This review article aims to challenge Andrew March's pessimism regarding the possibility of Islamic democracy in the modern world. It will argue that instead of conceptualizing the possibilities for Islamic democracy in a top-down manner, rooted in the language and imaginary of sovereignty, discussions about Islamic democracy ought to first focus on more empirically measurable and less theologically controversial things such as economic development, educational achievement, institutional functionality, and good governance. Such an approach removes the need for future Islamic political theorizing to be post-sovereigntist and/or post-statist as March contends. Instead, the future of Islamic political theorizing needs to actually be 'political,' addressing the same policy and administrative issues that any other form of contemporary democratic political thought aims to address.


This study used a standard deterministic input-output economic impact model to estimate the impact of Nova Southeastern University (NSU) on the South Florida economy. After application of a conservative 1.8 multiplier, it was determined that NSU and its many faculty, staff, students, and guests contributed over $217 million to the South Florida economy during fiscal year (FY) 1994. Although the university is best known for its distance education programs, nearly 80 percent of NSU's budget remained in South Florida, contributing to the local economy as the money was spent and respent. NSU made direct expenditures of nearly $71 million in Broward County alone in FY 1994. Nearly 75 pefcent of the university's students are Florida residents, with nearly 30 percent permanent residents of Broward County. On January 1, 1994, Nova University merged with Southeastern University of the Health Sciences to form NSU. Construction of a new $40 million Health Professions Division complex began on NSU's Davie campus in Fall 1994, contributing to the university's expected growth in enrollment and impact on the South Florida economy. (Contains 16 references.) (MDM) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** THE IMPACT OF NOVA SOUTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY ON THE SOUTH FLORIDA ECONOMY


The aim of the study is to determine the frequency, related risk factors, management modalities and feto- maternal outcome of uterine rupture. This is a retrospective descriptive study using data from the medical birth registration at Al-Sadaqa Teaching Hospital, Aden, during a period of five years from 1st Jan 2012 to 31st December 2016. Out of 31905 deliveries over the study period from 1st of Jan 2012 – 31st of Dec 2016, 84 cases had uterine rupture, giving an incidence of 0.26% or 1 in 323 deliveries. Maternal age group 20 – 34 years represented (58.3%), and gestational ageof 37 – 42 weeks represented (84.5%), regarding the parity (69.0%) having (1-3 children), (50.0%) were with one scar, while previous two scars and history of no scars represented by (21.4%) and (22.6%) respectively, and (6.0%) have three scars. Antenatal scar ˂ 4 visits found in (60.7%), while (39.3%) having ≥ 4 visits. Most cases of rupture uterus (81.0%) were occurred intra partum. Big baby constitutes 27.4%,mal presentation and mal position was 19.0%, short inter-pregnancy interval less than one year was 16.7%,labour induced by uterotonic agent represented by 10.7%, from them 5 cases were outside our hospital, 4 of them on scared uterus. Contracted pelvis occur in 9.5%, obstructed labour and delayed in receiving intra hospital medical care registered 6.0% for each one. Finally congenital uterine abnormalities and abdominal trauma represented the lowest percentage 1.2% for each one. Unfortunately there were two cases died due to rupture uterus. About 66.7% delivered alive babies and 33.3% of babies were lost. Repair was done for 75.0%, subtotal hysterectomy was done for 19.0%. Repair with tubal ligation and total hysterectomy were done for 2.4% for each one.


The introduction. The introduction usually starts with a description of and a motivation for the general problem area. After introducing the general problem area, you zoom in to the specific problem studied in the paper. I like to already discuss previous work here. This way you can explain where the specific problem fits into the state-of-the-art and why it is interesting. Ideally, the discussion of the previous work culminates in a clear statement about what is still missing in the current state-of-the-art: namely an answer to the specific problem you study. Then you give an overview of your results. Link your results to the state-of-the-art. Of course you want to focus on the strong points of your result, but don't oversell. It can be nice to not only state the results, but also give the reader an idea of how you obtain them:


Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a leading cause of mortality. Lung cancer is the number one cause of cancer mortality by far. End-stage lung disease and lung cancer will often result in distressing symptoms such as dyspnea and pain. The impact of advanced nonmalignant lung disease such as COPD on quality of life and functioning is similar to that of lung cancer. Palliative care should be offered to those patients early and concurrently with restorative care. Early palliative care in lung cancer improves quality of life and can even prolong life. A timely discussion about end-of-life care including mechanical ventilation should be encouraged in advanced cases. The fear of causing emotional distress is usually unfounded and the patients will appreciate the honest discussion. Palliative care in lung disease as in general should follow a multidisciplinary approach with a special emphasis on dyspnea and pain control. Pulmonary rehabilitation remains a useful tool in palliative care. Terminal discontinuation of mechanical ventilation is ethically justified if the patient or his surrogate decision maker wants that. Immediate extubation and gradual decrease of ventilatory support are both acceptable and each has advantages and disadvantages. Aggressive use of opiates and sedatives in a dying person is acceptable even if the risk of hastening death is high.


In his book The Secret, Rene Fumoleau has a poem entitled Sins. Fumoleau, who was a missionary priest with the Dene Peoples in Northern Canada, once asked a group of Elders to name what they considered the worst sin of all.


Peer assessment can incorporate formative and summative processes aimed at both improving learning and evidencing competency (Bloxham & West, 2004; Davies, 2006; Vickerman, 2009). This project investigated the perspectives of a cohort of final year Clinical Exercise Physiology University students (n=24) prior to and following participation in peer assessment.

Students completed a survey detailing experience, purpose and perceptions before participating in a peer assessment task. The task required students to assess and provide feedback on a peer's assignment using a standardised rubric and detailed instructions. Students then completed another survey reflecting on their perceptions and experience of peer assessment. The surveys included a combination of quantitative Likert-scale and qualitative open-ended responses.

Prior participation in peer assessing was limited. The most commonly reported purposes of peer assessment were 1) to learn another topic/ greater understanding of a topic/widening knowledge and 2) assess ability to recognise important/relevant information and identify flaws. Most students used the marking rubric when completing their assignment and agreed that peer assessing was a positive and worthwhile experience. The most common challenges identified when peer assessing were providing an actual mark or knowing how much to penalise, difficulty with assessing a different style/layout and not being objective. When being peer assessed, students reported concern about assessor effort, being judged or embarrassed, and having inadequate training. Students identified 'correctness' as the most important factor to consider when peer assessing. Student reflections should be considered when implementing future peer assessment opportunities as a place for learning.


The aviation sector has grown significantly in recent years. This growth has made aviation one of the sectors responsible for the significant increase in pollutants emitted into the atmosphere in recent years. In order to reduce pollutant emissions in this sector, alternatives that are viable from an environmental and financial point of view have been sought. One of the alternatives explored in this work is the use of biofuels based on biomass. The use of the biofuel produced using the HEFA process, based on jatropha, has been shown to have less environmental impacts in relation to fossil fuel, more precisely due to the less significant use of resources for its production. On the other hand, the use of biofuel has shown concerns regarding human health, mainly due to the particulate matter emissions. Another field explored in this work is the change in the propulsion system, where a design methodology based on the conventional methodology was used to obtain hybrid-electric aircraft, since the electric propulsion system is not yet viable for aviation, due to the reduced energy capacity of battery cells. Batteries and fuels were subjected to life cycle assessment in order to quantify their emissions taking into account the stages of production, use and end of life.


this study intends to compare through the experiment research of potassium permanganate, Fenton reagent, sodium persulfate, hydrogen peroxide, four kinds of commonly used oxidant chlorobenzene in contaminated soil, the removal effect of O-O-dichlorobenzene;, selected a typical ground soil bioremediation is the best antioxidant effect. Research under the condition of different on the dose, 4 kinds of oxidants to chlorobenzene and O-O-dichlorobenzene; removal effect. Combined pollution ground soil properties screen of chlorobenzene in contaminated soil, the highest removal rate of dichlorobenzene oxidant and best delivery dosage, to apply typical ground soil bioremediation, the results show that the effect is the best Kmno4.


Hospitals throughout the world currently rely solely on allogeneic blood (also referred to as donor blood) for transfusions. Estimates put worldwide blood demand somewhere between 75 and 90 million units per year 1. Canada's requirements account for 800 000 units per year and the United States for 12 million2,3. One unit of blood represents approximately a volume of 450 mL. Based on current requirements and donations, a shortage of 4 million units is expected by 2030 in the United States alone1. Furthermore, the fact that blood is donated may lead to the false assumption that it is cheap. Given that the average patient requires 4.6 units for a transfusion, and the cost is approximately $500 US per unit, a more economical alternative to allogeneic blood is desirable1,2. Ever since the creation of the first blood banks in the 1930s, scientists have been striving to increase the shelf-life of donated blood. The use of sodium citrate first permitted blood banking by preventing blood from clotting. Further advances, such as the use of a modified citrate-phosphate-dextrose anticoagulant solution which is supplemented with adenine, have extended the shelf-life of donated blood. The introduction of plastic storage bags has also resulted in a reduction in bacterial infections, improving the safety of allogeneic blood 1. However, despites significant advances, the shelf-life of blood products is still very limited as red blood cells (RBC) can only be stored for a maximum period of 42 days2,3. Storage also affects the efficacy of red blood cells. Storage lesions result in a decrease in pH, hemolysis changes in RBC deformability, formation of microaggregates, release of vasoactive substances and denaturation of proteins. However, the most significant change observed in stored RBC is an increase in the affinity of hemoglobin for oxygen. Under normal circumstances, the affinity for oxygen is reduced by the presence of an allosteric effector, 2,3diphosphoglycerate (2,3-DPG) facilitating O2 release and delivery to tissues 1. The concentration of 2,3DPG decreases over time and almost none is left within 2 weeks. As a result affinity for oxygen increases, resulting in a release of only 5% of bound O2 compared to about 25% in fresh blood. Transfusions of stored blood are therefore not initially very effective in delivering O2. This undesirable effect can be partially reversed by the addition of 2,3-DPG. However, there is a period of about 24 hours before O2 delivery increases1. Another concern with the use of allogeneic blood is its safety. Donated blood requires typeand crossmatching (ABO blood group system) to minimize chances of adverse transfusion reactions3. There have also been reports of mild reactions associated with allogeneic transfusions including fever, chills, pain, and discomfort in as many as 1 in 30 patients A transfusion-mediated immunosuppressive effect has also been observed, therefore increasing the chance of an infection. Although blood screening has significantly decreased infectious risks, there is still a 1 in 30 000 – 100 000 chance of contracting Hepatitis C from a blood transfusion. It is still unclear whether other diseases, such as Creutzfeld-Jakob disease, are transmissible through transfusions. In order to address the issues related to allogeneic blood use, the scientific community has been intensively developing blood substitutes that could replace the O2 carrying capability of the RBC. These alternative oxygen carriers need to be able to load O2 rapidly while in the pulmonary capillary bed, deliver O2 to all organs, have no physiological activity, be pathogenfree, have no blood group (ABO) antigens, have a long shelf life, be user friendly, exhibit long intravascular


A novel Schiff base obtained by the reaction of 1,3-bis-(o-aminophenoxy)propane and 2-hydroxynaphthalin-1 -carbaldehyde, forms complexes with Co(II), Cu(II) and Ni(II). The Schiff base ligand and its metal complexes have been characterized by elemental analysis, microanalytical data, magnetic measurements, UV-visible, 'H NMR, 13 C NMR and IR-spectra as well as conductance measurements. Electrochemical data show that NiL and CuL complexes undergo metal based quasi-reversible one-electron redox processes. However, metal complexes also exhibit ligand based irreversible redox waves. The electrochemical results also indicate that the electron transfer rate is higher for NiL complex than the CuL complex. Voltammetric data reveal easier electron donor properties for the NiL complex.


Abstract : This experiment compared accuracy and response time of subjects on a conventional tactical display with their accuracy and response time on a perspective tactical display. The distinguishing feature of the perspective display is its representation of vertical, as well as horizontal information in perspective. Altitude information is symboically presented on the display. In contrast, current tactical display systems provide only two-dimensinal views requiring numerical representation for altitude informtion. The subjects were volunteers from surrounding Naval facilities. The subjects were required to perform two tasks: (1) detect threats, and (2) select the closest interceptor for each detected threat. Errors and response time were recorded for each subject by a computer program. The experiment revealed a significant reduction in errors of detection and interception with the use of a perspective display. Response time for selecting interceptors was greatly reduced.


Introduction PART I. WRITING, PUBLISHING AND LITERARY IDENTITY IN THE "PREHISTORY OF DROIT D'AUTEUR" Introduction: The Story of a Transition: When and how did writers become "modern"? 1. Literary Commerce in the Age of Honnete Publication 2. The Paradoxes of Enlightenment Publishing PART II. THE LITERARY MARKET: THE MAKING OF A MODERN CULTURAL FIELD Introduction: Reconsidering the Alternative 3. "Living By the Pen": Mythologies of Modern Authorial Autonomy 4. Economic Claims and Legal Battles: Writers Turn to the Market 5. The Reality of a New Cultural Field: The Case of Rousseau Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index Acknowledgements


Patkhanda Jatra is a popular Jatra of Jarasingha in Bolangir district. Jarasingha is a village situated on the bank of Sungad, which is a local stream. Previously, Jarasingha was under the Patna kingdom. There was a Kandha Zamindar in Jarasingha. The reigning deity of this village is Budhi-Aai. Every year, a festival is organized in honor of the deity on the full moon day of Asadha (June-July). But, the festival celebrated in honor of Patakhanda deity is very popular. It is celebrated in the month of Aswina (SeptemberOctober). It begins on the second day of bright fortnight of Aswina and ends on the full moon day of Aswina. People believe that, Patakhanda cures the mentally retarded persons and blesses the issueless couples to have children. So, the deity is famous.


Abstraction.- Abstraction by Symbolic Indexing Transformations.- Counter-Example Based Predicate Discovery in Predicate Abstraction.- Automated Abstraction Refinement for Model Checking Large State Spaces Using SAT Based Conflict Analysis.- Symbolic Simulation.- Simplifying Circuits for Formal Verification Using Parametric Representation.- Generalized Symbolic Trajectory Evaluation - Abstraction in Action.- Model Checking: Strongly-Connected Components.- Analysis of Symbolic SCC Hull Algorithms.- Sharp Disjunctive Decomposition for Language Emptiness Checking.- Microprocessor Specification and Verification.- Relating Multi-step and Single-Step Microprocessor Correctness Statements.- Modeling and Verification of Out-of-Order Microprocessors in UCLID.- Decision Procedures.- On Solving Presburger and Linear Arithmetic with SAT.- Deciding Presburger Arithmetic by Model Checking and Comparisons with Other Methods.- Qubos: Deciding Quantified Boolean Logic Using Propositional Satisfiability Solvers.- Model Checking: Reachability Analysis.- Exploiting Transition Locality in the Disk Based Mur? Verifier.- Traversal Techniques for Concurrent Systems.- Model Checking: Fixed Points.- A Fixpoint Based Encoding for Bounded Model Checking.- Using Edge-Valued Decision Diagrams for Symbolic Generation of Shortest Paths.- Verification Techniques and Methodology.- Mechanical Verification of a Square Root Algorithm Using Taylor's Theorem.- A Specification and Verification Framework for Developing Weak Shared Memory Consistency Protocols.- Model Checking the Design of an Unrestricted, Stuck-at Fault Tolerant, Asynchronous Sequential Circuit Using SMV.- Hardware Description Languages.- Functional Design Using Behavioural and Structural Components.- Compiling Hardware Descriptions with Relative Placement Information for Parametrised Libraries.- Prototyping and Synthesis.- Input/Output Compatibility of Reactive Systems.- Smart Play-out of Behavioral Requirements.


With an advent of gaining popularity in cloud computing, there is a huge demand in ad-hoc services by the end users. These ad-hoc services cannot fully be provided by a service provider; hence Cloud mashup is a solution for this requirement. Cloud mashup is technology where end users can integrate different services of cloud service providers and create their own customized ad-hoc services. This paper proposes an efficient enterprise cloud mashup framework which supports dynamic composition of services to create a new service to the end users. The proposed framework is composed of an adapter, widgets, widget library and a mashup constructor module. Even a non technical end user can easily generate their own customized service on a cloud platform. Experiments reveal that the proposed framework is an efficient enterprise with cloud mashup service integration framework.


Objective The study objective was to estimate the burden of human rabies in Ethiopia from 2015–2019. Study Design. A descriptive study design was applied to measure the size of the problem. Method Retrospective data were used from the Ethiopian Public Health Institute rabies case record book that was registered between 2015 to 2019. Result Eighty-seven (87) cases of human rabies were diagnosed clinically in the Ethiopian Public Health Institute over the period of five years (2015–2019) with 100% case fatality. Of these, 83 (95.4%) cases were attributed to dog bites, whereas 1 (1.1%) to a cat and 3 (3.4%) to wild animals. The fatalities were from Oromia (n = 51 (58.6%), 13 (14.9%) were from Amhara, 15 (17.2%) were from Addis Ababa, and 8 (9.2%) from the Southern region. All referred cases had no record of immunization against rabies except eight. Ineffective postexposure treatment was the reason for 5 (5.7%) deaths. Out of 1,652 brain samples of different animals, mainly dogs, submitted for examination, 1,122 (68%) were found to be positive for rabies by the FAT. Dog bites were more common among males than females. The number of dog bite victims who had visited the EPHI counseling office and recommended to take postexposure prophylaxis against rabies both from Addis Ababa and the surrounding areas were 9,592 and 4,192, respectively. Out of these, 5,708 were males and 3,884 females for the capital Addis Ababa. Similarly, 2,439 males and 1,753 females account for areas surrounding Addis Ababa. Among those exposed from Addis Ababa, 1,079 (11.2%) were in the age group less than five, 1696 (17.7%) were in the age group 6–13, and 6,817 (71.1%) in the age group 14 and greater. Victims from outside of the capital Addis Ababa account for 644 (15.4%) for the age group less than 5 years, 964 (23%) for the age group 6–13 and, 2,584 (61.6%) for the age group 14 and greater. Conclusion Mechanisms must be sought to reduce the cost of PEP and means of obtaining funds so as to initiate timely treatment for rabies exposed individuals of low socioeconomic status. Besides prevention, strategies should focus on public education and strict dog population control.


Objective: To provide scientific evidence for carrying out targeted community nursing service by doing a survey of the life quality and nursing needs of the empty- nest elderly with chronic diseases in community. Methods: Conduct a household survey of 264 empty- nest elderly with chronic diseases in community used the self- design questionnaires for community nursing needs and GQOLI- 74. Results: The 264 empty-nest elderly with chronic diseases have poor life quality and they have great needs for community nursing service. Conclusion: The empty- nest elderly have poor life quality. It's a major commitment for the whole society and a future effort for the community nursing survice to care about the physical and psychological health of those old people and improve their living quality.


Suppose for the sake of argument that practitioners of effective altruism (EA) are completely correct about the amount of good done by their top charities. Is there is any further reason to worry that giving to these charities is not an effective way of doing good? It turns out that there is, and a real-world illustration of the worry is based on the fact that several billionaires closely follow the recommendations of EA, and can credibly commit to "top up" the revenues of many of the charities that EA recommends, in order to ensure that those charities meet operating budget targets. These facts are readily knowable based on public information (see references later in this section). In some previous years, because the amount of plausible shortfall in all of the top-ranked EA charities combined was only several tens of millions of dollars per year, and because this group of billionaires had the capacity to top up such charities to erase much more than that level of shortfall and arguably seemed to commit to making sure that no real funding needs went unmet, during that time the expectation associated with donations to these leading EA charities of, say, a magnitude of $1,000 was arguably that no difference was made to the operations of the charity, and slightly less money was transferred from the billionaires to those charities.1 If so, the expected effect of a donation to an EA recommended charity during this time period, even assuming the charities did just as much good as EA advisors claimed, would have been merely to transfer money to a billionaire in the United States, and accomplish nothing for the global poor. In recent years, this situation has likely changed in connection with at least one and perhaps more leading EA charities, which may now have much more capacity to scale up operations quickly, as discussed near the end of this section. But an important philosophical point remains, namely that this example of how donations by normal people could have zero positive effect illustrates what we call the


HIV/AIDS-related interventions can be enhanced by management cost accounting a range of accounting and analysis techniques enabling cost-conscious management decisions in a specific organization or program. While traditional accounting rigorously adheres to generally accepted accounting principles management accounting is more discretionary and as such open to adjustment and customization required by particular users and applications. Efficiency gains from management accounting in the HIV/AIDS area may be significant given the rapidly increasing amount of funding and the choice of alternative management options in the implementation of most interventions. Selected international programs focused on HIV/AIDS prevention and care in Cambodia participated in the validation of an activity-based costing (ABC) methodology an important technique of management accounting whose purpose is to provide program managers and their funding agencies with uniform guidelines for allocation of costs to activities. The guidelines include a standardized list of activities by major intervention a list of "activity lines" a standardized cost classification system a set of cost drivers to trace indirect costs to activity centers and a program management agenda that can be addressed with cost information generated by ABC. (authors)


The worldwide opening of markets has led to the world expansion of businesses, in which organizations have to implement different strategies and adopt broadly accepted practices as guidelines, seeking the obtainment of advantages in today's globalized and competitive environment. Taking as a reference the guidelines established by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) for multinational enterprises, this study describes the manner in which the business organizations in the southern region of Sonora utilize the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The results suggest that in addition to contributions to the environment and interest groups to be perceived as socially responsible, companies in this region use CSR strategically and as a method for value creation.


There are few constants in the practice of medicine except for the need to keep current in knowledge and practice. 1 Clinical outcomes are directly related to knowledge and psychomotor skills of physicians 2,3 and inversely related to the number of years since their certification. 4 While granting medical re-licensure, regulatory bodies across the globe, including Medical Council of India and Travancore Cochin Medical Council, 5 insist on production of proof of attendance in Continuing Medical Education (CME) programs as an evidence of competence to continue the practice of medicine. However, concerns have been raised that current CME strategies do not meet the needs of individual physician-learners. 6 In an era when numerous organizations and institutions offer CME programs, it is high time we pondered on whether the kind of programs we organize or attend yield the results we intend, and if not, what modifications we should implement at the organizational and individual levels. This two-part series of editorials is an attempt to compile relevant evidence based information and expert opinions on this topic. While this first part summarizes available literature on effectiveness of CME programs, the second part 7


Deviations of local structure and chemistry from the average crystalline unit cell are increasingly recognized to have a significant influence on the properties of many technologically important materials. Here, we present the vector pair correlation function (vPCF) as a new real-space crystallographic analysis method, which can be applied to atomic-resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) images to quantify and analyze structural order/disorder correlations. Our STEM-based vPCFs have several advantages over radial PCFs and/or 3D pair distribution functions from x-ray total scattering: vPCFs explicitly retain crystallographic orientation information, are spatially resolved, can be applied directly on a sublattice basis, and are suitable for any material that can be imaged with STEM. To show the utility of our approach, we measure partial vPCFs in Ba5SmSn3Nb7O30 (BSSN), a tetragonal tungsten bronze (TTB) structured complex oxide. Many TTBs are known to be classical or relaxor ferroelectrics, and these properties have been correlated with the presence of superlattice ordering. BSSN, specifically, exhibits relaxor behavior and an incommensurate structural modulation. From the vPCF data, we observe that, of the cation sites, only the Ba (A2) sublattice is structurally modulated. We then infer the local modulation vector and reveal a marked anisotropy in its correlation length. Finally, short-range correlated polar displacements on the B2 cation sites are observed. This work introduces the vPCF as a powerful real-space crystallography technique, which enables direct, robust quantification of short-to-long range order on a sublattice-specific basis and is applicable to a wide range of complex material types.


The conductivities of oxalates of ammonium, lithium, sodium, potassium, rubidium, and ceasium have been measured in 11.52,20.31, and 29.64 wt% urea + water mixtures at 25, 30, and 35°C and analyzed using Shedlovsky and Fuoss-Kraus extrapolation techniques for calculating the association parameters (A0 and KJ. A comparison of these parameters showed that the Shedlovsky method is superior to other methods and predicted better association constants for the oxalates in aqueous urea solvents. The thermodynamic functions for the association process have been calculated and discussed. J:T.n. Chem. 12(2) 86-92 (2005)


This study empirically investigates the behaviour of share prices around share buy-back announcements by Indian firms using a standard event methodology. It was observed that there was a significant market reaction to the buy-back announcements during the announcement period viz. the announcement date and the day prior to it. The market reaction t persists on the first day after the announcement of buy-backs regardless of the buy-back mechanisms adopted by the firms. The analysis suggests that the share prices which recorded a rapid decline prior to the buy-back announcement remained almost constant for a few days immediately following the announcement and then declined again, but at a much slower pace. A pattern similar to that of the post announcement period was also observed after the occurrence of actual buy-back. This study also examines the firms' choice of repurchase mechanism, and the link between those choices and the share price reaction.


In recent years, transverse mode instability (TMI) has been widely observed in fiber laser amplifier systems. The transverse mode instability phenomenon in fiber laser oscillators is less studied. Here, we focus on the dynamical output properties, i.e., its temporal signal and modal characteristics in a 30-μm-core-diameter ytterbium (Yb)-doped fiber laser oscillator. The TMI occurs at a pumping power around 310 W. Different from amplifiers, the basic oscillation frequency is quite low, at around 100 Hz, changing with time and pump power. When the fiber laser oscillator operates beyond TMI threshold at 357 W or 377 W for a while, the temporal fluctuation slowly disappears together with a decreased oscillation frequency, and appears again later. Based on the mode decomposition technique, we find that during the period of fluctuation disappearance at 357 W, the power output stays low and the output beam is still a mixture of fundamental mode and higher-order modes. The fundamental mode content is calculated to be averagely higher when temporal fluctuation disappears, increasing from ∼57% to ∼63%. Our results indicate complex interaction between the fiber laser oscillation and the TMI effect, and calls for more attention into understanding TMI in fiber laser oscillators.


CanWest Global Communication's bid to overturn Ottawa's ban on direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) of prescription drugs will face a stiff challenge after a court ruling has allowed a coalition of Canadian health and consumer groups and unions to intervene.

The Nov. 5th decision by the Ontario


Abstract Consider an isotropic elastic medium whose Lamé parameters are piecewise smooth. In the elastic wave initial value inverse problem, we are given the solution operator for the elastic wave equation, but only outside Ω and only for initial data supported outside Ω. Using the recently introduced scattering control series in the acoustic case, we prove that piecewise smooth Lamé parameters are uniquely determined by this map under certain geometric conditions.


Thin films of ferroelectric ceramic and epoxy composites with 0-3 connectivity have been produced by dispersing a ceramic powder in a thermosetting epoxy resin. Calcium Modified Lead Titanate [PTCa] powder with grain size of less than 10 micrometers was mixed with an epoxy resin and curing agent and then formed into thin films of approximately 100 micrometers . The pyroelectric behavior of these composites with 50% and 60% volume loading of ceramic is reported in this present work.


Concrete a homogeneous mixture of Cement, Sand, and Aggregate in addition to water plays the most vital role in the construction industry. Moreover this construction material has a wide range of research areas to improve its properties and performance in different loading and environmental condition. Entrainment of fibers in concrete is a more focused area in concrete technology. Fibers are inculcated in concrete to improve flexural and tensile performance as well as compressive strength. This paper represents the review of some literature identified during the study of the effect of polypropylene fibers on concrete. The use of polypropylene fibers improves the properties of hardened concrete as well as fresh concrete. This inclusion of fibers proves the ability of concrete to stand in adverse conditions of loading and environmental condition. It is more advantageous in repairs works and proves economic in cost analysis.


While music therapists work with sound and silence, there has been a focus on writing and researching about sound only. This essay attempts to redress this balance. It is based on an aspect of recent doctorate research that asked the question «is free musical improvisation a form of conversation ?» The research used detailed analyses of free improvised duets that were informed by the work of conversation analysts, and showed that many devices enabling conversations to take place were also heard in free improvised music. Given that current British Music Therapy grew out of a free improvising tradition, these findings have repercussions for clinical practice. In particular, a case is made for different ways of thinking about and listening to silences in the therapy room. Keywords: Silence, Free musical improvisation, Clinical improvisation, Conversation.


Hybrid Energy Resource System (HERS) is studied and applied aroundworld in recent years. Control and monitor of them are quite important in realapplication. HERS also has the equirement to integral ...


Due to the importance of water in our lives, the study analyzes the profile of academic production on the management of water resources, distribution and water loss, correlating with what occurs in companies that manage water resources. It demonstrates the treatment of the academic environment regarding the process of capturing raw water until its distribution to the final customer, including the entire process of treatment, including its disposal and how this treatment impacts on the environmental, social and environmental structure of the world population. Faced with the change in the way in which water consumption is being made, each day more sustainable, and ensuring its reproducibility for the new generations, the present study aims to map and carry out a previous analysis on scientific production. This research has as general objective to analyze the published academic articles referring to the theme, based on the SCOPUS Portal, using the bibliometric analysis method. As specific objectives, indicators will be analyzed on the profile of publications, the main journals, the main authors, the countries with the largest number of publications and analyze the processes of production and efficient distribution of water. The results were, after the critique of the indicators, elaboration of mapping on the water management and investigation of the main problems related to the scope of the research. From the indicators found in the articles selected, a comparison was made with expert opinion through a research developed with a focus group specialized in water resources management, demonstrating the correlation between the corporate world and the academic material. Generating from this analysis, suggestions for management improvement, demonstrating which indicators are considered relevant to reduce losses taking into account their intersection


Stanislaus County, CA – The Stanislaus County Chief Executive Officer has appointed Christine Applegate, current Director of Social Services with Tehama County to the position of Director of the Community Services Agency. Ms. Applegate will be responsible for the overall operations of the Department and its divisions including Adult Services, Child and Family Services, StanWorks, and Administration. Additionally, Ms. Applegate will oversee a budget of approximately $253 million and a staff of 940 full-time positions.


Using a mix of survey and secondary datasets on Africa, we document that banks and non-bank financial institutions account for more than 85 percent of corporate bonds issued in Africa during 2000—2020, with a market capitalization of over 80 percent of these bonds. Africa's markets have modern trading infrastructures such as automated trading systems (ATSs) and electronic depository, settlement, and clearance systems (CDSs), that are supported by the latest technology. Contrary to the notion that costly and complex issuance procedures favor private placement, most bonds are publicly issued, and exchange-listed. Curiously, issuers sparingly deploy contract features that enhance bond quality and help investors hedge pertinent risks – e.g., sinking funds, call and put provisions, and inflation indexing. The main trading session of these markets is continuous, preceded by a pre-opening call and a post-close call session. Among other market development impediments, low awareness of bond markets, market illiquidity, low listings, and small investor base are important factors governments and bourses must address to advance the growth and efficacy (robust microstructure) of corporate bond markets in Africa.


Abstract This paper reports the impact of a type of m-learning on developing students' linguistic and communicative competence in English as a second language. This study is a Mexican-based case using Duolingo to improve virtual courses in higher education students whose first language is Spanish. This study is a quasi-experimental research that analyzed pre-test and post-test results on a sample of 40 participants (control group of 20 participants and experimental group of 20 participants). The measuring instruments were designed for this specific study and focused on testing the six components of linguistic competence according to CEFR at level A2 (2018). A pilottest was previously conducted, and pre-test (0.81) and post-test (0.98) coefficients were considered acceptable according to Cronbach's Alpha. This study addressed the following questions: a) How does Duolingo contribute to the development of linguistic competence in higher education students and support English learning in virtual courses via the m-learning methodology? and b) Which components were improved in student´s linguistic competence after using Duolingo? Results revealed a profound improvement in the experimental group participants. The post-test result of the experimental group is superior ( M=43.75) compared with the control group (M=30.35), mainly in the phonological control (+5.20) and the orthographic control (+2.65) compared with the control group, whose score slightly increased primarily attributed to the English virtual classes.


To estimate effect of wide sleepers in track transition zone, dynamic analysis of the track with wide sleepers is carried out. The railway line of main concern is tunnel-embankment transition zone. The track in the tunnel is ballastless track with concrete bed on concrete foundation and the track located on embankment is ballasted track. In the transition zone with ballasted track approach slab is installed to reduce abrupt variation of supporting stiffness. It is studied the effect of applying some wide-sleepers in ballasted track located on approach slab is studied. To describe vehicle-track dynamic interaction phenomena nonlinear Hertzian contact spring and nonlinear damper are adopted. The external loads acting on vehicle model are self weight of vehicle and geometry information of running surface. The constraint equation on contact surface is implemented by the Penalty method with stabilization. To describe the change in stiffness and effective mass due to sleeper size, the ballast modeling technique proposed by Zhai et al is also adopted and modified. Numerical tests show that the use of wide sleeper will decrease settlement of ballast. Thus it is expected that wide sleeper decrease maintenance of track transition zone.


Graphene features topological edge bands that connect the pair of Dirac points through either sectors of the 1D Brillouin zone depending on edge configurations (zigzag or bearded). Because of their flat dispersion, spontaneous edge magnetisation can arise from Coulomb interaction in graphene nanoribbons, which has caught remarkable interest. We find an anomalous Bloch oscillation in such edge bands, in which the flat dispersion freezes electron motion along the field direction, while the topological connection of the bands through the bulk leads to electron oscillation in the transverse direction between edges of different configurations on opposite sides/layers of a bilayer ribbon. Our Hubbard-model mean-field calculation shows that this phenomenon can be exploited for electrical switching of edge magnetisation configurations.


Observation is a skill as old as man himself, yet it was not until the psychometric age of the twentieth century that man began to utilize this skill scientifically and systematically to observe phenomena about interpersonal and/or person-environment interactions. Recent research has indicated that investigations which include process variables are more powerful when predict ing certain outcomes (e.g., student achievement) than are investigations con cerned solely with pressage-product type variables (Simon, 1967). This means to analyze relationships between people or between a person and his environ ment is one of the most important skills of the contemporary behavioral scien tist. More than 200 observational schemas have been devised to examine many different aspects of interpersonal interactions (Simon and Boyer, 1967, 1970; Boyer, Simon and Karafin, in press), and it is the intent of this paper to categorize, review and provide illustrative references^ for the considerations necessary when selecting or developing an observation system.


. This paper presents an extension of a software process modeling approach, including a process guide, to support the software project monitoring and control process modeling and alignment to the most important reference models, adapting the modeled process to the typical characteristics and limitations of small and very small software companies. The approach, complemented by the guide, is applied in a case study and the results are also presented.


The open spaces have enormous importance for cities - even though they are often treated badly by public and private actors - they are spaces of everyday life, places of coexistence in several scales, preferred locus of political demonstrations and many other social practices. Open spaces, private or public, are the main elements that can provide environmental services in urban areas. It discusses the public importance of open spaces of Brazilian capitals and Brazilian metropolises nowadays. The paper presents concepts that not only allow better understanding of the subject and may be useful for the production of public policies really interested in improving the quality of urban spaces in cities and metropolises in Brazil.


This chapter discusses the various methods by which the authority of an agent can be terminated according to the law of agency. Numerous such methods exist, but they can be loosely organized into two distinct categories: first, termination by an act of the parties; second, termination by operation of the law. An agent's authority may be terminated by the act of one or both of the parties. It should be noted that, whilst the acts discussed in the chapter will usually terminate the agent's actual authority, the facts of the case might lead the court to conclude that the agent still has apparent authority to act on behalf of the principal.


This study focuses on the development of an obstacle avoidance robot controlled by an ultrasonic sensor. The robot utilizes robotics and artificial intelligence techniques to improve obstacle avoidance and enhance safety in various scenarios, particularly in the context of road accidents. The system incorporates an Arduino microcontroller and ultrasonic sensors that detect obstacles within the robot's path. By processing the sensor data, the microcontroller employs artificial intelligence algorithms to predict the presence of obstacles in real-time. The ultrasonic sensor is strategically positioned at the front of the robotic vehicle, continuously gathering data from the surrounding area. When an obstacle is detected, the robot autonomously adjusts its direction to avoid collision. The sensor relays the collected data to the microcontroller, which then determines the appropriate movement and direction for the robot's wheels. Consequently, the robot built with our approach is satisfactorily able to detect obstacles and avoid them, with a remarkable accuracy rate of 84%. This proactive approach to obstacle detection and avoidance aims to prevent potential accidents and promote safer navigation. The obstacle avoidance robot serves as a practical solution for detecting and avoiding obstacles, with potential applications in various domains. By combining robotics, artificial intelligence, and sensor technologies, this study contributes to the development of intelligent systems capable of autonomously navigating their environment while ensuring safety.


In social Aware Network (SAN), the major exercises focus on investigating the behaviour and properties of the consumer. This examination of consumer trademark helps in the plan of profoundly productive and appropriate conventions. Specifically, the peddling assault presents a serious level of weakness into the recommender frameworks. Proposal System is an uncommon kind of data sifting framework adjusted by online merchants to give suggestions to their consumer dependent on their necessities. Collective sifting is quite possibly the most generally utilized suggestion frameworks; lamentably, it is inclined to peddling/profile infusion assaults. Such assaults modify the suggestion interaction to advance or downgrade a specific item. Throughout the long term, numerous assault models and recognition strategies have been created to moderate the issue. This paper means to be an extensive review of the shilling attack models and discovery calculations. Likewise, this research work momentarily examines the late works in the advancement of strong calculations that reduce the effect of pushing assaults. This paper likewise presents potential gain and disadvantage of every one of the inspected papers with its various sorts of identification approaches and execution measurements.


The potential for phages to serve as both therapeutic agents and in broad applications ranging from food bio‐preservation, wastewater treatment, and disease diagnosis, has led to renewed interest in the study of phage‐bacteria interactions. Phages attack their hosts by hijacking its molecular machinery and using it for its own replication, subsequently shutting off the host macromolecular synthesis. Not much is known about how this mechanism occurs, however, especially at the translational level. In this study, label‐free tandem mass spectrometry based quantitative proteomics and qPCR assay of phage Ochi17‐infected Mycobacterium smegmatis suggested that shutoff of the host macromolecular synthesis also involves suppression of its resistance mechanisms. A total of 2,188 proteins were identified in the analysis, with 299 significantly up‐regulated proteins and 135 down‐regulated proteins. The results indicated phage Ochi17 DNA integration into the host's genome, and a consequent hijack and suppression of the host's energy metabolic processes and antibiotic resistance mechanisms as seen in the significant enrichment of proteins involved in homologous recombination, transcriptional factors, ribosomal proteins, amino acid (arginine, proline, and histidine) metabolism, and oxidoreductase activities. Majority of the proteins were found to be part of the host's energy metabolic processes. With these results, we propose that phages counter their host defensive response by suppressing these responses in addition to evolving new attack strategies. We also reported the expression of 59 phage proteins (54%) expressed during the interaction. This study provides the first global proteome investigation and characterization of any phage‐infected bacteria with respect to the host bacterium response. These Results would serve as a rich source for further molecular studies of phage‐bacteria interactions in elucidating contributions of individual proteins, and in engineering phages that can overcome various defense strategies employed by host bacteria.


OBJECTIVES: A large body of the literature has shown that media images of mental illness and people with mental illness are often negative. In Japan, where in 2002 the old term for schizophrenia 'Seishin Bunretsu Byô' (split-mind disease) was replaced with a new term ''Tôgô Shitchô Shô' (integration disorder) to reduce stigma against this illness and its sufferers, little is known about the portrayal of mental illness in the media and about the effect of the renaming on the portrayal. In the present study, we aimed to look at changes in the newspaper coverage of mental illness in Japan before and after the renaming (2001, 2003 and 2014). We also aimed to examine changes in the content of newspaper articles featuring schizophrenia and its sufferers over the same period. METHODS: We analysed articles from two national newspapers using qualitative content analysis (n=270). RESULTS: The proportion of negative articles about mental illness and those affected significantly decreased between 2001 and 2003 and yet this did not hold between 2001 and 2014. The proportion of negative articles featuring schizophrenia or its sufferers showed a non-significant decrease both between 2001 and 2003 and between 2001 and 2014. CONCLUSION: Newspaper coverage of mental illness largely remained negative and distorted over time, although there was a significant improvement in 2003. The findings suggest that the influence of the renaming on the portrayal of mental illness in newspapers was limited to a short period.


The author reveals the basic functions of implicitness in a journalistic text, and also the most important ways of implicit meanings actualization, shows that implicitness in social and political journalism performs a sense formative function, ensuring the integrity and organicity of the text, and pays special attention to the analysis of textual complication figures – the markers of implicitness that draw reader's attention to the hidden meanings and allow him to understand the implicit information stratum.


conjointly with sarcoidosis. After 5 months of immunosuppressive treatment with methylprednisolone and azathioprine the burden of inflamma-tory lesions was significantly reduced and the patient had improved to New York Heart Association class I.


This article expounds the necessity,possibility and the expecting objective of building the information resource sharing platform in Datong city.At the same time,the article discusses the principle that should be obeyed, the problems and the way to solve these problems in the process of constructing the platform.


Publication Classification (71) Applicant: Dow Corning Corporation, Midland, MI (US) (51) Int. Cl. C08G 77/08 (2006.01) (72) Inventors: Kurt Brandstadt, Midland, MI (US); (52) U.S. Cl. Simon Cook, Midland, MI (US); Aswini CPC ...................................... C08G 77/08 (2013.01) Dash, Midland, MI (US); Matthew USPC ... 523/122:546/2:546/12:556/34; 549/206; Olsen, Midland, MI (US); Avril 54.6/10, 548/101: 556/136; 556/18:556/21; Surgenor, Waterloo (BE); Richard 528/15; 524/862 Taylor, Sully (GB); Binh Nguyen, Midland, MI (US); Ming-Shin Tzou, (57) ABSTRACT Midland, MI (US) A composition contains (A) a hydrosilylation reaction cata lyst and (B) an aliphatically unsaturated compound having an average, per molecule, of one or more aliphatically unsatur ated organic groups capable of undergoing hydrosilylation reaction. The composition capable of reacting via hydrosily (86). PCT No.: PCT/US12A562O6 lation reaction to form a reaction product, such as a silane, a gum, a gel, a rubber, or a resin. Ingredient (A) contains a S371 (c)(1), metal-ligand complex that can be prepared by a method (2), (4) Date: Jan. 21, 2014 including reacting a metal precursor and a ligand. (21) Appl. No.: 14/233,891


It is a common phenomenon in modern English for nouns to be used as attributes in the form of singulars, but there are more and more plural nouns used as attributes together with the popularity of nominal singular attributes. Whether the occurrence of this tendency is fortuitous or natural has been a hot issue among English as a Foreign Language (EFL) lecturers and learners. As such, the current paper is aimed at facilitating EFL lecturers and learners' comprehension of the fundamental principle of language forms serving the expression of language significance, thereby pushing the enhancement of potential EFL instruction along the fit and sound path.


Drawing from the research methods of three distinct literacy studies, in this piece, we highlight the visualisation approaches integral to our enquiry processes as researchers working to make sense of literacy and learning. We aim to encourage, provoke even, a conversation about visualisation processes in literacy research by sharing the individualised ways in which we (1) leaned on metaphors and visual aspects of musical notation to uncover new insights into the social nature of composing, (2) created comics shaped by particular aesthetic choices that influenced enquiry and meaning-making, and (3) utilised insights gained from dynamic visualisations of data to see nonlinear patterns of writing development. With the descriptions of these studies and their methods as samples, we argue for a shift in focus from visualisation as an end product of analysis to an additional focus on the process of visualising as analysis.


The tillering rate as influenced by seedling age in two rice varieties was negatively related to initial dry matter up to 35 days after transplanting, and positively thereafter. Between the varieties absolute tillering rate did not differ greatly up to 35 days after transplanting but later on the rate for IR50 was much higher than that of BR14. The absolute tillering rate from 30 days after transplanting and onward for 80-day-old seedlings was comparatively lower than with other seedling ages. IR50 produced more tillers than BR14 in all age groups but within a variety the number of total tillers decreased with seedling age. BR14 required more dry matter to produce a tiller compared with IR50 (.)


Objective: The present experiment investigated if the pain behavior of chronic constrictive injury (CCI) rats could be prevented by pretreatment of ifenprodil. Methods: Male Sprague-Dawley rats weighing 180~200 g were divided into four groups: sham-operation+saline group; sham-operation+ifenprodil group; CCI+saline group and CCI+ifenprodil group. Peripheral mononeuropathy was produced by loosely ligating the rat's common sciatic nerve, a procedure which caused chronic constrictive injury of the ligated nerve. In sham-operated animals, the same dissection was performed but without ligation. Rats received 3 daily intraperitoneal (i.p.) ifenprodil (10 mg/kg) or saline injections 30 min prior to nerve ligation according to the groups. The mechanical pain threshold of the rats before and after the operation were determined with a von Frey hair test. Results: CCI+saline rats exhibited lower mechanical pain threshold on days 7 and 14 after nerve ligation (P0.05). But the rats of the other groups exhibited just the same mechanical pain threshold as that before the operations (P0.05). The CCI rats receiving pretreatment of ifenprodil exhibited higher mechanical pain threshold than that receiving pretreatment of saline (P0.05). Conclusion: The blockade of NR2B subunits of NMDA receptors can prevent the pain behavior of CCI rats. NR2B activation might be critical for the induction and/or maintenance of neuropathic pain following constrictive nerve injury.


Research was conducted to examine the effect of Tulsi as an herb, Oat as fibre content and Sorbitol as fat replacer on the sensory and textural properties of low calorie fiber enriched herbal Gulabjamun. The objective of the present research was to develop improved herbal based Gulabjamun with health benefits beyond those of traditionally formulated Gulabjamun. The product was manufactured by different ratio of Sorbitol (2%, 4% and 6%), Oat flour (10%, 15% and 20%) and Tulsi extract (10%, 15% and 20%). The mean values of sensory scores were evaluated of the optimized product and were found significantly (P<0.01) different with the control one. The body and texture (8.33), color and appearance (8.66), flavor (8.33), taste (8.66) and for overall acceptability the mean score found was 8.66. The hardness, springiness and adhesiveness of the developed product was found to be less as compared to that of control Gulabjamun, while cohesiveness, gumminess and chewiness were found to be more than control sample.


Objective To discuss the effects of 3M applicator fixation on lip pressure sores and detachment by accident in patients with intubation.Methods To compare the rates of lip pressure sores and detachment by using different fixation methods,156 patients admitted in ICU of Mian Yang central hospital were divided into two groups,80 in experimental group and 76 in control group.3M applicator fixation was used in experimental group and usual care was adopted in control group.Results The rates of lip pressure sores and detachment were significantly decreased in experimental group(P0.05).Conclusion 3M applicator fixation can decrease the rates of lip pressure sores and detachment in patients with intubation,and meanwhile relief pains of patients,also reduce the potential risk of life.


Growing cells of Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain IIBV7K (tumorogenic) metabolized 14C-valine following its rapid uptake from the medium and released a non-amino metabolite (α-ketoisovaleric acid) into the extracellular fluid. This metabolite was taken up subsequently when the external valine concentration became limiting and was incorporated into protein, probably after conversion to an amino acid, α-Ketoisovaleric acid was not taken up when protein synthesis was blocked, e.g. by chloramphenicol, suggestive of an inducible entry system.α-Ketoisovaleric acid itself inhibited the uptake of 14C-valine. It also suppressed the incorporation of label into protein by competition. Hydroxylamine inhibited the incorporation of 14C-valine into protein without affecting valine entry into the cells. Glycine inhibited uptake as well as incorporation. Initially, glutamate inhibited 14C-valine uptake and incorporation strongly; this was followed after 10 minutes, by rapid and linear entry and incorporation rates of the ...


RNA structures often implicate a complex folding pathway to reach the minimum free energy state. An understanding of the process of folding is of major significance as this process may reveal dynamic features of an RNA that are directly correlated to functional properties. An hierarchical model for the folding of RNA has been established that is derived from early studies on tRNA and is consistent in the first order with more recent studies on ribozymes. This model claims that two major structural changes occur on the way from an unfolded RNA molecule to the native state. Stable secondary structures, such as hairpins, are formed rapidly on a microsecond timescale. Tertiary folding then takes place by assembly of the secondary structural elements through long-range base-pairing interactions. This procedure is slower; the acquisition of tertiary interactions occurs on a timescale on the order of milliseconds to seconds. During the last few years, great efforts have been made to explore RNA folding mechanisms by applying advanced techniques such as single-molecule fluorescence, synchrotron hydroxyl radical footprinting, or temperature gradient gel electrophoresis. The hierarchical model of RNA folding has to be refined in several aspects. Particularly for larger RNAs, the folding can be retarded significantly by the formation of kinetically favorable metastable intermediate structures. The refolding of a trapped intermediate usually involves breakage of base pairs and is therefore energetically costly. In this context, the 'kinetic partitioning mechanism' proposes that different initial starting structures of the unfolded RNA chain are populated, which leads to different but parallel folding pathways and therefore to a mixture of correct and incorrect conformations. 6] The refolding of the incorrect structures may take up to minutes or longer. Moreover, it has to be considered that RNA folding in vivo depends on transcription elongation and is therefore a sequential process. As the rate of transcription (5 ± 50 nucleotides (nt) per second for eucaryotic polymerases; 250 nt s 1 for bacterial polymerases) is relatively slow compared to the rate of hairpin formation, the partially synthesized chain can favor formation of structures that turn metastable as soon as the chain is complete. Not least, the influence of the environment accounts for RNA folding. Although it is well known that Mg ions have a major impact on the formation of tertiary interactions, it has also been demonstrated that Mg ions are responsible for a secondary structure rearrangement in the P5abc subdomain of the Tetrahymena thermophila Group I intron ribozyme. The potential of RNA sequences to fold into metastable structures beside the minimum free energy structure has been exploited by nature in a functional manner. There is evidence that several biologically important RNAs have evolved to use a switch in their secondary structure for regulation of gene function. 20±25]


In the present study, the influence of the Zn content (0.0, 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0 wt.%) on the microstructure, texture, tensile mechanical properties and formability of Mg-1.0Sn-0.5Ca-based alloys after extrusion were investigated via extrusion of Mg sheets and analysis of the extruded materials. Adding Zn improved the microstructure uniformity and accelerated the formation of more CaMgSn and the Ca2Mg6Zn3 phase. In addition, after the addition of Zn, the texture evolved from the initial extrusion direction tilted bimodal texture to a weakened and symmetrical texture. Compared with the Mg-1.0Sn-0.5Ca alloy, the average tensile yield strength and elongation values were simultaneously improved after 0.5 wt.% Zn addition due to the synergistic effect of the solid solution of elemental Zn, the decreased amount of coarse unrecrystallized grains, and the existence of an additional tilted direction texture component. The formability first increased and then decreased with increasing Zn content. In contrast, the deterioration of formability after the further addition of Zn was closely associated with the increased volume fractions of the coarse CaMgSn and Ca2Mg6Zn3 phases.


A community anti-theft alarm method comprises the following steps of: based on sensing devices mounted on multiple home doors/windows, detecting the movement of the doors/windows, and wirelessly sending a preset control signal with identity information when detecting that the movement satisfies a predetermined condition; receiving the control signal with identity information by transfer devices arranged in multiple homes or floors, and wirelessly forwarding the received control signal to an alarm device located at the position of administrative staff; receiving and responding to the control signal with identity information via the alarm device, and giving an alarm; and identifying and displaying the position indicated by the identity information in the control signal through the alarm device. The invention further provides a corresponding community anti-theft alarm system. Each sensing device is provided with an anti-theft network combined by a power supply and an acceleration sensor based on a wireless transmission technology, and burglars can be effectively prevented from damaging the alarm lines, thereby increasing safety.


The invention discloses measurement and detection control method and device. The method comprises the steps of: selecting control communication protocols and testing processes from at least two control communication protocols and testing processes which are stored in advance; receiving a starting command; establishing data connection with control equipment according to received confirmation information returned by the control equipment; generating the selected testing processes into control commands according to the selected control communication protocols; transmitting the control commands to the control equipment; receiving data responded by the control equipment according to the control commands; and processing the data responded by the control equipment according to a data processing type. In the invention, different control communication protocols and testing processes are adopted according to different control equipment, and different testing processes can be generated into the control commands according to different control communication protocols so as to realize control and data collection of different control equipment.


Signal device management is an important mission to ensure the safe operation of the railway, and it is a definite orientation for the future development to apply the Internet of Things technology in railway signal device management. This article introduces the relevant concepts of the Internet of Things, and analyzes the current information construction level of China's railway signal device management. Based on actual requirements on railway signal device management, it gives the implementation plans of management platform based on the Internet of Things technology and as well analyzes the key technology. And it provides a reference for the application of the Internet of Things in the railway signal device management.


This article discusses the technology transfer or conversion process that is enabling military contractors to turn to the Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) market for usage of their products.


In this paper, NOx emission from the 5-26t/h boilers which are used for the air conditioning or steam source in factory and influence of burning condition on NOx formation are researched. The main results are summarized as follows.1) NOx emission from such boilers is 1-5kg/107kcal.2) Boiler capacity doecs not influenced on NOx emission.3) NOx emission highly depends on flame temperature. As temperature in higher, NOx emission more increases.4) Heat release rate in combustion chamber has same relation.5) NOx-Excess air factor relation is divided into three patterns. The pattern that the tested boiler indicated, is determined by the range of excess air factor and fuel-air mixing in combustion chamber.6) The type of fuel has an effect on NOx emission. NOx emission increases in the order of town gas, kerosene and heary fuel oil. On the boilers firing high N content fuel oil, NOx emission increases. Fraction of N content converted to NOx is 39%.


This article tries to outline the social consequences of neoliberal economic crisis and the domestic austerity policies in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, commonly known as the Baltic states. In order to recover from the shock of global and Eurozone economic crises, since 2008, the Baltic states adopted severe austerity policy comprised of enormous cutbacks of government expenditure in social welfare, health care and education, and labour market reforms that made employment relationships more insecure. Baltic political leaders highlighted their austerity model as the right policy for economic recovery and claimed that it can be emulated by other crisis-stricken countries in Europe. However, the austerity policy's success claims contradict with its revealing social consequences such as increased national debt, unemployment, out-migration, negative demographic change, poverty, inequality, social exclusion, deterioration in health security and misery to the common people. Moreover, the austerity policy contradicts with the principles of the European Union's (EU's) 'social Europe' model and representative democracy which prioritize the role of state to guarantee well-being of its citizens. Hence, the social cost of economic crisis and austerity and its implications for sustainable development in the long run in the Baltic states are examined here.


The situation of public rental housing in Shanxi province stays at the policy-making level without specific plans or implementations.The conception of public rental housing was defined.Prediction analysis was conducted combining the qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis,including urban resident disposable household income and average price of commodity housing market.The annual low-income standard and the proportion of low-income families for urban public rental housing were determined for the "12th-Five-Year".Then the number of annual public rental housing was predicted and the policy suggestions were put forward.


Castor is an important non-edible oilseed crop of the arid and semi-arid regions. It's yield is most useful and economically important plant oil having vast and varied industrial applications such as lubricants, surfactants, surface coating, cosmetics, plasticizers, resins, paints, pharmaceuticals, adhesives, waxes, polishes, varnishes, perfumes, flavours, textile dyes, textile finishing agents, nylon etc. India is the world's largest producer of castor contributing to around 80 per cent of total world production and dominating the global trade with a share of more than 10 lakh tonnes of castor seed and around 5.5 lakh tonnes of castor oil, India meets more than 80 per cent demand of castor oil, thereby enjoying a dominant position in the world castor scenario (Shinde et al., International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 9 Number 6 (2020) Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com


Du Wei-tao is the first full-time administrator and the first introducer of "Cone of Experience".He has great influence on Chinese early audio-visual education theory and practice in the 1930s and 1940s.Du Wei-tao takes audio-visual education as the important mean to education modernization and the country's modernization.He Puts forward the state-run mode and education orientation,and explores the chinese path in international vision and the local innovation.


We demonstrate that the source of a shear-free null congruence is, generically, a world sheet of a singular string in the complex Minkowski space. In particular cases the string degenerates into the Newman's point singularity. We describe also a time-dependent deformation of the Kerr's congruence which could indicate the unstability of the Kerr (Kerr-Newman) (electro)vacuum solution. Then we consider a 5D extension of Minkowski space obtained by complexification of the time coordinate. Singular locus of a shear-free null congruence on such an extended space-time consists of a (great) number of point particles (``markeons'') and 2D surfaces -- light-like wave fronts.


Over the last few years the environmental policy programmes which have been formulated in the Member States of the European Union (EU) have increasingly addressed the environmental relevance of products. Whilst prohibitions and restrictions were often used instruments in the past, products are now becoming subject to eco-taxes and charges, they are labelled and their life-cycle is assessed - all for the sake of an improvement of their environmental performance. However, the development of product-related environmental policy measures varies greatly within the EU. This article outlines the findings of a study undertaken with the financial support of the EU in which different product policies are inventorised and compared.


Objective To review full-dose external reirradiation effectiveness for patients with unresectable oral cancer.Methods 118 patients who presented with unresectable nonmetastastic oral cancer and previously irradiated were included in this series.Reirradiation protocol was as follows.Radiotherapy alone (60GY,2GY/d),18 patients;Radiotherapy (60GY;2GY/d) combined with chemotherapy,76 patients;intermittent radiotherapy (60GY;2× 1.5 GY/d) combined with chemotherapy,24 patients.Results The survival time of patients who received full-dose reirradiation was longer than those who did not.Late toxicities were as follows,cervical fiborosis (36%),mucosal necrosis (19%),osteoradionecrosis (18%),trismus (14%).Conclusion Full-dose reirradiation combined with chemotherapy was feasible in patients with inoperable oral cancer.The incidience and severity of late toxicity is markedly increased in comparision to that observed after the first irradiation,but mean survival time is longer than chemotherapy alone.


The protein nutrition of growing cottontails (Sylvilagus floridanus) was studied by feeding a readily consumed semipurified diet that supported acceptable growth rates when it contained 12-16 percent (air dry) crude protein. When fed a 10 percent crude protein diet, rabbits exhibited reduced growth rates and decreased feed consumption and feed efficiency. The 10 percent protein diet did not significantly affect hematocrit, total serum protein, or liver composition; therefore, that protein level was judged to be only marginally deficient. A digestion coefficient for casein (94.0 percent) was used to calculate that the digestible protein requirement for the juvenile cottontail is between 10.1 and 12.0 percent; thus, adequate supplies of forages containing at least 12 percent (dry matter) digestible protein should insure proper protein nutrition for young, free-ranging rabbits. J. WILDL. MANAGE. 40(3):484-490 Food habits studies of cottontail rabbits (Dalke and Sime 1941, Allen 1939, Klimstra and Corder 1957, Pringle 1960) indicate that cottontails have food preferences. That is, they feed selectively, so the bulk of their food intake is composed of relatively few plant species, though the species selected vary with season and locale. Stevens (1962), Sagar (1962), Williams and Caskey (1965), and Hill (1972) examined relationships between soil fertility and cottontail reproduction and growth. They suggested that low soil fertility limits the nutrient concentration in the vegetation, resulting in smaller litters and reduced growth rates. Bailey (1969) reported feeding and digestion trials in which several forages were fed to juvenile cottontails in different seasons. Bailey's data on rabbit growth and survival indicated that some plants were good forages in all stages of growth, but that others were nutritious only in the less mature stages. Because these studies indicated that nutritional factors are involved in the reproductive and growth processes of cottontails, the present study of the protein nutrition of the juvenile cottontail was carried out with the following objectives: (1) to formulate a semipurified diet that is consumed readily by cottontails, and (2) to determine the approximate dietary protein requirement of the growing cottontail rabbit. We thank R. E. Reynolds, manager, New York State Game Farm, Ithaca, for his cooperation and for providing cages and breeding pens. J. Robertson, Department of Animal Science, and A. Nice, Department of Natural Resources, Cornell University, provided technical assistance.


Digital control system for active combustion control of lab-scale combustor equipped with secondary fuel injection is designed. Controllability with adaptive law is revealed with the Cambridge Combustor model and the requirement for control system is derived. The input and output requirements of frequency estimator and fuel supply actuator for the adaptive control law is verified with cold tests. The system can be used as digital based active combustion controller having 150Hz combustion instability.


We determined the urinary excretion, expressed as the protein/creatinine ratio(morningurines), of albumin (a marker of glomerulardysfunction) and retinol-binding protein(RBP; a low-molecular-mass proteinmarker of tubular proteinuna) in102 non-insulin-dependent diabetic patients. There was a statistically significant (P <0.0001) correlation (p = 0.38) between the urinary excretion values of the two proteins. The population could be dMded into four subgroups: 32 with normal excretion values, 15 with above-normal urinary excretion of RBP, 24 with above-normal urinary excretion of albumin, and 31 patients with above-normal urinary excretion of both proteins. No patients had above-normal serum creatinine concentrations or above-normal serum RBP concentrations. This seems to exclude " tubular overflow protein-uria " as the cause of the increased urinary excretion of RBP seen in some patients with non-insulin-dependent diabetes. Our data suggest the presence of a state of proximal tubular dysfunction in these patients. It is now well-established that a slight increase in the urinary excretion of albumin (" microalbuminuria ") is an early predictor of glomerular dysfunction in diabetes mellitus (1, 2). We and other investigators have also reported (3-5) a significant increase in the urinary excretion of the low-molecular-mass protein retinol-binding protein (RBP; 21 kDa) in insulin-dependent (Type I) diabetics in the absence as well as in the presence of microalbuminuria. Similar observations were made in a study (6) of unselected diabetic patients that included Type I and Type II (non-insulin-dependent) diabetes. The latter findings raised two questions: Is proximal tubular dysfunction with impaired reab-sorption of low-molecular-mass proteins the first stage in development of sometypes of nephropathy in insulin-dependent diabetes? And, can the microalbuminuria observed in some insulin-dependent diabetic subjectsbe accounted for, at least to some extent, by a state of proximal tubular dysfunction leading to impairment of the tubular reabsorption of filtered albumin? In the present study we have extended these investigations on the urinary excretion pattern of glomerular and tubular proteins to a population of non-insulin-dependent diabetic patients.


A kind of modifying agent that fit yakwool was triturated.Slenderizing technology was used to treat yakwool,and the process factor was fixed via experiments: slenderizing velocity 20 mm/min,roller distance 10 mm,slenderizing rate 30%,twist number 1.67 t/10 cm.Compared with untreated yakwool,fiber fineness decreased 2~3 μm(change rate was 12%),and fiber length increased 3~4 mm (change rate was 13%).From SEM photo and IR spectrum,diameter of yakwool fiber was refined,S-S bond and salt bond were cut off,and formed cross linkage at the new position.Therefore,slenderizing effectiveness was obvious.


Sponge cake premix comprising as a main ingredient, a cereal powder, for the preparation of a dough by adding a Thermokoagulationsproteins to the premix that is baked in a microwave oven under heat to prepare a sponge cake, wherein the cereal powder consists of starch and pregelatinized starch wherein the pregelatinized starch in is based an amount of 25 to 55 weight on the amount of cereal powder.


This study examined the effectiveness of the Brief Psychodynamic Intervention (BPI). The BPI is a 4-session intervention aiming at (a) developing an optimal plan to resolve the patient's crisis situation through the use of an initial dynamic interpretation and its working through, (b) providing information on indications for further therapeutic interventions, and (c) furthering the development of early alliance. First, a pre–post design indicated that the BPI was effective in reducing symptom impairment with effect sizes of 0.38 for the SCL-90R Global Severity Index, 0.47 for the Hamilton Anxiety scale, 0.69 for the Hamilton Depression scale, and 0.26 for the Social Adjustment Scale Global Adaptation Score. A cross-sectional design comparing 61 patients who had completed the BPI with 61 patients on a waiting-list group indicated that the treatment accounted for (g) 17% of the variance in outcome. [Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention 5:368– 378 (2005)]


This study investigated the importance of cadaver lab for the community college undergraduate science students who intend to pursue their career as a nurse or in other allied health field. Students for Human Anatomy & Physiology classes were taken to visit a cadaver lab. Students participated in hands on laboratory in the cadaver lab to explore the body organs and see and touch them. All the students had prior hands on experience in model based anatomy labs. After the tour students were given a questionnaire to report their expectations and findings. Most of the students reported that their perception was much different about the size, shape and texture of those internal body organs. In some extent the model based learning gave them a different feeling about those body organs. In many cases students had no difficulty in identifying the organs easily, however they realized that the idea they acquired from model based learning was misleading particularly in size and texture (tissue density).


The Changjiang Estuary deep-waterway project was started in 1998,and in 2002 and 2005,the first and second phase projects have been completed one after another,the water depth of navigation reached 8.5 and 10.0 m respectively.Since the third phase project in 2006,the middle segments of the North Passage have been silted for successive four years and the average annual dredging maintenance volume has reached 60×106 m3,which has affected the target of the third phase project.Using a special self-developed digital elevation model platform for quantitative analysis and establishing a time series and spatial attribute database,the rule of riverbed erosion and deposition variation and project results were analyzed quantitatively.The analysis results reveal silted sediment sources,silted process,key siltation causes and silted positions for the North Passage deep waterway of Changjiang Estuary South Channel,which provide the scientific basis for the engineering decision-making.


Through the self-developed ground source heat pump ground tube heat transfer mechanism simulation test bench, the purpose of this paper is to explore the heat transfer mechanism of ground source heat pump based on the single U-shaped vertical buried pipe inlet and outlet spacing. The experiment uses the control variable method to measure and record the temperature of each inlet and outlet of the single U-shaped vertical buried pipe and the temperature of each measuring point inside the quartz sand of the backfill material by changing the spacing of the inlet and outlet of the single U-shaped vertical buried pipe. The curve of the temperature of each measuring point inside the quartz sand with time back is drawn and the relation expression is obtained. In addition, the relationship between the temperature difference between the inlet and outlet and the distance between the buried pipes is obtained. The relevant results and conclusions of this experimental study can provide scientific guidance for the practical application of a single U-shaped vertical buried-tube ground source heat pump.


Abstract Tremendous strides have been made in understanding the biology of Striga since this parasitic pest was first found in the United States in 1956. A strict quarantine and regulatory programme has confined the infestation to its original site while the development of a herbicide programme and the utilisation of suitable agronomic practices has reduced the population to a manageable level. The discovery and development of an artificial seed-germination stimulant permits a rapid depletion of seeds in the soil. These developments have led to the initiation of an effort to eradicate this pest in the USA that should be successful in the foreseeable future.


Although for many years nuclear medicine (NM) was considered the most important noninvasive diagnostic imaging procedure available for the evaluation of spaceoccupying liver disease, the introduction of other imaging modalities including ultrasound (US), computed tomography (CT), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has raised serious questions as to the exact role of NM. Nowadays US and CT are substituted for NM in most cases as a general "first step" approach to liver imaging; NM is becoming more and more a "second step" technique, to be applied in particular cases. However, NM has recently been greatly improved by the introduction of new instruments [high-definition rotating gamma-cameras with the possibility of single photon emission tomography (SPET)], new radiopharmaceuticals, and new application criteria. Moreover, the radionuclide approach depends on changes in function between the normal liver and the abnormal focus within the liver, so this functional characteristic of the NM can be used to great advantage for characterization of focal liver lesions with functioning cells. Our aim here is to provide a short review of the principal NM indications for hepatic masses, with particular regard to benign tumors, to liver metastases, and to some recent interesting applications in hepatocellular carcinoma.


In this technical note, an optimal unbiased filter (OUF) is derived for time-variant systems to relax the initial condition assumption in Kalman filter (KF). By minimizing the mean square errors subject to the unbiasedness condition a solution is derived in a batch computation form first. To facilitate the on-line application, a recursive realization is further developed. The effect of removing the initial condition assumption on the estimation performance is analysed, and we show that the proposed algorithm converges to the KF asymptotically. Two-state harmonic model and four-state moving target tracking model are employed to demonstrate that the OUF can improve transient estimation performance significantly and can be used in place of the KF when the apriori information about the initial state values is not available.


A novel adaptive synchronization method is proposed for a class of chaotic systems with uncertain parameters based on Lyapunov stability theory. Adaptive controller and updating law of parameters are obtained, and for specific error systems the controller can be simplified. This method is simple and systemic. A new chaotic system and the hyperchaotic Chen system are taken as examples to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. Numerical simulation illustrates the feasibility of the technique.


This article began with the discussion on the issue of gaming experience of the researchers, and then focused on the generational gap existing in research regarding game culture in Taiwan. The article also addressed the importance of conducting field work to closely examine game culture and of reading theoretical literature to maintain a flexible and balanced stance. In addition, the article proposed a research prospectus of digital gaming characterized by empathetic understanding and rational criticism.


Due to safety demands and growing sustainability requirements, sound knowledge concerning the long-time performance of infrastructures becomes more relevant. The structure's long-term performance depends on different processes such as aging, shrinkage, as well as creep independently and in interaction. As widely known, the time-dependent behavior of concrete is influenced by the mix design and the environmental boundary conditions, which are ambient temperature and humidity. These determine the hydration reactions, the resulting temperature rise, and the drop in internal available water which in turn drive thermal strains, hygral shrinkage, creep and influence the spatial distribution of material properties. Objective of this contribution is the evaluation of code suggestions for the analysis of shrinkage in structural members compared to full 3D numerical multi-physics simulations. First the effects of size on the shrinkage evolution are investigated, followed by a study of cross-sections with substantially different effective thicknesses.


In this paper, we experimentally demonstrate a hybrid superconducting-semiconducting (S-Sm) circuit consisting of eight planar and ballistic Nb-In0.75Ga0.25As-Nb Josephson junctions.


Big Data analytics and Cloud Computing are the new trending that submerged the IT industry. In fact, Big Data technology is providing methods and tools for storing managing and analyzing a large amount of data, and cloud computing provides IT services in a scalable way via internet to a number of clients at low costs. While big data environment requires powerful cluster infrastructure, new ideas about combining this two paradigms were born to enhance business agility and productivity and enable greater efficiencies and reduce costs. Big data as-a-service (BDAAS) refers to common big data services provided as cloud hosted services. These services are intended to provide Big Data features in the cloud. The objective of our research is to describe a BDAAS solution based on Hadoop ecosystem that extracts data from social network and constructs a graph that could be used later for further analysis. As a prototype, we built a graph representing the feeling of a citizen toward a particular deputy. The analysis of the resulting graph will allow citizens and political parties identifying the most popular deputy by analyzing the most significant node.


It is a challenging task to track pedestrian accurately in complicated environment such as illumination, background variation, object occlusion, scale variation, noise, and fast motion. Aiming at these problems, the tracking algorithm based on HSV color features and reconstruction by contributions is proposed. The proposed algorithm extracts the mixed color features of target in HSV space to generate the target template set within the particle filter framework. According to the influence of different regions on the tracking results, the contribution of the region is distributed. And it is introduced into the adaptive regularization model, the region with the minimum reconstruction error is determined as the target to be tracked. In order to be more robust, the templates are updated in real time during the tracking progress. Experiments on OTB100 sequences shows that the proposed algorithm can realize the continuous tracking in complex video scenes and is beneficial to be applied to the practice as a result of its better robustness. The average center error of tracking results and tracking success rate are 0.6624 pixel and 0.4153.


Abstract Apelin, identified as the endogenous ligand of APJ, exerts various cardiovascular effects. However, the molecular mechanism underlying the regulation of apelin expression in vascular cells is poorly described. Pioglitazone (PIO) and Krüppel-like factor 4 (KLF4) exhibit specific biological functions on vascular physiology and pathophysiology by regulating differentiation- and proliferation-related genes. The present study aimed to investigate the roles of PIO and KLF4 in the transcriptional regulation of apelin in a high-fat diet/streptozotocin rat model of diabetes and in PIO-stimulated vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs). Immunohistochemistry, qRT-PCR, and Western blotting assays revealed that the aorta of the Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) rat models had a high expression of apelin, PIO could decrease the expression of apelin in the PIO-treated rats. In vitro, Western blotting assays and immunofluorescent staining results showed that the basal expression of apelin was decreased but that of KLF4 was increased when VSMCs were stimulated by PIO treatment. Luciferase and chromatin immunoprecipitation assay results suggested that KLF4 bound to the GKLF-binding site of the apelin promoter and negatively regulated the transcription activity of apelin in VSMCs under PIO stimulation. Furthermore, qRT-PCR and Western blotting assay results showed that the overexpression of KLF4 markedly decreased the basal expression of apelin, but the knockdown of KLF4 restored the PIO-induced expression of apelin. In conclusion, PIO inhibited the expression of apelin in T2DM rat models to prevent diabetic macroangiopathy, and negatively regulated the gene transcription of apelin by promoting transcription of KLF4 in the apelin promoter.


The characterization of the ionosphere and its impact on the propagation of radio-wave signals has received an increasing interest for satellite communications, Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) applications (i.e. navigation and timing), and Earth Observation (EO) missions, especially low frequency SAR missions and GNSS-Reflectometry (GNSS-R). Although the main climatological models for the mean stable part of the electron density in the ionospheric layers (e.g. IRI or NeQuick) or for the magnetic field (e.g. WMM) have been significantly improved in the past years, the inhomogeneous part, responsible for scintillation effects, can still be significantly improved, since models are based on relatively old data (e.g. WBMOD), or the climatological inputs are limited to properly characterize all latitudes and solar conditions (e.g. GISM or WAM). ESA's CLIM IONO study aims to use the experimental observations of the ionosphere collected in the past years to assess the performance of climatological ionosphere models, with the focus on scintillation models, in order to evaluate their ability to properly support future needs, to identify weak areas if any, to propose recommendations for improvements and to implement these improvements whenever possible in existing models. This work focuses on the capabilities of GNSS-R techniques to characterize ionospheric scintillation, notably at low and high latitudes.


The advertising climate is very dynamic; media and the way companies advertise have evolved countless times since the end of the 19thcentury. Advertising spending in print-based media has been stea ...


Aiming at the uplink multiuser MIMO system,a new space-time detecting algorithm was proposed,in which a linear recombination strategy was imposed on the received signal first,and then the matched filter vectors orthogonal to each users' interference sets were used to eliminate the interference among users.Finally the signal of each user was line-arly space-time decoded by means of the orthogonal equivalent channel.The design of the algorithm under imperfect channel scenario was also provided.Theory analysis and simulation results reveal that the proposed algorithm has the advantages of low complexity and good robustness,and is superior to other detecting algorithms.