The load-deformation observation under the footing is essential for foundation design. Either experimental methods or numerical modelling generally determines this phenomenon in engineering practices. This study determined the settlement of shallow foundations on Multi-layer soil profile numerically. The settlement behavior was investigated through numerical modelling with Plaxis 2D. This study site was Jamshoro region, located in province Sindh, Pakistan. From the geotechnical investigation, the soil of Jamshoro region consists of a combination of different soils, mainly shale and limestone. This type of soil shows common challenges for the serviceable and sustainable design and construction of structural foundations. The standard penetration test conducted accompanied by other geotechnical tests on shale and limestone to determine the input parameters for the model and observe the soil profile. The Mohr-Coloumb model used for shale and linear elastic for limestone. The settlement of the foundation is attended by varying the limestone layer's depth. In this research, the settlement reduced under the footing by increasing the thickness of the limestone layer. The study observed that stiffness of lower layer significantly reduces the settlement of shallow foundation. Therefore, the effect of lower layer should be considered for the designing of foundation on multi-layered soil.


Objective To observe and analyze the clinical features of EMG in diagnosing brachial plexus injury.Methods The deltoid,biceps,extensor digitorum muscle abductor muscle abductor pollicis brevis and axillary nerve,musculocutaneous nerve,radial nerve,median nerve,ulnar nerve of 48 cases were detected.The dominate muscle electromyography and motor nerve conduction velocity,sensory nerve conduction velocity was detected by EMG instrument.The motor unit potential was studied,and observed the spontaneous electrical activity of the muscles,the nerve compound muscle action potential was deterred at the same time,calculateed the nerve conduction velocity and the incubation period. Results In 48 patients,30 cases were incomplete injury patients,18 cases were completely injury patients;33 cases were below the root damage,15 cases were the root damage. Conclusion EMG diagnosis has important significance in the diagnosis of brachial plexus injury,positioning,qualitative classification.


Ten groups each of 14 wethers (mean live weight 25 kg) were fed a basal ration of hay (N = 0.9%) and supplements for a period of 85 days. Fortified molasses containing 3% urea and 1% salt was offered twice weekly in narrow troughs to seven of the groups at a rate of 250 g/ha/d. Meatmeal (MM) (50 g/hd/d), avoparcin (AVO) (30 mg/hd/dL bentonite (BENT) (30 g/hd/d) or sulphathiazole (S) (1 g/hd/d)were administered on an individual basis as a daily drench, singly or in combination; control (C) groups received either the basal hay ration or hay plus fortified molasses (Table 1). Quantities of each supplement used were based on results of previous studies and on cost. Animals were weighed at the commencement and completion of the trial.


Purpose - The purpose of this study is twofold: first, to design and implement a performance management system using third-generation Balanced Scorecard (BSC) and statistical methods in an Iranian black carbon producer (Company A) to achieve its main strategy and vision; and second, to compare and evaluate some strategic measures of the company against those of a leading company in this industry in Iran (Company B) and those of a Thai company (Company C) to identify any possible gaps, so that the management of Company A can move toward filling such gaps. Design/methodology/approach - The strategic objectives of the company as well as the measures of each perspective of the BSC were determined. In addition to studying all related documents of the company and conducting interviews, two self-administered questionnaires were designed and distributed amongst a total of 24 managers or experts in the company. Statistical methods were used to select strategic objectives and measures. Findings - This paper illustrates how the use of a combined approach of statistical methods and BSC could help organisations to design and implement a sound performance measurement system. Also the result of the comparison with the two companies previously mentioned revealed that the case company is lagging in most of the measures, necessitating the execution of necessary initiatives on these measures to fill the existing gaps. Practical implications - The paper establishes the basis for integrating and using statistical methods for selection of strategic objectives and measures of BSC and paving the way for implementation of a performance management system, particularly the third-generation BSC. Originality/value - This study integrates statistical methods and third-generation BSC techniques to design and implement a performance measurement system in an Iranian black carbon production company.


Heat pump technology is evaluated in terms of current status and trends in heat pump design and performance. The suitability of heat pumps for residential heating, the market prospects and manufacturing industry for heat pumps, and specific programs sponsored by electric utilities and government agencies for promoting and demonstrating agencies for promoting and demonstrating the use of heat pumps are discussed. (LCL)


The great majority of manual processes have been automated in the current day. Nonetheless, there is no reliable approach for evaluating UML diagrams for plagiarism and correctness. Unified Modeling Language (UML) provides the basis for UML diagrams. UML Diagrams are typically used to graphically express a system's stakeholders, activities, objects, and classes to get a deep knowledge of a particular system. UML diagrams are widely used by industry experts as well as beginners. Class diagrams and use case diagrams are the most commonly used diagrams in UML. Though most Computer science-related students get assessed in UML modelling, diagram plagiarism isn't considered in most exams since it's a tedious task to perform. The proposed system automates capturing details in UML diagram components and generating a model answer from the given question scenario to compare the diagrams and calculate the plagiarism percentage with the correction percentage.


No doubt, TANIZAKI Jun'ichiro is one of the greatest modern Japanese writers. The critical appraisal of his works, however, is by no means uniform. Especially, the texts TANIZAKI published during the 1910s and the early-1920s are regarded as the so-called culture of the erotic, grotesque, nonsensical (ero guro nansensu) which were the main characteristics of Japanese mass culture in the late-1920s and early-1930s. In this essay, I discuss briefly the significance of eroticism, grotesquerie, nonsense in the Taisho period, and the works TANIZAKI published, as well as during the Showa period, which exhibit a critical stance, a spirit of resistance, toward the dominant culture of each period. Although TANIZAKI does not formulate a clear political stance in the texts, as a cultural critic he is one of the most politically minded writers in modern Japan.


Feature (or variable) selection from a large number of p features continuously challenges data science, especially for ever‐enlarging data and in discovering scientifically important features in a regression setting. For example, to develop valid drug targets for ovarian cancer, we must control the false‐discovery rate (FDR) of a selection procedure. The popular approach to feature selection in large‐p regression uses a penalized likelihood or a shrinkage estimation, such as a LASSO, SCAD, Elastic Net, or MCP procedure. We present a different approach called the Subsampling Winner algorithm (SWA), which subsamples from p features. The idea of SWA is analogous to selecting US national merit scholars' that selects semifinalists based on student's performance in tests done at local schools (a.k.a. subsample analyses), and then determine the finalists (a.k.a. winning features) from the semifinalists. Due to its subsampling nature, SWA can scale to data of any dimension. SWA also has the best‐controlled FDR compared to the penalized and Random Forest procedures while having a competitive true‐feature discovery rate. Our application of SWA to an ovarian cancer data revealed functionally important genes and pathways.


Both Rousseau and Mencius espouse a process-oriented morality that is attuned to nature. Rousseau maintains that human beings exit the realm of nature as soon as the process of civilization begins, necessitating the need for morality. Because he views the 'natural' human being as the pre-social and independent protohuman, the attempt to recapture the lost harmony of the state of nature will always fall short and the process of becoming moral is an endless task. Mencius, however, views nature as a dynamic process suggesting that morality demands a conscious participation in and extension of nature's rhythms. Artifice and nature are not as sharply demarcated as in the thought of Rousseau because morality is the particularly human way of integrating into the cosmos, by extending and channelling the flow of qi.


In order to gain competitive advantage, it is imperative to focus on the needs and preferences of customers. The central purpose of this study is to analyze the factors that affect satisfaction of industrial customers. Particularly, a case study approach is employed whereby the study seeks to gain information from the views of Indian customers of industrial products. The instruments of data collection involved administering structured questionnaire and also conducting interviews as deemed convenient. The sampling frame consisted of 184 industrial customers in India who procure different products for their use as raw material.


We are concerned with a special form of the (stochastic) Allen-Cahn equation, which can be seen as a model of hybrid zones in population genetics. Individuals in the population can be of one of three types; aa are fitter than AA , and both are fitter than the aA heterozygotes. The hybrid zone is the region separating a subpop-ulation consisting entirely of aa individuals from one consisting of AA individuals. We investigate the interplay between the motion of the hybrid zone and the shape of the habitat, both with and without genetic drift (corresponding to stochastic and deterministic models respectively). In the deterministic model, we investigate the effect of a wide opening and provide some explicit sufficient conditions under which the spread of the advantageous type is halted, and complementary conditions under which it sweeps through the whole population. As a standing example, we are interested in the outcome of the advantageous population passing through an isthmus. We also identify rather precise conditions under which genetic drift breaks down the structure of the hybrid zone, complementing previous work that identified conditions on the strength of genetic drift under which the structure of the hybrid zone is preserved. Our results demonstrate that, even in cylindrical domains, it can be misleading to caricature allele frequencies by one-dimensional travelling waves, and that the strength of genetic drift plays an important role in determining the fate of a favoured allele.


We consider two new iterative methods for a countable family of nonexpansive mappings in Hilbert spaces. We proved that the proposed algorithms strongly converge to a common fixed point of a countable family of nonexpansive mappings which solves the corresponding variational inequality. Our results improve and extend the corresponding ones announced by many others.


Petrographic and mineralogical comparison of the subaerially exposed Eaton Sandstone [Conemaugh] with subsurface. Pennsylvanian sandstones gives insight into epidiagenetic processes associated with unconformities. (1) Detrital framework modes have been altered, transforming sublitharenite into diagenetic quartz arenite. (2) Leaching of carbonate cement has rejuventated primary porosity. (3) The formation of diagenetic kaolinite is unrelated to the present unconformity, and the early formed kaolinite is presently undergoing dissolution. These observations call into question the utility of kaolinite as an indicator of unconformity related diagenesis. (4) Iron has been redistributed from joint-block interiors to the faces of the joint blocks, forming a well-indurated, ferruginous-cemented zone roughly 1-2 cm thick along joint faces (groundwater ferricrete). The amount of iron in a unit volume of groundwater ferricrete required removal of iron from 16 unit volumes of joint-block interior sandstone. Iron was mobilized from the interiors of the joint blocks and accumulated at the joint faces, evidently oxidized and precipitated by oxygenated water flowing along the fractures. This alteration took place after the sandstones were sufficiently well-indurated to develop systematic joint sets, but before the sandstones were uplifted into the vadose zone. The presence of indurated zones along joint faces should have profound effects on aquifermore » and reservoir properties of the sandstone.« less


[Objective]To observe the of treating chronic colitis by Longxuejie plus western medicine.[Method]The 75 cases were randomly divided into two groups,Control group 35 cases use sulfadiazine,bifico.Treatment group 40 cases in the control group on the basis of plus Longxuejie.Treatment 8 weeks to determine the efficacy.[Results]The treatment group were cure 22 cases,improve 13 cases,invalid 5 cases,the total efficiency rate for 87.50%.The control group were cure 12 cases,improve 14 cases,invalid 9 cases,the total efficiency rate for 74.29%.Clinical efficacy of the treatment group than the control group(P0.05).[Conclusion]Treating chronic colitis by Longxuejie plus western medicine has a good effect.


Plastic cards (credit, debit, and others) are the keepers of personal information. The structure of information recording and the process of applying information on these cards is becoming more and more complex with time. Card personalization process involves the use of complex equipment, and hardware-software complexes. There is a variety of desktop equipment for personaliza-tion of small quantities of plastic cards. High performance machines and firmware complexes for high volumes of cards personaliza-tion are also produced. Card personalization can be controlled by software from different vendors. Various additional technological processes can be performed at the same time when personalization is being done. Different types of software are required to perform these operations. The article considers the software for plastic cards personalization systems including smart cards personalization systems, personalization center management software, software for card quality control systems, issued cards packaging and sorting management software, PIN envelopes personalization software. The paper contains a general description of work stages and interac-tion of processes associated with personalization of plastic cards. Particular attention is paid to the domestic import-substituting software. Where it is possible and appropriate, the article refers to relevant electronic resources, which can be accessed via the Inter-net.


Mole voles are the most specialized subterranean members of the subfamily Arvicolinae. We assess the basic reproductive parameters of the Zaisan mole vole (Ellobius tancrei Blasius, 1884) and compare our data with the characteristics reported for other Ellobius species and surface-dwelling voles. In most respects, reproduction of the E. tancrei follows the pattern that is typical for voles. Females undergo postpartum estrus, but rarely combine pregnancy with lactation. The rate of embryonic and postembryonic growth (0.13 and 0.54 g/day, respectively) are slightly lower, whereas the relative neonate and weanling masses (8% and 40% of maternal mass, respectively) are slightly higher than the respective values predicted for non-subterranean arvicolines. The combination of these trends results in the protracted pregnancy and lactation (both ∼30 days). The age at first breeding is delayed (>2.5 months). Despite heavy weanlings, total maternal investment per litter in E. tancrei is low due to small litter size ...


As high-power converter is commonly applied in marine driving system,more attention is paid to harmonic suppression of the converter.This paper describes lots of measures taken for harmonic suppression during design and construction period of 3500m3 cutter suction dredge which is built in Wenchong Shipyard.


One of the most significant changes that has been taking place in community colleges is the decline of transfer education, defined as studies designed to lead toward the baccalaureate degree. In earlier studies it was found that between 1907 and 1940, students in transfer programs comprised 60 to 70 percent of the total enrollment in junior colleges. Through the 1950s approximately 65 percent of the students in two-year colleges were participating in transfer programs (Lombardi, 1980). The shift in two-year college enrollments away from transfer programs into occupational, developmental, continuing, and community education started during the late 1960s. By 1973, less than 43 percent of the students in community and junior colleges were enrolled in transfer programs (Parker, 1974). Today, this proportion has dropped to approximately 30 percent; the proportion of all community college students who transfer to a four-year institution in a given year is less than 10 percent (Lombardi, 1980); and the proportion of students who enter a four-year institution at the junior level is now about 5 percent (Cohen, 1979). The decline in transfer education is also reflected in the proportion of associate degrees awarded in the arts and sciences; by 1976 the figure had dropped to only 42 percent (American Association of Community and Junior Colleges, 1979). Data from states with large community college systems show that at a time when total enrollments have increased, the number of students who transferred to a fouryear institution remained the same or decreased (Lombardi, 1980). A number of factors contribute to the decline of transfer education in the community college. These include increased enrollments in career and vocational education programs, the growth of remedial education, the addition of community and continuing education functions in the community college curriculum, a tremendous increase in the proportion of students over 22 and attending college part-time, and increased competition from four-year institutions for students who in the past have enrolled in community colleges. Each will be discussed in terms of its effects on transfer education in the community college.


The objectives of this study are to: 1) find out and analyze the role of investigator of the Women and Child Protection Unit in applying diversion to children in conflict with the law, 2) determine and analyze the implementation of diversion carried out by the Women and Child Protection Unit against children in conflict with law, 3) identify and analyze the obstacles of investigators of the Women and Child Protection Unit in applying diversion to children in conflict with the law. This research employs the sociological juridical method, a research in the discipline of law that is based on the reality that occurs in society where the type of study in this study is specifically descriptive. The results of this study found that: 1) the implementation of diversion in Padang City Police had been going well where there were 14 (fourteen) cases that were successfully resolved through diversion channels throughout 2015-2017, 2) the implementation of diversion in Padang City Police was guided by the Law on the Criminal Justice System for Children (UU SPPA), Secret Telegram of the Head of the Criminal Investigation Agency of the Republic of Indonesia Police TR/1124/XI/2006 and TR/395/DIT,VI/2008, and Government Regulation No. 65 of 2015, 3) in applying the diversion, Padang City Police investigators faced several obstacles such as: the victim felt that his/her rights were not protected because the suspect was given privileges in the legal process and the victim or his/her family considered the law to be biased and favored the suspect. It is the reason for the failure of deliberation regarding diversion. To anticipate this failure, there are a number of suggestions in which human resources in the Children's Criminal Justice Unit (PPA) of Padang City Police should be given training in collaboration with the Ministry of Social Affairs in the framework of developing human resource competencies. It is better if the internal police regulations relating to the implementation of diversion are revised and adjusted to the applicable laws and regulations.


To minimize the damage resulting from oil spill accidents, it is necessary to respond quickly with an appropriate strategy. Accurately forecasting the behavior of the spilled oil is crucial for a successful recovery operation and protection of marine resources. Therefore, the numerical modeling and simulation of the spilled oil at sea plays an important role in the oil spill response and contingency decision-making. On the basis of the physical modeling of the three-dimensional hydrodynamic current and the trajectory and fate of spilled oil, an integrated numerical modeling technique was developed for the real-time forecast of spilled oil behavior. The trajectory is mainly governed by the velocity of the wind and the surface current. For the fate model, weathering effects of advection, spreading, evaporation, emulsification, and shoreline interaction were included. Finally, An oil spill accident happened in the Pearl River Estuary of Guangdong Province of China was hindcasted and compared with the observed data as a case study. The simulation results indicated that the oil spill models proposed could give reasonable estimation of the trajectory of spilled oil.


Dear Editor: Palliative care was first defined by World Health Organization (WHO) in 1989, as care especially for ''patients whose disease is not responsive to curative treatment.'' WHO further broadened the target population to ''the patients and their families facing the problems associated with life-threatening illness'' in 2002. Furthermore, the scope of palliative care has become even broader over time, which resulted in the idea that ''palliative care'' should be delivered regardless of the diagnosis and prognosis, the time, and the place/situation. Although cardiologists totally agree that the key concept of palliative care by WHO should be improving the patients' quality of life (QOL), we have difficulty differentiating between ''palliative care'' and ''medicine'' itself, which are overlapped significantly. We believe that this is the reason why Cairns W stated that ''no other area of health care seems to have gone to such lengths to write definitions of itself as has palliative care.'' In spite of the recent attention to palliative care for noncancer patients, such as those who suffer from heart disease, the definition of palliative care is too comprehensive and vague for many nonpalliative care specialists, such as cardiologists and primary care physicians, to understand. We better comprehend the essence of palliative care as a ''problematization'' to improve the patients' QOL, which is consistent with current professional knowledge and availability. Problematization in medicine refers to the question of ''what is a current problem that I as health care provider can do to improve patients' QOL?'' Admitting that problematization is the essence of palliative care, the historically broadening scope can be explained and easier to understand. Several decades ago, we initially developed ''palliative care'' to cope with not only the physical pain that patients experienced but also other pains, such as spiritual ones, to resolve problems that existed. There was a gap between the support that medicine provided in that era and the patients' needs. For example, early-stage cancer patients faced pains that medicine was unprepared to care for appropriately. Now, considering the plateau diagnostic capacity and treatment efficacy for noncancer patients with chronic diseases, such as heart failure and respiratory disease, new issues have developed related to clinical decision making under uncertain outcomes. Therefore, the chief role of palliative care now might be ''advance care planning'' and support in the decision-making process in addition to pain relief. In this way, the scope of palliative care has changed as a result of the external situation and resource availability. Therefore, the concept of ''problematization'' as the essence of palliative care might make it easier for clinicians to understand rather than basing their understanding on the WHO definition of palliative care.


We propose a simple approach for forecasting univariate time series. The proposed algorithm is an ensemble learning technique that combines the advice from several Generalized Regression Neural Networks. We compare our algorithm with the most used algorithms on real and synthetic datasets. The proposed algorithm appears as more powerful than existing ones.


The convergence through digital information and communication techo1ogies (ICTs) of Internet audio and video with broadcast radio and television proceeds apace. In early 2015, TPG Telecom, Australia's fourth-largest broadband internet provider, plans to offer Internet Protocol television. (JPTV) to 500,000 capital city apartments on its fibre-to-the-basement (FTTB) network which will cherry-pick the most profitable consumers of infotainment, and thus reduce the capacity of the National Broadband Network (NBN) to cross subsidise broadband services in the bush.


The resource allocation problem in distributed computing systems that have strict mutual consistency requirements is discussed. A model that incorporates the behavior of consistency control algorithms which ensure that mutual consistency of replicated data is preserved even when communication links of the computer network and/or computers on which the files reside fail is presented. The constrained resource allocation problem is formulated as a mixed nonlinear integer program. An efficient algorithm is proposed to solve this problem. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated in terms of its accuracy, efficiency and execution times, using a representative problem set.<<ETX>>


Tristetraprolin (TTP) is an RNA binding protein that negatively regulates the expression of many inflammatory mediators, including TNF, IL-1, IL-6, IL-17, IL-23 and cyclooxygenase 2. Moreover, the control of pro- inflammatory gene expression by the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) p38 is achieved via the phosphorylation of TTP. We present evidence that direct targeting of TTP itself, rather than the upstream signalling cascades, might be used to treat inflammatory arthritis. Disclosure statement: The author has declared no conflicts of interest.


Transient resonant light scattering in a localized-electron-phonon system with intermediate coupling strength by a short-pulse excitation is theoretically studied. We clarify how the resonant light scattering proceeds from the virtual process to the real one as time goes on. Rayleigh and Raman scattering, hot luminescence, and ordinary luminescence distinctively appear in the time-resolved spectrum because of their different transient responses. Raman scattering with large Stokes shift is found to arise due to the instantaneous virtual change in the amplitude of the lattice vibration.


The \textit{sampling policy} of stage t, formally expressed as a probability density function qt, stands for the distribution of the sample (xt,1,…,xt,nt) generated at t. From the past samples, some information depending on some \textit{objective} is derived leading eventually to update the sampling policy to qt+1. This generic approach characterizes \textit{adaptive importance sampling} (AIS) schemes. Each stage t is formed with two steps : (i) to explore the space with nt points according to qt and (ii) to exploit the current amount of information to update the sampling policy. The very fundamental question raised in the paper concerns the behavior of empirical sums based on AIS. Without making any assumption on nt, the theory developed involves no restriction on the split of computational resources between the explore (i) and the exploit (ii) step. It is shown that the asymptotic behavior of AIS is the same as some oracle'' strategy that knows the optimal sampling policy from the beginning. From a practical perspective, weighted AIS is introduced, a new method that allows to forget poor samples from early stages.


This report looks at flash floods in particular their relation with tributary and mainstream floods. It makes a comparison between these and riverine floods and discusses their impacts on their incidence and severity, such as land use changes and climate change.