Techniques developed for the prediction of winter wheat yields from remotely sensed data indicating crop status over the growing season are tested for their applicability to corn. Ground-based spectral measurements in the Landsat Thematic Mapper bands 3 (0.62-0.69 microns), 4 (0.76-0.90 microns) and 5 (1.55-1.75 microns) were performed at one-week intervals throughout the growing season for 24 plots of corn, and analyzed to derive spectral ratios and normalized spectral differences of the IR and shortwave IR bands with the red. The ratios of the near IR and shortwave IR bands are found to provide the highest and most consistent correlations with corn yield and dry matter accumulation, however the value of band 5 could not be tested due to the absence of water stress conditions. Integration of spectral ratios over several dates improved the correlations over those of any single date by achieving a seasonal, rather than instantaneous, estimate of crop status. Results point to the desirability of further tests under other growth conditions to determine whether satellite-derived data will be useful in providing corn yield information.


The optimal design of the proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller for an antenna azimuth position control system by using the Lévy-flight intensified current search (LFICuS) algorithm is proposed in this paper. The LFICuS is one of the newest and most effective metaheuristic optimization search techniques. Based on the modern optimization context, the error between the desired azimuth angle input and the azimuth angle output is set as the objective function to be minimized by the LFICuS via searching for the optimal parameters of the PID controller. The optimal PID controller designed by the LFICuS is compared with that designed by the Ziegler-Nichols (ZN) tuning rules. As results, an antenna azimuth position control system with the PID controller designed by the LFICuS can provide very satisfactory responses without steady-state error and with less settling time, smaller oscillation and overshoot than that designed by the ZN.


Pumpkin (Cucurbita species) seed oil (PSO) is a rich source of phytoestrogens and the aim of this study was to examine the effect of PSO supplementation on the total cholesterol (TC), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL‐C), triglycerides, high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL‐C), systolic and diastolic blood pressure in non‐ovariectomized and ovariectomized Sprague‐Dawley rats. Female rats weighing 220–300 g were divided into non‐ovariectomized rats for supplementation with corn oil (control CO; n = 6) or PSO (control PSO; n = 5) and ovariectomized rats for supplementation with corn oil (OVX/CO; n = 6) or PSO (OVX/PSO; n = 5) for 5 days per week for 12 weeks (corn oil 40 mg/kg or PSO 40 mg/kg given orally). Systolic and diastolic blood pressures were measured weekly. Blood was collected at the end of the period for plasma lipid assays. Control PSO had lower TC, LDL–C, triglycerides and higher HDL‐C than the control CO. The OVX/CO had higher TC, LDL–C, triglycerides and lower HDL‐C than the control CO and these changes were prevented in the OVX/PSO rats. PSO supplementation also resulted in lower systolic and diastolic blood pressures in both non‐ovariectomized and ovariectomized rats. It is concluded that PSO supplementation can prevent changes in plasma lipids and blood pressure associated with inadequate oestrogen availability. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Document describes the theory and practice of verbal and written science communication strategies, and provides an example portfolio on the topic of sea level rise.


Point cloud data acquisition with laser scanners provides an effective way for 3D as-built modeling of a construction site. Due to the limited view of a scan, multiple scans are required to cover the whole scene, and a registration process is needed to merge them together. The aim of this paper is to introduce a novel method that automatically registers colored 3D point cloud sets without using targets or any other manual alignment processes. For fully automated point cloud registration without artificial targets or landmarks, this study uses 1) the SpeededUp Robust Features (SURF) algorithm to identify geometric features among the series of scans and 2) plane-toplane matching algorithm to achieve precise registration. For an initial alignment during the registration process, common feature extraction is utilized to perform a 3D rigid-body transformation followed by aligning the view into the reference system. Further alignment is obtained using plane segmentation and matching from the 3D point clouds. The test outcomes show that the method is able to achieve registration accuracy of less than 1o in deviation angle.


Abstract Platelet-rich blood concentrates have been used to accelerate healing process in wounds and in bones since many decades worldwide. Platelet-rich fibrin (PRF) is a relatively new and established therapy, utilizing platelets and leucocytes trapped in fibrin matrix, for the treatment of non-healing ulcers and wounds. Many large series are available in this subject to prove its efficacy. Our patient, a known case of eczema, had applied slaked lime (calcium hydroxide) over an eczematous lesion on right leg and surrounding area, after which he developed deep wound with extensive erythema and blisters initially, which healed with necrosis due to patient's neglect, in about 2 weeks. On presentation to us, the lesion had undergone necrosis and hence decision to debride the lesion was taken. After debridement, a large defect was created, which we tried treating conservatively using PRF therapy primarily, followed by pressure dressing. High dose vitamin C was given orally. The patient required antibiotics intermittently. The patient responded well to this protocol and the wound defect was closed within a few weeks.


This article provides a detailed overview of the role and importance of women's participation in the light industry of Uzbekistan. The history of human society is unthinkable without light industry. With the development of a person, his needs grew, and in particular his needs for clothes, shoes, fabrics. The textile, sewing, leather and fur and footwear industries developed. The impetus for industrialization and the development of capitalism was the development of textile production.


The invention provides a suspension bar frame, which is arranged in a cabinet body and used for suspending objects. The suspension bar frame comprises a support plate, suspension hooks, a light source group, a switch and a power supply, wherein the suspension hooks are arranged on the support plate to suspend the objects; the light source group is arranged on the support plate, and is connected to the power supply; the switch is connected between the light source group and the power supply; when the suspension bar frame is arranged in the cabinet body, the support plate is arranged on the inner sidewall of the cabinet body, and connection between the light source group and the power supply is controlled by switching on and off the switch, thereby controlling whether the light source group to emit light or not. According to the suspension bar frame, the aim of illuminating the cabinet body is fulfilled, and convenience is brought to a user. The invention also provides a cabinet.


We consider the vector-impulsive Sturm-Liouville problem with Neumann conditions. The Ambarzumyan$^{\textbf{,}}$s theorem for the problem is proved, which states that if the eigenvalues of the problem coincide with those of the zero potential, then the potential is zero.


The present invention relates to improved polyalkylenepolyamine molar mass by homogeneously catalyzed amination of alcohols, characterized in that the polyalkylenepolyamine performed in a reactor in the presence of a homogeneous catalyst in the reaction elimination of water and the water of reaction is removed from the reaction system. The present invention also relates to the process can be obtained from polyalkylenepolyamines and polyalkylenepolyamines containing hydroxyl groups, secondary or tertiary amine. Polyalkylenepolyamines such as a printing ink with adhesion promoters, adhesion promoters composite film, the adhesive with cohesion accelerator, a crosslinking agent resin / curing agent, a paint primer, paint using wet adhesion promoting agents, complexing agents and flocculants, the wood preservative penetration aids, corrosion inhibitors, proteins and enzymes with the use of a fixing agent.


The main purpose of this study was to determine the role of e-procurement implementation on procurement performance in State corporations. Specific objectives of the study were; to find out the role of systems integration in e-procurement implementation on procurement performance in KPA; to determine the role of supplier support in e-procurement implementation on procurement performance in KPA, to establish the role of staff training in e-procurement implementation on procurement performance in KPA and to determine the role of top management support in eprocurement implementation on procurement performance in KPA. The study adopted a descriptive research design. The target populations of this study were 240 staffs working in procurement and supplies, finance and accounts and logistics department of Kenya ports authority. The study used stratified random sampling and the sample size was 72 respondents. Primary data was collected by use of questionnaires. The study generated both qualitative and quantitative data. The quantitative data was coded and entered into Statistical Packages for Social Scientists (SPSS Version 24.0) and was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Qualitative data was presented in tables while the explanation to the same was presented in prose. The study concluded that e-procurement implementation makes the purchasing process faster; facilitates better management of the purchasing activities through improved accountability and transparency; improves relationships with business partners; reduces operational costs and reduces prices of procurement goods in state corporations. The study recommends that organizations should embrace e-procurement as a strategy for improving procurement performance.


Forging is an effective method for railway axle in order to ensure the inner quality, good microstructure and properties. Based on the disadvantage of current processing techniques for railway axle forging such as large machining allowance, low dimension accuracy, materials and energy consumption, a new precision high-speed forging forming process is proposed. The whole forging process of axle is divided into three steps, including chamfering, rounding and forming. Forming qualities of railway axle mainly depend on anvil structure and operational parameters during high-speed forging. Simulation model is established using finite element method by DEFORM. Focusing on the forging stage of the railway axles, the influences of anvil design have been numerically analyzed. By analyzing the stress-strain distribution and the forming precision with different anvil structures (flat anvil and arc anvil), a new arc anvil for axle forging is proposed. Arc anvil which we put forward is better than flat anvil both forming quality and properties. As for anvil edge shape design, it is effective to select a Per-form zone to obtain high strain at the center. Structure and main parameters are designed. Effect of anvil relative length, transition radius between Per-form zone and relative length, arc radius of arc anvil on forming quality is analyzed in term of surface defects and inner stress-strain distribution. While the radius of arc is 150mm and the central angle of the arc is 90°, the equivalent strain is greater which will be benefit for inner defects cogging. Transition radius between Per-form zone and relative length is 50mm, concave defects on the surface of forging is the smaller. With the increase of relative length, forging force increases. Taking the productivity and inner strain distribution into account, relative length is 240mm. The independent influence of each chosen major operational parameter, i.e, the rotation angle, the feed and the reduction on internal quality and dimensional precision, has been studied. Suitable operational parameters for ensuring internal quality and dimensional precision have been specified. As a result, the optimum combination of rotational angle and relative feed is clarified. Compared with stress-strain distribution and inner strain distribution under different reduction, 20% is taken to ensure better strain status and efficiency, rotation angle is 90°during chamfering. While the relative feed is 0.6, rotation angle is 45° during rounding, rounding precision will be higher. Ellipticity will be best and variance of radius will be small. Experiment research is performed in 10MN high-speed hydraulic press. Compared with the forming size precision, the experimental results verified the feasibility of the structure of arc anvil and the operational parameters.Copyright © 2015 by ASME


To study the effects of the surface microlayer (SM) on the air-water exchange process of pentachlorophenol (PCP), simulated experients were carried out in a microcosm containing air, water and sediment. A four-compartment (i.e., air, SM, water and sediment) fugacity model was successfully applied to the simulated experiments in the microcosm. Data obtained from the four-compartment model calculation yielded a more satisfactory fit with experimental results than the use of a model that does not address the effects of the SM compartment. Results of model calculation show that 97.8% of PCP is distributed to the water phase in the aquatic environment, and 82.2% PCP is removed by the advective outflow and biodegradation in the water phase. The results obtained demonstrate that the higher photodegradation rate of PCP in the SM reduces the concentration of PCP in the air phase.


The fact that the spatial association of plants can influence the risk of herbivory has received little interest from ecologists. We tested the prediction, generated by patch use theory, that plants can gain protection from herbivory when associated with plants of lower palatability. Nine clones (referred to as matrix-clones) of the willow Salix lasiolepis were identified in the field. Twenty-seven potted willows (S. lasiolepis) originated from three different clones (9 potted willow from each clone) were selected in such a way that intra-clonal variation in age, size and morphology (number of branches and last year shoots) was minimised. Prior to sawfly egg-laying we placed three potted individuals, one of each clone origin, inside each matrix-clone. The densities of the stem galler Euura lasiolepis, the petiole galler Euura sp. and the leaf folder Phyllocolpa sp. were measured on the matrix-clones and on the potted willows. For stem gallers, but not for petiole gallers and leaf folders, we found positive correlation between sawfly density on the matrix-clones and sawfly density on the potted willow. Thus, as predicted the potted willows seemingly gained protection from stem gallers by association with neighbours (matrix-clones) of low palatability. However, only one of three tests supported our predictions. On balance we should therefore reject our hypothesis. Still, it might be too early to totally discard this hypothesis. More case studies are needed before a final evaluation can be done. There was a strong correlation between clone origin, shoot length and sawfly densities for the potted willows, suggesting an underlying genetic variation among clones in susceptibility to sawfly oviposition.


Background: The aim was to investigate the outcomes of surgical management versus observation of dysplastic oral mucosal lesions. Method: Twenty-one papers met the a priori inclusion criteria, resulting in a total of 1943 lesions in 1599 patients. Epithelial dysplasia was grouped as "low-grade" and "high-grade". Clinical outcome was established as the proportion of lesions with complete response, partial response, no response, malignant transformation, and recurrence/new lesions. Data on surgical intervention versus no treatment/observation was statistically analyzed. Results: Surgical management was provided in 80% of all lesions, versus observation in 20%. Following removal of lesions reported in studies without dysplasia, low grade dysplasia was reported in 59.9% of the oral potentially malignant disorders (OPMDs), and high-grade dysplasia in 40.1% of lesions. In the analysis, overall malignant outcome was 4.99%, and was similar in both the observation and surgical management groups (p = 0.554). The overall successful outcome (complete and partial responses) for all treatment was 45.31%, persistence or recurrences were observed in 27.99% of all OPMDs. In low grade lesions, there was no correlation between the complete or partial responses (p = 0.446), and the number of malignant transformation and recurrences/new lesions (p = 0.310). Similarly, in high grade lesions, no correlation was observed between the complete or partial responses (p = 0.140), and the number of malignant transformation and recurrences/new lesions (p = 0.673). Further analyses revealed no differences between the outcomes of surgical treatment and observation in low risk group (p = 0.358) and in high risk group (p = 0.258). Conclusion: This analysis shows that OPMDs treated by either surgical removal or observation alone have similar risks of malignant transformation irrespective of the degree of dysplasia, indicating the need for active surveillance of all dysplastic OPMDs. *Correspondence to: Pelin Güneri, Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Radiology, School of Dentistry, Ege University, Bornova, İzmir, Turkey, Tel: +902323881081; Fax: +902323880325; E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com


H.264 is the commonly used standard for video compression, and is a lossy compression standard. This paper proposes a video steganography algorithm resisting to H.264 compression based on the relative relationship of DWT (Discrete Wavelet Transform) coefficients, which reduces the changes to individual coefficients. Firstly, the change of the low-frequency DWT coefficient difference between adjacent frames of video before and after H.264 compression is analyzed. Then, an appropriate coefficient difference threshold is selected according to the analysis result. Finally, the secret message bits are embedded by modulating the difference between the low-frequency DWT coefficients of adjacent frames. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can maintain high quality of the stego video, and resist to the H.264 compression well.


In 1967, when the 35 th Report was presented, only 12 countries had abolished capital punishment for all crimes in all circumstances. Today, 140 (December 2015) countries have abolished the death penalty in law or in practice. 32 Countries (India including) retains the death penalty as punishment under the law of the land.


The technical measures,such as improving dilute medium recovery process,installing clean coal magnetic separator,reducing total circulation volume and realizing deep-clarification of slime water,were adopted to decrease medium consumption in Linhuan Coal Preparation Plant.


The Taguchi's approach is a quality design technique whose application in determining the optimal settings of controllable parameters in various single-objective optimization have been recently exploited. But most of the product or processes have several quality characteristics of interest. This paper investigated the multi-objective optimization of the turning process of AISI 1045 steel cylindrical bars to yield the minimum tool flank wear width, surface roughness and roundness through the combination of Taguchi method and Utility concept. Nine experimental runs based on Taguchi's L9 orthogonal array were performed and signal to noise (S/N) ratios, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and utility values were used with cutting speed, feed rate and depth of cut as turning process parameters and with tool flank wear width, surface roughness and roundness as response variables. The optimal values obtained during the study using the multi-objective optimization with the help of Taguchi method and utility concept have been validated by confirmation experiments.


Frequency diverse array (FDA) can generate a range-angle-dependent beampattern due to the introduction of the tiny frequency offsets across array elements. However, the range-angle-coupled beampattern is detrimental to the estimation of the target parameter, and even the normal function of the FDA. In fact, the main purpose of the FDA beampattern synthesis is to achieve beampattern decoupling, mainlobe attenuation avoidance, and sidelobe suppression. Furthermore, these conditions can be summarized as the chaotic degree modulation of the beampattern. In this communication, the 2-D fuzzy entropy is first employed in the FDA beampattern synthesis. The proposed FDA can generate a dot-shaped beampattern with high fuzzy entropy in the near-target field and low fuzzy entropy in the far-target field. In addition, by introducing time-variant weights, the time modulation is suppressed in the fuzzy entropy-based FDA (FEBFDA). The results of the numerical simulation demonstrate the superiority of the proposed beampattern synthesis method.


Heavy metals, such as lead, are highly toxic and typical removal techniques are costly for household applications; causing serious public health risks and economic burdens. Previous studies using electrochemical filtration showed that singe-wall carbon nanotube membranes (SWCNTs) were effective at removing lead, but the use of less expensive multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) has not been fully explored. Therefore, there is a critical need to determine if MWCNTs are cost-effective for the removal of lead in water. The removal efficiency of lead(II) ions in an aqueous solution was evaluated in a flow-through filtration system over 50 minutes at 1.5 mL/min. Calcium ions were added to simulate the actual hardness in tap water to evaluate the potential competition and effect on removal efficiency in real drinking water. The effects of natural organic matter (NOM) were also evaluated. Removal efficiency of lead alone in nano-pure water achieved 77% at an applied potential of -1.0 volts. With the presence of calcium, competition between calcium and lead ions reduced lead removal efficiency to 44%. Removal efficiency of lead decreased significantly with in the presence of NOM and the lowest removal efficiency was only 15%. These results indicated that MWCNTs have great potential for cost-effective removal of lead in drinking water distribution systems or household point-of-use systems. Further studies are needed to minimize the competition of calcium ions and NOM.


Abstract: The dominant cultural practices and the value preferences for the type of organizational culture in Bulgarian organizations are investigated. The survey was conducted among 103 people 51 employees from a private and 52 from a government organization at the time of Covid-19 in early 2020, of which men 63.3%, women 36.7%, aged 26 to 55 years. The main goal of the research is to establish the value preferences for the types of cultures, as well as the dominant cultural practices in Bulgarian organizations during Covid-19. The model for studying Hofstede's cultural practices, adapted by Sonya Karabelova for the Bulgarian socio-cultural context, is applied, where the dominant cultural practices in the dimensions "distance to power", "individualismcollectivism", "avoidance of uncertainty" are analyzed. Cameron and Quinn's OCAI was also used to study value preferences for the type of culture: hierarchical, adhocratic, market, clan. The data were processed in SPSS var. 21 and for the analysis regression was applied. The results show significant variations in the dimensions of the studied cultural practices and dominant value preferences for the clan type of culture, followed by the hierarchical, market and adhocratic ones.


The usage of UML 2.0 activity diagrams at two different levels of abstraction is proposed to consolidate an already known business modeling approach for the development of large enterprise software applications. In this way a high continuity between the phases of business modeling and system modeling is obtained. Moreover, to keep a better control of the completeness of the business modeling artifacts, we recommend to fill out matrices that make explicit the link among business activities, business use cases and business objects involved in the automation of the information system.


【Attainment of the goals of functional electrical stimulation(FES) applications such as strengthening of muscle, increasing muscular endurance, improvement in joint range of motion or the reduction of spasticity does not insure that patients will be able to produce voluntary muscle contraction sufficient to maintain posture or produce purposeful movements. In many patients who have sustained CNS damage, the control exerted by higher nervous system center over muscle contraction may impaired. In Searched patients, a variety of advanced therapeutic exercise techniques have been employed traditionally to facilitate the return of controlled functional muscular activity or maintain postural alignment until recovery from dysfunction occurs Among the most common clinical applications of FES for functional muscle contraction is as a substitute for static or dynamic orthotic devices】


Background and Aims Acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF) is acute decompensation of liver function in the setting of chronic liver disease, and characterized by high short-term mortality. In this study, we sought to investigate the clinical course of patients at specific time points, and to propose dynamic prognostic criteria. Methods We assessed the clinical course of 453 patients with ACLF during a 12-week follow-up period in this retrospective multicenter study. The clinical course of patients was defined as disease recovery, improvement, worsening or steady patterns based on the variation tendency in prothrombin activity (PTA) and total bilirubin (TB) at different time points. Results Resolution of PTA was observed in 231 patients (51%) at 12 weeks after the diagnosis of ACLF. Among the remaining patients, 66 (14.6%) showed improvement and 156 (34.4%) showed a steady or worsening course. In patients with resolved PTA, the clinical course of TB exhibited resolved pattern in 95.2%, improved in 3.9%, and steady or worse in 0.8%. Correspondingly, in patients with improved PTA, these values for TB were 28.8%, 27.3%, and 43.9%, respectively. In patients with steady or worsening PTA, these values for TB were 5.7%, 32.3%, and 65.6%, respectively. Dynamic prognostic criteria were developed by combining the clinical course of PTA/TB and the clinical outcomes at 4 and 12 weeks after diagnosis in ACLF patients. Conclusions We propose the following dynamic prognostic criteria: rapid progression, slow progression, rapid recovery, slow recovery, and slow persistence, which lay the foundation for precise prediction of prognosis and the improvement of ACLF therapy.


This poster provides a high-level overview of The First World War Letters of H.J.C. Peirs: A Digital History project, giving information on its creation, the collection of letters, how it has used digital mapping, and its use in the classroom.


Background:Mitral valve (MV) repair can now be carried out through small incisions with the use of robotic assistance. Previous reports have demonstrated the excellent clinical result of robotic MV repair for degenerative mitral regurgitation (MR). However, there has been limited information regarding the echocardiographic follow-up of these patients. The present study was therefore to evaluate the echocardiographic follow-up outcomes after robotic MV repair in patients with MR due to degenerative disease of the MV. Methods:A retrospective analysis was undertaken using data from the echocardiographic database of our department. Between March 2007 and February 2015, 84 patients with degenerative MR underwent robotic MV repair. The repair techniques included leaflet resection in 67 patients (79.8%), artificial chordae in 20 (23.8%), and ring annuloplasty in 79 (94.1%). Eighty-one (96.4%) of the 84 patients were eligible for echocardiographic follow-up assessment, and no patients were lost to follow-up. Results:At a median echocardiographic follow-up of 36.0 months (interquartile range 14.3–59.4 months), four patients (4.9%) developed recurrent mild MR, and no patients had more than mild MR. Mean MR grade, left atrial diameter (LAD), left ventricular end-diastolic diameter (LVEDD), and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) were significantly decreased when compared with preoperative values. Mean MR grade decreased from 3.96 ± 0.13 to 0.17 ± 0.49 (Z = −8.456, P < 0.001), LAD from 43.8 ± 5.9 to 35.5 ± 3.8 mm (t = 15.131, P < 0.001), LVEDD from 51.0 ± 5.0 to 43.3 ± 2.2 mm (t = 14.481, P < 0.001), and LVEF from 67.3 ± 7.0% to 63.9 ± 5.1% (t = 4.585, P < 0.001). Conclusion:Robotic MV repair for MR due to degenerative disease is associated with a low rate of recurrent MR, and a significant improvement in MR grade, LAD, and LVEDD, but a significant decrease in LVEF at echocardiographic follow-up.


This current research was investigated the teaching technique and instructional media used by Practice Teachers of English class for Primary School students in presenting the intercultural awareness to the EYL students. The researchers chose to use a qualitative research design because it was intended to get the picture about the teaching technique and instructional media used to present the intercultural awareness of EYL course done by practice teachers in English Department of the University of Muhammadiyah Malang (so forth UMM). The descriptive research design was supported by the ethnographic approach in which the researchers took part intensively to the phenomenon being investigated. The data were the teaching techniques and instructional media used by the teachers in teaching within 10 meetings. The subjects were 36 teachers who observed in 9 times. The instrument used was an observation by conducting the video recording, note taking, and documentation. The findings showed that; 1) among all techniques evaluated, 16 of them had been used and immersed intercultural awareness in the material being taught and developed. There were 16 techniques applied by practice teachers in presenting the intercultural awareness. There were describing and explaining culture, experiencing the culture through language use, dialogues, skits, and mini-dramas, drama games, masks and puppets, role play and simulation, songs and dances, etc, 2) the instructional media used by practice teachers to support the teaching technique in presenting the intercultural awareness were 22 (twenty two) instructional media. They were; flashcard, videos and films, realia, puppets, big books, puzzle, picture card, power point, real things, stereofoam of fruit, magic quiz, and worksheet, etc.


Open source software (OSS) forges contain rich data sources that are useful for the development process. We promote techniques and tools for providing open source developers with innovative features aiming at obtaining improvements in terms of development effort, cost savings, developer productivity. Our work is a coherent paradigm that facilitates multiple recommendations to assist software developers in different phases of the development process. In the scope of this paper, we introduce a graph-based representation to encode in a homogeneous manner different aspects of the OSS ecosystem. Furthermore, we develop a knowledge-aware recommender system for providing developers with suitable API function calls. An initial evaluation on real datasets shows that the system is able to produce relevant API calls.


The densities of tetraalkylammonium bromide, R4NBr (R = CH3 through n-C5H11), solutions in (0, 10, 30, 50, 70, 90, and 100) mass % acetonitrile + water have been measured over the whole composition range at 298.15 K. From these densities, apparent and limiting partial molar volumes of the electrolytes and ions in these mixtures have been evaluated.


Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs) are gaining much attention from both industry and academia communities as an emerging technology. VANET is composed of self-regulating nodes where the vibrant node mobility changes the network topology frequently. The important aim of VANET is to upgrade road safety conditions to minimize extent of road mishaps. The nodes are very mobile in vehicular ad hoc network so routing becomes complex job. As the VANET nodes move very fast the topology changes accordingly. So node mobility prediction in VANET is a very important issue. Further, prediction of mobility helps to estimate the stable path between the nodes which leads to better routing. Estimating secure paths among the routing of nodes perform in a better way, thereby reducing the overhead and minimizing interruptions in connections. This paper explores VANET's basic architecture and discusses a number of current mobility prediction techniques, and concludes with performance analysis of existing routing protocols and proposed mobility prediction methods.


Abstract: Background: Anti‐hepatitis C virus (anti‐HCV) patients with chronic liver disease (CLD) frequently show markers of previous hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. Moreover, they may carry occult HBV infection. These features might influence clinical and biochemical features as well as stage of disease. Aim: To assess the prevalence and clinical associations of previous (positivity for anti‐HBs and/or anti‐HBc antibodies) and occult HBV infection (positivity for HBV‐DNA by nested‐PCR) in the serum of anti‐HCV‐positive, HCV‐RNA‐positive, HBsAg‐negative patients with various degrees of CLD seen at a tertiary referral centre. Patients: A total of 119 patients fulfilled the inclusion criteria (84 chronic hepatitis and 35 liver cirrhosis). Results: Forty‐eight patients (40.3%) showed markers of previous HBV infection. This feature was more frequent (P = 0.02) among cirrhotics (57%) as compared to chronic hepatitis patients (33%). Chronic hepatitis patients positive for markers of previous HBV infection had worse histology as compared to negative ones (grading: 6.4 ± 2.7 versus 4.6 ± 3.0, P = 0.004; staging: 1.6 ± 1.2 versus 1.0 ± 1.0, P = 0.01). Eight patients were positive for HBV‐DNA in serum (6.7%). No difference in the presence of occult HBV infection was seen between various degrees of liver disease (7.1% of chronic hepatitis, 5.7% of cirrhosis) and among patients who were positive (10.4%) or negative (4.2%) for markers of previous HBV infection. No significant biochemical, virological, or histological difference was observed between age, age at infection, duration of infection, marker patterns of previous HBV infection‐matched HBV‐DNA‐positive and negative chronic hepatitis patients. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that previous HBV infection among anti‐HCV patients is associated with worse disease stage. In these patients, the prevalence of occult HBV infection is low and there is no difference in distribution among patients with or without markers of previous HBV infection. Furthermore, it does not seem to be associated with disease stage. Lastly, at least among patients with chronic hepatitis, it does not seem to affect the severity of disease.


Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) reactivators (oximes) are generally used as treatment in cases of nerve agent poisoning. There is no single oxime applicable in every case of nerve agent intoxication. Based on this fact, novel candidates with broader efficacy are still being sought. In this study, tetroxime – a bisquaternary compound bearing four oxime groups, was evaluated for its potency to reactivate rat brain AChE inhibited by selected nerve agents (tabun, sarin, cyclosarin and VX agent). Despite the fact that this oxime contains four oxime groups that could be plausibly responsible for reactivation, it did not achieve broader reactivation activity. Satisfactory results were obtained only in the case of VX agent-inhibited AChE. In the cases of sarin- and cyclosarin-inhibited AChE, acceptable results were reached at higher oxime concentration only. Tetroxime was unable to reactivate tabun-inhibited AChE. However, compared with the gold standard pralidoxime, this oxime achieved more promising results.


In a previous study the tumour promoter 12-0-tetradecanoyl-phorbol-13-acetate (TPA) was shown to increase the frequency of chemically induced mutagenesis in specially Constructed strains of S.typhimurium, (Soper and Evans 1977). Enhancement of mutagenesis was also observed in strains lacking excision repair. Construction of other Salmonella strains suitable for studying the influence of DNA repair systems on TPA activity proved impracticable and so the tryptophandependent E.coli wp2 and a series of DNA repair deficient derivatives has been used in subsequent studies. sensitive to the effects of TPA and w e report here our attempts to enhance the TPA sensitivity of ~.coli wp2 and WP2 uvrA by growing them in continuous culture under conditions of carbon limitation.


This study aims at investigating the relationship between the ratio of dispersion coefficient to molecular diffusion coefficient (DL/Dm) and Peclet number (Pe) for a multi‐solute system in non‐Darcian flow regimes. Existing understanding on solute dispersion is primarily derived from Darcian flow regime with one solute. We find that solute dispersion in rock fractures can be characterized by the mechanism of both macrodispersion and Taylor dispersion, in non‐Darcian flow domains. For the Darcian flow regime, different solutes lead to the same DL/Dm‐Pe relationship. However, as the flow becomes non‐Darcian, solute with a higher molecular diffusion coefficient result in higher DL/Dm at the same Pe than that with a lower diffusion coefficient.


A 57-year-old woman with history of hypertension was admitted to the coronary care unit with acute coronary syndrome without ST-segment elevation. Coronary angiography showed an eccentric and severe lesion at the mid-segment of the left anterior descending (LAD) coronary artery. Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) showed a spontaneous dissection with intramural haematoma (Panel A), which was treated with a 3.0  ×  28 mm paclitaxel eluting-stent direct implantation. After stent placement, an angiographically severe …


Consider the Fourier expansions of two elements of a given space of modular forms. How many leading coefficients must agree in order to guarantee that the two expansions are the same? Sturm gave an upper bound for modular forms of a given weight and level. This was adapted by Ram Murty, Kohnen and Ghitza to the case of two eigenforms of the same level but having potentially different weights. We consider their expansions modulo a prime ideal, presenting a new bound. In the process of analysing this bound, we generalise a result of Bach and Sorenson, who provide a practical upper bound for the least prime in an arithmetic progression.


3308 Retrieval Number: C6215029320/2020©BEIESP DOI: 10.35940/ijeat.C6215.029320 Published By: Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering & Sciences Publication Abstract: In today's world, the temperature of the environment is gradually rising. One of the main reasons for it is decreasing the quality of air mainly caused due to air pollution. There are many harmful substances present in the environment that is the cause of the declining quality of air. These pollutants get mixed along with the air and pollute the environment. The two air pollutants are considered here, CO2 and NO, to reduce air pollution, there is a need to know the number of pollutants, with the help of sensors in this experiment the level of pollutants are to be monitored and based on that a prediction mechanism is developed to determine the level of pollutants in the future. There are some machine learning concepts involved, K means clustering for classification of pollutants along with the S.V.M. (Support Vector Machine). With the successful prediction of the level of pollutants, the necessary counter measures can be adaopted.


The purpose of our research was to make a comprehensive and comparative study. We wanted to examine the working men and women with and without children living at home and how they perceive stress a ...


physical details. Second, the bibliographer must have the technical knowledge to describe each book so precisely that no ambiguity remains as to its identity. Gilmont introduces himself and his bibliographic method in a preface entitled "Lettre à un bibliographe débutant." Gilmont's enthusiasm for his subject is evident, and it sets the tone for the rest of the volume. The book is divided into six sections. The first and second sections serve as an introduction to bibliographic research. In the first section, a short introduction to the history of books and printing, Gilmont surveys the history of writing from its origins to the development of the Internet. He highlights two significant periods: the printing revolution of the sixteenth century and the reading revolution of the eighteenth century. The second section addresses the technical aspects of bibliography. Gilmont critiques instructional literature for beginning bibliographers and provides detailed definitions for key terms in bibliographic description. The remaining four sections focus on the study of the book as an historical artifact. In section 3 Gilmont describes a process he calls "book archaeology," the physical examination of a book. Gilmont shows that an evaluation of a book's physical properties, such as its typography, can uncover historical information often imperceptible through textual analysis. In section 4 Gilmont highlights the importance of inventories and bibliographies. Using examples from the work of Laurent de Normandie, Robert Estienne, and others, he demonstrates that the study of bibliographies can reveal information about a book's initial reception and subsequent influence. The fifth section raises issues of book production, preservation, and survival. Gilmont is careful to point out that surviving editions of particular works are indicative only of the conserving institution or person and should not be used to estimate the taste of particular periods. In the final section Gilmont examines some recent bibliographies and demonstrates the stakes involved by showing that the omission of meticulous physical analysis results in fragmentary and partial conclusions. Le Livre & ses secrets is relatively highly specialized and geared toward serious students of early modern bibliography. It nevertheless includes the fundamentals one expects in a guide to bibliography: the history and organizations of books, the means to access them, and the principles of describing them once they are found. In addition, Gilmont's stress on the importance of orderly, concise, and consistent presentation of information—a need that will become more apparent as the volume and type of publication grow—is an emphasis all bibliographers, experienced or novice, should note.


Surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectroscopy is normally conducted at a nanostructured surface o f coinage metals. This limits application of SERS technique to studying electrocatalyst despite the p otential of this technique for in-situ observation. Recentl y, our group 1-6 and Prof. Tian's group 7 have reported on SERS observations on well-defined single crystalline met al surfaces including non-SERS-active Pt-group metals. In these experiments, Au nanoparticles (Au-NPs) are ut ilized to excite surface plasmons on a smooth metal surfac e. As a result of plasmon hybridization between Au-NPs and a metal electrode surface, highly localized plasmon m odes are built even on non-SERS-active catalytic metal s urface, leading to large enhancement of Raman scattering intensity on the electrode surface. Here, this tec hnique is called gap-mode SERS. In the present work, we demonstrate SERS observations of adsorption geometries of arylisocyanides on various catalytic metal monol ayers formed on Au(111) electrodes. Single crystal beads of gold, platinum, and palladium were obtained using the Clavilier method. The (111) facets of these beads were utilized for SERS observation. Pd-modified Au(111) was electrochemically prepared using the underpotential deposition (UPD). Ptmodified Au(111) was obtained by galvanic replacement of Cu-UPD monolayers on Au(111) with Pt 2+


Valve (200) for a motor vehicle hydraulic circuit (1), at the moment fluctuations (M +, M-) in the form of either an alternating moment (M +, M-) or a swelling torque (M +) occur, with a pressurized connection (P), a tank port (T) and at least two working connections (A1, B1) which are alternately with the pressurized port (P) by an adjustment of the hydraulic piston (202) of the valve (200) connectable characterized, in that the valve (200) the hydraulic pressure (250) from the negative portion of the alternating moment (M-) on the one working connection (A1, B1) via at least a check valve (12, 14) is ausleitbar, (on the second working port B1, A1) by sufficient if the pressure of the pressurized port (P) to the second working connection (B1, A1) is passed, moreover, by a bypass (16, 18) is formed through which the hydraulic pressure (250) to the pressurized port (P) is einspeissbar again.


The electric iron was surface nanocrystallizated by high energy shot peening(HESP) method.Ni and Cr were well mixed to the shot tank to accomplish them diffusion into the electric iron and the surface self-nanocrystallization of the electric iron at the same time.The microstructure and the corrosion properties of the self-nanocrystallizated layer and alloying layer of the electric iron were investigated by microscopy,scanning electron microscopy(SEM),X-ray diffraction(XRD) and electrochemical measurement system.Experimental results showed that under a 0.6MPa shot pressure and 6min shot time,a self-nanocrystallizated layer with an average grain size of 47.9nm and a 0.0431% microstrain is obtained on the electric iron by HESP.Because of large number of grain boundaries and imperfects in the self-nanocrystallizated layer,which lead to increase of activity and decrease of corrosion properties of the self-nanocrystallizated layer.The corrosion potential of the Ni alloying layer is-0.548V while the Cr alloying layer is Ecorr=-0.514V,which are all larger than that of the electric iron.That means the corrosion properties of the electric iron are enhanced after alloying treatment.


Imagine numerous clients, each with personal data; individual inputs are severely corrupt, and a server only concerns the collective, statistically essential facets of this data. In several data mining methods, privacy has become highly critical. As a result, various privacy-preserving data analysis technologies have emerged. Hence, we use the randomization process to reconstruct composite data attributes accurately. Also, we use privacy measures to estimate how much deception is required to guarantee privacy. There are several viable privacy protections; however, determining which one is the best is still a work in progress. This paper discusses the difficulty of measuring privacy while also offering numerous random sampling procedures and statistical and categorized data results. Furthermore, this paper investigates the use of arbitrary nature with perturbations in privacy preservation. According to the research, arbitrary objects (most notably random matrices) have "predicted" frequency patterns. It shows how to recover crucial information from a sample damaged by a random number using an arbitrary lattice spectral selection strategy. This filtration system's conceptual framework posits, and extensive practical findings indicate that sparse data distortions preserve relatively modest privacy protection in various situations. As a result, the research framework is efficient and effective in maintaining data privacy and security.


Over the last two decades there has been an increase in activity on the pore-scale modelling of multiphase flow in porous media. Excellent progress has been made in many areas of pore scale modelling, particularly in (i) the representation of the rock itself and (ii) in our description of the pore-scale displacement physics (in model pore geometries). 3D voxelised images of actual rocks can be generated either numerically (e.g. from 2D thin sections) or from micro CT imaging. A simplified network involving more idealised nodes and bonds can then be extracted from this numerical rock model and this can be used in modelling pore scale displacement processes. Much progress has also been made in understanding these pore scale processes (i.e. piston-like displacement, snap-off events, layer formation/collapse, pore-body filling/draining). These processes can be mathematically modelled accurately for pores of non-uniform wettability, if the geometry of the pore is sufficiently simple. In fact, in recent years these various pore-level processes in mixed and fractionally wet systems have been classified as "events" in an entire capillary dominated "phase space" which can be defined in a thermodynamically consistent manner. Advances in our understanding and ability to compute several two(and three-) phase properties a priori have been impressive and the entire flooding cycle of primary drainage (PD), ageing/wetting change, and imbibition can be simulated. In this paper, we review the successes of pore-scale network modelling and explain how it can be of great use in understanding and explaining many phenomena in flow through porous media. However, we also critically examine the issue of how predictive network modelling is in practice. Indeed, one of our conclusions on pore scale modelling in mixed wet systems is that we cannot predict two-phase functions reliably in "blind" tests. Interestingly, we make this statement not because we do not understand the pore-scale physics of the process, but because we do understand the physics. It is hoped that our comments will stimulate a more critical debate on the role of pore-scale modelling and its use in core analysis.


This article considers a philosophical problems of ideal image in the narration context. Author researchers social and cultural reasons of ideal images, its collective nature. Ideal image is a level of cognitive development of persona and methodological basis of science cognitive.


CITATION: Wilson, J. R. U., Ivey, P., Manyama, P. & Nanni, I. 2013. A new national unit for invasive species detection, assessment and eradication planning. South African Journal of Science, 109(5/6), Art. #0111, doi: 10.1590/sajs.2013/20120111.


Aimed at the stability of the complex system,this paper attempts to investigate the brittleness of complex system using the theories of differential manifolds and proposes the concept of brittleness entropy by which the brittleness damage degree of complex subsystem is described.The description of the state space of complex subsystems by introducing stable and unstable manifolds results in the discriminant theorems obtained about the stability/instability of non-disturbance system and the stability/instability of disturbance system.The proposed theorems can find a wide use in discriminating the stability of the disturbance complex system.


Multicarrier reflectometry (MCR) for locating faults on live wires has recently been proposed. This paper studies the use of filterbanks for generation/synthesis of MCR test signals and also for signal analysis for fault identification and location. We note that the test signals have to be confined to the portion(s) of the frequency band that is (are) free of signals already on the wires in order to avoid interfering with them. Moreover, for effective analysis of the reflected waves, optimal filters that separate the test signal tones and also minimize leakage from the existing signals on the wires should be designed. We discuss the criteria necessary to design effective MCR systems and develop the relevant filterbank design procedures. We also introduce the novel idea of cognitive live wire testing, where the tester first measures the live wire signal activities and then decides on which part of the spectrum should be used for testing.


A quick guide on how to use Mendeley to keep track of your research, to quickly and easily cite while writing and how to share your research. Introduction to Mendeley


This paper describes the design and development of a component-based object oriented Expert System's Integrated Development Environment (ExSIDE).  It is integrated with (i) a user-friendly manual and automated knowledge acquisition and management tool (ExSIDE_KAMT);(ii) an independent and customizable runtime module (ExSIDE_RTM); (iii) an object-oriented in-process Component Object Model (COM)-based inference engine (ExSIDE_IE); (iv) an object-oriented out-of-process COM-based inference engine (ExSIDE_IESvr); (v) and a PHP based inference engine (ExSIDE_PHP). ExSIDE_RTM can function independently as an Expert System Shell (ESS) and helps user to develop Expert Systems rapidly.  ExSIDE_IE and ExSIDE_IES can be integrated with COM-supporting general purpose and scientific application development tools such as variants of C/C++/C#, BASIC (Visual BASIC ® , REALbasic ® ), Java, MATLAB ® , LabVIEW ® , and Mathematica ® to develop more advanced Expert Systems. Finally, ExSIDE_IE and ExSIDE_PHP can be used with Active Server Pages (ASP) and PHP technologies to generate web based Expert Systems. The unique framework of the ExSIDE enables rapid development of Expert Systems' on PC and web for technical and non-technical users. The overall system was developed successfully, and its usability was demonstrated via five unique Expert Systems case studies discussed in this paper.


The key theme in this essay is the rethinking of the human, as inspired by the work of Giorgio Agamben and Hannah Arendt. The human here is not a model or concept to be realised, just as community to which the human is linked is not an ideal, but a 'community to come'. This is revealed only by paying close attention to modes of bearing witness to the human, as instanced, for example, by Agamben's text, Remnants of Auschwitz. Current notions of political community and the human thus need to be reassessed. Only by doing this will it be possible to address the crucial issues that currently confront human rights—issues such as the tension between the principle of universal human rights and that of state sovereignty, the growing problem of statelessness, and the reduction of human rights to biopolitical humanitarianism.


IN OCTOBER 1977, more than two thousand individuals representing a spectrum of Mexican-American and other Hispanic interests, ranging from community groups and elected officials to militant ethnic separat ist and Marxist organizations, assembled in San Antonio, Texas for the First National Chicano/Latino Conference on Immigration and Public Policy.1 Called in response to President Jimmy Carter's recently an nounced immigration reform legislation, the conference provided dra matic evidence of the extent to which the immigration controversy had become a major civil rights issue in the 1970s. In three days of meet ings, the conference participants passed a series of unanimous resolu tions condemning the "Carter Plan" as discriminatory against both citi zens and aliens of Latin descent. With Mexican-American organizations leading the way, the delegates specifically criticized the administration's call for the imposition of legal sanctions against habitual employers of illegal aliens, and lambasted other aspects of the proposal, including the provisions for extending a limited amnesty to hundreds of thousands of undocumented aliens already in the United States.2 The unanimous negative response to the Carter Plan by Mexican American community groups, elected officials, and virtually every ma jor civil rights and political advocacy organization, represented a dra matic departure from traditional Mexican-American positions on the immigration issue. Indeed, dating from the period of the first mass mi grations of Mexicans into the United States after the turn of the century, most Mexican-American political activists and organizations had con sistently demanded many of the same reforms that they now rejected. Accepting the premise that immigrants undermined the life chances of American citizens of Mexican descent by competing with them for em ployment, depressing wages, and retarding their assimilation into the American social and cultural mainstream, most Mexican-American ad


Counts of springbok, gemsbok, red hartebeest and blue wildebeest were made in the Nossob riverbed of the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park to measure the response in abundance of these species to the onset of the summer rains. Springbok and red hartebeest showed an immediate increase in numbers, probably in response to improving grazing as the first green sprouts of the riverbed vegetation appeared. Gemsbok showed a delayed reaction, their numbers increasing only after the vegetation in the riverbeds grew tall enough to be utilized by them. Blue wildebeest showed a relatively small decline in numbers which could be due to local movements or the start of their annual east-west movement in winter.


The timing scroll is an important feeding mechanism on packaging lines. As packaging line speeds have increased and the shape of containers has become more diverse, the techniques used for the design and manufacture of such timing scrolls have become critical for successful packaging line performance. Since 1980, various techniques have evolved to improve scroll design, manufacture and the associated line performance. In recent years, as CAD (computer aided design), CAM (computer aided manufacture) and CNC (computer numerical control) techniques have evolved, scroll design and manufacturing techniques began to be linked with computer techniques. In this paper, a scroll design and manufacturing package is presented which can be run on a minicomputer, such as a μ-VAX on an IBM PC clone. This scroll package can produce a timing scroll for any type of container with a correct pocket shape and good dynamic characteristic. Tests using carefully chosen containers have been made using this package and the results indicate that the scrolls obtained by this package have the correct pocket shape and good line performance. However, the design of a good pick-up geometry for some container shapes remains a problem.


Objective To observe the effect of progesterone on cerebral edema during cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injure, and to approach its mechanism from both BBB(blood brain barrier)and free radical.Methods 72 male rats were randomly divid- ed into three groups:sham-operation groups,model groups and progesterone groups.To observe the water content of the brain,and evaluate the functional changes with content of permeated Evens Blue,ultramicrostructure of BBB through electron microscope and as- saying of SOD and MDA in the brain.Results Progesterone can obviously decrease the permeability of BBB,alleviate the degree of edema,increase the activity of SOD and lower the contents of MDA.Conclusions Progesterone can inhibit the damage of oxy- gen free radical,decrease the permeability of BBB,and alleviate the degree of edema after cerebral ischemia.


In this paper the achievable performance gains of PerAntenna Rate Control (PARC) for Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) transmission with different linear chiplevel equalization algorithms are investigated. High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) as a solution of a full packet-based transmission standard utilizes extensive multicode operation especially in low-mobility scenarios. Due to possible large delay spreads resulting from multipath propagation, the orthogonality of the spreading codes is destroyed, which leads to severe performance degradations. To cope with such properties of mobile radio channels, chip-level equalization was suggested to be an advanced receiver technique in future user equipments. Simulations for PARC with chip-level equalization, which include adaptive modulation and coding as well as feedback errors and delays, show that throughput can be significantly increased at high signal-to-interference-and-noise ratios compared to common Rake reception if multiple codes are assigned to a single user.


The design of a modular standard basis inversion for Galois fields GF(2/sup m/) based on Euclid's algorithm for computing the greatest common divisor of two polynomials is presented. The asymptotic complexity is linear with m both in computation time and area requirement, thus resulting in an AT-complexity of O(m/sup 2/). This is a significant improvement over the best previous proposal which achieves AT-complexity of only O(m/sup 3/). >


Steel plate, which is coated with an inflow pipe, an insulator to the outlet pipe and the outer peripheral surface to drain the treated water to the aerobic tank, which in the waste water treatment system including twos electrolysis, supplying the incoming water from the aerobic tank, - the invention is anaerobic, anoxic, aerobic tank and iron iron comprising a perforated plate of the iron is equipped with a steel plate module and distribute the diffusing pipe and the incoming water is installed in the lower portion of the electrolytic module, the electrolysis module including a pitch tension to control the gap between the iron plate and a steel plate in the steel plate module iron comprising a precipitation device relates to a waste water treatment system using the precipitation apparatus. Iron according to the invention the waste water treatment system using the precipitation device is an iron-cost is reduced by the precipitation of iron in the electrolyzer, is easily applicable to existing facilities without any special change. It can be custom made to match the density of the thickness of the iron plate, and if the steel plate is worn, and can adjust the pitch of the steel plate, it is effective to provide a stable, economical and excellent in spatiality system. Iron-precipitation apparatus, electrolytic apparatus, the waste water treatment


The paper studies the effects of acute 60%VO2max exercise on Toll receptor 4 mRNA expression,the serum protein level and its induced products influence,discusses the relationship between exercise and immunity,provides a theoretical help to public health and some other sport fields.The results are as follows: Immediately after 60% VO2max exercise,blood mononuclear cell surface TLR-4 mRNA expression and TLR-4 serum protein levels decrease,serum NF-кB protein levels rises;Except TLR-4mRNA expression,other indicators return to the levels before exercise within 24 hours.


This paper presents a kind of method of application of TCP/IP protocol based on DSP. It has simply introduced TCP/IP protocol, provided the interface circuit of DSP and Ethernet controller RTL8019AS and relevant software design flow charts, and has detailed introduce to RTL8019AS.The development of this system has achieved. Practical application indicates that the data can be processed according to network protocol, and the transmission of the data through Ethernet is realized.


Collagen extracted from leather wastes was modified with vinyl monomers to prepare a new collagen emulsion in this work.The grafted groups on collagen were characterized by FTIR,particle sizes distribution of the modified product was tested by instrument of laser particle size distribution,the thermal stability of the product was studiied by TG.The modified collagen emulsion was applied together with gelatinated starch or commercial styrene acrylic emulsion was corrugating paper sizing agent.The mechanical and water proof properties of the paper samples were investigated,and the sizing results were compared with that of the mill's sized paper samples.


The different psychomotor‐stimulant effects of cocaine, GBR12909, and benztropine may partially stem from their different molecular actions on the dopamine transporter (DAT). To explore this possibility, we examined binding of these inhibitors to mutated DATs with altered Na+ dependence of DAT activities and with enhanced binding of a cocaine analog, [3H]2β‐carbomethoxy‐3β‐(4‐fluorophenyl)tropane (CFT). In [3H]CFT competition assays with intact cells, the mutation‐induced change in the ability of Na+ to enhance the apparent affinity of CFT, cocaine, GBR12909, and benztropine was inhibitor‐independent. Thus, for the four inhibitors, the curve of [Na+] versus apparent ligand affinity was steeper at W84L compared with wild type, shallower at D313N, and flat at W84LD313N. At each mutant, the apparent affinity of CFT and cocaine was enhanced regardless of whether Na+ was present. However, the apparent affinity of GBR12909 and benztropine for W84L was reduced in the absence of Na+ but near normal in the presence of 130 mm Na+, and that for D313N and W84LD313N was barely changed. At the single mutants, the alterations in Na+ dependence and apparent affinity of the four inhibitors were comparable between [3H]CFT competition assays and [3H]dopamine uptake inhibition assays. These results demonstrate that DAT inhibitors producing different behavioral profiles can respond in an opposite way when residues of the DAT protein are mutated. For GBR12909 and benztropine, their cocaine‐like changes in Na+ dependence suggest that they prefer a DAT state similar to that for cocaine. However, their cocaine‐unlike changes in apparent affinity argue that they, likely via their diphenylmethoxy moiety, share DAT binding epitopes that are different from those for cocaine.


Transformation is a process in which people face significant changes on many levels of their lives in a relatively short time. This thesis is about how teachers cope with social and educational transformation, using the example of their struggle with multicultural education. This struggle is not something that teachers have been able to make a choice about: they were given the task by educational policy. In the case of the Czech Republic the introduction of multicultural education is a direct product of the transformation. The question of how teachers cope with this situation has been the main focus of the thesis.


PurposeThis study aims to compare the outcome of support extended by the family and kin for new firms. The authors specially consider business performance, challenges, demography and personality traits of entrepreneurs.Design/methodology/approachA structured questionnaire was used to collect responses on the socio-demography aspects of the entrepreneur, family, kin, business performance, personality traits and perceived challenges were collected from 350 young entrepreneurs of South Wollo province of Ethiopia. The ANOVA test for continuous variables and the Krukal–Walis test for nominal variables were conducted to find differences across eight groups with family and kin, their occupation (business/non-business) and extended support (yes/no).FindingsOnly 40% of entrepreneurs reported support, non-business families support entrepreneurial effort more compared to business families. Support is associated with perceived business performance and sociocultural challenges, but not with revenue. Entrepreneurs with less age, education and prior experience received more support compared to others. Entrepreneurs with higher need-for-achievement traits reported less support. Interestingly, entrepreneurs from business backgrounds are likely to perform better, with or without support.Research limitations/implicationsThe extension of support to entrepreneurship depends on socioeconomic, demography, or personality-related factors and their interactions. The study did not investigate support from peers, an extended network, or the nature of support.Social implicationsFamily and kin support influences entrepreneurial persistence, overcoming the sociocultural challenges and arresting quit intention among entrepreneurs at the initial stages of a venture.Originality/valueThe influence of immediate family or a network represents extremes, overlooking the role of kin. This study fills this gap and extends understanding of the role of kin in the context of Ethiopian young entrepreneurs.


The quasi-quantized Hall effect (QQHE) is the three-dimensional (3D) counterpart of the integer quantum Hall effect (QHE), exhibited only by two-dimensional (2D) electron systems. It has recently been observed in layered materials, consisting of stacks of weakly coupled 2D platelets. Yet, it is predicted that the quasi-quantized 3D version of the 2D QHE occurs in a much broader class of bulk materials, regardless of the underlying crystal structure. Here, we report the observation of quasiquantized plateau-like features in the Hall conductivity of the n-type bulk semiconductor InAs. InAs takes form of a cubic crystal without any low-dimensional substructure. The onset of the plateaulike feature in the Hall conductivity scales with √ 2/3k F/π in units of the conductance quantum and is accompanied by a Shubnikov-de Haas minimum in the longitudinal resistivity, consistent with the predictions for 3D QQHE for parabolic electron band structures. Our results suggest that the 3D QQHE may be a generic effect directly observable in materials with small Fermi surfaces, placed in sufficiently strong magnetic fields.


Support Vector Machine(SVM) is developed on the frame of the statistical learning theory,which has been a new excellent machine learning method.SVM has solid theoretical foundation,clever algorithms.The outstanding performance of SVM depends on the choice of model parameters,including penalty parameter and kernel function parameter.In the paper,an improved Immune Genetic Algorithm(IGA) is applied to optimize the parameter of SVM.The experiment result proves that the method the paper proposed can reduce optimal time and improve the precision of classification largely compared to Grid searching when the classifier object is low dimension.When the classifier object is high dimension such as text data,the method can also reduce optimal time largely compared to Grid searching in the case of keeping same precision of classification.


Residential network is the hybrid technology of wireless, Ethernet, Bluetooth and RF to the internet via broadband connection at home to facilitate the convenient, safe and pleasant daily lives of home user with various home network services regardless of device, time and place. For ubiquitous development more devices will be wireless and most of them will be roaming. Since these roaming devices carry private information of daily life of residential users, the interaction among the roaming devices of residential network must be secure. This paper presents to secure registration of roaming devices using IP Security (IPSec) Protocol Suite without the need to trust foreign agents.


Children with language impairment frequently struggle with written language skills such as spelling. With their expertise in language, speech-language pathologists are in the position to promote the development of such skills. One way to do this is through the use of direct spelling instruction which has been shown to facilitate growth in a number of literacy skills such as phonemic awareness, reading, and spelling. This article outlines a 10-week direct spelling intervention program that is aimed at improving the literacy skills of children with language impairment. This treatment protocol may be adapted as necessary to meet the needs of individual students.


Using tyrosine as the modifying reagent,a new kind of functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes(MWNT) was prepared.The product was characterized with SEM and FT-IR Spectrum.Both the IR and electrochemical experiment proved that tyrosine and MWNT were covalenly bonded with each other through amide bonds.The disappearance of carboxyl peak on Cyclic Voltammograms at about 0.0 V was corresponding to the formation of N-acyl amino acid at 1721 cm~(-1).The formation of product was proved through the vibration peaks of-CH_2-appeared at 2931 and 2860 cm~(-1).


The article is devoted to the actual problem of studying graphomotor skills in preschool children with erased dysarthria. The authors of the article offer the results of a study of the formation of graphomotor skills in older preschoolers with normal speech development and general speech underdevelopment; they offer criteria for assessing the level of formation of this skill


ABSTRACT According to previous findings, math anxiety already occurs at early school age and is negatively correlated with math achievement. So far, however, little is known about the nature of math anxiety in young children. To fill this gap, we present the results of a longitudinal study on the math anxiety of children that were followed in the first year of elementary school. We tested the level of math anxiety and its prevalence. We also investigated the reasons for math anxiety that were reported by the children at the beginning of elementary education. For this purpose, we adopted both individual-difference and developmental perspectives. The results show that first-grade students experienced mild math anxiety that peaked at the beginning of the school year. Most children experienced a low level of math anxiety; some of them were not anxious at all or experienced moderate anxiety, while only a few children were highly math anxious. The reasons for math anxiety that were most frequently reported by the students were associated with risk of failure, task difficulty, time pressure, and fear of receiving a bad grade. We discuss the obtained results in the context of actions aimed at improving the mathematical achievement of students.


A Lagrangian-Eulerian modeling approach predicts potential contaminant distributions resulting from the disposal of sewage sludge at the Deepwater Municipal Disposal Site off the northeast United States continental shelf. The Lagrangian aspect involves Monte-Carlo simulations of particle trajectories to determine solids concentrations. The Eulerian aspect is the calculation of contaminant distributions using the Eulerian convective-diffusive equation.


We report a case of a patient with the BRCA1 5382insC mutation in the location 17q21. The patient was referred for genetic counseling because of infertility. While consulting the patient for infertility and collecting the family tree, the patient told that her mother, grandmother and aunt had or still have ovarian cancer. So the patient received a genetic test for six most often BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations. The test showed that the patient had the mutation of BRCA1 5382insC gene. The BRCA1 5382insC mutation increases the risk of getting breast cancer 10 times and ovarian cancer 20 times, compared with the general population. To reduce the risk of breast and ovarian cancer the patient received advices on healthy life style, screening tests for ovarian cancer and was offered to consult an oncologist about prophylactic oophorectomy.


Aplastic anaemia is characterized by bone marrow hypocellularity and peripheral pancytopenia and is apotenttally fatal disease. Activated autoreactive T lymphocytes induce apoptosis of haematopoietic stem cells resulting in a hypocellular bone marrow. Stem cell transplantation is the treatment of choice in patients with a matched donor. Immunosuppressive therapy is another option in those who do not have a matched donor This review focuses on the pathophysiology and challenges in the treatment of aplastic anaemia in children. We have also presented our experience of 50 children with aplastic anemia presenting in the Department of Pediatrics, IMS, BHU over a period of 18 months.


Lymphedema of the penis and scrotum has impor- tant functional, cosmetic, social, psychological conse- quences for the affected patient. It is a rare disease...


Nitrification rates and ammonia-oxidizer functional gene abundance were measured in the water column of Lake Lacawac, Pennsylvania, USA, a freshwater lake on a nature sanctuary that allowed an investigation with minimal human impacts. Nitrification is a 2-step process consisting of ammonia oxidation followed by nitrite oxidation. Recent studies have shown that these 2 nitrification steps may be uncoupled and respond in different ways to environmental conditions. Additionally, the relative contribution of ammonia-oxidizing archea (AOA) vs ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) to nitrification rates varies widely across aquatic systems. To determine how nitrification rates are related to environmental parameters and the ammonia-oxidizing community in a nearly pristine environment, rates and gene abundance were measured over multiple seasons where in-situ environmental conditions varied. Rates of ammonia and nitrite oxidation were measured separately and summed to calculate total nitrification rates ranging from 1 to 568 nM/d. Ammonia oxidation rates generally outpaced nitrite oxidation rates, and rates of both ammonia and nitrite oxidation were higher at depth (10 m) compared with near-surface and mid water column. Ammonia oxidation, nitrite oxidation, and total nitrification rates were all strongly, positively correlated with in-situ [NH4+] (Kendall's τ > 0.35, p < 0.02). AOB ammonia monooxygenase (amoA) gene copy numbers were generally greater than AOA amoA. However, AOB gene copy numbers were not correlated with any ammonia oxidation or total nitrification rates, whereas AOA abundance was positively correlated with both ammonia oxidation and total nitrification rates (Kendall's τ > 0.41, p < 0.01). A Bayesian generalized additive model, which accounted for sampling month, indicated that total nitrification rates were best explained by AOA and [NH4+]. Thus, substrate concentration and AOA likely play key roles in regulating rates of nitrification in this small, nearly pristine freshwater lake. These reported relationships between rates of ammonia and nitrite oxidation (and, thus, total nitrification), in-situ environmental parameters, and the ammonia-oxidizer community in a protected environment establish a reference for evaluating the impact of a changing environment on mesotrophic lake water quality.


Food neophobia can be defined as the reluctance of the consumers to try novel foods, including food products, dishes and cuisines. In the present study, it was suggested that the food neophobia is positively related with food addiction and negatively with the food involvement. More the consumers pertain the characteristics of food neophobia, more they will be dependent on the familiar kind of food, that is, they will consume only the food products they are familiar with and will be reluctant in consuming or trying new food products. If the consumers are more involved with their food, they will show the lower levels of food neophobia as their involvement will reduce their perceived risk or phobia about that particular kind of food product. The results obtained showed that the food neophobia is negatively related to the food involvement but do not share any relationship with the food addiction.


A 57-year-old male previously healthy patient presented with a 1-week history of fever. Two weeks ago, he went to Orchid Island, which is near the east coast of Taiwan for diving. One week later, he experienced fever, shaking chills, headache cough with yellowish sputum and mild dyspnea after returning from Orchid Island. He visited our hospital and was admitted. Physical examination revealed a red indurated lesion surrounding a black necrotic center over left flank area …


Principal component analysis(PCA) as a method of feature extraction demonstrates their success in face recognition,detection and tracking.The representation in PCA is based on the second order statistics of the image set,and does not describe the nonlinear relationship among the pixels.While kernel principal component analysis(KPCA) based on the higher order statistics of the images set can address the higher statistical dependencies such as the relationship among three or more pixels.The KPCA method only considers the whole face image information,the information does not take into account the local features.In this paper,Modular KPCA(MKPCA) face recognition methods have achieved good results.


In this paper the restrictions imposed on onset clusters in Standard German and Standard Italian are compared to the – minimally different – restrictions in the Germanic dialects of Tyrolean, Mocheno and Lusern Cimbrian, and the Romance dialects of Trentino. Both standard varieties allow onset clusters with a sonority distance (SD, computed according to the sonority indexes proposed in Parker 2011) of 4, marginally 3 intervals, while the corresponding dialects allow for SD = 2. The observed pattern of microvariation can be understood as minimal variation between grammars. We give a precise measure of this minimal grammatical difference by performing a typological analysis in the framework of Optimality Theory, yielding the typological properties of the system, understood as the necessary and sufficient ranking conditions generating every single language of the typology (Alber & Prince, in preparation, see also Alber, DelBusso & Prince 2016). Minimal grammatical difference can then be defined as minimal change of the property values defining each language.


Extreme multi-label text classification (XMTC) refers to the problem of assigning to each document its most relevant subset of class labels from an extremely large label collection, where the number of labels could reach hundreds of thousands or millions. The huge label space raises research challenges such as data sparsity and scalability. Significant progress has been made in recent years by the development of new machine learning methods, such as tree induction with large-margin partitions of the instance spaces and label-vector embedding in the target space. However, deep learning has not been explored for XMTC, despite its big successes in other related areas. This paper presents the first attempt at applying deep learning to XMTC, with a family of new Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) models which are tailored for multi-label classification in particular. With a comparative evaluation of 7 state-of-the-art methods on 6 benchmark datasets where the number of labels is up to 670,000, we show that the proposed CNN approach successfully scaled to the largest datasets, and consistently produced the best or the second best results on all the datasets. On the Wikipedia dataset with over 2 million documents and 500,000 labels in particular, it outperformed the second best method by 11.7%~15.3% in precision@K and by 11.5%~11.7% in NDCG@K for K = 1,3,5.


Drowsiness is a major cause of road accidents [1, 2] and oculography seems to be the most sensible approach to reliably and objectively assess drowsiness in practice. We have thus developed a new automatic drowsiness quantification system that uses images of the eye to automatically determine a level of drowsiness, this independently of any task. To prove that this system is useful for preventing driving accidents, we show that this level of drowsiness is well "correlated" with the driving performance, here quantified by the standard deviation of lane position (SDLP).


Introduction: Fructose and glucose are primary sugars of grape (Vitis spp.), and sucrose presents in trace amounts (WINKLER et al. 1974, SHIRAISHI 1993, DAVIS and ROBINSON 1996). However, some American hybrid cultivars such as 'Bath', 'Buffalo', 'Fredonia' and 'Steuben' contain large amounts of sucrose (LOTT and BARRETT 1967, TAKAYANAGI and YOKOTSUGA 1997; SHIRAISHI 2000). The early ripening and strong, sweet taste of these diploid sucrose-accumulating cultivars are of great interest in table grape breeding to broaden variability among seedlings. However, the diploid berries are in general smaller than the tetraploid ones, and consumers' acceptance of large-sized grapes is high. Polyploid breeding has been very successful in Japan since 1970, and the tetraploid cultivars with large berries offer the possibility of creating unique table grapes with a striking appearance (REISCH and PRATT 1996). Many tetraploid genotypes have also been introduced by crossbreeding and in vitro colchicine treatment of diploid cultivars in our breeding program at Fukuoka Agricultural Research Center, Japan (NOTSUGA et al. 2000). As breeding materials, these tetraploid genotypes are valuable additions to the gene pool for developing future table grapes. By screening sugar variants, the tetraploid genotypes were generally found to be hexose accumulators (Fig. 1 A), but some tetraploid sucrose accumulators were observed as follows (Fig. 1 B): 'Buffalo 4X' (TSA-1), 'Steuben 4X' (TSA-2), 'Red Port 4X' (TSA-3), and Seedling 11-7 (TSA-4). In this report we document the origins of TSA-1,2,3 and -4, and describe their agro/biochemical traits between 2006 and 2007.


The recent technological advances paved the way to promote the development of a powerful class of sensorbased distributed intelligent systems capable of ubiquitously retrieving multimedia information, namely Wireless multimedia sensor networks(WMSNs) and are gaining more familiarity day by day as they are supporting a large number of both real time and non-real time multimedia applications. This paper proposes a procedure for enhancing the performance of video signal over WMSN by satisfying the stringent QoS requirements in a resource constrained sensor environment. As an outcome, the efficient routing procedure has suggested by comparing the QoS parameters like Residual energy, throughput, delay, signal-to-noise ratio, frame drop ratio, End-to-End delay using real time power aware routing protocol(RPAR) in combination with Hexagonal deployment with the recent routing protocols i.e. DSR and AODV. We also show that the delay tolerance level doesn't affect the maximum lifetime of WMSN.


....................................................................................................................................................... 5 Executive summary ...................................................................................................................................... 6 Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 8 In the near-term, a series of negative shocks would hit economic activity ................................................ 10 Uncertainty has already begun to have a negative impact on the economy .......................................... 10 Trade would be hit when the UK formally exits the EU .......................................................................... 14 Quantifying the near-term effects of Brexit ................................................................................................ 18 Heightened uncertainty would hit financial conditions and confidence .................................................. 18 A substantial shock to trade would start to feed-through from 2019 ...................................................... 19 In the longer-term, supply side shocks would result in considerably greater costs ................................... 24 Trade would fall further ........................................................................................................................... 24 Foreign direct investment would decline as the UK becomes a less attractive destination ................... 24 Lower immigration would lower labour force growth .............................................................................. 25 A loss of skills would reduce technical progress .................................................................................... 28 Further deregulation could have some positive effects .......................................................................... 29 Quantifying the longer-term effects of Brexit.............................................................................................. 30 Additional reforms in Europe would offer benefits for the UK .................................................................... 34 Conclusion: comparison with other studies................................................................................................ 34 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................................... 35


Aim This report presents the studies of sera levels of lipoprotein (Lp)(a) and phenotypes of apolipoprotein (a) in type 2 diabetes mellitus. The aims of this study were to explore the relationship between aged patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and sera levels of Lp (a) and the distributive characteristics of genetic phenotypes of apo (a). Moreover the report present the studies the relationship sera levels of Lp (a) and the complications of the aged type 2 diabetic patients with hypertension or retinopathy or nephropathy. Methods Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELLSA) was used to measure sera levels of Lp (a). The phenotypes of apo (a) were determined by SDS polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS PAGE) and Western blot analysis. Results and Conclusion 1. There was no significant difference in serum Lp (a) concentration among the three groups (P0.05,respectively). Serum Lp (a) concentration did not significantly correlate with the levels of serum TC,TG,LDLC,HDLC,apo A,apo B (P0.1,respectively). 2. In the aged type 2 diabetic patients with hypertension or retinopathy or nephropathy, the level of serum Lp (a) concentration was higher than that in patients without these complications (P0.05 and P0.001). 3. A total of 7 different phenotypes of apo (a) were determined among the three groups. The aged type 2 diabetic patient with complications mostly had S1 and S2 phenotypes than other groups and the aged type 2 diabetics without the complications.


In the course of geographic and geologic explorations centering about the vicinity of Nain, Labrador, observations were made on the abundance and field relations of the diabase dikes. A petrographic study of these with genetic conditions constantly in mind seemed to indicate that the percentage of olivine among the heavier constituents furnishes the most satisfactory index of the closeness of relationship between the various kinds of diabase found in this region. It seemed also that the monoclinic pyroxenes in them are much less aluminous than in ordinary augite. Both these observations may find wider application than to the Labrador material.


The common narrative concerning the metaphysics of Francisco Suarez among a diverse number of thinkers is that the Jesuit presents an «indifferent» ontology that neglects the traditional medieval conception of God as utterly transcendent and unique. Though the critiques leveled against Suarez are legion and equally as diverse as the critics from whom they derive, as I see it, there is a common, albeit unexpressed, conviction that the Jesuit's thought ultimately results in the secularization of metaphysics. By «secularization» I mean that, as frequently asserted, Suarez's analysis of the nature of being transpires entirely without the need for adverting to any overarching theological framework. In this essay, I challenge that view and argue that Suarez's metaphysics is thoroughly determined by his theological vision and project.


The paper reports on high-speed infrared pyrometer measurements of the surface temperature in A7 Al specimens with Ti coatings of different thicknesses during intense electron beam irradiation at different pulse energy densities. Also presented are numerical simulation data on temperature fields for the same conditions. The experimental and simulation data agree well and confirm that the surface heating rate depends in a definite manner on the main electron beam parameters, material properties, and coating thickness.


There are two main levels of neural function to be modeled with appropriate state variables and operations. Microscopic activity is seen in the fraction of the variance of single neuron pulse trains (>99.9%) that is largely random and uncorrelated with pulse trains of other neurons in the neuropil. Macroscopic activity is revealed in the >0.1% of the total variance of each neuron that is covariant with all other neurons in neuropil comprising a population. It is observed in dendritic potentials recorded as surface EEGs. The "spontaneous" background activity of neuropil at both levels arises from mutual excitation within a population of excitatory neurons. Its governing point attractor is set by the macroscopic state, which acts as an order parameter to regulate the contributing neurons. The point attractor manifests a homogeneous field of white noise, which can be modeled by a continuous time state variable for pulse density. Neuropil comprises both excitatory and inhibitory neurons.


Acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) is a type of cancer that typically involves intramedullary proliferation of myeloid precursor cells. Extramedullary manifestations of AML are exceedingly rare. They include myeloid sarcoma (chloroma), a disease in which extramedullary leukemia cells form a tumorous mass. Herein, we report a case of facial nerve paralysis that was caused by a myeloid sarcoma in the temporal bone. In this case, our preferred early differential diagnosis was otomastoiditis with retroauricular abscess; thus, the patient was scheduled for operative debridement and mastoidectomy. Further evaluation of the patient's symptoms confirmed a diagnosis ofmyeloid sarcoma, thus obviating the need for any surgical interventions and instead requiring chemotherapy followed by radiotherapy. (J Clinical Otolaryngol 2019;30:77-82)


Cutaneous lesions and skin rashes are commonly encountered on the acute take in acute medical units. Sweet syndrome (SS) is an uncommon inflammatory disorder, originally described as 'acute febrile neutrophilic dermatosis' by Sweet.[1][1] There are numerous aetiological associations reported and


Text categorization is an interesting problem in artificial intelligence that gets more and more attention from researchers and industry. One central problem of text categorization is the selection of a good feature set. We propose a novel method for term selection for each category based on segmenting the documents belonging to a category into cohesive sub-parts that define the subtopics of the document. Next we cluster these segments and use the terms found in the biggest segment cluster for each category. We compare the performance of our method with a very efficient ranking technique (χ) and find it very similar.


Several thermostable ordered amide–bithiazole copolymers were prepared by low-temperature solution polycondensation of aromatic diacid chlorides with bis(aminophenyl)bithiazoles. Films were readily prepared from all of these polymers, and a fiber was prepared from one of them. The polymer from isophthaloyl chloride and 4,4′-bis(4-aminophenyl)-2,2′-bithiazole was studied in the most detail. Unlike arylene–bithiazole polymers, which are soluble only in concentrated sulfuric acid and the like, this polymer is readily soluble in dimethylacetamide containing 5% dissolved lithium chloride, giving solutions suitable for film and fiber formation. The facile solubility of this amide–bithiazole polymer is attributed to the presence of the amide bonds. Crystalline fibers were spun from the dimethylacetamide–lithium chloride solution of this polymer; they had a tenacity of 140,000 psi (7.8 g./den.) at room temperature and a tenacity of 38,000 psi (2.1 g./den.) when measured at 450°C. The fiber undergoes a weight loss of only 10% on heating up to 490°C. in nitrogen at a rate of 15° C./min. All of the ordered amide–bithiazole copolymers developed a pink-brown color upon exposure to light.


The trend of fine particles in the air of Incheon area was investigated and the method of management for ambient air quality was studied. To estimate the state of air pollution with fine particles, the data obtained from auto-measuring stations during recent years were analyzed. Concentration of fine particles had the tendency of slight increase during recent years and the regional trends in each measuring stations were very different. The method for the reduction of fine particles was suggested using the control policy of fine particles management in Incheon area.


The low frequency vibrational modes, index of refraction, and absorption of L-ascorbic acid from 0.2 to 2.4 THz have been studied by terahertz time domain spectroscopy at room temperature. It is found that there are four dominated vibrational modes at 1.80, 2.05, 2.21 and 2.34 THz and the refractive index, varying between 1.77 and 1.83, has a mean value 1.79 in the 0.2-2.4 THz range. In parallel with the experimental study, density functional theory is employed to simulate structure and vibrational frequencies of L-ascorbic acid. Based on the calculated results, the observed vibrational modes in the far infrared region are assigned.


This paper comments on the feasibility of Indias National Population Policy 2000 (NPP 2000). Giving a brief account on the history and evolution of family planning programs in India it discusses the reasons why there has never been an attempt at a national-level population policy before the NPP 2000. It is noted that the NPP 2000 seems to be attempting to move in a more humane direction in which policies do not directly propose disincentives and addresses existing and unmet needs for contraception health infrastructure and personnel and integrating the service delivery for basic reproductive and child health care. However it has been commented that the policy is trying too hard to be all things to all people and that it lacks effective focus. The NPP 2000 also does not address some of the important dimensions adequately such as the promotion of gender equality and equity in programs and ensuring serious implementation of a participatory approach. Another aspect of the policy that needs strengthening is in developing instruments for feedback program quality assurance and organizational learning. Finally concern about the reappearance of incentives in the policy has been expressed.