This paper explores the competitiveness of information industry of China and Korea by means of comparative research based on the analysis of statistic data and the definition of items denoting the competitiveness. Consequently, we analyze the competitive and complementary relation of information industry of China vs. Korea, and put forward a co-operation project of China-Korea information industry ultimately. Keyword: competitiveness, competitiveness items, comparative research, information products 1. Compare Information Products International Trade of China vs. Korea 1.1. Computers and their fittings Korea had maintained very high rate of increase in exporting computers and their fittings all along from 1994 to 1999, which was higher than 10% except for 1998 when the export decreased due to the financial crisis. Specially, it was 38.6% in 1999. While the importing also increased quickly. Although decreasing by 6.9% and 47% in 1997 and 1998 during the financial crisis respectively, the rate of increase reached 30% both in 1994 and in 1995, especially 65% in 1999. Consequently, the international trade had kept more and more surplus, which increased from 15 billion dollar in 1993 to 28 billion dollar and 43 billion dollar in 1997 and 1999 respectively. What about China? China's computers and their fittings foreign trade had favorable balance in 1999, but which was smaller than in 1998. In detail, the export was 107 billion dollar in 1998, while the importing is only 56 billion dollar the same year, as result of which the surplus trade balance was 51 billion dollar this year. But in 1999, the import increased by 2.9% and the export decreased by 10.1%, as result of which the surplus was only 39 billion dollar. Table 1 shows the detailed data. 1.2. Communication equipment The growth rate of Korea exporting communication equipment was about average 3% per year from 1995 to 1998, but it reached 33.2% in 1999. While the rate of increase of the import maintained more than 20% from 1994 to 1996, but the import began to decrease by 41% and 9.6% in 1998 and 1999 respectively. Consequently, the favorable balance of the communication equipment international trade was respectively: 20 billion dollar in 1993, 13 billion dollar in 1996, 27 billion dollar in 1998, 32 billion dollar in 1999. Specially, the favorable balance had a big jump in 1999 thanks for the export increasing and the import decreasing as result of the financial crisis in 1998. With respect to China, the export was 67 billion dollar, and the import was 63 billion dollar in 1998. The export was 58 billion dollar and the import was 59 billion dollar in October 1999. So the trade maintained small favorable and small unfavorable balance of foreign trade, that is, revenues and expenditures were generally in balance. Table 1. Compare export and import of computers and their fittings of China and Korea (millions of dollars) 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 export 4,810 (39.16) 5,518 (14.72) 6,266 (13.55) 5,276 (-15.79) 7,316 (38.65) import 3,282 (37.41) 3,800 (15.77) 3,537 (-6.93) 1,872 (-47.07) 3,081 (64.6) Korea the favorable balance 1,528 1,718 2,729 3,404 4,235 Export N.A. N.A. N.A. 10,736 (N.A.) 9,650 (-10.1) Import N.A. N.A. N.A. 5,573 (N.A.) 5,735 (2.91) China the favorable balance N.A. N.A. N.A. 5,164 3,915 Resource: Information Annual of Korea, Statistic Annual of China International Economy. The following table shows the detailed data. Table 2. Compare export and import of communication equipment of China and Korea (millions of dollars) 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999.10 export 3,919 (4.75) 3,899 (-0.53) 4,026 (3.26) 4,143 (2.9) 5,519 (33.21) import 2,146 (22.67) 2,604 (21.31) 2,530 (-2.83) 1,494 (-40.96) 1,350 (-9.02) Korea the favorable balance 1,773 1,295 1,496 2,649 4,169 export n.a. n.a. n.a. 6,659 (n.a.) 5,781 (-13.19) import n.a. n.a. n.a. 6,308 (n.a.) 5,891 (-6.61) China the favorable balance n.a. n.a. n.a. 351 -110 Resource: Information Annual of Korea, Statistic Annual of China International Economy. 1.3. Semiconductors and their fittings Korea increased the export of semiconductors and their fittings by about average 27% per year from 1994 to 1997. Although the financial crisis decelerated the rate of increase in 1998, the export in 1999 increased by 24.64% more than that in 1997. After increasing quickly during 1994 to 1997, the import decreased in 1998, but increased by 16.44% in 1999. Because the world market of semiconductors and their fittings was pretty flourishing in 1995, the Korea's favorable balance of semiconductors and their fitting trade reached 87 billion dollar. After this, the favorable balance began to decrease because of the world market of semiconductors and their fittings falling off. It was 50 billion dollar in 1997 and 1998. With the demand of semiconductors and their fittings rebounding in 1999, in spite of the exchange rate decreasing, the favorable balance reached 71.6 billion dollar. China continued expanding the favorable balance in the world market of semiconductors and their fittings. The favorable balance was 3 billion dollar in 1998 and 13.08 billion dollar in 1999. Table 3 shows the detailed data. 2. Comparative Research on Competitiveness of Information Industry of China vs. Korea 2.1. The major competitiveness items There are four items to estimate the competitiveness of information and communication industry in general. They are the market share in the third country, trade specialization degree index, market comparative advantage index (MCAI) and the export. Table 3. Compare export and import of semiconductors and their fittings of China and Korea (millions of dollars) 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 export 17,740 (66.14) 15,158 (-14.55) 17,139 (13.06) 17,034 (-0.61) 21,241 (24.64) import 9,011 (40.12) 10,403 (15.45) 12,909 (24.09) 12,092 (-6.32) 14,081 (16.44) Korea the favorable balance 8,729 4,756 4,230 4,942 7,160 export n.a. n.a. n.a. 7,297 (n.a.) 9,650 (32.56) import n.a. n.a. n.a. 6,910 (n.a.) 8,342 (20.72) China the favorable balance n.a. n.a. n.a. 387 1,308 Resource: Information Annual of Korea, Statistic Annual of China International Economy. The export can apparently express the comparativeness, so we'll emphases on the others. The market share in third country: That a country's products occupy how much the market share in the third country can show its competitiveness. It is easy to understand that the more share, the stronger competitiveness. Trade specialization degree index: it is another item that can show competitiveness. It can be formulized as: Trade specialization degree index can show the relative advantage in export. The value of the trade specialization degree index is from -1 to 1. We can also easily know that the more value of the trade specialization degree index, the stronger competitiveness. Market comparative advantage index (MCAI): MCAI is revealable comparative advantage excluding the market scale. Thereby, it is necessary to introduce revealable comparative advantage (RCA) for understanding MCAI. Revealable comparative advantage (RCA) can express comparative advantage of a group of countries with different comparable economy-scale. It can be formulized as: X shows the export amount of i product 's quantity of a country. WX is the total export amount of i product in the world. X is the total export amount of corresponding country. WX is the total export amount of the whole world. RCA (i) can indicate relative advantage of a country 's competitiveness of i product in the average competitiveness of this country. We can know that if a country had a bigger export scale, the country must have a big market share in spite with lower relative advantage. When a specific export product occupies more market share than the market share of total export product of this country, the value of RCA will be more than 1, which means this specific product have stronger relative advantage than others of this country. Hence, the comparative advantage between countries can be estimated by RCA. But RCA has a fault that RCA cannot exclude the influence of economy growth. To make up it, we put forward MCA. MCA can be formulated as: Xj is an export quantity of i product from a country to j market. TXj is the total i product import quantity of j market. Xj is the total I product from j market to the corresponding country. TXj is the total export from j market to the entire world. If the value of MCA is more than 1, the i product is more popular in j market, vise versa. 2.2. Comparative research on competitiveness of information industry of China vs. Korea The following, we will compare Chinese and Korea competitiveness by the three items. (1) We saw about Korea communication products' share in USA communication market to compare the competitiveness of China and Korea. It is necessary to note that we measured the Hong Kong's share separately and together with the mainland when explained. We chose the USA market as the third country market based on the following reasons: First, USA is the most trade-partner of both Korea and China. Secondly, USA has less import-confine than others due to its pretty opening economic policy. It is better to compete freely in the market to estimate the competitiveness, while USA just advocates free competition. Finally, the import statistic data of USA is more complete, which will do good to compare. The correlative data is in chart 1. Chart 1. The market share in USA (%) import export import export index degree tion specializa Trade + =


Abstract A list of identified oribatid mites of the family Lohmanniidae (Acari, Oribatida) collected from Cuba, including 4 species from 4 genera, is provided. The genus Heptacarus and species Heptacarus supertrichus Piffl, 1967 are recorded in Cuba for the first time. A new species of Annectacarus is described from leaf litter in forest of Valle de Viñales National Park. Annectacarus vinalesensis sp. n. is morphologically most similar to A. krachan Mahunka, 1995, but the new species differs from the latter by the rostrum with indentation and the presence of six pairs of neotrichal notogastral setae and six pairs of setae on epimere I. An identification key to the known species of Annectacarus in the Neotropical region is given.


The 1064 nm wavelength is optimized for dark skin, but within the range of available fluences for commercially available 1064 nm devices, may not provide effective treatment for lighter hair. The 755 nm alexandrite wavelength can treat a full range of hair colors but is not ideal for darker skin. The hypothesis is that a new laser system capable of emitting 755/1064 nm wavelengths simultaneously allows for safer, effective, and less painful hair reduction over a range of skin and hair types.


In this paper we present a global existence theorem of a positive monotonic integrable solution for the mixed type nonlinear quadratic integral equation of fractional order\[x(t) = p(t) + h(t,x(t)) \int_{0}^{t} k(t,s)( f_1( s, I^\alpha f_2(s, x(s)))+g_1( s, I^\beta g_2(s, x(s))))ds,~t\in [0,1],\alpha,\beta>0\]by applying the technique of measures of weak noncompactness. As an application, we consider an initial value problem of arbitrary (fractional) order differential equations.


Consider $N$ generators with limited ramping capabilities that need to meet the stochastic demand over $T$ time steps by ramping up or ramping down their generation at every time step. We formulate this problem as a stochastic dynamic optimization problem with stochastic constraints, and compute the evolution of nodal prices over time (Lagrange multipliers corresponding to the constraints).


Local governments are increasingly developing policies and programs designed to adapt, mitigate, and become resilient to climate change. Growing commitments and engagement in climate governance generate new dimensions of monitoring and evaluating climate action. Thus, there are new sources and uses for data support on city climate action strategies and data-driven decision-making. Greenhouse gas (GHG) emission inventories, mitigation targets, risk and vulnerability assessments on global data platforms are some examples of data that are increasingly seen as core components of effective climate change policy and planning from local governments. This case study explores how Belo Horizonte uses data to strategize, monitor, and evaluate the city's climate actions (See Figure 1). Key Data-Driven Tools for Integrated Climate Action in the City of Belo Horizonte, Brazil


A new microcalorimetric bioassay for acute cellular toxicity is based on metabolic heat evolution from tissue-cultured human cells. The assay is quantitative, inexpensive, and versatile; moreover, toxicological information can be obtained with cells from other species of interest. The biological response to toxicants is inhibition of heat production in cells and toxicity is expressed as the concentration 50% effective in this inhibition (EC{sub 50}). The system can therefore measure acute toxicity for a broad range of toxicants having target sites in various cellular metabolic pathways. Average heat production in HeLa cells is 40 pW/cell and the reproducibility is 5 pW/cell. Cell samples range from 8 {times} 10{sup 5} to 2 {times} 10{sup 6} cells and yield signals of 30-80 {mu}W in the absence of toxicants. These signals are readily measurable in an LKB Model 10700-1 flow microcalorimeter. Results are compared with those obtained with the Beckman Microtox bioassay and the Escherichia coli electrode and with rainbow trout 96-h LC{sub 50} values.


Songbird has specialized areas in the brain that are necessary for the generation of song.In striated mannikin(Lonchura striata swinhoei), the discrete nuclei, robust nucleus of the archistriatum(RA), high vocal center(HVC), lateral magnocellular nucleus of the anterior neostriatum(LMAN) and Area X, make up one part of the song system that is thought to be important for such early song acquisition.However, the relation between development of song nuclei and behavior of song learning has not been well documented.The male striated mannikin, aged from 5 days (P5) to 150 days (P150) post-hatching were studied in this experiment.We examined the development of control vocal nuclei and behavior of learned song by analyzing the spectrogram structures.The results were as follows: (1)After neural connections by day 45 were established among the HVC, RA and Area X, juvenile striated mannikin began to learn singing;(2)The striated mannikin could not get the adult song structures prior to day 80 until the volumes of HVC,RA and Area X respectively reached their adult size;(3)The volumetric growth of three song nuclei were not correlated with the process of song learning, but seem to be affected by the establishment of neural connections among the three related song nuclei.The RA, HVC, or Area X volumes increased most rapidly at different stage.Multivariate analysis of variance indicated the effect on age from P5 to P150 (P0.05) for the RA, HVC or Area X (one-way ANOVA).However, the difference of nuclei volumes between any two groups at different stages was not always significant.The results suggested that the onset and development of song behavior of striated mannikin depend on the normal development in nuclei and the establishment of the neural connections within song control nuclei.The final volumes of the adult song nuclei may be decided mainly by inheritance and affected by the formation of normal projections within song nuclei, but not by the song behaviors.


The procoagulant co-factor, factor VIII (FVIII), plays a crucial role in the intrinsic blood coagulation cascade. Epidemiologic studies have established a causal association between elevated FVIII levels and venous thrombosis incidence, whereas no such association has been confirmed with arterial thrombosis. Importantly, no objective in vitro or in vivo examinations of this association have previously been performed to establish a mechanistic role for elevated FVIII levels and thrombogenicity. To establish the in vitro thrombogenic effect of elevated FVIII activity, platelet-poor C57Bl/6 hemophilia A mouse plasma was spiked with recombinant human FVIII (r-huFVIII) to FVIII levels 100% and 250% that of normal plasma. Physiological concentrations of tissue factor and calcium chloride were added to the plasma to stimulate the formation of thrombin-antithrombin (TAT) complexes. Over 25 minutes, at 5-minute intervals, the plasma was sub-sampled, and the TAT complex concentration measured using an ELISA. The results showed that as FVIII concentration was increased, the rate of formation of TAT complexes was increased and the maximum concentration of complex was increased. As a second in vitro test of thrombogenicity, FVIII deficient human plasma was spiked with r-huFVIII to FVIII levels similar to those in the TAT experiments. Thromboelastography (TEG) was performed on the samples following the addition of physiological concentrations of tissue factor and calcium chloride. As FVIII levels were increased, the time to initial fibrin formation decreased significantly, in a negative logarithmic manner. As well, the speed with which the clot formed increased significantly, in a logarithmic manner. Although the clot strength (MA) of the FVIII spiked samples differed significantly to the 0% FVIII samples, there was no significant change in MA as FVIII levels were elevated to levels greater than 100%, likely as a result of the platelet poor nature of the samples. To examine the effect of increasing FVIII levels in vivo, fluorescence intravital microscopy was used to visualize the arterioles of the cremaster muscle. Circulating platelets were labeled in vivo with rhodamine 6G (200ng/mL). C57Bl/6 normal mice (n=5), C57Bl/6 hemophillia A mice (n=5), and C57Bl/6 mice hemophilia A mice whose FVIII levels were elevated to 200% (n=3) through an intravenous infusion of r-huFVIII were examined. Arterioles were injured for 3 minutes with 10% ferric chloride soaked filter paper and observed for 40 minutes. None of the hemophilic mice arterioles occluded in the observation period, whereas the normal mice occluded at 25 minutes and the mice with 200% FVIII activity occluded at 20 minutes. Fluorescence analysis revealed that the normal mice and those with 200% FVIII activity had stable platelet accumulation, as there was little variation in the fluorescence intensity over time, but a gradual, and persistent, increase in overall intensity. In contrast, there was strong variation in the accumulation of platelets within the injured arterioles of the hemophilic mice and no persistence in the intensity of fluorescence throughout the observation period. Together, these in vitro and in vivo data indicate that elevated FVIII levels produce a thrombogenic effect that increases with FVIII elevations. However, it is necessary to further examine this relationship to determine whether the thrombogenicity of FVIII is proportional to the FVIII increase and whether the thrombogenicity is affected by the duration of FVIII elevation.


The imitation is one effective rhetoric method which violates conventional language.Because of its novelty and humor,the article analyzes the rhetoric function,generation and interpretation process of the imitation in the language usage,the cognition and the context respectively.With the correlative theory,the author discusses how to obtain the best context effect in imitation of the advertisement words.


Audio-visual information fusion enables a performance improvement in speech recognition performed in complex acoustic scenarios, e.g., noisy environments. It is required to explore an effective audio-visual fusion strategy for audiovisual alignment and modality reliability. Different from the previous end-to-end approaches where the audio-visual fusion is performed after encoding each modality, in this paper we propose to integrate an attentive fusion block into the encoding process. It is shown that the proposed audio-visual fusion method in the encoder module can enrich audio-visual representations, as the relevance between the two modalities is leveraged. In line with the transformer-based architecture, we implement the embedded fusion block using a multi-head attention based audiovisual fusion with one-way or two-way interactions. The proposed method can sufficiently combine the two streams and weaken the over-reliance on the audio modality. Experiments on the LRS3-TED dataset demonstrate that the proposed method can increase the recognition rate by 0.55%, 4.51% and 4.61% on average under the clean, seen and unseen noise conditions, respectively, compared to the state-of-the-art approach.


Rapid thermal annealing (RTA) processing under N_2 and O_2 ambient is suggested and characterized in this work for improvement of SiCOH ultra-low- k ( k = 2.4) film properties. Low- k film was deposited by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) with decamethylcyclopentasiloxane and cyclohexane precursors. The PECVD films were treated by RTA processing in N_2 and O_2 environments at 550 °C for 5 min, and k values of 1.85 and 2.15 were achieved in N_2 and O_2 environments, respectively. Changes in the k value were correlated with the chemical composition of C–H_x and Si–O related groups determined from the Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) analysis. As the treatment temperature was increased from 300 to 550 °C, the signal intensities of both the CH_x and Si–CH_3 peaks were markedly decreased. The hardness and modulus of the film processed by RTA have been determined as 0.44 and 3.95 GPa, respectively. Hardness and modulus of RTA-treated films were correlated with D-group [O_2Si–(CH_3)_2] and T-group [O_3Si–(CH_3)] fractions determined from the FTIR Si–CH_3 bending peak. The hardness and modulus improvement in this work is attributed to the increase of oxygen content in (O)_x–Si–(CH_3)_y by rearrangement.


Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text. A U-shaped association between serum potassium (s-potassium) and short-term mortality has been reported for patients with hypertension. Less is known about the long-term prognostic implications of s-potassium and whether this relationship is modified by intensive blood pressure (BP) control. SPRINT (Systolic Blood Pressure Intervention Trial) was a randomized, controlled trial of 9361 high-risk patients aged ≥50 years without diabetes, who were allocated to intensive versus standard BP control. We investigated associations between baseline and on-treatment s-potassium and death, using Cox proportional hazards regression (including s-potassium as a time-dependent covariate) and restricted cubic splines. We further explored the effects of intensive BP control across the s-potassium spectrum. Baseline s-potassium was available in 9336 individuals, and 8473 had a measurement at 12 months. Mean baseline s-potassium was similar between the 2 treatment groups (intensive 4.21 mmol/L versus standard 4.20 mmol/L; P=0.74), but on-treatment s-potassium was lower in the intensive group (4.14 mmol/L versus 4.18 mmol/L; P=0.001). Median follow-up was 3.3 years, with 365 all-cause deaths (3.9%) and 102 cardiovascular deaths (1.1%). Baseline s-potassium had a linear association with both types of death events (P<0.05). On-treatment potassium also had a linear association with all-cause death (P=0.04) but not with cardiovascular death (P=0.13). None of the associations remained significant after multivariable adjustment (P≥0.05). S-potassium did not modify the effect of intensive BP control (P≥0.05). In SPRINT, neither baseline nor on-treatment s-potassium levels were independently associated with death, and the effect of intensive BP control was not modified by s-potassium. Careful monitoring of patients on antihypertensive medications may eliminate the risks associated with abnormal s-potassium. Registration: URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov; Unique identifier: NCT01206062


The article views a multicriteria decision-making methods and develops the economic and mathematical model based on the hierarchy analysis method to solve the problem of forecasting strategic directions of investment


Evaporative heat transfer characteristics of carbon dioxide have been investigated by experiment. The experiments have been carried out for a seamless stainless steel tube of the outer diameter of 9.55 ㎜, the inner diameter of 7.75 ㎜ and the length of 5.0 m. Direct heating method was used for supplying heat to the refrigerant where the test tube was uniformly heated by electric current which was applied to the tube wall. Experiments were conducted with CO₂ of purity 99.99% at saturation temperatures of 0.0 to 10.5℃, heat fluxes of 12 to 27㎾/㎡ and mass fluxes of 212 to 530㎏/㎡s. The heat transfer coefficients of CO₂ are decreased as the vapor quality increases and these phenomena are explained by dimensionless Weber and Bond numbers. The heat transfer coefficients of CO₂ increase when the heat and mass fluxes increase, and the saturation temperature effects are minor in the test range of this study. The present experimental data are compared with six renowned correlations with root-mean-squared deviations ranging from 23.0 to 94.9% respectively.


This paper presents a method of acquiring echo data of marine radar, shows the design and realization of the acquisition with the key points detailed. Base on the analysis of the acquiring single and radar performance parameters, the DAQ platform is designed on PXI hardware, and its software is developed by Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 IDE on Windows operation system. The subsequent shore-based experimentation in Bohai bay shows the feasibility and the validity of the platform.


To define the effects of synthetic auxins on rooting from the ginseng stern cutting and the root growth in diameter after the rooting of the cuttings, stern cuttings with palmate leaves obtained from seedlings and 2-year old ginseng plants were planted in rooting media treated with solutions of the synthetic auxins. All the roots induced from the cuttings were adventitious fibrous roots at first, but a few adventitious roots of the cutting were thickened in diameter to over 2 to 3mm at 120 days after cutting and the rest of them disappeared. IBA was the most effective auxin for rooting and root growth in diameter after rooting from the cuttings. The shape of the roots that thickened in diameter could be divided into two types. Both types of thickened roots were fully lignified at 120 days after cutting and those thickened roots did not dry up or die by July of the next year, however no rhyzomes or shoot primodia were induced from them.


Recent research demonstrated that bladder pain syndrome/interstitial cystitis (BPS/IC) is associated with many coexisting physical and psychiatric conditions. In this study, we explored the potential association between anxiety disorder (AD) and BPS/IC using a case–controlled population‐based approach in Taiwan.


In this paper, we propose a new fullchirp-byfullchirp decoding method for differentially biorthogonal chirp spread spectrum (DBO-CSS). In DBO-CSS, the information is carried on the differential phase not between the adjacent sub-chirp symbols but between the sub-chirp symbols in the same position of adjacent full-chirp symbol. So, the conventional multiple symbol differential detection (MSDD) algorithms to enhance the BER performance can not be applied to the DBO-CSS directly. In this paper, we propose a modified MSDD which has the weighted decision rule. It is shown that the performance gain of the proposed algorithm when compared with that of the conventional detection algorithm is around 2.5㏈ at BER = 10??.


In order to analyze Barrow holographic dark energy (BHDE) in a flat FRW universe, the time-dependent scale factor [Formula: see text] is employed. The Hubble horizon as the IR-cutoff is taken to investigate the cosmic consequences. We demonstrate the cosmic transition using the deceleration parameter and equation of state parameter. The characteristics of deceleration parameter for this model correspond well with the latest findings. The equation of state parameter behaves well and does not cross the phantom line. Depending on the values of Barrow exponent ([Formula: see text]), our model is entirely quintessence and is eventually moving towards [Formula: see text] model. We plotted the pressure diagram with various Barrow exponent ([Formula: see text]) values to demonstrate dark energy dominance. The scalar field and potential that explain the universe's accelerating expansion are also reconstructed.


Canada annually reports on all of its annual greenhouse gas emissions to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), including estimates of CO2 emissions and removals from cropland management. Soil carbon (C) change in cropland resulting from management is estimated by using C change factors multiplied by the area of cropland subjected to a management change. In this paper we compare soil C change factors in Canadian cropland obtained using a C modelling approach (Century model) to both empirical estimates obtained from the scientific literature, and to default Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates. Factors were estimated for land management changes from annual to perennial cropping, tillage to no-tillage and from summer fallow to continuous cropping. Empirical data comparing C change between conventional tillage (CT) and no-tillage (NT) were highly variable, but the modelled factors were still within the range derived from the empirical data. Factors for chang...


Purpose: To study efficacy of anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) in resolution of macular edema in epidemic retinitis (ER). Methods: In this retrospective, comparative study, patients diagnosed as ER with central macular thickness (CMT) ≥ 600 μm on SD-OCT at presentation were studied. Eyes which did not receive intravitreal anti-VEGF formed group A and eyes receiving additional anti-VEGF formed group B. Eyes receiving anti-VEGF monotherapy were studied separately. Cases with subsequent OCT scans with interval of more than 20 days and cases without OCT scan at the resolution were excluded. Treatment details, visual outcome, and days to resolution of macular edema were studied. Results: Mean CMT in group A (n = 8) was 820.1 μm (range 607-1004 μm) and in Group B (n = 4) was 756.0 μm (range 603-1000 μm). Macular edema resolved in 34.8 days (range: 16-65) and 39.0 days (range: 21–45) in group A and B, respectively. Two eyes with anti-VEGF monotherapy recovered in 45 and 18 days, respectively. Mean corrected distance visual acuity (CDVA) at presentation in group A was 19.1 (range: 0–61) ETDRS letters and in group B was 14.3 (range: 0–35) ETDRS letters. Mean CDVA improved to 65.7 (range: 0–85) and 50.8 (range: 20–76) ETDRS letters in group A and B, respectively. Anti-VEGF monotherapy eyes improved from 35 and 46 ETDRS letters to 70 and 85 ETDRS letters, respectively. Conclusion: Additional anti-VEGF therapy has no added advantage in speed of resolution of macular edema due to ER. A randomized controlled trial with steroids sparing "anti-VEGF monotherapy" may verify our observations.


The pulsed Laser Induced Damage Threshold (LIDT) of optical components usually reaches several hundreds of MW/cm2. When exposed to laser power several order of magnitude below their LIDT, the optical component lifetime is, by default, considered infinite. Under specific conditions, the accumulation of laser pulses may lead to a contamination of the surface and a degradation of its optical properties and LIDT. In the first order, these phenomena depend on the experimental conditions such as the irradiation time, the laser power, and the environment. In order to better understand the physics emphasizing this degradation, we developed an experimental cell with an in-situ spectroscopic ellipsometry diagnostic. The dry-pumped cell sheltering the sample is associated with a mass spectrometer that enables us to follow the environmental conditions in which we experiment the ageing. Anti-reflection coatings on fused silica were tested under 10 kHz-532 nm laser ageing. We present first results of degradation obtained in these conditions.


Abstract : The ionization and excitation of gases by three different geometries of microwave applicators are investigated. Current-voltage characteristics of a plasma with super-imposed ionization by a 2.45 GHz applicator with transport from a dc field are measured. Electron densities in helium and argon test gases were found to be greater than 10 to the 12th power/cc or thirty times higher than normal plasma cut-off densities. This applicator is also used to determine the percentage of O2a 1 del(g) produced in a pure oxygen microwave discharge. A production of up to 25% at low pressures is measured. A design which specially couples two applicators was implemented resulting in twice the power density and better uniformity. Measurement of the percentage of atomic oxygen produced in an oxygen discharge, determined by NO2 titration, indicates the efficiency of atom production for this system is as high as 43 eV/atom. Microwave power is superimposed on a dc discharge in a quartz tube He-Ne laser in this system. A twin antenna irradiator is used to apply 2.45 GHz pulsed and cw microwave power to a quartz discharge tube containing condensed mercury. The time resolved spectra of pulsed operation shows that the relative intensity of the pulsed ultraviolet output decreases as the microwave sustainer power and thus the pressure is increased. (Author)


The development of UAVs and multispectral cameras has led to remote sensing applications with unprecedented spatial resolution. However, uncertainty remains on the radiometric calibration process for converting raw images to surface reflectance. Several calibration methods exist, but the advantages and disadvantages of each are not well understood. We performed an empirical analysis of five different methods for calibrating a 10-band multispectral camera, the MicaSense RedEdge MX Dual Camera System, by comparing multispectral images with spectrometer measurements taken in the field on the same day. Two datasets were collected, one in clear-sky and one in overcast conditions on the same field. We found that the empirical line method (ELM), using multiple radiometric reference targets imaged at mission altitude performed best in terms of bias and RMSE. However, two user-friendly commercial solutions relying on one single grey reference panel were only slightly less accurate and resulted in sufficiently accurate reflectance maps for most applications, particularly in clear-sky conditions. In overcast conditions, the increase in accuracy of more elaborate methods was higher. Incorporating measurements of an integrated downwelling light sensor (DLS2) did not improve the bias nor RMSE, even in overcast conditions. Ultimately, the choice of the calibration method depends on required accuracy, time constraints and flight conditions. When the more accurate ELM is not possible, commercial, user-friendly solutions like the ones offered by Agisoft Metashape and Pix4D can be good enough.


Neuronal remodeling is crucial for formation of the mature nervous system and disruption of this process can lead to neuropsychiatric diseases. Global gene expression changes in neurons during remodeling as well as the factors that regulate these changes remain poorly defined. To elucidate this process, we performed RNA-seq on isolated Drosophila larval and pupal neurons and found upregulated synaptic signaling and downregulated gene expression regulators as a result of normal neuronal metamorphosis. We further tested the role of alan shepard (shep), which encodes an evolutionarily conserved RNA-binding protein required for proper neuronal remodeling. Depletion of shep in neurons prevents the execution of metamorphic gene expression patterns, and shep-regulated genes correspond to Shep chromatin and/or RNA-binding targets. Reduced expression of a Shep-inhibited target gene that we identified, brat, is sufficient to rescue neuronal remodeling defects of shep knockdown flies. Our results reveal direct regulation of transcriptional programs by Shep to regulate neuronal remodeling during metamorphosis. Summary: We provide the first report of the transition of the neuronal transcriptome during metamorphic remodeling and further elucidate how Shep regulates transcription of its chromatin targets to regulate neuronal remodeling.


The novel concept of subjective cognitive decline (SCD) in Parkinson's disease (PD) refers to subjective cognitive impairment without concurrent objective cognitive deficits. This study aimed to determine the prevalence and affective correlates of SCD in de novo PD patients.


During the Qing Dynasty, Shen Fu's autobiographical prose collection Six Chapters of a Floating Life contains many culture-loaded words, which have solid cultural characteristics and play a pivotal role in the cultural exchange between China and the West. Due to the difference in cultural background and way of thinking between China and the West, Western readers' perception of Chinese unique culture-loaded words is biased and difficult in the language conversion process. Hence, studying the English translation of culture-loaded words has theoretical and practical significance. The artistic creation of language is inseparably related to strangeness, and translation strangeness means that linguistic symbols do not always refer to the same object. The translation of the culturally loaded words in Lin Yutang's translated book Six Chapters of a Floating Life allows the target language reader to experience a different world in a familiar and unfamiliar transition. Studying its translation is also valuable for helping translators to open their minds and use different means of translation to create new expressions of strangeness.


In this work we have analyzed the correspondence between the fundamental mode of PCFs and Gaussian modes as a function of frequency, pitch, and air hole size. Such analysis provides insight into design space regions of PCFs, where low-loss coupling to standard fibers may be obtained.


Using long vertical arrays (LVAs) in ocean acoustics enables one to measure an S matrix describing transformations of modes in inhomogeneous waveguides. The S matrix allows one not only to calculate the sound field for any configuration of sources and receivers but also to proceed to the solution of the inverse problem (IP)—retrieving inhomogeneities from acoustical data. The wave‐type IP is studied for the 1‐D case, which differs significantly from the multidimensional situation. For instance, in the 2‐D case, the IP can be solved based only on the submatrix describing forward scattering as a function of frequency. The 2‐D irregularities in the acoustic waveguide could be reconstructed as in the 1‐D problem with the help of the layer‐peeling algorithm via backscattering data. But this approach is of little practical use because backscattering is usually weak. Practical formulation of the deterministic IP in ocean acoustics should exploit some final‐dimensional description of the media and use all availab...


A centrifuge injector that repetitively fires 1.3 mm deuterium pellets (1 torr⋅L per pellet) at a rate of 32 pellets per second was used to build up and maintain a Doublet III 2.4 MW neutral-beam-heated limiter discharge at a line-averaged density of 1 × 1014 cm−3. When compared to a conventional gas-fuelled plasma at similar density, the pellet-fuelled plasma was characterized by a factor-of-three reduction in edge neutral density and limiter recycling, a centrally peaked profile, a 70% increase in global energy confinement, and a tenfold increase in the fusion reaction rate.


Researched substitutuents effect on the benzene ring to the biological activity of oxiranes and cyclopropanes based on the arylidene derivatives of malononitrile dimer.


Objective:To observe some relative elements affecting the curative effecting of functional endoscopic sinusitis and rhiopolypus surgery.Methods:600 patients with sinusitis and rhiopolypus were operated and 120 cases were followedup from2000 to 2006 year.Results:The cure rate was 30% at one stage,63.9% at late stage,impoved rate 5%and the failure rate was 1.1%.Conclusion:The suitable postoperative treatment and reasonable regular following-up by endoscopy is one of the important segment for securing optional long-term result.


'It is a shame', lamented Boswell in 1773, acting yet once more as straight man to Dr Johnson, 'that authors are not now better patronized'. To which the unabashed free marketeer of learning responded: No sir. If learning cannot support a man, if he must sit with his hands across till somebody feeds him, it is as to him a bad thing, and it is better as it is. With patronage, what flattery! what falsehood! While a man is in equilibrio, he throws truth among the multitude, and lets them take it as they please: in patronage, he must say what pleases his patron, and it is an equal chance whether that be truth or falsehood.1


Academic journal as a part of message production in knowledge economy society,should involve the practice of modern administration of enterprise in its reform. The economic activities should be taken to earn economic benefit and heighten the academic quality as well as social profit,consequently to ensure a good development. Therefore there should be the optimum structure of person with abilities who may be a scholar editor ,a technical editor or a administrator editor.


The study of sedimentology in China is no longer fixed on traditional sedimentary petrology. New disciplines growing upon sedimentology are being unceasingly explored. Approaches integrating sedimentology and other disciplines are rigorously promoted, with special emphasis given to the studies of sequence stratigraphy, reservoir sedimentology, orogenic sedimentology, and sedimentary basin analysis. Branches of sedimentology, such as environmental sedimentology, continental dynamic sedimentology and global-change sedimentology, are further developing. As each of the areas of sedimentology study is so closely related to social and economic development, it is expected that sedimentology will flourish again in the 21th century.


ABSTRACT The IDX17119 is a phosphonomidate-based pan-genotypic non-nucleoside inhibitor of Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) NS5B RdRp thumb-II domain. IDX17119 exhibits significant antiviral activity against HCV genotype (GT) 1a, 2a, 3a and 4a. The molecular docking analysis was performed to understand the binding and intermolecular interactions of the IDX17119 molecule at the thumb-II domain of 1a, 2a, 3a and 4a GT NS5B RdRps. The molecular dynamics simulation has been performed to determine the stability of the ligand–protein complexes. We found GT 1a complex is relatively stable compared with other drug-receptor complexes. The binding free energy calculations and free energy decomposition analysis were carried out for all the complexes, the result revealed that the increase in the unfavourable polar contribution affects the binding of IDX17119 with GT 2a NS5B RdRp compared with all other complexes. In addition to this, the effect of mutation at M423 site (M423T/V) alters the conformation and activity of the IDX17119 molecule.


In this paper we propose a simple non-linear observer for attitude estimation based only on output from a typical inertial measurement unit (IMU) and dynamic pressure sensor embarked on a low-cost unmanned aerial vehicle. In particular, we aim to provide a good quality attitude estimate in the absence of global positioning system (GPS) ground truth and with potential low-frequency bias and high-frequency noise in the IMU sensor measurements. In addition, the case where the IMU only provides gyrometer and accelerometer outputs is considered; that is, there is no magnetometer output or it cannot be used due to local magnetic disturbances such as are common on a vehicle with electric motors. The proposed observer uses a simple centripetal force model (based on gyrometer and dynamic pressure measurements), augmented by a first-order dynamic model for angle of attack, to estimate non-inertial components of the acceleration. This estimate is used to correct the accelerometer output to provide a low-frequency estimate of the gravitational direction. This inertial direction, along with the gyrometer output, is then used to drive a fully non-linear attitude observer posed on the orthogonal group of rotation matrices SO(3). The observer is augmented with an integral state that ensures compensation of gyrometer bias. The resulting observer is simple to implement and fully non-linear. Experimental results are provided on a real-world data set and the performance of the filter is evaluated against the output from a full GPS/inertial navigation system (INS) that was available for the data set.


We introduce a derived enhancement of the moduli space of sections defined by Chang-Li, and we compute its tangent complex. Special cases of this moduli space include stable maps and stable quasi-maps. As an application, we prove that G-theoretic stable map and quasi-map invariants of projective spaces are equal.


What is Laboratory Education? Theoretical Foundations Typology and Dynamics of Distress Reactions Recognizing Distress Reactions Prevention Managing Distress Reactions Case Studies The Trainer


The authors develop a conceptual, testable model suggesting lack of developmental synchrony between cortical and subcortical neural tracts necessary for breathing control underlying human vocalization (speech breathing), potentially leaving infants vulnerable to inconsolable crying. They propose that this lack of developmental synchrony also helps explain the human susceptibility to sudden infant death syndrome. Beginning around 1 month, during sleep and awake periods, infants gradually learn to shift between volitional and autonomic breathing control based on developing functional interconnections between cortical and subcortical neural networks. The existence of sudden infant death syndrome and inconsolable crying may reflect adaptive failures exacerbated by prolonged parent–infant separation, whether night or day, due to one or the other subsystem of neural networks and/or their functioning nuclei not being equally mature or able to sufficiently send, detect, or respond to signals provided by the other. Implications of these proposed models for family practice and family science research are examined.


Regression models to relate a scalar Y to a functional predictor X(t) are becoming increasingly common. Work in this area has concentrated on estimati ng a coefficient function, β(t), with Y related toX(t) through ∫ β(t)X(t)dt. Regions whereβ(t) 6= 0 correspond to places where there is a relationship between X(t) andY. Alternatively, points whereβ(t) = 0 indicate no relationship. Hence, for interpretation purposes, it is de irable for a regression procedure to be capable of producing estimates of β(t) that are exactly zero over regions with no apparent relationship and have simple structures over the remaining regions. Unfortunately, most fitting procedures result in an estimate for β(t) that is rarely exactly zero and has unnatural wiggles making the curve hard to interpret. In this article we introd uce a new approach which uses variable selection ideas, applied to various derivatives o f β(t), to produce estimates that are both interpretable, flexible and accurate. We call our metho d "Functional Linear Regression That's Interpretable" (FLiRTI) and demonstrate it on simul ated and real world data sets. In addition, non-asymptotic theoretical bounds on the estima tion error are presented. The bounds provide strong theoretical motivation for our approach. Some key words : Interpretable Regression; Functional Linear Regression ; Da tzig Selector; Lasso.


Aim: To analyze the microbial load in raw and roasted insects in an attempt to determine the efficiency of heat treatment in removing the microbial load. Methodology: Fresh as well as roasted (over low flame for 15 min) insect samples were used to determine the microbial contaminants. Crushed insect samples were suspended in sterile half-strength nutrient broth solution and were further serially diluted 10-fold (up to 10-10) in isotonic half-strength nutrient broth solution. The total number of aerobic mesophilic microorganisms were determined on plate count agar and expressed as log Cfu g-1. Results: Differences in the number of microbial colonies were observed in fresh and roasted samples. The microbial load ranged from 6.30-8.75 log Cfu g-1 and showed that the highest microbial colonies were present in the fresh samples. The average log Cfu g-1 in fresh insect samples (7.57±0.87) was significantly higher (P<0.05) as compared to roasted samples (7.07±0.76). Interpretation: Edible insects require proper processing before consumption to reduce microbial contamination and further study is needed to identify specific microbes/food pathogens to develop microbial quality and parameters to ensure consumer safety. Key words: Alternative food, Edible insects, Food safety, Microbial contaminants, Traditional foods


WEO is pleased to announce the preliminary program for the 2nd World Congress of GI Endoscopy, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (Fig. 1). It is fitting that ENDO 2020 should take place in Rio de Janeiro, recognized as one of the largest economic and cultural centres of South America. 'We are aware of the great potential and growing interest in endoscopy in the entire region', enthused Dr Emura, ENDO 2020 Scientific Committee chair. 'The Scientific Committee is represented by members of international GI Societies, expert endoscopists and professors from all around the world. The committee is formalizing a program that will provide all attendees with a unique opportunity to get together, interact and learn cutting edge endoscopic skills and the best practices in endoscopy'. Similar to the 1st WEO congress, ENDO 2017, this second international congress will also host multiple society sponsored symposia on various topics. These society symposia will be structured together with our global scientific partnering societies. The ENDO 2020 scientific program will feature interactive, live endoscopic procedure demonstrations from Brazil and India. These will performed by well recognized endoscopists and educators. A postgraduate teaching program will also take place, covering all topics from basic to advanced aspects of GI endoscopy. Specialized courses, focused in advanced endoscopic diagnosis, high quality on upper GI endoscopy, video capsule, colorectal cancer and a program for endoscopic teachers are planned. Outstanding videos and abstracts will also be discussed at a separate session. ENDO 2020 will also introduce a 'Nurses Program' with a dedicated didactic session and a 'Hands-On' training program using models and simulators. WEO, together with the Sociedade Brasileira de Endoscopia Digestiva (SOBED) as co-host, and the Interamerican Society of Digestive Endoscopy (SIED) as collaborating partner, are looking forward to welcoming all scientific contributions. Submission for abstracts and videos will be open March 2019. Together we would like to make this a unique global educational experience. Please visit www.endo2020.org to see the ENDO 2020 preliminary program, and sign up for our newsletter and receive updated information about the congress.


With the stated aim of rebalancing the system in favour of victims, witnesses and communities in order to reduce crime and bring more offenders to justice, this White Paper presents an extensive set of proposals for reform of the criminal justice system in England and Wales.


Macadamia is one of the most valuable commercial nuts and its culture is a good alternative for small farmers or for large properties with a low capacity for the mechanization of its areas. Macadamia clones, due to their morphological proximity exhibited some difficulties in field identification that could difficult the right plant distribution. The objective of this work was to genetically characterize, by RAPD markers, different macadamia clones under cultivation. Leaves from 'HAES-741', 'HAES-660', 'IAC-920BX', 'IAC-920', 'HAES-344', 'IAC-420', 'HAES-816', 'IAC-1.21', 'Shimada', 'IAC - Campinas B', 'IAC - Campinas A' and 'HAES-Aloha' were donated by Queen Nut Macadâmia. DNA was extracted and amplified with 15 primers and the binary data (presence/absence of bands) collected was used and dendrograms constructed. Clone identification, via RAPD was possible using primers Op G18, C19 and C7. Most of the genetic variation is inside the Brazilian or Hawaiian groups rather than between the groups and could allow inbreeding or crossing between distant clones.


This guide will provide resources for research on key events and people in the Suffrage movement beginning in 1776 and leading up to the 19th Amendment.


: Kampung Pulo is one of the areas in Garut Regency which has various intangible cultural heritages. The intangible cultural heritage in Kampung Pulo is a legacy from one of the figures who propagated Islam in Garut Regency, namely Arif Muhammad or commonly known as "Embah Dalem". Until now, Kampung Pulo can only be occupied by the original descendants of Embah Dalem Arif Muhammad. The Kampung Pulo community is known as a community that is thick with customs and traditions. They have the belief that intangible cultural heritage is a mandate and life guidance from their ancestors that must be lived wholeheartedly. This study aims to describe the various intangible cultural heritages in Kampung Pulo and efforts to preserve these intangible cultural heritages. The method used in this research is qualitative with a descriptive approach. The informant selection technique was carried out by purposive sampling. The object of this research is the preservation of intangible cultural heritage in Kampung Pulo, Garut Regency. Data sourced from primary data obtained from interviews and secondary data obtained from literature study. The data analysis technique is done by data reduction, data presentation, and drawing conclusions. As a result, there are 7 intangible cultural heritages that are still preserved in Kampung Pulo, namely the traditions of "Mapag Bulan Mulud", "Ngariung Mulud", "Ngibakan Banda Pusaka", "Tahlilan", "Mitembeyan", "Niiskeun Pare", and several taboos that have been existed since the time of Embah Dalem Arif Muhammad. Preservation efforts are carried out by means of enculturation, socialization, holding regular meetings, carrying out traditions, and being open to the general public who want to carry out traditions.


Circulating progenitor cells contribute to neovascularization and have been used for cell therapy of ischemia. Endothelial progenitor cells (EPC) isolated from adult blood are characterized by coexpression of hematopoietic and endothelial markers, analogue to the hemangioblast. In contrast, in embryonic development, vessel-associated multipotent progenitors, the so called mesoangioblasts (MAB), have been experimentally described. MAB express the key marker of angiopoietic progenitors, KDR, as well as mesenchymal markers. In order to assess the phenotype and functional properties of circulating progenitors during postnatal development, we isolated cells from peripheral blood of children between 8 days and 2.5 years after birth and compared these cells with adult EPC. Isolated mononuclear cells were plated on fibronectin-coated dishes in EBM medium supplemented with growth factors. At day 14, adherent cells derived from children demonstrated expression of mesenchymal markers CD13, CD73, the endothelial markers CD105, KDR and VE-cadherin, but were negative for hematopoietic markers CD133 and CD45 as documented by FACS analysis and RT-PCR. In contrast, adult EPC did express hematopoietic and endothelial markers, but lacked expression of CD73. Thus, the children-derived circulating progeniors (ChCP) resemble the previously described multipotent MAB. Indeed, ChCP could be induced to differentiate to cardiomyocytes, smooth muscle cells, and osteoblasts. Moreover, ChCP did express the stem cell markers islet-1 and c-kit and showed a marked proliferative capacity (28.3±0.9 passages, 64.0±2.9 population doublings) before entering a senescent state. Population doubling was strongly correlated with age of donors (R2=0.824, p=0.0001). Consistently, ChCP had a high telomerase activity (OD 0.6±0.1) and secreted high levels of cytokines such as HGF, VEGF, and SDF-1. These data identify a novel circulating progenitor cells, which can be isolated during postnatal development in humans. These ChCP resemble the previously described multipotent MAB during embryonic development, exhibit a high proliferative capacity and express various functional stem cell markers. These progenitors might be well suited for cell therapeutic strategies.


The thesis analyses how the standard model of liberalised electricity markets that was developed to increase the efficiency of electricity supply can deal with new objectives. While the liberalisation literature argues that additional objectives can be incorporated in the market framework through price signals, a large body of literature based on evolutionary economics argues that innovation and systemic transformation require governance mechanisms that complement the price mechanism of the market to overcome the
lock-in of the existing system and coordinate innovation processes.

The thesis focuses on the integration of distributed generation (DG) into electricity networks. In the standard model the governance of networks is mainly based on incentive regulation by independent regulators. Thus, the main question is how DG can be integrated into this regime and whether and how it needs to evolve. The research question is broken down according to both different governance issues (connection, integration, innovation, transformation) and different governance levels on which they can be addressed.

This is analysed from two angles: Firstly, there is a mainly theoretical discussion of network regulation. Various approaches to amending the standard model are discussed.
Secondly, this is complemented by country case studies of the UK and Denmark.

The conceptual analysis shows how incentive regulation can accommodate the efficient integration of DG as an additional objective. There is also scope for this model to incorporate governance mechanisms that are geared towards infrastructure transformation. The UK case study shows the practical implementation of this approach and corresponding difficulties.

As for Denmark – a DG and network transformation pioneer – the standard model plays a marginal role and economic issues are mainly dealt with outside regulation. The same is true for mechanisms beyond economic incentives.

The thesis shows the potential of the standard model to pursue new objectives as well as the need to broaden the scope beyond governance based on economic incentives.


In general, this study aims to identify the degree of patient satisfaction in Hospital Kangar based on service quality formulated. The specific objectives of this study is to identify the degree of patient satisfaction towards Nursing care, is to identify the degree of expectation towards the elements and dimensions measured, it is to identify the degree of perception after patient received the service, to identify patient satisfaction in view of the gap between the elements and the dimensions of perception and expectation and to identify areas of concern pertaining to patient satisfaction. Several service quality dimensions were generated from Parasuraman, Zeithalm and Berry (1988), to achieve the research objectives. The dimensions measured are tangible, reliable, responsiveness, assurance empathy and accessibility. Two sets of questionnaires were developed to measure Expectation and the Perception of patient. Reliability test was determined prior to real data
collection. Cronbach Alpha was found to be 0.83 and 0.92 respectively. The research data was gathered from 100 patients admitted to the Medical wards at Hospital Kangar. Descriptive statistical analysis using frequencies, percentage and means were used. The findings of the study
showed that the overall expectation means was 4.55 and the overall perception mean was 3.66. The perception elements that were related to nurses showed 96.7 % of patients responded that they were "satisfied" and " most satisfied". This percentage concluded that majority of the
patient perceived that they have received a satisfactory service. The expectation dimension with highest mean is reliability with mean value of 4.69. This measure exceeds " Important" degree. In the perception dimension the highest mean is reliability with mean score of 3.89. This measure exceeds "Quite satisfied". In the satisfaction gap the, responsiveness dimension has the highest gap 1.01. The conclusion derived from this study is that the service level in Hospital Kangar can be
consider as not of satisfactory level.


One of the least investigated approaches in passive vibration control is the possibility of combining different types of dampers that use different damping principles. Such a combination process, if wisely designed and implemented, has the potential to increase the damping performance and extend the damper's application. The primary purpose of this work is to experimentally and numerically investigate the damping behavior of a novel Fluid-Impact Hybrid Damper. This damper combines a conventional Viscous Fluid Damper with a Particle-Impact Damper. The Fluid-Impact Hybrid Damper comprises a 3D-printed plastic box attached to the Viscous Fluid Damper's moving rod and filled with stainless steel balls. An experimental setup was designed to drive the Viscous Fluid Damper's rod into harmonic oscillations at different frequencies (1, 2, 4, 6, and 8 Hz). The number of balls was changed three times (5, 10, and 15) to assess the effect of this parameter on the damping performance of the Fluid-Impact Hybrid Damper. A finite element model of the Fluid-Impact Hybrid Damper was developed using LS-Dyna explicit simulation program. The objective of the FE model is to investigate the elastoplastic balls-box collisions using a piecewise-linear plasticity material model. For both the experimental and numerical results, the Frequency Response Function was considered as the main comparison component for a set of force-independent results. The measured Frequency Response Functions showed a noticeable reduction in amplitude at the system's natural frequency (2 Hz), with an acceptable accuracy between the two approaches.


An econometric analysis is presented using correlation and a regression model. The impact of various factors on the magnitude of urban out-migration is determined. Factors examined include the degree of urbanization size of investment outlay per capita wages labor turnover natural increase of the population and household use of electric power. (excerpt)


Though the performance advantages of IP multicast is undeniable,the deployment of IP multicast has met many difficulties.In recent years,P2P multicast is being increasingly recognized as a viable alternative.In this paper,the routing problem of P2P multicast in asymmetric link delay networks is studied,and a new P2P multicast protocol called BowCast is proposed.Adopting tree-based and distributed strategies,the protocol enables members of a multicast group to self-organize into a sourced-based P2P multicast tree with minimum delay.The BowCast uses a technology called Bounded One-Way probe(BOW)to implement the routing optimum algorithms.BOW can provide the relative one-way delay among end systems without requiring global time synchronization.The simulation results show that BowCast can adapt the asymmetric link delay environment very well,and by tuning the scope of probing in BOW,BowCast can make trade-off between routing performance and control overhead flexibly.


Palaeontologist Jack Horner, along with molecular biologists and other experts, has been working on building an animal that he calls "the Chickenosaurus." Horner's purpose is to reverse-evolve a bird into a non-avian theropod by intervening on the genome expression of a chick's embryo in ways that stimulate the formation of ancestral characteristics (activation of atavism). After a discussion of the project in its scientific detail, I offer a theoretical perspective on the topic that relies on concepts developed by Gilles Deleuze. In particular, I argue that the Chickenosaurus can be regarded as an eligible example of Deleuzian "becoming" and that it deserves philosophical attention in that it displays the "creative involution" through which novelty is produced.


The fault detection and diagnosis technology may be applied in order to decrease the energy consumption and the maintenance cost of the air-conditioning system. In this paper, two fault detection methods were considered. One is a generic neural network, and the other is an moving average neural network. In order to compare the performance of fault detection results from these methods, two different types of faults in an air-conditioning system were applied. These are the condenser 30% fouling and the evaporator fan 25% slowdown. Test results showed that the moving average neural network was more effective for the detection of partial faults in the air-conditioning system.


The objectives of this study were to analyze the present status of upbringing young farmers and to suggest directions for the future improvement for upbringing the young farmers' workforce in rural Korea. This study was conducted through review of literature related to agricultural workforce and young farmers. Opinions were collected from agricultural workforce staff of city and county extension center about role, development strategy of young farmers' workers. The total of 145 extension educators in charge of workforce section at Agricultural Extension Centers at city and county level participated in the study and 137 data were used for final analysis. The major findings from this study were as follows: 1) The strategy for the upbringing young farmers should be established by national and local governments. 2) The status for the young farmers' policy must be placed high er than present situation. 3) The systems and rules should be deregulated for the secure agricultural production base. 4) Agricultural income sources should be developed extensively by national and local governments.


Recent advancements in Internet congestion control have introduced a multipath TCP (MPTCP) that aims to simultaneously utilize multiple available paths in the network. In this paper, we develop an integrated fluid and packet-level analytical model to study the coexistence of regular and MPTCP users sharing a common WiFi access point (AP). We observe a throughput unfairness of MPTCP with regular TCP in the last-mile WiFi networks. In order to fix the fairness issue, we develop a real-time Adaptive Loss Management (ALM) algorithm that continuously monitors the deviation in AP buffer occupancy and adapts its packet admission probability based on a closed form expression derived from our analytical model. We provide a proof as well as show via numerical and simulation results that the proposed ALM algorithm is TCP-friendly by design, and provably stable.


Reiser directs his message to workers at opposite ends of the behavioral spectrum: biologists and analysts. For many of the readers trained in the "biopsychosocial" era, however, Dr. Reiser's conceptual thrust may fall on already sensitized ears. Considering its massive scope, the book is of modest length. It raises more questions than it answers. And with his emphasis on heuristic value, one may assume that this is just what Dr. Reiser intended.


Gender and sexuality norms, conscribed under cis/heteropatriarchy, have established violent and unstable social and educational climates for the millennial generation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, agender/asexual, gender creative, and questioning youth. While strides have been made to make schools more supportive and queer inclusive, schools still struggle to include lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender* + , intersex, agender/asexual, gender creative, queer and questioning (LGBT* + IAGCQQ)-positive curricula. While extensive studies must be done on behalf of all queer youth, this work specifically focuses on how to support classroom teachers to uptake and apply a pedagogy of refusal that attends to the most vulnerabilized population of queer youth to date, those that are trans* + . A pedagogy of refusal will be explored through an evolving theory of trans* + ness, then demonstrated through a framework for classroom application, followed by recommendations for change.


During the last years many researches have been interested in the field of wave propagation in periodic structures called phononic crystals (PCs). The PCs are characterized by presenting heterogeneous inclusions with periodic distribution. Due to its periodic structure, some frequency ranges may exist where elastic waves are forbidden to propagate (band gaps). Recently, new techniques to analyze PCs are using a combination of analytical or numerical method with wave propagation. One is called wave spectral element (WSE) method and it consists of combining the spectral element (SE) method with the Floquet -Bloch's theorem. Other similar technique is the wave finite element (WFE) method. The WFE method utilizes a similar approach where SE method is substituted by the conventional finite element (FE) method. In this study, band gaps in a phononic crystal Euler-Bernoulli (EB) beam containing unit cells of aluminium and epoxy are investigated using the WSE, WFE, SE and FE methods. These techniques are utilized to obtain the transmittance, receptance and the frequency response function (FRF). The WSE and WFE methods are also utilized to predict the PC band structure. The attenuation constant surface is obtained b y the WSE method. It is possible to achieve Bragg gaps formation in low frequencies considering a small number of unit cells. The behavior of the attenuation constant surface is complex and varies according to the number of unit cells. The best attenuation was found to four unit cells with approximately 50% of epoxy. The PC Euler-Bernoulli beam proposed indicates the potential to achieve band gap formation for vibration management. 22o CBECiMat Congresso Brasileiro de Engenharia e Ciência dos Materiais 06 a 10 de Novembro de 2016, Natal, RN, Brasil


How the construction of national consciousness may be captured in the literary production of a whole century? What can the macro-analysis of the 19th-century prose fiction reveal about the formation of the concept of the nation-state of Greece? How could the concept of nationality be detected in literary writing and then interpreted? These are the questions addressed by the research that is published in this paper and which focuses on exploring how the concept of the nation is figured and shaped in 19th-century Greek prose fiction. This paper proposes a methodological approach that combines well-known text mining techniques with computational close reading methods in order to retrieve the nation-related passages and to analyze them linguistically and semantically. The main objective of the paper at hand is to map the frequency and the phraseology of the nation-related references, as well as to explore the phrase patterns in relation to the topic modeling results.


The $L^q$ dimensions, for $1<q<\infty$, quantify the degree of smoothness of a measure. We study the following problem on the real line: when does the $L^q$ dimension improve under convolution? This can be seen as a variant of the well-known $L^p$-improving property. Our main result asserts that uniformly perfect measures (which include Ahlfors-regular measures as a proper subset) have the property that convolving with them results in a strict increase of the $L^q$ dimension. We also study the case $q=\infty$, which corresponds to the supremum of the Frostman exponents of the measure. We obtain consequences for repeated convolutions and for the box dimension of sumsets. Our results are derived from an inverse theorem for the $L^q$ norms of convolutions due to the second author.


Philosophers who hold that the correct ontological analysis of things includes both properties and particulars have often been pressed to "show" the particular. If we are not acquainted with them, it is argued, then we should not suppose that they exist. I argue that, while we do have good and sufficient reasons for supposing there to be particulars, we are not acquainted with them. To suppose that we are acquainted with them is to treat particulars as if they were properties and to fail to realize how radically different particulars are from properties. The relevance of these matters to some considerations of "simplicity" and the principles of empiricism is explored.


Rice blast disease, caused by Magnaporthe oryzae, is one of the most damaging diseases of rice worldwide. Cultivation of rice varieties carrying resistance genes is the most economic and successful strategy to control the disease. In this study, 451 rice varieties from around the world including 363 Thai landrace rice varieties, 21 Thai improved rice varieties, 43 Japanese rice varieties and 24 worldwide rice varieties were screened by PCR technique using gene-specific markers for 10 rice blast resistance genes: Pi9, Piz-t, Pi50, Pigm(t), Pid2, Pid3, Pia, Pik, Pi54 and Pita. The results showed that 382 (99.48%) Thai rice varieties have at least one resistance gene and two rice varieties, 'Hom' and 'Bak muay', contained eight out of ten screened rice blast resistance genes. 320 rice varieties (83.33%) contained three or more rice blast resistance genes. The frequency of the rice blast resistance gene ranges from 87.76–9.64 per cent, of which the Pid3 gene has the highest frequency and the Pi54 gene has the lowest frequency. Two major resistance genes, found in Japanese rice varieties, are the Pik gene (76.74%) and the Pi9 gene (72.09%). While two major resistance genes, found in the international rice varieties are the Pi9 gene (66.67%) and the Pi54 gene (62.50%). The disease resistance gene profile of each rice variety obtained from this study will benefit the rice blast resistant breeding programme in the future.


We compute the p-mode oscillation frequencies and frequency splittings that arise in a two-dimensional model of the Sun that contains toroidal magnetic fields in its interior.


Designing of a procedural model of the formation of the future teacher of creative activity by means of modern educational technologies is one of the important problems in modern pedagogy. The paper attempts to create a theoretical model of the creative activity of the future teacher, is a system of teachers and students in a holistic pedagogical process of the university.


A device and a method for abstracting a document with pseudo relevance feedback and NMF(Non-negative Matrix Factorization) are provided to extract important sentences efficiently while minimizing an inclination towards a query by extracting the important sentences with a query vector according to a semantic feature vector and the query vector based on a relevant sentence extracted from similarity. A query factorizer(141) factorizes a term frequency matrix into semantic feature and variable matrixes by using NMF. An NMF query extender(142) generates an extended query vector by extending a vector of a query according to the semantic feature matrix. A relevant sentence extractor(143) extracts a sentence having high similarity from the semantic variable matrix as a relevant sentence by calculating cosine similarity between the query vectors according to the factorized semantic feature vector and the term frequency vector. A relevant sentence query extending unit(144) generates the query vector according to the relevant sentence by extending the query for the relevant sentence. A candidate sentence collector(145) forms a candidate sentence set by extracting the sentences for the query vectors according to the relevant sentence and the semantic feature vector. A terminology frequency matrix generation unit(133) generates a vector according to a term-frequency used in disassembled sentences and defines the vector in matrix.


The work deals with the textual study of rough manuscripts of the novel The Adolescent, specifically the correction of publisher's errors in reading the manuscripts, together with the study of Dostoevsky's creative process and the shaping of the concept of the novel in the phase of rough drafts. The article analyzes the connections between The Adolescent and Dostoevsky's unrealized plan for The Life of a Great Sinner, as well as Pushkin and Lermontov's motifs that were important for Dostoevsky's creative method during the his work on the novel The Adolescent.


The faded-on stains of cotton clothes are a common daily phenomenon. The desorption and adsorption of reactive dyes are theoretically responsible for the faded-on stains on cotton clothes in the washing microenvironment, especially when the light color cotton fabrics (LCFs) are washed together with the cotton fabrics dyed in highly saturated color (CFSCs). However, the effects of washing parameters on the desorption and adsorption kinetics of reactive dyes and the mitigation of faded-on stains in the washing microenvironment through washing parameter optimization are poorly understood. This study thoroughly discusses the desorption and adsorption behaviors of reactive red 195 in the washing microenvironment from the inhibition of color transfer. Firstly, CFSCs and LCFs were prepared by using reactive red 195 and cotton fabrics. Secondly, the effects of washing parameters, washing temperature, washing liquor ratio, and washing solution pH, on the dye desorption and adsorption rate were studied with the simulated washing device (SWD), followed by the response surface analysis of washing parameters. Thirdly, the modeling of desorption and adsorption kinetics and velocity were detailed. Finally, the model of dye desorption and adsorption was validated in a drum washing machine (DWM). The results are helpful for the design of scientific washing procedures to curb the faded-on stains of cotton clothes effectively.


The decategorisation of radioactive liquid waste by removal of 90Sr, 137Cs and actinides (allowing the waste to be sent to a surface disposal after conditioning) or the separation of these long lived nuclides from solutions arising from the PUREX process (in order to destroy them by transmutation or to isolate them in high integrity matrixes) need very specific extractants. Carbamoylmethyl phosphine oxides are excellent extractants for actinides, especially the (N, N-di-isobutylcarbamoylmethyl) octyl phenyl phosphine oxide used in the TRUEX process. The species extracted contains three CMPO molecules per actinide cation. Thus, it seemed interesting to attach, in a suitable way and on an appropriate platform, three (or more) functional groups of the CMPO type, to better complex the trivalent cations.


This paper uses multi-dimensional analysis to investigate the extent to which the subject categories used by Google are linguistically well-defined. A 3.7 million word corpus is constructed by a stratified sample of web pages from two Google categories: 'Home' and 'Science'. The corpus is tagged (using the Biber Tagger) and factor analysis is carried out, resulting in four factors. These factors are interpreted functionally as underlying dimensions of variation. The 'Science' and 'Home' categories are compared with respect to each dimension; although there are large differences in the dimension scores of texts within each category, the two Google categories themselves are not clearly distinguished on linguistic grounds. The dimensions are subsequently used as predictors in a cluster analysis, which identifies the 'text types' that are well defined linguistically. Eight text types are identified and interpreted in terms of their salient linguistic and functional characteristics.


Efforts to include children with disabilities in mainstream settings often raise questions as to what constitutes "least restrictive." This paper addresses educational placement of deaf children, especially as it pertains to physical education and sport. Many leaders in deaf education hold that placement of deaf children in public schools often occurs without regard to their socioemotional/cultural/language needs. This paper provides a rationale for the residential school as a viable and legitimate placement option for deaf children. Also included in the paper is a brief historical overview of deaf education including the contributions of residential schools to deaf sport and deaf culture.


In this paper, we study the Rayleigh-Plateau instability of a cylindrical pore. We are interested in the model developed by Spencer et al. [20], Kirill et al. [12] and Boutat et al. [3] in absence of the stress. We obtain a nonlinear parabolic PDE of fourth order. We obtain the local existence and uniqueness of the solution of this problem. The global existence of the solution and the convergence to the mean value of the initial data for long time, represent the main results of this work. In this study, we give also a numerical tests in order to validate the theoretical results. Mathematics subject classification (2010): 26D15, 26A51, 32F99, 41A17.


The Stylohyoid syndrome is a clinical o•cui-ance which is resulted due to elongated styloid process and calcified stylohyoid ligament . The main complaints in the opei-ated 43 patients with the diagnosis of stylohyoid syndrome were sore thi-oat, foreign body sensation. Evaluation of computerized tomographic findings revealed that elongated styloid process (70.3%) followed hy ligament calcification (29,6%) were the ingior causes of styloid syndrome. Evaluation of the pos toperat ive specimens histopathologically showed the calsite crystal depositions in ligament Postoperative follow- up revealed complete recovery of the complaints in 95.3% of patients


Pollution of surface waters in densely populated areas with intensive land use is a serious threat to their ecological, industrial and recreational utilization. European and national manure policies and several regional and local pilot projects aim at reducing pollution loads to surface waters. For the evaluation of measures, water authorities and environmental research institutes are putting a lot of effort into monitoring surface water quality. Fro regional surface water quality monitoring, the measurement locations are usually situated in the downstream part of the catchment to represent a larger area. The monitoring frequency is usually low (e.g. monthly), due to the high costs for sampling and analysis. As a consequence, human induced trends in nutrient loads and concentrations in these monitoring data are often concealed by the large variability of surface water quality caused by meteorological variations. Because natural surface water quality variability is poorly understood, large uncertainties occur in the estimates of (trends in) nutrient loads or average concentrations.


Isolated Class E DC-DC converter is widely adopted in multi-MHz switching frequency applications since it could easily achieve zero voltage switching (ZVS) and has simple topology. However, the parameters design for the converter is difficult due to its complex resonance operation. This paper proposes a direct design method for isolated Class E DC-DC converter with On-Off control. In the proposed design approach, the rectifier network, which could be equivalent to a pure resistor, is firstly designed by time-simulation method. Afterwards, three constraints are considered for designing the parameters of the Class E inverter, including the realization of the zero voltage switching, the demand of rated output capacity and the sinusoidal degree of the resonant current. In addition, the duty cycle of the power switch is also optimized selected to achieve high efficiency. Finally, a 20 MHz 12 V/24 W prototype converter is implemented using the emerging enhancement-mode Gallium Nitride Field Effect Tube (eGaN FET) and experimental results validate the effectiveness of the proposed design approach.


In this paper the need for a modular Smart Grid simulation framework is motivated. This framework has to allow the automatic composition of existing simulation models for the evaluation of control strategies. Domain specific requirements for this approach are discussed. Based on reference models from literature, a layered approach for solving the composition problem is presented. It breaks down the problem into a syntactical, semantical and a scenario layer, for each of which basic concepts for solving the problem are presented.


Based on the research in 36 different sites with different pinus massoniana mixed proportion and invasion extent of Bursaphelenchus xylophilus in Fuyang, Zhejiang Province, the authors analyzed the change of community diversity of all forest types in arbor, shrub and herb layers after invaded by Bursaphelenchus xylophilus. The results showed that invasion of B. xylophilus tended to reduce the differences in diversity of arbor, shrub and herb layers in pinus massoniana community of different forest types. However, much heavier invasion of B. xylophilus resulted in a new feature in diversity indexes of all forest types, showing a trend of reciprocating between polarization and consistency. Furthermore, successional stages of community in Fuyang, Zhejiang Province were processing from early stage to middle stage of evergreen broadleaved forest; whilst the increase of composite disturbance accelerated such successional stages.


This discussion endeavors to show the structures and characteristic reactions of typical compounds of citrus fruits, illustrating the diverse fields of chemistry that are involved with commercial products.


Objective To explore the contents and clinical significant of vascular endothelial growth factor VEGF,interleukin-6 IL-6,Leptin in the aqueous humor of type 2 diabetic retinopathy.Methods According to eyeground examination and fundus fluorescein angiography,70 2-diabetic patients 70 eyes were divided into two groups,experimental group which subdivided into diabetic patients without retinopathy NDR,22 cases 22 eyes,background diabetic retinopathy BDR,28 cases 28 eyes,proliferative diabetic retinopathy PDR,20 cases 20 eyes,and control group with normal senile cataract patients 20 cases 20 eyes.The contents of VEGF and IL-6 in the aqueous humor were determined by using the ELISA technique and the content of Leptin was measured with radioimmunoassay.Results The level of VEGF in the aqueous humor samples of NDR,BDR and PDR were 250.3226.77ng·L-1,300.1158.89ng·L-1 and 496.2391.06ng·L-1 respectively.The level of IL-6 in the aqueous humor of NDR,BDR and PDR were 162.8133.92ng·L-1,256.7664.15ng·L-1 and 391.2790.46ng·L-1 respectively.The level of Leptin in the aqueous humor of NDR,BDR and PDR were 69.8021.37ng·L-1,155.0832.76ng·L-1 and 230.2756.92ng·L-1 respectively.The levels of VEGF,IL-6,Leptin in the aqueous humor of the control group were 144.6926.55ng·L-1,86.7122.69ng·L-1 and 43.6220.02ng·L-1 respectively.Compared with the control,the levels of VEGF,IL-6 and Leptin in the aqueous humor of experimental groups were different significantly F=118.62,P0.01;F=110.53,P0.01;F=101.22,P0.01.The levels of VEGF,IL-6 and Leptin in the aqueous of the NDR,BDR and PDR increased significantly.The level of VEGF significantly correlated with the level of IL-6 and Leptin in the aqueous humorr=0.995,P=0.000;r=0.776,P=0.000.The level of VEGF,IL-6 and Leptin in the aqueous humor also significantly correlated with the severity and prolongation of DRr=0.722,P=0.000;r=0.716,P=0.000,r=0.869,P=0.000;r=0.865,P=0.000,r=0.776,P=0.000;r=0.765,P=0.000.Conclusion VEGF and IL-6 play active roles in the generation and development of diabetic retinopathy,and the level of VEGF in the aqueous humor closely correlates with the level of IL-6 and Leptin in the aqueous humor of diabetic patients.


The invention discloses an adjustable constant-damping device. The adjustable constant-damping device comprises a shell (1), a frame (4), butterfly-shaped springs (5) and fixing blocks (8). The frame (4) is fixedly connected in the shell (1). The outer end face of the frame (4) is connected with one of the fixing blocks (8). An outlet shaft (10) is arranged in a through hole which is formed in the middles of the shell (1) and the frame (4). Bearings (2) are arranged between the shell (1) and the outlet shaft (10). The adjustable constant-damping device is characterized in that the butterfly-shaped springs (5) are arranged in a cavity at the tail end of the outlet shaft (10). Press blocks (6) are respectively arranged on the outer sides of the butterfly-shaped springs (5) and fixed at one end of an adjusting screw (9). The adjusting screw (9) is matched with the fixing blocks (8) respectively through threads. The adjustable constant-damping device has the advantages of constant damping, compact structure and reliable performance.


This report deals with effects in spectra when the source is subjected to external electric and magnetic fields simultaneously applied in either parallel or perpendicular directions. The helium spectrum has been chosen, owing to the relative ease with which it is usually possible (1) to excite the new combination lines, and (2) to trace the connections between the original lines and the components produced by the external electric and magnetic fields. In hydrogen, the second problem is extremely difficult. Moreover, the introduction of quantum mechanics has greatly reduced the advantage formerly held by the hydrogen atom in theoretical interpretations. In a recent paper the writer reported the observation of additive effects in the parhelium spectrum when parallel electric and magnetic fields were applied to the atoms. Additive effects were also found for certain orthohelium lines under an analysis which failed to reveal any of their fine structure.


The Pioneer-6 and Pioneer-7 space probes carried charged-particle telescopes which measure, for the first time, both the direction of arrival and differential energy spectra of protons and alpha particles. The intensity changes, directional distributions and energy spectra of proton fluxes associated with solar activity are investigated. The data were obtained in the beginning of the new solar cycle (no. 20), when it is possible to unambiguously associate proton-flux increases with specific solar active regions. The origin, possibly long-term storage, and propagation of these proton fluxes are investigated. It was observed that enhanced 0·6–13 M proton fluxes associated with specific active regions were present over heliographic longitude ranges as great as ~180°. These enhanced fluxes exhibit definite onsets and cut-offs which appear to be associated with the magnetic-sector boundaries observed by Ness on Pioneer-6. Discrete flare-produced intensity increases extending in energy to more than 50 M are observed, superposed on the enhanced flux. These increases displayed short transit times and short rise times. Both the enhanced and flare-produced fluxes propagate along the spiral interplanetary magnetic field from the Western hemisphere of the Sun. From these observations we are led to a model in which the magnetic fields from the active region are spread out over a longitude range of 100–180° in the solar corona. The existence of strong unidirectional anisotropics in the initial phases of flare-proton events implies that little scattering occurs between the Sun and spacecraft. However, the gradual approach to an isotropic flux at late times indicates that the decay phase is controlled by the interplanetary magnetic field.


Psychology of Sports: Definitions, Topics & Trends Current Research in Sports Officiating & Decision-Making A Precis of Simple Heuristics in Sports Transformational Leadership: Theory, Research & Application to Sports Assessing Leadership Styles of Coaches & Testing the Augmentation Effect in Sport Predicting Sport Fans Willingness to Consider Anonymous Acts of Aggression: Importance of Team Identification & Fan Dysfunction The Implicit Achievement Motive & General Life Stress Affect Time Spent on Competitive Matches in Racquet Sports Eating Disorders Among Male Athletes: A Psychosocial Perspective Types of Coping Strategies as Predictors for the Development of Psychosomatic Disorders after the Life Event "Career Termination" Index.


Abstract The distribution of the flap allophone [ɾ] of American English, along with the other allophones of /t/,[th,t=, ʔ, t] has been accounted for in various formal frameworks by assuming a number of different abstract mechanisms and entities. The desirability or usefulness of these formalisms is not at issue in the present paper. Instead, a computationally explicit model of categorization is used (Skousen 1989, 1992) in order to account for the distribution of the allophones of /t/ without recourse to such formalisms. The simulations that were carried out suggest that they are not needed because analogy to surface apparent variables such as phones and word boundaries is sufficient to predict allophony. In analogy, the particular allophone of /t/ (i.e. [ɾ, th, t=, ʔ, t]) that appears in a given context is determined on the basis of similarity to stored exemplars in the mental lexicon. From an acquisitional standpoint, categorization by analogy to stored exemplars dispenses with the need for rule induction although it does suggest that speakers group functionally related sounds into mental categories, a process that is influenced to a great deal by orthography. Analogy also explains the stochastic nature of linguistic performance. In the present study, 3,719 tokens of the allophones of the phoneme /t/ were extracted from the TIMIT corpus and constitute the database from which analogs were chosen. The variables used included the three phones or boundaries on either side of /t/, and the stress of the syllables preceding and following /t/. The model proves quite successful in predicting the correct allophone, and the errors made are generally possible alternative pronunciations (e.g. moun[ʔ]ain, moun[th]ain). The success rate changes little when only small sub-samples of the database are incorporated. In addition, exemplar-modeling is found to be quite robust because even when a feature such as stress is eliminated, (a feature which is critical in most rule approaches), allophony is still highly predictable.


The design and the use of positive branch unstable resonators with variable reflectivity mirrors are described in the case of two different transverse flow CO, lasers: a TEA source for LIDAR Doppler applications and a high average power DC excited source for industrial applications. In the first case, Ge and ZnSe mirrors with Gaussian and super-Gaussian reflectivity profiles have been employed. In the second one, ZnSe mirrors with Gaussian and super-Gaussian reflectivity profiles have been employed as well as partial hard-edge reflectivity mirrors with and without phase compensation. Beams with 40 mm diameter and full-angle divergence of about 1 mrad were typically obtained in both cases. The TEA source was operating in single longitudinal mode with 1J per pulse energy, while 1 kW output power was obtained from the industrial source.


The tradition of critical thinking is believed to be absent in Chinese education.Therefore,it is a necessity and focus of the current educational reform to introduce critical course into our general education system to reinforce critical thinking training among students.Though a few critical thinking courses emerge in Chinese schools,the course arrangement is far from perfect.The author advocates that instructors are to shape critical thinking courses with a critical thinking method,to encourage students to analyze and think about things on themselves,to organize team discussion on class,to adopt abundant real cases in teaching in order to cultivate students' habit of critical thinking.


COMMENTARY ON: Bolton JM, Morin SN, Majumdar SR, et al . Association of mental disorders and related medication use with risk for major osteoporotic fractures. JAMA Psychiatry 2017;74:641–8.

Selected mental disorders and specific psychotropic medications are associated with increased risk of fracture and osteoporosis and adversely impact bone mineral density (BMD).1 2 Fractures are associated with high mortality and morbidity rates and increased disability burden and socioeconomic costs.3 FRAX, a fracture risk assessment tool, assesses the 10-year probability of major osteoporotic fractures (MOF) based on eight clinical risk factors and BMD.4 5 It was developed and calibrated based on population-based cohorts in several regions throughout the world. Although FRAX is included in numerous osteoporosis guidelines, there is a need to strengthen the tool by incorporating additional clinical risk factors and evaluating its utility in specific subpopulations. Therefore, it is important …


In any teaching context, shifting traditional methods of learning to problem-based learning often invites many questions and views from various parties. For more than thirty years, there have been ongoing debates as to issues such as the proper method of execution, appropriate curriculum, and learning environment for problem-based learning, as well as the cognitive skills and personal qualities of the facilitator (lecturer). Because the facilitator is a crucial component to this form of learning, this article focuses on investigating two personal qualities that are the main prerequisites to producing an effective facilitator. The importance of these qualities, as well as the proposed measures to implement problem-based learning, are also discussed.  In any teaching context, shifing traditional methods of learning to problem-based learning often invites many questions and views from various parties. For more than thirty years, there have been ongoing debates as to issues such as the proper method of execution, appropriate curriculum, and learning environment for problem-based learning, as well as the cognitive skills and personal qualities of the facilitator (lecturer). Because the facilitator is a crucial component to this form of learning, this article focuses on investigating two personal qualities that are the main prerequisites to producing an effective facilitator. The importance of these qualities, as well as the proposed measures to implement problem-based learning, are also discussed.