The Institute for Space Technology and Space Applications (ISTA) of Bundeswehr University Munich is investigating mission concepts for the in-situ astrobiological exploration of the icy moons of the outer solar system. A concept studied in the context of the DLR funded Enceladus Explorer project (EnEx) aimed to place a lander near one of the plume sources on the bottom of a "tiger stripe" canyon on the south pole of Saturn's moon Enceladus. Once there, the lander would deploy a melting probe to sample relatively shallow liquid water in the ice under the plume source. The lander would have to achieve a landing accuracy of 50 m and manage to land safely on an extremely challenging terrain interspersed with landing hazards like ice blocks, but also uncertain terrain like soft and unconsolidated snow or hard ice. To achieve this, a landing Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GN&C) system would be necessary to allow for autonomous landing operations. To achieve the required accuracy, terrain relative navigation can use sensors such as optical and thermal cameras, LIDAR, etc. to navigate relative to detected terrain features. To ensure a safe landing the system must be able to assess if the originally planned landing site is safe and if not, to then autonomously command a retargeting to another, safer spot. The guidance and control function must then calculate a viable trajectory and thrust arc to the newly chosen landing site. To validate that the landing satisfies the accuracy and reliability requirements we are developing a tool in Matlab/Simulink to simulate the operation of the autonomous landing GN&C system. In this paper we present a first version of this tool, used to simulate the final phase of landing operations as described above. It comprises the following parts: Terrain simulation block: Generates a simple terrain model based on a given Digital Elevation Model (DEM) file. The topology can be modified using fractal algorithms and arbitrary simple shapes can be added to represent hazards. Terrain texture is also simulated. SLAM block: Simulates Terrain Relative Navigation (TRN)/feature matching, whereby features are extracted from the simulated terrain and a Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) approach is followed for accurate navigation. Hazard Detection and Avoidance (HDA) block: Creates fused hazard maps from the output of camera and LIDAR sensors based on the simulated interaction of these sensors with the terrain. A fuzzy logic approach is used to evaluate landing safety and command a retargeting if necessary. Guidance and control block: Implements E-guidance and D'Souza guidance algorithms to generate a thrust arc and trajectory to a new landing spot if commanded by HDA. Using this tool we will attempt to show the feasibility of an adequately accurate and safe landing near a plume source on the bottom of a tiger stripe canyon on the south pole of Enceladus. Index Terms Autonomous landing, GN&C simulation, Enceladus, Icy moons, Astrobiology 1. ENCELADUS Enceladus is currently seen as one of the prime candidates for hosting microbial life in the Solar system in the present day. Enceladus is a small icy moon orbiting Saturn at a radius of 4 Saturn radii. Having a diameter of ≈ 500km, it was once believed too small to be active, but it has been found to be one of the most geologically dynamic objects in the Solar System [1]. It is characterized by a wide range of terrains, including old and young surfaces. It's most interesting area is at its south pole, where a geologically active province was identified by Cassini [2]. The most prominent feature at the South pole are four linear depressions, dubbed "tiger stripes" because of their appearance in the infrared. Multiple flybys of Cassini at Enceladus have shown that plumes of H2O, including simple organic compounds [3], emanate via cryovolcanism from those "warm" fractures at the tiger stripes. Analysis of the plume material strongly implies that it originates from a global ocean below its icy crust [4], and its unique chemistry has fueled speculation that Enceladus may harbor life [5]. Figure 1: Schematic illustrating current knowledge of the small-scale physical and thermal structure and processes relevant to Enceladus' geysering activity [6] 1.1. TOPOGRAPHY AND ENVIRONMENT OF THE SOUTH POLAR TERRAIN (SPT) The South-Polar Terrain is host to the plume sources. The most prominent features characterizing the interior of the SPT as mentioned above are the "Tiger Stripe" valleys, which include 101 identified distinct vapor and ice jets which form the plumes towering above Enceladus (Figure 1) [6]. The term "Tiger Stripe" describes a "V" shaped valley enclosed by two, nearly parallel ridges. These ridges are about 100–150 m high, while the valley is about 200–250 m deep. The total width of the formation is about 2–5 km. The South-Polar Terrain features 4 valleys (Damascus, Baghdad, Cairo and Alexandria Sulcus) separated from each other by 35 km wide plains. As one moves closer to a Tiger Stripe valley, the terrain rises with a relatively gentle gradient to the summits of the ridges. The terrain texture also changes from highly fractured to a more undulating one, covered with numerous icy blocks. Once over the lateral ridges, the slope is initially steeper but changes to a more moderate gradient the deeper one descends, with unconsolidated material sliding from steeper down to flatter sections, where material tends to accumulate. The valley floor is expected to be very narrow, in the order of 50–100 m [7], and interspersed with obstacles, such as narrow ridges and elongated domes. An indicative picture of the South-Polar Terrain at Enceladus can be seen in Figure 2. An elevation model of a characteristic canyon area on the SPT is shown in Figure 3. The spatial density of ice-block features in the SPT was estimated for blocks larger than 10 m in [8]. Block density was found to be up to 1500 ± 450 blocks per square km. No distinct block distribution pattern was found with respect to the tiger-stripe flanks or jet sources. Figure 2: Polar stereographic map of Enceladus' SouthPolar Terrain (SPT) showing the location of 100 plume sources. The circles are the 2σ uncertainties [6] An important aspect is the texture of the surface material in the South-Polar Terrain. It is mainly the fallout from the plumes that modifies the texture: ice particles tend to accumulate more near the plumes and less further away. Studies have shown that nearer the plumes, particle deposition rates can reach up to 1 mm/year or more in the large scale and possibly more in smaller scales, indicating a deposit layer thickness of tens of meters if we assume that the plumes have been active in the past million years [9]. Still, exposed icy crust can also be encountered, especially on slopes on which less consolidated material has slid downward. The mechanical behavior of the fallout is also crucial to the understanding of the surface texture. In a first approach the fallout can be approximately treated as super-fine snow, comprising grains of about 7.5 μm outside the SPT, 40 μm in the vicinity of the Tiger Stripes and 100 μm or larger inside the valleys, where larger particles tend to fall nearer to the plumes [9]. Grains are expected to have lost their crystalline shape due to collisions with the vent walls, and have a roughly round shape. These microscopic properties are translated to macroscopic properties of the surface material, namely: increased force transmission capacity due to the fine grain size, non-consolidated layers of material and increased compressibility due to the low gravity. Figure 3: Stereo-derived elevation model of characteristic canyon area on the SPT, on Baghdad Sulcus (76°S / 323°E) [7] The density of H2O molecules in the vicinity of the plumes has been modelled in [10]. At the very mouth of the plume source the water vapor density is estimated in the order of 10 22 molecules/m 3 , dropping by 3 orders of magnitude within a distance of 100 m. To put these numbers into perspective it's instructive to compare them to the Earth's atmospheric density at sea level, ρEarth = 10 25 molecules/m 3 , or to that of Mars, ρMars = 10 23 molecules/m 3 . The fresh, clean ice that dominates the surface of Enceladus gives it the most reflective surface of any body in the Solar System (albedo of 0.99). 2. THE ENCELADUS EXPLORER (ENEX) PROJECT AND THE ENCELADUS LANDER (EL) MISSION


The utility model discloses a novel fruit packing box which comprises a packing outer box (30), an inner-lower-layer packing box (10) and an inner-upper-layer packing box (20). The inner-upper-layer packing box (20) is clamped on the top of the inner-lower-layer packing box through downward-folded supporting side vertical plates, sunken locating grooves (12) which are sunken downwards from the top face of the inner-lower-layer packing box and can be used for fixing and containing the bottoms of fruit independently are formed in the top face of the inner-lower-layer packing box, and fruit observation through holes (22) corresponding to the positions of the sunken locating grooves (12) are formed in the top face of the inner-upper-layer packing box (20). The fruit can be safely and fixedly stored in the sunken locating grooves in the top of the inner-lower-layer packing box, the packed fruit will not be squeezed or damaged or the like under comprehensive protection of the inner-upper-layer packing box, the inner-lower-layer packing box and the packing outer box, quality of the packed and stored fruit is guaranteed, and therefore loss in the process of packing and transport and sales exhibition can be reduced to the minimum for fruit merchants.


This work addresses design and implementation issues of a 24 GHz rectenna, which is developed to demonstrate the feasibility of wireless power harvesting and transmission (WPT) techniques towards millimeter-wave regime. The proposed structure includes a compact circularly polarized substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) cavity-backed antenna array integrated with a self-biased rectifier using commercial Schottky diodes. The antenna and the rectifier are individually designed, optimized, fabricated and measured. Then they are integrated into one circuit in order to validate the studied rectenna architecture. The maximum measured conversion efficiency and DC voltage are respectively equal to 24% and 0.6 V for an input power density of 10 mW/cm2.


Protein splicing is a post‐translational modification by which intervening polypeptides called inteins catalyze their own excision from two flanking polypeptides, the exteins, concomitant with the ligation of the exteins. We studied the activity of DNA Polymerase II (PolII) inteins from the deep‐sea thermophiles Thermococcus kodakarensis (Tko), Thermococcus barophilus (Tba), Thermococcus sibiricus (Tsib), and Methanococcus infernus (Minf). Tko and Tba PolII inteins contain a homing endonuclease domain, while a flexible loop replaces this region in the Tsib and Minf inteins. This flexible loop, also found in Pyrococcus abyssi (Pab) and Pyrococcus horikoshii (Pho) PolII inteins, was hypothesized to be linked to the temperature dependent activity of these inteins. However, unlike Pab and Pho PolII inteins, we have shown that protein splicing and cleavage side reactions in the Tsib and Minf inteins occur in vivo in E. coli without the need for high temperature incubation in vitro. On the other hand, the Tba and Tko inteins splice poorly in E. coli and can be induced to splice in vitro at higher temperatures. We also have demonstrated that the Tba intein splices while the Tko intein undergoes a mixture of splicing and N‐terminal cleavage.


Random network topologies have been proposed for building a low-latency network for parallel-computing systems. However, collective communication algorithms are not well considered on random network topologies. In this context, we investigate the performance impact of existing topologyagnostic collective communication algorithms on random network topologies. Evaluation results using discrete event simulation showed that (1) the Chain Concatenation Order (CCO) algorithm improved up to 10% of broadcast operations compared to Random Order algorithm, and (2) the performance of the CCO broadcast operations on random topology was better than that of a conventional broadcast operation on 3dtorus.


Governments and public institutions are increasingly publishing their documents and data in freely available knowledge-bases, often as Linked Data silos. One of the goals is to connect and integrate heterogeneous legal sources, by exploiting Semantic Web technologies. Very often such integration is partial and difficult, due to the heterogeneity (and some conceptual flaws) of the datasets. In this paper we present ALLOT, a lightweight legal ontology based on the Akoma Ntoso ontological model, and we focus on how ALLOT can be used to align different datasets and to query all of them as a whole. The minimalistic approach of ALLOT makes dataset designers and users work with simple but effective concepts and queries.


A digital harmonic expansion (DHE) method is proposed for high-precision frequency estimation. DHE is a preprocessing procedure before frequency estimation, which synthetizes a specific harmonic component of the fundamental frequency ofthe input signal to increase information content in spectral domain instead of sampling time length in time domain. This method can greatly improve the frequency estimation precision by using a simple FFT-based algorithm, which is also compatible with other existing FFT-based high-precision complex estimation algorithms. It has the potential for a variety of application scenarios, such as Radar/LIDAR, spectrum sensing, vibration measurement and electronic reconnaissance.


Metabolism is the process carried out in the cells of all living organisms converting the food we eat to chemical energy needed for sustaining life. It encompasses allbiochemical processes that occur within any living organism - including humans - to maintain life. These biochemical processes allow us to grow, reproduce, repair damage, and respond to our environment.


The effect of 21 surfactants on the plaque formation was tested in three RNA‐phages/Escherichia coli systems and in one RNA‐phage/Psedomonas aeruginosa system. Especially anionic detergents proved to be able to influence the plaque formation substantially. In high concentrations of Metaupon, Fekunil 602, Fekunil S‐BA, Emulgator W 270, and Emulgator O‐BA the plaque formation by the phages M 12 and f 2 was inhibited and in low concentrations it was promoted. In the system Qβ/E. coli AB 301 the effect of the detergents mentioned was restricted to the prevention of the appearance of plaques. The detergent E 30 brought about only plaque inhibitions, too, in all used RNA‐phages/E. coli systems. The treatment with effective detergents in the system PP7/P. aeruginosa, however, increased only the number of plaques.


Regional expansion is mostly carried out by local governments in Indonesia with the aim of realizing the effectiveness of local government, accelerating the improvement of community welfare, accelerating the improvement of the quality of public services, and so on as stated in Law Number 23 of 2014 concerning Regional Government. With no exception, Boyolali Regency in Central Java, through Perda No. 18/2018 the expansion of 3 sub-districts was carried out so that they increased to 3 new sub-districts. The division of the region in Boyolali has only been running for 2 years, so the research will only focus on the distribution of public facilities in the fields of education, health and government offices. This research is a descriptive qualitative research, with secondary data collection. The method used is a spatial analysis technique using the kernel density tool available in the ArcGIS application. The results showed that the regional expansion in Boyolali Regency was not maximized because there were still many areas where the distribution of general facilities services was still low, especially in the areas resulting from the expansion.


ABSTRACT Research Findings: Relying on a newly released national data set of kindergarten students from the 2010–2011 school year (Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Kindergarten Class of 2010–2011), the findings suggest that having a greater percentage of same-needs classmates positively boosts both achievement and socioemotional outcomes among kindergartners. However, the overall degree of diversity in the classroom has no effect (either negative or positive) on these same outcomes. Practice or Policy: Alongside changes in schooling integration policies and grade promotion practices, the general education classroom is becoming increasingly diverse academically. It is notable that general education classrooms have been experiencing increases in the presence of children with disabilities and English language learners in addition to increases in the number of retained students. Prior empirical research typically isolated how 1 of these groups with high academic needs might have influenced the outcomes of other students in that same classroom. Rather than focusing on the influence of 1 student group, however, this study adopts a more holistic perspective by examining how the degree of diversity of high-needs classmates in a classroom might be linked to child outcomes.


The article describes basic life moments of a doctor, Assistant Dean of the Faculty of General Medicine at Grodno State Medical Institute Ivan Fomich Mironchik. He overcame all difficulties of the World War II. His strive to acquire knowledge helped him to enter medical institute, and then to come into scientific and administration work. Today I.F.Mironchik reminds his previons file with nostalgia and pride. And close to him, as approximately 60 years ago, is his loving wife and friendly family. The article is dedicated to 80th anniversary ofI.F. Mironchik.


The requirements for dynamic finite-element modeling of the source dynamics and wave propagation of buried acoustic-emission point sources were examined. Maximum permissible source and cell sizes for point sources were determined as a function of the minimum wavelength for frequencies of interest These wavelengths were calculated from the source rise-times. For both buried monopoles and dipoles, finite-element predictions for both plates and half-spaces were compared with published results obtained from other approaches. The modeled signals were evaluated from the epicenter to a distance of 15 plate thicknesses for plates with a thickness of s 25 mm. The finite-element method provided accurate results and a practical means to analyze \ finite specimens, unlike most alternate approaches.


A break of approximately 0.0012 m/sup 2/ in the cold leg of a B and W plant results in an interruption of natural circulation when steam accumulates in the hot-leg U-bend. A small-break loss-of-coolant accident of this size was simulated by TRAC-PF1 to evaluate strategies for recovery and for re-establishing natural circulation. In the absence of operator action, core cooling occurs when water supplied by the high-pressure-injection system boils, then is discharged through the break. Raising the steam-generator secondary level, venting steam from the steam-generator secondary, venting steam from the hog-leg U-bend, bumping the reactor-coolant pumps, and injecting a portion of the high-pressure-injection system into the hot-leg U-bend aided in cooling and depressurizing the primary system but were ineffective in re-establishing natural-circulation flows in the primary-coolant loops.


The paper by Loonen et al. (9) in this issue of Acta P~diatrica skilfully deals with a number of issues in QoL assessment. It shows that adolescents with ine ammatory bowel disease (IBD), especially those with Crohn's disease, differ from their healthy peers in body complaints, motor functioning, autonomy and negative emotions. The study makes strong use of welldeveloped and validated, truly health-related instruments that ask about the emotional response to recent health problems. The balanced conclusions ree ect the relative merits of generic and disease-specie c instruments, which prove to be differentially sensitive to the number of disease-related symptoms. By using both generic and disease-specie c measures, the study also shows that young people with chronic disease may experience considerable disease impact, although without reduced QoL on generic domains. If impact measures only had been used, we would not know that at least one-third of the young patients with IBD rate their QoL optimal regarding motor functioning, cognitive functioning, social functioning, positive emotions and autonomy. It also shows that in general QoL is mainly affected by severe symptomatology. Only by usinga generic measure, could the QoL of these patients be compared with that of their age peers in the general


The State of New Jersey, due to large population density and intensive development, has become a frontier in regulating the stormwater runoff. This paper presents an overview of current Stormwater Management Practices in that State. The paper also includes the author's suggestions for improving the current practices.


the transverse diameter was at the upper limit of normal. In the left (II) oblique view, the left ventricle was seen to be enlarged; the anterior border of the heart showed no abnormality, but radioscopy revealed presystolic contraction of the anterior border. Angiocardiography demonstrated a large communication between the right and left auricles and absence of filling of the right ventricle. The film at 2 seconds was unexposed and at 3 seconds both aorta and pulmonary artery were filled. The evidence afforded was thus consistent with a diagnosis of tricuspid atresia, but this was not proved.


A process for removing nitrogen oxides from the lean exhaust gas of an internal combustion engine by selective catalytic reduction using ammonia, wherein the lean exhaust gas is then passed first through a NOx storage catalytic converter (5) and a SCR catalyst (3) for selective catalytic reduction, and the exhaust gas between the NOx storage catalytic converter (5) and the SCR catalyst (3) a decomposable to ammonia is fed, characterized in that the nitrogen oxides contained in the exhaust gas at low exhaust gas temperatures following a cold start and idling the internal combustion engine by the NOx storage catalyst (5) adsorbed and desorbed at elevated exhaust gas temperature and on the SCR catalyst (3) are reacted.


In the article the concept of human safety, defined by its place in the system of economic security, reviewed and classified the risks and threats to human security organization, dedicated risk management practices.


SYNOPSIS. Suspensions of whole, killed ciliates were diffused against rabbit antisera for the respective strains to observe cross precipitation. The strains fell into the following groups: I. GL, H, ChS, GP, Aq, L-I, L-II, L-2, and V1; II. W, L-3, Gl-R, and V2; III. PR and F; and IV. BF and Lava. T. vorax strains V1 and V2 each resembled certain T. pyriformis strains more closely than they resembled each other. The same grouping of strains emerged in comparing antigenic suspensions and in comparing antisera and was confirmed by comparing absorption properties of antigens from the different strains.


The Chitrakoot region is included in the District Chitrakoot of Uttar Pradesh and the District Satna of Madhya Pradesh. Chitrakoot Parvat Mala includes Kamad Giri, Hanumaan Dhara, Janki Kund, Lakshman pahari, and Devangana famous Religious Mountains. Soils of Chitrakoot region are following types(1) Light black (2) Sandy loam soil. Geographical information of Chitrakoot district Satna in located at 24 0 48' to 25 0 12'N, and longitude at 80 0 58' to 81 0 34'E distance covered by district from east to west is 62 km and north to south is 57.5 km. Temperature, pH, Moisture


INTRODUCTION: Extensive volcanic ash deposits blanketing the youngest geomorphic units on Mars would imply that major explosive volcanic events occurred relatively late in martian history. Discovery of the radar "Stealth" region that extends westward of Arsia and Pavonis Montes has led to the conclusion that the surfaces with "Stealth" characteristics are mantled by fine-grained volcanic ash [1–3]. In our present study, we have examined data sets that further illuminate the nature and origin of "Stealth": maps of albedo, thermal inertia, and rock abundance derived from Viking Thermal Infrared Mapper (IRTM) data [4– 6], plus Viking images that range in resolution from 15 to 200 m/pixel.


The aim of this paper was to propose a design of a module that has several inertial sensors of the same type in order to test various approaches of homogeneous sensor fusion. According to the statistics the mean of readings from the same-type sensors should have higher precision than a single sensor. However, this statement is not always correct for real sensors, as identical sensors may not have the same error characteristics. Sensor manufacturers state the typical sensor RMS (root mean square) error, the actual sensor RMS error can differ significantly from piece to piece. When averaging a sensor output from the same manufacturer, we can under certain conditions, obtain a worse value than the output error of the best sensor. This error can be eliminated by fusing the sensors using weighing. To verify this statement, we decided to assemble with as many identical sensors as possible. The IMU (inertial measurement unit) sensor, which measures acceleration, angular acceleration, and magnetic field in three axes, was chosen as the sensor for the variety of measurements. Thanks to this, we can compare up to 9 different outputs at the same time. In the end, we designed a module that has 16 IMUs. As the number of sensors increases, the resulting error decreases on average. However, weighting based on calibration errors did not prove to be the optimal solution because the sensors contain not only stochastic but also systematic errors. The module designed by us will be used mainly for further scientific research in the field of IMU sensor fusion in order to reduce the error.


6 Abstract: Thirty two isolates of cellulolytic Nitrogen fixing Azotobacter species were isolated from seventy soil samples collected from Charsadda, Mardan, Peshawar, Swabi, Nowshera and Dir districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Among them, twelve isolates were chosen by using Congo red assay for further analysis and were considered as efficient with their cellulolytic zone ratios 1.23-2.71 (low to moderate activity) in Congo red assay. Cellulase activity of each selected isolates was quantitatively measured through Dinitrosalicyclic (DNS) calorimetric method. The results of both these methods were comparable. In contrast only one isolate showed maximum zone ratio of 2.71 by Congo red assay and minimum enzyme activity of 0.003 IU/mL, Nitrogen fixing activity of efficient Azotobacter isolates was detected by color changes in Glucose Nitrogen Free Mineral Medium (GNFMM) containing Bromothymol Blue and Phenate method. Blue color change of colonies and significant amount of NH -N of 11-94 mg/L released by isolates, indicated Nitrogen fixation. Phosphate 4 solubilizing potential was checked by using Agar spot and pH drop methods. All these isolates can solubilize tricalcium phosphate in Pikovskaya's agar medium with solubility index 1.14-1.61 and can drop the pH of Pikovskaya's broth medium in the range 2.99-5.83. Indole Acetic Acid (IAA) producing and antifungal activities of these isolates were also studied. All these Azotobacter isolates were found positive for IAA production by the development of pink color in GNFM medium. Among twelve isolates, seven displayed antifungal activities against Fusarium oxysporium. These isolates of cellulolytic Azotobacter showed low to moderate cellulolytic activities and good Nitrogen fixing, Phosphate solubilizing, IAA producing and antifungal activities. Therefore the results of the present study may provide the basis for the development of bioinoculants on cellulosic wastes and production of biofertilizers for Wheat plants in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.


Letras is the journal of scientific dissemination of the Faculty of Arts and Human Sciences of the National University of San Marcos and was founded in 1929 by the then dean Jose Galvez Barrenechea.
The magazine Letras has a portal developed in Open Journal Systems (OJS) and is published electronically since 2003. The periodicity of the journal was an annual but to get indexed in SciELO had to change its frequency from the year 2013 to appear semiannually. The journal has several sections: studies, notes, lectures, journals of journals, reviews.
A quantitative descriptive analysis was conducted in two periods: 2003-2015 and 2014-2015. First, it will reveal the impact of the magazine Letras in Google Scholar and SciELO; the second, to know the characteristics of the articles published in the journal.
For the analysis of the articles only the first two sections of the magazine (Studies and Notes) were taken. For evaluation they were used numbers 121 to 124 corresponding to the volumes 85 and 86.


Based on the concept of ecological footprint and computer model,the paper analyzed resource consumption of Jining city in 2005.The calculation results show that the per capita ecological footprint in Jining city was 5.1559hm2,the ecological capacity 0.4436 hm2 and the ecological deficit4.7122hm2 in 2005.It is considered that the ecological footprint is beyond the ecological capacity and Jining city is in an unsustainable development situation.


1. Nancy Cunard and the Embrace of Alterity. 2. Herbert Read: from Greater Englishness to the American Stage. 3. J.B. Priestley: Post-scripts and Utopias. 4. Pete Townshend: Talking 'Bout Regeneration. 5. Vivienne Westwood: Fantasy Island. 6. David Dabydeen: the Empire Writes Back. 7. Mark Wallinger: Post-colonial Englishman.


: Based on several scientific publications, a limited number of news from the 1980s up until 2021 and a series of in-depth interviews with devotees in 2006–2021, the authors of the paper managed to restore the history of Bengal Vaishnavism distribution in Belarus for the first time. Specific attributes of its introduction to the country were: (1) philosophical requests from the local citizens, not immigration of its original bearers; (2) a long period of spontaneous distribution in the form of personal involvement with Vaishnava ideas and, hence, late institutionalization of the movement. The main stages of Vaishnavism development in Belarus were distinguished: (1) 1980s, the Soviet period: introduction of Vaishnava ideas and practices within individual self-identification of the members of small groups; (2) 1990s, the post-Soviet period: forming organizational structure of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) in Belarus; (3) 2000s: spiritual and administrative crises and reformation of the systems of administration and practice creation of the institute of curating the newly converted devotees; (4) 2010s: search for and establishment of the new models of serving, the out-of-temple bhakti practice, in particular; further popularization of the Vaishnava movement and community in Belarus. The main source of information on the history of Vaishnavism distribution in Belarus were in-depth interviews with the members of the community standing at its origin.


Objective : An ethnobotanical survey was conducted from January to February 2013 in Douala town relating to the various uses of alkaloids plants species by the people. Methodology and results : Ten districts were surveyed for the census alkaloid plants. These surveys helped conduct semi-structured surveys based on direct questions concerning the therapeutic uses of these plants by the targeted populations. A total of 73 alkaloid plant species were identified of which 21 were herbaceous and 52 woody. Among these species, 30 are indigenous and 43 exotic. They were distributed in 62 genera belonging to 40 families. The supply is provided from farms, secondary forests, gardens, fallows and markets. Solanaceae, Apocynaceae and Rubiaceae are rich in various alkaloids. Leaves, barks and roots are the plant parts mostly used in recipes for the treatment of various diseases. Drugs are mainly administered through the oral root. Secondary metabolites, including alkaloids are unevenly distributed in plants. They are produced at particular stages of development of the flower, fruit, seed or seedling in a specific organ, tissue or cell. Alkaloid plant species are used as major analgesics, antimalarial and to fight against excess uric acid. They are also used as drugs, laxatives, aphrodisiac and as cholinergic or as anticancer agents. They increased heart rate and stimulate the central nervous system with increased vigilance. Conclusion and application of results : All these properties can justify the inclusion of these non timber forest products in forest management programs for their sustainable exploitation. Keywords : Solanaceae; Apocynaceae; Rubiaceae ; alkaloids; exploitation


The content and uptake of N, P and K in wheat decreased with the increased levels of salinity (6, 12 dS m -1 ) and plant age. But the content and uptake of S increased with the increased level of salinity and then decreased with plant age. The highest content of N, P and K in wheat at maturity was found 67.50 and 74.52, 45.68 and 55.97, 94.01 and 97.48 C mol kg -1 in Sonagazi and Badarkhali saline soils, respectively with the treatment of EC0G300H8. But in the both soils S contents were highest with the treatment of EC12G300H8 at maturity stage. In Sonagazi soils the highest content of S was 46 C mol kg -1 which is 33.80% more as compared with control (EC0G0H0). But in Badarkhali soil the highest content of S in wheat was 47.61 C mol kg -1 which is 89.30% more as compared with control (EC0G0H0). The combined application of gypsum 300 kg ha -1 and rice hull 8 t ha -1 significantly (P ≤ 0.05) increased the N, P, K and S content in wheat at maturity as compared with controlled in both saline soils.


In this work, we demonstrate compact, 3D printable, THz spectral splitters based out of a single planar broadband diffractive optical element, designed to disperse an incident collimated THz beam. For the purpose of this demonstration, we present the design of one such spectral splitter designed to disperse wavelengths from 0.5 to 0.7 THz spatially.


Bandwidth-limited, single longitudinal mode ultrashort optical pulse generation from a GaInAsP DFB diode laser at 1.54μm was realised for the first time using the simplest method of strong RF modulation superimposed on the controlled DC bias current. A typical time-bandwidth product of 0.44, with a FWHM of about 37.5 ps at 500 MHz modulation, proves quasi-Lorentzian shaped optical pulses of excellent coherent character.


Optical coating suppliers specialized to meet special needs of laser developers often have to face new challenges to help them in building high-performance, high-efficiency lasers. Some aspects of laser optical coating design and manufacturing are discussed. First an unconventional coating deposition technology, termed the reactive electron beam evaporation under reduced oxygen pressure, is reviewed. The technology is applied for the TiO 2 /SiO 2 and the Ta 2 O 5 /SiO 2 material pairs producing optical coatings with low absorption and scattering losses. Then some concrete application problems and their solutions are presented using our technology: high reflectance UV mirrors containing UV-grade HfO 2 layers; high-damage-threshold, visible/near-infrared power optics; mirrors with extended high reflectance bands (all-dielectric broadband reflectors); and elements of a specially designed mirror set for femtosecond pulse Ti:sapphire lasers. The mirror set for the Ti:sapphire laser has been optimized for both phase and amplitude characteristics.


We describe a digital imaging system and image analysis software suitable for proteomic microarrays in basic research, epidemiological studies, and clinical diagnosis. Our goal was to develop a simplified, economical system for protein microarray immunoassays that combines automated image acquisition and data reduction while preserving the sensitivity and resolution of a conventional laser scanner. Recent advances in CMOS technology have made available digital cameras designed for low light applications with performance rivaling CCD cameras, introducing the possibility of a sensitive, low-cost CMOS-based imager with simplified design and compact size. This concept is enabled in part through the use of microporous nitrocellulose film-slide reactive surfaces. These surfaces exhibit protein binding capacity orders of magnitude greater than functionalized glass and amplify fluorescent light through Mie scattering. When combined with quantum nanocrystal emitters as fluorescent labels, film-slide surfaces greatly enhance fluorescent signals, producing microarray spot intensities that are readily detected by a CMOS sensor. Using a high-power violet diode laser to excite the quantum nanocrystal labels in an epi-fluorescence optical configuration, the system has the capability to image protein microarrays with sensitivity equivalent to a laser scanner. The 2560x1920, 1/2" format sensor enables the optical system to produce a 25x75mm 16-bit grayscale image with 10μm resolution in less than one minute. Guided by an innovative image-recognition template, an automated software algorithm based on spot-intensity gradient identifies spot boundaries and quantitates the microarray with no need for manual corrections. Due to the discrete nature of quantum nanocrystal emission lines, the system has an inherent wavelength-multiplexing capability to detect multiple analytes within the same spot. A benchtop version of the platform is ideal for portable and remote imaging applications and is compatible with centralized post-processing of data. Due to the imager's simplified optics, the camera assembly can be miniaturized for handheld, robotic imaging, and integration with fluid handling systems.


A high-order finite-difference algorithm is proposed in the aim of LES and CAA applications. The subgrid scale dissipation is performed by the explicit high-order numerical filter used for numerical stability purpose. A shock-capturing non-linear filter is also implemented to deal with compressible discontinuous flows. In order to tackle complex geometries, an overset-grid approach is used. High-order interpolations make it possible to ensure the communication between overlapping domains. The whole algorithm is first validated on canonical flow problems to illustrate both its properties for shock-capturing as well as for accurate wave propagation. Then, the influence of the multi-domain approach on the high-order spatial accuracy is assessed. Afterwards, the algorithm is extended to dynamic mesh applications with overlapping grids. Finally, two industrial cases are presented to highlight the potential of the proposed algorithm.


The species of the dipterous family Sphaeroceridae from Australia, New Guinea, and New Zealand are listed and described, including three new wingless genera with altogether four new species, and three new subgenera and 37 new species of Leptocera Olivier. The species of the family are often very widely distributed, partly by human agency, and are not the best material for zoogeographical studies. Nevertheless, there are a few groups at the 'subgeneric level which are peculiar to the region and one of them, subgenus Biroina, with many endemic species. There are several species common to Queensland and New Guinea, but no indication of any faunal relationship with South America.


This paper investigates the potentials of the higher order cyclic statistics to model gear vibration signals. It focuses also on the proposal of new and simple indicators of cyclostationarity and their application to the fault diagnosis in mechanical systems. Indicators of first to fourth order cyclostationarity are introduced and their statistical properties are derived. The repartition of cyclostationarity for different orders can inform about any eventual fault in machines. In order to illustrate the use of these indicators, an industrial application to the spalling diagnosis in a gearbox system is described and discussed. Results demonstrate the effectiveness of these new indicators for a good diagnosis by discriminating between different cyclostationary states.


Teaching quality is the core of quality-oriented education and teaching quality control is an important aspect of the teaching supervision work.Some teaching quality problems existing in the current higher vocational education system are analysed:a vague talented personnel training goal,lack of bright characteristics,the traditional teaching way occupying the dominant position,largely imitating undergraduate courses in major set-up,an imperfect supervisory system in teaching quality,and so on.The characteristics of higher voacational schools are first analysed.A teaching quality safeguard system for higher vocational education is then proposed.


PURPOSE: To obtain a builder being biodegradable and chemically stable and excellent in performances in a solid detergent composition. CONSTITUTION: There is provided a solid detergent composition containing at least one biodegradable polycarboxylic acid polymer, wherein the polymer is present partially or entirely in the form of its water-insoluble inorganic salt or in the form of a water-soluble/water-insoluble mixed salt, and the corresponding polycarboxylic acid polymer has a substantially non-hygroscopic property and is suited for a long-term storage in a detergent formulation. COPYRIGHT: (C)1995,JPO


This paper focuses on describing and discussing the existence of a new research tool for the reanalysis of school cultures. The concept of school culture refers to Berg (2003) and his school development strategy of scope for action. A central issue in organizations is how to reconcile the organization's nomothetic and idiographic aspirations and structures. At school, this problem can be understood as the dialectical interplay between institutional and organizational values. In-depth knowledge of actors' behavior and attitudes in the context of interaction increases the ability of school development for the benefit of students. Polyphonic reanalysis of a school culture makes it possible to achieve an extended understanding of the underlying patterns of a school s everyday work from a micro-oriented perspective. The new instrument has been tested in a context of pupil culture in primary school.


Properties and commercial side-stream test of QTM-01, developed by Research Institute of Sinopec Qilu Corp., were described. The catalyst features high mercaptan oxidation activity, good stability and capability of adsorbing hydrogen sulfide. Commercial side-stream test results showed that the catalyst can efficiently oxide mercaptan in LPG into disulfides at ambient temperature in liquid phase, without emission of alkali liquor.


Recently, the interaction information from reviews has been modeled to acquire representations between users and items and improve the sparsity problem in recommendation systems. Reviews are more responsive to information about users' preferences for the different aspects and attributes of items. However, how to better construct the representation of users (items) still needs further research. Inspired by the interaction information from reviews, auxiliary ID embedding information is used to further enrich the word-level representation in the proposed model named MPCAR. In this paper, first, a multipointer learning scheme is adopted to extract the most informative reviews from user and item reviews and represent users (items) in a word-by-word manner. Then, users and items are embedded to extract the ID embedding that can reveal the identity of users (items). Finally, the review features and ID embedding are input to the gated neural network for effective fusion to obtain richer representations of users and items. We randomly select ten subcategory datasets from the Amazon dataset to evaluate our algorithm. The experimental results show that our algorithm can achieve the best results compared to other recommendation approaches.


Development of environmentally benign methods for the synthesis of nanoparticles is an evolving important branch of nanotechnology. Inorganic-organic hybrid nanocomposites are synthesized by dispersing nanosized CdS in the conducting polypyrrole (PPY) matrix. The samples are characterized by X-ray diffraction, transmission and scanning electron microscopes and UV-VIS spectrophotometer. The wavelength of optical absorption peak of CdS nanoparticle increases from 430 nm to 470 nm with the decrease of polypyrrole concentration. Studies on dc electrical conductivity as a function of temperature suggest that three dimensional Mott's hopping process occurs in CdS-Polypyrrole nanocomposites. The incorporation of CdS nanoparticles enhances the barrier height. The barrier height increases with the content of CdS. The observed nonlinear current-voltage characteristics are satisfactorily explained using the Schottky type barriers. [DOI: 10.1380/ejssnt.2018.14]


The invention discloses an SMC material molding process, and relates to the technical field of plastic heat treatment. The process heats and pressurizes an SMC material by using a mold, so that the SMC material flows to fully fill in a cavity after being heated to reduce the viscosity, and products with excellent compactness are produced. The process is specifically suitable for processing large SMC products; and compared with a traditional hand pasting process, the SMC material molding process reduces the manpower, largely improves the production efficiency, largely improves the working condition, and prevents the human body harm from the glass steel material forming process.


A micro method for salicylates capable of determining levels of 0 to 50 µg./ml. on fingertip blood specimens has been developed. The method is characterized by low plasma or whole blood blanks, the ability to measure very low salicylate levels, and sufficient range to compare favorably with the macro method of Brodie et at. at higher levels.


In this study, antimicrobial activity of previously synthesized 1-(Substituted phenyl)-4-(substituted styryl)-2-azetidinones(3a-i) have been examined. All compounds have been tested against Gram(+) and Gram(-) bacteria and yeasts. It was found that activity is not significantly influenced by the substituents on the ring.


The "scaffold" theory proposed by Bruner has been rapidly gaining popularity in the educational field in China in recent years. Teachers' appropriate scaffolds may create a very harmonious environment for effective communication. Relevance theory in pragmatics can be utilized to interpret learning scaffolds in classroom interaction theoretically and can offer some insights into the building of suitable leaning scaffolds in teaching practice.


was among the first states to pass school finance reform legislation in the early 1970s. The goals of the reform, according to the State Department of Education, were increased state funding of education, more equal dollars per pupil, fiscal neutrality, and equal tax burdens for the cost of education.1 Over the next ten years, the school finance reform in Minnesota was phased in to completion. New problems, such as fluctuating enrollment, were addressed in the formulas and a second major revision of the finance system was enacted. In the process, some of the reform goals seem to have been changed. Although attention has been given to the goal of equal dollars per pupil, some changes in the formulas indicate that this may no longer be an objective of the Minnesota school finance system. This paper will review Minnesota's finance system against the original goals at key points over a ten-year period.


Information security is a concern of every business, therefore the need for employees to comply with a policy that would protect the organization's assets.  The model developed for this research was based on Protection Motivation Theory, Theory of Planned Behavior, and Rational Choice Theory.  There were 129 responses from Nigeria used to validate the model.  The data analysis using PLS-SEM resulted in these findings: self-efficacy, normative beliefs, and power distance were significant, therefore impacting.  Therefore, not significant descriptive norms did not positively impact intention to comply with information security policy.  Power distance was impactful on employees' intention to comply with information system policy and contributed to theory and practice; respondents chose to do right by their intention to comply with information security policy.  Training and managerial oversight in policy compliance are significant since those actions would help protect the organization's information.  The analysis showed the adverse effect of a high correlation between indicators of different constructs.


Mycobacterium tuberculosis establishes a persistent infection despite a T cell response that contains but does not clear the pathogen. The B7 family member PDL1 has been shown to play a major role in regulating T cell responses during chronic viral infection. Here we investigate its role in regulating T cell function during murine Mtb infection. PD‐1 was upregulated on T cells in lung and spleen after low‐dose aerosol infection and PDL1 was markedly increased on multiple cell types. αPDL1 administration from wk10–14 had no effect on bacterial control but led to a 2–3 fold reduction in the number of IFNγ+ T cells. Furthermore, in contrast to previous reports with virus specific T cells, PDL1 blockade during culture of splenocytes from Mtb infected mice reduced T cell proliferation and triggered enhanced apoptosis. In the presence of αIFNγ neutralizing mAb or aminoguanidine, however, in vitro PDL1 blockade enhanced CD4 T cell division suggesting that this pathway protects T cells from suppression by IFNγ and nitric oxide by limiting their production. Moreover in recent experiments Mtb infected PDL1 KO mice were found to display acute mortality succumbing by day 31 post‐exposure. Taken together these data suggest that a major function of PDL1 in Mtb infection may be to limit potentially host detrimental Th1 responses.


Having analyzed the key parts of the spherical roller coupling with static finite-element,the paper provides the distribution pattern and the related analysis figures about stress,strain and contact stress within them for the design and calculation of products.


In this ethnopharmacological study, the ethanolic extract of the whole plant parts (root, stem and leaves) of Cayratia trifolia (Linn.) Domin. (Family Vitaceae) was investigated for bioactivities; namely analgesic, antioxidant, cytotoxicity, antimicrobial, antihelmintic and hypoglycemic activity. In light of the available literature, this study represents the first experimental investigation of biological activities of Cayratia trifolia in the perspective of their traditional use.


Part 2 Getting it right: Where the learner is introduced to the problem of variation when comparing data from different measurements


This paper focused on how to design a proper export networking, it would be important to look at the different entry strategies mostly practiced in the Dutch market. The fact that the Dutch importers have been importing seafood from Vietnam provides us a useful basis for analyzing the entry strategies applied in the previous years. Consequently, we can propose the various alternatives for entering into the Dutch fish market in the future


hE LOCAL TOPONYMY, owing to the faot that such names have usually a more recent origin than those which are known over a large area, comes much closer to the cmrent language, making use to a larger extent of pure appellatives. As was mentioned by way of introduction to this paper, many of the names quoted and explained by Professor Bergsland from the Aleutian area may be characterized as purely local designations (v. note 15, pt. I). Such names may not outlast a generation. In the Alaskan toponymy we find, among the names studied by Professor Bergsland, some that are provided with an adjectival qualifier: tanar angunar "the big land or island" (op. cit., p. 37) or, what is still more surprising, some that are real compounds in the European (or Indo-European) sense: sidigsa-ki·ru·ca "the Sidigsa-mountain," "the mountain of Sidigsa" (op. cit., p. 28), saru·ga qangu "the Saruga-seal-cave," "the seal-cave of Saruga" (op. cit., p. 29) or even atra-yara-cirsga "Atka-pointshoal," that is "the shoal of the point of Atka (Island)" (op. cit., p. 31). The genuine character of such names is, however, often doubtful and as a matter of fact they may often represent mere translations of Russian or American designations into the Aleut language. Regarding such a name as qanga-tanar "east-island" or "the eastern island," for instance, Bergsland says (op. cit., p. 40): "probably a recent name for Ugidak Island."46 The genuine form of such a name as the above tanar angunar would probably have been *tanaGag (incidentally the native name of Tanaga Island) "the great island," that is, with an augmentative suffix. Names of the above type (saru·ga qangu, etc.) are, however, in most cases compounds only in appearance. Such a name as 'atraya·ra "Atka-point" or "the point of Atka" is in reality nothing but a


There is a nexus that binds the troika of gender, politics and industrial development. This chapter aims to interrogate this nexus and how gender politics has undermined the role and participation of women in industrial development in Nigeria. Nigerian women, like their African counterparts, have suffered from years of marginalisation, exclusion and underachievement owing to sociocultural albatrosses, some of which are antediluvian and anthropogenic in nature. Even government's policy thrusts to enact industrial development over the years have been gender blind and insensitive. This has produced ugly and unexpected policy outcomes which have only exacerbated rather than addressed the problem. The authors of this chapter contend that there is need to engage a politics of paradise built on the fundaments of social transformation, women empowerment, gender-sensitive industrial development and gender equality. Through this politics of paradise, age-long sociocultural metal trusses in the path of women could be removed while repositioning them for a more positive and greater participation in industrial development in Nigeria


Leadership development for women plays an indispensable function in economic progress of India. The present study tries to analyze the relationship between sociological and psychological barriers on various strategies employed by women leaders in IT/ITeS Sector in Bengaluru and Coimbatore in India among 436 samples using a structured questionnaire consisting of 83 constructs. Smart PLS SEM was used to test theoretical framework since the present study tries to explore an area which is relatively less researched in India. The results of the study found the existence of statistically significant path between socio-psychological barriers and the strategies.


From 12.12.2010 to 17.12.2010, the Dagstuhl Seminar 10501 "Advances and Applications of Automata on Words and Trees" was held in Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz Center for Informatics. During the seminar, several participants presented their current research, and ongoing work and open problems were discussed. Abstracts of the presentations given during the seminar as well as abstracts of seminar results and ideas are put together in this paper. The first section describes the seminar topics and goals in general. Links to extended abstracts or full papers are provided, if available.


One of the most prevalent disorders of the nervous system is epilepsy and it affects 1% to 2% of people worldwide. In terms of neurological illness, it is only second to stroke. An unanticipated collapse and bringing together of a group of nerve cells of brain results in abnormal increased synchronization of neurons. Epileptic Seizure is an outcome of this uninhibited electrical action of brain. The majority of neurologists frequently employ Electroencephalogram (EEG) data, which directly record the brain's electrical action, to diagnose epilepsy. However, in lengthy EEG recordings, the visual interpretation proves to be a time-consuming, expensive, and tiresome task that is prone to errors. Thus, there is a constant need to develop a trustworthy method to detect seizure in an automatic manner from the recorded EEG signals. In the proposed method, Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) is proposed for the classification of seizures. In comparison to other established classifier techniques like Support Vector Machine and K- Nearest Neighbor, experimental results show that the proposed CNN-based Seizure classification provides higher classification accuracy.


"I've accepted myself as that. But didn't I make some elbow room though?" She tapped her temple with her forefinger. "I mean up here'." Then she laughed bitterly and sipped her tea. "When times get tough, anybody can pass for white. Niggers been doing that for centuries, so it ain't nothing new. But shit, wouldn't it of been something to be a nigger that could relate to white and black and everything else in the world out of a self as big as the world is?" She laughed. Then she said, "That would have been some nigger!" (281)


As a political organization,a party is made up of multiple elements,such as ideology,program objectives,organization member,system criterion as well as the line,principles,policies,and so on.Among all the constituent elements,being in the core position,the value of the party dominates the others of a party as the other elements are its carriers and concrete manifestation,with counteracting effects.


The purpose of this paper is to introduce a novel concept for integrating enhancement mode (E-mode) and depletion mode (D-mode) AlGaN/GaN HEMTs in the same fabrication process. Unlike existing E/D integration technologies (gate recess etching, fluorine implantation, etc.), the proposed technology does not involve process steps that damage the semiconductor layer and therefore more reliable devices are to be expected. It allows control of 2DEG density under the gate region by means of external mechanical stress applied to the AlGaN barrier layer. The stress is introduced by a dedicated SiNx passivation film. E-mode and D-mode GaN HEMTs with state-of-the-art dc performance were fabricated on the same wafer using the proposed technology. The process flow for E/D transistors fabrication is presented as well.


An analytical micromechanical method, based on the lamellar microstructure and dislocation slip and twinning deformation mechanisms of polysynthetically twinning (PST) crystal, is used to investigate the variation of the yielding stress as function of angle θ between the load axis and the lamellar boundaries for a PST crystal. The sub-domain microstructure of the γ-phase in PST crystal and the difference of CRSS in ordinary slip and true twinning have been considered in this paper. The results demonstrated that yielding stress relations on loading angle with respect to the microstructure and in soft mode of deformation, which is determined by ordinary dislocation or superdislocation slip systems in γ phase, shear deformation is parallel to the lamellar boundaries; in hard mode of deformation, shear deformation crosses the lamellar boundaries, which is controlled by twinning in the γ phase. In addition, the predicted yield stress values of PST crystals for three loading angles θ=45°, 0° and 90° have the relation as σy(45°) σy(0°) σy(9o°)- Furthermore, the active slip and twinning systems have also been analyzed systematically.


Wide-range humidity sensing and monitoring applications including instrumentation, agriculture, meteorology, biomedicine, and food processing have attracted long-standing interests, where recently substantial progress is made in both sensing-material science and microfabrication technologies to achieve portable, reliable and low-cost humidity sensing instruments. Due to their high sensitivity, enormous miniaturization potential, and well-developed high-volume microfabrication technologies, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)-based piezoresistive cantilever devices covered by large-surface-area nanostructures of hygroscopic materials offer an ideal platform for highly sensitive humidity detection. Since resonant gravimetric sensing is the dominant humidity sensing technique in recent research works, in this paper, resonant actuation principles for microcantilevers (i.e. the dynamic operation mode) are addressed and compared with respect to the quality of the amplitude and phase signals, as required for on-line frequency tracking using a phase-locked loop circuit. Parasitic feedthrough effects are considered between the resonance-mode (f 0) excitation element and the piezoresistive detection circuit, which can lead to a reduction of stop-band attenuation, the generation of a parallel resonance in close vicinity of f 0, a hardly detectable 90° phase jump, and a long-term drift of resonance frequency and phase shift. Methods for eliminating these parasitic feedthrough effects have been considered, including de-embedding of the motional signal by later data processing and the integration of a reference cantilever or circuit. Then, different concepts of environmental sensing using microcantilevers are described, including detection of particulate matter and gas molecules/volatile organic compounds. Depending on the condition of the cantilever during sensing operation, two different modes have been used to sense the target analyte (i.e. static and dynamic modes). In a static operation mode, mass change of the cantilever, surface stress, or swelling of a layer on top related to the uptake and binding of particles or molecules on the cantilever are detectable via a deformation of the cantilever (i.e. by deflection or strain), which can be sensed by an integrated piezoresistive strain gauge. Quasistatic bending of the cantilever as well as frequency down-shift of an excited resonance mode are normally used for detection. Humidity adsorption/desorption characteristics of such piezoresistive microcantilevers can be modified using hygroscopic layered materials deposited on the cantilever, among which we address metal oxides, ceramics, organics, or organic/inorganic composites. These thin layers comprise preferentially concave or convex nanostructures (e.g. pores, particles, colloids, rods, or fins), which provide a sensing surface of large surface-to-volume ratio and thus a large number of binding sites for highly efficient adhesion of water molecules. Finally, fabrication processes of integrated piezoresistive microcantilever-based humidity sensors, including micromachining/MEMS technology, integration of nanostructures and their combination with deposited hydrophilic materials are described. Lastly, their humidity sensing performance is compared with competing state-of-the art and advanced MEMS devices, e.g. capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers, quartz crystal microbalance, thin-film bulk acoustic resonator, surface acoustic wave resonator and complementary metal oxide semiconductor-MEMS for gravimetric sensing with respect to, e.g. sensitivity, hysteresis, and response time.


For a number of EU regulatory acts Virtual Testing (VT) is already allowed for type approval (see Commission Regulation No. 371/2010 of 16 April 2010 amending the Framework Directive 2007/46/EC). However, only a very general procedure on how to apply VT for type approval is provided. Technical details for specific regulatory acts are not given yet. The main objective of the European project IMVITER (IMplementation of VIrtual TEsting in Safety Regulations) was to promote the implementation of VT in safety regulations. When proposing VT procedures the new regulation was taken into account, in particular, addressing open issues. Special attention was paid to pedestrian protection as pilot cases. A key aspect for VT implementation is to demonstrate that the employed simulation models are reliable. This paper describes how the Verification and Validation (V&V) method defined by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers was adapted for pedestrian protection VT based assessment. For the certification of headform impactors an extensive study was performed at two laboratories to assess the variability in calibration tests and equivalent results from a set of simulation models. Based on these results a methodology is defined for certification of headform impactor simulation models. A similar study was also performed with one vehicle in the type approval test setup. Its bonnet was highly instrumented and subjected to 45 impacts in five different positions at two laboratories in order to obtain an estimation of the variability in the physical tests. An equivalent study was performed using stochastic simulation with a metamodel fed with observed variability in impact conditions of physical headforms. An estimation of the test method uncertainty was obtained and used in the definition of a validation corridor for simulation models. Validation metric and criteria were defined in cooperation with the ISO TC22 SC10 and SC12 WG4 "Virtual Testing". A complete validation procedure including different test setups, physical magnitudes and evaluation criteria is provided. A detailed procedural flowchart is developed for VT implementation in EC Regulation No 78/2009 based on a so called "Hybrid VT" approach, which combines real hardware based head impact tests and simulations. This detailed flowchart is shown and explained within this paper. Another important point within the virtual testing based procedures is the documentation of relevant information resulting from the verification and validation process of the numerical models used. For this purpose report templates were developed within the project. The proposed procedure fixes minimum V&V requirements for numerical models to be confidently used within the type-approval process. It is not intended to be a thorough guide on how to build such reliable models. Different modeling methodologies are therefore possible, according to particular OEM know-how. These requirements respond to a balance amongst the type-approval stakeholders interests. A cost-benefit analysis, which was also performed within the IMVITER project, supports this approach, showing the conditions in which VT implementation is beneficial. Based on the experience gained in the project and the background of the experts involved an outlook is given as a roadmap of VT implementation, identifying the most important milestones to be reached along the way to a future vehicle type approval procedure supported by VT. The results presented in this paper show an important step addressing open questions and fostering the future acceptance of virtual testing in pedestrian protection type approval procedures.


copydesc copies the format of fromvar, any variable label of fromvar, any value labels of fromvar, and any characteristics of fromvar, so that they also pertain to tovar. If fromvar has no variable label, the name of fromvar becomes the variable label of tovar. This is version 1.2.1 of the software.


Through investigation of daily colloquial speech of the Xinyu dialect,the author concludes several affixes and compares them with those of putonghua,finding out the features of word forming and grammatical function of the Xinyu dialect.


Simon Wilmot is a Senior Lecturer, Screen & Media, at Deakin University. He writes for IF about the recent study tour undertaken by Deakin students to further their understanding of the burgeoning Chinese industry.


This papers based on the new institutional econimics theory to analysis the financial companies playing special roles by the cost of MA classification.It compared the core of external investment bank to the internal financial company,as result,the financial company's participation can reduce expenses in manager and acquisition.


Himalotrechus humeratus gen. n., sp. n. is described from the easternmost portion of the Greater Himalaya in the Arunachal Pradesh State of India. The relationships of this new genus within Trechini are discussed based on the relevant characters in external and genital morphology. Himalotrechus gen. n. is likely to be a member of the Epaphiopsis Complex (Deuve et al., 2016).


Under the condition that maintenance equipment consumption data is insufficient in the initial support period, this article established development method of maintenance equipment supply standard of under exponential distribution, normal distribution and Waybill distribution respectively. And through the calculation of examples, the scientific nature of the method is verified. The conclusion can provide the theoretical basis for the development of the initial maintenance equipment supply standard.


As the bridge and link between the technology and the economic development, the technology agents are important components of the national technology innovating system. By analyzing the structure and the function of the technology agents, the main obstacles baffling the development of the technology agents are pointed out: the ambiguous legal status, the dissonant system, the formalistic mechanism, the talents' lacking and the incomprehensive servings. In order to improve the development of the technology agents, the countermeasures are also brought forward, which include perfecting the administrative mechanism and strengthening the self-building.


A 48-year-old woman presented to our eye clinic with a painless swelling in her left lower eyelid. Clinical examination revealed a firm, small nodule measuring 5 mm × 5 mm in the left lower eyelid, but no palpable preauricular, submandibular, or cervical nodes were noted. No discrete discoloration or ulceration was noted. The patient's visual acuity was 6/6 for the right eye and 6/9 for the left eye. There was no evidence of restricted extraocular movement. Fundus examination revealed no metastatic lesions. Visual fields were full. The clinical diagnosis of her eyelid lesion was probable basal cell carcinoma or chalazion. Her medical history was significant for excision of two basal cell carcinomas from her forehead in August 2002, one basal cell carcinoma from the left temporal region in April 2000, and two more basal cell carcinomas from her forehead in February 1999. Left mastectomy and axillary node clearance was performed in April 2001 because of left-sided multifocal, 30 mm, grade II, estrogen receptor (ER)and progesterone receptor (PR)-positive invasive lobular breast cancer, with regional lymph node metastases (20/21), followed by postoperative tamoxifen (20 mg/day). An orbital computed tomography (CT) scan revealed an extraconal mass below the left globe, there was no evidence of posterior orbital involvement (Fig. 1a). Excision biopsy of the left lower eyelid nodule was performed. Histopathologic examination of the specimen demonstrated extensive infiltration by sheets of tumor cells arranged in a predominantly trabecular pattern. The cells showed small amounts of eosinophilic cytoplasm and oval to round uniform nuclei (Fig. 1b,c). Immunohistochemistry showed strong positive reaction to epithelial markers within the tumor cells (Fig. 1e). Mucin stains showed intracytoplasmic mucin. ER and PR were strongly positive (Fig. 1f). Results of both the eyelid biopsy and the primary breast cancer biopsy taken 16 months previously were the same histologic type (Fig. 1d). A complete staging evaluation for other metastatic lesions (including chest x-ray, bone, liver, and brain scans) were negative. Following complete excision of the eyelid metastases, the patient was treated with another course of chemotherapy and is currently being followed in the Breast Clinic. After 18 months she is well with no further signs of metastatic disease. Metastatic breast cancer presenting as eyelid swelling is quite unusual. We suggest a high index of suspicion for eyelid swellings in patients with a history of breast cancer. Extensive and disfiguring surgery is seldom justified; therapy usually is by local excision and appropriate systemic therapy, as recommended by the oncologist.


This article addresses the growing awareness that the most commonly used risk–reward metrics, such as the Sharpe ratio, are flawed. Including the winning returns as part of the risk and assuming that returns are normally distributed are two of the biggest flaws. These problems, and others, have motivated a search for alternatives. The authors analyze one prominent alternative risk metric, the Ulcer Index (UI). It does what a risk metric should do—measure the depth and duration of drawdowns. One criticism against it, however, is that it fails to adequately reflect the appropriate risk of the most severe drawdowns. One suggested response requires setting a hard boundary for drawdowns, beyond which they are weighted more severely. By contrast, the authors suggest that, even if appropriate, there is a more graceful solution, one that simply raises the power of UI beyond 2.0 to smoothly reflect the greater severity of drawdowns as they increase in size. How much beyond 2.0 is ultimately a decision for fund managers, but they suggest 2.6 as a balanced level that provides greater sensitivity to larger drawdowns without overweighting them—hence, UI 2.6.


A buck power factor correction (PFC) converter operating in continuous conduction mode (CCM) is influenced by the dead zone, which introduces distortion related to the input line voltage. Such phenomenon limits the maximum power factor (PF) and the minimum total harmonic distortion (THD) achievable. By deriving a methodology to achieve predictive line voltage reconstruction (PLVR), the influence of the dead zone is mitigated. With the prediction of quadratic sinusoidal current modulation (PS2CM), the line current is shaped into sinusoid waveform that is in-phase with input line voltage, crucial for. Consequently, the proposed CCM buck PFC can achieve high PF, low THD, and efficiency simultaneously. A test chip was fabricated in 0.5-μm Bipolar-CMOS-DMOS (BCD) process. The experimental results show a peak PF of 0.95 and a peak efficiency of 98% at 110 Vac.


------------------------------------------------------ABSTRACT---------------------------------------------------Medical special treatment is today expanding so quickly to the amount that even experts have difficulties in following the latest new results, changes and treatments.Computers improve on humans in their ability to remember and such property is veryprecious for a computeraided system that enables advances for both diagnosisand treatments. A Computer Aided System or Decision Support System thatcan suggestknowledgeable human logic or serve as an assistant to a physician in themedical domain is gradually important. In the medical area diagnostics, grouping and treatment are the key tasks for a physician. System developmentfor such a purpose is also a popular area in Artificial Intelligence research.Decision Support System that bearsresemblances with human reasoning have benefits and are often easily accepted by physicians in the medical domain. Electronic health data supervision is characterized by high pressure and timely access. Retrieving patient data needs that all services and objects are connected to make data from different health care bases available. Clinical data warehouses in this contextual facilitate the analysis, link and access of the data obtained in the patient care process to progress the quality of decision making.This paper proposesthe plan of a real time adaptive framework thatshields the improvement of predicting, responding andmonitoring strange behaviors in patient data in adata warehouse environment.


A B S T R A C T In this paper, a methodology has been proposed to find variations between the frames in visual tracking systems by part-based visual tracking which is optimistic and can overcome high computational cost. Over the decades, Multi-Variant analysis has become a well-known technique for statistical inference systems using multiple observations. All the earlier works, like Incremental Self-Tuning Particle Framework (ISPF), were particle based which classify the poses. In this study, a multi-variant analysis has been done on the particle based image frames to find the misplaced data in each frame. To estimate the part based parameters, least square estimation of maximum likely-hood is applied. The experimental results are conducted on ANOVA test for part based frames.


Using high resolution neutron diffraction and capacitance dilatometry we show that the thermal evolution of the helimagnetic state in CoMnSi is accompanied by a change in interatomic distances of up to 2%, the largest ever found in a metallic magnet. Our results and the picture of competing exchange and strongly anisotropic thermal expansion that we use to understand them sheds light on a new mechanism for large magnetoelastic effects that does not require large spin-orbit coupling.


Certificateless cryptography aims at combining the advantages of identity based and public key cryptography, so as to avoid the key escrow problem inherent in the identity based system and cumbersome certificate management in public key infrastructure. Signcryption achieves confidentiality and authentication simultaneously in an efficient manner. Multi-receiver signcryption demands signcrypting the same message efficiently for a large number of receivers. In this note, we strengthen the security of the certificateless multi-receiver signcryption scheme in [23] by proposing suitable enhancement to the scheme.


The generalization of the Randall-Sundrum solution for the warp factor exp[σ(y)] in the scenario with one extra coordinate y, nonfactorizable space-time geometry and two branes is obtained. It is shown that the function obtained σ(y) is symmetric with respect to an interchange of two branes. It also obeys the orbifold symmetry y → −y and explicitly reproduces jumps of its derivative on both branes. This solution is defined by the Einstein-Hilbert's equations up to a constant C. It is demonstrated that different values of C results in theories with quite different spectra of the Kaluza-Klein gravitons.


The availability of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) has transformed the outcome for individuals with diagnosed HIV infection where access to therapy is widely available. There continues to be significant (although markedly reduced) ongoing morbidity and mortality despite HAART, however. Although this may result from resistance to available antiretroviral therapies or treatment refusal, a recent audit of deaths in HIV-positive individuals in the UK demonstrated that the commonest reason for HIV-related death was that HIV had been diagnosed too late for effective intervention [1]. Anonymous seroprevalence studies suggest that approximately one in three individuals with HIV infection in developed countries are unaware of their infection [2,3], with much higher rates in developing countries where rollout programmes are currently underway [4]. If the benefits of HAART are to be fully realized, then not only is availability crucial but also those individuals who require treatment must be appropriately identified.


A LED-lamp, with power supply from a Li-battery and a fuel cell is studied. The fuel cell consists of a PPB where water and soil is the electrolyte, and a capacitor. The result gives a response by the fuel cell, such that, the power and life-time for the entire device, are increased. A device for amplification of electric current is constructed and the usage with a Li-battery is evaluated. The novelties of the paper are electric hardware and results, together with modeling and analysis.


Background:  Cisatracurium unlike atracurium is devoid of histamine‐induced cardiovascular effects and this alone would be the greatest advantage in replacing atracurium for the facilitation of tracheal intubation. On the other hand, 2 ED95 doses of cisatracurium (100 µg/kg) do not yield satisfactory intubating conditions such as those seen with equipotent doses of atracurium and therefore the recommended intubating dose of cisatracurium is 3 ED95. To understand this discrepancy better, we evaluated the potency and onset of atracurium and cisatracurium directly at the larynx adductors in humans.


Service brand communication plays a crucial role in determining the Behavioral Intention towards the brands, which is useful for business. It provides the values to consumers as well. This study examined whether service brand communication has an influence on Behavioral Intention in Private Professional Educational Institutes as a research problem. This research was carried out with an objective to examine the influence of service brand communication on behavioural Intention in Private professional Educational Institutes in Batticaloa district. Personal interactive communication and marketing mix communication are considered as the measurement variables of service brand communication and Behavioral Intention is considered as the dependent variable. 200 students from 07 Private Professional Educational Institutes in Batticaloa district have been selected as a sample base on the stratified proportionate random sampling method for this study. Data were analyzed and evaluated by Descriptive statistic, Correlation and multiple regressions analysis. Findings have shown the service brand communication and Behavioral Intention is at a high level. Moreover, it also found that there is a strong positive relationship between service brand communication and behavioral intention. Service brand communication significantly influences the behavioral intention of private professional educational institutes. Results of this study suggest that the service brand communication is important to examine the dispositional source of behavioral intention.


This article aims to examine and describe the application of regional autonomy and decentralization in the governance process in the application of Law Number 23 of 2014 concerning Regional Government. This article was written using a normative legal research method with an emphasis on literature studies related to the decentralization system and regional autonomy. The process of decentralization and regional autonomy is very important to the regional development process in the era of autonomy. What is the role of the central and regional governments in making rules that can accommodate the interests of the community. For this reason, this autonomy is not just the scattering of government administration to achieve government efficiency and effectiveness, but autonomy is interpreted as a constitutional order (staatsrechttelijk), and not just a state administration order (administratiefrechttelijk). Decentralization and regional autonomy regarding the direction of regional general policies basically contain the targets and focus of development policies that will be pursued by regional governments in order to realize regional development agendas and priorities that have been determined based on the vision and mission of the head of the region concerned. This policy direction then needs to be in line with development goals. Therefore, there is a need for synergy between the central and regional governments as a constitutional order which is one unit


The size distribution of trees in natural forests is a fundamental attribute of forest structure. Previous attempts to model tree size distributions using simple functions (such as power or Weibull functions) have had limited success, typically overestimating the number of large stems observed. We describe a model which assumes that the dominant mortality process is asymmetric competition when trees are smaller, and size-independent processes (e.g. disturbance) when trees are larger. This combination of processes leads to a size distribution which takes the form of a power distribution in the small tree phase and a Weibull distribution in the large tree phase. Analyses of data from four large-scale ( 24 ha each) subtropical and temperate forest plots totalling 99 ha and approximately 0.4 million trees provide support for this model in two respects: (a) the combined function provided unbiased predictions and (b) power-law functions fitted to small trees had exponents that deviated from the universal exponent of 22 predicted by metabolic scaling theory, gradually decreasing from subtropical evergreen to temperate deciduous forests along the latitudinal gradient.


In this present project it is tried to offer to the Ecuadorian industries a "System of support for the management of sales in concession" that allows through Internet to make a pursuit of given products and to be able to activate the respective collections. That is to say, to have a hall transactional Web and of consultations, that will provide added values to them as saving in time, money and effort. The support tool sets out to be a support in the decision making since it looks for to cover the needs with the industries of the country that they have like commercialization alternative, the sale in consignment or the product delivery in concession, by means of the creation a hall, the use of applicative Web and a Web Service, allowing to share information between suppliers and clients. The solution goes directed to the Ecuadorian manufacturing market, that has seen the sales in consignment like a good opportunity increase its sales or present its new products the final consumer.


The catechol moiety in a chromophore was used in an indicator displacement assay for the chemosensing of the antiviral drug foscarnet (trisodium phosphonoformate, abbreviated as PFA). Applications of two methods were investigated, namely UV-Vis absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy measuring coordination of a metal to a catechol-based indicator. Yb3+ complexation with chromogenic pyrocatechol violet in 10 mM HEPES buffer at pH 7.0 yields a blue chemosensor that responds to the presence of PFA with the release of yellow pyrocatechol violet (PV). The YbPV coordination complex responds linearly to the PFA concentration with a 2 μM detection limit. Metal ion complexation of a range of metal ions (trivalent Al, Ga, In, Sc, La, Gd, Er, Yb, and Fe, and divalent Cu) to the fluorescent sensor 6,7-dihydroxy-4-methylcoumarin (also referred to as 4-methylesculetin and abbreviated ME) resulted in fluorescence quenching in 10 mM HEPES buffer at pH 7.0. Addition of foscarnet to the quenched coordination complex liberated the ligand fluorophore which could be observed by its fluorescence. The coordinating complex was optimized for determining foscarnet by varying the metal ion, resulting in increased sensitivity to the analyte and selectivity against phosphate. Cu2+ was selected as the most effective ion and its performance in this assay was further investigated. The effect of the co-ligand in the ternary coordination complex, Cu2+–6,7-dihydroxy-4-methylcoumarin–co-ligand, was examined, and 2-picolylamine was found to be the optimal co-ligand. This ternary complex improves the detection limit of PFA to 0.5 μM and is stable for at least 72 hours, rendering it a potential sensor for PFA in chromatographic analysis.


At present, Chinas urbanization is developing rapidly. Traffic construction is helpful to the development of urbanization, and traffic flow forecasting can provide guidance for traffic construction. The basic data that traffic flow forecasting needs relies on social and economic statistics, like population, number of jobs and so on. In areas where the level of urbanization is low, social and economic statistics is always unavailable. As for this, the paper proposed a model that using land-use planning to forecast the traffic flow. First we calculated peak hourly person times by multiplying acreage of traffic zones with peak hourly trip rate, then got trip generation and attraction of traffic zones which is basic data of traffic flow forecasting after appropriate conversion. The case study proved that the model is scientific and rational.


Abstract In this paper, the PV system in Kitakyushu Science and Research Park (KSRP) in Japan has been introduced. By analyzing the recorded data in 2002, the power generation result has been evaluated. On the basis of this, comprehensive module conversion efficiency for two different photovoltaic cells, single-crystal and multi-crystal, has been discussed. Furthermore, the factors influencing power generation amount and module conversion efficiency have been analyzed by using the single regression and the multiple regression method. And the environment contribution also has been evaluated. The results can be summarized as follows: 1) Although the PV system has been responsibility for little part of power consumption at KSRP, it has high reliability and stable running situation. 2) The average hourly module conversion efficiency is 10.6%, about 74.1% of comprehensive conversion efficiency with 14.3%. 3) Irradiance is the most important influence factor on power output of PV system and almost in direct proportion with power generation amount. The influence from air temperature is important than the one from wind velocity on power output, but the influence from them are both very small. 4) PV system has contributed to reduce environmental load greatly.


Themixed ligand complexes ofMn(II), Fe(II), Co(II),Ni(II),Cu(II) and Zn(II) with the Schiff bases, formed by condensation of 2-Hydroxy-1- naphthaldehyde/Salicylaldehyde and p-Anisidine with Neutral bidentate ligand 4-Hydroxybenzldehyde/3-Ethoxy-4-hydroxybenzaldehyde (Ethylevanilline) and o-Phenylinediamine have been synthesized and characterized. The complexes have been characterized with the help of elemental analysis (C, H and N), magnetic measurements, thermo gravimetric analysis and their structural configuration have been determined by various spectroscopic (electronic, IR, UV-visible) techniques. The elemental analysis data suggest that the stoichiometry- of the complexes to be 1 : 2 : 1 [M : L1 : L2] ratio. The infrared spectral data showed the coordination sites of the free ligand with the central metal ion. The electronic absorption spectral data revealed the existence of an octahedral geometry for Mn(II), Fe(II), Co(II), Ni(II), Cu(II) and Zn(II) complexes. Supported their geometrical structures which confirmed by the electronic absorption spectra. The thermo gravimetric analysis data of the complexes display the existence of hydrated water/ crystal water molecules. All prepared compounds were also evaluated for their antibacterial and antifungal activities by theAgarwell diffusionmethod. The antibacterial activity was tested against the bacteria Bacillus subtilis (Gram positive), Escherichia coli (Gram negative). The antifungal activity was tested against Aspergillus niger. The results obtained were evaluated with antibacterial and antifungal standard Streptomycin.


The collaborations and collected works of Alison Jones and Milly Thompson. Rethinking Art, Luxury, Feminism, Showing Off, Glamour Distinction and Being HOT.


In order to respond to the educational needs of transportation professionals, transportation operators, and the general public, an outreach program has been established within the University of Wisconsin system. The program, operated by the university's Office of Statewide Transportation Programs (OSTP), brings the expertise of the university to the community to aid in the solution of pressing transportation problems. The program is modeled after the county agricultural extension service, the agents of which form a bridge between the university and the agricultural industry. Two major aspects of the program involve (a) formal short courses, seminars, conferences, and workshops and (b) informal one-to-one assistance. Experience since the establishment of OSTP in 1976 has shown that universities that have a transportation faculty can fulfill an important educational function that is not covered by traditional course offerings and degree programs.


Echinococcosis is an endemic zoonosis in the Mediterranean area, with Albania interested actually to a level that is becoming a public health concern. Authors describe preliminary data from the only tertiary (university) medical facility of Albania, positioned in the capital of the country (Tirana), with 333 new cases diagnosed and treated during the period 2005 – 2011. Out of all these 333 new cases an impressive majority of 91% had a surgical treatment right from the first admission, rendering the disease almost a surgical exclusivity. Even more, 80% of all patients from the study group were hospitalized straightforwardly in surgical wards, with options of surgical intervention's percentages outrunning figures from other sources and authors of the same geographical area. Such a situation, together with a very important level of patients' origin from highly urbanized areas such as those of the capital, suggest the necessity of well-organized interventions, among which might be the mandatory notification of all human cases with Echinococcus infection.


The purpose of this article is to highlight the limitations and drawbacks of existing knowledge about e-service quality and e-service user acceptance. To overcome these limitations we will propose some solutions. An extensive review of relevant literature has shown that a lot of research has already been conducted in this field. However, there is still a gap between the percentage of existing e-services and the percentage of those that are actually being used. We believe that existing knowledge could be better used by e-service researchers and especially by e-service providers, if they would have a knowledge system that would be capable of synthesizing the existing knowledge and presenting it in a more people-friendly format. The practical outcome of this article is a proposal for an e-service knowledge system, which could be used to improve the quality and user acceptance of e-services.


Diagnosis.—Special difficulties arise where the cervical complication follows some time after the ear symptoms have disappeared, when the connection between the two conditions is hardly apparent. Superficial adenitis is characterised by a small painful tumour of rapid formation. When the peri-glandular tissue is involved the general condition and temperature serve to distinguish this from a subacute lympho-adenitis, where the fever is moderate and the general condition good. Purulent thrombosis of the jugular reveals itself by subcutaneous pain, increased by pressure along the line of the great vessels of the neck, and on palpation the vein is felt as a hard cord. General pyaomic condition and aural symptoms may mask the condition of the vein. A peri-vascular abscess gives on palpation a resistance along the anterior border of the sternomastoid, which may in time show fluctuation, there being at first little alteration in the skin over the surface, but later, as the pus forms, the usual signs show themselves. A certain diagnosis is arrived at when, on gently pressing the neck, pus is squeezed out from the ear or some mastoid fistula. The general state is always grave in this complication and is another diagnostic sign of value. Lateral superficial abscesses of the neck are easily diagnosed, being determined by sub-periosteal collection or by a mastoid fistula; they show themselves as circumscribed swellings with the usual classical symptoms, rubor, tumor, cum, adore, and above all by fluctuation, there being only slight fever. Deep cervical abscesses present great difficulties of diagnosis in differentiating between the various forms. Hitherto the term "Bezold's mastoiditis" h;is included all these varieties. Its diagnostic characteristics are the raising of the superior insertion of the sterno-mastoid in the course of a mastoid complication of otitis, the slow formation of the swelling, its tendency to spread downward and backwards, and the limitations of the movement of the head. The general condition may vary, however. A certain diagnostic sign is the issue of pus from the external auditory meatus on pressure over the swelling.


Virtual environments are inherently social spaces where user productivity and collaborative learning can take place. However, the majority of existing studies to date investigate common behaviours such as multi - tasking within traditional face - to - face learn ing environments. As part of a thesis dissertation, this study investigated the importance of structuring learning environments to maximize learning and minimize virtual distractions. Using an OpenSim virtual environment, the researchers conducted an exper imental study during the Fall 2013 and Winter 2014 terms with 91 undergraduate students at the University of Alberta. The study investigated the influence of participants' prior computer experience, cognitive learning styles and extroversion introversion o n the impact of passive and social distractor tasks during learning and recall of factual information in virtual environments. The results indicated that prior video game use is a significant predictor of lower overall test time and higher overall test score , but the software recognition test, social networking use and virtual world use did not have a significant impact on learning performance . While extroverted individuals tended to complete questions faster under the interactive - type distractor condit ion, they achieved higher accuracy scores under the passive or no distractor - type conditions . Introverted individuals tended to complete questions faster and more accurately under the no d istractor - type condition. In addition, the study found that f ield independent pa rticipants outperformed field - dependent counterparts by an average test score of 0.86 at approximately the same speed . This examined the impact of different types of distractors learning within a virtual In the first part of the study participants d the Survey" — a combined questionnaire which includes the Computer Experience Questionnaire and the complete Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (Adult version). The General Survey functions as a self - reported personal assessment of (1) familiarity with technology, software, prior computer experience, virtual worlds and social networking between Elementary school age to the present time, as well as (2) personality traits in relation to extroversion - introversion tendencies.