This paper presents the results of brief investigations, carried out by C. Christou in 1957, in a Mycenaean cemetery at Palaiokastro in NW Arcadia. The pottery and bronzes collected from the chamber tombs mostly date to LH IIIC, a period hitherto scarcely documented in this part of Greece. The finds, which include some remarkable pots, a type II bronze sword and other weaponry, reveal links with other parts of mainland Greece and beyond.


The hypothesis of an exogenous origin and delivery of biologically important molecules to early Earth presents an alternative route to their terrestrial in situ formation. Dipeptides like Gly–Gly detected in the Murchison meteorite are considered as key molecules in prebiotic chemistry because biofunctional dipeptides present the vital link in the evolutionary transition from prebiotic amino acids to early proteins. However, the processes that could lead to the exogenous abiotic synthesis of dipeptides are unknown. Here, we report the identification of two proteinogenic dipeptides—Gly–Gly and Leu–Ala—formed via electron-irradiation of interstellar model ices followed by annealing the irradiated samples to 300 K. Our results indicate that the radiation-induced, non-enzymatic formation of proteinogenic dipeptides in interstellar ice analogs is facile. Once synthesized and incorporated into the ''building material'' of solar systems, biomolecules at least as complex as dipeptides could have been delivered to habitable planets such as early Earth by meteorites and comets, thus seeding the beginning of life as we know it.


The structure,design principle and performance test results of cylinder agitator were introduced.Cylinder agitator is composed of cylinder and inward-curved vanes.When it works,very strong radial flow and axial flow in medium are produced.The moving law of liquid particle in fins was analyzed in theory.The dimension of cylinder agitator impellers depends on the properties of liquid,mixing requirement,diameter of container,and rotating speed.The IKA EUROSTAR power control mixing equipment,made in Germany,and Labword software were used in testing with water as medium.The cylinder agitator has a large draining capacity and circulating flux of drum mixer,so the mixing effect is very good.The mixing power,empirical formula for power number,and the basic estimating formulas for draining capacity and circulating flux were obtained.In addition,the size of impeller parts has great influence on mixing effect,so further research is needed.


A new simulation method for the vibro‐acoustic simulation of poro‐elastic shells is presented. The proposed methods can be used to investigate arbitrary curved layered panels, as well as their interaction with the surrounding air. We employ a high‐order finite element method (FEM) for the discretization of the shell structure. We assume that the shell geometry is given parametrically or implicitly. For both cases the exact geometry is used in the simulation. In order to discretize the fluid surrounding the structure, a variational variant of the method of fundamental solutions (MFS) is developed. Thus, the meshing of the fluid domain can be avoided and in the case of unbounded domains the Sommerfeld radiation condition is fulfilled. In order to simulate coupled fluid‐structure interaction problems, the FEM and the MFS are combined to a coupled method. The implementation of the uncoupled FEM for the shell and the uncoupled MFS is verified against numerical examples based on the method of manufactured solutions. For the verification of the coupled method an example with a known exact solution is considered. In order to show the potential of the method sound transmission from cavities to exterior half‐spaces is simulated.


The global escalation in the road traffic density alleviates the harmful emissions and fuel bills due to congestion and misaligned traffic control. The conventional traffic monitoring schemes (camera or sensor-based) are not able to cover every nook and corner and thus miss various vital traffic parameters that can otherwise be very useful for traffic density and pattern analysis. Internet of Drones (IoD) has been widely adopted to resolve various related challenges and has strong potential in traffic monitoring even in the areas where scarcity of fixed infrastructure is witnessed. Thus, in this paper, we have proposed an IoD-based traffic monitoring system to avoid the congestion on the roads within the available infrastructure. Moreover, to deal with the dynamic network typologies, an software-defined networking (SDN)-based centralized controller is configured to generate the flow rules for end to end data transmission. However, the drones communicate with each other through an open channel (now controlled through a programmable SDN architecture). Thus, the integrity of data collected by drones must be protected through a robust security mechanism. So, we have adopted a blockchain technology to secure the proposed system against unauthorised access and maintain data integrity. However, maintaining the entire blockchain on the drones can lead to several resource bottlenecks. Thus, we have used a referenced blockchain architecture that decouples the data from the blockchain part and stores it in the off-chain. The proposed scheme has been validated using simulated environments that validates its the superiority in contrast to the existing variants.


Purpose: Topical nanoemulsion comprising of fluconazole and curcumin was developed to target multiple drug resistance dermatophytes infection and to facilitate cutaneous delivery of these poorly water soluble drugs. Methods: Almond oil, sesame oil and paraffin light were used to formulate nanoemulsions and screened for the stability. The solubility of fluconazole and curcumin in surfactants, co-surfactants and oils was screened to decide the various components of the nanoemulsion. The oil phase was light paraffin whereas tween 80 and span 80 were the surfactants and ethanol was used as a co-surfactant. To identify the area of nanoemulsion existence, a pseudoternary diagram was drawn and optimum systems were developed. Drug-loading efficiency was assessed and the developed nanoemulsions were characterized for globule size, stability, robustness to dilution and pH. The optimized nanoemulsion was further evaluated for drug content, viscosity, skin permeation study (ex vivo) and assay of antifungal activity. Results: The globule size was below 200 nm and uniform for the optimized nanoemulsion formulation. It showed enhanced skin permeation (ex vivo) and better antifungal efficacy as compared to the native form of fluconazole and curcumin suspensions. Antimicrobial assay confirmed the synergistic effect of fluconazole and curcumin combination against multiple drug resistance Trychophytum rubrum and Trichophyton metagrophytes as compared to the fluconazole alone. Conclusion: The results clearly indicate an optimized delivery of fluconazole and curcumin in a synergistic way from the nanoemulsion formulation. This resulted in better penetration of these poorly soluble molecules and overall enhanced antifungal activity as compared to these drugs as such against multiple drug resistance dermatophytes.


This study aimed to determine the effect of service quality, price, amenities on customer satisfaction
in the hotel Shariah solo. The sample in this research was the respondents who've come and stay at Hotel Syariah Solo. But in this study using a study with a target object on surrounding communities
solo ever came to the hotel shariah. The spread of the questionnaire is not necessarily done at the hotel
with a view and deliver directly to the visitors who come to the hotel where shariah. The assumptions used are communities around solo who already know about the syariah hotel and never visited and stayed at the Hotel Syariah Solo totaling 96 respondents. The sampling technique in this research is accidental sampling. Data analysis method used is validity, reability, normality test and test multiple linear regression analysis with t-test, F, and the coefficient of determination (R2). In this study the
data meet for a normal distribution. Hypothesis tests showed the quality of service, price, and the
facilities have significant influence with t respectively 2,285, 5,494 and 2,473. In the F test showed that together the variables of service quality, price, and facilities significantly influence purchasing decisions with a probability value of 0.000 (0.000 <0.05). The coefficient of determination (R2) of 54.9%.


Amino acids ,inorganic elements,crude proteins,crude fats and vitamin B_1,B_2,E,B_(12)in Formica sankuinea Latr.and Polyrhachis vicina RoRer were determined. It was found that thecontents of free amino acids,hydrolytic amino acids,crude proteins,vitamin B_1,B_2,E and seneinorganic elements,especially element Zn,which has been regarded as one of the activecomponents of medicinalants,in Formica sanguinea Latr. were higher than those in Polyrhachisvicina Roger.


Metachromatic leukodystrophy (MLD) due to Sap‐B deficiency is a rare autosomal recessive disorder caused due to biallelic variants in the PSAP gene. The PSAP gene encodes a precursor protein prosaposin, which is subsequently cleaved to form four active glycoproteins: Sap‐A, Sap‐B, Sap‐C, and Sap‐D. In case of deficiency of the sphingolipid activator protein Sap‐B, there is a gradual accumulation of cerebroside‐3‐sulfate in the myelin of the nervous system resulting in progressive demyelination. Only 12 variants have been reported in the PSAP gene causing Sap‐B deficiency to date. Here, we report two cases of MLD due to Sap‐B deficiency (late‐infantile and adult‐onset form) harboring two novel missense variants c.688T > G and c.593G > A in the PSAP gene respectively. This study reports the third case of adult‐onset MLD due to Sap‐B deficiency in the world. The proband, a 3‐year‐old male child presented with complaints of hypotonia, lower limb tremors and global developmental delay. His MRI showed hyperintense signals in the bilateral cerebellar white matter. Overall, the findings were suggestive of metachromatic leukodystrophy. The second case was a 19‐year‐old male child with clinical features of regression of speech, gait ataxia and bilateral tremors referred to our clinic. MRI data suggested metachromatic leukodystrophy. Normal enzyme activity of arylsulfatase‐A led to a suspicion of saposin B deficiency. For both cases, targeted sequencing was performed. This identified homozygous variant c.688T > G (p.Cys230Gly) and c.593G > A (p.Cys198Tyr) in exon 6 of the PSAP gene, respectively.


The book starts with a general introduction to TLC, describing the milestones of TLC history and emphasizing the core concepts of TLC. TLC is a capillary-controlled flow system. The driving force for mobile phase migration is the decrease in free energy of the solvent as it enters the porous structure of the layer. Poole gathers his knowledge together in the words "that a column in general affords a better arrangement for operation at high pressure and for variation of the separation conditions by the control of external parameters". Compared to the conditions used in high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), he states the three features of capillary-controlled systems: (1) there is no vapor phase in the column experiment; (2) in HPLC, mobile phase velocity is independent of column length; and (3) mobile phase velocity is set by the system and cannot be independently optimized in TLC. On only 20 pages, Poole describes the consequences of capillary-controlled flow. His summary is: "TLC provides a better arrangement for high sample throughput, flexible detection strategies, and a greater tolerance of samples with a high-matrix burden." He concludes: "Capillary-controlled flow makes thin-layer chromatography the easiest of the chromatographic methods to implement."


This paper describes the large-scale synthesis of a progesterone receptor metabolite. The key step in this sequence was the regioselective pyrazole N-alkylation.


During the last decades, various aspects of Nineveh's cultural heritage have been destroyed during wars or natural causes. Therefore, the needs to preserve these valuable heritages become crucial. With the increased use of the Internet, Social media networks have become part of peoples' daily lives for publicly sharing information, including their feelings, opinion expression, knowledge, and sharing images, videos, audio, and even their locations. This paper aims to gather Nineveh's cultural heritage data from different social media sites. We prepare it to be used for supporting the preservation of the cultural heritage process, including both tangible and intangible heritage. With social media data, python programming language, and web scraping, various data types can be fetched from different heterogeneous sources such as Twitter, YouTube, etc., depending on several keywords and hashtags. Once the data is collected, several pre-processing operations are implemented to clean, organize and archive the resulted data in the NoSQL database and Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3). The archived cleaned information can be used later to query, browse, analyze and visualize the target information.


Rogue waves have been observed in super∞uid helium. The experimen- tal system consists of high intensity second sound (temperature-entropy) waves within a resonant cavity. Under steady state conditions, with a constant oscilla- tory driving force at the resonant frequency, the waves are turbulent and there are ∞uxes of energy towards both high and low frequencies. Rogue waves appear under the nonequilibrium conditions that prevail shortly after the drive has been switched on, prior to establishment of the steady state. The experiment is de- scribed brie∞y, relevant results are presented and discussed theoretically in terms of nonlinear wave interactions, and possible connections to rogue waves on the ocean are considered.


A technological evolution in digital electronics gives birth to micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS). This evolution generates drastic change in the field of micro-sensors. Micro-sensors are advanced in capabilities of low-cost, less energy consumption, self-configurable, work on heterogeneous environment and highly reliable. A way to work efficiently automated systems are relying on sensor backbone known as routing protocols. The routing protocols is key whose functionality provides a better usability of a system in effective and efficient way. In this paper, we have focused on categories of routing protocols based on required applications. The main idea of this survey to present the applicability of sensor routing protocols in various indoor and outdoor applications.


Ten students participated in the 1991 summer high school student research program at the University of Rochester's Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE). The participants spent 8 weeks working and learning at LLE. They spent most of their time working on individual research projects. Each student was assigned a project, upon which he/she worked under the direct supervision of one of the staff members of the laboratory. The students, their high schools, and their projects are listed in Table 1. The program culminated in oral and written reports describing their work. The oral reports were presented at a symposium on 23 August 1991, at which the student's parents and teachers and members of the LLE staff were present. The written reports are collected in this volume. The titles of the works are UV alignment table; neutron yields can be measured by using the relative gain of a photomultiplier tube; scattering in isotropic and anisotropic media; a better approximation of the diffusion equation; use of the SLAC code to produce a photoemissive electrostatic electron gun; spatial resolution deteriorates with increasing film exposure; analysis of refractive image distortion; making of pinholes for x-ray pinhole cameras; does perturbation theory accurately describe multiphoton ionization and more » wave front analysis using shearing interferometry. « less


Background : Some investigators have recently described an association between Helicobacter pylori infection and children with short stature. In the present study, we aimed to evaluate children with short stature with different etiologies.


As software grows more complex, the role of teams looms ever larger, forcing software development organizations to confront the shifting balance between conflict and cooperation among programmers on a common project. This paper suggests that the degree of constructive conflict and dissent, rather than consensus, is the crucial variable in the success of packaged software teams. The composition and behaviors of the members of these teams also suggest the outlines of new forms of organization in innovation industries and rapidly‐changing institutions.


Abstract We study the existence result of a renormalized solution for a class of nonlinear parabolic equations of the form ∂  b  ( x , u ) ∂  t - div  ( a  ( x , t , u , ∇  u ) ) + g  ( x , t , u , ∇  u ) + H  ( x , t , ∇  u ) = μ   in  Ω × ( 0 , T ) , ${\partial b(x,u)\over\partial t}-\operatorname{div}(a(x,t,u,\nabla u))+g(x,t,u% ,\nabla u)+H(x,t,\nabla u)=\mu\quad\text{in }\Omega\times(0,T),$ where the right-hand side belongs to L 1  ( Q T ) + L p ′  ( 0 , T ; W - 1 , p ′  ( Ω ) ) ${L^{1}(Q_{T})+L^{p^{\prime}}(0,T;W^{-1,p^{\prime}}(\Omega))}$ and b  ( x , u ) ${b(x,u)}$ is unbounded function of u, - div  ( a  ( x , t , u , ∇  u ) ) ${{-}\operatorname{div}(a(x,t,u,\nabla u))}$ is a Leray–Lions type operator with growth | ∇  u | p - 1 ${|\nabla u|^{p-1}}$ in ∇  u ${\nabla u}$ . The critical growth condition on g is with respect to ∇  u ${\nabla u}$ and there is no growth condition with respect to u, while the function H  ( x , t , ∇  u ) ${H(x,t,\nabla u)}$ grows as | ∇  u | p - 1 ${|\nabla u|^{p-1}}$ .


The invention discloses equipment for processing silicon tetrachloride as a byproduct of polysilicon. The equipment comprises a reactor, a collecting cooler, a gathering device a separator and a deacidifying device, wherein the collecting cooler is arranged below the reactor so as to facilitate the connection between a feed port of the cooler and an outlet of the reactor; an inlet of the gathering device is connected with a discharge port of the cooler; the separator is provided with a separator inlet, a gas outlet and a solid outlet, and the separator inlet is connected with the outlet of the gathering device; and the upper part of the deacidifying device is provided with a tail gas outlet and a discharge port of the deacidifying device, the lower part of the deacidifying device is provided with a steam inlet and a feed port of the deacidifying device, and the feed port of the deacidifying device is connected with the solid outlet of the separator. According to the equipment for processing the silicon tetrachloride as the byproduct of the polysilicon in the invention, the silicon tetrachloride as the byproduct of the polysilicon can be used for producing micrometer-grade silicon diode, so that the problem that the silicon tetrachloride as the byproduct restricts the production of the polysilicon is solved, the produced micrometer-grade silicon dioxide has extensive applications, and a circular economy effect is enhanced; and in addition, the equipment has the advantages of simple structure, simplicity for operation and low cost.


In this paper, we present a new approach to image restoration based on a flexible constraint framework that encapsulates structural assumptions about the uncorrupted image. Piecewise and local class (PALC) models are defined and utilized to restore images degraded by linear blurring and additive noise. The restoration process is accomplished by iteratively deconvolving the solution image while simultaneously optimizing local image characteristics defined by the PALC models. Solution images to this ill-posed, combinatorial problem are computed using the novel generalized deterministic annealing (GDA) optimization technique. The results demonstrate high quality image restoration as measured by local feature integrity, improvement in signal-to-noise ratio, and reduction of restoration artifacts, especially in the presence of heavy-tailed additive noise.<<ETX>>


An experimental study was conducted to evaluate the performance of AgSnO/sub 2/ contacts (with 12 wt.% and 15 wt.% of SnO/sub 2/) for high-current DC switching. The contacts were tested in a solenoid-operated fixture equipped with an arc quenching chamber and an in-line magnetic blow-out system. The switching experiment was performed at 480 V DC with currents up to 1500 A. The duty cycle was two operations per minute. Metallurgical analysis of the contact surface and cross section were performed after the tests. A qualitative comparison of the test results to AgWC and AgCdO was made. The Ag-(15 wt.%)SnO/sub 2/ contacts showed better weld resistance than AgCdO and better contact resistance than the AgWC. The Ag-(15 wt.%)SnO/sub 2/ was proved to be a promising candidate for high-current DC switching application. The reduced closing contact bounce significantly improved the contact welding and contact erosion characteristics and greatly relaxed the requirements on contact materials.<<ETX>>


This article aims to analyse some of the popular activist posters and images related to the Gezi Park resistance that took place in Turkey in 2013. The author argues that the theoretical approach of détournement is the driving force in the formation of the activist 'identity' and 'imagery' related to Gezi protests. Further, through detourning the attacks of the government, the article examines how the activist posters and images caused shifts in meaning and generated the negation and recreation of signs and significations. In this way, it can be seen that détournement as a subversive theoretical approach can be reconstructive while deconstructing verbal and censorship attacks from the government. The article engages with the word Çapulcu (looters) in an address by the former Prime Minister against the Gezi protesters and the penguin documentary used as a censorship element during the protests. It analyses how détournement applied by the protesters to these attacks led to the creation of a shared Gezi identity and image.


Abstract It is shown that in radiolysis not only the reaction of alkyl radicals with iodine, but also that of alkyl radicals with galvinoxyl is diffusion controlled. The activation energies of the reactions of alkyl radicals with iodine increase with molecular mass, following the Smoluchowski equation. In the gross reaction other reaction steps (e.g. polymerisation, combination) cover up this phenomenon.


SUMMARYTemporary inhibition of permanently implanted demand pacemakers has been previously described. Demand pacemakers may be inhibited by waving a magnet over the region of the pacemaker generator or by chest wall stimulation. The former may not inhibit most of the bipolar pacemakers, whereas the latter may be time consuming and may cause patient discomfort.Another method is described which utilized a commercially available Cordis Omnicor Programmer, Model 166-B, to temporarily inhibit bipolar and unipolar pacemakers. By placing the programmer over the skin where the pacemaker generator is implanted and/or over the area of the subcutaneous pervenous lead and activating the programmer multiple times at a rate faster then the pacing rate, the demand pacemakers are inhibited. After testing the efficacy in vitro, the method was successfully tried on 45 patients. Fifteen of these patients had unipolar pacemakers. Pacemakers marketed by Medtronic, Cordis, Starr-Edwards, C.P.I., and Arco were tested.Temporary inhibition of permanent demand pacemakers is desirable under various clinical situations. The method herein described has the advantages of being simple, quick, painless, and is effective for both unipolar and bipolar pacemakers.


Village Nelayan Indah is community conduct farming in mangrove areas that affect the welfare of farmers. The focus of research are to see mangrove population, economic value analysis of the level of tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus), milkfish (Chanos chanos), and tiger shrimp (Penaeus monodon) with welfare of farming. The method used purposive sampling (intentionally). Based on the research object are the society with the primary livelihood as farmers from one of these commodities in the mangrove areas of Village Nelayan Indah in April until May 2015. Mangrove populations were analyzed by the method of line transect 2 census pioneered. Economic value analysis are based on a detailed questionnaire to see income, benefit cost ratio (BCR) and the payback period (PP) and the level of welfare in quantitative and descriptive. The results of the study indicates that are mangrove population in lines 1, 2 are Rhizophora apiculata mangrove populations and the lowest result in the lines 1, 2 are Avicennia alba. Analysis of the economic value of the tilapia ponds income Rp.261.149.000 hectares per year with a value of BCR 7,61 and 0,11 years of PP grades. Milkfish revenue of Rp.192.215.617 hectares per year with a value of 11,04 and PP 0,17 BCR Year. Shrimp farm income of Rp.125.183.133 hectares per year as well as the BCR 7 with PP of 0,39 years. The level of welfare of tilapia farmers more prosperous than the two other commodities Keywords: fishpond economic, welfare, mangrove


In Governing Narratives: Symbolic Politics and Policy Change, Hugh Miller offers an intriguing narrative approach to explain how narratives that govern public policy change, and especially how they forecast a change in practice. In other words, the book is about how policy discourses, once changed, translate into action or changed forms of governance . . . or not. Public administration institutionalizes winning policy narratives. This core idea is expressed in three sets of analytical concepts. First, ideographs—along with signs and narratives—shape understanding through associations of meaning. Shaping understanding in the context of policy analysis means that ideographs can change meaning, including the meanings that we ascribe to public policies. Second, this symbolic understanding can be transformed into action. In other words, it can change the practice of what Miller alternatively describes as "governing," "administration," or "policy implementation." In simplified terms, a change in governing narratives is brought about by (1) the symbolic process of shaping understanding through ideographs, signs, and narratives, and (2) the transformation of symbolic understanding into action or practice. Third, Miller develops an evolutionary perspective to describe the process by which meaning is translated into practice. Miller focuses on the "ideograph" as the main unit of analysis. Drawing on structural linguistics, he defines ideograph as "symbolic material [found in ordinary language] that brings into view a constellation of images, emotions, values, understanding, connotations and facts. . . . [Its] complexity derives partly from the associations among its constituent materials of signifier, signified, and sign" (p. 3), but especially their combination. Ideographs do not work alone but are co-implicated with narratives in changing policy meanings. Narratives stitch ideographs together, providing connotations; ideographs can have different meanings when attached to different narratives. Miller notes, in what seems a characteristically playful fashion, that "stories serve as narrative vehicles on which ideographic images and associations can take a joy ride" (p. 50), referring to, for example, the way the ideograph "drug addict" is carried in different discourses about drug users, one that criminalizes them, and another than portrays them as sick.


For polycrystalline ferrites in the frequency range of large amplitude dispersion of complex initial magnetic permeability (known also as domain wall resonance/relaxation region) approximating relations for frequency dependence of magnetic loss tangent are proposed. The distinctive feature of approaches is the use of only several basic parameters of the ferrites: the static magnetic permeability, the saturation magnetization, and, in more general cases, the parameter that is related with grain size distribution scattering. Ill. 3, bibl. 10 (in English; summaries in Lithuanian, English and Russian).


The EXAFS spectra of [Pd(en)2X2Pt(en)2](ClO4)4 (en=ethylenediamine, X=Cl, Br, and I) were measured for Pd K and Pt LIII edges. The Fourier transforms of the Pd K and Pt LIII- edge EXAFS show clearly that the halogen atoms are forming a chemical bond only to Pt(IV) and Pt–Cl, Pt–Br, and Pt–I bond lengths are 2.34, 2.47, and 2.83A respectively.


A guild of neotropical rain forest dung scarabs, collected by baited pit traps, was composed of 11 genera and 31 species of Scarabaeinae. Relative abundances were highly equitable. Population densities were high and stable through the transition from wet to dry season. Competition for dung was intense and removal and burial rates were rapid. Resource use differed between genera and species in diel flight activity, foraging and dung removal methods, and behavior. Interspecific aggression and dung stealing behaviors were well developed. Reproductive activity was inversely correlated with aggression and parental investment.


Women have various information need on several aspects of agriculture since they are involved actively in farming operation like their male counter parts. Women of rural areas have to face several problems like lack of credible information source concerned with agriculture, lack of technical assistance in accessing and using information, lack of mobility, weak social contacts and many others. In rural areas Women are actively engaged in all kind of agricultural operations, they need assistance from Government, private or any other agency for latest information sources related to crops, livestock and others allied activities. To determine the agriculture information need and preferences of sources of agricultural information this study was designed. It was conducted in Hapur and Ghaziabad district of Uttar Pradesh, India. A total of 120 rural women were selected through simple random sampling technique and interviewed through well-structured interview schedule. The data, thus collected, was analyzed by using appropriate computer software to draw conclusions. Study revealed thatmost of the respondents i.e. rural women (80.83%) reported to have high information need about insect management, followed by 75.00percentof respondents having high information need regarding weather advisory. The results of the study revealed that family members, fellow farmers and radio were found to be important information sources and ranked 1 st , 2 nd , 3 rd respectively. Study also found that the electronic media, print media and female extension personnel were other important agricultural information sources.


According to the dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia, symptoms of psychosis arise, in part, from dysregulation of central dopaminergic pathways. The activity of dopaminergic neurons is in turn modulated by several neurotransmitters, including, most prominently, serotonin and glutamate. The first generation of antipsychotic drugs (ie, typical antipsychotics) are characterized by potent D2 dopamine receptor blockade, whereas most second-generation (ie, atypical) antipsychotics are serotonin-dopamine receptor antagonists. By simultaneously blocking both 5-HT2A serotonin and D2 dopamine receptors, atypical antipsychotic drugs attenuate the positive symptoms of schizophrenia with few of the extrapyramidal side effects associated with typical antipsychotic drugs. Unfortunately, atypical antipsychotic drugs (eg, clozapine, olanzapine, risperidone, quetiapine, and ziprasidone) can be associated with potentially serious side effects (eg, weight gain, cardiovascular and hematologic abnormalities). Conventional atypical antipsychotic drugs interact with a multiplicity of receptors, in addition to 5-HT2A serotonin and D2 dopamine receptors, including various serotonergic, dopaminergic, noradrenergic, muscarinic, and histaminergic receptors. It is likely that the chance interactions of atypical antipsychotic drugs with these and other receptors lead to the associated side effects. The ideal antipsychotic would, therefore, possess a mechanism of action whereby dopaminergic activity is normalized without adverse effects. (Adv Stud Med. 2003;3(8C):S776-S781)


Single-crystal sapphire fibers have been grown, using the laser heated pedestal technique, with losses as low as 0.7 dB/m and with lengths up to 150 cm. We have applied polymer and sol- gel coatings to the fibers and we have evaluated the performance of these coatings as optical cladding. The best coating seems to be teflon AF even though the coatings are reasonably thin and low temperature.


The Government's response to the latest report from the Efficiency Unit represents a compromise between those who believe that the Civil Service has gone far enough down the management road and the radicals who want even greater reform. Time will tell whether the new structures for providing public services will be better managed than the present centralised system. What is needed now is a new interpretation of the constitutional role of civil servants.


The family environment has enormous influence on the development of different aspects of child 's personality. Children are constantly under the influence of parents ' behaviour. Historically, the focus in the study of the impact of parents on children has been on parent child interaction. However, there is increasing evidence that children are influenced by family functioning, not simply by parental behaviour, but the parental behaviour, affect children in ways other than parent-child interaction (Cummings & Davies, 1994). Specifically, family structure determines how family members interact and explain how they create co-constructed beliefs that determine acceptable academic and career decisions, formulated with a highly charged emotional learning environment (Berger & Luckmann, 1966 in Hall, 2003).


Tropospheric O3 pollution notably contributes to the deterioration of air quality in many metropolitan regions, resulting in detrimental effects on human health and ecosystem. Due to the moderate atmospheric lifetimes of O3, horizontal transport, exchange between atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) and free troposphere (FT), and chemical process within the ABL all potentially play important roles in regional O3 pollution. In this study, we developed a post-calculation tool to quantify the hourly contributions of these processes to the regional budget of O3 mass and concentration variations within the ABL based on the modelling results of the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model. The new features of this tool include: (1) the contributions of ABL-FT exchange on O3 pollution can be quantified; (2) horizontally, the targeted region can be freely defined by users and vertically, the volumes are non-fixed owing to the diurnal variations of ABL; and (3) the budgets of O3 mass and concentration variations are separately calculated and analysed. The Pearl River Delta (PRD) region, located in the South China and faced with severe O3 pollution, was selected as the target region in this study. Results show that the variations of total O3 mass within the ABL of the PRD were controlled by ABL-FT exchange, that is, the increase (decrease) of O3 mass in the morning (afternoon) was driven by O3 inflow (outflow) through ABL-FT exchange. By contrast, it was the chemical process that drove the variations of regional-mean O3 concentrations. Except that ABL-FT exchange contributed to the rise of O3 concentrations in several hours after sunrise, O3 transport did not lead to the notable variation of O3 concentration in the remaining hours of the day. Combining source apportionment methods, we found that outside O3 (including O3 produced by emissions within the East and Central China and background O3) entered the PRD mainly through ABL-FT exchange. For chemical process, local sources played a major part, but the contributions of outside emissions cannot be neglected, suggesting the contributions of precursor transport. The effects of typhoon periphery, the weather system most related to O3 pollution in the PRD, were also examined by comparing the budget results on O3 pollution days with and without the occurrence of typhoons. The usage of this tool will help to comprehensively understand the influence of transport and chemical process in O3 pollution on the regional scale, which is crucial for effective and strategic O3 control.

Acknowledgement. This work is sponsored by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2018YFC0213204, 2018YFC0213506) and the National Science and Technology Pillar Program of China (Grant No. 2014BAC21B01).


INTRODUCTION A common tendency in transportation pipeline development, particularly, for main gas and oil pipelines, is a gradual increase in their service life and performance [1]. The problem is particularly acute since the pipelines often operate in unfavorable weather conditions, e.g., at low temperatures. A challenging task in this respect is to extend the service life of pipe steels by improving their mechanical properties [2]. Specifically, the fracture toughness – the major characteristics of crack resistance has to be increased. Main detrimental factors affecting the strength and crack resistance of pipe steels are attributed to tensile stresses and corrosion of the outer surface of pipes arising in underground conditions due to delamination or rupture of protective coating and localized corrosion of the inner surface [3]. Currently available approaches to characterizing the base metal ductility allow estimating the dynamic crack initiation conditions that are crucial for the prevention of gas and oil pipeline failure [4]. It requires development of robust methods for the fracture energy determination in pipe steels with account of the shape of stress concentrators. These data can be used to account for the influence of embrittlement factors on the impact deformation resistance of pipe steels. Furthermore, modern low-carbon steels produced by thermomechanical processing of the initial sheet have different sensitivity to the concentrator shape and temperature/force loading parameters. It is therefore important to understand the fracture mechanisms operating at different stress stiffness values. The present paper is aimed at obtain a deeper insight into the influence of the notch shape on the impact fracture of 17Mn1Si steel at different temperatures with a focus on the low temperature fracture behavior.


Although mental deficiency is one of the cardinal symptoms of the cerebral adiposity syndrome described originally by Moon and Laurence and subsequently Biedl, most of the case reports have only mentioned its absence or presence. Few have described the mental picture more than to state that the patient was "retarded" or "demented" or "imbecilic" and only six eases have given the results of a psychometric examination. No reports have described the mental picture in any detail. No attempt is made here to review the literature. Ornsteen has summarized the pathogenesis and heredity and Reilly and Lisser have contributed a very excellent survey of all the reported cases up to their time of publication (1932) Avith the addition of four cases of their own, a total of 77 eases. They list the six cardinal symptoms as obesity, genital dystrophy, retinitis pigmentosa, mental deficiency, polydactylism, and familial occurrence. Of the 77 reported cases, 25 showed the complete set of symptoms and 10 were questionably c...


Abstract : The intermediate reactions which occur during oxidation of cyclohexane were traced largely by radioactive tagging techniques. By this means, rates of formation for the two principal intermediate products--cyclohexanol and cyclohexanone--could be determined at any time during the oxidation reaction. On the basis of such information plus theory, details of the process, such as that the adipic acid is a product of the oxidation of the cyclohexanone, were worked out. Similarly, the conclusion was reached that decomposition of the hydroperoxide leads to the formation of the cyclohexanol and the cyclohexanone. Results obtained by using a glass vessel instead of a steel autoclave were also investigated; and a significant difference in the process was noted. (Author)


Fiber-based cylindrical light diffusers are often used in photodynamic therapy to illuminate a luminal organ, such as the esophagus. The diffusers are often made of plastic and suffer from short diffusion lengths and low transmission efficiencies over a broad spectrum. We have developed FibranceTM, a glass-based fiber optic cylindrical diffuser which can illuminate a fiber from 0.5 cm to 10 meters over a broad wavelength range. With these longer illumination lengths, a variety of other medical applications are possible beyond photodynamic therapy. We present a number of applications for Fibrance ranging from in situ controllable illumination for Photodynamic Therapy to light guided anatomy highlighting for minimally invasive surgery to mitigating hospital acquired infections and more.


Heat capacities between 100 and 270 K and enthalpies of fusion for H218O and tetrahydrofuran clathrate hydrate THF•16.9H218O have been determined using a heat flow calorimeter. The results are compared with the corresponding systems containing H216O. The isotope effects on heat capacities, enthalpies of fusion, and temperature of fusion have been used to calculate 18O fractionation factors, a, for the solid–liquid equilibrium in water and the hydrate. For H218O, α = 1.0032 ± 0.0007 at 273.2 K and for THF•16.9H218O, α = 1.0037 ± 0.0006 at 277.3 K.


OBJECTIVE: To systematically analyze the changes in mixed venous oxygen saturation (delta SvO2) during aortic operations with tube, aortobi-iliac, and aortobifemoral grafts. DESIGN: Survey of consecutive patients. SETTING: Teaching community hospital. PATIENTS: Thirty-one patients (22 male, 9 female, mean age 67 +/- 10 yrs), undergoing elective operations for aortic aneurysms (n = 25) and aortoiliac occlusive disease (n = 6). INTERVENTIONS: SvO2 was recorded throughout the operation. Cardiac output, mean pulmonary arterial pressure, arterial oxygen saturation (SaO2), and arterial pH were measured before and immediately after the unclamping of the aortic graft. RESULTS: In all patients, unclamping the aorta resulted in a marked reduction of mean SvO2, with no change in the cardiac output or SaO2. The unclamping of tube grafts was associated with a significant reduction in arterial pH (p less than .01) and in SvO2 (p less than .001), when compared with unclamping of bifurcation grafts. A significant (p less than .05) increase in mean pulmonary arterial pressure was observed after unclamping the aorta in patients with tube grafts. Despite a longer clamp time, unclamping the second limb of a bifurcation graft resulted in a smaller delta SvO2, when compared with that observed after unclamping the first limb (12% vs. 6%; p less than .01). The delta SvO2 after unclamping limb II was only 2% in aortobifemoral grafts and 9% in aortobi-iliac grafts. CONCLUSIONS: Reperfusion via extensive pelvic and lumbar collaterals in patients with aortoiliac occlusive disease reduces the delta SvO2 after aortic unclamping. Monitoring the changes in SvO2 during different types of aortic reconstruction helps to define precisely the physiologic alterations that occur in the course of these operations.


In this bold, exciting and readable volume, Paul Cheshire, Max Nathan and Henry Overman illustrate the insights that recent economic research brings to our understanding of cities, and the lessons for urban policy-making. The authors present new evidence on the fundamental importance of cities to economic wellbeing and to the enrichment of our lives. They also argue that many policies have been trying to push water uphill and have done little to achieve their stated aims; or, worse, have had unintended and counterproductive consequences.


In the last decade, cloud computing has grown to become the standard deployment environment for most distributed applications. While cloud providers have continuously extended their coverage to different locations worldwide, the distance of their datacenters to the end users still often translates into significant latency and network utilization. With the advent of new families of applications such as virtual/augmented reality and self-driving vehicles, which operate on very low latency, or the IoT, which generates enormous amounts of data, the current centralized cloud infrastructure has shown to be unable to support their stringent requirements. This has shifted the focus to more distributed alternatives such as fog computing. Although the premises of such infrastructure seem auspicious, a standard fog management platform is yet to emerge. Consequently, significant attention is dedicated to capturing the right design requirements for delivering those premises. In this dissertation, we aim at designing building blocks which can provide basic functionalities for fog management tasks. Starting from the basic fog principle of preserving locality, we design a lazy and locality-aware overlay network called Koala, which provides efficient decentralized management without introducing additional traffic overhead. In order to capture additional requirements which originate from the application layer, we port a well-known microservice-based application, namely Sharelatex, to a fog environment. We examine how its performance is affected and what functionalities the management layer can provide in order to facilitate its fog deployment and improve its performance. Based on our overlay building block and the requirements retrieved from the fog deployment of the application, we design a service discovery mechanism which satisfies those requirements and integrates these components into a single prototype. This full stack prototype enables a complete end-to-end evaluation of these components based on real use case scenarios.


The instruction set extension identification problem is the search for a set of custom instructions which can be added to a base processor. A sub-problem is to complete the ISE identification without searching for too long. One aspect of this area of research that needs improvement is the execution time of the sate of the art algorithms which are used to solve this problem. Thus far solutions to large problems are exact but return results too slowly. We propose a non-exact solution in the form of an integer linear program, and proceed to describe our toolchain. We show that heuristics can improve the execution time of the solver by finding an incumbent for each iteration of the ILP. We show the need for a mix of small instructions which are repeated often, and large instructions which although rare provide a large speedup. We propose a method for reducing the execution time of the solver by allowing the user to define a cutoff execution time between improvements in the solution, and a maximum execution time for the solver. Furthermore we define an objective function as the number of cycles saved due to the selection of custom instructions, because this measurement is additive. When identifying ISEs explain how merging identical ones takes advantage of common patterns in the code, and we show how to sum the speedup values now that they are additive. We include in the ISE identification problem some local and global constraints on code defined by the user.


Abbot (Jour. Exp. Zool. Nov. 1918) finds that the land isopods, Oniscus and Porcellio, are negatively phototactic to all intensities from 0.01 C.M. to 100 C.M., whenever not immersed in water. He concludes that the orientation is direct and not by selection of random movements; and that this negative phototaxis is apparently a factor in fitting them for life on land by aiding to keep them in a suitably moist habitat. The negative quality is more pronounced in Oniscus, which has the more restricted habitat.


Tumor vasculature is an attractive target for cancer therapy due to its accessibility to blood-borne therapeutic agents and the dependence of tumor cells on a functional blood supply for survival and growth. Vascular targeting photodynamic therapy (vPDT) is a novel modality based on the selective laser light activation of photosensitizers localized inside tumor vasculature to shutdown tumor vascular function. Although this vascular targeting therapy is showing great promise for cancer treatment, tumor recurrence has been observed in both preclinical and clinical studies. In this study, we intend to enhance the therapeutic outcome of vascular targeting PDT by combining it with combretastatin A4 phosphate (CA4P), a blood flow inhibitor. We found that the combination of CA4P and vPDT significantly increased endothelial cell apoptosis than each single therapy. Western blot analysis suggests that myosin light chain kinase (MLCK) is a common target of CA4P and vPDT. In a PC-3 prostate tumor model, we found that CA4P was able to greatly enhance tumor response to vPDT. These results demonstrate that CA4P and vPDT can be combined to enhance the therapeutic effect.


Communication is not just a matter of knowing how to use a certain language. It is about how to deliver the message through that language appropriately in appropriate context and situation. When the language is used in daily communication in which the context and situation exist, pragmatic competence is needed. Therefore, language learners, especially those who learn English as a second or foreign language need to have extra pragmatics knowledge to avoid pragmatics failure since English is not a core language (L1) in their daily communication. This study in fact, takes an opportunity to facilitate the learners to enrich their knowledge through an analysis of politeness strategies of The Patriot movie. The analysis refers to the five theories of politeness strategies; Bald on Record Strategy (BonRS), Positive Politeness Strategy (PPS), Negative Politeness Strategy (NPS), Bald off Record Strategy (BoffRS), and Say nothing. It is found that out of 85 utterances, Bald on Record Strategy is mostly used by the characters (60%). With the use of literature as the subject of analysis, it is hoped that language learners could grab a complete set of knowledge sources that include linguistic aspect, intercultural awareness, most importantly source of pragmatics knowledge which also covers attitude to be followed or avoided in using a language.


A hybrid method has been developed for simulations of compressible turbulent mixing layers. Such mixing layers dominate the flows in exhaust systems of modern day aircraft and also those of hypersonic vehicles currently under development. The method configurations in which a dominant structural feature provides an unsteady mechanism to drive the turbulent development in the mixing layer. The hybrid method uses a Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) procedure to calculate wall bounded regions entering a mixing section, and a Large Eddy Simulation (LES) procedure to calculate the mixing dominated regions. A numerical technique was developed to enable the use of the hybrid RANS-LES method on stretched, non-Cartesian grids. Closure for the RANS equations was obtained using the Cebeci-Smith algebraic turbulence model in conjunction with the wall-function approach of Ota and Goldberg. The wall-function approach enabled a continuous computational grid from the RANS regions to the LES region. The LES equations were closed using the Smagorinsky subgrid scale model. The hybrid RANS-LES method is applied to a benchmark compressible mixing layer experiment. Preliminary two dimensional calculations are used to investigate the effects of axial grid density and boundary conditions. Vortex shedding from the base region of a splitter plate separating the upstream flows was observed to eventually transition to turbulence. The location of the transition, however, was much further downstream than indicated by experiments. Actual LES calculations, performed in three spatial directions, also indicated vortex shedding, but the transition to turbulence was found to occur much closer to the beginning of the mixing section. which is in agreement with experimental observations. These calculations demonstrated that LES simulations must be performed in three dimensions. Comparisons of time-averaged axial velocities and turbulence intensities indicated reasonable agreement with experimental data.


Introduction: While diabetes has long been considered a coronary heart disease equivalent, there is increasing evidence to suggest that not all individuals with diabetes have cardiovascular disease, and it is unclear how best to risk stratify this population. We sought to compare the yield of testing for pre-clinical atherosclerosis with various approaches. Methods: A group of 98 asymptomatic subjects with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) without known coronary artery disease (CAD) were enrolled in a prospective study and underwent carotid ultrasound, exercise treadmill testing (ETT), coronary artery calcium (CAC) scoring, and coronary computed tomography angiography (CTA). CTA was used as the reference standard for CAD. Results: Of 98 subjects (average age 55±6, 64% female, 22 on insulin, mean A1c 7.3%), 43 (44%) had coronary plaque detectable on CTA, and 38 (39%) had CAC score > 0. By CTA, 16 (16%) had coronary stenosis ≥ 50%, including 3 subjects with CAC=0. Subjects with coronary plaque had greater pre...


Antenna failure diagnosis is one of the essential problems in the area of radar and wireless communications. In this paper, a new method based on convolutional neural network (CNN) is proposed for antenna array failure diagnosis and compared with support vector machine (SVM). Numerical test results demonstrate that the method of antenna failure diagnosis by CNN is accurate and feasible. The accuracy of CNN under different amounts of training data are also discussed in this paper.


The geomorphological maps were created in the beginning of the XXth century. But, it's after 1950 that they were a complete tool for research. Several methods were used in different country. In the same time, other cartographic tools were developed for the applied research. Today, the two methodologies were unified. The development of new techniques (coloured stamp, remote sensing, GIS) have allowed a better adaptation to the aims of this tool.


Human nature is essentially loving and gentle. Compassion is fundamentally a human quality; so its development is not restricted to those who practice religion. Direct compassion for the suffering of living beings is not an easy task to undertake as it presumes they want help or that it is being offered in a form which is useful to them. While it is true that each living being tries to find happiness and to avoid suffering, yet it is also true that each living being reaps just what they have sown, and must be allowed to tread the path given to them by their own accumulated karmic seeds. Our karma inches forward slowly like a great river, gathering like little rafts, new good and new bad seeds from each life. We reap what we have sown. Our primary aim, as spiritual people, should always be to ensure that we create and gamer new good seeds and to deal with, work through and destroy bad seeds. And we should also strive to create no new bad in our lives. That is our basic ethical basis: 'do good, avoid evil and purify the mind'.


1. Abstract This paper proposes an approach to validate that implementations of public‐key cryptography have moderate resistance to side‐channel analysis, using RSA‐CRT as an example. The design goal of the proposed approach is to develop tests that are technically sound and repeatable, while at the same time being efficient and cost‐effective for testing labs. The approach was validated on two devices, one without countermeasures and another with some DPA countermeasures. Effective test results were obtained for each of these devices with less than 24 hours of effort, including 18 hours of automated data collection and less than 6 hours of semi‐automated testing. In addition, we propose applying the techniques of clustering and cross‐correlation, and an additional day of testing for detecting an important class of vulnerabilities not covered by the tests above.


This paper reports from five years of experience of engaging young student teaching assistants in the continuous development of a course by involving them in research, both pedagogically and in other course related themes. The purpose of the paper is to pave the road for a more engaged and integrated form of teaching, where the full potential of STAs is released. Firstly some basic constructs are presented; secondly a concrete example of STAs' research activity is presented – as an illustrative case which also forms the empirical background of the paper. Finally implications and reflections are identified accompanied with suggestions for further research.


A reactive dye composition, and a method for dyeing a fiber material containing a nitrogen atom or hydroxyl group by using the composition are provided to improve washing fastness, chlorine fastness and fixation. A reactive dye composition comprises at least one compound represented by the formula 1; and at least one compound represented by the formula 2, wherein D is a group represented by the formula 3. In the formula 3, R1 and R2 are independently H, a substituted or unsubstituted C1-C4 alkyl group, a substituted or unsubstituted C1-C4 alkoxy group or -SO3H; p is 0, 1 or 2; Z1 is a vinyl group or -CH2-CH2-Q; Q is a group capable of leaving under alkali condition; n is 0, 1, or 2; Z2 is a vinyl group or -CH2-CH2-Q; and R3 is H, a substituted or unsubstituted C1-C4 alkyl group, a substituted or unsubstituted C1-C4 alkoxy group or -SO3H.


The color terms are interpreted and defined to discuss the reasons for the misunderstanding of Chinese color terms. The further discussion is made on teaching Chinese color terms to foreign students.


BACKGROUND: Marital satisfaction is a complex of feelings, which includes pleasure, satisfaction, and pleasure experienced by the husband or wife in all aspects of marriage, and it is an important part of individual health, especially mental health. This qualitative study was conducted to understand marital satisfaction using grounded theory on couples. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This qualitative study was implemented using grounded theory based on Corbin and Strauss, 2008, to investigate the process of marital satisfaction formation among couples from 2014 to 2016. The sampling was started as purposeful and continued as theoretical. The data were obtained using semi-structured interviews. 28 interviews were taken from 25 participants; MAXQDA software was used to facilitate the organization of classes and subclasses. RESULTS: The central variable of this study was called "toward a relaxing evolution." On that account, the main classes included "supportive companionship" and "responsible love," and variables of "personality traits," "interactive relationships," "economic status," "passage of time," and "present resources in society" provided the basis for the formation of marital satisfaction. CONCLUSION: To achieve marital satisfaction, couples should set their family's ultimate goal toward achieving a relaxing evolution for the entire family, and they should accompany each other in order to achieve that goal. This sometimes requires sacrifice and forgiveness to achieve the ultimate goal of the family.


This study provides recent evidence on the impact of the budget deficit on the nominal interest rate yield on new 30-year fixed-rate home mortgages. Using quarterly data for the period 1974.1–2007.4, as well as two sub-periods thereof, estimations reveal that the nominal interest rate yield on new 30-year fixed-rate home mortgages was an increasing function of expected inflation and the ex ante real 3-month Treasury bill yield, while being a decreasing function of the ratio of the M2 money supply to the GDP and the ratio of net international capital inflows to the GDP. Finally, the estimations reveal that the budget deficit, expressed as a percentage of GDP, exercised a positive and statistically significant impact on the mortgage yield.


CT angiography in a 45-year-old woman with atypical chest pain revealed two left anterior descending (LAD) arteries in the anterior interventricular sulcus (AIS). The longer LAD (white arrowhead in [figure 1A–D][1]) was arising from the left main coronary artery (LMCA) and was coursing up to the


Previous research on the effects of neighborhood crowding and soil moisture on tree height growth have been limited by time-consuming and sometimes inaccurate ground-based measurements of tree height. Recent developments in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) allow detailed 3D point clouds of the canopy surface to be generated at relatively low cost. Using UAV-derived point clouds, we obtained height measurements of 4386 trees for the years 2019 and 2021. We also calculated four neighborhood crowding indices and a topography-based moisture index (depth-to-water) for these trees. Using initial tree height, neighborhood crowding indices and the depth-to-water index, we developed Bayesian hierarchical models to predict height growth for three tree species (Picea glauca (white spruce), Populus tremoluides (trembling aspen) and Pinus contorta (lodgepole pine)) across different stands. Bayes-R2 values of the final models were highest for white spruce (35%) followed by trembling aspen (28%) and lodgepole pine (25%). Model outputs showed that the effect of crowding and depth-to-water on height growth are limited and species-dependent, adding a maximum of 7% to the Bayes-R2 metric. Comparing different neighborhood crowding indices revealed that no index is clearly superior to others across all three species, as different neighborhood crowding indices resulted in only minor differences in model performance. While height growth can be partially explained by aerially derived neighborhood crowding indices and the depth-to-water index, future studies should focus on identifying relevant site characteristics to predict tree growth with greater accuracy.


Abstract The information age has changed libraries of all types and sizes in ways that no one could have predicted. For a rural library, though, changes have been fast and furious and have made a dramatic impact on the very nature of the library and the services the library offers. Rural libraries went from a gathering place for community activities to fully wired information centers in a matter of a few years. The article addresses what these changes mean for reference services-one of the most basic functions of a public library. While people are consuming more information than ever, will the rural library be able to keep up with this demand even with the Internet? The article explores reference services in rural public libraries, using examples from libraries in central and northern Illinois, giving consideration to the nature of reference services, how they have changed over time, and how this compares to small libraries in a metropolitan setting.


During the eleventh and twelfth centuries, most of Europe was distinctly backward and peripheral by comparison with areas south of the Mediterranean and in the Middle East, which were highly commercialised and urbanised and under Muslim control. There were two distinctive core areas for urban growth: northern Italy and the territories bordering the southern part of the North Sea and the English Channel and extending up the Rhine. The most fundamental stimulus to urban and commercial growth was that of rural development and population increase. The interaction between local resources and lordship shaped patterns of urban growth, especially for small towns. Some of the largest and most populous cities owed their standing to their handling of a transit trade and to their role as centres for collecting and redistributing goods. The rapid growth of towns promoted commercial solutions to the basic problems of supply, and this in turn encouraged specialised agriculture.


General comments: The paper deals with studying the upper mantle structure across the TTZ-line from northern Germany to Lithunia by teleseismic tomographic imaging. Seismic tomography is one of the prominent tools in research on the upper mantle structure since it can deliver a rather high spatial resolution over a large area (and depth range) and hence allows the geodynamic interpretation of the results. The authors use one of the commonly used non-linear iterative inversion schemes, called TELINV, for their study. The paper is well organized and written, very well illustrated and makes arguably a strong cause for quite large lateral heterogenieties across the TTZ. There is however a number of points which need clarification.


Modern society is placing increasing demands on commodity chemicals, driven by the ever‐growing global population and the desire for improved standards of living. As the polymer industry grows, a sustainable route to ϵ‐caprolactam, the precursor to the recyclable nylon‐6 polymer, is becoming increasingly important. To this end, we have designed and characterized a recyclable SAPO catalyst using a range of characterization techniques, to achieve near quantitative yields of ϵ‐caprolactam from cyclohexanone oxime. The catalytic process operates under significantly less energetically demanding conditions than other widely practiced industrial processes.


Relates to a head office and the merchant (store) and goods logistics systems for goods orders and orders between the provider using a mobile to be conveniently handled, yet accurate, by using the mobile, via the wireless network connected to the merchant terminal and the provider terminal, , smartphone push notifications through the service sends the transaction limit setting information for merchants and suppliers to the merchant terminal and the provider terminal and headquarters staff terminal to handle goods prices change depending on the item price change information requests originating from the provider terminal; After you specify a provider that delivered the goods, the merchant terminal to send the goods order information in accordance with the merchant transaction limit setting information to the terminal and head office personnel provider terminal via the smartphone push notification service; Depending on the merchant and the transaction limit set information including the provider terminal transmitting the terminal and head office personnel information goods orders and delivery information to the merchant terminal via the smartphone push notification service.


This study investigated whether or not the articulatory errors on single consonants and initial consonant clusters in three adult aphasic patients with apraxia of speech could be characterized by underlying phonological processes. Naming tasks and spontaneous narrative tasks were used for elicitation of speech samples. Computerized tomography was carried out in order to determine possible neuroanatomical correlates of the linguistic findings in these cases. Results revealed that in each case, it was possible to trace underlying phonological processes which fit into strategy groups operationalizing particular phonetic preferences. Similar trends occurred on all tasks. Self-employed strategies to aid phonological production were used by all cases during their struggle with successive attempts towards the target utterance. Neuroanatomical findings demonstrated brain lesions which were more extensive than would be expected in the traditional concept of a focal lesion in Broca's area. In each case, the left parietal region was involved. Theoretical and clinical implications are discussed.


The effects on surface enamel of an experimental toothpaste containing Sr-EDTA, sodium ricinoleate, and fluoride were compared with those of a commercially available fluoride toothpaste. Knoop indentations, before and after treatment with control and experimental toothpastes, showed no significant changes. Both toothpastes rendered the enamel surface less soluble after treatment.


A new method for low-complexity multiuser detection (MUD) based in the fast subspace decomposition (FSD) is proposed. The use of FSD allows the estimation of the number of users along with the multiuser detection on line. This leads to a fast multiuser estimation-detection scheme with ultra-low complexity. Furthermore, the method is proved to be strongly consistent and blind. This is applied here to the MMSE. Results included show the MMSE performance at a fraction of the computational cost reported until now. The use for UMTS-TDD receivers is also proposed.


The article proposes an alternative index of performance over time termed: Life Cycle Value (LCV) index, that integrates qualitative performance with LCA and LCC. The article presents a case study to verify the applicability of the LCV index to housing. Qualitative aspects for assessing the LCV index in housing are listed and are then related to adaptable performance of housing to ever changing requirements. The idea of hierarchical structures emerges to simplify interfaces of various facets of modules. It is shown that subdivision of products and process into autonomous hierarchical modules could realize a better LCV index by promoting dematerialization in the business of continual customization of housing over time. The case study suggests that the introduction of the LCV index could promote industrial ecology in housing.


Aim: In this study, the correlation between high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) and neutrophilic inflammation, air-way obstruction and serum IL-8 levels was examined in subjects with stable COPD. Material and Method: 23 stage I, 15 Stage II and 12 Stage III–IV patients with COPD were included in the study. 10 healthy nonsmoking and 20 smoking participants were additionally included to comprise the control group. Pulmonary function tests, sputum induction and blood collection were performed and HRCT assessed using the visual scoring method. Results: We observed that the forced expiratory volume per second (FEV1) decreased and the total lung score (TLS) increased in smoking groups. An elevated number of neutrophils was observed in parallel with increasing stages of COPD, whilst the number of macrophages decreased in parallel. As the stage of COPD increased, the levels of IL-8 increased. A negative correlation between TLS and FEV1 and the number of neutrophils and FEV1 was observed among all subjects (p<0.001). A positive correlation was determined between the number of neutrophils and TLS, and IL-8 and TLS, whilst a negative correlation was observed between IL-8 and FEV1 (p<0.001). Discussion: When determining the degree and severity of inflammation in COPD, IL-8 analysis of induced sputum and both functional and anatomic assessment and staging assessment of HRCT in the early stage, can be effectively utilised.


The effect of sulphuric acid concentration on the kinetics of silver ion cementation on copper in the electrolyte containing 0.5 M CuSO4 was investigated at 25 oC at a rotating cylinder system. The morphology of the silver deposit cemented in the presence or absence of oxygen was studied. Additionally, the influence of the concentration of H + ion on the mechanism of the cementation, proposed by Khudenko et al., was verified. It was found that various concentration of sulphuric acid neither change the kinetics of the cementation nor the mechanism of process conducted in deoxygenated and oxygenated solutions. The increasing concentration of H + ion does not enhance the silver cementation on copper as was proposed by Khudenko. The decreasing concentration of sulphuric acid in the electrolyte used for cementation promotes only the deposition of less-adhesive silver cement on copper. This study showed clearly that the Khudenko's mechanism of cementation is highly doubtful. The mechanism of silver ion cementation on copper in acidic copper sulphate solutions is strongly determined by the presence of the oxygen in the system.


Objective:To evaluate the diagnostic value of high resolution and enhanced spiral CT in small pulmonary solitary nodules(SPNs).Methods:The plain,spiral and contrast enhanced CT data of 48 patients with SPNs less than 3 cm in diameter confirmed by pathology were retrospectively studied,among which 28 cases presented with peripheral lung cancer,with metastatic tumor,5 with inflammatory masses of the lung,4 with nodul tuberculoma,2 with hamartoma,2 with hemangioma.Results:The accurate rate of high resolutionen enhanced spiral CT for diagnosis 28 lSPNs was 90%.The mean value of enhanced CT with malignant SPNs and benign ones were 36 HU and 9 HU respectively.Most malignant SPNs showed homogeneous enhancement,the enhanced CT value was more than 20 HU.The benign ones were heterogeneous enhancement,The enhanced CT value was less than 10 HU.Conclusion:High resolution enhanced spiral CT examination makes it possible to distinguish malignant SPNs from benign ones in most situations.In the same time,we emphasize that the features of imaging morphology of SPNs,have important value in differentiating malignant SPNs from benign ones.


It has been proposed that conservation laws might not be beneficial for accurate hydrological modelling due to errors in input (precipitation) and target (streamflow) data (particularly at the event time scale), and this might explain why deep learning models (which are not based on enforcing closure) can out‐perform catchment‐scale conceptual and process‐based models at predicting streamflow. We test this hypothesis with two forcing datasets that disagree in total, long‐term precipitation. We analyse the roll of strictly enforced mass conservation for matching a long‐term mass balance between precipitation input and streamflow output using physics‐informed (mass conserving) machine learning and find that: (1) enforcing closure in the rainfall‐runoff mass balance does appear to harm the overall skill of hydrological models; (2) deep learning models learn to account for spatiotemporally variable biases in data (3) however this 'closure' effect accounts for only a small fraction of the difference in predictive skill between deep learning and conceptual models.


The structure of a skeletal muscle is dominated by its hierarchical architecture in which thousands of muscle fibres are arranged within a connective tissue network. The single muscle fibres consist of many force‐producing cells, known as sarcomeres. These micro biological engines are part of a motor unit and contribute to the contraction of the whole muscle. There are a lot of questions concerning the optimisation of muscle strength and agility. Standard experimental investigations are not sufficient to answer these questions because they do not supply enough information. Additionally, these methods are limited because not enough material for testing is accessible. To overcome these problems, numerical testing tools can be an adequate alternative. From the mechanical point of view the material behaviour of muscles is highly non‐linear. They undergo large deformations in space, thereby changing their shape significantly, so that geometrical nonlinearity has to be considered. Many authors use continuum‐based approaches in combination with the finite element method to describe such material behaviour. However, models of this kind require realistic constitutive relations between stress and strain which are difficult to determine in an inhomogeneous material. Furthermore, biomechanical information cannot be fully exploited in these models.


Recently proposed least squares projection twin support vector machine (LSPTSVM), as a variant of projection twin support vector machine (PTSVM), attempts to further enhance the performance of PTSV...


The characteristics,formation,and evolution of the porphyritic granitic gneiss in Taili area of western Liaoning Province was studied in detail based on petrology,geochemistry and zircon U-Pb dating.This study provides new petrological evidence for investigating the geological evolution of the North China Craton.The granitoid rocks are mainly composed of granitic gneiss,porphyritic granitic gneiss,and biotite adamellite in the study area.The porphyritic granitic gneiss intruded into and was formed later than granitic gneiss.The porphyritic texture is well-developed with different amount of alkali feldspar and quartz depending on the distance relative to the deformation zone.Phenocrysts are much bigger in the areas far away from the deformation zone,while the porphyritic granitic gneiss with eye-like structures has been highly deformed and mylonitized in the deformaltion zone.The SiO 2 and K 2 O contents of the porphyritic granitic gneiss range from 67.54% to 75.64% and from 2.89% to 4.67%,respectively.It is enriched in light rare earth elements as well as in Ba and Sr;while depleted in heavy rare earth elements Ti,Nb,Ta and P.Chondrite-normalized REE distribution patterns of granitic rocks show weak negative Eu anomalies.Therefore we speculate that the residual phase of the source has more garnets.Geochronological studies have shown that zircons,which are characterized by growth bands and high Th/U ratios(0.28~1.20),are attributed to magmatic origin.The LA-ICP-MS zircon U-Pb weighted average ages of two samples are(224.6±2.5) Ma and(216.44±0.50) Ma,respectively.In conclusion,we find that the protolith of porphyritic granitic gneiss belongs to I-type granite with source rocks of meso-basic volcanic rocks from the lower crust,and was formed in the late Triassic as evidenced by lithospheric thinning of the North China Craton in the Mesozoic.


Novel dinuclear rhenium(I), ruthenium(II) and
osmium(II) bipyridyl cleft-type receptor systems exhibit
remarkable selectivity for dihydrogenphosphate over halide anions dictated
by the nature of the bridging linkage and the transition-metal
Lewis-acidic centre.


Once the water distributor on the bottom of UASB is often blocked, when operating in practice,the uniformity of water distribution is destroyed. In order to improve the efficiency of water treatment, the lack of this construction is put forward in the paper in the light of the characters of the water distributor in engineering. Local resistance should be concerned at the same time, according to the principle of hydraulic computation of the gridiron in the municipal engineering. Hydraulic computation is performed by finite element method.Design references and more reasonable structure dimensions about water distributors are provided for water treatment engineering.


This paper is a survey of the physical locations from which the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) has operated since its founding in 1911, with discussion of the circumstances surrounding each of the AAVSO's headquarters relocations.


The suitability of CaCl2 as a mineralizing agent in the synthesis of a low-temperature C2S-cement clinker from wastes of autoclaved aerated concrete was investigated. As chlorellestadite is a potential host mineral for the immobilization of chlorine, the formation conditions for the highest joint content of chlorellestadite and C2S were studied in samples with different sulfate contents. Oven experiments were conducted at temperatures between 700 and 1200 °C. The samples were analyzed by X-ray diffraction in combination with chemical and thermal analysis and Raman spectroscopy. Calculation of the yield of C2S and ellestadite for all samples proves the optimum temperature range for the C2S-ellestadite clinker from 950 to 1000 °C. At lower temperatures, the formation of a carbonate-rich halogenide melt promotes the crystallization of a significant amount of spurrite at the expense of C2S. Ellestadite formation mainly depends on the sulfate content and to a lesser extent on the synthesis temperature. However, at higher temperatures, with ternesite another sulfate coexists in sulfate-rich samples at the expense of ellestadite. In addition, distinct evidence for non-stoichiometry and carbonate substitution in the structure of low-temperature ellestadite was found. Low sulfate content leads to the crystallization of Ca10[Si2O7]3Cl2 at higher temperatures. In all samples treated at temperatures above 1000 °C chlorine loss starts. Its extent decreases with increasing sulfate content.


During the past few decades labelling of organic molecules by incorporation of deuterium and tritium has become a widely useful technique in organic , physical as well as in biochemistry. The use of deuterated drugs has proved to be of immense value in the study of the mechanism of drug action and in elucidating metabolic and biosynthetic pathways. There are several good methods available for deuterium labelling of organic compounds and many of them are also used for tritium labellingl-4. Deuterium and tritium labelling of aliphatic compounds by exchaJlge methods using metal catalyst is difficult although platinum is a good catalyst for exchange labelling of aromatic compounds. This is due to the easy formation of 1t:-complex between the metal and the aromatic ring, which then gets converted into a-complex (Pt-C bond) . The ) decomposition of this complex with a suitable isotope source (D20 / lITO, D2ff2 etc .) yields the labelled compound4. It was noticed that alky l chains in aromatic compounds get labelled extensively and for that migration of platinum from the aromatic nucleus to the aliphatic chain has been proposcd. 6. Deuterium labelling of aliphatic alcohols and ethers by exchange using platinum ca,talysr is difficult. However, nitrogen being more basic than oxygen, it was thought that organic bases would complex with platinum and the molecule will get labelled in the same way as the aliphatic chain of an alkyl aromatics. Initial work · in this regard was done using tritiated water and platinum for labelling of triethylamine, the tritium ~ NMR of which showed label at the (Xand Bpositions? Encouraged with this result, we decided to undertake deuterium labelling of aliphatic amines in the presence of platinum as catalyst and D20 as the isotope source. The platinum catalyst was prepared freshly from platinum chloride by reduction with sodium borohydride. The catalyst, the amine and deuterium oxide were heated in a sealed tube at llO-20°C for 70 hI. The deuterated amines obtained were anal ysed by lH and 2H NM~ spectroscopy. The relati ve amounts of deuterium incorporation for various amines has been given in Table I. It is clear from proton NMR that the (X-position of amine gets extensively labelled, the B-positi on to a small extent whi le other positions are neglig ibly labelled. It was difficult to determine whether all the positions of amines get labelled from proton NMR, hence, proton decoupled deuterium NMR spectra of some of the samples were recorded at 41.44 MHz (270 MHz for proton). The relative deuterium incorporations at the (Xand B-positions observed from 2H NMR are given in Table II . The incorporation by 2H NMR is more reliable although there is good agreement in the resu lts by both the methods .


This article measures the amount of rural human capital investment in China comprehensively.It includes all the ways of investments, namely public investment,education,health,trainning and migration investments.Then the vector error correction model,cointegration test,Granger causality test are used to analyze the relationship between human capital investment and the rural labor forces' non-agricultural employment.The result indicates that the amount of human capital investment can promote rural labor forces' non-agriculture employment effectively,but it has time lag.The amount of human capital investment can't promote rural labor forces' local non-agriculture employment;on the contrary,it can promote rural labors' migration to urban non-agriculture sector.


Zebrafish is increasingly used as a model for the pathogenic mechanisms of human disease and drug discovery. Robot-assisted microinjection has attracted much attention due to their great potential in providing high precision and high throughput in biological industry. In this paper, we propose a flexible and integrated robot-assisted microinjection platform, which is able to 1) conduct precise position/velocity control; 2) conduct explicit force control; 3) mimic and repeat manual operations achieved by a skillful technician. The whole system employs modular structure in mechanical design, modeling and control algorithm design, for easy implementation. Experiments performed on zebrafish embryos verify the effectiveness of the proposed robot-assisted microinjection approach.


Three experiments were carried out to investigate tactual processing of two-dimensional raised line drawings by blind and blindfolded sighted children. The results showed an unexpected but consistent pattern indicating that the introduction of 'meaning' facilitated the performance of the blindfolded sighted children but caused a relative decline in the performance of the congenitally blind. A general lack of evidence distinguishing between recognition of objects that had or had not been directly experienced through touch suggested that the internal spatial representations of objects depended not only on perceptual information but also on knowledge derived from other sources.


Many models of evolution calculate the rate of evolution by multiplying the rate at which new mutations originate within a population by a probability of fixation. Here we review the historical origins, contemporary applications, and evolutionary implications of these "origin-fixation" models, which are widely used in evolutionary genetics, molecular evolution, and phylogenetics. Origin-fixation models were first introduced in 1969, in association with an emerging view of "molecular" evolution. Early origin-fixation models were used to calculate an instantaneous rate of evolution across a large number of independently evolving loci; in the 1980s and 1990s, a second wave of origin-fixation models emerged to address a sequence of fixation events at a single locus. Although origin-fixation models have been applied to a broad array of problems in contemporary evolutionary research, their rise in popularity has not been accompanied by an increased appreciation of their restrictive assumptions or their distinctive implications. We argue that origin-fixation models constitute a coherent theory of mutation-limited evolution that contrasts sharply with theories of evolution that rely on the presence of standing genetic variation. A major unsolved question in evolutionary biology is the degree to which these models provide an accurate approximation of evolution in natural populations.


In 1984, the Texas state legislature passed House Bill 72, which was meant, among other things, to make public school finance among school districts in the state more equitable. The legislation added a billion dollars to state educational funds and created redistributive mechanisms for allocating state aid. In spite of these significant efforts, finances among the districts are found not to have been substantially equalized. This article argues that the barrier to equalization lies in the division of educational funding between the state and the local districts, and the failure to dismantle the local reliance upon the property tax. Data are presented to demonstrate the tendency of wealthy school districts to increase local expenditures when confronted with redistributive programs at the state level. Further analysis indicates the persistence of local property wealth as the best single indicator of district expenditures.


In this article we introduce a generic, application independent model of human-computer information-seeking dialogue, the "Conversational Roles" (COR) Model. We review the theoretical background that motivated our approach and discuss the COR model in detail, analyzing some typical example dialogues under various perspectives. In line with the theory of speech acts, the COR model categorizes dialogue acts on the basis of their illocutionary force (the purpose of the acts). These illocutionary acts and their functions during dialogue are described independently of the interaction modes employed (graphical, linguistic, or multimodal). COR is represented as a recursive state-transition-network (RTN) that determines all of the legitimate types and possible sequences of dialogue acts, focusing on the negotiation and temporary assignment, acceptance or refusal of conversational roles during interaction. We then argue for a combination of this illocutionary layer with other layers which represent semantic-thematic and rhetorical aspects of dialogue. We conclude with depicting the potential of such an integrated dialogue model for the design of both elaborate and easy-to-use interfaces to information retrieval systems and for research into communication disorders.


The dynamic behavior of atoms in simple liquid binary mixtures is analyzed by molecular dynamic simulation. Time correlation functions between the initial velocity of a tagged particle and latter velocities of neighboring particles are calculated for soft-sphere liquid mixtures of species with different mass and/or size. The transfer of momentum from a tagged particle to its neighbors as well as the differences between the velocity cross correlation between particles of the same or different species is discussed.


The prevalence of gastrointestinal parasites in pigs in Shah Alam abattoir, Selangor was studied. A total of 120 faecal samples were collected. Each faecal sample was examined by direct smear (DS), simple floatation (SF) and formal-ether sedimentation (FES). The results revealed the presence of Balantidium coli (53.3%), Trichuris suis (17.5%), Ascaris suum (15.8%), coccidia (11.6%), strongyles (8.3%), Entamoeba suis (2.5%) and Echinostoma malayanum (1.7%). The detection rates for B. coli and E. malayanum were highest with FES. The detection rates for coccidia, Trichuris suis and strongyles were highest with SF. The detection rates for Ascaris suis and Entamoeba suis were the same with FES and SF. Generally DS had the lowest detection rate compared to FES and SF. The agreement between
FES and SF was the highest when compared to SF and DS; FES and DS. It is concluded that the SF remains the method of choice for the detection of gastrointestinal parasites in pigs.


Objective
To evaluate the outcome of artificial anal sphincter implantation for severe fecal incontinence in 37 consecutive patients operated on in a single institution from 1993 through 2001.


The reaction of chloro[2-(phenylazo)phenyl]mercury(II) with metallic tin leads to dichlorobis[2-(phenylazo)phenyl]tin(IV) whose structure has been determined by X-ray diffraction. The tin atom is six-co-ordinated in a very distorted octahedral fashion with two cis chlorine and cis nitrogen atoms in the equatorial plane and two carbon atoms of the ortho-metallated phenyl groups considerably displaced from the trans axial position [C–Sn–C = 149.7(7)°].


and Brazil is not the only country where non-native born scholars conduct research. Indeed, where would academic study of the United States be without de Toqueville or Myrdal or da Matta? The organizers of 0 Brasil dos Brasilianistas: Urn guia dos estudos sobre o Brasil nos Estados Unidos, 1945-2000 are to be applauded for encouraging this kind of debate. The articles show clearly that scholars of Brazil, irrespective of their birthplaces or training, are in dialogue with each other. The governments of both Brazil and the United States (and other countries as well) are eager to promote intellectual exchanges in order to guarantee the conversation and this is good for scholars, their students, and the interested public. Brazilianism only exists as a function of Brazil and, as 0 Brasil dos Brasilianistas shows, the tension between the poles makes for a fertile intellectual landscape


The probability that thiamin (vitamin Bi) is essential for most if not all organisms makes any information on its synthesis in vivo of considerable importance. Buchman and Richardson (2) synthesized an amino acid, ? (-4r-methylthiazolyl-5) -alanine which they consider might be the precursor of the thiazole which makes an integral part of the thiamin molecule. The compound they synthesized has the following structure.


The Virginia Department of Highways and Transportation uses a special centerline marking designated mountain pavement marking on two-lane highways in mountainous regions. This marking consists of a single broken line supplemented by PASS WITH CAUTION signs. This marking has been criticized because it does not prohibit passing on sections of highways with inadequate sight distances. Consequently, a study was conducted to determine if this marking system should be replaced with the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) standard marking pattern and to develop guidelines for minimum lengths of passing zones and minimum sight distances for safe passes on two-lane mountain roads. In this paper the results of that part of the study that dealt with the development of minimum passing criteria are presented. Passing maneuvers were recorded at five sites with a 16-mm movie camera. Relevant data were then extracted from the film and used to develop a regression model for the minimum length of passing zone based on the passing speed and the difference in speeds of the passing and impeding vehicles. A minimum passing sight distance for a safe pass or a comfortable aborting of the pass was then developed using the concepts of critical position and comfortable deceleration. The results indicate that the minimum values suggested in the MUTCD are inadequate and that there are no significant differences in traffic characteristics between roads with the special marking and those with standard MUTCD marking. The results also indicate that, although speed is the major factor affecting the passing distance on two-lane highways in mountainous regions, other factors such as the difference between the speeds of the passing and impeding vehicles and grade, in that order, also have some effect. (Author)


An approximate analysis of the shell/transverse defect growth in steel rails during use is presented. A general solution for a single subsurface crack is presented first. A simpler approach, which considers the transverse defect alone, is examined as well. Residual stresses are included by introducing their stress distributions mechanically. A proposed mixed-mode loading growth law is used for fatigue life calculations and the crack length versus life curves are obtained. The life of the shell/transverse defect is found to be much shorter than that of the single transverse defect.


(1) a. Stand at attention! (Command) b. Don't touch the hot plate! (Warning) c. Hand me the salt, please. (Request) d. When you get off the highway, make a right. (Advice) e. Drop dead! (Curse) f. Have a cookie (if you want)! (Invitation) g. Okay, go out and play! (Permission) h. Right, do want want, if you think you are so clever! (Concession) i. Get well soon! (Wish) j. Please, don't have broken another vase! (Wish about the past) k. [On the way to a blind date] Please, be blond! (Absent Wish)


On the basis of the daily average temperature,monthly precipitation,monthly evaporation and the hydrological data from 8 weather stations in east Gansu,the trend of historical evolution of climate change and its impact on water resources were analyzed.The results showed that the annual precipitation in the area demonstrated a decreasing trend from 1971~2009,and the decreasing slope was 9.3 mm/10a,which was more severe in recent 20 years.The annual average temperature showed an increasing trend,and the increasing slope was 0.41/10a.The annual evaporation showed an increasing trend,and the increasing slope is 9.3 mm/10a.The contour with 500 mm annual precipitation and the contour with 1 550 mm annual evaporation both move towards south.The area of semi-arid increased obviously.The groundwater-level of Dongzhiyuan fell 30 meters and the water resources distributed unevenly,which were mainly caused by warm-dry climate tendency.The utilization rate of the source water was low.The soil of water erosion decreased by 0.2~1.0 m3 every year or even up to 2 cm in some area.So in order to deal with the challenge of the climatic change,the vulnerability of water resources and the extent of the arid meteorological disaster should be evaluated correctly,and some scientific countermeasures for drought should be proposed.