In the last decades the field of structural health monitoring and damage detection has been intensively explored. Active vibration technique allows to excite the structure at high frequency vibrations which are sensitive to small damage. Ideal candidates for the generation of high frequency (ultrasonic) signals are piezoelectric PZT transducers, due to their small size, low cost and large bandwidth. Current ultrasonic systems are based on external piezoelectric transducers which need to be placed on two faces of the concrete specimen. This arrangement is often impractical due to limited accessibility when in service. An alternative is to embed permanently low-cost transducers inside the structure. Such types of transducers have been applied successfully for the in-situ estimation of the P-wave velocity in fresh concrete, and for crack monitoring. Nevertheless, major issues concerning the efficiency of these embedded transducers have been raised in previous studies. In the present study, we explore the working principles of embedded piezoelectric transducers in comparison to external transducers which are found to be significantly different. A simple Finite Element model of a piezoelectric transducer embedded in an infinite media is developed. It is coupled with a multi-objective genetic algorithm which is used to design specific ultrasonic embedded transducers.


Abstract The effect of frequency and timing of hand pollinations on seed set in flowering dogwood (Cornus florida L.) was studied. Six hand pollination treatments and an open-pollinated control were included in this study. The hand pollination treatments, which utilized non-emasculated flowers, were performed over a 12-day period beginning with the opening of the first flowers. All open flowers within five inflorescences of an individual plant were pollinated daily, every other day, every third day, every sixth day, on day 6 only, or on day 12 only. The experiment was repeated 10 times. There were significant differences among treatments for both percentage of inflorescences setting seed and mean number of seed produced per inflorescence pollinated. Daily or every other day pollinations produced significantly more seed and had more inflorescences setting seed than did the two treatments that involved a single pollination. Labor efficiency, which was measured as number of seed set divided by number of days...


Previous studies suggest that the familial atypical multiple‐mole melanoma (FAMMM) syndrome may predispose affected families to nonmelanoma carcinomas, including adenocarcinoma of the pancreas. It has been found that many of these families harbor mutations in the CDKN2A gene on chromosome 9p21. The phenotypic expression of CDKN2A mutations in these families has not been characterized fully.


The absorption of morphine sulphate in a controlled‐release formulation was studied in 12 patients who had undergone unilateral inguinal hernia repair under a light general anaesthetic and ilio‐inguinal block. Serum morphine concentrations were measured serially and gastric emptying was assessed by measurement of paracetamol absorption. Three patients had delayed gastric emptying and impaired morphine absorption in the immediate postoperative period. Four hours later, there was a significant reduction in gastric emptying in eight patients who had normal paracetamol and morphine absorption in the immediate postoperative period.


Organic Elektrolumineszenzdisplayvorrichtung with: - a first face and a second substrate (111, 151) which are spaced apart to each other; - a first electrode (113) on the first substrate (111); - a separating device (130) having a first and a second portion on the first electrode (113), wherein both the first and the second section on the protrusion portions (125, 126), the projections facing each other, as well as a through these partial (120a, 120b) have enclosed area (120a, 120b) have, and wherein the projecting portions (125, 126) and the regions with an inorganic insulating material; - an organic emission layer (135) having a third thickness (t3) on the first electrode (113) in a sub-pixel region (SP); - a second electrode (140) on the organic emission layer (135); - an array element layer on said second substrate (151) that has a thin film transistor (TD); and - a connection pattern (180) connecting the second electrode (140) and the thin film transistor (TD) electrically.


The purpose of this study was to investigate the therapeutic advantage of administering tacrolimus (TAC) in patients with polymyositis (PM) and dermatomyositis (DM).


Growth of Eucalyptus robusta in forest farm of Yipinglang colliery was studied through sample plot survey and stem analysis E robusta in study area showed the fastest growth of diameter,height and volume respectively at 4~12,2~8 and 4~14 years old Total mean increment of the three indexes were 0 78cm,1 03m and 0 002 9m 3 Tree ages with the peak value of current annual increment and mean increment of diameter,height and volume were 5 and 3,8 and 7,5 and 10 years old respectively Volume quantitative maturity age of E robusta in forest farm of Yipinglang colliery was 10 years old The distribution of diameter,height,basal area and volume of unmature E robusta plantation was similar to normal distribution,and there were corresponding relationship in between all the growth factors Relative height,relative basal area and relative volume were close to or equal to 1 while the natural diameter class was 1 Volume and basal area of E robusta plantation were linear correlated,the form height could be regarded as a constant,indivi dual trees accounted for 95% of the total volume had the relative form height close to 1


The present study examines the relationship between return on equity (ROE), leverage and size of firms. A sample companies registered under Bucharest Stock Exchange were examined. The study employed regression method to estimate the impact of debt level on profitability (measured by Return on Equity or ROE). Debt is used by many companies to leverage their capital and profit. However, debt is not the only factors that effect to leverage capital and profit.


Here, numerical results are computed from an asymptotic near-resonance triad analysis. The analysis considers a resonant triad of instability waves consisting of a plane fundamental wave and a pair of symmetrical oblique subharmonic waves. The relevant scaling ensures that nonlinearity is confined to a distinct critical layer. The analysis is first used to form a composite solution that accounts for both the flow divergence and nonlinear effects. It is shown that the backreaction on the plane Tollmien Schlichting (TS) fundamental wave, although fully accounted for, is of little significance. The observed enhancement at the fundamental frequency disturbance is not in the plane TS wave, but is caused by nonlinearly generated waves at the fundamental frequency that result from nonlinear interactions in the critical layer. The saturation of the oblique waves is caused by their self-interaction. The nonlinear phase-locking phenomenon, the location of resonance with respect to the neutral stability curve, low frequency effects, detuning in the streamwise wave numbers, and nonlinear distortion of the mode shapes are discussed. Nonlinearity modifies the initially two dimensional Blasius profile into a fuller one with spanwise periodicity. The interactions at a wide range of unstable spanwise wave numbers are considered, and the existence of a preferred spanwise wave number is explained by means of the vorticity distribution in the critical layer. Besides presenting novel features of the phenomena and explaining the delicate mechanisms of the interactions, the results of the theory are in excellent agreement with experimental and numerical observations for all stages of the development and for various input parameters.


Blockchain technology is a distributed data recording system developed to monitor and secure all encrypted transactions with the shortest identification. Blockchain technology made a name for itself in 2008. However, the real development of this technology has been realized with use of smart contracts in Blockchain technology. In the cryptocurrency world, a smart contract can be defined as an application or program running on the Blockchain. They operate as digital deals that have to comply with certain rules. These rules are predetermined by computer codes and then copied and implemented by the servers in the entire network. The use of the word "smart" as a term in smart contracts comes from the fact that it is not made manually and is realized digitally. In this study, it is aimed to contribute to future studies in the transformation of smart contracts into real "smart" contract structures by applying artificial intelligence algorithms.


Web Crawler is a program used to download documents from the internet. It visits many sites to collect information that can be analyzed and mined in a central location. Focused crawler is designed in such a way that it gathers document on a specific topic. To index a document URL, the Focused crawler should ensure that the document which is under the review is belongs to the specific topic. To identify the relevancy of the particular web page content to coincide with the context specific topic and to avoid the replication of the information, the authors of this paper suggests the application of Cosine Similarity measures after removing the stop words from the web page contents. To implement the above mentioned strategy, we have followed this procedure which will effectively identify the web pages containing relevant web contents of specific topic. First we have to create a context specific dictionary consisting of terms related to the focused topic. Then we consider the two web page document namely A and B. We then remove all the stop words from document A and document B. Then we count the number of words available in the each document. Next, we constructed a matrix for each web page to calculate the frequency of each word appearing in the web document. Then we calculate the Cosine Similarity measure between the two matrices constructed out of the two web documents. This approach not only governs the Frequency of a particular word appearing in the web document but also look at the word belongs to the context specific dictionary which we created at the initial stage. Thus we conclude that this paper will provide an efficient mechanism for the Focused crawler to index a web page which is more relevant to the topic.


Purpose – Matching relevant ontology data for integration is vitally important as the amount of ontology data increases along with the evolving Semantic web, in which data are published from different individuals or organizations in a decentralized environment. For any domain that has developed a suitable ontology, its ontology annotated data (or simply ontology data) from different sources often overlaps and needs to be integrated. The purpose of this paper is to develop intelligent web ontology data matching method and framework for data integration.Design/methodology/approach – This paper develops an intelligent matching method to solve the issue of ontology data matching. Based on the matching method, it also proposes a flexible peer‐to‐peer framework to address the issue of ontology data integration in a distributed Semantic web environment.Findings – The proposed matching method is different from existing data matching or merging methods applied to data warehouse in that it employs a machine learnin...


The paper describes the importance of clean production of steel and the relationships amongst sustaining development of steel industry,environment protection and the role of refractories in the clean production of steel. The main achievements and main shortcomings in the clean production of China′s steel industry have been reviewed together with the introduction of the policy supporting system and the future development of clean production in China′s steel industry.


Cosmic Ray Energetics And Mass (CREAM) is a balloon-borne experiment to directly measure the elemental spectra of protons to iron nuclei with energies up to ~ 1015 eV. Energies of these cosmic-ray particles are measured by an ionization calorimeter comprised of 20 layers of 1 radiation length thick tungsten plates and 20 layers of 0.5 mm diameter scintillating fibers. Each tungsten plate is 500 times 500 times 3.5 mm3 and the fibers are grouped into fifty 1 cm wide ribbons. After construction, the CREAM-III calorimeter was tested at CERN, the European high energy physics lab, in the H2 beam line of the SPS. Following the CERN test, the calorimeter was integrated into the CREAM-III instrument, and flown successfully in the 3rd flight of the project, during the 2007/8 Antarctic campaign. We present the performance of the CREAM-III calorimeter in lab and beam tests.


The marriage book is an official document in the form of a quote from the marriage certificate which is legal evidence of the existence of a marriage. Marriage books are given to couples who are legally married and are administratively registered in the country. The only interested parties who can issue a marriage certificate are the Office of Religious Affairs or KUA. With the sophistication of technology, there has been a modification of the marriage book, namely the marriage card which is designed as big as an ATM card. With the digital marriage card, it can make it easier for the bride and groom to carry a marriage book when going anywhere. The use of a marriage card can cause other adverse effects, one of which is that the security used is not guaranteed and the fear of misuse of the identity data of the spouse of the marriage card owner. Inside this marriage card, there is a barcode that contains partner data such as NIK, wedding date and even self-identity that is vulnerable to misuse. So, security is needed that can protect against theft of data that is secured through barcodes, so image security on electronic marriage cards is arranged using a secure image protection algorithm. Image processing is a process of processing pixels in a digital image for a specific purpose. Image processing and computer vision are used as the human eye, with image capture input devices such as cameras and scanners being used as eyes and computer machines (with their computational programs) being used as brains. that processes information. The Secure Image Protection algorithm is one method that can be used in processing the security image of this marriage card, which consists of system input, namely the image to be encrypted or decrypted and the key is then carried out the encryption or decryption process and then produces an output image that has hidden information. So that in the end we get a system that can secure the data on the marriage card in the form of an image processing pixel permutation system that is able to maintain the privacy of the confidentiality of the image on the electronic marriage card.


We show that there are some problematic features for the simple proposal of the He and Ma [arXiv:1003.2510v3 [hep-th]]. In the Ref.[1] the authors make the hypothesis that the quantum theory of the black-hole (BH) can be described by a semi classical Bohr's model likely with a model for Hydrogen atom, from it,they proposed the idea of a quantized BH by using Bohrs idea of quantizing the motion of an electron inside the atom in an old version of quantum mechanics. Indeed they proposed a phase space quantization rule for a spherically symmetric BH. Although we do not know (surely) for such a special case there is (even exist) a stable phase space or not. They attempt to quantize the black-holes by using the Verlinde's proposal on the entropic nature of gravity and the Bohr's quantization method. It does not seem to me that the author's approach to black-hole physics is correct because it ignores the relativistic and thermal effects and it treats the black-hole as a simple semi classical system under influence of a power law potential. The agreement with the results from [1] should not be taken as an argument in favor of the present ideas about the quantum essence of the BH, since in [1] the same effects have been ignored, too. This paper is questionable. The authors attempted to quantize the black-hole in the canonical quantization formalism but they can not describe the main hidden reason for treating the BH in the canonical formalism but not in the path integral (PI) one's which as we know that the PI formalism is reasonable. Another main result of the previous paper is to produce the spectrum of the black-hole


Abstract There is no report of successful crosses between cultivated peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) and wild species from section Procumbentes. Interspecific hybrids between A. hypogaea (section Arac...


The paper interprets the book The heart of man , written by J. E. Gossner in 1822 from its Catholic background and compares the result with its translation into Portuguese, created in 1914 by Andre Jensen, a the Brazilian Presbyterian. Do achieve this, are studied the iconography of its 10 emblems and the iconology of its accompanying texts. We conclude that Jensen believed the contents of the original version generally consistent with his understanding of the Presbyterian tradition. For this presents subtly Calvin as representative of the religio cordis , and omits discreetly nonpresbyterians concepts, as the Catholic "zuvorkommende Gnade" (previnient grace). Moreover, Jensen reorganizes the sequence of the emblems according to the late Protestant´s scheme of the "broad and narrow way", what, in fact, only reaffirms a central aspect of the book´s original message, it unilateral negative understanding of the world as seductive or stalker. Thus, even the introduction of freedom in place of generosity, in other words, of a distinct Protestant concept, did not contribute to the creation of a more Protestant rereading. Prevails the dichotomist imaginary of a battle between God and the devil in and about the human heart and the focus on a holy death, with no pretense to transform the world.


Can you help - We are on the lookout for members of the Emergency Services to take part in a focus group in July in Manchester. Can you help and well ...


Ever-growing image collections are common in several elds
such as health, digital humanities or social networks. Nowadays, there
is a lack of visualisation tools to browse such large image collection. In
this work, the incremental indexing and the visualisation of large image
collections is done jointly. The BIRCH algorithm is improved to incre-
mentally yield a hierarchical indexing structure. A custom web platform
is presented to visualise the structure that is built. The proposed method
is tested with two large image collections, up to one million images.


The present invention discloses a production method of art glass utilizing shells, and relates to the technical field of glass production and processing. The method comprises the following steps: washing and cleaning, shells were soaked in neutral bleaching powder with a concentration of 5-10% for 3-10 hours, and then rinsed with clean water until shell skin is removed; pulverizing, the shells are pulverized into shell pieces with shell particle diameters less than 50 meshes by using a pulverizer; mixing: raw materials including quartz sand, shell pieces, sodium carbonate, colorants and clarificants are mixed, and the shell pieces accounts for 20-30% of the total weight of the raw materials; melting: the mixed raw materials are heated in a melting furnace with a high temperature of 1550-1600 DEG C to form uniform liquid glass; molding: the melted liquid glass is molded by a mold; and heat treating: the molded liquid glass is performed with annealing and quenching process. The art glass is environmentally friendly and low in cost, and the produced art glass is low in hardness and brittleness so that the art glass is easy to process.


This study has been designed to illustrate the correlation between body mass index, body fat percentage, and age. This cross-sectional study was carried out on 379 overweight and obese women. The patients were divided into the two age groups of 18-39 and 40-74 year old. Their body mass index (BMI) and body fat percentage were measured. Afterwards, correlations of body mass index, body fat percentage, and age were assessed. The frequency of grade II obesity (BMI = 39.9-35) was the highest among other grades (32.2%). The correlation between age and body mass index showed that by each year increment in age, BMI of women increased by 0.085 units. The mean BMI in both age groups were compared and observed to be higher in the age group above 40 years. Age and BMI, showed a significant correlation with body fat percentage, and as body mass index increases, the correlation of body fat percentage and age is enhanced, but this effect is opposite in people with morbid obesity. By process of aging in women and regardless of other factors, body mass index increased significantly and its correlation with body fat percentage lowered but it remains significant.


the connotation and function of national innovation system;the retrospect of national innovation system of China,Europe,Japan and USA;a design for national innovation system:Ⅰ ideological system;Ⅱ economic mechanism;Ⅲ institutional system of politics and law


Multifunctional patterned polymeric surfaces are of significant importance to numerous surface-based researches. We demonstrated that a commercial polymer of polyethylenimine (PEI) with rich amino groups can be used as a versatile ink for the direct fabrication of patterned PEI surfaces via a supramolecular interaction between amino groups in PEI and –OH on a silicon wafer induced by microcontact printing (μCP). The thicknesses and shapes of the formed PEI surfaces can be finely tuned by changing the molecular weight and/or the concentration of PEI. The obtained patterned polymeric surfaces could be amplified further to grow other polymer brushes, or explored as novel surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) active materials by electrostatic adsorption with negatively charged gold nanoparticles (AuNPs).


A major component of the success of scientific computing is the rapid increase in computing capability. Parallel computing can provide the next great leap in the computation power scientists and engineers need to solve many important problems. The proliferation of parallel architectures, however, discourages users from writing parallel applications. Recent advances in automatic parallelization and parallel languages provide a means for users to write portable programs that protect software investment. Unfortunately, current systems frequently experience poor performance because they fail to fully exploit the features of the underlying parallel architecture. For uniprocessors, compilers have been quite successful in mapping machine-independent programs (e.g., Fortran, C) down to the complex features of today's microprocessors. I believe that compilers are also well-suited for customizing portable parallel programs. The objective of my research is to develop compilation techniques to support efficient machine-independent programming of high-performance multiprocessors. I plan to implement and evaluate these effectiveness of these techniques in COSMIC, a Communication-Optimizing, Shared-Memory Integrated Compiler. COSMIC will target a shared-memory programming model because it provides the best combination of flexibility and performance. Experiments show that simply exploiting parallelism is no longer sufficient for achieving the best performance, mainly because the cost of interprocessor communication is too great compared to computation and local memory accesses [74, 77]. To achieve high performance, COSMIC will perform communication analysis and apply optimizations for locality, synchronization, communication, and memory system effects. COSMIC follows two basic guidelines. First, it uses compilation techniques for message-passing machines to retain most of the benefits of explicit messages. Second, it exploits architectural and operating system support available in shared-memory multiprocessors to improve flexibility and performance. A novel characteristic of COSMIC will be its ability to take advantage of the multiple coherence protocols and hybrid message-passing support found in software Distributed-Shared-Memory (DSM) systems and Flexible-Shared-Memory (FSM) machines. To evaluate the impact on the performance on scientific applications, I will test COSMIC on programs from Flame) from fields such as computational chemistry, computational fluid dynamics, sparse matrix codes, and computational combustion. I will measure the impact of the optimizations on application performance for the IBM SP-2, DEC Alpha multiprocessor, and clusters of Alpha workstations. My goal is to significantly improve on current compilers for shared-memory architectures and match or exceed the performance of message-passing programs on distributed-memory architectures. This project will make several important contributions, including: 1) a sophisticated optimizing compiler for shared-memory machines, 2) a prototype …


The invention provides a system transmission fiber wavelength division multiplexed optical having a plurality of amplifiers, characterized by means for transmitting a broadband signal charge outside lengths multiplex wave. As the load signal extends substantially over the entire band of the amplifiers, each of its components may have a low power, which limits the interactions with the signals of the multiplex. In addition, the load signal is less sensitive to variations in the shape of the gain along the transmission system, so that the total power of the signal charge, and thus also the total power of the multiplex signals, remain substantially constant .


Summary Research project deals with the screening of aqueous extract of betel quid with or without tobacco for hepatic damage activity. It has been reported that betel quid has parasympathetic activity and is used as vermicide and tamifuge in veterinary practice. Betel leaf was used for treatment of asthma and rheumatic arthritis in India. The animal models selected were carbon tetrachloride induced liver injury, paracetamol induced liver toxicity and thioacetamide induced liver necrosis in rats. Four different doses were selected betal quid without tobacco low dose (BQ LD), betal quid without tobacco high dose (BQ HD), betal quid with tobacco low dose (BQT LD) and betal quid with tobacco high dose (BQT HD) to carry out the research project. The functions were assessed by the estimation of aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), serum bilirubin, liver weight and histopathological studies. In the acute hepatitis models, the rats were pretreated with extracts and a single dose of hepatotoxin (carbon tetrachloride, paracetamol and thioacetamide) was administered and the results obtained were analyzed. The results of the present study are confusing hence further studies are required to conclude the effect of betel quid on chemically induced hepatic damage.


ion and formality of rules and principles with the rich complexity of real life. The featureless juridical person is contrasted with 'the concrete human being', rich in specific attributes.2 Very quickly we are shunted to the conclusion that juridical discourse 'mystifies' the concrete realities of social existence. An approach along these lines can be developed in at least two different ways. The dichotomy results from the simple fact that all rules and principles, and all conceptions of justice, abstract from the concrete circumstances of real life in so far as they treat certain features of those circumstances as morally relevant, and others as irrelevant. This was most famously pointed out by Marx in his Critique of the Gotha Programme: Right can by its nature only consist in the application of an equal standard, but unequal individuals (and they would not be different individuals if they were not unequal) can only be measured by the same standard if they are looked at from the same aspect, if they are grasped from one particular side, eg, if in the present case they are regarded only as workers and nothing else is seen in them, everything else is ignored.25 Thus the contrast between juridical abstraction and societal complexity can be employed in two different ways: ' A point made by Murphy, op cit, 173. 23 An alternative view would be that, when one pleads for mercy, one appeals to no feature of the case, but to the virtue of the judge. This is inadequate as an explanation, however. For, even if we accept that the plea for mercy is an appeal to the judge's virtue, there must be something in the defendant's case to which the exercise of mercy can be a response. Otherwise, mercy would seem to be entirely self-regarding and solipsistic: the particular case or defendant would simply provide an occasion for the exercise of mercy. This seems to detach mercy too severely from the belief that it is a manifestation of love or compassion for another. Even if the plea for mercy is an appeal to the judge's virtue, therefore, it must also be grounded in some feature of the defendant's situation: and if not some general feature, then perhaps the status of unique particularity. 24 I borrow the label for this rhetorical form from Leszek Kolakowski, but Kolakowski's treatment of it is very different from my own. See Kolakowski, Modernity on Endless Trial (Chicago, 1990) 44. 25 Marx, 'Critique of the Gotha Programme', in The First International and After, (ed) David Fernbach (London, 1974). This content downloaded from 188.8.131.52 on Tue, 14 Jun 2016 07:14:48 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms SPRING 1993 Judgment and Mercy 61 (i) The criticism may be that some features of real situations are excluded as irrelevant by legal rules when in fact they are relevant. But criticism of this kind simply amounts to an attack on the conception of justice embodied in the existing rules, and the assertion of a rival conception of justice. Thus it might be claimed that disparities of wealth should be relevant to criminal responsibility, and that the law is 'mystificatory' in that it suppresses such differences by treating them as irrelevant. Since this argument offers a critique framed in terms of justice, it can cast no light on mercy as a value distinct from that of justice. (ii) On the other hand the criticism may be a more radical one, claiming that the nature of human subjectivity is such that it always and necessarily escapes adequate subsumption under the general categories of thought. Since this criticism entails a rejection of all rules and conceptions of justice (in line with Marx's argument) it can only be employed in the service of an antinomian anarchism or totalitarianism that will be attractive to few people. If something resembling the second of these positions is adopted, the value of mercy may be found significant as an indication of the extent to which, even within the context of juridical institutions, the concrete human being always partially escapes the all-pervading demands of justice: the subject is never fully subsumable under the categories of law. What the position also reveals, however, is the way in which the 'concrete human being' may be identical with an idea to which it might at first seem radically opposed: the Kantian 'noumenal self. Precisely in escaping all general categories and characterizations, that which is irreducibly concrete turns out to be featureless and irreducibly abstract. We will see a further development of this point in a moment.


ECF σ factors regulate subsets of bacterial genes in response to environmental stress signals by directing RNA polymerase to promoter sequences known as the −35 and −10 elements. In this work, we identify the −10 and −35 elements that are recognized by the ECF σ factor OrbS. Furthermore, we demonstrate that efficient promoter utilization by this σ factor also requires a polyadenine tract located downstream of the −35 region. We propose that the unique architecture of A-tract DNA imposes conformational features on the −35 element that facilitates efficient recognition by OrbS. Our results show that sequences located between the core promoter elements can make major contributions to promoter recognition by some ECF σ factors. ABSTRACT OrbS and PvdS are extracytoplasmic function (ECF) σ factors that regulate transcription of operons required for the biosynthesis of the siderophores ornibactin and pyoverdine in the Burkholderia cepacia complex and Pseudomonas spp., respectively. Here we show that promoter recognition by OrbS requires specific tetrameric −35 and −10 element sequences that are strikingly similar to those of the consensus PvdS-dependent promoter. However, whereas Pseudomonas aeruginosa PvdS can serve OrbS-dependent promoters, OrbS cannot utilize PvdS-dependent promoters. To identify features present at OrbS-dependent promoters that facilitate recognition by OrbS, we carried out a detailed analysis of the nucleotide sequence requirements for promoter recognition by both OrbS and PvdS. This revealed that DNA sequence features located outside the sigma binding elements are required for efficient promoter utilization by OrbS. In particular, the presence of an A-tract extending downstream from the −35 element at OrbS-dependent promoters was shown to be an important contributor to OrbS specificity. Our observations demonstrate that the nature of the spacer sequence can have a major impact on promoter recognition by some ECF σ factors through modulation of the local DNA architecture. IMPORTANCE ECF σ factors regulate subsets of bacterial genes in response to environmental stress signals by directing RNA polymerase to promoter sequences known as the −35 and −10 elements. In this work, we identify the −10 and −35 elements that are recognized by the ECF σ factor OrbS. Furthermore, we demonstrate that efficient promoter utilization by this σ factor also requires a polyadenine tract located downstream of the −35 region. We propose that the unique architecture of A-tract DNA imposes conformational features on the −35 element that facilitates efficient recognition by OrbS. Our results show that sequences located between the core promoter elements can make major contributions to promoter recognition by some ECF σ factors.


Video retargeting is to resize a video to a desired resolution or aspect ratio while preserving its salient content without visual distortion. The key to video retargeting is to reconcile spatio-temporal coherence of video frames, and most existing works use seam carving to achieve that by employing the dynamic programming to find optimal seams. However, these methods are too time-consuming due to high computational complexity of the dynamic programming. To this end, we propose a novel method which uses discontinuous and suboptimal seams for seam carving. Concretely, we obtain the discontinuous seams by allowing seams to move freely in homogeneous regions of the frame, which helps preserve the spatio-temporal coherence effectively. Then, the genetic algorithm is employed to find suboptimal seams, so as to reduce computational complexity. Finally, each frame can be retargeted to a new aspect ratio or size by repeatedly carving out seams. Compared to the-state-of-the-art methods, the proposed algorithm achieves comparable results at an average expense of only one third of their running time.


We investigated the influence of arterial PCO2 (PaCO2) with and without experimentally altered pH on cerebral blood flow (CBF) regulation at sea level and with acclimatization to 5050 m. At sea level and high altitude, we assessed stepwise alterations in PaCO2 following metabolic acidosis (via 2 days of oral acetazolamide; ACZ) with and without acute restoration of pH (via intravenous sodium bicarbonate; ACZ+HCO3−). Total resting CBF was unchanged between trials at each altitude even though arterial pH and [HCO3−] (i.e. buffering capacity) were effectively altered. The cerebrovascular responses to changes in arterial [H+]/pH were consistent with the altered relationship between PaCO2 and [H+]/pH following ACZ at high altitude (i.e. leftward x‐intercept shifts). Absolute cerebral blood velocity (CBV) and the sensitivity of CBV to PaCO2 was unchanged between trials at high altitude, indicating that CBF is acutely regulated by PaCO2 rather than arterial pH.


,In 2007, an agreement of scientific cooperation between Spain and Canada was signed, which supports a collaborative program of marine research between Canadian and Spanish institutions. The objective of this collaboration is to advance joint research in areas of mutual interest to both countries. Canada and Spain have important Atlantic bluefin tuna fisheries and this resource is in an over-exploited condition. This project addresses the need to improve knowledge about bluefin tuna life history in order to contribute to its management and ensure the sustainability of their populations. The purpose of this collaboration is to use Canadian radiocarbon expertise to determine if a dated mark exists on the dorsal fin spines that can be used for age validation purposes. Other objectives are to compare age estimates from different calcified structures coming from the same specimen, to review direct ageing methodology using dorsal fin spines, to establish validated reference collections of hard structures and to analyze temporal variability by modeling length at age from historic and current data series and estimate and compare new growth parameters for the east and west stocks. We present the results obtained so far and the tasks that still remain to be completed.


The seismic design provisions of the CSA-S6 Canadian Highway Bridge Design Code and the AASHTO LRFD Seismic Bridge Design Specifications have been developed primarily based on historical earthquake events that have occurred along the west coast of North America. For the design of seismic isolation systems, these codes include simplified analysis and design methods. The appropriateness and range of application of these methods are investigated through extensive parametric nonlinear time history analyses in this thesis. It was found that there is a need to adjust existing design guidelines to better capture the expected nonlinear response of isolated bridges. For isolated bridges located in eastern North America, new damping coefficients are proposed. The applicability limits of the code-based simplified methods have been redefined to ensure that the modified method will lead to conservative results and that a wider range of seismically isolated bridges can be covered by this method. The possibility of further improving current simplified code methods was also examined. By transforming the quantity of allocated energy into a displacement contribution, an idealized analytical solution is proposed as a new simplified design method. This method realistically reflects the effects of ground-motion and system design parameters, including the effects of a drifted oscillation center. The proposed method is therefore more appropriate than current existing simplified methods and can be applicable to isolation systems exhibiting a wider range of properties.A multi-level-hazard performance matrix has been adopted by different seismic provisions worldwide and will be incorporated into the new edition of the Canadian CSA-S6-14 Bridge Design code. However, the combined effect and optimal use of isolation and supplemental damping devices in bridges have not been fully exploited yet to achieve enhanced performance under different levels of seismic hazard. A novel Dual Level Seismic Protection (DLSP) concept is proposed and developed in this thesis which permits to achieve optimum seismic performance with combined isolation and supplemental damping devices in bridges. This concept is shown to represent an attractive design approach for both the upgrade of existing seismically deficient bridges and the design of new isolated bridges.


Knowledge of the SST-Streamflow interaction helps us understand local hydrology at fu-ture timescale with the changing climate conditions. Most studies exploring this relationship only focus on seasonal or annual scales however, various atmospheric and oceanic phenomena occur at different timescales, which need to be considered. This study investigates the influ-ence of sea surface temperature (SST) on German streamflow, divided into Alpine, Atlantic and Continental streamflow regions, at timescales ranging from sub-seasonal to decadal by integrating wavelet transform and complex network techniques. The degree centrality metric is used to evaluate the spatially embedded network. Our results re-established known SST regions that have a potential connection with the various streamflow regions of Germany. Spatial patterns that appeared in this study resemble the North Atlantic tripole-like pattern, Equatorial Atlantic Mode and also the Mediterranean Sea, connected with the Vb weather system. In addition, we also identified the scale specific patterns in the Pacific, Indian and Southern Ocean regions at different timescales ranging from seasonal to decadal scale.


The said preparation process produces easy-to-filter, easy-to-scrub and high-purity cerium hydroxide by means of preparation of rare-earth carbonate and addition of oxidant. Based on the said preparation process, 85-99.9% purity cerium hydroxide may be prepared from the rare-earth chloride liquid of 10-250 g/l in concentration or rare-earth sulphate liquid of 10-50 g/l in concentration. Cerium hydroxide thus produced is stable in quality and low in cost, the said preparation process is an excellent one for production of cerium hydroxide and cerium oxide.


By analyzing indoor compaction test and unconfined compression strength test for consolid solidified-soil,the article explores the influence of the changes of its maximum dry density and maximum water content which are caused by different contents of consolid,as well as the influence of the changes of its unconfined compression strength.


The purpose of our works is to provide fast and reliable face localization techniques in real time an in real-life scenes. Person localization is included in this problem. The end application sought is the ability of mobile robots to navigate in human populated environments, and to start visual interaction with them. Known methods are computationally intensive, far from real time implementation at near future processing power of off-the-shelf processors. Our technique is based in motion segmentation, signature analysis and color processing. Signature analysis provides fast hints of the person and face localization. Color processing is used to confirm the face hypothesis, and it is based on our works on adaptive color quantization of image sequences. The technique can be implemented in real time and combined with other approaches to enhance the recognition results.


If we may except the spectacle lens, the earliest device worthy to be called an optical instrument was the camera obscura. A remarkably fine diagram of this instrument, given by Leonardo da Vinci, is reproduced here. It is probably the earliest delineation of an optical instrument that we have.


The war, conflict and security have represented the core of international relations since ancient times, when attention of philosophers and politicians in Rome or in Greece was focused on security and conflict. ―History of the Peloponnesian War‖ written by Thucydides, can be accepted as one of the earlier writings about International Relations and concepts like balance of power, realism and security. 1


Medicine is becoming an increasingly molecular discipline, and in none of its specialities is this change causing more of a stir than in psychiatry. This is because psychiatry has been dominated, for many years, by subjective approaches to mental illness that are as far as one can get from quantitative science. No wonder psychiatrists have been unsettled by the realization that the next major advances in their field are bound to come from genetics and molecular biology. This article is written for neurobiologists who are becoming interested in this changing psychiatry. My goal is to put current developments into a historical perspective and especially to show that psychiatry already accommodates a biological approach. This approach became well established in the early part of this century as great advances were made in curing psychiatric disorders caused by readily discernible cellular pathology. At the same time psychoanalysis was invented to deal with problems that were not accompanied by obvious biological abnormalities. Eventually psychoanalysis so captured the imagination of both psychiatrists and the public that the biological approach came to be obscured. Now new developments in biology have set the stage for another change of emphasis.


ON THE CONDITIONS OF OCCURRENCE OF MARBLES IN NORTHWESTERN KROWIANKI (SUDETEN) The author describes, on the background of both their stratigraphy and their tectonics, the conditions of occurrence of marbles deposited southeast of Klodzko in Sudeten. Furthermore, he discusses in detail the conditions of this marble deposit from the petrographical point of view and also characterizes these marbles as to their industrial value, giving figures on determined resources. As to its geology, the discussed area has not yet been investigated more accurately. The rocks consist principally of metamorphic sediments belonging to the so-called Stronie series; according to the most recent opinions of Polish geologists, this series is being assigned, as to its age, to the younger Precambrian.


Detrimental impacts on human health as a result of mining and related activities have been observed at several places in Thailand. The most serious cases are mainly related to heavy metal and metalloid contamination in waters and soils. Arsenic poisoning as a result of longterm consumption of contaminated shallow well water was first recognized at Nakhon Si Thammarat Province, southern Thailand, in 1987 where chronic arsenic skin lesions were observed in 1,049 patients aged from 4 months to 85 years. Physical and chemical breakdown of arsenopyrite (FeAsS), an associated mineral of tin deposits, was suspected as the major cause. Arsenic concentration in water and soil was found to exceed the acceptable standard and guidelines by a factor of up to 100. A switch in mining methods from dredging to open pitting was interpreted as being the cause of the accelerated dispersion of FeAsS. Owing to several environmental and health mitigation measures, arsenic contamination and public health impacts at this vicinity have been gradually alleviated. Lead (Pb) contamination in running water and stream sediments around mining and ore dressing sites in the Kanchanaburi Province, western region, was first observed in 1992. Primary and secondary Pb ore have been mined in the area both underground and in open pit for more than half a century. The environmental conditions deteriorated seriously when a tailings pond collapsed due to unusually heavy rain in 1998. A large volume of tailings containing Pb at concentrations ranging from 20,000 30,000 mg kg was flushed into the natural drainage and as a result the concentration of Pb in water and bottom sediment increased significantly. This had a severe impact on the people living downstream. Average Pb content in blood of children < 6 years old was as high as 26.45 μg dl. The situation improved after the flotation license was revoked and a clean up program was undertaken at the polluted stream and near the concentrator. In another case of heavy metal contamination attributed to the mining industry, high concentrations of Pb in water, sediment and soil in the vicinity of abandoned tin mines was reported from Yala Province in the South of Thailand in 1993. In 1994 edible marine macrophytes in the bay downstream were found to have elevated Pb contents of 4.74 26.78 mg kg (Dry Weight). A survey conducted during 1998–2002 however concluded that there are limits to the Pb contamination from the mined out area. Partly this was considered to be due to the alkalinity introduced by the surrounding limestone formations. Lead concentration in running water became lower downstream from the mines but increased again near the bay. The latter was probably influenced by boat repair activities in which Pb-based paints were used. Blood test surveys in 1995 discovered 96% and 98% of examined children from two primary schools in the proximity of the mines and the bay had levels of ≥10 μg Pb dl in their blood. Recent follow up data, however, revealed lowering trends in these concentrations. 1 Environmental Management and Reclamation Bureau, Department of Primary Industries and Mines, Bangkok, Thailand


Community and Cultural Center, Inc., of Livermore is pleased to announce their annual Grant Program and invites applications from non-profit, human services agencies in Livermore and the surrounding areas. We anticipate giving out a total of $25,000 this year. Individual grants can vary from $500 to $3500, depending on the needs and suitability of the applicant. This Grant program, initiated in 1987, is one of several Human Services activities at the temple such as, free health screening, bone-marrow donor registration, supporting the Alameda county Can Food drive, and distributing articles and clothing at the Livermore veteran' s hospital and helping the needy through local shelters, etc. Human Services agencies that meet the needs of the elderly, abused women, and youth which are primarily funded by private donations, are encouraged to apply for these grants. Organizations should apply in their own format, giving us the details such as: a mission statement, sample projects, a specific project for which the grant will be utilized, and any other information in support of the application. Please mail your application to reach us by the deadline of February 12th, 2009 to:


Cryopreservation is essential for the long‐term storage of primary cell samples and enables accessing primary cells anytime via a simple thawing process. However, low viability and cell fragmentation are the major issues for cryopreserved cell samples due to the toxicity of cryoprotective agents and crystallization of intracellular contents during cooling at low temperature. Human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) in high viability are critical for pathophysiological and therapeutic research of infectious diseases, especially for the current worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019. Conventional viability enrichment techniques for primary PBMC samples provoke either cryoinjury caused by cell sorting mechanism or substantial cell loss due to multiple sample preparation steps. Here, a label‐free viability assessment and on‐demand enrichment system for cryopreserved primary human PBMCs with validation by fluorescent label‐based flow cytometry, is demonstrated. It can provide consistent viability assays by discriminating viable PBMCs from apoptotic, DMSO toxicity‐induced dead cells and cell debris, and deliver over 90% viability of sorted samples in one step after thawing. This integrated cell viability assay and on‐demand enrichment of viable cells has broad applications in diverse cellular biology research and cell‐related biomedical diagnostics.


This document describes a lightweight binding mechanism that allows NFS clients to obtain service from WebNFS-enabled servers with a minimum of protocol overhead. In removing this overhead, WebNFS clients see benefits in faster response to requests, easy transit of packet filter firewalls and TCP-based proxies, and better server scalability.


This work aims to present the electrical properties of junctionless and inversion-mode nanowires MOSFETs in the temperature range from 300 K to 580 K. Devices with different fin widths are compared. The comparison is performed using experimental data looking for some of the fundamental electrical parameters of these transistors such as threshold voltage, inverse subthreshold slope, current, and carrier mobility over the temperature.


This article discusses the concept of external accountability of police services as part of ongoing reforms in many countries of the world. The necessity of this concept to prevent abuse of police powers, as well as conclusions and recommendations for its implementation.


Abstract The practice of 'political advice' covers events such as media appearances, in the course of which the representatives of a country deliver symbolic 'advice' to another country through a m...


Oxidative stress and proteases have been implicated in several diseases and extensive evidence indicates that antioxidants and protease inhibitors help prevent organ functional damage. Leiurus quinquestriatus (LQQ) scorpion venom causes cellular injuries that may lead to multiple organ failure. Thus, the capability of the antioxidant "natural standardized extract of Gingko biloba leaves (Gin, EGb 761)" and the non-selective protease inhibitor, aprotinin, in ameliorating venom-induced biochemical alterations indicative of cellular injury and oxidative stress was studied to determine their effectiveness in protecting rats from venom-evoked cellular damages. Thus, in this study, rats were treated with LQQ venom (0.3mg.kg-1, subcutaneously) alone or after Gin (150mg.kg-1, orally, daily for 2 weeks before venom) and/or aprotinin (Apr, 46000 KIU.kg-1, intraperitoneally, 30 min before venom). Control groups were injected with saline or treatment modalities. Lungs and hearts were excised after decapitating rats (n=8/group) 60 min after venom injection and the following activities were measured: reduced glutathione (GSH), malondialdehyde (MDA) - an index of lipid peroxidation, glutathione peroxidase (GPx), glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD), and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH). Our findings demonstrate that LQQ venomsignificantly elevated GSH (p<0.05 vs. control), MDA (p<0.05), G6PD (p<0.05), and LDH activities (p<0.001) in hearts of envenomed rats. The venom also elevated MDA (p<0.05 vs. control) and reduced GSH and GPx (p<0.05) in the lungs of envenomed rats. In general, pretreatment with EGb761 attenuated LQQ venom-evoked increases in GSH (p<0.05 vs. venom), MDA in rat hearts and lungs (p<0.05 vs. venom), plus LDH in the heart (p<0.01). Aprotinin alone significantly reduced the venom-elicited increase in G6PD and LDH activities and the decrease in GPx levels (p<0.05). In general, these protective effects of EGb761 on GSH, MDA (p<0.01 vs. venom) and LDH (p<0.001) in the heart and/or lung were potentiated when combined with aprotinin. We concluded that the effectiveness of EGb761 and Apr in ameliorating venom-evoked biochemical changes indicative of necrosis and free radical generation point out the involvement of oxidative stress and proteases in venom-evoked cellular damages seen in this study in isolated rat hearts and lungs.


Background :Nursing documentation is important written information as a basis for explanation (dissemination) about the patient's condition for medical action. Not all nurses document all nursing care activities. Many factors influence the motivation of nurses in doing the documentation. These factors can come from internal nurses or from external nurses.
Method : This research is descriptive with a quantitative approach carried out in the month ........ 2019 in the Inpatient of Kedungkandang Health Center Malang. The sampling technique uses Purposive sampling, with a sample of 23 nurses serving in the Inpatient section.
Result : The results showed that half more or 87% of the nurses studied had good intrinsic motivation. Furthermore, the results of the study also showed that there were 87% of nurses who had moderate extriksik motivation.
Discussion :Nurses who have good intellectual motivation are encouraged to document health insurance because of opportunities for achievement, awards given by institutions, and development to participate in training. Nurses who have extrinsic motivation are encouraged to document health insurance because of the existence of regulations that are determined to be powerful, harmonious relationships between fellow workers, sufficient salary to meet daily needs, availability of facilities and physical conditions of the workplace.


The introduction of new technologies into the advanced capitalist work process continues to provoke sharp theoretical debate. While mainstream theories predict an upgrading of work content, recent Marxist analyses argue that workplace automation tends to deepen the subordination of the worker beneath the means of production. This study aims to adjudicate between these rival perspectives. The analysis centers upon the communications industry in the United States, a highly automated "knowledge" industry rapidly undergoing the transition to competitive market conditions. Official statistics on the changing occupational structure of this industry, combined with survey data on job content, indicate the existence of an upgrading effect between 1950 and 1980. In more recent years, however, the onset of a deskilling trend is found: The more automated the workplace, the less autonomous and conceptually demanding the job tends to be. Further analysis suggests that workplace automation differentially affects the various occupational categories.


The field of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) advanced significantly with the use of model membranes. In order to perform minimalistic analyses of GPCRs, it is essential to re-establish the natural milieu of the protein and thus the use of 'model membranes'. The goal of such platforms is to mimic the environment of the cellular membrane, while removing any unknown components so that precise analysis of the GPCR can be completed. Once purified, GPCRs that are reconstituted into a lipid bilayer are more stable and soluble, and recover most of the activity that was lost during the purification process. This chapter describes two different models used to complete in vitro studies with integral membrane proteins: reconstituted high density lipoprotein (rHDL) particles and lipid vesicles (or lamellae). Their major advantages and disadvantages are introduced, together with the main contributions to the field of GPCR research through use of each system. One significant achievement was the isolation of a monomeric GPCR in a phospholipid bilayer and the demonstration that the monomeric form is the minimal signalling unit required for G protein activation. Studies on higher order homomeric GPCR units have yielded intriguing results that may illuminate the organization of inactive receptors and by supposition elucidate the behaviour of inverse agonists. Finally, the models have provided a system with which to investigate the allosteric effects of G protein and arrestins on GPCR activity.


Objective To investigate the genitourinar y phenotype in androgen receptor knockout (ARKO) mice. Methods Using Cre-lox technique, the female Flox-AR mice were crossed with male ACTB-Cre mice,and the genotype of their filial generations was confirmed by PCR .By screening,5 ARKO mice were generated as study subjects and 5 wild type mice served as controls.The genitourinary phenotypes of the 2 groups were compared.Th e anal genital distance and testis weight were measured;serum testosterone and e stradiol levels were assayed by ELISA. Results The anal genital distance in ARKO group was (0.5±0.1)cm,while it was (1.1±0.1)cm in wil d type group.The prostate,seminal vesicle, epididymis and spherical cavernous bo dy muscle were absent in ARKO group with the reduced testis weight of (0.006 ± 0.001)g;while those were normal with the testis weight of (0.086±0.002)g in w ild type group.The serum testosterone level in ARKO group was (0.056±0.045)nmol /L,and it was (0.843±0.736)nmol/L in wild type group.The serum estradiol level in ARKO group was (1390.1±294.3)pmol/L,and it was (786.2±150.8)pmol/L in wild type group.The differences were statistically significant between the 2 groups ( P 0.05). Conclusions In ARKO mice,the prostate,s eminal vesicle,epididymis and spherical cavernous body muscle are absent with th e reduced testis,decreased androgen and increased estrogen levels.It is suggeste d that androgen receptor plays an important role in male genitourinary system.


Palabras clave: Imagen de marca; identidad; promocion; television digital; contexto espanol.� Abstract: This work attempts to offer a study about the management of the television continuity that the professionals of the way realize inside the Spanish context. The aims resides in analyzing how across the continuity there are promoted values of brand of a certain television channel to position her before the audiences. The television brands, on having treated itself about an audio-visual way, need of a specific treatment that it's combines both the image and the audio, and both focused under the criteria of Identity and of Brand image that has each of the television channels. The approximation towards your concept, your strategic management, the links with the programs as well as a classification of the pieces that agglutinate under this concept, are some of the main conclusions that are extracted after doing of this study among the Spanish television channels.�


Observational tutoring has been found to be an effective method for teaching a variety of subjects by reusing dialogue from previous successful tutoring sessions. While it has been shown content can be learned through observational tutoring, it has yet to been examined if a secondary behavior such as goal setting can be influenced. The present study investigated whether observing virtual humans engaging in a tutoring session on a difficult learning topic, rotational kinematics, with embedded positive goal-oriented dialogue would increase knowledge of the material and perpetuate a shift in an observer's goal orientation from performance avoidance goal orientation (PAVGO) to learning goal orientation (LGO). Learning gains were observed in pretest to posttest knowledge retention tests. Significant negative changes from pretest to posttest occurred across conditions for LGO. Additionally, significant increases from PAVGO pretest to posttest were observed in the control condition; however, PAVGO did not significantly change in the experimental condition.


The global economic recession following the financial crises once again revived the debate over the efficacy of Keynesian solution to deal with the crises. Most of the country went in to offer bailout packages from the public budget which could be the reminiscent of such policies adopted earlier – New Deal of President Roosevelt of US is case in point.
 Keynes was the first person to provide theoretical justification for the deficits in public budget to raise the aggregate spending level in the economy which, in turn, would raise the employment level. Keynesian advocacy would have remained unheeded had the crises of 1930s not occurred. The crises offered the opportunity to put the Keynesian solution to test. The approached worked. But by the end of the decade of 70s this approach was abandoned and neoclassicism not only resurfaced but became the bases for the policy not only for nations but for multilateral financial institutions as well. It was the crises again which brought back the Keynesian wisdom to relevance.
The present paper assesses the two approaches in the historical context to find if synthesis between neoclassical and Keynesian approach is possible to make the public policy more effective.


This article is based on the original materials suc h as conversations calling the telephone information number 118, different emergency services and other institutions. About 2000 talks have been recorded. The material is analyzed, concentrating on the relation ship between a woman and a man. The authors raise the research problem: which differences of language etiquette and its expression are exposed by gender on the phone. The aim of the article is to substantiat e the differences of language etiquette and its expressio n by women and men on the phone. The authors study the situations where greetings, address, request, grati tude and introductions are expressed.


The current parking space design only considers whether the parking space size meets the requirements of the specification, but because of people's parking habits, parking technology is different and its requirements for parking comfort are different, and so our parking space design should be people-oriented to meet people's requirements for parking comfort. At present, the main dilemma faced by designers considering the comfort of parking is that it is difficult to quantify the comfort of parking. At the same time, the number of parking spaces in underground garages is large, so manual calculation of the comfort of parking is a huge task. Therefore, in this paper, we put forward the concept of parking comfort and put forward a calculation model that can quantify the parking comfort. Considering the position coordinates of the collision-prone parts in the whole process of vehicle parking, the collision position coordinates and site obstacle coordinates are established together to form the vehicle collision constraint relationship in the process of parking, so as to quantify parking comfort into specific values. At the same time, based on the calculation model and BIM secondary development technology, we develop a program for automatic calculation and detection of parking comfort based on the BIM model, so as to automatically evaluate the parking comfort of each parking space in the whole underground garage effectively, quickly, and accurately.


This work focused on the study of crystallization behavior and thermal stability of degradable poly(butylene succinate) (PBS) and poly(propylene carbonate) (PPC) blends prepared by vane extruder based on elongation force field, which is novel equipment for polymer processing. Dicumyl peroxide (DCP) was applied in this work as compatibilizer for PBS/PPC blend. Crystallization behavior and melting behavior of the blends were investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) testing. Thermal stability of the blends was studied by thermogravimetric (TG) testing. Furthermore, the melt flow indices (MFI) of the blends were examined by a MFI instrument. The results showed that the crystallization temperature of PBS decreased with the addition of PPC and DCP. The glass transition temperature of PPC increased and the melting temperature of the blend increased with the addition of PPC and DCP, which indicated that the entanglement between the molecular chains of PBS and PPC was enhanced. Thermogravimetric ana...


With the transgenic technology applications in agriculture,the world's GMO crops technology and industrialization become rapidly expanded.The Chinese government's policy attitudes towards this topic have experienced changes over the past decade,and the relevant policy framework has been evolved under the integrated influence at the three levels: practical,cognitive and policy.The breakthrough and track of this policy evolution has its unique characteristic and rules,which manifests the value demand of multi-dimensions in the government's public policy making.


For over 30 years, there has been numerous studies on firm's pricing strategies influenced by financing decisions. The evidences of such effects are undeniably true but surprisingly less known and discussed in the corporate world. This paper hence demonstrates real-case firms such as Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. in a methodological research such that financial statements are analyzed and strategies are theoretically explained accordingly. The findings are nothing unexpected but remarkably motivating nonetheless, as there is a strong implication of debt financing, especially of short-term debts on Apple Inc.'s pricing directions. Whereas its rival, Samsung Electronics, even though dominating different capital structure, is also dependent on both long-term debts and high operating fixed costs in determining pricing strategy.


A targeted use of nuclear power could solve the major problems of renewable energy sources by providing carbon-emission-free power for biofuel refineries and backup energy for solar, wind, and other renewable sources.


Steam cooking is beneficial over other cooking techniques like boiling since it preserves more vitamins lost during other methods. In this study, a novel solar food steamer (SFS) based on a parabolic dish concentrator (PDC) is designed and constructed for domestic food preparation. A straightforward fabrication process of a 2.626 m2 PDC with design calculations is also presented. The system's instantaneous energy and exergy efficiency evaluation has been examined from different tests over three consecutive days. The system's high energetic and exergetic efficiency was achieved in the case of sweet potato, that is, 72.83% and 15.14%, respectively. In the case of dried chickpeas, the maximum steaming duration of 70 min was attained, along with an energy efficiency of 47.74% and an exergy efficiency of 10.07%. In addition, an economic analysis was performed to determine the payback time in terms of cost and utility. The payback time for the proposed method is 2.4 years. The SFS may save 43 kg/month of carbon dioxide from escaping into the atmosphere; it can be considered an environmentally valuable device.


This is the most extensive sociological study of the child known to the reviewer. Previous investigations of child behavior have been oriented in physiological, psychological, or psychiatric terms, but this treatment consistently deals with child development from the point of view of the sociologist. The author is Director of the William T. Carter Foundation for Child Helping at the University of Pennsylvania, in which capacity he has conducted both intensive and extensive researches into the sociology of child development in its normal and abnormal aspects. This weighty volume is the result of his reseaches. The Sociology of Child Development is based upon the &dquo;situational&dquo; approach to human behavior. In this context, the term &dquo;situation&dquo; means: &dquo;(a) a number of stimuli, external to the organism, but acting upon it, (b) organized and operating


Technology can be a powerful tool for transforming learning. To be a successful teacher one should be learner always and should have the mind to comprehend and design new methodologies in their transaction process. ELearning courseware is an effective model of teaching and learning framework that can enhance academic achievement of students. In this research, E-Learning courseware is developed for B.Ed curriculum and the effectiveness of E-Learning courseware is studied on academic achievement of Prospective teachers studying B.Ed course. 80 students studying B.Ed. course are selected as sample by convenient sampling method. 40 of which are assigned in the experimental group and 40 in the control group. Experimental Group is subjected to E-Learning courseware and the Control group is subjected to Conventional method of teaching, Pre-test – Post Test non-equivalent groups design is used for the study. Achievement test developed and validated by the researcher is administered to measure the academic achievement of the prospective teachers as pre-test and post-test. Effectiveness of E-Learning courseware is studied on academic achievement of Prospective teachers studying B.Ed course. In the analysis of data, t-test and descriptive analysis were used. Results showed that there is significant effect of ELearning courseware in enhancing the academic achievement of Prospective Teachers. This research opens new avenues in teaching learning process which can empower students.


War influence on the mentality of different social groups in the Russian Empire during the 18th – the first half of the 19th centuries are analyzed in the paper. The theory of modernization is the methodological base of the article. It is interpreted classically as the transition from the traditional (agrarian) society to the modern (industrial) one. Modernization for Russia in the imperial period is defined as 'catching up'. It has the wave base and the mobilization character. The "challenges" of the Western civilization played the great role for Russian modernization. The thesis is proved that the intensity of modernization processes including the spiritual ones depended on military actions scale and their results for the Russian state. Patriarchal relations (or paternalism), religiousness, monarchism, balanced land tenure principles (or social justice), communal collectivism are considered as the main characteristics for the mentality of the traditional Russian socium. They had to receive to the serious changes during the modernization pressure. The thesis is substantiated that spiritual modernization processes of the Russian society did not take shape. It is explained by the local and continental scale and the victorious result for the Russian Empire of the Great Northern war and the Napoleonic wars. The asynchrony of different modernization types played the great role in that aspect. In particular the late beginning of Russian socium's social transition from traditional society to the industrial one stipulated late taking shape of modernization in the spiritual direction. It insists the author to come to the conclusion that it is necessary to interpret processes of Russian population's majority mentality till the middle of the 19th century as the protomodernization.


Abstract Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) does not grow as well as it used to in areas of Canada and northwestern United States. Affected plants have nitrogen (N)‐deficiency symptoms, few or no nodules, and respond to N fertilizer. For lack of a good explanation, such plants are called "sick";. Six commercial inoculant products were tested with alfalfa grown on cores of eight soils in which alfalfa establishment and stand duration have been problems, to determine if inoculant quality influenced development of any sick‐alfalfa symptoms. Percentages of nodulated plants ranged from 35 to 82 after 5 to 8 weeks' growth, and corresponded closely with estimated rhizobia numbers in the products. Dry forage yields were not closely related to percentage nodulation, however, because of residual soil N levels that supported seedling growth. Inoculant products containing inadequate numbers of rhizobia to promptly and effectively nodulate plants resulted in poor nodulation that may lead to establishment failure or sparse, ...


Fish oils contain long chain, highly polyunsaturated, omega-3 fatty acids, particularly eicosapentaenoic (20:5 omega-3) and docosahexaenoic (22:6 omega3) acid of the linolenic or omega-3 class, unlike linoleic acid (18:2 omega-6) which is the predominant polyunsaturated fatty acid in a Western diet. Oxidative metabolism of arachidonic acid, eicosapentaenoic acid, and docosahexaenoic acid by the 5-lipoxygenase pathway is shown in Fig. 1. Mast cell activation and the arachidonic acid metabolic pathways are shown in Fig. 2. One theory behind fish oil therapy is that fatty acids, such as a-linolenic acid from fish oils, are converted into prostaglandins of the third series, whereas the saturated fats of commonly consumed Western diets, e.g., linoleic acid, are converted via arachidonic acid into prostaglandins of the second series. Because prostaglandins of the second series are actively involved in the rheumatoid process there may well be some benefit for a patient in diverting prostaglandin production from the inflammatory second series into the less inflammatory


The organizational demography, sensemaking, and high reliability literatures often assert that requisite variety enables organizations to notice more, develop a broader repertoire of responses, and be more adaptive over time. While this assertion remains intuitively appealing it has received little focused empirical attention. The empirical tests that have claimed to test requisite variety have focused on variety to the exclusion of requisite. We rectify this gap by testing the effects of requisite variety on risk detection (noticing), innovation (responding), and firm performance (adapting) on a sample of 174 IPO software firms. 1 Please direct correspondence to: Timothy J. Vogus, University of Michigan Business School, 701 Tappan St., Ann Arbor MI 48109, Telephone: (734) 623-1179, Fax: (734) 623-1179, E-mail: email@example.com


In responding to the needs of a broader rural clientele, MAF's rural economic development work has moved beyond a single sector approach to one which recognises all rural economic activity. New Zealand's approach to rural economic development lags behind those of most OECD countries. An official rural development policy, sponsored by MAF, is needed to ensure that there is adequate co-ordination with other agencies' activities, and that government works in partnership with rural people to ensure their goals are realised.


Based on plant simulation, five current modeling methods and their characteristics are discussed, and a new method named "biology mechanism-based and environment-controlled modeling" is brought formard, which can be a new strategy for plant morphology analysis and simulation of growth and development.


In this study, temperature-programmed desorption (TPD) analysis was used to measure and analyze the adsorption of off-gases and oxygen by wood pellets during storage. Such information on how these gases interact with the material helps in the understanding of the purging/stripping behavior of off-gases to develop effective ventilation strategies for wood pellets. Steam-exploded pellets showed the lowest carbon dioxide (CO2) uptake compared to the regular and torrefied pellets. The high CO2 adsorption capacity of the torrefied pellets could be attributed to their porous structure and therefore greater available surface area. Quantifying the uptake of carbon monoxide by pellets was challenging due to chemical adsorption, which formed a strong bond between the material and carbon monoxide. The estimated energy of desorption for CO (97.8 kJ/mol) was very high relative to that for CO2 (7.24 kJ/mol), demonstrating the mechanism of chemical adsorption and physical adsorption for CO and CO2, respectively. As for ...


Objective To explore the effect of estrogen on the permeability of retinal blood vessel by ovariectomy. Methods Twenty-two healthy rats were divided into experimental and control group randomly. Estrogen level of rats decreased due to ovariectomy in the experimental group while stabilized by sham-ovariectomy in the control group. The results were confirmed by vaginal epithelium smearing. Retinal vein occlusion was established by photodynamic method, and leakage of Evan's blue in retina was determined by spectrophotometer. Results Mature value of vaginal epithelium decreased significantly in ovariectomy rats( t=21.008,P =0.000) while not significantly in sham-ovariectomy ones ( t=0.319,P =0.756); the mean leakage of Evans blue was (25.503 0±4.378 47) ng/mg in experimental group, and (17.830 0±4.265 69) ng/mg in the control group, and the difference between the two groups is significant( t=3.969 36,P =0.001). Conclusion Ovariectomy is an useful method to study the effect of estrogen on ocular diseases, and when estrogen level decreases, the permeability of retinal blood vessel increases.


The present invention relates to a protein-containing sustained-release lipid implant and a method comprising a compressed mixture of a protein drug and a lipid coating with a hydrophilic polymer material. Protein-containing sustained-release lipid implant of the present invention is a drug by giving consistently emitted by maintaining a constant serum protein concentration and a protein drug remains active when administered in vivo, so uniformly distributed in the lipid matrix in a stable the protein drug state reducing the number of doses can be used to effectively treat the disease.


In this note we give the quasi-isometry classification for a class of right angled Artin groups. In particular, we obtain the first such classification for a class of Artin groups with dimension larger than 2; our families exist in every dimension.


VCI represents a spectrum of cognitive impairments associated with stroke, vascular brain injury, or subclinical disease ranging from the least to most severe manifestations. Few studies are available on the prevalence of post-stroke VCI and none have been conducted in Brazil. Objective To determine the prevalence rates of VCI and associated risk factors in a sample of ischemic stroke patients. Methods We evaluated 172 patients with ischemic stroke for cognitive impairment one year after ictus. Results Patients comprised 81 women (47.1%) and had a mean age of 67.77 (7.86) years, schooling of 3.52 (2.99) years, and MMSE score of 24.94 (3.59) points. After cognitive evaluation, 4.6% were diagnosed as CIND (cognitive impairment no dementia) and 12.2% had a diagnosis of dementia (probable vascular dementia in 20 patients and one subject with cerebrovascular disease and Alzheimer's disease). Conclusion The prevalence of dementia was lower than previous reports but our sample had a lower age than others, while a 12 month-period of follow-up prevented interference from associated neurodegenerative disorders.


The utility model relates to a kiln for calcining lime, which mainly comprises a kiln body, a feed system, a burning system, a discharging system, an air supply system and a control system. A feed port, a preheating zone, a calcining zone, a cooling zone and a discharge port are arranged in the kiln body. An upper calcining beam and a lower calcining beam are mounted in the calcining zone of the kiln; and a fuel pipeline and a combustion air channel are arranged in each calcining beam. An upper pumping beam for pumping fume is arranged at the upper part of the preheating zone in the kiln body; and a lower pumping beam for pumping hot gas is arranged at the middle part of the cooling zone. In order to avoid burning out a beam body and facilities in the beam body at the high temperature, cooling medium circulating cavities are formed in the beam bodies of the upper and the lower calcining beams and the lower pumping beam. The lime can be more completely and uniformly calcined when being calcined by adopting the utility model and has high active degree and good quality. The utility model completely utilizes afterheat to save energy sources and reduce production cost.


ABSTRACT This article is an auto-ethnographic study that explores how its author came to study South African exiles after stumbling upon archival material of a radio segment called "Dawn Breaks," while at the Liberation Archives at The University of Fort Hare in Alice, South Africa. Dawn Breaks was the African National Congress (ANC) Women's Section's weekly 30-min radio segment of the exiled ANC's radio programme, "Radio Freedom," that broadcasted primarily from the radio programme's headquarters in Lusaka, Zambia, throughout the 1980s. This article argues that Dawn Breaks, as a cultural product of this movement, offers a significant model to studying how and why scholar-activists like the author, but more particularly Black women in times of struggle, are politicised into joining anti-apartheid movements and are able to find their anti-colonial voice. This kind of work is indebted to entities like the Women's Section's radio segment because it amplified the Women's Section's growing voice and activism across the clandestine ANC organisation in exile through the airwaves.


This report describes a case of central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO) which was classified as papillophlebitis in a young female adult. In this age group, CRVO is relatively rare and tends to be mild in both its short‐term and long‐term visual consequences. The patient in this case showed a concurrent episode of bilateral intra‐ocular pressure (IOP) elevation and the presence of cilio‐retinal arteries in the affected eye. Despite extremely poor vision at presentation and the poor prognostic sign of cilio‐retinal arteries, the patient made an excellent visual recovery with only mild paracentral field damage. (Clin Exp Optom 1995; 78: 2: 60–64)


The importance of software defect prediction has risen significantly over the past decade and is an inseparable part of software quality. Owing to the drawbacks of traditional techniques used for software quality assurance, machine learning algorithms are used to detect the defect in software modules. By the means of this study, we present a support vector based oversampling technique as a part of the software defect procedure and compare it with two other oversampling techniques namely Synthetic minority oversampling technique and Adaptive Synthetic oversampling technique. For the purpose of this study, we chose 5 datasets from the PROMISE and AEEEM repositories. After extracting a subset of attributes from the original dataset through Linear discriminant Analysis, we utilize the improved oversampled dataset to train a support vector machine classifier and a Naïve Bayesian classifier. The proposed Support Vector based oversampling technique along with Linear Discriminant Analysis performs better than the other techniques for the performance evaluation metric of F-measure score and the area under receiver operating characteristic curve and the consistency of result is maintained.


The transduction in photoreceptors and chemoreceptors has common mechanisms. In photoreceptors, activation of rhodopsin by light triggers the enzymatic cascade mediated by a G-protein, transducin. In olfactory cells activation of the receptor molecule by odorant triggers the enzymatic cascade mediated by a G-protein, Golf. In taste receptor cells biochemical studies have also suggested a metabotropic transduction hypothesis, but we recently identified a cationic channel that was directly gated by a bitter taste substance. By reviewing these recent studies carried out in our laboratory in the last 10 years, the transduction machinery in these sensory receptor cells are summarized.


Perhaps the most difficult problem which confronts the American educational system is that of providing for the adequate training of the teachers who are needed to give instruction in the schools. The great numbers of pupils who are enrolled in schools of all levels and the ambition of the American people to extend educational opportunities as far as possible create a demand so vast and so complex that it is well-nigh impossible to meet it. In his report for the year ended June 30, 1927, the United States commissioner of education shows in a very striking paragraph how inadequate are the facilities now provided in American teachertraining institutions. He writes as follows: The total enrolment in 402 teachers' colleges and normal schools in 1926 was 294,o64, of which number 270,20o6, or 92 per cent, were enrolled in teachertraining courses. In all types of institutions having teacher-training work, 304,412 were enrolled in such courses in regular sessions, and 494,943 is the total if summer-school students are included and duplicates excluded. If the regular students enrolled in teacher training complete the work in the usual time required in the schools in which they are enrolled, they can replace one-seventh of the present teaching force in all schools in the United States annually.


The Profunda Mine is an epithermal, carbonate-hosted ore deposit located between
late-hercynian faults, showing a remarkable supergenic alteration. This is the first significant
evidence of uranium in the Cantabrian Zone.


In this paper, we give an algebraic characterization of solutions to infinite-horizon nonlinear discrete-time optimal control problems. We define an algebraic function solution to the equation, which is obtained by solving algebraic equations, and derive a necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of an algebraic function solution in terms of commutative algebra. According to our main theorem, obtaining an algebraic solution reduces to finding a specific polynomial ideal.


PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make low-loss traffic control possible even when the capacity of a buffer is small by realizing fairness. SOLUTION: A communication system contains a plurality of hops 50, 51, and 52 interconnected to each other through links 524 and 525 each constituted of a plurality of connections. The traffic among the hops 50, 51, and 52 is shared by a reserved band width service and a non-reserved band width service. The control of the non-reserved band width service is composed of back pressure mechanisms at every hop. When the traffic entering a certain hop exceeds an upper/lower threshold, the back pressure mechanism of the hop generates a start/stop back pressure primitive for restating/adjusting the input traffic. When traffic congestion occurs, the mechanism can selectively stop the connection which is a cause of the congestion without giving any influence to the other part of a link traffic or can globally stop the traffic of all links.


The reason of social development is the functional features and power to realize the goal of social development on the basis of mastery of scientific law. It is the soul of social development;on th contrary ,non-reason is the hindrance of social development. The course of social development is the process of reason over non-reason.


This work is conducted with the aim to see the effect of Polyaniline (PANI) morphologies on the specific capacitance of the electrode material. The paper presents a low-temperature synthesis and electrochemical analysis of PANI morphologies (granular, pebbles, spheres, tubes, flakes, and fibers). The supercapacitive behavior of all fabricated electrodes was tested via a two-electrode setup in 0.1 M H2SO4 electrolyte. The electrochemical analysis showed that amongst all the PANI morphologies, nanofibers had the highest specific capacitance (752.27 Fg-1), a good energy density (66.86 Whkg-1), and a good retention rate (40%). The reason may be attributed to a larger π-π stacking interaction with maximum d-spacing (3.52 Aº) that gives a desirable contact surface area for the electrolyte ions to transport efficiently across the electrolyte. Also, it has a low value of Rb (4.67 W), Rct (0.56 W), a good (251 Hz), a very less relaxation time (0.0039s), and a high knee frequency value (825.2 Hz). PANI fibers can prove to be an effective electrode material that could enhance the specific capacity of the electrode at the same time is economical and environmentally friendly.


Finding novel anticancer agents is very important for cancer treatment. Marine organisms are valuable source for developing novel agents for clinical applications. Seaweeds have been shown to have several biological activities, including anticancer activity. This study aimed at evaluating the cytotoxicity potentials of methanol extracts of Eklonia radiata (ER) and Jania verucosa (JV).


Five taro varieties,including M taro introduced from Myanmar,L taro introduced from Laos,Hunan new breeding taro variety Xiangyu No.1,and traditional varieties of Amorphophallus albus and Amorphophallus rivieri,were used as materials to conduct comparison tests for winter storage and cultivation of seed taro.The results showed that the decay rate of taro with clean and dry treatment was less than that of taro with non dry treatment.Among comparison tests for culture of five varieties,L taro had the highest seedling emergence rate by 75%,M taro had the lowest seedling emergence rate by 16.7%;L taro had the best disease resistance with death rate of 0,while Amorphophallus rivieri had the worst disease resistance with death rate of 73.7%;Xiangyu No.1 had the highest yield per plant by 311.5 g,and the Amorphophallus albus had the lowest yield per plant by 129 g.In pot experiment,Xiangyu No.1 had the highest yield,and Amorphophallus albus had the largest expansion ratio.Therefore,consideration of seedling emergence rate,disease resistance ability and expansion ratio,Xiangyu No.1,L taro and Amorphophallus albus have better planting advantages than Amorphophallus rivieri and M taro.The results of cultivation experiment indicated that loose soil is beneficial to promote seed germination and seedling emergence and increase yield of taro.


where sn{x) is the nth partial sum of the Hermite polynomial series for/(x), only for p = l. This, of course, implies that limn_œ (TMw \sn{x)—f{x)\"e~*2 dx = 0 for every/(x) satisfying J"œ \f{x)\Pe~x2dx<co only in case/? = 2. With || ||p denoting the usual (unweighted) norm on ( — 00, 00), Askey and Wainger in [1] showed that there is an inequality of the type, ||in(x)e"Jc2'2||p^C||/(x)e"ï2,2||ï" for Aj3<p<A and not for other values of p, and they obtained the corresponding mean convergence theorem. Similar results were proved in both papers for Laguerre series. The contrast of these results and the fact that trigonometric series converge in the mean for \<p<co suggest that an inequality of the form ||jn(x)n'(x)||p ^ C||/(x)h>(x)Ilp should be possible forp ä 4 or 1 <p g 4/3 if w{x), possibly depending on p, is chosen properly. The main results of this paper are that not even the individual terms of a Hermite or Laguerre series can satisfy such an inequality and that the terms will not converge to 0 in the mean if p is not between 4/3 and 4. Specifically, the following will be proved.


Introduction The shortage and maldistribution of health care workers in sub-Saharan Africa is a major concern for rural health facilities. Rural areas have 63% of sub-Saharan Africa population but only 37% of its doctors. Although attrition of health care workers is implicated in the human resources for health crisis in the rural settings, few studies report attrition rates and risk factors for attrition in rural district hospitals in sub-Saharan Africa. Methods We assessed attrition of health care workers at a Kirehe District Hospital in rural Rwanda. We included all hospital staff employed as of January 1, 2013 in this retrospective cohort study. We report the proportion of staff that left employment during 2013, and used a logistic regression to assess individual characteristics associated with attrition. Results Of the 142 staff employed at Kirehe District Hospital at the start of 2013, 31.7% (n=45) of all staff and 81.8% (n=9) of doctors left employment in 2013. Being a doctor (OR=10.0, 95% CI: 1.9-52.1, p=0.006) and having up to two years of experience at the hospital (OR=5.3, 95% CI: 1.3-21.7, p=0.022) were associated with attrition. Conclusion Kirehe District Hospital experienced high attrition rates in 2013, particularly among doctors. Opportunities for further training through Rwanda's Human Resources for Health program in 2013 and a two-year compulsory service program for doctors that is not linked to interventions for rural retention may have driven these patterns. Efforts to link these programs with rural placement and retention strategies are recommended.


To provide the theoretical support to the decisions made in the wide-spread promotion by sending shopping cards,it is studied preliminarily.Defining some key parameters,such as card's par value and card sending/receiving ratio,the concepts of card's value coefficient,lower-bound value coefficient and depreciation coefficient are proposed with the card's value and the lower-bound value calculated.The reasonable price scope of selling and purchasing shopping cards is thus derived for the firms which will launch the promotion by sending shopping cards during holidays.Different schemes for single purchase in the typical promotion by sending cards are analyzed.A conclusion is drawn that if the prices are reasonable,purchasing a shopping card first for purchasing goods is preferable to paying cash.Moreover,the proposed concepts and formulate could be applied to the analysis of more complex promotion activities by sending shopping cards.


Characteristic analysis of transient electromagnetic disturbance data is very important. In this paper, the time-domain and frequency-domain characteristics of transient electromagnetic disturbance caused by switching operations in substations are analyzed. Two methods are adopted in time-domain analysis. One method is histogram and the other one is normality test. An appropriate procedure for the normality test is proposed. Furthermore, the method used in frequency- domain analysis is to obtain overall envelope. These statistical characteristic analysis methods are showed to be of great value in analyses of the measured samples. The simulation results showed that these methods are effective.


The Liquid Injection Shutdown System (LISS) is a safety system in the CANDU™-type reactor to provide rapid reactor shutdown by automatically injecting a neutron absorbing liquid ("poison"), via injection nozzles, into the moderator in the calandria. The poison distribution in the moderator plays a significant role in the shutdown performance. The Advanced CANDU Reactor (ACR-1000™) is a Generation III+ type reactor as an evolutionary extension of the proven CANDU-6 reactor. The basic design concept of the CANDU-6 LISS is adopted for the ACR-1000. The injection nozzle design has been modified to suit the ACR-1000 reactor core configuration. In this study, a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model was developed using the ANSYS-CFX software to examine the poison injection characteristics in the ACR-1000 design. The effects of calandria tubes on the poison jet growth and poison distribution in the reactor core were discussed.© 2008 ASME