Abstract THE process of softening rubber has received much less study than its importance deserves. Since the method of softening rubber by mastication was devised by Hancock, the greatest advances have been in the introduction of machines of greater mechanical efficiency and greater capacity. Prior to 1920 the effect of such variables as temperature was little understood. Long and inefficient periods of milling at high temperatures were common. In case milling did not produce the required plasticity, recourse was had to the addition of oils, resins, and other soft materials sometimes in considerable amounts. Such conditions have not yet entirely disappeared. Various methods have recently been proposed for plasticizing rubber in a more uniform manner and with less power consumption. Worthington and Hyde (24) softened rubber by heating it in a nonoxidizing atmosphere. Bradley and Ferrettie (1) concluded that the rubber should be water-soaked before it is heated and should be kept wet during the process. Tu...


A reconnaissance of the ground-water resources of the Island of Vieques was conducted during 1982-1984. The island, located about 9 miles southeast of Puerto Rico, is formed by volcanic and intrusive rocks overlain by thin alluvial deposits along portions of the north and south coasts. The Esperanza valley, in the south-central part, contains the principal alluvial aquifer. The area of the valley is about 10 square miles and the alluvial deposits are about 60 feet thick. Transmissivity of the aquifer ranges from 200 to 2,000 square feet per day. Previous to 1982, pumpage of as much as 400,000 gallons per day of water from the aquifer resulted in saline water intrusion throughout the coastal zone of the valley. Ground water withdrawals from the aquifer (1982 to 1985) were nearly zero. Most of the wells sampled (1982-1984) exhibited chloride ion concentrations of less than 100 milligrams per liter. However, sodium absorption ratios ranged from 2.9 to 4.8 units, indicating a potential salinity hazard for some crops. Relatively important alluvial deposits also occur in Resolucion valley, on the northwest coast, and near Playa Grande, to the southwest. Pumpage from the Resolucion aquifer by the U.S. Navy through 1977 was as high as 200,000 gallons per day. In the Playa Grande area, as much as 50,000 gallons per day were pumped during 1965. A 2-dimensional finite-difference model was developed and calibrated for the Esperanza alluvial aquifer. Digital model tests indicate that about 300,000 gallons per day of water can be withdrawn from the aquifer during the wet season before a reversal of the gradient of the water table occurs indicating potential saltwater encroachment. During the dry season, withdrawals would be limited to about 200,000 gallons per day. INTRODUCTION Vieques is the largest offshore island belonging to Puerto Rico, with a surface area of about 51 mi 2 (fig. 1). It is located about 7 mi east-southeast of Puerto Rico and has a population of 7,662 (1980 census). Water resources on the Island of Vieques are limited due to its relatively small basins which receive an average of about 45 inches per year of precipitation and experience high evapotranspiration. There are no perennial streams on the island, and the known aquifers common yield is usually less than 100 gal/min (Gomez-Gomez and Heisel, 1980). Well fields in the Esperanza and Resolucion valleys were developed in the early 1960's, with total withdrawals of about 600,000 gal/d (written commun., Anderson, 1972). Ground-water withdrawals have been stopped in Resolucion Valley, and operation of the well field in Esperanza Valley was discontinued in 1978 as a result of increasing salinity and maintenance problems. A pipeline was constructed in 1977 between eastern Puerto Rico and Vieques to provide water to supply the town of Isabel II and the Esperanza valley area. Currently about 500,000 gal/d of drinking water are pumped through the pipeline from the Rio Blanco filtration plant to Vieques. In 1982, ruptures in the pipeline reduced the amount of freshwater available to Vieques to less than 250,000 gal/day. Water had to be shipped by barge from Puerto Rico to supply the deficit. At the same time, plans for agricultural development of Esperanza Valley were drafted by the Puerto Rico Land Administration and the Puerto Rico Department of Agriculture. Although the pipeline was later repaired, the reliability of this supply system remains in question. The potential demands for agriculture greatly exceed the pipeline capacity. The U.S. Geological Survey began an investigation in 1982 to define the ground-water resources of Vieques. The project was conducted in cooperation with the Puerto Rico Land Administration (PRLA), the Puerto Rico Department of Natural Resources (PRDNR), and the Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority (PRASA). Purpose The principal purposes of the investigation were as follows: 1. To describe the potential optimum yield and the occurrence, availability, and movement of water in the principal aquifers throughout the island of Vieques. 2. To define the areal and vertical extent of the Esperanza alluvial aquifer and the general characteristics of the Resolucion aquifer. 3. To define the principal chemical and physical characteristics of ground water throughout Vieques. A. To determine the effects of ground-water withdrawals on the Esperanza alluvial aquifer and the potential for saline-water intrusion. 5. To design, construct, and calibrate a two-dimensional ground-water flow model of the Esperanza alluvial aquifer. Although the investigation included the entire island of Vieques, most efforts were concentrated in the Esperanza and Resolucion valleys (fig. 2). 67«00' 66°00' 65°oo'


The period since the Commission's last regular meeting in 1956 has been the most active in its history. Because of rapid developments in the field of nuclear energy and the more widespread use of radiation sources of all types, the scope of the work has increased beyond the field of medical radiology into all fields of radiation protection, including industrial uses as well as the exposure of the general public. In 1955 the United Nations established a Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation to collect and evaluate information on radiation exposure and radiation effects. In addition, bodies such as the World Health Organization, the International Labour Office, the Food and Agriculture Organization, and the International Atomic Energy Agency are actively interested in radiation protection problems and look to the International Commission on Radiological Protection for guidance. Although the primary responsibility of the Commission has been to the radiological profession, it has had to wide...


Successful forest restoration depends on identifying stressors within the system that can negatively impact planting attempts. The stress of animal browsing should be an important consideration in reforestation because it can decrease survival of seedlings and saplings. The browsing pressure of the white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) has been documented as a major stress in forest systems, and can severely damage or even completely destroy reforestation attempts. White-tailed deer directly affect forest regeneration by browsing on seedlings, thus reducing their stem height and ability to compete effectively for available resources (Tilghman 1989, Stange and Shea 1998). Indirect effects occur when browsing causes a change in herbaceous vegetation composition, thereby affecting growth and survival of seedlings (Tilghman 1989). When white-tailed deer become overabundant in an area, they severely damage the plant community by overbrowsing. Too many deer in an area means high competition for food, and the tendency for deer to eat anything they can access. Overbrowsing prevents the regeneration of palatable components of the plant community, thereby affecting ecosystem diversity and the abundance of species (Garrott et al. 1993). Several techniques have been suggested to decrease the impacts of white-tailed deer on forest restoration. This paper presents several techniques, and provides information to help restoration managers make informed decisions on practices best suited for a range of restoration situations.


A new technique for optimally encoding a given source, statistical properties of which are described by the first-order model is introduced. The calculation of a minimum length of codewords is based on the consecutive redistribution of the self- information of symbols in accordance with their probabilities at each stage of the encoding. The proposed method performs equally well for an arbitrary order of symbol probabilities. While codewords are generated by a separate combinatorial procedure, the overall computational cost of the proposed method is lower than that for the Huffman code.


This study inquires whether retroactive interference (RI) from learning multiple word lists can be altered through mnemonic strategies The Ss learned five successive hsts of 20 words each by associating the words with 20 conceptual pegs via visual imagery Some Ss were instructed to visuahze the words from the successive hsts in entirely new associative scenes; other Ss were to incorporate the current list's words into the appropriate scenes from the earher hsts. Although equwaleut in immediate recall, the Separate Images (SI) group recalled less than the Progressive Elaboration (PE) group at the end of the session, and showed a strict RI curve across lists where the PE group did not. Recall at a one-week test, however, favored earlier hsts for the PE group only, explicable in terms of cumulative rehearsal of earher 1terns with the PE method.


In view of the present fuel conditions in No.3 Sintering Plant of WISCO,the present paper studies the effects of the mode and proportion of fuel charging on the quantity and quality of the sintered ore in use of the coke breeze exclusively and the mixture of coal and coke and points out the optimal proportional ratio under the different fuel charging modes and thus provides very important referential data for production purpose.


Similarity theory is used together with satellite data to estimate limits on the energy released by three solar flares. Bounds on the energy thereby distributed to the solar wind by satellite-observed shock waves are 1030–1032 ergs for each of the flares. The blast-like origin of these flares appears to be confirmed.


Piezoelectric resonance laser calorimetry was used for the determination of the optical absorption coefficients of LBO crystal in the 10 MW/cm2 – 100 MW/cm2 intensity range of continuous wave laser radiation at 1070 nm wavelength.


• The course of herpes zoster was studied in a series of 206 patients that included infants and octogenarians. There were 32 patients under the age of 20; in 30 of these (94%) the condition cleared up in 14 days or less. The infection was more severe and prolonged in older patients. In four elderly patients symptoms persisted six months or longer. The relative frequency with which the various parts of the nervous system were involved varied from youth to old age. No instance of involvement of the ophthalmic division of the trigeminal nerve was observed in patients under the age of 20, but ocular complications did not appear to be related to the aging process. Postherpetic neuralgia did not occur in patients under 20 but was frequent in patients over 50. Sex, race, and season did not perceptibly influence the incidence of infection in this series.


Fang Hui very revered Tao Yuanming.He expressed three chasing feeling in twenty-one hetao poem;he admired for spirits of Tao Yuanming′s noble personality that he did not bow before five bowls of rice and his solid-poor feast.He was a hermit and did not seek fame.He missed his hometown very much.He deeply regretted for past events.These were closely related to surrender in Yuan dynasty.


shaping the commercial environment, together with the development of new, more collaborative business models, will exert increasing pressure on effective tax rates within the industry. It also shows how companies can adapt their tax strategies to support the provision of outcomes-based healthcare and remain competitive.


e20511 Background: Breast cancer survivors remain "lost in transition" after active treatment due to changing needs and fragmented care. We sought to describe the patterns of breast cancer survivorship care in a diverse sample to identify factors associated with receipt of survivorship care by medical oncologists (med onc). Methods: We conducted a mailed survey to 2,290 women who resided in the Los Angeles and Detroit SEER registry catchment areas with a confirmed invasive breast cancer case from 6/05-2/07. Women were then surveyed approximately 4 years after diagnosis (n=1,536). On the follow-up survey, women were asked to identify their main provider of breast cancer follow up care: med onc, surgeon, primary care physician (PCP)/other physician. We examined the relationship between report of med onc as main provider of survivor care and: age, race/ethnicity, insurance, tumor stage, receipt of chemotherapy, and care by med onc reported on the baseline survey. Bivariate analyses and logistic regression we...


Lin Cheng Qiong Jiao Yuchen Jin Hao Fu Huizhen Zhang Libo Chen 1Department of Nuclear Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Affiliated Sixth People's Hospital, Shanghai, People's Republic of China; 2Department of Pathology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Affiliated Sixth People's Hospital, Shanghai, People's Republic of China Abstract: Preclinical studies have demonstrated that Apatinib, major targeting vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-2 (VEGFR-2), could inhibit the proliferation of anaplastic thyroid carcinoma (ATC) cells in vitro and in vivo. The efficacy and safety in ATC patients, however, remains unknown. Here, we report the case of a 93-year-old female with advanced ATC who initially treated with Apatinib. The tumor shrank notably 4 weeks after the initiation of therapy, which sustained for more than 30 weeks. The cervical CT illuminated a stable disease with a best response of 19.7% of the primary lesion and shrinkage of the metastatic lymph node. Adverse events, including hypertension, dental ulcer, hand-foot syndrome, fatigue, and anorexia, were observed and lightened with supportive treatment and dose reductions. The overall survival of the patient was 41 weeks. This is the first report describing the effectiveness of the VEGFR-2 inhibitor for the treatment of advanced ATC, warranting clinical trials to further ascertain its utility in this challenging setting.


Titanium alloys are widely used in aerospace industry in the areas of pressure vessels, airframe structures, landing gears, aeroengine compressor blades etc. The principal qualities of titanium alloys required for these applications are high specific strength, low density and high specific modulus. Among the families of Ti alloys, high strength titanium alloys come under martensitic α + β and metastable β alloys. Titanium alloy Ti-5Al-5V-2Mo (BT-23) is an important example of martensitic α + β alloy similar to the work horse Ti6Al4V alloy which exhibits good combination of strength and ductility in solution treated and aged conditions. But due to quenching from solution treatment temperature, the alloy tends to retain good amount of residual stresses. The severity of residual stress increases with increase in solution treatment temperature as well as severity of quench. An attempt has been made to study the effect of air cooling subsequent to solution treatment to compare the strength of the alloy vis-à-vis that achievable during water quenching. An attempt has also been made to correlate the microstructure evolution, hardness with variation in solution treatment temperature and quench severity in titanium alloy Ti-5Al-2Mo-5V. Samples subjected to air cooling subsequent to solution treatment exhibited higher microhardness when compared to water quenched samples. It is proposed that dynamic aging and/ or stress relieving occurs during air cooling from solution treatment temperature down to room temperature. Also the fine α precipitates formed during air cooling may be resulting in higher hardness compared to the α''/α' formed during water quenching. The same has been supported by thermal analysis of air cooling and water quenching processes employed subsequent to solution treatment.


During the COVID-19 lockdowns, images (memes, GIFs, pictures, etc.) were largely consumed via social media. The purpose of the study is to establish a relevant research model in order to contextualize images as transmedia communicative documents during lockdowns (March-June 2020). The research method is a visual semiotic analysis used to evaluate the data for inter-coded reliability. The corpus is comprised of 300 visual representations identified regarding the salient participants metaphorically represented as "real". On the one hand, the semantic-sensory relationships between images and viewers rhetorically imply a proverbial frame 'Every cloud has a silver lining'; on the other hand, the persuasive concept of humour is established by multimodal tools, which further shape the audience. The salient domains of 'staying home' and 'going away' point towards more specific variables, e.g. education or tourism. The results confirm the modality judgement of humorous construct as a valuable document regarding the pandemic situation. According to its unique rhetorical features produced by the image-message-receiver relationships, the consolidation of data sets the ground for strategies and signifiers, with the function of a) presenting the adaptation of norms and b) setting the ground for consequent studies. Conclusively, the survey was conducted at Juraj Dobrila University of Pula, which confirmed students' positive attitudes about using images for visual literacy. New findings are juxtaposed with previous knowledge in order to enforce the proposed research as a model for further narrative cognition. One such example is the burning question of how the media shapes the general public opinion on the coronavirus vaccine.


In the data center network, a packet-level load balancer such as random packet spraying (RPS) achieves high throughput by spraying data packets to all transmission paths, which easily suffers from the packet out-of-order problem under network asymmetry. While state-of-the-art network coding schemes can mitigate the issue, too many encoded redundant packets introduced by the network coding will cause extra traffic overhead, larger queueing delay and even TCP time out. In this paper, we propose OPportunistic Encoded Redundant (OPER), a middle-layer design upon existing coding schemes to mitigate the curse of redundant packets. Specifically, OPER uses opportunistic redundant packets which are replaceable by the data packets in the switches under heavy congestion. OPER is implemented as a shim layer between TCP and IP layers at end-hosts and a loadable plugin at switches, leaving existing TCP/IP protocols unmodified. The testbed and NS2 experiments show that, OPER reduces the average flow completion time by up to 71% compared with the state-of-the-art multipath coding schemes.


In order to explore the application of musculoskeletal ultrasound (MSKUS) in real-time dynamic detection of Luschka joint hyperplasia of cervical vertebrae, a total of 80 patients who were diagnosed as cervical spondylosis of vertebral artery type and underwent musculoskeletal ultrasound
 and three-dimensional computed tomography angiograph (3D-CTA) examination at a designated hospital by this study from December 2016 to December 2018 were selected as study subjects. Taking 3D-CTA as gold standard, the results of MSKUS and 3D-CTA were compared and their correlation and consistency
 analysis were performed; the sensitivity, specificity, false positive rate, false negative rate and diagnostic compliance rate of MSKUS were calculated for evaluating the lateral hyperplasia of Luschka joint; the Kappa values were used to compare the test results' consistency, which were divided
 into three categories of high consistency, general consistency, and poor consistency to evaluate the lateral hyperplasia of Luschka joint. The results show that the sensitivity, specificity, false positive rate, false negative rate, positive predictive value, negative predictive value and
 diagnostic coincidence rate of MSKUS in evaluating the lateral hyperplasia of Luschka joint were 87.34%, 95.78%, 2.49%, 12.45%, 93.02%, 92.18%, and 94.67%, respectively; there was no significantly statistical difference between the MSKUS and 3D-CTA evaluation results (χ2
 = 0.34, P > 0.05) and they have higher correlation (K = 0.82) and excellent consistency (K = 0.769). Therefore, it is concluded that the MSKUS has a good validity in evaluating the lateral hyperplasia of cervical vertebrae joints. The study results of this paper provide
 a reference for further research on the application of MSKUS in real-time dynamic detection of Luschka joint hyperplasia of cervical vertebrae.


Previous research carried out by the authors described the role of dual-fuel combustion efficiency on overall engine efficiency at high diesel substitution ratio. At low loads, high diesel substitution ratios result in excessive total unburned hydrocarbon emissions due to bulk flame quenching, and consequently lower substitution ratios in combination with intake air heating, throttling and increased turbulence should be adopted (or even full diesel operation) in order to meet emission legislation targets. At those operating points where combustion efficiency is not a limiting factor, engine operation can be really flexible and different options can be implemented. Conventional dual-fuel (CDF) pilot-ignition and reactivity controlled compression ignition (RCCI) combustion have been evaluated and compared based on emissions, heat transfer and efficiency. The results presented in this paper show that CDF is a really robust combustion mode but efficiency and NOx emissions are not optimal when substitution ratio is not maximized. Diesel injection close to TDC promotes fuel rich areas and NOx is formed in near-stoichiometric regions surrounding the diesel jets, so diesel fuel amounts should be kept to a minimum in order to reduce NOX emissions and heat losses. However, excessively low fuel quantities turn out in combustion phasing control and ignition quality problems and consequently high hydrocarbon emissions. Efficiency at low substitution ratio is reduced due to the effect of fuel trapped in crevices and excessive combustion temperatures, resulting in high heat losses through combustion chamber walls. For these reasons, RCCI combustion mode allows a more efficient use of CNG at high substitution ratios than CDF because of high reactivity fuel dispersed over the entire combustion chamber, including squish volume, while NOX emissions are sharply reduced compared to less premixed combustion modes. (Less)


Onions are New Zealand's largest fresh vegetable export commodity, returning revenue of $101 M per annum. Production in many regions is becoming uneconomic due to the presence of Allium white rot. The causal agent, Sclerotium cepivorum Berk., is a soil-borne pathogen that survives as small sclerotia, usually 0.25–0.6 mm diameter, formed on the tissue of host plants. These sclerotia can survive in the soil for a number of years, reinfecting subsequent crops. Traditionally, detection of inoculum in the soil relies on laborious soil sieving and counting of sclerotia. The current research reports on the development of a quantitative PCR method for detection of propagules of Sclerotium cepivorum in soil using a species-specific probe. In preliminary trials, quantitation has proven accurate and sensitive, with 1–100 sclerotia detected in 20 g of soil. The incorporation of a sucrose centrifugation and sieving step shows potential for later diagnostic use, reducing the amount of soil up to 500 fold, whilst maintaining 96% recovery of sclerotia. Suggestions are made for further enhancement of this research, and development of a diagnostic service for onion growers is discussed in relation to disease prediction and indexing.


The aim of this paper is to introduce the concept of regional exponential observability in connection with the strategic sensors. Then, we give characterization of such sensors in order that regional exponential observability can be achieved. The obtained results are applied to two-dimensional systems, and various cases of sensors are considered. We also show that there exists a dynamical system for diffusion system which is not exponentially observable in the usual sense but it may be regionally exponentially observable.


Objective To investigate and compare the therapeutic effect between using the standard large craniotomy hematoma removal of large craniectomy with atrium hernia reposition and conventional large craniotomy hematoma removal of large decompressive craniectomy in the treatment of hypertensive intracerebral hemorrhage with tentorial hernia.Methods 66 cases of hypertensive intracerebral hemorrhage associated with tentorial hiatus hernia (GCS≤8 score) were randomly divided into study group (treated with standard large craniotomy) and control group (treated with conventional large craniotomy). On 1 d, 3 d and 7 d after the surgery,the results for ICP measurement of intracranial pressure by spinal puncture, cerebrospinal fluid cell count, the head CT of brain edema and midline shift range and TCD monitoring of cerebral vasospasm were recorded.Efficacy was compared according to major complications. Results 3 d after the surgery the intracranial pressure, cerebrospinal fluid cell count, cerebral edema and midline shift range of the study group improved significantly compared to control group (P0.01). After 7 d the indicators for the study group were close to normal. The mortality rate for study group was 27% whereas the mortality rate of control group was 39%.The re-cerebral hemorrhage after craniectomy was not significant compared to control group (P0.05). Conclusion Using standard large craniotomy hematoma removal to large craniectomy and atrium hernia reposition can reduce complications and mortality rate in surgical treatment of hypertensive intracerebral hemorrhage associated with tentorial hernia in an effective manner.


Natural disasters are uncontrolled phenomena that happen every year and cause severe loss of life, property, and environmental damage. Transfer Learning-based real-time catastrophe recognition, on the other hand, can help victims and emergency response organizations in the early phases of these devastating situations. There are still gaps in the research when it comes to real-time natural catastrophe identification. In this research, a dataset for collaborative natural disaster categorization in video is presented. There was also a proposal for a VGG-16 with four classification heads. The network was trained to detect natural catastrophes such as cyclones, hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, and wildfires in video using transfer learning. When evaluated in a controlled setting, the model performed well on all four categorization tasks. As a consequence of the study, it was discovered that by combining a lightweight model with transfer learning, effective natural disaster detection may be achieved. This research will hopefully lead to the development of monitoring or technology that could accurately identify natural catastrophes on the scene and in live time, enabling for speedier rescue missions and less lives lost, and homes damaged.


Abstract:  We report the case of a 10‐year‐old girl presenting with linear IgA disease of childhood who in the follow‐up at age 16 developed hematuria and proteinuria resulting from IgA nephropathy. The combination of linear IgA disease and Berger nephropathy appears to be extremely uncommon but clinical alertness to this association might discover additional cases.


In 1837 Phoebe Palmer ended long years of spiritual struggle by seizing sanctification by means of what she would later call The Shorter Way. In that moment she began the change from being a typically pious Methodist woman of her time into one of the most effective and best known revival speakers of her generation. This paper will explore Phoebe Palmer's experience of sanctification and the dramatic effect it had on her life by asking what it was that allowed her to leave the safety of private life for public ministry. Brought up from an early age to understand a "woman's place" in her society, something freed Palmer from that place and motivated her to seek another. What was the source of her authority for this change and for her public ministry? In answering this question we will look first at who Phoebe Palmer was and what she expected from life. Second, we will take a .close look at the dramatic experience of sanctification which changed her life. Lastly, as we explore the issue of authority, we will compare her experience to that of other women who had similar life-changing experiences, the mystics of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.


Macau's status has never been a pacific topic even inside Portuguese histori-ography. Departing from Montalto de Jesus (1863-1932)' controversial proposal to summit Macau's administration to the League of Nations in the revised edition of his Historic Macao, 1926, the author aims to discuss the construction of the discourse on the autonomy of Macau, identify the roots of this concept, and explore its different meanings in works of some of the most relevant Portuguese and Macanese historians and authors on the topic during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The article shows the relevance of the establishment's historical, political, economical and geographical contexts to Macau?s present autonomous status and how the city?s self-government praxis assumed by the municipal government since its creation is deeply interiorized in Portuguese Macau's collective memory. Focuzing in the context of the Portuguese imperial and colonial systems, Macau?s claims and aspirations during the periods of major Liberal political radicalism, e.g. 1822-1823 and 1834-1844 are examined, while special attention is paid to the emergence of a Macanese ethnic affirmation and to the use of the patoa [patois] in the moments the group fears for its survival.


The present invention relates not only perform an augmented reality display from the captured position, then specify the want to make sure position with respect to the three-dimensional data display, to present what may be performed taken from any position. SOLUTION: The augmented reality system consisting of augmented reality server 2000 Metropolitan comprising a photographer terminal 1000 and the position corresponding database 2410 for displaying an augmented reality performing photography, the photographing terminal 1000, and the position information at the time of shooting by detecting the direction to send the augmented reality server 2000, augmented reality from the server 2000 receives the three-dimensional data of the building after displaying it further predetermined you want to augmented reality for the display data receiving an indication of position, augmented reality server 2000 outputs the direction data related to the camera position and orientation calculated in photographer terminal 1000 accordingly. .FIELD 1


The ethical and behavioural standards that guide a person's behaviour are protected as "human rights" under both domestic and international law. The human rights doctrine has exerted a significant amount of impact on global and regional organisations, in addition to having a significant impact on international law. Human rights are a topic that is actively pursued by governments and non-governmental organisations all around the world. It is nearly impossible to avoid hearing about atrocities and violations of human rights on a daily basis in the news. Crimes committed against children, women, and the disabled are continuing unabated in Covid 19, despite the fact that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted in 1948 and that special covenants were created to protect their rights. Direct or indirect violations of human rights can also be committed by the state itself. It is possible for the state to intentionally break the law or just fail to take the necessary safety measures. When a state abuses human rights, law enforcement, prosecutors, and other government personnel may be involved in the investigation and prosecution of the state. Even in the absence of direct physical contact, rights such as the right to a fair trial can be infringed upon, as is the case with police brutality. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is still, sixty years after it was first published, a pipe dream for many people who work to advance human rights. In the event of a pandemic, Jammu & Kashmir suffers from violations of human rights. The purpose of this research is to investigate and evaluate the effects of abuses of human rights that occurred in Jammu and Kashmir during the pandemic.


President Xi Jinping has been quick to make his mark on China's foreign policy compared to his predecessor, especially in fostering a positive momentum in China-US relations. China is also leveraging on its economic strength by engaging in mutually beneficial cooperation with other countries. Nevertheless, China's Air Defence Identification Zone and its expressed determination to administer the waters within the nine-dotted lines have cast doubts on China's professed policy of good neighbourly relations.


In this paper we will give a proof of the McMillan twist point theorem using geometry, potential theory and Ito's formula but not the Riemann mapping theorem.


Emeritus Professor Alan Glasper, University of Southampton, discusses the contribution of the Royal College of Physicians to effective monitoring of sick patients in hospital.


Many modern control scenarios require the control of complex, nonlinear systems acting in safety critical environments, such as autonomous cars or for robots interacting with humans. Thereby, formal guarantees for the satisfaction of hard input and state constraints are necessary despite the influence of disturbances. Hardly any efficient control methods exist which can take all of these requirements into account. Instead, it is often the case that a controller is developed for the nominal case and afterwards it is tested if it satisfies the constraints. Clearly testing is never enough, since only finitely many test cases can be considered. These guarantees can only be obtained by using formal verification methods, such as reachability analysis for dynamical systems. This means that after developing classical controllers, one tries to verify it. If this fails, a new controller is designed and verification is tried again. This can easily lead to many iterations.


Two-proton correlation functions have been measured in Si+Pb collisions at 14.6A GeV/c and Au+Au collisions at 11.5{ital A} GeV/{ital c} by the E814/E877 Collaboration. Data are compared with predictions of the transport model RQMD and the source size is inferred from this comparison. Our analysis shows that, for both reactions, the characteristic size of the system at freeze-out exceeds the size of the projectile, suggesting that the fireball created in the collision has expanded. For Au+Au reactions, the observed centrality dependence of the two-proton correlation function implies that more central collisions lead to larger source sizes. {copyright} {ital 1999} {ital The American Physical Society}


Whiskers are widely used by many animal species for navigation and texture discrimination. This paper describes Darwin IX, a mobile physical device equipped with artificial whiskers, the behavior of which is controlled by a neural simulation based on the rat somatosensory system. During its autonomous behavior, Darwin IX is able to discriminate among textures in its environment and learns to avoid textures that are paired with aversive events.


This paper analysed the main question of weaving pure cotton high count and high density fabrics on shuttle loom and introduced the available processing measurements to reduce temple defect.


We have developed a generalized model for accurate conversion from CT numbers to linear allenuation coefficients (LAC) by introducing a material-dependent conversion factor (CF). When assuming that a material x is a uniform mixture of water and another material A (we call this the "water-A assumption" in this paper), we show that the conversion from CT number of x (HU/sub x/) to LAC is linear. The slope of the linear function is determined by the attenuation property of material A, namely, its CT number (HU/sub A/) at a given kVp and density (/spl rho//sub A/). This generalized model can be applied to the conversion from CT images to attenuation maps for combined CT/PET and CT/SPECT imaging. When HU/sub x/ is less than zero, we use "water-air assumption, otherwise, we us "water-cortical bone assumption.' These assumptions lead to different slopes for the linear conversion when CT number is below and above 0. In practice, for each CT system, a cylindrical phantom with a small cortical bone cylinder in the center is filled with water and scanned once for each kVp. The CT number of the cortical bone (HU/sub CB/) at each kVp is then measured and used for the conversion. Experiments performed on a Philips CT AURA system show that, for a spongiosa bone sample with known LAC, the errors in LAC's converted from CT images at all the kVp's are 0% for PET and less than 1.5% for SPECT. Conclusions: The proposed model illustrates the linearity for the conversion from CT numbers to LAC at energy of interest under the water-A assumption. Its application to the conversion from CT images to PET/SPECT attenuation maps is accurate and convenient. In addition, the proposed technique can be used to characterize CT systems by obtaining the effective CT energy at each operating kVp. This allows for absolute attenuation measurement using CT systems instead of the relative measurement given by CT-numbers.


Defeasible protocols lead to a more refined and accurate handling of persuasion dialogues, important in human-artificial agent communication, a step forward to effective practical argumentation support systems


PrefaceLetters and sounds 1. Getting Acquainted (Part 1) 2. Getting Acquainted (Part 2) 3. The Family (Part 1) 4. The Family (Part 2) 5. Time 6. Daily Activities 7. At the Cafe 8. Shopping 9. At the Restaurant 10. In the City 11. Traveling 12. Geography and Weather 13. Ramadan and 'Achoura 14. Clothes and Celebrations


We developed a technique to probe, with sub-nanometer-scale resolution, depth profiles of nitrogen atoms in NO-treated SiO2/4H-SiC structures for Si- and C-face substrates. This technique revealed that preferential nitridation only at the SiO2/SiC interfaces proceeds in the initial stage of NO annealing. Then, for the Si-face, a longer NO treatment leads to a nitrogen distribution in SiO2 within a few nm of the interface. This result is in line with the mobility degradation in MOSFETs subjected to excessive NO annealing. For the C-face, a larger amount of nitrogen was introduced and the depth profile was unchanged after reaching a saturation level.


The present invention makes it possible to determine a warp in a corrugated cardboard sheet in a state in which the corrugated cardboard sheet is nearly finished and at an early stage, and to correct the warp accurately and at an early stage on the basis of the warp determination.
A warp determination device for a corrugated cardboard sheet manufacturing device is provided with: displacement amount measurement means for measuring displacement amounts of a plurality of corrugated cardboard sheet pieces (24Ca, 24Cb, 24Cc) on the downstream side of a slitter scorer and on the upstream side of a sheet stacking unit; and warp status determination means for dividing a measurement range of the displacement amount measurement means according to a width dimension W1 of the plurality of corrugated cardboard sheet pieces (24Ca, 24Cb, 24Cc), allocating the divided measurement ranges to each of the plurality of corrugated cardboard sheet pieces (24Ca, 24Cb, 24Cc), and determining a warped status of the corrugated cardboard sheet pieces (24Ca, 24Cb, 24Cc) for each of the plurality of corrugated cardboard sheet pieces (24Ca, 24Cb, 24Cc) on the basis of measurement values from the displacement amount measurement means in the allocated measurement ranges.


What happens when the government commissions new puppet plays based on the life of Mohandas Gandhi, India's revered mahatma (great soul)? Can the recently sainted compete with the ancient heroes of the Mah bh rata or R m yaa?


The aim of this study is to evaluate the speech perception of profoundly deaf children following cochlear implantation.

Material and methods: A prospective study was undertaken on a consecutive group of 138 children. Fifty children (36.3%) were deafened by meningitis, 75 (54.3%) were congenitally deaf, and 13 children (9.4%) were deafened by other causes. All children had received the Nucleus-22 multi-channel cochlear implant and followed a standard rehabilitation programme. No child was lost to follow-up and there were no exclusions from the study. The Iowa Matrix Closed Set Sentence Test and Connected Discourse Tracking were used to assess closed and open set speech perception respectively.

Results: On the Iowa Matrix Test, the median score was 0% before implantation, 0% at 1 year, 85% at 2 years, 99% at 3 years, and 100% at 4 and 5 years following cochlear implantation. On Connected Discourse Tracking the median score was 0 words per min (wpm) before implantation, 3 wpm at 1 year, 10 wpm at 2 years, 22 wpm at 3 years, 34 wpm at 4 years and 37 wpm at 5 years following cochlear implantation.

Conclusion: A comprehensive rehabilitation programme can help profoundly deaf children develop significant closed set speech perception abilities in the following 2–3 years after cochlear implantation. However, open set speech perception abilities need significantly more time to develop and they do not reach a plateau even 5 years after cochlear implantation.


In multiphoton excited fluorescence (MPEF), high energy upconversion emission is obtained from low energy excitation due to absorbance of two or more photons simultaneously. And in pressure-induced fluorochromic process, the emission energy is switched by outer pressure stimuli. Then how will the two processes be coupled and correlated in the matrix of metal-organic frameworks? Here we applied five metal-organic frameworks containing the same ligand with simultaneous multiphoton absorption and pressure-induced fluorochromic attributes. We demonstrate that one-, two-, three- photon excited fluorescence (1/2/3PEF) can be achieved in the frameworks, which exhibit pressure-induced blue-to-yellow fluorochromism. The performances are closely dependent with the topologies, flexibilities and packing states of the frameworks and chromophores therein. Furthermore, the multiphoton upconversion performance of the frameworks can be intensified by pressure-related structural contraction. Typically, over ten-fold increment in the 2PA active cross section up to 2217 GM is achieved in pressed LIFM-114 compared with the 210 GM for pristine sample at 780 nm. By this study, the rational coupling of multiphoton excited fluorescence and pressure-induced fluorochromism is achieved in metal-organic frameworks, providing potentials in such fields as advanced pressure sensing and composite photonic devices, and so on.


Protein kinase C (PKC) plays a prominent role in immune signaling, and the paradigms for isoform selective signaling are beginning to be elucidated. Real-time microscopy was combined with molecular and biochemical approaches to demonstrate a role for PKC-ɛ in Fcγ receptor (FcγR)–dependent phagocytosis. RAW 264.7 macrophages were transfected with GFP-conjugated PKC isoforms, and GFP movement was followed during phagocytosis of fluorescent IgG–opsonized beads. PKC-ɛ, but not PKC-δ, concentrated around the beads. PKC-ɛ accumulation was transient; apparent as a "flash" on target ingestion. Similarly, endogenous PKC-ɛ was specifically recruited to the nascent phagosomes in a time-dependent manner. Overexpression of PKC-ɛ, but not PKC-α, PKC-δ, or PKC-γ enhanced bead uptake 1.8-fold. Additionally, the rate of phagocytosis in GFP PKC-ɛ expressors was twice that of cells expressing GFP PKC-δ. Expression of the regulatory domain (ɛRD) and the first variable region (ɛV1) of PKC-ɛ inhibited uptake, whereas the corresponding PKC-δ region had no effect. Actin polymerization was enhanced on expression of GFP PKC-ɛ and ɛRD, but decreased in cells expressing ɛV1, suggesting that the ɛRD and ɛV1 inhibition of phagocytosis is not due to effects on actin polymerization. These results demonstrate a role for PKC-ɛ in FcγR-mediated phagocytosis that is independent of its effects on actin assembly.


The decomposition of the time reversal operator (DORT) is a single frequency method of spatially isolating scatterers with a multiple‐source/multiple‐receiver system [C. Prada et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 99, 2067–2076 (1996)]. The DORT technique applied to the active sonar problem has demonstrated the ability to isolate scatterers at various depths and ranges from distributed bottom reverberation for a set of monostatic or vertically bistatic source/receiver geometries. The sound channel propagation has several consequences for DORT analysis: (1) frequency fading prevents the source and receiving steering vectors for the first singular value from isolating the scatterer across the entire bandwidth of the signal; and (2) dispersion causes space–time spreading of the analysis window and complicates the back‐propagation procedure. These effects become more pronounced as the technique is extended to fully bistatic source–receiver geometries and range‐dependent environments. This paper presents the extension of the DORT technique to the full broadband, bistatic, active sonar problem, including refinements to the range‐resolution/time‐windowing and back‐propagation techniques, and enhancement to detection and classification by exploiting the response for several singular values across the entire bandwidth of the signal. [Work supported by ONR.]


Abstract : The possibility of using the density-gradient technique for determining the density of sea water is examined. In this method a water-drop sample falls through a column of immiscible liquid having a vertical density gradient, and the rest position of the drop is noted. Experiments to test the feasibility of the method are noted. (Author)


The current tendency towards the silvicultural promotion of mixed tree species has increased the variability in the crown structure within stands. This study shows how neighbouring trees can influe...


AbstractIn a variational data assimilation system, background error statistics (BES) spread the influence of the observations in space and filter analysis increments through dynamic balance or statistical relationships. In a data-sparse region such as the Bay of Bengal, BES play an important role in defining the location and structure of monsoon depressions (MDs). In this study, the Indian-region-specific BES have been computed for the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) three-dimensional variational data assimilation system. A comparative study using single observation tests is carried out using the computed BES and global BES within the WRF system. Both sets of BES are used in the assimilation cycles and forecast runs for simulating the meteorological features associated with the MDs. Numerical experiments have been conducted to assess the relative impact of various BES in the analysis and simulations of the MDs. The results show that use of regional BES in the assimilation cycle has a positive impac...


The invention relates to a needle sheath remover comprising a cap (10) removably attached to a housing of a medicament delivery device, a sheath grabber (20) connected to said cap and configured to be engageable to a needle sheath (42) of a medicament container positioned (46) within said medicament delivery device, wherein the cap and the sheath grabber are axially movable in relation to each other and wherein the sheath grabber and the cap are configured to interact with each other such that upon removal of the cap from the housing, the sheath grabber is capable of engaging and removing said needle sheath.


To improve the performance of steam generators in water level control,an adaptive fuzzy PID level controller for steam generators is designed based on the fundamentals of fuzzy control theory.The fuzzy inference system of the controller is capable of on-line auto-tuning of PID parameters by making use of the water level error and error rate.To validate the design,simulation models of the steam generator were first established resorting to the Matlab/Simulink simulation platform,and experiments on the fuzzy adaptive PID level control system were then conducted under an operating condition with 30% drop in steam load steps.The results show that the fuzzy adaptive PID control,compared with the conventional PID control mode,reduces overshoot and shortens regulating time by approximately 35% and 50%,respec tively,which improves the overall control performance of the level control system.


In this paper, 10 types of electrospun polystyrene (PS) nanofibers doped with poly(dibenzo-18-crown-6) (PDB18C6) were prepared and the ones which gave the best recovery of catecholamines – dopamine, norepinephrine and epinephrine from other interfering endogenous substances existing in the plasma matrix based on a previous study were selected. Furthermore, 10 types of composite nanofibers were characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The SEM results showed that the addition of PDB18C6 resulted in thicker nanofibers with rough surfaces. Furthermore, it was found that increases in the proportion of PS used led to higher mean fiber diameters (200 to 3000 nm). Batch adsorption experiments were conducted to evaluate the optimal composite nanofibers, which act as an adsorbent for selective extraction of catecholamines. At pH 7.5, composite nanofibers No. 10 (20% PS–5% PDB18C6 = 5 : 2, v/v) can improve the extraction efficiency of the catecholamines in plasma with high reproducibility. In comparison with discrete crown ether modified nanofibers, the PDB18C6 functionalized nanofibers offered a polymer backbone to solve the problem of solubility in most solvents for crown ether monomers. Therefore, PDB18C6 functionalized nanofibers increased the complexing properties more than crown ether monomers. Furthermore, electrospinning was shown to be a very versatile tool to prepare PDB18C6 functional polymer adsorbents for the selective recovery of plasma catecholamines.


Design principles of the integrated dual spectral (millimeter and infra-red ranges) system for Earth surface monitoring are presented. Technical characteristics of the system proposed have been also estimated according to the presented relations


There can be a wide variety of different purposes for the assessment of students. Both staff and students have views about what these purposes might be, but there is evidence that their views do not always coincide. The little evidence that exists relating to the effectiveness of assessment in achieving its purposes is not encouraging. Assessment seems to lead students to adopt any strategy which they think will lead to a good mark, including rote learning, game playing and cheating. Things may improve if lecturers communicate clearly with students what the purposes of assessment are and ensure that their marking reflects those purposes.


During the past decade, the Saudi Arabian education system has undergone major changes. Government agenciesinvolved in education have introduced new policies, standards, programs, and curricula. The focus of this research is todescribe and understand high school mathematics teachers' current practices in Saudi Arabia. This research includesthree cases of teachers currently teaching high school mathematics in Saudi Arabia. Using the Patterns of Participationconcept (PoP) as the main framework, I identified some of the significant practices, or figured worlds, from theteachers' sense of their practices. Some of the figured worlds that emerged are mathematics, the textbook, reform, andresponsibility for students' achievement. Mathematics, as it has always been, remains an influential figured world formathematics teachers. Reform and the textbook are becoming as influential because of the current changes in theeducation system in Saudi Arabia. While some participant teachers are developing a new understanding of whatmathematics is and what it means to teach it, they also indicated that they are mostly still using traditional teachingstrategies rather than reform teaching strategies


Structural parameters of tungsten bronze-type compounds Ba6−3xSm8+2xTi18O54(x=0.3, 0.5, 0.67, and 0.71) were refined in a space groupPbnmby the Rietveld method using high-resolution synchrotron radiation powder diffraction data. All the specimens crystallized in the orthorhombic system with a superstructure having the doubledcaxis of the reported orthorhombic tungsten bronze-type structure. Unit-cell parameters (in A) area=12.1715(5),b=22.3772(3),c=7.67523(9) forx=0.3,a=12.1568(1),b=22.3253(2),c=7.66301(7) forx=0.5,a=12.1472(1),b=22.2972(2),c=7.65338(6) forx=0.67, anda=12.1452(1),b=22.3029(2),c=7.65007(6) forx=0.71, andZ=2. The use of two wavelengths allowed the determination of cation and vacancy distributions over two pentagonal and five tetragonal tunnels in the structure. In the compounds withx=0.3 and 0.5, pentagonal tunnel sites were fully occupied by Ba, and the remaining Ba partially substituted Sm at two of five tetragonal tunnel sites. No evidence was found for the substitution of Sm for Ba at the pentagonal sites, and thus vacancies were formed at the pentagonal sites forx=0.71. An amplitude of periodic modulation along thecaxis, which caused superstructure, was increased with increasingxin the compositional range examined. A relationship between observed and calculated intensities of superstructure reflections suggests the presence of local lattice distortion, which takes its minimum atx=0.67.


This study developed and tested an empirical research model in a Chinese culture context. It confirmed the relationship among promotion focus, prevention focus, transformational leadership, and organizational commitment to fill important research gaps in regulatory focus theory literature. The implications, limitations and directions of future research are discussed. Key word(s): Regulatory focus; Transformational leadership; Organizational commitment


Oridonin, an active diterpenoid isolated from traditional Chinese herbal medicine, has drawn rising attention for its remarkable apoptosis‐ and autophagy‐inducing activity and relevant molecular mechanisms in cancer therapy. Apoptosis is a well known type of cell death, whereas autophagy can play either pro‐survival or pro‐death roles in cancer cells. Accumulating evidence has recently revealed relationships between apoptosis and autophagy induced by oridonin; however, molecular mechanisms behind them remain to be discovered. In this review, we focus on highlighting updated research on oridonin‐induced cell death signalling pathways implicated in apoptosis and autophagy, in many types of cancer. In addition, we further discuss cross‐talk between apoptosis and autophagy induced by oridonin, in cancer. Taken together, these findings open new perspectives for further exploring oridonin as a potential anti‐tumour agent targeting apoptosis and autophagy, in future anti‐cancer therapeutics.


The concept of classical regular solutions has been expanded by considering both first and second nearest-neighbor interactions between randomly distributed molecules. While the present model requires an ideal entropy of mixing, as does the classic regularity model, its heat of mixing is expressed by a more flexible equation which attributes the second-order terms of the Margules formalism to first nearest-neighbor interactions, and the third-order terms to second nearest-neighbor interactions. The activity–composition relations have been expressed by a single equation of the grand partition function, which converges to that of the classical regularity with decreasing contributions from second nearest-neighbor molecules.


The2224aluminium alloy is a high purity aluminium alloy that it is developed on2024alloy further by restricting Fe,Si impurities and adjusting its chemical composition.It has a good integrated properties on high strength and toughness.The researched resluts for T3510treatment technology and porformance of2224alloy extrusion materials are introduced.The alloy comforms to the standard requiement of U.S.Boeing,and can be used as structure materials for big civil aircraft.


Considering the disadvantages of existing methods for maintainability allocation, this paper develops an optimal allocation method with an objective of minimizing the related cost. The existence of optimal solution for the problem is proved and the formula of optimal allocation is derived. Finally ,an example is given to show the application of the method.


Almost every college and university has an established process and institutional documents for how a student can file a grievance about academic or behavioral conduct issues. The information and processes are typically embedded into the institution's student handbook and/or institutional policy and procedures manual.


ABSTRACT: Aim: To develop the educational aids for parents of children having colostomy and test its effectiveness. Methods: Two educational aids in the form of booklet and a video film (computer disk) were developed and these were used to teach care of colostomy to parents (n = 120) of children having anorectal malformations or Hirschsprung's disease. Results: It was found that the developed educational aids were effective in order to provide knowledge and skill to the parents (p 0.05). Conclusions: There is a great need to develop the educational aids for parents, subsequently these can be used to teach procedures for long term home management of the children born with congenital anomalies.


Copyright © 2017 Korean Society of Milk Science and Biotechnology. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http:// creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-nc/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract This study was carried out to investigate the micro-agribusiness realities of dairy farms by surveying both farmers' opinions and consumers' recognition of dairy farm products for in a value-chain analysis. In most cases, dairy farms produced fermented milk for sales and to prepare cheese both for sales and for providing the necessary material for farm visitors. Value-chain analysis did not seem to be a viable strategy for dairy farmers, except when assessing the quality of farmstead milk products in comparisons of dairy farm milks and commercial milk products. Consumers had a wide range of experience with milk products and had no willingness to buy products from dairy farms because of the high cost and the lack of product diversity. Our findings established three strategies for improving the economic feasibility of dairy farms. First, the price should be reduced by adopting a production balance to establish a farm-gate price, i.e., not as quota milk but as surplus milk. Second, consumers should be educated on the prescription of cheese at home. Third, a value-chain based on cooperative partnerships should be established among dairy farms. In addition, to improve the consumers' satisfaction on the diversity and quality of farm dairy products, developments of new value-added milk products made from the milk of cows allowed to graze on mountain pastures are needed.


Based on the project of returning cropland to lake in the wake of the 1998 disastrous flood of Changjiang Estuary and information on the ten counties in the lake area,this paper makes a case study of the effect that the returning has on increasing farmers' income to find out the effect of similar projects on farmers' income and discusses the deeper reasons that prevents farmers' income from growing quickly and channels and policies that can be taken to increase farmers' income.It concludes that while currently,returning the cropland to lake may affect farmer's income,it will in the long run turn out to be the most economical and practical step as well as an inevitable choice to prevent floods and achieve sustainable development in the lake area.The paper ends with some policy suggestions on the reality of farmers' income in the lake area-exploring new comprehensive development modals to tap into the wetland resource in the area,accelerating the adjustment of industrial structure and increasing nonfarm payroll employment.


Private demand systems provide a practical application for analyzing identification issues in cointegration analysis. The paper conducts Montecarlo simulation experiments of cointegrated demand systems by assuming non-separability of government consumption. This framework enables further to test the robustness of models under alternative empirical specifications in which the homogeneity restriction is assumed to hold. The results highlight that separability of utility function with respect to government spending and the over-inclusion of lagged dependent variables introduce important bias in identifying the long run demand system, while the model specification with homogeneity restriction perform better when the theoretical hypothesis is contained in the data.Length: 34 pages


Classification of brain tumors is a key task for evaluating tumors and treating them according to their classes. There are a variety of ways for detecting brain tumors, but MRI is the most often utilised technique which gives more accurate result than other techniques. The Deep Learning (DL) models performed exceptionally well in classification and segmentation tasks. This research proposes a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) based multiclass classification model that is capable of classifying brain tumor in to different classes. Dataset for this research has been obtained from Kaggle, which has roughly 2870 images. The tumors are divided into four groups in this dataset (meningioma tumor, glioma tumor, pituitary tumor and no-tumor). The acquired result demonstrates the modal's ability to classify brain tumors.


The studies made have showed the fact that replacing ascorbic acid with gox leads to the improvement in dough rheology (stability, softening, strength) and leads to obtaining finished products with increased volume (BIMP 14 (2) II 2003, p.99). Our purpose is to notice what happens and how GOX, ascorbic acid, GOX and ascorbic acid replacing a part of it, influence dough features.


Congenital disorders of glycosylation (CDG) represent an expanding group of conditions that result from defects in protein and lipid glycosylation. Different subgroups of CDG display considerable clinical and genetic heterogeneity due to the highly complex nature of cellular glycosylation. This is further complicated by ethno‐geographic differences in the mutational landscape of each of these subgroups. Ten Arab CDG patients from Latifa Hospital in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, were assessed using biochemical (glycosylation status of transferrin) and molecular approaches (next‐generation sequencing [NGS] and Sanger sequencing). In silico tools including CADD and PolyPhen‐2 were used to predict the functional consequences of uncovered mutations. In our sample of patients, five novel mutations were uncovered in the genes: MPDU1, PMM2, MAN1B1, and RFT1. In total, 9 mutations were harbored by the 10 patients in 7 genes. These are missense and nonsense mutations with deleterious functional consequences. This article integrates a single‐center experience within a list of reported CDG mutations in the Arab world, accompanied by full molecular and clinical details pertaining to the studied cases. It also sheds light on potential ethnic differences that were not noted before in regards to CDG in the Arab world.


The implementation of an integral transition model in a parallel unstructured CFD code is described. In particular, an algorithm for gathering the non-local boundary layer values (momentum thickness, shape factor, etc.) from parallely distributed computational domains is presented. Transition modelling results are presented for a flat plate and for a low pressure turbine, covering a large range of Reynolds numbers, Mach numbers, turbulence intensities and incidence angles. The transitional predictions are in much better agreement with the measurements than fully turbulent simulations. Furthermore, the computational overhead of transitional simulations is only 7% for one multigrid cycle.Copyright © 2007 by ASME


Economists currently analyze optimal commodity taxation based on the assumption that people's choices fully reflect their own best interests. In this paper, we extend optimal-tax theory by studying the welfare effects of "sin taxes" on unhealthy items, such as fatty foods, that people may (by their own reckoning) consume too much of. We use the same assumptions and tools traditionally used in public-finance theory, except that we replace the assumption that 100% of consumers have 100% self control with the assumption that some consumers may have some degree of self-control problems. We derive "optimal" taxes that correspond to the traditional "Ramsey" taxes when people have 100% self control, but differ when some people have self-control problems. We illustrate the possibility that heavy sin taxes may be optimal even if we believe the prevalence of self-control problems is relatively small. Intuitively, imposing large sin taxes on unhealthy items while lowering taxes on other items may not hurt rational consumers by much relative to the optimal Ramsey taxes, while the same change can create significant benefits for those who over-consume unhealthy items due to selfcontrol problems. We also demonstrate that in some instances such sin taxes may create Pareto improvements relative to the Ramsey taxes. Finally, we consider alternatives to the usual linear taxes, and show that there may exist schemes that help people with self-control problems while having little or no effect on people with full self control. Acknowledgments: We thank Robert Hall and Robert Barro for helpful discussions of a related shorter paper presented at the AEA meetings in January 2003. For helpful comments, we thank seminar participants at Harvard, Yale, Stanford, the 2003 USC Behavioral Public Finance Conference, and the 2003 Association of Public Economic Theory Conference at Duke, and especially Emmanuel Saez. For research assistance, we thank Christoph Vanberg. For financial support, we thank the National Science Foundation (grants SES-0214043, and SES-0214147), and Rabin thanks the Russell Sage and MacArthur Foundations. Mail: Ted O'Donoghue / Department of Economics / Cornell University / 414 Uris Hall / Ithaca, NY 148537601. Matthew Rabin / Department of Economics / 549 Evans Hall #3880 / University of California, Berkeley / Berkeley, CA 94720-3880. E-mail: email@example.com and firstname.lastname@example.com. CB handles: "Puck Boy" and "Game Boy". O'Donoghue's web page: http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/edo1/. Rabin's web page: http://emlab.berkeley.edu/users/rabin/. "Never eat more than you can lift." — Miss Piggy


A Hypsizigus marmoreus fusion strain(Jinshan No.1) was screened by the technology of protoplast fusion and laccase transformation system.The effects of different culture media,temperature,pH and water content on the mycelial growth of fusion strain of Hypsizigus marmoreus were studied,and laccase activity and production characteristics of the fusion strain were preliminarily analysed.The experimental results showed that Jinshan No.1 strain had highest mycelial growth rate and the strongest mycelial growth vigor on the PDA carrot medium,and the optimum temperature,pH and water content were 25℃,pH 6.5,60%~65%.The laccase activity was 3.95 U·mL-1,and the biological efficiency was 72.86%,which increased 17.15% comparing with Hypsizigus marmoreus.The fruiting test results indicated that the fusion strain(Jinshan No.1) has good production value.


Introduction: nowadays Angolan society highlights the wide access to education to train a qualified workforce capable of responding to new scenarios. At Katyavala Bwila University of Benguela in Angola, the scientific organization of the independent work of medical students is a difficulty that affects the teaching and learning process. Objective: to design a methodological strategy based on the theoretical conceptions of the teaching task for the development of independent work in the basic biomedical sciences. Methods: observational-descriptive study considering the bases of the syllabus and the need to train doctors capable of acting in their environment at Katyavala Bwila University of Benguela in the academic year 2018, teaching tasks were elaborated for the development of independent work of medical students in the subjects of Embryology-I and Physiology-I. Results: the teaching tasks motivated students in the information search by different ways that allowed them to identify health problems in their environment, thus achieving greater cognitive independence and motivation in learning the basic biomedical sciences, improving their professional way of acting. Conclusions: the independent work from a system of tasks in the subjects of Embryology-I and Physiology-I, brings about changes in the habits of self-preparation for medical students at Katyavala Bwila University of Benguela, Angola. It promotes the academic performance and the development of their creativity towards the transformation of the objective reality of their environment.


Abstract:This paper reviews and parallels the thesis of disembedding-re-embedding of ideas, objects and practices in the translation paradigm (a la Scandinavian institutionalism) with the discussion of reinvention in the diffusion of innovations theory (as put forward by Everett M. Rogers). The main inquiry to be answered is the extent to which these two propositions might be taken as theoretical allomorphs of a generic treatment of the dialectics of circulation of ideas. The analysis of the two assumptions makes use of Djelic's (2008) classification of three main framing types within sociological studies of diffusion: diffusion as epidemiology, diffusion as encounter with embeddedness, and diffusion as mediation and construction. The main input of the article is that it shows that the re-invention hypothesis links the diffusion of innovations theory with the diffusion as encounter with embeddedness model, while the disembedding-re-embedding of ideas perspective associates the translation paradigm with the diffusion as mediation and construction model. The paper further discusses the dynamics as well as the theoretical implications of these theoretical affinities for the Scandinavian translation stream.Keywords: diffusion, translation, disembedding-re-embedding of ideas, re-invention of innovations, Scandinavian institutionalismThis paper compares the assumption of the disembedding-re-embedding of ideas, objects and practices advanced by the translation stream in Scandinavian institutionalism (Czarniawska 2008a, 2008b, 2010; Czarniawska and Joerges 1996, Sahlin-Andersson 1996, Sahlin and Wedlin 2008) with the treatment of re-invention in the diffusion of innovations theory, as depicted by Rogers (2003). It investigates whether the disembedding-re-embedding and re-invention propositions constitute so-called theoretical allomorphs within the sociological studies of diffusion. In relation to the subject under inquiry, allomorphism depicts the phenomenon that variations of the same theoretical practice, which are consistent with the logic of particular sociological strands, circulate under distinct names (i.e., disembedding-reimbedding and re-invention) which seem legitimate in these fields (i.e., translation paradigm and diffusion of innovations theory).The task of answering this question is undertaken with two purposes in mind. First, the comparison of disembedding-re-imbedding and re-invention perspectives gives a window of opportunity to enrich the conceptual scheme of translation theory by learning from complementary framing. Second, irrespective of the results of the comparison (yes, we are dealing with a case of theoretical allomorphism in sociological studies of diffusion versus the contrary), the position commonly encountered in translation studies picturing the translation and diffusion theories in contrast will be certainly relativized. Much of the appeal of the translation perspective finds its cues in the fact that it was built in opposition to the diffusion model. This was done according to an original critique previously defined by Latour (1986: 266-269) where he exploited Michel Serres' notion of translation (Boxenbaum and Strandgaard Pedersen 2009, Czarniawska 2008b, 2010; Sahlin and Wedlin 2008).Still, besides the reference to Latour's criticism and sporadically dismissing footnotes to Rogers' (2003) work, there is no real discussion of the diffusion of innovations theory by Scandinavian institutionalists and authors associated with them. A notable exception-which might be taken to confirm the rule though-is Czarniawska's (2006, 2008b, 2010) incursion in the genealogy of the diffusion idea. It is this generic limitation in the theoretical framing of the diffusion of innovations theory that the present paper takes issue with.Diffusion Models, Diffusion TheoriesProbably one of the clearest expositions of diffusion models is Djelic's (2008) classification of three main framing types: "diffusion as epidemiology, diffusion as encounter with embeddedness and diffusion as mediation and construction. …


During 1948-54 several specimens of minutely as well as abundantly spotted leaves of southern red oak (Quercus falcata Michx.) from Georgia and North Carolina were received for identification in the Department of Plant Pathology and Plant Breeding, College of Agri? culture, University of Georgia. Sphaceloma was identified on the earliest specimen (see "Specimens cited") and the disease recorded by Jenkins and Bitancourt (1) as a spot anthracnose. With the Elsinoe stage of the fungus present on specimens subsequently received, the organism is here recognized as a new species of that genus.


Milewska-waźbińska Barbara, what does the Long-lived Nestor's Cup Hold in Store? Remarks on the Reception of the Theme in Iconography and Literature (Co kryje puchar długowiecznego Nestora? Uwagi o recepcji motywu w ikonografii i literaturze). The paper studies selected aspects of the reception of Homeric theme of Nestor's cup in the early modern times, both in emblematics and in literary worksThe longevity of king of Pylos and his oratorical skills were often alluded to in the Greek and Latin literature. As it turns out, the interpretation of the cup's adornments included in Athenaeus' Banquet of the Learned was widely discussed in the early modern times. This interpretation contributed both to the study of emblematics and literary works. The Homeric theme left its indelible mark also on the Old Polish literature, as in the funeral oration in honor of Bishop of Cracow Jakub zadzik entitled Nestor Sarmaticus written by Jan Cynerski-Rachtamowicz. keywords: Nestor's cup; Andreas Alciatus; Jakub zadzik; Jan Cynerski-Rachtamowicz. One of the most conspicuous Homeric characters immortalized in the literary and cultural tradition is Nestor. It is impossible to discuss all aspects of the impact of this character on the European culture within the space of a single article. with this in mind, my purpose is to indicate one of the paths that early modern authors followed. It is worth reminding that in the first Book of Illiad, this old man takes the floor after Agamemnon and Achilles' shouting match. king of Pylos asserts himself as an unchallenged orator. known for his unique quality of defusing tensions, his speech is seething with comforting words, which are deemed sweeter than honey.1 The gift of speech bestowed upon him serves not only to appease people's wrath, but also to pass life experience on to the young. whilst spinning the yarn about the olden days of Argives' glorious deeds, Nestor seeks both to pass the ancestral heroic traditions and to spur the young on to fight.2 His ability to speak allows scholars to see the ruler of Pylos as an archetype of 1 Hom. Il. I 249. 2 Hom. Il. I 123–174. 76 BARBARA MILEwSkA-wAŹBIŃSkA the traditional oral poet,3 which is made evident in the rhetorical style of his speeches.4 Homer does not fail to mention Nestor's longevity. According to his account, Nestor ruled over three generations of the subjects of Pylos. despite his old age and physical decline, Nestor is prepared to fight in Troy. His infirmity is held against him by diomed,5 who, however, admires the old man's vigilance, after the latter wakes him up for a debate.6 Nestor's commitment is rewarded with a two-handled goblet (ἀμφίθετος φιάλη)7 conferred by Achilles at the closing of the games dedicated to Patroclus. However, the king of Pylos fails to participate in the competition in person as a consequence of his old age and frailty. Nestor says: ἀλλ ̓ ἴθι καὶ σὸν ἑταῖρον ἀέθλοισι κτερέϊζε. τοῦτο δ ̓ ἐγὼ πρόφρων δέχομαι, χαίρει δέ μοι ἦτορ, ὥς μευ ἀεὶ μέμνησαι ἐνηέος, οὐδέ σε λήθω, τιμῆς ἧς τέ μ ̓ ἔοικε τετιμῆσθαι μετ ̓ Ἀχαιοῖς. σοὶ δὲ θεοὶ τῶνδ ̓ ἀντὶ χάριν μενοεικέα δοῖεν.8 For this gift, I receive it with gladness, and my heart rejoiceth that thou rememberest me, thy friend, neither am I forgotten of thee, and the honour wherewith it beseemeth that I be honoured among the Achaeans. And to thee may the gods in requital thereof grant grace to satisfy thy heart.9 This poignant scene serves to exemplify mutual respect between the old and young generations to this day. As it is commonly known, Nestor was in the possession of another finelooking cup (δέπας περικαλλές) described in depth in the 11th book of Illiad: πὰρ δὲ δέπας περικαλλές, ὃ οἴκοθεν ἦγ ̓ ὁ γεραιός, χρυσείοις ἥλοισι πεπαρμένον: οὔατα δ ̓ αὐτοῦ τέσσαρ ̓ ἔσαν, δοιαὶ δὲ πελειάδες ἀμφὶς ἕκαστον χρύσειαι νεμέθοντο, δύω δ ̓ ὑπὸ πυθμένες ἦσαν. ἄλλος μὲν μογέων ἀποκινήσασκε τραπέζης πλεῖον ἐόν, Νέστωρ δ ̓ ὁ γέρων ἀμογητὶ ἄειρεν.10 and beside them a beauteous cup, that the old man had brought from home, studded with bosses of gold; four were the handles thereof, and about each twain doves were feeding, while 3 dickson 1995. 4 knudsen 2014, 15–88. 5 Hom.Il. VIII 101–104. 6 Hom. Il. X 164–167. 7 Hom. Il. XXIII 616. 8 Hom. Il. XXIII 646–650. 9 Homer 1988, 542–543. 10 Hom. Il. XI 632–637. wHAT dOES THE LONG-LIVEd NESTOR'S CUP HOLd IN STORE? 77 below were two supports. Another man could scarce have availed to lift that cup from the table, when it was full, but old Nestor would raise it right easily.11 It has been confirmed in modern times that the cup and goblet were not merely a figment of the poet's imagination. In the second half of the 19th century Heinrich Schliemann found a golden goblet dating back to the 16th century BC in Mycenae, named after Nestor due to its adornment. Nearly a century later a clay drinking vessel dating back to the 8th century BC was found in the Greek settlement at Pithekoussai Island in The Gulf of Naples bearing the following inscription: "I am the cup of Nestor, easy to drink from. whoever drinks from this cup, the desire of fair-garlanded Aphrodite will seize him at once."12 As argued by Marek węcowski,13 this epigram testifies to the sophistication of the literary culture of the Ancient Greece. Given its sympothic function, it should not come as surprise that Nestor's cup had its entry in Athenaeus' compendium Deipnosophistae (The Banquet of the Learned). Book 10 mentions that Nestor was partial to wine, and in Book 12, in the passage describing tableware, the author alludes to the quoted scene from Book 11 of Illiad. Quoting Asclepiades of Myrlea, Athenaeus ventures to discern the pattern of the universe in the cup's adornments. He argues that the pattern could be identified in the round shape of the vessel as well as its ornamentation: the cup was gold-studded like stars. The author of Deipnosophistae goes on to argue that the cup was festooned with the Pleiades star cluster, rather than doves. In Greek both words sound similarly: "pleiades" and "peleiades." Nestor's longevity and oratorical skills were often alluded to in the Latin literature. In Fasti, Ovid portrays a festivity wherein the number of toasts the guests drank was to match the number of years Nestor lived, which was to assure their longevity: sole tamen vinoque calent annosque precantur, quot sumant cyathos, ad numerumque bibunt. invenies illic, qui Nestoris ebibat annos, quae sit per calices facta Sibylla suos.14 But they grow warm with sun and wine, and they pray for as many years as they take cups, and they count the cups they drink. There shall you find a man who drains as many goblets as Nestor numbered years, and a woman who would live to the Sibyl's age if cups could work the charm.15 11 Homer 1988, 526–529. 12 Fantuzzi and Hunter 2004, 286. 13 węcowski 2011, 119–129. 14 Ov. Fasti III 531–534. 15 Ovid 1959, 159–161. 78 BARBARA MILEwSkA-wAŹBIŃSkA The poet seems to allude to Nestor's two distinguishing characteristics: drinking and longevity. Another reference to Nestor's cup described by Homer appears in one of Martial's epigrams in which the garrulous old man claims that a dove engraved on one of the vases was burnished by none else than Nestor himself: hi duo longaevo censentur Nestore fundi: pollice de Pylio trita columba nitet.16 Those two goblets are valuable because of aged Nestor: the dove is burnished by the rubbing of the Pylian thumb.17 As it turns out, the reflections included in Athenaeus' Deipnosophistae were widely discussed in the early modern era. The work's editio princeps was published in Venice at Aldus Manutius' printing office in 1514, and its second edition in 1535 in Basil. Another interesting link, as regards the tradition of Nestor's cup, is emblematics. In a new edition of Alciatus' emblem books published in 1546 in Venice by Aldus' son, including 86 hitherto unpublished epigrams, on page 9 verso the image of Nestor's cup is shown. The plate illustrates a wide vessel with spread-winged birds on all four sides of the edge, with their backs turned to the edges. The emblem carries the inscription "Scyphus Nestoris", and under the picture there is the following epigram: Nestoreum geminis cratera hunc accipe fundis, Quod gravis argenti massa profudit opus. Claviculi ex auro, stant circum quatuor ansae: Unamquamque super fulva columba sedet. Solus eum potuit longaevus tollere Nestor. Maeonide, doceas quid sibi Musa velit? Est coelum, scyphus ipse: colorque argenteus illi, Aurea sunt coeli sidera claviculi. Pleiadas esse putant, quas dixerit ille columbas: Umbilici gemini magna minorque fera est. Haec Nestor longo sapiens intelligit usu: Bella gerunt fortes, callidus astra tenet. 16 Mart. Epigr. VIII 6, 9–10. 17 Martial 1920, 9. Figure 1. The shape of Nestor's cup – a fragment, according to Andreae Alciati Emblematum libellus nuper in lucem editus, Venetiis: Aldus 1546, fol. B1v. wHAT dOES THE LONG-LIVEd NESTOR'S CUP HOLd IN STORE? 79 Take this Nestorean cup with its double bowl, a work of art produced from a mass of weighty silver. Its studs are made of gold, and four handles surround it; on each of these sits a golden dove. Though he was advanced in years, only Nestor could lift it. Maeonian, would you teach us what the Muse meant thereby? The cup itself is the sky, and it has a silvery colour; the studs are the golden stars of heaven. what he called doves are thought to be the Pleiades; and the bear, both the Greater and the Lesser form its twin centres. From long experience, wise Nestor understands these truths: strong men wage wars, a sage man holds the stars.18 If the first part of the epigram describes a vessel carried on the plate, the second part contains obvious references to Athenaeus' interpretation. This testifies to the wide recognition of Deipnosophistae in humanistic circles. The latter had already adopted allegorical the interpretation which the work helped popularize. Athenaeus' work, along with Alciatus' emblem, was referre


Recent results in the study of leptonic decays of light hadronic states and rare $B$ decays are presented. Measurements of the properties of $B^0_\textrm{s}$ mesons decaying to $\mu^+\mu^-$ and searches for $B^0$ mesons decaying to $\mu^+\mu^-$ by both the ATLAS and CMS collaborations are discussed. Probing lepton flavour violation via searches for $\tau$ leptons decaying to three muons with ATLAS and CMS is also discussed.


Several synthesis methods, graphical, analytical and computer-aided technique, have been proposed for selecting and scaling mechanical devices. The objective is to guide a rigid body through a specified position, or to force a point on a linkage to trace out the desired trajectory curve, or to perform a specific input/output relationship. This paper is based on the function generation and rigid body guidance, although the proposed method can be applied to any of them. Extensive research has been given to the synthesis of mechanisms for the purpose of function generation based on candidate mechanism layout. However, in the initial design stage, the designer has to synthesize a combination of linkage topology and type of joints which may be best suited for a particular task. This problem may be solved by means of experience, intuition of designers. So, the systematic determination of the optimal topology and dimension of mechanisms is very important in the mechanism design process. In this paper, unified mechanism synthesis which covered the problem of type and dimensional synthesis of planar mechanisms with respect to the functional requirement of output motion is proposed. To perform the unified synthesis for function generation, a planar linkage is modeled as a set of size-variable three rigid blocks connected by zero-length translational springs with variable stiffness. The values of spring stiffness and size of rigid blocks yielding a desired functional requirement related to input motion are found by using an optimization method.


The circulation of Latin American cinema in a transnational context has widened the options that actors and directors from the region have regarding their involvement in the different aspects of film production. In order to analyze Guillermo Arriaga's transnational career as a writer of novels and screenplays I contrast his work with that of other writers and filmmakers who have participated in both the cinematic and literary fields. The fact that Arriaga has crossed the lines between writing, adapting, and directing his own works in Spanish and English leads me to review the current relations of film and literature in general. Finally, by comparing Arriaga's novels and films, I propose that the contemporary practice of film adaptation contributes to the "flexibilization" in the roles writers, actors, and directors play in filmmaking and in the circulation of cultural capital between film and literature in the current media markets.


This article is devoted to the bipartite tracking consensus for multiagent systems with control input delay and nonlinear dynamics under directed signed graph. Based on the relative information of the agents' neighbors, a distributed control protocol is designed to make the systems achieve bipartite consensus in the presence of a single leader. For the sake of dealing with the nonlinear function, the reduction transformation is applied. Via Lyapunov stability theory, the sufficient conditions which guarantee the multiagent system reach bipartite consensus. And finally, the simulations are given to verify the effectiveness of the results in the paper.


Background: "Teenage" or "Adolescence" is the transition phase from childhood to adulthood. Teenage pregnancy has emerged as one of the
major social & nancial issue in recent years with great impact on feto-maternal health & become challenge to obstetrician.
Objectives: The aim of this study is to analyse determinants, risk factors , sociodemographic factors in the teenage pregnancies & it's adverse
consequences.
Materials & Methods: This observational Study was conducted at Dr DY Patil Medical College, Hospital and Research Institute, Pimpri, Pune .
Data collected from teenage pregnant females (age more than 18years and less than 20 years) who are willing to participate in this study.
Results: The current study evaluated the adverse impact of teenage pregnancies on maternal and neonatal health outcomes with emphasis on socioeconomic factors, risk factors and complications of such pregnancies. Among the total 205 cases of teenage pregnancy, 71.22% cases were between
19-20 years and 28.78% were between 18-19 years. Most of the mothers around 42.93% studied only up to primary school whereas 31.17% were
uneducated.
Most of the mothers were in the upper lower and the lower scale of socio-economic status based on the Kuppuswami Classication. Many were
from rural areas due to lack of awareness and minimal education about teenage pregnancies. Anaemia (16.58%) was commonest risk factor for
complications in teenage pregnancies.
Conclusion: Teenage pregnancies are associated with increased health care expenditure and adversely affect the socio-economic status as most of
the subjects belong to lower socio-economic strata and were uneducated. Hence, it is vital to prevent teenage pregnancies as far as possible by good
education , creating awareness about it and as well through government regulations.


Several types of hybrid catalysts are made through mixing of 4th generation Ziegler-Natta (ZN) and (2-PhInd)2ZrCl2  metallocene catalysts using triethylaluminum (TEA) as coupling agent. Response surface methodology (RSM) is used to evaluate the interactive effects of different parameters including amounts of metallocene and TEA and temperature on metallocene loading. Analyzing the amounts of Al and Zr elements in the hybrid catalysts through ICP-OES and EDXA reveals that temperature plays a crucial role on anchoring of the metallocene catalyst on ZN while TEA has the least determining effect. The ICP analysis shows that as the concentration of Al goes up in the hybrid catalyst the concentration of Zr passes a maximum, while EDXA shows a direct relationship between the Al and Zr contents. Using triisobutylaluminum (TIBA) and methylaluminoxane (MAO) as the coupling agents, almost similar metallocene loadings are observed. Finally, the performance of hybrid catalysts is investigated in propylene polymerization and the obtained polymers are characterized using DSC and DMTA through which the presence of two types of polymers in the final product are confirmed.


Detection of moving objects is a critical component of many computer vision tasks. Recently, deep learning architectures have been developed for supervised learning based moving object change detection. Some top performing architectures, like FgSegNet are single frame spatial appearance cue-based detection and tend to overfit to the training videos. We propose a novel compact multi-cue autoencoder deep architecture, Motion U-Net (MU-Net) for robust moving object detection that generalizes much better than FgSegNet and requires nearly 30 times fewer weight parameters. Motion and change cues are estimated using a multi-modal background subtraction module combined with flux tensor motion estimation. MU-Net was trained and evaluated on the CDnet-2014 change detection challenge video sequences and had an overall F-measure of 0.9369. We used the unseen SBI-2015 video dataset to assess generalization capacity where MU-Net had an F-measure of 0.7625 while FgSegNet_v2 was 0.3519, less than half the MU-Net accuracy. The source code of the Motion U-Net is available at https://github.com/CIVA-Lab/Motion-U-Net.


The present paper is devoted to the study of spectral proper ties of random Schrödinger operators. Using a finite section method for To eplitz matrices, we prove a Wegner estimate for some alloy type models where the single s ite potential is allowed to change sign. The results apply to the corresponding discr ete model, too. In certain disorder regimes we are able to prove the Lipschitz continui ty of the integrated density of states and/or localization near spectral edges.


Ab s t r Ac t This descriptive study aims to explore the efficiency of English language teacher preparation programs in Saudi Arabia according to TESOL standards. The study uses a 28 item (across five domains) questionnaire to collect data from one hundred and fortyone male and female EFL teachers in Saudi Arabia. Results show that the TESOL standards are included to a fair degree in the current preparation programs for EFL teachers in Saudi Arabia. The TESOL standards range from 75.8% to 83.5%, meaning that the failure of the preparation programs for TESOL standards ranged from 16.5% to 24.2%. The results also indicate statistically significant differences between the programs for preparing EFL teachers, attributable to the universities and colleges from which they graduate. Finally, the study makes some recommendations based on its results to raise English language teachers' preparation programs in Saudi Arabia.


Image degradation caused by relative motion between the object and the imaging system (like a camera with its platform) is detrimental to precision measurements with the image. Principal modes of relative motion are identified. The discussion, however, concentrates on the systematic motions, translatory and rotatory. Various known analogical approaches of compensating for the image motion are cited. An analytical-computational approach is presented. This considers the relationship of 3-dimensional transformation between the image and the object, known as the collinearity condition. The standard forms of collinearity equations are presented. Augmentation of these equations for both translatory and rotatory motions are expounded. With the increasing use of high speed computers (as well as analytical plotters in the realm of photogrammetry), this approach appears to be more cost-effective and finally seems to yield precision better than other approaches that con-centrate on analogical corrections to the image.


The founding of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1918 was, at its core, an international endeavour—campaigned for during wartime exile in Europe and the USA and internationally confirmed during the Paris Peace Treaty—and this international orientation continued throughout the interwar period. International security mechanisms were put in place, most notably through the founding of the Little Entente as well as through a strong involvement in the League of Nations. Beyond these ties to international organizations that were to guarantee the country's safety, this chapter traces examples of worldwide outreach and public debates pertaining to the global standing of Czechoslovakia, focusing on its relations with countries in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. These world regions played a significant role in Czechoslovakia's quest for a global diplomacy, a global economy, or even the founding of Czechoslovak colonies, and highlight the country's orientation far beyond the Central European scope.


1. Multi-female groups of primates fall into two main classes, (a) female-bonded (FB) and (b) non-female-bonded (non-FB). A model is presented to account for the evolution of FB groups in terms of ecological pressures on female relationships. 2. The model suggests that FB groups have evolved as a result of competition for high-quality food patches containing a limited number of feeding sites. Groups are viewed as being based on cooperative relationships among females. These relationships are beneficial because cooperators act together to supplant others from preferred food patches. 3. Ecological data support the model for most FB species, but not for Theropithecus gelada or Colobus guereza, whose foods are not found in high-quality patches with limited feeding sites. Non-FB species conform to expectation, either because they do not use high-quality patches, or because feeding competition has disruptive effects during periods of food scarcity. 4. The behaviour of females differs as expected between FB and non-FB species in group movements and in inter-group interactions; in both contexts females are more involved in FB species. 5. Multi-male groups tend to be found in non-territorial FB species. The presence of several males per group is suggested to benefit females by raising the competitive ability of the group in inter-group interactions. 6. Competitive relationships among females are more strongly marked in FB groups than in non-FB groups. The model suggests that relationships in most FB groups are ultimately related to feeding competition.


In this paper, we propose to use vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) to collect and aggregate real-time speed and position information on individual vehicles to optimize signal control at traffic intersections. We first formulate the vehicular traffic signal control problem as a job scheduling problem on processors, with jobs corresponding to platoons of vehicles. Under the assumption that all jobs are of equal size, we give an online algorithm, referred to as the oldest job first (OJF) algorithm, to minimize the delay across the intersection. We prove that the OJF algorithm is 2-competitive. We then show how a VANET can be used to group vehicles into approximately equal-sized platoons, which can then be scheduled using OJF. Our simulation results show that, under light and medium traffic loads, the OAF algorithm reduces the delays experienced by vehicles.