In this paper we introduced an environment that provides remote access to a full equipped MHP laboratory. Its purpose is to allow any registered user to test remotely a MHP application from any device connected to the Internet. The laboratory is made by means of a head-end which inserts the received application into an object carousel which is broadcasted together with the television streaming. The application could be executed over the MHP set-top-box that previously was selected by the user among all the receivers available in the laboratory.


The reaction yields of synchrotron-radiation excited high-vacuum chemical vapor deposition at the core-excitation and valence-excitation regions of disilane are obtained by measuring both the incident photon numbers of the synchrotron-radiation beams which pass through C and Al filters and the rates of Si deposition induced by these synchroton-radiation beams. It is confirmed that the reaction yield for the core-excitation energy region is about three times larger than the value for the valence-excitation region. It is also demonstrated that synchrotron-radiation excited high-vacuum chemical vapor deposition proceeds by the pure-photochemical reaction, not by the reaction induced by secondary electrons due to synchrotron-radiation irradiation on the substrate.


This paper describes the payload delivery system developed and proven to deploy an electronic warfare device to specific, predetermined locations on the battlefield. Initially called the Artillery Delivered Expendable Jammer (AD/EXJAM), it is now designated the Air Delivered-Ground (Deployed) Expendable Jammer (AD-G/EXJAM). The initial units were demonstrated from 155 MM artillery; the later units, from UAV's, helicopters and slow moving, fixed wing aircraft. While these two delivery systems were originally designed specifically for the EXJAM system, the concept is directly applicable to unattended ground sensors that require unmanned remote emplacement. Keys to the success of the jammer included design, development and field testing of power supplies, antennas, deployment systems and packaging to allow payloads to withstand high-g impact and other severe environments typically encountered. The artillery deployed systems were designed to be `wooden' rounds needing no special handling and storing. These systems treat the payload as independent elements which are self-ejected from a fired M483A1 or M864 round and are completely automatic upon hitting the ground. The more recent payloads can be delivered from UAV's and include remote control capabilities, increased operating life and increased power output. The present payload is packaged into a cylindrical shape, approximately six inches in diameter and 6.5 inches long and are contained within a carrier, attached to an Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV) or any other air vehicle. Upon reaching the dispensing point, the release command can be issue by either the UAV or a separate ground control unit in RF contact with the carrier. The carrier then begins a timed dispensing sequence that has been selected for optimum payload emplacement in the target area. New developments include a design and subsystem demonstration of a tactical munitions dispenser variant of the deployment system. Operational characteristics of any specific sensors or payloads will not be addressed.


In multi-view video coding, since inter-view prediction has been adopted as an important coding tool which could improve coding efficiency greatly, inter-view dependency is inevitable, i.e., the distortion of the reference view (RV) picture could be propagated to the non-reference view (NRV) pictures . Therefore, in order to achieve higher coding efficiency , the inter-view dependency must be taken into account for inter-view bit allocation. In this paper, the inter-view dependency is analyzed in detail, and a rate-distortion (RD) model for NRVs is derived by taking the distortion of RV into account. Based on the derived RD model, the inter-view bit allocation is represented as a mathematical problem with an analytic form, and is solved by a convex optimization (Lagrangian Multiplier) method. Experimental results demonstrate that the RD performance and the inter-view quality consistency of the proposed method is better than existing methods, while the complexity of the proposed method is comparable with the existing methods.


numerous cases in surgery as well as in medicine, that I have had opportunities of witnessing, I have selected for publication, provided it meet with your approbation, those cases which your readers may probably regard as being sufficiently interesting to command their perusal. In accordance with the invitation of Dr. * *, to accompany him and assist in the operation of lithotomy upon a gentleman living on the


Disclosed are processes for the continuous production of latex emulsions. To produce the emulsion, a multi-screw extruder is used. A resin is fed into the extruder, heated, optionally dissolved in a solvent, mixed with a base to neutralize the resin and to form particles, and then mixed with a surfactant and Waser, an emulsion with reverse phase (PIE) to form. The PIE can be conveyed to a distillation column to separate the solvent therefrom, and the resulting latex emulsion is then conveyed to a collecting container. These processes are used for the production of raw materials for toner compositions.


ABSTRACT Natural disasters have increased exponentially in recent decades, imposing existential threats to humans. Yet, surprisingly little research has explored the role of religion and spirituality (R/S) and transcendence-related character strengths in post-disaster depression. Using data (N = 491) from victims of Category 5 Hurricane Michael, this study examined whether R/S factors and character strengths helped to buffer against post-disaster depressive symptoms. A hierarchical regression model revealed an inverse association of perceived spiritual support with depression, after adjusting for demographic and event-related factors; strength of faith and the use of prayer for coping were not significantly related with depression. Upon inclusion of character strengths into the model, those relationships changed dramatically. Hope and optimism negatively predicted depression, whereas strength of faith and prayer for coping did so positively. Follow-up moderation analyses found that victims reporting particularly high levels of R/S factors and particularly low levels of character strength experienced the most depressive symptoms. The findings suggest that the potential protection of R/S factors in disasters may actually be due to transcendence-related character strength factors.


Report describes state of art of tunable-diode-laser second-harmonic spectroscopy applied to measurements of concentrations of trace constituents of atmosphere. Combination of temperature, composition, and drive-current tuning, wavelengths of tunable diode lasers varied over infrared range of 3 to 30 micrometer, containing spectral lines of many molecules of interest in atmospheric research.


Research aircraft that are equipped with in-situ cloud microphysics probes and millimeter radars, similar to the one used in this study, provide coincident and closely spaced radar and cloud microphysics dataset (e.g., Wolde and Vali 2002), which will be very useful to develop and validate radar based cloud microphysics retrieval methodologies using space and ground based radars. This paper presents a comparison of an airborne radar and in-situ data collected in one of the flights during the second Alliance Icing Research Study (AIRS II) that was conducted between November 2003 and February 2004 over the Mirabel airport near Montreal, Canada and the surrounding regions in Ontario and Quebec. AIRS II was an international collaborative aircraft icing study using arrays of ground-based and airborne in-situ and remote-sensing instruments (Isaac et al. 2005). One of the scientific objectives of AIRS II was to develop techniques for identification of cloud particle compositions using remote sensors. The data used in this paper were collected on November 11, 2003, during which the NRC Convair aircraft sampled clouds consisting of glaciated, mixed phase and supercooled layers. The ultimate objective of this research is to determine the radar signatures of different cloud particle types based on the radar and insitu data analysis, and to develop automated microphysical retrieval algorithm from radar data.


The implementation of calligraphy intracurricular activities that have been carried out at Madrasah Tsanawiyah Darun Najah Karangploso Malang so far still has the aim of preserving Islamic art and culture and supporting the potential of students, so far the learning process has been going well, but there is a need for a more specific study of the implications of these intracurricular activities in students who take part in this activity.  The main problems in this research are as follows; (1) How is the implementation of calligraphy intracurricular learning at Madrasah Tsanawiyah Darun Najah Karangploso Malang? (2) What are the factors that encourage and inhibit calligraphy intracurricular learning in preserving Islamic cultural arts at Madrasah Tsanawiyah Darun Najah Karangploso Malang? (3) What are the implications of calligraphy intracurricular learning in preserving Islamic cultural arts at Madrasah Tsanawiyah Darun Najah Karangploso Malang? This research belongs to the type of qualitative research. In data collection techniques, researchers used interviews, observation, and documentation. Then the techniques in data analysis using data reduction, displaying data, and drawing conclusions. The results in this study are (1) Calligraphy learning at MTs Darun Najah including intracurricular learning which is carried out every Thursday for two hours once a week, which uses the talaqi system starting with learning tahsinul kitabah then khattul 'Arabi. (2) The motivating factors for students to take calligraphy intracurricular are improving Arabic writing, a clear learning system, and the creativity of teachers' approaches and learning strategies in teaching. The inhibiting factor is the unstable spirit of the students, and the lack of experts/teachers which results in long queues in the guidance of calligraphy assignments, facilities, and infrastructure. (3) The Implications in calligraphy intracurricular can preserve Islamic cultural arts, love art, participate in calligraphy competitions, and can practice the values contained and implied in calligraphy learning including patience, maintaining cleanliness, responsibility, sami'na wa atho'na (obedient), and honest.


Foreword, John Carver. The Principles of Policy Governance Explained. HOW BOARDS GET STARTED WITH POLICY GOVERNANCE. 1. Exploring Policy Governance. 2. Deciding if Policy Governance is Right for Your Organization. 3. Beginning to Implement Policy Governance. HOW BOARDS PUT POLICY GOVERNANCE TO WORK. 4. Developing Executive Limitations Policies. 5. Creating Ends Policies. 6. Identifying and Linking with Owners. 7. Monitoring Policies to Ensure Accountability. HOW BOARDS KEEP POLICY GOVERNANCE GOING. 8. Staying on Track. 9. Bringing It All Together. Resource A: Tool Finder for Board Development. Resource B: Tool Finder for Group Process. Resource C: Further Reading and Resources. Resource D: The History of Policy Governance in Practice. Resource E: About the Source Organizations.


Abstract The prison economy provides an outlet for inmates to secure goods and services not formally available to them while incarcerated. While having access is beneficial, participation in the economy may increase people's chances of being victimized. The current study seeks to elaborate on the linkages between participation in the prison economy and violent victimization by drawing from survey data collected from 208 recently released male parolees in a Midwestern state. The results show that several measures of participation in the prison economy significantly predict violent victimizations, net the effect of other relevant independent variables. These findings suggest that engaging and controlling the prison economy may be effective in reducing the overall amount of violence that occurs in correctional facilities.


Background. Cushing's syndrome is a severe neuro-endocrine pathology, which for many years has been under the scrutiny of many different specialists due to the diversity of its complications. Hyperandrogenism and menstrual irregularities, such as amenorrhea and oligomenorrhea, complement the clinical picture of Cushing's syndrome. The purpose of the study was to assess the state of fertile function and hormonal profile in female patients with Cushing's syndrome. Materials and methods. Under supervision, there were 163 patients of reproductive age with Cushing's syndrome during the period from 2000 to 2019. Their average age was 27.58 ± 3.40 years (from 17 to 49 years), the duration of the disease was 4.2 ± 0.2 years. Twenty healthy women of the corresponding age made up the control group. Results. Patients with Cushing's syndrome were distributed as follows: the first group with ACTH-dependent Cushing's syndrome — 130 (79.7 %), the second group with ACTH-independent Cushing's syndrome — 30 (18.4 %), and the third group with ACTH-ectopic Cushing's syndrome — 3 (1.8 %) people. Among various reproductive disorders in patients with Cushing's syndrome, menstrual disorders and secondary amenorrhea dominated. A significant decrease in basal levels of luteinizing and follicle-stimulating hormones, a reduction in ovarian hormones (estradiol, progesterone) against the background of hyperandrogenemia and a significant increase in blood cortisol levels, as well as increase in ACTH were characteristic of patients from the first group on the 14 th day of the menstrual cycle. Hyperplasia of both adrenal glands was diagnosed in 110 (84.6 %) people with ACTH-dependent Cushing's syndrome, nodular hyperplasia of both adrenal glands — in 13 (10 %), incidentaloma — in 3 (2.3 %), and nodular hyperplasia of one adrenal gland — in 2 (1.5 %). Conclusions. Reproductive disorders were observed in patients with Cushing's syndrome: menstrual irregularities — in 32.9 %, secondary amenorrhea — in 20.4 % individuals. Most of the menstrual irregularities were found in the group of patients with ACTH-dependent Cushing's syndrome. Menstrual irregularities manifested in the form of oligomenorrhea (30 % of cases), amenorrhea (35 %), polymenorrhea (7.5 %) and cycle variability (7.5 %).


Peptides have been characterized by be molecules with biological activity, many of
them are obtained from enzymatic hydrolysis induced, however food systems such as
the meat has an endogenous proteolytic systems which can generate peptides with
biological importance, however of this food are not many reports. The objective of this
work was to study the activity of the endogenous enzymes of the meat pork, to obtain
peptides from the myofibrillar proteins and to evaluate their biological activity. The
enzyme activity it was determined according to the pH of action of the endogenous
enzymes, we found 3 values of pH with high activity. On the other hand, the
myofibrillar proteins and peptides were isolated molecular of weight minor than or
equal to 10 kDa. We quantified the antioxidant activity equivalent to trolox and the
percentage of inhibition of oxidation. The results obtained showed that the peptides of
myofibrillar proteins had antioxidant activity.


Total dietary fibre (TDF) provided by One Man ration packs used by the Australian military was estimated from summing TDF assays of some key components and recipe-weighted TDF contributions of ingredients for the remaining components. The 23-24g mean TDF in these ration packs compares favourably with current dietary recommendations and operational requirements.


The statistical approach to the gust-loads problem, which consists in considering flight though turbulent air to be a stationary random process, is extended by including the effect of lateral variations of the instantaneous gust intensity on the aerodynamic forces and on the resultant motions and stresses of rigid and flexible airplanes. By means of some calculations of normal and rolling accelerations, as well as of the root bending moment, it is shown that these effects may be significant for large airplanes.


There is a broad consensus on the categorization of bertsolaritza (improvised spoken verse-making) since the 90s: the verse (bertsoa) is above all a communicative act. The verse-maker wants to communicate with her environment, both with her verse-partner and with the listeners, and, at the same time, she is affected by the reaction in that environment. The verse is ephemeral: the act of the bertso takes place at a specific moment in a specific place. Once this communicative act has been carried out, it disappears forever. Bertsolari competitions are a fairly new phenomenon, at least in their current format. The antecedent of current National Championships was the Battle of Bertsos in 1935, organized by agents outside the verse-making world and driven by outside interests –prewar cultural elites used verse-making to promote Basque language and Basque national "spirit". Verse-making competitions have stabilized since the 80s, and are currently the most significant events in the verse-making universe, both for their level of visibility and their symbolic level. But when regulated disputes come into play, some distortions arise in the communicative dimension essential to verse-making.


The hybrid mobile prototype proposes to assist the farmer in obtaining crop evapotranspiration data reducing the effort in calculating them. In warm weather places, it is of the fundamental importance to verify a prototype for the calculation of evapotranspiration, thus favoring sustainable irrigation. To show this important discussion, a study was conducted highlighting the advantages of using the methods for calculating evapotranspiration cited by Hargreaves Samani and the Penman Monteith method. There is the need to use tools that automate the evaporation method, being able to access them on mobile devices with Android and iOS systems, and also notebook, bringing advantages and relevant contributions to the scientific community and potential users. The benefits of using automated irrigation can serve as basis for more conscious and sustainable decision making.


objective To analyze the clinical characteristics of the primary breast lymphoma(PBL), and to investigate its diagnosis, staging and treatment. Methods 285 cases of PBL were analyzed. Of them, 6 were treated in our hospital during 1995 to 2002, and the other 279 were reported in medical literature during 1980 to 2002. The clinical characteristics, diagnosis, staging and treatment of these patients were studied. Results All PBL of the 285 patients were NHL. Of them, 98.9% were originated from B cell lineage, 94.0% are females and 57.2% were affected in the right breast. The cases of stages I and II accounted 89.8% .After combined therapy including operation, radiotherapy and chemotherapy, the survival time is 2-206 months, the shortest median survival time was 23 months and the longest median survival time was 56 months. Conclusions Most PBLs are NHL of stages I and II .originated from B cell lineage. For patients with PBL, diagnosis is the most important thing. Combined therapy including operation, radiotherapy and chemotherapy may achieve long survival time and the therapeutic efficacy is satisfactory.


A firm sets up his facilities including manufacturing/remanufacturing plants and distribution/collection centers, incorporating an existing closed-loop supply chain (CLSC) network. The entering firm has to compete with the existing firms in the existing network. The entering firm behaves as the leader of a Stackelberg game while the existing firms in the existing network are followers. We assume that the entering firm can anticipate the existing firms' reaction to his potential location decision before choosing his optimal policy. We use a CLSC network equilibrium model in which the decision makers are faced with multiple objectives to capture the existing firms' reaction. A mathematical programming model with equilibrium constraints is developed for this competitive CLSC network design problem by taking into account the market competition existing in the decentralized CLSC network. A solution method is developed by integrating Genetic algorithm with an inexact logarithmic-quadratic proximal augmented Lagrangian method. Finally, numerical examples and the related results are studied for illustration purpose.


The utility model discloses a manpower street cleaning machine which needs no power device. The utility model is a trolley which is composed of a trolley frame, wheels, a casing and a handle. The front side of the trolley is provided with a broom, the lower parts of the trolley frame and the casing are provided with horizontal brooms, so wheel rotation power can drive the brooms to sweep garbage into a dustpan arranged on the front end of the trolley frame via driving members, such as a quarter-turn belt, a gearwheel, etc. Therefore, the utility model avoids dust and waste gas pollution and automotive noise and has the advantages of simple structure and convenient operation. The brooms can be raised so as to be separated from the ground when the utility model is not used for cleaning. Sweeping speed is 3 km/h, and sweeping width is 1050 mm. The utility model is suitable for being used in residential building districts, enterprises, campus and public places.


NDUCTION of spinal anaesthesia in a patient in the I prone position is rarely performed today. As late as the 1960's the technique was applied for the induction of spinal anaesthesia for upper laparotomies, and a recent publication describes the technique for anorectal surgery (1). Spinal anaesthesia for procedures performed in the prone position, such as perirectal or lower lumbar disc surgery (1-3), as well as for radiological procedures (4), is most frequently performed with the patient in the lateral decubitus or sitting position. The following case report describes the administration of spinal anaesthesia to a patient placed in the prone position, with surgery ensuing in the supine position.


Hamlin Garland, 2045 De Mille Drive, Hollywood, California, USA, letter, 1933 July 21, to Joe Mitchell Chapple. "My wife and daughter-- as well as I…" -- first line.


Background: Hopea ponga has been categorised as an endangered tree species under International Union for Conservation of Nature red list of threatened species. Objective: To study the antibacterial, antioxidant activities, total phenolic and flavonoid contents of Hopea ponga leaf, extracted from different solvents viz., petroleum ether, chloroform and methanol. Materials and Methods: Antibacterial activity of leaf extract of Hopea ponga was determined by disc diffusion method against Escherichia coli, Proteus vulgaris, Bacillus cereus, Streptococcus faecalis and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The antioxidant activities of the extracts were assayed through in‑vitro models such as 2,2‑diphenyl‑1‑picrylhydrazyl, 2,2'‑azino‑bis (3‑ethylbenzothiazoline‑6‑sulphonic acid), ferric reducing antioxidant power, hydrogen peroxide and hydroxyl scavenging activities. Total flavonoid content was determined using aluminium chloride colorimetric method and total phenolic content determined using Folin ciocaulteu reagent method. Results: Methanol extract showed higher scavenging activity against 2,2‑diphenyl‑1‑picrylhydrazyl and reducing power activity against ferric ion (97.24 ± 0.11 and 88.01 ± 0.03) compared to other extracts. Methanol extract showed significant antibacterial activity against P. vulgaris and B. cereus. Among the tested extracts, methanol extract exhibited higher content of phenols (1318.749 mg of ferulic acid equivalent/100 gram dry weight of extract) and flavonoids (457.832 mg of quercetin equivalent/100 gram dry weight of extract). Conclusions: The present study suggests that the methanol extract may contain active compounds, which have effective antioxidant and antimicrobial activity. Hence, this endangered species have to be explored and conserved to serve the mankind. Key words: Antioxidant, antimicrobial, dipterocarpaceae, Hopea ponga, total phenolic, total flavonoid


In 1946, when I was starting work as a research student under the supervision of Dr. F. Sanger, the second edition of Karl Lansteiner's book 'The Specificity of Seriological Reactions' (1) reached England. In it was summarised the considerable body of information available on the range of antibody specificity and much of it was Landsteiner's own work or by others using his basic technique of preparing antibodies against haptenes and testing their ability to inhibit the precipitation of the antisera and the conjugated protein. Also described in this book was the work in Uppsala of Tiselius and Pederson in collaboration with Heidelberger and Kabat in which they showed that all rabbit antibodies were in the globulin fraction of serum proteins and that they had a molecular weight of 150,000. This combination of an apparently infinite range of antibody combining specificity associated with what appeared to be a nearly homogenous group of proteins astonished me and indeed still does.


Software-transparent crash consistency is a promising direction to immediately reap the benefits of nonvolatile main memory (NVMM) without encumbering programmers with error-prone transactional semantics. Unfortunately, proposed hardware write-ahead logging (WAL) schemes have high performance overhead, particularly for multi-core systems with many threads and big on-chip caches and NVMs with low random-access performance. This paper proposes PiCL, a new WAL checkpointing mechanism that provides a low overhead, software-transparent crash consistency solution for NVMM. PiCL introduces multi-undo logging, cache-driven logging, and asynchronous cache-scan to reduce random accesses and enable good row locality at the NVM. The key idea is that: by relaxing the durability timing of checkpoints, crash consistency can be provided with less than 1% performance overhead where 1.5x to 5.0x slowdown was typical with prior work. To demonstrate the feasibility of software-transparent crash consistency, we fully implemented PiCL as an FPGA prototype in Verilog using the OpenPiton framework.


Grid technologies have progressed towards a service-oriented paradigm that enables a new way of service provisioning based on utility computing models. One of the most challenging problems in grid environment is workflow scheduling. Appropriate scheduling algorithm is selected by workflow management systems. Different scenarios require different scheduling algorithms. The selection of a particular scheduling algorithm depends upon various factors like the parameter to be optimized (cost or time), quality of service to be provided and information available regarding various aspects of job. In this survey, we investigate existing workflow scheduling algorithms.


There is no such thing as a New Deal tax policy. For a definite course of procedure we search the fiscal record of the last four years in vain. Though the activity cannot be described as mere opportunism, yet it reflects the New Deal's besetting weakness of piecemeal conduct. Much of the legislation has therefore been contradictory; measures for one purpose have conflicted with others directed to the same or different objectives. Amid the confusion, the following procedures stand out, not because they are new, but by virtue of emphasis: deficit financing, the enactment of numerous taxes to support a vastly enlarged range of government functions, "soaking the rich", "plugging up the holes", taxation for nonrevenue purposes, and the increase of the tax burden on corporations-all told, an imposing array for one administration. The so-called taxation for social ends has been in part merely a politically opportune view of revenue laws, yet there is evidence of a more or less well-defined policy to employ the taxing power for unorthodox ends. The economic effects of these far-reaching moves, not now fully determinable, can be dealt with in a brief discussion only in a general way with many qualifications, notwithstanding the frequent bold assertions of great benefit or dire consequence to the contrary. Deficit financing holds the center of the stage. It is this upon which the administration has primarily relied, not only for the support of some of the ordinary functions of the government, but also for the ambitious program of economic rehabilitation. Gambling on the future, the aim has been to postpone taxation until more prosperous times-times to be made prosperous through the collection of funds on public credit and their expenditure by the government. Taxes have been increased, but by no means in


Connector (1) for receiving at least one optical fiber having a protective casing (3) and a holding frame (7), wherein the protective housing (3) and the holding frame (7) are inseparably connected to one another, wherein the holding frame (7) at a first protective housing end is then placed, wherein in the holding frame (7) at least one Ferrulentrager (9, 9.1, 9.2) with a ferrule (11, 11.1, 11.2) is mounted, and wherein in a first position a first ferrule end (13, 13.1, 13.2) on a free end the holding frame (7) projects and a second ferrule end (15, 15.1, 15.2) with its clamping means (17, 17.1, 17.2) is surrounded for connection of the optical waveguide by the protective housing (3), characterized, in that the holding frame (7) and the Ferrulentrager (9, 9.1, 9.2) are matched in their geometry in such a way that the Ferrulentrager (9, 9.1, 9.2) with the ferrule (11, 11.1, 11.2) within the connector (1) from the first position to a second position wherein in said second ferrule end (15, 15.1, 15.2) with its clamping means (17, 17.1, 17.2) extends over a second protective housing end, and that the holding frame (7) comprises a manually movable to a first position and in at least a second position blocking element (19), wherein in the first position of the locking member (19) the movement of the Ferrulentragers (9, 9.1, 9.2) from its first position is locked in the second position.


Modeling and Analysis of Optical Blur for Everyday Photography Huixuan Tang Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Department of Computer Science University of Toronto 2018 Optical blur obscures image detail due to the camera's optics. The blur appearance depends on the scene's depth, wavelength, as well as the camera. The inference of such information — optical calibration, image deblurring, and depth estimation – is of great interest to computer vision. Existing approaches make impractical assumptions about the camera and the scene, and are therefore restricted to lab settings. In this thesis, we propose novel optical blur models towards solving the above inference problems in everyday settings. First, we propose a practical model for lenses with monochromatic optical aberrations, assuming the aberrations can be fully described by Seidel aberrations. Although the model produces realistic 2D blur kernels of complicated appearance, it has very few parameters and thus can be estimated using very limited data. We show specifically that just three blur kernels contain enough information to estimate the lens parameters up to an aperture-dependent scale factor. Second, we study image deblurring for RGB-Infrared imaging. This problem is especially challenging since RGB-Infrared cameras su↵er from inevitable chromatic aberration, channel crosstalk, and pixel multiplexing due to the color-filter-array. The coupling of the distortions are critical to deblurring quality but is non-trivial to invert e ciently. We propose a practical image formation model that captures all three distortions while enables fast restoration. Third, we develop an approach to two-frame Depth from Defocus (DFD) in everyday settings. The main challenge here is that the inter-frame motion needs to be estimated in addition to depth from just two images. We propose conditions to control the camera focus to guarantee near-optimal DFD estimation and a method to estimate depth and the motion jointly in local 9x9 patches. This allows us to capture sparse depth map even in non-rigid scenes. ii Fourth, we propose a method to fuse local DFD results into dense depth and flow maps. The noise, sparsity and ambiguities inherent in DFD makes this problem particularly di cult. We introduce a splined-based prior to enable fusion over great image distances and irregular shaped regions, and to allow explicit reasoning about figure-ground relationships. Our final results exhibits high quality results with crisp boundaries.


The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Cadastral Data Working Group, comprised of cartographers and GIS specialists from all management regions, has produced a state-of-the-art database that stores data for all interests in real property in the U.S. National Wildlife Refuge System. The FWS Cadastral Geodatabase provides an integral component of the Refuge Lands Geographic Information System (RLGIS) by supplying boundary and parcel information to the biological geodatabases currently within the RLGIS data model. Cadastral data describes the past, current, and future right, title and interest in real property, including the spatial information necessary to describe the geographic extent. The geodatabase is the common data storage format for geographic features and attributes. A consistent and accurate cadastral geodatabase that is common across the nation and can be shared between management regions enables users to leverage the spatial data to its full potential. A web mapping application has been built utilizing the FWS cadastral geodatabase, allowing a non-GIS user to view the FWS managed lands and waters.


Waiting room group treatment of sickle-cell disease outpatients. Studies on sickle-cell disease suggest that the emotional problems associated with the condition are related to the symptoms experimented by the patients. Both treatment and symptoms make school adjustment hard for the children, and frequently lead to parent overprotection. They way patients cope with the disease is important to reduce hospitalizations and visits to the physician patients and caretakers can receive a lot of information from the interdisciplinary team with the use of group activities and workbooks. The information may lead to behaviors that are helpful to improve adherence and the development of coping strategies.


Perceptual movements of sounds fed through eight loudspeakers perpendicularly set up were investigated. The loudspeakers, which were mutually separated by 30 cm, were set up immediately in front of 15 observers positioned 4.5 m distant from the loudspeakers. They were required to answer the start point of the loudspeaker through which they perceived that the sound was output at the start, and the end point of that loudspeaker. The results show that the ascension or descension of the sound images was perceived when 1/3 octave bands of noises with center frequencies of 1, 4, and 8 kHz were linearly moved up or down in the range from 60 to 150 cm. The results also show that the perceived moving distance depends on the moving speed, becoming longer than the physical distance at speeds of 10 and 20 cm/s, and converging to the physical distance concomitant with higher moving speed, irrespective of the center frequencies. [Work supported by SCAT.]


Thirty years have passed since the first report of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) and the subsequent discovery of its etiological agent, the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) [1,2]. Never before has a single virus been so thoroughly studied, providing vast amounts of data and insight into the intricate complexities of its innate and adaptive immune responses. Despite this knowledge and the advanced development of antiretroviral drugs that are highly effective in suppressing HIV viremia and preventing progression to AIDS [3,4], an effective vaccine capable of preventing infection from the diversity of the circulating viral variants has lagged behind. Here, we discuss the scientific challenges and review the advances in new vaccine technologies, which may provide the breakthroughs for truly effective HIV vaccine candidates.


For Ae ro-As trodynamic s Laboratory Distribution of this report i s provided in the interest of information exchange. Responsibility for the contents resides in the author or organization that prepared it. a FOREWORD Although this report was prepared i n early 1966, i t contains ideas and concepts which may s t i l l be of value i n planning future aerospace environment measuring programs. The work reported was accomplished t o assess the need f o r a space environment monitoring system and b r i e f l y develop the requirements and some possible concepts. The material contained i n t h i s report represents only pre-feasibility considerations and r e f l e c t s the ideas and opinions from representatives of many private firms, universities, and government organizations a t the time (March 1966). The report is published t o document the e f f o r t as a contribution t o future endeavors on the subject. Acknowledgement and gratitude is extended t o many technical groups and individuals in NASA, DOD, industry, universities, and scientiiic organizations who contributed ideas and opinions in response to the nuiiierous queries of the study group and MSFC personnel. It i s not possible t o list herein each individual contacted in the process of conducting this analysis. Principal agencies and offices contacted a r e The purpose of this report is to collect, digest, and assess the contributions received f r o m the above organizations and, through independent a n a l y s i s , evaluate the need for a space environment monitoring system and briefly develop the requirements and some possible concepts. At this time only pre-feasibility considerations are presented and it is recognized that further work i n many a r e a s , including further feasibility analyses, must be undertaken to satisfactorily develop a n intelligent system concept. Although considerable effdrt has been made to verify, check and edit the inforination and data contained in this report, the validity of the niaterial presented cannot be assured.


This article addresses the problem of simulating en-route path choices on transport networks. In particular, by rerouting, we mean changing the currently chosen path, after receiving some information about a traffic event. Indeed, when the forecasted performance pattern of travel times and costs, known or only perceived, changes significantly, drivers may react by shifting their current route to a better one. The representation of such situations is particularly challenging if the information reaches a driver who is already travelling toward the destination. At the state-of-the-practice, most traffic assignment models are not capable of reproducing these phenomena. We will model rerouting in the framework of within-day Dynamic Traffic Assignment (DTA). Two different solutions are presented here, both exploiting the rolling horizon technique. The first solution can be summarized as an alternate sequence of two fixed point problems for each traffic event: a Dynamic User Equilibrium (DUE) with warm start through saved flows, and a Dynamic Network Loading (DNL) for given route choices; this model is called DTA with Rolling Horizon Events (DTA-RHE) and allows setting the information time of each event before or after the event itself. The second one is a simplified version of the first one, under the assumption that all the events are communicated not later than their start time; this model is called DUE with Rolling Horizon Events (DUE-RHE), and is a sequence of Dynamic User Equilibria with warm start. Numerical examples show the results of the proposed models where rerouting phenomenon can be observed.


The main objective of the present article is to describe and problematize the interactional construction of face in counseling sessions for couples at the Women's Police Station, in Florianopolis. The sessions here investigated are mediated by a social assistant who acts in a way to identify the reasons that lead the couple to face marital problems. The kind of problems discussed in the counseling interactions are generally associated with the bad behavior of one of the partners, which is coherent with the general objective of those encounters, that is, to change people's behavior. In the face of that social organization, each of the partners accounts for her/his own behavior and her/his partner's, trying to construct a "good image" of oneself to the detriment of the other's. Relying on interactional sociolinguistic and microethnographic perspectives, we analyze the aggressive facework in disputes for the victim's role in the counseling sessions investigated, where facework is constructed as a delicate and moral work.


The purpose of this paper is to introduce new structures of ̃-soft sets in soft ditopological (SDT) spaces and study ̃-soft operations such as ̃-soft interior, ̃-soft closure, ̃-soft boundary and ̃-soft exterior. This study is therefore organized the analogies between the concepts of ̃-soft operations, on the other, are strongly emphasized. Moreover, a result which play a pivotal role in the characterization of ̃-soft open sets is found out.


The paper take examples from the sense and response logistics theory,and bring forward building the army aviation material support system based on the sense and response,to enhance support efficiency and benefits.Then carry out functional analysis and structural design for the army aviation material support network management system based on sense and response logistics,and research the application of two technologies about the data collection and the middle-ware component.


Abstract: The incremental costs and effects of annual faecal occult blood test screening in Australia were modelled for a hypothetical cohort of 1000 persons offered screening or not offered screening. Incremental costs and effects were estimated as the differences in direct health care costs (Australian costs) and years of life remaining between the annual‐screen group and the control (no screen) group, based on the published results of the Minnesota randomised controlled trial. The cost per life year saved was $24 660. The greatest source of variability in the cost‐effectiveness ratio is the effectiveness of screening. The 95 per cent confidence interval for cumulative mortality in the annual‐screen group is 3.86 to 7.9 per 1000, assuming the control rate is fixed at 8.83 per 1000. With this confidence interval, the cost per life year saved ranges from $12 695 to $67 848. The cost‐effectiveness ratio increases to $48 000 if no mortality benefit is assumed beyond the end of the trial follow‐up period, 13 years. The results are sensitive to the cost of colonoscopy (at $400 per colonoscopy, the cost per life year saved is $12 319) and the false‐positive rate. The cost‐effectiveness of colorectal cancer screening is comparable with that of other screening programs but further evidence is needed on the efficacy of screening. Whether the benefits of colorectal cancer screening outweigh the harm and costs needs to be more certain before more resources are committed to mass screening. Health policy planners should initiate planning for Australian pilot projects in the event that the efficacy of screening is confirmed by two current studies.


Aim of our study is to present the findings of parietal cortex alterations in patients affected by movement disorders. We observed 4 patients with movement disorders (3 parkinsonian syndromes, I diffuse dystonia) and MR evidence of cortical alterations, without additional cerebral lesions. MR was performed with a 0.5T unit, SE T1-w, TSE T2-w, and Turbo Fluid Attenuated Inversion Recovery (T-FLAIR) sequences on axial and coronal planes, contiguous slices and 5 mm slice thickness. In the parkinsonian patients, parietal atrophy was observed in 2 cases and fronto-parietal atrophy in I case; in all cases T-FLAIR sequences showed bilateral parietal cortex signal alteration. The patient with diffuse dystonia presented severe bilateral parietal atrophy with bilateral fronto-parietal signal alteration. Our findings are strongly suggestive for cortico-basal degeneration. The evidence of signal alteration within the cortex suggests a primary pathogenetic involvement of cortico-basal pathways.


In order to accurately measure the traffic flow in the cycle emissions,this paper analysed. motor vehicle emissions in real-time traffic flow characteristics and influencing factors,evalunted motor vehicle emissions and identified measures to reduce emissions,and developed a practical way to measure the instantaneous quality of vehicles emission rate of the vehicle emission test system. System consists of the engine fuel consumption,exhaust emission parameters (HC,CO,NOX,CO2),excess air coefficient and the measured parameters,such as vehicles,computer-related input information fusion calculation,the quality of emission rates to be transient. Test resultsindicated that instruments have high accuracy.


Diploid wild relative of wheat – Aegilops speltoides – is a valuable source of genes for resistance to diseases. The synthetic form Avrodes (BBAASS) was used as a bridge to transfer leaf rust resistance genes from Ae. speltoides to common wheat. Introgression lines obtained from crosses of Avrodes and susceptible common wheat cultivars were evaluated in a field leaf rust nursery. Resistance levels varied from high to moderate. Testing of lines with the use of molecular markers has shown that some lines have the Lr28 and Lr35 genes inherited from synthetic form Avrodes. The majority of resistance lines have not been found to carry these genes. The Lr47 and Lr51 genes were not identified in the Avrodes and introgression lines. The analysis of chromosome pairing in F1 hybrids showed that the transfer of a genetic material from Avrodes to common wheat basically occurs through translocations. Lines with translocations on chromosomes 2D and 5D were identified by C-banding and FISH. The translocations differed in chromosomal location from known leaf resistance genes transferred to common wheat from Ae. speltoides. Hence it was assumed that new genes were introduced into the common wheat genome from Ae. speltoides. Introgression lines have been studied for productivity and technological qualities of grain. Lines AA60n9 and D37n10 combine high resistance to leaf rust with good characteristics of productivity and technological qualities of grain. The received results demonstrate a genetic diversity and a value of the investigated introgression lines for breeding of common wheat.


Although the government of the Republic of Singapore do not give official recognition to the estimated 1000 Chinese physicians in the country, these practitioners of traditional herbal medicine still enjoy the patronage of a certain segment of the population, 76% of whom are ethnically Chinese. In an earlier paper, we have reported on the characteristics of Chinese physicians who volunteer their service for institutions that provide Chinese traditional health care in Singapore. This complementary paper reports the findings of a survey of 55 physicians who run their own private practice about whom, prior to our study, very little was known.


In the literature, group decision making problems have been solved by carrying out two processes: a consensus process and a selection process. In the consensus one, decision makers or experts try to achieve an agreement among their opinions in order to solve the problem. In the selection process, the experts choose the solution set with the best alternative/s to solve the problem. The consensus is a process composed of several discussion rounds where the experts provide and change their opinions. This process is guided by the figure of a human moderator that helps to the experts to make their opinion closer. In this paper we propose a model for the consensus reaching process in group decision making problems defined in a multi-granular linguistic context. The proposed model measures the agreement and defines a set of rules which will be used by the moderator to suggest changes to the experts in order to improve the agreement in the next consensus round.


The crystal and molecular structure of [NEt4][Cr2(EtO)3{H2B(pz)2}2(NCS)2][H2B(pz)2= dihydro-bis(1-pyrazolyl)borate] has been determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction methods. The crystals are monoclinic, space group P21, with a= 9.561(9), b= 15.826(4), c= 12.979(3)A, β= 93.06(8)° and Z= 2. The complex anion consists of two chromium(III) ions in chemically identical and approximately octahedral environments. The metal ions are bridged by three ethoxo groups. The co-ordination around each metal is completed by two N atoms of a H2B(pz)2 ligand and by the N atom of a NCS anion. The temperature dependence of the magnetic susceptibility of the compound has been determined in the range 8–280 K. The exchange interaction between the two chromium(III) ions was found to be antiferromagnetic with J= 87.0(2) cm–1 and the exchange Hamiltonian is H=JS1·S2.


Relative measurements of the average energy, ¿, expended for electron-hole pair generation in silicon and high purity germanium detectors were made using 10 to 19 MeV proton, deuteron and alpha particle beams. The results show that ¿ is constant for different particles in high purity germanium detectors but not in silicon detectors. A model is presented which could explain both our results and those published in the literature.


Objective To evaluate the long-term effect of radiotherapy combined with concurrent chemotherapy for the treatment of advanced cervical cancer and its toxicity.Methods Between Feb 2002 and Aug 2003,120 cases of advanced cervical cancer of First Hospital of Huai An were randomized into two groups:Radiotheraphy alone group(R group,n=60);Concurrent chemoradiotherapy group(CR group,n=60),40 mg of cisplatin per square meter of body-surface area per week for six weeks. Radiotherapy was administered to the whole pelvic region in 20 fractions totaling 40 Gy,followed one to three weeks later or simultaneous by intracavitary brachytherapy. The total dose delivered to point A (a reference location 2 cm lateral and 2 cm superior to the cervical os) was 82 Gy,the total dose delivered to point B (the pelvic wall) was 54.0 Gy in patients with stage Ⅱb disease and 60.0 Gy in patients with stage Ⅲ or Ⅳa disease. Results All patients completed the treatment course. The complete response rates in CR and R groups were 83.3% and 53.3%(χ2=12.48,P=0.000); and disease free survival rates in CR and R groups were 81.7%,65%,55%and 70%,45%,33.3%,(χ2=5.96,P=0.015),and overall survival rates in CR and R groups were 83.3%,71.6%,66.7%and 76.7%,53.3%,45%( χ2=5.37,P=0.021). Acute toxicity in concurrent chemoradiotherapy group was higher than radiotherapy alone group.Conclusion Regimens of radiotherapy and chemotherapy with cisplatin improve the rates of overall survival and disease-free survival among women with locally advanced cervical cancer.


Effect of surgical resection combined with intraperitoneal fluorouracil implants placement on the long-term advanced gastric cancer recurrence and malignant molecule expression Qiang Lu, Yao-Xiang Zou, Xu-Dong Ruan 1. General Surgery, the Affiliated Dongnan Hospital of Xiamen University, Zhangzhou, Fujian, 363000 2. Department of Oncology, the Affiliated Dongnan Hospital of Xiamen University, Zhangzhou, Fujian, 363000 Journal of Hainan Medical University


Similarity between natural language texts, sentences in terms of meaning, known as textual entailment, is a generic problem in the area of computational linguistics. In the last few years researchers worked on various aspects of textual entailment problem, but mostly restricted to English language. Here in this paper we present a method for measuring the semantic similarity of Bengali tweets using WordNet. Moreover we defined partial textual entailment (PTE) as in real data partial entailment cases are equally prevalent with the complete/direct entailment. Although by definition entailment is a directional relationship, but here we consider entailment more as semantic similarity.


The invention relates to a low-voltage circuit breaker operating characteristic test equipment, comprising a power loop part, a thyristor trigger control circuit, an input/output signal sampling and processing part, a switch power part and a main chip. The electric signal transitive relation is that the thyristor trigger control circuit triggers a thyristor, transmits the signal to an input signal collecting circuit and the signal is transmitted to the power loop after the signal is processed by the main chip. The equipment in which the power loop adopting the thyristor is characteristics of low cost, high control precision, short response time and strong reliability, the trigger controlling of the thyristor applies the way that an independent signal generating source is combined with CPLD, therefore, the trigger is more reliable, the response is more correct and the allocation is more convenient, thus meeting the requirement that various defined characteristics testing functions of the breaker can be realized by simple online allocation on the identical equipment. A field bus communication interface is integrated in the equipment, therefore, the system network can be accessed conveniently, remote control and diagnosis are facilitated, and the operation is more flexible due to a plurality of control ways.


[Objective] The study aimed to explore the genetic characters of Arabidopsis thaliana mutant insensitive to reactive oxygen.[Method] The seeds of A.thaliana after being sterilized were cultivated in the MS solid culture medium.After cultivated for 5~6 d,the seedlings were transplanted in vermiculite and cultivated again.The hybridization was made with the wild type as male and the mutant as female in flowering stage.The seeds of F1 were planted in MS culture medium.After growing for 5~6 d the seedlings were treated with 10-4 mol/L H2O2,the resistance of seedlings to H2O2 was detected by the root bending method and the genetic characters of the mutants were analyzed.[Result] The total seedlings of F1 were nonresistant to H2O2,i.e.the growth of roots was restrained.184 plants were nonresistant to H2O2,while 59 plants were resistive to H2O2 among 243 plant in F2.The separation ratio of nonresistant plant to resistant plants was 3∶1.[Conclusion] There was a single recessive gene mutation happened in A.thaliana mutant insensitive to reactive oxygen.


NHS organisations and independent healthcare providers could be issued with on-the-spot fines or taken to court for failing to stamp out poor nursing care.


Determination was made of cold deformation, plasticity, fissure resistance, and sliding plane orientation of sintered and mechanically polished WC crystals by Vickers microhardness test and Vickers ray micrography. (Rev. Metal Lit., 21: No. 1, Jan. 1964)


Various methods have been proposed for authentication, including password or pattern drawing, which is clearly visible on personal electronic devices. However, these methods of authentication are more vulnerable, as passwords and cards can be forgotten, lost, or stolen. Therefore, a great curiosity has developed in individual authentication using biometric methods that are based on physical and behavioral features not possible to forget or be stolen. Authentication methods are used widely in portable devices since the lifetime of battery and time response are essential concerns in these devices. Due to the fact that these systems need to be fast and low power, designing efficient methods is still critical. We, in this paper, proposed a new low power and fast method for pupil segmentation based on approximate computing that under trading a minor level of accuracy, significant improvement in power assumption and time saving can be obtained and makes this algorithm suitable for hardware implementation. Furthermore, the experimental results of PSNR and SSIM show that the error rate in this method is negligible.


A stereoscopic, stereophonic, user-controllable communications system is described. This system might allow the user to feel physically present at some remote location and thus might be considered to be an approximation through conununications t o teleportation. While admittedly somewhat futuristic, such a teleportation-throughcommunications system might be realistic in the bandividth-rich future. Manuscript received January 22, 1976; revised June 1, 1976. The au thor i s w i t h Be l l Telephone Laboratories, M u r r a y H i l l , N J 70974. Copyright ©1976 by The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. Printed in U.S.A. Annals No. 611SM006


Outdoor Program Administration: Principles and Practices Geoff Harrison Matt Erpelding Editors Human Kinetics, 2012A cursory review of the table of contents in Outdoor Program Administration could lead one to believe that the collective efforts of both the authors and editors has led to the creation of an oxymoron-a comprehensive introductory book on outdoor programming. However, a more thorough review of the text reveals not necessarily a comprehensive coverage of outdoor programming, but undoubtedly an extensive and expansive resource-encompassing the diverse parameters typically found in outdoor programming-from its historic foundations to the safe and competent delivery of such programs. This book is certainly a strong, introductory text because the authors did a masterful job of delimiting the multidimensional nature of developing and managing outdoor recreation programs.The field of outdoor recreation and outdoor programming is inordinately diverse, in fact, Priest (1999) once described outdoor recreation as "... any activity done outdoors" (p. 112). Because of the extensiveness of this field, it is extremely challenging, perhaps even impossible, to create a single resource that can "teach readers how to do outdoor programming." On the other hand, the authors and editors of Outdoor Program Administration have done a yeoman's job of delineating the essential concerns and topics for outdoor programming-those aspects commonly shared across most outdoor recreation activities, those that must be acknowledged and negotiated in the design and implementation of such programs. Therefore, it seems very plausible that educators, outdoor program administrators, or other outdoor program professionals will discover some valuable information, useful ideology, as well as pertinent assessments about program issues and concerns somewhere between this book's covers. This is good news given the fact that within the first few pages of Outdoor Program Administration, the editors identify the book's intended audience to be outdoor recreation administrators, field instructors, and students enrolled in outdoor recreation courses. What an enormously ambitious goal, to write for the neophyte and at the same time for the experienced professional, quite a daunting task given the wide-ranging gamut of knowledge and experiences across such an audience.The editors did a commendable job in arranging the book's 21 chapters into four distinct sections. The first section, Outdoor Program Foundations (chapters 1 - 4), introduces the reader to outdoor program administration, proposes specific skills and competencies for outdoor program administrators, traces both the historical foundations of outdoor programs in the United States and the evolution of professionalism within outdoor recreation, links outdoor recreation with the three recreation service delivery systems (public, private, and nonprofit), and identifies specific societal trends, such as the changing demographics of outdoor recreationists and professional standardization, that are proposed to likely impact the future of outdoor programming. As a whole, this first section providers the reader with a sense of direction-beginning with where outdoor programming has been and point to where the field may be headed in the future.The second section of the book, Program Design and Implementation (chapters 5 - 12), is the most voluminous section of the text, making up nearly 40% of the entire book, and well it should. The topics of chapters within this section are the core to outdoor programming: risk and risk management, organizational structure, mission statements and strategic planning, legal considerations and negligence, financial management-particularly budgets, marketing basics, public land access and permits, environmental stewardship, and the development of policies and procedures for outdoor programming. Cumulatively, these topics and processes are at the crux of how outdoor programming is developed, created, and implemented. …


O(n) complexity electronic circuits are proposed for maximum (minimum) selection/propagation of n analog input voltages. The proposed min/max circuits employ electronic amplifiers and diodes and are easily realizable with CMOS VLSI technology. Theoretical analysis and experimental results with off-the-shelf components are presented. These circuits are of low complexity in the sense that the number of transistors and/or connections required scales linearly in the number of inputs, n. An analytical expression for the accuracy of the proposed circuits in terms of the number of inputs and amplifier gain is derived. It shows that high-resolution low-complexity analog max/min modules are feasible. The authors' results hinge on the ability to map a sequential algorithm for the computation of Max (Min) functions onto a simple collective computing architecture.<<ETX>>


Drawing upon affective events theory (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996) and trait activation theory (Tett & Burnett, 2003), we propose a cross-level model demonstrating how and when transformational leader...


Degradation of azo dyes, Orange G and Benzopurpurine, by sodium hypochlorite in water was observed by UV spectroscopy. The observed values of the maximum absorbance in the spectra of the reaction mixture fitted well with the polynomials of the fifth degree in reaction time, t. The initial degradation rate of each dye was obtained easily as the differential coefficient of the functions at time 0. The degradation rate (Rd) of both dyes in the initial stage of the reaction was given by the second-order rate equation, Rd = k[Dye][NaOCl], where k is a rate constant. Apparent activation energies and frequency factors of the degradation were estimated as 20.3 kJ mol−1 and 4.59 × 104 dm3 mol−1 s−1, respectively, for Orange G, and 9.56 kJ mol−1 and 5.78 × 103 dm3 mol−1 s−1 for Benzopurpurine.


The Indian Ocean Major Earthquake off the Coast of Sumatra and Tsunami in the Indian Ocean, which occurred on 26 December 2004, caused much victims and heavy damages in coastal zones. Some studies reported that mangrove forests filled the role of mitigation of the damage by the Tsunami. On the other hand, mangrove forests themselves suffered both direct and collateral damages by the Tsunami. Direct damages resulted from fierce impacts of the Tsunami and objects damaged by it, and vibration of trunks of mangrove trees by repetitious waves of the Tsunami and respiratory disorders from roots due to sedimentation of sands, which were brought by them, caused collateral damages. This study aims to estimate of aboveground biomass in mangrove forest damaged by the major Tsunami disaster in 2004 in Thailand using high resolution satellite data. The study area is located in the coastal zone of Ranong, Thailand. Thirty-six 0.04-ha plots were established in the study area and stem diameter and tree height (partly and using the height-diameter equation for the rest of them) were investigated in the field. IKONOS and QuickBird multispectral and panchromatic data were acquired for this study. Mangrove extent was extract from both IKONOS and QuickBird data using the object-oriented classification. Panchromatic data of IKONOS and QuickBird before and after the Tsunami disaster were used to identify individual crown size of mangrove using the watershed method after masking non-crown area. Allometric equations between stem diameter and sunny-crown area for every mangrove species were derived. Sunny-crown areas were extracted from IKONOS and QuickBird panchromatic data. The highest digital numbers of each band of IKONOS and QuickBird data within each extracted sunny-crown area were used to identify mangrove species. The aboveground biomass was estimated in each plot as a function of stem diameter derived from the sunny-crown area using the allometric equations. The distribution of aboveground biomass was mapped from the result. * Corresponding author. 1. INTRODUCRION Mangrove forests in tropical and subtropical countries play important roles from the viewpoint of ecosystem services such as water quality maintenance, storm wave protection, fish habitat and ecotourism activities (Ewell et al. 1998) as well as carbon stocking. Since first lunch of the earth observation satellite, Lansat-1 in 1972, satellite remote sensing has played an important role in environmental monitoring. Several mapping techniques of mangrove area using satellite sensor with a couple of 10-meters ground resolution, i.e. Landsat and SPOT, were developed to protect, restore and monitor costal ecosystem in previous studies (Ramsey and Jensen 1996, Rasolofoharinoro et al 1998, Ramírez-García et al. 1998, Green at al. 1998, Gao 1998, Gao 1999, Saito et al. 2003). The stand factors of mangrove forest were also estimated from Landsat (Setyono et al. 1997). These studies are important to understand the extent and the property of mangrove forest at regional level, however there the problem of mixture resulted from ground resolution has limited linkage between remote sensing results and site studies. The new generation of commercial high resolution satellite data of finer ground resolution than 1-m 1-m such as IKONOS and QuickBird opened a new era in digital analysis of forest stand attributes. The high ground resolution of these sensors makes it possible to distinguish individual tree crowns, and a forest stand can be regarded as an aggregation of individual trees on a high resolution satellite image. We can now expect to acquire accurate information relating to segmentation by forest type as well as stand attributes from the images as required for appropriate forest management (Franklin et al. 2001, Hirata et al. 2004). High resolution satellite data are mainly applied to mapping in the studies of mangrove forests (Kovacs et al., 2004, 2005). International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Science, Volume XXXVIII, Part 8, Kyoto Japan 2010


In multivariate or spatial extremes, inference for max-stable processes observed at a large collection of points is a very challenging problem and current approaches typically rely on less expensive composite likelihoods constructed from small subsets of data. In this work, we explore the limits of modern state-of-the-art computational facilities to perform full likelihood inference and to efficiently evaluate high-order composite likelihoods. With extensive simulations, we assess the loss of information of composite likelihood estimators with respect to a full likelihood approach for some widely used multivariate or spatial extreme models, we discuss how to choose composite likelihood truncation to improve the efficiency, and we also provide recommendations for practitioners. This article has supplementary material online.


The Ares Real-Time Environment for Modeling, Integration, and Simulation (ARTEMIS) has been developed for use by the Ares I launch vehicle System Integration Laboratory at the Marshall Space Flight Center. The primary purpose of the Ares System Integration Laboratory is to test the vehicle avionics hardware and software in a hardwarein-the-loop environment to certify that the integrated system is prepared for flight. ARTEMIS has been designed to be the real-time simulation backbone to stimulate all required Ares components for verification testing. ARTEMIS provides high-fidelity dynamics, actuator, and sensor models to simulate an accurate flight trajectory in order to ensure realistic test conditions. ARTEMIS has been designed to take advantage of the advances in underlying computational power now available to support hardware-in-the-loop testing to achieve real-time simulation with unprecedented model fidelity. A modular realtime design relying on a fully distributed computing architecture has been implemented.


Recently, robotic systems have been introduced as a method for assisting endovascular interventional procedures. A few commercial and research solutions are available. In a survey it was found that none of the current systems satisfied all basic design requirements set forth for a good robot‐assisted therapy platform.


Neonates are especially susceptible to respiratory viral infection. However, there is little known about the neonatal immune response to respiratory virus. We compared the adult and neonatal responses to Sendai Virus (SeV). 6-8 week old C57BL/6 adults and 2-day-old C57BL/6 pups were infected with 500 pfu SeV/g body weight. Adults exhibited transient weight loss, which peaked at day 7 post-infection. Neonatal mice were in a rapid growth period and did not lose body weight during the course of infection. However, neonatal mice infected with SeV showed a slowing of growth after day 8 compared to neonates inoculated with UV-inactivated virus. Viral titer, measured by plaque forming assay, showed similar viral loads and rates of viral clearance in the adults and neonates. Adults exhibited significant neutrophilic inflammation in the lung that peaked at day 7 post-infection. Surprisingly, neonatal lungs had significantly less inflammation in the lung despite comparable levels of virus. ELISA of lung homogenates showed higher levels of IL-1b in the adults. In contrast, neonates had higher levels of TGF-b consistent with reduced inflammation in the neonatal lungs. These results suggest that neonates may be protected from lung inflammation, despite having significant viral load during primary paramyxoviral infection. Further studies will address the ability of the neonates to mount a secondary challenge to SeV. This research was funded by Saint Louis University.


The invention discloses light ventilated thermal fabric and a preparation method thereof. The light ventilated thermal fabric is prepared by the following raw materials in parts by weight: 35-65 parts of wool fiber, 12-35 parts of modal fiber, 25-45 parts of cotton fiber, 2-15 parts of polyester short fiber, 2-15 parts of viscose fiber, 2-15 parts of spandex fiber, 8-30 parts of tencel fiber, 8-25 parts of silk fiber, 2-15 parts of chinlon fiber and 15-35 parts of polyester fiber. The preparation method comprises the following steps: twisting the wool fiber, the modal fiber, the cotton fiber and the polyester short fiber into weft yarns; twisting the viscose fiber, the spandex fiber, the tencel fiber, the natural silk fiber, the chinlon fiber and the polyester fiber into warp yarns; obtaining the light ventilated thermal fabric after warping and weaving processes.


Objective: To investigate the value of tree-dimensional reconstruction in displaying the morphological characteristics of solitary pulmonary nodules and distinguishing the malignant tumors. Method: 45 cases of solitary pulmonary nodules were examined by multi-slice CT scanning and enhanced scanning. The imaging findings were subjected to three-dimensional reconstruction by VR,MPR and MIP,and the reconstructed images were compared to evaluate the diagnostic values of different methods of reconstruction in finding the important manifestations of solitary pulmonary nodules for an accurate diagnosis. Result: MPR did not show significantly higher diagnostic value than axial imagining( P 0. 05); VR showed significant superiority to axial imagining in displaying marginal forms,internal structures and pleural indentation( P 0. 05); MIP showed significant superiority to axial imagining in displaying marginal forms and adjacent bronchi( P 0. 05). Conclusion: Three-dimensional reconstruction can significantly increase the accuracy of imagining diagnosis,serving as an effective method in distinguishing malignant tumors from benign tumors.


In this study a comparison of three turbulence closure models (two isotropic and one anisotropic) with experimental data is performed. The interaction between the main channel (MC) flow and the floodplain (FP) generates a complex flow structure. A shallow mixing layer develops between the MC flow and the slower FP flow generating a high horizontal shear layer, streamwise and vertical vortices, momentum transfer and other phenomena, related to velocity retardation and acceleration. This phenomenon dissipates part of the kinetic energy and contributes to the reduction of the velocity differences between the MC and the FP. The large scale vortices that are generated in the shear layer are anisotropic, provoking the formation of secondary flow cells that influence the primary velocity distribution. These threedimensional turbulent structures can be reasonable well reproduced by a simple anisotropic model (Algebraic Stress Model). The isotropic models are capable of simulating the boundary layer, especially the model base in k-ω equations, but cannot simulate the shear layer that develops at the interface. INTRODUCTION Most natural rivers have compound cross-section composed by a main channel and by one or more floodplains on the lateral sides. For most of the time the water flows only in the main channel, however, when flooding occurs the water depth exceeds the bank full depth of the main channel and thus overflow occurs on the floodplains. The fast flow in the main channel is retarded by the slower flow on the floodplains, causing lateral momentum transfer. The shear layer that develops at the interface of the main channel and the floodplain by the difference of velocities affects turbulence structures and streamwise and vertical vortices are developed. Turbulent structures in compound channel flow indicate three-dimensional (3D) behavior (Fig. 1). There are two kinds of vortices that are generated at the interface between the main channel and the floodplain; one is a horizontal vortex due to shear layer of the streamwise flow, first observed by Sellin (1964), and the other is the secondary flow in the cross section due to anisotropy of turbulence, also called secondary flow of 2 kind (cf. Nezu and Nakagawa, 1993). These effects have been observed experimentally by Shiono and Knight (1991), and Tominaga and Nezu (1991) using fiber-optic Laser-Doppler anemometer (LDA) and numerically by Naot et al. (1993), using an algebraic Reynolds stress model (ARSM), by Shiono and Lin (1992) and Pezzinga (1994), using a non-linear k-e model and by Cokljat and Younis (1995), using the full Reynolds-stress transport model. They have found a significant influence of secondary flows onto momentum transfer and boundary shear stress. Figure 1. Three dimensional description of compound channel flow by Shiono and Knight (1991). It is very difficult to predict secondary flows because the governing equation for the streamwise vorticity, besides using the very computational expensive DNS, cannot be solved without any modeling. Various turbulence models have been used for predicting the secondary flows and turbulence in compound channels. Numerical studies based on 3D Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) equations have been performed in recent years by several investigators (among others, Naot et al., 1993; Pezzinga, 1994; Cokljat and Younis, 1995; Lin and Shiono, 1995). If the appropriate turbulence model is used, then secondary flows are accurately simulated and the distribution of mean primary velocity and the wall shear stress are also accurately reproduced. But the main difficulty lies in the choice of the turbulence model. Thus, isotropic eddy viscosity models, like the standard k-e model, are robust and economic but are incapable of producing secondary flows. Instead, the ARSM is being often used lately; it reasonably predicts secondary flows and is computationally economic compared to Direct Numerical Simulation, DNS, or more complex models (e.g. Large Eddy Simulation, LES). The present study simulates the uniform flow in compound channel for high relative depth (≈ 50%), using ANSYS CFX Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code. For this purpose k-e model, Shear Stress Transport (SST) model and Explicit Algebraic Reynolds Stress Model (EARSM) were employed. The k-e model and SST model are isotropic models based on Boussinesq's approximation and do not produce secondary flows, while EARSM is derived from the Reynolds stress transport equations and is able to simulate secondary flows caused by turbulence anisotropy . The main purpose of the study is comparison of the numerical results obtained by isotropic and anisotropic models with the experimental velocity results obtained by a Laser Doppler Velocimeter (LDV). EXPERIMENTAL SET-UP AND EXPERIMENTS DETAILS The experimental studies were carried out in the Hydraulics Laboratory of the University of Beira Interior in prismatic channel (Fig. 2a) with a bed slope i = 0.001, 10 m length and with asymmetric trapezoidal compound section. The compound channel geometry and dimensions are shown in Figure 3. In this figure H is the water level above channel bottom, h is the bankfull level above channel bottom, b main channel bottom width, and B section width. The uniform regime was established by imposing a discharge of 24.7 l/s which corresponds to a relative height hr = (H – h)/H ≈ 50%. The streamwise instantaneous velocity of the flow was measured using a LDV. Positioning of the system probe was achieved with 0.1 mm precision positioning system controlled by computer. The measurements were performed in back-scattering mode through the lateral glass of the channel (Fig. 2b). The water depth was measured using a point gauge and acoustic probes; the total discharge was measured using an electromagnetic flow meter installed in the recirculation pipe of the channel. Figure 2. a) Photo with donstream view of the channel; b) Photo of the LDV measuring laterally.


The paper reviewed the Waqf literature as a basis to analyze its contribution as a financial tool in addressing Poverty Reduction in Nigeria. The study is purely exploratory that relies on desktop research. The research uses previous studies for the analysis, which include news articles, government publications, and websites. The secondary data were obtained from the Holy Qur'an as the Primary source of Shari'ah (Islamic law), which were used to back most of the arguments put forward for the assessment of Waqf in the study area. The study concluded that Waqf played a vital role in reducing poverty in Nigeria. The study recommends the need of Waqf awareness to be created to enlighten the rich men in the society and also for the government to ensure proper and adequate management of Waqf institution. This will help Islamic value-centric policymakers, regulatory authorities, investors, and researchers to gain an overall insight into the potentials of Waqf as a financial tool in reducing poverty.


Teluk Buo mangrove forest is one of tourist destination in the Sumatera BaratProvince. The input of pollutant originated from anthropogenic activities, however,reducing the water quality and as a consequence negatively affects the mangroveecosystem as well as the associated organisms, including bivalves. To understand thecommunity structure of bivalves in the mangrove ecosystem, a research wasconducted on February 2017. The observation of bivalve community is done bymaking line transects. There were 3 transect lines and in each line, 9 sub plots (1x1m)observed. The bivalves present in the plots were collected manually everyday for 2weeks period. Results shown that there were 6 bivalves species present, they wereGeloina erosa, Anadara antiquata, Barbatia sp., Lucinoma galathea, Chameleastriatula and Trychardium sp. with bivalves abundance was ranged from 6,667 to31,481 organisms/ha. The value of diversity index (H') was 0.2650-2.403, thedominance index (C) was 0.210-0.722 and the uniformity Index (E) was 0.059-0.563.The bivalva community structure in Teluk Buo is moderate with the dominant species(Geloina erosa) has been disturbed by the existence of ecological pressure and thedominant species causing unbalanced mangrove area. Abiotic environmental factorsinclude temperature was 29-31 0C; pH of water was 7.3-7.5, soil pH 7.1-7.2 andsalinity was 25-340/00.


The matrix plays a prominent role to expand the ability of matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI MS). However, on account of the unclarity of necessary properties of the matrix in MALDI MS, the development of new matrix is still in the exploratory stage and lack of systematic theoretical guidance. Meanwhile, most of the existing matrices are unable to simultaneously detect various high-molecular-weight (high-MW) lipids including (poly-)phosphoinositides (PPIs), cardiolipins (CLs) and gangliosides (GGs). In this study, we have successfully screened and optimized the application of commercially available IR-780 as a novel matrix for simultaneously profiling and imaging of high-MW lipids in brain tissues by MALDI MS for the first time. The properties of IR-780 related to matrix of MALDI MS, mainly including the optical properties (UV absorption, fluorescence emission, photothermal efficiency), proton affinity (PA), collision cross sections (CCS), salt-tolerance ability and homogeneity, were comprehensively characterized, which demonstrated that high photothermal ability and large CCS might guarantee the superior performance of IR-780 as matrix for the analysis of high-MW lipids in biological samples. This work provided some references for the development of novel matrix, and especially, the concept of CCS was firstly introduced as a parameter for the development of matrix. In addition, the simultaneous identification and imaging of endogenous high-MW lipids in rat brain tissues subjected to traumatic brain injury (TBI) were successfully performed.


In order to provide a correct guidance for the therapy of sero-resistance syphilis,An analysis in evidence-based medicine was performed on the relevant literatures of preclinical and clinical study published from 1995-2005 in domestic and abroad.Only 4 articles were obtained.None of level A was found;there were only 1 in level B belonging to foundational research and 3 in level C belonging to effective obsearvation.As the literatures reported have low quantity and poor quality,The data acquired from evidence-based medicine can still not provide enough instruction or reference for the clinical therapy of this kind of syphilis.


We present a new method, based on fractal analysis, to characterize the output of a physical detector that is in the form of a set of real-valued, discrete physical measurements. We apply the method to gravitational-wave data from the latest observing run of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory. We show that a measure of the fractal dimension of the main detector output (strain channel) can be used to determine the instrument status, test data stationarity, and identify non-astrophysical excess noise in low latency. When applied to instrument control and environmental data (auxiliary channels) the fractal dimension can be used to identify the origins of noise transients, non-linear couplings in the various detector subsystems, and provide a means to flag stretches of low-quality data.


Results of the physical oceanographic work of the "Calanus" expeditions of 1949–55 are presented in summary. Bathymetric maps are given for Ungava Bay, Frobisher Bay and northeast Hudson Bay. Temperature, salinity and density profiles are used to show the direction of flow of water, without dynamic calculations. Temperature–salinity correlation diagrams show the presence of Atlantic water below 100 metres, well developed in Cumberland Sound, less so in Ungava Bay and Hudson Strait (but still present), and very slight in northern Hudson Bay. In Frobisher Bay the entry of Atlantic water, if it occurs, is masked by tidal turbulence. Inversions of density, giving temporary negative stabilities, are recorded at a number of stations, concentrated in the regions of large tidal ranges; association of these inversions with the state of the tide is indicated. Stability conditions of the water in general are presented; the winter regime in northern Hudson Bay offers no reason to doubt that a normal vertical exchange...


The use of business intelligence (BI) systems by organizations is increasingly considered as an asset, which goal is to provide access to information in a timely manner in order to support the decision-making process. However, in specific cases such as local government organizations, there are very specific challenges. Some of them like privacy rights and applicable law compliance must be carefully observed, making the necessary adaptations of these BI solutions. The developed solution brings some important contributions and represents some advances in the eGovernment context applied to local governments where the information is normally used/stored are not normalized and pre-defined. Being this a big barrier to development of this type of solutions, the developed architecture is prepared to improve the data quality and avoid this type of mistakes. This paper presents an architecture of a BI platform on a local government organization, geared towards the improvement of citizen offered services quality and efficiency maximization, thus contributing for cost reduction to the taxpayer.


The effects of some hindered amine light stabilizers(HALS) and antioxidants on the radiation-induced coloration of polyethylene(PE) are studied by measuring the yellowness index(YI) of PE. It is found that all the HALS and antioxidants examined are effective in preventing PE from radiation-induced coloration. The YIs of PE with pentamethyl HALS(PMPM, PPMPM) are a little higher than YIs of PE added corresponding tetramethyl HALS(TMPM, PTMPM) when the irradiation dose is lower than 100 kGy, but when the irradiation dose is higher than 100 kGy, the YI of PE added pentamethyl HALS is low. Pentamethyl HALS is more effective in preventing PE from radiation-induced coloration when irradiation dose is high. The YI of PE added Irganox 1010 is the highest among those of PE added hindered phenol antioxidant Irganox 1076, Irganox 1010 or Irganox 1098 separately. The YI of PE added Irganox PS802 is lower than that of PE added Irgafos 168. Commonly, hindered phenol antioxidants are more effective than hydroperoxide decomposer antioxidants in preventing PE from radiation-induced coloration. The role of HALS and antioxidants played in preventing PE from radiation-induced coloration is discussed.


The discrete distributions which provide maximum normalised boresight slope, analogous to that derived earlier for continuous line-sources, are considered and some general conclusions reached.


Evolutionary psychology is a large-scale scientific project to explain our mental capabilities in evolutionary terms. Lack of sufficient material evidence, multitude of rival hypotheses, and speculative nature of many explanations are only a small fraction of theoretical problems influencing this new discipline. The purpose of this paper is to provide a critical analysis of assumptions and claims that are considered foundations of evolutionary psychology. The paper presents crucial methodological consequences connected with the process of explaining phobias in evolutionary terms. Subsequently, it discusses some genetic limitations imposed on the inborn character of our mental traits and incompatibilities between evolutionary psychology and the phenomenon of cortex plasticity. Lastly, it is demonstrated that evolutionary psychology abuses some crucial terms like EEA, an adaptation or a by-product, and does not take into account the possibility that some mental traits can be caused by neutral mutations.


The world's main producers of polycarbonate resin are building up their capabilities in China. Facing almost no competition from Chinese companies, they are methodically investing in plants and R&D facilities. They are also placing in China senior executives who are prepared to do business in the fast-paced Chinese style. At a press conference at the plastics trade show Chinaplas in Shanghai last month, Michael Koenig, head of polycarbonates at Bayer MaterialScience, highlighted the importance of the Chinese market. Asia accounts for 60% of world demand for polycarbonate, which the consulting firm IHS Chemical estimates at 3.7 million metric tons this year. China by itself represents half of Asian demand, Koenig said. "The main growth driver has shifted to Asia-Pacific, especially China," he said. Koenig is based in Shanghai, where Bayer's global polycarbonate business headquarters has been since last year. Bayer invented polycarbonate resins 40 years ago, Koenig noted, and the ...


In their current article in The Cancer Journal, Morton antitumor immune response in an animal model system.13 and his associates have assessed the clinical significance of the serum total ganglioside level and of the humoral Elucidation of the cause-effect relationship between immunity to these molecules in about 100 patients with disease progression and increased serum ganglioside soft tissue sarcoma.1 The patient population investigated level has both theoretical relevance and therapeutic imis somehow homogeneous in terms of surgical treatplications. If tumor growth is indeed preceded by an ment, since all the patients had undergone surgical reincrease in serum ganglioside level, then escape mechasection of soft tissue sarcoma by Dr. Morton over three nisms more than inability of a patient's immune system decades. The serum total ganglioside level was found to mount an effective antitumor immune response are to be significantly higher in patients than in controls likely to underlie tumor progression. If our hypothesis and to be significantly correlated with tumor burden, is correct, high serum ganglioside level should be added high histological grade and disease stage. This associato the long list of mechanisms utilized by tumor cells tion, which has been found in colorectal cancer by the to escape from immune recognition and destruction.14 same group of investigators,2 is likely to reflect a causeIn such a case one might consider the use of inhibitors effect relationship between the two variables. However of ganglioside synthesis in designing strategies for the whether the increase in serum ganglioside level represtreatment of malignant diseases in order to counteract ents the effector the cause of tumor growth remains to be the immunosuppressive effects of gangliosides. determined. One might argue that the increased serum The correlation of serum total ganglioside level with ganglioside level is caused by their increased shedding tumor load, histological grade and disease stage has by growing tumors. An alternative, although not excluprompted Morton et al to suggest that serum total ganglisive possibility is that the increase in serum ganglioside oside level may represent a useful surrogate marker of level is caused by a source different from tumor cells tumor burden and response to treatment.1 This is an and precedes and plays a role in tumor progression, intriguing and timely possibility, given the current intergiven the convincing in vitro and in vivo evidence that est in identifying surrogate markers to monitor the effigangliosides suppress the antitumor immune response. cacy of therapeutic strategies in patients with malignant In vitro experiments have shown that gangliosides indiseases. Further studies should determine whether hibit multiple steps in the cellular immune response serum ganglioside level provides clinically useful inforincluding antigen processing and presentation,3,4 prolifmation that is not provided by the currently used markerative response of lymphocytes to both non-specific ers or complements the information provided by the mitogens5-7 and soluble antigens,8,9 and generation of a currently used markers and whether changes in serum cytotoxic response.10-12 Furthermore gangliosides have ganglioside level in serial bleedings from patients correbeen shown to inhibit both the primary and secondary late with prognosis and/or with response to therapy. It may also be important to correlate the level of individual gangliosides with the histopathological charFrom the Depar tment of Immunology, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo, New York. acteristics of the lesions and with the clinical course of Received September 6, 2002; accepted for publication September the disease, since the individual gangliosides appear to 11, 2002. have different functional effects. An example in this No benefits in any form have been or will be received from a commercial par ty related directly or indirectly to the subject of this article. regard is the differential involvement of gangliosides in Reprint requests: Soldano Ferrone, MD, PhD, Roswell Park Cancer angiogenesis of endothelial cells. While pretreatment Institute, Elm & Carlton Streets, Buffalo, NY 14263. of bovine aortic endothelial cells with GM1 or GM2


Rock materials used in road construction contain heavy metal elements bound in minerals that are more or less soluble. There are no requirements for investigations of leaching behaviour before use of rock materials in Sweden, which is the case regarding other materials as, e.g., slags. This implies that there is a lack of data to be used when other materials are evaluated. Seven rock materials and two gravels representing non-weathered material for use in base or sub-base course from three counties in Sweden have been investigated regarding mineral composition in order to explain the leaching behaviour. Microscopic studies of the mineral composition, acid-base-accounting and pH-measurements have been used to explain the leaching results achieved with the availability test. The identified transparent minerals were the expected silicate minerals for the sampled rock-forming materials. Overall, the content of identified opaque minerals was low. How an element is bound in the mineral is decisive for the dissolution of the heavy metal elements. Sulphide bound elements have a notably high fraction that is soluble, especially under oxidising conditions. Chromium and vanadium present as substituted ions in the crystal lattice of oxides are not dissolved. The dissolution of the buffering rock forming silicates is much slower than the dissolution of the acid-producing sulphides. The results have been compared to similar leaching tests of metallurgical slag used in road construction. The dissolution of the major phase, the solubility of the heavy metal mineral and secondary reactions are factors influencing the dissolved amounts of heavy metal elements. Compared to the crystalline rock materials, the amorphous fuming slag from a copper smelter has very low solubility, while blast furnace slag is easily dissolved due to hydrolysis. The soluble amounts of sulphide bound elements in rock material is higher compared to blast furnace slag. The kinetics of the acid-producing and acid-consuming reactions of the rock materials needs to be further investigated. The blast furnace slag and the fuming slag can be used in road construction without any risk of harmful environmental impact due to heavy metal leaching.


We have modeled the photochemical evolution of the sulfur containing species that were observed in Jupiter's stratosphere after the Shoemaker Levy 9 (SL9) impacts. We find that most of the sulfur is converted to S8 in the first few days. Other important sulfur reservoirs are CS, whose abundance increases markedly with time, and possibly H2CS, HNCS, and NS, whose abundances depend on kinetic reaction rates that are unknown at the present. We discuss the temporal variation of the major sulfur compounds, make abundance and compositional predictions useful for comparison with observations, and discuss the possible condensation of sulfur containing species.


A study investigating the generalizability of biographical characteristics from physical scientists (NASA) to scientists involved in pharmaceutical research (RMI) was reported. The criterion in both samples was the rated creative performance of the individual scientists. A key developed on over 2,000 (NASA) scientists was applied to the test protocols of 157 (RMI) scientists. The resulting Pearson product-moment correlation was .35 (P < .01). A multiple R of .39 (P < .01) resulted when the NASA Creativity Key was combined with the NASA Off-Line Key (designed to correct for distortion in response). A comparison of the predictive validities of the keys developed within the RMI sample and the NASA keys indicated that the NASA-derived keys were nearly equivalent in their ability to predict the RMI creativity criterion. Cognizance of the fact that, while the cross-predictions were statistically significant, a large portion of the criterion variance remains unaccounted for was made and a possible source of error variance in the criterion was briefly discussed.