When considering a type liquid tank of the concentrated,an automatic inner pressure loading program is compiled by the PCL languages of MSC.PATRAN.It considering the dynamic inner pressure caused by the horizontal lengthways lengthways and vertical motion of liquid.The simplified approach and three-dimensional approach are used,the calculated accelerator is compared between the two approach.Finally,by using the two methods,liquid tank structure is calculated by the finite element in full loading condition and part loading condition.


Wheel-set is the critical component of walking step of high-speed train and its running state is directly related to security of operation. The wheel-set is the moving parts of high-speed train, so it is very difficult for acquisition of incipient fault information. A intelligent data collecting controller is proposed for acquisition of online incipient fault information with the development of wireless communication technology such as Wi-Fi and 4G in this paper. With the controller, the Metal Magnetic Memory signal data of the wheel-set, the vibration sign data of walking step and the signal data of other sensors can be collected and processed. The test shows that the intelligent data collecting controller is stable and can meet the requirement of incipient fault information.


Introduction Colonoscopy is the investigation of choice for lower gastrointestinal symptoms. We wanted to review the indications and outcomes of colonoscopy in the very elderly patients at a district general hospital. Methods We retrospectively reviewed all patients ≥85 years who underwent colonoscopy from June 2016- June 2018using using our endoscopy reporting system (Endobase). We collected data on demographics, indications for the procedure, bowel preparation type and success, sedation and analgesia rates, caecal intubation rates, findings and complication rates. Results From June 2016-June 2018, there were 243 patients ≥85 years who underwent colonoscopy, mean age 87.0 years (range 85–96), males 41.8%, females 51.9%. The commonest indications were: change of bowel habit (n = 75, 30.1%), anaemia (n= 53, 21.8%), abnormal imaging (n=30, 12.3%), rectal bleeding (n= 25, 10.3%), polyp surveillance (n = 18, 7.4%), polypectomy (n = 16, 6.6%), colon cancer surveillance ( n = 10, 4.1%), IBD surveillance (n = 2, 0.4%), and other ( n=9, 3.7%). All patients went thorough bowel preparation with PEG solution with excellent or adequate results in 209 (86.0%), and inadequate in 34 (14.0%). Fentanyl was used in 175 patients (72.0%, average dose 43.2 mcg), Pethidine in 17 (7.0%, average dose 26.5 mcg), Entonox in 27 patients (11.1%), and Midazolam in 184 patients (75.7%, average dose 1.84 mg). Unadjusted caecal intubation rate was 84.4% (n=205), rising to 88.7% when adjusted for obstructing lesions. Commonest causes for incomplete procedure (n= 38) were: Obstructing lesions (n=12, 31.6%), inadequate bowel preparation (n = 7, 18.4%), patient intolerance (n=6, 15.7%), and diverticulosis (n=5, 13.2%). Cancer was found in 21 patients (8.6%). Polyps of any size were found in 90 patients (37.0%), but significant polyps (polyps ≥10 mm) were found in 42 patients (17.3%) with average polyp size of 20.7 mm (range 10–80 mm). Other significant findings included colonic diverticulosis in (n=147, 60.5%), haemorrhoids (n= 73, 30.0%), and IBD (n=4, 1.6%). Three patients developed peri-procedure complications: Oxygen desaturation and tachycardia (n=1, 0.4%), hypotension (n=1, 0.4%) and chest pain and reduced consciousness, requiring reversal agent (n=1, 0.4%). There were no significant bleeding or perforation reported for this cohort. Conclusions Overall colonoscopy seems to be safe in the extreme ages with low complication rates. The caecal intubation rate was lower than the BSG/JAG recommended cut off 90%, and this was mostly attributable to inadequate bowel preparation and obstructing lesions. If both of these limitations are adjusted for, the completion rate was 91.5%.


— We construct a basis of invariants for the set of second-order matrices consisting of the original matrix and its derivatives. It is shown that the presence of derivatives imposes connections on the elements of this set and reduces the number of elements in the basis compared to the purely algebraic case. Formulas for calculating algebraic invariants of such a set are proved. We state a generalization of Fricke's formulas in terms of the traces of the product of matrices in this set.


The invention belongs to the screw head slotting technical field, in particular to a processing method and a device of a screw micro-gap I-shaped trough without burrs. A clamping disc and a milling blade are rotated under the driving of a power source; workpieces are uniformly distributed in the workpiece troughs on the circumference of the clamping disc along the clamping disc and cut by a first milling blade and a second milling blade sequentially under the driving of the clamping disc. The first milling blade withdraws the workpiece after an arc gap is milled; the outlet is arranged on the top of the workpiece but does not perforate the other port of the workpiece. The second milling blade cuts the I-shaped trough in the rotation direction which is reverse to that of the first milling blade. The milling tracks of the two milling blades on the I-shaped trough are crossed at the internal side of the notch, thus forming the micro-gap and generating no burrs at the two ports of the I-shaped trough. The finished workpiece continues to rotate and falls down when the workpiece trough faces downwards under the rotary driving of the clamping disc, thus achieving the milling trough process. The finished screw product of the invention generates no burrs at the two ends of the I-shaped trough, and has extremely high production efficiency.


Purpose
Due to the increased pollution and global warming, the banking sector is also implementing green practices in their operations to improve business ethics. However, there are few studies that have looked at how green practices affect performance outcomes. Considering this, the study aims to examine the impact of green banking adoption practices (GRBP) on consumer-related performance outcomes (i.e. consumer green satisfaction, consumer green perceived quality, consumer green trust, environmental friendliness and continuing relations with bank). The study used resource-based view theory and triple bottom line in connecting GBRP and consumer-related performance outcomes.

Design/methodology/approach
The data was gathered via a Likert scale questionnaire from banking personnel and consumers using a non-probability purposive sampling technique. The data of GRBP was collected from the banking employees, whereas the data for consumer-related performance outcomes were gathered from the banking consumers, and "Partial least square-structural equation modeling" (PLS-SEM) was used to examine research hypotheses.

Findings
The results of PLS-SEM reveal that GRBP positively affects consumer green trust, green perceived quality and green satisfaction. However, GRBP does not have any impact on environmental friendliness. The results further reveal that GRBP largely affects consumer green trust followed by green perceived quality and green satisfaction, respectively. Moreover, consumer green perceived quality, green trust and environmental friendliness positively affect the continuing relationship with the bank.

Originality/value
To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study in the context of green banking, i.e. two-dimensional, as it examines the impact of GRBP on consumer-related performance outcomes and confirms that GRBP enhances consumer-related performance outcomes. The findings of the study provide numerous insights to bank managers, environmentalists and policymakers.


Department of Soil Science, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, R3T 2L9, Canada Climate Research Division, Environment Canada, 11 Innovation Blvd, Saskatoon, SK, S7N 3H5, Canada Faculty of Land and Food Systems, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z4, Canada Department of Geography, Queen's University, Kingston, ON, K7L 3N6, Canada 5903 109A Street, Edmonton, AB T6H 3C4, Canada Air Quality Research Division, Environment Canada, Toronto, ON, M3H 5T4, Canada


The utility model relates to agricultural machinery in the agricultural planting field, in particular to a novel film mulching machine. An after-transplantation film mulching machine for plug seedlings comprises a rack. A ditching apparatus, a film hanging apparatus, a film spreading apparatus and a transmission apparatus are arranged on the rack. The machine is characterized in that a seedling protection apparatus, a film pressing apparatus and an earthing apparatus are further arranged on the rack. The seedling protection apparatus is mounted below the film hanging apparatus and is composed of a longitudinal support, a transverse support and a seedling protection plate, wherein one end of the longitudinal support is mounted on the rack, and the other end of the longitudinal support is connected with the seedling protection plate through the transverse support. The film pressing apparatus is mounted below the rack and behind the film spreading apparatus, and pressing rollers which are main parts of the film pressing apparatus operate depending on self weight. The machine is applicable to film mulching after transplantation of plug seedlings, economic and practical, simple in structure, reliable in operation and capable of protecting the plug seedlings from being hurt while completing film mulching and earthing.


Rotor design is a key link of pulper design, this article mainly introduces the finite element analysis and structure optimal design of the new pulper rotor based on Pro/E. On the base of three-dimensional modeling adopting parametric design, finite element analysis by Mechanica module is studied to analyse the stress and strain during the rotor motion, finding the stress focus on the junction between the vane and column, and the strain is mainly on the edge of the vane. And structural analysis of the rotor is adopting to optimize the design parameters which are determined by sensitivity analysis. Through optimization study, the thickness of the vane and thread pitch is 3.254mm and 116.732mm. Experiments show that the pulp concentration of the new rotor raise to 15%, saving energy effective about 20%, and the effect of cut and damage on secondary fiber is small.


AIM:To compare nickel-titanium(NiTi) and stainless-steel(SS) spreaders penetration in curved canals.METHODS:Twenty prepareed plastic blocks with a 35°curvature were used for the study.The forces required to inset spreaders within 1 mm of working length in empty canals and within 3 mm of working length in canals containing a master cone were measured.The depths of penetration of spreaders with a master cone in place using 15N force were measured.RESULTS:NiTi spreaders required significantly less force than SS spreaders (2.72 N vs 7.48 N ; P 0.01) in empty canals,as well as in canals containing a master cone (38.3 N vs 48.7 N; P 0.01). NiTi spreaders penetrated significantly deeper than SS spreaders (13 mm vs 12 mm; P 0.01) when using the same force.CONCLUSION:The NiTi spreaders penetrated to a significantly greater depth and required significantly less force than the SS spreaders in cured canals. [


Characteristic features of solid oxide fuel cells have been reviewed with an emphasis on their features as membrane reactor. In particular, the mass transfer characteristics of electrolytes and interconnect materials have been discussed to clarify the appropriateness as SOFC electrolyte and interconnects. For electrolyte, the low electron conductivity in addition to the high oxide conductivity is essential. Since the relatively large electron contribution for doped ceria, these materials cannot be used as SOFC electrolyte, whereas lanthanum gallate-based electrolyte exhibits excellent properties particularly at low temperatures. For interconnect materials, lanthanum chromite exhibits excellent properties. The oxygen permeation through the calcium doped lanthanum chromite has been identified as surface reaction limited process, which allows to use as thin interconnect.


RESULTS: 99 patients received FFF reconstruction with IDIP, and 120 historical patients received FFF reconstruction alone. The average length of follow-up was significantly longer in the historical group (1498.9±1700.6 days vs. 565.4±397.9 days, p=0.0005). 63/99 IDIP patients achieved dental rehabilitation. There was no significant difference in the complication rates between the IDIP and historical cohorts in either 1-2 year or 2+ year time period.


Introduction Brave New World for Financial Services Technology Trendlines: What Can We Expect in the Future? Financial Services and the Internet Introduction to E-Commerce Technology and Productivity Year 2000 Implications Year 2000 Solutions The Coming Crisis in Handling Euromoney Technology and Security Data Mining, Data Warehousing, and Databases ActiveX or CORBA/JavaBeans Technology in Banking The Open Financial Exchange (OFX) Specification Frontiers in Check Imaging The Implications of the Digital Signature Building an Electronic Banking Center Banking on the Internet Technology of the Smart Card Building the Electronic Wallet Tutorial in Net Payment Schemes: The Joint Electronic Payment Initiative (JEPI) Using "Push" Technologies The Better Teller Machine Building a Home Banking System Loan Decisioning Technologies Resources Glossaries Securities Product Watch


Being aware of the gap between technological offers and user expectations, the paper aims at illustrating the necessity of anthropocentric designs ("user-pulled") and at revealing the dangers of current ICT designs ("technology-pushed"). Since the gap is deepened because of insufficient innovative use of new agent-oriented technology potential, an affordable manner to "invent new Computer-Aided x" application domains is proposed. To substantiate the approach, the domain must be immediately useful, challenging, easy to implement and "as humanist as possible": Computer-Aided Semiosis.


Semi-parallel, or folded, VLSI architectures are used whenever hardware resources need to be saved at design time. Most recent applications that are based on Projective Geometry (PG) based balanced bipartite graph also fall in this category. In this paper, we provide a high-level, top-down design methodology to design optimal semi-parallel architectures for applications, whose Data Flow Graph (DFG) is based on PG bipartite graph. Such applications have been found e.g. in error-control coding and matrix computations. Unlike many other folding schemes, the topology of connections between physical elements does not change in this methodology. Another advantage is the ease of implementation. To lessen the throughput loss due to folding, we also incorporate a multi-tier pipelining strategy in the design methodology. The design methodology has been verified by implementing a synthesis tool in C++, which has been verified as well. The tool is publicly available. Further, a complete decoder was manually protototyped before the synthesis tool design, to verify all the algorithms evolved in this paper, towards various steps of refinement. Another specific high-performance design of an LDPC decoder based on this methodology was worked out in past, and has been patented as well.


HORSE AND RIDER IN THE LATE VIKING AGE Equestrian burial in perspective 27-28th of June 2019 2Excavation of the equestrian grave at Fregerslev. Photo: businessfilm.dk The bottom of the grave has been reached. Photo: Museum Skanderborg


This class action research was carried out with the aim to improve student learning outcomes of Class IIB Kayuringin Jaya VI SDN Bekasi in long unit material mathematics through the use of flash card media. The research data were obtained from observations, interviews and student learning outcomes. The results showed that there was an increase in student learning outcomes through the use of flash card media in long term material mathematics subjects. In cycle 1, the percentage of classical learning completeness is 57% with a classical average value of 75.9. In cycle II, the percentage of classical learning completeness experienced a significant increase of 90% with a classical average value of 83.8. This shows that there is an increase in the percentage of classical completeness by 33% and an increase in the classical average value of 7.9. So, it can be concluded that the use of flash card media can improve the learning outcomes of students in class IIB SDN Kayuringin Jaya VI Bekasi in long unit material mathematics.


Abstract In 1782 it was agreed that the frontier between the United States and British North America should run from the east to the Lake of the Woods, wrongly perceived (on the basis of Mitchell's 1755 map) as the westernmost of the Great Lakes, and then due west to the Mississippi. Other cartographical errors and misapprehensions also played a role in the fixing of the border. Thus in 1804 President Jefferson seized on the 49th parallel as the line supposedly agreed on after the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht for the border between the British Hudson's Bay territories and French (now American) Louisiana, and it was eventually adopted. The discovery of what was thought to be a conspicuous line of continuous highland south of the St. Lawrence, and the renewed attention paid in the mid‐eighteenth century to the borders specified in King James VI's 1621 grant of Nova Scotia, helped frame the parameters of a dispute over what is now the Maine‐New Brunswick border—one that periodically disturbed Anglo‐American relati...


Background: Follicular lymphoma is the second most frequent non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) accounting for 20-25% of NHL cases in western countries. Although it has an indolent character, progressive disease or relapse occurs within first two years following therapy initiation in ~20% of FL cases. Several somatic mutations were identified in genes of epigenetic regulation or other biological processes by sequencing of FL tumors. Current diagnostic and prognostic evaluations include invasive methodologies that may be less effective and more risky for the FL patients. Therefore, there is urgent need for development of non-invasive methods to improve diagnosis as well as risk stratification. Accumulating evidence has shown that circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) includes tumor-derived mutations in several cancer types; however, this possibility has not been comprehensively investigated in FL patients. Here we evaluated the potential diagnostic and prognostic value of cfDNA in FL cases by addressing the proportion by which cfDNA samples contains cancer-associated and prognosis-related mutations.
 Methods: Twenty FL cases with available clinic data were included in this study. Thirteen of these cases were symptomatic who were later treated with R-chemo whereas rest of the cases were asymptomatic who were in watchful-waiting. Plasma cfDNA, granulocyte DNA, and FFPE tumor tissue DNA samples were obtained from treatment-naive FL cases. A custom gene panel including exons and exon-intron boundaries of 110 FL-associated genes was constructed based on previously published studies for ultra-deep targeted sequencing. Paired-end sequencing of the captured regions were performed using a HiSeq system in Novogene, which generated 150 bp NGS reads. Targeted genomic regions were covered with > 1500X average effective sequencing depth for identification of somatic variants with low variant allele fractions (VAF). Variants present in cfDNA and tumor tissue DNA but not in patient-matched granulocyte DNA were identified with the GATK pipeline including the MuTect2 variant caller. Somatic variants associated with hematopoietic and lymphoid tissues in the COSMIC database were chosen for further analyses. The final high-confident list of variants was determined by visual investigation and through additional filtering of each variant using Integrative Genomics Viewer. Selected variants were cross-validated with Sanger sequencing. Survival analyses were performed with Survival and Survminer R packages.
 Results: Ultra-deep targeted sequencing revealed 91 somatic variants (71 missense, 12 nonsense, 4 indel, 4 splice site) in 31 genes included in the panel. Consistent with previous reports, the most frequently mutated genes were CREBBP (40%), BCL2 (30%), STAT6 (25%), EZH2 (20%), and CARD11 (20%). In symptomatic cases, 41.5% of the variants was present in both cfDNA and tumor tissue DNA, whereas 52.3% and 6.2% of them was present only in tumor tissue DNA or in cfDNA samples, respectively. In asymptomatic cases, 11.5% of the detected variants was present in both cfDNA and tumor tissue DNA, while 84.6% and 3.8% of them were in only tumor tissue DNA or cfDNA samples. Mutations previously reported to be associated with FL pathogenesis (e.g. KMT2D R2417*) were in the list of common variants observed in both cfDNA and tumor tissue DNA. We observed high Ki67 staining, elevated LDH levels, presence of BCL2 or CCND3 mutations to be significantly associated with progression-free survival (Figure 1A, B). Importantly, survival analysis by stratifying patients based on BCL2 mutations present only in cfDNA also predicted poor prognosis (Figure 1C). One of the FL patient who had progressive disease contained histological transformation-associated gene (i.e. B2M and BTG1) mutations only in the cfDNA but not in tumor tissue DNA sample. Finally, we cross-validated the selected somatic variants with VAF >20% using Sanger sequencing, which showed 100% consistency with NGS results.
 Conclusions: Tumor tissue-derived mutations can be detected in most FL patients albeit to a lesser extent than those in DLBCL. Plasma cfDNA genotyping may be useful for improving diagnosis and prognosis especially in symptomatic FL patients. Given that some somatic mutations associated with disease progression are detected only in plasma cfDNA samples, cfDNA genotyping may be useful for choosing appropriate therapy for high-risk FL patients.

 No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Combining with their advantages of PKI and PMI,getting help from the role concept in RBAC model,a united authentication system based on PKI and PMI is designed and it is used in digital campus.The system is composed of PKI,PMI and access control subsystem,and it utilizes PKC and AC to achieve identity authentication and authorization of users.The detailed design of access control subsystem is introduced.The role-based access control is researched by using demonstration method,and the unified identity authentication and authorization management are realized.


Objective To explore the related risk factors of obesity among children and adolescents in Yinchuan,Ningxia.Methods A case-control study was apllied to investigate 300 children and adolescents with a questionnaire including life style,eating habits,dietary patterns,nutrition and parents information.[WT5H1]Results By multivariate logistic regression analysis,the results showed that the higher the father's body mass index and mother's educational level wasr,the more risk for the children being obesity.Meanwhile the per day intake of meat, energy and fat,the speed of food intake,the frequency of extracurricular activities are the risk factors for obesity.There was a significant difference between obesity group and controls in above factors(P0.05).Conclusion To change th bad life style and eating habits can prevent and control the obesity.


The effects of differernt temperature and food on growth and survival rates of the larvae of Trichogaster trichopterus were studied in the laboratory.The result showed that there were significant variance on growth and survival rates of the larvae at different temperature.The growth rate of the larvae was fastest at 30℃,the survival rate was highest at 26℃,the survival rate was lowest at 32℃.The result also indicated that the growth rate and survival rate were significant different by feeding different food.The growth and survival rate of the larvae were optimum by feed with rotifer and copepods,the survival rate was lowest by feed with egg yolk,the growth rate was slowest by feed with aitificial diet.


https://doi.org/ 10.31995/ jgv.2020.v11i01.013 Abstract The word petroleum comes from Greek. The term frequently used to refer to mineral oils produced by distillation from mined organic solids such as cannel coal and refined oils produced from them, they are derived from crude oil as it is processed in oil refineries, they are collection of well defined pure chemical compounds, petroleum products are complex mixtures. Petroleum products are very essential products for transportation, heating, electricity generation, asphalt and road oil. They are used to make chemicals, plastics and synthetic materials which we are using in daily life. About 74% of the 6.89 billion barrels of petroleum that we used in 2013 were gasoline, heating oil/diesel fuel and jet fuel. Role of Petroleum Based Machines in Socio Economic Development of Areca Nut Growers -A Sociological Study (With special reference to Chikkamagalore District)


This paper presented a novel space vector pulse width modulation (SVPWM) control based on exact feedback linearization. A affine nonlinear model of three-phase shunt active power filter (APF) was built. The nonlinear state feedback control law is derived to accomplish the linearization of APF model and to realize decouple control of active and reactive compensation currents. The command voltage can be exactly obtained which should be output from AC side of APF by selecting appropriate feedback coefficients. The command voltage is approached using SVPWM method. Simulation was carried out to verify the validity and advantage of the proposed control method,which compare with triangle wave modulation method based on PI controller. A small experimental prototype was designed to verify the correctness and feasibility of proposed control method.


The recent interest in runtime attestation requires modeling of a program's runtime behavior to formulate its integrity properties. In this paper, we study the possibility of employing static source code analysis to derive integrity models of a commodity operating systems kernel. We develop a precise and static analysis-based global invariant detection tool that overcomes several technical challenges: field-sensitivity, array-sensitivity, pointer analysis, and handling of assembly code. We apply our tool to Linux kernel 2.4.32 and identify 141,279 global invariants that are critical to its runtime integrity. Furthermore, comparison with the result of a dynamic invariant detector reveals 17,182 variables that can cause false alarms for the dynamic detector. Our experience suggests that static analysis is a viable option for automated integrity property derivation, and it can have very low false positive rate (1 out of 141,280 in our Linux kernel case study) and very low false negative rate (about 0.013%).


For at least 9000 years dogs have been pulling sleds across the Arctic, facilitating subsistence strategies and migrations. Despite the enduring presence of dogs in the Arctic there is an absence of comprehensive studies of the material culture associate with dog sledding, including the diverse technical elements needed for the activity. This study proposes a framework for the recognition of reliable archaeological indicators of dog sledding. The outcome is based on comparisons between ethnographic information of the dog traction technology and archaeological sites from the Arctic regions of Siberia, Alaska, Canada, and Greenland using multivariate analysis. These sites were selected as case studies to encompass the breadth of geographical and Inuit cultural diversity where dog sledding traditionally has been practiced. We argue, that by using this framework it is possible to study dog sledding in the Arctic prior to the Thule Inuit period and gain more knowledge about the origin of the practice. By combining sources from ethnography, history and archaeology, our framework identified items involved in dog sledding that were universal to the practice as well as items that were regionally specific. However, the most reliable evidence for dog sledding is the presence of both sled parts, dog bones and equipment for harnessing the dogs.


SUMMARY Twelve-week-old Ricinus communis plants were transplanted to boxes of sand or soil in which the water table was maintained at various levels below the root system. The boxes were placed in a climatological wind tunnel and transpiration varied by altering the humidity of the air stream. Responses in the water potential depression (= suction force or D.P.D.) of the leaves (AW1) and stomatal conductance were followed. With a fine sand it was found that when the water table was high (I5 cm below the roots) AW1 was 6 atm. irrespective of the rate of transpiration and behaved therefore as if the roots were surrounded by free water as previously shown. When the water table was 25 cm below the roots, AW1 was also 6 atm. provided the transpiration rate was low (0.4 g/dm2 leaf/hour) but when the transpiration rate was raised threefold, A W1 rose steeply to a value of I2 atm., a steady state value being approached in about 8 hours (see Fig. 3). On reducing the transpiration rate, AW1 returned to 6 atm. This rise in AW1 is interpreted as due to a rise in the AW of the water in the sand at the root surface, this in turn resulting from the low water conductivity of the sand at this height above the water table. Varying the humidity continuously between saturation and about 4000 relative humidity through a 24-hour cycle produced a regular 24-hour cycle of transpiration (see Figs. 4, 5 and 6). Responses in AW1 in plants rooted in fine sand, clay soil and moorland soil were explicable in terms of the above hypothesis of the development of perirhizal zones of soil water tension. These results suggest that much of the ecologically significant water stress in plants is a manifestation of the dynamic gradients of water potential developing in the perirhizal zones and that these can be considerable even when the water stress in the bulk of the soil is virtually zero.


1 Chlormadinone acetate, 0.5 mg. daily, has been assessed as a contraceptive drug. Drug and patient failure rates in this series were both 0.005/cycle of exposure. This was equivalent to a combined figure of 12 pregnancies 100 woman years. 2 Of 25 women who had previous sideeffects on at least 1 oral contraceptive, 15 had no symptoms on chlormadinone acetate. 3 Women taking chlormadinone acetate while breastfeeding showed no evidence of inhibition of lactation. 4 No significant difference in the incidence of side‐effects was found in a low economic group when compared with a private patient group.


to struggle against infectious organisms, and that if they succeed in overcoming them, it is by ingesting and digesting them; that, passing upwards, animals like the arthropods or mollusca can defend themselves by means of their leucocytes against infection by saprophytes, to which animals like the lepidoptera, hymenoptera, or diptera, which are poor in blood and leucocytes, rapidly succumb; that both in these animals and the vertebrata the actual process of phagocytosis can readily be observed. He has described minutely this process o? phagocytosis in every kind of immunity, and concludes that it is not only one but the cause of immunity. I do not propose to discuss this question here further than to say that those who oppose these views affirm that phagocytosis may occur without immunity, and that immunity may be obtained artificially without phagocytosis. I wish rather to draw attention to


According to the National Institutes of Health's Osteoporosis and Related Bone Diseases National Resource Center in Washington, DC, osteoporosis is a major public health threat for 28 million Americans, 80% of whom are women. It is noted that 1 of every 2 women over 50 years of age will have an osteoporosis-related fracture in her lifetime. In a retrospective review of medical literature which examined oral contraceptive (OC) user bone mineral density (BMD), evidence supports the hypothesis that low-dose OCs are associated with favorable effects on BMD. A total of 13 studies were included in the review; 9 of the studies showed a positive effect of OC use on BMD and 4 did not show an association. However, none of the studies indicated a decrease in BMD with OC use. Suggestions for a randomized controlled trial to gain definitive information on the literature are cited. In view of this, experts indicate that OC impact on BMD may best be demonstrated in hypoestrogenic women, including those with eating disorders, hypothalamic amenorrhea, and perimenopausal women.


In this paper, we propose a method of removing reflected light from glasses using the multiscale retinex (MSR) algorithm. The reflected light from glasses used by a driver is a factor that makes it difficult to detect the eye region. In order to remove driver"s eyeglasses reflection, we detected the face and eye regions from an input image and applied the MSR algorithm to the RGB regions of the input image. From our experimental result, the success rate of eyeglass reflection removal was 90% in the left eye case, and 92% in the right eye case. Thus, the average success rate was 90%, which indicates that the technique can be used in the process of eye image detection for a driver"s drowsiness checking system.


This paper presents a model that a firm issues external equity, in the presence of costs of underpricing "asset in place", and conducts comparative statics analysis of its decision to issue external equity at different levels of minority shareholder protection. In the model, minority shareholder protection influences the stock market outcomes through two channels: The cost of external finance and controller''s private benefits. As a result, its effects on different stock market outcomes are heterogeneous. Using a newly assembled panel data with shareholder protection index in 25 countries for 11 years, the empirical part applies system GMM estimator to a dynamic specification and confirms such divergent effects. The minority shareholder protection is negatively correlated with the number of listed firms, but is positively correlated with the stock market capitalization.


High-resolution electronic spectra of the 0–1 band of the Swan system (d 3Π g -a 3Π u ) of 13C2 have been recorded using sub-Doppler laser spectroscopy. Carbon-13 nuclear hyperfine structure is resolved in many of the rotational lines. The orbital-nuclear, Fermi contact, spin-dipolar and hyperfine lambda-doubling hyperfine parameters in both electronic states are obtained from an analysis of the spectra and their values are discussed in terms of the electronic wavefunctions for the electronic states.


ABSTRACT The primary objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between internal environment, organizational form, and financial performance in hotel chains. Using a contingency framework, this study investigated the match between internal environmental factors—such as capital scarcity, monitoring cost, and asset specificity, and organizational form, such as company-owned, franchised, or combination of both in an attempt to distinguish between and high and low performing hotel chains.


The purpose of this study is to explore the existing effect of gloss conditions on reading comprehension and vocabulary understanding of learners in the context of English as a foreign language. The study composed of 72 male students aged between 19 and 21 years selected from Qassim University in Saudi Arabia. The participants were divided into four groups, namely; L1 Arabic gloss, L2 English gloss, a combination of L1 and L2, and the last group with no gloss. Results and findings of the study revealed a significant difference regarding the comprehension of the texts among the experimental groups when correlated with the control group. Additionally, there was no significant change noted regarding performance among the experimental groups. Another finding indicated that the learners had a preference of L1 and L2 gloss over L1 gloss and L2 gloss types, with 93.03% of them preferring to read glossed texts. Overall, these findings suggest that the gloss and no conditions were significantly distinct. This research results will be beneficial for future studies that are interested in developing reading comprehension of EFL learners.


The present invention is transferring process of preparing composite nanometer inorganic flame retardant, and large micron level magnesium hydroxide particle is used as carrier for the surface modification of nanometer composite flame retardant. The composite nanometer inorganic flame retardant consists of nanometer inorganic flame retardant, micron level magnesium hydroxide and auxiliary flame retardant. The nanometer inorganic flame retardant is nanometer aluminum hydroxide or nanometer magnesium hydroxide of average particle size not larger than 100 nm. The micron level magnesium hydroxide has average particle size of 1-10 microns. Through high speed stirring mixing of surface modifier and micron level magnesium hydroxide, adding nanometer inorganic flame retardant before further stirring and adding auxiliary flame retardant via stirring, the composite nanometer inorganic flame retardant with surface coating surface modifier and high tensile strength is prepared.


We use a set theoretic approach to consensus by viewing an object as a set of smaller pieces called "bricks". A consensus function is neutral if there exists a family D of sets such that a brick s is in the output of a profile if and only if the set of positions with objects that contain s belongs to D. We give sufficient set theoretic conditions for D to be a lattice filter and, in the case of a finite lattice, these conditions turn out to be necessary. Our final result, which involves a finite distributive join semilattice, provides necessary and sufficient conditions for D to be an ultrafilter.


growth temperature on thin filmgrowth rate and micro-structure. This novel method involves the deposition of Fe followed by immediate reaction with S gas to form pyrite in a layer by layer fashion. Thin films were synthesized using two growth processes; a one-step process in which a constant growth temperature is maintained throughout growth, and a three-step process in which an initial low temperature seed layer is deposited, followed by a high temperature layer, and then finished with a low temperature capping layer. Analysis techniques include Glancing Angle X-Ray Diffraction (GAXRD), Rutherford Back-scattering Spectroscopy (RBS), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Secondary Ion Mass Spectroscopy (SIMS), 2-point IV measurements, and Hall effect measurements Analysis found that crystallinity improved with increasing growth temperature. It was found using TEM, for growths using a threestep process, that grain morphology of the seed, high-temperature, and capping layers differ from each other. The sticking coefficient of Fe was found to increase with increasing growth temperature, indicating that the Fe incorporation into the growing film is a thermally activated process. Materials Science & Engineering Master's Defense Growth and Characterization of Pyrite Thin Films for Photovoltaic Applications


University of Minnesota M.S. thesis. May 2019. Major: Computer Science. Advisor: Edward McFowland III. 1 computer file (PDF); vii, 67 pages.


de Sitter space-time has a one complex parameter family of invariant vacua for the theory of a free, massive scalar field. For most of these vacua, in an interacting scalar theory the one loop corrections diverge linearly for large values of the loop momentum. These divergences are not of a form that can be removed by a de Sitter invariant counterterm, except in the case of the Euclidean, or Bunch-Davies, vacuum.


The accretion of ice on conductor is a great dangerous fact to the power grid safety. In this paper, self-heating rings are fixed on conductor to achieve anti-icing and de-icing of OTL. Being exposed in the magnetic field generated by the transmission current, the ring made of ferromagnetic material can generate strong magnetic field, which increases the magnetic heat loss and reduces the ice accretion on conductors. The icing tests applying self-heating ring to anti-icing and de-icing on LGJ-400/35 and LGJ210/10 conductor were carried out in the artificial climate room. The result shows that both the average ice thickness and ice amount on the conductors with self-heating rings are significantly less than those without. On the one hand, the heat generated by the self-heating rings can reduce ice accretion sharply at where the rings are fixed. On the other hand, it can speed up the loss of water film in conductor surface due to the water film flowing along the conductor sag. Besides, the self-heating ring can break the continuity of the icing and make the ice looser, as a result, it is much easier for the ice to get off a conductor under the effects of natural wind.. Therefore, the use of self-heating rings is a simple and effective passive anti-icing method for OHL in some conditions and worthy of further study.


We describe an ongoing project, in which an informally organised international consortium is using the open source LARA platform to create multimodal annotated editions of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's Le petit prince in multiple languages, so far French, English, Italian, Icelandic, Irish, Japanese, Polish, Farsi and Mandarin. LARA versions of the book include integrated audio and translations and an automatically generated lemma-based concordance, and are freely available online. We describe the methods used to construct the various versions. In some cases, work for a given language was simply divided by type, typically with one person adding translations and another recording audio. In other languages, we experimented with crowdsourcing methods, splitting the text into chapter-sized units and using the LARA platform to distribute these to multiple annotators, then combining the results at the end. Finally, we report an initial classroom study, where the French version was used by intermediate-level Australian students of French.


The invention relates to a UEC fixing support. A support main body is set in a stepped structure and comprises an upper stepped surface, a lower stepped surface and a connecting surface which is used for connecting the two stepped surfaces; the two stepped surface and the connecting surface are of an integrated structure; the part, adjacent to the connecting surface, of the upper stepped surface extends outwards to form an elongated extension part, the end part of the extension part is set as an upward flange structure, and the upper part of the flange is provided with a power supply wire buckling hole. The upper stepped surface is provided with a UEC fixing hole and a compartment wire buckling hole, and the lower stepped surface is provided with a support fixing hole and a support limiting structure. By adopting the fixing support of the technical scheme, a power supply wire and a compartment wire can be fixed while the UEC is fixed, so that the interference of wire harnesses can be avoided; the UEC fixing support is simple in structure, convenient to install and reliable to work.


In this study, a new trimethacrylate monomer α,α,α′-tri[4-(2′-hydroxy-3′-methacryloyloxy-propoxy)phenyl]-1-ethyl-4-isopropylbenzene (α,α,α′-THMPEIB) with a molecular weight of 850 and a large molecular volume was designed and synthesized. The structure of monomer α,α,α′-THMPEIB was confirmed by FT-IR, 1H NMR, and elemental analysis. Degree of double-bond conversion, volume shrinkage, water sorption and solubility, diffusion coefficient value, and flexure strength of α,α,α′-THMPEIB/tri(ethylene glycol) dimethacrylate- (TEGDMA) based resin were measured. 2,2-Bis[4-(2′-hydroxy-3′-methacryloyloxy-propoxy)-phenyl]-propane (bis-GMA)/TEGDMA monomer mixture was used as reference. The result showed that the α,α,α′-THMPEIB/TEGDMA-based resin had the lower double-bond conversion, polymerization shrinkage, and water solubility than bis-GMA/TEGDMA-based resin. Water sorption and diffusion coefficient value of α,α,α′-THMPEIB/TEGDMA-based resin were nearly the same as those of bis-GMA/TEGDMA-based resin. Flexural strength of α,α,α′-THMPEIB/TEGDMA-based resin was higher than that of bis-GMA/ TEGDMA-based resin.


This paper presents a simple compact design for wireless charging applications using asymmetric strongly coupled printed resonators (SCPR). The proposed resonators are further loaded by surface mounted (SMD) capacitors for miniaturization. The system consists of two substrates. The first transmitting substrate contains a driving loop on the top layer and the high Q-resonator on the bottom layer. Similarly, the second substrate contains the high Q-resonator as the receiver and a loop as the load. An equivalent circuit model is extracted. An analytic design method is proposed to get a high wireless power transfer (WPT) efficiency. Good agreement between electromagnetic simulations, circuit simulations, and measurements was achieved. The proposed system achieves a measured WPT efficiency of 60% at 100 MHz using a receiving resonator of size 20 mm × 20 mm away for a transmission distance of 35 mm from the transmitting resonator of size 30 mm × 30 mm.


School records are veritable tools that aid the smooth management of the day to day activities of the school. Records give direction to the prompt derivation and computation of all education indicators for evidence based planning, monitoring, evaluation, and administration as well as national and global reporting competitiveness. School records are essential part of school administration as it generates a range of statistics on the entire school activities. These records can also be used to inform the parents and the communities about the school performance, enable school generate information for the monitoring of the education system and also, help in planning and decision making process at the policy level. Despite its enormous importance however, records are poorly kept and managed in most of the Nigerian schools. Poor school records weaken effective school administration which leads to inefficiencies in education management and policy implementation at all levels of education. It is in attempt to address this existing problem of poor record keeping habit by school administrators that this paper haven reviewed researches on same/similar topic conducted elsewhere and the writer's personal experiences and observations examined how ICT competency of head teachers and school managers will tend to improve their efficiency and effectiveness towards record keeping. The paper also revealed certain factors militating against effective use of ICT by those school heads and managers. Recommendations on how to make the head teachers and school managers become more competent in the use of ICT for effective record keeping and school management was then proffered.


Efficient individual protection of the employees from air pollution requires high quality respirators, their correct selection and use. International Organization for Standardization (ISO) prepared standards that can become the basis for the development of similar standards in Russia. However, direct copying of the texts from ISO documents to GOST can reduce the efficiency of the employee protection. When using personal respiratory protection equipment, exhaled air with a high content of carbon dioxide fills the mask and is then inhaled again. ISO standard, which substantiates the requirements for the permissible concentration of CO2 in the inhaled air, ignores the available information on CO2 toxicity and Russian hygiene standards. This may lead to the certification and issuance of personal respiratory protective equipment to the employees, in the use of which the concentration of carbon dioxide on inhalation will exceed the maximum allowable concentration. In order for the efficiency of the personal respiratory protection equipment to correspond to the degree of air pollution, the protection coefficient was applied and measured. Significant differences between the efficiency of personal respiratory protection equipment in real and laboratory conditions are considered. The proposed ISO method for determining efficiency may lead to the use of respiratory protective equipment that is known to be ineffective. Using personal respiratory protection equipment it is required to change gas mask filters in a timely manner. When assessing their condition, ISO standard forbids relying on the subjective reaction of the employee feelings. At the same time, a more reliable method is ignored - introduction of special sensors. Recommendations are given to avoid all of these shortcomings.


Transformer-based pre-trained models have gained much advance in recent years, becoming one of the most important backbones in natural language processing. Recent work shows that the attention mechanism inside Transformer may not be necessary, both convolutional neural networks and multi-layer perceptron based models have also been investigated as Transformer alternatives. In this paper, we consider a graph recurrent network for language model pre-training, which builds a graph structure for each sequence with local token-level communications, together with a sentence-level representation decoupled from other tokens. The original model performs well in domain-specific text classification under supervised training, however, its potential in learning transfer knowledge by self-supervised way has not been fully exploited. We fill this gap by optimizing the architecture and verifying its effectiveness in more general language understanding tasks, for both English and Chinese languages. As for model efficiency, instead of the quadratic complexity in Transformer-based models, our model has linear complexity and performs more efficiently during inference. Moreover, we find that our model can generate more diverse outputs with less contextualized feature redundancy than existing attention-based models.


The original article to which this Erratum refers was published in Surface and Interface Analysis 2003; 35: 415–428. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


This research studied the Interacoes journal from the perspective of concepts and practices of local development. It aimed to highlight and identify the concepts and practices of local development inserted in 21 editions of Interacoes journal from the Catholic University Dom Bosco (UCDB), in the periods from 2000 to 2010. The work, in addition to its historical value, is classified by the inductive method with a qualitative and quantitative approach to understanding the phenomenon of local development. In addition, it has exploratory and analytical specificity, making use of descriptive bibliographic research to offer the reader theoretical conceptions about the concepts of local development, with observations and experiences of empirical works. We established as objective of the guiding questions of this study: the importance of Interacoes journal for teachers and students of the Master's Program in Local Development, as well as exploring and highlighting its theoretical-conceptual frameworks and the survey of the general data of published articles (2000-2010). The results identified 22 scientific articles published in Interacoes journal (2000-2010) that deal with culture, identity, and diversity in the territorial dynamics, with the inclusion of reports and interviews sustained through research on the concepts and practical observations of the theme. We concluded that the results of the research can contribute to the dissemination of knowledge among teachers, students, researchers, local agents, and others interested in the subject at national and international levels.


The present invention is - made of polymer material, print layer provided by laser engraving and (2), - at least one compressible layer (3), - comprising at least one reinforcing layer (4), each layers are formed in mutual adhesion complex, a multilayer planar structure of the printing blanket or printing plate in the form for flexographic printing and letterpress printing (1). Multilayer planar structure according to the present invention (1), the polymeric material of the printed layer (2) is distinguished by the fact that it is vulcanizate. In this regard, advantageous material is proposed. Printed layer (2), for convenience, it is placed directly on the compressible layer (3). Compressible layer (3) is then in direct contact with the strength supporting layer (4).


This paper studies the effect of real options on organizational design. A timing option, where capacity can be filled now or later, arises because managers are limited in the number of projects they can implement. Taking on a good project now means that a great project may have to be forgone in the future. A goal incongruence arises because managers value the option created by their own capacity constraint differently than do firm owners. From the perspective of firm owners, the possibility of shifting projects around within the organization means that any one manager's capacity is not that important. Managers, on the other hand, value their own capacity highly but place no value on other managers' capacity. Our main result is that putting one of the managers in charge of project assignment mitigates this conflict of interest. We also show that if firm owners cannot commit to delegating project assignment decisions, a hierarchical budgeting scheme can be used as a substitute.


The invention provides a synthetic method of a benzothiazole derivative. In a synthetic method of a compound shown as a formula 1, i.e., (2-(1hydro-benzothiazole-2radical)-4,5,6,7-tetrahydro-2hydro-indazole-3-alcohol), reaction raw materials are readily available, reaction operation is simple and convenient, product yield can be over 40 percent, the purity is over 95 percent and can be up to 98 percent, the yield and purity are very high, and high repeatability is realized. A highly-practicable synthetic method is provided for the compound shown as the formula I, and a reliable source is provided for further research of the compound shown as the formula 1.


This literature review forms a deliverable in the European Network of Excellence on Semantic Interoperability and Data Mining in Biomedicine. More specifically, it is part of a work package (WP27) which aims to develop and evaluate generic methods and tools for assisting patients to understand their health and healthcare by generating patient-friendly readable texts that paraphrase the content of their electronic health records. We have reviewed the literature in topics that we consider to be relevant to this work package. When appropriate, we cover variations in conditions in the four countries of the collaborating research groups (France, Germany, Sweden and the UK) and we cover corpora, tools and language technologies for the European languages of interest to these groups.


type="main" xml:lang="en"> This study explores the causal relationship among electricity consumption, economic growth and CO 2 emissions for a group of 14 sub-Sahara African (SSA) countries from 1980 to 2009 using panel cointegration and panel vector error correction modelling methods. The findings demonstrate that in the long run electricity consumption has a statistically significant positive impact on CO 2 emissions. The results also reveal that the inverted U-shaped Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis exists in the SSA countries' case. The panel causality tests indicate that there is short-run unidirectional causality running from economic growth to CO 2 emissions and electricity consumption respectively. Simultaneously, there is long-run bidirectional causality between electricity consumption and economic growth, electricity consumption and CO 2 emissions, economic growth and CO 2 emissions. Depending on the results, relevant policies can be initiated without negatively affecting economic growth.


From the very beginning, the banking system has been vulnerable to bank runs. A bank run occurs when a large number of depositors attempt to withdraw their funds simultaneously because they are afraid that the bank will not be able to repay the deposits in full and on time. The view that financial crises are costly may be based primarily on the Wall Street crash of the early 1930s. This was one of the most extreme crises which had significant impact on the banking system of the United States. History does not end and the long lines outside Northern Rock branches in Britain, on September 2007, as well as the bankruptcy of Lemman Brother Holdings Inc., in 2008, brought back memories from the worldwide monetary history. The financial crisis of 2007 and 2008 is reminiscent of a bank run and it seems obvious that research on bank runs and financial instability has taken on a new urgency. The model presented in this master thesis is consistent both with the sunspots and business cycle view of the origins of banking panics. The main motivation of this work is to compare, from a welfare point of view, two different banking regulations that try to avoid or mitigate the effects of bank runs suspension of convertibility and government deposit insurance. With the first mechanism, payments are suspended at a certain level and with the second, deposits are always guaranteed when the bank fails. We show that if the level of risk aversion is high enough, suspension of convertibility dominates deposit insurance, however we also show, numerically, that the relation is not monotone for low values of risk aversion.


selected. Each patient's medical record was reviewed for data on age; service-connected disability; alcoholism; psychiatric condition; reason for admission; type of admission (emergency or regular); length of stay; social worker intervention; reason for leaving ,,; patient's condition at time of departure; and mortality during follow-up period. Six-month follow-up data were gathered from medical records or from claims for burial benefits.


Storing information is at the core of almost every Internet-of-Things (IoT) middleware, which poses challenges relating to scalability, fault-tolerance and correctness. This is even more relevant f ...


Most massive, passive galaxies are compact at high redshifts, but similarly compact massive galaxies are rare in the local universe. The most common interpretation of this phenomenon is that massive galaxies have grown in size by a factor of about five since redshift z = 2. An alternative explanation is that recently quenched massive galaxies are larger (a "progenitor bias"). In this paper, we explore the importance of progenitor bias by looking for systematic differences in the stellar populations of compact early-type galaxies in the DEEP2 survey as a function of size. Our analysis is based on applying the statistical technique of bootstrap resampling to constrain differences in the median ages of our samples and to begin to characterize the distribution of stellar populations in our co-added spectra. The light-weighted ages of compact early-type galaxies at redshifts 0.5 < z < 1.4 are compared to those of a control sample of larger galaxies at similar redshifts. We find that massive compact early-type galaxies selected on the basis of red color and high bulge-to-total ratio are younger than similarly selected larger galaxies, suggesting that size growth in these objects is not driven mainly by progenitor bias, and that individual galaxies grow as their stellar populations age. However, compact early-type galaxies selected on the basis of image smoothness and high bulge-to-total ratio are older than a control sample of larger galaxies. Progenitor bias will play a significant role in defining the apparent size changes of early-type galaxies if they are selected on the basis of the smoothness of their light distributions.


Mink frequent bacterial diseases were investigated to know the aetiological data in Shandong province.Mink bacterial diseases were diagnosed by the means of pathological examination,bacteria culture and bacterial biochemical analysis.The results showed that seven types of bacteria existed in the diseased mink,including E.coli,Salmonella,Proteus,Klebridlla,Yersinia,Staphylococcus and Pseudomonas.The characteristic incidence and causes of the mink bacterial diseases were investigated.


An aqueous two-phase system, prepared by mixing a tetrabutylammonium bromide(TBAB) solution and Na2SO4, was proposed for the extraction of Au(III) and Pd(II) prior to atomic absorption spectrophotometric(AAS) determination. An aqueous two-phase system was obtained as follows: to a 1 ml sample solution containing Au(III) and Pd(II), 3.0 ml of 1.0 mol l−1 TBAB aqueous solution and 1.0 ml of a buffer solution (pH 4) were added and diluted with water to 6.0 ml. Then, 1.8 g of Na2SO4 was added to this solution and the mixture was shaken for about 1 min. After complete phase separation was performed, a 0.5 ml aliquot was taken from the upper phase and then diluted with 10 ml of water for AAS determinations of Au(III) and Pd(II). The Au(II) and Pd(II) were quantitatively extracted into the upper phase in the pH range from 1 to 6.5. The proposed method was applied for the determination of Au(III) and Pd(II) in a plating solution. The mean recoveries were 104 and 99% for Au(III) and Pd(II), respectively.


The spermatozoa of Hemiculter eigenmanni is similar to other cyprinid by spherical head containing a nucleus with highly condensed chromatin, a short midpiece with mitochondria and a flagellum located tangentially to the head. The fine structure of cyprinid spermatozoa described classical characteristics of Cyprinidae spermatozoon comprising the absent of acrosome, the shallow nucleal fossa, postnuclear distribution of mitochondria and the lateral insertion of flagellum. However there were some structural differences for their morphology, in the mitochondria and the orientation of centrioles. The proxomal and distal centrioles are oriented approximately 145° to each other. The mitochondria of 8 or 10 in number are arranged in two or three layers.


Defects such as inhomogeneities, inclusions with eigenstrains, and dislocations in an infinite orthotropic Kirchhoff plate are analyzed. These results could be applied to thin plate problems regardless of whether the plate is homogeneous or inhomogeneous in the direction of a thickness. An orthotropic laminated plate with a symmetric plane normal to the direction of the thickness is included as a special case. The eigenstrain is assumed to vary throughout the direction of the thickness. Thus, a bending of the plate due to the eigenstrain is considered. Employing Green's functions, which are expressed in explicit compact forms in a Cartesian coordinates system and were recently obtained by using a Stroh-type formalism, the elastic fields for defects are obtained by way of Eshelby's inclusion method. The general solutions for the extension and bending deformations due to the mid-plane eigenstrain and eigencurvature are expressed in quasi-Newtonian potentials and their derivatives, which appear in a closed form for the elliptic inclusion. For the bending problem of an inclusion with uniform eigencurvature, the curvature inside the inclusion becomes uniform, corresponding to that from Eshelby 's analysis of an isotropic solid. Edge dislocation and elliptic inclusions with polynomial eigenstrains are also discussed in this work.


[Objective] The effect of the different immobilized carriers,proportions of enzyme and pH value of buffer on immobilization was studied.[Method] The effect of both the different amounts of macroporous resins,diatomaceous earth and activated carbon,and the different pH values of buffer on immobilization was tested.[Results] The vitality of lipase hydrolysis was determined with the classic method of olive oil emulsion and the results were comprehensively compared.Final test results showed that the high recovery ratio of the hydrolysis activity of immobilized enzyme was high in the physical adsorption method of macroporous resin.At immobilized temperature of 30 ℃,the effect of macroporous resin as a carrier on the immobilization of PPL was the best,at that moment,the pH value of buffer K2HPO4-KH2PO4 solution was 6.4 and the ratio of macroporous resin to PPL was 2.5∶1.0.The higher activity of immobilized lipase could be produced if the reaction temperature,reaction time and the enzyme amount were appropriately controlled.[Conclusion] The vector and the pH value of buffer solution were important factors affecting immobilization of PPL.


Previous research on women directors mostly explores the link between women directors and firm performance. The potential mediators explaining this link are largely under-researched. In our exploratory paper, we investigate women directors' roles in interviews with female and male board members. In the perception of board members, women directors widen the board's perspectives as unique experts, they objectify discussions, and they act as mediators. By giving first indications on when and how women directors fulfil these roles, our study contributes to the literature on why women directors are sometimes found to enhance firm performance and sometimes they are not.


In this paper we will perform a method to obtain a quadrature formulas and we will study the optimality in sense of Nikolski for this quadrature formulas.


Practice shows that, in order to improve internal and external communication, managers need to increase the request of information about their business administration. So, for this, they need a complementary system which assures them this kind of informat


Just over three decades ago, when Deng Xiaoping announced the policy of reform and openingup in 1978, China's total imports and exports of $20.6 billion ranked 32nd among all nations and accounted for less than one percent of global trade. In 2010, China's total merchandise trade exceeded $3 trillion, 143 times the level of 1978. With an annual growth of 17.2 percent in exports and 16.4 percent in imports, China now account for 10.4 percent and 9.1 percent of global exports and imports, making it the world's largest commodity exporter and second largest commodity importer.1 China's meteoric rise to trading superpower status have raised concerns from foreign policymakers as they evaluate how China's increased economic clout will affect their economies and the global trade regime as a whole. In this context, this article assesses China's evolving trade policies in the reform era, the sustainability of its export-led growth amidst the global economic downturn, and the implications for global trading governance.


This study examines the effect that adding addition exogenous variables has on mitigating the effect of common method variance. In an effort that replicates and extends the work of Siemsen, Roth, a...


The results of functioning automatic tuning algorithms of ACS regulator coefficients on the basis of real interpolation method have been examined. Node location influence on the principle quality indices of control system obtained as a result of synthesis is shown. Estimates of the obtained solution accuracy are introduced.


Background and Purpose : Deep venous thrombosis ( DVT ) in the upper part of the body is rare, accounting for approximately 1-4% of all DVTs. The incidence and clinical significance of jugular vein thrombosis ( JVT ) were investigated in consecutive patients with acute ischemic stroke. Subjects and Methods : 71 patients ( 46 men, aged 70.8 ± 13.2 years ) hospitalized within 48 hours after ischemic stroke or TIA onset were retrospectively examined. The presence of JVT was evaluated by ultrasonography. Patients with jugular vein catheterization were not included. Age, sex, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, hyperlipidemia, smoking status, presence of a malignant tumor, and D-dimer were assessed. Results : JVT was demonstrated in four patients ( 5.6% ) . The rate of a malignant tumor was significantly higher in patients with JVT than in those without ( 100% vs. 14.9%, p<0.001 ) . The tumors were as follows: esophageal cancer ( 1 ) ; lung cancer ( 1 ) ; and uterine cervical cancer ( 2 ) . The stroke subtype in three patients was Trousseau syndrome with a high D-dimer value, and that in the other patient was a lacunar stroke with a normal D-dimer value. Conclusions : Ultrasonographic evidence of JVT in patients with acute ischemic stroke could be a marker of a coincidental malignant tumor with or without Trousseau syndrome.


The 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a public health emergency in China this winter. Since it was first reported in Wuhan in December 2019, it has been quickly spreading across Hubei Province and the whole country, and even other parts of the world. As of February 23, 2020, the total number of confirmed cases in mainland China has reached 77 150, the Chinese government and people are making an all-out effort to fight the virus. Due to the limited knowledge of this new virus, in addition to fighting on the clinical frontline, health providers also strive to intensify studies on COVID-19, so as to provide scientific support and powerful "weapons" for the epidemic prevention and control. Huang et al. first reported a cohort of 41 patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 infection, and pointed out that clinical manifestations of patients with COVID-19 infection include fever, dry cough, myalgia, fatigue, headache, sputum production, diarrhea, normal or decreased leukocyte counts, and lymphopenia. And they had representative chest computed tomography (CT) images showed bilateral ground glass opacity and subsegmental areas of consolidation. After Huang's study, several other studies with larger sample sizes have been published subsequently and showed similar results. Based on these studies and clinical experience, the National Health Commission of the People's Republic of China makes a constant update of the "New coronavirus pneumonia prevention and control program" and the latest is the sixth edition. The diagnostic criteria for suspected and confirmed patients with COVID-19 infection based on epidemic history, clinical manifestations, laboratory examination, chest CT, and 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) test using quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) on


Reviewed article: "The role of digital channels in industrial marketing communications" Received a note from the Editor: "Thanks Tim, this is the most detailed (and probably the best as well) revi ...


Modern language instruction always includes a cultural component - students do not learn just isolated words, morphology and syntax, but rather the cultural context of the language and its speakers. The teaching of Biblical Hebrew, however, has usually taken place in a cultural vacuum without reference to the cultural concepts that permeated ancient Israelite society. In this paper we describe an initiative to embed the teaching of Biblical Hebrew within the cultural world-view of ancient Israel in accordance with modern language pedagogy. Because South Africa is a multi-cultural society, we pay particular attention to the differing cultural backgrounds that our students bring to the learning of ancient Hebrew.


Abstract— The study evaluated the environmental services of the Bicentennial Metropolitan Park, through nondestructive sampling; infiltration of water in soil, interior and exterior temperature and humidity, interior and exterior acoustic pressure and estimation of carbon stores. The results were that soil compaction and depth of the herbaceous stratum determined different capacities to regulate water runoff. In areas without trees the temperature increased and the humidity decreased. The acoustic levels exceed the limits allowed for health and total carbon store was 517,958 MgC. The ecological capacity of the soil and vegetation exposed differentiated processes and local benefits. The deficit of green areas in Toluca city reinforces the importance of increasing the green surfaces in strategic sectors of the urban environment.
Keyword— urban park, ecosystem services, urbanization, climate change.


The benefits of green infrastructure have been verified at the site-level by many empirical studies. However, there is limited understanding of how local governments prepare and implement green infrastructure planning in practice. This study employs the content analysis method to examine the quality of local comprehensive plans regarding sustainable green infrastructure in 60 municipalities of the United States. The study uses regression analysis to explain the variance of plan quality. Study results indicate that key green infrastructure principles were not fully incorporated in the existing sampled plans, with average score of 19.6 out of 50. While plan quality scores were slightly higher in counties than in cities, both areas could significantly improve plan quality with detailed policies, action strategies, and implementation tactics for green infrastructure planning and management. Regression analysis further identified that planning capacities, as well as socio-economic characteristics of study area may impact overall plan quality. The findings of this study demonstrate the importance of incorporating detailed green infrastructure principles whenever local planners adopt or amend regional plans in order to improve plan quality and to support implementation.


High-k gate dielectrics, particularly Hf-based materials, are likely to be implemented in CMOS advanced technologies. One of the important challenges in integrating these materials is to achieve lifetimes equal or better than their SiO/sub 2/ counterparts. The reliability of high-k structures is influenced both by the interfacial layer as well as the high-k layer. In this paper, we propose an accurate statistical analysis of the breakdown linking the progressive breakdown to the breakdown of the interfacial layer and the soft breakdown or hard breakdown to the high-k layer breakdown. The breakdown of the two layers are found to be independent. Based on this analysis, we study the degradation mechanisms and we demonstrate that the multi vibrational hydrogen release (MVHR) process is the prevalent mechanism which drives the creation of a percolation path through the interfacial layer.


The role of character and competence in effective leadership is significant. Who the leader is as a person often manifests in how they lead. Leadership effectiveness could be obtained through the process of continuous, intentional, and purposeful commitment to acquiring empirical education, as well as a commitment to other ways of acquiring knowledge. Education, especially university education, could open the door for epistemic transformation as well as personal transformation. Leadership in Canadian nursing profession is evident in every area and context of nursing practice, including in the frontline nursing. Canadian nurses, therefore, need to make conscious commitment to acquiring continuous leadership education that could translate to both epistemic transformation and personal transformation, which could lead to the acquisition of skills and technical competencies for effective leadership.


Breast cancer metastasis is a complicated process driven by multiple genes and follows multiple steps. The regulation of metastasis-associated genes is the molecular basis for metastasis. Metastasis-associated genes can promote or suppress the metastasis potential of tumor cells without affecting their growth and proliferation. Generally, metastasis-associated genes fall into two categories: metastasis-promoter genes and metastasis-suppressor genes, including oncogenes, tumor suppressor genes, signaling molecule genes, adhesion molecule genes, cytokine genes, matrix metalloproteinase genes, etc. The elucidation of the underlying mechanisms of breast cancer metastasis-associated genes and the related downstream signaling pathways can facilitate the molecular diagnosis and individualized therapy of patients with metastasic breast cancers.


[Objective]To explore the efficacy of different calcium supplement methods for preventing postpartum hemorrhage,and the relationship between postpartum hemorrhage and blood calcium.[Methods]1200 term delivery primiparas,who were given regular inspection during pregnancy,were randomly divided into three groups.Patients in group A were treated with oral 2 vitamin D chewable tablets once daily from 28th week to childbirth(every tablet contains 750mg calcium carbonate,equal to 300mg calcium and 3100 IU vitamin D);patients in group B were given 10ml of 10% calcium gluconate by intravenous injection in parturient period instead of oral calcium during pregnancy;patients in group B weren't given any dosage of calcium during pregnancy and parturient period[Results]①The concentrations of blood calcium in group A and B all were higher than that in group C in parturient period(P0.01),and the volume of postpartum hemorrhage in group A and B were significantly less than that in group C(P0.01).②The incidence rate of postpartum hemorrhage increased when the concentration of blood calcium was ≤1.35 mmol/L.[Conclusion]Calcium supplement during pregnancy is necessary to decrease the volume of postpartum hemorrhage and the incidence rate of postpartum hemorrhage.When blood calcium is ≤1.35 mmol/L,it has a negative correlation with postpartum hemorrhage.


This study investigates the relationship (or correlation) between the performance of employees and their remuneration in the United Kindgom (UK) food industry. Within the study, remuneration systems which involve a correlation between the performance of employees and their remuneration are referred to as Performance Related Remuneration (PRR).

Since the early 1980's, the use of performance based remuneration within UK organisations has increased to a level never witnessed before. Such remuneration systems have generally been employed as part of a wider management strategy to improve employee and organisational performance. In the companies of the 1990's, it has become `normal' to find part of the total remuneration package tied to individual, group or organisational performance. There are many systems of PRR in use in the 1990's and these include various forms of merit pay, profit related pay, payment by results, commission, profit sharing and employee share ownership plans.

This thesis is motivated by the increasing use of performance based remuneration systems and focuses on the use of such systems within one specific industry - the UK food industry. The aim of the thesis is to identify trends relating to the use of PRR within the industry and in particular examine the extent to which PRR is used, why such systems are used, the various systems in operation, and the way in which the various systems are implemented and managed.

The first part of the thesis contains a substantive literature review which examines several important aspects of PRR.

The remainder of the thesis is concerned with the data gathered on the use of PRR within the UK food industry.


A microcomputer based temperature monitoring system has been designed and developed for recording temperature of environment of a specific region. The system's main function is to sense the data of environmental temperature after every given time interval and to store the data into a permanent storage device such as floppy disk, hard disk etc. The system has two major parts hardware and software. The hardware consist of a temperature sensing device, an amplifier, an A/D converter and a microcomputer. The software developed for this purpose consists of data acquisition, delay, storing into a permanent database, to find out the maximum and minimum temperature of a day and to draw the graph of temperature versus time for a day, using programming language C.


An anticipatory neuro-fuzzy controller has been developed which combines traditional fuzzy logic with feedback concepts and a neural network to predict system behavior. Fuzzy rules in the system are 'nested' so that it is not necessary to evaluate all rules at each time step if some smaller subset of rules will produce acceptable system behavior. Anticipatory neuro-fuzzy control does not require that any mathematical model exist for the system to be controlled, and can therefore be applied to many real world systems for which other, more traditional control methods cannot be used.


SeDuMi is an add-on for MATLAB, which lets you solve optimization problems with linear, quadratic and semidefiniteness constraints. It is possible to have complex valued data and variables in SeDuMi. Moreover, large scale optimization problems are solved efficiently, by exploiting sparsity. This paper describes how to work with this toolbox.


RESPECT THE INVENTION POLISHING SLICES OF GLASS PLATES. IT RELATES TO A DEVICE IN WHICH 4 WHEEL, FOR POLISH THE EDGE OF A GLASS PLATE 1, EG A WINDSHIELD AUTOMOBILE IS mOVED ALONG THE CONTOUR OF THE PLATE AND APPLIES PRESSURE POLISHING ALWAYS PERPENDICULAR TO tRANCHE UNDER THE CONTROL OF A ROBOT 6 WHICH TWO ARTICULATED ARMS 60, 62 OF WHICH ARE TRAVEL RULES BY DIGITAL CONTROL. POLISHING MAY BE SO MADE THAT THE MARGIN IS IDENTICAL ALWAYS POLITE. APPLICATION OF POLISH CAR WINDSHIELD.


Despite different theoretical perspectives and methodologies, nasal vowels in Brazilian Portuguese are characterized by their variability. Such variability can be understood in terms of vowel height related to velum movement (Clumeck, 1976; Cagliari, 1977) or in terms of segmental right context (Almeida, 1976; Cagliari, 1977; Shosted, 2006; Lovatto, 2008; Medeiros et al., 2008). Brazilian Portuguese has five nasal vowels /ɜ ̃, e ̃, ĩ, õ, ũ/ that occur in syllables such as VCVo, CVCoVo , CV, where C can be either a plosive or a fricative consonant. There are longer words containing nasal vowels in Brazilian Portuguese, like encantando (enchanting), but for methodological reasons they will not be investigated in this study. In Southeastern Brazilian Portuguese dialect, /e ̃/ and /õ/ diphthongize (e ̃ȷ ̃ and õᴡ ̃, respectively) and for this reason have not been selected as targets for this or previous studies. The main goal of this study is to provide a better explanation of the nasal coda in Brazilian Portuguese, by means of comparing nasal to nasalized vowels in terms of acoustic features. Our claim is that the nasal vowel gesture in Brazilian Portuguese must be understood as two gestures not aligned in time. In other words, the nasal gesture starts after the vocalic gesture and goes beyond the closure gesture, in words like campa ([ˈkɜ ̃pɐ], gravestone), allowing for nasal quality relatively late in the vowel. The nasal coda is this nasal gesture that goes beyond the obstruent closure. Thus, the present paper is organized as follows: an introductory view is presented in sections 1 and 2; and a main study and an auxiliary study are presented in sections 3 and 4. The main study is a comparison between nasal and nasalized vowels, seeking a better understanding of different nasalization based on aerodynamical data, as well as on acoustic duration. The purpose of the auxiliary study is to compare oral and nasal codas to open syllables in similar contexts (e.g. capa, campa, caspa). In section 5 our proposal is discussed and in section 6 we offer a conclusion.


Security is an important QoS attribute for characterizing intrusion tolerant computing systems. Frequently however, the security of computing systems is assessed in a qualitative manner based on the presence and absence of certain functional characteristics and security mechanisms. Such a characterization is not only ad hoc, it also lacks rigorous scientific and systematic basis. Some recent research efforts have emphasized the need for a quantitative assessment of security attributes for intrusion tolerant systems. Intrusion tolerant systems are not only complex, but also have to operate in an environment made unpredictable due to the unpredictable actions of bona-fide and non bona-fide users. This makes quantitative security analysis a difficult problem. Earlier approaches to security modelling have been based on the use of Markov models. Capturing details of real architectures in a manually constructed Markov model is difficult. We advocate the use of higher level formalism based on stochastic Petri nets for modelling and quantitative security analysis of intrusion tolerant systems. To validate our approach, we use an experimental intrusion tolerant systems known as the SITAR (scalable intrusion tolerant architecture) currently being implemented jointly at MCNC and Duke University as our target system. It is shown that the resulting analysis is useful in determining gains in security by reconfiguring such a system in terms of increase in redundancy under varying threat levels.


This paper proceeds research on the relationship between technology standard,technological innovation and economic growth from the theoretical viewpoint,and makes up theoretical model first,and then uses Johansen cointegration tests,Granger causality test and impulse response function,variance decomposition and other empirical methods based on VAR model.The result shows that there exists a long-term stable equilibrium relationship between technology standard,technological innovation and economic growth.Technological innovation can improve the level of technical standards,and the influence of technology standard to technological innovation is negative with hysteresis effect.Technological innovation and technology standard can promote economic growth effectively in the long run,furthermore,technological innovation is essential power to promote economic growth.Economic growth has an inapparent effect on technological innovation,a long-term stable positive impact on technology standard by contraries.


Representative clones of the diploid (2n = 24) members of the subgenus Cyanococcus (true or cluster-fruited blueberries) of Vaccinium, as well as V. crassifolium Andr. (Herpothamnus subgenus) and V. macrocarpon Ait. (Oxycoccus subgenus) were studied cytologically. They were collected from localities ranging from Florida to Nova Scotia and varied markedly in their gross morphology. The length of the total chromosome complement and the ratio of the longest to the shortest chromosome of each clone were determined. While a range of significant differences were demonstrated among clones, these differences were considered to be of minimal importance in species identification. A single idiogram can represent the karyotypes of all of the diploid Cyanococcus species examined. A tentative idiogram of their haploid complement consisted of 2 long and 2 short chromosomes and 8 of intermediate length, one of which was satellited. All had median or submedian centromeres. The karyotypic stability of the diploid Vaccinium species leads to the conclusion that the broad variability in morphology and adaptation which they exhibit has been principally genic in origin.


The influence that traditional Ghanaian norms, taboos, and folktales had in ensuring environmental protection and sustainability has been greatly minimized by the inroads of foreign cultures and religions such as Christianity and Islam. Currently, modern methods of environmental protection and sustainability have not achieved the desired goals. As a result, Ghana is at the mercy of countless forms of environmental abuses to the extent that Ghana is ranked the seventh dirtiest nation and also second in open defecation worldwide. This paper examines how the incorporation of Humanist ethical principles to integrate with the traditional Ghanaian environmental taboos and modern technological methods to salvage the continuous and relentless environmental abuses in Ghana.


Heptocelluar carcinoma is a common tumor,and transcatheter arterial chemoembolization has become the first choice for treatment. However,combined with TCM ,Clinical effect was more signifi cant. This article generalized research results about the basic syndrome type in recent years,including liver depression and spleen defi ciency,qi stagnation and blood stasis,spleen deficiency with dampness retention,dampness-heat of liver and gallbladder,and liver-kidney yin deficiency. In addition,the article summed up the dialectical therapy of Heptocelluar carcinoma. Soothing liver and invigorating spleen is mainly used,combined with resolving dampness,activating blood and removing toxin,tonifying liver and kidney. In order to broaden the treatment of the disease.


I was particularly drawn to the paper about use of ECT in Quebec, as I have been conducting a review of approaches to care for youth who do not respond to antidepressant medications. The authors describe the treatment history of several severely impaired youth, some of whom experienced benefit of ECT. This is not an intervention that child and adolescent psychiatrists typically use, as attested to by their data. Yet, there are several ongoing controlled studies about ECT and other somatic therapies for treatment refractory youth including rTMS that will be coming to the world literature in the next few years. I am appreciative of the authors' work in documenting the complexity of youth they provided ECT to, and was not surprised at the comorbidity with personality disturbance described by the authors. I hope that the new studies will consider treatments for comorbid personality disorders in these adolescents prior to declaring youth as treatment refractory.


The response of N on maize in fifteen soils viz., ten low N soils and five medium- N soils with N at 0, 67.5, 135 and 202.5 kg/ha revealed that the responses were quadratic in medium N soils and sigmoid in low N soils. The optimum dose for grain and straw yield was 148 and 173 Kg N/ha respectively in medium N soil.


Three prominent hypotheses were evaluated by testing Western infants' and adults' abilities to detect mistunings in melodies based on native Western and non‐native Javanese scales. The "innateness hypothesis" of speech perception applied to music perception suggests that infants are born with an equipotential to perceive the scales of any culture. The "naturalness hypothesis" of auditory perception suggests that the ear is best suited for processing the small‐integer frequency ratios that comprise Western scales. Finally, the "perceptual loss hypothesis" of speech perception allied to music perception proposes that the ability to perceive non‐native scales is reduced and the ability to perceive native scales is maintained from infancy to adulthood. In support of the innateness hypothesis and in contradiction of the naturalness hypothesis, 5‐ to 7‐month‐old infants did not possess a perceptual bias for either Western or Javanese scales. The perceptual loss hypothesis was weakened because, although adults p...


Extensive control algorithms have been investigated to improve the control performance for internal combustion (IC) engines about the engine speed control. However, seldom study has been devoted on researching how to improve the control effect without changing the structure of a certain control algorithm. In this paper, a variable sampling rate tracking differentiator (TD) is employed to compensate the phase delay in mean engine speed calculation and its update in crank-angle (CA) domain for CA based engine speed control. The proposed method is verified on a hard-in-loop (HIL) platform with a cycle-detailed marine diesel engine model. The results demonstrate that the control performance of the original controller is significantly improved, especially, the dynamic control performance under load disturbance. The proposed method has the function of plug-and-play, making it easy to apply in practical engine control unit (ECU) without changing structure and parameters in original control algorithm.


The development of any country depends on the prosperity of its women but they are discriminated against for ages also have been suffering from given unequal treatment in connection with prospects, privilege, rights and status in numerous socio-economic and cultural spheres in the society. The condition of Muslim women is more pathetic as most of them are most deprived, economically impoverished and educationally marginalized as compared to other communities of India. Therefore having all these views into mind the present study has been brought out to highlight the socio-economic condition of Muslim women particularly living in rural areas. It has been also attempted to analysis the major problems being currently faced by them as well as the causes of their backwardness. The study is based on primary sources of data generated through the field survey, carried out during the month of April and May 2016 through the direct interview method to the respondents with the help of questionnaire. One Muslim majority village from each block of Bijnor District has been selected. Thus out of total 11 villages 280 Muslim household have been sampled randomly consisting 445 female respondents. The overall result reveals that rural Muslim women are lagging behind in terms of education, health status, household income, household amenities and facilities, gender equality as well as work participation rate on account of higher poverty, lower literacy, inadequate health and education facilities, traditional and conservative attitude, discrimination, early marriage, and perceived sense of insecurity etc. After forgoing observation of major findings and conclusion an effort has been made possibly to draw remedial measures to overcome the problems and to empower them.


Abstract In the present investigation, a study of the electron impact mass spectrometry data is reported for seven compounds of a series of some 3-(4-chlorobenzyl)-5-benzylidene-imidazolidine-2, 4-diones and 3-(4-fluoro or chlorobenzyl)-5-benzylidene-thiazolidine-2, 4-diones previously synthesized.


Abstract : The aim of the article is to indicate the possibilities for the expansion of existing low channel sets of multiplex devices with the Z 24 cable system.


Family financial resources, which are associated with parents' occupation and educational attainment, often imply increased learning opportunities both at and in school and often result to a greater student's performance in school and their adjustment to life. This study examined the impact of parental financial commitment on the academic achievements of students with visual impairment in some selecte residential schools in the North West region of Cameron. A sample of 50 pupils and 50 parents were purposively selected as participants in the study. Of this 50 pupils 44% (n=22) were males while 66% (n= 28) were females. A questionnaire was used to coll data from parents while a focus group discussion guide was used to collect data from the pupils. The principals of the two institutions were also interviewed using an interview guide. From the result obtained it was clear that parental financial commitments significantly influence the academic achievement of persons with visual impairment. It was therefore recommended that parents should identify resources available to the family and plan their finances to suit the needs of every family member knowing that the education of children with special needs entails a lot.


The idea of a mother killing her new-born baby is horrific. On face value it would appear as one of the most atrocious criminal acts perpetrated on the most vulnerable and defenceless of victims. The reality is, however, that mothers who kill their infants often perform these horrific criminal acts as a result of their suffering from serious mental disorders frequently unknown to themselves or close family members. Postpartum psychosis is one such example. The phenomenon of postpartum psychosis has only fairly recently received attention as a mental disorder affecting mothers of new-born babies.


A series of Cp*Ir (Cp* = pentamethylcyclopentadienyl) complexes with amidated 8-aminoquinoline ligands were synthesized and tested for formic acid (FA) dehydrogenation. These complexes showed improved activities compared to pristine 8-anminquinoline (L1). Specially, amidation changed the outer coordination sphere of the complex (3) bearing N-8-quinolinylformamide (L3), and 3 was proved to be a proton-responsive catalyst. Our experimental results and DFT calculations demonstrated that the deprotonated carbanion in L3 could interact with a water molecule to stabilize the transition states and lower the reaction energy barrier, which improved the reaction activity. A turnover frequency of 206250 h-1 was achieved by 3 under optimized conditions. This study presents a method to develop new ligands and modify the existing ligands for efficient FA dehydrogenation.


Reversible logic is an emerging research area and getting remarkable interest over the past few years. Reversible computation plays an important role in the synthesis of circuits having application in quantum computing, low power CMOS design, bioinformatics and nanotechnology-based systems. Conventional logic circuits are not reversible. This paper proposes circuit realization of reversible logic gates, called New gate (NG) in all-optical domain. Semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) based Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) plays a significant role in this field of ultra fast all-optical signal processing and is used here.


The author examines the current problem of modern medicine, associated with an increase in the number of air movements of people around the planet ...


Since the 1990's Earth Summit at Rio-de-Janeiro, the concept of "sustainable architecture" appeared in the building industry to mitigate consumption of energy and resources, and diminish impact on the environment. This study suggests ecological design process as efficient methodology to realize sustainable architecture. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to adjust the concept and design principles of ecological architecture under sustainable architecture and suggest building design process using ecological approaches, and finally check possibility of ecological architecture by appling process to a example.


We present a method of data processing suitable to decrease the effects of multi-electron excitations in Zr K-edge EXAFS spectra. The information of the multi-electron excitation can be extracted and used for the correction of the atomic absorption background. We measured and analyzed several Zr K-edge X-ray absorption spectra in pure metals, compounds and glasses. The method efficiently reduces the non-structural peak in the low R range of a radial structural function. The importance of eliminating the effects of the multi-electron excitation is discussed.