing up in meson photo-production. Rather, the underlying mechanism is a t-channel σ-meson exchange, with the constituent-quark-meson configuration remaining in its ground state. The same is true for the backward spin-polarizability γπ where the relevant meson is the π 0. Making the reasonable assumption that the quantities (α − β) and γπ are related to the structure of the nucleon, we come to the conclusion that the σ and π0 intermediate states are part of the structure of the nucleon. It is a challenge for further research to integrate these degrees of freedom into a consistent description of the structure of the nucleon. ∗Supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft SPP(1034) and projects SCHU222 and 436RUS 113/510. Email address: firstname.lastname@example.com (Martin Schumacher); article prepared for Prog. Part. Nucl. Phys.


Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text. Background and Purpose: In patients with acute large vessel occlusion, the natural history of penumbral tissue based on perfusion time-to-maximum (Tmax) delay is not well established in relation to late-window endovascular thrombectomy. In this study, we sought to evaluate penumbra consumption rates for Tmax delays in patients with large vessel occlusion evaluated between 6 and 16 hours from last known normal. Methods: This is a post hoc analysis of the DEFUSE 3 trial (The Endovascular Therapy Following Imaging Evaluation for Ischemic Stroke), which included patients with an acute ischemic stroke due to anterior circulation occlusion within 6 to 16 hours of last known normal. The primary outcome is percentage penumbra consumption, defined as (24-hour magnetic resonance imaging infarct volume–baseline core infarct volume)/(Tmax 6 or 10 s volume–baseline core volume). We stratified the cohort into 4 categories based on treatment modality and Thrombolysis in Cerebral Infarction (TICI score; untreated, TICI 0-2a, TICI 2b, and TICI3) and calculated penumbral consumption rates in each category. Results: We included 141 patients, among whom 68 were untreated. In the untreated versus TICI 3 patients, a median (interquartile range) of 53.7% (21.2%–87.7%) versus 5.3% (1.1%–14.6%) of penumbral tissue was consumed based on Tmax >6 s (P<0.001). In the same comparison for Tmax>10 s, we saw a difference of 165.4% (interquartile range, 56.1%–479.8%) versus 25.7% (interquartile range, 3.2%–72.1%; P<0.001). Significant differences were not demonstrated between untreated and TICI 0-2a patients for penumbral consumption based on Tmax >6 s (P=0.52) or Tmax >10 s (P=0.92). Conclusions: Among extended window endovascular thrombectomy patients, Tmax >10-s mismatch volume may comprise large volumes of salvageable tissue, whereas nearly half the Tmax >6-s mismatch volume may remain viable in untreated patients at 24 hours.


succeed in bringing the margins to the center. Lane fills in areas that so many of Ecuador's major historians have avoided and narrates the scattered, marginal, and disparate parts of Quito's history, rather than the central, interconnected, and coherent. As he states in his epilogue, this shows the colony to be as much an "enigma, an organic cryptogram," as a consistently articulated "colonial society" (p. 234).


Robotic systems are widely used in the manufacturing industries to improve high quality products. When a fault occurs in manipulator, the faulty robot operates in abnormal condition, which causes insecurity for devices and human. In general, the dynamic of residual vector consists of fault information. In order to evaluate the residual vector, data-driven technique based on statistical theory is used. This paper presents a method by using the combination between the residual vector and data-driven solution for detecting and isolating actuator, sensor faults in robot manipulator. To achieve the accurate and reliable detection and isolation of sensor and actuator faults, the threshold is proposed to combine with generalized momenta. Simulation results are realized to show the performance of proposed method.


very different schools of thought and very different thinkers (Luce Irigaray, Donna Haraway, Hannah Arendt, Clifford Geertz, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Richard Rorty) to solve very concrete and local problems. The political problems, cultural codes or legal system might not be the same in countries beyond the USA, but Buker's innovative way of thinking about ethics and their relationship to political practices points to an interesting approach to feminist ethics and politics everywhere. She uses Foucault's positive notion of power as a dimension that makes relationships function, as the energy between and among people, and encourages feminists to work with power to achieve a full citizenship. Buker stresses that feminists should make an effort to try to use power in politics and society. Buker's Talking Feminist Politics is fresh reading but it contains a few weak points. Buker is not very helpful to a non-US reader when she uses US court cases as examples of ethical practices, without giving any details of them. Furthermore, and more fundamentally, she can be criticized on her use of concepts. She is committed to her practical task of focusing on concrete and recent political problems, but she could have been more clear about what she means when she talks about, for example, 'storytelling', 'politics', 'practices' or 'right and wrong'. The use of a broad range of different thinkers as her inspiration is a postmodern approach indeed, but sometimes it leaves the reader in confusion. Buker's analysis is profound, but to discuss discourses of feminist legal studies, feminist science and postmodern feminism in 229 pages entails short cuts, which are occasionally too short to follow. Buker's contribution to the 'turn to ethics' discourse is quite distinctive. She combines ideas that are rarely seen combined, keeps her language clear – in contrast to many postmodern writers – and concentrates on concrete matters at the same time that she writes a political fantasy for the future. As well as being an interesting contribution to feminist theory, the book serves as a good review of recent North American feminist writing on law, science and postmodernism.


The paper investigated the greening condition by a sampling investigation and analyzed the greening quality about the micropolitan in Guangzhou.The results showed that all the plant diversity indexes were very high in the whole,but there were many differences in each micropolitan.In the new micropolitan,the forestation plant pay attention to the beautification benefit and economic benefit,and then ignored the ecological and environmental benefits.This trend was unsustainable.There were less local species about residential forestation plant.Space greening less,but express a growing trend about micropolitan.Under the conditions of market economy,landscape of residential district quality decrease in,we needed the government issued detailed residential quality standards to put forward the afforestation landscape of residential district level.


Keywords: Economie et societe ; Developpement durable et developpement Nord-Sud ; Section IN Reference EPFL-STUDENT-163811 Record created on 2011-02-21, modified on 2017-05-12


Experiments in the present investigation were conducted to study the effect of gamma radiation (15 Gy) and foliar application of glutathione and ascorbic acid on Egyptian clover (Trifolium alexandrinum L.) under heavy metal (AlCl ) stress condition (0.5 mM). Low gamma irradiation is an important physical growth 3 activator and productivity promotor. Ascorbic acid and glutathione are antioxidants that act as scavengers of toxic active oxygen species that evolve when oxidative stress occurs as a result of stress. In this investigation, seeds were irradiated (15 Gy) prior to sowing or plantlets were sprayed with glutathione (50 ppm) and ascorbic acid (250 ppm) or left untreated (control). Plantlets were either irrigated with tap water or with 0.5 mM AlCl3 solution. Records after 50 days revealed decreased shoot and root length and fresh and dry weights of plants and increased peroxidase, phenoloxidase and catalase activity for plants under AlCl stress. Moreover, 3 glutathione and ascorbic acid treatment increased shoot and root length, plant fresh and dry weight, peroxidase and phenoloxidase activities compared to controls. Pre-sowing seed irradiation was not as useful as the glutathione and ascorbic acid treatment in helping plants to overcome aluminum stress conditions.


Abstract The Flux-Adjusting Surface Data Assimilation System (FASDAS) uses the surface observational analysis to directly assimilate surface layer temperature and water vapor mixing ratio and to indirectly assimilate soil moisture and soil temperature in numerical model predictions. Both soil moisture and soil temperature are important variables in the development of deep convection. In this study, FASDAS coupled within the fifth-generation Pennsylvania State University–NCAR Mesoscale Model (MM5) was used to study convective initiation over the International H2O Project (IHOP_2002) region, utilizing the analyzed surface observations collected during IHOP_2002. Two 72-h numerical simulations were performed. A control simulation was run that assimilated all available IHOP_2002 measurements into the standard MM5 four-dimensional data assimilation. An experimental simulation was also performed that assimilated all available IHOP_2002 measurements into the FASDAS version of the MM5, where surface observations ...


Abstract To determine optimal gestational weight gain (GWG) for the Chinese population. Live singleton deliveries at the largest maternal & childcare hospital in northwest China from 2010 to 2012 were analyzed retrospectively. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was conducted to determine the lowest aggregated risk of interested perinatal outcomes based on Chinese adult body mass index (BMI) categories. Eight thousand eight hundred seventy enrolled parturients were divided into 4 groups according to their prepregnancy BMI: underweight (21.31%, BMI < 18.5 kg/m2), normal weight (67.81%, 18.5 kg/m2 ≤ BMI < 24 kg/m2), overweight (8.99%, 24 kg/m2 ≤ BMI < 28 kg/m2 and obese (1.89%, BMI ≥ 28 kg/m2). The optimal GWG values for the above 4 groups were 16.7 kg (GWG range, 12.0–21.5), 14.5 kg (9.5–19.5), 11.5 kg (7.0–16.5), and 8.0 kg (5.0–13.0). The rates of inadequate, optimal and excessive GWG in present study were 6.14% (545), 62.34% (5529), and 31.52% (2796) respectively, which were significantly different from those of the 2009 Institute of Medicine recommendation (χ2 = 1416.05, Pinteraction < 0.0001). Wider optimal GWG ranges than those recommended by Institute of Medicine were found in our study, and our proposed criteria seems to be practical to the Chinese population.


For most multimodal deceptive functions it is difficult to train networks with genetic algorithms. This is because a GA changes its search direction based on the building block hypothesis. For such problems, we propose a learning method of neural networks using an extended genetic algorithm with neutral mutations. Since the extended GA with neutral mutations adopts a redundant string representation, most genetic operations become neutral for an objective function. The proposed method is also an effective approach to nonstationary classification problems. It is observed that it overcomes the difficulty by the emergent property of finding deceptive hyperplanes and escaping the population from them by using the large genetic transitions to their complements. The learning ability of the proposed method is examined successfully with an ill-posed medical diagnostic system for hepatobiliary disorders.


household indicators including hygienic practices, bednet use, breastfeeding, micronutrient consumption, tobacco and alcohol use, sexual practices, domestic violence, education, exposure to mass media, knowledge of and attitudes to HIV-AIDS, and status of women (household decision-making, freedom of movement, other decision-making), and status of orphans. What did the Reaching the Poor studies find? The emphasis was on demonstrating the research method rather than on guidance applicable to only a few countries and topics. However, the overall conclusion was that "much better distributional performance on the part of health, nutrition and populations programs is possible." The three studies of nutrition programs are all from Latin America. In Argentina, the incidence changes resulting from public health and nutrition programs in the five years of the study favored the "nonpoor." In Brazil, health coverage was lower among the poor for the two universal programs studied, immunization and antenatal care. The recommendations included an increase in the number of and access to service units, improved access to referral services, increased monitoring and evaluation, and feedback of the results. In Peru, the main problem was reaching the poor with nutrition programs, but "further research is definitely needed before any action is taken." These studies provide insights into how well largescale nutrition and health programs reach the poor, but improving their targeting will not be easy. A general conclusion is that better approaches to service delivery are needed if the poor are to be reached effectively. Some health workers will be interested in applying the methodology, and many will benefit from exploring this wealth of program data for application to their own national nutrition and other health programs.


Education is a mean of empowerment for a nation, and the Palestinian nation is no exception. However, since the beginning of colonization in 1948 until today, Palestinian nation has experienced a crisis in education, and the main victims are children. One of the international organizations working to help children victims of conflicts and disasters worldwide is UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund). In this article, the author analyzes the role of UNICEF in resolving the Palestinian education crisis using a postcolonialism approach, specifically Spivak's subaltern concept. The findings of this research are that UNICEF -as a party that voices subalterns- tends to bring their narratives and interests so that the programs they implement align with these interests. As a result, the educational crisis in Palestine continues to occur along with the ongoing occupation of the nation.


Objective: Chrysin, a flavonoid, obtained from honey has shown to possess various pharmacological activities such as anti-oxidant, anti-apoptotic, anti-fibrotic and anti-inflammatory. Isoproterenol (ISO) induced cardiac hypertrophy involve development of oxidative stress, inflammation and fibrosis in the rats. On this basis, the present study was designed to investigate the effect of chrysin in ISO-induced cardiac hypertrophy in rats. Design and method: Male albino Wistar rats were divided into seven groups (n = 6): Normal, ISO-control and chrysin treatment groups (15, 30 and 60 mg/kg; p.o.), chrysin per se (60 mg/kg; p.o.) and combination group (chrysin 60 mg/kg; p.o. + losartan 10 mg/kg; p.o.). Chrysin was administered for the period of 28 days. Hypertrophy in all groups were induced by administration of ISO at the dose of 3 mg/kg; s.c. other than normal and per se groups. On 29th day, rats were anaesthetised, hemodynamic parameters were measured, blood was withdrawn and heart was excised. Heart was stored for the estimation of biochemical, histopathological, ultrastructural, and molecular studies. Results: Chrysin treatment for 28 days significantly improved heart to body weight ratio, normalized hemodynamic parameters, strengthen antioxidant parameters, prevented release of cardiac injury markers and attenuated pathological changes. In addition, it also reduced inflammation (decreased TNF-α, IL-6, pNF-κB/NF-κB ratio), apoptosis (increased Bcl-2 and decreased Bax, caspase-3 and PARP) and fibrosis (decreased TGF-β;/Smad) in ISO-induced hypertrophic rats. Furthermore, it also regulated the expression of various signaling pathways (MAPK, Nrf2/HO-1). All these changes were comparable to the losartan treatment group. Conclusion: Thus, chrysin pre-treatment prevented oxidative stress, inflammation, apoptosis and fibrosis in rats via alteration of various pathways. Hence, chrysin could be further studied for treatment of cardiac hypertrophy.


With the advance in other branches of medicine in the past few years, otology and laryngology with their allied branches have fully kept pace. The otologist has made himself not only master of the indication pointing toward the involvement of disease in the adjoining sinuses, and in the cranial cavity, but the technics of operative procedure have been fully mastered, so that what was formerly done occasionally by the general surgeon, or more frequently was entirely unrecognized, is now promptly discovered and attended to by him. In laryngology, intubation of a gradual nature by Schroter's tubes, or the O'Dwyer tube, has taken the place of tracheotomy in acute stenoses, while in the more chronic forms both tracheotomy and intubation may be required. In cases where a preliminary tracheotomy has been performed, the retention of the intubation-tube has been found to be frequently impossible. For such cases the ingenuity of Dr.


With the development of wireless communication technology, the application of the physical layer key generation method based on channel characteristics is becoming more and more widespread. In this method, the selection of quantization algorithm in the quantization stage is particularly important. The poor performance of the initial key will affect the efficiency of key reconciliation, and even cause the failure of the whole key generation method. In the existing quantization algorithms, the quantization level and guard interval are fixed, so the performance of the initial key cannot always be optimized in the face of complex and changeable communication environment. Aiming at the above problems, this paper combines the adaptive adjustment of quantization level and guard interval effectively on the basis of existing multi-bit quantization algorithm. This method continues the method of deleting eigenvalues by index value in multi-bit quantization algorithm, which improves the consistency of initial key. Based on information theory, this method selects optimal quantization level on the premise that the initial key is theoretically error-free under different SNR. This method sets the guard interval based on the average error probability of the eigenvalue and the quantization level, which solves the problem of deleting too many eigenvalues when the SNR is high in the method of setting fixed guard interval. Simulation results show that this method is feasible.


Ultrasonic-assisted extraction was evaluated more effective alternative to conventional maceration extraction method for the extraction of silymarin from Silybum marianum (L.) seeds. Silybum marianum (L.) seeds were extracted under indirect sonication (40 KHz water bath) and direct sonication (20 kHz probe) at different time intervals (15, 30 and 60 min). The ultrasonic-assisted extraction was compared with conventional maceration. Each extract was analysed using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and the concentration of silymarin present was calculated. Results showed that increasing extraction time, increased silymarin content using all extraction methods under study. Direct sonication showed better extraction yields at all time intervals compared to indirect sonication and conventional maceration. The highest silymarin content (61.1 mg/10g of Silybum marianum seeds) was obtained using 20 kHz probe for 60 min extraction time.


The present study of the condensation modes in coronal cylindrical plasmas, with attention to magnetic shear effects on stability, notes that such shear is insignificant in the initiation of condensation in the case of low beta coronal plasmas. The effects of magnetic field shear, twist, and strength on condensation modes differ, depending on the wave vector. The stability of condensation modes strongly depends on the choice of equilibrium temperature and density profiles. If plasma temperature increases with twist but density does not, condensation modes are unstable for low field twist; by contrast, if plasma density increases with twist but temperature does not, condensation modes are unstable for high twist. 29 references.


Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) rich oil was obtained from blue fin tuna (Thunnus thynnus orientalis) orbital tissue with centrifugation of 12,000 rpm under vaccum . The effect of DHA rich oil (DHA content; ) on acute injury was investigated biochemically and histopathologically. Dosage of DHA rich oil on 24h before prevented significantly the increase of glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (GOT) and glutamic pyruvic transaminase (GTP) values. No necrosis of hepatocytes was observed in rat livers treated with DHA oil on 24h prior to . These results suggested that DHA oil controls the accumulation of fat in the liver and prevented the liver injury.


Fabric shape retention is a crucial property that impacts the durability and usability of fabric and which needs a convenient and accurate evaluation method. In the previous research, the automated crease recovery testing method was used to obtain fabric crease recovery information and evaluate the property of shape retention. Based on the previous research, an orthogonal test method was adopted to investigate the effect of different test parameters on the stability of shape retention detection in this paper. First, three factors, that of sample size, pressure, and pressure time, and three different levels of each factor were determined by the L9(34) orthogonal test table. Next, the fabric shape retention indexes were detected by nine different test schemes, and the comprehensive score of shape retention index standard deviation was obtained as the evaluation criterion of the orthogonal test results. Finally, the optimal test scheme was determined by visual analysis and variance analysis. The results show that the sample size has a certain effect on the stability of shape retention indexes, while the pressure time and the pressure have no significant influence. The optimal test scheme is that the sample size is 30 cm × 30 cm, the pressure time is 60 s, and the pressure is 40 N. The test result measured by the optimal test parameters reveals excellent stability when the vertex angle standard deviation is 2.0°, the height standard deviation is 0.06 cm, and the shape retention area standard deviation is 0.16 cm2. This paper provides an experimental basis for improving the accuracy of fabric shape retention evaluation method.