Eye tracking and gaze-point estimation has increasing applications in the field of human-machine interface. Although so far a number of gaze-point estimation algorithms were investigated by researchers, video-based methods can be counted as the most important and efficient category in which eye features are obtained by processing of eye images. One of the most important factors affecting on the accuracy of gaze-point estimation is high-accurate extraction of pupil boundary. In this paper, a new method based on active contours is proposed for pupil boundary extraction. Active contours are among the conventional and useful methods for image segmentation. Generally, deformable models are curves that can evolve in order to minimize the internal and external energies in image domain. The internal energy keeps the curve smooth and differentiable, while the external energy directs the curve to the desired properties. Experimental results demonstrated suitable performance of the proposed method for a number of benchmark eye-images. Also, we used our method in an eye-tracker system for pupil segmentation. Significantly good performance of that system compared to a number of other eye-trackers can be counted as another concrete evidence for high solution quality of our method.


A large amount of solid waste and breeding wastewater produced from dairy farm had caused severe environment pollution. The measures with prevention as major were suggested to reduce its environment pollution in 3 aspects of source control, earthworm-digestion application and agricultrue-animal husbandry combination and the dairy manure was processed effectively and utilized comprehensively through technical measures. This had improtant meaning for lightening feces pollution, reducing resource waste and improving ecological environment.


A system and a method for insulating a metal roof include a blanket of insulation laid over at least one purlin. A series of thermal blocks are fastened above the purlin over the blanket of insulation. Each thermal block in the series of thermal blocks has legs that pin the blanket of insulation to a top of each purlin. Gaps are defined between the legs, the gaps enabling regions between the legs wherein the blanket of insulation is only partially compressed between the purlin and an underside of each thermal block. Each thermal block can include a first end, a second end, and a first leg between the first and second ends. The first end includes slots for receiving clip legs of a first roof clip. The second end includes an abutment surface and a landing surface for receiving a next thermal block in a series of thermal blocks.


Hemoglobin β chains were isolated from both the arctic ground squirrel (Citellus parryii undulatus) and the yellow-bellied marmot (Marmota flaviventris). After various enzymatic and chemical cleavages, the primary structures of these β chains were determined. Only one sequence difference was found between the yellow-bellied marmot β chain and that of the European marmot (Marmota marmota). Ground squirrels (C. p. undulatus, Citellus townsendii, and Citellus citellus) showed more species-related differences than the marmots, with the β chain of the arctic ground squirrel differing from that of the townsend ground squirrel by four amino acid substitutions. In the amino terminal region of the β chain, a partial sequence analysis showed that Citellus tridecemlineatus was more similar to C. p. undulatus than to C. townsendii. These biochemical differences could reflect either an increased evolutionary rate of speciation in ground squirrels over that in the genus Marmota or a more recent origin of the species in...


This brief presents a convex-optimization-based real-time control allocation algorithm to optimally utilize multiple actuators on a momentum control system while explicitly considering actuator constraints. The primary objective of the allocation is to minimize torque error and improve performance when the system saturates or becomes singular. As a secondary objective, internal bearing and gear friction are exploited to reduce power usage without the need for accurate friction models. The algorithm exploits the fact that redundant control moment gyroscopes (CMGs) and the rotors of reaction wheel assemblies (RWAs) have nonsingleton minimum torque error solutions. Thus, friction in the rotors and gimbals of the CMG and RWA can be used to find a minimum power solution among the set of minimum torque error solutions. The convex optimization framework enables real-time implementable algorithms, which fully utilize control authority without requiring tuning for changes in the number or the configuration of actuators.


In this article my aim is to consider some of the processes involved in the emergence of the Kabbalah in Spain, paying special attention to the dynamics behind the relationships between the different types of elites and their respective mentalities, forms of expression, and creativity. A very elitistic type of lore in general, the medieval Kabbalah as it flourished in Spain, is analysed not only by examining the evolution of its ideas, the nature of its ideals, the mystical experiences which nurtured them, and its literary genres or its reception in wider circles, but also the affinity between its emergence and its subsequent dissemination, and the nature of the elites that contributed to these processes. In the following, the term elite assumes the idea of the superiority of some authors, either organized or not, when compared to the larger audience for which those authors, described as part of an elite, were writing.


The invention relates to the field of computer scrambling coding theory and communication, and provides a multiparameter three-dimensional digital encryption method, which includes the following steps: based on original data in a computer storage and according to the arbitrary carry number and integer computational formula, a plurality of encryption keys of original data can be obtained through the FPGA, then the original data can be stored in a three-dimensional coordinate enciphered data represented by encryption keys, and besides an encryption key and original data storage sequence linear list is formed and communicated with enciphered data through a network, so that the data encryption is realized. The encryption method adopts a simple computational formula, has many encryption parameters and great difficulty in decryption, and overcomes the deficiencies that the former asymmetric encryption computational formula is complex, is limited to word length and causes high possibility of forming decimals as no decimal is formed in the calculating parameters.


Vector-boson fusion (VBF) is a clean probe of the electroweak-symmetry breaking (EWSB), which inevitably suffers from some level of contamination due to the gluon fusion (ggF). In addition to the jet variables used in the current experimental analysis, we analyze a few more jet-shape variables defined by the girth and integrated jet-shape. Taking $H\to W W^* \to e \nu \mu \nu$ and $H \to \gamma\gamma$ as examples, we perform the analysis with a new technique of 2-step boosted-decision-tree method, which significantly reduces the contamination of the ggF in the VBF sample, thus, providing a clean environment in probing the EWSB sector.


The solubilities of dioxopromethazine hydrochloride (DPZ) in water, acetic acid, ethanol, methanol, N,N-dimethylformamide, N-methyl ketopyrrolidide, and acetone between (278 and 328) K were measured using a laser monitoring observation technique. Results of these measurements were correlated with a semiempirical equation. For seven solvents studied, the data are well fitted with a semiempirical equation.


The article considers personal characteristics of criminals having committed violent crimes which weren't solved. The author presents the results of a comparative analysis of moral and psychological peculiarities and characteristics of personality revealed as a result of the study of documents and conducting interviews.


The spiraling whitefly Aleurodicus disperses Russell, is a new invasive pest in Hainan Island. Active substances were extracted from 6 plants, Catharanthus roseus, Wedelia chinensis, Mimosa pudica, Eupatorium catarium, Semen Ricini and Bougainvillea spectabilis, by ultrasonic extraction, and tested the bioactivity to the adults and larvae of spiraling whitefly. The results indicated that all the extracts of 6 plants had insecticidal activity. The extracts of Catharanthus roseus showed the best activity on A. disperses and the LC50were 5.07 mg/mL and 10.02 mg/mL against adults and larvae of the spiraling whitefly.


The invention discloses a caustic solubility zein, manufacture method and the application. The zein molecule chain has aldehyde group, and the molecular weight is 100-50000. The raw material is convenient to gain, and the producing technology is easy. The distilled residue could be used as forage. It has high social benefits and social benefits.


There has been an intensification of student protests around the world addressing issues of racial exclusion and racialised hierarchy within the university, including its teaching and research practices. These movements point to urgent concerns about what and how we teach and research, and how the resources of universities might be used to support the amelioration of injustice rather than its reproduction. This short piece focuses on the curriculum and points to actions that we can take to build resources for a more dynamic and adequate curriculum within our universities. In particular, it discusses one collaborative initiative that all the authors have been involved in, the website Global Social Theory. This site provides resources for the diversification and expansion of the curriculum for those teaching and studying social theory.


To examine the effect of flexibility skills training on success in conversation, a single-subjects design with repeated measures across subjects was implemented. The findings support the predictions that, for individuals with chronic aphasia, the use of exercises to enhance cognitive flexibility would (1) improve objective measures of problem solving ability and (2) lead to more functional communication. Following intervention for cognitive flexibility, subjects' spontaneous attempts to repair communication breakdowns increased by 40 to 100% in two distinct communication tasks for 75% of participants. Although severity of aphasia did not change, objective change in cognitive flexibility skill following intervention was evidenced.


Turbulence can significantly accelerate the growth of dust grains by accretion of molecules. For dust dynamically coupled to the gas, the growth rate scales with the square of the Mach number, which means that the growth time-scale can easily be reduced by more than an order of magnitude. The limiting time-scale is therefore rather the rate of molecular cloud formation, which means that dust production in the interstellar medium can rapidly reach the levels needed to explain the dust masses observed at high redshifts. Thus, turbulence may be the solution to the replenishment problem in models of dust evolution in high-redshift galaxies and explain the dust masses seen at $z$ = 7–8. A simple analytic galactic dust-evolution model is presented, where grain growth nicely compensates for the expected higher rate of dust destruction by supernova shocks. This model is simpler, relies on fewer assumptions and seems to yields a better fit to data derived from observations, compared to previous models of the same type.


Developing the entrepreneurship education in colleges and universities is the need of the times, by which we can improve college students' creative ability, which is to cultivate innovative talents, to build an innovation oriented by country's needs; which is to encourage and guide students to start their own businesses, to achieve high quality employment needs; which is the need to achieve higher school sustainable development and to improve the quality of personnel training. In this paper, by analyzing the status quo in colleges and universities, the writer puts forward the importance of enhancing the ability of students in business, finally puts forward effective way to enhance the ability of students in business with the help of entrepreneurship education in order to realize "the grand goal of public entrepreneurship and innovation".


In this paper, the electron transports through a three-barrier nanowire heterostructure between two reservoirs with different temperatures and chemical potentials are studied. The transport probability of electron is obtained by using the transfer matrix method,and the heat flow carried by the electrons transfer is calculated out. The performance characteristic curves of the refrigerator are plotted by numerical calculations. The influence of bias voltage and heterostructure on the performance of the refrigerator is analyzed. Especially, the effects of the height and the width of the middle barrier on transport probability, cooling rate, and colling coefficient are emphasized.


Last week, the U.S. Department of Justice ("DOJ") and Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") issued draft Vertical Merger Guidelines. Vertical mergers combine two or more companies operating at…


Introduction. T2* measurement of myocardial iron overload (MIO) is presently the gold standard for monitoring and tailoring the chelation in thalassemia patients. Native T1 mapping has been proposed also for the MIO quantification because it is known that iron can reduce native T1 values. No data are available in literature comparing T1 and T2* mapping using a segmental approach including the whole left ventricle. The goal of our study was to assess the relationship between T1 and T2* values using a segmental approach.
 Methods. 29 patients with hemoglopinopathies (18 females, 45.39±13.49 years) enrolled in the Extension Myocardial Iron Overload in Thalassemia (eMIOT) Network were considered.
 Native T1 and T2* images were acquired, respectively, with the Modified Look-Locker Inversion recovery (MOLLI) and with the multi-echo gradient-echo techniques. Three parallel short-axis views (basal, medium and apical) of the left ventricle (LV) were acquired with ECG-gating. The myocardial T1 and T2* distribution was mapped into a 16-segment LV model, according to the AHA/ACC model.
 The lower limit of normal for each segment was established as mean±2 standard deviations on data acquired on 14 healthy volunteers.
 In 25 patients also post-contrastografic images were acquired.
 Results. T1 images showed more pronounced motion artifacts and lower contrast-to-noise-ratio, determining the exclusion of 18/464 segments. No segments were excluded by T2* mapping. So, globally, 446 segmental T1 and T2* values were considered. The mean of all segmental T2* and T1 values were, respectively, 37.83±11.30 ms and 982.72±118.24 ms.
 Normal T2* and T1 values were found in 374 segments (83.9%) while 29 (6.5%) segments had pathologic T2* and T1 values. For 33 segments (7.4%) (13 patients) a pathologic T1 value was detected in presence of a normal T2* value. For 10 segments (2.2%) a pathologic T2* value was detected in presence of a normal T1 value. Out of the 9 patients with pathologic T2* values in presence of normal T1, in 7 patients post-contrastografic images were acquired; in all segments with pathologic T2* value macroscopic fibrosis by late gadolinium enhancement technique and/or microscopic fibrosis by T1 mapping were found. The relation between segmental T1 and T2* values is shown in the figure. For patients with pathologic segmental T2* values there was a linear relationship between T1 and T2* values (R=0.735, P<0.0001) while the whole data was fitted with a quadratic curve.
 Conclusion. T2* and T1 mapping showed a good correlation in identifying iron by a segmental approach. However, we found a scatter between results. In 9 patients T1 mapping was not able to detect iron probably due to the presence of macroscopic and/or microscopic fibrosis that it is known to increase the native T1 . Conversely, in 13 patients T1 mapping seems to be more sensitive than T2* (sensitive to different iron chemistry or error measurements?). Further studies on larger population and correlation with clinical outcome are need.
 Figure. Figure.

 Pepe: Chiesi Farmaceutici S.p.A., ApoPharma Inc., and Bayer: Other: No profit support.


Scene change detection (SeD) is one of several fundamental problems in the design of a video database management system (VDBMS). It is the first step towards the automatic segmentation, annotation, and indexlng of video data. Scene change detection is also used in other aspects of VDBMS, e. g. hierarchical representation and efficient browsing of the video data. In this paper, we provide a taxonomy that classifies existing SeD algorithms into three categories: full video image based, compressed video based, and model based algorithms. The capabilities and limitations of the SeD algorithms are discussed in detail. The paper also proposes a set of criteria for measuring and comparing the performance of various SCD algorithms. We conclude by discussing some important research directions. keywords: Scene Change Detection, Video Segmentation, Video Databases, Survey


Objective To assess the correlation between corticosteroid sensitivity and TCM syndromes in adult patients with Idiopathic Membranous Nephropathy(IMN).Methods A total of 200 patients with primary nephrotic syndrome(PNS)was enrolled in this study,including 38 patients of IMN in experimental group and 162 patients of other types of PNS in control group.According to the reaction of corticosteroid,experimental group was divided into experimental group A who was sensitive to corticosteroid and experimental group B who was insensitive to corticosteroid,and control group was also divided into control group A who was sensitive to corticosteroid and control group B who was insensitive to corticosteroid.All patients were differentiated according to differentiation of TCM syndromes.Results 1)the age of experimental group was higher than control group(P 0.05);the age of control group B was higher than control group A(P 0.01),and woman in control group B had a higher incidence than control group A(P 0.05);2)the experimental group had a lower corticosteroid sensitivity than control group(P 0.05);3)qi(yang) deficiency syndrome and blood stasis syndrome in experimental group had a higher incidence than control group(P 0.05),but ying deficiency syndrome and damp-heat syndrome had a lower incidence than control group(P 0.01);qi(yang) deficiency syndrome and rheumatism syndrome in control group A had a higher incidence than control group B(P 0.01~0.05),but ying deficiency syndrome had a lower incidence than control group B(P 0.05).Conclusions 1)Our study finds that the age of IMN patients was order than other types of PNS,but the age didn t lead to occurrence of steroid-resistant patients of IMN;on the contrary,among other types of PNS patients,the age of steroid-resistant patients was higher than steroid-sensitive patients;2)Our study confirms that corticosteroid sensitivity and pathologic types in PNS patients is connected,and IMN is insensitive to corticosteroid;3)In this study,we have discovered qi(yang) deficiency syndrome and blood stasis syndrome have a higher incidence in the patients of IMN than the other types of PNS.


The research experiment was designed by simulating the evaporation environment of nitrogen tetroxide(N2O4) leaking to form a liquid pool during store.The affecting factors such as wind speed,liquid pool area,temperature,humidity on the evaporation rate of N2O4 were studied.The results show that the evaporation rate of N2O4 correspondingly increases with the increase of one of these factor values.A model of the N2O4 was established to predict evaporation rate under store condition.The experiment results provide reliable data for the research on the safe treatment and personal protection of harmful gas environment formed after N2O4 propellant leaking during store.


Vaccination is the administration of a vaccine to help the immune system develop protection from disease. It is the most effective method of preventing infectious diseases. The objective of the study was to assess vaccination coverage and show the habit and reluctance of the population on vaccination. This was a prospective and descriptive study from May 18th 2017 to November 30th 2017 about evaluation of vaccination coverage for children aged 12-23 months admitted in N'Djamena Mother and Child University hospital. Patients were recruited after checking the vaccination card and getting the consent by parent. Three hundred forty five children aged 12-23 months and their parents were recruited. There were 201 boys (58.25%) for 144 girls (41.75%) giving a sex ratio of 1.4.The mothers with secondary level schooling were more represented with 34.78%. Children that had received oral polio vaccine 1 and the pentavalent1 were more represented. Long distance was the first reason of no vaccination (18.68%). The majority of mothers (53.04%) had known the five vaccination meeting and recognized by the national program of vaccination. One hundred forty six mothers (45, 21%) thought that it must happens a week after the birth. Measles was known by 34.90% of mothers. Fever was the most reported vaccine's side effects in 87.50%. Vaccination coverage in N'Djamena Mother and Child University hospital is similar to those of Africans authors.


BackgroundStaphylococcus aureus are widely considered a major factor of nosocomial and community-acquired infections. This work was aimed at determining the prevalence of methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) among apparently healthy students. MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted involving 400 nasal swab samples randomly collected from students using sterile swab sticks and processed to recover S. aureus using standard microbiological techniques. Conventional methods were used to identify the isolates and antibiotic susceptibility tests were performed using Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion method according to performance standards of Clinical and Laboratory Standard Institute guidelines. Methicillin-resistance was detected phenotypically using cefoxitin 30µg discs. Bacterial deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) extraction was done on cefoxitin-resistant staphylococci isolates only using ZymoResearch (ZR) fungal/bacterial DNA MiniPrepTM kit. A polymerase chain reaction assay targeting the 16S rRNA, nuc, and mecA genes on 1.0% agarose gel electrophoresis stained with ethidium bromide was used to identify S.aureus and detect methicillin resistance. ResultsThe overall prevalence of MRSA was 5.8% using phenotypic methods. PCR amplification of the 23 phenotypically confirmed MRSA using 16S rRNA and nuc genes identified staphylococci 23/23(100%) and S. aureus 23/23(100%) at band size 886bp and 225bp respectively. However, 16(69.6%) were positive for mecA gene at band size 532bp by PCR method. Poor level of susceptibility was recorded among the MRSA namely to erythromycin (26.6%), cloxacillin (0%), augmentin (0%), cefuroxime (0%), ceftriaxone (0%) and ceftazidime (0%). Ofloxacin was the most effective antibiotic (60.9%). ConclusionActive antimicrobial surveillance of pathogenic staphylococci is important to analyze the infections and transmission rate for possible control measures.


ABSTRACT The increasing popularity of computer-mediated support groups (CMSGs) has drawn scholarly attention in recent decades. Fifteen empirical controlled studies have been published since Rains and Young's meta-analysis, showing mixed results, with a large variation of effect sizes ranging from −.77 to 1.33 in Cohen's d. To provide a better understanding of CMSGs, the current study meta-analyzed these 15 newly published studies along with the studies included in Rains and Young's meta-analysis, and tested study design and demographic moderators that have not been examined before. In addition, the study also revisited group size as a moderator and provided updated results with a larger sample size. Theoretical and practical implications of findings are discussed.


The expanded rice husk, a low-cost and environmental friendly absorbent, was used to remove Sr2+ from the simulated radioactive wastewater. The adsorption behaviors for the radionuclide ion Sr2+ was studied, and effects of various parameters including pH, temperature, expanded rice husk dose, initial concentration of Sr2+ and adsorbed time on the removal rate of ion Sr2+ from the simulated radioactive wastewater were evaluated. Results show that Sr2+ can be successfully removed from the simulated wastewater by the expanded rice husk, and the removal rate of ion Sr2+ on the expanded rice husk achieves as high as 99.37%, which is much higher than that on activated carbon (42.50%) at optimized conditions.


objective
To explore the effect of application of cluster-based strategies on preventing the complication of fibrosclerosis of patients with systemic scleroderma.

Methods
A total of 59 patients with systemic scleroderma were randomly assigned to the experimental group (34 cases) and the control group (25 cases) during the period of hospitalization in our department. The experimental group took the cluster-based strategies after admission, including "a gymnastics", "two kinds of respiratory breathing", "three kinds of habits", "four kinds of protection" to prevent the complication of fibrosclerosis. The control group received the conventional care procedures of dermatology. The skin stiffness, joint function, Raynaud's phenomenon and swallowing function were evaluated when patients were admitted and before discharge in two groups. The length of stay between the two groups was also compared.

Results
The skin stiffness, joint function, Raynaud's phenomenon and swallowing function scored (14.74±1.33), (7.06±0.69), (0.88± 0.33), (0.54±0.21) in the experimental group, significantly better than those of the control group, (24.08± 1.12), (13.48±0.77), (1.24±0.60), (0.96±0.34),P<0.01. The length of stay in the experimental group and the control group was (23.65±5.45), (32.00±6.56) days,t=-5.340,P <0.01.

Conclusions
Application of cluster-based strategies can be effective against the fibrosclerosis damage of patients with systemic scleroderma and reduce the occurrence of complications.

Key words:
Scleroderma, systemic; Bundle of care


The authors investigated the effect of exogenous fructose-1, 6 -diphosphate (FDP) onmyocardial ATP and CP in 20 patients with prosthetic heart valve replacement during myocadium ischemia. The results show that FDP could in part store highenergy phosphate compounds, so that to ameliorate ischemia myocardium cell energy metabolism.


STD and HiV are the second most important cause of Disability Adjusted Life Years lost in women in the developing world. Reasons for thisare multiple, and include theirhigher vulnerability for STDand HIV, poor health care seeking behavior and lack of accessible and acceptable services. There is considerable synergism between family welfare services and STD programs: complications and sequelae of STD affect the reproductive tract and child health and survival; reproductive and child health and survival are the focus of family welfare programs. Family welfare services are thus well positioned to incorporate STD and HIV prevention and control measures. This is feasible, although practical and logistical problems need to be addressed. Where indicated, pilot integration projects can assess the cost-effectiveness and outcome of such programs.


anoptimum cell design without degrading theretention time. A 6F2single cell (one-cell-per-bit) operation ofthefloating Operation ofFBCandMemoryYield bodyRAM (FBRAM)issuccessfully demonstrated forthe first timewith morethan 60%yield of16Mbit areainawafer. Fig. 1showstheoperational principle oftheFBC.Data Thesignal sense margin (SSM)atactual readconditions is states arestored intheformofthefloating body potential. To found towellbackupthefunctional results. Theparasitic write data "1", byapplying ahigh voltage tothebit-line (BL), resistance inthesource anddrain formed under theFBC's holes arecreated byimpact ionization andaccumulated inthe spacers canbeoptimized formaking theSSM aslarge as floating body. Towrite data"0", byapplying a negative 8gAat±4.5o without sacrificing theretention time. voltage totheBL,holes areextracted fromthebody. The stored states canbedistinguished using MOSFET current


Summary The development of draining pavements within the laboratory of ESITC Caen had highlighted the need to quantify the contributions of the pervious surfaces to meet the expectations of local authorities and encourage the use of these techniques. This quantification work lends itself to the development of hydrological models to analyze the hydraulic behavior of pervious pavement structures, on which this article focusses, as well as their integration with urban planning. This study relies on a numerical model developed with FlexPDE and validated using both field and laboratory results. Results will show the hydrological behavior of pervious pavement structures for different contexts and designs.


Education policy at a higher education level, in Latin America, has been subjected to neoliberal policies under the principles of efficiency, effectiveness, quality and profitability. These concepts, that are ultimately business objectives, have been achieved in education policy for more than two decades in the region, commercializing every educational space, affecting all areas of political, social and cultural life. This conversion of Latin American educational system into an educational and "free competition" market has been strengthened by a "minimal" State that has caused the dismantling of public education, which operates under the slogan of rivatizing everything that can be profitable, submitting itself to the dictations of international organizations, therefore, to the dictations of commercialization. The main goal of this study is to analyze in which way neoliberal education has dominated each of the educational systems throughout Latin America. This is done through analysis and extensive documentary research, bringing up an alternative educative proposal that does not match with the mercantilist urgency of the OECD. The Bolivarian University of Venezuela makes justice to a social debt presenting a revolutionary educative model addressed to those who were excluded for many years form higher education, transforming it into a socially responsible University.


Objectives: The objectives of the study was to assess the level of work satisfaction, assess compliance of using PPE among shop assistants during COVID-19 and to find the factors influencing work satisfaction.
Methods: A quantitative approach with descriptive design was used for the study. Eighty samples were selected by using convenient sampling technique. The study was conducted in 4 districts of Kerala through online platform as well as through offline mediums.
Results: From the study, it is evident that majority of the subjects (55%) were satisfied with their work at the time of COVID-19 and more than half (55%) of the samples have enough compliance with the use of PPE and only 7.5% have less compliance with the use of PPE. Demographic variables such age, relationship status, and work experience were found to be statically significant (p<0.05) with work satisfaction, and other variables did not have a significant association.
Conclusion: This study provides a baseline for assessing the level of work satisfaction and compliance of PPE among shop assistants in selected areas. Periodic reinforcements, proper education , availability and trainings on the use of PPE can reduce the spread of Corona Virus and improve PPE compliance to an extend. Good working environment support from family and good rapport with colleagues can help to improve work satisfaction .


The Party's three central leading groups, represented by Mao ze - dong, Deng xiao -ping and Jiang ze -min respectively, always paid high attention to the ideology and politics education and put forward a series of sound theories and views in different phases of Chinese revolution and the socialist construction. It is of special practical significance for our socialist construction with Chinese characteristics to study their theories and views.


Organic light‐emitting diode (OLED) aging is the root cause for image sticking artifact and considered as the toughest problem besides the low yield problem of active‐matrix organic light‐emitting diode (AMOLED) displays. Digital driving can eliminate Mura artifact and allow a similar yield like LCD. However, it is more prone to OLED aging than analog driving, so that the lifetime will become shorter. In this paper, we pursue the approach to measure the pixel current and compensate OLED I–V drift. Information gained from electrical measurements during the lifetime of the display may be correlated to electro‐optical drift, particularly the current efficiency. The aging model has to consider the dependence of I–V drift and efficiency loss on the operation point/voltage for each subframe. Specific compensation algorithms have been developed. Two AMOLED prototypes (1.5 and 2.8 in.) were validated. Burned‐in pattern can be compensated, so the concept has been proven as effective. With the method described in this paper, digital AMOLED may reach a similar and even significantly higher lifetime than an analog AMOLED.


The present invention relates to a new structure as a double cone mixer, and preferably the production and / or processing of a polysaccharide product of cellulose base material coated with enamel according to the need related to their use. Double cone mixer, a baffle, the axial mixing, enamel, cellulose


This article applies French semiologist Roland Barthes's conceptions of sign, symbol, metaphor, and myth to Shakespeare's Richard III. The focus centers on the playwright's use of dreams and dream worlds in an exploration of visuality and in the larger project to create a national memory. Of special interest is how in one of the principal forms of mass media of the late 16th century—live drama—Shakespeare used dreams as image, and image as a prism through which to ask questions about power, vision, artifice, and illusion, and therefore reality. The playwright was self-conscious of the theater as artifice, but in that artifice he was capable of telling truths untellable beyond the theater walls in the "real world," so much so that Shakespeare, beginning with Richard III, seems to revel in visuality. This analysis is a reading of the images in Richard III, an approach that places the project into a mostly French tradition of reading and analyzing visuality in texts.


This paper uses two practice stories (included as appendices) to illustrate the significance and value of story as a reflective technique for nurses. It employs an explicit framework to draw out the importance of story-telling and suggests that stories can help nurses expose the therapeutic dimension of their work. This aspect is conceived in terms of the concept of 'therapeutic nursing'. We will draw upon the practice stories of one of the authors (Strathie), and it is that author's experience of story-telling to which reference is made. Readers are urged to read the practice stories so that they can appreciate the points made in the text of the paper.


Four studies investigated potential psycho-linguistic predictors ofLl Arabic and L2 English literacy skills amongst Arabic speaking children in different school stages in Kuwait: primary, intermediate and secondary. Word-level reading, reading comprehension and writing production measures determined literacy levels across the groups. Phonological processing skills were assessed by measures of phonological awareness, rapid naming and phonological memory, and measures of listening comprehension, morphological awareness, vocabulary and syntax were used to assess more general language skills. Backward digit span and listening span were also used to measure working memory processes. The results argued for the influence of these psycho-linguistic skills on bilingual literacy development, with measures of phonological, morphological and syntactic awareness being reliable predictors of reading comprehension in both Arabic and English. Nonword decoding and phonological awareness predicted variance in basic word-level literacy skills in both Arabic and English. Morphological awareness explained variance in reading comprehension in LI Arabic and L2 English independent from word decoding skills. Vocabulary and syntax had comparable strengths in explaining variability in reading comprehension and writing production in both languages. And L2 working memory was important for L2 reading comprehension. In addition, there were cross-language predictions: L2 listening comprehension supported Ll reading comprehension, while Ll non-word reading and syntactic ability supported L2 reading comprehension. Although some relationships seemed to be more specific to one orthography or LlIL2, there was a commonality of predictors for English and Arabic literacy skills through the four studies, which allowed models of psycho-linguistic influences on literacy development to be developed based on current perspectives on literacy acquisition. These models and newly-developed literacy measures appropriate for work with Arab bilingual children should inform future research and practice, as well as theory


We make remarks on Elfring and Lauga's [{\it Phys. Rev. Lett.} {\bf 103}, 088101 (2009)] paper. The energy dissipation or viscous dissipation plays an important role in the phase-locked state.


Setiawan H, Wardhani HAK, Kamaludin, Hutagaol RR, Afriani R. 2018. The diversity of Nepenthes at the post-mining area in Sintang District, West Kalimantan, Indonesia. Biodiversitas 19: 1820-1827. Nepenthe is a tropical pitcher plant found in Indonesian archipelago and lives in nutrient leak habitat. One of Nepenthes nutrient leak habitat commonly found in Kalimantan Island is the post-mining area. This research aimed to know the habitat condition, species composition, species richness and diversity index of Nepenthes in Post-mining area in Sintang District, West Kalimantan Province. Thirty plots, each measuring 5 x 5-meter square, were established to survey the Nepenthes diversity in five locations of the post-mining area in Sintang District. There were 910 individuals of Nepenthes found spreading in two sub-Districts and five areas. Habitat condition in the post-mining area tended to be high in light intensity and temperature but low in humidity. Five Nepenthes species were found, namely N. ampullaria, N. bicalcarata, N. gracilis, N. mirabilis, and N. rafflesiana. Four natural hybrids were also found including N. xhookeriana, N. xkuchingensis, N. xneglecta, and N. xtrichocarpa. The species richness in post-mining area were 1.25 in Danau BTN (Bank Tabungan Negara/State Savings Bank) 0.95 in Dusun Kerangas, 0.58 in Sungai Ana Village, 0.21 in Jerora 1 and 0.20 in Danau Baning. The diversity index in Danau BTN, Dusun Kerangas, Sungai Ana, Jerora 1 and Danau Banning area were of low levels, respectively, 1.66, 1.3, 1.0, 0.64, and 0.68. Cluster analysis of species richness, diversity index, and abiotic factors showed that Danau Baning-Sungai Ana-Jerora 1 was grouped in the same cluster while Danau BTN and Dusun Kerangas were in a separate cluster.


ABSTRACT This paper addresses the international situation regarding oil spill preparedness drills or exercises. It attempts to cover the requirements of planning, developing, and managing exercises...


Peer-to-Peer based near-live video streaming is becoming more and more popular with users of fixed-line broadband network access, but it is mostly unavailable to mobile users, as cellular networks, such as GPRS/UMTS, cannot meet the bitrate requirements, while other wireless technologies, such as WLAN, may be fast enough but cover only very limited areas. However, there is a small but important set of scenarios, where several mobile users in close physical proximity are interested in retrieving the same content. We propose a P2P-TV system that enables them to retrieve video chunks in a cooperative way. The coordinated and efficient usage of all wireless resources available to a group of mobile hosts is the key to enable P2P-TV in mobile environments. This paper introduces our general concept. Simulation based studies are presented to assess different resource allocation strategies and to demonstrate the feasibility of our approach for delivering near-live TV in resource constrained mobile environments.


When Alexander von Humboldt reached the village of Calpi in the Andes on 22 June 1802, he was greeted with reverence and enthusiasm. Triumphal arches adorned with cotton, cloth, and silver decorated his path. The natives performed a dance in festive dress. A singer praised the explorer's expedition, which had departed three years earlier from the Spanish port of La Coruna. Like Odysseus on the isle of the Phaeacians, the traveler listened to a local rhapsodist singing about his heroic deeds. Before his adventure ended, it had already spun a popular myth.

This episode, which Humboldt recorded in his diary, occurred at a significant moment. One day later, the "Second Discoverer of America" rose to even greater fame on an excursion marking in more ways than one the climax of his enterprise. Humboldt set out to climb Chimborazo (6,310 m/20,702 ft.), the mountain then thought to be the highest in the world. He was accompanied by the French botanist Aime Bonpland (1773–1858) and the Creole nobleman and future activist Carlos Montufar (1780–1816), as well as native guides and assistants. They climbed to heights never reached before, setting a new record and catapulting Humboldt to fame on both continents.


In the present study, we identified free amino acid (FAA) contents and chemical composition in four populations of S almo trutta macrostigma living in Mediterranean region of Turkey. In addition, taste impacts of FAAs were evaluated by taste active values. Moisture, protein, fat and ash content were found in the ranges of 75.49 - 79.59 %, 16.94 19.97 %, 1.58 - 3.75 % and, 1.39 - 1.56 %, respectively. While the significant difference (p .05 ) differences in ash content was determined. Thirteen FAAs were identified from the muscle tissue of S. trutta macrostigma by HPLC. The Glycine was found predominant as followed by methionine, proline, and glutamic acid. Also, the amount of non-essential free amino acids in S. trutta macrostigma muscle were significantly ( p<.05 ) higher than the essential amino acids. Glutamic acid, methionin, glycine, aspartic acid and lysine were of high taste activity values (greater than one), they had strong taste impacts on the mountain trout meat flavour.


Nutritional assessment in older people to detect malnutrition or risk of malnutrition is essential to avoid adverse nutrition-related outcomes. Poor nutritional status appears to be a major contributing factor for poor prognosis in malnourished individuals. Nowadays, nutritional assessment is considered to be one of the domains which should be evaluated in comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA). CGA is a comprehensive assessment tool with the capacity of detecting impairments in older people and, at the same time, suggest interventions. Although many assessment tools are proposed, those used in CGA are not widely agreed. After 20 years of clinical practice and research, the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) seems to be the tool most widely accepted by health carers and patients for the assessment of nutritional impairment in CGA.


Traditionally, real-time video compression due to its enormous computing requirement has been done using the special-purpose hardware. On the other hand, software-based solutions have been primarily intended for non real-time applications. In this paper, we present a portable and scalable implementation of the MPEG-2 video encoder, using parallel processing, that can be used for both real-time and non real-time applications. The portability allows it to run on a wide variety of platforms including a number of high-performance parallel computers as well as networks of workstations. The scalability allows the user to control the parallelism enabling it to run on a few fast workstations using a coarse granularity or on a massively parallel architecture using a fine grained granularity. An important feature of our implementation is that we use a data-parallel approach and exploit parallelism within each frame, unlike previous parallel video coding implementations. This makes our encoder suitable for real-time applications where the complete video sequence may not be present on the disk and may become available on a frame-by-frame basis with time. The encoder also provides control over various parameters such as number of processors, size of motion-search window, buffer management and bit rate. Our implementation is flexible and allows inclusion of fast and new algorithms for different stages of the encoder, replacing current algorithms. Experimental results have been conducted on two parallel processing systems: the Intel Paragon XP/S and the Intel iPSC/860 hypercube. Networks of workstations used include the SUN and HP, connected via the Ethernet and FDDI, respectively. Comparisons of execution times, speedups as well as frame encoding rates on these systems are provided. Using maximum parallelism by dividing one block per processor, an encoding rate higher than real- time (30 frames/sec) has been achieved on the Intel Paragon.


A 19‐year‐old white woman with urticaria, arthralgias, and hepatitis B–associated antigen in her serum developed a progressive encephalopathy despite only mild hepatic dysfunction. The patient's serum at 4°C produced a cryoprecipitate containing the hepatitis B–associated antigen and its antibody. Serum complement levels were borderline low. At autopsy, gross and histological examination of the brain revealed only mild residual cerebral edema. Indirect immunofluorescent studies of the cerebral cortex and choroid plexus showed no evidence of immune complex deposition. The patient's progressive encephalopathy may have been related to the presence of cryoprecipitable hepatitis B antigen, a relationship not previously reported.


Image acquisition devices which can get infrared image of solar module is designed using the principles of the semiconductor's electroluminescence, image processing is applied to the detection system which can detect the detections automatically including black pieces, fragmentation , broken grid ,crack and so on.The defects of the infrared image are classified and the types and location are marked out after filtering, single-chip division, gray-scale transformation, binary, feature description and extraction,finally the results are feeded back to the database. This method increases the defect types (such as crack) which the manual is difficult to identify, it can eliminate human errors which manual testing will be possible to produce and reduce labor costs, reject rates , futher it can improve the detection efficiency and productivity of production line.


: The use of artificial neural network to compose music is a new computer composition method proposed in recent years. The advantage of this method is that it can process large-scale data in a relatively short time, greatly reducing the preparation work before computer composition and improving composition efficiency. However, there are still many problems that have not made obvious breakthroughs. For example, the yield is low, and a considerable proportion of the generated works have no appreciation value. They are completely random patchwork of notes and chords in the time dimension; the music produced is not pleasant, the melody is too simple and so on. In order to make the songs generated by the composition system more in line with the rules of music theory, this paper proposes a music generation model ACMN (Actor-Critic Music Network) based on the policy gradient method, which is characterized by the combination of reinforcement learning technology and neural network. Experiments show that, compared with the composition model without reinforcement learning technology, the ACMN model has more outstanding performance in terms of repetition rate and pleasantness.


In communication a great deal of meaning is exchanged through body language, including gaze, posture, hand gestures and body movements. Body language is largely culture-specific, and rests, for its comprehension, on people's sharing socio-cultural and linguistic norms. In cross-cultural communication, L2 speakers' use of body language may convey meaning that is not understood or misinterpreted by the interlocutors, affecting the pragmatics of communication. In spite of its importance for cross-cultural communication, body language is neglected in ESL/EFL teaching. This paper argues that the study of body language should be integrated in the syllabus of ESL/EFL teaching and learning. This is done by: 1) reviewing literature showing the tight connection between language, speech and gestures and the problems that might arise in cross-cultural communication when speakers use and interpret body language according to different conventions; 2) reporting the data from two pilot studies showing that L2 learners transfer L1 gestures to the L2 and that these are not understood by native L2 speakers; 3) reporting an experience teaching body language in an ESL/EFL classroom. The paper suggests that in multicultural ESL/EFL classes teaching body language should be aimed primarily at raising the students' awareness of the differences existing across cultures.


In this study, apple images taken with near-infrared (NIR) cameras were classified as bruised and healthy objects using iterative thresholding approaches based on artificial bee colony (ABC) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithms supported by a convolutional neural network (CNN) deep learning model. The proposed model includes the following stages: image acquisition, image preprocessing, the segmentation of anatomical regions (stemcalyx regions) to be discarded, the detection of bruised areas on the apple images, and their classification. For this aim, by using the image acquisition platform with a NIR camera, a total of 1200 images at 6 different angles were taken from 200 apples, of which 100 were bruised and 100 healthy. In order to increase the success of detection and classification, adaptive histogram equalization (AHE), edge detection, and morphological operations were applied to the images in the preprocessing stage, respectively. First, in order to segment and discard the stem-calyx anatomical regions of the images, the CNN model was trained by using the preprocessed images. Second, the threshold value was determined by means of the ABC/PSO-based iterative thresholding approach on the images whose stem-calyx regions were discarded, and then the bruised areas on the images with no stem-calyx anatomical regions were detected by using the determined threshold value. Finally, the apple images were classified as bruised and healthy objects by using this threshold value. In order to illustrate the classification success of our approaches, the same classification experiments were reimplemented by directly using the CNN model alone on the preprocessed images with no ABC and PSO approaches. Experimental results showed that the hybrid model proposed in this paper was more successful than the CNN model in which ABCand PSO-based iterative threshold approaches were not used.


Nowadays organizations all over the world are dependent on mining gigantic datasets. These datasets typically contain delicate individual information, which inevitably gets exposed to different parties. Consequently privacy issues are constantly under the limelight and the public dissatisfaction may well threaten the exercise of data mining and all its benefits. It is thus of great importance to develop adequate security techniques for protecting confidentiality of individual values used for data mining.In the last 30 years several techniques have been proposed in the context of statistical databases. It was noticed early on that non-careful noise addition introduces biases to statistical parameters, including means, variances and covariances, and sophisticated techniques that avoid biases were developed. However, when these techniques are applied in the context of data mining, they do not appear to be bias-free. Wilson and Rosen (2002) suggest the existence of Type Data Mining (DM) bias that relates to the loss of underlying patters in the database and cannot be eliminated by preserving simple statistical parameters. In this paper we propose a noise addition framework specifically tailored towards the classification task in data mining. It builds upon some previous techniques that introduce noise to the class and the so-called innocent attributes. Our framework extends these techniques to the influential attributes; additionally, it caters for the preservation of the variances and covariances, along with patterns, thus making the perturbed dataset useful for both statistical and data mining purposes. Our preliminary experimental results indicate that data patterns are highly preserved suggesting the non-existence of DM bias.


The central line-depths of absorption lines depend upon stellar temperature. By dividing the central line-depth of such a line with a central line-depth independent of temperature, a thermometer of ...


The article investigates glass formation and its properties in a three-component system using mathematical modeling. The authors have applied the method of mathematical planning to increase the efficiency of research and to establish the dependences of glass properties on the composition. The authors propose a mathematical model of structure relaxation and two-dimensional stress field in grade glass products, considering the temperature dependencies of glass viscosity of a given chemical composition.


: Alarm systems are a great ally in monitoring industrial processes. They serve to alert operators about deviations from the specifications. The techniques most used in the tuning of alarms make use of several parameters and specific knowledge about the process to detect such failures. A new approach making use of machine learning methods to detect patterns in the process that should be pointed as deviation is described in this paper. For this, a model is trained to determine the state of the system by making use of process data and state feedback. The proposed approach is applied to a case study of monitoring a simulated industrial process, the Tennessee Eastman Process.


Accurate location system using electromagnetic sensors is one of the effective solutions being used in indoor position applications. Non-linearity of data have important influence on accuracy of location system. We proposed the mapping algorithm that calibrates data received by EM sensors and realized high accuracy around 1cm. In order to quantify performance of mapping algorithm to real time EM recorded data, we defined the point to point error distance, its distribution at different heights/radius and adopt Feature Selective Validation method to test the performance of the algorithm. We presents the effectiveness of calibration algorithm in indoor positioning system based on EM sensors by the interpretation of FSV results.


The fundamental aircraft engine performance design drivers of propulsive efficiency, cycle thermal efficiency, and engine thrust to weight, along with underlying operational considerations of safety, reliability, and cost, have produced today's state-of-the-art high bypass ratio turbofan found on virtually all commercial aircraft. These same engine performance parameters will continue to drive future aircraft propulsion system design, but will likely require significant changes in engine architecture and engine/airframe integration. Concepts such as the open rotor, distributed propulsion, electric and hybrid gas turbine/electric propulsion, and boundary layer ingestion could significantly alter the way future aircraft appear to the average passenger. Less visibly, alternate engine thermodynamic cycles, such as pressure gain combustion, alternative fuels, and real-time engine health and performance monitoring may also work to improve engine performance. This chapter examines the role that various advanced propulsion concepts may have in continuing the steady improvement in aircraft propulsion performance that has taken place over the last 100+ years and how these concepts can contribute to reducing the environmental impact of aviation.

Keywords:

boundary layer ingestion;
detonation;
distributed propulsion;
electric propulsion;
gas turbine;
intercooling;
jet engine;
open rotor;
precooling;
pressure gain combustion;
propulsion;
propulsive efficiency;
pulsed combustion;
recuperation;
smart engines;
thermal efficiency;
turbofan;
turbojet;
turboprop


In this study, the mechanical properties of a Ti thin film are measured by a bulge test. In the bulge test, uniform pressure is applied to one side of the film. Measurement of the membrane deflection as a function of the applied pressure allows one to determine the mechanical properties of the film. Ti thin films with thicknesses of 1.0, 1.5, and were deposited on a Si wafer by using an RF magnetron sputtering system. These specimens were annealed at for 150, 300, and 600 s to investigate the effect of temperature on the yield stress and mechanical properties of the Ti films. The elastic modulus, residual stress, and yield stress of these membranes are measured by a bulge test. The experimental results suggest that the yield stress is sensitive to the film thickness and annealing time.


This paper explores on methodology approach applied for explaining assessment of mathematics to excavate assessment practices of students and teachers at secondary level in the context of Nepal. The paper uncovers the methodology section of a dissertation entitled "Assessment in Secondary Level Mathematics: A Narrative Inquiry" submitted to Nepal Open University to acquire a degree of masters of Philosophy in Mathematics Education. I portray the related phenomena to my research questions from ontological, epistemological, axiological, and rhetorical considerations. Then I describe methodological considerations related to research paradigm, research design, and sampling of data. Furthermore, I explore the data collection and analysis of my study, dividing it into different subheadings. I have thrown light on quality standards and ethical consideration followed in the research. The paper further excavates the data analysis, data interpretation of the methodology section of the dissertation. Finally, the paper concludes with discussion and conclusions about the applied methodology to conduct the study on mathematics assessment at secondary level in Nepal.


The speeder of internal feedback coiling induction motor is introduced emphatically. The equipment is a new adjusting-speed system, which has applied modem power electronics technique to control internal feedback coiling induction motor. It has outstanding economic returns and soctal effect. At same time an example of the speeder lor large-scale 2000kW coiling induction molor is provided.


This research was aimed to investigate abandoned railroads and their recycle policies around domestic and abroad case studies. Moonjeong-dong, Seoul(문정동, 서울시) and Kwonson-gu, Suwon(권선구, 수원시) were selected for the domestic cases. W&OD Railroad Park, Minuteman Biketrail, Perkiomen Trail(USA) were selected for the abroad cases. The differences between domestic and abroad were the network of the railroad with trails. In the domestic cases, they have many kinds of recycle plans such as the art-wall, landscaped plaza, water landscape and tree belt but they don`t have any network plan to connect other urban open spaces. Instead of gorgeous landscape plans, abroad cases have a network of various kinds of open space and traffic facilities. Those differences should be thought to be come from region`s size and railroad`s length. But we have to think about the importance of network system with other urban open spaces.


Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs) are expected to disrupt the industry similar to what Integrated Circuits did in the electronics industry by shrinking size, weight and cost while increasing performance at the same time. Many optical functions can be integrated in a PIC ranging from a simple beam combiner to a fully integrated optical frequency comb. LIGENTEC's technology addresses today's challenges of Integrated photonics with low propagation loss, ease of optical coupling and short development cycles. We will present our novel SiN platform for PICs, it's main functional building blocks and their performance, show effective ways for optical I/Os and a pathway to heterogeneous integration of active elements. Finally, we will discuss application examples in LiDAR, Quantum Computing and RF-optical links in Metrology.


Orthotic devices are currently designed to fit a range of patients and therefore they do not provide individualized comfort and function. Using RP methods it is possible to make individual orthosis devices tailored to the individual patient and the disease also characterized by the modern design. A computerized technique for fabricating patient-specific orthotic devices has the potential to provide excellent comfort and allow for changes in the standard design to meet the specific needs of each patient. Reverse engineering methods are combined with rapid prototyping to create patient-specific orthoses. A novel process was engineered to utilize patient-specific surface data of the patient anatomy as a digital input, manipulate the surface data to an optimal form using CAD software, processing also for modern looking and check strength and then processing in rapid prototyping machine for fabrication. The article describes the utilization of rapid prototyping (RP), 3D scanning and software tools for the orthosis design process. This study shows the key points of the design and manufacturing methodology. The approach uses specific technologies, such as 3D digitizing, reverse engineering and polygonal-surface software, SLS RP and 3D printing.


Historically, several human embryo collections have been created. The Carnegie Collection, the Blechschmidt Collection, the Hinrichsen Collection and the Kyoto Collection are reported as the four famous compendiums of human embryos in the world. The Carnegie Collection is the oldest and was established as early as 1887, while the Blechschmidt collection was created in 1948 by the Gottingen anatomist Erich Blechschmidt, well known for its contribution to the development of novel methods of reconstruction. In 1961, the Kyoto Collection of Human Embryos was instigated, followed by the Hinrichsen Collection in 1969. While the Blechschmidt and the Hinrichsen collections are described in Chapter 2, here, we focus on the Carnegie and the Kyoto Collections.


We experimentally and by means of Monte Carlo simulations investigated the origin of the visible signal responsible for proton therapy dose measurement using bare plastic optical fibers. Experimentally, the fiber optic probe, embedded in tissue-mimicking plastics, was irradiated with a proton beam produced by a proton therapy cyclotron and the luminescence spectroscopy was performed by a CCD-coupled spectrograph to analyze the emission spectrum of the fiber tip. Monte Carlo simulations were performed using FLUKA Monte Carlo code to stochastically simulate radiation transport, ionizing radiation dose deposition, and optical emission of Čerenkov radiation. The spectroscopic study of proton-irradiated plastic fibers showed a continuous spectrum with shape different from that of Čerenkov radiation. The Monte Carlo simulations confirmed that the amount of the generated Čerenkov light does not follow the radiation absorbed dose in a medium. Our results show that the origin of the optical signal responsible for the proton dose measurement using bare optical fibers is not Čerenkov radiation. Our results point toward a connection between the scintillation of the plastic material of the fiber and the origin of the signal responsible for dose measurement.


Even though the attorney-client privilege's long history dates back to Roman law,' very few courts have addressed the use of an attorneyclient privilege by governments, their agents, or their attorneys.2 In fact, most of the rulings concerning the government attorney-client privilege have occurred in the past ten years. Generally, these courts have concluded that a government agent may claim an evidentiary privilege to protect the communication of confidential information to government lawyers, so long as that communication is made for the purpose of obtaining legal advice. One important issue surrounding the government attorney-client privilege remains unsettled: its assertion by a state government agent before a federal grand jury. In 2005, the Second Circuit held in In re: Grand Jury Investigation4 (John Doe) that a state government lawyer may assert her state's attorney-client privilege before a federal grand jury investigating state corruption.5 The court concluded that "if anything, the traditional rationale for the [attorney-client] privilege applies with special force in the government context."6 This Second Circuit decision is in direct conflict with a prior Seventh Circuit decision. In In re: A Witness Before the Special Grand Jury 2000-2' (Witness), the Seventh Circuit held that a state official may not assert a state government attorney-client privilege before a federal grand jury." The


This research is intended to help prospective Korea teachers to strengthen their abilities to lead Korean classrooms designed to improve learners' communication skills. To this end, it finds out challenges by analyzing lesson plans made by prospective teachers in a formal education course and examines tasks to improve prospective Korean teachers' capability of organizing and operating Korean classes by each teaching step. Firstly, 'Warm-Up' requires prospective Korea teachers to check objectives of last class from learners and suggest objectives of this class to students to attract their attention and interest. Secondly, 'Presentation' requires appropriate explanation based on accurate information about meaning and type of target items. Thirdly, 'Practice' requires prospective Korea teachers to organize activities which help learners to improve accuracy of target items and attempt to speak as much as possible and encourage learners. Fourthly, in 'Use', prospective Korea teachers must organize practical tasks to improve learners' communication skills and check learners' task implementation processes and results focusing on fluency. Last but not least, in 'Follow-Up', prospective Korea teachers must check learning contents from learners, give out homework and introduce the next class. This research examines lesson plans based on relationship to teaching objectives and appropriateness, usability and significance of teaching contents and learners-oriented lessons. Moreover, beyond the existing discussions about lesson plans focusing on necessity and writing methods, this research aims to suggest effective methods to improve lesson plans by concentrating on common problems which prospective teachers easily make mistakes in creating lesson plans.


Ageing increases chaos and entropy and ultimately leads to the death of living organisms. Nevertheless, single gene mutations substantially alter lifespan, revealing that ageing is subject to genetic control. In higher plants, ageing is most obviously manifested by the senescence of leaves, and recent molecular genetic studies, in particular the isolation of Arabidopsis mutants with altered leaf senescence, have greatly advanced our understanding of ageing regulation in plants. This paper provides an overview of the identified genes and their respective molecular pathways. Hormones, metabolic flux, reactive oxygen species and protein degradation are prominent strategies employed by plants to control leaf senescence. Plants predominantly use similar ageing-regulating strategies as yeast and animals but have evolved different molecular pathways. The senescence window concept is proposed to describe the age-dependent actions of the regulatory genes. It is concluded that the similarities and differences in ageing between plants and other organisms are deeply rooted in the evolution of ageing and we hope to stimulate discussion and research in the fascinating field of leaf senescence.


We consider random patterns on the N-sphere which are uniformly distributed with the exception of a single symmetry-breaking orientation, along which they are Gaussian distributed. The unsupervised recognition of this orientation by different learning rules is studied in the large-N limit using the replica method. The model is simple enough to be analytically tractable and rich enough to exhibit most of the phenomena observed with other pattern distributions. A learning algorithm based on the minimization of a cost function is identified which reaches the upper theoretical limit imposed by the optimal (Bayes-) learning scenario. An implementation of this algorithm is proposed and tested numerically.


In this paper, the traditional parallel query processing algorithm is analysed, according to the features of the object oriented database and its query, based on the stage by stage executing strategy , the class based hybrid data placement strategy and the mark based data operation parallel executing algorithm, the semi join based parallel query processing algorithm is proposed, the correctness of the algorithm is proved, and the performance evaluation results of the algorithm are given.


The establishment of communism in Romania could not be achieved only through the use of armed force. Aware of this, the Central leaders of the Communist Party tried to impose direct control all over the country, replacing all officials with the people trained in new schools of the Communist Party. The way chosen to put these ideas in practice came from Moscow and consisted of repeatedly performing extensive administrative and territorial reforms. The 1956 territorial reform, unlike the previous two from 1950 and 1952, was initiated by leaders from Bucharest and aimed at reaching their long-term goals, ideas which gradually detached Romania from the Soviet sphere of influence.


Objectives: Articular cartilage health is an important issue following primary anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR). It is not clear what risk factors at the time of primary reconstruction affect future articular cartilage health. The purpose of this study was to examine risk factors affecting chondral surface change in a cohort from the time of primary ACLR to revision ACLR. Methods: Subjects who had both primary and revision data contained in the MOON and MARS registries were included. Data included chondral surface status (grade and size) at time of primary and revision, meniscal status (no treatment/repair, ≤33% excision, >33% excision) at time of primary, time from primary to revision ACLR, and age, sex, BMI, Marx, KOOS, and IKDC at time of revision. Significant chondral surface change was defined as >25% deterioration between time of primary and revision in the femoral condyle, tibial plateau, patella, or trochlea. Logistic regression was used to test each variable's contribution to significant chondral surface change in the medial compartment, lateral compartment, and patellofemoral compartment. Results: 134 subjects met our inclusion criteria. 34/134 (25.4%) had significant lateral compartment chondral surface change, 32/134 (23.9%) had significant medial compartment chondral surface change, and 31/134 (23.1%) had significant patellofemoral chondral surface change. Median age at time of revision was 19.5 years [IQ range 17-25] and median time from primary to revision was 462.5 days [IQ range 292-1049]. KOOS and IKDC at revision were not associated with significant chondral surface change in any compartment. Patients with >33% of their lateral meniscus excised had 13.5 times the odds of having significant lateral compartment surface change compared to subjects who either did not have lateral meniscal damage, had it repaired, or had an excision of ≤33% controlling for age (p<0.001). Patients with ≤33% excision of their medial meniscus had 4.5 times the odds of significant medial compartment surface change compared to subjects who either did not have medial meniscal damage, had it repaired, or had an excision >33% controlling for age (p=0.02). Patients had 9% increased odds of significant patellofemoral compartment surface change for each increased point on the BMI scale controlling for age (p=0.05). Odds of significant chondral surface change increased by 5% for each increased year of age (p ≤0.02) in all compartments. Median time from primary to revision surgery, age, and Marx are summarized by chondral change and meniscal status in Table 1. Conclusion: At the time of primary ACLR, excision of >33% of the lateral meniscus significantly increases the risk of worsening articular cartilage health in the lateral compartment at the time of revision ACLR. In the medial compartment, worsening articular cartilage health is significantly increased by excision of ≤33% of the medial meniscus. There appears to be an interaction between time, age, and activity in this cohort. Increased age is a risk factor for deterioration of articular cartilage in all compartments and increased BMI is a risk factor for deterioration of patellofemoral articular cartilage. Clinical Relevance: This is powerful evidence that the largest risk factor for subsequent tibial-femoral chondral degeneration after ACLR is meniscus status, especially for the lateral compartment. Maintaining or restoring meniscus integrity is integral to maintaining long term joint health after ACLR.


This year the Friends of the Library annual benefit event, continuing a series which began in 2002, will have a Southern accent. Featured speaker/entertainer/author/etiquette expert Cecilia Budd Grimes will enlighten the audience on "What It Means To Be Southern," speaking from a series of books on that topic she has written.


This research studies routing a fleet of capacitated vehicles in real time to collect shipment orders placed by a known set of customers. It is not known when and from which customers these dynamic requests may come from, e.g., the daily operation of a trucking company that consolidates shipments from multiple suppliers. The objective of this dynamic vehicle routing problem (DVRP) is three fold: first, to minimize the impact on total travel distance of having only partial information; second, to maximize the flexibility of the existing routes in a dynamic environment; third, to provide fast responses to dynamic customer requests. An optimization-based, look-ahead dynamic vehicle routing framework is proposed that periodically re-optimizes the current vehicle. Heuristic algorithms are designed to construct an initial solution, improve the initial solution, and adjust the waiting time along the vehicle routes. The look-ahead dynamic routing strategy shows its merits for problems with high level of uncertainty. Overall the proposed approach could generate routing solutions that could reduce freight vehicle miles traveled, thus minimizing the impact of freight on passenger travel since they primarily share the same road network, especially in major urban centers such as Los Angeles.


Thirty-seven species of insect pests were surveyed on different area blueberry farms in Jeonbuk province during 2013~2014. Six principal insect pests were found, including Dasineura oxycoccana Johnson, Aphis gossypii Glover, Scirtothrips dorsalis Hood, Ricania sp., Hyphantria cunea Drury, and Latoia consocia Walker. A. gossypii infestation was severe at Iksan and Jinan in middle May. S. dorsalis infestation was severe at all surveyed area in early June, which is the flowering season, and the degree of damage caused was higher in young plants. Ricania sp. was abundant in Jinan and Sunchang, and then appeared to spread across all areas in Jeonbuk. H. cunea had a tendency to concentrate in Iksan during June. Five species of Limacodidae was found, including L. consocia, which was dominant in all areas surveyed, with densities higher then those of the others four species. The degree of damage due to D. oxycoccana was higher in the plain areas (Iksan) than in the middle-mountain areas (Jinan, Sunchang). The rate of damage was 60~78% higher in young plant stages (i.e., those under 3 years of tree age) than in those over 5 years old (30~50%). Moreover, the rate of damage observed in greenhouses was 50~80% higher than that observed in the field (30~40%).


A method of providing secure communications between a base station, a relay station, and a mobile station in a communication network includes receiving, by the relay station, a signaling message from the mobile station; transmitting, by the relay station, subsequent to receiving the signaling message, a security key request to the base station; receiving, by the relay station, a security key from the base station in response to the previously sent security key request; and authenticating, by the relay station, the mobile station using the received security key.


This article is devoted to issues of diplomatic development. The author marks the increasing role and value of public diplomacy in solution of global problems. Tourism takes up the special position among the main instruments of public diplomacy. It humanizes international relations and consolidates the image of the state.


This article is based on the people-oriented idea,the comprehensive coordination and the concept of sustainable science development,considered the development trend of university campus after entering the knowledge-based economy times sufficiently.Based on the thorough analysis on research literature of inland and abroad and investigation of the actual situations of some university campus culture square,discussed the design ideas of the university campus culture square of China,then constructed the AHP model of it.


Nicotine is the addictive compound in tobacco and use of this drug, primarily through cigarette smoking, is commonly initiated during adolescence. Human adolescents use nicotine to reduce stress and anxiety. Once adolescents begin smoking, increased aggressiveness has been observed in males in response to social stress. In the present work, nicotine (0.6 mg/kg s.c.) or saline was administered to experimental animals and reactivity to repeated social stress was assessed. Beginning on PND 31 for early adolescents, PND 41 for late adolescents and PND 60 for young adults, animals were administered nicotine or saline, and immediately after drug administration, an intruder was introduced to the home cage of the experimental animal for ten minutes to induce social stress. This procedure was repeated over five days. Each ten-minute social stress exposure was video recorded and quantified offline for changes in aggressive behaviors in experimental animals, characterized as latency and duration to supine position and attack frequency. The experimental animal was also quantified for pinning frequency. Nicotine initially depressed general activity levels and it subsequently increased across days in an age-dependent manner, with the greatest increase for the early adolescent animals and the least in young adult animals. Results indicate that nicotine treatment decreased aggressive behavior in all age groups, relative to saline-treated rats. This decrease was age dependent, as supported by the observation of the greatest latency, shortest duration, lowest frequency of pins and fewest attacks to the intruder in the young adult nicotine-treated rats. The degree of depression was less for the late adolescent animals than the young adult animals, and the early adolescent animals exhibited the least depression in aggressive responses and activity level. Together, these data indicate reactivity to repeated nicotine administration and social stress is age-dependent and is readily


Deoxyribonucleic acid is a double- helical molecule composed of two chains that contains genetic instructions. Genetic diseases are caused by changes in pre-existing genes. A genetic abnormality results from the alteration in chromosomes. DNA classification helps to identify genetic disorders in organisms. DNA pattern recognition is a major issue in bioinformatics. DNA is classified into several categories on the basis of Structure, Location, Number of base pairs etc. Traditionally the DNA Molecule is studied by extracting it from the blood sample and is then manually analysed to find out the abnormalities. To increase the accuracy, a machine learning based DNA classification is done which helps in studying the extracted DNA image using various techniques. This consumes minimal amount of time and is more efficient. The image is preprocessed using median filter and canny edge detection. DNA sequences can be recognized correctly and effectively without any uncertainties with the help of Neural Network.The network successfully classifies an image given as input when it is trained with patterns. Thus, we can analyse if a person has a genetic disorder.


Despite recent advances in developing HER-family targeted drugs, clinical trials have shown poor results. Tumour evolution takes place overtime, frequently leading to aberrant new signalling cascades that disrupt the efficacy of targeted therapies and ultimately cause patients to develop resistance against initially effective drugs. To predict outcome and stratify treatment there is an imperative need to develop a systems understanding of concentration- independent parameters that could be monitored in trials and report on tumour evolution. Amongst the circulating tumour markers, exosomes offer a suitable platform for the longitudinal monitoring of protein network signalling in the form of a liquid-biopsy by imaging receptor dimerization status. Here, we illustrate the biomarker utility of monitoring oncogenic receptor signal rewiring using exosomal FRET/FLIM to aid the prediction of clinical outcome and patient treatment stratification.


During faunasitc survey total 400 Linnaean acuminata and 400 Indoplanorbis exustus from 12 different spots were collected. Snails were examined for cercarial infection and other larval stages of the parasites. The infection was more acute in Lymnaea than in Indoplanorbis. Both species of freshwater snails were found to be infected with Xiphidiocercariae. The zoonotic importance of xiphidiocercariae is discussed.


Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is one of the most actual problems of modern medicine – is the subject of numerous studies, causing the interest of doctors of different specialties. According to the recommendations of the Russian Society for the Study of the Liver for the diagnosis and treatment of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease includes steatosis, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and liver cirrhosis.1 According to EASL–EASD–EASO Clinical Practice Guidelines NAFLD is characterized by excessive hepatic fat accumulation, associated with insulin resistance (IR), and defined by the presence of steatosis in >5 % of hepatocytes according to histological analysis or by a proton density fat fraction >5.6 % assessed by proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy or quantitative fat/water selective magnetic resonance imaging.2


Within the recent decade, cavity optomechanics has achieved tremendous breakthroughs regarding the detection and control of macroscopic mechanical oscillators with electromagnetic radiation. Among the most groundbreaking results are displacement sensing beyond the standard quantum limit, quantum ground-state sideband cooling and the generation of non-classical states of motion in massive mechanical objects.


Extensive pseudomonal pneumonia developed in a 43-year-old white man after therapy for pneumococcal pneumonia with penicillin, kanamycin, and positive pressure breathing. The pneumonic process involved all five lobes and was accompanied by bilateral cavity formation and pleural effusions. Recovery occurred with conservative medical management over a prolonged period. The patient's clinical course was marked by the development of an eosinophilic leukemoid reaction, presumably secondary to polymyxin therapy. In the few successfully treated patients with pseudomonal pneumonia described, minimal chronic roentgenographic changes occurred in those who responded to therapy. Prognosis in patients with underlying chronic lung disease would appear to be unusually poor.


Purpose
Previous research has examined the effects of discrete affects on voice; however, the role of trait and state affects in voice literature has received little attention. This study aims to address this important issue from a conservation of resources perspective, by exploring the influence of daily positive affect and emotional resistance to change on the voice of employees and their resulting work outcomes.

Design/methodology/approach
The study collected data about 285 daily episodes from 57 employees over five consecutive days, using an experience sampling method (ESM) through mobile surveys. The study found that emotional resistance to change was negatively related to employee voice and in-role performance.

Findings
Voice mediated the negative relationship between emotional resistance to change and in-role performance. The study also found that daily positive affect buffered the negative effects of emotional resistance to change on voice.

Originality/value
These findings extend the research concerning affect and voice; the study provides integrative insight into how affect dynamically influences organizations.


The factors affecting optical communication link performance differ substantially from those at microwave frequencies, due to the drastically differing technologies, modulation formats, and effects of quantum noise in optical communications. In addi- tion, detailed design control table calculations for optical systems are less well developed than corresponding microwave system techniques, reflecting the relatively less mature state of development of optical communications. This article describes detailed calcula- tions of received optical signal and background power in optical communications sys- tems, with emphasis on analytic models for accurately predicting transmitter and receiver system losses.


The research state on phenolic resin modification through organics,inorganic compound and nano-materials are reviewed.The application of modified phenolic resin for superabrasive grinding tools is summarized.The problem of phenolic resin used in superabrasive grinding tools is indicated and a solution is proposed.


ABSTRACT The paper analyses Latvian economic policy during the period 2008–2014 when the country was simultaneously subject to three European Union (EU) economic governance frameworks – the European Semester, the Balance-of-Payments programme and the Maastricht convergence criteria (for euro adoption). Through in-depth process tracing based on public policy documents, interviews with senior officials in Riga and Brussels and the press, the paper finds that the Latvian government cherry-picked and instrumentalized EU economic policy targets and overachieved in them. In contrast to the literature depicting the European Commission as a neoliberal actor which systematically undermines social protection, the paper shows that against the backdrop of fiscally austere national authorities, the Commission instead played the role of social policy advocate, repeatedly calling for stronger measures to help the poor. Shedding light on the limits of one-size-fits-all governance, the findings of the Latvian case have significant implications for EU economic governance more generally.


The lower Cambrian black rock series,which is one of the four suits of regional marine source rocks in southern China,distributes widely in Yangtze area.However,the organic petrological features especially organic maceral determination for the succession has not been studied in detail due to the old age and high maturity.In this study,we conducted comprehensive organic petrological research on the black rock succession based on observation of the rock slice and polished section under microscopy and SEM-EDS-analysis(scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy analysis);and then the petroleum geological implication was tentatively discussed.The results show that the macerals are grouped into structural and amorphous macerals.Furthermore the structural maceral can be divided into plant algae(lamellar algae,structural algae Ⅰ,structural algae Ⅱ),animal organic matters,sclerotinite,and vitrinite-like maceral.The main components of amorphous maceral are fine grained maceral and bituminite.Therefore,there are multiple attributes of organic sources for this black rock succession.However,planktonic algae and fungi,benthic macro alga,actitarchs,animal plankton and benthic spongia are the main organic sources on the basis of statistic research,thus the main organic matter types are Ⅰ and Ⅱ.In addition,comprehensive organic petrological study allows to draw a conclusion that the multiple organic resources cause the divergence of organic matter types Ⅰ and Ⅱ,and the benthic macro alga and low large aquatic plants(such as benthic leafy body plants in the shallow sea) is the main components for the type Ⅱ organic matter.The organic petrological study on the Niutitang Formation provides important data for petroleum geological implication research.


Fifth generation mobile networks (i.e, 5G) are not only characterized by higher capacity and throughput, but also by the support of heterogeneous services, characterized by different Quality of Service (QoS) requirements in terms of throughput, delay or energy consumption. Such multi-service networks require the partitioning of the available radio resources into mutliple slices, where each service occupies one slice in an isolated manner. However, a static isolation scheme among slices might have a negative impact on radio resource efficiency. For example, when one slice is highly loaded, while the second is lowly loaded, the resources of the first slice are over-utilized, whereas the resources of the second are under-utilized. Consequently, a Dynamic Radio Access Networks (RAN) slicing algorithm is paramount so as to adapt to the different load conditions of services. In that way, the radio resource utilization efficiency is increased, while the different QoS requirements of services are satisfied. In this paper, we tackle this problem by proposing a Dynamic RAN Slicing algorithm based on a crowding game. The algorithm efficiently allocates the resources among heterogeneous RAN slices in a way to satisfy the different QoS requirements of users belonging to different services while increasing the resource utilization efficiency. The results show that our proposed solution overcomes the Static Scheme in terms of QoS guarantee and utilization efficiency.


In a process for HOLDING THE QUALITY OF VALUATION OF LINE signal transmission (2) non-linear distortion, SE transmits a signal preset test from a transmitter (1) to a receiver (3). IN THE RECIPIENT (3) IS REGULATED IN FIRST LEVEL of the received signal, then proceeding TO GLOBAL QUALITY ASSESSMENT PURSUANT TO A PARTICULAR comparison procedure. LEVEL FOR CONTROL OF PERFORMING IN A DIFFERENT SET OF PREVIOUSLY DEFINED NUMBER WINDOWS (V1, ..., VN-1, VN) an assessment LOCAL QUALITY (11) based on the comparison procedure DEFAULT. A CONTINUING AT LEAST ONE WINDOW WITH A LOCAL TRANSMISSION QUALITY ENOUGH IS DETERMINED. In at least one window calculates the ratio between the level of the test signal AND RECEIVED SIGNAL. THE WIDE received signal is adjusted on the basis of that amount. Preferably they USED FOR CONTROL OF THE LEVEL WINDOWS ONLY CONTAINING least 50% of the total energy of the signal. THE quality assessment can be conducted in a procedure known per se, for example BSD PROCEDURE.


Since the developpment of astronephography, we know that the Sun is about to exit the Local Interstellar Cloud (LIC). To date, because of its rare absorption signatures and the paucity of suitable neighbour targets, the LIC interface has proved to be elusive to extensive investigations. Comparing the spatial distribution of Si III detections found in the litterature along with 3 new sigtlines, I show that most detections seem to arise from a cone whose axis is parallel to the LIC heliocentric velocity vector. I interpret this result as an evidence that the heliosphere is actually interacting with the LIC frontier.


Reliable quantitative predictors of response to cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) are needed. We compared the utility of pre-implantation R-wave and T-wave heterogeneity (RWH, TWH) to standard QRS complex duration for determination of mechanical super-response and mortality risk.

 Of patients who received CRT devices between 2006 and 2018 at our institution, we retrospectively analyzed resting 12-lead ECG recordings from all 155 who met class I and IIA ACC/AHA/HRS guideline-based indications and had echocardiograms before and after implantation. Super-responders (n=35) (patients with ≥20% increase in LVEF and/or ≥20% decrease in LVESD) were compared to non super-responders (n=120), who did not. RWH and TWH, i.e., interlead splay, were measured by second central moment analysis. QRS complex duration was computed from the longest interval in a representative non-premature beat.

 Pre-implantation RWHV1–3 (p=0.01) and TWH in all lead sets tested (p=0.004 to 0.04) were significantly lower in super-responders than in non super-responders with corresponding significance for area under the curve (AUC) (p=0.002 to 0.03). Preimplantation QRS complex duration did not differ between super-responders and non super-responders (166±3 vs. 167±2 ms, p=0.8); the AUC for QRS complex duration (0.48, p=0.74) was not significant. RWHV1–3LILII at >420 μV predicted 3-year all-cause mortality (p=0.037) with a hazard ratio of 7.440 (95% CI: 1.015–54.527, p=0.048) but QRS complex duration >150 ms did not predict mortality (p=0.27).

 Pre-implantation interlead EKG heterogeneity is superior to QRS complex duration in predicting mechanical super-response to CRT and survival.
 Bortolotto ESC graph

 Type of funding source: None


A description is given of the development of a knowledge-based online consultant which assists power-system operators in a distribution SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) environment. In particular, the allocation of loads to outgoing feeders during the normal state is performed as a preventive measure for minimizing overloads of apparatus following a fault on a substation. By performing this, load distribution to the four main busbars of a typical 132/11 kV zone substation is distributed to a predetermined nominal ratio. After the contingency tripping of one 132/11 kV transformer, switching of busbar interconnectors and bus-sectioning switches (busbar reconfiguration) could then be carried out with relative ease, without exceeding the substation's firm capacity or interrupting supply to consumers. The knowledge-based system is run on a personal computer using PROLOG for symbolic computation, as well as FORTRAN and C for number crunching. >