The complexity of testing properties of monotone and unimodal distributions, when given access only to samples of the distribution, is investigated. Two kinds of sublinear-time algorithms---those for testing monotonicity and those that take advantage of monotonicity---are provided. The first algorithm tests if a given distribution on [n] is monotone or far away from any monotone distribution in L1-norm; this algorithm uses O(√n) samples and is shown to be nearly optimal. The next algorithm, given a joint distribution on [n] x [n], tests if it is monotone or is far away from any monotone distribution in L1-norm; this algorithm uses O(n3/2) samples. The problems of testing if two monotone distributions are close in L1-norm and if two random variables with a monotone joint distribution are close to being independent in L1-norm are also considered. Algorithms for these problems that use only poly(log n) samples are presented. The closeness and independence testing algorithms for monotone distributions are significantly more efficient than the corresponding algorithms as well as the lower bounds for arbitrary distributions. Some of the above results are also extended to unimodal distributions.


Diczfalusy, Nilsson & Westman (1958) estimated the concentration of chorionic gonadotrophin (C. G.) in 14 hydatidiform moles and expressed the results of the bioassays in I. U. per gm. wet tissue. They compared their results with those obtained by Hobson (1955) on 7 moles and pointed out that values given by Hobson for the concentration of C. G. in moles and placentae was exceedingly high. They say, [ill]thereason for this discrepancy is not clear at present[ill]. The difference between the values obtained in this laboratory and those obtained by Diczfalusy et al. for the concentration of C. G. in chorionic tissue is easily explained. In my first investigation mole tissue was put into acetone after it was removed and despatched to this laboratory. Therefore, the results of the bioassays were expressed in /. U. C. G. per gm. of dry tissue. This was clearly stated on pages 355 and 361 (Hobson, 1955). Before Diczfalusy et al. can compare their data with those of Hobson (1955), it is necessary to convert the values obtained for the concentration of G G. per gm. dry weight to I. U. per gm. wet weight. It has been shown that the fresh to dry weight of hydatidiform moles may vary between 5 : 1 and 11:1, the average ratio being 8 : 1 (Hobson, 1958). An approximate estimate of the C. G. concentration per gm. of wet tissue can be made if the values for the con¬ centration of C. G. per gm. of acetone dried tissue are divided by 8. The con¬ centration of C. G. would now be 194 to 4,000 I. U. per gm. wet weight. This is similar to the concentration of C. G. in 8 other moles examined by Hobson (1958) where the amount was between 72 and 3,049 I. U. per gm. wet weight, and to the concentration of G G. found in the moles examined by Diczfalusy


Background In this study, we present the short-term results of revascularization of left subclavian artery with the chimney technique in patients with aortic dissection or transection who underwent Zone 2 thoracic endovascular aortic repair. Methods A total of 11 patients (6 males, 5 females; mean age: 56.4±11.5 years; range, 38 to 76 years) who underwent Zone 2 thoracic endovascular aortic repair procedure and left subclavian artery revascularization with the chimney technique between April 2017 and January 2020 in our clinic were retrospectively analyzed. All patients were followed at one, three, six months and one year with computed tomography angiography. Results The mean follow-up was 19.7±14.5 (range, 6.3 to 45.8) months. Endoleak occurred in one (9%) patient and gutter leak occurred in three (27%) patients. The mean endoleak-free (including gutter leak) time was 19.9±5.4 (95% confidence interval: 9.36-30.34) months. No mortality occurred in any of the patients. No occlusion occurred in the chimney grafts. Conclusion The chimney revascularization technique is an alternative to other revascularization techniques of the left subclavian artery during thoracic endovascular aortic repair.


Recent studies reported a new form of malicious behavior in popular file-sharing Peer-to-Peer (P2P) systems, namely, content pollution, which reduces content availability, decreasing the confidence of users in such systems. This paper proposes Scrubber, a new descentralized peer reputation system that imposes severe and quick punishment to content polluters but also promotes peer rehabilitation. We evaluate the efficiency of Scrubber in reducing pollution dissemination via simulation, comparing it against the previously proposed Credence object reputation system as well as a system without reputation. Two pollution mechanisms, namely, decoy insertion and identifier corruption, are considered. Our results show that, for various scenarios, Scrubber is able to quickly reduce the fraction of daily downloads to polluted content to a small percentage. If compared to Credence, Scrubber has a much better convergence and competitive maximum efficiency, unless the fraction of peers that delete their polluted content in response to punishment (i.e., download request refusals) is very small (under 25%). In this case, Credence achieves a slightly higher efficiency in the long run.


Migration is a widespread phenomenon among animals and has a profound influence on the evolution of species traits. Diadromous fishes provide an extreme example of migration, moving between marine and freshwaters, often travelling thousands of kilometres for feeding and reproduction. Diadromy has been linked to changes in feeding ecology, body size and various life-history attributes. However, most studies have focused on intraspecific variation and associated mechanisms. In this study, we use phylogenetic comparative methods to analyse body size and trophic position across Clupeiformes (anchovies, herring, shad and allies), a large clade of fishes that includes both diadromous and non-diadromous species. We found that diadromous species are larger than non-diadromous species, but there is no difference in trophic position, and that these patterns are not attributable to common ancestry. Diadromous species show a decoupling of body size and trophic position, whereas non-diadromous clupeiforms have a positive relationship between body size and trophic position. Using a model-fitting approach, we detected a signal of strong selection driving diadromous fishes to different adaptive peaks from non-diadromous fishes for body size, but a single adaptive peak for trophic position. We suggest that diadromous fishes have evolved larger body size than obligate marine and freshwater species as an adaptation to maximize energy expenditure during long-distance migration.


To test the efficacy of filtration of zoospore-infested water for the control of Pythium root rot of cucumber (Cucumis sativus) growing in recirculating hydroponic greenhouse culture, cucumber seedlings were transplanted into separate hydroponic tanks. Each tank received water from a zoospore-infested source tank. The infested water was recirculated three times through a 20-μm filter or through the 20-μm filter and then a 7-μm filter (.)


Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have raised high expectations due to their potential for changing the relationship among students and professors, academy, and the general community. The terms "massive", "open", "online" and "course" have been redefined and reinvented so many times that it is difficult to offer a wide broad definition to cover the whole of their activity. Indeed, these terms may be misleading; for example, the term "massive" generally refers to the number of learners joined, but it does not refer to the equally massive desertion levels that have been associated with such programs. This document presents a comparative analysis for 11 MOOCs that obtained a terminal efficiency equal to or less than 11% and a MOOC whose calculated terminal efficiency was of 22.35%. This last MOOC, created as part of a teacher training strategy, was developed at Coursera's platform, and enrolled 10,161 learners from 81 different countries. The obtained results describe the characteristics of the participants, the technological resources, and the tools and the didactic strategies implemented by the instructors. It is concluded that without a correct measurement of the final results, it is not possible to evaluate the success of a MOOC; therefore the institutions and consortia must establish indicators to focus the efforts in order to improve the quality of teaching.


The continuing deterioration in asset quality of public sector banks in India since 2012 has had multidimensional ramifications. On the one hand, while significant loan loss provisions were required to be kept, eroding the profitability of these banks, on the other hand, it affected their risk-taking ability and resources available for on-lending to commercial sector. From a macroeconomic perspective thus, poor asset quality and
lower economic growth reinforced each other into a vicious cycle. The government intermittently infused capital in the public-sector banks, but most of that was absorbed by the continuing deterioration in asset quality, delaying the revival in the credit growth cycle. This led to the question of how much capital infusion is necessary to kick-start the credit cycle. Using bank-wise data for the period 2008-18, the present study analyses this question in a dynamic panel framework. The findings of the study suggest that the relationship between bank capital and credit growth is non-linear. Any amount of recapitalisation in banks is may be helpful in accelerating credit growth. However, the study found the single threshold level 13.1 per cent of CRAR level would be optimal. Above this threshold level, incremental increase in bank capital has positive but declining marginal effects on lending.


Feature Issue on Next-Generation WDM Network Design and Routing (WDMN). Optical fiber delay line (FDL) is currently the only technology available for implementing optical buffering. Feed-forward and feedback are two types of FDL structures in optical buffering, both of which have advantages and disadvantages. We present what we believe to be a novel architecture for WDM optical packet switches with an effective hybrid FDL buffering configuration that combines the merits of both feed-forward and feedback schemes. The core of the switch architecture is a number of arrayed waveguide gratings (AWG) and tunable wavelength converters (TWC). It requires smaller optical device sizes and fewer wavelengths and experiences less noise than feedback architecture. At the same time, it supports preemptive priority routing such as feedback architecture. Empirical results show that the proposed new switch architecture significantly reduces packet-loss probability.


Summary
A virus new to Middle America, the Chagres virus, was isolated in Panama from the blood of a patient who was infected with the virus. It was found to be pathogenic for suckling and weanling mice and to be sensitive to sodium desoxycholate. A hemagglutinin was demonstrated which exhibited unusual characteristics under certain conditions. No relationship of this virus to 49 other arboviruses could be demonstrated by means of the complement-fixation test. The presence of neutralizing antibody in human sera from one Panamanian community was demonstrated.


Improvements of social water conservation consciousness and behaviors are important output of Water-Saving Society De- velopment(WSSD)in China.Based on social surveys conducted in two different case study cities,i.e.Zhangye city in west and Dalian city in east,this paper evaluated the status of social water conservation consciousness and behaviors after the demonstration period of regional WSSD.Main water conservation alternatives,chosen by the society,including urban household,farmer and indus tries,are identified.Dominant influencing factors are analyzed and effectiveness of key polices conducted in WSSI)are discussed.


Body image is the mental picture we have of our bodies, has both perceptual and affective components, affects how we interact with clothes, and affects how that clothed appearance is presented publicly. The purpose of this article is to theoretically justify the inclusion of body image in textiles and clothing subject matter in institutions of higher education. Although pioneering efforts have addressed the body from aesthetic and social psychological standpoints, no theoretical justification integrates both aesthetic theory and social psychological concepts as applied to body image. We present discussions of both aesthetic and social psychological theories and concepts related to body image, make suggestions for curricular strategies at both undergraduate and graduate levels, and provide links to various stakeholders. We argue that textiles and clothing educators have a significant role to play in research, education, and outreach efforts related to body image and appearance-related behaviors and can address important quality of life issues.


Background: Given the increasing burden of hepatitis C (HCV) related liver disease, innovative health care models are required to extend the reach of HCV care and treatment. Opioid substitution treatment (OST) clinics are places of high HCV prevalence. The OST clinic is a complex environment, quite distinct to other health care settings, with punitive regulations and practices, and a client population likely to be mistrustful of systems of authority. Nonetheless, trust is widely documented as essential to effective therapeutic encounters. This paper examines what is required to develop a trustworthy service in a place, the OST clinic, described by some critics as a site of "social control". Methods: In-depth interviews were conducted with 57 clients and 19 staff from four NSW pilot clinics participating in the Australian ETHOS study. Results: Interview data were examined using Hall's framework of trust, involving five principle domains: fidelity, competence, honest, confidentiality and global trust. 'Honesty' was found to be key to participants' establishing trust in the co-located service and its staff. However, the clinic site was also found to be a place of rationed trust, in which the themes of OST as "ruling peoples' lives" and the fear of repercussions resulting from perceived transgressions against clinic rules, threatened to over-ride or undermine the development of trust in HCV services. Client participants described trusting health workers "to a point". They expressed concerns about the fidelity of co-located HCV and OST services and described fears of "institutionalised lies" and breaches of confidentiality. Anxieties around the latter revealed a sense of "us and them" held by some clients, one in which health workers were perceived to "stick together" by putting their own interests before those of the clients. Discussion: Although the co-location of HCV and opioid treatments makes intuitive policy sense, HCV health workers in the OST space may be seen as representatives of a deeply mistrusted system. For the effective development of a trustworthy HCV care service, policy and practice activities are required to engender trust through clearly articulated explanations of service boundaries and the promotion of "success stories" through trusted peer networks.


Languages are said to be stress-timed, syllable-timed or mora-timed. In a stress-timed language, inter-stress intervals are or tend to be constant, hence, isochronous, while in a syllable-timed or mora-timed language, successive syllables or morae are or tent to be equal in duration. Empirical research has failed to find evidence of isochrony in any language, yet the hypothesis is now sustained by perception accounts or phonetic metrics that do not measure isochrony. We have re-examined the rhythm class hypothesis by looking for evidence of at least a tendency toward isochrony, through a comparison of English, an alleged stress-timed language, and Mandarin, an alleged syllable-timed language. The results show that in English, segments are not compressible to allow equal syllable duration, and syllables are incompressible to enable equal inter-stress interval duration and phrase duration. In contrast, Mandarin shows a small tendency toward both equal syllable duration and equal phrase duration. These findings are exactly the opposite of what would be predicted by the rhythm class hypothesis. We therefore argue that the hypothesis is not just flawed, but simply untenable, and the so-called rhythm classes should no longer be held as a basic fact of human language.


INTRODUCTION New York City may not be the most segregated city in the country. But it is notorious for hosting some of the wealthiest and poorest neighborhoods in the country--sometimes in close proximity. Many of these neighborhoods have not changed their economic status for many decades. Some neighborhoods such as the South Bronx or East New York together with East Los Angeles and Chicago's South Side have become synonymous with enduring social problems that persist despite considerable investment in a wide range of interventions. Looking a little closer at, for example, the South Bronx we find that the demographics have changed but the problems have not. These observations led the authors to develop a research framework for investigating the relationship between the local infrastructure or conditions under which people live and the concentration of health and social problems in some but not other New York City neighborhoods. That is, there something about the place rather than the people that makes the difference? Part of a larger project designed to unpack poverty (Abramovitz & Albrecht, 2013) this article presents two new social indicators: Community Loss and Neighborhood Risk. Similar to the other place-based indicators in the larger project, they capture phenomena that others have previously studied only in relation to individuals. To ensure a focus on community conditions, the authors structured the project to avoid the "tautology trap" that arises when researchers describe neighborhoods in terms of the behavior of local residents (i.e., teen mothers, criminal behavior, school drop outs, etc.) and then conclude that those behaviors are concentrated in these neighborhoods. To that end, the project's independent variables consist of neighborhood conditions categorized as economic, housing, education, food, health, or environmental insecurities (without reference of the behavior of residents) and its dependent variable consists of problematic behaviors such as lack of self-care, self-medication, school drops outs, mental health problems, risky sexual behavior, criminal activities, interpersonal violence, etc. (see Figure 1). The project includes ameliorating factors such as self-advocacy, civic participation, and neighborhood resources like libraries, community centers, etc. This framework protects against "blaming the victim", which often happens when researchers attribute the concentration of health and social problems in poor neighborhoods to the behavior of local residents. In the final analysis, the Neighborhood Stress Projects asks "what happened to the neighborhood?" rather than "what did the residents do wrong"? This article begins with a discussion of the conceptual underpinnings of the overall project, which seeks to understand what accounts for the concentration of health and social problems in some New York City neighborhoods. As the authors have described this framework elsewhere (Abramovitz & Albrecht 2013), this article focuses on the development of two new indicators for phenomena that scholars have previously ascribed to individuals but not to neighborhoods and on an outline of the GIS methods used to reframe traditional household-based variables into measures that recognize the role of place as an active actor. The ensuing analysis of the resulting maps confirms the hypothesis that exposure to accumulated disadvantage, i.e., living amidst multiple and persistent adverse conditions at the same time, characterizes New York City neighborhoods known to have the highest concentration of health and social problems. The article ends with a discussion of policy implications and suggested further work on neighborhood indicators. BACKGROUND If we assume that nobody purposefully engages in behaviors to harm themselves or others (also known as social problems), individual, communities and policy makers can benefit from a better understanding of drives this kind of behavior that negatively affects communities as well as individuals. …


The ionization source model is considered, for the first time, to study the combined effects of trapped electrons, transverse perturbation, ion streaming velocity, and dust charge fluctuations on the propagation of dust-ion-acoustic solitons in dusty plasmas. The solitary waves are investigated through the derivation of the damped modified Kadomtsev–Petviashivili equation using the reductive perturbation method. Conditions for the formation of solitons as well as their properties are clearly explained. The relevance of our investigation to supernovae shells is also discussed.


Among French-based creoles, Haitian Creole has the highest degree of standardization, with a written norm, Standard Haitian Creole (SHC), based on Port-au-Prince monolinguals' speech. To evaluate the influence of SHC on regional varieties, we conducted, in and around Cap Haitien, a sociolinguistic study of Northern Haitian Creole (Capois). In addition to stereotypical features such as the possessive kin a + pronoun (vs. SHC pa + pronoun), we uncovered several Capois features still in widespread use in Northern Haiti. In this article, we focus on the most frequently occurring variable, the third person singular pronoun (3sg), which alternates between SHC li/l, and Capois i/y. We show that SHC li has yet to replace Capois i, which is preferred by a large proportion of community members. For both the rural and urban populations, this variable is conditioned by syntactic and phonological factors. Despite shared tendencies, urban speakers' lower rate of Capois variant use and stronger phonological conditioning may be due to their greater exposure to speakers from other areas of Haiti, and to closer contact with the standard. Although most speakers, especially older ones, recognized SHC's higher prestige, they evidenced more positive attitudes toward their own speech.


This paper explores the manipulation of a grasped object by pushing it against its environment. Relying on precise arm motions and detailed models of frictional contact, prehensile pushing enables dexterous manipulation with simple manipulators, such as those currently available in industrial settings, and those likely affordable by service and field robots.


The rapid development of technology has contributed positively in all fields especially in the field of business. Information technology today has made a lot of foreign companies into competing in conducting research and development of technology owned by their respective companies. Then the results of research and technological development undertaken by each of these companies, generating a new innovation in information technology, the Smartphone.
One company that has a great resource technology is Samsung. Samsung is one of the South Korean company is currently ranked first in the world smartphone sales. Samsung started to be excellent for everyone when it begins to introduce an operating system created by Google that is Android enterprise. Since then, Samsung is really experiencing a
tremendous increase in revenues from the sale of the smartphones that then other companies started to follow the operating system of Android such as Sony, LG, Lenovo, even Nokia are now using Android. This study aims to determine whether there is a relationship or how strong the relationship between Product, Price, and Promotion of the consumer's decision to buy the Smartphone Samsung Galaxy series in the Plaza Marina Surabaya.
The variables used in this study is the variable Product, Price, and Promotion. This study menggunkana quantitative research methods and primary data. Research and analysis
of objects by using the questionnaire technique. The sample used in this study were 97 persons buyer Smartphone Samsung Galaxy series in the Plaza Marina Surabaya. The analysis technique used is the technique of Multiple Correlation Analysis.
The results of this study are variables Product, Price, Promotion simultanes and partially significantly associated with the consumer's decision to buy the Smartphone Samsung Galaxy series in the Plaza Marina Surabaya.

Keywords: Product (X1), price (X2), Promotion (X), and the Decision to Buy (Y)


GE's RTV-142 was determined to be a successful product for use as a particle getter. No RTV-142 related failures occurred during product line test use, 1000 hour life-testing, internal water vapor analysis, acceleration testing or radiation analysis.


Sawing thin logs results in lower volume yield than sawing thicker logs. This is due to the geometry of logs; fitting rectangular blocks inside an approximately cylindrical shape, i.e. boards into logs, is more difficult for small diameters than for large diameters. If logs were sawn in a way that follows the outer shape to a larger degree, yield could be increased, especially for small diameter logs. The hypothesis of this study was that this can be done in the edging operations of a sawmill, where boards are sawn into trapeze shapes instead of rectangular blocks. These trapeze shapes can be glued together to form a rectangular end product, in order to take care of the trapeze shaped pieces in a proper way. In this case, a cross laminated timber (CLT) product is suitable since it is normally made out of edge glued wood pieces. The study was based on 2214 Pinus sylvestris (L.) and Picea abies (L. Karst) thin logs that where scanned, and the scanning data was used for sawing simulation. The volume yield of CLT panel production using trapeze edging was compared to production of sawn and planed timber using a cant sawing pattern. Also, different sawing patterns and edging settings were tested. The trapeze edging and CLT panel production process improved yield compared to the cant sawing process by 17.4 percent units, for thin logs. Furthermore, suitable sawing patterns to use in a trapeze edging CLT production process were developed. To conclude, a trapeze edging method shows promise in terms of increasing volume yield for thin logs, if the edged boards can be properly taken care of in a production process, for instance using them for CLT production.


Abstract The configurational sequence of styrene units and the arrangement of styrene and 1,2-butadiene units in styrene-butadiene copolymers were characterized by 1H- and 13C-NMR analysis of the ozonolysis products which were separated by a combination of GPC and HPLC. The ozonolysis products from diad and triad styrene sequences flanked by 1,4-butadiene units showed two and three peaks in HPLC, respectively, reflecting the diad and triad tacticity. The probability of racemic addition was found to be 0.56 and 0.58 for radical and anionic SBR, respectively. The ozonolysis products from styrene-1,2 sequences were separated into three fractions by HPLC. The first and second fractions were assigned to a 1,4-1,2 styrene-1,4 (VS) structure differed only in cotacticity. The third fraction was considered to be a mixture of the meso and racemic forms of the l,4-styrene-l,2-l,4 (SV) sequence. The GPC fraction corresponding to a sequence consisting of two styrenes and one 1,2 units was separated into four peaks by ...


The s-wave decay amplitude in the nonleptonic decay of baryons is analyzed within heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory in the large-N_c limit at one-loop order, where N_c is the number of color charges. Loop graphs with octet and decuplet intermediate states are systematically incorporated into the analysis and the effects of the decuplet-octet mass difference are accounted for. There are large-N_c cancellations between different one-loop graphs as a consequence of the large-N_c spin-flavor symmetry of QCD baryons. The predictions of large-N_c baryon chiral perturbation theory are in very good agreement both with the expectations from the 1/N_c expansion and with the experimental data.


Take the diagnosis and treatment of hypertension. There is surely no better field for pharmaceuticals, as the client is committed to lifelong treatment. In the early 1950s there was no medical treatment for hypertension and many people underwent sympathectomies and/or undertook the rice diet, with no salt whatever. Then came the thiazide diuretics which changed the whole practice of medicine. We no longer gave injections of Mersalyl and no longer had to slash grossly oedematous feet to get the water out. This was a really major advance. Since then many other drugs have been developed to add to the diuretics in the control of blood pressure. Some were very effective and still are today. We have now added the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors and their parent blockers and the calcium antagonists (which were available from the 1960s but were not used for this purpose).


The Burst Alert telescope (BAT) is one of 3 instruments on the Swift MIDEX spacecraft to study gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). The BAT instrument is the instrument that first detects the GRB and localizes the burst direction to an accuracy of 1 - 4 arcmin within 10 sec after the start of the event. These locations cause the spacecraft to autonomously slew to point the two narrow-FOV instruments at the burst location within 20 - 70 sec to make follow-up x-ray and optical observations. BAT is a wide-FOV coded-aperture instrument with a CdZnTe detector plane. The detector plane is composed of 32,768 pieces of CdZnTe (4 X 4 X 2 mm), and the coded-aperture mask is composed of approximately 50,000 pieces of lead (5 X 5 X 1 mm) with a 1-m separation between mask and detector plane. The BAT operates over the 10 - 150 keV energy range with approximately 7 keV resolution, a sensitivity of 0.2 ph/cm2-sec, and a 1.4 sr (half-coded) FOV. We expect to detect approximately 300 GRBs/yr for a 3-year mission. The BAT also performs an all-sky hard x-ray survey with a sensitivity of approximately 1 mCrab (systematic limit) and as a hard x- ray transient monitor.


Encryption is a fundamental building block for computer and communications technologies. Existing encryption methods depend for their security on unproven assumptions. We propose a new model, the limited access model for enabling a simple and practical provably unbreakable encryption scheme. A voluntary network of tens of thousands of computers each maintain and update random pages, and act as page server nodes. A sender and receiver share a random key K. They use K to randomly select the same PSNs and download the same random pages. These are employed in groups of say 30 pages to extract one time pads common to S and R. Under reasonable assumptions of an adversary's inability to monitor all PSNs, and easy ways for S and R to evade monitoring while downloading pages, hyper encryption is clearly unbreakable. The system has been completely implemented


Consider a VID remnant as part of the differential diagnosis for any patient who has what appears to be a granulomatous umbilical lesion. Order ultrasonography to evaluate a suspected VID, especially for lesions that fail to respond to 2 or 3 silver nitrate treatments. Surgical excision of a VID remnant is usually curative.


Although other alpha emitters are reviewed, the emphasis in this report is on radon and its progeny because radon in homes has been identified with the greatest exposure to radiation in our society and as the second most important cause of lung cancer (after cigarettes). It also deals with the effects of most alpha-emitting elements. The unique dosimetry of alpha particles is discussed in detail. The book is not just a review but uses some new modeling techniques to combine data from different sources, including animal data. This is an important step, which distinguishes this review from similar recent reviews on radon made by the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and the International Commission on Radiological Protection. The section on radon combines data from two Canadian, one Swedish, and one US study of underground miners and uses a new lifetime


The relative toxicity of hydrogen phosphide was determined for the life stages of Carpophilus mutilatus Erichson; the driedfruit beetle, C. hemipterus (L.); the pineapple beetle, Urophorus humeralis (F.); the yellowish nitidulid. Haptoncus luteolus (Erichson); the saw-toothed grain beetle, Oryzaephilus surinamensis (L.); the Indian meal moth. Plodia interpunctella (Hubner); And the raisin moth, Cadra figulilella (Gregson). The relative toxicity of ethyl formate was determined for the life stages of C. hemipterus. O. surinamensis, C. figulilella , and P. interpunctella . In general, with hydrogen Phosphide the egg stage of each species was the most difficult to kill, followed by the pupal sage, while the larval and adult stages were the most susceptible. The pupal stage was the most resistant to ethyl formate fumigation, whereas the adult stage was the most susceptible. With the exception of the driedfruit beetle, the egg stage was more susceptible than the larval stage to ethyl formate fumigation.


Abstract The emergence of risk as an organizing concept for regulation and governance has been the subject of considerable comment and debate, most notably in relation to Ulrich Beck's Risk Society thesis. This editorial, however, argues that contemporary preoccupations with risk are driven less by a changing distribution of real, or imagined, ills in society, than by a changing distribution of ills in governance. It argues that the inevitable difficulty of managing threats to society (societal risks) creates threats to organizations managing those risks (institutional risks). The potential for failure has always been part of governance, but contemporary pressures towards greater coherence, transparency and accountability have amplified institutional risks by exposing the practical limits of governance. Framing the objects of governance in terms of risk, however, provides a way of reflexively managing the associated institutional threats by explicitly anticipating the practical limits of governance within probabilistic calculations of success and failure. This editorial outlines how the institutional dynamics of contemporary governance can lead to a phenomenon of 'risk colonization', whereby risk increasingly comes to define the object, methods and rationale of governance. It then goes on to consider some of the possible positive and negative consequences of risk colonization and concludes by suggesting ways in which the study of institutional risk can help us understand the relationship between risk and governance.


Objective To analyze the safety of edaravone,provide valuable information for safe and effective use of edaravone in clinic.Methods The clinical research articles about edaravone were searched by China Academic Journals Full-text Database (CHKD) from 2007 to 2008.The articles were screened that include monitoring the adverse drug reactions (ADR) of edaravone.Results 77 articles that involved in 3 096 cases were gained.185 cases (5.96%) appeared ADR.185 cases occurred ADR of edaravone that contained elevation of aminotransferase,skin rash and renal function lesion (42.70%,19.46% and 12.43%).Conclusion The elevation of aminotransferase,skin rash and renal function lesion are the mostly common ADR of edaravone.Edaravone is comparatively safe in clinical use.


The banking sector has a huge potential and opportunities in its role as a source of financing for the public and business sectors. Since many banks are liquidated when the monetary crisis, Bank Indonesia made more incentive to restructure the banking system is expected to bring wrong banking structure, effective, efficient and healthy. Soundness of bank can be assessed to the qualitative approcah to the management factors and quantitative approach to the factors of capital, asset quality, management, earnings and liquidity. Known as CAMEL Analysis Ratio. This aim of this research is to know the level of health of Bank Mandiri and Bank Negara Indonesia from 2008 to 2012. The benefits of this research is increasing the financial performance of Bank Mandiri and Bank Negara Indonesia and the data can be used for the furthur information. This research is used CAMEL (Capital, asset quality, management, earning and liquidity) Ratio Analysis to assess the bank soundness. CAR ratio has no significant effect on problematic conditions and positive effect means that higher the CAR, the possibility of banks in the less troubled conditions In the CAR, KAP, NIM, ROA, BOPO and LDR show that just a very small nominal in comparing the both banks. Generally, Bank Mandiri has a bit bigger nominal about the CAR, KAP, NIM, ROA, BOPO and LDR between Bank Negara Indonesia. The question in the research problem is: Are there any differences of bank soundess between Bank Mandiri and Bank Negara Indonesia period 2008-2012 using CAMEL ratio?. The answer is very clearly as what that already explain above which is there is no significant difference about bank soundness between Bank Mandiri and Bank Negara Indonesia period 2008-2012 from the manual test and the statistical test. Keyword : CAMEL r atio, bank soundness


Auxetic-like strain states were generated in self-assembled nanocomposite thin films of (Ba0.6Sr0.4TiO3)1−x − (Sm2O3)x(BSTO − SmO). A switch from auxetic-like to elastic-like strain behavior was observed for x > 0.50, when the SmO switched from being nanopillars in the BSTO matrix to being the matrix with BSTO nanopillars embedded in it. A simple model was adopted to explain how in-plane strain varies with x. At high x (0.75), strongly enhanced ferroelectric properties were obtained compared to pure BSTO films. The nanocomposite method represents a powerful new way to tune the properties of a wide range of strongly correlated metal oxides whose properties are very sensitive to strain.


Dr Salamea et al described the progression of trauma care in the Southeastern region of Ecuador (Ref. Juan C Salamea, Hernan Sacoto, Edgar B Rodas: Trauma Y Emergencias En El Sur Del Ecuador; Historia, Realidad Y Perspectivas. PAJTCCES 3: 70-73, 2014). Significant efforts by various groups at various stages were noted. Throughout the process, a few important aspects were delineated; notably, the need for public and political support for the development of a regionalized trauma care system. This is true anywhere irrespective of the economic status.1 In Southeast Ecuador, none of the early efforts in the development of a region-wide educational initiative, basic trauma care training, and, most significantly, a regionalized trauma registry could have been possible without the support of the provincial Ministry of Health. To gain such support, a site assessment was necessary. In Ecuador, this initially occurred informally via collaboration between the Virginia Commonwealth University and the Ministry of Health, and subsequently through a formal site survey using the world health organization (WHO) essential trauma care guidelines, as collaborative efforts that included the Ecuadorian Trauma Society and the Panamerican Trauma Society (PTS). The use of the public health model for trauma system development can be equally useful in high as well as lowand middle-income countries.2 Key to the early development of trauma care in the region is the early involvement of local physician leaders, community activists, resourceful administrators and patients throughout the process, especially in demonstrating the need for change in trauma care delivery. The long-term collaboration between the provincial Ministry of Health of Morona Santiago, the local universities of Cuenca and Azuay, the local Cinterandes Foundation and the Virginia Commonwealth University's International Trauma Systems Development Program (ITSDP) was vital. It facilitated the establishment of the infrastructure for a regional trauma system in the Southeastern region of Ecuador including, injury prevention programs, the development of various prehospital and hospital basic trauma care education and hands-on practical courses, and most importantly, political advocacy for change at the health ministry level.3 The collaboration of a major US academic university in this process is also not to be underestimated. It lends legitimacy, expertize, significant academic, logistic, and financial support, and most importantly long-term relationships that are equally beneficial. In turn, many of the university investments were equally rewarding and important. The lessons learned, especially, in the development of a trauma registry for low and moderate income settings were instrumental in the development through university efforts of a modular trauma registry that was adopted by the Panamerican Trauma Society as a useful data collection tool and implemented in the Latin American Region.4 Similarly, as mentioned in the article, a basic trauma course, designed to deliver basic education and training for the initial management of the injured patient in low resource setting, has been adopted as the official PTS basic trauma course and has been administered throughout the region including Paraguay, Colombia, Chile, and Panama.5,6 Perhaps the most important aspect not mentioned by the authors is the contribution of the authors themselves. Skilled migration and brain drain has been a major concern for the middleand low-income countries, Ecuador included. When individuals who studied and LETTER-TO-EDITOR


Abstract In this paper researches which focus on laser heat treatment of nickel-based alloys are reviewed. Studies published from 1970s until today are taken into consideration. Publications which focus on influence of laser thermal processing on surface layer condition both on solid materials and pre-deposited coatings are described. Laser technologies in which additional materials are delivered during the process are not considered. In order to focus on studies investigating microstructural changes resulting mainly from material remelting, laser shock processing is also disregarded.


Wetting steel surfaces with liquid aluminum without the use of flux can be enabled by the presence of a zinc-coating. The mechanisms behind this effect are not yet fully understood. Research results on single aluminum droplets falling on commercial galvanized steel substrates revealed the good wetting capability of zinc coatings independently from the coating type. The final wetting angle and length are apparently linked to the time where zinc is liquefied during its contact with the overheated aluminum melt. This led to the assumption that the interaction is basically a fluid dynamic effect of liquid aluminum getting locally alloyed by zinc. A numerical model was developed to describe the transient behavior of droplet movement and mixing with the liquefied zinc layer to understand the spreading dynamics. The simulations reveal a displacement of the molten zinc after the impact of the droplet, which ultimately leads to an accumulation of zinc in the outer weld toe after solidification. The simulation approach neglects the effect of evaporating zinc, resulting in a slight overestimation of the final droplet width. However, in terms of spreading initiation during the first milliseconds, the simulation is in good correlation with experimental observations and demonstrates the reason for the good wetting in the presence of zinc coatings.


The objective of this study is to increase the life's of cracked steel structures API 5L X52 with surface defects. The finite element method (FEM) was used to analyse the behaviour of a repaired by two methods, a boron/epoxy bonded composite patch and stop-hole technique. The effects of defect depth and the method of repair on the variation of the stress intensity factor and the T-stress at the notch-tip were highlighted. Stress Difference Method (SDM) was used to calculate the T stress and the volumetric method proposed by Pluvinage in order to give the fracture parameters Kρc and Teff. The obtained result shows a considerable decrease of the stress intensity factor and T Stress. A significant relaxation of damage area was noted for the composite patch repaired specimens. The repaired of cracked structures means to increase the life of these structures. This increase is about 72% for the structure reinforced by a composite patch and with 24% for the specimens repaired by the stop-hole method. ةصلاخ ذصتن حلاصإ تيهمع ءازجإ ٌُ تسارذنا يذٌ هم فذٍنا ذيذحنا هم تيوذعمنا مكايٍنا ثاع 25XP5IPA زمع عفر ضزغب .اٍنلاغتسا تبكزمنا قصاُهنا تطساُب ًحلاصإ ذعب َ مبق يوذعم مكيٌ ققشت كُهس ميهحت مجا هم تيمقزنا تقيزطنا ممعتست عُو هم yrore/norob مع زيثأت .بقثنا تيىقت اذكَ َ داٍجلإا ةذش مماعم ىهع تهمعتسمنا حلاصلإا تقيزط َ عذصتنا ق داٍجلإا T َ داٍجلإا ةذش مماعمن زبتعم ضافخوا ثزٍظأ اٍيهع مصحمنا جئاتىنا .رابتعلاا هيعب اٌذخأ مت قشنا فزط ذىع .يضزعنا َأ ينُطنا ياجتلاا يف اءُس عذصتنا راشتوا تعزس ٌ تققشتمنا تيوذعمنا مكايٍنا توايص نإ ةدايزن تمٍم تهيسَ ي رذقت ةدايزنا يذٌ .مكايٍنا يذٌ للاغتسا زمع ب 2A َ تبكزمنا قصاُهنا قيزط هع حلاصلإا مت ام تناح يف % A2 ذىع % .بقثنا تيىقت لامعتساب حلاصلإا Table des Matières Dédicaces Remerciements Liste des Figures Liste des Tableaux Introduction Générale........................................................................... Chapitre I : Généralités sur la mécanique de la rupture et fissuration............... I. 1 Notions de la mécanique de la rupture.................................................... I. 2 Mécanique linéaire, et non-linéaire de la rupture......................................... I. 3 Critères de rupture et de propagation....................................................... I.3. 1 Approches globales à un seul paramètre................................................ I.3.1. 1 Approche énergétique.................................................................... I.3.1. 2 Approche par facteur d'intensité de contraintes....................................... I.3.1.2. 1 Mécanismes et modes de rupture................................................... I.3.1.2. 2 Facteur de concentration de contraintes............................................ I.3.1.2. 3 Distribution des contraintes élastiques en fond d'entaille........................ I.3.1.2. 4 Approche par la méthode volumétrique............................................. I.3. 2 Approches globales à deux paramètres : Approche K-T............................. I.3. 3 Méthodes de détermination de la Contrainte T.......................................... I.3.3. 1 Méthode de la différence des contraintes (SDM).................................... I.3.3. 2 Méthode d'extrapolation............................................................... I.3. 4 Évolutions de la contrainte T ............................................................ I.3.4. 1 Influence de T sur la taille de la zone plastifiée....................................... I.3.4. 2 Influence de T sur le chemin de propagation.......................................... I.3.4. 3 Influence de T sur la vitesse de propagation.......................................... I. 4 Diagramme intégrité rupture (D.I.R.)...................................................... I. 5 Conclusion..................................................................................... Chapitre II : Techniques et méthodes de réparation des structures métalliques... II.


SU Shi's "XING and SHEN" conception of art creation includes "shaped","spirituality","meanings".In this field,Su Shi has two outstanding contributions: on the one hand,from the gasification to the art dynamic conversion process,SU Shi's own art practice plays an important role in.On the other hand,letting "spirit" implicitly and poetic.And his"Literati painting"is the representation of his thought on XING and SHEN.


It is well accepted that the fracture healing process is strongly influenced by the local mechanical environment. Large interfragmentary movements (IFM) caused by weak fracture fixations are known to result in delayed healing. Beside the stiffness of the bone-implant complex (BIC) the IFM is mainly influenced by the fracture geometry and the musculoskeletal loads. A computer model for the simulation of secondary fracture healing has been successfully used for predicting the tissue differentiation in the healing region according to histological findings as well as predicting the time course of the IFM as seen in experimental studies. The aim of this study was to adopt this validated model for callus healing in sheep for predicting the healing process for a patient-specific case. Additional numerical models were needed to determine the boundary conditions being valid during the healing process.


Images captured in low-light conditions often suffer from low brightness, low signal-to-noise ratio, low contrast, a narrow gray range, and color distortion, which can significantly impact human perception and limit the performance of various computer vision applications. Most existing low-light image restoration methods require assistance with a color cast, local over-exposure, glow, and artificial light sources. This paper proposes a new framework called RSD-Net, incorporating several innovative blocks, including a novel iterative Retinex network decomposition and enhancement algorithms, to improve the visibility and quality of images captured in low-light or nighttime conditions. We have extensively evaluated our proposed method on various benchmarking datasets and under different real-world scenarios, including challenging conditions such as glow, artificial light sources, low illumination, and noise. Moreover, we have evaluated our method on a face detection algorithm using extremely dark images and compared its performance with other state-of-the-art methods. The simulation results show that our proposed framework achieves a noticeable improvement compared to other low-quality image restoration techniques and enhances face detection accuracy in low-quality environments. The proposed framework has the potential to substantially impact human perception and enhance the performance of numerous computer vision applications.


The spatial distribution of N2 plasma in the reactor chamber of an ion-filtered inductively-coupled-plasma metal-organic-chemical-vapor-deposition (IF-ICP-MOCVD) was studied. The selective absorption of the ion filter with a showerhead structure was simulated based on the simplification of the reaction model of N2 plasma and demonstrated by the optical emission spectroscopy and the growth of GaN film. The simulation shows that the number density of nitrogen ions on the pedestal was reduced by one order of magnitude with the showerhead ion filter compared to the counterpart without any ion filter, and that matches the measured spectra of OES. Meanwhile, N2(A3)—a nitrogen metastable particle crucial to the growth of III-nitrides—keeps a moderate number density and the ratio of the number density of N2(A3) to the number density of nitrogen ions was increased up to 4–5 times as the showerhead ion filter has a relatively high transmission to nitrogen metastable particles. GaN films were successfully grown with our home-made IF-ICP-MOCVD at 480 °C, which shows great potential in the epitaxy of III-nitrides at low temperature.


Computer-based learning has become a common phenomenon in the modern age. Many distance-learning systems distribute educational resources on the Internet and indeed entire study programmes are now widely available online. Such a large amount of content and information can be intimidating to learners, who may exhibit different individual characteristics, such as variation in goals, interests, motivation and/or learning preferences. This suggests that a uniform approach taken by learning environments to deliver materials and resources to students is not appropriate and that personalisation of such materials/resources should address users' differences to provide a customised learning experience, thus enhancing its effectiveness, lowering drop-out rates and maintaining high student motivation.

This thesis addresses the latter issue of learning preferences, specifically investigating learning styles as an adaptation mechanism for personalised computer-based learning. A number of previous studies indicated the positive effect that this kind of adaptation provides, but under closer examination these were not conducted in a scientifically rigorous manner and thus their findings are somewhat limited.

This research utilises a quantitative and highly objective approach to investigate visual/verbal and sequential/global learning styles in different user groups. Three user trials were carried out to discover whether there were any benefits to using these learning styles for studying in an adapted environment.

Overall, no statistically significant benefits were found and these findings now shed doubt as to whether learning styles are indeed an effective mechanism for personalised learning.


This paper study the parameter selection of predefined-time sliding mode and try to design a general nonsingular predefined-time terminal sliding mode. 1). On parameter selection: Some existing predefined-time sliding modes are designed to focus on the reaching time and ignore the characterization of the equilibrium point i.e. x_e= 0. In actual engineer, the system can only converge to a small neighborhood near the equilibrium point because of the existence of uncertainty i.e. x_e \to 0. The actual equilibrium point should be deduced by taking the limit but not directly solve the equilibrium point. Hence, the actual selection of exponential term is suggested to be not 1 to make system convergence to the equilibrium point within predefined time. 2). On singularity-avoidance: Based on the exponential feature of predefined-time stability systems, a mathematic concept of switching sliding mode \cite{su1994adaptive} is applied in the design of nonsingular predefined-time terminal sliding mode. However, this class of sliding mode switching method will cause a singular problem, which can be described as control input u \to \infty if the system state x \to 0 and any-order time derivative of x is not 0. Hence, a non-singular selection condition for each recursive sliding mode surface is explored in this paper to realize the global finiteness of control input. In addition, an unnecessary chattering of control input will also be caused by the sliding mode switching frequency, and a novel switching condition will be applied in the controller to reduce this chattering. Simulations will be carried out to validate the effect of the novel nonsingular predefined-time sliding mode control method to some extent.


Summary
The aim of this study was to assess the losses in productivity of Norway spruce (Picea abies) due to the attack by Chrysomyxa rhododendri, a rust that only penetrates new developing flushes. Three-year-old seedlings were artificially infected once or twice in two consecutive years and the dry mass was determined at the end of the growing season. Dry mass accumulation of all parts including roots was significantly reduced if more than about one-third of the young foliage was infected. Shoot and root dry mass of once severely infected seedlings were 32 and 48% less than that of controls. This deficit could not be compensated during a following rust-free year. When seedlings were infected in two consecutive years, dry mass accumulation was reduced by 58% compared with controls. Results indicate that rejuvenation of and afforestation with Norway spruce can seriously be impaired by Chrysomyxa at the alpine timberline where Rhododendron sp. (the telial host of the parasite) is widespread.


This study presents some aspects of multiscale analysis and modeling of variously structured materials behavior in quasi-static and dynamic loading conditions. The investigation was performed for two different materials of common application: high strength microalloyed steel (HSLA, X65), and as a reference more ductile material, Ti-IF steel. The MaxStrain technique and one pass hot rolling processes were used to produce ultrafine-grained and coarse-grained materials. The efficiency and inhomogeneity of microstructure refinement were examined because of their important role in work hardening and the initiation and growth of fracture under tensile stresses. It is shown that the combination of microstructures characterized by their different features contributes to the dynamic behavior and final properties of the product. In particular, the role of solute segregation at grain boundaries as well as precipitation of carbonitrides in coarse and ultrafine-grained structures is assessed. The predicted mechanical response of ultrafine-grained structures, using modified KHL model is in reasonable agreement with the experiments. This is a result of proper representation of the role of dislocation structure and the grain boundary and their multiscale effects included in this model.


In the European research project HYDRALAB+ physical model tests have been performed in 2018 in the large wave basin of Deltares on crossing seas and wave overtopping over a 1:3 smooth slope. Crossing seas are defined as two sea states coming simultaneously from different directions. One could be a sea state developed by local winds, where the other one might be swell with a longer period coming from elsewhere from the ocean. The CrossOver project performed 170 tests on wave overtopping with different wave loadings (wave heights, periods, angles and spreading). Tests included "sea only" and "swell only" calibrations tests, and tests with sea and swell crossing, with sea obliquities ranging from -85° to +60° and swells from -75° to +60°. The influence of crossing seas on the distribution of overtopping wave volumes has been analysed using a Weibull distribution to describe such distribution and compared with the known theory for single sea states. The results agree well.


From 1995 an HOV lane is in operation in N-V1 Madrid Corridor with a limit of 2+ occupants. It has improved speed for HOVs and the reliability of bus services in the corridor. At present there are some congestion problems during morning peak period, while the traffic flow is growing some 4% every year. Therefore Madrid Transport Authority is considering different strategies in the HOV lane to avoid future congestion in the facility, such as to raise the cut off limit to 3+. To test the effects of such possibility it has been adjusted a discrete choice model to the corridor situation: it means that the modal choices could be car-solo driver, car 2 occupants, car-3+ occupants, and bus. To feed that model it has been necessary first to do a 1,700 household CATI survey on user behaviour and preferences and among them to select a 98 person sample to perform an SP survey. Answers have been customised providing public transport and cost alternatives in each face to face interview. Three variables have been used in the exercise: trip time, trip cost and "inconvenience" which includes the effect of getting a third occupant, change timetable, etc. This HOV lane is the only experience in Europe in operation for several years. It provides choice patterns for European standards where the public transport mode is a real option. This is a big difference with the American experiences, such as trip length or urban density, etc. O-D matrix and network has been adapted to the situation and implemented in emme/2 model. Results from each run have been adapted according to the corresponding results from the ALOGIT choice model. The forecasted O-D matrix for the year 2005 has been used to test different strategies in the long term managing of the HOV lane. Finally the results allow evaluation of long term policies in terms of trip time, traffic flow, congestion and pollutant emissions and to compare the results among different scenarios. For the covering abstract see ITRD E105068.


...................................................................................................................................... II OPSOMMING ................................................................................................................................. III ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS............................................................................................................ IV LIST OF TABLES .......................................................................................................................... IX LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................................... X LIST OF ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS ...................................................................... XI CHAPTER


Objective To evaluate the effect of the cholesterol lowering therapy on serum sdLDL-C in ACS patients. Methods A total of 131 ACS patients and 178 healthy control subjects were recruited. The patients were treated with atorvastatin 10 mg daily for 1 month. The lipid profile and sdLDLC-C were detected in healthy control subjects and patients before and the end of treatment. The SPSS software was used to analyse the effect of atorvastatin on the lipid profile and sdLDL-C. Results The 95th percentile of sdLDL-C in healthy controls was 0.62 mmol/l. The atorvastatin treatment decreased the levels of TC, TG, HDL-C, LDL-C, non-HDL-C, TC/HDL-C ratio and sdLDL-C significantly, with p<0.05. The reduction of sdLDL-C was correlated with the baseline levels of TC, TG, LDL-C and nonHDL-C. In the patients with LDL-C<2.59 mmol/l, the treatment reduced the percentage of patients with sdLDL-C>0.62 mmol/l from 26.9% to 8.6%. Conclusion The atorvastatin treatment can reduce the serum sdLDL-C in ACS patients, even the patients with LDL-C<2.59 mmol/l.


This paper analyses phase noise properties of the second order charge-pump phased locked loops (PLLs) in order to use in MTI radars. The effect of each building block on the total output phase noise of PLL is demonstrated by mathematical relationship and graphical treatment. Phase noise transfer functions are analyzed by the superposition theory and linear operation of PLL. The output phase noise due to each source is correctly predicted by calculating the relation between an input power spectrum density and its closed-loop transfer function. There exist four noise sources which are generated by reference oscillator, voltage-controlled oscillator, filter and main divider. We will analysis these noise sources in a linear model of PLL.


with h ∈ L ′ (Ω), h 6= 0, λ > 0 and ε > 0. Motivations for investigating Cg and Cε,λ come from various situations in geometry and physics which involve lack of compactness (see e.g. [5]). Since, as known, the embedding W 1,p 0 (Ω) ↪→ L p∗(Ω) fails to be compact, one encounters serious difficulties in applying variational methods. We refer the reader to [5] for the case j = −∆ and to [3, 9, 10] for the extension to degenerate operators (j = −∆p, p 6= 2). For the existence of multiple solutions (two) for


In recent years, using the capsule endoscope to inspect the pathological change of digestive system and intestine had a great break-through on the medical engineering. However, there are some problems needs to overcome. One is that, the field of view was not wide enough, and the other is that the image quality was not enough well. The drawbacks made medical professionals to examine digestive diseases unclearly and ambiguously. In order to solve these problems, the paper designed a novel miniature lenses which has a wide angle of field of view and a good quality of imaging. The lenses employed in the capsule endoscope consisted of a piece of plastic aspherical lens and a piece of glass lens and compacted in the 9.8mm (W) *9.8mm (L) *10.7mm (H) size. Taking the white LED light source and the 10μm pixel size of 256*256 CMOS sensor under considerations, the field of view of the lenses could be achieved to 86 degrees, and the MTF to 37% at 50lp/mm of space frequency. The experimental data proves that the design is consistent with the finished prototype.


In the equilibrium of the coordination game, a citizen i revolts if and only if his direct cost of revolt ci is below the equilibrium threshold c ∗ and the revolt succeeds if and only if the c̄ < c̄∗. Moreover, in the limit as ρ → 0: limρ→0 c∗(ρ) = limρ→0 c̄∗(ρ) (Boleslavsky, Shadmehr and Sonin, 2021). If c̄ < c̄∗, then almost all citizens (members of the Majority) revolt; if c̄ > c̄∗, then almost no citizen revolts. Thus, when revolt is attempted, the expected cost of revolt is: Pr (c̄ < c̄∗) · E[c̄ | c̄ < c̄∗] Given c̄ ∼ U [0, 1], this is equal to:


Silyltetracarbonylcobalt and silylpentacarbonylmanganese form 1 : 2 adducts with trimethylamine and pyridine (py), and 1 : 1 adducts with 2,2′-bipyridyl (bipy). Stabilities are inferred to lie in the probable orders: SiH3Co(CO)4 > SiH3Mn(CO)5 and NMe3 > py ∼ bipy. I.r. studies of the solid adducts suggest an ionic structure, (SiH3,2B)+[M(CO)n]–. Unlike SiH3Mn(CO)5, SiH3Mn(CO)5,2py reacts readily with HCl to give SiH3Cl. Ammonia reacts with gaseous SiH3Co(CO)4 and SiH3Mn(CO)5 to give (SiH3)2NH and its decomposition products; neither PH3 nor PF3 reacts at room temperature.


In most of the engineering schools today a certain amount of basic concepts of information theory are introduced in the senior year communication courses. The concept of measure of information is introduced through the so-called self-information associated with each messageelement emitted by a communication source. Derivation of the expression for entropy follows a rather long route requiring a chain of inequalities (3, pp 9). This makes the subject apparently dull to newcomers in the field.


Purpose – This paper analyses the magnitude and sources of the firm‐size wage premium in the Belgian private sector.Design/methodology/approach – Using a unique matched employer‐employee data set, our empirical strategy is based on the estimation of a standard Mincer wage equation. We regress individual gross hourly wages (including bonuses) on the log of firm‐size and insert step by step control variables in order to test the validity of various theoretical explanations.Findings – Results show the existence of a significant and positive firm‐size wage premium, even when controlling for many individual characteristics and working conditions. A substantial part of this wage premium derives from the sectoral affiliation of the firms. It is also partly due to the higher productivity and stability of the workforce in large firms. Yet, findings do not support the hypothesis that large firms match high skilled workers together. Finally, results indicate that the elasticity between wages and firm‐size is signifi...


ABSTRACT To effectively achieve communicative goals, second language (L2) learners need not only the necessary L2 knowledge, skills, and abilities, but also the relevant topical knowledge. However, in L2 assessment contexts, very few existing tests-in-operation have examined L2 learners' topical knowledge as part of their language performance. This study investigates the construct of topical knowledge in a scenario-based language assessment (SBLA) that simulates real-life language use of building and sharing knowledge. 41 L2 learners at the intermediate to advanced levels from an adult ESL program participated in the study. Topical knowledge was operationalized as content knowledge and lexical knowledge associated with the theme of the SBLA. Descriptive statistics, correlations, Rasch analysis, and repeated measures ANOVAs were used to examine the construct validity of topical knowledge in the SBLA. The results show that L2 learners' topical knowledge encompasses both content and lexical knowledge, but they function differently in the process of building and sharing knowledge. Nevertheless, both play a role in the performance outcomes and should be recognized as an integral component of L2 proficiency. The findings also lend evidentiary support for the use of a highly-contextualized SBLA to broaden our understanding of the underlying construct of L2 communicative ability.


The covered conduit of ancient canal in the Mid-Line of the South to North Water Diversion Project drilled through provincial highway S101,ancient canal and Shijiazhuang-Taiyuan Expressway in turn from inlet to outlet. Except for arch culverts in passing through expressway section using the shallow underground excavation method in construction,the rest arch culvert using the open excavation method. To select optimal sectional form (among arch culverts,box culvert,etc),we have analyzed the influence of different rise-span ratio on stress of arch culvert. For large aperture conveying water covered culverts using open excavation and subsurface excavation together,we recommended to use the type of three-hole arch culvert.


Combined method which allows analyzing parameters of the nanoscale atomic and electronic structure of materials relying on three different methods (x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAFS), x-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman spectroscopy) was developed. The method was applied for the study of nickel oxide nanoparticles, which serve as an efficient catalyst for the artificial photosynthesis process.


The invention concerns an integrated circuit device (2) designed to be incorporated in a portable object with memory, in particular of card format. The invention is characterised in that the integrated circuit device (2) comprises at least a capacitor (8) for attenuating the amplitude of current peaks (Idd) consumed by the device integrated circuit (2). The invention is particularly useful for attenuating electric signatures in smart cards.


The sudden epileptic seizures may not only cause accidental injuries to the patient, but also lead to psychological trauma. It is crucial to predict the onset of a seizure before it occurs. Although the current researches could achieve relatively high prediction performance, there still remain some challenges in the practical scenes, such as class-imbalance problem between pre-ictal and inter-ictal samples, manual hyperparameter tuning problem, etc. This paper proposes a feature-enhancing strategy combining automatic machine learning method to solve these problems. Firstly, the EEG signals are divided into preictal and interictal stages, and then separated into five sub-bands by the pre-processing stage. Then, the features are extracted from the preprocessed signals, followed by feature smoothing and feature augmentation process, which we employ conditional tabular generative adversarial network (CTGAN) to generate the preictal samples. Finally, the processed features are fed into the automatic machine learning (Auto-ML) for seizure prediction. The CHB-MIT EEG dataset is used in this study to evaluate the performance of our proposed method. The combination CTGAN and K-nearest neighbors (KNN), logistic regression (LR), Naive Bayes (NB) classifier and multilayer perceptron (MLP) achieved an average precision of 0.97, 0.94, 0.87 and 0.95, respectively. Auto-ML combined with CTGAN outperforms traditional machine learning models in seizure prediction, with an average accuracy of 99%. Results show that feature augmentation strategy and automatic machine learning can improve the epileptic seizures prediction performance.


Abstract The influence of adsorbed water on the dynamics of the organic linker 1,4-benzenedicarboxylate (BDC) in the metal organic framework NH2-MIL-125 was examined by applying 13C Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy on samples loaded with different amounts of water. In particular, the analysis of (i) cross-polarization (CP) 13C Magic Angle Spinning (MAS) NMR spectra in terms of chemical shift and line width of the carbon signals, (ii) variable contact time 13C CP-MAS experiments, and (iii) longitudinal 13C relaxation times indicated that, upon hydration, a dynamic process occurring on the microseconds timescale accelerates. This process could be identified with the rotation of the BDC benzene ring about its C2 axis, with water competing with the carboxylic oxygen for hydrogen bonding with the aminic group. Other motions occurring at frequencies on the order of the 13C Larmor frequency, i.e. 75 MHz, which contribute to the flexibility of the three-dimensional network, were detected, and identified with the twisting, libration and translation of the BDC linker.


and God simply provides them with their subjective aims. They are, indeed, self-creative agents for whom God provides the organization motives. God also takes into his own enduring life what of value they contribute. Even though they perish, he continues. This is really pantheism. As the reviewer has argued elsewhere, it is really 'creativity' that is God, whilst Whitehead's God is an element within the divine 'All', existing side by side with the actual entities which, like him, are emerging from the flux of creativity. Whitehead presents a vexing problem. Spinoza and Leibnitz, Plato and Aristotle, Hegel and Bergson, all seem to be his spiritual and mental progenitors. Dr. Johnson has to deal with this, and he does so ably in the chapter on "Whitehead's relation to other philosophers." The reviewer would regard Whitehead as a Spinozist who has drunk deeply of Leibnitz, as one who begins with Plato and finishes with Aristotle. Such movements of thought may have been unconscious, but they can certainly be supported from Professor Johnson's analysis. Vle have no space to consider other phases of this able piece of work. Enough has been said, we hope, to whet appetites. Whitehead was not a theist, nor least of all, a Christian theist, but he has much to offer the Christian apologist. L. S. Thornton has used him in this way in the book entitled "The Incarnate Lord." The Christian apologist needs to grapple with Whitehead's thought and to make some of the system his own. Here is a book that will help in this task. E. C. Rust


Five-coordinate boryl complexes relevant to Ir mediated C-H borylations have been synthesized, providing a glimpse of the most fundamental step in the catalytic cycle for the first time.


We exploit the grassmannian nature of the variables involved in the path integral expression of the grand canonical partition function for self--interacting fermionic models to show, in one-space dimension, a general relation among the terms of it expansion in the high temperature limit and a combination of co-factors of a suitable matrix with commuting entries. As an application, we apply this framework to calculate the exact coefficients, up to order \beta^3, of the expansion of the grand canonical partition function for the Hubbard model in d=(1+1) in the high temperature limit. The results are valid for any set of parameters that characterize the model.


Begin continuous time random walks from every vertex of a graph and have particles coalesce when they collide. We use a duality relation with the voter model to prove the process is site recurrent on bounded degree graphs, and for Galton-Watson trees whose offspring distribution has exponential tail. We prove bounds on the occupation probability of a site, as well as a general 0-1 law. Similar conclusions hold for a coalescing process on trees where particles do not backtrack.


Taohuawu woodblock printing in Suzhou has a long history and worldwide reputation. The article deals with the analysis of Taohuawu new year picture "Yi tuan he qi" ("Perfect Harmony"). During Qing dynasty this picture was influenced by the art of Chinese regional centers for production of traditional nianhua that was located in Sandong province, Hunan province, Jiangsu province. The print, also entitled "Harmony Results in Good Fortune", is an influential and widespread tradition masterpiece among woodblock prints at Taohuawu. The image was created by the Ming dynasty Emperor Zhu Jiansheng under the influence of Chinese religious syncretism and reflects the philosophical aspects of spiritual culture. The author of the article gives a detailed description of this picture and analyses its artistic characteristics. As the New Year approached the Taohuawu woodblock prints are used to decorate homes and perform essential family rituals. Present day the circular composition of new year picture "Yi tuan he qi" symbolizes of the family will live together harmoniously, happily and satisfactory on the occasion of the Spring Festival and in the New Year.


The XENON Dark Matter Experiment aims at the direct detection of dark matter Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) with dual phase (liquid/gas) xenon time projection chambers (XeTPCs). Following the successful performance of the XENON10 detector, which has shown in 2007 the best sensitivity to spin-independent coupling of WIMPs to matter, we have designed and completed the construction of a new TPC with an active LXe shield, containing a total of 170 kg of xenon. The detector, mounted in the same passive shield used for XENON10, is currently undergoing final commissioning at the Gran Sasso Underground Laboratory. I will review the XENON10 results, present the status of the XENON100 phase and plans for the future XENON1T experiment.


ABSTRACT IN a comprehensive survey of the log-trucking industry in Oregon, 228 questionnaires were returned, representing 24 percent of the approxi-mately 950 log hauling operators and 4,550 high-way log trucks operating in the state. Analysis of the survey data shows that the average Oregon log truck hauls approximately 14,900 m3 (2.7 million board feet) of logs annually, making 587 trips and traveling more than 71,900 km (44,677 miles). To-tal annual operating costs for this average truck are about $50,200. It uses approximately 36,340 L (9,600 gallons) of diesel fuel, a fuel consumption rate of 0.0266 L/m3 hauled per round-trip km (0.0632 gallons per thousand board feet per round-trip mile.


The purpose of the article is to consider the modern scientific discourse on agricultural lending in Naddnieper Ukraine in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries and to identify promising areas for further research on this issue. The authors used empirical and theoretical methods of scientific research in particular methods of analysis and synthesis, the method of scientific abstraction, and others characteristic methods of research on economic history to achieve this goal and implement the corresponding research tasks. In recent years, a body of diverse scientific research of historians, economists and lawyers has appeared in Ukraine in which these problems are considered. These works differ both in the depth of study of the problem of agricultural lending and in the range of studied issues. The entire body of works of modern Ukrainian scientists, which forms the modern scientific discourse on the history of agricultural lending in Naddnieper Ukraine in the second half of the 19th - early 20th century, consists of three groups including in particular : 1) research, which are devoted to outstanding economists and theorists of lending of the 19th - early 20th century; 2) works on the history of the Peasant and Noble banks, branches and offices of which operated on the territory of the Ukrainian governorates; 3) research of cooperative crediting. We are obliged to note that despite a significant amount of scientific research on the history of lending (including agricultural lending) in Naddnieper Ukraine in the second half of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, today prevail works devoted only to certain aspects of this complex and important scientific problem, without proper cooperation between representatives of various branches of knowledge. In the authors' view, synectics that is scientific cooperation of representatives of various specialties: economists, historians and lawyers, should become promising in studying the history of agricultural lending in Naddnieper Ukraine in the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries. It allows to solve such a complex scientific problem comprehensively and considering the economic component (determination of the most optimal scientifically grounded lending methods) and the historical as well as anthropological approach and the study of the legal regulation of credit relations. In our opinion, it is exactly the kind of approach, that allows not only to study the problem of the history of agricultural lending in Naddnieper Ukraine in the second half of the 19th and early 20th century comprehensively, but also to offer modern lenders a mechanism for developing balanced and affordable credit products that will stimulate the development of the agricultural sector and the economy of Ukraine as a whole.


Only by comparing and analysing can one understand and recognize accurately and distinctly the peculiar property of matter itself and essense of numerous and complicated pluralistic relations of the independence and conversion of time and space,sequence,causality,condistions and result among things in its motion,change and growth.Logic value is the correct,essential and fullest logic sense incarrrated by mode of thinking and logical method which people apply in social practice.Correctly understanding the meaning and function of logic value can help people consciously seek the effectualness and reliability of applying mode of thinking and logical method in activity of thinking.


Thispreprinthas been reproducedfrom theauthor'sadvance manuscript, withoutediting,corrections or consideration by the Review Board.The AES takes no responsibility for the contents. All rightsreserved.Reproduction of thispreprint,or any portion thereof,isnot permittedwithoutdirectpermissionfrom the Journalof theAudioEngineeringSociety.


A two-dimensional parallel detecting method for liquid phase chips based on fluorescence sign is studied.A special fluid field of test samples has been designed.Fluorescence is excited by pulse laser and the information of liquid phase chip is obtained by employing a high sensitive CCD.The signal of fluorescence then is processed by a computer to obtain the entire information of the liquid phase chips.The author analyzed the fluorescence intensity and the state of the probe flow,and established a formula between the fluorescence signal intensity and those parameters.The experiment of collecting fluorescent information was performed for every detect unit.The detecting approach to liquid phase array has the advantages of high sensitivity,high speed and high accuracy.


Background and aim Hepatitis C virus (HCV)–HBV coinfection is a significant health problem with rapid progression of liver disease without precise diagnosis and treatment. We aimed in this study to identify if there were any role of HBV antiviral therapy in patients with HBV reactivation after direct-acting antiviral therapy in HCV–HBV coinfected patients. Methods A prospective random study was carried out on 140 patients presenting with chronic HCV and chronic HBV coinfection. All patients had pretreatment HBeAg seroconversion, HBV DNA <2,000 IU/mL, normal liver enzymes, and F0/F1 hepatic fibrosis. They treated with sofosbuvir 400 mg and daklatasvir 60 mg once daily for 3 months. All patients underwent pretreatment hepatic fibrosis assessment using Fibro Scan and laboratory investigations: platelet count, liver-function tests, quantitative HCV PCR, HBsAg, HBc IgG, HBeAg, and HBeAb. All patients were followed up at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months from the start of HCV therapy. Results The study enrolled 140 HCV–HBV coinfected patients: 55% were F0 and the rest F1. All our patients had negative HCV PCR at 1 month posttreatment and had achieved sustained virologic response with negative HCV PCR 3 months after treatment end. Four patients showed HBV reactivation with raised HBV DNA PCR and liver enzymes. Their mean age was 23.7±2.7 years, and three were male. Regarding patients with HBV reactivation, at 12 months posttreatment they showed significant decreases in liver enzymes, bilirubin, and INR, with increased platelet count (P=0.001), each with undetectable HBV PCR (P=0.001). Conclusion HBV–HCV coinfected patients with no/mild hepatic fibrosis, HBeAg seroconversion, and HBV DNA <2,000 IU/mL can complete direct-acting antiviral therapy without HBV antiviral treatment with close monitoring.


'MS-Express' (Reg. no. CV-24, P1 584767), an improved turf-type bermudagrass (Cynodon x magenissii Hurc.), was released by the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station on 21 Oct. 1991. Seventy-two ecotypes were collected from nonirrigated fairways of four golf courses in west-central Mississippi during a period of prolonged drought. These fairways had been established with bermudagrass seed between 1913 and 1933. This ecotype collection was observed in a spaced-plant nursery for 5 yr. High density and fine texture were among the selection criteria applied to this collection. MS-Express was selected from this collection and is derived from a single clone collected from Shady Oaks Country Club, Jackson, MS, on 21 Aug. 1980. MS-Express is a triploid (2«=3:c=27). MS-Express was evaluated in the National Bermudagrass Test-1986 under the experimental designation MSB-20. MS-Express displayed medium-green color, good spring green-up, fine leaf texture, high density, and rapid establishment. In 21 evaluations that included sites in 13 states, MS-Express ranked fourth in overall turfgrass quality among 28 cultivars tested. MS-Express exhibited poor frost tolerance compared with other bermudagrasses, but was not significantly different from' Tifgreen'. At Mississippi State University, MS-Express had medium sod strength and, under medium levels of disease incidence, exhibited good resistance to leafspot [caused by Bipolaris cynodontis (Marignoni) Shoemaker] and dollarspot (caused by Lanzia spp. Sacc. and Moellerodiscus spp. Henn.). MS-Express had good shade tolerance compared with other bermudagrasses tested. MS-Express must be vegetatively propagated. It is recommended for putting, tennis, and bowling greens in regions where bermudagrass is adapted for turf. Breeder and foundation stock of MS-Express will be maintained by the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station. Certified sod and sprigs will be marketed by the Mississippi Sod Producers Association, 117 U.S. Highway 49, Hattiesburg, MS 39402. Application has been made for a U.S. plant patent.


A Village Remembered. Reconstruction of the Lemko Cultural Space from Before the Displacement on the Example of Bartne Village
Tragic events of the middle of the 20th century, which were massive displacements of Lemkos to the western territories, led to irreversible spatial changes in the whole Lemkovyna. This destruction of space was a multi- stage process which progressed from the 1940s to the present day. In the material context, places such as the village of Bartne described in the article were almost completely destroyed, and the people living there and creating it were displaced. Based on oral narratives of contemporary inhabitants of Bartne, the article attempts to reconstruct the cultural space of Bartne from before the displacement.


The DIII-D fusion research tokamak utilizes seven neutral beam ion sources for plasma heating and current drive. These ion sources and the neutral beam system have performed with high availability and reliability since 1987. Experimental research has accomplished extensive understanding and insights of plasma physics, and requires more beam system capability to provide flexibility and enhancing scope of physics experiments. Extending the beam pulse length without lowering the beam power is one of the goals for the next 5 years. Currently, deuterium beam pulse length of ion source operated at 80 keV is limited to 3 s due to heat handling capability of some beamline internal components, which are used to collimate beam or to protect other beamline components from being damaged by residual (unneutralized) energetic ions. A systematic study based on actual heating of beamline internal components has been performed to develop a plan for extending the beam pulse length to more than twice the current operating limit. This study using temperature rise of thermocouples embedded in the beamline internal components and data extrapolation obtained the beam pulse limitation for each beamline internal component identified that the pole shield of the residual ion bending magnet is the component that limits the beam pulse length to 3 s for 80 keV beam operation. Beam pulse length at 80 keV can be doubled with the upgrade of the magnet pole shield alone. Temperature rise measurements also showed that a drift duct (the section connecting beamline and tokamak vessel) made of stainless steel will be able to handle the heat from the re-ionized neutral particles. In addition to beamline internal components, long pulse beam operation of ion sources and other beam subsystems need to be operationally confirmed. Tests have shown ion source, control system, pumping and cooling systems, and power supply system operated flawlessly at beam energy of 60 keV for 10 s. It gave us confidence that the current DIII-D neutral beam system could operate at least twice the current beam pulse length after upgrade of the magnet pole shield.


(ii.) The Atypical Olinical Manifestations of MeninC'itis.-Thel·e was anabsenceof someof the symptomscommonly assoctatedwith meningitis. The mental condtticn was good, except for mild nocturnal delirium. There was no distressingheadache,no cranial nerve palsy, no head retraction, no Kernig's sign, no inequality or other abnormality of the pupils and no photophobia. Apart from the febrile reaction. the meningitis manifested itself only in the spinal pain and rigidity a'\J.d in the sensoryand tendon reflex changesof the left lower limb. The misleadingearly urinary symptoms would seem to be independentof the meningitis, except that they may indicate the lighter incidence on the kidneys of the same septic blood infection which affected the meningesso intensely.


In order to study the propagation characteristics of sinh-Gaussian beams in gradient-index medium,the analytical expression of the intensity was derived based on the general Huygens-Fresnel diffraction integral.Based on the second-order moment definition,the analytical expression for the beam width and the waist location were deduced.The intensity,facular size,beam waist and its position were calculated.The results show that the axial intensity changes periodically and the transverse intensity distribution are largely affected by the nonlinearity of the medium and the modulation parameter of the beams.The spot site and waist location can be changed by adjusting the parameter appropriately.


The utility model provides an exercise bike inertia wheel comprising a left round frame sheet and a right round frame sheet. A first circular sidewall extends from the periphery of the left round frame sheet rightwards, and is a circular step, which is lower in the left and higher in the right. A second circular sidewall extends from the periphery of the right round frame sheet leftwards, and is sleeved on the outside of the first circular sidewall. The upper part of the second circular sidewall is bended inwards, thereafter covered the step of the first circular sidewall and is fixedly connected with the first circular sidewall in a riveted joint. Two round through holes are respectively disposed in the centers of circles of the left frame sheet and that of the right frame sheet, besides, a shaft base used for inserting a rotating shaft of the exercise bike is fixed in the two round through holes. The exercise bike inertia wheel has advantages of simple production technology, non-deformability, low costs, low carbon, environmental protection, beautiful appearance and strong applicability.


The bounds on the top quark mass from both theory and experiment are critically examined and the future prospects for the discovery of the top quark are discussed.


The role of riboflavin in the activity of monoamine oxidase (MAO) was investigated by omitting the vitamin from the diet of rats which were further treated with iproniazid, an irreversible inhibitor of the enzyme. The rate of recovery from the inhibition, presumably reflecting de novo synthesis of the enzyme, was estimated by measuring the excretion of the acidic metabolites formed after intraperitoneal administration of serotonin (5 HT) and dopamine. Consumption of the deficient diet did not impair the action of MAO on these amines. After injection of iproniazid, return to control levels of MAO activity was slower when measured by the oxidation of dopamine than of 5 HT; there was a small but significant effect of riboflavin deficiency upon the conversion of 5 HT to 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid. This was probably due to enhanced inhibition of MAO observed in deficient rats, an effect that was also obtained when inhibitors other than iproniazid were used in vivo. Similarly, disappearance of 5 HT during incub...


The objective of the present article is to discuss innovation policy issues related to three emerging innovation paradigms: user-driven innovation, open innovation, and value cocreation. It provides a summary of insights based on innovation policy practices and challenges in Denmark. The choice of Danish innovation policy practices is not accidental. In 2008 Denmark implemented 40 different national innovation programs by allocating about 400 million euros. Since the three emerging paradigms have become globally relevant, the discussion of Danish policy development challenges and practices is expected to be insightful for innovation experts from other developed countries that are currently dealing with the adoption of these paradigms.


A lockable compliant end effector apparatus is useful with a robotic arm for the automated assembly of electronic equipment. The end effector includes a main body portion having first and second ends. A socket is formed in the first end. A first fluid passageway connects the socket with the second end of the main body portion. A member is mounted for multi-directional movement in the socket. The member is retainable in a stationary position relative to the socket and has a second fluid passageway formed therethrough. The second passageway has a first end adjacent the first passageway and a second end adjacent the first end of the main body. A sealing member is connected to the mounted member adjacent the second end of the second passageway. The end effector retains an electronic component in original orientation from a pickup point to an insertion point.


~HIVAPUR village is a cluster of houses and huts grouped and arranged on lines of religion, caste, kinship and economic status. It is located southeast of Dharwar, Mysore state, India. Fields and orchards surrounding the village indicate the mixed economy of the community. Its population, 3,809 in number distributed among 631 households, occupies a limited space of 62.35 acres of land. They possess 562.25 acres of cultivable land and 1068 livestock.


Lateral epicondylitis is also known as a Tennis elbow is a common disease of middle age which is painful and functionally limiting entity affecting
the upper extremity & causes decreased productivity. The rst line treatment for LE is topical and oral anti-inammatory drugs from ice
st applications and brace used. If the 1 line treatment fails second line treatment generally invasive are offered and second-line therapeutic regimens
include saline, corticosteroid or platelet-rich plasma injections. Dry needling is relatively new for treating the same. We hypothesized that dry
needling would be as effective as second-line treatment for LE. Here we compared the outcomes of second-line treatment, local steroids and dry
needling.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study involved 50 patients having LE, dividing into 2 groups. Patients in group 1 received dry needling,
where as those in group 2 received second-line treatment, consisting of local corticosteroid injections. The patients were evaluated after 2 and 4
weeks on the bases of Patients – rated tennis elbow evaluation score (PRTEE).
RESULTS:Both treatment were equally effective at 2 and 4 weeks. The effectiveness of both are same and both intervals but someone dry needling
has low complications rate in compare to local steroids.
CONCLUSION: Because of the low complication rate, dry needling is a safe method, and it might be an effective treatment option for LE same as
the second line treatment of local corticosteroid injections.


Objective: To determine the validity of C-reactive protein levels for diagnosis of neonatal sepsis. Methods: A cross sectional (Validation) study was conducted at Neonatology unit in KRL general hospital (emergency/OPD) of 7 months duration from February 2012 to August 2012. By using purposive sampling technique, 147, sample size was calculated by using WHO sample size calculator taking sensitivity 75%, specificity 95%, expected prevalence 50%, desired precision 10% and confidence level 95%. Results: Mean age of the neonates was 5.72 days + 3.86. Male patients were 81(55.1%) while 66(44.9%) were female. Neonatal sepsis was observed in 43(29.25%) and were confirmed through blood culture while 104(70.75%) were not confirmed on blood culture as neonatal sepsis. The sensitivity and specificity of CRP in diagnosis of acute neonatal sepsis was 76.92% and 53.49% respectively while it had a positive predictive value of 80% and negative predictive value of 48.94%. Over all the diagnostic accuracy of CRP in diagnosis of neonatal sepsis was 70.07%. Conclusion: CRP estimation does have a role in the diagnosis of neonatal sepsis but the test is not specific enough to be relied upon as the only indicator.