unicef United Nations Children's Fund Fonds des Nations Unies pour l'enfance Fondo de las Naciones Unidas para la Infancia earching for effective ways to make new breakthroughs for the world's children, UNICEF recently made preliminary recommendations for a global agenda for children (The future global agenda for children: imperatives for the twenty-first century, paper The agenda stresses three goals centred on crucial developmental stages in a child's life, because within them lies the key to breaking persisting cycles of poverty: s Infants start life healthy, and young children are nurtured in a safe and caring environment that enables them to be physically healthy, mentally alert, emotionally secure, socially competent and intellectually able to learn. s All children, including the poorest and most disadvantaged, have access to good-quality basic education and complete the basic education cycle. s Adolescents have the opportunity to fully develop their individual capacities in safe and enabling environments, and are helped to participate and contribute to their societies. While shielding children from preventable death must always remain a UNICEF priority, the new strategy goes beyond child survival: it places early childhood care and education for all at the heart of a wider undertaking to realize A future global agenda for children: The links with sanitation, hygiene, water and environment children's rights and eventually reduce poverty, recognizing always that there are inherent links between the survival, development and well-being of children and the realization of women's rights from girlhood onwards. A new context for sanitation, hygiene, water and environment activities Early childhood care The vital importance of children's earliest years is reflected in one of UNICEF's latest approaches, the ECC programme (Early Childhood Care for Survival, Growth and Development). Focusing on the child from conception until the age of eight, with special attention to the first four years, the approach seeks to achieve the full potential of every child by working within the family and the community and by using an integrated rather than a sectoral approach. In a world where the health and lives of more than half the world's children are constantly threatened by environmental hazards, most of these in their own home and immediate surroundings, it is easy to see how children gain from access to safe and convenient drinking water and from activities to promote appropriate hygiene and sanitation practices, as well as protection against environmental threats. Water and environmental sanitation pro


As transnational restructure of the world economy,service outsourcing has become one of the most important determining factors of global industrial restructure and relocation.Affected by the global financial crisis,the new characteristic of service outsourcing development has arisen.This paper analysis deeply the status of service outsourcing development in and out of China,discusses both the opportunity and the challenge of Tianjin' service outsourcing,and at last brings forward strategic suggestions for the development of service outsourcing of Tianjin for the future.


The strength of shoulder and elbow extensor and flexor of 15 female gymnasts have been measured with CYBEX II, and conduct a relative analysis with movement. The result shows: the development level of upper limb strength of 8 9 female gymnast is relatively low; the maximum and relative strength of shoulder extensor and flexor at a low speed, the maximum strength elbow flexor at a fast speed and the maximum and relative strength of elbow extensor and flexor at a low speed are closely related to the gymnast's performance.


Hibernation and daily torpor (heterothermy) allow endotherms to cope with demanding environmental conditions. The depth and duration of torpor bouts vary considerably between tropical and temperate climates, and tropical hibernators manage to cope with a wider spectrum of ambient temperature (Ta) regimes during heterothermy. As cycles in Ta can have profound effects on activity and torpor patterns as well as energy expenditure, we examined how these characteristics are affected by daily fluctuating versus constant Ta in a tropical hibernator, the lesser hedgehog tenrec (Echinops telfairi). Throughout the study, regardless of season, the tenrecs became torpid every day. In summer, E. telfairi used daily fluctuations in Ta to passively rewarm from daily torpor, which led to synchrony in the activity phases and torpor bouts between individuals and generally decreased energy expenditure. In contrast, animals housed at constant Ta showed considerable variation in timing and they had to invest more energy through endogenous heat production. During the hibernation season (winter) E. telfairi hibernated for several months in constant, as well as in fluctuating Ta and, as in summer, under fluctuating Ta arousals were much more uniform and showed less variation in timing compared to constant temperature regimes. The timing of torpor is not only important for its effective use, but synchronization of activity patterns could also be essential for social interactions, and successful foraging bouts. Our results highlight that Ta cycles can be an effective zeitgeber for activity and thermoregulatory rhythms throughout the year and that consideration should be given to the choice of temperature regime when studying heterothermy under laboratory conditions.


A representation of the eld GF (2 n) for various values of n is described, where the eld elements are palindromic polynomials, and the eld operations are polynomial addition and multiplication in the ring of polynomials modulo x 2n+1 ?1. This representation can be shown to be equivalent to a eld representation of Type-II optimal normal bases. As such, the suggested palindromic representation inherits the advantages of two commonly-used representations of nite elds, namely, the standard (polynomial) representation and the optimal normal basis representation. Modular polynomial multiplication is well suited for software implementations, whereas the optimal normal basis representation admits eecient hardware implementations. Also, the new representation allows for eecient implementation of eld inversion in both hardware and software.


Active vibration control for a cantilever beam was studied based on dynamical equations of piezoelectric cantilever beam which were formulated using finite element method.The modal control theory was used to study the strategies of active vibration control problem,subsequently an independent modal space control technique based linear quadratic regulator control method is adapted for the vibration suppression of intelligent beam.The MATLAB real-time simulation tool is applied in measure the effectiveness of this method.From the results,it is effective kind of control vibration.


Due to advantages such as strong thrust, fast response, high efficiency, and easy control, the permanent magnet linear synchronous motors (PMLSM) are widely used in the core servo shaft of wire bonding machine. Its speed planning, positioning accuracy and anti-interference ability directly determine the quality of bonding. Therefore, proper speed planning and excellent control algorithm are very necessary. The classic PID control algorithms is often used in the XY platform point motion control,which can achieve better control effect under fixed working conditions. However, in the face of internal and external disturbance factors such as system parameter perturbation, friction characteristics of guide rail and sudden load change, the traditional PID controller has poor robustness and can not automatically adapt to the change, resulting in the decline of system performance , which directly reduces the quality of welding. Sliding mode control (SMC) is a typical robust control strategy. Because the sliding mode can be designed and is independent of object parameters and disturbances, it has the advantages of simple design and strong robustness. In this paper, the Y-axis' PMLSM of the XY motion platform is selected as the research object, and the mechanism is analyzed to establish its mathematical model under the d-q axis. Then, in order to solve the sudden change of acceleration and acceleration caused by T-shaped and third-order S-shaped speed curve planning, a fourth-order S-shaped speed curve planning algorithm is designed to make the acceleration and deceleration stable, flexible and fast, and reduce the negative effect on the wire bonding machine caused by impact and vibration. Finally, To reduce chattering and improve convergence speed and anti-interference ability, an improved adaptive non-singular terminal sliding mode control(IANTSMC) algorithm is proposed. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm has faster convergence speed than PID, traditional linear sliding mode and higher positioning accuracy than traditional terminal sliding mode. Combined with feedforward control, the adjustment time of the proposed algorithm only 40.1ms (converges to ±1, µm), and the steady-state accuracy after interference is 0.45 µm, which proves the anti-disturbance ability of the proposed algorithm.


In this paper, we give a survey on data mining techniques in cloud computing. More specially speaking, we talk about one important and basic data mining technique called association rule mining, which is to detect all subset of items which frequently occur and the relationship between them. This survey provides the related research results and also explored the future directions about data mining in cloud computing environment, and it is a good reference for researcher on this topic.


In this paper, we show that $W^{1,p}$ $(1\leq p<\infty)$ weak solutions to divergence form elliptic systems are Lipschitz and piecewise $C^{1}$ provided that the leading coefficients and data are of piecewise Dini mean oscillation, the lower order coefficients are bounded, and interfacial boundaries are $C^{1,\text{Dini}}$. This extends a result of Li and Nirenberg (\textit{Comm. Pure Appl. Math.} \textbf{56} (2003), 892-925). Moreover, under a stronger assumption on the piecewise $L^{1}$-mean oscillation of the leading coefficients, we derive a global weak type-(1,1) estimate with respect to $A_{1}$ Muckenhoupt weights for the elliptic systems without lower order terms.


In order to evaluate the effect of crop management of passion fruit (Passiflora edulis Sims) in annual cycle, application of controled deficit irrigation (CDI) and use of Trichoderma harzianum as biological control of Fusarium sp., two simultaneous trials were performed during the years 2012 and 2013 at the Experimental Field of the Institute of Agronomy, UCV FAGRO, differentiated in terms of application (CT) or not (ST) antagonist fungus. During the first year, the statistical design was randomized blocks with 3 irrigation treatments (100% Eto, 66 and 33% of Eto in non-critical phenological phases of the crop as part of the CDI) four repetitions and two observations per experimental unit. In the second year, the cycle crop (annually and continuous) was incorporated, whereby the arrangement of treatments was split plot, the main plot was irrigation and the secondary was cycle factor. The application of the CDI did not affect crop growth represented by plant height, leaf number, leaf area and duration of phenological phases. Likewise, there were not adverse effects on physiology, mineral nutrition and crop yield with the different CDI treatments. The fruit quality in the first year presented statistical differences (P<0.05) only for peel and juice percentage, however, were not limiting values within the parameters normally required by agroindustry. Annual cycle management allowed obtaining advantages in terms of crop yield from the viewpoint of production efficiency, because the partial yield of two annual cycles was higher to the crop yield in continuous cycle. In addition, quality attributes such as weight fruit, acidity and TSS / acidity were favored by management on an annual cycle. The application of Trichoderma harzianum as biocontrol strategy reduced the percentage of diseased plants in CT essay on 58.81 and 54.72% for the first and second year of cultivation, respectively; demonstrating the potential of using this strategy on highly affected areas with wilt pathogenic fungi. The integration of CDI, annual cycle management and application of Trichoderma in production areas with high incidence of soil diseases is recommended, adding cultural practices as not to favor the excess surface moisture.


The safety of large civil structures is often evaluated by means of numerical models based on the Finite Element Method (FEM). In this frame, the choice of a constitutive law able to represent the complex mechanical behavior of concrete is a key point. The classical approaches, whose theory is formulated in terms of stress and strain tensors and their invariants, are generally able to simulate in a proper way only a few specific characteristics of concrete, but they often present a limited capacity to reproduce the overall material behavior. A promising approach to overcome this limit seems to be the Microplane Model whose basic idea is related to the observation that the main mechanical phenomena of concrete take place on planes whose orientation depends on load and material conditions. This paper deals with a detailed description of the implementation process followed to insert the elastic part of the Microplane Model within COMSOL. The examples used to validate this part are presented as well. The implementation of the non linear behavior of the microplane model is still in progress; therefore it is not addressed in this paper.


Abstract Novel sequential Betti–Ullmann and Betti–C–H activation reactions for the synthesis of 12H-benzo[a]xanthenes and dihydro-1H-naphtho[1,2-e][1,3]oxazines have been developed. Depending on the used conditions selective Ullmann-type arylation or α-C-H aryloxylation of 2-bromophenyl alkylaminonaphthols occurred. A simple, fast, green, and high-yielding method for the synthesis of aminonaphthols catalyzed by bismuth(III) chloride under solvent-free conditions is reported.


2. Weiss EJ, Bray PF, Tayback M, Schulman SP, Kickler TS, Becker LC, Weiss JL, Gerstenblith G, Goldschmidt-Clermont PJ. A polymorphism of a platelet glycoprotein receptor as an inherited risk factor for coronary thrombosis. N Engl J Med 1996; 334: 1090-4 3. Böttinger C, Kastrati A, Koch W, Mehilli J, Seidl H, Schömig K, von Beckerath N, Schöming A. HPA-1 and HPA-3 polymorphisms of the platelet fibrinogen receptor and coronary artery disease and myocardial infarction. Thromb Haemost 2000; 83: 559-62 4. Kroll H, Gardemann A, Fechter A, Haberbosch W, Santoso S. The impact of the glycoprotein Ia collagen receptor subunit A1648G gene polymorphism on coronary artery disease and acute myocardial infarction. Thromb Haemost 2000; 83: 392-6 5. Carl B, Kroll H, Bux J, Bein G, Santoso S. B-lymphoblastoid cell lines as source of reference DNA for genotyping of human platelet and neutrophil antigens. Transfusion 2000; 40: 62-8 6. Gardemann A, Humme J, Stricker J, Katz N, Philipp M, Tillmanns H, Hehrlein W, Rau M, Haberbosch W. Association of the platelet glycoprotein IIIa PlA1/A2 gene polymorphism to coronary artery disease but not to nonfatal myocardial infarction in low risk patients. Thromb Haemost 1998; 80: 214-7.


The research development of the soft rock engineering geomechanics in China coal mine is brief discussed in this paper. Firstly, the defects about the definition of soft rock defined by the ISRM are indicated. The new definition and classification of soft rock are brought forward. Based on these, the deformation mechanic of soft rock, the equation of softening state,The determination of loads on the support of the gate,and the design method of soft engineering geomechanics are discussed. It is considerable that the comprehensive system of soft engineering geological mechanism in China coal mine has been formed.


Discussions about Buddhist connections between China and Southeast Asia in the late Qing and Republican periods often conform to a meta-narrative of Buddhist modernism that emphasizes the trajectories of eminent monks and reformative initiatives in and beyond China. Drawing on research on archives in China and Myanmar (Burma) and field visits to temples and museums in China, this article investigates the efforts to convey marble Buddhas from Burma to China by a broad spectrum of Chinese Buddhists from the 1890s to 1930s as a strain of Buddhist mobility that has receive scant attention in the studies of transregional Buddhist interconnectivities. It examines how the fascination with marble, which is vernacularly categorized as jade/white jade in Chinese, motivated such endeavors and how these icons shaped the perception of a developing Buddhist cosmopolis among Chinese Buddhists by helping them locate Burma in the Buddhist world in a spiritually and materially meaningful way.


A neural network solution to line labeling is presented. Line labeling constraints in trihedral scenes are designed into a Hopfield-type network. The labeling constraints require a higher-order of interaction than that of Hopfield and Tank's (1985) quadratic energy model. The analog model is modified to include an additional layer of neurons. A brief introduction to the line labeling problem is provided. The design of the energy function and the updating equation is described. Experimental results are analyzed.<<ETX>>


The photocurrent response in solid-state films of two different hemoproteins, horseradish peroxidase and cytochrome c, was studied by employing a geometry of planar diode device. The highest occupied molecular orbital energy of the two solid-state hemoproteins was measured using photoelectron yield spectroscopy. Results showed that the photocurrent response of hemoprotein films under white light illumination was found extremely slow (ca. 160–480 s) owing to the charge blocking by insulating surrounding parts of which size resulted in largely different photocurrent time scale between the two hemoprotein films.


Abstract Study of solar oscillations has provided us detailed information about solar structure and dynamics. These in turn provide a test of theories of stellar structure and evolution as well as theories of angular momentum transfer and dynamo. Some of these results about the solar structure and its implication on the recent revision of heavy element abundances are described. Apart from these the solar cycle variations in the rotation rate and its gradients are also discussed.


Thank you for downloading values and valuation in the practice of educational administration. Maybe you have knowledge that, people have look numerous times for their favorite books like this values and valuation in the practice of educational administration, but end up in harmful downloads. Rather than enjoying a good book with a cup of tea in the afternoon, instead they are facing with some harmful virus inside their computer.


In this paper, the author brings a transcription of a document from Western Slavonian history from the time of the Homeland war. It shows a certain chronology of actions by Veljko Džakula and his band and is meant for the presidents of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Republic of Serbia, Dobrica Ćosić and Slobodan Milošević. The document pertains to their actions during 1992 and the first several months of 1993 during which time that band came up as the supporter of an extremely limited negotiating process with Croatian authorities. Along with the document there is a brief clarification of the circumstances in which it was created i.e. only the most important information is contained within. 23 Uniten Nations Protected Area (UNPA) ili zaštićena zona UN-a; bile su četiri, odnosno UNPA Istok, Zapad, Sjever i Jug. Dijelovi zapadne Slavonije bili su u sastav UNPA Zapad. 24 U tekstu napisano pomoć. 25 U tekstu napisano trgove. 26 Vlastoručni potpis. 27 Okrugli pečat: Republika Srpska Krajina, Skupština Opštine Pakrac, Pakrac.


Identity-based designated verifier signatures allow a signer to designate a specific verifier by using a simplified public identity such as name or IP address. In such a way, only the designated verifier can check the validity of signatures. In this paper, we present an ID-based strong designated verifier signature (IBSDVS) scheme from bilinear pairings, and provide the security proofs and efficiency analysis for the proposed scheme. Our IBSDVS scheme not only satisfies all the security requirements of the designated verifier signatures in identity-based cryptography, but also needs lower communication and computational cost.


Minimally invasive percutaneous and endovascular strategies performed by interventional radiologists have become the mainstays of treatment for vascular anomalies with improved outcomes, decreased complication rates, and less morbidity. The aim of this article is to introduce physicians who care for patients with vascular anomalies to state‐of‐the‐art advancements in interventional radiology for diagnosis and treatment. Part 2 of this review discusses embolization, endovenous laser ablation, and image‐guided percutaneous biopsy. Please see Part 1 for a discussion of sclerotherapy and cryoablation. Select vascular anomalies will be discussed as examples to highlight IR diagnostic and/or treatment techniques.


The internationalization of higher education globally continues to grow more and more towards commercialization and neoliberalism paths, despite growing concerns about the underlying consequences. Building further on our work and using Saudi Arabia as a national case, this article critically investigates how and in what ways the Saudi government's desire to internationalize its higher education system has overlooked the many problems associated with its English-only policy, and the neoliberal shaping of social and economic pressures. The article also demonstrates the paradoxical messages concerning internationalization success, strategies, and visions conveyed by the Saudi government and by several institutions from English-speaking countries in response to Saudi Arabia's aspiration for internationalization of its higher education. We draw on several data sources in this article, specifically: (1) the Colleges of Excellence (CoE) project documents – a major Saudi government's initiative to restructure the technical and vocational education system; (2) Several publicly available news items released by technical and vocational colleges from Canada and the UK as well as by the UK government in relation to their participation in Saudi Arabia's CoE project; and (3) publicly available news items published in a number of key local Saudi newspapers regarding various aspects of the CoE project.


Abstract : Filter media coated with a cationic resin in triiodide form were challenged by Bacillus subtilis spores and MS2 bacteriophage aerosols delivered from a Collison nebulizer through air at 35% RH and 23 C at 14.2 cm/s face velocity. Bacteria were classified and collected in a 6-stage Andersen impactor; serially connected AGI-30 impingers were used in phage experiments. Average bacterial removal efficiency was 99.9991% for untreated (UM) and 99.9994% for treated media (TM); viral removal was 92% for UM and 94% for TM. Microbes collected on filters were extracted into water using a vortex mixer. After correction for effects of extracted iodine, 0.25% of bacteria survived on UM and 0.069% on TM, while 4.2% of phages survived on UM and 2.2% on TM. Increasing concentrations of virus in the nebulizer showed no clear effect from agglomeration.


The dynamic behavior of the rail-gun housing, which includes the rails, is of great importance for the performance of the rail-gun system as a whole. As in the case of conventional guns, the mechanical response of the housing under transient loading (magnetic pressure) can lead to disturbances of the projectile trajectory due to momentum transfer. However, in the case of rail guns, these disturbances can be even more severe as the armature performance can be very sensitive to variations of the normal forces at the contact interface. In previous developments, the structural mechanics of a rail gun with discrete supports were analyzed using the conventional boundary conditions. In this paper, further considerations are focused on describing a specific distributed energy storage (DES) operation technique which was developed at ISL. Using the finite-element technique, numerical calculations were performed for the ISL rail-gun EMA3 equipped with a one-stage DES. Its caliber was 15 mm × 30 mm and produced a typical muzzle velocity of up to 1600 m/s, as well as peak currents of about 600 kA. Three spatially different DES configurations were used. The obtained results were then compared to the conventional breech-fed configuration.


In 1997, the Comision Reguladora de Energia of Mexico implemented a netback rule for linking the Mexican natural gas price to the Texas price. At the time, the Texas price reflected a reasonably competitive market. Since that time, there have been dramatic increases in the demand for natural gas and there are various bottlenecks in the supply of natural gas. As a result, the price of natural gas in Texas now reflects the quasi-rents created by these bottlenecks. This paper addresses the optimality of the netback rule when the price of gas at the Texas market reflects the quasi-rents created by bottlenecks in the supply of natural gas to the United States pipeline system. In this paper, it is shown that it is optimal for the Mexican government to use the netback rule based on the Texas price of gas to set the price natural gas in Mexico even though the Texas market cannot be considered a competitive market, and the Texas price for natural gas reflects quasi-rents created by various bottlenecks. The indirect welfare function approach used in this paper can be extended to address the problem of pricing gas when there are multiple sources of imported gas from LNG terminals.


In the present article, I argue that the received etymological connection of Proto-Germanic * kraftu- 'power' with ON kraefr 'strong' is misleading, because the adjective 1) does not mean 'strong' and 2) must be analyzed as a direct derivation from ON krefja 'to demand'. Alternatively, we may connect *kraftu- with *krepja-, a formation that I reconstruct on the basis of the Visperterminen Swiss form xreepfe 'strong'. This adjective was possibly borrowed into Slavic, so as to emerge as Old Church Slavonic krěpb 'strong'.


Histone Deacetylase (HDAC) plays a vital role in cellular processes, for example gene expression, cell growth, and apoptosis. Finding drug candidates to inhibit the over activity of HDACs in cancer is a growing area of interest. Inhibitors, thus far, have three important motifs to be studied: the zinc binding group, a hydrophobic linker, and a cap group. By altering these groups on the inhibitor, not only can activity be increased but also selectivity within the classes of HDACs. We present the design of two novel sets of molecules that contain either a 1,2,3-triazole or 1,2,4-triazole. The 1,2,3-triazoles were synthesized using "click chemistry" with a novel pyridyl triazine catalyst. The 1,2,4triazoles were synthesized utilizing substitution chemistry. This set of molecules was designed after suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA) but replaced the hydroxamate with the triazole as the zinc binding group. The activity of these inhibitors against HDAC 1, HDAC 6, and SIRT 1 were tested using the Biomol Fluor de Lys in vitro kits. Though none of the synthesized compounds were strong activators or inhibitors of any of the classes of HDACs, trends were observed that could lead to the design of more potent inhibitors.


OBJECTIVE To display the difference of Bacillus coli which breeded in different enriched culture.METHODS Compare the difference of Bacillus coli which breeded in three kinds of enriched culture and solid medium.RESULTS The speed of growth with Bacillus coli was the fastest in sulphur ethanol sour salt culture,lower in nutrition meat soup culture and the lowest in BL.CONCLUSION There is significant deviation in coenobiums with Bacillus coli which breeded in MH,FT and BL enrichment culture for eight hours.


Modes in landmines have become a topic of recent interest in acoustic landmine detection. Of equal importance is the effect of burial on the experimentally observed resonances of landmines. Complicated dependence of resonance frequency on depth has been observed in field measurements and has been, thus, the topic of experimental and theoretical study. As such, further burial simulation experiments have been performed on a landmine and an acoustic landmine simulant. Burial simulation in water shows a saturation of downward modal frequency shift that rapidly deviates from the shift predicted by simple mass loading theory. This saturation agrees with that predicted by Velea et al. [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 115, 1993–2002 (2004)]. Burial simulations performed in sand reveal resonance frequency depth dependence that saturates following a rapid downward frequency shift and a small resonance frequency increase. [This work was sponsored by US Army Research, Development, and Engineering Command, Night Vision and Electr...


This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Background: Despite the established efficacy of dexamethasone and lidocaine for preventing postoperative airway symptoms, no study has investigated the effects of dexamethasone plus lidocaine for attenuating postoperative airway symptoms. The purpose of this study was to explore whether combined dexamethasone and lidocaine are superior to dexamethasone alone in reducing postoperative sore throat, cough, and hoarseness for 24 h after tracheal extubation. Methods: In total, 70 female patients undergoing breast mass excision were randomized in a prospective, double-blinded manner into two groups: Group DL received intravenous dexamethasone (8 mg) plus lidocaine (1.5 mg/kg) 5 min before induction of anesthesia, and lidocaine was injected once more at the end of surgery. Group D received dexamethasone (8 mg) plus normal saline instead of lidocaine in the same manner as Group DL. We assessed the incidence and severity of postoperative sore throat, cough, and hoarseness 1 and 24 h after extubation. Results: The incidence of sore throat for 24 h after tracheal extubation was significantly lower in Group DL than in Group D (62.9% vs. 85.7%, respectively; P = 0.029). The severity of sore throat and hoarseness for 24 h after extubation was lower in Group DL than in Group D (P < 0.05). The incidence and severity of cough did not differ between the two groups for 24 h after extubation. Conclusions: Lidocaine combined with dexamethasone is more effectively reduces the incidence and severity of sore throat and severity of hoarseness for 24 h after extubation in patients who have undergone breast mass excision surgery. (Anesth Pain Med 2016; 11: 42-48)


Consumption‐accounted greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (GHGEs) vary considerably between households. Research originating from different traditions, including consumption research, urban planning, and environmental psychology, have studied different types of explanatory variables and provided different insights into this matter. This study integrates explanatory variables from different fields of research in the same empirical material, including socioeconomic variables (income, household size, sex, and age), motivational variables (proenvironmental attitudes and social norms), and physical variables (dwelling types and geographical distances). A survey was distributed to 2,500 Swedish households with a response rate of 40%. GHGEs were estimated for transport, residential energy, food, and other consumption, using data from both the survey and registers, such as odometer readings of cars and electricity consumption from utility providers. The results point toward the importance of explanatory variables that have to do with circumstances rather than motivations for proenvironmental behaviors. Net income was found to be the most important variable to explain GHGEs, followed by the physical variables, dwelling type, and the geographical distance index. The results also indicate that social norms around GHG‐intensive activities, for example, transport, may have a larger impact on a subject's emission level than proenvironmental attitudes.


The most satisfactory method of collecting data concerning speech habits demands that a trained fieldworker conduct personal interviews with representative informants. Since, however, the time and money required for carrying out such interviews are seldom available, the investigator must often turn to less satisfactory but more practicable methods; one of these is the multiple-choice questionnaire of the type used to gather the information for this limited survey of Ontario speech habits. The fundamental weakness of the circulated questionnaire is self-evident: the informant must substitute for the trained field worker and observe his own usage. His success in making reliable observations will depend on his native intelligence and level of education, his understanding of the significance of the survey, and his conscientiousness with regard to answering the questions.


A 70-year-old patient with chronic ischemic cardiomyopathy (NYHA III, left ventricle ejection fraction (EFLV) = 15%, left bundle branch block (LBBB), percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) left anterior descending artery (LAD) in 2006 and right coronary artery (RCA) in 2007), after an episode of sustained VT, terminated pharmacologically, was qualified for a cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT-D) procedure (class IA).


Abstract Supraglacial streams are a significant part of the glacial hydrological system and important for understanding glacial hydrology and dynamics. Here we infer factors that influence the long-term development of perennial supraglacial streams, particularly in reference to canyon, incised and surface stream formation. Orthophotos and digital elevation models generated from high-resolution aerial imagery taken with unmanned aerial vehicles or piloted helicopters between 2010 and 2017 were used to compare seven streams on Fountain Glacier, Bylot Island, Canada over time. Results show canyon formation occurs from a combination of fluvial processes and the impact of solar radiation. The greater the discharge or slope, the faster the incision and higher the sinuosity. With greater sinuosity, the distance between the top of the valley banks increases, and cutoffs cause trapezoidal canyon-like valleys to form. Solar radiation causes the backward migration of the valley walls, further enhancing canyon area. Canyons are less likely to occur in areas of low discharge and slope. Less incised channels are also more likely to have water flow jumping the channel banks, changing the channel path. The presence of medial moraines and crevasses also increases rerouting of small streams. Lastly, windblown created snow-plugs may lead to stream diversion.


ObservationshavebeentakenattheU.S.NavalObservatoryofthecolorsandbrightnessoftwoGlobalPositioning System Block II and two Block IIA satellites against calibrated standard stars. Spacecraft logarithmic brightness falls off with phase angle almost linearly, as with the moon or Mercury, but more steeply: 0.04 ‐0.05 astronomical magnitudes per degree. Knowing this value may permit a signie cant ree nement of the Global Positioning System solar force model. The colors of all of the satellites are much redder than they would be if the optical properties of the surfaces remained as measured in the factory and so show the effects of degradation in space. The hypothesis that most of the degradation is caused by self-contamination by efe uent from the spacecraft bodies is examined and rejected, being incompatible with the relative brightnesses in the yellow, red, and near infrared.


To directly analyze the kinematic performance of a six degree of freedom parallel motion simulation platform, we have now studied its chain, and the coordinate system of components has been set up. Thus the reverse solution of this platform can be proposed on the basis of the vector relation and the transition matrix between the upper platform and the lower platform. Then the kinematic model is constructed, finally, the simulation and calculation of the constructed kinematic model are conducted by MATLAB and the curves of the changing of the chains' elongation, velocity and acceleration of the elongation are obtained.


The distortion performance of double-balanced switching-diode mixers and modulators may be optimised by suitable design of the local-oscillator circuit. The paper describes simple techniques for defining optimum drive conditions for 'split-ring', 'hybrid', and 'star' modulators.


This paper aims to identify the impact of VAT on revenue generation in Nepal using a quantitative method. Testing the unit root of the series is the first step in determining whether the data are stationary. An Augmented Dicky Fuller unit root test and a co-integration test are employed to check the relationship between the variables under study. This study reveals that LNVAT, LNRCE, LNRIT, LNROT, and LNRNT are significant, which is desirable. As a result, a 1 percent increase in value-added tax leads to a 21.60 percent increase in government tax revenue, while a 1 percent increase in custom excise duty leads to a 39.31 percent increase in tax revenue. Other macroeconomic variables such as LNRIT, LNROT, and LNRNT contribute 15.32 percent, 8.51 percent, and 15.06 percent to government revenue generation. The P-value of the Breusch-Godfrey serial correlation LM test, the Breusch-Pagan-Godfrey heteroscedasticity test, and the normalcy test are greater than 5 percent, which is ideal. As a result, there is no autocorrelation or heteroscedasticity in this model. The residual follows a normal distribution. The diagnostic tests show that the models have the expected econometric features and are structurally sound.


ABSTRACT This study examines a group of teachers' moral agency in the context of China's curriculum reform. While the reform possesses neo-liberal features such as decentralisation and education for global competitiveness, it also attempts to undermine the long-standing influence of exam-oriented education in China. Employing ethnographic approaches, the results indicate that teachers' moral agency within this context has three specific foci: (1) directing students to become moral people; (2) dedication to teaching; and (3) developing knowledge for and about teaching. Although the study acknowledges that external accountabilities do constrain teachers' autonomy, teachers' moral agency is shaped and enabled by engagement with students and teachers still have a say in what is educationally desirable.


PURPOSE: The purpose was to compare vision and ocular disease among orphans to age-matched school children and determine the barriers they faced for ophthalmic care in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. METHODS: Children of four orphanages of Riyadh (Gr1) were screened for vision refractive error (RE) and eye ailment on "World Sight Day–2019." They were compared to age-matched school children (comparison group; Gr2). The rates of RE, strabismus, amblyopia, and allergic conjunctivitis were estimated in two groups. The coverage of existing eye services for orphan children was reviewed. RESULTS: We screened 53 children of Gr1 and 106 school children of Gr2. The risk of RE was statistically significantly higher in school children compared to orphan children (odds ratio [OR] = 2.4 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.2; 4.8] P = 0.01). The coverage of refractive services for Gr1 was significantly lower than for Gr2 (OR = 0.09 [95% CI 0.02; 0.4] P = 0.001). In Gr1, blurry vision (12 children), red eye (2), and itchy eyes (1) were the main symptoms. In Gr2, no child had eye complaints. In Gr1, amblyopia (1), strabismus (1), history of ocular trauma and surgery (1), eye medications needed (2), and systemic health problems were noted in 9 children. In Gr2, amblyopia (4), strabismus (4), and history of ocular surgery were noted in 2 children. CONCLUSION: Orphan children had less rate of myopia compared to school children. However, unattended ocular pathologies were detected during the screening campaign. The coverage of refractive services was low in these underprivileged children compared to school children.


The author have studied the structural catastrophe point of the RMB against the US dollar,Euro and Japanese yen everyday exchange rate fluctuations based on IT,,and other statistics of the ICSS algorithm,found that use of statistics can be more critical of the catastrophe point found to verify the Sanso's conclusions.Then used the catastrophe point match the significant event of home and abroad,come to the RMB exchange rate influenced by domestic events conclusion.Finally,the author found taking the catastrophe point into account the GARCH model can effectively reduce the volatility persistence of standard GARCH model to estimate the exchange rate return series show the high prices,is able to filter emergencies on the impact of exchange rate volatility.


Numerical data for the design of uniform coaxial Yagi arrays of circular loops are presented. For the given data the electrical dimensions of the exciter and the reflector combination are selected to be optimum for the directive gain in the forward direction.


OBJECTIVES/GOALS: There is an imperative need to initiate translational genetic studies of hidradenitis suppurativa (HS). Such work requires large cohorts and no HS registries exist. Precision medicine initiatives provide new resources and methods for efficiently constructing cohorts, but empirically informed best practice guidelines are needed. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: Traditional methods for building cohorts rely on clinical encounters to identify patients and collect phenotype data. Precision medicine initiatives aim to decrease the time and cost of data collection by using alternative sources, including electronic health records (EHR) and remote collection of patient-reported data. The public's use of the Internet to obtain and exchange health-related information coupled with the success of direct-to-consumer genetic companies suggests that it is feasible to remotely ascertain research participants for genetic studies. Importantly, Internet cohorts provide an opportunity to include research participants who are disconnected from healthcare, and thus remain hidden from research that relies on EHR or clinical services. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: First, to conduct studies in EHR we are developing an analytic pipeline for the automated extraction of an accurate HS diagnosis using natural language processing of clinical notes. In our preliminary work we are also using ICD codes to build cohorts in two EHR systems with and without linked genetic data. Second, we have developed Internet advertising campaigns for symptom-based recruitment. Informed consent and patient-reported data is collected on-line through a series of short surveys. Patients who complete the surveys and express interest in participating in genetic studies are sent saliva collection kits and return mailing material. Finally, we have established an HS biobank that has DNA from 300 participants identified through clinical services. Enrollment is on going. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE OF IMPACT: Our goal is to assemble an HS cohort that is large enough to power genetic discoveries. Our work is generating empirical evidence for precision medicine guidelines and will improve our knowledge about HS. The methods we are developing can be applied to efficiently create new cohorts for genetic studies of other diseases across different clinical areas.


The 4.2K magnetization of several Pd-Ni alloys, with concentration up to 5% Ni was measured in magnetic fields up to 50 kOe and at pressures up to 7 kbar. The results are interpreted using a local model for the appearance of ferromagnetism by the creation of giant induced moments on the non magnetic sites.


After the 1857 rebellion against the East India Company, the Muslim elite has to renegotiate their role in the new hegemonic order. This project is couched in the language of loyalty. The tendency to claim loyalty to the new regime starts as an individual project: several members of the ousted Muslim nobility rehabilitate themselves through means of contractual and openly declared loyalty, which later matures into a more public method of presenting the Muslim condition to the British. In this essay I read Mirza Assadullah Khan Ghalib's post-Rebellion diary to illustrate the early phase of this particular elite Muslim response to the British and its connection to the rise of Indian Muslim exceptionalism.


Present-day computer-based information systems are increasingly required to be open systems. This means that they must cope with open networks, heterogeneous interoperable hardware and software systems, and, above all, evolving and changing requirements. The CHASSIS project aims to develop a software and methodology framework for (i) the security- and reliability-oriented systematic design and construction of heterogeneous information systems from individual existing and newly developed application software components and database systems, and (ii) their secure and reliable interoperation. In CHASSIS, object-orientation is the key technology for the construction of such a system as its uniform interface is realized by an object-oriented data model and the homogenization layer is realized by object-oriented software. CHASSIS includes object models for database and language integration, software to support system integration, specification methods to support the design process and advanced security mechanisms to provide the resulting information system with a high degree of security. CHASSIS is a joint Swiss project between the University of Zurich, the University of Geneva, and the Asea Brown Boveri Research Centre (Baden).


BACKGROUND
To evaluate the effects of hyaluronic acid (HA) and carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) on the recurrence of urethral stricture after treatment with endoscopic internal urethrotomy (EIU).

METHODS
A total of 120 patients underwent EIU for urethral stricture. Recruited patients were randomly divided into two groups: group A and B. Patients in group A (60 patients, experimental group) received HA/CMC instillation and patients in group B (60 patients, control group) received lubricant instillation after internal urethrotomy. Each patient was evaluated at 4 weeks (V1), 12 weeks (V2), and 24 weeks (V3) after the surgery. The effectiveness of HA/CMC instillation was evaluated based on the International Prostate Symptom Score/Quality of Life, peak urine flow rate, voided volume and postvoiding residual urine volume. The visual analogue scale (VAS) pain score and degree of satisfaction were also determined for each participant.

RESULTS
Among 120 initial participants, 53 patients in group A and 48 patients in group B had completed the experiment. VAS pain scores were 0.67±0.76 and 3.60±1.52 (p<0.001), and degrees of satisfaction were 0.28±0.50 and 0.80±0.81 in group A and group B at 1 month after surgery (p=0.001). The recurrence of urethral stricture was observed in five cases (9.4%) in group A and 11 (22.9%) in group B (p=0.029).

CONCLUSIONS
HA/CMC instillation during EIU may decrease the incidence of urethral stricture recurrence. In addition, the use of HA/CMC was effective in reducing pain during the early postoperative period without an adverse effect.


: Selective laser melting rapid prototyping is one of metal additive manufacturing technology. 316L stainless steel and Ti6Al4V are widely used materials in SLM technology. The tribology performance of SLM parts is critically important for industrial applications but related studies are rare and the wear mechanism (include the microstructure) is not further studied under lubricated conditions in particular. Friction and wear behaviors of 316L and TC4 are processed both by SLM and traditional process (TP) with soft material brass and hard material 38CrMoAl have been investigated using a ring-on-disc rig under lubricated conditions. The results show that the SLM samples had the microstructure of melting pool, pore and fine grains, and heat-treated samples' melting pool disappeared, hardness increased. The SLM samples had slightly lower friction and wear than the TP samples when in contact with brass. When contact with hard material, the heat-treated SLM TC4 has lower friction coefficient and wear rate than TP TC4. The beginning of sliding wear, abrasive wear dominated, then adhesive wear occurred and gradually dominated. The fine grain structure of SLM samples had a great influence on its tribological performance, and the plastic deformation degree and oxide film of the specimen has a great influence on the crack formation and the spall of the material.


Recently, significant progress has been made in time series classification with deep learning. However, using deep learning models to solve time series classification generally suffers from expensive calculations and difficulty of data labeling. In this work, we study self-supervised time series pre-training to overcome these challenges. Compared with the existing works, we focus on the universal and unlabeled time series pretraining. To this end, we propose a novel end-to-end neural network architecture based on self-attention, which is suitable for capturing long-term dependencies and extracting features from different time series. Then, we propose two different self-supervised pretext tasks for time series data type: Denoising and Similarity Discrimination based on DTW (Dynamic Time Warping). Finally, we carry out extensive experiments on 85 time series datasets (also known as UCR2015 [2]). Empirical results show that the time series model augmented with our proposed self-supervised pretext tasks achieves state-of-the-art / highly competitive results.


Tudor England experienced crisis levels of poverty and unemployment which manifested in the form of widespread vagrancy during the sixteenth century. From 1530 to 1597 the central government, often with inspiration from local initiatives, enacted a series of laws which attempted to address the causes of the problems as perceived by the public, in an effort to quell popular fears and anxieties regarding vagrancy. The focus of this paper is on the response of Tudor society to the problems of poverty and vagrancy. It studies the statutory distinctions drawn between various states of poverty and how these differences disposed society towards categories of the poor. The impact of crime and the sense of economic instabilty caused by failed harvests and dearth is investigated. The images of social and economic dysfunction formed in the public mind and articulated in the rogue literature of the Elizabethan period are included in discussion of the subject. The bulk of the paper examines the major statutes of the period, the Elizabethan poor laws, to understand the process by which Tudor society made and discarded policies in effort to reach a functional and morally tenable welfare philosophy. The four primary areas of concern examined in the laws are begging, punishment of vagrants, labor and employment, and voluntary and involuntary poor relief. The laws of charitable trusts and the secularization of charitable gifts are also related aspects of the topic. The paper concludes that the development of the poor laws represented a dramatic change in social values, precipitated both by reasons of compassion and utilitarianism stemming from the rising importance of the Protestant work ethic. This revolution in social outlook caused society to move away from the giving of charity for personal salvation, towards a new role for charity as an instrument to ensure the communal well-being. Sixteenth-century England witnessed profound economic disturbances which placed the traditional quiescence of both town and countryside in a constant state of peril. The endemic presence of vagrants, beggars, tricksters, and other persons of suspect occupation and character alerted public attention to an immediate and acute source of civil danger. Driven by changes in the rural economy, a diverse rootless population of men, women, and children drifted from various localities to England's urban centers, subsisting on the margins of town life by begging, petty theft, and a host of other illicit practices. These migrant expeditions stemmed from a desperate search for scarce work opportunities, yet they nevertheless represented a considerable disruption in the static fabric of life in English communities. By the 1530s, any notions of an English pastoral arcadia had been forcibly dispelled from the popular imagination. The ranks of idlers and wanderers, chiefly beggars and masterless persons drawn from the servitor and cottager classes, had achieved such proportions as to provoke multiple waves of legislation from the Tudor Crown. Although both central and local government quickly acknowledged the danger to social tranquility posed by the profusion of vagabonds, the pursuit of efficient and productive policies to strike at the causes of Tudor vagrancy extended across nearly the entire sixteenth century. The history of Tudor vagrancy legislation encapsulates both the moral debate stimulated by poverty and vagrancy and the material concerns of this rapidly changing society. The statutes


Abstract Orthotropic piezoelectric fibre composite (OPFC) possesses excellent orthotropic property with different piezoelectric constant and electromechanical coupling factor in different directions. It has broad application prospects in improving the sensitivity of sensor or actuator. Many factors play great roles in determining the piezoelectric property of OPFC. Effects of the electrode spacing and the diameter of fibre on the orthogonal anisotropic of OPFC are discussed in this article. The finite element method (FEM) analysis was applied during the research process by software Ansys. The results indicate that the orthotropic property of OPFC is improved when the value of electrode spacing and the size of piezoelectric fibres become smaller. The OPFC presents an outstanding orthotropic property when the value of the electrode spacing is ∼10 times the fibre's diameter, and the appropriate electrode spacing is 5–8 times the fibre's diameter when the fibre diameter is below 10 μm.


. Consider an ordinary linear differential operator L, of order » > V"; represented by Lu=a"(t)ui")+--+a0(t)u Vu e C"(a,b), with real-valued coefficients ak e Ck(a, b), 0 =s k « n, a" ¥• 0 on (a, ¿>). According to a classical result, if L is formally selfadjoint Ion (a, b) then it has a factorization of the type I* — PÀPn-A ' ' ' (P\(Pou)')' •)']'Vu e C"(<2, fc), where the pk's are suffi-ciently-smooth and everywhere nonzero functions on (a, b) such that pk = p"-k (k = 0,... ,n). In this note we shall examine this result critically and show by means of counterexamples that the different classical proofs are either merely local or purely heuristic. A proof, which is both rigorous and global, is inferred from recent results on canonical factorizations of disconjugate operators. In addition, information is obtained on the behavior of the pk's at the endpoints of (a, b) which may prove useful in applications.


Since the monograph Society and Education was published in 1922,sociology of education has been established as an independent discipline in China.Scholars have contributed much to the study on its object,nature,research method,etc.,scoring abundant academic results.Therefore,a survey and summary of the corresponding historical achievements on the major elements of sociology of education will greatly benefit today's discipline construction.


The initial enthusiasm for angiographic differentiation of renal tumor and cyst has matured into an attempt to differentiate a broad spectrum of medical and surgical lesions of the kidney. Pathologic lesions that mimic tumor, such as xanthogranulomatous pyelonephritis, abscesses, tuberculosis, and fibrolipomatosis, have been described with increasing frequency (1, 2, 6, 7). Marginal lobulations of the kidney, which may mimic tumor in normal kidneys, have been reported (4). Mass lesions of hypertrophied parenchyma or local nodular areas of residual normal parenchyma in diseased kidneys represent another form of pseudo-tumor. Unnecessary surgery, which could have been avoided by proper interpretation of the renal angiogram, has been performed in such instances. Case Reports Case I: A 47-year-old female was admitted to The Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center with left flank pain and pyuria. There was an antecedent history of pyelonephritis extending back to childhood. A urogram revealed atrophic pyelonephritis bil...


The effects of Cr 6+'s pollution on the ultrastructure of Hydrocharis dubia mainly showed:plasmodesmata fractured,nuclei deformed in different ways,chloroplast enlarged,granum disorganized.Relationship between the le- vel of injured cell and cultural concentration was positive.On the Hydrocharis dubia,H.verticillata,Brasenia schreberi,Trapa bispinosa was plasmolysis and black grains emerged between cell wall and cell membrane;physiological test showed:contents of MDA and O  2 were higher than that of control class.


Peptidoglycans are major components of the bacterial cell envelope, providing a dynamic scaffold that is intimately involved in the growth, development, and survival of all prokaryotes. As peptidoglycan biosynthesis is the target of most commercially available antibiotics and peptidoglycan fragments (muropeptides) are a source of signaling molecules that modulate multiple processes, assessment of peptidoglycan structure and its associated muropeptides is an important component of many microbiology-based research endeavors. Inasmuch, many core facilities need to be able to measure these materials in routine fashion using LC-MS protocols. We provide our current methods of muropeptide sample processing and data analysis, using the muropeptides of Borrelia burgdorferi (spirochete) as an example. Muropeptides were prepared in standard fashion and reduced with either NaBH4 or NaBD4 in alkaline borate buffer. Samples were then either analyzed directly or after solid phase extraction employing a Shimadzu LCMS9030 interfaced with a Nexera LC-40 UHPLC. Chromatographic conditions were fully compatible with the requirements of a core facility with respect to columns (C18), mobile phases (acidified water and acetonitrile), and run times (10 min/run). The resulting datasets were then moved to open source MS-DIAL for initial interrogation and database generation, followed by Byonic for automated structural identification. Implementing a muropeptide analysis protocol is straightforward and can provide an additional source of samples for core proteomics and/or metabolomics facilities.


Obtaining vascular access (VA) is a critical part of the therapeutic apheresis (TA) treatment plan. Currently, there are no guidelines for VA decision‐making and maintenance related to TA procedures.


Environmental authorities are regularly challenged to defend their regulations and policies in terms of how they impose additional costs on business and affect economic competitiveness. This paper discusses the links between environmental protection (and government policies and regulations more generally) and competitiveness. It provides a brief discussion on the nature of competitiveness, presents a Prisoners' Dilemma model of firm and government strategies that incorporates competition, and briefly relates the results of these investigations to key empirical results from the literature.


The present invention relates to a vehicle (22, 26) to communicate with other vehicles (23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30) infrastructure device or method, depending on the communication with the vehicle's current position a specific range. To ensure reliable operation of the communication, the communication range of the expected inter alia, by the surrounding environment (12,14) a characteristic derived. The present invention further relates to a corresponding communication device.


The latest measurements of D0, D+ and Ds+ mesons with the final measurements of Λc+,Ξc0,+, Σc0,++, and the first measurement of Ωcc baryons performed with the ALICE detector at midrapidity in pp collisions √S = 5.02 TeV and √S = 13 TeV are presented. Furthermore, the recent Λc+/D0 yield ratio, measured down to pT = 0 in p-Pb collisions are discussed. Finally, the first measurements of charm fragmentation fractions and charm production cross section at midrapidity per unit of rapidity are shown for both pp and p-Pb collisions using all measured charm ground state hadrons.


A novel miniaturized multiband, single-feed microstrip patch antenna is presented in this paper for WLAN and WiMAX applications. Both size reduction and multiband are obtained by etching the Multiple Complementary Split Ring Resonators (MC-SRR) on the ground plane of the normal patch antenna. At first, the normal patch antenna produces a single band of 5.15 GHz; 200 MHz (5.0500~5.2499). Subsequently, a Single Circular Split Ring Resonator (SC-SRR) is etched on the ground plane and produces a triple band of: 3.25 GHz; 288 MHz (3.1085~3.3964), 4.5 GHz; 101.3 MHz (4.4488~4.5501), and 5.22 GHz; 220 MHz (5.1191~5.3400) and Double Single Circular Split Ring Resonator (DC-MCSRR) with: 2.99 GHz; 60.7 MHz (2.9574~3.0181), 3.57 GHz; 324.7 MHz (3.4065~3.7312), and 5.1413 GHz; 115.4 MHz (5.0817~5.1971). The working bandwidths cover the desired frequency bands of WLAN 5.2 GHz and WiMAX 3.3/3.5 GHz. The proposed (MC-SRR) antenna can be employed to wireless communication systems due to its simplicity in design, compactness and miniaturization.


The PUD in Truckee, California maintains Electric and Water facilities. Although Electric facilities are designed in-house, more than 85 percent of new Water facilities are designed by Engineering firms using CAD software. Historically, as-built information was often delivered without a coordinate system, not to scale, and unstructured. Using tools from ArcScripts, internal development, and as-built standards, the TDPUD has created a scenario that allows Engineers quick access to the Enterprise GIS in CAD format, which in turn puts designs in the proper Coordinate system, to scale, and with proper structure to quickly and easily load new designs into the GIS.


The paper discusses modifications to the standard synthetic aperture focusing technique for improved imaging of concrete materials. Experimental evaluation was performed on three modifications to the velocity estimation, direct wave suppression, and attenuation compensation methods. Results show potential for improved performance beyond the standard imaging methods.


There has been a recent surge of enthusiasm within the automotive industry to build closer supplier relationships within the area of product development. One concept deemed central to these relationships is the alignment of development processes between the collaborating organizations, an area that is expanded upon within this paper. We suggest that synchronization can be achieved through the four key steps of process standardization, knowledge sharing, alignment of existing practices, and continuous elimination of waste within the joint development cycles. A methodology for implementing these stages is presented along with the underlying principles on which it is based – the importance of joint teamworking and multi‐company involvement within the alignment process is highlighted.


Increasing numbers of people world-wide develops the disease type 2 diabetes. Development of type 2 diabetes is characterized by a shift from an insulin sensitive state to an insulin resistant stat ...


The paper shows how, over a period from the 1980s until today, individually experienced pressure to act, inspiration, and commitment has led to collective solutions for improving care for the dying. The German case study further exemplifies how creative solutions can be devised to empower society and its members. We found a remarkable model of providing extensive care services to the dying and their relatives based on voluntary involvement in a medium-sized city in Germany. The city's hospice and palliative care services were investigated based on a qualitative network analysis. Posted at the Zurich Open Repository and Archive, University of Zurich ZORA URL: https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-133023 Journal Article Published Version Originally published at: Thönnes, Michaela; Jakoby, Nina (2016). Development of Palliative Care and Hospice Services in Germany. A Case Study. Palliative medicine care : open access:1-5.


This research was conducted for eight months on the island of South Kalimantan, Indonesia. This study examines Mamanda. Mamanda is a traditional South Kalimantan theater that still survives in the global era. Mamanda is liked because it is rich in humor that can entertain the entire audience and relieve fatigue because it can invite laughter. However, if it is interpreted more deeply, humor has a pragmatic function that it wants to convey to its listeners. Therefore, this study examines more deeply the function of humor in Mamanda. This study aims to describe the form and function of humor in Mamanda. This research uses the descriptive qualitative method. The data in this study, in the form of a recording of Mamanda's performance, played at the Mamanda Parade, a series of events to commemorate the anniversary of Banjarmasin, South Kalimantan. The informants in this study consisted of twenty people with different backgrounds, all of whom were players who played an active role in the show. The research method used is descriptive qualitative to describe the results in detail using a series of clear sentences. The results showed that there were four types of humor in mamanda, namely, language humor, behavioral humor, gossiping humor, and pornographic humor. The functions of humor are as a function of advising, a function of criticism, a function of satire, and a function of tolerance.


A mild, convenient, and practical one-pot procedure for the direct synthesis of dithiocarbamates has been developed by condensation of amines, CS 2 , and a Michael acceptor, under solvent-free conditions at room temperature in good to excellent yields.


The development of an environmentally friendly analytical technique for simultaneous measurement of medicines with large concentration differences is difficult yet critical for environmental protection. Hence, in this work, new manipulated UV-spectroscopic methods with high scaling factors were established for concurrent quantification of telmisartan (TEL) and benidipine (BEN) in fixed-dose combinations. Two different methods were developed and established by calculation of peak height at zero crossing point of second derivative and the ratio of first derivative spectra with a scaling factor of 200 and 100, respectively. The absorption difference between the peaks and troughs of the ratio spectra, as well as continuous subtraction from ratio spectra, were established as additional methods. In addition, new procedures were validated using ICH recommendations. The proposed methods' linearity curves were constructed in the range of 0.5–10 µg mL−1 and 1–30 µg mL−1 for BEN and TEL, respectively, under optimized conditions. Furthermore, both the detection (0.088–0.139 µg mL−1 for BEN and 0.256–0.288 µg mL−1 for TEL) and quantification limits (0.293–0.465 µg mL−1 for BEN and 0.801–0.962 µg mL−1 for TEL) were adequate for quantifying both analytes in the formulation ratios. The accuracy and precision were confirmed by the good recovery percent (98.37%–100.6%), with low percent relative error (0.67%–1.70%) and less than 2 percent relative standard deviation, respectively. The specificity of the methods was proven by accurate and precise outcomes from the standard addition method and analysis of laboratory mixed solutions with large differences in concentrations of both analytes. Finally, the BEN and TEL content of the formulations was determined simultaneously without prior separation using these first ever reported spectroscopic methods. Furthermore, developed UV derivative spectroscopic methods demonstrated high greenness and whiteness when compared to the reported HPLC methods. These findings show that the projected methods were effective, practical, and environmentally acceptable for quality control of BEN and TEL in multicomponent formulations.


Software Architecture has emerged as an important sub-discipline of software engineering. A key aspect of the design of any software is its architecture styles, i.e. components and connectors and their relationships. Selecting the best style is difficult because there are multiple factors such as project risk, corporate goals, limited availability of resources, etc. Therefore this study presents a methodology for selection of software architecture styles. In this paper we explore the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) within a zero-one goal programming (ZOGP) model for selection of architecture styles. AHP is applied to the decision problem involving multiple alternatives and criteria and aims at selecting an alternative from a known set of alternatives. Then Goal programming model is used to optimize the objective function while simultaneously satisfying all the constraints. Further, AHP-GP Visualization framework and visualization tool (SAVE Tool) are applied to evaluate the selected software architecture style.


ObjectiveTo observe pathologically the poisoning effect of paraquat(PQ)at different doses on kidney of rats. MethodsSD rats were exposured to PQ at different doses intraperitoneally,and pathological changes of kidney were observed at different time points. Results①First day after PQ treatment,renal pathological changes could be seen in all groups,proximal tubule at cortical most serevely involved.No significant differences could be found at different time point for each PQ dose group.②In group 15 mg/kg and group 20 mg/kg, tubular epithelial cells of cortical showed swelling,part of which became vacuole degeneration.③ In group 35mg/kg,the karyopyknosis of the tubular epithelial cells of cortical increased.The structure of epithelium disappeared,that of glomcrulus disorganized and medulla were involved.In group 25 mg/kg and 30 mg/kg,severity of pathological changes were between that of group 20 mg/kg and group 35 mg/kg. Conclusion①The main pathological changes of kidney induced by PQ were epithelial swelling,vacuole degeneration and necrosis.② There was a positive correlation between pathological changes of kidney and the dose of PQ.③ With the poisoning dose increasing,each part of kidney were involved.


Sweet potato is a staple crop in Brazil presenting a smaller number of pathogens and diseases in comparison with other root and tuberous crops. Root knot nematodes are among the most serious sweet potato root pathogens. The impact of these pathogens also extends to following crops. Since in Brazil it is common to cultivate more than one crop per season this problem is rapidly disseminated. The aim of this study is to assess the resistance of two sweet potato clones and three commercial sweet potato genotypes to three different Meloidogyne species. Assays were performed under greenhouse conditions in two separate seasons. CIP BRS Nuti, one of the new clones and Canadense, one of the commercial genotypes were resistant to Meloidogyne incognita, M. javanica and M. enterolobii. This finding was obtained based on the reproduction factor smaller than 0,2 meaning that the initial population of 5,000 nematodes was reduced to less than 1,000 individuals after 90 days of inoculation. This data was also confirmed by the small number of eggs, egg masses and galls. Tomato and sweet potato cultivar Beauregard, known to be susceptible to the three nematode species were highly damaged by the pathogens. To our knowledge CIP BRS Nuti and Canadense are the first South American commercial cultivars with triple nematode resistance.


Increasingly, reviewers for research journals and other venues for reporting research are demanding clearly articulated theoretical frameworks in manuscripts under consideration for publication or presentation. Yet, if one examines the articles published in the major journals in our field and attends the research sessions at the annual AVERA [American Vocational Education Research Association] meetings, one must conclude that there is a general lack of agreement on what is meant by theoretical framework. The author examines the theoretical literature on the relationship between theory and research from the perspective of the researcher. He presents succinct examples from the career and technical education literature of theoretical frameworks at the level of grand theory, middle range theory, and substantive theory. He argues that an adequate theoretical framework for a research study can be built at any of those three levels. He contends that writers who present conceptual frameworks for their studies are actually referring to theoretical frameworks at the level of substantive theory and argues against using the term 'conceptual framework' in that context. This article is based on the author's Presidential Address at the AVERA Annual Meeting in December 2000.


Aims: To analyze the impact of comorbidities (diabetes mellitus DM, high blood pressure HBP, obesity OB, and dyslipidemia Dl) on the overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS) rates of superficial urothelial carcinoma of the bladder (UCB). Methods: A retrospective study of 152 patients diagnosed with UCB was carried out. The clinical history of the patients was registered in a database, identifying the abovementioned comorbidities, and the OS and RFS of the patients with superficial tumors (pTa) were analyzed. Results: Ninety-one patients with stage Ta disease were selected; the mean OS of the patients with pTa UCB with DM was 228.2 ± 31.9 months vs. 253.6 ± 14.1 in the non-diabetic patients, resulting in statistical significance (p =0.037). The RFS in patients with stage pTa UCB with a body mass index (BMI) ≥ 30 Kg/m 2 was 244.3 ± 19.5 months and in patients with a BMI 30 Kg/m


This thesis is divided in two parts. First, it presents a new criterion for model selection which is shown to be particularly well suited in "sparse" settings which we believe to be common in many research fields. Our selection procedure is developed for linear regression models, smoothing splines, autoregressive and mixed linear models. These developments are then applied in Biostatistics. The second part presents a new estimation method for the parameters of a time series model. The proposed estimation method offers an alternative to maximum likelihood estimation, that is straightforward to implement and often the only feasible estimation method with complex models. We derive the asymptotic properties of the proposed estimator for inference and perform an extensive simulation study to compare our estimator to existing methods. Finally, we apply our method in engineering to calibrate inertial sensors and demonstrate that it represents a considerable improvement compared to benchmark methods.


The present work resulted in isolation and purification of two potential anticancer compounds from Chaetomium globosum isolated from Egyptian soil. The two compounds were tested against Michigan Cancer Foundation-7(MCF-7) breast cancer cell line and Hepatocellular carcinoma, Human (HEPG-2) a human liver carcinoma cell line and showed inhibition effect on the proliferation of two cell lines. The structures of the two pure compounds were elucidated by HNMR and Mass spectroscopy as methyl 9-dihydro-8-trihydroxy-9-oxo-Hxanthene- 1-carboxylate as a member of xanthones and (E)-methyl 2-hydroxy-6, 6-dimethyl hept-3-enoate.


A rural environment is one that has been transformed by man, during the process of transformation; rural morphology is influenced by crop type, agricultural production mode and cultural morphology. After that the research on human-land relationship in the field of architectural planning gradually turn to the analysis of spatial forms such as landscape and topography, and ignore the influence of crop types, production modes and cultural forms. Co-cultivation of rice flower achieves the maximum and most reasonable utilization of environmental resources and tourism intervention to obtain sustainable benefits within the limited time and space. It is an important basis for promoting the transformation of rural form, the inheritance of cultural form, and the collaborative design of rural natural environment.


The marriage between democracy and capitalism seems to have collapsed with the catastrophe manifesting as hunger, poverty, unemployment, increasing inequality, financial exclusion and lack of confidence in governments. This places a new sort of demand on employees to innovate their personal financial strategy with a comprehensive framework that does not just focus on short term range but the entire career life of the employee. Truly, it is not the primary responsibility of employers to plan and implement personal financial management for employees; the responsibility is that of an employee. Effective Personal Financial Management through Employment Lifecycle Fund Model is a novel framework that provides new insights into the implications of being an employee in a capitalist democracy and what employees should do to lead a successful personal finance. The principles can also be applied by employers to empower their employees or trade unions/associations to engage their employers for better employment conditions.


This paper begins with Keynes' monetary demand function combined with the current conditions of China' s monetary demand, and then puts forward a function of China' s monetary demand since the mid-1990s. By applying the analysis of Co-integration test in a substantial research, the paper eliminates the unbalance of time series and reserves the longtime information included in the data. In the last part of the regression result analysis, the paper analyzes all factors affecting China' s monetary demand. Finally, the following conclusions are obtained from computation:the income elasticity of our country' s monetary demand is small; the nominal interest rate is negative as related to every level of the monetary demand; and the negotiable securities market has great influence on the monetary demand.


Microalgae are significant biological resources with numerous biotechnological uses. Microalgae like Spirulina and Chlorella are being mass-produced for health food due to their great nutritional content. A variety of high-value products including polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA),


In the essence to meet the economic needs, there must be goods and services. The goods and services as a means of satisfying the needs that must be held or made (in production). After the goods and services are created or manufactured, these goods and services must be distributed to the community as users or consumers of the goods and services.


S cells have been recognized as a potential tool to restore cells damaged by cerebral ischemic injury. Key functions such as the replacement of neural cells have been recently challenged by intrinsic bystander capacities of undifferentiated donor cells. One of opportunity for neurological disorder treatment is the transplantation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) which have neuroprotective, neuroregenerative and anti-inflamatory properties. However, a comprehensive knowledge how transplanted MSCs exert their therapeutic achievements is still lacking. The aim of the project was to analyze the presence, distribution and quantity of human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (hBM-MSCs) transplanted into focal brain ischemic rats. The experiments were performed in adult male Wistar rats withbrain focal ischemiainduced with 1μl/50nmol ouabain(sodium-potassium pump inhibitor) injection into right stratium. Then 5x105 hBM-MSC (Lonza) stained with iron nanoparticles and rhodamine (Molday, BioPAL) were transplanted into internal carotid artery, 48 hours after brain insult. At 1, 3, 7 and 14 days rat brains were removed. Immunocytochemical analysis of human markers using different antibodies anti: CD44, STEM121and Ku80 were performed. The preliminary results showed that after intra-arterially injection of hBM-MSC, the donor cells were present in the ipsilateral rat hemisphere between cortical cortex and stratium near the ischemic lesion. The positive staining for Molday particles and human antigens were observed at 1, 2, 3 and 7 days after hBM-MSC transplantation. The further studies relating to the function of transplanted cells are in progress.


Transforming growth factors β (TGFs β) are involved in a variety of important cellular functions, including cell growth and differentiation, adhesion, migration, extracellular matrix formation, and immune function. Moreover, it has been reported that TGFs β are correlated with angiogenesis. However, the role of TGF‐β as an angiogenic factor in gastric carcinoma is still unclear.


ABSTRACTThe use of visual display of data has increased dramatically over time. In finance, one of the most beautiful visualizations is the "compass rose" first identified by Crack and Ledoit (1996). I revisit the compass rose and demonstrate that it has vanished from daily return data. I also provide evidence on the frequency of discrete price changes in the Crack and Ledoit data versus more recent data and conclude that the changing nature of the U.S. stock market has resulted in the vanishing of the compass rose.INTRODUCTIONThe use and analysis of visual display of data has increased in virtually every human endeavor including commerce. For instance, a search on ABI/Inform of all newspaper and magazine articles carrying the term "visual" or "visualization" over the 15 years spanning 1983-1997 reveals that either term appeared in 4,410 articles; over the 15 years 1998-2012 there were 15,045 articles that carried either of those terms - a more than three-fold increase. Yet, the academic finance literature has mostly ignored the use of visual displays of data. A significant exception is the beautiful compass rose visualization brought to the attention of the academic community by Crack and Ledoit (1996, henceforth CL). When CL plot the value of the daily return on a common stock against its lagged value they find that a visually interesting and attractive pattern, best described as a mariner's "compass rose", emerges. In the mariner's compass rose, the most common directions - north-south (NS), east-west (EW), northwest-southeast (NW-SE), and northeast-southwest (NE-SW) - are clearly marked. Likewise, in the CL compass rose a large number of points fall on these directional lines creating a pattern like the mariner's compass rose.While the pattern may be visually interesting, it also has serious implications for research in finance. As suggested by CL and others, one possible source of the pattern is discreteness in stock prices or, stated in another way, the existence of a small number of ticks by which stock prices move. Gottlieb and Kalay (1985) demonstrate that discreteness in prices affects the variance and other higher moments of returns. Kraemer and Runde (1997) show that discreteness seriously biases statistical tests of chaos in returns. Additionally, CL and Koppl and Nardone (2001) suggest that the presence of discreteness leads to return distributions that are inconsistent with standard ARCH models.Another strain of literature motivated by CL discusses the necessary and sufficient conditions that lead to the compass rose. According to CL, three conditions that - taken together - are necessary and sufficient for the compass rose to emerge are:1. Daily price changes should be small relative to the level of the stock price,2. Daily price changes are in a small number of discrete values, and3. The price of a stock varies over a wide range.Szpiro (1998), however, concludes that the only condition both necessary and sufficient for the emergence of the rose is discreteness in price changes. Gleason, et al. (2000) argue that the tick/volatility ratio has to be above some threshold level before the pattern will emerge. Wang and Wang (2002) derive a measure of the visual quality of the compass rose which is affected by the tick size, by return volatility and by the price level. The common characteristic among these papers is the role of the tick size.The microstructure of the U.S. stock market has undergone significant changes since CL brought the rose to our attention. Of particular relevance to the compass rose is the decimalization of U.S. stock market quotes and prices in the years 2000 and 2001. The decimalization of quotes and prices has resulted in a substantial decrease in tick size for most stocks (Bessembinder, 2003). This raises the possibility that changes in microstructure have resulted in the disappearance of the rose. McKenzie and Frino (2003), however, report that despite an 85% post-decimalization drop in the tick/volatility ratio, the compass rose continues to emerge from the data. …


College of Surgeons on the 19th and 24th of March, and which are in the main, in accordance with the principles laid down in the Memorial which they had the honour of presenting to your notice on the 2nd of May, 1850. Your Memorialists are grateful for the liberal. concessions which have been offered to their representations, and have no hesitation in accepting these resolutions as the basis of a final settlement of the question of Medical Reform. But at the same time they would call to your recollection the nature of the Memorial above alluded to; for if the second paragraph of that document is compared with the resolutions lately submitted to you by the Council of the College of Surgeons, it will be seen that the elective power is now intended to be confined to the Fellows, whilst your Memorialists have always contended for its extension to all Members of respectability and good character. But your Memorialists would most anxiously endeavour to impress upon you the necessity, not only of conferring new charters upon the Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons, embodying the proposed reforms in their constitution, but also of carrYing out the third paragraph of the abovenamed Memorial, which is as follows: "That after such remodelling of the constitution of the existing colleges, it is also desirable to appoint a joint board of physicians and surgeons, with the aid, if necessary, of competent examiners in midwifery and pharmacy, who shall examine every candidate desiring to enter the profession, in medicine, surgery, midwifery, and pharmacy, and shall, on his passing such examination to their satisfaction, issue a diploma or licence to practise all or any of these branches of the profession in any part of her Majesty's dominions." Your Memorialists consider it a matter of sincere congratulation that you now have it in your power without injustice to any party, to put an end to this long protracted state of confusion and discord in their profession, and they beg to assure you, that though they hold strong. opinions upon the propriety of the principles which they have alluded to, and also upon some others of minor importance, believing them to be based upon justice and expediency, yet they would gratefully receive any modification from your hands, which you may be pleased to consider as the most desirable for all parties. We have the honor to be, Sir, Your obedient Servants, CHARLES HASTINGS, M.D., PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL. J. P. SHEPPARD, SECRETARY. We believe that at no former period has there ever prevailed so sincere a desire among the authorities of both our Colleges to do justice to the claims of the provincial practitioners; and we are of opinion that under the intended arrangements there will be no impediment, excepting that of distance, (which is daily becoming less and less in its effects,) in the way of their taking the same standing in their respective Colleges as would be accorded to their scientific attainrments were they inhabitants of the great metropolis. It may be said, and with great truth, that this position has only been gained at the point of the bayonet; but let us remember that many of those who are now in power were formerly fighting in the same ranks with us, and have been mainly instrumental in altering the opinions of their fellow-councillors. We trust, therefore,. that as the year 1851 is to witness an harmonious meeting in the cause of general science and manufactures, it will be equally signalized by a cessation of strife in our hitherto divided profession. We shall find quite enough to do to maintain an equal progress with the grand march going on in other and collateral branches of science; and we may then hope to regain some of that respect for our art which has been frittered away by an undignified squabbling among ourselves.


The sunflower oil seed processing generates by-products known as sunflower cake and sunflower meal, which lignocellulosic fibers have been little explored as sources of fermentable sugars for bioprocesses. This study aimed at characterizing chemically the sunflower cake and meal, as well the hemicellulosic hydrolysates obtained under different conditions of dilute-acid hydrolysis (1, 2, 4 and 6% w/v H 2 SO 4 for 20, 40 and 60 min, at 121°C). The resulting solid fractions (cellulignins) were characterized in order to evaluate further utilization of cellulosic sugars. Both materials presented similar concentrations of cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, protein and ash, except for lipids. Regarding the dilute-acid hydrolysis treatment, the increase of sulfuric acid concentration and reaction time raised the concentrations of monomeric sugars and inhibitory compounds. The best condition for obtaining the hemicellulosic hydrolysate from sunflower cake and sunflower meal was 6% sulfuric acid and 20 min, resulting in a rich mixed sugar liquor containing 25.81 g/L xylose, 21.96 g/L glucose and 6.52 g/L arabinose in the cake hydrolysate and 24.88 g/L xylose, 22.33 g/L glucose and 8.9 g/L arabinose in the meal hydrolysate, which accounted for a pentose recovery of 75.5% and 79.43%, respectively. With this condition, hemicellulose was almost completely removed (99.22%) in sunflower meal and the remaining solid fraction presented high cellulose content (33.41%). After delignification with 1% w/v NaOH at 120°C for 15 min, the solid fraction presented 70.23% of cellulose. The results show that both materials are potential biomass for bioprocesses, which represent an alternative marketing outlet for this crop and opens up a possibility of incorporating the byproducts of sunflower in the context of biorefinery.


Anti-microbial resistance is often measured in a highly mechanized fashion where samples of anti-microbial agents in a dilution series (e.g. at 2, 4, 8, 16 μg/mL) are inoculated with bacteria. The resulting minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) is the smallest concentration in the series that inhibited growth of the bacteria. The MIC value is interval censored and the actual MIC is between the reported value and the next lowest concentration in the series (e.g., a MIC of 8 μg/mL implies the actual MIC is between 4 and 8 ml/L). In some cases, the MIC data are collected in a complex design that includes both fixed effects (e.g., age of the animal or husbandry practice) and random effects (e.g. farm where animal is raised). The combination of censoring and random effects make likelihood methods intractable. This paper will demonstrate how to analyze this type of data using Bayesian methodology. An example where the mean MIC is compared between two different diets in poultry operations is presented.


A serotype 11 strain of Riemerella anatipestifer was isolated from a dead vaccinated duck in Jiangsu province.Experimental infection of the cherry valley ducks with 106 CFU/mL by the intramuscular route,or 108 CFU/mL by the intranasal route developed clinical symptom and death.R.anatipestifer could be isolated in blood from heart,liver,lung,kidney,brain and bursa of Fabricius.The bacterial concentration in bursa of Fabricius was the highest.Gross lesions in affected birds involved heart,liver,spleen,lung,pancreas,brain,enteric mucous membrane,and bursa of Fabricius.These results indicated that a new serotype of R.anatipestifer existed in Jiangsu province and bursa of Fabricius was the primary target organ.


To ameliorate the situation that the incoherent signal-subspace method (ISM) is computationally expensive, an improved method named energy-peak incoherent signal-subspace method (EPISM) is proposed in this paper. According to this method, the amount of the speech targets is firstly estimated based on the microphone array input data. After that, we extract the energy-characterized sub-bands (ECSBs) on which the signal energy is concentrated. By analyzing the estimated amount of speech targets and the ECSB data, the aim of localizing the speech targets is achieved. Simulation results indicate that EPISM successfully localizes the speech targets and its amount of calculation is smaller than ISM.


This article considers criteria to determine when stop-and-go waves form in platoons of human-driven vehicles, and when they can be dissipated by the presence of an autonomous vehicle. Our analysis takes the start from the observation that the standard notion of string/ring stability definition, which requires uniformity with respect to the number of vehicles in the platoon, is too demanding for a mixed traffic scenario. The setting under consideration is the following: the vehicles run along a ring road and the human-driven vehicles obey a combined follow-the-leader and optimal velocity model, while the autonomous vehicle obeys an appropriately designed model. The criteria are tested on a linearized version of the resulting platoon dynamics and simulation tests using nonlinear model are carried out.


,IT WAS a major advance in road safety when the Stat~, led by Victoria in 1965, adopted the breathalyzer, allowing .the ready determination of the blood alcohol level in erring motorists, To drive with a level of 0'05% at which the average person's driving ability is impaired, became an offence in Victoria. New South Wales, South Australia and Tasmania required 0'08% for a conviction, Queensland (}1O%. In Western Australia, (}15% became prima-facie evidence that. the driver. was under the influence. Thousands of drinking drivers have since been detected and their licences withdfaw¥.fora time, but the 3,502 traffic deaths in the Commonwealth in 1969, at least half of which may be ascribed to alcohol, now call for further measures. Many studies in Australia and overseas have shown that alcoholics make a disproportionate contribution 'to serious road crashes, often miscalled accidents. Evidence for this is based on the frequent finding among traffic offenders of blood alcohol levels much above those produced by ordinary social .drinking, the previous conviction of many for drink driving, drunkenness or other offences associated with drinking, and the results of psychiatric investigation of them. Anyone found driving with a blood alcohol level in excess of 0'15% may reasonably be assumed to have at least a drinking problem that needs investigation. For instance, of 18 drivers in Ann Arbor responsible for' traffic deaths and with a level of 0'15% or over, N. L. Selzer and S. Weiss found 15 to be alcoholics, two prealcoholics and only one non-alcoholic, -


Using pentaerythritol ester of rosin,disproportionated rosin and hydrogenated rosin as the tackifiers,the influence of the tackifiers on appearance,mechanical properties and use temperature of the hot melt pressure sensitive adhesive was studied.The experiment results showed that the pentaerythritol esters of pure and modified rosins have good compatibility with thermoplastic elastomer SBS but they have different influence on the HMPSA performance as follows:the order of initial tack was HMPSA with pentaerythritol ester of disproportionated rosinHMPSA with pentaerythritol ester of hydrogenated rosinHMPSA with pentaerythritol ester of rosin and the order of 180°peeling strength was HMPSA with hydrogenated rosin pentaerythritol esterHMPSA with rosin pentaerythritol esterHMPSA with disproportionated rosin pentaerythritol ester.The holding power was all longer than 48 hours,the performance is outstanding.HMPSA with pentaerythritol ester of hydrogenated rosin is the widest for use temperature range.


There are many factors which affect the choice of contraceptive practice in middle age. Co-existing disease is only one and in some ways is the least important. Childbirth itself poses a considerable risk to the health of the mother in as much as maternal mortality rises steeply with age especially after 45 years (Fig. 1); similarly perinatal mortality increases with age (Fig. 2). Together these two factors make the need for careful contraception all the more important. Fertility is reduced with age and this unfortunately lulls some couples into a false sense of security and they may take unnecessary risks.