CO2 methanation shows advantages in Power-to-Gas technologies using renewable energy. In this article, Sm doped Ce x Sm y Zr1−x−y O2-δ complex is prepared using a one-pot hydrolysis method and is used as support for the Ru-Ni catalyst. The CO2 methanation activity at high temperature, GHSV, and thermal stability is tested. The results show that Sm doping is unfavorable for low-temperature methanation activity, but improves the thermal stability with Sm doping amount of 10 mol%. The Sm doping significantly enhances the performance at high temperatures (>400 °C ) and high GHSV (> 10000 h−1). Five reaction rate equations with different adsorption expressions are applied for kinetic analysis. Low activation energies ranging between 50.1 kJ/mol and 53.2 kJ/mol are observed for different models, which are lower than reported Ni-based catalysts. The equation considering both CO2 and H2O adsorption achieves the best-fitting results.


(13. XII.91) ~~~~ The X-ray structures of fifteen 1,3-imidazolidine, 1,3-oxazolidine, 1,3-dioxan-4-one, and hydropyrimidine4( I H)-one derivatives are described (Table 2) and compared with known structures of similar compounds (Figs. 1-20). The differences between structures containing exocyclic N-acyl groups and those lacking this structural element arise from the A',' effect of the amide moieties. Even I-Bu groups are forced into axial positions of six-ring half-chair or into flag-pole positions of six-ring twist-boat conformers by this effect (Figs. 16-20). In the N-acylated five-membered heterocycles, a combination of ring strain and A',3 strain leads to strong pyramidalizations of the amide N-atoms (Table I) such that the acyl groups wind up on one side and the other substituents on the opposite side of the rings (Figs. 4-9 and Scheme 3). Thus, the acyl (protecting!) groups strongly contribute to the steric bias between the two faces of the rings. Observed, at first glance surprizing stereoselectivities of reactions of these heterocycles (Schemes I and 2) are interpreted (Scheme 3) as an indirect consequence of the amide A's3 strain effect. The conclusions drawn are considered relevant for a better understanding of the ever increasing role which amide groups play in stereoselective syntheses.


In this paper, we develop a parallel algorithm on the Intel Paragon supercomputer for constructing the two-dimensional Delaunay triangulation (called 2-d DT) of a point set with N points on the plane. The time complexity of the best sequential algorithm for 2-d DT is O(N log N). Our parallel algorithm improves it to constant or O(1) time by using N processors in the Paragon. The 2-d DT has many practical applications on sciences and technologies, such as unstructured mesh generation on computational fluid dynamics, geometric modeling on computer-aided design, volume rendering on scientific visualization, and Voronoi diagram on robotics and image processing.


Voids were formed in silicon (Si) and silicon germanium/silicon (Si1−xGex/Si) samples containing 5% or 9% Ge (at. %) by 30 keV, 5 × 1016 cm−2 helium (He+) implantation followed by annealing in nitrogen (N2) or dry oxygen (O2) atmospheres in the temperature range 960–1110 °C. Si1−xGex thicknesses were 60 nm and 20 nm for 5% and 9% Ge, respectively. He+ implantation energy was set such that in Si1−xGex/Si samples voids were formed inside the Si substrate. An increase in annealing temperature resulted in an increase in the average void diameter and decrease in the average void density. Due to the presence of implantation damage and the relatively high temperature anneals, Ge diffusion occurs, which results in a stress gradient in the sample that interacts with the void layer. The presence of Ge also results in weaker Si-Ge bonds (compared to Si-Si bonds). This leads to an increase in the rate of cavity migration providing a likely explanation for the increase in the average void diameter and decrease in the ...


We developed and tested a high-pressure optical chamber system for cultivation and mi- croscopic observation of deep-sea organisms. The system is composed of an optical chamber, a high- pressure pump, a pressure sensor and a microscope. The chamber has an observation cavity, 2 cultiva- tion cavities and 2 sapphire windows. The pump is employed for perfusion of culture medium and for increasing the pressure. The pressure sensor monitors the pressure in the chamber. The microscope is used for observing samples through the sapphire windows. In the future, the optical chamber system could be used alone for short-term research or be connected to a large high-pressure vessel to create a flow-through system for long-term research. Using the system, the swimming activity of Bosmina lon- girostris (Branchiopoda: Cladocera) was observed at different pressures. Swimming activity increased with increasing compression up to 30 MPa. During decompression, this activity reappeared when pressure decreased to 45 MPa and increased with further decreasing pressure.


The fluorine in the fluorine-containing waste water with highly removed, relatively give less treated water and a high concentration of sludge of SS by sedimentation tank having a simple structure fluorine-containing waste water treatment apparatus. Introducing the sludge with added fluorine-containing waste water and the calcium compound with the reaction vessel 1 of reacting the fluorine and calcium compounds, and flocculation tank 2 for adding a polymer flocculant to the reaction solution in the reaction vessel 1, the aggregation treatment a settling tank 3 which water to solid-liquid separation, and a mixing tank 4 to return by adding from the separated calcium compound injection tube 4b in a part of the sludge in the reaction tank 1. Settling tank 4, the center comprising a feed well 10, and an inclined plate 13 on the inner peripheral wall surface.


Cetirizine, an H1-antihistamine, is prescribed for allergic disorders. It exists as a racemic mixture, with levocetirizine being the active enantiomer. The central nervous system side-effects of H1 ...


Linear regression is one approach among various machine learning methods that are applied to solve problems by constructing a model from training with previously known data. Machine learning can be applied to various areas, especially on complex problems which have no clear computational rule or solution for the problems. In this paper, we present a linear regression approach to solve in area of software analysis for identifying similar software. In the experimental results, we show the evaluation results of applying linear regression on classification of similar software.


A production trial was conducted using 150 single comb White Leghorn layers to study the effect on cellulase supplementation at three different levels in high fibre diet on the production performance in comparison with standard layer and high fibre rations for a period of 20 weeks, Egg production, feed efficiency and egg weight did not differ significantly among treatment, whereas feed intake was significantly (P<0.01) more in high fibre control diet fed groups. From the cost-benefit analysis, cost of production of an egg was lower in all enzyme supplemented groups than controls.


The HipHop Virtual Machine (HHVM) is a JIT compiler and runtime for PHP. While PHP values are dynamically typed, real programs often have latent types that are useful for optimization once discover...


The socialist core value system plays a key role in China overall social value system,playing a leading role,determining the basic feature and direction of the entire value system. The construction of campus culture is from the structure and the function,but this paper tries to integrate the socialist core value system into the construction of campus culture,from the soul,theme,essence and foundation of the core value system,these four aspects tries to solve the problem of the campus culture construction as entertainment,blind,form and vulgar nowadays.


International scientific research points to a unanimous conclusion: the world is too small for nuclear war, and the "worst-case" scenario should be the operational model.


Correspondence and requests for reprints to Dr James D. Cameron MD, MEngSc, FIEAust, Biomedical Engineering, Department of Electronic Engineering, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria, Australia 3083. Tel: þ61 (0)3 9479 1179; fax: þ61 (0)3 9471 0524; e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com Introduction Arterial function has generated much interest over the last decade with an increasing number of reports quantifying arterial properties in different patient groups and under various clinical circumstances. This review summarizes the popular methods of quantitative assessment of arterial function in the context of their clinical application.


A new paint absorbing a large amount of water was developed for restraining frost formation.Hydrophilic surface was made using this paint with coating thickness about 0.05 mm. A series of experiments were carried out to test its durative hydrophilicity and cycling anti-frosting performance.Experimental results showed that the hydrophilic surface has strong water-absorption capacity.It shows good cycling anti-frosting performance under the condition of relative air humidity of 53%and cold plate temperature of -10.5℃.


A deficiency in the implementation of current radiation protection is the determination of the ambient dose equivalent H*(10) and the directional dose equivalent H´(0.07) in pulsed radiation fields. Conventional dosimeter systems are not suitable for measurements in photon fields comprising short radiation pulses, which consequently leads to high detector loads in short time periods. Nevertheless, due to the implementation of advanced medical accelerators for cancer therapy, new medical diagnostic devices as well as various laser machining systems, there is an urgent need for suitable dosimeter systems for real time dosimetry. In this paper, a detector concept based on an organic scintillator and a full digital data analysis with the aim of developing a portable, battery powered measurement system is presented.


Background Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a major health problem among hemodialysis (HD) patients. Interleukin (IL)-12 gene polymorphisms may be associated with immune response variability to recombinant HBV vaccines. The aim was to determine the correlation between IL-12 gene polymorphism and hepatitis B surface-antibody (HBs-Ab) titer in response to HBV vaccine among HD Egyptian patients. Patients and methods Seventy patients receiving long-term HD and 20 age-matched and sex-matched healthy controls were enrolled. All participants were non-HBV vaccinated and seronegative for HBV and HIV. Recombinant HBV vaccine was given (three-dose scheduled). Thereafter, HBs-Ab titer and IL-12 gene polymorphism were evaluated 8 weeks after the last vaccination dose. Results There was no response (HBs-Ab<10 μIU/ml) in 20% of HD patients and 10% of the controls. HBs-Ab titers showed no significant correlation with duration of HD, BMI, serum albumin, hemoglobin, leucocytic count, parathyroid hormone level, or IL-12 gene polymorphism. Responders to vaccination had significantly lower transferrin saturation and significantly higher levels of urea reduction ratio, Kt/V and lymphopenia. IL-12B genotype frequency was as follows: AA (58.3 vs. 55.6%), AC (37.5%) and CC (4.2 vs. 0%) in responders of either HD or control participants, respectively (P>0.05 for all). Conclusion There was no significant association between IL-12B gene polymorphism and HBs-Ab response in Egyptian HD patients. In HD patients, lymphocytopnea, diabetes mellitus (DM), high transferrin saturation and inefficient HD were associated with HBV vaccine hyporesponsiveness.


This paper records an increased incidence of calculi in the urinary tract in patients who have had surgical treatment with ileostomy for ulcerative colitis. It is suggested that the loss of water and sodium through the ileostomy results in a fall in urinary output and urinary sodium loss and a tendency for stones to form.


In the medical literature, speckle has been treated as a distracting artifact as it tends to degrade the resolution and the object detect ability. In medical image processing, image denoising has become a very essential exercise all through the diagnose. Negotiation between the preservation of useful diagnostic information and noise suppression must be treasured in medical images. In case of ultrasonic images a special type of acoustic noise, technically known as speckle noise, is the major factor of image quality degradation. Many denoising techniques have been proposed for effective suppression of speckle noise. Removing noise from the original image or signal is still a challenging problem for researchers. In this paper, a Curvelet transform based denoising with improved thresholds is proposed for ultrasound images.


This article describes how a group of students and an instructor at an MLIS program developed a community of practice (CoP) around critical librarianship. We provide a literature review on CoPs and relate this to our own experience with the reading group. We include our individual narratives that reveal the similarities and differences in our experiences as students and practitioners. The Critical Librarianship Reading Group provided a community for peers, knowledge building around critical librarianship, and an opportunity to hear from a number of voices through the readings and the members of the group. We hope this inspires other MLIS programs to develop their own CoPs that connect students, instructors, and alumni/practitioners


Loss of vision increases an individual's reliance upon his hearing. The senses of touch, taste, smell, and balance are limited, and therefore hearing becomes a major tool with which the blind person establishes and maintains contact with his social environment. In spite of this, research in the hearing of blind persons has lagged for generations; it has been assumed that hearing would manage for itself, and that the major points of intervention for services to blind persons should be confined to sight conservation and personal reorientation. Within recent years, sparked primarily by experiments conducted at the Cleveland Society for the Blind and the Industrial Home for the Blind, an awareness has developed that the rehabilitation of hearing must become an essential part of any total rehabilitation program for blind persons. A gratifying result has been the tendency to provide hearing evaluations to an increasing number of applicants for service, thus identifying blind individuals who can benefit from audiological and otological services. Early identification tends to correct conditions which might otherwise deter the blind individual in such areas as mobility training, 're-socialization and orientation to the work space. Through these experiments it has become apparent that blind persons have special hearing problems which have not yet been ftrIly explored in the mainstream of audiological research. For example, such an area is that of sound localization which has already attracted the interest of both Dr. Fay-Tyler M. Norton, the author of


Magnesium alloys have been used widely for their excellent performances,and reclamation of magnesium alloy scraps is thought also as a sticking point of the sustainable development of Mg industry.In this paper,the resource and classification,the reclamation methods and its quality controlling methods of Mg alloy scraps were introduced in detail,and the developing directions of reclaiming Mg alloy scraps technologies were prospected.


This study aims to examine the content of the "Digital Crew" cartoon broadcasted on TRT in terms of digital literacy skills. In this context, 10 episodes of the "Digital Crew" cartoon broadcasted on TRT Child were used as the data source. The document analysis method was used in the analysis of the data. The researchers developed a document review form as a data collection tool for this study. The developed form was used to analyze the "Digital Crew" cartoon regarding technical, social-emotional, and cognitive dimensions of digital literacy. Most observed contents in the cartoon belonged to the technical dimension. As a result of this study, it has been suggested that new episodes of the "Digital Crew" cartoon should put a more balanced emphasis on the dimensions of digital literacy. The cartoon can be used in schools for educational purposes in digital literacy skills.  Article visualizations:


The Contradictory Diversity of Anthropoid Societies Pan troglodyte: Chimpanzee Pan paniscus: Bonobo Australopithecus: Evolutionary Divergence of the Hominid Line The Emergence of Homo Concealed Estrus, Menstruation and the Sex Strike Sapientia: Adolescent Adam and the Unbearable Beauty of Eve Human Nature, Gender Roles, Sexual Plasticity and Cultural Liberation Culture out of Africa (next chapter)


Simple Summary Circulating tumour DNA profiling can cost-efficiently accelerate biomarker discovery within oncology trials. However, biomarker identification in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer is confounded by a heterogeneous genomic landscape with few commonly-perturbed genes and a large number of infrequently mutated, yet potentially biologically-relevant, cancer drivers. Hence, large sample sizes are required for the stratified evaluation of these infrequent perturbations. To circumvent this issue, we investigated whether grouping genomic alterations with other events within the same cellular pathways would offer increased precision for biomarker discovery. We undertook an individual patient-level pooled analysis of 342 patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer-initiating abiraterone acetate or enzalutamide. We found that the total number of altered pathways, which we termed the pathway complexity index (PCI) was associated with a poor prognosis. Since genomic profiling is now standard practice in interventional oncology trials, our findings highlight the importance of comprehensive genomic profiling for biomarker discovery and utilization. Abstract Metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) is a heterogeneous disease, characterized by common and rare driver gene alterations that provide a selective growth advantage for progressing tumour cells. We hypothesized that the number of distinct gene driver alteration-affected pathways or gene classes was associated with poor prognosis in patients initiating androgen receptor signalling inhibitors (ARSi). We performed a post hoc analysis of an amalgamated baseline circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) mutational landscape dataset of ARSi-treated men with mCRPC (n = 342). We associated the detected hotspot, pathogenic, and/or high impact protein function-affecting perturbations in 39 genes into 13 pathways. Progression-free (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were analysed using Kaplan–Meier curves and multivariate Cox regression models. Driver gene alterations were detected in 192/342 (56.1%) evaluable patients. An increased number of affected pathways, coined pathway complexity index (PCI), resulted in a decremental PFS and OS, and was independently associated with prognosis once ≥3 pathway or gene classes were affected (PFS HR (95%CI): 1.7 (1.02–2.84), p = 0.04, and OS HR (95%CI): 2.5 (1.06–5.71), p = 0.04). Additionally, visceral disease and baseline PSA and plasma ctDNA levels were independently associated with poor prognosis. Elevated PCI is associated with poor ARSi outcome and supports comprehensive genomic profiling to better infer mCRPC prognosis.


Africa is not in the business of retrofitting. In his Chatham House address, economist Carlos Lopez discusses the opportunity for Africa to develop not just in spite of, but because of, its "latecomer" status. Lopez refers to the continent's economic transformation in general, and speaks specifically about the potential in the green energy industry on the continent. Rural areas surrounding Dire Dawa in Ethiopia that had not previously had access to basic power grids for electricity, now host solar panels beaming more light, at cheaper rates, for more people, than ever before (see Figure 1). Africa is literally lighting up, and though Afro-optimism must be met with caution, this optimism must not stop short of application to education policy. The opportunity to harness the challenges of the past in charting a path for the future in the education sector is equally bright.As one of five siblings who attended high school in Namibia, I used the same tattered history textbook as my brother, who attended high school in Apartheid Namibia almost twenty years prior. While this is ideal for any parents with several children and a limited budget, the disheveled O'Callahan history book sits on my shelf as a reminder of how little has changed in Namibian education content. Of course, credit must be awarded where due; several teachers, by their individual initiatives, work tirelessly to revamp the style of teaching and improve the quality of learning. This kind of quality has, however, only emerged in some schools, particularly those where parents are most active and resources most abundant. Sadly, innovation in education is not happening at scale in order to meet the demands of a rapidly growing population of young people in Namibia and in the broader African continent. In 2017, the research on cognitive learning is vast and the correlation between quality education and productive citizens is largely undisputed. Our continent needn't wait to make several mistakes; instead, learn from them and then fight to apply those lessons into reshaping rigid education systems.For Africa, the creative process needn't be stifled by past pedagogy that has proven ineffective. In meeting the millennium development goals target for education, 2015 became the first year that every Namibian child was able to enroll in primary education. The opportunity to implement thoughtful and quality approaches to this cohort's learning is, in some ways, a blank slate for Namibian policymakers-who should by now have learnt, at the very least, what has not worked over the preceding two-and-a-half decades from the mistakes made in other parts of the world.But like any policy issue, the how can prove more critical and difficult to answer than the why. Knowing how broken the current system is, is unfortunately not in itself a solution to the brokenness. A number of cases in and outside the African continent stand out in their approach to going beyond the standard education model and drawing on innovative education methodology.The Case for Scale, Problem Solving, and Unconventional TeachingIn a standard African Leadership University (ALU) data and decisions class in Mauritius, the twenty-something-year-old teacher, a Harvard graduate from West Africa, instructs the cohort of undergraduates with confidence (see Figure 2). Today's class will help students to manipulate and refine the data they will use in a presentation to Uber's strategic head for South Africa later in the day. Their projects will attempt to identify which African market Uber should next enter. The learning is palatable, and there is true excitement in the eyes of students who will see their work in class integrated with work beyond it. ALU, the brainchild of Fred Swaniker, is an audacious vision for an African university with a deep focus on integrating learning with real-world problems, empowering students to take ownership of their learning and to think entrepreneurially. Swaniker speaks openly about building twenty-five campuses across Africa, serving over three million young Africans over fifty years. …


Based on a review of the country experiences and the critical documentary analysis of contents, policies and actions, this paper characterizes the critical links in the response to the public health emergency of SARS-CoV-2 with comprehensive, reproducible claims, unique, monocultural and universal applied both to the State and to Latin American and Caribbean societies.


BACKGROUND
A clone of Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans (JP2) with increased leukotoxin production and characterized by a 530-bp deletion in the leukotoxin gene operon is endemically present in Morocco and strongly associated with the presence of early onset periodontitis (EOP).

OBJECTIVES
To compare patterns of attachment loss among EOP-patients with or without JP2-type of A. actinomycetemcomitans in dental plaque.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
Among 45 Moroccan adolescents with EOP (i.e. one or more teeth with attachment loss >/= 3 mm) 39 had cultivable plaque samples. Fifteen (38.5%) were culture-positive for A. actinomycetemcomitans of the JP2-type as determined by PCR, and 24 (61.5%) were not (mean age 16.5 years in both groups).

RESULTS
EOP-patients culture-positive for A. actinomycetemcomitans of the JP2-type had significantly more teeth with attachment loss (mean 5.1, median 4.0) than EOP-patients not culture-positive for A. actinomycetemcomitans of the JP2-type (mean 2.8 teeth, median 1.0) (p = 0.02), and higher attachment loss (mean 4.3 mm vs. 3.4 mm; median 4.0 mm vs. 3.0 mm) (p = 0.01). No major differences could be detected between the two groups in the pattern of affected teeth in the dentition.

CONCLUSIONS
The study demonstrates increased periodontal destruction among EOP-patients culture-positive for A. actinomycetemcomitans of the JP2-type compared with EOP-patients without the JP2-clone.


The Cambridge World History. 7 Volume Set in 9 Pieces. Vol.1: Introducing World History, to 10,000 BCE. Ed. by David Christian. Vol.2: A World with Agriculture, 12,000 BCE–500 CE. Ed. by Graeme Barker and Candice Goucher. Vol.3: Early Cities in Comparative Perspective, 4000 BCE–1200 CE. Ed. by Norman Yoffee. Vol.4: A World with States, Empires and Networks 1200 BCE–900 CE. Ed. by Craig Benjamin. Vol.5: Expanding Webs of Exchange and Conflict, 500 CE–1500 CE. Ed. by Benjamin Z. Kedar and Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks. Vol.6: The Construction of a Global World, 1400–1800 CE. Part 1: Foundations. Part 2: Patterns of Change. Ed. by Jerry H.Bentley, Sanjay Subrahmanyam and Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks. Vol.7: Production, Destruction, and Connection, 1750 – Present. Part 1: Structures, Spaces, and Boundary Making. Part 2: Shared Transformations? Ed. by John R. McNeill and Kenneth Pomeranz. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press 2015. 5294 S., £ 820,–.


23 Berkeley Journal of International Law (BJIL) 112 (2005)This Article details my experience introducing clinical legal education into three Iraqi law schools. I highlight some of the cultural, legal and logistical obstacles that existed, and the means my colleagues and I used to circumvent them. By and large we considered our project at least modestly successful and certainly garnered the interest of many faculty and nearly all students who participated. Nevertheless, the extent of our success depended largely on the cooperation of the faculty and administration at the law schools with which we worked, and we were able to achieve the most at those institutions where cooperation was highest. Unfortunately, however, our project was limited necessarily in both scope and duration, and further efforts must be undertaken in order for experiential legal education to gain a firmer foothold in Iraq.


Potentiometric evidences have been cited for the formation of 1 : 1 : 1 : 1; MLL'L" quaternary complexs [M III = La III , Pr III and Nd III , L = ethyleneglycol-bis(β-aminoethylether)-N,N,N',N'-tetraacetic acid (EGTA), L' = pyridine-2,6-dicarboxylic acid (PDA) and L" = 2,2'-dithiodisalicylic acid (DTSA)] have been studied potentiometrically with a view to determine their formation constants, thermodynamic parameters and to explore and confirm the possibility of their expanded coordination number. The formation constants log K MLL" log K MLL" and log K MLL'L" for the resulting ternary and quaternary complexes at constant ionic strength (μ = 0.05 KNO 3 ) and different temperatures (15 ± 0.1 °C, 25 ± 0.1 °C, 35 ± 0.1 °C and 45 ± 0.1 °C have been evaluated. The order of formation constants with respect to Ln III ions has been found to be La III < Pr III < Na III for both ternary and quaternary complexes whereas ternary < quaternary for mixed-ligand complexes.


We use hybrid lattice Boltzmann simulations to study the dynamics of discs immersed in a nematic liquid crystal. In this thesis, a new way of simulating a two-way coupling between a liquid crystal and an immersed object is proposed. It can be used for objects of various geometries and can be expanded to be used for an object of any geometry. Additionally, a simple yet effective model was suggested for calculations of transmitted light through a nematic liquid crystal sample. This model allowed us to clarify the behavior of a ferromagnetic disc in a nematic liquid crystal observed in experiments and incorrectly interpreted at that time. As a result of this work, a package for an open-source computational fluid dynamics software LAMMPS (Large-scale Atomic/Molecular Massively Parallel Simulator) was created, that was expanded to be used for multiple objects interacting in a nematic liquid crystal, allowing examination of stable structures and studies of particle self-organization. Our simulations have demonstrated the following: in the absence of external forces and torques, discs with homeotropic (perpendicular) anchoring align with their surface normal parallel to the director of the nematic liquid crystal. In the presence of a weak magnetic field (< 20G, too weak to disturb liquid crystal alignment) a ferromagnetic disc will rotate to equilibrate the elastic torque due to the distortion of the nematic director and the magnetic torque. When the magnetic field rotates the disc so that the angle θ between normal to the surface of the disc â and director of the liquid crystal n̂ becomes greater than π/2, the disc flips around the axis perpendicular to the rotation axis so that the surface normal â sweeps through π radians, thus resolving the distortion in the liquid crystal. An analysis of this behavior was performed in Chapter 3. In particular, we look at the impact of the disc thickness, and conditions on the edges of the object, on defect creation and the flipping transition. We also analyze the importance of backflow (i.e. coupling of tensor order parameter with velocity field). We also study the same system under the action of fast rotating weak magnetic fields, that demonstrates a different behavior: the disc avoids flipping via creation of two symmetric defects on the sides. Some results on disc pairs are presented in Chapter 4. Interactions between discs, their motion and final position strongly depend on the distance between them, and the magnitude and angular velocity of the rotating magnetic field. Depending on the initial configuration of the system, different stable structures of discs result. Further work with existing code may be used to predict other stable configurations and periodic structures that might be of interest for applications requiring organization and manipulation of colloidal particles.


Because intellectual economy needs high-qualified personnel and the rapid development in social education raises new challenges and demands, it is imperative to transfer the quantity development in teachers' education to its quality improvement. The reform purpose is to train open teaching staff with high quality. Therefore,corresponding reform measures should be taken on teachers' training system,teachers' education patterns,course system reform,improvement in teachers' own quality in teachers' college,etc.


The onset of bilateral face weakness is uncommon. Two cases are presented, followed by a discussion of a differential diagnosis.


Optimal T cell activation requires engagement of CD28 with its counterligands B7-1 and B7-2. Inducible costimulator (ICOS) is the third member of the CD28/CTLA4 family that binds a B7-like protein, B7RP-1. Administration of ICOS-Ig attenuates T cell expansion following superantigen (SAg) administration, but fails to regulate either peripheral deletion or anergy induction. ICOS-Ig, but not CTLA4-Ig, uniquely regulates SAg-induced TNF-α production, whereas IL-2 secretion is modulated by CTLA4-Ig, but not ICOS-Ig. In contrast, both ICOS and CD28 are required for complete attenuation of IL-4 production. Our data suggest that ICOS and CD28 regulate T cell expansion and that ligation of either CD28 or ICOS can either uniquely regulate cytokine production (IL-2/TNF-α) or synergize for optimal cytokine production (IL-4) after SAg administration.


The use of transformations recently gained attention in obtaining invariant solutions to the equilibrium problem of plasma physics. In all of the cases considered, the new solutions were related to a (Generalized) Grad–Shafranov equation. In the same context, the present study focuses on the issue of an axisymmetric, toroidal plasma equilibrium as a boundary value problem associated with new solutions obtained by means of Lie group transformations. It appears that in all the cases examined, only a single infinitesimal generator of the symmetry group permits closed boundary that remains invariant under the transformation. The respective equilibrium, in addition to a peculiar axisymmetric magnetically confined plasma with current hole reaching the axis of symmetry, describes a planet's magnetosphere for low heights.


In this paper, the problem of distributed throughput maximization in an opportunistic spectrum access network with multiple secondary users (SUs) and multiple primary channels is investigated. To address the challenges in designing efficient solutions in a dynamic and unknown environment, we formulate the optimization problem as a noncooperative game, which is further proved to be an ordinal potential game. We then propose a best-response-based algorithm to achieve the Nash equilibrium points (NEPs) of the formulated game, given that there exists a coordinator for SUs to work in a round-robin fashion and a common control channel for SUs to exchange their information. To further relieve the system overhead due to information exchange among SUs, we design a new stochastic learning automata (SLA)-based algorithm, called N-SLA, which can converge to the pure-strategy NEPs of the formulated ordinal potential game in a fully distributed way. To our best knowledge, we are the first to address the convergence issue of the SLA-based algorithms for general ordinal potential games. Simulation results validate the effectiveness of our proposed algorithms.


Traditional hot spot and cluster analysis techniques based on the Euclidean distance may not be adequate for assessing high-risk locations related to crashes. This is because crashes occur on transportation networks where the spatial distance is network-based. Therefore, this research aims to conduct spatial analysis to identify clusters of high- and low-risk crash locations. Using vulnerable road users' crash data of San Francisco, the first step in the workflow involves using Ripley's K-and G-functions to detect the presence of clustering patterns and to identify their threshold distance. Next, the threshold distance is incorporated into the Getis-Ord Gi* method to identify local hot and cold spots. The analysis demonstrates that the network-constrained G-function can effectively define the appropriate threshold distances for spatial correlation analysis. This workflow can serve as an analytical template to aid planners in improving their threshold distance selection for hot spot analysis as it employs actual road-network distances to produce more accurate results, which is especially relevant when assessing discrete-data phenomena such as crashes.


We outline a method of calculating the spectral response of a contra-directional grating-assisted optical coupler. Interference of reflected / transmitted supermodes is taken into account. Sample numerical results for a planar device are presented. The results include spectral response of a sole grating-assisted coupler, changes introduced by an additional coupler without grating and changes introduced by refractive-index modulation induced by an additional control beam


Some environmental and management risk factors were investigated in the current casecontrol study for PPR outbreaks in Sudan in the period from 2008 to 2012. One hundred and fourteen Localities from 14 states out of 15 were divided into cases (n= 47) and controls (n= 67) according to the PPR outbreak history; cases are localities with PPR outbreaks through the five years of the study while controls are the localities which haven't reported any outbreak during the study period. Data about seven risk factors were collected and analysed using SPSS software, the factors are; ecological zone, annual rainfall, wildlife density, location at border with a foreign country, vaccination coverage against PPR, Sheep and goats population and State area. In the univariate analysis Odds Ratios (OR) were calculated using mantel Haenszel test and three factors were found to have a significant association with the occurrence of PPR outbreaks; being a locality in a state at the country borders (OR = 2.942, p-value= .019), or locality in Low rainfall ecological zone (OR = 2.134, P-value=.052) and the factor of having large size population of small ruminant (OR = 1.591, pvalue=.251). These potential risk factors were entered into a multivariate analysis using logistic regression and only the factor of being at the border with a foreign country was found to be significantly associated with PPR occurrence (Pvalue = .027).


Objective To investigate the methods and effects of abdominal and pelvic shielding for pediatric chest CT examinations.Methods The 705-D phantom made by Computerized Imaging Reference Systems (CIRS) was used to replace a 5-year-old child,thermoluminescent dosimeters were set in the abdomen and pelvis to measure the organ and tissue doses.Chest scans were conducted with the routine protocol for pediatric chest CT examinations.Doses to main organs and tissues in the abdomen and pelvis were measured after chest CT scans without lead apron,with lead apron covering anterior of the abdomen and pelvis and with apron wrapping same part,respectively.Results Absorbed doses to some abdominal organs near the irradiation field were up to several mGy in a procedure of pediatric chest CT examination.There were statistically significant differences among the dose values for three different scans at the same location (x2 =16.00,P < 0.05).Statistically significant difference was also found between the dose values for scans,which were measured with wrapping and covering approaches (Z =-2.52,P < 0.05).Compared to the doses in the condition of no shielding,the doses in testis and colon reduced by 71.2% and 42.3%,respectively,if the abdomen and pelvis was wrapped with a lead apron (0.35 mm Pb),and reduced by 55.9% and 26.1%,respectively,if the same lead apron was used to cover the anterior of the abdomen and pelvis.Conclusions In pediatric chest CT examinations,the use of a lead apron can effectively shield the abdomen and pelvis,and plays an important role in protection of the gonad and colon.The wrapping measure is worth being recommended.

Key words:
Chest CT scans;  Gonad;  Colon;  Shielding effects


An experiment was conducted to study the gene action and inheritance of quality attributing traits in okra. Six generations of two crosses of okra (Punjab-8 x Arya Dhanlaxhmi and Punjab-8 x Pusa sawani) were derived and evaluated for protein content, total minerals and mucilage content. F1 means of both the crosses surpassed both of their corresponding parental means suggesting over dominance for protein content, total minerals and mucilage content except for mucilage content in cross Punjab-8 x Pusa Sawani. Evidence of epistasis was detected for all the traits. Both fixable and non-fixable gene effects govern the inheritance for all the traits except for mucilage content in cross Punjab-8 x Pusa Sawani. Dominance gene effects were found to contribute more substaintially in the inheritance of these traits along with the presence of duplicate type of epistasis. Therefore, genetic improvement of okra with respect to these attributes in this material can be made through pure line breeding or inbred development.


Chromosome number and karyotype of Swida wilsoniana were analyzed by chromosome spreading.The results showed that the chromosome number of Swida wilsoniana was 2n=18.The karyotype formula was 2n=2x=18=4sm+14m.The ranges of chromosome length's variation were between 1.02 and 1.81,and the index of kayotypic asymmetry was 58.06%.The results showed that the karyotypes of Swida wilsoniana belonged to '1B' type.


This paper has for its object the investigation of the general analytical conditions of a method for the solution of questions in the Theory of Probabilities, which was published in a work entitled " An Investigation of the Laws of Thought, &c." The application of the method to particular problems has been illustrated in the work referred to, and more fully in a Memoir published in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, entitled "On the Application of the Theory of Probabilities to the Question of the Combination of Testimonies or Judgments."


Objectives This study was conducted to assess acceptability of surgical care in Eastern Uganda and enable better allocation of resources, and to guide health policy towards increased surgical care seeking. Design This qualitative study used semistructured in-depth interviews that were transcribed and analysed by coding according to grounded theory. Setting The study was set in Eastern Uganda in the districts of Jinja, Mayuge, Kamuli, Iganga, Luuka, Buikwe and Buvuma. Participants Interviews were conducted with 32 past surgical patients, 16 community members who had not undergone surgery, 17 healthcare professionals involved in surgical treatment and 7 district health officers or their deputies. Results The five intersecting categories that emerged were health literacy, perceptions, risks and fears, search for alternatives, care/treatment and trust in healthcare workers. It was also demonstrated that considering the user and provider side at the same time is very useful for a more extensive understanding of surgical care-seeking behaviour and the impact of user–provider interactions or lack thereof. Conclusion While affordability and accessibility are well defined and therefore easier to assess, acceptability is a much less quantifiable concept. This study breaks it down into tangible concepts in the form of five categories, which provide guidance for future interventions targeting acceptability of surgical care. We also demonstrated that multiple perspectives are beneficial to understanding the multifactorial nature of healthcare seeking and provision.


Techniques, methods and systems for preparation liquid fuels from hydrocarbon and carbon dioxide are disclosed. The present invention can transform hydrocarbon and carbon dioxide generated from organic feed stocks or other industrial emissions into renewable engineered liquid fuels and store them in a cost-efficient way. The method of the present invention includes: supplying hydrocarbon and carbon dioxide to a heated area of a reaction chamber in controlled volumes; forming carbon monoxide by the energy provided by the heated area; transporting carbon monoxide and hydrogen to an reactor in controlled volumes; supplying additional hydrogen to the reactor; regulating the pressure in the reactor by adjusting the controlled volumes in order to achieve a predetermined object; forming the liquid fuel in the reactor according to the predetermined object; and, storing the liquid fuel in a storage device.


We have fabricated 2024 pixel microwave kinetic inductance detector (MKID) arrays in the ultraviolet/optical/ near-IR (UVOIR) regime that are currently in use in astronomical instruments. In order to make MKIDs desirable for novel instruments, larger arrays with nearly perfect yield need to be fabricated. As array size increases, however, the percent yield often decreases due to frequency collisions in the readout. The per-pixel performance must also be improved, namely, the energy resolution. We are investigating ways to reduce frequency collisions and to improve the per-pixel performance of our devices through new superconducting material systems and fabrication techniques. There are two main routes that we are currently exploring. First, we are attempting to create more uniform titanium nitride films through the use of atomic layer deposition rather than the more traditional sputtering method. In addition, we are experimenting with completely new material systems for MKIDs, such as platinum silicide.


Using the theory of public policy and public service to research on main line and dimensions of public policy about common sports,this paper consideres that people are set up at the scientific development concept and building a harmonious socialist society based on the strategic policy of the popular sports of the main line of public policy,and refers to three dimensions: the general public(the value of public),policy objectives of sport,the mass of the formulation of public policies sports which based on popular sports instrument selection and use of public policy dimension.


The article analyzes the reflection of the problems of philological education in modern Russia by the professional pedagogical community through the prism of the collision of different conceptual approaches. The relevance of the topic is connected with the need to build an effective state policy in the field of philological education, both in school and in high school. According to the authors, the greatest difficulties in solving most of the problems are associated with disagreements in the views of different participants of the educational process on the questions about structure and content of the invariant and options for teaching Russian language and literature. The authors suggest a way out of this situation in recognition of the fact that an invariant is necessary, but its definition should take into account its compliance with all established criteria and that its content should be audited from time to time. To overcome the existing conceptual differences and disagreements, it is proposed to create a special dictionary of concepts of philological education, to work on which to attract representatives of all categories of participants in the educational process. It is also concluded that the literal borrowing of educational methods from the Western systems of education and evaluation can not be recognized as useful without their adaptation to the realities and traditions of the Russian school.


Basic-intermediate volcanic rocks from the Karaj-Danesfahan area in the Neotethyan magmatic belt of Iran show typical island arc geochemical signatures. The rocks demonstrate calcalkaline affinity with low abundances of "high field strength elements" (HFSE) such as Nb, Ta, Hf and Ti, and highly distinctive spiked trace element patterns at "large ion lithophile elements" (LILE) such as Ba, K, and Sr. Comparing the geochemical characteristics of two sets of the volcanic rocks sampled from two parts of the study area 100 km apart, however, indicate subtle but significant geochemical differences which bear important petrogenetic implications. One set of the volcanic rocks is abnormally enriched in Pb and shows consistently higher abundances of HFSE, particularly Ti, than the other set. These two series are called HTL series (after high titanium and lead) and LTL series (after low titanium and lead), respectively. HTL series volcanic rocks are further from the subduction axis, so they should have had a deeper descending slab contributing to their mantle wedge magmatism. To be able to release Pb-enriched fluids, the subducting slab should not have undergone earlier dehydration. It is because Pb is highly incompatible. It appears that in the early stage, subduction proceeded at a higher rate (cold slab), so slab-dehydration occurred at greater depths triggering HTL series magmatism. Subsequently the subduction rate decreased which in turn raised isotherms and promoted partial melting at shallower depths leading to LTL series magmatism.


Objective:To study the variations of parenting practices during children from 2 to 7 year-old and its relation to children's inhibition. Method: 56 children's inhibition was rated by laboratory observation procedure at 2 years age, and parenting practices were measured by questionnaire at times when their children at 2 and 7 years of age.Results:(1) Mothers' affective expression control and punishment were lower than fathers' at 2 year (2.9±0.7/3.4±0.8, t=-4.47, P=0.000; 2.8±0.6/3.1±0.8,t=-2.31, P=0.020), but mothers' punishment was higher than fathers' at 7 year (3.3±0.6/3.0±0.8,t=2.17, P=0.030). (2) Mothers' concern and accept increased after 5 years (3.7±0.8/4.4±0.7, 4.7±0.5/4.9±0.5, F1,53=10.98, F1,53=6.89, P0.01), their punishment decreased (3.3±0.6/2.8±0.6,F1,53=20.58, P0.01), fathers' concern decreased between the two measures (3.7±0.8/3.9±0.6,F1,53=5.63, P0.01).(3)mothers' affective expression control among three types of inhibition differed significantly at two measures(F(2,53)=2.96, P=0.050)(4) Interactive effects of measurement and inhibition's existed on mothers' rejection and independence encouragement with restrict(F(2,53)=3.39,F(2,53)=4.20, P0.05) .Conclusions: Fathers' parenting practices appeared relatively stable. Mothers' parenting practices changed more and mothers' rejection and dependence encourage related more closely to children's inhibition. For the inhibited child, mothers showed more negative parental behaviors and the variation of the behaviors.


Zhou Enlai's contributions to school ideological and political education(SIPE) mainly include the following three points:① a profound exposition of the importance of SIPE, in which Zhou pointed out that SIPE was the key to cultivating qualified graduates;② a systematic exposition of the contents of SIPE, which, according to Zhou, included the education of Maxism, collectivism, physical labour, hard work and plain living and so on; ③ a survey of the principles and methods of SIPE, among which Zhou emphasized the importance of teachers' examples and the application of theories to practice.


Abstract The Mg–2·5Nd–0·3Zn–0·1Sr–0·4Zr (wt-%) alloy was prepared by gravity casting. Solution treatment and extrusion were conducted. The microstructure, mechanical properties, and corrosion behaviour of the alloy under as cast, T4-treated, and as extruded conditions were evaluated using scanning electron microscope, tensile test, microhardometre, immersion test, and electrochemical test. The results show that the as extruded alloy exhibits the highest ultimate tensile strength (231 MPa), elongation (36·6%), and microhardness (57·8 HV). The as cast alloy shows the best corrosion resistance because the relative continuously distributed eutectic phase with noble corrosion potential acts as a corrosion barrier. The as extruded Mg–Nd–Zn–Sr–Zr alloy with high ductility and good corrosion resistance is desirable for preparing biodegradable implants.


The study sought to assess the role of budgetary control practices on performance of manufacturing firms in Kisumu County, Kenya. The study was anchored on finance distress theory. The study adopted correlational research design. The target population was the thirteen (13) manufacturing firms in Kisumu County and a census survey was employed in this study. The primary data was collected by use of questionnaires administered to 36 respondents drawn from produvtion/operations, finance and accounting sections of the manufacturing firms. Pilot study involving three respondents was conducted and analyzed using Cronbachs alpha whose values were all 0.7 and above indicating that the research instrument used is reliable. The data was analyzed using Descriptive and inferential statistics such as frequencies, percentages, mean, standard deviation and multiple regression analysis. The findings of the study were budget control practice had a positive significant effect on performance (B = .466, p= 0.005) indicating that practice of budgetary control leads to increase in performance among manufacturing firms in Kisumu County. The findings from this study may be helpful to policy makers in manufacturing firms and Government in setting policies to govern the operations of manufacturing firms in Kenya shareholders in making investment decisions that maximise wealth and academicians may find results from this study useful in forming a basis for future theory development in the fields of financial control practices and performance.


China's rapid urbanization has aroused substantial attention all over the world. Though there exists a strong connection between urban system and intercity migration, an overall prediction of China's urban population of all cities based on migration network has rarely been conducted. This study proposes an extended NEG (New Economic Geography) model to simulate China's urban system evolution with actual data and further predicts the future development of China's urban system under three different urbanization scenarios. We discover that China's future development trend is centralized urbanization dominated by large cities with a population of above 1 million. This prediction result is of great significance to provide scientific evidence for China's population flow management and new-type urbanization planning.


Selegiline has been formulated in an acrylic polymer adhesive mixture to be employed as a constant release topical patch for daily transdermal administration. Application of this selegiline transdermal system (STS) to guinea‐pigs resulted in an average delivery of 1.185 mg selegiline/cm2 patch/24 h. STS dose‐response curves were generated by altering patch size (cm2). A transdermal dose range was identified which inhibited guinea‐pig brain monoamine oxidase‐B (MAO‐B) by greater than 95 % yet provided for a dose‐dependent inhibition of monoamine oxidase‐A (MAO‐A) activity. The ID50 for inhibition of MAO‐A activity in response to a 21‐day daily regimen with transdermal selegiline was approximately 7.5‐fold lower for cortical and striatal brain regions compared with that obtained for duodenum; hepatic MAO‐A was unaffected following the same dosing regimen. By contrast, orally administered selegiline inhibited brain and duodenal MAO‐A to the same extent, and generated a shallower dose–inhibition curve for brain MAO‐A inhibition. In addition, transdermal delivery was approximately 6–8‐times more potent than oral selegiline for the inhibition of brain MAO‐A activity. It is concluded that daily transdermal selegiline administration may provide therapeutic advantages over oral treatment, based on its preferential, dose‐dependent inhibition of brain vs peripheral MAO‐A activity.


Today, most popular software applications are deployed in the cloud, interact with many users, and run on multiple platforms from Web browsers to mobile operating systems. While these applications confer a number of benefits to their users, building them brings many challenges: manually managing state between asynchronous user actions, creating and maintaining separate code bases for each desired client platform and gracefully scaling to handle a large number of concurrent users. Dog is a new programming language that provides a solution to these challenges and others through a unique runtime model that allows developers to model scalable cross-client applications as an imperative control-flow --- simplifying many development tasks. In this paper we describe the key features of Dog and show its utility through several applications that are difficult and time-consuming to write in existing languages, but are simple and easily written in Dog in a few lines of code.


Fault detection in gearboxes plays a significant role in ensuring their reliability. Vibration signals collected during gearbox operation contain a wealth of valuable condition information that can be exploited for fault detection. However, in an industrial environment machine operating speed always fluctuates around its nominal value, which causes smearing of the gearbox vibration spectrum. Considering operating speed fluctuation and multi-component nature of measured gearbox vibration signals, an order-tracking method combining the variational mode decomposition (VMD) and the fast dynamic time warping (FDTW) is proposed in this paper. Firstly, the multi-component vibration signal is decomposed into several intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) using VMD in order to extract a signal component with higher signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Then, the sensitive fault information carrying IMF is exploited to estimate the instantaneous speed profile in order to construct the shaft rotational vibration signal. The measured vibration signal is then resampled based on the optimal warping path obtained by FDTW, which performs an "elastic" stretching and compression along the time axis of the extracted shaft vibration signal with respect to a sinusoidal reference signal of constant shaft rotational frequency. Finally, the gear fault is detected by constructing the order spectrum of the resampled vibration signal. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is demonstrated using simulation results.


Nanobiosilica constitutes a product from rice husk ash processing. Silica has been prepared through alkaline extraction and precipitates separation processes. During the processing of nano biosilica, a considerable amount of residue was formed, this by-product must be utilised. From the mass balance of rice husk ash extraction, 90% silica from rice husk ash has been generated as well as around 10% residue containing carbon and minor other mineral composition. This research aimed to develop agroindustrial products from the residue of nanobiosilica processing for the removal of colour and odour from water. The residue was carbonised at 800 oC after chemical activation. Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) were used in characterising the adsorbents. The results showed that the residue of nanobiosilica extraction still contained huge amount Si02. SEM characterisation revealed that microporous space on the surface of the adsorbents increased significantly after activation. XRD patterns showed that the adsorbent contains 61-73% crystalline and the BET surface was significantly different from iodin adsorption results. However, the composites maintained high surface area after chemical activation, hence it could be used as adsorber to apply in water purification applications. The colour and odour removal application represents an alternative bio adsorbent that could be used in water treatment.


An extensive analysis of sub-10-nm logic building blocks utilizing ultracompact logic gates based on recently proposed gate workfunction engineering (WFE) approach is provided. WFE sets the WF in the contacts as well as two independent gates of an ambipolar Schottky-barrier (SB) FinFET to alter the threshold of two channels, as a unique leverage to modify the logic functionality out of a single transistor. Thus, a single transistor (1T) CMOS pass-gate, 2T NAND and NOR gates as well as 3T or 4T XOR gates with substantial reduction in overall area (50%) and power (up to $\times 10$ ) dissipation can be implemented. To harness this potential and illustrate the capabilities of these compact ambipolar transistors, novel logic building blocks, including 6T multiplexer, 8T full-adder, 4T latch, 6T D-type flip-flop, and 4T AND-OR-invert (AOI) gates, are developed. Besides the logic verification using 7-nm devices, the dynamic performance of the proposed logic circuits is also analyzed. The comparative simulation study shows that WFE in independent-gate SB-FinFETs can lead to absolutely minimalist CMOS logic blocks without significant degradation to overall power-delay product (PDP) performance.


Two sensitive, precise, accurate and simple UV spectrophotometric methods have been developed for simultaneous estimation of Metformin Hydrochloride (MH) and Glipizide (GD) in pharmaceutical dosage forms. Method A involved simultaneous equation method. The two wavelengths 238 nm ( λmax of Metformin Hydrochloride) and 275 nm ( λmax of Glipizide) were selected for the formation of Simultaneous equations. Whereas method B involved the formation of Q-absorbance equation at isobestic point (259.5 nm). Linearity was observed in the concentration range of 2-10 µg/ml for Metformin Hydrochloride and 1.2-6.0 µg/ml for Glipizide by these methods. The proposed methods have been applied successfully to the analysis of cited drugs in pharmaceutical formulations. Recovery study was performed to confirm the accuracy of the methods. The methods were validated as per ICH guidelines


The design bases of rapid determination meter photoelectricity system of pesticide residues were introduced. The optics parts, light route system and prism spectrometer of mono-light generator were presented and the selection method of photoelectricity switch parts was also introduced. Finally the influence for the stability and reppearance of the meter with experiments was proved.


Abstract Glycerol, derived from biodiesel production, is a renewable feedstock for the production of value-added chemicals. Herein, we report an investigation of the acetalization of glycerol with n-octanal by homogeneous acid catalysis in the absence of a solvent, using p-dodecylbenzenesulfonic acid, p-toluenesulfonic acid, and sulfuric acid, respectively, as catalysts. p-Dodecylbenzenesulfonic acid, a surfactant-type Brønsted acid, proved to be an excellent catalyst capable of efficiently promoting the reaction under solvent-free conditions, and the yields of glycerol acetals reached 99% under the optimal conditions. The distribution of five- and six-membered cyclic acetal regioisomers varied depending on the reaction time and temperature. Moreover, the amphiphilic properties of the products, with different ratios of five- to six-membered cyclic acetals, have been evaluated by surface tension measurements.


This study examined the potential of social conflict related to private and public rights, to constrain aquaculture on Cape Cod. While the ability of social conflict to constrain aquaculture has been demonstrated in a few cases, its current potential to constrain aquaculture on Cape Cod had not been established prior to this study. This study was based on information gathered from town records and public hearings related to proposed aquaculture ventures. In addition, town officials were interviewed to obtain additional information related to cases. The finding of this study is that private riparian proprietors, and interests in shellfishing tend to constrain aquaculture on Cape Cod today. This study utilized the qualitative case study method described by Merriam (1988).


In the present paper, the diverse morphological aspects of the Les Gavarres Massif (Catalonian Coastal Ranges) are described. Also, the different outcrop rocks are shaped in a schematic geological chart


Engineering organizations have become increasingly concerned with the relationship of computer costs to the organization's overall pricing policies. A survey of 300 engineering organizations was undertaken to determine what computer pricing policies are currently used by the profession. The survey indicated that there is a wide variation in existing computer pricing policies. While some firms are receiving no reimbursement, other firms are charging clients for direct costs, overhead, and profit. Many intermediate situations exist between these two extremes. Over 90% of all organizations have based their computer charges on the amount of machine time used for a particular project. This approach appears questionable, since the cost of machine time is often a poor indicator of the actual costs. Mechanisms for dealing with software development costs differ significantly between firms, and firms with identical computer equipment charge very different rates for machine time. The ASCE guidelines on computer pricing contain contradictory statements and raise many unanswered questions.


People often use similar usernames across different social media sites. This fact can be used to correlate accounts between different platforms. Since the first mention of this fact in 2009 no research has been done on how to exploit it most efficiently. We showed that ignoring the casing will most definitely improve the matching and we found that Smith-Waterman provides the best metric to match usernames and achieves a success rate of 76%. This implies that earlier work using other string matching metrics could achieve better results by using Smith-Waterman.


Europe's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has a fearsome reputation as "the law that can fine you €20 million." But behind that scary slogan lies a text that can be a very helpful guide to designing data processing systems. This paper explores that side of the GDPR: how understanding it can produce more effective - and more trustworthy - systems. Three popular myths often take designers down the wrong track: that GDPR is about stopping processing, is about users, and is about consent. Instead we consider, from a design perspective, the GDPR's source material, its Principles, and its Lawful Bases for processing. Three examples - from the field of education, but widely applicable - show how "thinking with GDPR" has improved both the effectiveness and safety of large-scale data processing systems.


In recent years there has been increasing concern over the use of the internet and other communication technologies to groom children for abuse. The government responded to this pressure by creating an advisory group, The Home Secretary's Internet Task Force on Child Protection, which proposed new legislation, eventually enacted as s. 15 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003. This article explores why this provision was created and considers how it can be used to safeguard children.


ABSTRACT Studies show that students often use digital devices for off-task purposes, but little is known about the psychological dynamics involved in this activity. The present article therefore offers a phenomenological study of how students experience and cope with digital distraction. Drawing on qualitative interviews, it is demonstrated that one of the major challenges with digital distraction is that it often occurs habitually: Students often 'find' or 'catch' themselves being distracted. To cope with this lag between initiating and becoming aware of distraction, they set up stumbling blocks that prevent distraction from unfolding on this prereflective level. Closing the laptop, for instance, transforms distraction from being a 'small click' that occurs habitually to becoming an 'entire action' that requires active decision-making. Sometimes, students employ digital tools that block the possibility of distraction altogether. These findings suggest that self-control is a matter of intelligently restructuring one's surroundings to avoid succumbing to temptation.


Glass moulding is a high-volume fabrication method suitable for producing optical components embedded in computer, communication, and consumer products, such as optical glass lenses in the camera modules of mobile phones. Despite the advantages of glass moulding, several difficulties encountered in the manufacturing process have yet to be overcome. The most critical issue is deviation between the formed lens and the original lens shape design. To overcome this obstacle, this study constructs a precise material model for optical glass with detailed thermal expansion, structural relaxation, and stress relaxation properties obtained from material experiments. This study also uses finite element analysis (FEA) to predict lens shape by incorporating this precise material model at 30°C above At (which is widely adopted by the industry). A subsequent verification moulding experiment demonstrates consistency between the predicted and experimental results. This study establishes and confirms a comprehensive FEA model for predicting the shape of moulded glass lenses.


We study a simple model of three resonantly-interacting nonlinear waves. Linear sta- bility analysis allows for an easy identification of stable and unstable initial conditions. Subsequently, a reformulation of the problem allows us to establish the onset of phase coherence, demonstrating its critical role in the growth of instabilities. Furthermore, we are able to provide explicit expressions for the time-varying moments of the modal amplitudes, as well as for the bispectrum which measures phase coherence. We provide direct insight into the long-time statistics of the system without Monte- Carlo simulation. This includes long-time asymptotics, which show that the system desynchronises, leading to the convergence of the second order moments and decay in the bispectrum.


This paper discussed an idea of curriculum and the software project named meta-toys. The first primary motivation of the curriculum was designed for learning way of media-art, but now the goal is more comprehensive for leading generic computer literacy. Through the workshop, students could learn not only how to use computer software, but also how to make software for works along with own independent needs. Meta-toys workshop introduces the way of thinking about how to use computer effectively with making presentation tools. In addition to show the workshop, we describe necessary software features for the workshop.


Filmstrip projection is to apply to physical education in expectation of quicker and better master of skills in the part of students.This article draws some useful experience from the exploration into the application of filmstrip to teaching.


Acetohydroxyacid synthase(AHAS) is a target for sulfonylurea and imidazolinone(herbicides).Resistance to sulfonylurea and imidazolinone herbicides can occur by mutation in AHAS.Four E.coli AHAS Ⅱ mutants (W464A,W464F,W464L,W464Y) and wild type were characterized for the sensitivities to commercial inhibitors(chlorimuron ethyl,chlorsulfuron,imazethapyr,imazaquin) and some newly synthesized alkylthio-containing sulfonylureas.Wild type enzyme showed it was sensitive to these herbicidal compounds.The mutants showed they were resistant to the commercial sulfonylureas with the increases of K~(app)_i values from dozens to several thousand fold.Substantial differences were(observed) in the sensitivity of wild type and mutant enzymes to these various inhibitors.Alkylthio-(containing) sulfonylureas seem they met relatively weak resistance by W464 mutant enzymes.


The arbitrability of civil fraud under Indian jurisprudence had been a victim of vaguely worded and scattered tests for a considerable period of time. In its recent decision in Avitel Post Studioz Ltd v HSBC PI Holdings (Mauritius) Ltd., the Supreme Court of India finally put the uncertainties regarding the matter to rest by harmonizing the existing law on it and crystallizing the 'public flavour' standard. According to this standard, allegations of fraud which find their roots in civil law and have no public considerations shall now be considered arbitrable in India. The judgment also clarified the impact that parallel criminal proceedings based on the same set of facts would have on the arbitrability of the civil aspects of such fraud, bringing necessary clarity to the erstwhile regime. In this article, we explore the implications of this judgment in detail, highlighting its relevance for arbitration in India, and how it impacts the jurisprudential position on the arbitrability of fraud in the country.


Audio-computer-assisted-self-interviewing (A-CASI) is used by many child-care agencies in the UK, as a way of recording the views of children in the care of local authorities. This study considers A-CASI's use in two such local authorities in England. It contrasts how the A-CASI methodology is experienced by children and young people and by child-care managers, and explores how A-CASI may be contributing to the participation of young people in the delivery and management of their care. The study reveals a strong belief in A-CASI from a large number of participants, young people and managers. But managers express concern about many organizational constraints on the effective use of A-CASI data in their agencies. The paper discusses the enthusiasm of the young people for using A-CASI; the concerns of managers; and the opportunities for social workers in using A-CASI in their practice settings.


In this paper,we used Morlet wavelet transform method to analyze the relationship between annual runoff in the mainstream of the Tarim River and sunspots activity dring 1957-2011.Results indicated that both annual runoff of the mainstream of Tarim River and number of sunspots were decreased dring 1957-2011.There were main periods of 4 a,8 a,18 a,and 21 a in annual runoff.On the scales of 8~9 a and 18~21 a,the annual runoff and number of sunspots had similar primary cycles.Sunspots activity had almost no effect on the characteristics of annual runoff change of the 4 a cycle,but the characteristics of the 18~21 a cycle were mainly influenced by sunspots activity.The annual runoff change of 8 a primary cycle was once closely related to sunspots activity,but the correlation was disrupted after 1980 due to strong interferences of human activities.This paper forecasts that 2012-2020 may be a withered water period for annual runoff in the mainstream of Tarim Riverin,and the average annual runoff may be about 35×108~40×108m3.


Over the past decade, significant strides have been made in the technology of insulin delivery and glucose monitoring. Insulin pump use has become standard of care, and the development and improvement of continuous glucose monitoring have not only helped to reduce severe hypoglycemia, but have also placed us firmly on the path to development of closed-loop (artificial pancreas) management of diabetes. Despite the widespread use of continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion (CSII), there has been relatively little improvement in insulin infusion sets. They have been described recently as the Achilles heel of CSII. In fact, a recent joint statement issued by the American Diabetes Association and the European Association for the Study of Diabetes stresses the small number of publications around the use of set occlusions and failures, especially when compared with the high number of adverse events reported to the Food and Drug Administration in the United States. The role of the insulin infusion set is reliable transfer of pumped insulin to a subcutaneous insulin depot. Accurate, uninterrupted delivery can be affected by site placement, duration of use, interstitial pressure, occlusion by cellular debris or insulin, and the material of which the infusion set is made. In order to evaluate the difference in occlusion rate by insulin analogs, in vitro testing of the three commonly available rapid-acting insulin analogs was performed, studying flow rates and pressures over a 5-day period. There were no differences between analogs in the first 48 h at either low or high (bolus) delivery rates. By Day 5, however, there were occlusions that varied with the analog used, with insulin glulisine having the highest rate (40.9%) and insulin aspart the lowest (9.2%). Because use of an infusion set for over 3 days is longer than the recommended duration, the authors concluded that early occlusions are uncommon and independent of insulin type and that sets should be changed at least every 72 h. Furthermore, a randomized trial of insulin infusion set function comparing steel with Teflon (Dupont, Wilmington, DE) catheters failed to demonstrate a difference in occlusion rate. However, 15% of the Teflon sets failed because of kinking during insertion. It has also been demonstrated that median tissue resistance pressure increased significantly with higher infusion rates, and it was suggested that occlusion detection might be better measured using rate-dependent detection thresholds. There is a growing awareness that infusion set failure may result in silent occlusions, especially with low flow volumes such as are used in small children, because CSII uses in-line pressure to determine flow and to trigger occlusion alarms. Such silent occlusions can lead to deterioration in glucose control and to delays in recognition of insulin delivery failure, causing the development of hyperglycemia and ketosis or diabetic ketoacidosis. The research group from Becton Dickinson presents in this issue of the journal a new infusion catheter that adds a side port to the traditional end port. This innovation, presented last year in abstract form at the Advanced Technology and Treatments for Diabetes and the American Diabetes Association scientific sessions, shows real promise in reducing silent occlusions by 74–79%, with no difference in leakage or alarms when compared with currently available infusion sets. Unfortunately, the studies were only short term, and longterm home studies need to be performed before strong conclusions can be made regarding the longer use of these infusion sets. This is a welcome technologic advance, attending as it does to this weakest link in the CSII chain. More work needs to be done in redefining occlusion alarm sensitivity, studying interstitial pressures related to site and duration of use, and creating catheters less likely to fail at insertion or to kink over time.


A modern educational system is oriented toward development of the creative individual. Consequently, investigators are concentrating their attention on the initial moments of cognition: cognitive needs, interests, and inquisitiveness. Studies producing results that are a key to understanding the processes preceding the posing of a question, a cognitive task, or a problem are of special importance.


Abstract Juvenile unionid mussels disperse in the water column after detachment from their host fish. The settling velocity (ws) of juvenile mussels is an important component of their dispersion in the water column but has not been measured for unionid mussels. The goal of our study was to measure the ws of juvenile mussels in the laboratory and to examine how ws varied within and among related species. The ws of Actinonaias ligamentina and Ptychobranchus fasciolaris were significantly lower (2.4 ± 0.1 mm/s vs 2.5 ± 0.1 mm/s, respectively) than those of the larger-sized Lampsilis fasciola and Epioblasma triquetra (4.2 ± 0.2 mm/s vs 4.6 ± 0.2 mm/s, respectively). Overall, ws increased with juvenile size, but considerable variation (∼10×) was found within species. Observations indicated that foot movement of juvenile mussels was responsible for reductions in ws, and this behavior may provide a potential mechanism for habitat selection at small-spatial scales. Observed ws differed considerably from ws predicted from Stokes' law using empirically determined shell size and density (ρ = 1.22 ± 0.003 g/cm3 for A. ligamentina), which indicates some of the limitations in predicting ws from size measurements.


This paper reports modeling and simulation of low-loss coupling between two different sections standard optical fiber using a Tapered waveguide made by ion exchange technique on glass substrate. The numerical method used for calculations is the finite-difference vector beam propagation method (FD-VBPM). We also study concave and convex ion exchange (IEx) Tapers which are obtained by varying the parameter α. Length, input and output cross-section of this component, are also varied in order to investigate the effects of geometric parameters on coupling efficiency. The calculated coupling losses are reasonable and acceptable.


The main purpose of this article is to analyse the link between environmental issues and human rights. It investigates whether environmental dangers and degradation constitutes a violation of these rights. The concept of a right to life is central to debates concerning issues of increasing environmental hazards and degradation. Environmental hazards are at the root of human rights violations and represent a major threat to people's lives as well as to the sustenance of the next generation. The right to life can be denied by events and issues with environmental consequences, such as death caused by polluted air or acute exposure to radioactivity. To reach a conclusion the study focuses on the environmental effects of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986 on five fundamental human rights: the right to life, a safe environment, health, clean water and food. The study concludes that the direct environmental results of the Chernobyl accident has threatened fundamental human rights in the regions of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia and that a clean environment is requisite for the enjoyment of human rights.


The electronic exhibition of books as a unique product of an electronic service in libraries is considered. This product is proved to be bibliography one. The author presents the unique features of electronic exhibitions.


Kenya's HIV prevalence is estimated at 7% (KDHS, 2003) and (28.6%) in Nyando District. With the increasing number of PLWHAs, Home Based Care (HBC) has been implemented to relieve the health facilities. This has resulted to great burden of care to family members especially the women in addition to their daily responsibilities in the home. Previous studies have reported low male involvement and high burden of care of the sick at home on women without quantifying the areas of HBC that men are not involved in. This study was conducted to determine the level of male involvement in the provision of HBC services to PLWHAs in Nyando District of Western Kenya.This was a descriptive and exploratory study which employed quantitative methods. Purposive sampling was used to identify the study respondents who were men heads of households living with PLWHAs.This study established the level of male involvement in all the 4 HBC services outlined in the home based care  policy for Kenya.Counselling and psychological care (60.7%), Nursing care 931.4%), Social support (26.4%) and Clinical care (19.3%).Men are not main caregivers of PLWHAs in their households, majority (85%) provide some form of HBC services. Men provide HBC services for the PLWHAs depending on type of care, gender of PLWHAs and familial relationship. Male involvement is important in reducing the burden of women as main caregivers for the PLWHAs. Key words ; Male-involvement, Home-based-care, HIV/AIDS, People-living-with-HIV-and AIDS


A new method for determining bound water was developed, which is based on precise measurements of the enthalpy of water evaporation from a sample using differential scanning calorimetry.


Objective To observe the protection of free radical scavenger: α-lipoic acid on the explosive hearing loss in rats.Methods 24 pure white male guinea pigs weighted between 250-300 g,which were randomly divided into α-lipoic acid low,medium,high group(n=3×6),Noise controlled group(n=6).Each group of animals was exposed to octave band noise(4 kHz center frequency) 115 dB SPL 4 h.α-Lipoic acid group were administered α-lipoic acid 30 mg/(kg·d),60 mg/(kg·d),120 mg/(kg·d) for 10 days(2 days before the exposure,7 days after);Noise controlled group animals were given normal saline orally.After exposure,auditory brainstem response(ABRs) was tested in animals in each group at different times;hair cell loss and damage were examined through histological means.Results After exposure of 3 days,lower/middle/ high dose group had significant differences with noise control group at frequencies 8,16 kHz;low and high dose group had significant differences with noise control group at frequencies 24,32 kHz;7 days after exposure,middle/ high dose group had significant differences with noise control group at frequencies of 8,16,24 kHz),low and high dose group had significant differences with noise control group at frequencies 32 kHz;after 10 days,high dose group had significant differences with noise control group at each frequencies.In the histological examination,animals of three α-lipoic acid dose group were found little inside and outside hair cell loss or damage.Noise controlled animals showed outer hair cells in the ear edema/vacuolar degeneration and other diseases.Conclusions Low,middle,high doses of a-lipoic acid on the explosive hearing loss had a preventive effect.High dose α-lipoic acid could take a good prevention and treatment in noise-induced hearing loss.


Feedback regulation of bile acid synthesis by its end products was studied in cultured hepatocytes of young weaned pigs. We previously showed that conversion of exogenous [14C] cholesterol into bile acids was suppressed by addition of bile acids to the culture medium. In the present study, the effects of bile acids on bile acid mass production and cholesterol 7α‐hydroxylase activity were examined. Mass production of bile acids was strongly inhibited by addition of taurocholic acid (50 and 100 μmol/L) to the culture medium. The inhibitory action was exerted specifically on activity of cholesterol 7α‐hydroxylase because conversion of [14C] 7α‐hydroxycholesterol to bile acids by pig hepatocytes was not affected. Suppression of cholesterol 7α‐hydroxylase activity after incubation of the hepatocytes with taurocholic acid was concentration‐ and time‐dependent. Maximum suppression (−80%) was achieved after a 20 to 30 hr incubation of hepatocytes with 100 μmol/L of this bile acid. Decline of enzyme activity caused by 100 μmol/L taurocholic acid followed first‐order kinetics with a half‐life of 10 hr. Taurocholic acid had no direct effect on cholesterol 7α‐hydroxylase activity in homogenates of hepatocytes as assessed by addition of the bile acid to the assay mixture.


This paper describes an intelligent diagnostic system for the refrigerator which is used for the cold-storage of farm produce. The propose method measures the temperature of the compressor, condenser and evaporator in the refrigerator and uses the measured values to diagnose the system. It is shown through the implementation that the developed system is efficient for the fault observation and diagnose of the refrigerator.


In everyday political discourse, as well as in the more rarefied discussions of academics, a number of different expressions are used to talk ab out equality. These expressions implicitly express a certain typology which, like many other e veryday expressions, philosophers and other theorists are likely to use unreflectively or other wise to misinterpret. The everyday language of politics is of course contentious and full of disto rtions and contradictions, and yet attending to some of its distinctions can help us to deepen our own thinking about equality. In this paper, I focus on three sets of expressions that are used in everyday politics and suggest that they characterise three cross-cutting ways of categorisi ng equalities and inequalities, relating to the what, the who and the where of these relationships. The analysis not only results in a useful framework for studying equality and inequality but also reveals ways in which such studies are likely to be too narrowly constructed. 1 My starting point is to consider three groups of ex pressions commonly used in the nonacademic world in particular, but also in the acade mic world, all of which belong to the same field of language, the 'language game' if you like, of equality and inequality. First, there are expressions of the form '(in)equality of x', e.g. o f income, power, respect. Secondly, there are expressions like 'racial equality', 'ethnic equalit y', 'gender equality' and 'sexual equality', as well as related expressions like 'equality between men and women', 'equality for disabled people' and 'equality for lesbians, gays and bisexuals'. Then there is a thir d set of expressions that includes 'economic equality', 'cultural equali ty', 'political equality' and 'legal equality'. My concern is with how these three groups of expres sions fit together. What I will argue is that the way they are related shows something about the structure of egalitarianism, and also, necessarily, about the way the normative theory of equality interacts with the sociology of inequality. To see this, we have to review certain debates in normative egalitarianism and in the sociology of inequality and then try to put the pie ces together. Equality of What?


On 13 December 2007, the heads of state and government of the 27 Member States of the European Union (EU) met in the capital of Portugal to sign the Treaty of Lisbon, the latest episode in the process of 'constitutional politics' that offi cially started in December 2001 with the Laeken Declaration. The ensuing Convention on the Future of Europe, which took place between February 2002 and July 2003, represents a unique experience in the history of the European Union. In contrast to previous treaty reforms, when negotiations occurred in the context of a secretive InterGovernmental Conference (IGC), the establishment of the Convention was meant to set up a new method, allegedly more democratic and transparent. The draft Constitutional Treaty produced by the Convention was broadly accepted by the Member States in the 2003–04 IGC and signed in Rome in October 2004 under the Irish Presidency. The method of ratifi cation varies across countries, but an unprecedented number of Member States chose to consult their populations. The negative outcome of the referendums in France and the Netherlands in May–June 2005 was expected to precipitate the European Union into one of the most serious crises of its 50year history. Its predicted lethal eff ects, however, failed to materialise. Not only did the EU continue to function as before, but after a 'period of refl ection', the German Presidency was able to restart the debate. Following the June 2007 European Council, a new IGC was convened to draft a Reform Treaty, which was eventually agreed under the Portuguese Presidency in October 2007. The new treaty, which took the name of the city where it was signed (Lisbon), maintained a large majority of the provisions agreed by the Convention and the following IGC, but it removed all the constitutional and statist references. Nevertheless, various Member States, in some cases constrained by domestic structures and in other cases taking advantage of the new situation, managed to receive a number of concessions. The failure of the referendum in Ireland in June 2008 – the only country which had chosen that method of ratifi cation – represented a further stop to the EU's reform process.


The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which authoritarianism and ethnocentrism are evident among a sample of White Afrikaansspeaking students in South Africa. Form 60 of the authoritarianism scale together with the minority and patriotism subscales of the ethnocentrism scale were administered to 207 female and 27 male first-year students in psychology at the University of the Orange Free State. Because the males formed such a small part of the group it was decided to disregard their data in the statistical analysis. The testing formed part of normal class activity. The average age of the female respondents was 19.2 yr. Reliability coefficients were determined for the authoritarianism and total ethnocentrism scales. The values obtained by the split-half method were 0.78 and 0.64, raised by the Spearman-Brown formula to 0.88 and 0.78 respectively. These values compare favorably to those obtained in the original study by Adorno, et dl., namely, 0.87 and 0.90 respectively.


Introducing the structure feature of blower exit check valve.Introducing the principle of disk static state torque balance,Adopting the lower rub torque at shaft seal part and designing of adjustive heavy,so that improving open-shut sensitive degree.


An improved method for the synthesis of 4-substituted-3, 5-bis (methoxycarbonyl)-isoxazoline N-oxides (3) was developed by one-step cyclization of aldehydes with methyl nitroacetate in N, N-dimethylacetamide. The reaction mechanism was found to involve intramolecular nitrite ion displacement by the nitronate anion (9) ; this was confirmed by the formation of 3, 5-bis (methoxycarbonyl)-4-phenylisoxazoline N-oxide-4-d (11), starting from benzaldehyde-1-d and methyl nitroacetate. Conversion of isoxazoline N-oxides (3) to the corresponding 3, 5-bis (butylcarbamoyl) isoxazoles (7) is also discussed.


By the moment method established previously on the basis of the statistical mechanics, the thermodynamic properties of a strongly anharmonic crystal with the f.c.c. structure are considered. The analytic expressions for the thermodynamic quantities as the thermal expansion coefficient, the specific heats Cv and Cp, the isothermal and adiabatic compressibilities, etc. are obtained.

Mit einer fruher abgeleiteten Momentenmethode auf der Grundlage der statistischen Mechanik werden die thermodynamischen Eigenschaften eines stark anharmonischen Kristalls mit k.f.z.-Struktur untersucht. Die analytischen Ausdrucke fur die thermodynamischen Grosen, wie thermischer Ausdehnungskoeffizient, spezifische Warme, Cv und Cp, die isothermen und adiabatischen Kompressionsvermogen usw. werden erhalten.


We study <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${q}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-ary linear codes <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${C}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> obtained from Veronese surfaces over finite fields. We show how one can find the higher weight spectra of these codes, or equivalently, the weight distribution of all extension codes of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${C}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> over all field extensions of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mathbb {F}_{q}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>. Our methods will be a study of the Stanley-Reisner rings of a series of matroids associated to each code <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${C}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>.


This paper examines the problem of calculating the variance of returns of a financial instrument which is based upon the historical opening, closing, high, and low prices. For this purpose the joint distribution of minimum, maximum and final values of arithmetic Brownian motion was used. It gave a possibility to make a comparative analysis of the variance estimators. The formulae of expected values of many random variables, which were used for the construction of these estimators were calculated. Moreover, on the basis of those formulae, the new estimator of variance was proposed. The assumptions that were adopted for the construction of the estimator were examined. The efficiency of the proposed estimator was compared with the efficiency of the well-known estimators of daily volatility.


Tramadol is an opioid drug used to treat moderate to moderate pain, which has two different mechanism of action. The first is due to binding to the opioid receptor, and the second is due to the inhibition of serotonin and norepinephrine reabsorption. Due to its hallucinogenic effects, tramadol is also used as a drug of abuse [1]. It is necessary to identify tramadol and its metabolites in urine specimens either for correct dosing of the tramadol in pain therapy, for monitoring the effectiveness of addiction treatment, or for acute poisoning with this opioid compound [2]. An optoelectronic gas chromatographic method coupled with mass spectrometry is presented to determine tramadol and its metabolites in urine samples [3].


The target system of management majors' practical ability consists of five primary targets including the basic ability and thirteen secondary targets including the language ability. With the aid of calculation method of fuzzy mathematics, it is possible to have a synthetic evaluation of this complex, multifactor ability.


Clarifying the relationship between land use and farmers' sense of place on a micro scale is significant for enriching the perspective of research on human–environment relationships. Therefore, this paper analyzed land use change and the sense of place of farmers and further explored the interaction between them in the Yangjuangou catchment of Liqu Town in Baota District, Shaanxi Province from 1984 to 2020. The results indicated that: (1) the change in croplands was the most significant, i.e., its share in the total area decreased by 40%, and the decrease in sloping fields was the highest. The average relative altitude of croplands has decreased. The change in ecological land was also more significant, showing an increasing trend. Overall, the exploitation of land resources has declined; (2) the intensity of the sense of place of local farmers fluctuated downwards. The intensity of place attachment and place dependence decreased, and the intensity of the place identity increased; and (3) the decline in the intensity of the place attachment and place dependence promoted the reduction of sloping fields, the growth of ecological land and abandoned fields. By comparison, the increase in ecological land and check dam land promoted an increase in the intensity of place identity for local farmers. This paper suggested that rural areas in the Loess Hilly and Gully Region should strengthen innovation in land use patterns and focus on sustainability of farmers' livelihoods, in order to promote the harmonious development of human-environmental relations.