The aim of this paper is to study the interlaminar shear behavior of CFRP in critical service conditions. The specimens were immersed in the prepared artificial seawater for 7 months to investigate the ageing time, ambient temperature and salt concentration effects. Analytical balance was used to weight the samples for analyzing the dynamic moisture absorption behavior. Short beam shear tests were carried out to evaluate the interlaminar shear properties. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to observe the ageing damage and failure morphology. The results show that moisture absorption behavior of composites follows Fickian diffusion law. Moisture absorption rate and the maximum absorption content are mainly affected by ambient temperature but not by NaCl concentration. Compared with ageing time and NaCl concentration, the shear stiffness and shear strength are more sensitive to aging environmental temperature. After exposed in 3.5%–70 °C seawater environment for 7 months, the retention rate of shear strength is only 68.8% and the failure displacement decreases by 20.5%. The shear strength increases first and then decreases with the increase of the maximum moisture absorption, which is mainly related to the release of curing shrinking stress and the damage of interface properties. The shear properties degradation after aging is mainly related to the damage of materials induced by environment (delamination, fiber/matrix interface debonding and matrix cracking).


Periodic tension disturbances and large tension variations occur in a winding cycle due to the rectangle shape of the section of girder. The location of key parameters which affect tension control accuracy through the establishment of mathematical models for winding and unwinding, combined with application of the predictive control, the identification of system and an dynamic compensation method, plus the adoption of the master/slave control mode which is based on industrial control computer high performance programmable multi-axis controller (PMAC) and tension controller (TC), can effectively solve the problem. The ±4% dynamic tension accuracy of the tension control system has been proven. The work meets the demands of the enterprise, and has yielded obvious economic and social benefits.


Information overload is a problem for decision makers; conflicting over-loaded information is even a bigger problem. A decision maker would simply get confused when conflicting information exists in the decision making process. Three types of information are used in this study to explore the impact of conflicting information on decision makers: consensus type of information, alternative vs. argument type of information, and alternative vs. counter-alternative type of information. A lab study is conducted to investigate the issue. Participants were given one of the three types of information and were asked to use the information to work on a prediction task. Cognitive control, knowledge gained, and time spent were measured to see what impact the three different types of information had on the participants. Results showed that conflicting information might be detrimental to decision makers' cognitive control of the information in the decision making process.


OBJECTIVE To explore esophageal cancer patients with postoperative nosocomial infections and risk factors and nursing method so as to provide scientific basis for the prevention and control of the esophageal cancer patients with postoperative nosocomial infections.METHODS The clinical parameters of 500 cases of patients with esophageal cancer were analyzed retrospectively from May 2006 to May 2012.And the relationship of 13 variables and postoperative infections was analyzed.The univariate analysis was performed by chi-square test and four tables′inspection univariate analysis.Multiple factors were analyzed by logistic regression analysis,and the ratio of the complication was compared before and after nursing.RESULTS The infected patients of the esophageal cancer group were 70 cases,and the infection rate was 14.0%.The main sites of infections were the respiratory(50.00%),followed by gastrointestinal crossing the pharynx,urinary tract,and gastrointestinal tract,by single analysis,we found that diabetes(χ2=4.020,P0.05),smoking(χ2=5.229,P0.01),fever(χ2=3.828,P0.05),surgical approach(χ2=12.382,P0.01),and postoperative leukocyte number(χ2=5.339,P0.05) were the main risk factors for postoperative infection,by multiple regression analysis,we finally filtered out smoking,surgery,fever as well as respiratory diseases were the independent risk factors for postoperative infections,and the difference was significant(P0.05),the complication rate was 22.86%before nursing,which was significantly higher than that (7.14%) after nursing,the difference was significant(P 0.01).CONCLUSIONThe four factors of smoking,surgical approach,body heat,and diseases of the respiratory system are the risk factors for the postoperative nosocomail infetcions in the esophageal cancer patients,it is necessary to take mursing measures during the perioperative period so as to reduce the incidence of the postoperative nosocomial infections in the patients with esophageal cancer.


The present invention relates to an electrophotographic apparatus for automatically communicating the enabling signal to enable the receiver of the permission signal for permitting the use of a look that is captured in the images. E-allowing unit is generated by the controller towards the controller and the physical which picture images are captured position at which to start the photo permission by generating at capture permission signal of the photo image by the image capture mechanism and the image capturing mechanism for capturing images that includes a transmitter for transmitting the enabling signal. Allowing permission signal is identified by the Web site URL in which the information regarding the captured images may be accessed to provide the grant or deny access to the web site allows the person who receives the permission signal, and use.


InGaN single-quantum-well-structure blue light-emitting diodes (LEDs) were grown on epitaxially laterally overgrown GaN (ELOG) and sapphire substrates. The emission spectra showed the similar blue shift with increasing forward currents for both LEDs. The output power of both LEDs was almost the same, as high as 6 mW at a current of 20 mA. The LED on sapphire had a considerable amount of leakage current in comparison with that on ELOG. These results indicate that the In composition fluctuation is not caused by dislocations, the dislocations do not act as nonradiative recombination centers in the InGaN, and the dislocations forms the leakage current pathway in InGaN.


The fast growth in the demand and consumption of the digital multimedia content in the previous period has led to some effective concerns over issues such as content security, digital rights management, and authenticity. Hiding Data is an important way of recognizing copyright protection for digital multimedia. Digital video/ images became very common choice for hiding data ( hold large amounts of data) and the selection of suitable pixels in the video frames, which are used to store the secret data is very important for an effective and successful embedding process . If pixels are not selected sensibly, undesired spatial and temporal perception problems occur in the stego-video. This paper will concentrate on the use of digital video/images as cover to hide data. The proposed steganography algorithm based on color histograms for data embedding into Video Sequences directly, where each pixel in each video frame is divided in two parts, the number of bits which will be embedded in the right part are counted in the left part of the pixel. This algorithm is characterized by the ability of hiding bigger size of data and the ability of extracting the written text without errors, besides it gives a high level of authentication to guarantee integrity of the video/ images before being extracted. Additionally, the data were embedded inside the video/ images randomly which gave the video/ images a difficult security and resistance against extraction by intruders.


Dilute insecticide sprays were applied at 300 psi with a no. 2 gunjet until run off to apple test plots at the Arlington Horticultural orchard (Arlington, Wisconsin) and the Potter Preserve orchard (Baraboo, Wisconsin). Polyram (2 lb) was applied at green tip (May 13) and with all plots at petal-fall (May 19) and cover sprays (June 3, 9; July 7, 21; August 6, 25), at Arlington. At Baraboo Cyprex (0.75 lb) was applied prebloom (May 12, 20) and with all sprays (June 2, 9, 30; July 15, 28; August 13, 26). Treatment plots included 10-14 trees each at Arlington and blocks of 40 to 50 trees each at Baraboo.


Preface. Treatment Procedures for Alzheimers, Amputation, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Arthroplasty, Attention Deficit Disorder, Autism, Blindness, Burns, Cancer, Cardiac Dysfunction, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, Cerebral Vascular Accident/CVA, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, Cognitive-Perceptual Deficits, Depression, Down Syndrome, Duchennes Muscular Dystrophy, Edema, Endurance, Guillain-Barre Syndrome, Joint Mobilization, Learning Disability, Manual Muscle Test, Motor Control Problems, Multiple Sclerosis, Myasthenia Gravis, Osteoarthritis, Parkinsons Disease, Physical Agent Modalities, Post-Polio Syndrome, Range-of-Motion, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Schizophrenia, Self-Care, Sensory Deficits, Spinal Cord Injury, Traumatic Brain Injury, Weakness, Work Simplification. Appendixes.


This article describes how the issue of access to higher education for people with severe visual impairment is addressed at the Moscow State Psychological and Pedagogical University. The main difficulties experienced by students of this category are revealed, and ways to overcome them are given. The classification of the forms of presentation of educational information available without visual control is given and typhlotechnical devices that allow converting information into these forms are described.


This paper presents a fuzzy logic-based traffic incident detection system to detect a lane-blocking traffic incident that usually causes of traffic congestion. The proposed system uses fuzzy logic to identify traffic status as normal and abnormal. Macroscopic and microscopic traffic variables, namely, mean speed and standard deviation of inter-arrival time are used as inputs to the fuzzy inference system (FIS). As traffic variables have many fluctuations which are considered as noisy signals, discrete wavelet transform (DWT) as used for de-noising and also extracting features from noisy signals. It is found that the proposed system that uses DWT can give higher detection rate when compared with the system without DWT. Furthermore, the majority voting is also applied to the outputs of FIS in order to increase detection rate. Finally, based on simulation results, the performance of the proposed detection system for lane-blocking traffic incidents will be shown.


This report describes the design and performance of an f/1.9, 0.1-m-focal-length echelle spectrograph custom-designed for Raman spectroscopy using charge-coupled device (CCD) detection. This device simultaneously acquires data over a range of nearly 5000 cm−1 at 2 cm−1 resolution (resolution limited by detector granularity). Twenty-five of these spectra, corresponding to different locations on the entrance slit, are simultaneously collected in a single CCD image. With the use of 200 mW of laser power and 1 second of data acquisition time, individual cyclohexane spectra from the set of 25 had signal-to-noise ratios of 85 in the CH-stretching region.


On-off control system with crew motion caused random disturbing torques on spacecraft, determining waiting time, jet firing frequency and fuel consumption rate


In this study, corrosion rates of reinforcing bar in concrete that 7 years are passed after concrete manufacture was investigated and examined the possibility of new concept to measure by non-destructive test. The result is as follow. 1) After the common concrete that do not contain chloride passes 7 years, the corrosion rate was gone inappreciably by 5% low. This was analysed what is influenced in the permeability than effect to the cover thickness of concrete. In this case, the corrosion rates of reinforcing bar were accomplishing normal distribution in prescribed W/C in the concrete that experiment, the reason was construed that is because the corrosion rate's range of fluctuation is high responsiveness of corrosion occurrence for outdoor environment decreasing W/C of concrete. 2) The amount which a fairly much corrosions rate of reinforcing bar was gone in 10~45% level in experiment condition to contain chloride more than 0.5% of cement weight and the corrosion rate according to increase of the chloride content in concrete. 3) The result of devise surface method is examined the reproduction to solved change factor by burdensomeness for reinforcing bar exposure and the function rate which is happened in existent electric potential measurement method, confirmed that possibility is big on practical usage because of coefficient of corelation more than 0.98. In this research, revision of examination data and specific example was described for different view of practical use.


We have investigated the role of extramitochondrial Na+ for the regulation of mitochondrial Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+] m ) in permeabilized single vascular endothelial cells. [Ca2+] m was measured by loading the cells with the membrane-permeant Ca2+ indicator fluo-3/AM and subsequent removal of cytoplasmic fluo-3 by surface membrane permeabilization with digitonin. An elevation of extramitochondrial Ca2+ resulted in a dose-dependent increase in the rate of Ca2+accumulation into mitochondria (k 0.5 = 3 μm) via the mitochondrial Ca2+ uniporter. In the presence of 10 mm extramitochondrial Na+([Na+] em ), repetitive application of brief pulses of high Ca2+ (2–10 μm) to simulate cytoplasmic [Ca2+] oscillations caused transient increases of [Ca2+] m characterized by a fast rising phase that was followed by a slow decay. Removal of extramitochondrial Na+ or inhibition of mitochondrial Na+/Ca2+ exchange with clonazepam blocked mitochondrial Ca2+ efflux and resulted in a net accumulation of Ca2+ by the mitochondria. Half-maximal activation of mitochondrial Na+/Ca2+ exchange occurred at [Na+] em = 4.4 mm, which is well within the physiological range of cytoplasmic [Na+]. This study provides evidence that Ca2+efflux from the mitochondria in vascular endothelial cells occurs solely via Na+/Ca2+ exchange and emphasizes the important role of intracellular Na+ for mitochondrial Ca2+ regulation.


T H E R E WA S A time when service users, clients, patients (whichever you prefer) were referred to as 'customers'. The use of this term was meant to emphasize to professionals the fact that they are service providers. Thankfully, the commercial terminology soon fell out of favour, and has now been all but abandoned. But there may be value in exploring the use of a commercial metaphor to think about developments in providing services for children and families with psychological problems. Let's say that the first stage in any commercial enterprise is to identify a 'need' (a 'potential market'). Then R & D is needed to develop a product that works. Design (including packaging design) should ensure that the product will be attractive, robust, and easy-to-use. Following production, there is marketing (including advertising, distribution and sales). If things are going well, and sales are high, then this suggests that each link in the chain is strong. However, if things are not going so well, it is essential to identify at what stage (or stages) there are problems and inefficiencies. This simple commercial metaphor can be a useful framework for thinking about the success or otherwise of the business of providing services for the mental health needs of children and their families. The framework is explored here with the help of the analysis provided by two reports of government-linked committees which, in different ways, provide advice on future developments in such services. The first report, Blueprint for Change, was published in 2001 by the U.S. National Advisory Mental Health Council's Workgroup on Child and Adolescent Mental Health. It reviewed evidence in order to provide guidance to the National Institute for Mental Health on priorities for research and development in child and adolescent mental health. The other report, the Final Report on Needs Assessment in Child and Adolescent Mental Health, was published in 2003 by the Public Health Institute of Scotland. We refer to it here as 'the Scottish Report'. Despite their differences in emphasis, purpose and geographical base, these reports share several common themes. They may thus be seen as triangulating on the issue of service provision for young people with mental health problems. And they provide a good deal that is relevant to our commercial metaphor.


In this paper we present a detailed study of the electronic band structure of the (001) and (110) surface of the face centered cubic Ca. For our study we use the tight-binding approach and the surface Green function matching method. We use tigth-binding Hamiltonians in the Slater Koster formalism (SK). First, we use an orthogonal atomic basis of nine spd atomic orbitals, for each atom in the unitary cell. For the study of the surfaces we use the surface Green function matching method. We find that our results compare acceptably well with the previous published values, and we make the prediction of new different states not yet reported in the literature.


The U.S. Department of Energy is sponsoring several research programs towards developing highly-efficient refrigeration and air conditioning technologies. The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program is one such research activity. This paper discusses two SBIR research topics that are advancing the developments of innovative refrigeration and air conditioning concepts. First, the 1989 . SBIR research topic on innovative refrigeration systems discusses two Phase II researc_h projects. In one project, Rocky Research is conducting research on media development and experimental verification of an advanced staging concept for high-COP, solid-vapor, heat-actuated, complex-compound heat pumps. In the other project, Stirling Technology Company is developing a prototype of a free-piston Stirling domestic refrigerator using flexural bearings. Second, the 1991 SBIR research topic on innovative appliances covers seven Phase I research projects. The research includes four projects on advanced heat pumps and three domestic refrigerator projects. The four Phase I advanced heat pump projects consist of an absorption cycles project, a kinematic Stirling heat pump, and tWo Vuilleumier heat pump concepts. The three refrigerator projects are a kinematic Stirling refrigerator, a metal hydride refrigerator, and a novel vacuum insulation project.


Objective: To explore the therapeutic efficacy of alfacalcidol on senile osteoporosis and to discuss its preventive measures.Methods: Two hundred elderly patients with primary osteoporosis were divided into two groups (each n=100).Patients in the control group were treated with basic daily oral calcium while alfacalcidol therapy was additinally given in the treatment group besides the basic treatment.Results: Before the treatment, no statistically significant difference was found between the two groups (P0.05).After the treatment, the indicators of patients in the two groups were significantly increased,however bone mineral density (BMD) at the femoral neck and L 2-4 were significantly higher in the treatment group than in the control group (P0.05).The total response rate of pain improvement was 78.0% in the treatment group and 35.0% in the controlgroup, and the treatment group was superior to the control group (P0.05). Conclusion: Alfacalcidol for the treatment of senile osteoporosis can effectively improve bone mineral density and relieve the pain.


The Einstein field equations with incoherent matter are discussed for the case of homogeneous space‐time, i.e., for metrics allowing a four‐parametric, simply transitive group of motions. It is proved that the only universes satisfying the above are those of Einstein, Godel, and Ozsvath.


Abstract The "synoptic method" applied to the interpretation of the Letoon Trilingual has been of much value, since it allowed scholars to make sense of a large part of the Lycian version by using the parallel Greek text. However, this method may sometimes also have been misleading, particularly when it comes to the first sentence of the two texts, whose syntax and semantics may not perfectly match. The first issue concerns the protasis in the Greek text which does not have the same extension as in the Lycian one. Some scholars have argued this discrepancy is due to a mistake made by the translator or the engraver, but, as I will try to show, this explanation is rather unlikely. The semantics of the protasis will also be under scrutiny, in so far as its causal value has been subject of much discussion among historians. Establishing the role of Pixodarus in the establishment of the cult of two Carian gods depends largely on how this protasis is interpreted. In the last part of this paper, I will deal with ...


If you are experiencing a string of weird, unexplainable nightmares in the past few days, know that you are not alone. If one goes by personal profiles on social media, many people are paying more attention to their dreams of late, and realising that they are not alone in experiencing disturbing nightmares of late. Not knowing what to do, most of those who are active on social media are posting their experiences online, asking whether they are the only ones having bizarre and memorable dreams. Science has suggested that dream content and emotions are connected to our wellbeing while we are awake. While bizarre dreams riddled with symbolism allow some to cope with intense memories or everyday psychological stressors within the safety of their subconscious, nightmares, on the other hand, can be warning signs of anxietye that we might not otherwise perceive in our waking lives. "With hundreds of millions of people forced to remain at home during the Coronavirus pandemic, some dream experts believe that withdrawal from our usual environments and daily stimuli has left dreamers with a dearth of "inspiration," forcing our subconscious minds to draw more heavily on themes from our past," opine dream experts. Psychotherapists suggest that dreaming more often and having strange dreams are extremely common during times of high stress. "Self-isolation doesn't help. Being trapped at home for days and weeks is unhealthy and can lead to having weird dreams. During sleep, your brain processes the stress, anxiety and other feelings you have when you're awake," explained Dr Murthy, a psychotherapist from Hyderabad. Describing one of the dreams, a user on a social media platform said that he saw a zombie apocalypse type situation and that he was taking shelter with his family in a small shuttered shop, which he doesn't know how he ended up in. @TheDailyPioneer facebook.com/dailypioneer Follow us on:


A new ion source DECRIS-4 for the production of multiply charged ions is planned to be built at the JINR FLNR. The source can be used as an injector of heavy multiply charged ions for the U-400 cyclotron, as well as a "charge breeder" (the "1+→n+" method) for the second phase of the Dubna Radioactive Ion Beams project. The main feature of the ion source design is the creation of the extended resonance zone in a comparatively compact electron cyclotron resonance ion source. For this purpose the axial magnetic field distribution is formed with a flat minimum. Superposition of the axial magnetic field with the field of the permanent magnet hexapole, made from NdFeB, allows one to create a large resonance volume. In this case the electrons can be heated more efficiently. The maximum of the plasma density is situated near the axis, where ions are mainly extracted from. For the plasma heating a microwave frequency of 14 GHz will be used. A preliminary design of the source is described. Also the features and pro...


The functions of DUF640/ALOG (Arabidopsis LSH1 and Oryza G1) domain proteins, which are found in most land plants, have not been well characterized, but some of these proteins regulate inflorescence architecture in rice and specify organ boundaries in Arabidopsis. Arabidopsis DUF640-domain genes are initially identified as LIGHT-SENSITIVE HYPOCOTYLS (LSH) genes. Chinese cabbage leaves have large, white midribs and photosynthetic leaf blades (or lamina). A DUF640 domain gene of Brassica rapa, BrLSH2, is specifically expressed in the midrib of Chinese cabbage. Arabidopsis and rice possess ten LSH family genes, but B. rapa has 24 LSH genes, which can be categorized into two or four groups based on sequence identity. Here, we examined the expression patterns of the LSHs in various Brassica species and analyzed the promoter sequence of the BrLHS2 gene. The transcript levels of most LSH genes were very high in the midrib but low in the leaf blade. These genes were evenly expressed throughout the petiole region of Korean cabbage and highly expressed in the leaf base region near the stem and in the border area in B. oleracea. In addition, BrLSHs were expressed in both bundle and mesophyll cells of the midrib. These expression patterns suggest the possible use of these genes to generate leafy vegetables with altered leaf morphology. The BrLSH2 promoter, which contains auxin- and cytokinin-responsive elements as well as leaf development-related elements, may confer midrib-specific expression, suggesting that this promoter may be useful for the production of midrib-targeted transgenic Chinese cabbage.


This report (map) is preliminary and has not been reviewed for conformity with U.S. Geological Survey editorial standards (or with the North American Striatigraphic Code). Any use of trade, product or firm names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. OPEN-FILE REPORT 99 173 THE WASHINGTON AND OREGON MID-SHELF SILT DEPOSIT AND ITS RELATION TO THE LATE HOLOCENE COLUMBIA RIVER SEDIMENT BUDGET U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY science for a changing world


Introduction It is 9 o'clock on Monday morning and the doctor or nurse has just returned from 2 weeks' leave. The first patient on the list looks straightforward and should give a quick start to the morning's work. This might be: 1. At the family planning clinic: a repeat prescription for the contraceptive pill. 2. At the genitourinary clinic: the results of sexually transmitted infection screening. 3. At the general practice surgery: a couple, the woman for a repeat of her hormone replacement therapy and the man for a sick note and a repeat of his antidepressant medication. Could all three patients have hidden agendas buried beneath these seemingly innocuous requests? We might not anticipate any of these to be a calling card for: 1. "I've gone off sex with my current boyfriend because I fear letting anybody get close to me again, in case I repeat the hurt of past relationships." 2. "Sex feels dirty; I must have an infection." 3. "Sex hurts me. He is losing his erection. We both still feel grief over the death of our only child born in my mid-40s, and now time has run out to have more children."


Abstract A two‐year experiment (1996–1998) was conducted at Hamilton, New Zealand, to compare the productivity of perennial ryegrasses from different ecotypes, under rotational grazing by dairy cows. 'Ellett' ryegrass, representing the Mangere ecotype, a major source of parent material for current perennial ryegrass cultivars, was compared with 'Grasslands Ruanui' representing an older Hawke's Bay ecotype. Nitrogen (N) fertiliser and irrigation were subplot and sub‐subplot treatments, respectively. Total herbage accumulation over two years was 13% greater for 'Ellett' ryegrass than for 'Grasslands Ruanui', with higher herbage production occurring mainly in spring and summer. 'Ellett' ryegrass had a consistently higher tiller weight and lower tiller density than 'Grasslands Ruanui'. Tiller density response to N was much greater for 'Grasslands Ruanui' (+8698 tillers m‐2) than for 'Ellett' (+969 tillers m‐2) over the second year (spring 1997 to autumn 1998). Both ryegrass cultivars showed increased herbage accumulation and tiller weight when treated with N. Cultivar herbage accumulation was increased on average by 30% over the whole trial in response to N, but by only 19% in summer in response to irrigation. 'Ellett' ryegrass showed more pulling than did 'Grasslands Ruanui' during grazings over summer and autumn, especially when treated with N, but this had only minor effects on yield. Data on the reproductive behaviour of perennial ryegrass cultivars and tillering responses to N applied in spring‐summer, could provide useful selection criteria for persistence under intensive dairying. Ryegrass cultivars with different morphologies and tillering responses to N may require different grazing managements to optimise their performance. Pulling losses in summer are likely to be greater for cultivars with large upright tillers and when N fertiliser is applied.


The SDDS EPICS toolkit has recently been enhanced by the addition of a general-purpose optimizer. The tool sddsoptimize is easily configured and has features that make it robust. The sddsoptimize program has been incorporated in many new Tcl/Tk applications used for various Advanced Photon Source tune-up operations, such as injection tune-up for the storage ring, coupling minimization of the storage ring, and the automatic phasing of the linac.


Key management is very crucial need in WSN to protect data and secure communications. One of the Key distribution solutions in WSN is symmetric key cryptography which is relatively faster and energy efficient. However, it cannot bestow high level of security due to difficulty in secure key management. Nevertheless, Asymmetric key cryptography can enhance network security but it also causes energy, memory and computational overhead. In this paper we proposed Mobile Agent Based Dynamic Key Management Scheme. This scheme has two levels that exploit good features of asymmetric and symmetric cryptography respectively. In the first level we introduced agent based key distribution and coordination for asymmetric keys while the second level is sensor nodes can involve in constructing symmetric keys for secure communication through mutual authentication and encryption with those keys. Agent based public key dissemination and update of shared keys could reduce communication overhead. We evaluated the system using NS2 simulations. The results reveal that the performance of the proposed scheme is significantly better in terms of communication, memory, and computation overheads when compared with its asymmetric counterparts. 66 Ramu Kuchipudi1, Dr. Ahmed Abdul Moiz Qyser, & Dr. V.V.S.S.S. Balaram


This research was conducted at Pontianak State Polytechnic which discusses the software determining the procurement of office stationery using the Laest Square method to predict the number of office stationery that will be proposed and used within 1 year. The form of research is conducted with case studies with research methods using Extream Programming, while data collection techniques with observation, interviews and documentation studies. Designing software for determining office stationery procurement using UML with Visual Basic programming language and for storing data using MySql and testing the system using black box testing. The results of the software design are able to predict the amount to be used in a period of 1 year and make it easier for users to make transaction requests to the equipment sub-section.


This paper proposes a multiple robot control algorithm to approach the problem of patrolling an open or closed line. The algorithm is fully decentralized, i.e., no communication occurs between robots or with a central station. Robots behave according only to their sensing and computing capabilities to ensure high scalability and robustness towards robots' fault. The patrolling algorithm is designed in the framework of behavioral control and it is based on the concept of Action: an higher level of abstraction with respect to the behaviors. Each Action is obtained by combining more elementary behaviors in the Null-Space-Behavioral framework. A Finite-State-Automata is designed as supervisor in charge of selecting the appropriate action. The approach has been validated in simulation as well as experimentally with a patrol of 3 Pioneer robots available at the Distributed Intelligence Laboratory of the University of Tennessee.


Vaccinium carneolum (Ericaceae), previously known only from Papua New Guinea, has been recently collected from Arfak Mountains, Papua Barat Province. It represents the first record of this species in Indonesian New Guinea. A description and illustration, as well as a brief discussion, are provided.Key words: Ericaceae, New Guinea, Plant taxonomy.


H-Coal Syncrude prepared from Kentucky No. 11 coal in the process development unit operated by Hydrocarbon Research, Inc., has been characterized by physical tests and by a combination of analytical techniques. Basic physical properties, trace metal levels, elemental composition, and molecular composition have been determined. Metal levels were generally low except for iron. Relatively high concentrations of the elements iron and chlorine were found in the heavy fuel oil fraction. The H-Coal Syncrude contained substantial amounts of polar components. In this characteristic, H-Coal liquid is intermediate between petroleum and shale oils. H-Coal Syncrude is richer in aromatic components and lower in saturated components than either petroleum or shale oils. The aromatic components of H-Coal are partly reduced (hydrogenated) to naphthenic aromatics and some hydrocracking probably occurs. However, the fraction of carbons that are aromatic is greater for H-Coal Syncrude.


The purpose of this study were to analyze the importance and satisfaction toward franchise coffee shops and general coffee shops by university students according to their patronage type; and to provided ideas and marketing strategies to increase sales through IPA(Importance-Performance Analysis). University students in Daegu were surveyde from May 12, 2009 to May 30, 2009. The IPA results presented the following quality attributes, by gender, that should be quickly improved at franchise-coffee shops & general-coffee shops being recognized for a brand', 'easy to find', 'operational methods', 'variety of coffee menu', 'amount of coffee served', 'variety of side menu', 'external appearance and a signboard', 'parking', 'a scale of shop', and 'type of coupons'.


Smart meters and other the modern distribution measurement devices provide new and more data, but usually they are subject to longer delays and lower reliability than transmission system SCADA. Accurate and robust use of the modern distribution system measurements will be a cornerstone of the future advanced distribution management systems. This paper presents a novel and computationally efficient data processing method for imputing bad and missing load power measurements to create full power consumption data sets. The imputed data periods have a continuous profile with respect to the adjacent available measurements, which is a highly desirable feature for time-series (power flow) analyses. The method is shown to be superior in accuracy to a utility best practice approach. Our simulations use actual AMI data collected from 128 smart meters on the Georgia Tech campus.


To promote sustainable development, the smart city implies a global vision that merges artificial intelligence, big data, decision making, information and communication technology (ICT), and the internet-of-things (IoT). The ageing issue is an aspect that researchers, companies and government should devote efforts in developing smart healthcare innovative technology and applications. In this paper, the topic of disease diagnosis in smart healthcare is reviewed. Typical emerging optimization algorithms and machine learning algorithms are summarized. Evolutionary optimization, stochastic optimization and combinatorial optimization are covered. Owning to the fact that there are plenty of applications in healthcare, four applications in the field of diseases diagnosis (which also list in the top 10 causes of global death in 2015), namely cardiovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus, Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia, and tuberculosis, are considered. In addition, challenges in the deployment of disease diagnosis in healthcare have been discussed.


Objective To explore the combined anti-microbial effect of ginger,table salt and lactic acid on food-contaminating microbes in the air,evaluate their antiseptic effect on pickled vegetables,so as to reduce the content of table salt in salty food such as pickled vegetalbes,as well as prevent food from going moldy and rotten.Methods Falling air-borne bacteria were cultivated and counted;testing fungi were inoculated and cultivated in agar slant and their growth status were evaluated;antiseptic experiment was performed in test tubes to examine the combined anti-microbial and antiseptic effects of ginger,table salt and lactic acid.Results The ginger of 10%,table salt and lactic acid of low concentration had only a little anti-microbial effects on air-borne bacteria and the testing fungi which could make food going moldy and rotten,while the mixture of the three ingredients showed significant combined anti-microbial and antiseptic effects on air-borne bacteria and most of the testing fungi.Conclusions Ginger,table salt and lactic acid can concurrently inhibit the growth of microorganisms which cause food to go moldy and rotten,and have combined antiseptic effect on cucumbers.


Propagation distortions are examined for frequency resolved pump-probe (FRPP) signals in the perturbative limit. Propagation distortions exhibit qualitative differences that depend on the system dynamics.


In the context of computer code experiments, sensitivity analysis of a complicated input-output system is often performed by ranking the so-called Sobol indices. One reason of the popularity of Sobol's approach relies on the simplicity of the statistical estimation of these indices using the so-called Pick and Freeze method. In this work we propose and study sensitivity indices for the case where the output lies on a Riemannian manifold. These indices are based on a Cram\'er von Mises like criterion that takes into account the geometry of the output support. We propose a Pick-Freeze like estimator of these indices based on an $U$--statistic. The asymptotic properties of these estimators are studied. Further, we provide and discuss some interesting numerical examples.


This work presents a 1D-Lorentz force magnetometer embedded in an integrated electromechanical closed-loop readout circuit. The readout circuit tracks the mechanical resonance frequency of the sensor in order to operate it with the highest sensitivity and to maximize the system resolution. Electrostatic force feedback is deployed to attain a high signal bandwidth. The system achieves a resolution of ${\text{600nT}}/\sqrt {{{\text{H}}_{\text{Z}}}} $, over a bandwidth of 480 Hz. Except for the current driver all circuit components are integrated on-chip and have a power consumption of 532 μW.


South Africa is an arid country with an average annual rainfall of little more than half the world average of 900 mm per annum. In terms of international norms, the per capita availability of water will lead to a "water-stressed" country classification soon. The competition for water increase and the irrigation sector, that is responsible for more than 50% of the water usage, will have to get involved to find balanced solutions to the looming water shortage crisis. This provided the motivation in 1998 for the Department of Agriculture in the Western Cape Province of South Africa to start with the Agricultural Water Conservation Project. The aim of the project is to monitor the actual on-farm irrigation water use and to compare the water use with the farming practices applied by the individual farmers and to compare it with the theoretical calculated water requirements. The optimum farming practices that lead to optimum use of irrigation water will be determined from the data collected and can then be used to assist other irrigation farmers to increase their water use efficiency (WUE - kg of fruit produced per m 3 water used) and to determine what research is required in this field. A Best Management Practices document will be compiled and distributed at the end of the project to assist all irrigation farmers to increase their WUE.


The effect of cooling rate on microstructure and mechanical properties of 20Mn2Si1VB bainite steel after austenization was studied in this paper.The results show that the average cooling rate of the bainite microstructure at 800℃~500℃ are 0 5℃/s~10 0℃/s.The component of granular bainite,carbide free bainite and low carbon lower bainite in the bainite varies with different cooling rate.However,the cooling rate has a little influence on the strength and the plastic behaviour.


The Aguaruna Jivaro of the upper Maraio6n River Valley of north central Peru recognize a species of tree of the genus Licania which is new to science and described here as Licania cecidiophora Prance sp. nov. The tree, called ddship in Aguaruna, is ethnobotanically significant in that it attracts an as yet unidentified insect which lays its eggs on the undersides of the tree's leaves. The developing insect leads ultimately to the formation of a gall. The galls are of major importance to the indigenous Aguaruna, who employ them in necklace production and who have traditionally used them in the manufacture of gigantic mail-like capes. Such employment of insect galls in human ornamentation has not, to our knowledge, been reported in the ethnographic literature for any human society. THE AGUARUNA represent approximately 20,000 manioc-cultivating aboriginal Americans who reside in widely dispersed hamlets and villages along the Upper Marafion River and west of the Santiago River in the Department of Amazonas, Peru (fig. IA). Their major area is just to the west of the true Amazon Basin in what is often referred to in Peru as


Excerpt In previous papers the results of various observations on the course of hypertension were presented.2The purpose in the present paper is to compare the observations on a series of medically...


We report on continuous-wave operation of a 1053 nm Nd:YLF laser with hot-band diode pumping at 908 nm. The laser produced an output power of 625 mW in fundamental mode and can be further power scaled owing to the strongly reduced thermal lensing.


The neuropterid communities of a temperate deciduous forest in Germany were studied using flight-interception traps in the tree crown stratum in the year 2005. In total 884 specimens were captured, representing 23 species of Neuropterida. The communities captured in monospecific beech stands significantly differed from those of more diverse stands. Diversity of Neuropterida was positive- ly correlated with tree species diversity. Abundance of dominant species was either negatively or positively correlated with tree diversity, indicating different levels of host tree association of the particular species.


The objective of the study was to sequence the complete female mitochondrial genomes of Sinanodonta woodiana and Unio pictorum, and to ascertain their intraand inter-specific variation within all the genes and non-coding regions. Complete sequence of maternally inherited mitochondrial genome of Sinanodonta woodiana is 16,243 bp long and is one of the three longest mt genomes in unionids; mt genome of Unio pictorum with its 15,761 bp is one of the smallest in the family. Each genome includes 14 protein-coding genes (13 as in most Metazoa, plus one open reading frame F ORF), 2 ribosomal RNA genes and 22 genes for transfer RNA with typical secondary structures, except for tRNA for serine1. S. woodiana has 25, and U. pictorum 27 non-coding sequences, which constitute 7.8 and 4.9% of mt genome, respectively. The content of A+T bases is 65.8% in S. woodiana and 65.1% in U. pictorum; the difference between the two species is 21%. Intra-specific variation in S. woodiana is three times greater than in U. pictorum. Lower nucleotide diversity within the second species suggests a small effective population size of the Polish U. pictorum. The two species show a similar usage of the most frequent and least frequent codons; the differences pertain to the usage of both stop codons. Gene trnS1 (serine, UGA) in unionids is very little variable with respect to tRNA secondary structure (absence of DHU arm), and nucleotide composition, while its inter-specific variation is half lower than in other mt-tRNAs.


Characteristics of hydrogen‐ and deuterium‐Lyman alpha, emitted from their respective electrodic discharge lamps, were investigated, and the optimum conditions were determined for the production of resonance lines of sufficient intensity and sharpness for producing H(2P) or D(2P) atoms by irradiation of the ground‐state atoms. Reactions between H(2P) or D(2P) atoms and molecular nitrogen were also studied by irradiating the mixtures H+N2 or D+N2 with H Lyman alpha or D Lyman alpha, and the following results were obtained: H+N2+H Lyman alpha→NH3,H+N2+D Lyman alpha→no product,D+N2+H Lyman alpha→no product,D+N2+D Lyman alpha→ND3. Moreover, the relation between the amount of the product and the rate of 2P atom formation was examined, and it was found that the former is strongly affected by the latter.


We examine publications on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) in nine leading political science journals across three decades (1990–2019) to evaluate the scope of political science engagement with the region since the 1990s and analyze trends in research interests, developments in the use of empirical methods, and authorship patterns. Our data highlight significant gaps in the geographic and substantive scope of extant scholarship. Specifically, the disproportionate focus on non-Arab countries and limited engagement with certain topics, including identity, nationalism, and state formation, raise concerns about selection bias and causal misidentification. Nevertheless, we find encouraging trends with respect to methodological developments; however, the methods and data sources employed appear to be determined by case selection to some extent. We also note that few MENA-based scholars currently publish in these journals. These findings have important implications for the integration of MENA studies with and knowledge production in political science.


Background: Business excellence represents one of the most valuable management means of achieving competitive advantage of organizations. Modern and global market demands new organizational approaches for the long-term improvement at all organization levels. Objectives: This paper is concerned with the level of business excellence in Sibenik-Knin County and the level of knowledge about the EFQM model. Moreover, this paper is concerned with the level of knowledge of the top management concerning the business excellence and quality principles. Methods/Approach: For the purpose of this paper, the research was conducted among organizations in Sibenik-Knin County. Results: The results showed that the organizations in Sibenik-Knin County lack the initiatives for the systematic approach and implementation of business excellence model, but poses the knowledge about the basic concepts of business excellence. Conclusions: The research had showed that the organizations believe that the ISO certification is sufficient for strengthening competitive advantage and organization success.


We determined the association between charred meat consumption, cigarette smoking, microsomal epoxide hydrolase (mEH) polymorphisms (rs1051740 and rs2234922), and colorectal adenomas and hyperplastic polyps (HPs) and explored gene–environment interactions. Men and women with colorectal adenomas (n = 519), HPs (n = 691), or concurrently with both types of polyps (n = 227) and polyp-free controls (n = 772) receiving a colonoscopy from December 2004 to September 2007 were recruited. Participants completed telephone interviews and provided buccal cell samples; genotyping of mEH was completed using Taqman assays. We conducted polytomous regression and calculated odd ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals. Interactions were evaluated using Wald chi-square tests. Consumption of >3 servings of charred meat per week was associated with distal HPs (OR = 2.0, 1.2–3.4) but not adenomas nor either type of proximal polyp. Heavy cigarette smoking (≥ 22 pack-years) was associated with an increased risk for colorectal adenomas (OR = 1.7, 95% CI: 1.2–2.4), HPs (OR = 2.4, 95% CI: 1.7–3.3), and both types (OR = 2.8, 95% CI: 1.8–4.3) with the strongest association for distal polyps. There was no association between mEH genotype and colorectal polyps, nor were any statistically significant gene–environment interactions identified. Future investigation of BaP exposure and colorectal neoplasia should analyze whether associations are dependent upon anatomic location.


Abstract This paper extends proper orthogonal decomposition reduced order modeling to flows governed by double diffusive convection, which models flow driven by two potentials with different rates of diffusion. We propose a reduced model based on proper orthogonal decomposition, present a stability and convergence analyses for it, and give results for numerical tests on a benchmark problem which show it is an effective approach to model reduction in this setting.


— Due to state-of-art technologies being implemented in today's power systems. The non-linear loads in the power system cause most of the problems in the electrical power system, such as burden on reactive power and unbalance. To solve these problems, using a distribution static synchronous compensator (DSTATCOM) is widely established. The compensating current for DSTATCOM is determined using two distinct methods in this paper. The instantaneous reactive power theory (p-q theory) and synchronous reference frame theory (d-q theory) are the methodologies that are compared using ANN controller. SIMULINK is used to simulate these two systems in a MATLAB environment. The performance of several strategies for controlling DSTATCOM is depicted in simulation results.


A procedure for improving the reliability of the Q (translation) functions is presented. The procedure involves correlating between maps calculated using different sections of the reflection data, these being spherical shells divided according to d spacing. The peaks in the Q function representing the true shifts of the fragment are found to be the most stable under such a correlation procedure. The modification has been incorporated into a computer program.


Telehealth can help make California's 4.4 million family caregivers' lives a bit easier through more connected care. Working and long-distance family caregivers can virtually join their loved ones' medical visits. When family caregivers sacrifice their own health care to care for others, telemedicine care can help them save time and help ensure the care of their loved one. Monitoring devices for blood pressure, temperature and weight and much more.


In this paper, we consider unicast/multicast multicell cooperative transmission with interference among users/user groups. In this context, we derive the optimal minimum variance distortionless response (MVDR)-based successive minimum variance beamforming (SMVB) scheme that achieves a superior sum-rate performance compared with the block diagonalization scheme. Subsequently, we derive an optimal joint power allocation and broadcast beamforming scheme for multicell cooperative broadcast transmission for a pooled power constraint at the base stations. This scheme is extended to include per base station power constraints by formulating it as a relaxed semi-definite program (SDP). We also consider the multicell cooperative uplink scenario and derive a successive multiuser (MU) uplink beamforming (SMUB) scheme that maximizes the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) of each user. Next, we consider imperfect channel state information (CSI) and derive a robust beamforming scheme for the downlink, based on minimizing the worst-case interference by formulating it as a second-order cone program. It is demonstrated that the corresponding robust beamformer for the uplink transmission can be derived by employing the multidimensional covariance fitting approach. Simulation results are presented to demonstrate the superior sum-rate performance of the proposed multicell transmission schemes. The performance is also compared with several bounds for cooperative multicell scenarios.


This article aims to measure the technological gap of the Internet of Things (IoT) in the new technological revolution and propose policy recommendations for optimizing innovation routes. To this end, this paper establishes a technology gap test model through the indices of paper activity power, paper influence, patent activity power, patent influence, and patent market power, at the same time, the Gordon method is used to standardize scoring, in order to clarify the fine-grained technology gap between China, the United States, Europe, Japan, and South Korea in the field of the Internet of Things. Through comparative research, it has been found that China's IoT technology innovation is in a paralleling competitive stage with Europe, America, Japan, and South Korea, but there are issues such as weak international competitiveness. Therefore, policy recommendations for optimizing innovative routes are proposed for problem research, in order to provide support for relevant research and policy decisions.


Objective: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a group of metabolic diseases with high blood glucose, which cause the damage and dysfunction of some of the organ systems. Although various oral drugs are used to treat DM, they do not prevent the development of DM related diseases such as nephropathy and retinopathy and glucose dependent vascular diseases. Thus novel strategies for the prevention and treatment of DM are urgently needed. This research aimed to reveal the effects of Thymus Vulgaris Lamiaceae (TVL) and Thymbra Spicata Lamiaceae (TSL) on the damaging effects of DM. Methods: P repared TVL and TSL aqueous extracts were studied in the streptozocin induced experimental diabetic rat model. Blood glucose, body weight, and blood biochemical alterations were measured. Rat kidney for nephropathy were enucleated and fixed in paraffin blocks to examine histopathological changes. Results: Briefly, impaired blood glucose, and weight loss of Diabetic rats were significantly improved by TVL in dose dependent manner (Pl0.01). Impaired Blood Uric acid, Urea, and liver enzymes were significantly improved and adjusted to the control group values (Pl0.001). The histological analyses of the kidney in TVL and TSL groups revealed the findings of significant healing properties, which was similar to the normal structures of kidney. Conclusions: In this study, strong biochemical, physiological, and histological improvements in the DM related disorders, such as neuropathy and nephropathy were obtained by TVL treatment.


A technique for identifying nonlinear systems was introduced, beginning with a single input-single output system. Assuming the system is initially at rest, the first kernel (first convolution integral in the continuous case or first convolution sum in the discrete case) was calculated. A controllable and observable linear realization was then obtained in a particular canonical form. The actual nonlinear system was probed with an appropriate input (or inputs) and the output (or outputs) determined. For the linear system, the input was computed that produces the same output. In the difference between the inputs to the nonlinear and linear systems, basic information was found about the nonlinear system. There is an interesting class of nonlinear systems for which this type of identification scheme should prove to be accurate.


Substitution of Mn by Fe in ${\mathrm{La}}_{0.7}{\mathrm{Sr}}_{0.3}{\mathrm{Mn}}_{1\ensuremath{-}y}{\mathrm{Fe}}_{y}{\mathrm{O}}_{3}$ induces a gradual transition from a metallic ferromagnet with a high Curie temperature ${(T}_{c}\ensuremath{\sim}370 \mathrm{K})$ for $y=0,$ to a ferromagnetic insulator with low ${T}_{c}$ and saturation magnetization, for $y\ensuremath{\lesssim}0.25.$ For an intermediate range of compositions, and at temperatures below ${T}_{c},$ the Ohmic resistivity and thermopower are consistent with electronic transport through percolating paths, embedded in an insulating medium and disrupted by weak links. Pulsed $I\ensuremath{-}V$ measurements show that in the nonlinear regime, the excess current density obeys a power-law dependence on the electric field over 2\char21{}5 orders of magnitude (of current density). The results indicate that the major contribution to the excess current is due to inelastic tunneling via pairs of states localized in the weak links.


The purpose of this study is to reveal the form of racism and its impact on the mental health of African American in Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye. The design of this study is qualitative research because the data that support this research are collected from books, journals, articles, and internet. The researchers use two kinds of data collection, namely the primary source that is the novel itself and the secondary sources are books, articles, the internet, and journals. The approach needed in research is mimetic approach, because this topic is related to the environment and as a reflection of human life. The author right to see racism in historical background of the novel. In analysing the data, researchers use three techniques called data reducing, data display, and conclusion. Researchers have read the novel and then decided the topic. From the amount of data collected from various sources researchers use text or jotting to compares, contrasts, and sorts the required data, from the notes written by the researchers, then can categorize the relevant data. The results of the analysis are racism experienced by African Americans in the form of rejection, insults and violence. Racism in the novel is not only practiced by white people but also among black people. Racism can cause victims to hate themselves, and hate others. By the story of the novel and the result of the analysis, researchers find that this impact is particularly vulnerable to children and women.


This paper reports on roller skew in tapered roller bearings. The roller skewing of a tapered roller bearing is experimentally measured with a specialized capacitance probe (Kelvin contact potential difference, CPD, probe). The probe measures the electrochemical potential difference between the probe and roller surfaces. Two probes are inserted through holes in the housing and bearing outer race. The electrical signals from both ends of a roller are used to determine the skewing. The technique, as well as the effect of lubrication and rotational speed on the roller skewing, is presented. It is shown that the skewing increases with an increase in rotational speed, and the lubrication of the large end of the roller. A theoretical analysis has been developed to account for the experimental results.


Western contemporary logic has been used to advance the field of Islamic philosophical theology, which historically utilised Aristotelian-Avicennian logic, on grounds of there being an inherent normativity in logic. This is in spite of the surrounding controversy on the status of logic in the Islamic theological tradition. The normative authority of logic means that it influences the content of what we ought to believe and how we ought to revise those beliefs. This paper seeks to demonstrate that, notwithstanding the incompatible differences between the two systems, the underlying feature of both Western contemporary logic and Aristotelian- Avicennian logic is logical normativity. It then argues that an inherent normativity of logic in the Islamic theological/philosophical tradition is unmotivated. Instead, it proposes to reinstate logic as anti-exceptional within the Islamic theological/philosophical tradition as a viable alternative.


The politics of global capital restructuring and the challenges of transnationalism have made a contemporary cultural studies of law more pressing; political struggles for identity, recognition, and legitimacy are all at stake. Law and culture are mutually constitutive and in a state of nearly constant flux. From multicultural policies to 'cultural exemptions' in free trade agreements, cultural continually appears in legal spheres; particular visions of culture are legitimized and delegitimized through law. In this chapter, I argue that we should avoid pursuing a cultural studies of law through any singular paradigms. Rather than simply linking law and culture, we should recognize the ways in which they have been historically articulated, stabilized and destabilized. Culture must not be simply recognized as signification, but also for materiality in order to recognize the signifying power of law in concrete struggles over meaning and their ensuing political implications.


To answer user demands for more areas on which to operate off-road recreational motorcycles (trail bikes), and to respond to Presidential Executive Orders which require that Federally-owned lands be evaluated for such use, Army land managers need a systematic way of determining land use suitability. This report describes the method developed by the U.S. Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (CERL) to help installation personnel comply with the policies, procedures, and criteria of Army Regulation (AR) 210-9, Use of Off-Road Vehicles on Army Lands. Volume I of this report describes the factors considered in CERL's evaluation method, including incompatible land uses, noise-sensitive land uses, user requirements, trail development, vehicle operating conditions, and methods to rate potential use areas in terms of soil suitability and the relative value and susceptibility to damage of biological resources. The evaluation method given in Volume I can be performed by personnel normally charged with land management planning and does not rely extensively on outside experts. This evaluation method may also be used for many public and private applications. Volume II describes seven alternative soil evaluation methods which can be used with the evaluation method described in Volume I. (Author)


We demonstrate a solar cell that uses fixed negative charges formed at the interface of n-Si with Al2O3 to generate strong inversion at the surface of n-Si by electrostatic repulsion. Built-in voltages of up to 755 mV are found at this interface. In order to harness this large built-in voltage, we present a photovoltaic device where the photocurrent generated in this inversion layer is extracted via an inversion layer induced by a high work function transparent organic top contact, deposited on top of a passivating and dipole-inducing molecular monolayer. Results of the effect of the molecular monolayer on device performance yield open-circuit voltages of up to 550 mV for moderately doped Si, demonstrating the effectiveness of this contact structure in removing the Fermi level pinning that has hindered past efforts in developing this type of solar cell with n-type Si.


The invention discloses novel soap bubble mixed liquid and a preparation method thereof. The mixed liquid comprises borneol, mint, lavender, spina date seed, cortex albiziae, albizia flower, tuber fleeceflower stem, liquorice, gleditsia sinensis, almond, folium artemisiae argyi, tangerine peel, cinnamon, tea and glycerin. Compared with the prior art, the soap bubble mixed liquid prepared from traditional Chinese medicine extracting liquid has the effects of resolving depression, refreshing, calming the mind, sterilizing, inhibiting bacteria, cleaning air, preventing diseases and enhancing immunity, can relieve pressure of workers of white collar and other classes, and achieves a certain health-care effect at the same time.


Introduction: As indicators of the systemic inflammatory response, the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) have been proposed to predict the clinical outcome in cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and various malignancies. We assessed the significance of NLR as a predictor of the outcome in patients with acute ischemic stroke. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the clinical characteristics, laboratory parameters, and NLR in 356 consecutive patients (62.2% men, mean age 65.8±13.0 years) within 3 days after the onset of acute ischemic stroke between July 2012 and March 2015. The NLR was calculated from the differential counts by dividing the neutrophil number by the lymphocyte number at the time of admission. All subjects were divided into four groups according to quartiles of the NLR. Outcomes were measured as 3-month modified Rankin scale (mRS) score. A good functional outcome was defined as a mRS of 0-2 points, whereas a poor outcome was defined as a mRS of >2 points. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to assess association among the clinical, inflammatory and serological parameters including NLR and mRS scores. Results: The frequency of atrial fibrillation, heart failure, hypertension, and diabetes, the NIHSS score at admission, and the level of hs-CRP, D-dimer and the NLR were each significantly higher in the poor outcome group (p The cut-off values of NLR and NIHSS score at admission for prediction of the poor outcome were 2.135 (sensitivity 0.864 and specificity 0.533) and 3.5 (sensitivity 0.862 and specificity 0.787), respectively. In age-adjusted analysis, the NLR were significantly correlated with 3-month mRS score (partial r = 0.329, p Conclusion: The NLR is a useful marker for short-term functional outcome in acute ischemic stroke. The NLR may have a role in risk stratification for predicting poor outcome.


The paper describes the results of test carried out on OPC concrete and slag cement concretes. Ten blended slag-cement concretes, made with typical slags from four countries (United Kingdom, Belgium, South Africa and Japan), are compared with a control OPC concrete. The slags replaced 30 to 70% of cement by mass. The bobbin shaped specimens were used in the direct tension test and 300x150 mm dia. cylindrical specimens were used in the axial and lateral strain tests. Poisson's ratio in compression was determined as the ratio of the lateral to axial strain at the ages of 14 and 84 days. Concretes at the age 84 days exhibits more linearity than at the age of 14 days and slag concrete becomes more brittle when stored in the dry environment. There was no difference between the Poisson's ratio of slag and OPC concretes.


The power dissipated in bus level is more complex in VLSI circuits. So switching activity provides savings on the overall power budget. It presents new method of encoding techniques suitable for minimizing the switching activity of system-level address buses. In particular, the schemes such as full inversion, even inversion and odd inversion target the reduction of the average number of bus line transitions that occur in one clock cycle. Experimental results, conducted on address streams generated by a real FPGA, demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed method. It can reduce the power consumption and improvement in performance level. KeywordsArea, power, marginal noise, performance, cost, ETI inversion.


medial side of the tympanic membrane in long-term follow-ups, which is observed in situ in 5-6 month follow-ups. One of the most important things to avoid from medial migration of the ventilation tubes is that the patient is followed up at regular intervals. In this case report, we present two cases of T-tube medial migration and our clinical approach in the context of the literature.


Professional walk–behind rotary spreaders commonly used on turfgrass have different methods of adjusting the
distribution patterns to compensate for product granule differences. Four spreaders using different pattern correction
methods and one spreader without a means of pattern correction were tested to determine the optimum pattern quality attained
with each. A very light material (ground corn cob) and a large, prilled fertilizer (ammonium nitrate) were tested in the
spreaders to evaluate the patterns. A spiral cone was the most efficient way to adjust pattern, but partially closing off one
port and a pattern slide to adjust drop point on the impeller gave statistically similar results. A means of closing off two ports
but with coarse increments was less effective. The spreader with no pattern adjustment did not deliver a satisfactory pattern
with either product.


-----------------------------------------------------ABSTRACT----------------------------------------------------With increased environmental awareness and its potential hazardous effects, utilization of industrial byproducts has become an attractive alternative to disposal. Silica fume(SF), which is byproduct of the smelting process in the silicon and ferrosilicon industry. Silica fume is very effective in the design and development of high performance concrete.This paper presents the results of an experimental investigations carried out to find the suitability of silica fume in High Performance concrete. The concrete used in this investigation was proportioned to target a mean strength of 60 MPa and designed as per ACI 211.4R-08.The water binder ratio (W/B) adopted was 0.32 and the Super Plasticizer used was CONPLAST SP 430.Specimens such as cubes, beams and cylinders were cast for various mix proportions and tested at the age of 7,14and 28 days. The investigation revealed that the partial replacement of cement by silica fume will develop compressive strength, flexure strength and split tensile strength sufficient for construction purposes. The optimum dosage of silica fume found to be 7.5% (by weight), when used as partial replacement of ordinary Portland cement .Its use will lead to a reduction in cement quantity required for construction purposes and hence sustainability in the construction industry as well as economic construction.


Simplified empirical formulae and some tabular data for the design/evaluation of structure barriers to resist wind/tornado generated missiles impact are presented in this paper. The scope is limited to the missiles defined by UCRL-15910 which are to be considered for moderate and high hazard facilities only. The method presented herein are limited to consideration of local effects on the barrier, i.e., the barrier must be capable of stopping the missile, and the barrier must no cause the generation of secondary missiles due to scabbing. Overall structural response to missile impact and structural effects derived from wind pressure are not addressed in this paper.


The theater-dream metaphor raises fundamental ontological and epistemological questions and treats them in much the same way as phenomenological thought does. Both the metaphor and Edmund Husserl's theory "reduce" the ontological problem to a play of experience—to activity and process—leaving the final question of what is "real" unresolved. Such activity necessarily involves Heideggerean "dimensions" that are not only open, mobile, temporal, "in play" but also structural, patterning. Examples ranging from Renaissance to modern drama, from the Russian to the American stage, show how dimensions are revealed both as the familiar structures of our thinking (stratifications, circles within circles, temporal delineations, subject-object categories, etc.) and as the structuring principles by which "real" and "imagined" worlds establish relationships. Thus we can move among such implicit structures to consider multiple stage-world relations—the interplay of subjects and objects of experience and concomitant audience-art-artist implications.


This paper summarizes our experience and findings in measuring and modeling software reliability for a large IBM software product. Four consecutive releases of this product were studied, with various reliability models fitted for individual releases. The models are evaluated by how good they can fit the observed data and how predictive they are. Model sensitivity and performance analysis are performed for across release comparisons, resulting in the models being ranked according to their robustness and accuracy in predicting failures across different data sets. Various ways of combining the multiple release information for generalization and extrapolation to successor releases are also explored.


Mesh Hernioplasty is the gold standard for Inguinal hernia.However, it is not free of complications. Mesh migration
causing intestinal obstruction, albeit rare, is a serious and complications. Timely surgical intervention is very important in
the management of this condition. We report a rare case of an elderly male patient with mechanical bowel obstruction due to mesh migration 9 years
after a right inguinal hernia meshplasty.


Gorlin syndrome (nevoid basal cell carcinoma syndrome) is a rare genetic predisposition to basal cell carcinomas (BCC), keratocysts of the jaw and calcification of the falx cerebri among other clinical features. With the advent of sonic hedgehog inhibitors for the treatment of BCC, it is timely to establish a cohort of individuals with Gorlin syndrome and collect standardised phenotypic information on these individuals. Moreover, the health‐related quality of life (QoL) in individuals with Gorlin syndrome is not well studied.


The utility model provides an air cooling structure for a motor. An air gap between a stator and a rotor is wedge-shaped; a small port of the wedge-shaped air gap is located at the low-temperature side of the rotor; and a large port of the wedge-shaped air gap is located at the high-temperature side of the rotor. Through adopting the air cooling structure for the motor, the uniformities and the heat dissipation efficiencies of the cooling temperatures of the stator and the rotor can be improved by utilizing the wedge-shaped air gap formed between the stator and the rotor; and the air cooling structure is simple in structure. Moreover, the utility model also provides a horizontal type motor with the air cooling structure, which has higher work efficiency and work stability relative to the motors which adopt the air cooling structures in prior art.


Paper insulation impregnated with oil has been stressed with fast repeating transients. the frequency was set to 5 kHz, 8kHz and 10 kHz and the times to failure showed a much faster breakdown rate then when compared with a clean AC waveform at 50 Hz. The times to failure were also different for each frequency showing that repetition frequency has a major effect on the failure time. The material was also analyzed with tan d measurements and these measurements have shown that the paper sample has degraded much faster with the addition of transients.


A second-order finite volume scheme is proposed and analyzed for a 2X2 system of non-linear partial differential equations. These equations model the dynamics of growing sandpiles created by a vertical source on a flat, bounded rectangular table in multiple dimensions. The well-balancedness of the scheme is ensured through a modified limitation approach allowing the scheme to reduce to well-balanced first-order scheme near the steady state while maintaining the second-order accuracy away from it. The well-balanced property of the scheme is proven analytically in one dimension and demonstrated numerically in two dimensions. It is also shown through the numerical experiments that the second-order scheme reduces the finite time oscillations, takes fewer time iterations for achieving the steady state and gives sharper resolutions of the physical structure of the sandpile, as compared to the first-order schemes existing in the literature.


Despite considerable moral and material differences among states, the concept of sovereign equality permeates international relations theory and, in particular, normative international relations theory. Most traditions of international ethics incorporate the idea of equality. John Rawls's Law of Peoples is representative of this tendency. The states party to Rawls's contractual model of international justice are assumed to be equal. Despite the inequalities among states, the choice to model states as equals is justified to the extent that they all possess some degree of moral agency. As moral agents, states possess an inherent equality that justifies modeling them as equal. Nevertheless, states as equal moral agents would take into account certain aspects of international inequality. In particular, they could recognize the role that Great Powers can play in maintaining order and establishing the preconditions for international justice. This piece explores the extent of equality in normative international relations theory.


Aim: The purpose of our study was to determine urinary iodine as an indicator of iodine supplementation in Roma (Gypsy) neonates compared to majority population neonates. Methods: The groups studied were formed by 30 full-term Roma neonates and 151 majority population neonates. Iodine was determined from samples of urine collected on the 4th day after delivery, after alkaline ashing, using the Sandell-Kolthoff method. Results: The median of urinary iodine in Roma neonates was 92.15 µg/l urine and in neonates from majority population mothers it was 109.20 µg/l urine. The mean of urinary iodine in Roma neonates was 114.55 µg/l urine (SD 71.68 µg/l) and in neonates from majority population mothers it was 141.86 µg/l urine (SD 87.42 µg/l). The difference was not statistically significant. Majority population mothers more frequently consumed nutrition supplements containing iodine as well as fish. Conclusions: Compared to older data, supplementation of neonates with iodine is higher. However, it does not reach optimum levels. The urinary iodine median in Roma neonates lies in the mild iodine deficiency band.


One of the most vital selection issues is creation of wheat varieties adaptive to certain soil and climatic conditions. Ecological testing plays an important role in evaluation of new source material and development of varieties. The aim of our research is to study samples of spring soft wheat of various ecological and geographical origin by a complex of economically valuable traits in the conditions of Northern Kazakhstan. The object of the study was 52 varieties of spring wheat of various ecological and geographical origin from 20 institutions of Russia and Kazakhstan. Sowing was carried out on fallow at appropriate time for the zone in two repetitions. The plot area was 5 m2, seeding amount was 3.5 million of viable seeds per hectare. Agrotechnics of the experimental plot was carried out in accordance with recommendations for spring wheat cultivation in Akmola region. Along with making record of the yield data, the duration of the growing season was also determined, the grain was assessed by the content of protein, gluten and FDM. Phenological observations, records and evaluation of samples were carried out in accordance with recommendations of KASIB system, which are based on All-Russian Institute of Agriculture method. According to the research results of 52 varieties and lines of different ecological and geographical origin in the conditions of Northern Kazakhstan, it was established that these samples differed in types of ripeness, yield and formation of quality parametres. On average for 2019-2021, Line 67/98-13 (Scientific and production center of grain farming named after A.I. Baraev) matured the earliest - 85 days. The maximum yield was formed by Pamyati Azieva variety (International standard) - 24.2 dt/ha, high protein content - 19.39% was noted in the line Erythrospermum 79/07 (Karabalykskaya Agricultural Test Station). Line 67/98-13 (Scientific and production center of grain farming named after A.I. Baraev) has a high content and quality of gluten - 37.5%, 75 units of FDM. It is recommended to use the samples distinguished for this or that trait in this zone for creation of new source materials.


To gain further insight into ART4 (DO) gene alleles (DO*A, DO*JO1, DO*A‐WL, DO*DOYA, DO*B, DO*B‐WL, DO*B‐SH‐Q149K, DO*B‐(WL)‐I175N, DO*HY1, DO*HY2, DO*DOMR) and evaluate the impact of synonymous nucleotide polymorphisms on protein expression and mRNA accumulation of DO*A‐HA, DO*A‐SH and DO*B‐SH alleles, human erythroleukaemic K562 cells were transducted with variant DO‐lentiviral particles and analysed by flow cytometry and quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. Monoclonal antibody (MoAb) detection of DO*A‐HA and DO*JO1 transductants was lower than DO*A transductants, while detection of DO*A‐SH, DO*A‐WL and DO*DOYA transductants was higher. Variant DO*B alleles, i.e. DO*B‐SH, DO*B‐WL, DO*HY1, DO*HY2 and DO*DOMR, showed reduced MoAb binding. The unexpected modifications of protein expression of the DO*A‐HA, DO*A‐SH and DO*B‐SH alleles that differ from the DO*A or DO*B alleles by a single synonymous polymorphism were abolished by reversion, thus implying involvement of these polymorphisms. Depending on the Leu208 codon used, detection level ranged from 1 to 4·14. In the variant alleles resulting from single synonymous polymorphism, mRNA accumulation correlated roughly with MoAbs detection levels, suggesting post‐transcriptional regulation. Other than a few reports involving aberrant splicing, the experiments described herein provide the first evidence that synonymous nucleotide polymorphisms can influence Dombrock blood group expression. Such polymorphisms should be taken into account for molecular screening and potential impact on transfusion.


insistence on the importance of popular adaptations of scholarly material and critical debate, adaptations ranging in intellectual level and in audience appeal from the stolidly edifying Bibliothèque bleue to the studiedly cosmopolitan Revue des deux mondes. His thorough exploitation ofperiodical literature and his assiduous integration of those results with the grand themes of of modern French historiography may well be this book's prime contribution to continuing scholarship. The style of this book will not appeal to all; it struck this reviewer as more wooden in the earlier chapters than toward the end, which does seem to have engaged the authot more than his earnestly elaborated prolegomena to the central argument. Some readers may object to the evidently Francophile author's tendency to quote his French sources both frequently and at length; a reader not at ease with literary French might find this useful study frustrating. This reviewer tried his hand at some English renderings of key quotations, but found in each case that the translation traduced the message excessively. Glencross doesn't merely love the French language and its distinctive critical tradition; he has a keen eye for its riper nuances, and feels committed to reporting them faithfully. As a result, the mental world of Edgar Quinet and his fractious intellectual confrères, paradoxically enchanted at once by Ccltomania and classicism, has come alive once more in these careful pages.


In this paper, we propose a method for capturing High Dynamic Range (HDR) light fields with dense viewpoint sampling. Analogously to the traditional HDR acquisition process, several light fields are captured at varying exposures with a plenoptic camera. The RAW data is de-multiplexed to retrieve all light field viewpoints for each exposure and perform a soft detection of saturated pixels. Considering a matrix which concatenates all the vectorized views, we formulate the problem of recovering saturated areas as a Weighted Low Rank Approximation (WLRA) where the weights are defined from the soft saturation detection. We show that our algorithm successfully recovers the parallax in the over-exposed areas while the Truncated Nuclear Norm (TNN) minimization, traditionally used for single view HDR imaging, does not generalize to light fields. Advantages of our weighted approach as well as the simultaneous processing of all the viewpoints are also demonstrated in our experiments.


Microemulsion system is a good system to synthesis nano-sized particles, for it can control the shapes and granularity of nano-sized particles and other elements can be easy doped. In this research the water/Tritonx-100/benzene/propanol system is used. The colloid is washed and calcined at different temperatures. The Azeotropic distillation method is used to dry the colloid. The XRD, SEM, TEM and GFAAS are used to characterize the Zirconia powders. The dope ratio of Al2O3 can get 95%. The size of Zirconia particles is 10-100nm.


The reaction of aniline derivatives with ammonium thiocyanate yield 4-thiocyanoaniline. The thiocyano-aniline was condensed with o-phenylenediamine and carbon disulphide to get benzimidazole. These compounds were synthesized in good yield and their structures were confirmed by IR,1H-NMR and 13C-NMR .Antimicrobial activity against bacteria and fungi ,anti-inflammatory activity and analgesic activity were studied for the synthesized compounds


It's a common ceremony that the bride crossed over the saddle in traditional wedding ceremony of Han. The Qing Dynasty inherited the governing system from the Ming dynasty,including political institution,ideology and culture,social customs and so on. In the local bannerman,especially the Manchu eight banners,it's a universal phenomenon that the bride crossed over the saddle in bannerman's wedding ceremony in northeast china at the end of Qing Dynasty. Based on the research in the appear time,implied meaning, the order,and reasons of appearance in northeast bannerman's wedding ceremony,we can reveal the original appearance of the ceremony and then to deepen the research about the trend of national amalgamation between the Bannerman and Han during the Qing dynasty.


ABSTRACT We present a detailed study on snow cover on six different glaciers in southern Spitsbergen, Svalbard: Amundsenisen, Flatbreen, Hansbreen, Nannbreen, Storbreen and Werenskioldbreen. Fieldwork was carried out in April–May 2013, at the end of the accumulation season, to determine large-scale spatial distribution patterns of snow cover on glaciers surrounding the Hornsund Fjord. Snow depth was measured using an 800 MHz ground-penetrating radar (GPR). In addition, the structure of the snowpack was determined by digging snow pits and collecting snow cores from different glacier facies. These samples were subsequently analysed against circulation types and meteorological data from selected sites. In particular, snow patterns were compared against rain-on-snow events. The mean snow depth measures ranged from 1.90 m (Werenskioldbreen) to 3.80 m (Amundsenisen), whereas the accumulation gradient ranged from 15 cm 100 m−1 (Storbreen) to 74 cm 100 m−1 (Nannbreen). These results followed previous observations, suggesting a decrease in snow accumulation from coastal areas towards the island's interior. The estimated snow water equivalent values were lower than those measured in the 1990s and during 2010 (Hansbreen: c. −48%), with the exception of Amundsenisen (c. +17%). The relatively high densities found in the snowpack did not compensate for the shallow snow depths measured, which can be ascribed to low precipitation totals and an increased frequency of rain events during the winter months.


Two bisindolylmaleimide derivatives were prepared in good yields, characterized and successfully employed in the fabrication of organic light-emitting-diodes (OLEDs). The absorption spectra and photoluminescence spectra of the compounds in solution and in thin film were also measured and they show larger Stokes shifts (>100nm). With the electroluminescence devices configured as ITO/NPB/dopant:Alq3 /Alq3/LiF/Al, they exhibit yellow (A) and orange (B) color. In particularly, the two devices can be turned on at 5.2 V (device A) and 5.9V (device B), and reached the maximum brightness of 15066 and 8593cd/m2 at 21V, respectively. From the cyclic voltammetry and the onset absorption, the highest occupied molecule orbital (HOMO) and the lowest unoccupied molecule orbital (LUMO) energy levels can be estimated as A (5.3, 2.9eV) and B (5.4, 3.1eV).


Encryption has always been a part of malware, from basic ROT13 string encoding to multi-layered packing algorithms. However, malware authors have discovered ways to exploit the existing strengths and weaknesses of public key cryptography in addition to their home-grown crypto. With the many layers that make up the Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) – certifi cate issuance, verifi cation, revocation and all of the protocols and software that go in between – scammers have several weaknesses at their fi ngertips to abuse the overall system. Cheap SSL certifi cates with automated issuance procedures facilitate the fast and anonymous set-up of rogue e-commerce sites. Moreover, malware authors are able to pass their trojans off as binaries from a legitimate source, using valid or invalid signatures, as most users simply click through the related security warnings. Making matters worse, much of the endpoint software consuming digitally signed content has its own weaknesses, including off-by-default certifi cate revocation checking mechanisms. In addition to abuse, malware authors are also exploiting the strengths of public key cryptography for uses including secure botnet command and control. This paper discusses these abuses of digital signatures and possible approaches to turn the criminals' investment in their fraudulent reputation into additional protection mechanisms.


AIM To establish metastasis model in nude mice by inoculationβ Glucuronidase cDNA transfected HHCC. METHODS The βG cDNA transfected human hepatic cell line(HHCC)was cultured in vitro . Two types of cells were analyzed on its morphology and cell cycling. The cell metastasis properties were studied by spleen inoculation in nude mice. Sixty days later, the metastasis focus was fixed and stained HE by traditional method. RESULTS Granular substances could be observed in βG cDNA transfected HHCC. The morphologic changes of HHCC βG, such as ① microvillus and process increasing,②cell degeneration and necrosis,③increased endoplasmic reticulum and ribosome and ④the marked increasing of lsosomes could be observed under the transmission electron microscope. Compared with HHCC βG, the transfected HHCC cell cycling changed distinctly. The cells in S phase increased( P 0.05) while those in G2 phase decreased ( P 0.05). After spleen inoculation in nude mice, the experiment group displayed widely the metastasis character. The metastatic focus could be seen in liver, renal and mesenteric lymphnodes. The control group could only form inside liver invading and disseminating. CONCLUSION TransfectingβG cDNA can enhance HHCC metastasis potential in nude mice.


This paper presents an automatic alignment procedure for a 4-source photometric stereo technique to reconstruct the depth map in the scanning electron microscopy. PS, based on the so-called reflectance map, used several images of a surface to estimate the surface depth at each image point. Lambertian reflectivity function is the simplest one. In the SEM one of the most important signals, the backscattered electron emission, is nearly Lambertian, and, to simplify matters, SEM images are intrinsically grey scale maps. The possibility for electron-PS is assumed, taking advantage of one of the most exciting features of the technique, which doesn't return some depth illusion from ordinary pictures, but true numerical 3D models


The paper introduced the construction principle,characteristics and main technical parameter etc. of chemical churning pile treating with poor geology for reference.


This article accepts that the Internet has some exciting potential for musical experiences, but cautions against whole-hearted acceptance of the current state of affairs. Colleagues are encouraged to acknowledge some of the advantages of live performance, including the 'electric' energy between performers and their audiences, the concentration of the participants, and the subliminal recognition of accurate reproduction of the sonic experience, in order to identify those qualities that need to be considered in the construction of virtual counterparts. The diversity of venues in live performance is also suggested as a model that will not only help in encouraging a diversity of approaches to Internet music contexts, but also help in users quickly identifying the specific sites they wish to browse.


Andrade, Tonio, Lost Colony: The Untold Story of China's First Great Victory over the West. (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2011. xv + 431 pp. £24.95. ISBN 978-0-691-14455-9.) Barr, Michael, Who's Afraid of China? The Challenge of Chinese Soft Power. (London and New York: Zed Books, 2011. vi + 154 pp. £16.99; $29.95. ISBN 978-1-84813-590-1.) Barthes, Roland, Travels in China. (Cambridge, UK, and Malden, MA: Polity Press, 2011. xi + 225 pp. £16.99. ISBN 978-0-7456-5080-7 Beckett, Gulbahar H. and Postiglione, Gerard A., China's Assimilationist Language Policy: The Impact of Indigenous/Minority Literacy and Social Harmony. (London and New York: Routledge, 2012. xiii + 231 pp. £85.00. ISBN 978-0-415-59605-3.) Bernstein, Richard, A Girl Named Faithful Plum: The True Story of a Dancer from China and How She Achieved Her Dream. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2011. 270 pp. $15.99. ISBN 978-0-375-86960-0.) Biderman, Stan, with photography by Kathryn Minette, Bullet Trains to Yaks: Glimpses into Art, Politics, and Culture in China and Tibet. (Santa Fe, NM: Irony Press, 2011. 142 pp. £20.99. ISBN 978-0-98326360-9.) Billioud, Sébastien, Thinking through Confucian Modernity: A Study of Mou Zongsan's Moral Metaphysics. (Leiden: Brill, 2012. xii + 255 pp. €105.00; $144.00. ISBN 978-900-421-5535.) Blake, G. Fred, Burning Money: The Material Spirit of the Chinese Lifeworld. (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2011. ix + 276 pp. £52.00. ISBN 978-0-8248-3532-3.) Brady, Anne-Marie (ed.), China's Thought Management. (London and New York: Routledge, 2012. xi + 209 pp. ISBN 978-0-415-61673-7.) Brown, Kerry, Hu Jintao: China's Silent Ruler. (Singapore: World Scientific, 2012. xxv + 250 pp. £32.00. ISBN 978-981-4350-02-0.) Chellaney, Brahma, Water: Asia's New Battleground. (Washington DC: Georgetown University Press, 2011. ix + 386 pp. £20.75. ISBN 978-1-58901-771-9.) Chen, Minglu, Tiger Girls: Women and Enterprises in the People's Republic of China. (London and New York: Routledge, 2011. xi + 258 pp. ISBN 978-0-415-60013-2.) Chey, Jocelyn and Milner Davis, Jessica (eds.), Humour in Chinese Life and Letters: Classical and Traditional Approaches. (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2011. 312 pp. ISBN 978-988-8083-52-7.) Chung, Jae Ho (ed.), China's Crisis Management. (London and New York: Routledge, 2012. xiv + 151 pp. ISBN 978-0-415-67780-6.) Cooke, Fang Lee, Human Resource Management in China: New Trends and Practices. (London and New York: Routledge, 2012. xii + 252 pp. ISBN 978-0-415-55380-3.) Dahlman, Carl J., The World under Pressure: How China and India are Influencing the Global Economy & Environment. (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2012. xxii + 301 pp. ISBN 978-0-8047-7713-1.) 256


Architects and building owners are now focusing on how to make their buildings green. Many green councils around the world are currently experimenting with ingenious ways of introducing new energy-efficient buildings. They also implemented various principles and indicators to recognize buildings that contribute to sustainability, efficiency, and improve occupants' health. The paper aims to review the aspects and requirements that the Green Building Councils have recommended. This paper looks at seven of the rating systems available in terms of similarities and differences and presents new rigorous criteria for daylight performance and visual comfort.
Keywords: Daylighting, Visual Comfort, Passive Design Strategy, Rating Tools.
eISSN: 2398-4287© 2020. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BYNC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/ebpj.v5i15.2492.