Sarcopenia is an area of intense research activity [1], and the condition has recently been recognised with an ICD-10 code. This reflects the considerable progress in operationalising a definition of sarcopenia, now widely viewed as the loss of muscle mass and function with age. The European Working Group recommended first checking for poor muscle function (slow gait speed or weak grip strength) and, if present, testing for low muscle mass [2]. They did not specify a single approach to the measurement of strength and muscle mass, which has allowed the framework to be implemented in numerous studies but has presented a challenge when trying to compare their findings [3]. More recently the Foundation for the Institutes of Health (FNIH) Biomarkers Consortium published cutpoints for grip strength and appendicular lean mass divided by body mass index (ALMBMI) [4]. To do this, they pooled data from nine US and European studies of communitydwelling older people and calculated the cut-points that best identified individuals with a gait speed of less than 0.8 m/s. As such their cut-points are intended to help clinicians to decide whether low muscle strength or mass may be playing a major part in a patient's mobility problems. A key test for the FNIH muscle strength and mass cutpoints is whether they identify those at risk of future adverse outcomes. In six of the nine studies, they were able to look at incident mobility disability and all-cause mortality: both low grip and ALMBMI were associated with the former but only low grip with the latter [5]. The FNIH recommended further assessment of their cut-points in relation to ageing outcomes in other populations. In this issue of Age and Ageing, De Buyser and colleagues examine whether the FNIH cut-points predict all-cause mortality over a 15-year period in a cohort of 191 communitydwelling Belgian men [6]. They found that low ALMBMI was associated with an approximately 50% increased risk of mortality, while low grip strength had an increased risk that did not reach statistical significance. The small proportion of the sample with both low ALMBMI and low grip strength at baseline was at two-and-a-half times the risk of death compared to those with normal mass and strength. De Buyser and colleagues also tested if a simple measure of frailty, the Study of Osteoporotic Fractures (SOF) frailty index, was associated with mortality. Participants were considered to be pre-frail if they had one of the three criteria: inability to rise from a chair five consecutive times without using the arms, weight loss and poor energy; they were considered to be frail if they had two of the three. Pre-frail and frail individuals were at increased risk of death in a graded fashion. Overall, the area under the curve figures suggested a moderate ability of FNIH sarcopenia and SOF frailty to predict an individual's risk of death. Finally, when combined in the same model, sarcopenia and frailty were independently associated with mortality risk. How can we interpret the findings of the study? For the FNIH grip strength cut-point, the authors did not find a statistically significant relationship with mortality, in contrast with the FNIH's own analyses [5] and findings from previous studies [7, 8]. This difference may be explained by this study's small sample size and in particular the small number (n = 27) of men with weak grip strength at baseline. For the cut-point for ALMBMI, the situation is less clear: here the authors did find a relationship, whereas the FNIH metaanalysis showed heterogeneity between studies and no overall pooled effect. Indeed measures of lean mass have previously shown little relation to ageing outcomes [9], although the recent use of ALMBMI instead of ALM divided by height squared does appear to be more informative [10]. The authors also investigated the SOF frailty index and found that it predicted mortality. There was only partial overlap between those with (pre)frailty and those with relevant sarcopenia measures (weak grip or low ALMBMI). This area of overlap likely reflects the impairment of physical function, which is common to both conditions [11]. Importantly, the current findings would support the use of both sarcopenia and frailty assessments by clinicians aiming to identify older people at increased risk of death, for example when weighing up the risks and potential benefits of an intervention [12]. There are other issues that it may be important to consider if implementing the FNIH cut-points in clinical practice. Dual energy x-ray absorptiometry scans may not be available for the assessment of ALMBMI, for example if seeing patients outside of the hospital setting, and in this regard, the separate analyses undertaken by FNIH and others for grip strength and ALMBMI are helpful. The cut-points have also been developed among mobile, community-dwelling older people. From existing work on grip strength, it is likely that the prevalence of individuals falling below the FNIH cut-points is likely to be much higher among those in hospital/institutional care settings [13] and the very old [14]. Areas for future work therefore include validating the FNIH cut-points in a range of settings for both men and


Urban slums have received significant attention for their vulnerability to the spread of Covid-19. This is because slum areas show physical and socio-economic unpreparedness to face the Covid-19 pandemic. This study aims to analyze the environmental vulnerability of riverfront slum areas in Karangsari Sub District, Kendal during the Covid-19 pandemic. The research method uses quantitative methods. During the Covid-19 pandemic, data collection through field observations was carried out in compliance with health protocols. In addition, questionnaires were distributed to 40 respondents who were citizens of RW 5. The analysis technique uses descriptive quantitative analysis and spatial analysis. The results showed that during the Covid-19 pandemic, the maintenance of environmental infrastructure for slum areas on the riverfront was vulnerable to reduced frequency. Interventions from the government and stakeholders related to tidal flooding from upstream to downstream and waste management cannot be implemented as a whole. So that it requires the participation of all relevant stakeholders to overcome problems in riverfront slum areas that are vulnerable to tidal flooding and waste management which can cause the rapid spread of the Covid-19 virus. © 2023 Author(s).


Enhancing the home security by remote control means is a cutting-edge research area in the domain of Internet of Things (IoT's). The necessity of security is increasing these days, ranging from thefts, burglary, accidents, LPG gas leakage and fire detection etc, which all are important aspects of a Home Security System. In this paper, a prototype Multi-Functional Secured Smart Home (SSH) model is developed. Generally a home security system uses signals in terms of alarm of intruder detection. However, the proposed Multi-Functional Secured Smart Home uses a mobile communication (GSM) based Home Security System, which helps to provide a better security to have systems that can be globally connected. In the proposed system a text message is sent, whenever an event from any sensor is detected, so that immediate actions could be taken by the home owner. The proposed SSH sends SMS using GSM-Module and mail through Raspberry Pi micro-controller. The prototype SSH based smart system also uses an Arduino micro-controller board for commands processing and control. The system uses GSM technology, which provides global access to the Smart Home Security System. The prototype SSH, developed at a low cost, can be used for converting existing homes into smart homes at relatively affordable cost and with convenience. The performance testing results of the prototype SSH are encouraging.


With the rapid growth and development of the mobile communication technologies in recent years, many mobile communication technologies appeared one after another, of particu- lar concern is 3GPP long term evolution (LTE). TD-LTE is growing rapidly in China and is also widely considered in the forth generation (4G) mobile communication now. MIMO technology, which utilizes multiple antenna to improve spectrum e-ciency and increase the system channel capacity, is one of the 4G key technologies. In this paper a MIMO antenna, operating on TD-LTE frequency band for TD-LTE mobile ter- minal is designed. The proposed MIMO antenna consists of two modifled IFA structures has the advantage of compact structure and multiband for 4G handheld devices. The antenna designed to cover the TD-LTE frequency band of 1880 i1900MHz and 2575{2635MHz for China Mobile. The simulated and test results show that the isolation and S11 parameters of the proposed MIMO antenna can meet TD-LTE mobile communication requirements. 1. INTRODUCTION The 4th generation in the wireless evolution is called the Long Term Evolution (LTE) which will provide higher peak data rates, higher spectral e-ciency and lower latency taking advantage of the latest enabling technologies such as Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA), Adaptive modulation and coding (AMC) and Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) technolo- gies. The 1.8GHz and 2.6GHz band is used for China Mobile's LTE systems in mainland China. Due to the small size of LTE mobile terminal, the design of Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) antenna with broadband or multiband on small handsets is a real challenge. And due to the integration of multiple antennas on a single portable device with very limited space, mutual coupling between multiple antennas is severe, and the MIMO antenna for mobile terminal systems with high isolation is of great importance to bring 4G capabilities to reality. Many printed MIMO antennas have been discussed in literature recently. In (1), a compact planar MIMO antenna system of four elements is proposed for the whole 2.4-GHz WLAN band. Two types of antenna elements printed on difierent sides of the substrate are used in the structure for better isolation performance. In addition, a series of slits etched in the ground plane is proposed to improve the mutual coupling. In (2), a modifled PIFA antenna by adding a proper chip capacitor was designed to enhance the lower band and by adding a shorted strip or forming a coupled section to enhance the upper band. In (3), by adding the two parasitic monopoles, the mutual coupling is greatly improved, meanwhile, the bandwidth increases somewhat. In (4), a penta-band CRLH-based antenna was designed and integrated into a cellular handset. The measured results demonstrated that the proposed CRLH-based antenna had superior performance and smaller size compared to other conventional antenna designs. In this article, we proposed a modifled IFA antenna printed on one top layer of a 0.6mm thick with the FR4 substrate and the dielectric constant of 4.5. The antenna was designed to cover the low band and upper band of TD-LTE for mobile terminals. 2. ANTENNA DESIGN


In this paper, we study the transverse stability of random dynamical
systems (RDS). Suppose a RDS on a Riemann manifold possesses a
non-random invariant submanifold, what conditions can guarantee that
a random attractor of the RDS restrained on the invariant
submanifold is a random attractor with respect to the whole
manifold? By the linearization technique, we prove that if all the
normal Lyapunov exponents with respect to the tangent space of the
submanifold are negative, then the attractor on the submanifold is
also a random attractor of the whole manifold. This result extends
the idea of the transverse stability analysis of deterministic
dynamical systems in [1,3]. As an explicit example,
we discuss the complete synchronization in network of coupled maps
with both stochastic topologies and maps, which extends the
well-known master stability function (MSF) approach for
deterministic cases to stochastic cases.


Strong interest in the chemistry of porphyrins has been generated by their numerous applications in a variety of fields of chemistry, biochemistry, and medicine. A common and well-known natural metalloporphyrin is heme, a complex of porphyrin with Fe 2+ . It is the prosthetic group of hemoglobins, myoglobins, cytochromes b, catalases, and peroxidases. Other common metalloporphyrins are the chlorophylls, responsible for the process of photosynthesis. They are complexes of porphyrins with magnesium (Mg 2+ ). Cobalamin (known as vitamin B 12 ) is a complex of porphyrin with cobalt (Co 3+ ). It participates in the process of blood-formation and might counteract malignant anemia [1]. Metalloporphyrins are present in crude oil and petroleum derivatives, for example resins or asphaltines. Crude oil, especially in its heavy fractions, contains complexes of porphyrins with nickel (Ni 2+ ) or vanadium (VO 2+ ) [2]. Metalloporphyrins are used as catalysts during oxidation of organic compounds [3] and as components of ion-selective electrode membranes or as chemical modifiers of electrode surfaces [4]. Artificial photosynthesis has now become possible by application of synthetic porphyrin compounds [5]. There is also growing medical interest in porphyrins. Derivatives of hematoporphyrins have been used in socalled photodynamic therapy (PDT) for destruction of malignant cells [6]. Porphyrin chemistry is a constantly developing field and syntheses of new compounds belonging to this group continue.


We introduce "ShapeSense," a VR device with moving surfaces for rendering various shape perceptions with a single device. Shape-Sense can simultaneously control the mass properties and air resistance in order to represent the target shape seen in VR. The results of user studies showed that our proposed device can reproduce various shape perceptions and is superior to the conventional device, which only considers mass properties for shape rendering.


The invention relates to an automobile accessory, in particular to a fixing device for installing and fixing a license plate. The device is an integrated protection cover. Concave inner grooves for protecting the license plate are formed in the two transverse sides of the protection cover, the two vertical sides, close to the concave inner grooves, of the protection cover are provided with first bolts for strengthening the protection cover, and the protection cover is provided with two through holes through which the license plate is fixed. The protection cover is additionally arranged for the license plate, the license plate is clamped in the concave inner grooves of the protection cover, the frequency that the license plate loosens in the process of driving can be reduced, the license plate can be well prevented from being stolen or taken down easily, and the occurrence of the criminal behaviors is greatly reduced.


A fatigue damage model is established for predicting the response of concrete structure of ballastless track in high-speed railway subjected to cyclic loading using continuum damage mechanics and the concept of bounding surface. The tension and compression bounding surfaces in principal coordinate system are employed in the theoretical model, the damage level under the complex stress state is calculated according the position of the loading surface between the limit fracture surface and the bounding surface, and the varying size of the limit fracture surface is determined through the relation between the accumulative damage and the strain energy release. The fatigue damage model is implemented in the finite software ABAQUS by using the user material subroutine UMAT. It is proven to be reasonable and feasible by the comparison with existing similar models. The fatigue damage evolution of the supporting layer of double-block ballastless track in high-speed railway under cyclic loading is simulated. Results show that the proposed model can not only well reflect the nonlinear evolution law of the supporting layer fatigue damage, but also describe the damage state in its degeneration process. This provide a feasible theoretical method for the fatigue damage analysis of ballastless track in high-speed railway.


An integral form of the close-coupling approximation by Ghosh and Basu (1973) and Chaudhuri at al. (1974) has been employed to investigate the processes e++He(1s2) to e++He(2s2) and e++He(1s2) to (e+e-)+He(1s). Couplings of the excited states of both the helium and positronium atoms have been neglected. Results obtained by using an approximate form of the close-coupling approximation which neglects some strong distortion effects are presented. The results in two-state close-coupling approximation do not show good agreement with the experimental findings below the positronium formation threshold. The effect of exchange of electrons is found to be appreciable in the low-energy region.


Multilayer polyethylene is a material that is generally employed as insulation for the HVDC isolations. In this paper, the influence of the dielectric thickness on space charge dynamic has been studied. For example, low-density polyethylene (LDPE) and Fluorinated Ethylene Propylene (FEP) sandwiched between two electrodes were subjected to high voltage application for the extended duration of time. What is more, the space charge measurements were taken using a more complex bipolar model which is one-dimensional, taking into account trapping, detrapping, and the recombination in order to determine the charge density and electric field of the sample depending on the thickness. On top of that, the simulation was carried out at two different forms LDPE-FEP and FEP-LDPE. In conclusion, simulation results demonstrated that only the polyethylene layer is charged with the polarity of the electrode with which it is in contact. Besides, bulk fillers of the polyethylene are detected.


Aliesterase was found in all stages of Blattella germanica (L.) with the activity of oothecae being approximately 24% that of newly emerged adults. In both mated and unmated females aliesterase activity was cyclical. When applied topically to newly emerged adults, both triortho‐cresyl phosphate (TOCP) and its solvent, methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) reduced aliesterase activity. Although the data were variable, it is probable that increasing the dosage from 90 to 180 μg TOCP per insect increased the degree of inhibition of aliesterase. TOCP, and MEK, increased the period required by a female to produce an ootheca, increased the duration of pregnancy and decreased the hatch of nymphs from the ootheca. In these respects the effect of 90 μg TOCP was greater than that caused by MEK, but increasing the dosage of TOCP to 180 μg per insect had no additional effect. It is hypothesised that aliesterase(s) is associated with production of oothecae and with vitellogenesis. There was a peak of aliesterase activity in male insects approximately 14 days after emergence, but the level of activity at this time was significantly higher in mated than in unmated males.


For the International Year of Astronomy 2009, we have designed an educational program based on understanding the basic principles of telescopes and using telescopes for astronomical observations. As part of this program, we have designed an educational telescope kit that can be assembled by students and used to observe the Moon, Jupiter, and Saturn from urban environments. A premise of the project is that for students, the building of their own telescope is far better than getting an assembled one. The Galileoscope is designed to create "Wow!" experiences in kids when viewing Saturn, Jupiter, and the Moon. With the Galileoscope, Galileo's observations can be easily duplicated across the country, even in major cities. We have designed the Galileoscope and its associated educational materials for use in a wide variety of educational environments including planetariums, small science and nature centers, classrooms, and amateur astronomy clubs. 1. Galileoscope Project Rationale IYA2009 is centered on the 400 anniversary of the first scientific use of a telescope by Galileo Galilei. A major component of the program is to help people appreciate the central role of the telescope in helping humans discover our place in the Universe. The Galileoscope project addresses this core theme of IYA2009 and is also intended as long-term educational program. 2 Pompea, Fienberg, Arion, Smith, Isbell The "Galileoscope" is often perceived as being the telescope, something you can hold in your hand. It is more correctly viewed as an astronomy education program utilizing the telescope as a tool to achieve specific goals: —Help people build inexpensive, high-quality small telescopes —Help them understand how telescopes function —Help them understand how to point and use a telescope —Help them understand what they are seeing and the nature of the observed objects —Help them understand the scientific process and the nature of observational science; empower them as beginning amateur scientists and explorers The educational basis of this program has been described elsewhere (Brecher et al., 1987; Pompea and Nofziger, 1995; Pompea and Stepp, 1995; Johnson et al., 2007; Pompea et al., 2007a, 2007b; Walker et al., 2007; Pompea et al. 2008, Peruta et al. 2008). The Galileoscope program embodies the best practices of how light, color, optics, and observational astronomy have been effectively taught in formal and informal settings. The technical aspects of the new telescope for the Galileoscope program are meant to incorporate best practices in optical and stray light design (Pompea et al. 1993; Pompea 1995) as well as telescope usability issues. The Galileoscope project is not about the wholesale distribution of a new model of telescope. There are currently over a million small telescopes purchased each year worldwide. According to many observers, these telescopes are not necessarily furthering an interest in astronomy in their owners. Therefore, we cannot generally rely on an astronomy novice having a good experiences with a telescope (such as the Galileoscope) regardless of how much thought has been put into the design. We have often met observing novices with high-quality telescopes who are frustrated because they do not know how to get started in observational astronomy. Often the telescope is abandoned for several years after a frustrating first observing session. In contrast, a person with the lowest-quality of telescope on a poor mount may be quite satisfied with their observing experiences if they have received sufficient human guidance and if their expectations have been properly managed. Thus, a key part of the project is to provide helpful humans experienced with telescopes to help the novices. The role of amateur astronomers as astronomy educators interacting with the public is well known and quite broad (Percy, 1998). Similarly research institutions play a key role with their science education and outreach partnerships with schools and museums (Dow, 1998). Science centers also play a very important role in helping the public understand tools such as telescopes (Pompea and Hawkins, 2002). And of course teachers can play a key role as well (Pompea and Gek, 2002) especially when they have high-quality supporting curricular materials. In summary, anyone who is not a novice in astronomy can play an important role in helping novices use small telescopes, such as the Galileoscope, in IYA2009. Galileo's simple telescope with two lenses was hard to use and gave a dim, extremely narrow field of view of celestial objects. He had to move his eye around to see the whole view. When he looked at Saturn, he never suspected that the planet had rings but only noticed that it looked elongated and appeared to have "ears". Yet, with his simple but revolutionary telescope, he was able to record observations that established our Earthly place within a much larger and more magnificent system. We can only hope that the Galileoscope can be utilized as effectively as Galileo's simple telescope. Progress on Creating the Galileoscope for the IYA2009 3 2. Project Rationale Within the context of this project, today's schoolchildren can build a simple telescope with similarities to Galileo's and look at and study the same objects as Galileo. However, with today's technology they can have a much more satisfying view — a sharper, brighter, and wider field of view that can better display the beauty of the Moon and planets. The assembly of the telescope can also be a great learning experience about optics and image formation. Our Galileoscope project for the International Year of Astronomy was designed to create one million treasured celestial experiences for children —looking through inexpensive but high-quality telescopes that they have built themselves. This type of telescope kit has not been available before. It was developed specifically for the International Year of Astronomy by a diverse team of U.S. science educators, amateur and professional astronomers, and optical/mechanical engineers. Many small telescopes from department stores have been sold to families but most of them are not being used for astronomy. They often have absurdly high magnification, poor image quality, difficulty in pointing, and inadequate instructions for assembly and use. The Galileoscope addresses these design and usability problems. There are also several educational telescope kits available to students and educators, but most are not effective for astronomy work since they suffer from poor image quality, are difficult or ambiguous in their assembly, or lack durability. Again, the Galileoscope design attempts to addresses all of these issues. 3. U.S. Telescope Kits and Optics Challenges Working Group The U.S. Working Group on Telescope Kits and Optics Challenges is a group of experts who each have contributed to the overall program, with guidance from the chair Pompea. From the beginning, the working group has been interested in creating a higher quality, more astronomically usable telescope kit than is currently available. The member list and their responsibilities are given below. Some of the working group members such as Photon Engineering LLC optical engineers Richard Pfisterer and Scott Ellis are well known for their work in telescope optical design and analysis, a specialty area of this company (see Pompea et al., 2002). 4 Pompea, Fienberg, Arion, Smith, Isbell Member Area of Expertise Affiliation Location Dr. Stephen Pompea (Chair) Educational Program Management, Optical Systems Design and Analysis NOAO Tucson Arizona Dr. Doug Arion System Design, Testing, Manufacturing Carthage College Kenosha Wisconsin Mr. Jeff Capara Mechanical Design Raytheon Tucson Mr. F. Jack Eastman Optical Requirements Lockheed Martin (retired) Denver Colorado Dr. Scott Ellis Optical Design Photon Engineering LLC Tucson Arizona Mr. Alan Gould Educational Usability Lawrence Hall of Science Berkeley California Ms. Keri Moos Opto-Mechanical Design Raytheon Tucson Arizona Mr. Richard Pfisterer Optical Design Photon Engineering, LLC Tucson Arizona Mr. Tom Sebring Manufacturability Cornell University Ithaca New York Mr. Thomas Smith Manufacturing Partner Merit Models, Inc. Racine Wisconsin Mr. Robert Sparks Educational Integration NOAO Tucson Arizona Dr. Mary Turner Optical Design Breault Research Organization, Inc. Tucson Arizona Ms. Amber Young Optical Testing Optical Sciences Univ. of Arizona Tucson Arizona The U.S. working group has teamed with the IAU Galileoscope Task Group (chaired by R. Fienberg) for further requirements definition, testing, final design, and production of the telescopes. 4. Galileoscope Kit Project Goals The U.S. Galileoscope project has had different goals than were articulated early on in the international program. The international program was originally oriented towards a "cheapscope" that would operate at low magnifying power. The goal was to manufacture this telescope in very large quantities and deliver them at a price of a few U.S. dollars. The educational use case was to give kids opportunities to each have their own telescope. The U.S. program, in response to our own needs assessment, decided that a telescope used primarily in urban areas and designed for planet and Moon watching was appropriate. We expected the telescope to be shared among several kids working in a group. As we talked to optical and educational designers, many of whom had been excited about astronomy and telescopes as children, we received one very strong message: we should build a high-quality telescope that is durable and usable in a variety of educational settings. Many also suggested that we Progress on Creating the Galileoscope for the IYA2009 5 focus on a specific use case; we settled on observing the rings of Saturn, even though the ring plane angle is not especially favorable during IYA2009. Both working groups assessed the optical quality of current "department store" telescopes, and concluded


Objective To establish the quality standard for Tongluo Tangtai Granules. Methods TLC was applied to the qualitative identification of Rhizoma Coptidis, Semen Sinapis Albae and Radix Scrophulariae,and HPLC was applied to the quantitative determination of berberine in the prescription. Results Rhizoma Coptidis, Semen Sinapis Albae and Radix Scrophulariae could be detected by TLC, the spots were clear and there was no interference for the negative sample. A good linearity of berberine was showed in the range of 0.037 29-2.610 3 μg(r =1.000 0). The average recovery of berberine was 98.85%, and RSD was 0.70%(n=6). Conclusion The methods are simple, sensitive, accurate with good reproducibility. It can be used for the quality control of Tongluo Tangtai Granules.


In the professional era of sport and increased competition between universities, recruitment of students and athletes have become a crucial strategic venture for higher education institutions using sport as a marketing tool, branding instrument and for status advancement. Students' and athletes' choice of an institution is significantly influenced by various factors of which the social, academic and sport-related factors are often in competition. Students have to negotiate between various influences and demands, with sport-related demands particularly dictating decision-making in the beginning years of university life. The formation of subcultures in high profiled male sports which are clustered through housing arrangements and career choices in sports, limits students' career prospects outside the field of elite sport participation. The study identified the main factors influencing the choice of UJ as an institution for academic studies and sporting home of 149 competitive athletes in ten different sports, namely cricket, hockey, netball, rugby, soccer, volleyball, tennis, waterpolo, golf and cycling. It appears that peers studying at UJ (n=41) or friends as non-UJ students (n=37), as well as family members (n=34) are the most influential social agents and influencers. Main academic attractors include a perception that UJ is the "best" (n=80) in a particular academic field (n=80) and that the student activities are very attractive (n=52). The main sport-related attractors relate to the high level of sport at UJ (n=103), the quality of facilities (n=101) and a specific coach (n=85) – the latter is most prevalent for cricket, volleyball, netball and rugby.


Directional drilling is playing a great role in mineral exploration and exploitation,and coalbed methane(CBM)development.Accurate prediction of the well inclination and azimuth at the well bottom can reduce drilling cost and errors.The existing calculation method is not favorable for predicting the drilling path accurately at site.In this study,a model for prediction of increment in well inclination and azimuth is established by use of data processing for well inclination,azimuth,and toll face as well as interval and rate of well inclination build-up.Compared with the general formula of directional wells,it has a high precision and is capable of predicting trace parameters of the directional well bottom rapidly at site.This model has been applied to 46 pairs of docking wells in Turkey.The result demonstrates that it can greatly enhance the speed of predicting well bottom and reduce failure ratio of directional drilling.


The progresses ofphysicalcosm ology during the past ten years have led to a \standard" cosm ologicalm odelin agreem ent with allavailable data. Its param eters are m easured with increasing precision but it requires the introduction ofa dark sector,including both dark m atterand dark energy, attracting the attention ofboth observersand theoreticians. Am ong allthe observationalconclusions,the existence ofa recentacceleration phase ofthe cosm ic expansion ism ore and m ore robust.The quest fortheunderstanding ofitsphysicalorigin ishoweverjuststarting (Peebles and Ratra,2003;Peterand Uzan,2005;Copeland etal.,2006;Uzan,2007). M odelsand speculationsare ourishingand wem ay wonderto which extent theobservationsofourlocalUniversem ay revealthephysicalnatureofthe dark energy. In particular,there existlim itations to thisquestintrinsic to cosm ology,related tothefactthatm ostobservationsarelocated on ourpast


In this work, we focus on the use of network coding in a wireless sensor network where data is already encoded at the source node with fountain codes, in particular LT or Raptor codes. These codes have a specific degree distribution to follow in order to obtain an efficient decoding process. However, adding a layer of network coding on such packets triggers a distorsion of the degree distribution. Consequently, the packet overhead needed for the decoding process can grow significantly.


Participants at a 2-day NIMH workshop on Factors Related to Premorbid Adjustment agreed that research in the area has contributed substantially to the prediction of outcome in schizophrenia. But there was also consensus that continued use of the term "premorbid adjustment" might prove a barrier to further progress. Scales of premorbid adjustment, it was felt, had made a valuable contribution and ought now be replaced by an expanded scale of social functioning. By broadening their conceptual sights from a concentration on precursors of pathology to a consideration of schizophrenia within a larger developmental framework, the assembled researchers believed that understanding of the disorder would ultimately be enhanced.


Purpose: Volume rendering is important in deformable image registration (DIR) and hyperdimensional imaging (>3D). Interpolation and the use of finite volume element grids to describe the image and 3D surface/volume datasets can cause partial occupancy when structures are mapped by deformation vectors. The choice of surface rendering technique directly impacts the agreement between manually and automatically delineated structures. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect different surface rendering algorithms have for CTimaging sets mapped by DIR. Method and Materials: 4DCT clinical lungimaging was used in this study. A single expert user with secondary confirmation contoured the GTV, right lung, and left lung on the FBCT as well as on all ten phases of the 4DCT. The Juggler DIR algorithm was used to calculate the deformation vectors between the free breathing CT and each phase of the 4DCT. The deformation vectors were then applied to the contours of the FBCT, and different surface rendering techniques were applied (including thresholding and [Christiansen.s mosaic method) to reconstruct the volume. Reconstructed structures were compared with manually delineated structures and agreement was evaluated based on volume, center‐of‐mass position, similarity index, and 3D distance maps. Results: We found the center‐of‐mass for all organs over all phases to be invariant to rendering technique. Percent volume difference varied greatly depending on the technique and organ, ranging from −23% to +56% for the gtv to −3.75% to +13.58% for the left lung volume. Conclusion: TH50% and SR1 gave the best results, but significant differences can arise between DIR‐generated structures and manually delineated structures depending on the rendering technique used. We suggest rigorous QA before implementation of such a system prior clinical use.


An experiment on a refrigerant two-phase flow in a horizontal pipe was performed for flow pattern observation and void fraction measurement. Refrigerants used were R12 and R22, and the saturation pressure range was from 5.7 to 19.6 bar. From obtained data it was found that the flow pattern of the refrigerant two-phase flow can be presented on a revised Baker map, where the property correction factor on surface tension was modified. It was also found that the influence of the shut-off speed in void fraction measurement is negligible. Experimental data on void fraction agree well with Zivi, Thom and Baroczy correlation approximated by Butterworth.


FIELD: chemistry. SUBSTANCE: invention relates to agriculture. The method of producing granular fertiliser involves spraying molten fertiliser in the upper part of a prilling tower, cooling and solidification of the formed molten droplets upon contact thereof with an ascending air stream; transporting the obtained granules from the lower part of the tower to a self-contained fluidised bed apparatus for cooling thereof with subsequent discharge; feeding air into the fluidised bed apparatus and removing dusty cooling air from the fluidised bed apparatus, wherein the dusty air from the tower is cleaned; the granules are transported into the fluidised bed apparatus with horizontal movement of granules and separate removal of the dusty air from at least two zones of the apparatus, wherein the dusty cooling air from the zone of the fluidised bed apparatus lying first on the path of the granules is directed into a dust air cleaning apparatus, and the dusty cooling air from the next zones of the fluidised bed apparatus is directed into the prilling tower. EFFECT: invention reduces the volume of dusty air coming for cleaning from the fluidised bed apparatus and as a result reduces power and capital costs for cleaning thereof. 4 cl, 1 dwg, 2 ex


Using data from eight academic departments and 361 courses taught during a semester, the author examined differences between full-time and part-time faculty in the areas of general demographic variables, student evaluation of teaching outcomes, and the distribution of grades earned. The author expected full-time faculty to exhibit higher teaching evaluations and less lenient grade distributions, yet neither hypothesis was supported. However, substantial differences exist in the support mechanisms provided to part-time and full-time faculty.


In the world of RF analysis, the need to study the characteristics and behavior of a satellite antenna in its range of design frequencies is very frequent. There is not always the opportunity to have the antenna available and less frequently its electromagnetic model: if we add to all this the lack of facilities in the open field, the near-field measurement is the forced solution, but requires a large calculation effort once all the measurements have been collected. This paper provides a solution for a near-field measurement system for antennas and then the determination of the near-field to far-field pattern, highlighting the probe position error compensation.


This paper introduced the design,structure calculation,installation and acoustics effiction of fireproofing and sound insulation special large door which is build in assemble room of Hangzhou great showplace arena.During used more than one year,the electric of the door runs smooth and safely sate,the sound insulation effect is good.It has some reference value for similar building which are also need build in fireproofing sound insulation door.


In this SMOV program (11449), the behavior of the WFC3 IR FPA through the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA), as well as following the SAA crossing, is characterized. We investigate shortand long-term residual effects consisting of high cosmic ray (CR) hit rates, high dark and background levels, and residual glow. We find that the deepest part of the SAA produces cosmic rays that affect ~12% of the pixels per minute. Based on the cosmic ray rates and dark background rates, we find that the current WFC3 SAA contour is appropriate for defining science observations. We also look at persistence due to cosmic ray hits and find that the decay time can be described as a power law. The decay rate depends on the initial count rate: high count rate events have a slower decay than low count rate events. Within one hour, the residual count rate is approximately 1% of the original.


The Brazilian government has sought ways to maintain electronic contact with its citizens, making services and information available online. The latter needs to be easy to locate and access and readily understood by all. This requires providing ways to help users during their interaction, i.e. online help systems. In this ambit, this paper firstly verifies how these systems are provided and described in the Brazilian government recommendations for e-government e-GOV websites. By means of a survey conducted with users it also verifies their preferences in relation to help systems in general and their interaction with e-GOV websites. From the analyses and surveys conducted, it can be observed that the existing recommendations do not contain enough information to build help systems and a set of guidelines is proposed for their construction. These guidelines were presented to representatives of the target population of such websites: citizens, system developers and professionals from the e-GOV area. The first results show the possible improvement of these websites using the proposed guidelines; the e-GOV designers could use these guidelines with the aim of providing a better citizen-government interaction through technology.


In this paper a model of the sound transmission characteristics of a conventional circumaural passive ear protector is presented for low frequency noise. It includes the effects of porous sound absorption material within the device as well as sound leakage. A theoretical study based on the model shows that the presence of sound absorption material effectively acts to increase the volume compliance of the system, thus decreasing its resonance frequency. The role of leakage on the other hand is mainly to shift the resonance to a higher frequency depending on the equivalent leakage diameter. Experimental results are provided in support of the theoretical predictions. The model is useful in providing an understanding of the mechanisms of conventional passive ear defenders and can be employed to guide their design. The modelling can also be extended to study and aid in the development of communication and active noise control ear protectors.


The inverse scattering method is used to determine the distribution limit as ϵ 0 of the solution u(x, t, ϵ) of the initial value problem.

Ut − 6uux + ϵ2uxxx = 0, u(x, 0) = v(x), where v(x) is a positive bump which decays sufficiently fast as x x±α. The case v(x) ≪ 0 has been solved by Peter D. Lax and C. David Levermore [8], [9], [10].

The computation of the distribution limit of u(x, t, ϵ) as ϵ 0 is reduced to a quadratic maximization problem, which is then solved.


The spread of the COVID-19 virus is challenging society to provide medical care to a growing number of patients in the hospital. It is important to determine the patient from whom an urgent appeal was received earlier and to automate the creation of the calls' queue. Determining the direction of the sound source, which is the patient's voice, can be realized using the passive acoustic location method. In this case, it is necessary to place sound sensors in the wards with patients. In such a case, these sensors it is expedient to build in the lighting equipment executed in the shape of Platonic polyhedra. The microcontroller system, located inside such a spatial structure, ensures the transmission of sound to a server computer system. The above system alternately records the receipt of urgent appeals, analyzes the location of the sound source, and sends the relevant data to the doctor's smartphone. The mobile application visualizes information about the location of the patients who need consultation or help. The proposed solution for intelligent analysis of voice appeals by inpatients may also be useful for post-stroke, post-infarction, and other bedridden patients who are unable to call medical staff otherwise than a voice.


Ce4+-doped nanometer ZnO powder was synthesized by so-l gel method. The microstructures and prop-erties of the samples were characterized by means of XRD, UV-Vis and FTIR. The results indicated that the Ce4+was successfully incorporated into ZnO, and that the diameter of nanometer was about 10.7 nm, and induced thered shifting in the UV-Vis spectra. The photocatalytic activity of the samples was investigated using methyleneblue(MB) as the model reaction under the irradiation with ultraviolet light. The results showed that the dopingof Ce4+could increase the photocatalytic activities of ZnO nanopowders and that the best molar ratio of Ce4+wasn(Ce)/n(Zn)=0.05, that the surfactant was sodium dodecyl sulfate, and that the nanometer ZnO was calcinatedat 550 ℃ for 3 hours. At the same time, the effect of photocatalytic efficiency through the pH of MB, the amountof catalyst, and effect of illumination time were also inspected. The experimental results revealed that the initialmass concentration of MB was 10 mg /L, that the pH value was 7-8, that the dosage of Ce4+/ZnO photo-catalystwas 5 g/L, that the UV-irradiation time was 2 h, and that the removal rate of MB reached above 85%. Underthe optimized conditions, the degradation rate of real dye wastewater was up to 87.67%and removal efficiency ofCOD was 63.5%.


Salvador, Brazil was chosen as the location for a hot and humid climate. Temperatures lay in the range between 25 and 32°C in the hot period (around December) and 22 and 27°C in the cooler one (around June). An assessment of the outdoor temperatures with adaptive comfort model EN 15251 shows that with only natural ventilation there are good chances to reach comfort. Overheating may arise from internal use, artificial light and solar heat transfer through windows as well as through opaque walls and roofs (exterior surfaces absorb solar radiation, construction heats up and the high-temperature transfers remarkably through the construction to the interior). Representative local traditional and contemporary buildings were selected and analysed with transient thermal simulation. Results show that the heat transfer through the constructions is in case of overheating the dominant component. In both buildings, the last floor under the roof overheats. Only with an improvement of the construction (by adding layers that contribute to thermal insulation) comfort can be reached. The intermediate floor in the traditional building with thick adobe walls (60 cm) behaves very well, while the contemporary building with thin concrete walls (10 cm) overheats. Comfort can be reached only by bringing the wall into shadow (cladding) or optimizing the construction by adding insulation or replacing concrete with hollow bricks, increased natural (shaft) ventilation and shading of the windows. Positively it has to be said that, in the local contemporary architecture itself with building shape, (moderate) size and placement of windows, shading system, cross ventilation is not a fundamental obstacle to reach comfort. In other countries, the trend to bigger windows leads without AC in any case already to discomfort. But the tendency to construct cost-optimized, to use "modern" materials like concrete (without protecting cladding or insulation) and the hope that users will install AC has led to non-optimal constructions. Detailed recommendations for the improvement of roof and wall constructions are given in the paper.


Our aim in this paper is to study the existence and uniqueness of solution for hyperbolic relaxations of higher-order anisotropic Caginalp phase field systems with homogeous Dirichlet boundary conditions with regular potentials.


Data visualization plays a significant role in investment activities, since it directly provides the decision-relevant information to investors. The traditional Stock Chart provides limited information to investors as it only displays the price changes of the stock over a period of time. More information could be incorporated in the plot such as the return of a stock, the risk of a stock and the performance of the corporation issuing the stock. Based on the information what an investor concerns most about investment activities, a new style visualization method based on Parallel Coordinates is proposed. This paper will describe this visualization technique in the stock chart context and explain the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model used to construct the Parallel Coordinate. In addition, the benefits of the Parallel Coordinates are illustrated.


Date fruits (Phoenix dactylifera) are fruits known for their high nutritional value, and also for their pleasant taste. They have been cultivated in the Middle East and the Indus Valley for thousands of years. There are different types of date fruits, and their classification is performed based on external characteristics such as color, size, diameter and shape. Traditionally, the classification of these fruits used to be done manually. However, the development of automatic classifiers for this task has been attracting attention in recent years. In the automatic classification scenario, machine learning and pattern recognition techniques are used for the development of classifiers. Despite the number of studies that address the classification of date fruits, there is an apparent lack of comparative studies that present evaluations involving different types of base classifiers. In this context, our study considers the classification of date fruits from a comparative perspective, with five learning algorithms: Support Vector Machines (SVM), Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP), Naive Bayes (NB), K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN), and Logistic Model Trees (LMT). The algorithms were evaluated on three datasets. Two of these sets were derived from the original one by applying data balancing techniques. In general, it was observed a variation in the F-Measure of from 0.832 to 0.961. As far as we know, in this study we obtained the state of the art performance on the "Date fruit dataset" (0.961 of F-Measure using stacking).


Aim The perfection of Cartesian product of graph investigated.Methods Using Cartesian product of graph,we depict the complete expansion graph.Results and Conclusion We have the relation of the complete expansion and Cartesian product of any graph and its line graph,and prove that complete expansion graph is perfect.


The invention discloses an SCR airless urea nozzle. The SCR airless urea nozzle comprises a nozzle mounting seat and a nozzle body arranged on the nozzle mounting seat, and is characterized by further comprising a valve seat arranged at the front end of the nozzle body and a ball valve arranged in both the valve seat and the nozzle body, wherein the bottom of the ball valve is connected with the nozzle body through a compression spring; a sleeve is fixed on the outer sides of both the nozzle body and the valve seat; solenoid valve coil components sleeve the outer side of the sleeve; a plurality of spray orifices are formed in the top of the valve seat. When the solenoid valve coil components are powered on, the ball valve moves downwards to be opened, a urea water solution is sprayed out from the spray orifices; when the solenoid valve coil components are powered off, the ball valve moves upwards to be closed under the action of the restoring force of the compression spring. The SCR airless urea nozzle has the advantages of being simple in structure and low in manufacturing cost, and can realize emission of nitrogen oxides by a diesel engine without a compressed air source.


165 x 116 mm. Woodburytype. A view showing a Cypriot family posed for the camera inside their home. The photograph appears in Thomson's 'Through Cyprus with the camera, in the autumn of 1878' (vol.2, London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, and Rivington, 1879). Thomson wrote: 'The interiors of the dwellings at Avgoru are poor, and their earthen floors are partly taken up in the storage of produce; nevertheless, their occupants are respectably clothed, and seem to turn their labour to good account, for there is an absence of that squalor and misery which we meet with among the poor in more highly-civilized communities' (vol.2, p.51).


Magnesium aluminum alloy has a broad potential utilization because of its high specific stiffness, specific strength, excellent anti-vibration performance and good impact resistance. The main reason for the weakness of the welding strength of magnesium/aluminum as dissimilar metals during the welding process is the Mg23Al30 intermetallic compound. In the present article, first principle calculation methods are introduced to study the thermodynamic properties, structural stability, electronic structure, elastic properties and performance of Mg23Al30 under pressure. The decreasing range of c is greater than that of a, which indicates that the material has anisotropy. Mg and Al atoms in the Mg23Al30 structure are characterized by metal bonds. It can be concluded that Mg23Al30 not only behaves as a stable crystal structure but also has good elastic stability. After determined the ratio of the G/B criterion, Mg23Al30 belongs to the ductile materials. When treated with pressure in the range of 0–6 GPa, the volume modulus B, Young's modulus E and shear modulus G of Mg23Al30 materials all increase with the pressure, which show its excellent mechanical stability.


The invention discloses a navigation control method of an underground automatic scraper. The method comprises the following steps: firstly planning a target path; when a vehicle tracks the target path; according to the known initial deviation, forming a comprehensive feedback used as the input of a navigation controller, wherein the comprehensive feedback comprises the transversal position deviation, the course angle deviation and the course angle variation rate deviation; by combining the PID correction control, calculating the steering control command of the vehicle and inputting to an electro-hydraulic steering control system of the vehicle to change the steering angle of the vehicle; and accurately predicting the model by using the vehicle orbit formed in the navigation controller, and accurately calculating the deviation value between the track orbit and the target path of the vehicle; and then calculating new steering control commands by taking the deviation values as the feedback. By repeating the steps again and again, the vehicle can continuously track the target path, thereby realizing the automatic navigation of the underground scraper.


From 90 students 54 student researchers obtained responses on attitudes about two statements involving labor unions and government power. Their prior attitudes were not independent of recognition of the thesis of the work rule satirical statement, but those who agreed in advance with the power structure thesis tended to show related attitudes. Different factors may interact in various ways.


The utility model discloses a dust collection machine for the field of dry powder preparation, which comprises a machine body and an air passage. The machine body includes a machine shell, a motor and a fan arranged on a rotary shaft of the motor; the air passage includes an air inlet and an air outlet; the air inlet is arranged on one side of a discharging port of a packaging machine; and the air outlet is arranged on the machine shell. Dust is actively absorbed by the fan to enter the machine shell or air in the machine shell is exhausted by the fan, the dust is absorbed into the machine shell by atmospheric pressure so that suspended dust in air is collected, a dust collector arranged at the bottom of the machine shell is used for collecting the dust. Therefore, health of human bodies is ensured, environments are cleaned, and resource waste caused by dust emission without restraint is avoided.


The independent college is profit educational institution whose core is talent cultivation.Whether the graduates can be employed smoothly or not is vital importance to the independent college.Combining the actual situation of independent college,its student's quality is lower,and it will face more intensive employment with other universities students and higher vocational students.At present,as the mechanism and other problems,there are more or less problems in construction of the career guidance troop of many independent colleges,like,staff shortage,unstable troop,low quality,and so on.In some independent colleges,the counselor also is the employment guidance teacher,so the career guidance staff is far from the "specialization,professionalization,expert" requirements,so establishing employment guidance team became the problem faced by independent colleges.


A rare case of a hand injury caused by breakage of a the rmometer is reported. A 39-year-old female injured her right hand and mercury entered into her hand from the palmar side. The sublimis tendon of her ring finger and median nerve were partially cut by the head of the thermomrter, and mercury balls entered into her Capitatum. We tried to remove the mercury with suction, but were unable to remove all of it. X-rays taken at follow-up revealed that the amount of was decreasing. Medical symptoms due to the mercury did not appear and there was no increase in her blood mercury concentration.


The quality of new citizens are transformed from off-farm workers determines the process of off-farm workers' urbanization and the construction of a harmonious society.The urgent problems existing in the urbanization process of the off-farm workers are explored from the perspectives of government policy implementation,training work conduction,rules and regulation establishment,humanity environment construction,and off-farm workers' quality cultivation.Then the underlying causes for the problems are examined.


Abstract The relative effect of 0.07–0.17% C, 1.0–2.0% Mn, 0–0.8% Ni, 0–0.5% Mo and 0–0.14% V in C-Mn steels on the risk of heat affected zone (HAZ) hydrogen cracking and on HAZ hardenability have been evaluated using 1 ton aim melts and a statistically designed range of steel compositions. The work was carried out using a restrained fillet weld cracking test (CTS) and bead-on-plate tests with implant samples. The cracking tests were carried out using shielded metal arc welding (SMAW), with a weld hydrogen level of approximately 10 ml/100g deposited metal. Equations were developed relating critical hardness and critical cooling time for cracking to composition. Critical hardness was not independent of composition, being higher with increasing C, Mn, Mo, and decreasing V contents. All elements increased the critical cooling time for cracking. Except for steels of low CEuw (< 0.40), the present Welding Institute prediction scheme satisfactorily predicted safe welding procedures for avoiding HAZ cracking. Eq...


A remote monitor system was came up with in this paper aiming at dynamically monitor agriculture equipment working status. The system used Zigbee based portable data terminal as data collector, ARM11 based embedded system as wireless gateway, and laptop as remote monitor device. An embedded software based on WinCE6.0 was developed for data processing and transmitting, and a VC++ based software was developed for remote monitor, data store and alarm. In order to verify the performance of the system, a working subsoiler stress measurement test was made in soil-bin, the result indicated the system showed a high performance in data collection, transmission, processing and remote monitor, and could provide a support in agriculture equipment working status monitor.


Techniques for reducing bus traffic during texture-decoding the video bitstream. Processor In one configuration, the wireless communication device (such as a mobile phone) that is configured to execute instructions that act to separate by-decoding the bitstream macroblock (MB) information and residual packet data including. Residual packet data is used to generate the codec independent non-zero MB packets with generic instructions it is codec independent. Then, the codec independent non-zero MB packet and MB information is used for reconstruction of pixels of each frame of the video bitstream.


Online travel sales at the world level are getting higher every year. Online travel bookings are the biggest part of consumer e-commerce spending in 2018. However, the proliferation of online travel agents is unfortunately not in tune with consumer brand trust in certain brands or sites. This study aims to find out how the brand trust of consumers towards the online travel agent (OTA) Tiket.com in Jakarta. This research uses quantitative research methods and a descriptive-causal approach, with Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis technique using SMART PLS 3.0 software. The sampling method used was convenience sampling with 400 respondents. The results showed that privacy, word of mouth, and good online experience had a positive and significant effect on the ticket.com consumer brand trust in Jakarta, while security, quality of information and brand names had a positive but not significant effect on th e consumer brand trust tiket. com in Jakarta


China's mineral wealth may be tempting to foreign investors but, explain John Evans and Erica Chang of Tractus, they are still cautious about making a move. This, however, may now be changing.


Saving energy culture plays an important part in enterprise culture.By analyzing the enterprise culture of Sichuan Airline Company Ltd.and current saving energy culture,the author designs,popularizes, and implements unified values system to refine the material,spirit,system and behavior levels of saving energy culture.Based on the mode"Exterior regulations-interior acceptance-outward behavior",we establish systematic saving energy culture in the light of practical improvements in enterprises.


Black and white photograph of a group of young women playing sport in the grounds at Winlaton. They are standing in two rows. One row is possibly playing tunnelball. There are Australian Rules footballs in the picture. A man wearing a football jumper is with the group. A group of people are watching on in the background. Inscription on verso: 7. SUBJECT: Child Welfare.Previous control number: 89/1825.


A combination of structural, physical and computational techniques including powder X-ray and neutron diffraction, SQUID magnetometry, electrical and thermal transport measurements, DFT calculations and 119 Sn Mössbauer and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopies has been applied to Co3Sn2-xInxS2 (0 ≤ x ≤ 2) in an effort to understand the relationship between metal-atom ordering and physical properties as the Fermi level is systematically varied. Whilst solid solution behavior is found throughout the composition region, powder neutron diffraction reveals that indium preferentially occupies an inter-layer site over an alternative kagome-like intra-layer site. DFT calculations indicate that this ordering, which leads to a lowering of energy, is related to the differing bonding properties of tin and indium. Spectroscopic data suggest that throughout the composition range 0 ≤ x ≤ 2, all elements adopt oxidation states that are significantly reduced from expectations based on formal charges. Chemical substitution enables the electrical transport properties to be controlled through tuning of the Fermi level within a region of the density of states, which comprises narrow bands of predominantly Co d-character. This leads to a compositionally-induced double metal-tosemiconductor-to-metal transition. The marked increase in the Seebeck coefficient as the semiconducting region is approached leads to a substantial improvement in the thermoelectric figure of merit, ZT, which exhibits a maximum of ZT = 0.32 at 673 K. At 425 K, the figure of merit for phases in the region 0.8 ≤ x ≤ 0.85 is amongst the highest reported for sulphide phases, suggesting these materials may have applications in low-grade waste heat recovery.


The thermal transmission through of walls and roof in the residential houses more than half of the total peak cooling load. Insulating a building causes a significant reduction in the air-conditioning equipment's capacity in energy consumption, it is possible to save energy by using insulation in the walls and roofs, the type of masonry building materials used for the walls affect heat loss or gain. The objective of this study is to identify the energy saving potentials of different types of blocks used in buildings in Bahrain. The results show that the lightweight concrete blocks with polystyrene insulation have the lowest thermal transmittance U-value and it's the best block available in Bahrain for nonbearing wall structures. The annual savings in energy consumption of buildings constructed using this block is about 30% less compared to the hollow concrete blocks.


In 1998, the James Goldston Faculty of Engineering and Physical Systems introduced its project based learning Bachelor of Engineering degree. One of the major requirements of the course is teamwork. The faster the students are able to form teams, the better the results of the projects. A first year induction program was developed to aid the development of team building skills. This program is now included as part of the curriculum. The debriefing of students has so far been the only means of gauging student reaction to the induction program. This has resulted in anecdotal evidence. In 1999, it was decided to attempt a more formal and quantitative evaluation of the program results. The methods used were a self concept survey measuring change in the students over the period of the entire program, and a survey of feelings conducted before and after the physical challenge. The formal evaluation supported the previous anecdotal evidence that the program was achieving its aims.


Immunomodulators are substances that able to regulate or modulate immune responses. In order to investigate the lactoferrin effect on the immune system of broiler chickens,one hundred twenty (1-day-old) chicks of both sexes were randomly allocated into 2 dietary groups (60 chicks/group), group1 (G1): chicks were offered basal diets and kept as control group, group2 (G2): Chicks were offered basal diets supplemented with lactoferrin (250mg/kg diet for 6 weeks). Evaluating the effects of dietary supplementation with lactoferrin on growth performance of broiler chicks, humeral immunity by measuring antibody titer against Newcastle (ND) and Avian influenza (AIV)vaccine, and on innate immunity by measuring some functions of peripheral blood monocytes (PBM) as phagocytic activity, fungicidal activity, nitric oxide (NO) production and reactive oxygen species (ROS) production by tetrazolium reduction test. To study antibacterial effect of lactoferrin, challenge test was carried out using virulent E. coli strain .The results revealed that, lactoferrin improve growth performance and could stimulate the humeral immunity by increasing the antibody titer aginst ND and AIV vaccine .Also lactoferrin could enhance the innate immunity by significant increasing of phagocytic and Fungicidal activities of PBM and its production of ROS and NO. Lactoferrin have the ability to protect broiler chickens from virulent agents as E. coli. Therefore, lactoferrin may be used as immunostimulant, growth promoters and antibacterial agent in broiler chickens.


Objectives. The Rose Angina Questionnaire (RAQ) is an important measure of coronary heart disease prevalence. It has been shown to perform inconsistently across some ethnic groups in Britain. This study investigates whether the best available versions of the RAQ in Punjabi and Cantonese were linguistically equivalent to the English version. Design. Interviews were carried out with lay people from the Pakistani, Chinese and European-origin communities in Scotland to assess the versions of the RAQ used in the Newcastle Heart Project (the best available versions). For each questionnaire item, participants were asked to elaborate on their understanding of the question and the meaning of keywords or phrases. Results. Problems were discovered with the Punjabi and Cantonese translations of the RAQ. For example, the translation for 'chest' was interpreted by some Pakistani and Chinese women to mean 'breasts'. 'Walking uphill' was translated in Chinese as 'walking the hill', without stipulation of the direction, so that some Cantonese speakers interpreted the question as pertaining to walking downhill. Many Chinese interpreted RAQ items to be referring to breathlessness rather than chest pain due to ambiguous wording. Conclusion. Existing versions of the RAQ are unlikely to be yielding data that are cross-culturally valid or comparable. For robust health survey research in languages other than that in which the questionnaire was developed, lay assessment of questionnaires prior to and after translation is a necessity rather than a luxury.


Food is the identity of a community which is influenced by geographical as well as social environment. The wild edible plants have a great socio-economic significance because of their food and medicinal values. The use of wild plants as food in different religious practices reflects its rich culture in social history. In Assamese traditional kitchen, a good number of wild plants are used as vegetable. The present study deals with the identification, documentation and investigation of wild edible vegetable plants used by Assamese people of Dhemaji district of Assam, NE India and their medicinal uses. In this paper, a total of 51 wild edible vegetable plants belonging to 33 families were recorded with their scientific names, family, local names in Assamese, time of availability, parts used and their medicinal values.


Three SOFC test stacks were operated under conditions of direct internal steam reforming of methane at 750 °C. The influence of anode gas compositions (H2/N2, CH4/H2O, CH4/H2/H2O) on the stack degradation rate has been investigated through long‐term durability testing. It has been found that complete internal steam reforming of methane leads to much faster degradation in comparison to partial pre‐reforming. Possible reason for that is the depletion of Ni‐catalyst due to the formation of volatile Ni(OH)2 at the fuel entrance. Though this effect was observed previously at 950 °C, the present results indicate that it might still play an important role at 750 °C. The lowest degradation was observed with Stack‐3 (ca. 12 mV kh−1 per RU or 1.5% kh−1), which shows also a reasonably high electrical efficiency (>50%) under fuel utilisation of 70.2%.


This study investigated deciding factors for the use of Multicultural Family Support Centers (MCFSC) by using Classification and Regression Trees (CART) algorithm and. Data were from the A Study on the National Survey of Multicultural Families 2012. Subjects were 281,606 persons aged over 19 years. As the result of development of prediction model using CART algorithm, origi- nal nationality, sex, satisfaction with the relationship with children, occupation and region of residence were significant predicting factor for the decision to use MCFSC and among them; the most overriding prediction factor was original nationality. In order to vitalize the use of MCFSC based on this prediction model, continuous management is required of groups with no experience of us- ing MCFSC.


A 269 lactation records for Saudi she-camels were genetically analysed and evaluated for lactation traits of milk yield of the first three months of lactation (3MMY), annual milk yield (AMY), total milk yield (TMY), length of lactation period (LP), monthly milk yield (MMY), and daily milk yield (DMY). Data were analyzed using DFREML procedure to estimate direct additive effects (i.e. direct heritabilites), permanent environment and random errors. Breeding values of camels with and without records in this population were predicted for lactation traits using an animal model. Phenotypic variations for most lactation traits in Saudi camels were moderate; ranging from 12.2 to 31.2%. Direct heritabilities (h 2 a) obtained for lactation traits were moderate and ranging from 0.08 to 0.25. Ratios of permanent environment for these traits were also moderate and ranging from 0.20 to 0.28. The ranges in breeding values for the animals with and without records genetically evaluated were moderate or high. These ranges were 166.8 kg, 1312 kg, 1436 kg, 282 day, 121.2 kg, and 3.044 kg for 3MMY, AMY, TMY, LP, MMY, and DMY, respectively. Accuracies of breeding values recorded for lactation traits were high and ranging from 0.42 to 0.76. The percentages of animals that have positive estimates of breeding values for 3MMY, AMY, TMY, LP, MMY, and DMY were 57.9, 57.3, 54.3, 56.3, 56.4, and 53.3%, respectively. The rates of selection


Acute perforated appendicitis is a rare in neonate. Moreover the chances of perforation are high leading to peritonitis causing high morbidity and mortality. Appendicular perforation in neonatal age (our patient age is 9 days) may represent an underlying disease and therefore hirschprung disease, cystic fi brosis and isolated form of necrotizing enterocolitis limited to appendix should be ruled out. Here we present a case of neonatal appendicitis with perforation peritonitis; the age of the neonate is only 9 days. Neonatal appendicitis is already a very rare presentation and with this age, needs documentation.


The objective of this paper is to investigate the practices and preferences of the Central University of Venezuela doctoral graduates in disseminating and extending the results of their research to society as a whole through their publications on academic social networks, on the basis that this diffusion varies in each discipline. The graduates who were taken are those registered and with their doctoral theses in theinstitutional repository of the Universidad Central de Venezuela: SaberUCV. The presence of this group of doctors is described in the academic social networks Academica.edu, ResearchGate and the search engine Google Scholar. There is a weak presence of this group of doctors in the academic networks Academia.edu and ResearchGate, and they have in greater visibility in Google Scholar, consequently, hey miss opportunities to publicize their research and exchange with peers or citizens interested in academic issues.


The meteorological conditions associated with elevated and extreme long- and short-timescale forest fire risk are investigated by validating and diagnosing the Canadian Fire Weather Index (FWI) in the context of Tuscany in Italy, and Thessaloniki, Athens and Heraklion in Greece. The aim is to provide information to assist diagnosing experiments that use output from climate models to calculate FWI values. Links are made from fire risk to the widely used FWI, and then to the underlying meteorology, complementing other more complex fire risk model studies. First, the information about Mediterranean fire risk provided by the FWI is assessed by comparing the observed number of fires per day with FWI values based on the locally observed meteorology. This shows that the FWI provides some relatively consistent information for different locations, and suggests useful FWI thresholds indicating elevated and extreme fire risk. Then, the FWI system is split according to contributions from long- and short-timescale components, in a different way than usually adopted in the literature. Using the FWI thresholds suggested above, the long- and short-timescale meteorological conditions causing elevated and extreme FWI values are diagnosed. The results may help studies that investigate what aspects of projected climate change drive changes in fire weather risk, compare fire risk calculations from different climate models, or assess how climate models can be improved to provide better fire risk projections.


This paper presents the experimental results from a study of burning shredded peanut/tamarind shells in a bubbling fluidized-bed combustor with a cone-shape bed using alumina sand as the inert bed material. For both fuel options, the combustion tests were performed at the fuel feedrate of about 60 kg/h, when ranging excess air from about 20% to 80%. During each test run, temperature and concentrations of O2, CO, CxHy (as CH4) and NO were measured along the axial direction in the reactor as well as at stack. The axial temperature profiles in the reactor were found to be rather uniform and weakly affected by the fuel type and excess air. However, the axial profiles of distinct gaseous species showed similar trends for the two fuels with substantial effects from the fuel properties and operating conditions. The CO and CxHy emissions of the combustor can be effectively controlled via maintaining excess air. With increasing excess air, the NO emission was found to be increased remaining, nevertheless, at a level below the national NO emission limit. For the range of operating conditions, the combustion efficiency was found to be high, 97.6%– 99.8%, when burning peanut/tamarind shells as shredded fuels in this conical fluidized-bed combustor.


(57) Abstract: The present invention relates to a process for producing molten metal, in particular in the melt gasifier furnace 1, ores, especially partial melting pig iron 9 or molten steel intermediate from the reduction sponge iron or completely reduced sponge iron 3 it relates to a method for manufacturing. The carbon-containing material consisting of at least partially coal 16 and coal dust 13 with oxygen or an oxygen-containing gas is supplied to the layer 4 which is formed from the carbon-containing material. Ore, in some cases to produce a reducing gas is melted after preliminary final reduction stage. Otte coal 16 and coal dust 13 utilized, after the drying step, is mixed with bitumen 20 hot state, followed by a briquette produced by cold state. Briquettes 25 thus produced, in a cold state was charged into the melter-gasifier 1, impulsively heated.


ion needs to be applied reflexively in analysis of complex issues where the interactions between the general and the particular, the micro and macro, the past and the future are not linear mathematical relationships. Findings derived solely WINTHER, R. G. (2008) "Vicious Abstractionism" and "the Philosophic Fallacy": James and Dewey on the Promises and Limits of Abstraction. Department of Philosophy, University of California, Santa Cruz. P1 34 "... Neoclassical economics has developed its methodology in relation to its content in such a way that the two aspects are virtually inseparable; but the methodology has become the tail that wags the dog. This system of theory is inhospitable to any content which cannot well be handled by the elaborately developed methodologies now in use, because it would be unthinkable to reverse the direction in which the methodology is developing. ... The reward systems and status orderings which have become attached to neoclassical economics (as, over time, some sort of reward and status systems inevitably become attached to any developed system of theory) are now closely related to a unidirectional type of progress which contains little possibility of doing anything other than extending the accepted methodologies." GOODWIN, N. R. (1991) Social Economics: An Alternative Theory, St. Martin's Press. Pp151-152 Gary Burke Making Viability Sustainable 85 from abstract analysis cannot be meaningfully generalised or interpolated in complex situations. The abstract analysis used in neoclassical economics is a legacy of the generalised Platonic worldview that abstractions are "... instantiations of a transcendental world of pure forms that [exist] behind the veil of the physical world" (Wikipedia). This perspective is based on the belief that the abstract world has an internal consistency that is more consistent than the material world. It also believes that the abstractions and the relationships between them can be discovered and described mathematically, and that the purity and unbiasedness of mathematics provides (or proves) the scientific integrity of the analysis. The perspective holds that conclusions from ideal‐type analysis are transferrable to, and provide understandings of, the complexities of the socio‐cultural and biophysical world that they underpin. Neoclassical economists believe that their analysis removes the veil of complexity and that it is necessarily abstract to establish what is really going on to provide clearer understanding of the economic laws and forces that govern the world we live in. However, this worldview does not accord with contemporary understandings of reality consisting of living, dynamic complex systems. As described above, complex systems have emergent properties, meaning that the behaviour of the system cannot be understood from the behaviour of its component parts. Winther (Winther, 2008) explains that it is a profound error to take " ... partial abstract representations as exact models of the entire world" but there is a "dangerous nature of abstractionism' that leads to "ubiquitous"  'inference patterns" being applied from partial abstractions as generalisations: ...the agent forgets or denies that the process of abstraction has been performed. Instead, she insists on the completeness of her abstractions in capturing the world and remains indifferent to other perspectives. The inferential pattern, then, is valid abstraction followed by unjustified abstractionist exaggeration. p1-2 Winther argues that a plurality of abstractions and beliefs need to be considered (Winther, 2008) p4. Gary Burke Making Viability Sustainable 86 Christensen (Christensen, 2001) argues that it is ... inappropriate to base production theory and environmental economics on concepts which are incompatible with the operations of the physical and biological world. p16-17 Neoclassical economic approaches are framed without critical awareness of complex real‐world phenomena: for instance ecological dynamics, biodiversity and the irreversibility of living systems. The basic problem is that simplistic abstract perspectives and interpretations over‐ride consideration of the complexities that are creating the issues. In practical terms, this causes issues to be misconstrued and policy approaches to be malframed. The events by which the sardine fishery collapsed in California, as described in Steinbeck's novel "Cannery Row" (Steinbeck, 1992) provide a pertinent example. At the time of writing, there is significant public debate about the economic viability of the super trawler 'Abel Tasman' and whether it will destroy the biological viability of the fisheries in which it operates. Similarly, in Greece and elsewhere in Europe, the sovereign debt crisis is causing nationwide riots which are indications that the neoclassical economic framework is not able to accommodate the non‐economic implications of contemporary issues. 5.4 The arrogation of sustainability to suit the neoclassical economic framework The neoclassical economic interpretation adapts the sustainability concept so that it fits within the Cobb‐Douglas production function framework that underpins modern economic growth theory (Cobb and Douglas, 1928). This process of conceptual adaptation to suit the parameters of the economic discipline is called arrogation. 'Arrogation' is defined in the Australian Oxford Dictionary (Moore, 1999) p68 as "claiming (power, responsibility, etc) without justification". I describe the re‐interpretation of sustainability to suit the neoclassical economic framework as arrogation. Arrogation is undertaken so that sustainability accords with the abstract framework of neoclassical economics. The arrogation of sustainability denies the scientific integrity of the evolved concept of sustainability. The multidimensional concept of sustainability has been reconceptualised within the neoclassical economic discourse as a simplistic monodimensional economic Gary Burke Making Viability Sustainable 87 interpretation of sustainability. The dysfunctional relationship that results is discussed in the next chapter. Stirling (Stirling, 2006) (p235) uses Wynn's (Wynn, 2002) phrase 'legitimary discourse' to describe the process of strategically usurping a concept for one's own purposes. Teivainen (Teivainen, 2002) explains how neoclassical economists use ... a strategy of defining certain institutions and issues as 'economic' and using the doctrine of economic neutrality to produce a boundary between the 'economic' and 'political' spheres. p1 The prime example of arrogation is the conceptualisation of reality as existing of various forms of capital – natural capital, human capital and social capital – so that the breadth of economic analysis can be expanded without actually changing the analytical framework. That is, the conceptualisation of the world is created to fit the methodological and analytical techniques of the discipline. Poovey (Poovey, 2001) describes this as part of the process of commodification: ...it is a sign of the regime in which quantification and abstraction work together within the logic of abstraction, whose pre-eminence has grown in the last five centuries. This governing abstraction is capital, which is also a social relationship that has taken the form of a thing. p401 Conceptually adjusting the complexities of biophysical and socio‐cultural domains as various forms of capital is not commensurable with any other scientific understanding. There is no commensurable intellectual integrity in this neoclassical economic perspective of the world as consisting of various forms of capital. As Gallopin (Gallopin, 2003) puts it: The classical economicist view ... regards the economy as the relevant system, and relegates nature to the role of provider of natural resources and services and of a sink for the wastes produced by human activities...This is consistent with the notion of "very weak sustainability". The very weak sustainability approach asserts that natural and manufactured capital can 35 ... 'legitimatory discourse' ... involves the appropriation of the language of sustainability, in order to justify different normative, or instrumental ends. ...this kind of legitimation can often indicate a lack of reflexivity in governance. Moreover, there is no doubt about the important (and often invisible) role that this kind of strategic engagement plays.... WYNN, B. (2002) Risk and environment as legitimatory discourses of technolgoy: reflexivity inside out? Current Sociology, 50, 459-477. cited in STIRLING, A. (2006) Precaution, foresight and sustainability: reflection and reflexivity in the governance of science and technology. IN VOSS, J.-P., BAUKNECHT, D. & KEMP, R. (Eds.) Reflexive governance for sustainable development. Cheltenham, Edward Elgar. P235 Gary Burke Making Viability Sustainable 88 substitute perfectly for one another. The substitutability of different types of capital implies that the preservation of an aggregate level of natural plus manufactured capital, rather than the preservation of natural capital in particular is crucial. The sustainability of ecological systems is viewed as important only as far as required for the sustainability of the human component. p7 The arrogation of sustainability leads to a stream of research that ends with a framework that is only valid within neoclassical economism. First there is natural capital to describe nature, then the dichotomy of  'strong' or 'weak' sustainability is developed to describe sustainability in terms of emphasis on natural capital preservation. The strong sustainability approach holds that different types of capital (economic, ecological, social) should be independently maintained, in real physical/biological terms.... Weak sustainability places emphasis on the value of safeguarding ecological and biogeochemical processes that are irrecoverable if lost. (Gallopin, 2003) Pp 8-10 From a transdisciplinary perspective, one major pr


To host an operating system on client devices in a transparent system,the operating system needs to be modified to support device I/O redirection to the server: corresponding virtualized device drivers must be ported to replace original dri-vers.Besides,this method was difficult to be implemented in an operating systems without open interfaces,such as Windows XP.This paper presented a virtualized machine-based device subsystem to solve this problem.By leveraging hardware-supported virtualization of Intel VT and full virtualization approach of Xen,the I/O requested to disk and network devices in the guest domain were redirected to the transparent computing server through presented virtual device drivers integrated into the service domain.As a result,operating systems could run in a transparent client device unmodified.It also implemented a prototype,which verified feasibility of the new method.


The phytochemical analysis, antimicrobial and antioxidant activity were evaluated by methanol, chloroform, petroleum ether and water extract of Cosmos caudatus leaves and flower. The antimicrobial activity was carried out by Minimum inhibitory concentration method(MIC) of methanol extract of Cosmos caudatus were found to have potent antimicrobial activity against bacillus substilis and moderate activity against K.neumonia and candida albican . In case of MIC, methanol extract of cosmos caudatus exhibited MIC value at 5mg/ml and antioxidant activity carried out by Reducing power method, Ferric thiocynate (FTC) and thiobarbituric acid method (TBAR). The methanol extract of Cosmos caudatus shown more reducing power compare to chloroform and water extract. The percentage of inhibition of lipid peroxidation in linolenic acid in test of methanol, chloroform and water extract shown 72.1,41.37and 39.5 respectively compare to with standard antioxidants like Tocopherol (vitamin E) and Ascorbic acid (vitamin C) the percentage of inhibition were 75.52 and 54.46. by TBAR method.


Based on observations of 8 synoptic stations in Jiangsu province,the weekly change of urban fog duration,air temperature,humidity and wind speed were revealed in the present study.A clear weekly cycle is revealed in the fog duration,which is coincident with the cycles in air humidity and wind speed,i.e.,less(larger) surface wind speed,and larger(smaller) wind speed during weekend days(weekday).Further studies on the weekly cycle in power consumption and PM10(aerosol particulate matters of diameter10 μm) concentration for the period between June 2001 and December 2006 indicate that the human activity shows a significant weekly cycle with the largest value on weekdays and smallest value in weekend,corresponding with the variance of fog duration,which indicates the human activity would play an important role in generating the week cycle in fog duration.The effect of the weekly cycle of human activity related aerosol on fog duration reflects the interactions between human activities and high-impact of heavy fog.


Depending on the different sink speeds, angles of attack and masses; aircraft landing gears could face a wide range of impact conditions which may possibly cause structural damage or failure. Thus, in hard landing scenarios, the landing gear must absorb sufficient energy in order to minimize dynamic stress on the aircraft airframe. Semi-active control systems are the recent potential solutions to overcome these limitations. Among semi-active control strategies, those based on smart fluids such as magneto-rheological (MR) fluids have received recent attraction as their rheological properties can be continuously controlled using magnetic or electric field and they are not sensitive to the contaminants and the temperature variation and also require lower powers. This thesis focuses on modeling of a MR damper for landing gear system and analysis of semi-active controller to attenuate dynamic load and landing impact. First, passive landing gear of a Navy aircraft is modeled and the forces associated with the shock strut are formulated. The passive shock strut is then integrated with a MR valve to design MR shock strut. Here, MR shock strut is integrated with the landing gear system modeled as the 2DOF system and governing equations of motion are derived in order to simulate the dynamics of the system under different impact conditions. Subsequently the inverse model of the MR shock strut relating MR yield stress to the MR shock strut force and strut velocity is formulated. Using the developed governing equations and inverse model, a PID controller is formulated to reduce the acceleration of the system. Controlled performance of the simulated MR landing gear system is demonstrated and compared with that of passive system


OBJECTIVE:To observe the therapeutic efficacy and safety of atomolam in the treatment of liver injury in primary hepatic carcinoma patients after radiofrequency ablation(RFA).METHODS:76 primary hepatic carcinoma patients with normal liver function undergoing RFA were randomly divided into treatment group and control group with 38 patients in each group.Control group was given carnine,vitamin C and other drugs for liver-protective treatment;treatment group was additionally given atomolam 1.8 g added into 5% glucose injection 250 mL on the basis of control group.2 groups were given medicine 3 days before RFA,i.v.gtt,once a day for consecutive 3 days;they were given medicine on same day of operation,i.v.gtt,once a day for consecutive 7 days.The liver function markers(serum levels of TBIL,ALT,AST,SP,A,PLT and PT) of 2 groups were detected and compared in 1 day,7 days and 15 days after RFA respectively.The incidences of adverse drug reactions after RFA were recorded.RESULTS:After RFA,the liver function became abnormal gradually in both 2 groups,but the serum levels of ALT,AST and TBIL in treatment group were lower than control group significantly in 15 days after RFA(P0.01),while there was no significant difference in levels of SP and A(P0.05).CONCLUSION:Atomolan has some protective effect on liver function in primary hepatic carcinoma patients,and relieves some side effect induced by RFA.


@flukeout @chadsansing @omnignorant @humphd Had to go long form a little bit, but the thoughts have been chaotic.

After watching people fool around with Thimble for


An extension of a recent algorithm is proposed for the rapid determination of steady-state oscillations in large classes of piecewise-linear (PWL) systems. The modified algorithm has been successfully applied and can be directly incorporated at marginal cost into a computer-oriented state-space approach for generating the time-domain response of such systems.


This paper examines how teachers and administrators who were involved in a multi-year effort to engage in distributed leadership interpreted their experiences. We lay out and apply an argument for using an interpretive perspective to study distributed leadership. Collective sensemaking around distributed leadership is illustrated by an in-depth analysis of a single high school. The school was part of a larger study of six schools, and was selected to illustrate sensemaking over time in a large, complex school. There were three years of on-site interviews, observations and document analysis. We found that distributed leadership is a potential "disruption" to traditional patterns of leadership, work performance and influence in high schools. One-quarter of the school's faculty engaged with the "disruption" but all had a chance to process the change. The end result was that many became sense-givers and kept the momentum for teacher leadership going during significant personnel turnover among faculty and administration. The success of the efforts to create more broadly distributed leadership was facilitated by its integration into an existing improvement initiative.


Domain Decomposition (DD) techniques are not only the basic tools for data partitioning but also methods for constructing new parallel pde solvers. Domain Decomposition, mesh adaption and load balance seem to be in contradiction to the eecient use of massively parallel computers with serveral hundered, or even several thousand powerful, distributed memory processors. In the case of plane boundary value problems producing solutions with xed singularities caused by corner points at the boundary, by changing boundary conditions, or nonsmooth interfaces, it is possible to construct highly eecient, load balanced solvers based on non-overlapping DD techniques. The nite element discretization uses Courant's element on graded triangular meshes adapted to the singularities arizing. The nite element equations are solved by the conjugate gradient method parallelized and preconditioned by DD techniques. The use of modiied BPS precondi-tioners on the coupling boundaries and local multigrid methods with zero and specially chosen non-zero initial guesses in various Dirichlet DD precon-ditioners is studied. The numerical experiments carried out on transputer systems connrm the high eeciency of the parallel DD solvers proposed.


A series of Nd 1-x Cd x FeO 3 (x = 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3) nanoparticles were successfully synthesized from Nd(III), Cd(II) and Fe(III) nitrates by a simple co-precipitation method in boiling water with a 5% sodium hydroxide aqueous solution (without any surfactants) and annealed at 700, 850 and 950 °C for 1 h. SEM and TEM anal-yses showed particle sizes in the range of 50–70 nm. According to XRD the average crystallite size increased with the annealing temperature, but decreased when the cadmium concentration increased. As the annealing temperature was raised from 700 to 950 °C, the magnetic properties, such as coercivity (H c ), remanent magnetization (M r ) and saturation magnetization (M s ), of the Nd 0.8 Cd 0.2 FeO 3 sample also increased. In general, the H c , M r and M s values increased with the degree of cadmium doping. The synthesized Nd 1-x Cd x FeO 3 nanopowders have much larger coercivity values than some other rare-earth perovskites, such as Nd 1-x Sr x FeO 3 , NdFe 1-x Co x O 3 , LaFe 1-x Ti x O 3 , YFe 1-x Ni x O 3 , Y 1-x Cd x FeO 3 , La 1-x Cd x FeO 3 or Bi 1-x Cd x FeO 3 . The high H c value (1916.52–4833.41Oe) of the synthesized Nd 1-x Cd x FeO 3 nanopowders enables their use for permanent magnets or magnetic recording on hard disks and tapes.