Mineral magnetic properties and the carbon content of a sediment sequence in Lake Kullatorpssjon on the Kullen Peninsula in northwest Scania, southern Sweden, were investigated. Diatom and ostracod analyses were undertaken for palaeoecological reconstruction and a chronology was constructed from accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dating of terrestrial plant remains and mosses. Five stratigraphical units were identified (units 1-5, from oldest to youngest). The two lowermost units consist of clay. The lowest clay unit (1) is strikingly black, 2 m thick and has magnetic properties dominated by high concentrations of authigenic greigite (Fe3S4). In contrast, the overlying clay unit (2) is grey, 1.18 m thick and has magnetic properties dominated by low concentrations of detrital magnetite (Fe3O4). A major palaeoecological change is reflected in the diatom flora and ostracod fauna at the transition from unit 1 to unit 2. The sediment stratigraphy, geochemical, mineral magnetic and palaeoecological analyses also point to a significant change in depositional environment at this transition, which is proposed to represent the isolation of Lake Kullatorpssjon from the Kattegat Sea. Earlier investigations have determined the marine limit to ca. 65 m a.s.l. on the Kullen Peninsula. The separate independent lines of evidence presented here, however, suggest that the Late Weichselian marine limit developed at 85-90 m a.s.l. at the deglaciation ca. 17 200 cal. yr BP (ca. 14 500 yr BP). This limit is ca. 25 m higher than assumed previously. Lake Kullatorpssjon formed ca. 1000 cal. yr later when the basin became isolated from the Kattegat Sea. Copyright (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. (Less)


INTRODUCTION Undoubtedly, the frequency of gluteal fat grafting has increased considerably in the past decade worldwide. In 2020, 84% of procedures performed by American Society of Plastic Surgeons member surgeons consisted of buttock fat infiltration rather than buttock augmentation with implants or buttock lift.1 Today, autologous fat infiltration is considered the gold standard in the treatment of the gluteal region.2 Safety considerations for gluteal fat infiltration have made the procedure better with a simple recommendation: always infiltrate in the subcutaneous tissue, never in the muscle.3,4 Treating the posterior contour requires a complete knowledge of the anatomy of the buttock, not only to achieve the best aesthetic result but also to avoid complications. The infragluteal fold (IGF), often ignored or inadequately treated, is one of the most challenging areas to treat.5


Objective To investigate the situation of malocclusion deformity which happens among the middle school students in Binhai New Area.Methods 4002 students were examined under natural light.Results The ratio of malocclusion deformity was 36.86%,when the ideal normal occlusion and individual normal occlusion were treated as the criteria.Conclusions The results of the investigation show that the rate of malocclusion deformity was lower than that in the investigation in 2000 by Chinese Stomatological Asslciation.


Accessibility enables individuals' full participation in society, which results in social justice and equity, thus promoting social sustainability. However, research indicates that physical barriers in the built environment impede disabled people, resulting in marginalisation when their inclusion is tied to physical space. Commonly, accessibility of the built environment is evaluated using an access audit with a predetermined checklist. Little effort has been made to explore disabled people's life experiences accessing the city centre. This qualitative study involves twenty go-along interviews with mobility-challenged travellers to learn about their experiences using land transportation from around Klang Valley to Kuala Lumpur city centre. Mobility-challenged travellers, notably wheelchair users, still need help to reach their destination with the current transportation services. In general, transportation use in Klang Valley has several issues, including the lack of accessible facilities and lack of safety concerns from service providers. These issues have psycho-emotional impacts on disabled people.


The present article focuses on visual communication as a means of getting information. Analyzed are the methods, the systems, and the modern means of visualization in the contemporary information systems, as well as their characteristics and applications.


What are the politics of ignorance in an age of misinformation? How can the concept of 'wilful blindness' help us to understand the logics involved? We start the introduction to this special issue by arguing that the intrinsic instability of wilful blindness draws valuable attention to the graded nature of intentionality and perception, and the tensions between them. These features are an essential part of the workings of ignorance, as we illustrate with reference to the shifting intentions of drug couriers, the fleeting moments in which the humanity of victims is recognised in the midst of violent acts, and the affects that channel economic behaviour, such as in the subprime mortgage crisis. When approaching perception and intentionality as complexly entangled in institutionalised fields of power, 'wilful blindness' emerges as a powerful and critical diagnostic of the epistemic instabilities of our time.


Research is motivated by the differences in the language used by men and women. Environmental factors and society assume that women are gentle creatures, causing women to be careful about the choice of words in speech. Characteristics of women's language coined by Lakoff (1975) became a reference in this study. The problem discussed in this research is how the characteristics of women's language in the short film Reunian and the characteristics of men's language in the short film Dodit Not Penculik. This study aims to describe the linguistic characteristics of women and men in the two short films. The method used in this paper is descriptive qualitative, and quantitative with the subject of the short film Reunian and the short film Dodit Not The Kidnapper. The data acquisition in this study used the method of observing the free-engagement technique and the note-taking technique. Then the analysis in this study is that women tend to be unsure of their speech because women are very concerned about social norms and protect their self-esteem by using more polite speech.


A 73-year-old woman on hemodialysis for end-stage renal disease was admitted to our institution from a subacute-rehabilitation facility due to a fever of 102°F. The patient reported some nausea, diarrhea, abdominal pain, and weakness but stated that she had been experiencing these symptoms for some time. Other than the above-mentioned gastrointestinal symptoms, the patient denied any cardiopulmonary, upper respiratory, or genitourinary symptoms. No contaminated food items were identified, and no other residents at the facility were presenting with similar symptoms. Physical examination revealed a diffusely tender abdomen without evidence of any other systemic signs. A computed tomography (CT) examination of the abdomen demonstrated possible right-sided colitis, and the patient was begun on ciprofloxacin and metronidazole.

Initial blood cultures (Bactec; Becton, Dickinson and Company) collected in the emergency room demonstrated no growth; however, blood cultures collected the following day, as the patient underwent hemodialysis, grew Gram-positive bacilli. Initial Gram stainings performed directly from the aerobic and anaerobic blood culture bottles demonstrated long, chaining, Gram-positive bacilli (Fig. 1). The morphology of the Gram-positive rods was suggestive of lactobacilli. The blood culture plates demonstrated pure growth of small, pale-appearing colonies. The colonies were found to be Gram-positive coccobacilli which were catalase positive and oxidase negative. A definitive identification was made from the primary culture plates.

Fig 1

Gram stain of bacilli from a blood culture bottle.

(For answer and discussion, see page 1655 in this issue [doi:10.1128/JCM.01126-12].)


Although the tendency towards a Semantic Web is increasing, the current Web is keen on more semantic data. There are several web application domains which need to present their data in the form of graphs to get information and knowledge to allow semantic web searching to deal with them. These domains can be for example geographic data, data in the area of bioinformatics, social networks or even corporate search engines. Most of these domains already store their data in relational database management systems which are not capable of being queried directly by semantic web applications. In this paper we will propose a semi-automated method to map the data from relational databases to RDF structures. This is true for both a single source database as well as different source databases. The results show a complexity of order n2 where n is the number of records processed, when it comes to the performance in creating the output from mapping the relational database to RDF files.


Digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) has significantly improved cancer detection capabilities through its identification of subtle findings often imperceptible on 2D digital mammography, particularly architectural distortion (AD). The purpose of this study was to analyze of suspicious AD detected on screening DBT to evaluate the incidence of malignancy and to determine other patient or imaging characteristics in these cases as possible predictors of malignancy.

 This was an IRB approved retrospective analysis of subjects with AD detected on DBT screening mammography who were given a biopsy recommendation between January 1, 2016, and June 30, 2018. Univariate analysis of various imaging characteristics and patient high-risk factors was performed for statistical correlation with diagnosis of malignancy.

 In the 218 DBT-detected AD findings with a final BI-RADS assessment of 4 or 5 on diagnostic workup, 94 (43.1%) yielded malignancy, 57 (26.2%) were classified as high-risk, and 67 (30.7%) were benign. There was a strong statistically significant association with malignancy in the cases with an US correlate (P < 0.0001). There was a statistically significant inverse correlation between malignancy and one-view findings (P = 0.0002). The presence of AD on 2D (P = 0.005) or synthetic 2D views (P = 0.002) showed statistically significant correlations with malignancy, whereas breast density or high-risk factors (P = 0.316) did not.

 AD detected on DBT that persists on further workup and has no explainable cause should be considered suspicious for malignancy. Identification of the AD on both standard mammographic views and the presence of an US correlate significantly increase the probability of malignancy.


A sinusoidally-excited Venturi-DBD operating in neon has been investigated. The Ne(1s5) metastable density has been quantified spatially resolved using laser atomic absorption spectroscopy for different pressure levels. Density values of up to 7 · 1016 m−3 could be determined at atmospheric pressure and up to 3 · 1016 m−3 at 100 mbar. For all investigated parameters, the Ne(1s5) density was found to be distinctly higher in the proximity of the cathode than in the anode region. Complementary investigations of the discharge development using phase-resolved optical emission spectroscopy complete the characterization of the device. The discharge was found to show typical properties of a glow-like discharge regarding current waveform and luminosity distribution. In addition, the influence of nitrogen and oxygen impurities and admixtures in the process gas has been determined. A substantial impact was found on both the Ne(1s5) concentration and the current waveform.


Four series of hexachloroantimonate(III,V) salts, AI2SbxSn1–xCl6(AI= NH4+, Cs+, and MeNH3+), and Cs2SbIIIy-InIII½–ySbV½Cl6 have been prepared and characterised by chemical analysis, X-ray powder diffraction, and far-i.r. measurements. Visible and u.v. spectra of all the compounds were measured at room temperature by diffuse reflectance and, in the case of the MeNH3+ salts, by single-crystal transmission between room temperature and 6°K. The concentration-dependence of the spectra showed that the intensity of the visible mixed-valence band was proportional to the concentration of SbIII–Sbv pairs in the hexachlorostannate(IV) lattice. From the absolute intensity of the mixed-valence transition it was found that delocalisation of the optical (5s) electrons of SbCl63– on to the neighbouring SbCl6– was less than 0·1% in the ground state, in agreement with the far-i.r. results. The band, therefore, is almost purely charge-transfer in character. The temperature-dependence of the half-width of the band between 300 and 6°K could be accounted for in terms of broadening by a single effective frequency of 210 cm.–1. The relation between this optically derived frequency and the ground-state vibrational frequencies of SbCl63– and SbCl6– is considered.


A detailed review of the models for the star β Hydri is done by adjusting the evolutionary sequences to the most recent bolometric, spectroscopic and astrometric data. The dependence of the solution on some of the relevant modelling parameters is analysed and the degeneracy of the solution using the HR diagram analysis discussed. Recent ground-based observations, and the forthcoming asteroseismic missions, can provide detailed oscillation spectra for this star. The seismic data can be used as a complementary constraint on the models. We analyse the seismic properties of the star and discuss the viability of using such complementary tests in order to clarify some of the degeneracy of the model solutions. Preliminary results on the fundamental parameters of β Hydri are presented and the expected seismic behaviour of the star is described.


The Iranian code of courtesy, ta'ârof, is a set of precise rules governing many everyday interactions. After analyzing its underlying ideas about mankind and society, in particular its close relation with Shia, it is shown how this code tries to present an appearance of generalized generosity, love and humility even if this means throwing a veil over the tensions and violence inherent in any social order. This code thus enables each person to protect the privacy of his being and escape from the hold of others. To emphasize the fact that individuals are not « imprisoned » in these rules of behavior, the « secret codes » and other subtle means are analyzed whereby Iranians manage to foil or manipulate the rules to their advantage.


The nature of higher education is to produce high quality graduates of all-round development,and music education,as part of quality-oriented education,plays a promotive role in improving college students' comprehensive quality.But due to cognitive gap,music education has not been attached due importance to.As a result,education quality is affected.This paper makes an in-depth analysis of the problems with music education in colleges and universities and proposes some countermeasures as an exploration on educational reform.


Sverdrup basin is large (~520,000 sq km) and deep (~13 km), and was long lived (Early Carboniferous to latest Cretaceous). It belongs to a distinctive class of cratonic basins because it received great volumes of terrigenous clastic sediments, but never had a contemporaneous adjacent orogenic belt. Therefore, its stratigraphic record portrays responses to cratonic epeirogenesis unmasked by eccentricities of local orogeny. Initial subsidence of the basin (Early Carboniferous) was along a system of grabens. During Carboniferous and Permian times, the axial region was relatively starved, whereas thick carbonate deposits and sandstones accumulated on the margins. In the Triassic the axial region received great thicknesses of fine-grained terrigenous clastics but basin-margin successions were thinner and coarser grained. Jurassic and early Neocomian deposits accumulated slowly. Aptian and later Cretaceous marine and nonmarine clastic deposits transgressed widely cratonward over the formerly well-defined basinal margins, and the structural basin lost identity in a broad continental-shelf and coastal-plain complex that existed until the area was fragmented in latest Cretaceous and early Tertiary time. Mafic volcanism in the Carboniferous, Permian, Early and Late Cretaceous, and gabbro intrusion in the Jurassic and Cretaceous, indicate that crustal fracturing, accompanied by tapping of upper mantle fluids fashioned primary basin subsidence. Sedimentation in phases of accelerated subsidence appears to be dictated by the availability of detritus and the prevailing erosional gradient on the adjacent craton. The basin was relatively starved in the Carboniferous and Permian and relatively "stuffed" in the Triassic. Thick, widely distributed sandstones indicate vigorous erosion of the craton in the intervals late Norian to Sinemurian, late Valanginian to early Aptian, late Albian to Cenomanian, and late Campanian to early Tertiary. In contrast, black, laminated, marine shales mark early p ases of marine transgression onto the craton in Leonardian, Griesbachian, Oxfordian, Valanginian, middle Albian, and Cenomanian-Turonian times. End_of_Article - Last_Page 413------------


The mixed polymerization system of reverse atom transfer radical polymerization(RATRP)and reversible addition fragmentation chain transfer polymerization(RAFT)was investigated using CPDN as chain transfer agent,AIBN as initiator,CuCl2·2H2O as catalyzer and byp as ligand,resulting a series of dithioester-terminated and chloro-terminated PMMA homopolymer.1H-NMR and GPC measurements indicate that the polymerization system of one pot and two step method has the character of "living"/controlled radical polymerization.The PDI of the polymer obtained from two step method is wider than that of one pot at initial stage.In both cases a short inhibition time was observed.Two polymerization mechanism reacted together leading to the mixed polymerization system has the character of "living"/controlled radical polymerization.


The invention relates to a dinotefuran slow release pesticide-fertilizer mixture and a production method thereof. The dinotefuran slow release pesticide-fertilizer mixture is composed of the following effective ingredients by mass fraction: 0.01-94.9% of dinotefuran, 5-99% of fertilizer and 0.1-10% of slow release formulation. The production method of the dinotefuran slow release pesticide-fertilizer mixture comprises the following steps: mixing dinotefuran with a fertilizer, then adding the slow release formulation, extruding, and granulating or mixing and subpackaging, so that the dinotefuran slow release pesticide-fertilizer mixture product is obtained. The dinotefuran slow release pesticide-fertilizer mixture has the advantages that the dinotefuran slow release pesticide-fertilizer mixture product has dual function of a pesticide and a fertilizer at the same time, and the pesticide and fertilizer are combined, interact with each other and are synergistic; nutrition is complete, broad spectrum and high efficiency are realized, operation is easy, labour and cost are saved, damage of insect pests on crops can be effectively controlled, essential elements necessary for growth also can be provided for the crops, and resistance of the crops is enhanced; and the pesticide and fertilizer are combined, so that the aim of controlling the insect pests can be achieved, vitality and insect pest resistance of plants can be improved, soil is also improved, balanced fertilization and complete nutrition are realized, and quality of the crops is enhanced.


Having read with attention Niels Steensgaard's review of my book 'The Political Economy of Commerce, in IESHR, Vol. XXX, (1), 1993, pp. 128-32, I feel a clarification is necessary. The reviewer asks for the source for the following phrase from his work which I cite in my book (p. 253): 'their [the Companies] success was not based upon government monopolies or the use of violence, but on their ability to compete in the market'. The formulation may be found in his essay 'The Companies as a specific institution in the history of European expansion', in L. Blussé and F.S. Gaastra eds., Companies and Trade, (Leiden, 1981), p. 254. The reference was unaccountably dropped from the footnotes to my book, but appears in an article I published in the Journal of European Economic History, Vol. XVII, 3 , 1988, p. 581, on a similar theme. I apologise for the slip, and thank Steensgaard for pointing it out. Some of the larger issues raised by Steensgaard will remain a matter of dispute between us, and have already, coincidentally, been taken up elsewhere (Studies in History, no. 1, 1993). Let me merely reiterate that on this


Objective To detect levels of plasma endothelin(ET),calcitonin gene-related peptide(CGRP)of people with essential hypertension (EH) and left ventricular hypertrophy(LVH)disease,to expect to reveal the pathogenesy of LVH further. Methods 30 health adults,classified into normal-control-group, according to the diagnosis standard of hypertension to choose 90 patients, including no-LVH group 30 cases,LVH group 60 cases,measure levels of plasma ET and CGRP, IVST,PWT. Results ⑴level of plasma ET in EH group(89.96±21.89) is higher than in normal-control-group(53.64±7.56)(P0.01),and the phenomenon was more obvious in LVH group,IVST,PWT was positively related to level of plasma ET.⑵levels of plasma CGRP in EH group (30.41±10.39) is lower(P0.01),and the phenomenon was more obvious in LVH group, IVST,PWT was negatively related to levels of plasma CGRP. ⑶ET/CGRP was close to 1 in normal-control-group,exceed 1 in EH group(3.01±3.50),but LVH group was highest. Conclusion The levels of plasma ET and CGRP was related to LVH. To detect the level of plasma ET and CGRP may be benefit to diagnose and pathogenesy of LVH.


The noradrenaline content was determined in intact and atrophied rat salivary glands at different time intervals after reserpine treatment, both with and without previous monoamine oxidase inhibition. After reserpine administration there was no significant difference between the two glands in the rate of noradrenaline disappearance. The loss of noradrenaline was somewhat accelerated in rats given dry wheat starch (a procedure which has been shown to increase the impulse flow of the adrenergic nerves to the salivary glands), showing that the impulse flow in the adrenergic nerves influences the noradrenaline reduction. After monoamine oxidase inhibition reserpine produced a much slower noradrenaline reduction rate. After this treatment a slower decrease was observed in the atrophied glands than in the intact ones. The data in this study indicate that most of the noradrenaline after reserpine treatment is metabolized by means of intraneuronally localized monoamine oxidase.


Based on analysis of procedure of land use change survey,this paper proposed the design and realization scheme of land use change survey system with 3S technology.The key issues of implementation were discussed,and the prototype system was built with Vb.Net and ArcGIS Engine.It was the beneficial exploration of building land use change survey system based on 3S technology.The existing problems and the future research trends were also mentioned in this paper.


This paper reviews the theory of jet noise prediction, presents results of noise prediction and measurements, and discusses the test results in terms of compliance with regulatory requirements. A high-temperature/high-pressure (HTHP) visual test cell is used to test drilling muds. The cell has two l inch diameter quartz glass viewing ports and is shielded by an open top composite cylindrical wall. Shock noise levels at the operator's position (3 ft from the barrier) were predicted with a mathematical model based on jet noise theory for the quartz glass rupturing. The predicted results indicated that noise levels at this position may be near the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA) limit of 140 dB for impact or impulse noise. Simulated tests closely confirmed predicted results. Noise controls were implemented and the noise levels at critical locations are now expected to be far below the acceptable limit.


Iron nitrides particles with about 50% γ′-Fe4N phase have been fabricated by traditional gas nitriding method and ball milling technique. Diameter of the particles is in a large range, from 5µm to 50µm. The electromagnetic wave absorption properties of the iron nitrides particles were investigated in the frequency range from 12.4GHz to 18GHz. The frequency range of reflection loss exceeding −20dB was 12.4 – 18GHz, and the thickness range of absorber for that was 1.41 – 2.31mm. An optimal reflection loss of −27.12dB was reached at the frequency of 15.5GHz with the thickness was 1.72mm. As a result, these iron nitrides particles could be applied in practical electromagnetic wave absorbing.Iron nitrides particles with about 50% γ′-Fe4N phase have been fabricated by traditional gas nitriding method and ball milling technique. Diameter of the particles is in a large range, from 5µm to 50µm. The electromagnetic wave absorption properties of the iron nitrides particles were investigated in the frequency range from 12.4GHz to 18GHz. The frequency range of reflection loss exceeding −20dB was 12.4 – 18GHz, and the thickness range of absorber for that was 1.41 – 2.31mm. An optimal reflection loss of −27.12dB was reached at the frequency of 15.5GHz with the thickness was 1.72mm. As a result, these iron nitrides particles could be applied in practical electromagnetic wave absorbing.


The increased number of traffic accident fatalities in Malaysia need attention. In order to examine possible causes and determinants of traffic trauma effectively, reliable information on victims, circumstances, resultants injuries and death must be available. By linking traffic accident data collected by Malaysia Royal Police (PDRM) and injuries data from hospitals, certain analysis could be carry out for better planning, developing, and implementing of postinjury control preventions and strategies. The Malaysia Traffic Injury Surveillance System is developed with Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 with five major modules in the system, which include patient information, injury information, accident data, paramedic skills and treatments and statistical analysis module. The system ensures future retrieving, editing, recording, deleting, and storing procedure for traffic accident injuries data. Beside these, it is tends to be an intellectual system which can perform cross-tabulations for analysis of factors affecting injuries, injuries type, paramedic treatment and etc.


A total of 17 different commercial control serums prepared by 6 manufacturers were examined to determine the accuracy of labeled values for as many as 9 constituents. All serums were analyzed by generally acceptable reference procedures. Several lots of each product were checked at approximately 6-month intervals up to 2 years or more to assess their stability on storage. It is concluded that commercial control serums should not be used in place of a primary standard when the constituents to be assayed can be obtained in a relatively pure form and a stable solution can be prepared.


Entrepreneurship is an important concept in both developing and developed societies today. Although there is no consensus on the definition of entrepreneurship, it is believed to be a process of creating value by bringing together a unique package of resources to exploit entrepreneurship opportunities ( Morris, 2002 ). This study aims to discover the economic contributions and challenges of immigrant entrepreneurs to their host country, and focuses on African small business owners in Auckland, New Zealand. Literature on immigrant entrepreneurship was reviewed, resulting in a discussion of the economic contributions of immigrant entrepreneurship as well as its challenges. Data was collected using face-to-face, semi-structured interviews, observation and field notes as the sources of inquiry. A purposive sampling technique was used to select 17 participants. All participants were African immigrant small business owners running businesses in Auckland. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data collected ( Braun & Clarke, 2006 ).


A sample cell and low-temperature cooling unit design suitable for x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) of oxygen and/or water sensitive compounds is presented. The cell is a simplified and optimized modification of a previously suggested design. The low-temperature accessory is specifically designed for good thermal isolation and equilibration at liquid nitrogen temperatures, eliminating the need for a more expensive commercial cryostat. The entire construction can be directly attached to an ion chamber and either a standard Lytle detector or energy-discriminating germanium-element solid-state detector via helium gas-purged adaptor flanges. The apparatus was tested at liquid nitrogen temperatures and gave good temperature stability within ±0.1 K. The XAS signal from an air-sensitive potassium/pyrene complex at 100 K taken at the X-6B beam line at the National Synchrotron Light Source facility at Brookhaven National Laboratory is presented.


The World Bank. The East Asian Miracle: Economic Growth and Public Policy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993. xvii, 389 pp. Foreword, contents, notes on contributors, acknowledgments, definitions, overview, bibliographic notes. A$35.00, paper.


The air pollution caused by combustion of high sulphur coal had been given consideration,the desulphurization by micro organism-decomposing method is a new biological technique,and it is dicussed.


In Vietnam, soft clay soils commonly distributing in large plains are used as the different construction foundation such as road, dike etc. Then there often occurs high settlement deformation, affecting the stability of structure. The main reason is that the input soil mechanics still have limitations especially the settlement deformation properties. Particularly, the specimen size of unconfined compression test is not much paid attention. This paper presents the research results on the influence of specimen size on unconfined compression test for soft clay. The soft clay (semi-clay ambQ23tb in liquid state) distributed in the coastal area of Nam Dinh give general comments: In vertical consolidation tests: In both diameter classes (D), when The height (H) increases, the settlement index (Cc) decreases but the decrease is not significant only from 0.037 to 0.011). In both heights, when  increases, Cc increases, the increase is small, only from 0.007 to 0.033. When the sample size increases, the consolidation coefficient of soil Cv increases, the increase of Cv with the increase of H is very significant. Specifically: In both sizes , when H increases, Cv increases similarly, ranging from 84 to 311%. In both sizes H, when the diameter increased from 61.8 to 79.8mm, the Cv at all pressure levels (') increased, the increase was in the range of 12 to 89%. In the radial consolidation test: when  increased from 61,8 to 79,8mm, at all values of ', Cv increased but the increase was not large, only a few %; Ch value increased more than Cv, the increase ranged from 17 to 76%, the ratio Ch/Cv ranged from 2.28 to 2.83.


A study of pure saturated hydrocarbons as experimental breadmaking additives has shown a critical dependence of loaf volume on chain length of the additive, addition of two methylene groups converting a highly significant volume reduction to a highly significant volume increase. The results are discussed in the light of current hypotheses of the mechanism of action of lipids in breadmaking, none of which is regarded as capable of explaining all the observed phenomena. A 'reservoir' of crystalline additive was shown not to be essential to the improving effect, and factors other than melting point of the additive were found to be involved, including a 'flour factor'.


Graphs are analyzed in many important contexts like page rank, protein -protein interaction networks, and analysis of social networks. Many graphs of interest are difficult t o analyze because of their la rge size, often spanning millions of vertices and billions of edges. We believe that MapReduce has emerged as an enabling technology for large -scale distributed graph processing. Its functional abstraction provides an easy -to-understand model for designing scalable, distributed algorithms. The open -source Hadoop implementation of MapReduce has provided researchers with a powerful tool for tackling large-data problems. In this work, we analyze the programmability and efficiency of implementing large scale g raph algorithms on Hadoop using the MapReduce model. We have taken the problem of finding the minimum spanning tree of a large graph, which is an important building block for many graph algorithms. Minimum Spanning Tree algorithm, comprising of three stages i.e. Find -Min, ConnectComponent and Merge, has been implemented with many variants in each stage. A thorough performance analysis using the Wikipedia Dataset consisting of 8.8 million nodes and 0.9 billion edges, highlighting the most successful combina tion of our techniques , has been carried out. Thus, it has been shown that useful graph operations can be decomposed into MapReduce steps and that the power of the cloud might be brought to large graph problems as well.


Lipase-catalyzed biodiesel production models in room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) reaction medium available in the literature are valid especially for mixing intensity. In this paper, a preliminary model is established in order to try to describe the lipase-catalyzed biodiesel production process in RTILs in a stirring type bioreactor. Mixing intensity and time delay were inspected for the reaction model in [BMIM][PF6] medium. As a result, this model is a good explanation for these actual reaction conditions in RTILs. The model prediction curves well describe the experimental data indicating this bioenzymatic reaction model is effective and reliable in certain conditions.


Sample deposition based on micro-droplet ejection has broad application prospects in the field of biomedicine. Ejection of RPMI-1640 culture medium (without cells) is investigated experimentally using a home-build electrohydrodynamic (EHD) ejection system, consisting of a liquid supplier and a nozzle, a voltage source, a droplet collector, and a supplemented photoelectric monitoring module. Electric voltage is applied between the nozzle and the droplet collector. The liquid surface is electrically charged and the ejection takes place when electric force overcomes the surface tension. At appropriate voltages, uniform ejection states are established with ejection frequency ranging from a few to a few tens of Hertz. Monitoring of the ejection process is performed by two methods. The ejection process can be recorded by a high speed camera, and then analysed by image processing. Using output signal of a charge amplifying circuit as a reference, a single shot camera is controlled to capture images at certain delays, and the entire process of the droplet ejection can be recorded. Experiments have shown that when the liquid meniscus breaks up, the output signal of the charge amplifier reaches the maximum.


We derive a phase retrieval algorithm using the alternating direction method of multipliers. For the cost function obtained from the maximum likelihood criterion, we introduce auxiliary amplitude and phase variables to avoid the absolute value operator and decouple the determination of the auxiliary phase variables from that of the auxiliary amplitude variables. As a result, a phase retrieval algorithm consisting only of two least-squares steps is derived. The performance of the proposed algorithm is investigated via numerical examples, as well as an application to flat-spectrum periodic unimodular sequence design.


Through segmenting and analyzing the disadvantages of traditional course teaching,with the help of experiences of global course reform,this thesis evaluates some new creative teaching modes conducted in our new course reform.It gives account of how teachers change their imparting acts into"guiding,organizing,participating" and of how students change their receiving actslearning habits into"Independence,cooperation and exploration" in the process of new course teaching.


Streptomyces species were isolated from rhizospheric soils collected from different localities in Mahikeng, North West Province of South Africa. A total of 84 isolates were obtained from 5 rhizospheric soil samples, highest number of isolated were recovered from maize (Zea mays) rhizosphere. The genus Streptomyces was identified by cultural, morphological, physiological and molecular analyses. 26 culturally distinct isolates were identified to the species level by 16S rDNA gene sequence analysis. The sequences of 16S rDNA gene of the isolates matched with Streptomyces but different species in BLAST analysis, similarities ranging between 100%-91%. Rhizosphere can be considered as inexhaustible resource of microorganisms that can be harness for possible exploration.


The expected utility method has been widely suggested for making decisions under uncertainty. This paper describes an experiment designed to determine the relative acceptability of the expected utility method and of two other normative methods (the worry and comparison methods) to practicing insurance agents and risk managers in deciding how much insurance to buy. It was found that the subjects ranked the comparison method first in terms of acceptability, the worry method second, and the expected utility method third. When the subjects rated the methods according to five specified criteria-confidence in the results, understanding of the method, simplicity, ability to explain, and ease of application-the results were basically the same as their usefulness-on-balance ratings. The subjects considered confidence in the results and understanding of the method to be most important in determining a method's usefulness on balance. None of the several personality and demographic characteristics of the subjects considered showed any clear association with the different ratings of the methods. The utility method usually led to the purchase of no insurance while the other two methods suggested complete insurance with or without a deductible. The best acts according to the comparison and worry methods were quite consistent with the subjects' actual preferred acts. Decision-making under risk has been the subject of numerous books and articles. One of the most popular tools, at least John Neter, Ph.D., is Professor of Quantitative Analysis in the School of Business Administration of the University of Minnesota. He is a Fellow of both the American Statistical Association and of the American Association for Advancement of Science and is co-author of Fundamental Statistics for Business and Economics, and of Statistical Sampling for Auditors and Accountants. C. Arthur Williams, Jr., is Professor of Economics and Insurance and Associate Dean of the School of Business Administration of the University of Minnesota. He is a member of the American Academy of Actuaries and was President of A.R.I.A. in 1965. Dr. Williams is author of Price Determination in Property and Liability Insurance and is co-author of Risk Management and Insurance, of Economic and Social Security, and of Insurance: Its Theory and Practice. This paper was submitted in July, 1970. The authors wish to acknowledge the financial support of the Graduate School and the School of Business Administration of the University of Minnesota in the conduct of this research. They also appreciate the financial support of the Insurance Conference of the Cooperative League of the U.S.A., which made possible a presentation of this paper at the American Risk and Insurance Association Risk Theory Seminar in New Orleans on 17-19 April 1970. The following members of the Conference contributed to this support: Cooperative Federee de Quebec, Cooperative Insurance Services, Ltd., Cooperators Insurance Association, CUNA International, Inc., Farmers Elevator Mutual Insurance Company, Farmland Insurance Agency, Inc., L'AssuranceVie Desjardins, La Federation des Caisses p. Desjardins, La Societe d'Assurance des Caisses Populaires, League Life Insurance Company, Members Mutual Insurance Company, MidAmerica Mutual Life Insurance Company, Mutual Service Insurance Companies, National Farmers Union Insurance Companies, National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, Nationwide Insurance Companies, and Urban Community Insurance Company. They would like also to acknowledge help received in carrying out the experiment and analyzing the results thereof from Stephen Barkin, Richard Cardozo, Amin Eldirghami, Robert Fiske, Ming te Lu, Ivan Ross, and Mark Walton.


The H.264/AVC standard achieves a high coding efficiency compared to previous standards, but in exchange for a very high computational cost. This paper focuses on the mode decision subsystem, which is a critical one from the computational cost point of view. In particular, a hierarchical early-termination-based approach to the inter mode decision problem is proposed, in such a way that a cascade of early stops are considered, going from the most likely modes to the less likely ones. The main novelty of the proposed algorithm relies on the use of a regionalized hypothesis testing methodology for making the decisions on every potential early stop. The proposed method has been assessed on a large set of QCIF video sequences for several qualities, achieving a quite notable improvement in terms of total encoding time reduction in relation to a well-established mode decision method [1]. Specifically, the time reduction is 43.43 % and 21.33 % for IPPP and IBBP patterns, respectively, without any significant quality loss.


The risk factors influencing the analysis of power grid investment are complicated and highly coupled. The analysis of the interaction of risk factors based on the traditional interpretative structural model, using the expert score to form correlation matrix, which is subjective. To increase the quantitative analysis and overcome the drawbacks of traditional model relying on experts' experience, this paper proposes a new method to construct the interpretative structural model. Firstly, the evaluation index system of power grid investment is constructed, based on this, the collected history data of risk factors are processed and analysed through the correlation analysis of SPSS and the quantitative correlation matrix of risk factors is obtained, then the construction of interpretative structural model is finished. The constructed model provides the basis for the analysis and management of power grid investment.


Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic had the unintended consequence of placing nurses in the spotlight because their knowledge and skills were in desperate need. While it will be years until we fully understand the impact that this pandemic has exacted on the nursing workforce, early studies have found that nurses have been traumatized by this event and many intend to leave the profession This seismic event only further exacerbated an already vulnerable and strained nursing workforce that pre-existed worldwide prior to COVID-19. The pandemic also highlighted the many challenges facing nursing leadership, in particular, how to create conditions to maintain and sustain a healthy nursing workforce. Nurses' job satisfaction has emerged as an important predictor of whether nurses remain in an organization and stay in the profession. When examined more closely, job satisfaction has been related to nurses feeling empowered to exercise autonomy over their own practice and having agency. Autonomy and agency, in turn, are affected by their managers' leadership styles. Leaders are instrumental in setting the tone and creating the climate and culture that either values or devalues autonomy and agency. To help leaders create empowering conditions, we have developed a guide for leaders. This guide, based on the value-driven philosophy of leadership called Strengths-Based Nursing and Healthcare Leadership (SBNH-L), is founded on principles of person-centered, empowerment, relationship-focused, and innate capacities (ie, strengths) that are operationalized in eight core values. This guide can be used by leaders as their roadmap to create empowering workplace conditions that value and facilitate nurses' autonomy and agency.


The invention relates to an automatic photosensitive sensor for automotive temperature adjustment. The automatic photosensitive sensor includes a base as well as a PCB and a shell which are sequentially encapsulated on the base; a photosensitive diode is arranged at two sides of the PCB respectively; and an included angle is formed between the photosensitive surface of each photosensitive diode and the PCB. The sunlight sensor can sense light as early as possible, so that temperature can be adjusted better; and an atomized adhesive layer is adopted, so that a light diffusion effect is better.


Indianapolis has dedicated considerable public investment and focused public policy efforts on the development of cultural tourism during the past several years. A city- wide cultural tourism initiative in 2002 set sights on positioning Indianapolis as a premier cultural tourism destination. The initiative's two objectives were to improve the quality of life for Indianapolis residents and to enhance the visitors' experience by showcasing the city's cultural amenities and attributes. The goal of this study was to chronicle the impact of the initiative over a period of two years. In 2004, a baseline index was reported that determined the relationship between the level of resident awareness of the initiative and their quality of life rating. The same instrument, based on a three-dimensional model developed by Raphael, Steinmetz, and Renwick (1998), was again administered in 2006 to determine changes in the residents' awareness of the initiative and their quality of life score.


Invited academic commentary on leadership case study for South East England Development Agency (SEEDA): case study of Advanced Resources Management Ltd.


The evolution in the material and political expression of French moral consciousness is reflected in the histories of charity, humanitarianism, and human rights. By bringing together these often disconnected fields, we seek to open new avenues of research and to consider the junctures, discontinuities, and overlap often neglected by historians of humanitarianism (and related movements), welfare, charitable enterprises, religion, and missiology.1 By focusing on practices as well as ideas, we wish to engage with more than the current paradigm of the history of humanitarianism, which tends to concentrate on why people began to feel compassion or empathy for an enslaved, suffering, or persecuted group during certain historical periods, whereas earlier (or later) generations showed a lack of such compassion.2 The practices with which we wish to engage in this special issue encompass more than a cultural history of compassion.3 It is not merely a history of the changing outlook on the sufferings of


In this paper we establish a new uniqueness result of weak solutions for the 3D Navier-Stokes equations. Under assumption that there is not uniqueness of weak solution in singular time, we prove that if two weak solutions $u$ and $v$ of 3D Navier-Stokes equations belong to $L^{\frac{5}{2}}\left( 0,T;V\right) $ with the same initial datum, then we get $u=v$. In the class $L^{3}\left( 0,T;V\right) $, we prove that $u-v\in$ $C^{0}\left( 0,T;H\right) $ and $u=v\ $when $u_{0}=v_{0}$.


Patient Specific Instruments (PSIs) have been introduced into the surgical workflow as a modern way to assist the surgeon in performing femur and tibia resection in Total Knee Arthroplasty (TKA). These PSIs are based on an accurate reconstruction of the surface of the knee's bones. In this work, we propose two 3D-3D image-based registration methods to reconstruct an extended field-of-view of the knee joint using only a motorized ultrasound transducer. Those methods are: (1) a dense voxel-based registration method, which needs to preprocess the ultrasound images and form an ultrasound volume. Then, computing the Mutual Information (MI) for each relative displacement to align every pair of volumes, (2) a sparse point-based registration method, which takes into account the point set located on the surface of the bone in ultrasound images. This method detects bony features using ORB detector and matches the corresponding points to find the best transformation using Coherent Point Drift (CPD). The preliminary qualitative results performed in vitro show that from a set of consecutive ultrasound volumes, an extended field-of-view can be reconstructed using only ultrasound images without any external trackers. Results of the voxel-based approach show that MI is more robust against noise comparing to other similarity measures. On the other hand, results of point-based approach show that is much faster in computation with a low false-positive rate compared to other feature-detectors like SIFT and SURF. Furthermore, experiments show that CPD is less affected by noisy data compared to the classical ICP, which is promising to continue evaluating our work in vivo. Health Sciences EPiC Series in Health Sciences Volume 3, 2019, Pages 278–281 CAOS 2019. The 19th Annual Meeting of the International Society for Computer Assisted Orthopaedic Surgery P. Meere and F. Rodriguez Y Baena (eds.), CAOS 2019 (EPiC Series in Health Sciences, vol. 3), pp. 278–281


A wide optical gain spectrum with full width at half maximum Δλ≈350 nm has been demonstrated in midinfrared (2.2–2.5 μm) room-temperature-operated InGa(As)Sb/GaSb quantum-well (QW) ridge-waveguide diode lasers. A QW width of 200 A ensured a small energy separation between the first and second quantized states in the QW. Transitions from both quantized states contributed equally to the overall gain spectrum when the optical loss was optimized.


Background: The archaeon Methanobrevibacter smithii is regarded as part of the indigenous microflora of the human intestine but may be connected with pathological conditions. The microbe is extremely oxygen intolerant and is not detectable by anaerobic culture techniques for bacteria. Accordingly, to date quantitative antimicrobial susceptibility data of human isolates are missing. Methods: The anoxic Hungate technique and a three-step culture procedure using media supplemented with antibiotics were applied to isolate M. smithii from randomly selected human feces. The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of 15 isolates and the reference strain DSM 861 were determined using a broth macrodilution test resembling the procedure for testing anaerobic bacteria. Results: The 16 strains were highly resistant (MICs >64 mg/l) against penicillin G, cephalothin, vancomycin, streptomycin, gentamicin, ciprofloxacin, and clindamycin. Metronidazole inhibited the strains at MICs between 0.5 and 64 mg/l. Conclusions: Multiple-antibiotic-resistant Methanoarchaea occur in the human gut. They may be selected during therapy with common antibacterial agents and may be eliminated by the application of metronidazole.


Wireless communication system developed widely in the world. For reliable transmission and reception of data in any such system requires suitable antenna. A wireless system always shows increased efficiency when an antenna designed and developed aimed at that particular system specifically. This paper emphases the multiband antenna envisioned for all existing wireless communication purposes. The current techniques are offered in the open literature comprises the modification of the main radiator via bending, twisting, etc. Each methodology offers different benefits, based on the essential application. The addition of a ground slot to a finite antenna ground plane may be expanded to incorporate programmable characteristics. As a result, small multiband antennas might be interesting choices for a wide variety of wireless applications. Now, it is suggested in this slotted multi band planar system to function on radio frequencies such as GPS, WLAN and Wi-MAX.


In Anaxagoras's system, something is qualified as, e.g. hot when it has within its constitution parts or shares of the relevant Opposite, e.g. the Hot, in preponderance over parts of other Opposites. Thus objects overlap constitutionally with the properties that qualify them. The chapter argues that Plato inherits Anaxagoras's model of overlap, develops it, and makes it central to his own metaphysics. But it also shows that Plato is aware of some of the model's shortcomings, and of the formidable difficulties which emerge specifically when the model is combined with his theory of Forms. The chapter examines some of these difficulties, pertaining to parthood, structure, and complexity, focusing on arguments that are milestones in Plato's thought, such as the Partaking Dilemma in the Parmenides and the Third Bed Argument in the Republic.


— The response of a multi supported structure subjected to spatially varying ground motion at its different supports is of great importance for structures like bridges, pipe lines, viaducts, tunnels etc,. Various reasons like local site conditions, wave passage effect, incoherence effect and attenuation effect tend to induce a phase difference and time lag in the ground motion which results in differential ground motions at each supports. Assuming that the differential input is available at the various supports the response of the structure can be obtained by the Pseudo-static methods. In these methods the static component of the response is expressed as a function of influence matrix and the input motion which remains independent of the dynamic response. The dynamic component is then computed by using various methods which are then combined with the static components to get the total response. In literature many authors have tried using the modal superposition method for finding the dynamic response of the structure. In this paper the seismic response of the structure is evaluated by using Ritz modes which was then compared with the modal superposition method. The methods were explained by using an example of a bridge model.


This paper surveys the research of the information fusion approaches based on game theory. How to resolve the high level fusion problem in the conflict and cooperation environment of multiple sources information is a key problem in the current research of information fusion. Game theory is promising to successfully model conflict and cooperative interactions. So, the relatively new interdisciplinary study of information fusion based on game theory deserves further exploration. Based on the state-of-the-art of the game-theoretic information fusion study, this paper analyzes the two characters (interdisciplinary and high-level) and two study routes (direct route and indirect route via Artificial Intelligence). The most representative processing models, architectures and algorithms in this field are described. The military and several civilian applications and the validity of the game-theoretic information fusion approaches are summarized. Finally, the issues and challenges are summarized and the further research directions are discussed.


The neural crest is regarded as a defining character of vertebrates, and understanding of its evolution is a prerequisite for understanding the origin of vertebrates. The lamprey is a sister group of gnathostomes, and has served as a model for comparative embryology. By observing morphological distribution and gene expression patterns of the lamprey neural crest cells, it has become clear that the neural crest already had distinct spatial properties in the head and trunk of the embryonic body in the vertebrate common ancestor, as seen in the shared Hox code. As another shared genetic program, the molecules involved in epithelial‐mesenchymal interactions for the craniofacial patterning of the vertebrate ectomesenchyme are also homologous between gnathostomes and the lamprey. Especially, the aquisition of the jaw in gnathostomes appears to have been based primarily on the heterotopic shift of the shared tissue interaction, involving FGF/BMP signaling, not necessarily by an addition of a novel developmental program specific to gnathostomes. This signaling, however, does not result, in the lamprey, in the so called Dlx code, the gnathostome synapomorphy, although the lamprey has the same number of Dlx cognates as in non‐teleost gnathosotmes. This may explain a dorsoventrally symmetrical branchial arch morphology of the lamprey. The neural crest development in the hagfish embryo will also be discussed.


This paper deals with the treatment of infinity and finiteness in mereology. After an overview of some first-order mereological theories, finiteness axioms are introduced along with a mereological definition of "x is finite" in terms of which the axioms themselves are derivable in each of those theories. The finiteness axioms also provide the background for definitions of "(mereological theory) T makes an assumption of infinity". In addition, extensions of mereological theories by the axioms are investigated for their own sake. In the final part, a definition of "x is finite" stated in a second-order language is also presented, followed by some concluding remarks on the motivation for the study of the (first-order) extensions of mereological theories dealt with in the paper.


Over a decade of work has been conducted in the development of NASA's Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (HIAD) deployable aeroshell technology. This effort has included multiple ground test campaigns and flight tests culminating in the HIAD project's second generation (Gen-2) aeroshell system. The HIAD project team has developed, fabricated, and tested stacked-torus inflatable structures (IS) with flexible thermal protection systems (F-TPS) ranging in diameters from 3-6m, with cone angles of 60 and 70 deg. To meet NASA and commercial near term objectives, the HIAD team must scale the current technology up to 12-15m in diameter. Therefore, the HIAD project's experience in scaling the technology has reached a critical juncture. Growing from a 6m to a 15m-class system will introduce many new structural and logistical challenges to an already complicated manufacturing process. Although the general architecture and key aspects of the HIAD design scale well to larger vehicles, details of the technology will need to be reevaluated and possibly redesigned for use in a 15m-class HIAD system. These include: layout and size of the structural webbing that transfers load throughout the IS, inflatable gas barrier design, torus diameter and braid construction, internal pressure and inflation line routing, adhesives used for coating and bonding, and F-TPS gore design and seam fabrication. The logistics of fabricating and testing the IS and the F-TPS also become more challenging with increased scale. Compared to the 6m aeroshell (the largest HIAD built to date), a 12m aeroshell has four times the cross-sectional area, and a 15m one has over six times the area. This means that fabrication and test procedures will need to be reexamined to account for the sheer size and weight of the aeroshell components. This will affect a variety of steps in the manufacturing process, such as: stacking the tori during assembly, stitching the structural webbing, initial inflation of tori, and stitching of F-TPS gores. Additionally, new approaches and hardware will be required for handling and ground testing of both individual tori and the fully assembled HIADs. There are also noteworthy benefits of scaling up the HIAD aeroshell to a 15m-class system. Two complications in working with handmade textile structures are the non-linearity of the material components and the role of human accuracy during fabrication. Larger, more capable, HIAD structures should see much larger operational loads, potentially bringing the structural response of the material components out of the nonlinear regime and into the preferred linear response range. Also, making the reasonable assumption that the magnitude of fabrication accuracy remains constant as the structures grow, the relative effect of fabrication errors should decrease as a percentage of the textile component size. Combined, these two effects improve the predictive capability and the uniformity of the structural response for a 12-15m HIAD. In this paper, the challenges and associated mitigation plans related to scaling up the HIAD stacked-torus aeroshell to a 15m-class system will be discussed. In addition, the benefits of enlarging the structure will be further explored.


The synthesis and characterization of complex salts [M-( η 5 (cid:0) C 5 Me 5 )Cl(tppz)]PF 6 (M = Rh, 1 ; M = Ir, 2 ; tppz = 126.96.36.199-tetra(2'-pyridyl)pyrazine) are described. Compounds 1 and 2 were obtained by bridge-splitting reactions of [{M( η 5 (cid:0) C 5 Me 5 )( μ (cid:0) Cl) Cl} 2 ] (M = Rh, Ir) with tppz in MeOH at room temperature and spectroscopically characterized. The molecular structures of 1 and 2 in the crystal were confirmed by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Unexpectedly both compounds exhibit seven-mem-bered chelate rings within the tppz backbone in contrast to the postulated five-membered chelates for these species in literature. X-ray Structural Determination : Crystals of 1 and 2 suitable for X-ray diffraction were obtained by crystallization from mixtures of dichloromethane/methanol/ iso -hexane


Recovery and comparison of toolmarks, footprint impressions, and fractured surfaces connected to a crime scene are of great importance in forensic science. The purpose of this project is to provide statistical tools for the validation of the proposition that particular manufacturing processes produce marks on the work-product (or tool) that are substantially different from tool to tool. The approach to validation involves the collection of digital images of toolmarks produced by various tool manufacturing methods on produced work-products and the development of statistical methods for data reduction and analysis of the images. The developed statistical methods provide a means to objectively calculate a ''degree of association'' between matches of similarly produced toolmarks. The basis for statistical method development relies on ''discriminating criteria'' that examiners use to identify features and spatial relationships in their analysis of forensic samples. The developed data reduction algorithms utilize the same rules used by examiners for classification and association of toolmarks.


The aim is to knowledge of vital role of folic acid and B12 vitamin on growth, milk production, milk components of Awassi sheep and their lambs.This experiment was carried out on 24 head of pregnant Awassi ewes with lambing of them in one of the private farms at Altagia village in southern of Hilla city. The experiment was included two phases, the first phase were dosage to Awassi ewes with two vitamins by mouth during experiment periods through estrus, gestation and parturition. The animals were randomly distributed into four treatments, the first treatment (control) without vitamins, second treatment was daily treated by 5mg/ewe of folic acid and third treatment was dosage of cyanocobalamin (B12 vitamin) with 225 μgm per ewe at twice time every week and fourth treatment were combination treated of folic acid and B12 vitamin as the same concentrations above. The second phase of the experiment, which began from birth of lambs and lasted weaning age ( 90 days).The lambs were dosage with two vitamins by mouth method after four hours of their born as the same mentioned of ewes in the first phase of experiment .The lambs were randomly distribution into four treatments, the first treatment was called control treatment without treated any vitamins and the second treatment were dosage with 1mg of folic acid to twice time per week, as well as the third treatment were treated with 125 μgm of B12 vitamin for twice time per week, As either fourth treatment the animals were mixture dosage of two vitamins (folic acid, cyanocobalmine) in the same concentrations. The results of statistical analysis of the first phase indicated the existence of significant differences (P≤0.05) on the averages of ewe's weights at parturition and weaning, amount of daily feed intake, proportion of milk sugar, total protein and triglycerides of blood. As well as the results indicated high significant differences (P≤0.01) on the average of weights of ewes at the end of gestation, feed conversion , daily milk production , moisture, crude protein, crude fat non fats , total solids of milk and concentrations of cholesterol and albumin in blood of ewes. As for the second phase the results were shown significant differences (P≤0.05) on average amount of daily feed intake, total protein, albumin, triglycerides and cholesterol in the blood of lambs and another beside ,the results indicated high significant differences (P≤0.01) on average of live weight of lambs at birth and weaning, amount of daily feed intake and daily and total weight gains, and cholestrol concentration in the blood of Awassi lambs. We conclude that animals were dosages of folic acid with B12 vitamin were improving of health status and to improve significantly in most of traits of productive performance, growth and blood characteristics of ewes and their lambs as compared to the control treatment. Keywords: Folic acid, B12 vitamin, Milk yield, Milk components, Blood proteins.


SLA learners always find it difficult to learn English vocabulary.Conceptual metaphor as a useful cognitive way plays an important role in second language vocabulary learning.The cognitive study on English vocabulary from the perspective of conceptual metaphor can be of great help to English vocabulary learning.


Given the potential of low cost sensors for agriculture, a monitoring system with low cost components was constructed to evaluate its capacity to detect variations in vegetative vigor in smooth lettuce seedlings under different growing conditions. The results showed temporal inconsistency and low variability in NDVI values. The inconsistency can be attributed mainly to factors such as luminosity and the high capacity of retention of water and nutrients of the substrate. Days with milder light intensity produced potentially better NDVI values. The low variability of NDVI eventually contributed to its low correlation with mass.


Zingiber officinale stands in the family Zingiberaceae. Ginger has rich phytochemistry plays a very pivotal role in health promotion. This research is aimed to review the current evidence on the various medicinal properties of ginger. Ginger is known to exert a wide range of pharmacological as well as physiological activities. Since time immemorable, it has been in use for the medicaments of various illnesses, like colds, headache, sore throat, migraines, hypertension, arthritis. Owing to this, this plant's pharmacological and medicinal properties have been a popular topic of review and research. This herb shows several puissant preventive and therapeutic actions and finds its extensive usage for ages to the present day for numerous ailments. Ginger exhibits potent anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects, which help decrease swelling, pain, and inflammation. One of the known and the most frequent usage of ginger has been to relieve the patients of nausea and vomiting. Ginger works as an antiemetic and is recommended to prevent sea sickness and motion sickness. It relieves motion sickness more effectively than specific drugs. Zingiber officinale has been identified to reduce pain. Ginger powder plays an influential role in mitigating the symptoms of primary dysmenorrhea. Experimental studies have confirmed ginger's role in reducing blood glucose levels improvement of hyperlipidemia. Ginger extract has been instrumental in reducing the structural abnormalities of heart in diabetic and helps improve the levels of serum apo, cathepsin G, leptin, Hcy and with anti oxidative effects of extract from ginger. Ginger supplementation enhances testosterone production in males, particularly in oxidative stress conditions.


Vibration isolation mechanisms are usually installed on spacecraft between the vibration sources and the payload to ensure that precision instruments work properly. This paper proposes a novel maglev Stewart platform for vibration isolation in a microgravity environment. The maglev Stewart platform combines the quasi-zero stiffness of maglev actuators and the high maneuverability of the Stewart platform. The dynamic of the legs and the payload platform is analyzed, and the linear active disturbance rejection control (LADRC) algorithm is used to decouple the legs and cancel the total disturbance in the linear feedback. The simulation studies show that with the maglev Stewart platform, there is no longer any obvious resonance. The transmission ratio of vibration can be reduced significantly compared with the traditional elastic Stewart platform. Last but not least, the influence of two control parameters on vibration isolation performance is connected to certain physical meaning of the vibration problem.


The acquisition of the different types of nominal reference in first language acquisition of German is closely connected with the expansion of the structural complexity of the noun phrase and the acquisition of determiners - especially the so-called definite and indefinite article. It is assumed that the structure of grammar and the emergence of grammatical categories is based on the differentiation and specification of general cognitive and semantic concepts. The acquisition of the reference functions of the noun phrase provides evidence for this assumption. What could be observed up to the age of three is a step by step development of structural and referential properties of the noun phrase. The course of structural expansion is fairly well known already. It could be shown that in line with this process a differentiation of reference functions by the acquisition of features specifying the concept of reference is happening. The specifying features are derived form perceptive categories. Every new feature provides a specification of the previous stage and contains the features of all previous stages. So the acquisition of grammar becomes clearly a process of step by step dissociation of concepts and growth of feature complexity. The basic feature that is to be assumed here is [+nominal] which should contain the general reference capacity of nouns. Thc first specification takes place by the emergence of the feature [+definite] symbolising the perceptive quality of an outside perspective (the reference object is to be perceived as an outlined whole). The formal structure realising that kind of reference which still remains undetermined is the so-called indefinite article. After some steps of semantical specifications the next step of grammaticalization occurs the emergence of the feature [+known] realised by the so-called definite article. It provides a specification of the [+definite] domain and the ability to differentiate between undetermined and individual refere


This chapter discusses the redaction history and theological message of Isa 56–66 (Third Isaiah). It makes a case for essentially two core compositions that each contains a theologically consistent message of prophetic criticism and future promise. The first composition—comprising Isa 58:1–59:21 (prophetic criticism) and Isa 60:1–62:12 (messianic age)—depicts the salvation that the people of Israel may obtain if they heed God's voice. In many ways this is reminiscent of the prophetic criticism that one finds in the Book of the Twelve (Amos and Hosea in particular). Likewise, the second core composition—comprising Isa 63:7–64:11 (self-accusation) and Isa 65:1–25; 66:1–24 (new heaven and earth)—promises salvation to those who remain faithful to God's commands.


An efficient version of the affine projection (AP) algorithm, which is called FXAP-AC throughout the paper, is presented. This algorithm uses the filtered-x structure instead of the modified structure which is required for the implementation of the AP algorithm when the desired signal is not available, for instance in active noise control (ANC) applications. The conventional AP algorithm for ANC, which is based on the modified structure (MFXAP), provides good performance. However the filtered-x structure is advisable for practical cases since it achieves a meaningful computational saving avoiding the additional filtering needed by the modified structure without significantly affect the performance in practice. In this paper, an efficient computation of coefficient update is developed for the FXAP resulting in the FXAP-AC. This low-cost strategy already proposed in the conventional AP algorithm can be suitably combined with others previously reported to achieve very fast and robust FXAP algorithms. Experimental results validate the use of the proposed algorithm for practical applications


The invention belongs to the field of treatment of fermentation wastewater in the biological fermentation industry, and discloses a method for treating threonine fermentation wastewater by virtue of a biochemical technology. The method comprises the following steps of (1) preparing a carrier, (2) preparing a biological preparation and (3) performing biological treatment. The method for treating the fermentation wastewater by virtue of the biochemical technology is simple, feasible, low in cost and suitable for popularization and application, and has a good treatment effect.


A study to evaluate the effectiveness of a community hypertension program by the Red Cross in Greater New York hypothesized that trained lay volunteers providing screenings and appropriate referrals is low-cost ($1.44 per screening); and that it is feasible to provide knowledge training to lay volunteers possessing the communica tion skills necessary to establish a climate conducive to effective counseling thereby addressing the limited availability of professional volunteers compared to the num ber of hypertensives needing assistance in achieving blood pressure control. The twelve participants in the counseling program pilot achieved an average reduction of 20.4mmHg systolic and 15mmHg diastolic.


Abstract— The properties of wet‐deposited transparent conducting oxide coatings (TCO) prepared by sol‐gel and nanoparticle processing are presented, showing their potentials and limits for display applications. The electrical properties to a large extent are determined by their porous morphology and the resulting grain boundaries, leading to a conductivity which is a factor 10 to 50 lower compared to similar PVD and CVD coatings. Though sol‐gel coatings like antimony‐doped tin oxide (ATO) can be deposited at very low cost, they always require a high‐temperature heat treatment limiting the choice of substrate. For a low‐temperature curing of the coatings, instead, the use of crystalline conducting nanoparticles of indium tin oxide (ITO) in combination with a chemical binder offers considerable application potential. This processing not only allows the preparation of coatings with a sheet resistance of 1 to 2 kΩ/□ but also a direct patterning by a fast UV curing. Typical applications for wet‐deposited coatings are demonstrated including the adjustment of the properties of sputtered ITO coatings, as well as electrodes and antistatic properties on plastics substrates with a moderate conductivity in the lower kΩ/□ range.


Desert vegetation is an important part of arid and semi-arid areas, which plays an important role in preventing wind and fixing sand, conserving water and soil, maintaining the balanced ecosystem. Therefore, mapping the vegetation accurately is necessary to conserve rare desert plants in the fragile ecosystems that are easily damaged and slow to recover. In mapping desert vegetation, there are some weaknesses by using traditional digital classification algorithms from high resolution data. The traditional approach is to use spectral features alone, without spatial information. With the rapid development of drones, cost-effective visible light data is easily available, and the data would be non-spectral but with spatial information. In this study, a method of mapping the desert rare vegetation was developed based on the pixel classifiers and use of Random Forest (RF) algorithm with the feature of VDVI and texture. The results indicated the accuracy of mapping the desert rare vegetation were different with different methods and the accuracy of the method proposed was higher than the traditional method. The most commonly used decision rule in the traditional method, named Maximum Likelihood classifier, produced overall accuracy (76.69%). The inclusion of texture and VDVI features with RGB (Red Green Blue) data could increase the separability, thus improved the precision. The overall accuracy could be up to 84.19%, and the Kappa index with 79.96%. From the perspective of features, VDVI is less important than texture features. The texture features appeared more important than spectral features in desert vegetation mapping. The RF method with the RGB+VDVI+TEXTURE would be better method for desert vegetation mapping compared with the common method. This study is the first attempt of classifying the desert vegetation based on the RGB data, which will help to inform management and conservation of Ulan Buh desert vegetation.


Green synthesized graphene quantum dots (GQD) have been doped with nitrogen in an attempt to boost their optical characteristics and application sectors. In the present investigation, the blue luminescent nitrogen-doped GQDs (N-GQDs) were synthesized by single-step hydrothermal synthesis using tamarind shell powder as a precursor. The particle size and zeta potential of N-GQDs were found to be 11.40 nm and be -35.53 mV, respectively. A quantum yield as high as 23.78 % was accomplished at an excitation wavelength of 330 nm at neutral pH. It gets quenched sensitively in the existence of uric acid (UA) combining static quenching, electron transfer, and an inner filter effect mechanism. A linear range was obtained for UA from 10 µM to 100 µM, with a limit of detection (LOD) of 401.72 ± 0.04 pM. Additionally, the N-GQDs were selective toward UA in presence of metal ions and biomolecules that indicated its impending use to monitor UA in clinical samples. In conclusion, this work demonstrates that the N-GQDs as a sensing probe for UA recognition with notable advantages including socioeconomic, simple, and less time-consuming methods as compared to other methods. In the future, it can be potentially explored as a biosensor for UA detection in clinical samples.


The book fully describes what the author, Sharon Zukin, defines as an 'innovation complex': a nexus of relationships and transactions between different actors (e.g., individuals, private and public...


Purpose of this study was to investigate use of XRF (x-ray fluorescence spectrometry) as a near real-time method to determine melter glass compositions. A range of glasses derived from wastewater treatment sludges associated with DOE sites was prepared. They were analyzed by XRF and wet chemistry digestion with atomic absorption/inductively coupled emission spectrometry. Results indicated good correlation between these two methods. A rapid sample preparation and analysis technique was developed and demonstrated by acquiring a sample from a pilot-scale simulated waste glass melter and analyzing it by XRF within one hour. From the results, XRF shows excellent potential as a process control tool for waste glass vitrification. Glasses prepared for this study were further analyzed for durability by toxicity characteristic leaching procedure and product consistency test and results are presented.


A welded tube of austenitic stainless steel AISI 316L with a nominal 8 inch diameter was exposed for about 100,700 hours at 640°C in a reactor of a petrochemical plant. Modifications in microstructure, mechanical properties and corrosion resistance were investigated and the initial results are presented in this work. The results revealed the formation of sigma phase at grain boundaries and inside the grains. Precipitation caused increased hardness, yield strength and ultimate tensile strength and decreased ductility, toughness and intergranular corrosion resistance..


The paper discusses the application of the Markov chain for predicting the combinatorial regulatory modules of genes.Firstly,based on the nature of gene sequences,it constructs the Markov chain model and develops the probabilist method to predict the combinatorial regulatory motifs.Secondly,it combines the features of the combinatorial regulatory database,and puts forward "enrichment",a new evaluation criterion,when comparing the validity of different models.Finally,the method is applied to the prediction of ribosomal protein genes of yeast.The results show the validation and superiority of the Markov model in predicting the combinatorial regulatory elements of genes through comparing several different methods.


The COVID-19 pandemic offers both challenges and opportunities for those who provide and receive psychological services. For training clinics tasked with educating the next generation of health service psychologists, providing vital mental health care to the community, and conducting clinical research, the pandemic offers an opportunity to consider how best to fulfill these crucial missions during a time of global uncertainty. The present paper reviews the recent, rapid move to telepsychology among North American university training clinics in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and offers relevant suggestions for mental health service providers rapidly transitioning to telepsychology moving forward. Data summarizing the response of university training clinics in health service psychology in the United States and Canada to physical distancing guidelines are presented, and considerations regarding best practices in service delivery and supervision via telepsychology are provided. While the present data focus on North American training clinics, the suggestions offered are relevant to any clinic tasked with providing high quality services and training mental health providers via telepsychology, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the growing emphasis within health service psychology on increasing access to mental health services via telepsychology prior to the pandemic, as well as the benefits to psychology trainees in gaining competence in this valuable form of service delivery, this paper aims to provide timely guidance around the benefits, risks, and practical considerations regarding the maintenance of effective clinical care in training settings when rapidly implementing telepsychology.


A large number of text images come from natural scenes. However, most of them are taken by non professional cameras such as mobile phones, and their resolution is low, which greatly reduces the readability of the text in the images. The text image super-resolution method aims to enhance the low resolution image to obtain a clearer text image. At present, with the appearance of convolutional neural network, image super-resolution technology has developed rapidly. The traditional super-resolution method is mainly used for natural scene images, and is usually not suitable for text. Many scholars have proposed super-resolution network methods for text images, but most of them are based on English text. Due to the complexity and diversity of Chinese texts, these networks are not suitable for Chinese texts. In order to improve the shortcomings of the above methods, a Chinese text dataset is generated, and a text-image super-resolution lightweight network based on Mobile ViT is also proposed. Experiments show that our proposed dataset CTW is meaningful for the study of Chinese text image super-resolution. And the new method has better performance in PSNR/SSIM metrics and can effectively restore blurred low-resolution images into clear high-resolution images.


The influence of different pretreatments (freezing, blanching, high electric field pulse, and high pressure) and osmotic dehydration (OD) times (0 to 6 h) on some characteristics of rehydrated apple was investigated. Pretreated apple slices were osmotically dehydrated, oven dried, and rehydrated in distilled water at room temperature. Rehydration capacity (RG) increased with OD time. Blanched and prefrozen samples had higher RC, firmer rehydrated samples, and greater dry-matter loss than the other pretreated samples. There was no change (P > 0.05) in the color of the samples before and after rehydration. The electrical conductivity of the immersion medium increased with rehydration time but decreased with OD time. Cette etude evalue l'effet de differents pretraitements (blanchiment, congelation, champs electriques pulses de haute intensite et hautes pressions) et des durees de deshydratation osmotique (0 a 6h) sur quelques caracteristiques de pommes rehydratees dont la capacite de rehydratation, la couleur, la texture, la perte en matiere seche et la conductivite electrique du milieu de rehydratation.


Abstract Shoreline extraction is fundamental and inevitable for several studies. Ascertaining the precise spatial location of the shoreline is crucial. Recently, the need for using remote sensing data to accomplish the complex task of automatic extraction of features, such as shoreline, has considerably increased. Automated feature extraction can drastically minimize the time and cost of data acquisition and database updating. Effective and fast approaches are essential to monitor coastline retreat and update shoreline maps. Here, we present a flexible mathematical morphology-driven approach for shoreline extraction algorithm from satellite imageries. The salient features of this work are the preservation of actual size and shape of the shorelines, run-time structuring element definition, semi-automation, faster processing, and single band adaptability. The proposed approach is tested with various sensor-driven images with low to high resolutions. Accuracy of the developed methodology has been assessed with manually prepared ground truths of the study area and compared with an existing shoreline classification approach. The proposed approach is found successful in shoreline extraction from the wide variety of satellite images based on the results drawn from visual and quantitative assessments.


Tricuspid valve disease is a common heart valve disease,among which tricuspid regurgitation is more common than tricuspid stenosis,especially the functional tricuspid regurgitation.Surgical treatment of tricuspid insufficiency experienced suture annuloplasty to the hard artificial valve ring plasty and the soft artificial valve ring then to the current three-dimensional Edwards MC3 valve ring plasty procedure with constant improvement.Here is mainly to introduce the application of tricuspid forming ring in rheumatic tricuspid valve disease—tricuspid insufficiency.


On the basis of the four requisites to constitute a crime, combining the links of punishment fitting the crime in the judicial work, this article researches the great significance of the accurate punishment so as to prevent or restrict the judge to put one into prison subjectively or casually in actual life, and then provides a more objective criterion for the accurate punishment.


Scientific developments in the 1990`s have important implications for the assessment of cancer risks posed by exposures to trichloroethylene (TCE). These new developments include: epidemiological studies; experimental studies of TCE carcinogenicity, metabolism and metabolite carcinogenicity; applications of new physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) models for TCE; and new pharmacodynamic data obtained for TCE and its rhetabolites. Following a review of previous assessments of TCE carcinogenicity, each of these new sets of developments is summarized. The new epidemiological data do not provide evidence of TCE carcinogenicity in humans, and the new pharmacodynamic data support the hypothesis that TCE carcinogenicity is caused by TCE-induced cytotoxicity. Based on this information, PBPK-based estimates for likely no-adverse effect levels (NOAELs) for human exposures to TCE are calculated to be 16 ppb for TCE in air respired 24 hr/day, and 210 ppb for TCE in drinking water. Cancer risks of zero are predicted for TCE exposures below these calculated NOAELs. For comparison, hypothetical cancer risks posed by lifetime ingestive and multiroute household exposures to TCE in drinking water, at the currently enforced Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) concentration of 5 ppb are extrapolated from animal bioassay data using a conservative, linear dose-response model. These TCE-related risks are compared to corresponding ones associated with concentrations of chlorination by-products (CBP) in household water. It is shown that, from the standpoint of comparative hypothetical cancer risks, based on conservative linear dose-response extrapolations, there would likely be no health benefit, and more likely a possible health detriment, associated with any switch from a household water supply containing <375 ppb TCE to one containing CBP at levels corresponding to the currently proposed 80-ppb MCL for total trihalomethanes.


Abstract We investigated the effect of PDLC layer thickness on morphology and electro-optical properties of plastic thermoset PDLC films with two nematic liquid crystal mixtures E7 and TNO623. The PDLC films were prepared on flexible ITO-PET supports by thermal PIPS phase separation method and the uniform film thickness was insured by plastic micro-spacers. We found that the PDLC layer thickness has a profound effect on micro-droplet morphology (dimension, number density and weight fraction) and electro-optical properties (off-state and on-state transmissions, switching voltages and response times).


Work continued on life-cycle testing, optimization, and refining of the second-generation furnace assembly as well as the auxiliary subsystems. Emphasis of combustor testing was to determine optimum size and location of air inlets in primary combustion chambers; it was found that using a single air inlet about 70 degrees upsteam from the agglomeration site produces a combustion efficiency of 99.0% while producing no agglomeration. The test of the fouling effect on heat exchanger performance showed a steady decrease in time of the overall heat transfer coefficient. Particle size distribution of fly ash in the baghouse showed 50% of the particles smaller than 11.2 microns.


A simple method was proposed to calculate the work of human ventricle that has been transmitted to arterial system so as to make clinical laboratory examination cheap and quick . Measured arterial pressure was approximated by a serial expansion of time as an input for the equivalent electrical circuit of arterial system. The transmitted ventricular work to arterial system is obtained by calculating the power at the equivalent electrical circuit of arterial system which parameters are different among the patients. This method


The Argentine legal profession has experienced, as in most Latin American countries, a rapid process of change since the return of democracy. The expansion of higher education associated with democratization has contributed to an increase in the number of lawyers and has diversified the social composition of this professional group in terms of gender, class, and geographic origin. This chapter presents an overview of these changes, focusing especially on the situation of an important segment of the profession: large law firms, oriented toward the corporate sector. The first part of this chapter outlines the political and economic changes the country has experienced since 1990. The presentation of trends in the legal profession starts by analyzing the expansion of large firms in the nineties and continues by describing large law firms' responses to the 2001 crisis. It concludes by showing their efforts to adapt to a context of recurrent economic crises and marked changes in foreign relations.


Program optimization process is sometimes justi ably referred to as a necessary evil, for it raises the question of correctness of the optimized program, which is often at stake. In order to lend credence to the process, it is required that e ective veri cation and testing methods and tools are well in place. Many solutions exist which address the various facets of this requirement. But for many practical situations, the solutions on o er are clearly less than satisfactory; in our work we address one such situation. Our endeavour is to provide a fully automatic technique to verify certain state-of-the-art optimizing program transformations applied on the multi-dimensional data dominated kernels of signal processing algorithms during the design of multimedia applications for embedded systems. We have made some progress and developed and implemented a technique that provides a posteriori proof of functional equivalence of the initial and transformed programs for some important transformations [3]. The technique is based on extracting and reasoning on the geometric domains representing the dependencies between the output and the input variables, which are preserved under the transformations considered. It also provides useful error diagnostics to identify and debug the program. In what follows, we discuss the intuitive idea behind our method.


In the project AIMES we investigate techniques to improve the programming of (icosahedral) models, and to optimize the use of the storage and I/O resources. Such research activities are done under the workpackages WP1 and WP2. Benchmarking mini-IGCMs have been developed and presented in a previous report under this workpackage (MP3). To evaluate the applicability and the impact of the investigated techniques to real global (icosahedral) models, we present in this report projected results based on applying the developed techniques to the mini-IGCMs. Both, model programming techniques and storage optimization, are discussed in this report. Results show that the techniques are beneficial in terms of code quality, development costs, performance, performance portability, and optimal use of I/O and storage resources.


As student-leaders are tasked to manage their respective student-organizations and protect the interest of whom they represent, they are expected to be fluent communicators. Hence, they need to be conscious of the way they generate their utterances and text by considering appropriate language functions. This survey type of research determined the extent of utilization of language metafunctions in supervisory communication by teacher education student-leaders in a state university at Malvar Batangas, Philippines. By employing a researcher-made questionnaire as a primary tool for obtaining data and applying appropriate statistical tools, the study revealed that the respondents utilized the ideational language metafunction as they influenced their fellow members to actively participate in activities initiated by their respective organizations through citing favorable and positive personal experiences, the interpersonal metafunction as they listened willingly to the suggestions and complaints expressed by their colleagues during various fora, and the textual metafunction as they solicited in a friendly manner their colleagues' suggestions for the improvement of their organizations during meetings. This study calls for enhanced supervisory communication skills among student-leaders through capacity building communication-related activities.


In this paper, we study the finite-time consensus tracking problem for second-order multi-agent systems with input uncertain dynamics and external disturbances. Robust finite-time consensus tracking controllers are designed with reduced communication. The proposed controllers achieve finite-time consensus tracking in the presence of bounded input uncertainties with only relative position information under general directed communication topologies. Both the cases of static and dynamic leaders are considered. An application in the coordinated attitude control of multiple satellites is used as an example to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed control strategies.


Information satisfies people's need of existence and development,which represets its important value in an information society.Meanwhile,the fact that information is out of our control,abused and infringed in other ways occurs frequently.So,many countries in the world have enacted corresponding laws to protect personal information.Today it is urgent to intensify the protection of personal information since it has been put on the agenda in our legislation.For these reasons this article analyses the characteristics of personal information,and puts forward basic principles and main contents of its legislation.


This study aims to delineate the relationship between macroeconomic factors and bank-specific variables to risk-taking of Islamic bank. Adopting panel co-integration approach, this study posits macroeconomic and bank-specific factors as exogenous variables consisting to interest rate, exchange rate, inflation, bank size and equity to asset ratio. Risk-taking as endogenous variable has proxies non-performing loan or financing and bankruptcy risk. By using quarterly data from 2010-Q4 to 2017-Q4, this study finds the risk-taking behavior of all banks has long-term relationship with macroeconomic factors. In terms of bank specified characteristic, bank size becomes substantial factor for the bank's risk mitigation. When the samples are grouped based on Islamic bank's size, the big size of Islamic bank has no long-term co-integration to macroeconomic variables. As opposed to that, the middle and small size of Islamic bank have long-term relationship to macroeconomics factors and all macroeconomic variables affect the risk-taking of Islamic bank. It concludes that the medium and small size of Islamic banks are more vulnerable from external shock.