This chapter introduces Integrated Care not only as a new fashion but also as a return to the core care delivery philosophy promoted by Hippocrates. The first section introduces the modern drivers—economic, consumerist, resource-bounded, and demographic—which necessitate a change in the professional provider and dependent receiver care model of recent centuries and make Integrated Care an attractive goal. The next section returns to healthcare's ethical origins, pointing out that Hippocrates advocated holistic treatment of the whole person, not fragmentation by disease or specialty. It then examines the new enabler—modern Information and Telecommunications Technologies (ICT)—which can achieve unification of expertise-based fragmentation. The final section urges the need to move forward positively but carefully, as the key to success lies with the social science domain, ranging from new business models to new ethical and consent frameworks, and it details the research needed to ensure that services and technologies match user needs while being applied in a way that allays user concerns. The chapter concludes by emphasising that progress towards ICT-enabled Integrated Care will be a continuous developmental process.


This article presents the initial results of a 5‐year longitudinal study of police officers' attitudes about themselves, their profession, crime, and their role in society. The study sample was comprised of graduating classes at l'École Nationale de Police du Québec in 2003. Graduates completed an anonymous multiple choice questionnaire designed for a similar study conducted in the 1990s in France (Monjardet & Gorgeon, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1999). The complete study will track attitude change in these recruits over the first 5 years of their police careers. Results from the first year point to a change in officers' attitudes resulting from the shock of actually working as police officers and the recruits' preconceived notions of what police work would be like. Training and education could be adapted to better prepare police recruits for this transitional shock, including changes in mechanisms used to integrate recruits, improvements in police organizations, and increased organizational support for new members. We also suggest ways of identifying areas where continued education would improve the overall quality of police work.


Abstract The longitudinal motion characteristics of a slender trimaran equipped with and without a T-foil near the bow are investigated by experimental and numerical methods. Computational fluid dynamics ( CFD) method is used in this study. The seakeeping characteristics such as heave, pitch and vertical acceleration in head regular waves are analyzed in various wave conditions. Numerical simulations have been validated by comparisons with experimental tests. The influence of large wave amplitudes and size of T-foil on the longitudinal motion of trimaran are analyzed. The present systematic study demonstrates that the numerical results are in a reasonable agreement with the experimental data. The research implied that the longitudinal motion response values are greatly reduced with the use of T-foil.


We call attention to the fact that, under certain conditions, the signal-to-noise ratio loss for a given Eb/N0 value and the spectral efficiency degradation caused by cyclic prefix (CP) insertion may outweigh its benefits that is intersymbol interference elimination and better equalization when compared to an equivalent CDMA system without CP and with similar complexity frequency domain equalizer. In this paper, we analyze how such conditions (channel length and its frequency selectivity, Eb/N0, number of active codes and equalizer length) affect the performance of both approaches in chip level equalization context


A rudimentary social accounting system has been developed that is shown to be applicable to actual data. Methodology is suggested for a technique that can ultimately within one comprehensive framework systematically catalog all surface water in terms of social value, recognize the periodic increases and decreases in the water quality of each area, and provide a basis for evaluating alternative water use programs in terms of social and human welfare. The development of the system would involve defining a socially oriented quantifying unit, identifying the pollution factors and the water users, and designing a method to translate the hardship of the polluting factors on the water users in terms of the quantifying unit. Accounting statements are shown that can report the status of pollution at specified dates as well as pollution changes over time.


SUMMARY A marching finite volume method is presented for the calculation of two-dimensional, subcritical and supercritical, steady open channel flow including the usually neglected terms of slope and bottom friction. The channel flow will be assumed to be homogeneous, incompressible, two-dimensional and viscous with wind and Coriolis forces neglected. A hydrostatic pressure distribution is assumed throughout the flow field. The numerical technique used is a combination of the finite element and finite difference methods. A transformation is introduced through which quadrilaterals in the physical domain are mapped into squares in the computational domain. The governing system of PDEs is thus transformed into an equivalent system applied over a square grid network. Comparisons with other numerical solutions as well as with measurements for various open channel configurations show that the proposed approach is a comparatively accurate, reliable and fast technique.


Abstract The temperature-dependent phase transitions of 2,5 diiodo-dicyanoquinondiimmine (2,5-DI-DCNQI) title compounds are analyzed by looking at the bond order wave (BOW) and at the charge density wave (CDW) which characterizes the transitions. The analysis is done by studying the temperature-dependent powder infrared spectra which allow one to have a separate evaluation of both types of contribution to the phase transition of these molecular metals. A model for the spectroscopic infrared features related to the transitions is reported and used for the analysis. It is found that all the title compounds develop a BOW structure at low temperatures with characteristics which recall an instability toward a tetramerized 2kF periodicity particularly for the Ag and Li compounds. An appreciable CDW amplitude contribution to the transitions is not found in the spectra.


FOR TRANSMISSION SYSTEMS OPTICAL short length, ESPECIALLY FOR PATHS OF TRANSMISSION waveguides LIGHT IN THE AREA CONNECTION PARTICIPANT, it INTENDS TO OPERATE THE BLADES STANDARD FOR LONG HAUL AND OPTIMIZED FOR MARGIN wavelength between 1,300 and 1,600 NM, WITH ISSUERS (S) AND RECEIVERS (E) OPTICOS WHOSE LENGTH drive SITUA cLEARLY BELOW THE WAVELENGTH LIMIT OF DRIVERS OF LIGHT AND THROUGH PROPER ENGAGEMENT AND STABLE LASER (S) ON THE CONDUCTOR LIGHT WAVE (1) RESPONSIBLE FOR GET THE DRIVE SINGLEMODE necessary for the transmission of digital signals at high frequencies CONSECUTIVE BITS. SUCH ISSUERS AND RECEIVERS OPTICOS ARE TODAY AVAILABLE AT LOW COST SO THAT IT IS NOT NECESSARY TO MAKE THE EFFORT OF DEVELOPMENT CONSIDERED NECESSARY IN LITERATURE ON THE THEME FOR LOWERING COSTS OF COMPONENTS OPTICAL ADAPTED THE MARGINS OF TRANSMISSION EFFICIENT LIGHT WAVE CONDUCTOR (1). Damping DRIVER LIGHT A 800nm ONDA, ONDA SUPERIOR IN THE MARGINS OF LONGER CAN BE ACCEPTED BECAUSE OF WHAT relatively small connection lines PARTICIPANT'S LENGTH. ALSO feasible bidirectional transmission WAVELENGTH MULTIPLEX IN MULTIPLEX MODE THROUGH ONE CONDUCTOR LIGHT WAVE (1) in accordance with the principle of the invention.


A funny story of the supernatural which won the 1973 Carnegie Medal. When the Harrisons move to an old cottage in Oxfordshire and are beset by small domestic disasters, they assume that James is up to his tricks again. How can he explain that he's plagued by the ghost of a 17th-century sorcerer?


For demand of studying creep behavior of high- strength concrete materials, this paper independently researches and manufactures Heavy-duty creep instrument. For creep instrument ball joint area at the status of contact stress,the paper first estimates dimensional range of ball joint area by means of Hertzian contact theory,and then takes models with 2 ball diameters of subplate groove respectively from this area by means of ANSYS universal finite element software for contact analysis,and further determines reasonable ball diameter of subplate groove by comparing the maximum contact pressure,mises stress and the 3rdmain stress in ball joint area. The paper succeeds in creep test of high- strength concrete for 2 bridges with this creep instrument,and practically verifies stress behavior of ball joint area of creep instrument under test load as well as correctness of finite element contact analysis result.


We considered a kind of singular integral equation with Hilbert kernel on closed contours. By using the method of complex functions, we obtain the extended Plemelj Formula with Hilbert kernel, and based on this, we obtained the related conditions of solvability and the general solution for the characteristic singular integral equation with Hilbert kernel on closed contours.


This paper proposes to solve the generalized job-shop scheduling problem by using several original static and dynamic heuristics relying on the machines' potential load. We consider a generalized job-shop problem with unrelated parallel machines which can process the operations of the different jobs and, moreover, any precedence constraints between the operations are allowed. The objective is to minimize the completion date of all the jobs (makespan). This problem is NP-hard. Experimental results using various important randomly generated benchmarks are satisfactory and promising.


In 2009, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives successfully traced over 145,000 guns recovered at crime scenes in the United States. Of these guns, more than 43,000 were originally sold in a different state from which they were recovered. What factors may explain the interstate movement of these crime guns? This article uses the well‐known gravity model of international trade to estimate interstate flow of crime guns. Empirical results show that, like trade of goods and services between nations, the traced movement of crime guns between states is proportionate to the economic sizes of trading partners and is inversely proportionate to the distance between them. In addition, the presence of gangs in one or both states tends to increase the flow of crime guns. Finally, differences in state gun laws tend to affect trade flows with crime guns flowing from states with "weak" gun laws to states with "strict" gun laws.


In this paper, we consider the extent to which what we have learned over the years about traditional work teams is applicable to virtual teams. We do so by examining how geographic and temporal virtuality will impact team processes, psychosocial states, and performance. We show that two primary consequences of virtuality--mediated communication and unshared context--serve as conduits for this impact. For several robust variables from prior research, we illustrate how virtuality may challenge our understanding of teams. In particular, we illustrate how team cohesion, conflict, and participation will be different on virtual teams than on traditional teams. The model of virtual team performance formed by our propositions predicts poorer performance for virtual teams as compared to traditional teams, an outcome that is made worse for more interdependent teams. Virtual teams may nonetheless provide certain advantages by, for example, facilitating access to distributed expertise or enabling around-the-clock wor...


or purchase is one in which the price of the goods is to be paid in fixed portions at stated intervals. Aside from a cash or down payment, which is usually made at the time of sale, the transaction is simply a credit or deferred payment transaction in contrast to a cash payment and does not differ in its nature from any other credit transaction. As stated above, instalment credit provides for the payment of the debt in regular and fixed instalments, and in this respect, it is a sort of funded debt in contrast to a demand obligation, which is payable at the request of the creditor or to the old-fashioned book credit or charge account or open account, which was payable in whole or in parts at the convenience of the debtor. It also stands in contrast to the kind of debt which runs for a stated period and which is to be paid in a lump sum at the end of the period. In buying on the instalment plan, the goods are delivered to the buyer, but the title to them generally remains in the seller and does not pass to the buyer until all the instalments are paid. In some cases, however, the title passes immediately to the buyer, and he gives


As businesses move increasingly online, it's critical that they get authentication and authorisation right in order to preserve trust, says Jasmit Sagoo of Auth0.


Experimental design of cancer therapeutics involves wellaccepted phases designed to establish safe dosing, assess efficacy, and determine relative effectiveness compared with standard regimens. Phase I testing allows identification of tolerable dosing and an administration schedule that is followed by phase II testing in a specific disease to examine safety and early efficacy. If acceptable toxicity and efficacy is observed in phase II testing, development may proceed down two different pathways to obtain regulatory approval for marketing within the United States. One pathway involves performance of phase III study(s) comparing the respectivenewagentwiththeacceptedstandardtreatment.Thisrandomized phase III design provides the best opportunity to examine patientbenefitwithrespecttoimprovementinremissionduration, survival, and disease symptoms along with early and late toxicities associated with each treatment. The second pathway is most appropriateforuseinconditionswherenogoodstandardoralternative therapy exists. These single-arm phase II studies are of sufficient size to adequately assess patient safety and provide evidence of patient benefit. However, this nonrandomized design lacks a control comparison, thereby introducing biases that can overestimatethebenefitofthetherapeuticagent.Asaconsequence


Clothing was realized for the purpose of utility in everyday life or due to man`s original will to decorate their body beautifully. To enhance the decoration of clothing, several kinds of decoration methods have been used such as quilting, patchwork, embroidery, pleats, dyeing etc. These decoration methods act a part of the expression of costume. Among others a pleats method is very diverse and can be used in many parts. Nevertheless, its application has been limited to the reproduction of fashion history and has showed uniform appearance and consequently, few in-depth study has been found. Accordingly, it is actually necessary to study the characteristics of pleats and new design of pleats fashion. Clothing may be viewed as an important element of representing social desire and the footmark of mental activity at that time. For example, deconstruction resists the closed world and at the same time pursues diversification and openness. In the fashion field, it works on the base of creation that breaks a common idea, linking to the fashion trend of splitted and confused norms in modern times. Thus the concept of fashion design applying pleats was decided as deconstruction that appeared in connection with new current of modern fashion opposite to the existing absolute value. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to present the possibility of creative design that got rid of a stereotyped idea and of developing pleats fashion design which had a variety of quality of material and characteristics. To do this, this study applied the visual characteristics and the method for expressing deconstruction to design and expressed them in fashion.


This study attempts to establish a guideline for social workers in the offices of the Christian Council Social Services in the Highveld Synod, in order to facilitate referral for forensic assessment and to eliminate the role confusion and conflict mentioned above. The guidelines have been drawn up on the basis of information gathered from the relevant literature and from focus group conversations with social workers and individual interviews with social workers specialising in forensic social work. Although the guidelines have been developed specifically for the above-mentioned organisation, social workers in other child and family care organisations could also derive benefit from them.


Averaged responses to photic stimuli were recorded from single cortical cells in a circumscribed small region of the nonstriate area (F0-3 and L2-3 in H-C coordinates) of cats. The retinas were stimulated monocularly by various stimuli, such as a diffuse light flash, an intermittent light spot, or a moving light slit, of different sizes and shapes under various conditions of dark and light adaptations. Studies were made on a total of 86 units.1) The cortical cells had relatively large receptive fields, usually about 20°C×20°C. They were responsive to a diffuse flash, and responsiveness was influenced by background illumination.2) The responses of 27 units to a moving slit were suppressed and those of 13 units were facilitated by background illumination.3) Four units showed a reversal of the preferred direction.4) Three units that had no preferred orientation in the dark developed it in the presence of background illumination.5) The response patterns of 39 units were unaltered by background illumination.


We have used ASML's full field step-and-scan exposure tool for extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL), known as an Alpha Demo Tool, to investigate one of the critical issues identified for EUVL, defectivity associated with EUV masks. The main objective for this work was to investigate the infrastructure currently in place to examine defects on a EUV reticle and identify their consequence in exposed resist. Unlike many previous investigations this work looks at naturally occurring defects in a EUV exposed metal layer from a 45 nm node device. The EUV exposure was also integrated into a standard process flow where the other layers were patterned using more conventional 193-nm lithography techniques. This presentation correlates reticle level defectivity to resulting wafer exposures. Defect inspection data from both the 28xx family of KLA-Tencor wafer inspection tool and Terascan reticle inspection tools are presented. Defect populations were characterized with a KLA 5200 Review SEM. Observed defectivity modes were analyzed using both conventional defect inspection methodology as well as advanced techniques in order to gain further insight. We find good correlations between reticle level defects and the resulting wafer exposure defects.


The randomised controlled trial (RCT) is just over 50 years old as a technology for medical research.' During that time it has risen to become the so-called 'gold standard' for investigations in the health field, well beyond its original application for the evaluation of drug treatments. As it has spread to health services research, the RCT's validity has been increasingly questioned, particularly by social scientists. However, it has continued to draw immense prestige from its success in the rapid advance of effective medical therapies since World War II. Ironically, the advance of genomic research now suggests that the basic assumptions of the RCT may be unsustainable. The methodological problems identified by social scientists now seem applicable with equal force to its validity as a means of evaluating biological systems. The heyday of the RCT coincided with what industrial sociologists have called the era of 'Fordism', Fordism is a mode of production that aims to cater for the average taste of populations at the lowest possible cost through realising the economies of scale associated with very large production runs of highly standardised products. It is, of course, epitomised by the Model T Ford in the 1920s and the eponymous designer's dictum that you could buy it in any colour you wanted as long as it was black. However, the apogee of Fordism was reached after World War II when the experience of mass production in wartime was applied to the buoyant civilian markets of the postwar economic boom, which it further reinforced. The RCT is a Fordist mode of investigation, closely allied to the rise of one of the great Fordist industries, pharmaceuticals. In a given population, randomly divided, it charts the average response of each group to an intervention and a control or placebo. The intervention that produces the stronger average therapeutic response, and fewer average adverse effects, can be rolled out across the entire population. The producers of this intervention can replicate it on an enormous scale and reap the associated productive benefits: the pharmaceutical industry has been one of the most profitable sectors of the industrial economies over the last half century. Its success has encouraged emulation in other areas of health care, most notably by the Cochrane Collaboration in their attempt to sweep all known RCTs into a mega-Fordist project aimed at the standardisation of clinical practice and health service delivery according to the 'best' evidence of effectiveness. (There is, of course, a certain irony in naming this movement after Archie Cochrane who was quite clear about the methodological limits of the randomised trial.) The obituaries for Fordism have long been written in other areas of industrial production. Populations do not have uniform tastes and needs, and production aimed only at satisfying the average consumer is only averagely satisfying. Fordism was always vulnerable to niche production, targeted more precisely at specific groups or individuals, provided that the costs of identifying those groups and producing for them could be made low enough. Modern market research and computerised production technologies now allow a range of units to be combined in individually sensitive ways at a cost comparable to that of traditional assembly-line production. Some of the great companies of the postwar period were eventually brought to their knees by their failure to recognise this challenge. Who would have predicted that the mighty IBM would have lost out to a collection of faster-moving entrepreneurs, culminating in the current Dell approach which can build each PC to an individual specification at a cost competitive with those manufacturers who still sell prepackaged machines? The RCT worked for as long as its users could make the same Fordist assumptions about the homogeneity of populations. Although there might be some variance in response, a patient treated with a drug found, on average, to be superior in a population to the others available would be more likely than not to get a superior result. The generalisation from data on populations to predictions about individuals has long been suspect in social science, under the label of the 'ecological fallacy'. However, it has only come to be recognised as a practical problem for biology with the increasing understanding of the human genome. Biologically, it seems, our constitutions vary at least as much as our consumer tastes and needs. Randomisation conceals this variation in pursuit of the average effect. However, it is precisely this variation, and sensitivity to it, that is the key to finding the most effective treatments for particular individuals. The industrial response to this challenge, as embodied in pharmacogenetics, is to attempt to standardise populations for their genomes before randomising them for lnterventions.f In this new paradigm it is hoped that human genomes are sufficiently uniform for trials to be able to identify drugs that will suit about 30% of a current market, with some hope of recovering research, development and approval costs. This will fragment markets, but the industry hopes that, in time, new drugs can be developed that will be more narrowly targeted as a unique therapy for particular subgroups and will sell, preferably at a premium, to all of that subpopulation. However, preselecting groups on the basis of their genotype before entry into randomised trials poses major dilemmas for regulatory agencies. If drugs are approved on this basis, how can their use in other segments of the population, which have different genomes, be controlled?


[1] We presented a parallel 3-D staggered grid pseudospectral time domain (PSTD) method for simulating ground-penetrating radar (GPR) wave propagation. We took the staggered grid method to weaken the global effect in PSTD and developed a modified fast Fourier transform (FFT) spatial derivative operator to eliminate the wraparound effect due to the implicit periodical boundary condition in FFT operator. After the above improvements, we achieved the parallel PSTD computation based on an overlap domain decomposition method without any absorbing condition for each subdomain, which can significantly reduce the required grids in each overlap subdomain comparing with other proposed algorithms. We test our parallel technique for some numerical models and obtained consistent results with the analytical ones and/or those of the nonparallel PSTD method. The above numerical tests showed that our parallel PSTD algorithm is effective in simulating 3-D GPR wave propagation, with merits of saving computation time, as well as more flexibility in dealing with complicated models without losing the accuracy. The application of our parallel PSTD method in applied geophysics and paleoseismology based on GPR data confirmed the efficiency of our algorithm and its potential applications in various subdisciplines of solid earth geophysics. This study would also provide a useful parallel PSTD approach to the simulation of other geophysical problems on distributed memory PC cluster.


The ecological functions of urban areas are degraded; the infrastructures of cities and the built have enormous impacts on ecosystems and ecology of the urban environment. In this paper, we focused on the connections of urban ecology and urban urbanisation impacts on urban ecosystems functions and ecological urbanism approach to degraded urban areas. The studies revealed the relationship of urban ecology and urban design and the ecosystem services they provide in the urban environment. I Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) is an new method for fourth generation wireless communication. MIMO-OFDM has become a promising candidate for high performance 4G broadband wireless communications. However, one main disadvantage of MIMO-OFDM is the high peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) of the transmitter's output signal on different antennas. In this paper, we present a new noble SLM PAPR reduction techniques such as selective mapping technique and Partial transmit sequence techniques and shows which of these PAPR reduction techniques are more effecti PAPR in OFDM-MIMO.


The aid that the Swedish International Development Authority (SIDA) affords to developing countries is discussed. 10 ''program countries'' are given direct aid through this agency: Bangladesh, Botswana, Cuba, Democratic Republic of Vietnam, Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Tanzania, Tunisia, and Zambia. The receiving country decides what it will do with the money. SIDA grants aid to other international organizations, as well as Swedish organizations. Family planning aid is provided separately from other medical service aid. Many native personnel are trained to do the jobs performed by Swedish personnel, which saves money and helps the country to approach the goal set for it by SIDA: national self-sufficiency. Health and nutrition specialists try to educate the population about sanitation and nutrition, and in the process learn much themselves, since many specialists are ''overspecialized.'' The family planning aid that has been received comprises about 5-6% of total aid given and has been received with varying shades of enthusiasm. Research in the areas of demography, economy, and social development as well as population and family planning instruction are under the auspices of the family planning branch. Sweden is the 2nd largest world donor of population planning aid.


The antibiotics streptogramin1), PA-11429, ostreogrycin3), virginiamycin4,5), mikamycin6), vernamycin7) and pristinamycin8) are mixtures of two types of peptolides, i.e. a macrocyclic lactone containing a peptide part. With each antibiotic the compounds of both types exhibit a mutual synergism. No chemical modifications have been described for the peptolides containing a large hydrocarbon moiety (e.g. ostreogrycin A, virginiamycin M). Chemical modifications of the peptolides consisting mainly of amino acids, also called cyclodepsipeptides, have been limited to the preparation of dihydrovirginiamycin S (H) by reduction of virginiamycin S (I)9). The total synthesis of a related cyclodepsipeptide, patricin A (III) has been described' 0,w This compound structurally corresponds to virginiamycin S in which 4-oxo-pipecolic acid is replaced by proline. Dihydrovirginiamycin S9) and patricin A10) enhance the antibacterial activity of virginiamycin M1 and of vernamycin A; these two last compounds are in fact identical12). In order to study the influence of structural modifications on the antibacterial activity, we reexamined the preparation of dihydrovirginiamycin S (II) and we prepared deoxyvirginiamycin S (IV). We also prepared tritium labeled dihydrovirginiamycin S for some studies of the mechanism of action of this antibiotic13) Treatment of virginiamycin S with sodium borohydride reduces the carbonyl group of the 4-oxopipecolic acid moiety yielding both epimeric hydroxy derivatives. These dihydro compounds (IIa and IIb) can be separated by thin-layer chromatography and by preparative column chromatography. Their structures were confirmed by mass spectrometry14),. The configuration of the hydroxyl groups in these dihydrovirginiamycins S was determined by identification of the 4Fig. 1. Structure of virginiamycin S and derivatives.


The paper deals with the process of participation of production, service and support personnel in the implementation of lean manufacturing methods and tools at the enterprise of the "Almaz - Antey" Air and Space Defense Corporation, Joint stock company "SOP Obukhovsky plant" . The results of this implementation are presented, the economic effect on the scale of the enterprise is estimated


In a retrospective chart review, researchers examined the rate of acute bacterial meningitis (ABM) in 526 otherwise healthy children (age range, 6–60


We investigate longitudinally structured electron beam interaction with two-level spin quantum systems. Deriving a semi-classical and fully quantum model, we demonstrate entanglement generation of two spins and independent control of system spin and energy states.


1 The effect of five S‐nitrosothiols, and of the stereoisomers of NG‐hydroxy‐arginine (HOARG), were investigated on the mouse anococcygeus. 2 All five S‐nitrosothiols produced concentration‐related (0.1–100 μm) relaxations of carbachol (50 μm)‐induced tone; the order of potency was S‐nitroso‐l‐cysteine (CYSNO) > S‐nitroso‐N‐acetyl‐d,l‐penicillamine (SNAP) > S‐nitrosoglutathione (GSNO) > S‐nitrosocoenzyme A (CoASNO) > S‐nitroso‐N‐acetyl‐l‐cysteine (NACNO). The relaxations were unaffected by the nitric oxide synthase (NOS) inhibitor, l‐NG‐nitro‐arginine (10 μm) (l‐NOARG). 3 Cold‐storage of the tissue for 72 h resulted in loss of sympathetic and non‐adrenergic, non‐cholinergic (NANC) nerve function. NOS activity in the tissue was reduced by 97%. Despite this, relaxations induced by the S‐nitrosothiols were unaffected. 4 Haemoglobin (50 μm) attenuated relaxations induced by NO and the S‐nitrosothiols, although responses to 3‐isobutyl‐1‐methyl‐xanthine were unaffected. N‐methyl‐hydroxylamine (2 Mm) which has been shown previously to produce selective inhibition of NANC and nitrovasodilator responses in this tissue, also reduced responses to all S‐nitrosothiols. 5 Hydroquinone (100 μm) greatly reduced relaxations to CYSNO (by 88%) but had no effect on those to SNAP, GSNO, CoASNO or NACNO. Since hydroquinone does not reduce responses to NANC stimulation, CYSNO is unlikely to be the NANC transmitter. 6 l‐HOARG by itself (up to 100 μm) had no significant effect on carbachol‐induced tone or on NANC (10 Hz; 10 s train every 100 s) relaxations. However, it produced reversal of the inhibitory effects of l‐NOARG (10 μm), being only slightly less potent than l‐arginine. d‐HOARG was without effect. l‐HOARG had no effect on relaxations induced by 1.5 μm NO. 7 The results show that S‐nitrosothiols are potent relaxants of the mouse anococcygeus; they act directly on the smooth muscle with a mechanism similar to NO and other nitrovasodilators. In addition, the results are consistent with l‐HOARG being an intermediate in the biosynthesis of NO from l‐arginine, although there is no evidence for it acting to stabilize NO extracellularly.


The ceria coatings on AZ91 substrates were successfully synthesized by chemical conversion and the corrosion resistance of AZ91 samples with and without ceria coatings were evaluated by means of electrochemical corrosion in 3.5 wt.% NaCl solution. According to the parameters derived from the polarization date, the Icorr (the corrosion current density) values of the coated samples are smaller than that of bare one, indicating that the corrosion resistance of AZ91 alloys has been improved to some extent. The influence of fluoridated pretreatment, inter-layer heat treatment, sintering temperature and the layer of films on the performance of ceria coatings were also investigated. It was found that the inter-layer heat treatment has no influence on improving the anticorrosion resistance of AZ91 alloy. In comparison with the bare one, the Icorr of optimal sample is about 0.0219mA/cm2, which decreases by two orders of magnitude, indicating that the ceria coatings could significantly improve the corrosion resistance of AZ91 magnesium alloy.


Ontology matching is the operation that builds the mapping of two ontologies,and an efficient and rigorous similarity measure is a pre-requisite of an ontology matching process.An ontology matching approach was put forward.It used Resource Description Framework(RDF)graph to express ontology and converted the ontology matching to the problem of building RDF graph matching tree.Moreover,the proposed approach presented a similarity measure based on the entities of nodes from the matching tree to obtain the mapping of the two ontologies.Implementation and experimental results were given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the matching approach.


The security is the main fact in the application of Bluetooth in forming Bluetooth scatternet.Through analysis of Zaruba Bluetrees forming scheme,a Bluetrees scatternet secure network formation scheme is provided as to Bluetooth tree network formation.


*Corresponding author: Jihong Hao, Department of Clinical Laboratory, The Second Hospital of Hebei Medical University, 215#, Heping West Road, Shijiazhuang 050000, Hebei Province, P.R. China, Phone: +86-0311-66002720, Fax: +86-0311-66002213, E-mail: email@example.com. http//orcid.org/0000-0002-0806-6720 Yifeng Sun and Yanhui Li: Department of Clinical Laboratory, The Second Hospital of Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, P.R. China Letter to the Editor


Reconciliation STEWART BREKKE, Northeastern Illinois University (former grad student) — The value for the calculated H-atom radius, the Bohr value, is 5 . 29 x 10 − 11 m and the empirical value for that radius has been found to be 2 . 5 x 10 − 11 m . Since the nucleus is vibrating, the distance relation, d, between the nucleus and the electron is r + Acos 2 πft = d , due to a slight lag time between nuclear vibration and orbiting electron repeatedly changing the distance between the vibrating nucleus and the electron. Therefore, the distance between vibrating nucleus and orbiting electron must only be an average distance. The average value for the cosine is the RMS value of 0.707. Substituting the calculated distance for r and the empirical distance for d, the equation becomes 5 . 29 x 10 − 11 m + (0 . 707) A = 2 . 5 x 10 − 11 m . Solving for the average amplitude of nuclear vibration, A, A = 3 . 95 x 10 − 11 m .


This paper presents the implementation of an Internet of Things (IoT) application that performs the temperature and humidity sensing using DHT11 sensor on Raspberry Pi, and data transfer to the Cloud of the IBM Bluemix. The implementation is done using programming system Raspbian Stretch Lite on Raspberry Pi and IBM Internet of Things platform based on the Node-RED tool installed on the Raspberry Pi and the IBM Cloud.


The New Zealand reforms are important well beyond their significance for New Zealand itself. This country, and no other in the industrialized world, has undertaken sweeping policy changes of the kind that economists are sometimes inclined to recommend, but are assumed to be practically unworkable or politically impossible. This has made the outcome an object of worldwide scrutiny. The proponents of such reforms-in the spirit of full disclosure I should say that I count myself as one of themhave many plausible arguments and simulation studies to back up their case. Some of the key findings are summarized by Blandford and Dewbre. But we need actual evidence. What do we find in New Zealand 1984-94?


Some new criteria are obtained in this paper to guarantee that the N-dimensional discrete-time neural networks can have $2^N$ periodic memory patterns. Moreover, we provide the estimation of exponentially attractive basins for these memory patterns. These conditions improve and extend the existing results in the literature. Finally, numerical simulations are performed to illustrate our results.


This paper presents the isolation of Acinitobacter baumanii from clinical dources such as wounds, burns and urinary tract infection. A total of 15 isolates of the studied bacteria were collected and identified by using macroscopic features, biochemical tests and the Vitek2 technique. The diagnosis was then confirmed at the species level. Antibiotics susceptibility test was performed following Kirby-Bauer procedure using 12 antibiotics before and after exposing the bacteria to a static magnetic field, to notice changes related to resistance or sensitivity of the antibiotic, in addition to experimenting with the bacterial viable count before and after exposure to the field as well. The results showed that the isolates had a high resistance to antibiotics, so that all the isolates were 100% resistant to both the third generation cephalosporin and ampicillin, while the most effective antibiotic against the isolates was Imipenem giving only 50% susceptibility. When the isolates were exposed to a magnetic field of 0.3 Tesla and for a period of 24 hours incubation at a temperature of 37 ° C, it was observed a decrease in the number of colony forming unit. Concerning with antibiotic testing after exposure, results indicated that Doxycycline was the most variable in the inhibition zone readings, as it increased significantly. We conclude from our study that the magnetic field can change the vital activity of bacteria by reducing its resistance to antibiotics, which is considered a health problem for the life of humans and their animals.


Principles of aesthetics in Islamic architecture have been achieved through the analysis of
the existing historical buildings and monuments.
Nowadays we cannot copy the forms of our ancient architecture, but through the
analysis of their forms, we can use the meaning of visual understanding of the physical aspect
of our ancient architecture in the modern Islamic architecture (contemporary Islamic
architecture).


2014 We report the first observation of the quantum Hall effect in modulation doped In0.53Ga0.47As-InP heterojunctions at 4.2 and 1.5 K. The results are then compared to data obtained in a GaAs-AlxGa1-xAs heterojunction having similar electronic characteristics. J. Physique LETTRES 43 (1982) L-613 L-616 15 AOUT 1982,


We study the quasienergy band structure of a potential consisting of a periodic array of harmonically oscillating δ functions. The perturbative and non-perturbative regimes are investigated using Floquet-Bloch states and the Floquet translation matrix whose eigenvalues and eigenvectors are given in terms of continued fractions. We study the structure of these eigenstates and relate it to the structure of the quasibound state of a single δ-function potential. We also study the dynamics of the bands as a function of the strength of the oscillating potential and find that the collapse of one of the quasienergy bands is related to the quenching of the transmission through a single δ-function potential.


JSON Schema (application/schema+json) has several purposes, one of
which is JSON instance validation. This document specifies a
vocabulary for JSON Schema to describe the meaning of JSON documents,
provide hints for user interfaces working with JSON data, and to make
assertions about what a valid document must look like.


In the next-generation 5G networks, Heterogeneous Networks are widely used to achieve greater spatial diversity. On the other hand, tens of thousands of devices are expected to be connected to the Internet and and their dense concentration in a given area will have significant consequences on the benefits of spatial diversity, which will affect the overall performance. This paper examines the degree of influence that channel correlation may have on the performance of the protocols cooperative MAC protocols, applicable in 5G networks. Some effects of the physical layer, and in particular, the correlated shadowing impact on the system performance and QoS is evaluated using Monte Carlo simulations.


Radical scavenging by reconstituted lyophilized powders of water extracts from 16 common vegetables was measured using electron spin resonance (ESR) with 5,5‐dimethyl‐1‐pyrroline‐N‐oxide (DMPO), hydroxyl radicals, (·OH) or superoxide anion radicals (02·‐), as DMPO‐OH or DMPO‐OOH spin adducts. On a dry weight basis, eggplant, and red, yellow and green bell pepper extracts showed potent superoxide anion radical scavenging activities (SOD‐like activities). Ascorbate oxidase‐ or heat‐treatments, decreased SOD‐like activities in bell pepper extracts suggesting that ascorbate accounts for much of their free radical scavenging activity. Eggplant epidermis extract exhibited the most potent hydroxyl radical scavenging and SOD‐like activities. Eggplant SOD‐like activity did not decrease after ascorbate oxidase treatment, but decreased following ultrafiltration demonstrating that SOD‐like activity is partially due to high molecular weight substances. Nasunin, an anthocyanin in eggplant epidermis, showed markedly potent superoxide anion radical scavenging activity, while it inhibited hydroxyl radical generation probably by chelating ferrous ion.


LabVIEW, virtual instrumentation technology, LabVIEW FPGA preview system and their characteristics are expounded. Various kinds of strongpoint and its application of LabVIEW virtual instrument development platform are studied and discussed in detail, so as to effectively enrich and perfect LabVIEW virtual instrument development platform and further explore the application of this fine exoteric development platform, which enable them to be widely applied in various fields of the social living.


We consider the trapping reaction A + B → B in space dimension d = 1, where the A and B particles have diffusion constants DA and DB respectively. We calculate the probability, Q(t), that a given A particle has not yet reacted at time t. Exploiting a recent formulation in which the B particles are eliminated from the problem we find, for , where ρ is the density of B particles and C ∝ DA/DB for DA/DB 1.


Abstract : The Second European Conference on Atomic and Molecular Physics was held in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, from 15 through 19 April 1985. This report focuses on presentations dealing with Rydberg systems, clusters, and coherent vacuum ultraviolet and x-ray ultraviolet generation. It also lists the topics of all other fields covered by the meeting. Keywords: Atomic physics; Molecular physics; Rydberg systems; Clusters; Vacuum ultraviolet radiation; X-ray ultraviolet radiation. (Author).


Beam losses and beam profiles at particle accelerators are determined by measuring the ionizing radiation outside the vacuum chamber. Four different radiation sensor systems using optical fiber will be presented. Two are based on the increase of radiation-induced attenuation of (Ge+P)-doped multimode graded index fibers, whereas the other two systems detect the Cerenkov light generated by relativistic electrons penetrating radiation hard fibers. The used fiber is an undoped multimode step-index fiber with 300 μm core diameter. Dosimetry at high dose levels uses the radiation induced Bragg wavelength shift of Fiber Bragg Gratings. The selection of a suitable fiber for the individual application is an important requirement and depends on the type, doping, used wavelength and annealing behavior. In addition, the dose range, dose rate and temperature must be considered. After an extensive selection procedure, two types of fibers for the particular application were chosen. One is used as a dosimetry sensor for the slow local and distributed beam loss position monitor (BLPM) and the other for fast beam loss monitor (BLM) as well as beam profile monitors (BPM). At six accelerators, all systems are used for in-situ particle loss control by measuring the ionization dose and/or Cerenkov light. These monitors provide a technique to improve the beam performance. This paper summarizes the basics of these measurement technologies and the experience at linear accelerators and at storage rings.


A dual channel, low noise heterodyne receiver has been constructed for Thomson scattering from alpha particles in a burning plasma experiment. A real time calibration method has been devised which references the integrated system noise to a blackbody source. Two wideband (>1GHz) HgCdTe photovoltaic mixers yield a double sideband system noise equivalent power of less than 1.5 x 10-20 W/Hz.


Abstract The hypothesis that non-host-feeding synovigenic parasitoids are more likely to rely entirely upon teneral protein reserves for future egg and offspring production was tested in the present study. Protein-rich beebread was mixed with honey to form a paste (honey-beebread) and reproductive parameters of Cotesia vestalis were compared among females that were fed honey with or without beebread. Oviposition period lasted 3 and 8 days in unfed (but water-provided) and fed wasps, respectively. Satiated parasitoids attained peak offspring production within the first 2 days of eclosion, and production dropped sharply after 4 days. Wasps provided with honey-beebread produced more offspring and a more female-biased progeny than conspecifics that were raised on honey. In addition, posteclosion egg maturation progressed irrespective of diet and maximum egg load (102 mature eggs) was attained within 48 h of parasitoid emergence. Obtained results showed that supplementary protein sources could enhance some aspects of reproductive performance in non-host-feeding synovigenic parasitoids.


License plate recognition based on machine vision,one of the key technologies of intelligent transportation system,has been paid much attention to.License plate location plays an important role in license plate recognition and its aim is to find out coordinates of license plate in an image so as to reduce noise and attain a sub-region that contains license plate.Presently,texture analysis is not only the fundamental but the most important approach to license plate location.After introducing research achievements of texture-based license plate location methods,we analyze their shortages and look into the development trends of texture-based license plate location in this paper.


This paper describes a L-moment-based methodology for the regional frequency analysis of heavy storms. The proposed methodology has been successfully applied to derive an IDF-type curve for the Metropolitan Region of Belo Horizonte MRBH. In addition, this paper describes a set of procedures to construct regional hyetographs to represent the time distribution of precipitation volumes over a given area. Its application to the MRBH is also presented.


The right to counsel in proceedings to incarcerate an individual for failure to pay fines and fees can depend on a combination of the type of proceeding (probation revocation, parole violation, civil/criminal contempt, enforcement of criminal/suspended sentence, etc.) and the applicable federal/state law. Because of the complexity of the subject, there is a compelling need to put out uniform guidance on the issue. The discussion below applies existing law to the question of the right to counsel in fines and fees enforcement proceedings that are civil in nature, and also discusses important policy considerations surrounding the right to counsel in such cases.


Double-Stator-Single-Rotor (DSSR) surface-mounted Permanent Magnet Synchronous Generators (PMSG) have less active weight in contrast to the traditional direct drive high-power generators used in offshore wind turbines. But due to the insertion of an extra stator in a DSSR PMSG, cogging torque becomes more prominent, as it is produced due to the interaction of the rotor magnets with slots and teeth of the stator. Therefore, there is an imperative need to explore the most effective methods to diminish cogging torque in a DSSR PMSG. This paper investigates different geometry parameters including the ratio of magnet pole arc to pole pitch, eccentricity of PM poles and relative positioning of inner and outer stator slots for reduction of cogging torque in the generator. The influence of these cogging torque mitigation methods is analyzed analytically. Moreover, the geometry of the DSSR PMSG is optimized to minimize cogging torque by employing Genetic Algorithm (GA) based on the analytical results. To demonstrate the accuracy of the proposed analytical calculation of cogging torque, 2D Finite Element Method (FEM) of DSSR PMSG has been performed, which yields equitable results.


Introduction In this study we investigate the association between a firm's institutional ownership and the existence of internal control material weakness (ICMW hereafter) under Sections 302 and 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) of 2002. Section 302 of SOX requires that a publicly traded firm's management must certify that it has evaluated the firm's internal controls and that it has presented its conclusions regarding the effectiveness of those controls. Section 404 of SOX requires that an accelerated flier's external auditor perform an audit of the firm's internal controls over financial reporting and provide an opinion in the annual filing regarding their effectiveness, as well as an opinion regarding management's assessment of internal controls. The assessment must include disclosure of any material weaknesses in the firm's internal control (ICMW) over financial reporting identified by management. The existence of ICMW has been found to be related to some internal corporate governance measures. Extant studies have documented that ICMWs are inversely related to the quality of the internal audit committee, which is measured by taking into account the committee members' financial expertise and independence (Krishnan and Visvanathan, 2005; Zhang et al., 2007; and Hoitash et al., 2009). This result is not surprising because the audit committee plays an important monitoring role in assuring the integrity of financial reporting (Carcello and Neal, 2000). The poorer the quality of an audit committee is, the more likely that the audit committee will not be able to exercise effective monitoring, and thus the more likely that the firm will develop ICMWs. The finding of an inverse relation between the audit committee quality and ICMWs has not been generalized to other types of internal governance and monitoring measures. Doyle et al. (2007b) fail to find any significant relationship between ICMW and corporate governance using a corporate governance score (GOVERNANCE SCORE) developed by Brown and Caylor (2006). So far, the investigation of the relation between ICMWs and corporate governance tends to focus on internal governance measures. [1] The existence of ICMWs might be related to external governance measures as well. In this study we try to determine if the existence of ICMWs is related to the level of institutional ownership. One stream of extant studies claims that institutional investors are important monitoring agents and exercise an active role consistent with protecting their significant stakes in the invested firms (Shleifer and Vishny, 1986 and 1997). If firms invested with higher institutional ownership are subject to more active monitoring, these invested firms should be less likely to develop ICMWs. There will be an inverse relationship between the level of institutional ownership and ICMWs. Another stream of prior research suggests that not all institutional investors are created equal and that different types of institutional investors have conflicting incentives in monitoring their invested firms (Bushee, 1998). Consistent with Bushee's arguments, studies have found that some institutional investors choose to focus on information gathering and trading, rather than expending efforts to monitor management (Maug, 1998; Kahn and Winton, 1998). Therefore, institutional ownership as a whole may have no impact on the likelihood of ICMWs. To some extent, institutional ownership even may exacerbate the likelihood of ICMWs. This would be the case when institutions' trading incentive for private gain overwhelms their incentives for effective monitoring. Consistent with this prediction, we find that ICMW finns have significantly higher overall levels of institutional ownership compared to non-ICMW firms. Our finding of a direct positive relation between ICMWs and institutional ownership is similar to that documented by Ashbaugh et al. (2007a). Ashbaugh et al. test and find that the concentration of institutional ownership is positively associated with the discovery and disclosure of internal control deficiencies (ICD) in the pre404 period. …


Pokaran Rann occupies an area of 12.0 sq. km in Jaisalmer District of Rajasthan, resting over the basement rocks of Marwar Supergroup. Five distinct litho-facies are recognized in a basin developed along E-W-trending linear stretch of palaeo-course after calcification. The base of the sequence consists of inter-laminated clay /gypsite unit. This unit grades into carbonate-rich clay showing pede-calcic pedogenesis. After a break in sedimentation, highly bio-turbated clays were deposited probably during a prominent humid phase. This was followed by present day semi-arid climatic conditions which resulted in the formation of silt to silty-clay deposits.


Bluebeard's Castle  ( A kekszakallu herceg vara ), composed by Bela Bartok on a libretto by Bela Balazs, is one of the most significant musical works of the early twentieth century and a masterpiece of Hungarian modernism. The opera deals with "the eternal tragedy of the dualism between man and woman" from an original point of view, divergent from the widespread one in Western European thought and art. The essay investigates Bartok's musical dramaturgy according to this topic.


3 Professor (Retd.), Civil Engineering, l.l.T. Kanpur, lndia. ABSTRACT The overtopping flow of water over an earthen embankment causes erosion of soil from its surfaces and the eroded surface of the embankment acts as a Broad crest weir. But the longitudinal profile of the weir goes on changing with time of erosion. Hence crest height of the weir goes changing in accelerated flow condition. In this paper, the discharge equation for this type of flow situation is established for different types of soils used in the embankment. Then, the experiments have been carried out as the analogous rigid beds of the captured eroded profiles at any time of erosion of the broad crested weir to compare the discharge equation and to study the energy loss in dislodging the soil from the surface of the weir and transporting them down stream. Key word: Breach Flow (Qw), Head of water over the crest (hu), Crest height (hcm).


Optimal cancer care revolves around multidisciplinary care, which includes medical, radiation, and surgical oncology. In fact, particularly for solid organ malignancies, the role of the surgeon often represents the only chance for cure. Biliary tract malignancies are a prime example of this scenario in that the mainstay of curative‐intent treatment is surgery. The reality is, however, that most patients are not eligible for surgery at the time of diagnosis, and even after resection, recurrence rates are high. This highlights the need for novel and effective neoadjuvant and adjuvant therapies. In this review, we will discuss the role of the surgical oncologist in perioperative therapy trials, the value and necessity of collaboration and partnership with medical and radiation oncologists, and present issues faced by clinical trial investigators. Finally, we will discuss how these concepts relate and apply to current investigations in incidental gallbladder carcinoma and intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (IHCC).


Abstract Drawing upon the Irish case, this article explores the interaction between the financialized economy and the urban planning system. While considerable scholarship has examined the financialization of real estate, it remains unclear how planning systems are being repurposed to facilitate a finance-led regime of urban growth or how the ?real estate?financial complex? seeks to enact planning policy transformations that support its interests. This article explores how such actors have advanced the concept of ?financial viability of development? as a means of influencing the post-crisis re-regulation of Irish planning policy. This group has argued that housing construction in post-crash Ireland is unviable given the high development finance costs, onerous planning gain contributions and the lack of development certainty in the planning process. As such, housing construction has been at an all-time-low, leading to a new crisis in affordable housing provision. In response, a complicit state has further liberalized the planning system, introducing an array of policies that are evermore facilitative of development interests. Empirical findings, based on interviews with developers, lobbyists and planners, emphasize the importance of informal access to policymakers, the wielding of ?expert knowledge? and media management to co-opt the state into adopting financial viability within planning policymaking.


Sir,

Hypoxaemia is an important cause of peri-operative mortality and morbidity, making monitoring of arterial oxygen saturation (SpO2) essential. Pulse oximeter provides information about arterial blood oxygen status and thus used extensively in anaesthesia settings. However, it can be misleading as some individuals may have low SpO2 despite a normal partial pressure of oxygen (PaO2).

We report a case of a 33-year-old, American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status I, female scheduled for diagnostic hystero-laparoscopy under general anaesthesia (GA). During the pre-anaesthetic evaluation, she gave a history of previous hysteroscopy under GA, when she had low SpO2 intra-operatively and required post-operative Intensive Care Unit admission for observation. She was discharged next day without further evaluation.

All routine investigations and haemodynamic parameters were unremarkable. She had SpO2 of 88% on room air, which increased to 90% with 100% oxygen. It did not improve further after changing probe or probe site. The plethysmograph waveform was normal and of good quality. Cardio-pulmonary pathology was ruled out by chest skiagram, arterial blood gas analysis (ABG) on room air (PaO2 96.2 mmHg, SaO2 97.4%), pulmonary function test and two-dimensional echocardiography.

On further questioning, she informed about a similar problem in her mother.

We began to suspect possibility of haemoglobinopathy and further laboratory testing was done. Complete haemogram revealed normal haemoglobin (Hb), red blood cell (RBC) count and erythrocyte indices. Peripheral smear showed normocytic normochromic RBCs with no abnormal cells. Variant haemoglobins such as MetHb, HbF, HbD, HbS, HbE and HbC were also found to be within normal limits.

After discussion with the patient, decision was made to proceed with the procedure. The patient was shifted to the operating room, and standard monitors (electrocardiogram, SpO2, non-invasive blood pressure) were connected. Anaesthesia was induced with injection fentanyl 100 μg and propofol 80 mg. Laryngeal mask airway was inserted, and anaesthesia was maintained with desflurane and oxygen/air mixture. ABG analysis repeated with 100% O2 revealed PaO2 356 mmHg, SaO2 of 98.5%. The 45 min procedure was performed uneventfully, and the patient was shifted to the recovery room. Her SpO2 remained between 88% and 90% throughout the procedure and recovery. She was discharged home the next day.

Low SpO2 requires immediate attention for cause and correction. Most frequently, we look for cardio-pulmonary pathology which further adds a financial burden to the patient. Various factors such as low perfusion state, motion artifacts, skin pigmentation, nail paint, haemoglobinopathies and faulty probes have been reported as causes for low SpO2 on the pulse oximeter.[1] Methaemoglobinemia is a common haemoglobinopathy implicated, but other less frequent variant haemoglobins have also been described, which causes a discrepancy between SpO2 and SaO2.

Holbrook and Quinn[2] reported a patient with such a haemoglobinopathy, where 7% of Hb alpha chains were abnormal. The patient had SpO2 of 90% and PaO2 of 11.79 kPa (88 mm Hg) on room air. Methaemoglobin level was 0.7%. They identified amino acid alanine substitution for valine at position 62 of alpha chain on mass spectrometry. However, they were unable to confirm their findings.

Pulse oximeter uses two different wavelengths (660 and 940 nm) of light to estimate arterial blood oxygen saturation, based on different absorption spectra of oxy- and deoxy-haemoglobin. In the presence of variant haemoglobin, which has different absorption spectra, accuracy of this measurement may be compromised. Eleven different variants of such Hbs have been identified. Six cases with α-globin gene missense mutations (Hbs Lansing, Titusville, Bonn, Delaware, M-Iwate and a novel haemoglobin), and five variant Hbs due to β-globin gene missense mutations (Hbs Hammersmith, Cheverly, Okazaki, Regina and Koln). These variant haemoglobins have variable oxygen affinity and carriers may be asymptomatic with low SpO2 and normal to discordant SaO2.[3]

It is assumed that these variant haemoglobins are benign with less clinical significance, but they may be implicated for haemolysis, polycythaemia and impaired oxygen affinity. Unfortunately, data available for these variant haemoglobins is limited.

In our case, we were unable to detect the cause for low SpO2 with a normal PaO2 in an apparently normal patient. Further molecular or genetic studies were required, but it would have added financial, psychological burden and deviated her from the actual treatment she sought. Presence of normal PaO2 does not necessarily indicate that nothing is wrong, as in cases of methaemoglobinemia and carboxyhaemoglobinemia; these variant haemoglobins provide diagnosis of exclusion in absence of signs and symptoms of hypoxaemia, presence of normal cardiovascular testing and absence of commonly known haemoglobinopathies. We think that not all cases of low SpO2 with normal PaO2 should be considered abnormal and these variant haemoglobins should be considered in differential diagnosis while investigating an asymptomatic patient with unexpectedly low SpO2.

Financial support and sponsorship
Nil.

Conflicts of interest
There are no conflicts of interest.


This chapter contains sections titled: General Definitions of Waves??-??A Qualitative Description General Properties of Waves??-??A Qualitative Description Mechanical One-Dimensional Waves The Wave Function The Wave Equation Harmonic Waves Group Waves Wave Velocity Standing Waves (a Mathematical Description) Spherical Waves Cylindrical Waves The Wave Equation in a Nonhomogeneous Medium References


The reason on stress cracking of sub-stabilization austenitic stainless steel elliptical head at the low temperature condition was analyzed.At the condition of inner stress and complex medium,the molding process of elliptical head could direct infect the quality of production for sub-stabilization austenitic stainless steel.Some corresponding measurements were proposed.


Based on discretized electrode, a novel piezoelectric ceramic disk with a new form of electrode coating is proposed, where the created multiple electrical ports are linked into a series configuration. Combined with the Mason equivalent circuit, the electrical model of the discrete series electrode structure is established, and the electrical output characteristics of the model based on the thickness mode are analyzed. The simulation of the finite element method (FEM) and numerical analysis results show that the novel structure presented can apparently improve the output voltage of the acoustic-electrical conversion transducer which showing a promising potential that the output voltage of the receiving system can be adjusted and controlled.


In times of increasing public distrust in government and its institutions, engaging the public in decision making may strengthen democracy as well as result in a more effective allocation of scarce public resources. Participatory budgeting has started in Brazil and spread around the world but is a new concept in some countries. The objective of this paper is to reveal the current situation of attempts to involve the public in making decisions on budget allocations in Lithuanian municipalities, disclose barriers to a more active participation, and propose possible strategies for greater public empowerment. For that purpose a survey was designed that was filled out by members of municipal councils. The results indicate that members of municipal councils are aware of the advantages of participatory budgeting. However, there are numerous barriers for meaningful citizen participation, including lack of financial resources, occasional incompetence of municipal administration, citizens' indifference, and bureaucratic inertia.


Innovative approaches to the design and packaging of a high-performance module supporting a 32/spl times/32 array of GaAs multiple quantum-well (MQW) modulators flip-chip bonded to a 9/spl times/9 mm/sup 2/ complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) chip are described. The module integrates a minilens array, a copper heat spreader, a thermoelectric cooler (TEC) and an aluminum heatsink. The minilens array is aligned and packaged with the chip using a novel six degrees of freedom (DOFs) alignment technique. The kinematic design allows for the manual insertion of the module into a free-space optical system with no need for further adjustments. The chip is mounted directly on a flexible printed circuit board (PCB) using a chip-on-board approach, providing over 200 bond pad connections to the chip. Impedance-controlled lines were operated at 1.0 Gb/s with a crosstalk of 4.0% between nearest neighbor lines. The junction-to-TEC thermal resistance is 0.4/spl deg/C/W, allowing for the use of a single-stage TEC to regulate the chip at an operating temperature of 40/spl deg/C under a maximum thermal load of 13.1 W.


A case of bilateral actinornycotic salpingitis is described. The woman used an IUD and the course of the dis ease was protracted. Later, Actinomyces israeiii was coin cidentally identified from vaginal cultures. Attention is drawn to the need for distinction between the presence of Actinomyces israelii and actinomycosis.


CFTR modulators, especially (elexacaftor/tezacaftor/ivacaftor), have positively impacted the CF population and quickly decreased LTx numbers. However, no study has investigated if this reduction is universal across all races/ethnicities.


Convolutional networks have gained a lot of importance in the field of computer vision. Various convolutional architectures have unleashed the possibilities to achieve pixel level precision. We present a method to generate highly accurate segmentation masks for human objects. Beginning from a RGB channel image containing more than one human objects, the method uses Single Shot Multibox Detector (SSD) to detect, localize and separate all the object instances. These are then fed into the segmentation network which is a Fully Convolutional Network. The network separates the background from the object, creating a segmentation mask. Experiments were performed on UT Interaction dataset obtaining a mean intersection over union score of 0.9132 and mean pixel level accuracy of 91.89% for segmentation mask.


RNA secondary structure prediction including pseudoknotted structures of arbitrary types is a well-known NP-hard problem of computational biology. By limiting the possible
 types of pseudoknots the problem can be solved in polynomial time. According to the empirical thermodynamic parameters, the formation of a stem starts to decrease free energy
 of the structure only after the formation of the third stack of base pairs. Thus, the short stems may be unstable and provide a limited contribution to the overall free energy
 of a folded RNA molecule. Therefore, detailed analysis of stems in pseudoknots could facilitate reducing pseudoknots complexity. In this paper, we show that the pseudoknots
 from experimentally determined RNA spatial structures are primarily formed by short stems of 2-3 base pairs. The short stems tend to avoid hairpins and prefer internal loops
 that indicates that they could be energetically insignificant. An exclusion of short stems reduces the diversity of pseudoknots to two basic types which are H-knots and kissing loops.


: in this papeny we haveproposed a Gabor.filter techniquefo" CZ)mputed image which is used.for early diagnosi,s' of'human brain injZirct. 'T7iis teehnique aim,s' to heip the doctor in ciinical dicrgnosis ofstroke. 77Teprocess involves design ofa Gaborj71ter tuned to d4fiZ]rent spa-tial:fi'equencies and orientations to cover the spatialV7'equency space and hi,s'togram bcLsed thresholding, 7)he resutts ]7'om this technique are vaticlated with the conventional cfiagnosis proce-dures and veith radioiogists.


This paper briefly describes the system and techniques used to control the water level at different sections of an irrigation canals in Egypt. The canal has a peak design flow of 87 m/sup 3//seconds and is controlled by six major regulating structures. This paper also describes the experience and economic assessment of the implementation of the automation and control system. Implementation of an automatic control system at six main regulators of the main canal was completed in 1994. The economic assessment presented herein indicates that the costs of the system can be justified by improvements in overall irrigation efficiency of 4 to 6% based an irrigation water valued at $6.2 per 1000 M/sup 3/ interest rates of 4 to 12% and a cost recovery period of 15 years. As the system has only recently been commissioned, increases in overall efficiency of about 10% are considered to be realistically achievable through a continuous operation of the control system. Therefore, this assessment concludes that the system is economically justifiable on the basis of potential improvements to overall irrigation efficiency alone.


This paper presents the experience of a workshop on the use of evidence in municipal health management held during the XXVI Congress of CONASEMS that aimed to promote the incorporation of research evidence to inform the decision making process by managers and healthcare providers. The workshop was designed, planned and conducted within EVIPNet Brazil institutional partnerships EVIPNet and its outputs comprised relevant discussion on strategies and tools for dissemination and use of research evidence for the management of the Unified Health System in Brazil.


ABSTRACT Images of representative clayey bare fields were chosen from a high spatial resolution hyperspectral dataset that was acquired with the prototypal airborne Hyper SIM-GA sensor from Selex Galileo simultaneously with ground soil spectral signatures and the collection of samples. After both the pre-processing and calibration of the SIM-GA data, the mapping procedure was developed using the 2-2.45 μm spectral region in which clay minerals can be spectrally detected. The comparison between the maps derived from the interpolation of the concentrations obtained from the traditional soil analyses and those obtained from the airborne remotely sensed images is shown and discussed and a complete soil mapping procedure is developed INTRODUCTION Soils are considered by the European Commission to be a non-renewable natural resource threatened by natural hazards and human activities (COM179/2002), such as erosion, organic matter decline, contamination, salinisation, floods and landslides. High resolution and accurate maps of soil properties are needed to assess and avert soil degradation, to protect soil functions and to evolve to the sustainable exploitation and management of soils in agricultural practice. In Italy for instance, because of the mainly hilly morphology, many of the agricultural soils are threatened and degraded by relief modelling processes, such as erosion and landslides, whose effects are added to the human activities. Traditional techniques for soil mapping are usually prohibitively expensive and time consuming (1) and mostly qualitative. For this reason, researchers are progressively turning to remote sensing and, in particular, to reflectance spectroscopy, for the rapid and cost-effective development of maps of geological and mineralogical features (2, 3, 4, 5). Hyperspectral imaging, or imaging spectroscopy, combines the power of digital imaging and spectroscopy, providing a vastly improved ability to classify the objects in the scene based on their spectral properties (6, 7, 8, 9). The objective of this work is to develop a new complete clay content mapping procedure beginning with high-spectral and spatial resolution imagery, by testing the new prototypal sensor SIM-GA from Selex Galileo, working in the 350-2500 nm wavelength range The clay content is considered to be useful to quantify the soil's vulnerability to erosion (10,11, 12).


We report the plasticity model with explicit description of kinetics of the material defects (dislocations, grain boundaries). This method becomes especially effective for computation of the dynamical deformation of materials at high strain rates because it allows for a simple accounting of the strain rate effects. The equation system is written out and discussed; its implementation is demonstrated for the problem of the plastic flow localization.


As one of the key concepts in the 5G network, MEC can support the latency-sensitive and compute-intensive services by widely deploying computing and storage capacity to the base stations at the network edge. Because these services are sensitive to latency, the joint optimization problem of task offloading and resource allocation needs to be solved in a short time. In this paper, we propose a Fast AI-assistant Solution for Task Offloading and Resource Allocation in MEC (FAST-RAM), which can directly solve the joint optimization problem leveraging a deep neural network. FAST-RAM can produce the offloading policy and resource allocation scheme in milliseconds. Meantime, our solution has near-optimal performance and sufficient feasibility under different network environments.


Description: Brief Excerpt from Industry Overview Chapter: Companies in this industry manufacture tires and inner tubes for a variety of vehicles. Worldwide tire sales are forecast to grow 7% annually to reach a value of about $260 billion by 2019, according to the Freedonia Group. In addition to the US, France, Japan, China, and Germany are major sources of tire production. The industry is dominated by large players that typically have manufacturing operations in multiple markets around the world. The US tire manufacturing industry consists of about 110 establishments (single-location companies and units of multi-location companies) with combined annual revenue of about $20 billion. Competitive Landscape Demand is driven by sales of new vehicles and the need for replacement tires. Because tires are largely a commodity, profitability depends on cost-efficient operations. Large companies can afford the research to develop tires from new, technologically advanced materials and can invest in improving production efficiency. Small companies can compete by producing tires or tire-related products for niche markets, such as bicycles or farm equipment. The US industry is highly concentrated: the top four companies generate more than 70% of revenue. Products, Operations & Technology Major products are tires for passenger cars (about 45% of industry revenue); trucks and buses (30%); and tractor, farm and industrial vehicles (5%).


Aiming at excessive bearing vibration in startup of 300 MW steam turbine generators,the paper analyzes data of bear vibration and pad vibration and tests the vibration difference between bedplates at turbine end.It is believed that the deficient connection rigidity is the major reason for excessive bearing and pad vibration in generators.The abnormal bearing and pad vibration is handled by improvement of connection rigidity.


Creating a series of maps, grouping ecological indicators, and assessing cities' environmental status are considered very relevant research tasks. A growing population in cities, the establishment of various industrial and production enterprises, and the use of vehicles all contribute to the degradation of the environment. Navoi region is a young administrative unit located in central Uzbekistan. Regarding industrial development, it ranks first among administrative units in the republic. Production in its cities, especially the high productivity of heavy industrial enterprises, ecological problems in various forms due to human pressure on the natural environment, and the health of the population - mothers and children, and the elderly - pose a serious threat. As a result of high anthropogenic pressure, ecologically clean green areas are decreasing. It occupies a very small share compared to the total area. This, in turn, can cause environmental stress in regional cities located in arid regions, and cause the loss of greenery. Anticipating such consequences and combating them is particularly important today. This article analyzes environmental conditions in the Navoi region and its cities, as well as the most significant factor affecting them, the anthropogenic effects. The land classification was made for the city area, as well as suggestions and recommendations. For this, we analyzed and grouped the structural classification of the area of regional cities. As a result of our research, we can see that environmental risk is high. In this article, the main parameters of the study are covered with accurate calculations.


Islamic bank in Indonesia exists side by side with its conventional counterpart within dual banking system, while the central bank aims to achieve price stability in the economy using conventional and Islamic monetary instruments within dual monetary system. This posits a very unique environment for Islamic bank. This research aims to examine the role of Islamic bank in monetary policy transmission mechanism using Granger Causality and Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL). The balance sheet components of deposit and financing were hypothesized to function in monetary transmission process within bank financing channel. Granger causality revealed that Islamic interbank overnight rate granger causes Islamic deposit and financing. Islamic deposit and financing granger cause industrial production index. Industrial production index granger cause inflation, Islamic deposit, and Islamic interbank overnight rate. Islamic deposit and inflation granger cause Islamic interbank overnight rate. The ARDL results showed that there were cointegrating relationships in the output and inflation model. Long-term convergence could be reached to correct deviations in output and inflation by way of Islamic banks' deposit and financing. However, short-term influence is contributed only by Islamic banks' deposit to output. Islamic banks' deposit does not contribute in the short-run to inflation. Islamic banks' financing does not have short-term relationship with output and inflation. Hence, there is a declining effectiveness of Islamic banks' financing contribution to the economy.


We identified and characterized type IV collagenase and gelatinase activity in pleural fluid from 32 patients. The capacity to substantially degrade type 1V collagen was demonstrated in every pleural sample. Comparable results were also noted forthe degradationofa radiolabeledgelatin substrate. Gelatin gel zymography of the pleural fluids revealed two prominent zones of lysis at 66 kDa and 92 kDa. These were identifiedby specificpolyclonalantibodies as human matrix metalloproteinases MMP-2 and MMP-9. The concentrationof MMP-2in pleural fluid, as measured by enzyme-linked immunoassay, averaged 1,622 ng/ml whereas those of MMP-9 were 210 ng/ml. Substrate deg radation activity was compared in both serum and pleural fluid from three patients and found to be similar. In serum this enzymatic activity was primarily due to MMP-9 whereas in pleural fluid, the predominant gelatinase was MMP-2. This was confirmed by immunoassaythat showed that MMP-2levels were two to five times higher in pleural I nterstitial collagenase, gelatinase/type IV collage nase, and stromelysin are members of the collag enase family of 1 These enzymes, now known as matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), are produced by fibroblasts,24 1.5 synovial


In this paper, an analysis of various control structures for two-mass drive system with backlash are presented. Theoretical model of this complex mechanical system is derived and presented. Conventional PI speed controller is compared with 2DOF-PID controller considering delays in control path and location of resonances, PID controller with additional feedback signals and fuzzy PD-I controller. The comparison of the control process and its dynamics is based on integral and time-domain quality factors.


In this work, a simple, efficient and cost-effective in situ purification method has been developed based on gas-phase oxidation, in an effort to increase purity of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT) in the course of SWNT synthesis by induction thermal plasmas. This newly developed purification method has the following advantages compared with the conventional off-line gas-phase oxidation techniques; 1) residual heat carried by plasma gases from the reactor can be utilized as a heat source for the thermal oxidation reaction; 2) oxidizing reactants can pass through the SWNT soot collected on the surface of metallic filters, resulting in more uniform and effective etch of amorphous carbons; 3) this one-step process is basically continuous and easy to be scaled up. In the purification experiments, for the thermal oxidation of the SWNT soot, pre-heated oxygen is injected into the collection chamber during the SWNT synthesis with three different oxygen flow rates of 5, 7.5 and 10 vol% 02, and then subsequent changes in the SWNT soot are analyzed by various material characterization techniques, such as thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and Raman spectroscopy. The results clearly show that the major by-product of amorphous carbons can be successfully eliminated by this method and the purity of the SWNT has been increased approximately from 35 wt% to 60 wt% due to preferential removal of amorphous carbons. The parametric study on the effect of the flow rate also suggests that the most effective flow rate of the oxidizing gas is around 10 vol%. However, the diameter distribution of the SWNT samples has been narrowed during the in situ thermal oxidation process because of a significant loss of thin nanotubes.


We have obtained broadband near-infrared photometry for seven Galactic star clusters (M 92, M 15, M 13, M 5, NGC 1851, M 71, and NGC 6791) using the WIRCam wide-field imager on the Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope, supplemented by images of NGC 1851 taken with HAWK-I on the Very Large Telescope. In addition, Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) observations of the [Fe/H] ≈0.0 open cluster M 67 were added to the cluster database. From the resultant (V − J) − V and (V − KS) − V color–magnitude diagrams (CMDs), fiducial sequences spanning the range in metallicity, −2.4 ≲ [Fe/H] ≲ +0.3, have been defined which extend (for most clusters) from the tip of the red giant branch (RGB) to ∼2.5 mag below the main-sequence turnoff. These fiducials provide a valuable set of empirical isochrones for the interpretation of stellar population data in the 2MASS system. We also compare our newly derived CMDs to Victoria isochrones that have been transformed to the observed plane using recent empirical and theoretical color–Teff relations. The models are able to reproduce the entire CMDs of clusters more metal rich than [Fe/H] ≈−1.4 quite well, on the assumption of the same reddenings and distance moduli that yield good fits of the same isochrones to Johnson–Cousins BV(RI)C photometry. However, the predicted giant branches become systematically redder than the observed RGBs as the cluster metallicity decreases. Possible explanations for these discrepancies are discussed.


The speci cation of communication behavior is fundamental in devel oping interoperable transactions In particular the temporal ordering of messages exchanged between di erent communicating agents must be declar atively speci ed and veri ed in order to guarantee consistency of data in the various component systems This paper shows that by expressing communi cation constraints in propositional temporal logic the tableau method can be applied to construct a dependency graph If the speci cation is correct this method guarantees that all possible execution paths satisfying the spec i cation will be generated The declarative speci cation and veri cation of communication constraints in interoperable transactions is demonstrated us ing the classic business trip It is argued that the speci cation formalism provides an improvement over the Flexible Transaction Model


Differences in the usage of the terms symbiosis and parasitism continue to plague the biological literature. The meaning of the term symbiosis is traced etymologically and it is urged that this word be used in the broad context in which it was defined originally-as an intimate (implying physiological) interaction of two dissimilar organisms or parts of organisms. Extensive quantitative analyses of the physiological bases of the interaction of the symbionts must be given priority over semantic debates. (Accepted for publication 20 January 1982)


ABSTRACT Problem and Project-Based Learning (PBL) emphasise collaborate work on problems relevant to society and emphases the relation between theory and practice. PBL fits engineering students as preparation for their future professions but what about mathematics? Mathematics is not just applied mathematics, but it is also a body of abstract knowledge where the application in society is not always obvious. Does mathematics, including pure mathematics, fit into a PBL curriculum? This paper argues that it does for two reasons: (1) PBL resembles the working methods of research mathematicians. (2) The concept of society includes the society of researchers to whom theoretical mathematics is relevant. The paper describes two cases of university PBL projects in mathematics; one in pure mathematics and the other in applied mathematics. The paper also discusses that future engineers need to understand the world of mathematics as well as how engineers fit into a process of fundamental-research-turned-into-applied-science.


— This study aims to examine the implementation of the Interactive Conceptual Instruction (ICI) learning model assisted by computer simulation to change students' conception of for ce and vibration. However, the change in the conception of the research is focused on the Misconception category (MC) because it is fundamental in the learning of physics. This study used a mixed-method design with an exploratory sequence. It was conducted on 30 students of Class X in one of the high schools in Cimahi city. The instrument used comprised 20 questions in a four-tier test. The analysis was conducted using a combination of two methods to analyze: (1) the changes in the conception based on three categories of conception, in exchange for the three categories of misconceptions (Acceptable Change (MC-PU and MC-SU), Not Acceptable (MC-NU and the MC-NC), and No Change (MC-MC), (2) the calculations of percentage for each change in the conceptions that occurred. The results showed that changes could be identified from the following categories of misconceptions: Acceptable Change (AC) categories (including MC-PU (63%) and MC-SU (53%), No Change (NCh) category (MC-MC (63%)), and Not Acceptable (NA) categories (include MC-NU (40%) and MC-NC (3%)). Thus, the ICI learning model, assisted by computer simulation, can change students' misconceptions and improve their concept of force and vibration.


The validity of the semi-automatic ABAC-ABACTOR II system in diagnostic use has been confirmed with identification and control assays of 238 strains of Enterobacteriaceae.


The electrocardiographic and vectorcardiographic changes produced by electrical stimulation of the cardiac nerves were investigated.(1) Stimulation of the right stellate ganglion produced superior displacement of the spatial T loop with change in its direction of inscription from clockwise to counterclockwise in the right sagittal plane.(2) With stimulation of the left stellate ganglion, the T loop increased its magnitude inferiorly with or without preceding transient superior displacement. The superiorly displaced T loop was inscribed clockwise in the right sagittal plane, which was different from the counterclockwise inscription of the T loop observed with stimulation of the right stellate ganglion.(3) From these results, there appears to exist some difference in the innervation of the myocardium by right and left cardiac sympathetic nerves.(4) Stimulation of the cervical vagus nerves produced minimal changes in the electrocardiogram and vectorcardiogram, and no definite results were obtained from the examination of the vector loop.


The Sierra Nevada is a c. 4000 m range of mountains paralle1 to the North American Pacific Coast that was repeatedly glaciated during the climatic fluchrations of the Quatemary. The glacial record on the eastem side of the range includes eight named Pleistocene glaciations and Neoglacial Matthes (Little Ice Age) advance (a11 in order of decreasing age). Studies of lake-sediment cores show that the actual number of glacial advances and retreats was much greater than nine, aithough not all glaciers left drift that has been preserved andlor identified in the mountains themselves. End-moraine positions and equilibrium-line altitude (ELA) depressions of the largest glaciers were about the same, regardless of age. Recent efforts to date glacial deposits numerically have added detail to our understanding of Sierra Nevada glacial chronology. However, except for the late-Pleistocene advances, the results may serve only as limits to the age of the glaciations, because of erosion and other geological complexities.


This paper aims to explore Jean Baudrillard's thoughts on hyperreality theory which is used as a tool to examine the phenomenon of gamer hyperreality. According to the author, this is important considering the growing online game and its impact not only on social but also on the death of its players. This paper uses a literature study approach with the main source of the work of Jean Baudrillard. This paper concludes that: first, online games are a tangible form for gamers. Second, humans as a concrete form have become abstract as a result of online games. Third, games are algorithm manipulation, and this is what causes gamers to become addicted to playing online games. Fourth, hyperreality gives birth to hyperlife for gamers so that they have neglected social responsibilities.


An optimal strategy is derived for robust performance of feedforward and feedback noise controllers in active noise control systems with a bounded narrowband disturbance. The designed recursive algorithm updates the weighting factor to make sure that controller updates are performed when the current measurement data contain new information to improve the estimation quality. This significantly reduces the computational complexity by allowing fewer updates in the steady state and persistent updates otherwise. The presented algorithm can guarantee non-increasing and positive-definite covariance matrices for feedforward and feedback filters, and this results in a bounded and non-increasing estimation error. Moreover, the proposed algorithm achieves fast convergence with improved performance in steady-state noise reduction. In simulations, the comparison of the proposed method with the established methods under benchmark conditions demonstrates the improvement in the overall performance.


Studies on Albanian historiography during communism have so far focused primarily on its main narratives. This paper shifts the research focus towards the actual conditions under which historiography was produced, paying particular attention to historians' relationship with political power. It shows that Albanian historiography went through five stages, each of which substantially shaped historians' positions, and that the relationship between the Party and historians was complex and bi-directional. The regime intimidated historians and strictly controlled their work, but also bestowed on them immense resources and high cultural authority. Historians, for their part, were interconnected with the regime in many ways and loyal to it, while simultaneously determined to make use of the conditions they found themselves in to advance their own interests. On the whole, historians' relationship with political power was multifaceted and predominantly shifted between subordination and symbiosis.


This article xplores the global dimensions of the thought of George Perkins Marsh and his Man and Nature (1864). It argues that Marsh was not simply influenced by American versus European contrasts in environmental change, nor was his work based only on conservation ideas, being influenced also by the examples of acclimatisation movements within the British empire settlement colonies. He incorporated material on acclimatisation from Australia into his major work, and his acceptance, with reservations, of aspects of acclimatisation practice, for example global eucalyptus plant transfers, was a key factor making his work influential within those settlement colonies after publication of Man and Nature. This global context reinforces the sense of Marsh as a thinker of his times, embedded in a larger and older discourse over the fate of forests and other natural resources. Marsh's attempts to promote balance in humans' rela tions with nature led him to explore a renovationist and improvement oriented ethic as much as a restorationist or preservationist one. Though widely regarded as the father of conservation, his legacy is more ambiguous and more complex, and his influence reflects changing perceptions of European colonial impacts in the nineteenth century.


The invention discloses a compound fertilizer formula capable of promoting germchit growth and a production use method. The fertilizer is characterized in that the compound fertilizer comprises NPK, trace element, humic acid and compound sodium nitrophenolate; the proportion of the materials in the compound fertilizer is as follows: 71-78% of NPK, 2-4% of trace element, 20-25% of humic acid and 0.1-0.5% of compound sodium nitrophenolate. The invention has the beneficial effects that: 1. the fertilizer is especially suitable for application at base of seeds and can promote seed germination and germchit growth; meanwhile, owing to special component, the fertilizer can lessen damage to the germchit and the root of plants by side-effect to utmost extent, thereby being suitable for serving as seed base fertilizer; 2. according to the demand for nutritive matter of growth of crops, the fertilizer has comprehensive match of the NPK and the trace element, thereby having excellent production increase effect; 3. the fertilizer contains a plant cell activation agent, thereby being capable of adjusting plant growth and making the best of nutrition.


The metallo−carbohedrene V8C12+ is studied using a Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FT-ICR) mass spectrometer coupled to a compact supersonic source. Its reactions with water, ammonia, ROH (R = CH3, C2H5, C3H7, C4H9), and CH3X (X = Cl, Br, I) are reported. For polar molecules, sequential attachment reactions occur leading to the initial buildup of the product V8C12L4+. V8C12L5-7+ peaks for ammonia and alcohols are also observed, but they grow in slowly. These results provide evidence that the geometric structure of V8C12+ is the theoretically calculated more stable Td or D2d symmetry with two sets of metals, as opposed to the Th symmetry with all eight equivalent metals. In reactions with methyl halide, CH3X (X = Cl, Br, I), V8C12+ undergoes four sequential halide abstraction reactions, exclusively, yielding mass spectra that truncate sharply at V8C12X4+. Dehydrogenation is observed for the secondary reactions with water and alcohols, ROH (R = H, alkyl), yielding V8C12(OR)2+ intermediates. The r...


Mars crews will undergo prolonged periods of isolation and confinement, traval unprecedented distances from Earth and be subjected to formidable combinations of hardships and dangers. Some of the biomedical, psychological and social challanges of the first manned Mars expedition are reviewed and means of aligning humans, technology and space habitats in the interests of mission success are identified