A 66-year-old man presented with gradually increasing dyspnoea and reduced exercise tolerance. There was no chest pain or any other respiratory symptoms, he had never smoked and there was no occupational exposure to dusts, toxins or asbestos. He also complained of a dull pain and numbness in his left forearm, unrelated to exertion. Previous medical history included ischaemic heart disease and parkinsonism which was unresponsive to escalating therapy. Medication on presentation included aspirin 75 mg, pergolide 1 mg three times daily and two Sinemet plus three times daily. He was apyrexial and tachypnoeic (respiratory rate 32/min), oxygen saturation 89% on air, the peak expiratory flow rate was 140 litre/min, heart rate 82 beats/minute and bloot pressure 143/66 mmHg. The jugular venous pressure was not raised and there was poor lung expansion with florid, bibasal, late inspiratory crackles to the midzones. He was bradykinetic with a marked coarse, jerky resting tremor in the left upper limb with quasi-purp...


A technology was developed at the Institute of Technical Mechanics of the Academy of Sciences of and the State Space Agency of Ukraine for the production of solid–water fine-dispersed media by cavitation pulse processing of solids. A prompt and reliable analysis of the effect of the operating conditions of the cavitation pulse plant and its design parameters on the efficiency of solid particle grinding and the particle size is a topical problem. The aim of this paper is to analyze possible ways and methods for prompt particle size determination, to choose the most convenient method to be used in laboratory conditions, and to adapt it to the study of the cavitation pulse technology. Powder substances and mixtures thereof are in ever-increasing use in metallurgy, medicine, the paint and varnish industry, etc. The growing competition among manufactures of various products places more and more stringent requirements on the stability of their production and thus on the reliability of data on the characteristics of their components. Concurrent with the toughening of the requirements for the composition of fine-dispersed materials, the requirements for the promptitude of its determination become more stringent too. This is also true for the component grain-size composition. The grain-size composition of powders is the most important and often decisive factor of the way they perform in use. This paper presents a new technology of application of the sieve method to mixture composition determination. The technology is simple and reliable, needs a minimum of personnel skill, and is sufficiently accurate. Besides, two types of grain-size composition may be specified: by the product mass that has remained on the sieve and by the product mass that has passed through the sieve.


Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a common condition and a source of signifi cant morbidity and mortality. Traditional agents for the treatment and prevention of VTE include unfractionated heparin, low molecular weight heparin, and vitamin K antagonists. The limitations of these compounds, including narrow therapeutic windows, contamination by impurities, variable dose responses, lack of oral bioavailability, and need for laboratory monitoring, have created the need for newer anticoagulants. Current efforts are focused on the development of new classes of drugs that target specifi c steps in the coagulation cascade. These new drugs include direct and indirect inhibitors of activated Factor X, direct thrombin inhibitors, and novel anticoagulants. These new drugs are characterized by favorable pharmacologic profi les, dosing convenience, lack of immunogenicity, and effi cacy and safety profi les at least as favorable as those of conventional anticoagulants.


1. Gelber RH: Leprosy (Hansen's disease), In Rakel RE (Ed): Conn's Current Therapy. Philadelphia, Pa, WB Saunders, 1992, pp 76-80 2. Gelber RH: Leprosy (Hansen's disease), In Berkow R (Ed): The Merck Manual, 16th edition. Rahway, NJ, Merck Research Laboratories, 1992, pp 146150 3. Gelber RH: Leprosy (Hansen's disease), In Mandell GL, Bennett JE, Dolin R (Eds): Principles and Practice of Infectious Diseases, 4th edition. New York, NY, Churchill Livingstone, 1994 (in press) 4. WHO Study Group: Chemotherapy of leprosy for control programmes. World Health Organ Tech Rep Ser 675, 1982 5. Gelber RH, Rea TH, Murray LP, Siu P, Tsang M, Byrd SR: Primary dapsone-resistant Hansen's disease in California-Experience with over 100 Mycobacterium leprae isolates. Arch Dermatol 1990; 126:1584-1586 6. Meade TW, Pearson JMH, Rees RJW, North WRS: The epidemiology of sulfone resistant leprosy. Int J Lepr 1973; 41:684 7. Gelber RH: U.S.-Japan Cooperative Medical Science Program: Workshop on leprosy chemotherapy. Int J Lepr 1976; 44:369-373 8. Jacobson RR: Sulphone-resistant leprosy: Etiology, incidence and treatment in the United States. Int J Lepr 1973; 41:684 9. Pattyn SF: Search for effective short-course regimens for the treatment of leprosy. IntJ Lepr 1993; 61:76-81 10. Pearson JMH, Rees RJW, Waters MFR: Sulphone resistance in leprosy; A review of 100 proven clinical cases. Lancet 1975; 2:69-72 1 1. Grosset JH, Guelpa-Lauras CC, Bobin P, et al: Study of 39 documented relapses of multibacillary leprosy after treatment with rifampin. Int J Lepr 1989; 57:607-614


Prehistory It is possible to trace the history of studies on cell walls back to the time of Nehemiah Grew, who dissected plant organs and tissues, under both the naked eye and a microscope, and exhibited his observations to the Royal Society of London from May 15, 1672 to April 2, 1674 (Grew 1682). He described plant organs as being composed of cells in the same way that a tower is constructed with various types of bricks. Furthermore, he disclosed that individual cells are characterized by their respective structures, which are now termed cell walls.


Objective:To summarize the clinical and imaging characteristics of PRES and to improve the recognition of this disease.Methods:13 cases of confirmed PRES were analyzed retrospectively,including their clinical manifestations and imaging results.Results:The medical history of the 13 patients included systematic lupus erythematosus,primary hypertension,acute lymphocytic leukemia,eclampsia,idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura,and postsurgery of cervical cancer.The main clinical symptoms included seizures,conscious disturbance,visual abnormalities,headaches,and vomiting.Neuroimaging showed bilateral symmetrical abnormalities in the posterior subcortical white matter regions of the brain.Lesions displayed low density on CT and hypo-isointensity on T1WI,hyperintensity on T2WI and FLAIR.10 cases were found high signal but 3 cases found no abnormalties on DWI,all lesions were hyperintensity on ADC map.6 cases showed no enhancement and 2 cases were enhanced after contrast administration of 8 patients.There were no obviously abnormal vessels in 4 cases that underwent cranial MRA.Clinical symptoms and neuroimaging changes can be recovered completely after effective treatment.Conclusion:MRI has great value and Flair,DWI are two important methods in diagnosis and follow up in PRES patients.There are some clinical and MRI characters in patients with PRES.Combined clinical information with neuroimaging,the correct diagnosis and treatment can be made.


The purpose oC this study is to measure the impact of the economic determinants of the intemational demand for tourist services in Spain. We use a panel data set of seventeen countries over the perlad 1985-1995. By using appropriate panel data techniques we estimate the effects of real per capita income, exchange rates, and real prices on the demand fOf Spanish tourist services. The estimated elasticities are +1.40, +0.50, and -0.30, respectively. The negative effect ofthe GulfWar i8 al80 detected, with a coefficient of -0.15. These results are comparable to previous empirical studies for other countries.


Organic solid waste and the current lack of sound treatment for its valorisation are of high priority for decision makers in developing countries. Despite the remarkable use of composting processes in those areas, an appropriate scientific literature as well as databases are still lacking, hampering the sustainable implementation of composting process. This paper contributes to cover this gap, presenting a full-scale case study in Maxixe, Mozambique. Technical characteristics and detailed operational data (e.g.: process duration, frequency of pile turning, pile temperature trend) of the composting plant represent useful information that can support technicians interested in designing and operating composting plants in developing countries.


As part of the EU Nitrates Directive, leaching is monitored on farms in the Netherlands. The upper metre of groundwater, thought to best represent leaching of a previous year, is sampled yearly and analysed for nitrate. The resulting nitrate concentrations are related to farm management. This relationship is complicated by annual variations in groundwater recharge causing variations in dilution. A soil simulation model is used to quantify the variations in groundwater recharge due to annual changes in precipitation surplus. With meteorological data on evaporation and precipitation, the concentration of a hypothetical tracer in the upper metre of groundwater is modelled. The tracer concentrations are used to reduce variation in nitrate concentrations caused by the effect of changes in groundwater recharge. The resulting nitrate concentrations can be better related to farm management, especially nitrogen surplus.


To get more purified Schwann cells, we improved the common cytarabine arabinoside treatment and differential adhesion methods for primary rat Schwann cell culture. First, we used the cytosine arabinoside (Ara-c) to kill the most of fibroblasts. Second, we treated with anti-Thy-1.1 antibody and rabbit complement to remove residual fibroblasts. In addition, to avoid a large number of Schwann cells death caused by bad state of Schwann cells, we improved the concentration of anti-Thy-1.1 antibody and rabbit complement, processing duration and so on. This method could make the purity of Schwann cells increased from 90% to 99%.


The methods and models for the analysis of the radiological consequences of the design basis and severe accidents in a Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) are presented in this paper when using the system code SOCRAT. The system code SOCRAT/V3 was elaborated for a realistic analysis of radiological consequences of severe accidents in a NPP. The following models of the fission products (FP) behavior are included into the code SOCRAT/V3: (i) the condensation and the evaporation of the FP in the gaseous phase and (ii) the sedimentation, the evaporation, and the coagulation of the aerosol-shape FP. The latter processes are governed by gravity, Brownian and turbulent diffusion, thermophoresis, turbophoresis and so forth. The behavior of the FP during the loss-of-coolant accidents (LOCA) is presented to demonstrate the possibilities of the code SOCRAT/V3. The main stages of the accident (the core dryout, the core reflooding, the core degradation, the hydrogen generation, the FP release, etc.) are described. Corresponding estimations of the mass, activity, and decay heat of the suspended, settled and released into containment the FP (Xe, Te, Cs, CsI, Cs2 MoO4 , and so forth) are represent as well.Copyright © 2009 by ASME


Traditional LBG algorithm is a pure iterative optimization procedure to achieve the vector quantization (VQ) codebook, where an initial codebook is continually refined at every iteration to reduce the distortion between code-vectors and a given training data set. However, such interactive type learning algorithms will easily direct final results converging toward the local optimization while the high quality of the initial codebook is not available. In this article, an efficient heuristic-based learning method, called novel particle swarm optimization (NPSO), is proposed to design the proper codebook of VQ scheme that can develop the image compression system. To improve the performance of the basic PSO, the centroid updating machine applies the one step-size gradient descent learning step in the heuristic learning procedure. Additionally, the presented NPSO with advantages of the centroid updating machine is proposed to quickly achieve the near-optimal reconstructive image. For demonstrating the proposed NPSO learning scheme, the image with several horizontal grey bars is first applied to present the efficiency of the NPSO learning mechanism. LBG and NPSO learning methods are also applied to test the reconstructing performance in several type images "Lena," "Airplane," "Cameraman", and "peppers." In our experiments, the NPSO learning algorithm provides the higher performance than conventional LBG methods in the application of building image compression system.


The minimum fill-in problem of a graph G,stemming from sparse matrix computations and other application fields,is to find a set F of edges added such that G+F is chordal and |F| is minimized.Here the minimum value |F| is called the fill-in number of G,denoted by f(G).The problem is known to be NP-hard for general graphs.Some classes of special graphs have been investigated in the literatures.In this paper we determine the exact value of fill-in number f(G)for the series-parallel graphs.


As the competition in the media market is getting increasingly fierce,newspaper has to shift from communicator standard to audience standard for survival and development.So a large amount of news,such as popularized news and news for entertainment,flood pages,which makes readers desire more hard news.However,events that satisfy the conditions for hard news are limited.Accordingly,it is necessary to harden soft news.The focus of this paper is to explore how to harden soft news so that it is more effective and fresher.This paper analyzes the necessity of hardening soft news,its representation and existing deficiency at a deep level,and discusses the future improvement direction in news writing.


We present an approach to prototype construction and prototype change for complex object representations including visual form, metrical and categorial features as well as metrical and categorial relations. This approach is intended as a computational model for dynamic similarity-based aesthetical judgements as proposed by Carbon (2010, 2005). In the context of modeling aesthetic judgements of brand logos, we conducted a psychological experiment to determine which aspects of objects (visual, metric/abstract, featural/relational) are dominant in similarity judgements. In this work in progress report we present the psychological background and the computational model. Furthermore, we present the application domain of brand logos and the experimental results.


Economic issues in diabetes care are garnering great attention throughout the world today. This attention has been particularly pronounced in recent years. Cost issues in diabetes are of interest now because of three current and significant influences that have long-term implications. The first influence is the recognition that diabetes is a significant disease and one that is increasing. The second influence affecting diabetes economics is the advent of several new treatments and intervention strategies in diabetes care. Both pharmaceutical manufacturers and researchers have recognized the emerging epidemic of diabetes as an opportunity for change. Tremendous advances in diabetes research and care have been the result. The third influence is not specific to diabetes, but characteristic of the general prevailing winds affecting health care today. It is the worldwide push to implement health care reform. Over the last century, remarkable advances in life expectancy have been observed. As the priorities for health care have shifted from communicable diseases to noncommunicable diseases, expenditures for medical care have risen throughout the world.

Keywords:

cost of diabetes;
cost of illness;
type 1 diabetes;
type 2 diabetes;
economic costs


When the capital is transformed from the real type to the fictitious one ,the latter will be rapidly ditaled and the former will present a comparative diminution. Qualitatively the two forms are interaction ,The interaction would be benign and good to the economic development and it would also be a malignant cycle that may lead to an economic crisis; Whereas quantitatively there exist four quantitative relations between the real capital and fictions one: Spot mode , stagnancy mode , expansive mode and puffy mode .This article advocates that play to the activity of fictitious capital. it is important for us to give full in order to promote the economy . and monitor the interactive relationship between the real capital and the fictions capital.


Abstract Background:  Kremezin is an oral adsorbent that attenuates the progression of chronic renal failure by removing uremic toxins and their precursors from the gastrointestinal tract. Previously two clinical studies based on reciprocal serum creatinine levels (1/Scr) have confirmed the efficacy of Kremezin (Kureha Chemical, Tokyo, Japan) in undialyzed patients who had been followed up for 6 months or 1 year. This is the first report to evaluate the therapeutic effects of long‐term administration (2 years.) of Kremezin in undialyzed patients.


Annual fluetuation of densities and population strueture of Armases angustipes (Dana, 1852) from a rocky shore at Farol Island, Matinhos, Parana, Brazil (25o51'S and 48o32'W) were studied. The population strueture was treated in the following aspects: sexual proportion, dial intensity of activities, size composition and its fluetuation, and general condition of the crabs. The collections were made monthly, from January to December 1991. The samples were obtained handly, in the morning and at night, at the supratidal zone during low tides. There were caught 1,139 crabs, among which 34 were juveniles, 544 males, 555 females and 4 ovigerous females. Population density was highest in April (19.56 ind.m"2 ) and in October (23.86 ind.m"2 ). The sexual proportion was 1:1 in eleven months. Although the male crabs were more abundant than the females in May, there was not any statistical significam difference between the sexes. The activity of the population is intenser at night than at morning for both sexes. The recruitment of juveniles oceurs mainly in March, April and July. The condition factor in females is related to the reproduetive period. The population can migrate to the terrestrial habitat near the supratidal zone.


Even very senior doctors must be subject to the same codes of conduct, and to the same sanctions when they are breached, says seasoned whistleblower Peter Wilmshurst


Five mortars useful for filling and repair of stone masonry were tested on an experimental wall by action of frost and artificial rain. Importance of preserving free joints to avoid cracking.


Aluminum-bronze was surfacing on low carbon steel in different surfacing conditions by using reverse polarity weak plasma arc. The microstructure of surfacing layer has been studied by means of optical metallograghy and X-ray diffraction. The behavior of electrochemical corrosion in PH=8.0, 3.5% NaCl solution has been studied by using the Tafel polarization method. The results show that the corrosion of al-bronze surfacing layer performs best in 3.5% NaCl solution; when surfacing current is 90A, the al-bronze surfacing layer obtains the best corrosion resistance. Then, with the increasing of surfacing current, the corrosion resistance of surfacing layer is getting worse. The microstructure is compose of (α+γ) phase and α-phase. The (α+γ) phase suffers a dealminization preferentially, α-phase has the best corrosion resistance.


We study the systematic doping evolution of nodal dispersions by in-situ angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy on the continuously doped surface of a high-temperature superconductor Bi$_2$Sr$_2$CaCu$_2$O$_{8+x}$. We reveal that the nodal dispersion has three segments separated by two kinks, located at ~10 meV and roughly 70 meV, respectively. The three segments have different band velocities and different doping dependence. In particular, the velocity of the high-energy segment increases monotonically as the doping level decreases and can even surpass the bare band velocity. We propose that electron fractionalization is a possible cause for this anomalous nodal dispersion and may even play a key role in the understanding of exotic properties of cuprates.


The invention relates to a fusion method of SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) images and visible light images on the basis of NSCT (Non Subsampled Contourlet Transform). The fusion method is characterized by comprising the following steps of: firstly, carrying out NSCT decomposition on the SAR images and the visible light images respectively; then adopting different fusion rules to carry out fusion treatment on NSCT low-frequency and high-frequency subband coefficients, wherein according to the decomposition coefficient characteristics of noise and signals in an NSCT domain, carrying out hard-threshold denoising on the NSCT high-frequency subband coefficient of the SAR images under the maximum decomposition scale, then respectively adopting different fusion rules to carry out fusion processing on the NSCT high-frequency subband coefficient under the maximum decomposition scale and other decomposition scales by adopting the coefficients with threshold processing as the basis; and finally,carrying out NSCT reverse transformation on the fused NSCT coefficients and obtaining fused images. The fusion method takes denoising as the basis of the fusion rule design, considers noise suppression while fusion treatment is carried out, is simple and easy to operate, can be used for obtaining a good fusion effect and is especially more applicable to the SAR images and the visible light imageswith serious spot and noise pollution.


SUMMARY Direct-culture and fluorescent-antibody (FA) procedures were used for examining 550 samples of rendered animal by-products for salmonellae. Tetrathionate brilliant-green (TBG) and selenite bril liant-green sulfapyridine (SBG sulfa) enrichments incubated at 42 C respectively detected 82% and 73% of the 158 samples found positive by these two direct-culture methods. Three FA procedures were tested in parallel. TBG, SBG sulfa, and gram-negative (GN) broth, the last recommended by the USDA, were used for primary enrichment followed by subculturing for 5-6 hr in GN broth from which FA smears were prepared and brilliant green agar plates were streaked. There were 454 subcultures which were FA-positive from the three procedures used, and salmonellae were recovered from 342. Of the 150 subcultures which were FA-questionable, salmonellae were recovered from 14; and of 1,046 subcultures which were FA negative, the organism was isolated from 17. The data indicated that SBG sulfa and TBG can be substituted successfully for GN broth as the FA primary enrichment. This sub stitution resulted in greater correlation between FA results and salmonella isolations.


Abstract An inscribed late second century AD milestone has been recently re-erected on the edge of the Jordan Valley road near Tell Deir 'Alla. It provides new evidence for a road from al-Salt down to the better-known Roman route running down the Valley, probably in the modern fields to the west of the present road. In addition, Roman epigraphic references to Salt using its Hellenistic name, Gadora or Gedora, are rare if non-existent.


Have summed up the home and abroad pipeline restoring development of technology history and current situation,have emphasized the prospect having introduced principle,working procedure,technology characteristic and economic results in society adopting in the homeland to turn lining law pipeline inner lining over restoring method etc,having shown clearly application field and extension that method finally.


Explains how a contractualist moral theory can explain the moral phenomena commonly called rights, although it does not appeal to the notion of a right as a basic element of moral thinking, or explain the difference between rights violations and wrongs of other kinds. Argues that the latter failure is not an important fault.


A 20-cm-long YBCO tape fabricated by the Rolling Assisted Bi-axially Textured Substrate (RABiTS) technique was used to study the quench behavior of a second-generation high-temperature superconductor (HTS). Quench tests of the sample were performed in a conduction cooling condition with a cryocooler. The sample was subjected to a short overcurrent pulse to create normal zones, followed by a longer operating current up to the critical currents of the weaker zones of the tape. Distinctive normal zone propagation was observed for the first time on a YBCO tape. Propagation velocities of 1.4 to 8.3 mm/s were measured, which increase linearly with the current. Stability margins and a minimum propagation current were also observed. One-dimensional thermal modeling showed good agreement with the test results. [This paper is also published in Advances in Cryogenic Engineering Vol. 47A, AIP Conference Proceedings Vol. 613, pp. 457–464.]


During the interval of 1944-1997, 120 intense hurricanes (i.e., those of category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane damage potential scale) were observed in the Atlantic basin, having an annual frequency of 0-7 events per year, being more active prior to the mid 1960's than thereafter (hence a possible two-state division: more active versus less active), and being preferentially lower during El Nino years as compared to non-El Nino years. Because decadal averages of the frequency of intense hurricanes closely resemble those of average temperature anomalies for northern hemispheric and global standards and of the average temperature at the Armagh Observatory (Northern Ireland), a proxy for climatic change, it is inferred that the long-term trends of the annual frequency of intense hurricanes and temperature may be statistically related. Indeed, on the basis of 4- and 10-yr moving averages, one finds that there exists strong linear associations between the annual frequency of intense hurricanes in the Atlantic basin and temperature (specially, when temperature slightly leads). Because the long-term leading trends of temperature are now decidedly upward, beginning about the mid 1980's, it is inferred that the long-term consequential trends of the annual frequency of intense hurricanes should now also be upward, having begun near 1990, suggesting that a return to the more active state probably has already occurred. However, because of the anomalous El Nino activity of the early to mid 1990's, the switch from the less active to the more active state essentially went unnoticed (a marked increase in the number of intense hurricanes was not observed until the 1995 and 1996 hurricane seasons, following the end of the anomalous El Nino activity). Presuming that a return to the more active state has, indeed, occurred, one expects the number of seasonal intense hurricanes during the present epoch (continuing through about 2012) to usually be higher than average (i.e., greater than or equal to 2), except during El Nino-related seasons when the number usually will be less than average.


Controlled-release drug products, produced by innovative technology, require premarketing evaluation, and criteria for approval are evolving. Conditions which would cause one to consider reliance solely on bioavailability data are set forth. Examples of recent drugs are given to show why and what kind of clinical trials were performed.


Due to their high strength and low density magnesium and aluminum offer a high potential in light-weight constructions. To minimize the impact of magnesium's high corrosion sensitivity the hydrostatic extrusion process [1] is used to coat magnesium with aluminum. Thereby a bolt is pressed through a die creating a bimetal rod, Fig. 1, made up of magnesium as core material and aluminum as sleeve material, with a brittle intermetallic boundary layer between the two materials.


Mechanical valve dysfunction is a life-threatening complication in patients after mechanical valve replacement. Its risk will significantly increase when the patients have to undergo non-cardiac surgery again. In the current article, we reported a case in which a patient suffered from mechanical valve dysfunction after lumbar spine surgery under general anesthesia. Unfortunately, the patient died of heart failure at last. This article is to summarize the experience and drawbacks during preoperative preparations and anesthesia management so as to provide reference for clinical use.

Key words:
Mitral valve; Cardiac valve replacement; Mechanical valve dysfunction; Prone position; Lumbar surgery


Heat setting at high temperature will lead to yellowing of nylon/Lycra blended fabric, an antioxidant is a must during manufacturing. Detailed processing conditions and matters needing attention in washing, presetting, dyeing and drying are put forward. Anti oxidation of three agents are compared, it is said that Solpon SPDX has good effect.


Introduction (G. Walford, A. Massey). Children learning: ethnographers learning (A. Massey, G. Walford). Family literacy history and children's learning strategies at home and at school: perspectives from ethnography and ethnomethodology (E. Gregory, A. Williams). The significance of playmates in the acquisition of a second language: implications from a study of crosscultural adjustment (S. Long). Siblings as teachers: co-constructing activity settings in a Puerto Rican home (D. Volk). Becoming a proper pupil: bilingual children's experiences of starting school (M. Boyle, P. Woods). Fantasy football league: boys learning to "do boy" in a special (SEN) school classroom (S. Benjamin). Learning sex and doing gender: teenage magazines, gender enactments, and sexualities (M.J. Kehily). Learning the ropes: ethnographic accounts of within school transitions (G. Wallace et al.). Towards a "creative school": a case study from rural New South Wales (B. Cocklin).


Recent trends in CMOS based synchronous designs, such as high operating frequency and technology scaling, result in intricate clock and power management issues. NULL Convention Logic (NCL) is a clockless paradigm, which promises to tackle many issues that dominate synchronous designs. On the other hand, FinFETs have demonstrated potential to provide better power performance and controllability as technology scales down to deep-submicron region, as compared to CMOS. This paper presents multiple FinFET based implementation models of NCL static threshold gates. The performances of different models are analyzed based on propagation delay, energy consumption, and area utilization. A design guideline is also provided for efficient tradeoffs to achieve best average performance, which can be very useful in designing high-speed low-power digital applications in deep-submicron fabrication technology.


AN INVESTIGATION OF THE EFFECTS OF CONDITIONING ON TWO ABILITY ESTIMATES IN DIF ANALYSES WHEN THE DATA ARE TWO-DIMENSIONAL SEPTEMBER 1993 KATHLEEN M. MAZOR, B.A., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS M.S., EASTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY Ed.D., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor Ronald K. Hambleton Differential item functioning is present when examinees of the same ability, but belonging to different groups, have differing probabilities of success on an item. Traditionally, DIF detection procedures have been implemented conditioning on total test score. However, if there are group differences on the abilities underlying test performance, and total score is used as the matching criterion, multidimensional item impact may be incorrectly identified as DIF. This study sought to confirm earlier research which demonstrated that multidimensional item impact may be identified as DIF, and then to determine whether conditioning on multiple ability estimates would improve item classification accuracy. Data were generated to simulate responses for 1000 reference group members and 1000 focal group members to two-dimensional tests. The focal group mean on the second ability was one standard deviation less than the reference group mean. The dimensional structure of the tests, the discrimination of the items, and the correlation between the two


Meat-eating is an important aspect of human evolution, but how meat became a substantial component of the human diet is still poorly understood. Meat eating in our closest relatives, the great apes, may provide insight into the emergence of this trait, but most existing data are for chimpanzees. We report 3 rare cases of meat-eating of slow lorises, Nycticebus coucang, by 1 Sumatran orangutan mother–infant dyad in Ketambe, Indonesia, to examine how orangutans find slow lorises and share meat. We combine these 3 cases with 2 previous ones to test the hypothesis that slow loris captures by orangutans are seasonal and dependent on fruit availability. We also provide the first (to our knowledge) quantitative data and high-definition video recordings of meat chewing rates by great apes, which we use to estimate the minimum time necessary for a female Australopithecus africanus to reach its daily energy requirements when feeding partially on raw meat. Captures seemed to be opportunistic but orangutans may have used olfactory cues to detect the prey. The mother often rejected meat sharing requests and only the infant initiated meat sharing. Slow loris captures occurred only during low ripe fruit availability, suggesting that meat may represent a filler fallback food for orangutans. Orangutans ate meat more than twice as slowly as chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), suggesting that group living may function as a Published as: Hardus, M., Lameira, A., Zulfa, A., Atmoko, S., de Vries, H., Wich, S., 2012a. Behavioral, Ecological, and Evolutionary Aspects of Meat-Eating by Sumatran Orangutans (Pongo abelii). International Journal of Primatology, 1-18.


Background Insulin detemir, a long-acting basal insulin analog, is labeled for once-daily or twice-daily dosing in patients with type 1 (T1DM) or type 2 (T2DM) diabetes mellitus. Protocols for some earlier clinical studies of detemir evaluated twice-daily dosing, which may have generated the misperception that detemir should be prescribed twice daily for most patients. This review examines pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic (PK/PD), observational, and controlled studies that have evaluated once-daily and twice-daily detemir in patients with T2DM to determine the efficacy and safety of once-daily dosing. Methods PubMed was searched using the keywords "detemir," "once daily," "twice daily," and "type 2 diabetes" with the limits of clinical trial, human, and English. Results Detemir has a relatively flat time–action profile and duration of action of up to 24 hours for patients with T2DM. Once-daily dosing is the most commonly used detemir regimen reported in observational studies, and controlled clinical studies indicate that once-daily dosing controls glycosylated hemoglobin when detemir is administered alone or in combination with a prandial insulin or oral antidiabetes drugs. In comparative clinical trials, detemir had a similar time–action profile and duration of action to another long-acting insulin analog, glargine, with less within-subject variability. Once-daily detemir was associated with no weight gain or less weight gain than comparator regimens. For patients who had not achieved glycemic control with a basal dose of once-daily detemir, adding a prandial insulin provided better glycemic control, less postprandial hypoglycemia, and a lower total daily dose of detemir than twice-daily detemir. Involvement of a multidisciplinary team and the use of a holistic approach for the treatment of T2DM patients are recommended to achieve and maintain the best patient outcomes. Conclusion Results from PK/PD, observational, and controlled clinical studies support a once-daily detemir regimen alone or in combination with a prandial insulin or oral antidiabetes drugs.


A mature Holstein cow became inappetent , dehydrated and weak, with a marked drop in milk production, 17 days after a dead calf was removed by cesarean section. Laparotomy revealed adhesions among the cecum, jejunum, colon, bladder and uterus. Transection of the adhesions resulted in recovery; however, the cow was sent to slaughter a month later because of apparent recurrence of the abdominal adhesions.


. Consider a droplet of liquid on top of a grooved substrate. The wetting or not of a groove implies the crossing of a potential barrier as the interface has to distort to hit the bottom of the groove. We start with computing the free energies of the dry and wet states in the context of a simple thermodynamical model before switching to a random microscopic version pertaining to the solid-on-solid (SOS) model. For some range in parameter space (Young angle, pressure difference, aspect ratio), the dry and wet states both share the same free energy, which means coexistence. We compute these coexistence lines together with the metastable regions. In the SOS case, we describe the dynamic transition between coexisting states in wetting. We show that the expected time to switch from one state to the other grows exponentially with the free energy barrier between the stable states and the saddle state, proportional to the groove's width. This random time appears to have an exponential-like distribution. present a showing We the of the This random time is shown to have exponential-like Our study hopefully contributes to of the behavior of on structured


Large parts of the social-security contributions paid by employees and manual workers for their old-age pension insurance are something like a special tax on employment. An extensive part of the governments subsidy doesn't compensate generalized benefits of the insurance. Deallocation of economic factors, economic disequilibrium and unemployment are the results. The paper shows backgrounds and reasonable solutions of the problem.


In this article, Mn3O4 nanoparticles are prepared directly on a commercial high conductive carbon black (CB) to form a Mn3O4/carbon black composite (Mn3O4/CB) by a chemical synthesis method. The TEM results indicate that the microstructure of the Mn3O4 nanoparticles in the Mn3O4/CB composite is in good order, and they are distributed on the surface of carbon black uniformly. The electrochemical properties revealed from the rectangularity of the cyclic-voltammogram loops of the composite electrode are satisfactory. These results indicate the almost-ideal capacitive behavior of the Mn3O4/CB composite. The electrochemical tests indicate that the specific capacitance of the Mn3O4/CB composites reaches 720 F/g at the current density of 0.1 A/g in 2 M Na2SO4 solution, which is approximately 4.36 times than that of the pristine Mn3O4 (165 F/g). The Mn3O4/CB composite electrode shows excellent capacity retention (91.6%) after 5000 cycles at the current density of 30 A/g.


Viscosity of partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM)/aluminum citrate (AlCit) colloidal dispersion gel has been measured in gelation of the system. The result showed that the viscosity of HPAM/AlCit cross\|linking system increased with reaction time when the concentration of HPAM is higher, and the final viscosity of the system is higher than the viscosity of HPAM solution with same concentration of HPAM. The viscosity of HPAM/AlCit cross\|linking system is decreased with reaction time when the concentration of HPAM is lower, and the final viscosity of the system is lower than the viscosity of HPAM solution with same concentration of HPAM. When the concentration of HPAM lower than critical concentration the HPAM/AlCit cross\|linking system formed thin colloidal dispersion gel (TCDG).Under the experimental condition, the critical concentration of HPAM is between 150 and 300 mg/L. When the concentration of HPAM is between the critical concentration and 700 mg/L the HPAM/AlCit cross\|linking system formed concentrated colloidal dispersion gel (CCDG). When the concentration of HPAM is higher than 700mg/L the HPAM/AlCit cross\|linking system formed bulk gel.


Verses familiar to every young student of classics sound the refrain, Nunc est bibendum, nunc pede libero pulsanda tellus , 'It is now time to drink, time to strike the ground with a foot that nothing holds back any more.' But from just what fear was Rome now delivered? Horace was writing close to the imperial milieu. The ode is an immediate echo, almost live, of the birth of the foundation myth of the empire that Octavian, the future Augustus, wanted to impose on Roman opinion and on future historians. The mortal threat to Rome which Octavian averted came from a monstrum fatale , a 'monster capable of forcing fate', a queen who was preparing the ruin of Rome and the destruction of an empire still in embryo. Fortunately, the myth goes, Octavian defeated her in Actium, which otherwise would have been the last stage before her sacrilegious conquest of Italy. However, it was only half a victory for Octavian: Cleopatra escaped from the encircling. To chain her up, Octavian – Horace wrote – swept down upon her like the hawk upon doves or the hunter upon a hare, two at least debatable images. Horace hides neither his admiration for the queen nor his misogyny: she did not behave like a weak woman; she faced up to defeat and refused to flee from Alexandria at the arrival of the enemy.


Fusion and analysis of urban big data is the key to achieving city intelligence. Specifically, to solve for the complex urban problems, it is imperative to build an immersive and interactive visual analytics environment where humans can make sense of out of the otherwise disconnected and abstract data. The state of the art and challenges in urban big data were summarized, and then a work flow for urban data analysis and the trend in the future intelligent city were presented.


Abstract This paper discusses Wittgenstein's conception of grammatical investigations and shows how such an investigation, rightly understood, can elucidate the concept of pain. Philosophical attention to the concept of pain tends to lead philosophers in very different directions. A certain set of examples of uses of the concept might lead your thinking "outwards" towards behaviourism, whereas another set of examples might lead you inwards. I develop an understanding of grammatical investigations that does not hide complexities of language, arguing that grammar is as complex as the phenomenon of pain is. In divergence with e.g. Peter Hacker, I try to show how "grammatical investigations" cannot result in rules for the correct uses of language. The formulation of such rules tends to come together with a 'one-sided diet' (PI § 593). In contrast, I argue that what pain can teach us about grammar is that grammar, in Wittgenstein's sense, is not, and cannot be, regulatory, and that it is the elasticity of a concept, if anything, that is its essence.


Mobile Learning has become a new field in e-learning and how to evaluate the quality and usability of mobile learning course (m-course) appears to be one of the valuable topics. In this research, we attempt to introduce the principle and processes of usability testing on m-course, and take Data Structure m-course as a study case to share our experience on the testing. We also analyze and explain results of this testing, with the hope that the others can improve their m-course design on our work.


From the structural features of the heating furniture,furniture residential buildings with water dike implicit folk origins and cultural values,it is for us to tell the story Wanxi Fengle River furniture heating value of intangible cultural heritage.From the local natural and cultural resources as a starting point,combined with furniture timber,structural,environmental and other factors,it explored the cultural resources and the basic characteristics of heating furniture in the folk history under the West Anhui region-specific circumstances,and on how to protect this intangible cultural heritage excavated to provide heating and furniture ideas.


GROUNDWATER levels in the Burdekin Haughton Water Supply Scheme area (BHWSS) have been consistently rising at about 500 mm/annum, since the development of 40 000 ha of additional irrigation land within the Burdekin River Irrigation Area (BRIA). During 2007 Davco Farming, alarmed by the continued rise in groundwater levels, applied for and was granted, $670 000 through the Regional and Community Projects (RCP), under the Sugar Industry Reform Programme 2004, for a project titled Managed utilisation of elevated salinity groundwater to control rising water tables and improve cane yield. The primary objective of this project was to show if rising groundwater levels could be arrested by intensive pumping on the Davco Farming property. This site was seen as strategically important, since the property spans over 12 km east to west and its long axis is perpendicular to most of the groundwater flow as it moves from the upslope zones of the BRIA to the sea. These funds, along with over $1.2 million of Davco Farming monies, have been invested in resistivity studies by Charles Sturt University, additional groundwater drilling, pumping infrastructure, a network of data-logged observation bores, Dualem mapping, and the installation of lysimeters to measure deep drainage losses on a test field. The results from this work will provide other Burdekin growers with additional information on ways to deal with rising groundwater, the effects of conjunctive water use strategies on both the crop and soil characteristics, and the likely costs involved. Only 5339 ML were pumped in the 2009–2010 year. It seems likely that increased volumes of water will need to be pumped to show if the Davco groundwater project is having an influence on regional groundwater levels. Initial results suggest the increased usage of saline waters has had no negative impacts on soil structure or sugarcane yields.


The aim of this study was to validate the psychometric properties of Self-talk questionnaire-Vietnamese version, which originally developed by Zervas et al., 2007 (21). For the construct validity, data from 121 collegiate athletes, who studied in Hochiminh City University of Sport, was examined by using factor analysis (exploratory and confirmatory). Like the original Self-talk questionnaire, the results from EFA also pointed out two-factor solution as motivational and cognitive (21). The CFA's results demonstrated that all indices [ χ 2 = 46.78, df = 39, χ 2 / df = 1.20, RMSEA = .04; SRMR = .06; NNFI = .97; CFI = .98] met the goodness-of-fit standard. The results of Cronbach's alpha coefficient and intra-class correlation coefficient were fully acceptable for a new instrument. In conclusion, the S-TQ Vietnamese version can be used to identify the cognitive and motivational functions of self-talk in Vietnamese athletes.


Z. Fine needle aspiration cytology for soft tissue tumours of the hand. J Hand Surg Br. 2003, 28: 582–5. Rao AS, Vigorita VJ. Pigmented villonodular synovitis (giant-cell tumor of the tendon sheath and synovial membrane). A review of eighty-one cases. J Bone Joint Surg Am. 1984, 66: 76–94. Ushijima M, Hashimoto H, Tsuneyoshi M, Enjoji M. Giant cell tumor of the tendon sheath (nodular tenosynovitis). A study of 207 cases to compare the large joint group with the common digit group. Cancer. 1986, 57: 875–84.


Abstract Research in forest and grassland ecosystems worldwide indicates that terrestrial invertebrates can be a significant source of prey for fish, providing about 50% of their annual energy. We examined whether input of terrestrial invertebrates to rangeland streams in western Wyoming provides an important prey resource for brown trout Salmo trutta and brook trout Salvelinus fontinalis and how it is modified by livestock grazing. During summers of 2004 and 2005 we sampled falling invertebrate input and trout diets in five pairs of streams that had riparian zones under two different grazing systems: High-density, short-duration (HDSD) grazing versus season-long (SL) grazing. The biomass of riparian vegetation and the input of terrestrial invertebrates were two to three times greater in reaches with riparian zones under HDSD than under SL grazing management. Likewise, the afternoon diets of individual trout in HDSD reaches had, on average, about twice as much terrestrial invertebrate biomass during summe...


arriving at a reasonable use of the capital initial letter in accordance with logic and with latin grammar. As a result of the heterogeneity of the epithets there remained, sometimes, disagreement about the use of the capital or the small letter for some classes: so, considering only the last half century, we see, for instance, that, while some authors use the capital letter for names of persons, for geographical names, and for names of genera, others restrict the use to the first two, or to the first only of these classes. And even the International Code of Botanical Nomen-


It is well known that the sphere S 6 (1) admits an almost complex structure J which is nearly Kähler. A submanifold M of an almost Hermitian manifold is called a CR submanifold if it admits a differentiable almost complex distribution D 1 such that its orthogonal complement is a totally real distribution. In this case the normal bundle of the submanifold also splits into two distributions D 3 , which is almost complex, and a totally real complement. In the case of the proper three-dimensional CR submanifold of a six-dimensional manifold the distribution D 3 is non-trivial. Here, we investigate three-dimensional CR submanifolds of the sphere S 6 (1) admitting an umbilic direction orthogonal to D 3 and show that such submanifolds do not exist.


The Institution of Civil Engineers holds one of the largest and oldest collections of civil engineering photographs and drawings in the world. A new online service is making access for practitioners and researchers even easier, says librarian Rose Marney.


Influenza virus envelope proteins incorporated into immunostimulating complexes (iscoms) are taken up and processed by various kinds of antigen‐presenting cells (APC), encompassing peritoneal cells (PEC), unfractionated splenocytes, splenic dendritic cells (DC) or B cells. The iscom‐pulsed naive APC stimulated primed T cells to proliferate and produce cytokine in vitro. In contrast, only DC and B cells pulsed with the same antigen (Ag) in the micelle form functioned as accessory cells stimulating the primed T cells to proliferate and produce cytokine. In general, iscoms were better inducers of cell proliferation than micelles, Iscoms stimulated more secretion of IL‐2 and interferon‐gamma (IFN‐γ) than the micelles, but both antigenic forms stimulated secretion of IL‐4. DC and B cells pulsed with iscoms stimulated most efficiently the secretion of IL‐2 and IFN‐γ, DC were superior to the other APC in stimulating primed T cells to secrete IFN‐γ. On the other hand, micelles stimulated more efficiently than iscoms splenic T cells from micelle‐primed as well as iscom‐primed mice to secrete IL‐10, These data indicate that influenza virus envelope proteins incorporated in iscoms stimulate a broad T cell response, possibly emphasizing a Thl type of response. The same Ag in a micelle form induce a more prominent Th2 type of T cell response. The results indicate that the administration of an Ag in an adjuvant formulation can superimpose a different cytokine profile on the immune response than that induced by the protein Ag alone.


Chronic kidney disease (CKD) has emerged as a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Interstitial fi brosis, glomerulosclerosis and in fl ammation play the central role in the pathogenesis and progression of CKD to end stage renal disease (ESRD). Transforming growth factor- β 1 (TGF- β 1) is the central mediator of renal fi brosis and numerous studies have focused on inhibition of TGF- β 1 and its downstream targets for treatment of kidney disease. However, blockade of TGF- β 1 has not been e ff ective in the treatment of CKD patients. This may be, in part due to anti-in fl ammatory e ff ect of TGF- β 1. The Smad signaling system plays a central role in regulation of TGF- β 1 and TGF- β /Smad pathway plays a key role in progressive renal injury and in fl ammation. This review provides an overview of the role of TGF- β /Smad signaling pathway in the pathogenesis of renal fi brosis and in fl ammation and an e ff ective target of anti- fi brotic therapies. Under pathological conditions, Smad2 and Smad3 expression are upregulated, while Smad7 is downregulated. In addition to TGF- β 1, other pathogenic mediators such as angiotensin II and lipopolysaccharide activate Smad signaling through both TGF- β -dependent and in- dependent pathways. Smads also interact with other pathways including nuclear factor kappa B (NF- κ B) to regulate renal in fl ammation and fi brosis. In the context of renal fi brosis and in fl ammation, Smad3 exerts pro- fi brotic e ff ect, whereas Smad2 and Smad7 play renal protective roles. Smad4 performs its dual functions by transcriptionally promoting Smad3-dependent renal fi brosis but simultaneously suppressing NF- κ B-mediated renal in fl ammation via Smad7-dependent mechanism. Furthermore, TGF- β 1 induces Smad3 expression to regulate microRNAs and Smad ubiquitination regulatory factor (Smurf) to exert its pro- fi brotic e ff ect. In conclusion, TGF- β /Smad signaling is an important pathway that mediates renal fi brosis and in fl ammation. Thus, an e ff ective anti- fi brotic therapy via inhibition of Smad3 and upregulation of Smad7 signaling constitutes an attractive ap- proach for treatment of CKD.


A digital orbit feedback system is being developed for SPEAR to improve electron beam stability at photon beam sourcepoints. The first phase implementation of this system operates at 1 minute intervals and stabilizes the horizontal and vertical orbit position to 50 /spl mu/m RMS at beam position monitors. The vertical global system works in tandem with local 50 Hz analog photon beam steering systems to stabilize photon beam position and angle. We are now developing the second phase system which will execute a unified global/local, 30-50 Hz vertical orbit feedback algorithm digitally. In this paper, we discuss design and performance of orbit monitoring, signal processing, and orbit correction components for the digital feedback systems.


The extensive research in the field of multimodal biometrics by the research community and the advent of modern technology has compelled the use of multimodal biometrics in real life applications. Biometric systems that are based on a single modality have many constraints like noise, less universality, intra class variations and spoof attacks. On the other hand, multimodal biometric systems are gaining greater attention because of their high accuracy, increased reliability and enhanced security. This research paper proposes and develops a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) based model for the feature level fusion of fingerprint and online signature. Two types of feature level fusion schemes for the fingerprint and online signature have been implemented in this paper. The first scheme named early fusion combines the features of fingerprints and online signatures before the fully connected layers, while the second fusion scheme named late fusion combines the features after fully connected layers. To train and test the proposed model, a new multimodal dataset consisting of 1400 samples of fingerprints and 1400 samples of online signatures from 280 subjects was collected. To train the proposed model more effectively, the size of the training data was further increased using augmentation techniques. The experimental results show an accuracy of 99.10% achieved with early feature fusion scheme, while 98.35% was achieved with late feature fusion scheme.


The subject of the thesis is firstly to add to the understanding of the notion of intensional equality in process setting which is a complementary notion to the extensional equality and secondly to give an intensional set-theoretic semantics for processes in -structures which allows non-well-founded sets for modelling self-reference. The intensional equality allows to distinguish processes by their (syntactic) definition even if their observable behavior; i.e. their extension is equal. As a result, one can distinguish for example a wellterminating process from a deadlock one. Intensional aspects can be encoded by an additional sorting discipline. The operational semantic of sorted processes is given in terms of sorted labelled transition systems (LTS's). The abstract denotational semantics is defined by an interpretation of LTS's in -structures which on one hand respect the sorting and on the other hand model recursive processes without any additional topological constructions. The general semantic definition of LTS's in -structures is introduced into the dyadic interaction calculus of Honda and Abramsky's lazy λ-calculus as two exemplary applications in order to get an unified framework.


Soil water (θ) dynamics are important parameters to monitor in any field-based drought research. Although apparent electrical conductivity (ECa) measured by electromagnetic (EM) induction has been used to estimate θ, little research has shown its successful application at the plot-scale for evaluating crop water use. An EM38 conductivity meter was used to collect time-lapse ECa data at the plot scale across a field cropped with 36 different chickpea genotypes. An empirical multiple linear regression model was established to predict θ measured by neutron probes and depth-specific electrical conductivity (σ) generated by a 1-D EM inversion algorithm. Soil water dynamics and movement were successfully mapped with a coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.87 and root-mean-square-error of 0.037 m3 m−3. The rate of soil drying varied with depth and was influenced by chickpea growth stages and genotypes. The results were also used to evaluate the differences in soil water use and rooting depths within- and across-plant species and during the growth stages. Coupled with physiology measurements, the approach can also be used to identify mechanisms of drought tolerance in the field and screening for effective water use in crop breeding programs.


Abstract The development of the flow around a circular cylinder with a smaller diameter control rod in close proximity is the subject of this paper. It has long been known that this is an effective way to attenuate regular vortex shedding leading to reductions in its adverse effects on bluff-body flow. The aim of this study is to improve understanding of the ways the control rod affects the near-wake flow including how it influences the positions of boundary layer separation. Experiments were carried out in a water channel to measure lift and drag forces and particle image velocimetry (PIV) was employed to obtain detailed information on flow structure. The values of important properties were fixed as follows: Reynolds number, 20 000; ratio of cylinder and control rod diameters, 10 : 1; centre-to-centre distance between main cylinder and control rod, 0.7$D$ (where $D$ is the main cylinder diameter). The adjustable parameter was the angular position of the rod, $\theta$, which was varied between $90^{\circ }$ and $180^{\circ }$ from the front stagnation line. Lift and drag forces were measured separately for the main cylinder and the control rod. A new method for identifying flow states is introduced using PIV to interrogate the instantaneous flow velocity in the gap between the main cylinder and the control rod. Similarly to previous studies, three stable flow states were observed together with a bistable state. The bistable state is very sensitive to the control rod angle with a small change of ${\pm }1^{\circ }$ being sufficient to change the flow state.


A novel image enhancement technique suitable for low light level image, dualistic sub image enhancement based on two dimensional histogram analysis and histogram equalization, is presented. Firstly, the low light level image is segmented to two sub images according to the correlation between the neighboring pixels, which is based on the two dimensional histogram analysis. Then each sub image is enhanced based on histogram equalization. Finally, the processed sub images are composed into one image. The result indicates that the algorithm can not only enhance image information effectively but also keep the fine part of original low light level image well. And this algorithm eliminates the drawback of traditional histogram that the fine part is not easy to control and protect. This is meaningful for low light level night vision technology.


In the face of the destruction of the global environment, the degradation of world-wide natural resources and the exhaustion of energy sources in the 21st century, we must establish a sustainable society. Development of high-efficiency solar cells is one of the key technologies to solve the problems of the global environment and energy to aim at sustaining human development and providing high living standards.


Background: Although COVID-19 has been a global crisis, respecting no boundaries, the burden and number of cases have been much lower in numerous African countries than initially feared. The reason for considerable cross-country variability across the continent remains undiscovered. Accordingly, the present study investigated the potential country-level factors associated with the COVID-19 burden in Africa Materials & Methods: Guided by emerging empirical findings, the rapidly evolving literature, and relevant theoretical frameworks, a unique cross-sectional dataset comprising 54 African countries were constructed. Descriptive statistics, correlation analyses, and multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine critical factors associated with COVID-19 deaths in Africa. Results: The obtained data suggested that population density was negatively and significantly associated with COVID-19-induced deaths; however, the median age presented a positive, and significant association with COVID-19-related deaths. Other explored factors, such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita, global connectivity, DTP immunization coverage, the percentage of seats in parliament held by women, and political regime type demonstrated no significant relationship with COVID-19-related deaths. Conclusion: The global empirical analyses have indicated that an array of socio-economic, demographic, political, and health-related factors may be associated with COVID-19 burden; however, the present study indicated that population density and median age were associated with COVID-19-induced deaths in Africa.


[Objective]To evaluate intraocular penetration of intravenously administered ciprofloxacin in the human eyes when blood-aqueous barriers are normal.[Methods]Thirty patients undergoing cataract surgery were perfused with ciprofloxacin (200 mg) prior to ocular surgery and another 15 patients as a control. Aqueous humor was collected at surgery in all eyes, and the protein concentration of aqueous humor was measured by biuret conorimetric method. Ciprofloxacin concentration of aqueous humor were assayed by high-performance liquid chromatograph (RP-HPCL) simultaneously.[Result]The protein concentration of aqueous humor in the patients with cataract was(0.067 ± 0.037)g/L,and the ciprofloxacin of aqueous humor in experimental group was(0.172 ± 0.060)μg/mL.[Conclusion]The blood-aqueous barriers of the patients with cataract are basially normal. Ciprofloxacin level of aqueous humor after intravenous injection was below the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC90) for most of the common microorganisms causing endophthalmitis in basially normal blood-aqueous barriers,so intravenously administered ciprofloxacin alone may not be adequate for perioperative prophylaxis.


IP Manager is a model that analyses the importance of the intellectual property from a managerial point of view, especially within the innovative organizations, thus creating the context for the human resources awareness towards the new regulations that come alongside a knowledge-based society. The new vision of the organizations that are active in the education industry regarding the usage of new technologies will catch up very fast within the youngsters, but it won't limit to them, because of the need to develop the necessary skills for the future job. The mission of innovative organization will consist in a bigger responsibility from all the IT users inside the organization for the protection of intellectual property and for them to participate in the process of knowledge-adding. The population living standard is positively related to the protection and development of the human creativity, as an example can be visualized inside an organization through the management of databases. The model core is based on the internal rules of procedure, which will present the rules that the internal and external users (with different levels of authorization) of the organization's database need to follow. The methods for securing the information are useful only if the human capital has been specially trained and the risk of information leaking into the organization business environment. The entire activity of the human capital will be updated to the new vision: job description, personal development programs and the evaluation criteria.


The present study investigation of descriptive type, correlational of traverse court, carried out at the National Educational Institution Victor Andres Belaunde de Trujillo - 2016; with the aim of determining the relationship of addiction to Internet networks and affectation in social skills: assertiveness, communication, self-esteem and decision-making in adolescents. The sample consisted of 220 adolescents from first to fifth high school. For data collection, two instruments were used: the questionnaire on Addiction to Social Networks elaborated by Escurra and Salas (2014) and the Social Skills Assessment Test developed by MINSA and the Honorio Delgado Institute of Mental Health (1998). The obtained information was processed and analyzed in the program SPSS version 21 and presented in single and double entry tables, to determine the relationship between the variables the Chi square statistical test was used. Concluding that: 25.5% of adolescents do not present addiction, 28.2% have mild addiction, 22.3% moderate addiction and 24.1% severe addiction. In social skills, 57.3% presented average assertiveness, 48.6% average communication, 44.1% average self-esteem and 78.2% average decision-making, with a significant relationship between internet addiction and social skills
Keywords: Addition to internet networks and social skills.


Objective Explore and summarize the early clinical effectiveness of treatment by RF with clustered electrode technique. Methods 31 cases of hepatocarcinoma were treated by RF, we observed the results by comparing preoperative and postoperative image data,tumor size,symptom,liver function,immunity and AFP value.31 cases 7d postoperatively and 10 cases 30d postoperatively underwent ultrasonography and CT scanning. Results The tumor size decreased 30% in 80% patients 7d postoperatively. The size decreased 40% in all patients 30d postoperatively. The symptom abated in 84% patients,AFP value decreased in 77 8% patients, liver function recovered to normal, blood albumin increased by an average of 2 0g/L, weight increased by an average of 5 6 kg,T\|lymphocyte transforming rate increased by an average of 21%,IgG increased by an avergage of 2 0g/L 30d postoperatively, no operative death. Conclusion The treatment of hepatocarcinoma by RF with clustered electrode has wide indications and significant early effects,it is safety and reliability. [


Hyperaccumulation of nickel (Ni) in certain plants may play a role in drought resistance under water stress. This article tests the influence of water stress on the Ni-hyperaccumulating shrub Hybanthus floribundus Lindl. F.Muell. subsp. floribundus. Plants grown in 1000 mg kg−1 Ni-amended Clastic Rudosol were exposed to five levels of soil water potentials (−33 [field capacity], −60, −400, −600, and −1000 kPa) for 12 wk. Water stress did not induce significant changes in growth rate, relative water content, rates of gas exchange, or carbon isotope discrimination. Water use efficiency (WUE) values were approximately threefold lower in plants at water potentials <−400 kPa than they were in those at water potentials of −33 kPa. Low WUE values suggest that this species possesses an efficient water conservation mechanism that enables its survival in competitive water-limited environments. A 38% decline in water potential and a 68% decline in osmotic potential occurred between −1000- and −33-kPa water potentials (), indicating that osmotic adjustment (OA) may have provided turgor maintenance in response to increasing water stress. However, Ni concentration in plants did not significantly increase in response to decreasing water potentials and is therefore unlikely to play a role in OA.


Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are 30-150 nm in diameter and are released by cells into the extracellular environment. They facilitate intercellular communication and may be involved in cell survival. Although serum-dependent cells are not obviously affected by depletion of EVs from the serum, we previously reported that cells in serum that contain EVs were more resistant to the drugs, enoxacin and bis-enoxacin, compared to cells in serum without EVs. This change in resistance led us to examine whether EVs are sufficient to maintain serum dependent cells in vitro. Here, we tested the effect of EVs on the survival RAW 264.7 cells and on 4T1 murine breast cancer cells. EVs were isolated by differential centrifugation. EVs were counted over various time periods. Cells were grown in alpha or Dulbecco's minimal essential media supplemented with FBS, EVs from various sources, or with no supplements. Cell growth was determined by cell counts. In media without supplementation, the RAW 264.7 cells and 4T1 cells died by three days. Media supplemented with EVs from FBS allowed the cells to survive in the absence of FBS for one week or more.  Being able to perform experiments on cells supported by EVs will simplify the interpretation of experiments. Efforts are underway to determine their mechanism by which EVs support cell survival.


Cellulose was extracted from the roots, stems and stem tips of Salicornia brachiata Roxb. Each crude cellulose sample obtained was fractionated into α- and β-celluloses. The yields of crude cellulose from the stems and stem tips were greatest and lowest, respectively, while the yields of α- and β-celluloses were in the order, roots > stems > stem tips. The cellulose samples were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), solid state cross polarisation magic angle spinning carbon-13 nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (CP/MAS 13C NMR), X-ray diffraction pattern (XRD), thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The data were compared with those of the celluloses (predominantly α-cellulose) isolated from Whatman filter paper No. 4 (WFP).


The ultimate capacity of containment is one of the most important parameters in evaluating the safety and reliability of the containment. By applying 0 ~ 3 times of design internal pressure,the global nonlinear analysis on the 3D-solid containment model embedded with pre-stress tendons is performed under gravity and pre-stress loads. As to the failure predictions based on failure criteria,two phases of failure criteria in predicting the ultimate capacity of containment are proposed,including the functional failure and the structural failure. The calculation results show that,when the internal pressure increases to 1. 83 times of design pressure,the most of the concrete cracks and the liner reaches the yield state,and the containment reaches functional failure; when the internal pressure increases to 2. 16 times of design pressure,the pre-stress tendons reach the yield state,and the containment reaches structural failure.


We analyze the renormalon ambiguities that appear in factorization formulas in QCD. Our analysis contains a simple argument that the ambiguities in the short-distance coefficients and operator matrix elements are artifacts of dimensional-regularization factorization schemes and are absent in cutoff schemes. We also present a method for computing the renormalon ambiguities in operator matrix elements and apply it to a computation of the ambiguities in the matrix elements that appear in the NRQCD factorization formulas for the annihilation decays of {ital S}-wave quarkonia. Our results, combined with those of Braaten and Chen for the short-distance coefficients, provide an explicit demonstration that the ambiguities cancel in the physical decay rates. In addition, we analyze the renormalon ambiguities in the Gremm-Kapustin relation and in various definitions of the heavy-quark mass. {copyright} {ital 1999} {ital The American Physical Society}


This study develops an alternative way of identifying the heterogeneity of WTP estimates for product attributes. The alternative approach combines mixed logit models with a latent segmentation method (MLS). First, the combined MLS approach estimates a mixed logit model and retrieve individual specific parameter estimates based on individual specific posterior distribution derived from the individual sequence of observed choices in the conjoint experiments. Second, WTPs of each choice variables are computed for each individual using the marginal rate of substitution between economic and choice variables. Finally, latent segmentation is conducted based on WTPs, individual perceptions on quality attributes, and demographic characteristics, and WTPs are compared among segments. The MLS approach is applied for estimating willingness to pay for beef quality attributes and country-of-origin in the Korea market. The MLS approach allows us to identify various clusters based on people's preferences and demographics, and provide estimates of willingness to pay for beef quality attributes and country-of-origin for these clusters.


China's economy has gradually stepped into the surplus one since the reform and open-door policy was carried out.The product orientation is of vital importance for the manufacturers.The reasonable orientation requires deep research on the consume preference and prevent from entering wrong orientation.Then enterprises can stand indefectible position in the competitions.


5090 Background: Eribulin mesylate is a novel tubulin inhibitor which suppresses microtubule growth without affecting depolymerization, sequestering tubulin into non-functional aggregates. In NIH:OVCAR-3 human epithelial ovarian cancer xenograft models, eribulin increased survival and reduced size and number of metastases, with activity superior to paclitaxel. We sought to determine the frequency of objective response to treatment with eribulin in women with platinum-sensitive recurrent ovarian cancer.

METHODS
Patients with recurrent, platinum-sensitive (progression-free interval from last platinum > 6 months) epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube, or primary peritoneal cancer who had measurable disease, ≤ 2 prior cytotoxic regimens, ECOG performance status 0-1, and adequate organ function were eligible.

TREATMENT
eribulin 1.4 mg/m2 over 15 minutes by vein days 1 and 8, every 21 days. Response assessed by computed tomography every other cycle.

RESULTS
37 patients enrolled, median age 60 (range 45-77), median platinum-free interval 10 months (range 6.5-45). All 37 patients were evaluable for response, with partial response (PR) achieved in 7 (19%), and stable disease in 20 (54%). Rustin criteria CA125 response was observed in 11/31 (35%) of patients with CA125-evaluable disease. Median progression-free survival was 4.1 months (95% confidence interval, 2.8-5.8 months). Grade 3 or 4, at least possibly treatment-related, adverse events for platinum-sensitive patients included: neutropenia 54%, leucopenia 3%, lymphopenia 5.4%, pain 8%, generalized muscle weakness 5.4%, elevated liver enzymes 5.4%, thrombosis 2.7%, hyperglycemia 2.7%, hyponatremia 2.7%, hypophosphatemia 2.7%, hypomagnesemia 2.7%, diarrhea 2.7%, and ataxia 2.7%.

CONCLUSIONS
Eribulin achieved objective response in 19% of platinum-sensitive epithelial ovarian cancer patients. Median progression free survival was 4.1 months.


A conceptual apparatus is proposed for the analysis of scientific re‐presentations. Its central concept is that of inscriptions, scientific re‐presentations in the form of numbers, tables, diagrams, and graphs inscribed on paper or in electronic media. Scientists translate inscriptions through series of other inscriptions and thereby construct cascades of inscriptions. The usefulness of this conceptual apparatus is illustrated by means of a microanalysis of one physics lecture. The analysis reveals that what superficially appears to be an ordinary lecture involves many translations of a phenomenon into ontologically distinct re‐presentations. It is conjectured that these translations are not transparent to many physics newcomers and therefore impede their understanding and learning.


In 1961 President Dwight Eisenhower warned his fellow Americans of the rise of the 'military-industrial complex' - in effect a network of political, military and commercial interests (the mass media should also be added) that benefit from preparing for war. The participants were not necessarily warlike; it was simply they could make a lot of money out of defence preparations. In a 1986 doctoral dissertation I argued that there should be a 'peace-industrial complex', drawn from organisations that make money out of peace, to create the necessary political will to encourage a reduction in weapons and to find alternative ways of settling disputes. In this article I revisit this proposition for a Peace-Industrial Complex.IntroductionAmerican presidents leaving office deliver a 'farewell address' to Congress and the nation. Most addresses are quickly forgotten. But Eisenhower's 1961 address has lived on. The most famous phrase (not least because it came from a moderate conservative politician with a military career) was a warning about the creation of a 'military-industrial complex'. Eisenhower had seen in his lifetime how the US had been transformed from a country with a small standing army to one then having the largest permanent military force in world history.The complex has gathered momentum. Defence contractors are scattered across the US so that any attempt to reduce military expenditure would affect the constituency of a member of the House of Representatives (who are elected every two years) and so provide an incentive to that politician to lobby to retain the contract. The mass media are also conscripted to provide periodic 'scares'. For example, there was the 1959-1960 speculation over the Soviet-US 'missile gap' in which the US was said to be behind the USSR in developing missiles; it was not.In 1986 I argued in my doctoral dissertation that there should be a 'peace-industrial complex' to reply to the other complex (Suter 1986). It would be drawn from the peace movement and companies that make money out of peace. The basic ideas were circulated in various publications (and are now on Wikipedia), but little has come from the idea. This article summarises some of the main arguments for such a complex to be created and speculates on why so little came of it.Arguments for a Peace-Industrial ComplexMy research examined the failure to end the military arms race between the US and Soviet Union and went on to provide some alternative proposals to that arms race. In the early part of the dissertation I examined how the arms race could be negotiated via a graduated reciprocal reduction in tension (that is, the opposite process to how the arms race increased) and I provided some basic ideas for general and complete disarmament (first proposed in McKnight and Suter 1983).The problem, it seemed to me, was not so much a lack of ideas for disarmament but a lack of political will to disarm. I therefore saw the creation of a peace-industrial complex as a way of generating political will. Various claims have been made about the role of money in shaping (if not corrupting) US politics and so I thought that perhaps that same reasoning could be applied to ending the arms race: corporations could use their influence in the interests of peace.Not all companies make money by preparing for conflict; indeed most companies benefit from peace. An example comes from the life of Joan Kroc (1928-2003), widow of the McDonald's CEO Ray Kroc. She was a supporter of the US peace movement (and Australian peace activist Dr Helen Caldicott) and in her will leftUS$50million to the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, USA for the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace Studies. Her argument and concerns were that in the event of World War III there would not be a market for fast food.Hence, it was necessary to tap into other businesses that also benefit from peace. It is the case that not every company has military contracts - in fact most do not. …


LBNL-40560 UC-410 E R N E S T DRLANDD LAWRENCE B E R K E L E Y NATIONAL L A B O R A T O R Y Atomic Holography with Electrons and X-rays: Theoretical and Experimental Studies Patrick M . L e n Materials Sciences Division RECEIVED r J u n e 1997 OCT 0 8 1397 1 r t f t Ph.D. Thesis DWRAfflON OF T I D C M N I H S O U E T S ©ST IMMm I


From construction plan arrangement,temporary engineering,auxiliary engineering,etc.,it discusses on the importance of the reasonable road project space construction organization design to the program in the phase of road construction graph,and points out that it is the reference to calculate the material budget single price and earth single price accurately.


Many publications have studied the various issues concerning Java Cards security regarding software and/or hardware attacks. However, it is surprising to notice that the particular case of exception-related mechanisms has not been tackled yet in the literature. In this article, we fill this gap by proposing several attacks against Java Card platforms based on both exception handling and exception throwing. In addition, this study allows us to point out that a weakness known by the web-oriented Java community for more than a decade still passes the different steps of the state-of-the-art Java Card application deployment process (namely conversion and verification). This appears all the more important as the Java Card 3 Connected Editionspecifications have started to bridge the gap between the two worlds that are Java Cards and Java web services.


Eddy current induced electromagnetic (EM) loads during plasma events are the design driver for ITER port plug (PP) structure, diagnostic first wall (DFW), shield module (DSM) and diagnostic system supported by the PP structure. Generic models using commercial software OPERA, MAXWELL and ANSYS are developed and benchmarks are performed for global EM analysis to obtain port-specific design driving EM loads. The 20 degree vessel sector models of the upper and equatorial PP structure take the same ITER TF, CS and PF coil and plasma current (15 MA baseline plasma scenario) as input, then solve for eddy current induced on all passive structural components for various DINA disruption cases. The worst load case can be exponential decay or linear decay of plasma current depending on the dimension and location of diagnostic components inside the PPs. Static and transient magnetic fields from generic models are mapped onto an excel datasheet to establish component design load specification. Three levels of modeling effort are suggested. The global model analysis is used to validate the impact of component design to the PP global system response as well as to study its component dynamic effect as a result of the disruption loads on the PP structure. The local sub-model analysis can be used to extract more accurate EM loads on diagnostics and the excel datasheet of static and transient field maps are used as the initial design load specification for in-port components.


In the summer of 1986 I made a trip to Lotus Mountain of Gansu Province in China. The occasion was the Festival of Flower Song Singing, which takes place once a year there. This was the first time that outside visitors were allowed to come to this region and witness the activities. Our party consisted of half a dozen Chinese scholars, two visitors from Japan, an American graduate student, and myself, whom the Chinese authorities regarded as a visitor from abroad.


This paper describes the features and capabilities of the Multi-Axial Subassemblage Testing (MAST) System at the University of Minnesota, which is one of the large-scale testing facilities awarded under the George E. Brown, Jr. Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation program, funded through the National Science Foundation. The MAST system enables multi-axial quasi-static cyclic tests of largescale structural subassemblages including portions of beam-column frame systems, walls, and bridge piers. One of the key features of the system is the employment of an advanced six-degree-of-freedom controller, which can be used to apply deformations and loading in a straightforward and reproducible manner, including the capability for mixed-mode control. The system also features state-of-the-art telepresence capabilities to collect sensor data, still camera images, streaming video and audio data. The MAST system advances the current state of technology by allowing the experimental simulation of complex boundary effects through its multi-axial capabilities, which can impose multiple-degree-offreedom states of deformation and load. The system is unique in size and scope and will greatly expand the large-scale earthquake experimentation capabilities both nationally and internationally.


For ferroelectric crystals with a second order transition the phenomenological theory predicts an infinite value of the dielectric constant at the CURIE-point. The highest value observed in the case of Rochelle salt is only about 104. This is not caused by the methods of sample preparation or measurement but by a dispersion of the permittivity. The temperature dependence of the dielectric constant and of the dielectric modulus (dielectric impermeability) at constant frequency is examined. The influence of several relaxation mechanisms on the formation of the spontaneous polarization is discussed.


Today's smartphone users face a security dilemma: many apps they install operate on privacy-sensitive data, although they might originate from developers whose trustworthiness is hard to judge. Researchers have proposed more and more sophisticated static and dynamic analysis tools as an aid to assess the behavior of such applications. Those tools, however, are only as good as the privacy policies they are configured with. Policies typically refer to a list of sources of sensitive data as well as sinks which might leak data to untrusted observers. Sources and sinks are a moving target: new versions of the mobile operating system regularly introduce new methods, and security tools need to be reconfigured to take them into account. In this work we show that, at least for the case of Android, the API comprises hundreds of sources and sinks. We propose SuSi, a novel and fully automated machine-learning approach for identifying sources and sinks directly from the Android source code. On our training set, SuSi achieves a recall and precision of more than 92%. To provide more fine-grained information, SuSi further categorizes the sources (e.g., unique identifier, location information, etc.) and sinks (e.g., network, file, etc.), with an average precision and recall of about 89%. We also show that many current program analysis tools can be circumvented because they use hand-picked lists of source and sinks which are largely incomplete, hence allowing many potential data leaks to go unnoticed.


A 20-year-old woman developed lower abdominal pain and fever within 48 h of undergoing an elective termination of a 10 week pregnancy by suction dilation and curettage. Progressive clinical deterioration prompted an exploratory laparotomy which revealed necrotic ovaries bilaterally (A). Areas of the myometrium were also necrotic and hemorrhagic (B). An abdominal hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy was performed. (C) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.


The invention belongs to the power transmission projects and discloses a pipeline-type high-voltage wire and a deicing method thereof. The deicing method arranges a deicing operation line that consists of a pipeline high-voltage wire 4, an insulative tube 5, an air heater 6 and a control switch K on the high-voltage wire with a pipeline; when the deicing is needed, the control switch K is turned on, the air heater 6 works, hot wind blows through the insulative tube 5 and is blown out from the inside of the pipeline high-voltage wire 4, and the temperature of the pipeline high-voltage wire 4 is raised under the action of the hot wind, thus achieving the goal of deicing. Compared with prior deicing techniques, the deicing method of the invention saves a great deal of manpower and financial resources and has good technical markets for popularization and application.


A method of magnetron sputtering for coating process of thick Cu films on barium strontium titanate is presented. The process parameter of this method that obtained though test is described on this article. It analyzed an effect of these parameters on the surface quality, adhesion and uniformity of coated film. Finally a solution for achieving the good coated film is introduced.


—The novel human Corona disease (COVID-19) is a pulmonary sickness brought on by an extraordinarily outrageous respiratory condition crown 2.


Summary The Lower Mesozoic alternating greywackes and argillites in the Porirua district exhibit graded bedding, lamination, convolute lamination, cross lamination, mud flakes, and current markings. The sediments, rapidly derived from a plutonic terrain, were rapidly transported and deposited by turbidity currents in the New Zealand Geosyncline. The orientation of cross lamination and Current markings suggests that the turbidity currents flowed north-north-east, sub-parallel to the present regional tectonic trend. At Porirua, sedimentation was in deep water, a considerable distance from the supplying land mass, and not far from the axis of the geosyncline.


A three-dimensional (3D) circular arc array synthesis model was developed using genetic algorithms (GA) and MATLAB optimization methods. A circular arc array consists of an array of N directional elements that are arranged in a circular sector or are in the x-y plane. Each element is pointed so that the peak of the element pattern is directed radially outward. In this work, 3D element factor data computed from either measurements or full-wave techniques is used. In this paper, we use our previous findings of 2D synthesis to develop a 3D circular arc array synthesis model to optimize far-field array patterns with the peak directivity and a specified peak sidelobe level. We compare the results and implementation of GA-based optimization with a constrained minimization function in the MATLAB optimization toolbox. The efficiency of each optimization method is compared using several array configurations.


This study systematically explored the outcomes and implementation processes of the School Sport Leadership Program (SSLP), which was integrated into some secondary schools in Melbourne, Australia. The main principle behind the SSLP was to train secondary school-aged students to become sport leaders, who deliver sporting activities to primary schools with the aim to encourage participation in sports and physical activities and develop their competencies. The overarching aim of this research was to evaluate the impact of the program utilising rigour methodology design, and to provide a comprehensive view of the developmental outcomes for the young people, as well as the program's impact on the school community.


Euphemism is a cultural phenomenon,whose production and application has close connections with social culture.With the rapid development of cross-cultural communication,euphemism is more and more widely used in interpersonal communication.Therefore,a comprehensive understanding of euphemism and practical use of it is becoming increasingly important.This paper makes a comparative study of the cultural similarity and differences between English and Chinese euphemism.By doing so,cross-cultural communication can be better promoted to run smoothly.


Nowadays, applying educational intelligent data analysis (EIDA) seems relevant for improving the educational process based on big data. It implies developing and improving the methods of processing collected data in educational institutions to understand academic issues better. Over the past decades, artificial neural networks (ANNs) have been recognized as the most prominent techniques for learning analytics. In this work, we systematized the recent scientific literature in EIDA with ANNs. The paper analyzes the applications of ANN to EIDA and discusses the computational issues in the EIDA domain. According to the investigation, most educational data mining tasks are addressed by controlled learning models, such as classification, regression, and time-series prediction. Most in-depth methods used in the EIDA domain are traditional types of ANN. Well-known techniques such as multi-year perceptron and deep long short‐term memory networks have been mainly used for classification and prediction tasks within the education sphere. However, the difficulty of interpreting the results produced by ANNs has also been a challenge for intelligent data practitioners in any domain, including education.


In this paper, a prediction system for a soluble solids content of Averrhoa Carambola or known as starfruit was developed using the Vis-NIR image. A push-broom hyperspectral imaging system is used to acquire Vis-NIR images from 200 sample of starfruit. All of the samples are prepared for the training (n=180) and testing (n=20) set over the range of 400–1000 nm. The hardware of the proposed system consists of a set of the workbench, controllable slider, two halogen light sources and a hyperspectral camera that is connected to PC via Camera Link. The software of system consists of reflectance image profile measurement, feature extraction, feature selection on spectral and spatial data, and soluble solids content prediction model. The partial least squares regression is used to build prediction models on full spectral data. The prediction model is used to get value prediction of soluble solids content. The predicted results compared with the reference measurement result of soluble solids content which obtained using a refractometer. The prediction model provided correlation coefficient of a testing set of 0.92 and root mean square errors of a testing set of 0.50. The results of our work indicate that there is a feasibility of implementing hyperspectral imaging technique on the nondestructive soluble solids content prediction of starfruit and suitable in an industrial sorting system for fruit quality.


MPEG-21 provides a open framework for multimedia delivery and consumption. This paper discusses the design of digital TV system based on MPEG-21, the methods of providing services, and the feasibility of using the digital item defined in MPEG-21 for the organization of DTV programs and the transmission and exchange of various kinds of information.


The study focuses on the intensification by applying processing technologies of ponds through the programs of pond intensification, which is the farming techniques, covering the repair of pond construction, water, pest/disease control, fertilization and supplementary feeding, stocking of high quality seeds, processing, marketing and business management. Extensification is intended to expand the fish farming to several areas that have great potential, while diversification is directed at the diversity of the fishery as well as the development of processing and marketing industry. This study was conducted in Pangkep Regency, Pangkajene Distrcit, Bungoro, Labakkang, Ma'rang 'and Segeri, Mandalle since this area is one of the development areas for pond intensification in South Sulawesi. This activity was carried out by field observation through interviews, questionnaires and focus group disscussion with all relevant parties. This research used qualitative and quantitative analysis methods by which data and information obtained were analyzed quantitatively and then qualitatively by using a multiple regression analysis.


. Until now, scholars have attempted to investigate the solutions to reading problems from linguistic, psychological and cognitive aspects. However, reading is a recursive complicated process in which integrating and innovating solutions from various aspects is indispensable in achieving English reading success. When learning the reading course in English major, students will encounter more pressure. The research intends to apply Achieve 3000 Platform to construct an Achieve 3000 Integrated Model (A3IM) to tackle reading problems. The research have conducted a quasi-experimental research method to 60 students in Experiment and Control Classes to justify the effectiveness of this strategy in improving English reading performance.