Submitted for the MAR10 Meeting of The American Physical Society Temperature dependence of the non-local resistance and spin diffusion length in metallic lateral spin valves MICHAEL J. ERICKSON, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota, CHRIS LEIGHTON, Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Minnesota, PAUL A. CROWELL, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota — We report measurements of the T dependence of the non-local spin signal in lateral metallic spin valves with transparent ferromagnet (FM) / normal metal (N) interfaces. We have employed complementary spin valve and Hanle effect measurements to systematically study spin injection and relaxation. Devices were deposited in UHV from high purity sources of all four combinations of Ni0.8Fe0.2 or Co FM's and Cu or Al N channels. Devices of width 250 nm, thicknesses 200 400 nm, and FM contact separations (d = 250 to 2000 nm) were fabricated on a single substrate using an in-situ shadow masking technique. ∆RNL measurements show a very different T dependence for NiFe and Co devices while showing similar behavior for both Al and Cu. This is generally consistent with the measured resistivities and modeling based on the assumption of transparent interfaces. Fitting ∆RNL vs. d yields a spin diffusion length with weak T dependence for both Al and Cu and is independent of FM. Hanle effect measurements confirm a consistent picture of spin relaxation. Work supported by the University of Minnesota NSF MRSEC. Michael Erickson University of Minnesota Date submitted: 15 Dec 2009 Electronic form version 1.4


For a long time, mitochondrial electron transport chain (ETC) complexes was thought to function as separate entities. However, studies conducted in the past decade revealed that individual ETC complexes can assemble to form supramolecular structures known as supercomplexes (SCs). The SCs, particularly respirasome are composed of the ETC complexes I, III and IV in various stoichiometry. The respirasome is considered to play an important role in facilitating electron transport, reducing ROS production, and maintaining structural integrity of individual ETC complexes. Despite extensive studies on the molecular identity, the physiological role of SCs in cells, particularly, in high energy‐consuming organs such as the heart and brain remain unknown. These studies seek to determine whether disassembly of SCs affects the cardiac function in rats.


The three years research PN2 Project "Sustainable Management System of Resources Used for Monitoring and Evaluating the Environmental Risks in Order to Prevent the Negative Effects and to Manage Crises Situations - MEMDUR", code D11-037/18.09.2007, webpage: http://memdur.ssai.valahia.ro) has the main objective to design, develop, test and implement in Dambovita county an advanced management system which has to assure the evaluation of the environmental risk in order to administrate the crises situations, in accordance with the demands required by the sustainable development on local, regional and national level. The system offers methods and technologies for spatial databases development related to the monitoring of the environmental risk factors in order to evaluate their movement and impact and to improve the environmental management quality (Grunfeld 2005). Five academic and research institutions are involved in the project activities which started in September 2007. Six different phases are designed till the end of the project (September 2010) and particular / measurable sub-objectives are targeted to be reached: (a) increasing the technical and informational level of the knowledge related to the specific conditions of Dambovita county where environmental risk factors are presented; (b) defining the spatial conditions of the management system with the view of its adaptation to the knowledge-based information society demands; (c) defining the necessary information tools for the spatial management of the county in order to evaluate the environmental risks, anticipate and prevent the negative effects; (d) creating and developing the management system and demonstrating its utility; (e) developing dedicated applications for evaluating the risks; (f) generalizing the good practices of the sustainable management system through large-scale dissemination.


Materials used in radiation systems are in general restricted by a wide variety of boundary conditions. For example, in reactor systems the materials are required not only to possess suitable nuclear properties, but also to display adequate stability against radiation damage. Ceramic materials are important in this technology. Radiation fields to which reactor materials are subjected are described, and principal physical effects induced by the radiation are identified. The elucidation of these effects by materials scientists and engineers is important not only to nuclear technology, but also to a general understanding of structure sensitivity of solids.


Technology has advanced immensely in India in the recent years but its advantage has not been wholly utilized by the rural parts of our country. Villages hold a diversified job environment where most jobs can be made highly profitable by establishing proper communication among various professions. Information awareness in cities is playing a major role in improving small scale businesses which is missing in villages. This can be achieved by using appropriate use of available technology in villages which will help us determine correlations in rural India. A demographic analysis using stochastic mechanisms focusing on specific aspects can be used to learn about villagers and target appropriate methods to improve their lifestyle by the application of technology. We attempt to extract the demographics (like age, gender, place, skill sets) of a person and find various overlaps of his/her job nature with other professionals in a specific geography. This analysis would give us insights on a lot of interrelations among the various professions which can be exploited to maximum extent so that we achieve higher levels of productivity. A stochastic approach on the demographic data can be used to achieve this and thereby we can expect an inclusive rural development. Since, there are high levels of uncertainty on a variety of parameters we go for a stochastic approach to carry out our analysis. If we take probability theory into consideration, a purely stochastic system is one which is randomly determined and also has a random probabilistic distribution. The pattern which is derived from this system can only be analyzed statistically but cannot be accurately predicted. The probabilistic patterns obtained finally would provide us insights of how rural development is being carried out in a village and what factors should we need to focus on a that village to ensure wholesome development.


24 We live in a time of high technology. The instruments available in tertiary hospitals allow us to exclude or diagnose any heart disease with a high degree of precision. Nevertheless, it is not possible or suitable to use these methods indiscriminately in all patients. It would be an error to perform coronary arteriography in every patient with chest pain. If we did so, we would be absolutely sure of the presence or absence of obstructive injuries of the epicardial vessels, but the cost-benefit relation would be inadequate, and there probably would not be enough hemodynamic units available. For this reason, we usually resort first to noninvasive tests for the diagnosis of ischemic heart disease. Of all the noninvasive tests for inducing and detecting myocardial ischemia, the most elemental is exercise stress testing. This technique is widely available, inexpensive, easy to perform, and contributes different types of information: functional capacity, chronotropic response and the response of blood pressure to exercise, appearance of arrhythmias or conduction disorders, lower-limb claudication, chest pain, and electrocardiographic changes suggestive of myocardial ischemia. The capacity to tolerate effort testing indicates, in general, a better prognosis than inability to tolerate it. Pharmacological stress for the diagnosis of ischemic heart disease is indicated only in patients incapable of physical exercise, since the drugs do not reproduce a physiological situation, so many data of interest provided by the effort stress test cannot be evaluated. Two groups of drugs are used in pharmacological stress tests: inotropic or chronotropic-positive drugs and arteriolar vasodilators. Generally, inotropic or chronotropic-positive drugs are used with echocardiographic imaging and arteriolar vasodilators are used with radionuclide perfusion scans, although any type of drug can be used with any imaging system. When pharmacological stress testing is performed with imaging, the electrocardiographic information can usually be overlooked and the image is used fundamentally to determine if a test is positive or negative. Something similar occurs when effort stress testing is accompanied by imaging. When imaging shows ischemia, although there are no exercise-induced changes in the electrocardiogram (ECG), the patient is considered to have ischemia. On the contrary, if the image is normal and ECG changes are suggestive of ischemia, the patient is usually considered an electrocardiographic false positive. Some authors have compared the ECG and imaging information for the same patient using pharmacological stress testing with dobutamine and conclude that imaging is more trustworthy and informative, and that its precision for detecting ischemia is greater than that of ECG. It has even been suggested that we should dispense with the ECG when stress echocardiography is performed. The scant information that some investigators obtain with ECG could be due to inadequate electrode placement or the timing of the recording. When performing an echocardiogram, electrodes have to be moved to place the transductor where it will acquire the best image; in addition the patient is not in supine position, but in left lateral supine position, with the heart displaced. Often, not all the precordial leads are recorded because the chest electrodes interfere with the transductor in certain positions. In the case of radionuclide perfusion scan, serial ECGs are made during drug infusion, but the period of recovery cannot always be recorded because it coincides with the moment of image acquisition, so valuable information is lost. Frequently, dobutamine produces a greater modification in the ECG 5, 10 or even 15 min after concluding the infusion than during infusion. Few studies have been made with dobutamine and electrocardiographic control without adding imaging to assess the diagnostic capacity of ECG with this drug. Between 1989 and 1992 some studies in diffeED I TO R I A L S


Agriculture must become nutrition-smart. Food security without nutrition security is not enough. Our basic food systems have to be optimized to provide the greatest amount of nutrients per square meter per unit time, especially in the face of climate change. Majority of the Indian people are vegetarian and they depend primarily upon grain legumes for dietary protein. Unfortunately the production of grain legumes in India has remained stagnant since 1950 causing declining per capita availability and widespread malnutrition. This is because most of the good lands have gone to the green revolution led 'wheat-rice' and 'rice-rice' cropping systems and food legumes have been pushed to marginal lands. Also, the traditional food legume varieties are late in maturity with low yield potential. This has led to inadequate protein and minerals in the diets of rural and urban masses on one hand and imbalanced soil fertility due to cereal-cereal rotation on the other hand. Therefore, increased cultivation of pulses is urgently needed. How can this be achieved with the limited land is one of the major challenges of agricultural research. The only answer is to breed and cultivate short duration food legumes in the existing niches between cereal-cereal systems. Wheat is harvested in March–April and rice is transplanted in July leaving about 80-90 days gap in which a short duration food legume can be grown. A number of photo-insensitive and heat tolerant '60-day cowpea' varieties have been recently developed by Pantnagar University which were tested under farmer participatory on-farm trials and All India Multi-location Coordinated Trials with the support from Harvest Plus Project of CGIAR. These varieties can be grown as a niche crop in the wheat-rice cropping system of northern India which has a potential area of over 10 million ha. and also fit well in rice fellows in southern India.


peak. Almost no one would probably name Nanga Parbat, the eighth-highest mountain in the range. Yet this is the German and Austrian 'mountain of destiny'. Nanga Parbat was discovered in 1856 by the German explorer Adolph Schlagintweit as part of an expedition hoping to execute Alexander von Humboldt's plan for a precise topographical survey of the world. The mountain entered the German imagination in 1910 when the Munich author, publisher and mountaineer Walter Schmidkunz acquired the German rights to Albert Frederick Mummery's My Climbs in the Alps and the Caucasus, which contained enthusiastic descriptions of the apparently impregnable mountain which had claimed Mummery's life in 1895. Schmidkunz worked out that there was in fact a way the mountain could be conquered but did not share his view with fellow-climbers until after the First World War. As German and Austrian mountaineers, having thoroughly conquered the Alps before 1914, turned their sights on the Andes, the Caucasus, the Pamir and the Himalaya, Kangchenjunga was the initial target of their ambitions. Yet from the early 1930s, after two failed expeditions to Kangchenjunga, the focus turned to Nanga Parbat, albeit without much success initially. Between 1932 and 1939 six expeditions failed, claiming the lives of 15 local porters and nine German and Austrian climbers. Nanga Parbat was in fact only conquered by another German expedition in 1953. The sheer persistence of German-Austrian endeavours in the 1930s made Nanga Parbat into 'their' mountain. Success in 1953 was celebrated as a post-war triumph, the re-entry of the Germans into the world of mountaineering. In 2003 German television and other media commemorated the fiftieth anniversary of the ascent, and its long pre-history, as the mountaineering dimension of Germany's complex twentieth-century history. Harald Höbusch's absorbing book explores the ramifications of this story in three parts. The first two chapters consider the plans for the ascent of Nanga Parbat and the various expeditions between 1932 and 1953 in its changing national contexts: the growing popularity of mountaineering in the 1920s and the fascination with the Bergroman and the Heimatfilm; and National Socialist appropriation of Himalayan expeditions. The third and fourth chapters examine the printed records of the expeditions: the official expedition reports, German and Austrian newspaper and magazine coverage and the historical accounts of the post-1945 period. The final two chapters survey the filmic record, showing how the various expedition documentaries related to the Bergfilm and Heimatfilm genres. Höbusch's study will naturally appeal to anyone interested in the history of mountaineering. It also offers an unusual perspective on some of the major themes of twentiethcentury German history.


The atopic eosinophilic (AT- EOS) and non- atopic eosinophilic (NA- EOS) asthma have a Type 2 high response, with different cell types acting on each phenotype. In AT- EOS asthma, there is a greater participation IL- 4, IL- 5, IL- 13- producing T helper 2 cells along with antibody class switching to IgE, while NA- EOS asthma is linked to innate lymphoid cells 2 producing IL- 5 and IL- 13. 1 However, there are few studies evaluating the signature of cytokines being produced in serum of individuals with both phenotypes. Thus, the aim of this study is to evaluate the serum levels of cytokines and chemokines in individuals with atopic and non- atopic eosinophilic moderate to severe asthma (MSA). This study was planned to help understanding the immunopathogenesis of MSA in both phenotypes, as well as in-forming strategies for a more personalised treatment. For this, we evaluated individuals with MSA and mild asthma (MA), all aged over 18 years. Neither smokers nor pregnant women were included in this study. Individuals with MSA were recruited at the reference centre for severe asthma in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, called Programa para o Controle de Asma na Bahia (ProAR). The individuals with MA were invited to volunteer by advertising in health facilities and public transportation. All individuals diagnosed with difficult- to- treat severe asthma or treatment- resistant severe asthma according to the criteria adapted from the World Health Organization 2 are part of the MSA group in this study. In addition, only individuals with MSA were being treated with a combination of medium or high


Means which are made use of by the political communication in terms of propaganda studies are wide ranging. Modernism which attaches different views to many concepts ranging from art to identity sometimes constitutes mainstay of these studies. Modern woman identity is used to call woman electors in political communication studies. For example, social media formation called as CHP Retro opened position of modernization and woman identity within political communication up for discussion by the help of visuals prepared via propaganda actions performed on Twitter before 7 th June 2015 Turkey General Elections. Therefore in this study, relevant visuals will be analyzed and position of woman-identity and modernization within political communication will be discussed. Keywords: Political Communication, Modernism, Modernization, Art, Woman, Identity.


Using the technique of the rapid expansion of supercritical fluid solution,is a recent development,which is a novel and useful technique for preparing small particles.This paper discussed the fundamental principles,typical experiment apparatuses,influence factors,application researches and some problems of the rapid expansion of supercritical technique briefly.


The scheme of Space-Time Block Coded Adaptive Modulation(STBC-AM) is discussed.And expressions of average link spectral efficiency and bit error probability are derived.Theoretic analysis and numerical calculation show that adaptive modulation will improve the spectral efficiency.Although correlation between different fading channels has some effect on STBC-AM,the effect can be neglected when correlation coefficient is less than 0.5.Even if correlation coefficient reaches 0.8,STBC-AM still outperforms simple adaptive modulation schemes.


Current immunotherapy approaches aim to mitigate or reverse CD8+ T cell exhaustion to generate meaningful anti-tumor immune responses. However, the multi-step process of exhaustion fixes epigenetic programs that permanently scar T cells, limiting immunotherapeutic efficacy. Rather than reversing T cell exhaustion, we hypothesize that exploiting tumor-specific T cells from protected niches could yield therapies with improved anti-tumor benefit. A subset of TCF1-expressing precursor exhausted CD8+ T cells (TPEX) drives the anti-tumor immune response. The tumor draining lymph nodes (dLN) maintain a reservoir of TPEX cells which replenishes intra-tumoral effector T cells. Similarly, the bone marrow (BM) houses long-lived memory T cells with specificity against a broad spectrum of antigens, including tumor-associated antigens. Unlike T cells from the dLN or tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), BM T cells can be easily acquired from all patients at any disease stage. We used the B16.OVA-OT-I model to delineate how exhaustion affects tumor-specific T cells within the BM, dLN, spleen (SP), and tumor (TUM) during tumor progression. This model uses adoptively transferred transgenic, OVA-specific OT-I cells as a source of tumor-specific CD8+ T cells. High-dimensional immune profiling using spectral flow cytometry enabled us to characterize in vitro and in vivo anti-tumor functionality and the phenotype of OT-I cells derived from different compartments. Interestingly, upon adoptive transfer, OT-I cells resident in the TUM, dLN, BM, and SP or found in circulation were heterogenous in terms of function, persistence, and stemness. These findings suggest that discrete tissues impart location-specific T cell adaptations, and that tissue microenvironment markedly influences the exhaustion profile of tumor-specific T cells. OT-I cells derived from distinct lymphoid organs exhibited differential capacity for cytokine production and response to cognate antigen, especially compared to their TIL counterparts. Importantly, we identified BM- and dLN-derived CD8+ T cells as less exhausted and more functional than TILs. Moreover, BM resident T cells appear phenotypically more stem-like and similar to TPEX. Further studies to characterize this population are ongoing. This work implies that, in the context of localized disease, the kinetics of T cell exhaustion differ in lymphoid organs as compared to TILs. Leveraging a less-exhausted pool of tumor-specific cells may lead to greater anti-tumor benefit with new approaches to adoptive cell therapy. As the BM is accessible in all patients, understanding where tumor-specific BM T cells fall on the spectrum of exhaustion and memory could justify their use for such applications. Ongoing work aims to transcriptionally characterize tumor specific BM CD8+ T cells and evaluate their role in anti-tumor immunity.
 Citation Format: Elizabeth Maria Zawidzka, Luca Biavati, Amy Thomas, Megan Heimann, Ervin Griffin, Ivan Borrello. Microenvironment begets phenotype: Tumor specific CD8+ T cells derived from bone marrow and other lymphoid sites exhibit differential exhaustion profiles [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2022; 2022 Apr 8-13. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2022;82(12_Suppl):Abstract nr 6290.


Based on friction driving principle, design a long stroke length and high resolution walking micro-feeding device driven by piezoelectric ceramic elements and combined with the screw shaft and aerostatic guide way. The design was made to the adjustable preload device by flexible four-bar linkage. The static properties of flexible linkage device are analyzed with FEM. The transmission characteristics of micro-feeding device are exhaustively analyzed.


Among the various forms of ethical misconduct in scientific publishing, plagiarism is increasingly common. Plagiarism is defined as the presentation of a work containing parts authored by another person without due credit. One type of plagiarism that has gained prominence in recent years is self-plagiarism, in which authors themselves reuse their previous work without proper referencing. However, active discussion remains in the scientific community about this type of plagiarism, with the term being extended to some specific forms of misconduct in scientific publication. This practice leads to inauthentic work and ultimately undermines the integrity of science. The purpose of this article is to address in depth the definition of self-plagiarism, the underlying motives for this practice and its consequences for the scientific community. To do so, a non-systematic review of the literature was conducted. Guidance is provided on the major types of self-plagiarism, what can be done to avoid it and how to proceed when it is detected.


Abstract : This study researches the question, What does the CAF operator need to know about CNO? Section 1 provides the framework for the discussion as well as key background information regarding current United States Government strategic views and DOD views on cyberspace. Section 2 begins the CNO education by showing where CNO fits into the overarching information operations construct and concludes by providing a generic discussion of the interaction between each of the elements.Section 3 furthers the discussion by detailing how cyber forces are organized. Section 4 outlines the importance of CNO to the warfighter. Section 4 also lends vulnerability and capability analysis in an effort to drive the CAF mission planner or operator to think in terms of desired effects. Section 5 highlights a few of the key operational challenges in the areas of doctrine, organizational thought and system architecture, education and training, and planning in order to highlight issues that may hamper CNO support to the warfighter.


If politics is regarded in part as conflict over whose preferences shall prevail in the determination of national policy, then the budget records the outcomes of this struggle. If one asks, 'Who gets what the government has to give? then the answers for a moment in time are recorded in the budget. If one looks at politics as a process by which the government mobilises resources to meet pressing problems, then the budget is a focus of these efforts.2


This study aims to analyze the bank soundness level of 3 most popular commercial state-owned banks in Indonesia, namely: PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia Tbk, PT Bank Mandiri (Persero )Tbk and PT Bank Negara Indonesia (Persero) Tbk using RGEC Method ( Risk Profile, Good Corporate Governance, Earnings and Capital ). The bank soundness level was measured through some financial ratios such as NPL, IRR, LDR, LAR, ROA, ROE, NIM, OEF and factors of Good Corporate Governance (GCG) on RGEC Method. The type of this research in this study is quantitative descriptive and the data of this research were collected from the annual reports of each bank from the period between 2011 and 2015. The data were analyzed using MANOVA, ANOVA and Kruskall- Wallis methods in SPSS software. The findings of this research show that there is a significant difference on the Risk profile factors among BRI, Mandiri and BNI. The following factor, namely earning show significant differences as well. However, the capital factor and the GCG factors of those three banks do not indicate any significant difference. Keywords: Bank Soundness Level, RGEC Method, State-owned Banks


Four degraded okaramine B (2) products, 4′,5′-dihydrookaramine B (3), two azetidine ring-opened compounds (4 and 5) and 1′,2′,4′,5′-tetrahydrookaramine B (6), were prepared and their insecticidal activity was examined. Neither compounds 4 nor 5 showed such activity against silkworms, indicating that the azetidine ring moiety played an important role in the insecticidal activity. Moreover, both compounds 3 and 6 exhibited lower activity than 2, which means that the azocine ring moiety was indispensable to form the active conformation.


The concept of limiting factor includes the lack of welfare factors and the presence of decimating factors. Originally applied to populations and species, the concept may also be applied to wildlife in the aggregate. Because the decimating factor of economic growth eliminates welfare factors for virtually all imperiled species via the principle of competitive exclusion, economic growth may be classified as the limiting factor for wildlife conservation. The wildlife profession has been virtually silent about this limiting factor, suggesting that the profession has been laboring in futility. The public, exhorted by neoclassical economists and political leaders, supports economic growth as a national goal. To address the limiting factor for wildlife conservation, wildlife professionals need to become versed in the history of economic growth theory, neoclassical economic growth theory, and the alternative growth paradigm provided by ecological economics. The Wildlife Society should lead the natural resources professions in developing a position on economic growth.


A general decline in populations of some savanna mammal species has occurred since the mid-1980s in a fairly pristine national park environment in the Australian wet-dry tropics. Terrestrial native rodents have exhibited the greatest decline and marsupials the least. During the same period, waterholes have dried up and the previous strong association of mammals with riparian vegetation has diminished.

A regional index of the level of groundwater was developed from 16 unexploited bores from across the northern half of the Northern Territory. Predicted mean groundwater values over 28 years showed a strong increase throughout the 1970s and a similar decrease throughout the 1980s. Using data since 1986, strong correlations between mammal numbers and groundwater levels for the preceding two years, and much weaker relationships with rainfall, were obtained. In turn, the groundwater levels were best correlated with an eight-year running mean of rainfall for both Darwin and Alice Springs and an eleven-year running mean for the Southern Oscillation Index. Extrapolating backward in time, cumulative pressure variation at Darwin showed two extended periods of predicted low ground-water values, 1900s–1920s and 1940s. Both periods were preceded by the last records of a number of now-extinct mammals from central Australia. A third trough in the early 1960s suggests another period of extinction in central Australia, previously unappreciated due to the lack of survey work in the 1950s. Further, by this analysis, the past 20 years has been the best period for mammals since weather records commenced.

Analysis of continental-scale distributions of mammals showed evidence of fluctuations suggesting rocky areas are important refuges for some species during periods of low groundwater levels. In contrast to those in savanna habitats, the mammals of the extensive wetland areas fluctuated in harmony with rainfall on a short-term basis except where habitat is flooded. It is the species which occur only in savanna but not also in rocky or wetland habitats which are most at risk.

A number of other species-vulnerability characteristics were identified: riparian vegetation specificity; the degree to which they fall within the critical size range (35 g-5. 5 kg); degree of semelparity; smallness of population size; and smallness of geographic range. Those savanna species with annual life histories strongly associated with riparian areas are likely to be in greatest jeopardy. The species which appear to be most vulnerable in northwestern Australia are Conilurus penicillatus, Mesembriomys gouldii, Mesembriomys macrurus, Antechinus bellus, Phascogale tapoatafa and Rattus tunneyi.

Our recent benign climatic history has coincided with the great public environmental awakening and upsurge in environmental research and management efforts. This historical accident has probably led us to overstate the negative effects of human impact and also our ability to change the course of biological history by ameliorating human impact. Our distorted view of these factors has further led us to over-emphasize research of a spatial nature to the detriment of temporal studies. We must redress this balance.


The polymerase chain reaction was used to specifically amplify DNA of Gaeumannomyces graminis, a filamentous soilborne fungus that causes root and crown disease of cereals and turfgrasses. Nested primers were used to amplify a 188-bp fragment of mitochondrial DNA from fungal and infected-plant samples, which were simply boiled to release target DNA. Fungal DNA was amplified from single boiled hyphal tips or ascospores. G. graminis DNA was also detected in boiled crowns and roots from experimentally and naturally infected wheat, rice, and St. Augustine-grass and experimentally infected bermudagrass []


Onion (Allium cepaL.), the "Queen of Kitchen" is one of the most important commercial crop not only in India but also in the world. India ranks second in position both in area (12.04 lakhs ha) and production (194.02 lakh tones) in the world (NHB, 2014). In India, it is treated as most important export oriented vegetable, exporting to the tune of 13, 58,193.00 MT of Rupees 2,87,713.00 lakhs during 2013 – 2014 (NHB, 2014). In India, onion is cultivated for vegetable as well as medicinal purposes. Its medicinal properties are steadily gaining more importance in the world. It has benefits in lowering total plasma cholesterol, reducing blood pressure, regulating blood sugar, acts as blood purifier etc. Deficiency of micronutrients during the last three decades has grown in both, magnitude and extent. This has become a major constraint to production and productivity of vegetables in general and onion in particular. Indian soils are exposed to multi-micronutrient deficiencies that closely associated with the yield and quality of crops. Proper plant nutrition is one of the most important factors in improving the quality as well as quantity of plant products. Even though, micronutrients are needed by the plants in a minor quantities but it is involved in a wide variety of metabolic processes as well as cellular functions within the plants. In addition, they play an essential role in improving growth and yield of the crops as reported by EI-Tohamy et al., 2009 and Alam et al., 2010. In general, micronutrients play an active role in the plant metabolic process starting from cell wall development to respiration, photosynthesis, chlorophyll formation, enzyme activity, nitrogen fixation etc. (Ballabh et al., 2013). De et al., 2013 reported that Biozyme have marked influence over growth and yield attributing characters of onion like plant height, number of roots per plant, diameter of bulb and bulb weight as well as yield. Foliar application of micronutrients during active crop growth stage was successfully used for correcting their deficits and improving the mineral status of the plants as well as increasing the crop yield (Kolota and Osinska, 2001). Damse et al., 2014 revealed integrated approach of nutrient management with both organic and inorganic sources have positive effect on growth and yield of garlic.


In this study, sensitivity analysis of sediment transport scaling factors in Delft3D-Morphology was performed to examine the effect those parameters on simulation results of cross-shore profile changes. For numerical experiments, one-year wave time series data which were observed in 2018 on the Maengbang coast in Gangwon prefecture were applied as external force. Bathymetric data observed in January and October of the same year were used as initial bathymetric data and annual bathymetric change data, respectively. The simulation performance of the model was evaluated based on the Brier Skill Score index for each part by dividing an arbitrary cross section within the calculation domain into the onshore and offshore parts. As a result, it was found thet the fBED variable has a slight effect on the simulation results. The fBEDW and fSUSW variables show good simulation performance in onshore part when the value less than 0.5 is applied and vice versa. Among the experimental conditions, the optimal combinations of variables are fBED = 1.0, fBEDW = 1.0, fSUSW = 0.1 for the onshore region and fBED = 1.0, fBEDW = 1.0, fSUSW = 0.5 for the offshore region. However, since these combinations were derived based on the observation data on Maengbang beach in 2018, users should be careful when applying those results to other areas.


The idea of the current work was the combination of the organic geochemical analyses, and the study of sedimentology characteristics of the source rock samples collected from the Ispartaçay Formation (Cretaceous period) between the city of Antalya and the city of Isparta, southwestern Turkey. Total Organic Carbon analysis and Rock-Eval pyrolysis were performed on the 24 samples taken from the study area, in order to evaluate quantitatively, and qualitatively organic matter and thermal maturity to determine the potential for hydrocarbon production. As well as studying the petrographic features (component and diagenesis), microfacies analysis, and sedimentary environment of the Ispartaçay Formation. The successions of the Ispartaçay Formation are poor to fair organic matter content and consist of dark grayish limestone, marly limestone, shale, massive cherty limestone, and thin-bedded radiolarian limestone. Total Organic Carbon values indicate that Ispartaçay Formation rocks are fair potential. Besides this, most of the samples from the Ispartaçay Formation contain mature to pot-mature (Type III -Type IV) kerogen. Petrographically, the particle portion of the Ispartaçay sediments is composed mainly of radiolarians, and planktonic foraminifera, In addition to the presence of a proportion of benthic foraminifera, whereas the groundmass is composed of micrite. Generally, the present sediments are subjected to some diagenetic processes like silicification, cementation, and dissolution. The microfacies analysis revealed that the succession of the Ispartaçay Formation is composed of alternations of two major microfacies, namely lime mudstone and lime wackestone microfacies. Depending on the facies and petrographic evidence, Ispartaçay Formation represents sediments deposited in the mid to outer ramp environment.


Comprehensive review of investigations of substances with a small difference in the energies of the ferroelectric and antiferroelectric types of dipole ordering is presented. Detailed analysis of the stability of homogeneous phases and conditions for existence of the inhomogeneous state of the substance containing domains of the coexisting ferroelectric and antiferroelectric phases is presented. It is shown that the interaction of locally separated domains of the ferroelectric and antiferroelectric phases stabilizes an inhomogeneous state of these materials. The analysis of physical phenomena caused by the presence of domains of the coexisting ferroelectric and antiferroelectric phases in different dipole ordered substances is presented. Peculiarities of behavior of the systems with the inhomogeneous state of coexisting phases under the action of changing external thermodynamic parameters (temperature, pressure, electric field, and chemical composition) are analyzed and their importance for applications of these materials is discussed.


In recent years, remarkable advancement has been made in cardiac resuscitation, and clinical data indicate that the resuscitation rate has been greatly improved. This advancement can be attributed to the introduction of the closed chest cardiac massage (CCCM), which marks an epoch in resuscitology.However, CCCM must be administered by well trained individuals to preclude the development of complications, such as rib and sternal fractures, bone marrow emboli, liver or spleen lacerrations. In the case of an obese patient, particularly one with a thick thorax, this technique may be inadequate to provide sufficient flow of blood to the brain. In such cases, should brute force be applied, in an attempt to obtain satisfactory efficacy, the forementioned complications are unavoidable.The author has attempted to develop a technique that will furnish the efficacy of the CCCM but does not require the violent force necessary to depress the sternum. Furthermore, the author developed a new technique of cardiac resuscitation through the oesophagus by inflating a balloon rhythmically which was inserted an appropriate level of the oesophagus behind the heart. The balloon was connected by a thick-walled long tube to another balloon that was placed on the sternum. Thus, the combined technique of CCCM was accomplished from both sternal and oesophageal side by depressing the balloon on the sternum and concomitantly inflating the balloon in the esophagus.The purpose of this study is to determine whether the new technique would be sufficient to support CCCM without the need for violent force which can cause severe complications.


Summary Neuro Clarity is a low quality nootropic. We have no idea why this brain supplement is still so widely-used. Neuro Claritys main ingredients ...


It is the purpose of this study to (1) produce a play in an expressionistic style; (2) submit a thesis of analysis; and (3) present the thesis in such a way as to show that an expressionistic style can be applied to a play written for the professional stage in a creative, artistic manner.


The employment of fertilized egg has proven of value for the cultivation of some bacteria and a number of filterable viruses. The chorio-allantoic membrane has been mostly used as the site of infection. Since the cultivation of anaerobic microorganisms in unfertilized and developing fertilized eggs has not been recorded, the preliminary results of such a study with an obligatory anaerobe, Cl. tetani, is herewith communicated. Technic. A pure toxigenic strain of Cl. tetani, recently isolated from a patient, was used. Cultures in cooked meat tube after 48 hours' growth were used as the inoculum. Unfertilized and developing fertilized hens' eggs of different age were employed. After the position of the embryo and the air sac was identified by transillumination and marked off and the shell opposite the air sac was sterilized with tincture of iodine, a small opening was made with a carborundum disc attached to a dental drill, leaving the inner shell membrane intact, which was later cut with a small knife after resterilization with 70% alcohol and heat. A loopful of inoculum was then introduced through this opening to the center of the yolk sac, and in the case of fertilized eggs toward a point at some distance from the embryo. The shell aperture was then closed with melted hard paraffin. The eggs were then incubated at 37°C. Different batches of them were taken out and examined grossly and by stained smears microscopically. Aerobic contaminations were excluded in every instance by absence of growth of the eggs' content on blood agar plates. Results. At first, cultivation was done in unfertilized eggs. Fifty-four eggs were divided into 9 groups of 6 each: One group unheated, others heated in water bath at 90°C for 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 3.0, 5.0, 10.0 minutes respectively, and still others fully cooked by boiling for over 15 minutes.


Carbon-carbon composite material is a carbon fiber reinforced, and because of its high strength, elasticity and excellent heat-resisting property in high temperature, carbon-carbon composite material has been used in many fields such as aerospace, automotive industries, etc. Especially, aircraft brake discs used in aerospace can be cracked due to its fatigue and vibration under various loading condition. This research is focused on the influence of vibration of carbon-carbon composite material by using accelerometer with impact hammer excitation, and the change of vibration mode will be known by applying tensile loading test.


ABSTRACT The Rosato law has established a new electoral system featuring single-member districts (S.M.Ds) along with a prevailing proportional tier. S.M.Ds are typically associated with individual incentives to cultivate a personal vote and with a more direct link between representatives and their local constituency. This article investigates patterns of personalized votes in the Italian elections of March 2018 by analysing voting data about candidates for the Chamber of Deputies who ran in the plurality tier. Results reveal that only a minor – although not negligible – portion of Italian voters cast their ballot for an individual candidate only, and that these votes had almost no impact on the outcomes of competition in S.M.Ds. Moreover, some interesting differences across geographical areas, parties and coalitions emerge in the use of personalized vote.


This report on water management institutions in the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo basin was produced by a policy research project in the academic year 1982-1983. The study was supported by grants from the Middle Rio Grande Development Council and the Lyndon B. Johnson Foundation. This volume provides a directory of government institutions involved in the management of water resources in the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo basin in both Texas and Mexico. Each entry includes details on legislative authority, budgetary capacity, board membership, and geographical area of interest. One purpose of the directory is to provide the reader with a brief overview of the institutions operating in the basin. It also lists the names and addresses of persons within these institutions who can be contacted for additional information concerning their organizations' operations.


The opening of RRBs in rural areas is a new and philosophical experiment; with the object to mobilise productive activities in rural India. In order to make this experiment successful, they are being operated by persons with rural aptitude.


Abstract In this article, an M/M/1 queueing model with bi-level network service provider, balking process and bi-level vacation policy that comprises of working vacation and complete vacation after fixed service, is developed. Matrix form expressions have been derived for the distributions of the queued customers with some performance metrics with the help of matrix geometric method. The maximum entropy principle is also used to derive the distributions of the steady state probabilities of queue size. The cost function has been formed to optimize the decision variables of the system. We perform the cost optimization by employing the steepest descent search method. Numerical illustrations along with the sensitivity analysis have been drawn to validate the model. Finally, the conclusions of the investigation done are drawn by mentioning the novel features and future scope.


The fast atom bombardment (FAB) mass spectra of telluronium salts were studied. The spectra exhibit the intact cation (C+) and cluster ions ([M + C]+). The principal fragment ions in the FAB mass spectra of telluronium salts are [RTe]+, [R2Te]+˙, [R2Te − H]+, [RTeR′]+˙, and [RTeR′ + H]+. When the anion was [BPh4]−, interesting cluster ions such as [M + C − BPh3]+ appeared.


The endocrine stress response helps to maintain homeostasis at times of increased demand and supports survival through energy mobilization. Paradoxically, low blood glucose levels impede the endocrine stress response, yet increasing blood glucose levels through sugar consumption prior to stress restores it. This suggests that glucose availability may play a causal role in the endocrine stress response. However, sugar has other distinct properties beyond the raise of blood glucose concentration. Here, we investigated the potential role of sweetness in restoring the cortisol stress reactivity after fasting. N=152 women (mean(age)=21.53, sd(age)=2.61) participated in a psychosocial stress test for groups in the morning after an overnight fast. Prior to stress induction, participants either consumed a drink that contained a caloric sweetener (sugar, n=51), an equally sweet drink containing non-caloric sweetener (sweetener, n=46), or water (n=56). Salivary cortisol and blood glucose levels were assessed repeatedly. Former studies suggested that sugar load prior to stress leads to increased cortisol responses compared to water, and sweetener. The effects of the consumed drinks on cortisol trajectories were tested using multilevel mixed models. Unexpectedly, we found that sugar and sweetener each significantly increased cortisol stress reactivity compared to water. Indeed, sweetener lead to cortisol increases comparable to sugar. Changes in blood glucose levels after drink consumption were not significantly associated with stress-induced increases in cortisol. This suggests that not the metabolic properties of sugar, but properties of sweet taste prior to stress are critical to boost the endocrine stress response to stress.


In Ayurveda the whole concept of fetal growth is included under the heading of Garbha. Here the essential factors of conception, time of conception followed by formation and its subsequent development to form an individual is stressed. The term 'Garbha' include zygote, embryo or fetus. Ayurvedic classics have lucidly elaborated the concept of garbha as well as the influencing factors for its growth and development starting from sukra-sonita samyoga. Fetal development includes continuous process of maturation of structure discussed under three period of gestation i.e. Germinal, Embryonic and Fetal period. The classics enriched with formation and subsequent development are highlighted under the term 'vriddhi'. Different factors are considered for fetal growth like excellence of the factors responsible for production of fetus viz. Sadabhava (six factors for embryogenesis), Adoption of proper diet & regimen by the mother during pregnancy, Availability of nourishment through upasneha & upasveda, Kala (proper time) & Swabhava samsiddhi (instinctive or natural tendencies). Sadabhava in other way exhibit genetic influences by Matrija & Pitrija bhavas while Satmya & Rasaja bhavas come from maternal diet & regimen. Satva & Atma are the individual factors that come to garbha (fetus) itself. This concept of sadabhava highlights the development of a complete human being. Here Mahabhuta plays an important role in embryogenesis with the help of functions such as separation or segregation of cell mass, influences of different hormones, nourishment passing through chorionic villi in early part and later through umbilical cord, followed by stabilization and structural development of body parts, as well as symmetrical and chronological increase of all these structures are attribute to the functions of Vayu, Teja, Apa, Prithvi and Akash respectively. In applied aspects Garbhasosha, Nagodara, Upasushka etc are mentioned. Upasuska emphasised with intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) while jataharini include intra-uterine growth retardation (IUGR) and intra-uterine death (IUD). The present work highlights all these concept of fetal growth interpreting with different aspects of embryology while morbidity stressed through teratology.


Introduction One of the long-term objectives of our research program is to contribute at strategic, tactical and theoretical levels with approaches leading to the creation of new stereogenic centers, notably on acyclic molecules, which as a class are among the most difficult chemical entities to transform stereoselectively due to their flexibility. Of particular interest to us is the use of free-radical intermediates that were completely overlooked in such approaches, until a decade ago. The synthesis of new biologically important molecules to be used in deciphering the mechanism of various biological processes or in interfering with a given pathology, is an equally important long-term objective of our laboratory, particularly we are interssested in the natural products derived from the polyketide biosynthesis pathway.


This workshop, in which seven laboratories participated, was organized for review of the clinical and cytogenetic data in chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) and acute non-lymphocytic leukemia (ANLL) with the aim of: (1) correlating clinical findings and chromosome constitution in a large series of cases; (2) identifying techniques that could provide useful information for future studies; and (3) determining which hematologic diseases should be studied in the future on a multi-center basis.


Because research-supported human resource (HR) practices appear to positively affect organizational outcomes, it is important to understand the factors that impact managers' agreement with HR research findings. The authors drew from two theoretical perspectives to develop and test a model of factors related to managers' agreement with research findings about effective HR practices. Using structural equation modeling, the authors found that job level and managers' perceptions of their organizations' business strategies directly influence managers' agreement with HR research findings. In addition, managers who read academic journals are more likely to agree with research findings. Implications for reducing the belief gap between academics and managers are discussed.


It is very important to explore the influence of temperature on fracture toughness CTOD in welded joints of thick steel plate in the process of fabrication of modern huge steel structure.The submerged arc welding(SAW) craft(WPS017) and shielded metal arc welding(SMAW) craft(WPS016 and WPS016A) were designed for S355ML steel with thickness of 65 mm.At 15oC and-20℃,the Crack Tip Opening Displacement(CTOD) tests were performed for the welded joints in WPS017,WPS016 and WPS016A.The results are following:For the weld position(WP) of SAW craft,the minimum CTOD value at-20℃ is lower than the minimum CTOD value at 15℃ about 13.9%,and the average CTOD value at-20℃ is also lower than the average CTOD value at 15℃ about 8.0%.But the CTOD values of heat affected zone(HAZ) are higher than the CTOD values of WP and basic metal(BS).What is more,the CTOD values of HAZ are almost insensitive to the changes of temperature.For the SMAW craft,the minimum CTOD value of WP at-20 ℃ is about 34.5% of the minimum CTOD value of WP at 15℃,and the average CTOD value of WP at-20 ℃ is about 25.9% of the average CTOD value of WP at 15℃.The CTOD values of HAZ at-20℃ are also very lower.Under the room temperature(15℃),the WP of SAW(WPS017) posses higher CTOD values than the WP of SMAW(WPS016).In low temperature(-20℃),the WP and HAZ of SAW(WPS017) have higher CTOD values than SMAW (WPS016).


The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of the temperature-humidity index (THI) and days in milk (DIM) on milk production traits and somatic cell score (SCS) of dairy cows raised in north area of Iran. To calculate THI, ambient temperature and relative humidity were obtained from the nearest stands. Milk production data included 67,774 test-day records for milk, fat, and protein yield, fat, and protein percentage and SCS. These traits were associated with the average THI of the 3-d preceding the respective measurement, which was divided into five classes, 40-50, 50-60, 60-70, 70-80, and ≥80). Greatest milk yields were recorded in THI≤60 (P<0.05). The highest decrease in milk yield in connection with THI values were recorded in the early lactation (0 to 100 DIM). SCS was positively associated with the THI and increased more in early period of lactation.


Background. Locoregionally advanced head and neck cancers are more aggressive and locoregional failure rate after conventional radiotherapy is high.
Objective. The aim of the study is to assess the tumor response and toxicities of hypofractionated radiation therapy with concurrent chemotherapy in treatment of four relatively radioresistent tumor sites of head and neck.
Methods. A prospective randomised control trial was conducted in 27 head and neck cancer patients. All patients were treated with hypofractionated radiotherapy at 250cGy/fraction once daily to a maximum of 62.5Gy in 25 fractions with concurrent cisplatin 30 mg/m2. Data were evaluated with SPSS version 21.0 for Windows with p-value <0.05.
Results. Complete and partial responses were achieved in 15 (57.7%) and 8 (30.8%) patients respectively with an overall response rate of 88.5% and three patients having stable disease. Grade 3 and 4 acute mucositis was experienced by 17 patients (65.4%) and seven patients (27%), respectively. Grade 3 dysphagia was found in 21 patients (80.7%) and grade 3 and 4 skin reactions – in 11 and 2 patients, respectively. Most patients had manageable acute toxicities. Most of the late complications were of grade 2 and 3. The median time to locoregional recurrence was 12 months and one year progression-free survival attained by 61.5% patients.
Conclusion. Treatment with hypofractionated radiotherapy with concurrent cisplatin appears feasible and safe and is associated with a good response rate. Although grade 3 and 4 toxicities were comparatively high but it was manageable. Late toxicities were within tolerable levels.


Abstract The limit equilibrium method (LEM) and the strength reduction method (SRM) are popular tools used for assessing the stability of slopes. However, they require complex numerical geomechanic...


Companion animals and farm animals are subject to a variety of external and internal parasitic diseases and many of the active ingredients used in veterinary medicinal products intended to treat these conditions are also used in the formulation of pesticides. These include, but are not limited to, the synthetic pyrethroids, the organophosphorus compounds and the avermectins. Many of these substances possess significant mammalian toxicity and thus they may pose toxicological hazards, with associated risks, for human safety either through direct contact or by way of residues in food of animal origin. The toxicological properties of the most common substances encountered in the treatment of companion and farm animal parasitic diseases are reviewed in this chapter.


The Woman, Infants, and Children (WIC) program is an integral component of America's societal safety net. The third largest food assistance program in the United States as measured by expenditure, the WIC program serves nearly half of all infants born in the U.S. (Davis 2007) and about one-quarter of children ages 1 – 4 (Oliveria et al. 2002). The WIC program supports food access, health care, and nutritional education for low-income, pregnant, and postpartum women, infants, and children up to five years of age. The WIC program is administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), as authorized under the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 and subsequent re-authorizations of said Act.


B-doped Si(001) films, with concentrations CB up to 1.7×1022 cm−3, were grown by gas-source molecular-beam epitaxy from Si2H6 and B2H6 at Ts=500–800 °C. D2 temperature-programed desorption (TPD) spectra were then used to determine B coverages θB as a function of CB and Ts. In these measurements, as-deposited films were flash heated to desorb surface hydrogen, cooled, and exposed to atomic deuterium until saturation coverage. Strong B surface segregation was observed with surface-to-bulk B concentration ratios ranging up to 1200. TPD spectra exhibited β2 and β1 peaks associated with dideuteride and monodeuteride desorption as well as lower-temperature B-induced peaks β2* and β1*. Increasing θB increased the area under β2* and β1* at the expense of β2 and β1 and decreased the total D coverage θD. The TPD results were used to determine the B segregation enthalpy, −0.53 eV, and to explain and model the effects of high B coverages on Si(001) growth kinetics. Film deposition rates R increase by ⩾50% with increa...


This paper explores the use of the artificial bee colony algorithm to obtain the switching angles of a five-level Cascaded H-bridge Multilevel Inverter. The objective of the algorithm is to reduce the Total Harmonic Distortion in the inverter output voltage. These switching angles are compared in a laboratory prototype with the fsolve method, which is included in the Matlab software. The results show a better Total Harmonic Distortion of the output voltage compared with the fsolve method.


This chapter shows how a broad class of uncertain mechanical systems (including robots) can be forced to behave like a chosen and therefore perfectly known reference model. This model can be used to calculate off-line some particular trajectories or to design some model based control schemes. The presented results are well suited for applications where the robot has to repeatedly perform certain tasks, e.g. in assembly operations with very high precision requirements. A nonlinear reference model and a simple regulator with variable structure control is used. The advantages of using a nonlinear reference model are twofold.


Objective To investigate the influence of Buyang Huanwu Decoction(BHD) on the cerebral cortex blood flow and the whole blood viscosity of chronic cerebral ischemia rats. Methods The chronic cerebral ischemia rat model was established by occlusion of bilateral common carotid arteries on specific-pathogen free SD rats. And then the qualified model animals were randomly divided into model group, Ginaton group(45mg·kg-1·d-1), high- and low- dose BHD groups(in the dosage of 40, 20 g·kg-1·d-1, respectively), and sham operation group. The cerebral cortex blood flow and whole blood viscosity index were observed. Results Cerebral cortex blood flow of the model group was significantly declined( P 0.05 compared with the sham operation group), while the cerebral cortex blood flow of the high-dose BHD group and Ginaton group was significantly increased( P0.05 compared with the model group). Whole blood viscosity of chronic cerebral ischemia rats at the shear rates of 150, 30 and 5 s-1were increased significantly(P0.05 compared with the sham operation group). After intervention with BHD and Ginaton, the whole viscosity at various shear rates was decreased, but only the differences of viscosity at the shear rate of 1 s-1in the high-dose BHD group and viscosity at the shear rates of 150, 30, 5 and 1 s-1in the low-dose BHD group were significant when compared with the model group( P 0.05). Conclusion BHD can significantly improve cerebral cortex blood flow in chronic cerebral ischemic rats, which is related to the decrease of whole blood viscosity.


A live conference debate & digital media showcase organized by the EUROPRIX Multimedia Awards addressing young, creative multimedia developers under 30 years, who work in the field of media design and e-Content. Focusing on innovation, creativity and originality, the EUROPRIX Multimedia Awards differ from the other contest. The main idea is to encourage the best young talents from all around Europe and establish a Europe-wide platform for promoting the best multimedia projects. In addition to the renowned awards the EUROPRIX offers an international network of students, producers and lecturers. The EUROPRIX Multimedia Awards are organized by the International Center for New Media (ICNM) and invite students and young professionals from 40 countries.


We consider a general quasi-variational inequality problem involving nonlinear, nonconvex and nondifferentiable term in uniformly smooth Banach space. Using retraction mapping and fixed point method, we study the existence of solution of general quasi-variational inequality problem and discuss the convergence analysis and stability of a three-step iterative algorithm for general quasi-variational inequality problem. The theorems presented in this paper generalize, improve, and unify many previously known results in the literature.


The origin of dolomite is a long-standing problem in geology,which is the so-called"dolomite problem". Recently,microbial dolomite mechanism attracts significant attention.Dolomite is ubiquitous in modern and ancient seep carbonates and the seep dolostone often occurs as chimney and tube.Rhombic dolomite,spindle-shaped and dumbbell dolomite are generally observed in micro scale.Their widely varied carbon isotopic values imply mixed carbon sources,including methane(biogenic methane and thermogenic methane),dissolved inorganic carbon of seawater,organic matter of sediments and residual CO2from methanogenesis.Variable oxygen isotopic values may relate to formation and decomposition of gas hydrate,dehydration of clay minerals,and formation temperature.The anaerobic oxidation of methane and sulfate reduction at semi-closed seep environment might be suitable for dolomite precipitation.The research of seep dolomite coupled with bacteria-mediated laboratory study would possibly provide a hopefully direction for solving"dolomite problem".


Taking a "plunge" into the community puts trustees in touch with the real people affected by decisions made in the boardroom. It's an education that goes beyond facts, figures, and policies. Trustees and execs at Memorial Health System in South Bend, Ind., have used this method for several years to put a face on social issues that influence their community's health.


This paper analyses the influence of the vertical axis tilt error of total station on determined angle,elaborates the purpose and function of the compensator of total station and its working principle,and how to exactly use compensator in practice.


to being more likely to fail and dropout, African students are also less likely to succeed academically, let alone excel while doing so. In a critical move against a dominant deficit, failure, and drop-out discourse that surrounds African students in South African higher education, this paper reports on a study that explored exceptional academic achievement in African students. Specifically, using the data production strategies of auto- photography and photo-elicitation, eight academically exceptional undergraduate African students in a South African university explored the (academic) activities that were associated with their academically exceptional outcomes. Interpretative thematic analyses of the auto-photographical accounts highlighted not only how the participants excelled academically, but also who they were becoming in the process. Data from three of the eight participants is drawn upon in this paper to introduce the notion of retro(pro)spectivity, and to show how co-regulation of learning can be centralised when explaining an exceptional academic achievement trajectory for African students in South African higher education.


The ferro-resonance in the neutral ungrounded power system is common fault which seriously impacts the safe operation of power system and measures should be taken to reduce its influence.Based on the 10 kV neutral ungrounded power system of connecting a nonlinear resistance or a single-phase potential transformer,or their combination,this paper simulates and analyzes the prevention measures.Through the simulation,it is found that the combination measure not only reduces transient current and overvoltage,but also reduces the zero sequence voltages which have bothered operation staff for a long time.


We used a modified animal model to evaluate the effects of flavonoid of Ginkgo biloba (FGb),a major content of extract of Ginkgo biloba (EGB), on the functional and physiological changes following traumatic brain injury(TBI). The cortical injury was impact delivered by a metal rod on the left motor cortex of the anesthetized rat. The impact device consists of a glass tube set vertically over the anesthetized rat head. A rod weighted 37 5 g with the diameter of its impact tip being 3 6 mm. Without destroying the dura, this impact injured the left motor cortex but did not produce significant cardio respiratory effects. Thus, neither generalized hypoxia, ischemia, nor brain herniation at the injured site with local ischmia hypoxia, confounded our conclusions. Male Wistar rats, weighting 150~200 g, were used in the three groups of experiments. In behavioral group, effects of FGb on the recovery process of locomotive equilibrium ability of rats following TBI were tested. A rotating beam was used to evaluate the locomotive equilibrium ability of the rats. Animals were randomly divided into three subgroups after cortex injury: (1) FGb treatment group ( n =4); (2) EGb treatment group ( n =6); (3) control group ( n =6). In cortex group the volume of cortex and lateral ventricles of the rats were measured 30 days after TBI. Animals were divided into three subgroups: (1) sham group ( n =6) in which animals received a craniotomy but were not injured; (2) L saline group ( n =6) in which animals were injured and treated with saline; (3) L FGb group ( n =6) in which animals were injured and treated with L FGb. In amino acid group we measured the concentration of two excitatory amino acids (glutamate and aspartic acid) and two inhibitory amino acids (GABA and glycine) in the cortex and hippocampus of rats at 3, 6 and 48 hour after TBI. Animals were divided into four subgroups: (1) normal group ( n =4) in which animals were sacrificed without craniotomy; (2)control group ( n =18) in which animals were injured and treated with saline; (3) FGb treatment group 1 ( n =18) in which animals were injured and treated with 25 mg/kg/d of FGb; (4) FGb treatment group 2 ( n =6) in which animals were injured and treated with 50 mg/kg/d of FGb. We found that FGb remarkably accelerated the recovery process of the locomotive equilibrium ability of rats after TBI and ameliorated cerebral edema caused by the injury. At 3 hours after injury, the concentrations of all four amino acids decreased. The duration and magnitude of the variation of the concentrations of these four amino acids were different between the cortex and hippocampus, and were also different with each other. But FGb obviously inhibited the immediate declination of those amino acids following the injury. These results indicate that the amelioration of edema and inhibition of the declination of the four amino acids following the injury may be the possible mechanisms of the promoting effects of FGb on the functional recovery of TBI.


The problems of integration of marketing informational resources under the conditions of globalization of the modern economic space are considered. The author suggests the concept of integrated system of marketing informational system, the components of which embrace the whole hierarchy of the modern enterprise management system and permit to increase the efficiency of the adopted management decisions.


Studies have shown that poor exposure selection is the major cause of repeat radiographs in a diagnostic x ray department (Kelly, 1988a, Dunn and Rogers, 1998). An effective exposure determination system is required to reduce this large source of repeats and associated additional radiation dose. One such technique is the constant kVp, variable mAs technique, built on the principle that the mAs should be increased by 25 per cent for every centimetre increase in thickness. The validity of this rule has been investigated through two experimental series. A perspex tank was filled with varying levels of water. The x ray beam exposure was measured at the exit site. The reduction in exit exposure was recorded with varying kVp, field size and with and without a grid. This reduction was used to calculate the per cent increase in mAs/cm necessary to maintain a constant output exposure, as is the case in normal radiography. Measurable variations from the 25 per cent rule were found. The greatest per cent increase was required at low kVp and in low scatter (grid) conditions (30 per cent) with the least increase at either high kVp low scatter (grid) conditions or in high scatter (non-grid) conditions (20 per cent). Variations with depth were surprisingly small. The effect of scatter reduction was most marked being of similar effect to that of kVp change. The selection of 25 per cent as a mAs increase per cm appears to be the most suitable average value for most conditions. (author abstract)


While there were many reasons for the Republican loss in the 2008 election, one reason was the ridicule poured on former President George Bush. Whether by Jon Stewart's The Daily Show(2009) or Will Ferrell (Youtube.com, 2005) impersonations, few could see Bush in any serious light. He had become a comic figure, even tragic, such that a journalist in Iraq could consider throwing his shoe at him. The story of "most powerful person on the planet" had been transformed into "inept leader." In the May issue of Time Magazine, Michael Grunwald (2009, 18-23) reflects on the future of the Republican Party and asks, "Is the party over?" Who can take them seriously, he argues, when some of their leaders believe the Earth is cooling. The mockery began, argues Grunwald, when GOP leaders, to counter President Obama's figures, released their own budget figures. Unfortunately, they did not provide any numbers, data, in their budget. While the Republican Party may rebound if the Democrats overreach themselves, fail miserably in Pakistan and Afghanistan and if the recession becomes system 2 thr atening, right now the terms of the policy debate are being discussed within Democrats' terms. They are defining the agenda. Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd used this approach to unseat John Howard. Instead of debating policy, which he understood would turn the Australian public off °V seeing labor as overly intellectual he focused on constructing Howard as out of touch, and indeed dangerous for Australia's future, as a supporter of extremism (http://www.religionnewsblog.com/19093/exclusivebrethren-31). With Howard's politics reframed around extremism, Rudd could move to a serious discussion of policy differences. But first he had to reframe the debate.


Additional editor: Denise Shillitoe The Middletons were one of the chief Catholic families in Yorkshire, and as such suffered considerably for their faith. The records they have left are a hugely valuable source for knowledge for life at the time. This volume is based on two account books, both of which were kept following periods of national upheaval and personal hardship (1578 to 1582, and 1653 to 1655); they vividly document the family's strategies for survival and reconstruction in two different but challenging periods of their history. Much can be learnt from them about the structure of a gentry household, its estate management, farming methods, labour usage and wages. Meanwhile, personal details of a more intimate kind glimmer through the text. Births and deaths are recorded, as are details of diet, journeys made (notably to the Continent by William Middleton between 1579 and 1582), fairs attended, visitors received and visits made. There is also information about the pastimes and leisure activities of the family, their own and their servants' clothing, and medical practices. The documents are presented here with notes, introduction, and glossary.


The status of top-bottom-tau Yukawa coupling unification in supersymmetric SO(10) models is reviewed with a particular emphasis on the implications of the Higgs boson mass in the vicinity of 125 GeV, as suggested by the LHC Higgs data. In addition, the recently proposed model with negative \mu, D-term splitting of the soft scalar masses and non-universal gaugino masses generated by a non-zero F-term in a 24-dimensional representation of SU(5) \subset SO(10) is re-analysed in the context of the 125 GeV Higgs. The condition of top-bottom-tau Yukawa unification together with the Higgs mass of about 125 GeV impose strong lower mass limits on SUSY particles. Nevertheless, some of the MSSM particles may be within the reach of the LHC. In the case of models with positive \mu this is the gluino. While in the case of negative \mu these are the pseudoscalar Higgs, the lighter sbottom (sometimes strongly degenerate with the LSP leading to sbottom coannihilations), the right-handed down squark and the gluino.


AbstractWhen a service spacecraft docks successfully with its target spacecraft and forms a docked spacecraft, it will cause a large shift in the dynamics of the docked spacecraft. Not only do the mass properties change, but so do the reaction wheels' configuration. Meanwhile, the attitude of the docked spacecraft will inevitably change, under the influence of contact and impact, and it may lead to instability of the entire system. Due to the limited control torque and saturation, the control system of the reaction wheel may not guarantee the system stability, and the thruster can generate large control torque, but it consumes valuable jet fuel. Since the space manipulator may generate a greater coupling torque by movement, this paper proposes an attitude coordinated control method for docked spacecraft based on the estimated coupling torque. The method adopts the chaotic particle swarm optimization (CPSO) algorithm to plan the coordinated motion trajectory of space manipulator, and then designs a coordin...


The computer has become a mathematical tool as fundamental to mathematics as books to reading. According to Paul Lutus (1986), mathematician and author of Apple Writer, "We are on the threshold of a revolution in mathematics--how we think about, how we practice it, and how we learn it" (p.38). This revolution is being spawned by the microcomputer. The use of computers in the classroom is raising serious questions about the teaching and learning of mathematics. These questions encompass both content and methods. In particular, since computers and calculators display numerals in decimal format, should there be a reordering of traditional mathematics content to precede fractions with decimals? How can the computer be used in diverting the focus of instruction from computational skills to problem solving? Should instructional methods shift from the usual deductive approach to a more experimental inductive approach which optimizes the interactive feature of the computer? Will the computer suggest the need for introducing new topics and even new courses in the mathematics curriculum? At this point in the evolution of educational computing, it would be premature to prescribe the most effective uses of computers in the mathematics classroom. However, as better ratios of computers to pupils become available, educators should be looking toward more integration of microcomputers into the curriculum. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics' position statement concerning "The Use of Computers in the Learning and Teaching of Mathematics" includes the following:


This paper introduced a novel method to investigate the information flows from the international carbon trading market to the market for renewable energy stocks. The method combined the advantages of wavelet decomposition, transfer entropy, and complex network, which defined multiscale, directional, and dynamic flows of information. This analysis selected the daily futures prices of the EUA futures and the daily spot prices of the S&P Global Clean Energy Index (S&P GCE) as sample data and decomposed the bivariate time series into seven sequences for various time–frequency domains by maximal overlap discrete wavelet transform. Transfer entropy has been used to measure the process of transmission of information from the carbon trading market to the renewable energy stock market. The transfer entropies were transformed into four symbols and constructed directed and weighted complex networks of the transfer entropy fluctuation mode sequence in different time–frequency domains according to the concept of coarse graining. The findings showed that the carbon market information flows to the renewable energy stock market varied at different scales. In the short to medium term (2–16 days), there were a lot of information flows from EUA to S&P GCE. The information flow of EUA to S&P GCE is the most stable at scale d2 (4–8 days), but the volatility of the carbon market has not affected the clean energy market at scales d5–d6 (32–128 days). These findings provided the requisite reference for investors in carbon finance and policy-makers who support clean energy production.


This study aims to determine the effect of fun at work, transformational leadership on work engagement and organizational citizenship behavior in UPT SDA Sempor civil servants. The variables in this study consisted of four types, namely fun at work and transformational leadership as independent variables, organizational citizenship behavior as the dependent variable and work engagement as mediating or intervening variables. The population in this study is UPT SDA Sempor civil servants, amounting to 30 people with saturated sampling techniques so that the total population is used to be sampled. Data collection techniques using a questionnaire, data analysis used was an instrument of validity and reliability, a classic assumption test, hypothesis testing, correlation analysis, multiple tests, and path analysis. Data management tools using SPSS 23.0 for windows. The test results of the coefficient of determination show that the substructural Adjusted R2 value of 0.668 means that 66.8% of the work engagement variable can be influenced by fun at work and transformational leadership and 33.2% is influenced by other variables outside the model. Meanwhile the substructural Adjusted R2 value of 0.778 means that 77.8% of the organizational citizenship behavior variable is influenced by fun at work, transformational leadership, and work engagement, and 22.2% is influenced by other variables outside the model. Based on the results of the analysis of path analysis tests, multiple tests and t tests that have been carried out it can be concluded that the high organizational citizenship behavior is influenced by fun at work, transformational leadership, and workengagement. While fun at work and transformational leadership can directly influence organizational citizenship behavior and work engagement can be used as a partial intervening variable.


In this paper, based on the concept of Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), we propose an innovative secret message multiplexing scheme by digital image data hiding. Multiple secret messages distributed for several participants are encoded into a CDMA codeword through CDMA multiplexing and then embedded into a grayscale image. At the receiving side, each intended recipient will be assigned a distinct spreading code as the secret key for data extraction. In this way, even the authorized user can only extract his or her own secret message using an exclusive secret key and has no knowledge about other user's secret. This characteristic helps to ensure data security. Experimental results demonstrate that the scheme is also resistant to Gaussian noise attack, salt-and-pepper noise attack, and cropping attacks. Those merits sustain the feasibility of the proposed scheme.


Aim. Aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of phytocomplexes of Uncaria, Shitake and Ribes in terms of viability and inflammatory response on immune cell-derived cultures.
 Methods. Standardized extracts of Uncaria, Shitake and Ribes and their commercial formulation were tested on cell lines PBMC, U937 and macrophage. The activity was evaluated in terms of cell viability (MTT test), variations of oxidative markers release (ROS and PGE2) and modulatory effects on immune response (RT-PCR expression of IL-6, IL-8 and TNFα). Results. Cell viability was not affected by extracts, except subtle variations observed only at higher doses (>250 μg/mL). The extract mixture was well tolerated, with no effects on cell viability up to doses of 500 μg/mL. Pre-treatment of macrophages with subtoxic doses of the extracts reduced the basal release of oxidative markers and enhanced the cell response to oxogenus oxidant stimulation, as revealed by ROS and PGE2 release reduction. The same treatment on macrophage resulted in a selective modulation of the immune response, as shown by an increase of IL-6 mRNA and, partially, IL-8 mRNA, while a reduction was observed for TNFα mRNA.
 Conclusion. Data confirm that extracts and their formulations can act as regulator of the immune system with mechanisms involving the oxidative stress and the release of selected proinflammatory cytokines.


An electric vehicle control device having a converter unit, which converts a voltage that has been input through multiple power collection devices that obtain power from the outside to a prescribed direct current value that is then output, and which performs charging/discharging operations with respect to power storage units connected to the output side, wherein the converter unit has a converter circuit and a control unit (14). A power collection device status signal indicating whether the power collection devices are in a state wherein power can be obtained from the outside normally is input to the control unit (14). The control unit (14) has: a current adjustment unit (66) that generates a current command, which is a current command for the converter circuit, and that adjusts the size of the current command on the basis of the power collection device status signal; and a current control unit (67) that controls the current of the converter circuit on the basis of the current command.


Steels have important applications in current and advanced nuclear reactors, however, their irradiation tolerance and mechanical properties need to be improved. Bulk ultrafinegrained and nanocrystalline metals possess drastically higher strength than their conventional coarse-grained counterparts due to significant grain boundary strengthening, and are anticipated to have significantly enhanced irradiation tolerance owing to the role of grain boundaries as sinks for irradiation-induced defects. In this study, ultrafine-grained and nanocrystalline austenitic and ferritic-martenstic steels were manufactured by equalchannel angular pressing (ECAP) and high-pressure torsion (HPT), respectively. The microstructure and mechanical behavior of the steels manufactured by ECAP and HPT were carefully studied. Advanced microstructural characterization techniques were utilized to investigate the microstructures and chemistry of the steels before irradiation. The thermal stability of the ultrafine-grained and nanocrystalline steels was also investigated. Neutron irradiation was designed and is being performed to study irradiation behavior of the steels. Limited ion irradiation was also conducted to compared with the neutron irradiation. Preliminary corrosion studies were executed to investigate the corrosion performance of the ultrafine-grained and nanocrystalline steels as compared to that of the coarse-grained counterparts. Limited welding experiments were also performed to assess the weldability of the ultrafine-grained and nanocrystalline steels. Results indicated that the ultrafine-grained and nanocrystalline steels manufactured by ECAP and HPT possess significantly improved hardness/strength compared to their conventionally manufactured coarse-grained counterparts. Grain size of HPT samples is smaller (~100nm) than ECAP samples (~400nm). All the ECAP and HPT steels are thermally stable at least up to 500 °C, and many of them are stable up to 600 °C. Ion irradiation indicated that smaller grains possess reduced irradiation-induced hardening, segregation and precipitation compared to larger grains. Ultrafine-grained steels have enhanced phase stability during irradiation compared to the coarse-grained counterpart.


The use of natural environmentally benign agents in the treatment of drinking water is rapidly gaining interest due to their inherently renewable character and low toxicity. We show that the common Mexican cactus produces a gum-like substance, cactus mucilage, which shows flocculating abilities superior to the commonly used aluminum sulfate with respect to settling time and shows promise as a socially viable alternative for low-income communities. Cactus mucilage is a neutral mixture of approximately 55 high-molecular weight sugar residues composed basically of arabinose, galactose, rhamnose, xylose, and galacturonic acid. We show how this natural product was characterized for its use as a flocculating agent. Our results show the mucilage efficiency for reducing arsenic and particulates from drinking water as determined by light scattering, Atomic Absorption and Hydride Generation-Atomic Fluorescence Spectroscopy. Flocculation studies proved the mucilage to be a much faster flocculating agent when compared to Al2(SO4)3 with the efficiency increasing with mucilage concentration. Jar tests revealed that lower concentrations of mucilage provided the optimal effectiveness for supernatant clarity, an important factor in determining the potability of water. Initial filter results with the mucilage embedded in a silica matrix prove the feasibility of applying this technology as a method for heavy metal removal. This project provides fundamental, quantitative insights into the necessary and minimum requirements for natural flocculating agents that are innovative, environmentally benign, and cost-effective.


Objective To evaluate the effect and safety of anticoagulant acid citrate dextrose formula A (ACD-A) in continuous venovenous hemodiafiltration (CVVHDF) for patients With severe Acute Kidney Injury (AKI). Methods Study 10 critical patients retrospectively who received the thrapy of CVVHDF by using ACD. During the treatment, the ionized calcium、Activated coagulation time (ACT) in vivo and extracoporeal circulation and blood-gas analysis were monitored. Serum creatinine and electrocyte examination were conducted before and after the therapy. Every hemofilter service life and hemorrhage complications were recorded. Results All 10 patients were critically ill and received the Treatment for CVVHDF using ACD-A, there were 42 cases in the treatment, spending 1812 hours in total, The average service life of the hemofilters was 40.50±12.51 hours with and 40.4% of them can still be used after 48 hours. The ionized calcium decreased and ACT prolonged significantly in extracoporeal circulation comparing with invivo during treatment. No distinct fluctuation of ionized calcium and ACT invivo was monitored during continuous treatment. The disorder of electrolyte and acid-base balance was rectified and the average serum creatinine after treatment was (212.6±38.5) μmoL/L, which decreased significantly compared to the data before treatment. No hemorrhage complication occurred. One patient with acute hepatic failure and shock appeared severe acidosis. Seven patients survived (70%). Conclusion Using the technique of anti-coagulation with ACD-A in CVVHDF is an effective and safe method for critical patients with acute kidney Injury, especially for the patients with the high risk of bleeding.


This chapter presents an Aboriginal health systems framework for the organization of health services to Aboriginal communities. The term "Aboriginal health systems" is not commonly used in the Canadian health services literature. This is not surprising in that there are numerous reasons to query whether or not Aboriginal health systems actually exist. Firstly, there are multiple jurisdictions involved in health services to Aboriginal communities, a situation which is a classic impediment to the co-ordination, linkages and integration one would generally expect from a "system." Secondly, Aboriginal communities have only in the past ten to fifteen years achieved any meaningful control over even a part of the health services within their territories or populations. Thirdly, Aboriginal health systems imply that the services delivered would be alternative or traditional rather than those that the mainstream system provides. Fourthly, Aboriginal suggests a homogenous milieu of First Nations, Inuit, Métis and other Aboriginal populations, a perception that is rejected out of hand by all Aboriginal groups. Despite the challenges inherent in the statements above, Aboriginal health systems, be they First Nations, Inuit, Métis or a collaboration of all groups, do exist in many different forms across Canada. This chapter will highlight the contributions of different Aboriginal nations and communities in advancing a model of health service delivery that improves access to health care, contains costs, responds to local needs, uses resources effectively, emphasizes population wellness over individual health, and ultimately improves the health status of the population. These systems have been strengthened by self-empowerment realized through Aboriginal ownership and control of health services. They are founded on a holistic approach to health and wellness, much like the broad health determinants model strived for in other health systems. Traditional and Western health philosophies are synergistically combined to result in uniquely Aboriginal approaches to health services, and within the constraints imposed by multiple jurisdictions, the system is organized around multidisciplinary primary care. Integrated health service delivery in an Aboriginal context has many expressions, from


The paper proposes a traffic speed prediction algorithm for urban road traffic networks. The motivation of the prediction is to provide short time forecast in order to support ITS (Intelligent Transport System) functionalities, such as traveler information systems, route guidance (navigation) systems, as well as adaptive traffic control systems. A potential and efficient solution to this problem is the application of a soft computing method. Namely, an artificial neural network (ANN) is used for the forecast by involving the measured speed patterns. The ANN is trained by using data produced by Vissim (a microscopic road traffic simulator) simulations. The proposed algorithm is developed and analyzed on a real-word test network (part of downtown in Budapest).


Moving pictures of sculpture and architecture (cf. also Raymond S. Stites, Art History Color Films as a Teaching Aid, C. A. J. III, 92) offer advantages to the study of art which are not afforded by still photographs. Most important of these is the fact that the moving picture presents the work of art in a continuous sequence of points of view thus approximating the actual observation and examination by the spectator. However, it has to be kept in mind that, contrary to the usual motion pictures, the relation between camera and object is reversed in this case. While moving pictures deal generally with animated objects, in this particular instance they are dealing with stationary ones. Movement is created by the movements of the camera. The consequence of this reversed procedure makes itself felt in the final effect which is that of a moving object rather than of a moving spectator. The advantage of the continuity of vistas has to be paid for with the loss of that motionlessness which is one of the fundame...


The invention relates to a heat exchanger, in particular to a steam-water heat exchanger. A steam condensate inlet is arranged on a top part of the tubular heat exchanger, a hot water outlet is arranged on one end of the tubular heat exchanger, the other end of the tubular heat exchanger is connected with a plate heat exchanger through a pipeline, a steam condensate outlet is arranged on a side face of the lower end of the plate heat exchanger, and a hot water inlet is arranged on a position parallel to the steam condensate outlet. The steam-water heat exchanger provided by the invention has a simple structure, an integral steam-water heat exchange mode meets the requirements of different occasions, parts can be simply and conveniently arranged, and routine maintenance and replacement of pipe fittings are facilitated.


Through the absorption of the latest philosophical findings, the author expounds the nature of philosophical thinking, an everlasting inquiry, and analyses it from the following five aspects: 1. The examination of the theoretical suppositions about the object of study; 2. A study of the nature of the comprehensiveness of study; 3. A shift of perspective from other researchers; 4. The examination of the scope of the object of study and the limitations of the researchers; 5. A study of the media between the researchers and the object of study.


In this work, we present an effective QoS routing algorithm based on the IEEE 802.11 multi-rate for video streaming over mobile ad hoc networks. The proposed routing algorithm is designed to minimize the consumed timeslots while guaranteeing the required timeslots at all the pairs of adjacent nodes over the route and the contention neighbors of these nodes to support the route. Furthermore, the proposed routing algorithm can distribute the network loads well over the entire network. This technology is essential because video streaming applications require stringent QoS. Experimental results are presented to show the performance of the proposed routing algorithm.


Five haemocyte classes (Prohaemocytes, Plasmatocytes, Granulocytes, Oenocytoids and Spherulocytes) were distinguished in the adult of desert locust, Schistocerca gregaria Forsk. The total counts after application of insecticides were significantly increased comparing with those of the untreated females. Lambdacyhalothrin (Karate 2.5EC) caused more increase in the total counts than that caused by Deltamethrin (Decis 2.5EC) comparing with the total counts of untreated adult female. The insecticides also showed an increase in plasmatocytes and granulocytes percentage; whereas, a decrease in percentage took place for Oenocytoids and Spherulocytes. Abnormalities caused by insecticides to the haemocytes were: agglutination, denucleation and enlargement of cells, distortion of the cytoplasmic and nuclear membrane, and abnormal staining of the haemocytes.


Just noticeable distortion (JND) refers to minimum distortion threshold, which is visible to human visual system. JND models are applicable to various image and video processing fields, especially perceptual video compression fields by eliminating perceptually redundant amounts of signal components. The conventional DCT-based JND models for contrast masking (CM) effects simply reflect the texture complexity of images into a limited number of texture complexity categories. So such JND models are discrete functions of texture complexity, which are not sufficiently accurate. In this paper, the JND for the CM effects (CM-JND) is elaborately modeled, based on psychophysical experiments, as a 2D continuous function of DCT frequency and texture complexity that is measured by edge pixel density. The subjective performance evaluation shows the proposed CM-JND model makes the JND profile more consistent with real visual perception for the test images than the one with the conventional CM-JND models.