Empirical mode decomposition (EMD) is proved to be an effective tool for the nonlinear and non-stationary signals.  Many researchers have studied the application of EMD in a variety of fields. But few in-depth studies are related to the improvement of EMD. A new signal analysis approach based on improved EMD method is introduced in this paper. Firstly, the basic principle of EMD is introduced. Then the influence of spline interpolation's EC to the EMD is investigated. In addition, the EMD based on high-order spline interpolation is used to improve the precision of the algorithm. Furthermore, the fast EMD is developed in order to improve the computation efficiency and precision. From what has been discussed above, we may safely draw the conclusion :(a) The EMD algorithm based on high-order spline interpolation can improve the precision remarkably while the calculation time is increased. (b) As the order of spline interpolation increasing, the precision of algorithm is not proportionable. The precision will not be improved when the order is up to certain order.


A field of barotropic background currents (BC) in the Gulf of California is constructed numerically. The definition of BC used here is based on suppositions about (i) the horizontal homogenization of potential vorticity in large-scale gyres, and (ii) the tendency of a current structure to evolve to a state with a minimum of system mechanical energy. In the barotropic case here, the numerical algorithm is reduced to the solution of the Dirichlet boundary problems for planetary, topographic and flowing integral streamfunction components separately. The results obtained are compared to observations and the results of other numerical models. The calculated barotropic BC realistically describe the main features of the circulation in the southern part of the Gulf of California, including its mouth. Cyclonic movement in the deep-water and anticyclonic movement near the coasts are observed. The numerical results for the central and northern parts of the gulf, where seasonal climatological differences are pronounced, coincide with observations in the upper layer only during the winter season; i.e., the circulation here is anticyclonic. Thus, there are reasons to suggest that mainly planetary-topographic forcing, especially in the southern part, forms the circulation in the lower layer. The seasonal variability of currents in the upper layer caused by non-stationary effects such as wind, heat flux and baroclinicity, is apparently in phase with these mechanisms during winter, and in antiphase during summer, particularly for the central and northern gulf.


Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) includes the facility to
provision point-to-multipoint (P2MP) Traffic Engineered (TE) Label
Switched Paths (LSPs) which can be used to construct P2MP tunnels
across MPLS networks. The Label Distribution Protocol (LDP) has also
been extended to support label distribution for multicast traffic by
forming multicast LSPs. When traffic for a user network is carried
across a provider network, it is common practice for the traffic to be
placed in tunnels. This document examines the requirements to carry
multicast LDP traffic across a provider network within P2MP MPLS
tunnels, and introduces solution models that meet those requirements.
Note that the requirements and solutions discussed in this document
are also applicable to the use of multicast LDP on multi-access
networks.


The usage of multithreaded programs is continuously increasing, which leads to various concurrency issues. The non-deterministic approach of the thread scheduler makes the analysis of such programs complex. Thread-based visualization of the concurrent events helps to analyze a concurrent program e ciently. The extension of such visual analytics jpf-visual tool for regular JVM traces will help Java programmers to better understand and analyze the runtime execution of concurrent programs. AspectJ instrumentation with its lock() and unlock() pointcut extension makes it possible to capture important runtime events information in order to generate the JVM event trace. A successful integration of the JVM trace into the jpf-visual tool is achieved through code refactoring and the use of adapter classes. In this thesis, the implementation of such an approach is shown to analyze the concurrent events using the regular JVM. Such implementation can help to provide a generic approach for the concurrency issue analysis.


Bee pollen contains almost all nutrients required by the human organism as well as diverse health-promoting substances. However, its composition and nutritional value greatly depend on the botanical origin. As such, it is important to develop a rapid and non-expensive methodology that allows studying its characteristics, making labelling more objective and easier. The FTIR-ATR technique was used to predict some nutritional parameters in 126 bee pollen samples. FTIR-ATR spectrum obtained in the region between 4000 and 400 cm−1 with PLS Regression models were used to correlate spectral information with the data obtained using reference methods. In this first approach with pollen samples, good correlation models with appropriate accuracy were obtained for the evaluated parameters with r2 varying from 74.8 to 97% and residual prediction deviation between 2.0 and 5.8. These results suggest that FTIR-ATR may be a useful technique for assessing bee pollen's composition.


Modelling integrated management of organic waste at a farm level is still a key challenge, but one can find several works in the literature. However, the shift to a larger (e.g area, district or county) scale is even more complex. Consequently, associated modelling work is still considerably under-developed. Here we use the UPUTUC model (french acronym of Production Unit, Transformation Unit, Consumption Unit) to examine fluxes of organic matter residues within the Territoire de la Cote Ouest (TCO), on the west of Reunion Island. UPUTUC is an agent-based model and is developed using the AnyLogic platform. This platform is a multi- method modeling environment and allows for the combination of discrete event models, agent-based models and system dynamics models. It also provides spatial features in order to use information coming from GIS. UPUTUC uses three agents. These agents are: (i) production units that produces organic matter or waste (for example: pork, poultry breeding and sludge produced by a wastewater treatment plant), (ii) transformation units that produces compost or fertilizer with organic matter coming from the production unit, and (iii) consumption units that uses transformed organic matter from the transformation unit or organic matter coming directly from the production unit (for example: a sugar cane field, a market gardening and a grassland). State variables of production units are a production rate, a stock, and all times and distances to the transformation units and consumption units in the model. State variables of transformation units are a production rate, equations the transform organic matter into compost or fertilizer, a transformation time, a stock, capacity of trucks that delivers products to consumption units, and finally, all times and distances to consumption units in the model. State variables of consumption units are an area, compatible fertilizers with the unit, fertilizer requirements, and periods during which fertilization is possible. In addition, the agents are spatially situated based on GIS information. The French Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS) and the Farmers' block from the European Common Agricultural Policy provide this information. Moreover, as Reunion Island is a volcanic island, the roads are very rough and consequently the logistic dimension is crucial in the model. Therefore, as the dynamic of logistic characteristics of the associated road network is not simulated (for example, the time for a vehicle to transport organic matter from a production unit to a transformation unit) these variables are pre-computed off line in a previous step and are considered as parameters. In UPUTUC, there are 51 production unit agents, 2272 consumption unit agents and, finally, only 4 transformation unit agents. Several scenarios are tested. First, the current situation in order to check how the model behave. Second, the introduction into the first scenario of a new transformation unit (called UT1) that takes as inputs only litter, manure and crushed green wastes and combines them into a specific compost used by all the consumption units. Third, the introduction into the second scenario of two new transformation units : the first one (called UT2) takes as inputs only poultry dropping, vinasse and crushed green wastes and combines them into a specific compost, and the second one takes as input compost from UT1 and UT2 and produces granulates with them.


The workshop sessions concentrated on polarized protons in circular accelerators and storage rings. Topics such as polarized electrons were discussed only when the subject was relevant to proton phenomena. Of major interest was the possible applicability of the new idea of spin matching for crossing depolarizing resonances. On the experimental side, some remarkable new data were presented by the SATURNE II Group. They have successfully crossed both intrinsic and imperfection depolarizing resonances by the spin flip method with minimal depolarization-the first group to do so. They also obtained some results which apparently cannot be explained with our present understanding of spin phenomena. The workshop concluded that more experimental measurements are needed to understand the physics and that such studies would be very important for the future acceleration of polarized protons at KEK and the AGS. The workshop included status reports from the four laboratories which have programs of polarized particle acceleration--or approved projects to accelerate polarized protons.


This article explores the experiences of a growing but hitherto under-researched category of academics employed within UK higher education: women of non-UK origin. Drawing on an intersectional approach, we examine how gender and foreignness act as dynamic, interrelating categories in producing particular subjectivities in the context of UK business schools. We employ a qualitative methodology based on narrative interviews with 31 foreign women academics. In the analysis, we outline the broader global forces that have shaped their trajectories in choosing the UK as their destination, and the place of gender and foreignness in the participants' narratives of their experience. Our findings point to how the discourse of internationalization conceals intra-categorical differences among non-national staff, further supported by a merit-based system that promotes an individualized view. However, participants' narratives provide examples of how gender and foreignness are mobilized in different ways by different actors — including themselves — in the production of social locations. As such, the paper contributes to critical debates regarding the academic workplace and the changing conditions of UK academia.


The mechanical properties such as tensile strength, tensile modulus, elongation-at-break and impact strength of poly(lactic acid) (PLA)/ethylene-co-vinyl-acetate copolymer (EVA, vinyl acetate content 50 weight percent) blends were evaluated at EVA volume fractions ranging from 0–0.35. The tensile properties were compared using several theoretical models. The blends lost little of their tensile strength and modulus while elongation-at-break was simultaneously enhanced. Efficient dispersion of EVA in PLA using a micro compounder in which there is provision for melt recirculation significantly improved the Izod impact strength making the blends super tough. The phase miscibility, two phase morphology, fibrillation and interparticle distance were studied using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The blend is a two phase system where the particle size is enhanced upon an increase in the concentration of the blending copolymer. The normalized values of the relative elongation-at-break and Izod impact strength were enhanced significantly in accordance with the crystallinity, 33 fold (53.73 kJ mm−2) at a 0.35 volume fraction of EVA, which indicated softening of the system with enhanced toughness.


Rapid tooling (RT) methods allow for almost complete flexibility in routing of conformal cooling or heating channels within a mold for enhanced thermal control, but tool size is currently limited. A notable exception is the profiled edge laminae (PEL) method, which is a thick-layer laminated RT method intended for large-scale tooling applications. One of the biggest design issues with incorporating conformal channels in a PEL tool is to effectively seal the channels rapidly and inexpensively. Prior attempts in the literature at sealing laminated tools using diffusion bonding or brazing have been just the opposite. Recognizing that many manufacturing applications requiring large-scale tools (e.g., thermoforming, composites forming) do not need the temperature resistance and strength of either diffusion bonded or brazed laminae, this paper investigates alternative sealing methods. It is shown through a preliminary experimental study that (i) manual application of high-temperature adhesives locally around conformal channel holes will effectively seal channels for working fluid temperatures and pressures typically encountered in thermoforming over an extended period of time, and (ii) heating and cooling performance is similar to that of a continuous tool. Localized sealing is actually an advantage when tool porosity is needed. In addition, a novel approach to incorporating cooling fins into the nonforming side of a PEL tool is demonstrated, but thermal performance is poor as compared to conformal channel cooling. Finally, it is shown that simple one-dimensional analytical models can be used to effectively predict tool performance if a conformal channel cell design methodology is used.


Nutritional intake in children plays an important role in optimizing growth and development in children. The adequacy of nutritional intake in children can be assessed by the state of nutritional status characterized by thin, normal, and obese children. One of the roles of parents is to be responsible for fulfilling nutrition for their children. The desire of parents to fulfill their children's nutritional needs is often the background of inappropriate feeding practices. Inappropriate feeding practices include always fulfilling a child's desire to consume the food he wants, even many parents allow whatever food their child consumes, many parents serve ready-to-eat food Lack of nutritious food will lead to child growth retardation , the prevalence of malnutrition in 2013 was 19.6%, consisting of 5.7% malnutrition and 13.9% malnutrition. When compared with the national prevalence rate in 2010 (17.9%), it seems that this is increasing. The aim of this study is to know the relationship between the role of parents in preparing a balanced menu with the nutritional status of children. The design used is a literature review, namely by using several journals from several sources such as: Google Scholar, PubMed. The keywords used to perform the search are "Balanced Menu with Child Nutritional Status" for international articles used to search is "Balanced With Children's Menu. Nutritional Status ", publication year between 2015-2020, the results of the journal discussion show that there is an influence between the role of parents in preparing a balanced menu for children with the nutritional status of the child. And it was concluded that the role of parents is really needed for the growth and development of the child. However, children must receive adequate nutritional intake in order to grow healthy. Children's health can be achieved through efforts to provide a balanced diet according to their nutritional needs.


Background:Stress is the harmful physical and emotional response caused by an imbalance between the perceived demands and the perceived resources and abilities of individuals to cope with those demands. In the developing world, work-related stress is an issue of growing concern. Work-related stress can severely impact workers' general achievement levels in a negative way concerning both efficiency and accuracy. Thus striving to determine the level of stress at a job and its contributory factors will be insatiable input for intervention.Method: An institutional-based cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the prevalence and associated factors of job stress among Ganale Dawa 3D Hydropower Dam construction workers from April1-22, 2018. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire on 405 workers. Multivariable logistic regression analysis with a 95% confidence interval (CI) was used to identify the factors significantly associated with a good level of food hygiene knowledge. P-value less than 0.05 was used to declare statistical significant association.Result: A quarter of construction workers,24.7% [95% CI: (20.5%, 28.0%)]suffered from stress in their workplace. Being at young (AOR: 3.07, 95% CI: 1.45, 6.47) and middle (AOR: 3.94 95% CI: 1.27, 12.24)ages; sustain injury in 12 months (AOR: 2.6095% CI: 1.40, 4.80), shiftwork (AOR: 2.22 95% CI: 1.03, 4.79) and working over 48 hours per week (AOR: 4.5495% CI: 2.40, 8.56)were significantly associated with stress. Conclusion: This study showed that construction work is one of the most stressfuloccupations. It also suggeststhat age of workers, history of injury within 12 months of the study, shift work, and working over 48 hours per week were significantly associated with stress. Therefore, much has to be done by introducing flexible working hours that do not exceed 48 hours per week, avoiding long hours of shift work longer than 8hours and protecting the workers from work-related injury.


In this paper we use the prices of Mexican government guaranteed eurobonds to shed some light on the controversy of whether or not the currency crises of the last decade
have been anticipated by the iaternational economic, financial and political community. We calculate the probabilities of a currency crisis that causes a general
defauit on all Mexican foreign debt (we call these country default probabilities) and estimate the internationai term structure of interest rates. We then use this information in a simple reduced form credit risk model for sovereign default, which we test over the period 1993-1995. We find strong evidence that the crisis was anticipated and that it was triggered by changes in the internutional term structure.


Melanocyte transplantation by epidermal grafting was performed in 50 patients with localized, long-standing, stationary patches of vitiligo. Repigmentation was observed in 48 of the 50 patients within 3 to 4 months after transplantation.


We report a study on the complete spin-wave spectrum inside a vortex-state nanodisk. Transformation of this spectrum is continuously monitored as the nanodisk becomes gradually magnetized by a perpendicular magnetic field and encounters a second-order phase transition to the uniformly magnetized state. This reveals the bijective relationship that exists between the eigenmodes in the vortex state and the ones in the saturated state. It is found that the gyrotropic mode can be continuously viewed as a uniform phase precession, which uniquely softens (its frequency vanishes) at the saturation field to transform above into the Kittel mode. By contrast, the other spin-wave modes remain finite as a function of the applied field, while their character is altered by level anticrossing.


Peak exogenous carbohydrate oxidation rates typically reach ~1 g·min−1 during exercise when ample glucose or glucose polymers are ingested. Fructose co-ingestion has been shown to further increase exogenous carbohydrate oxidation rates. The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of fructose co-ingestion provided either as a monosaccharide or as part of the disaccharide sucrose on exogenous carbohydrate oxidation rates during prolonged exercise in trained cyclists. Ten trained male cyclists (VO2peak: 65 ± 2 mL·kg−1·min−1) cycled on four different occasions for 180 min at 50% Wmax during which they consumed a carbohydrate solution providing 1.8 g·min−1 of glucose (GLU), 1.2 g·min−1 glucose + 0.6 g·min−1 fructose (GLU + FRU), 0.6 g·min−1 glucose + 1.2 g·min−1 sucrose (GLU + SUC), or water (WAT). Peak exogenous carbohydrate oxidation rates did not differ between GLU + FRU and GLU + SUC (1.40 ± 0.06 vs. 1.29 ± 0.07 g·min−1, respectively, p = 0.999), but were 46% ± 8% higher when compared to GLU (0.96 ± 0.06 g·min−1: p < 0.05). In line, exogenous carbohydrate oxidation rates during the latter 120 min of exercise were 46% ± 8% higher in GLU + FRU or GLU + SUC compared with GLU (1.19 ± 0.12, 1.13 ± 0.21, and 0.82 ± 0.16 g·min−1, respectively, p < 0.05). We conclude that fructose co-ingestion (0.6 g·min−1) with glucose (1.2 g·min−1) provided either as a monosaccharide or as sucrose strongly increases exogenous carbohydrate oxidation rates during prolonged exercise in trained cyclists.


A green method of synthesizing silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) with corn straw acting as reducing agents was used to prepare antibacterial paper. An ammonia solution, corn straw, and soluble starch were used as the silver precursor, reducing agent, and capping agent, respectively. The optimal condition for synthesizing AgNPs was obtained by varying the reactant ratio, temperature, and reaction time. The AgNPs were characterized by ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), spray analyzer, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The obtained AgNPs were almost spherical and they were redispersed well in ethanol after centrifugation. Importantly, the prepared AgNPs were better applied in preparing antibacterial paper. After careful measurements, the mechanical properties and the antibacterial ability of the antibacterial paper were good. Therefore, the method of using corn straw as a reducing agent combined with AgNPs, to prepare antibacterial paper, is feasible. This method is noteworthy because corn straw is an underutilized material.


Fellow Cultural Sociologists, The ASA is upon us, and we have a fabulous program spread over two full days on Saturday, August 20 and Sunday, August 21, with several other co-sponsored or culture-related sessions on Monday and Tuesday. Don't miss our business meeting on Saturday at 5:30, which will be followed by our section reception. You'll find all the info on relevant sessions, roundtables and professional development workshops in a special section of the Newsletter. Special thanks to Jennifer Lena for her amazing work on programming! For the third year in a row, we're holding a Graduate Student Professionalization Panel. Organized by Michael Stambolis-Ruhstorfer and Hannah Wohl, this year's theme is "Navigating the Faculty/Post-Doc Job Market as a Cultural Sociologist." Student members of the section will also have the opportunity to meet with faculty mentors at this year's ASA, within the framework of a mentoring pilot program we set up this winter. Thanks to all of you who volunteered and we count on your post-ASA feedback so we can develop the program. Now on to non ASA-meeting matters: The centerpiece of this Newsletter is an illuminating exchange on creativity and innovation between Pierre-Michel Menger from the Collège de France in Paris and Andrew Abbott. The dialogue is an extension of the one they had at the conference "Inventing the New: Innovation in Creative Enterprises,"organized by Claudio Benzecry at Northwestern University last April. Hannah Wohl provides a useful report on other panels of that conference. We're also lucky to share with our members a very useful "Field Guide to Materiality for Cultural Sociologists" prepared by Terry McDonnell and Gemma Mangione. The guide provides short summaries of key texts in the field, authored by advanced graduate students and faculty, as well as links to an extensive bibliography and Terry's graduate seminar syllabus on "Cultural Objects and Materiality." SECTIONCULTURE


Finite element analysis is extensively used for simulating the effect of accelerated temperature cycling in electronic packages. There are number of issues that need to be addressed to improve the current FEM models. One of the limitations for the models presently available is excluding the effect of intermetallic compounds (IMC) (Cu/sub 6/Sn/sub 5/, Cu/sub 3/Sn) formation and growth between solder joint and Cu pad. The mechanical reliability of these IMC clearly influences the mechanical integrity of the interconnection. The brittle failures of solder balls have been identified with the growth of a number of IMC both at the interfaces between metallic layers and in the bulk solder balls. Previous study on intermetallics modeling discussed the energy based approach for predicting the fatigue life. The results show contradictory trends of life, not consistent with experimental data. This paper focuses the fatigue life prediction of the solder joint incorporating the effect of IMC using plastic and creep strain approach in finite element modeling. As a typical application, 3D Quarter model of a CSP is chosen to do the FE analysis. Accelerated temperature cycling is performed to obtain the plastic work due to thermal expansion mismatch between the various materials. Accumulated plastic strains were incorporated to predict the fatigue life. The model incorporates time dependent and time independent plasticity (i.e. creep) for the solder materials. The results are compared with conventional models that do not include intermetallic effects. It is shown that the strain based approach gives results that are consistent with general trends.


Gender has long been considered a factor contributing to differences in performance for male and female students in diverse educational disciplines and levels. Although male and female students are taught in the same classrooms in most Ugandan schools, there have been noticeable differences in Mathematics performance in national examinations across the country. Thus, the aim of this study was to compare male and female students' performance in Mathematics and to establish factors accounting for the differences. Using the Mixed method design, a sample size of 222 participants was recruited. The major findings revealed that variation in Mathematics performance cannot be attributable to gender. The study deconstructs the common gender-biased assumption that girls are naturally a 'weaker sex' and hence likely to embrace subjects that are considered 'soft' such as language, literacy, communication skills, social sciences among others. Such assumptions commonly fronted inadvertently without considering possible negative consequences, are based on societal construction of social differences with no substantive evidence as demonstrated in this study.


2 Abstract: The cross sectional study was conducted from October, 2013 to April, 2014 at Dire Dawa municipal abattoir with the objectives of determining the prevalence of camel hydatidosis and to estimate the economic loss attributed to hydatid disease. Of the 450 examined animals 129 (28.67%) were found to harbour hydatid cysts. Age, sex, body condition and origin of the animals were found statistically insignificant in variation. The total number of organs affected by one or more hydatid cyst(s) was found to be 162 out of which liver account for 83(51.23%), lung 73(45.06%), gastro intestinal tract 4(2.46%), kidney 1(0.6%) and heart 1 (0.6%). Liver infection was greater than in lung, followed by gastro intestinal tract, kidney and heart. Out of the examined cysts, 41.01% were found to be fertile and viable, while 17.94%%, 21.15% and 19.97% were non-viable, sterile and calcified cysts, respectively. The fertility of the cysts was 68.75% and 70.5% in liver and lungs, respectively.The annual financial loss at Dire Dawa municipal abattoir was estimated Ethiopian birr 27, 242.67. From the result obtained in this study, it can be concluded that hydatidosis is one of the most economically important camel disease in the area warranting serious attention. Therefore, appropriate control and prevention measures need to be taken in order to minimize the economic loss associated with the problem and to prevent the zoonotic risk to the public health.


Purpose: This paper is to determine the clinicopathological features and outcome of patients with breast lymphoma seen at a single institution. Patients and Methods: We have reviewed data on 14 patients with breast lymphoma seen at our institution from 1990 to 2003. Results: All patients were female, with a median age of 47.6 years. Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) was observed in 9 cases, while follicular, Burkitt's, small lymphocytic, MALT and T-cell lymphoma were observed in 1 case each. 5 patients (35.7%) had stage IE disease, 6 patients (42.9%) had stage IIE disease and 3 patients (21.4%) had stage IV disease. Standard CHOP with or without rituximab was given to all patients with aggressive breast lymphoma (n = 10), while 1 patient with Burkitt's lymphoma received a CHOP-based regimen. The 3-year actuarial survival estimate among all 11 patients with aggressive breast lymphoma was 73%. Among those with localized disease, the estimated 3-year survival was 90%. The actuarial 3-year overall survival (OS) estimate for the entire cohort of 14 patients was 76.9%. Conclusion: Our results indicate that breast lymphoma is not associated with an inferior outcome when treated with standard CHOP-based chemotherapy.


Pyrene-appended boronic acids self-assemble onto graphitic surfaces and are shown here to self-assemble also around negatively charged carbon nanoparticles of ca. 8–18 nm diameter (Emperor 2000, Cabot Corp.). The resulting boronic acid modified nanoparticles are water-insoluble and readily deposited onto graphite electrodes, for example for electroanalytical applications. Boronic acid binding to the ortho-quinol caffeic acid is demonstrated and the mechanism based on ligand fluxionality is further investigated. Electrodes based on nanoparticle aggregates are sensitive to caffeic acid with Langmuirian binding constants estimated as 106 mol−1 dm3. The molecular structure of the pyrene-appended boronic acid affects the ability to bind caffeic acid as well as, more importantly, the fluxional transformation of the strongly bound (high oxidation potential) into the weakly bound (low oxidation potential) form. The resulting design principles for improved boronic acid receptors are discussed.


This paper presents the design of classifiers with neural network approach based on the method used Expectations Maximum (EM). The decision rule of Bayes classifier using the Minimum Error to the classification of a mixture of multitemporal imagery. In this particular, the multilayer perceptron neural network model with Probabilistic Neural Network (PNN) is used for nonparametric estimation of posterior class probabilities. Temporal image correlation calculated with the prior joint probabilities of each class that is automatically estimated by applying a special formula that is algorithm expectation maximum of multitemporal imagery. Experiments performed on two multitemporal image is the image of the Saguling taken at two different time. Based on experimental results on two test areas can be shown that the average accuracy rate PNN classifier is better than the Back Propagation (BP), and the Expectation Maximum (EM) increase the ability of classifiers. Multinomial PNN classifier by applying the maximum expected to have a consistent recognition capability for multitemporal imagery, and also consistent for each object class category. The proposed classification methodology can solve the problem multitemporal efectively.


Background Neuropsychiatric (NP) involvement in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) includes a wide variety of neurologic and psychiatric manifestations whose attribution to the underlying disease is a clinical challenge. Objectives To determine the sensitivity and specificity of an attribution model (AM) applied to a large multicenter series of NP events. Methods All NP events satisfying the 1999 ACR case definition criteria occurred in a multicenter cohort of SLE patients (pts), in a timeframe of 5 years, were retrospectively analyzed. All NP events were tested by applying an arithmetical AM, firstly developed in a cohort of pts recruited in Ferrara, which included a set of 4 items selected on the basis of a literature review and by a Delphi consensus methodology during the XLVII Congress of the Italian Society of Rheumatology. The items included in the AM were the following: time of onset of NP event respect to the SLE clinical onset (before -0.5; after +0.5, concomitant +1); "minor" or not specific NP events as defined by Ainiala et al. (yes = -1; not = +0.5); opposing factors or "associations" as defined by ACR glossary (none =0; 1 = -0.5; >1 = -1); other favoring factors such as age of onset, absence of familial history for epilepsy or psychiatric disorders, abnormal serology, neuroimaging abnormalities, response to treatment, high disease activity at the time of the event (none =0, 1 =+0.5, >1=+1). According to the final score each NP event was then classified as related (≥+1), uncertain (-0.5 to +0.5) or SLE-unrelated (≤-1). The performance of the AM was estimated by its application to an external cohort of pts by the ROC curves analysis, assuming the "clinical judgment" performed by each attending team as the referral gold standard. Results 211 eligible pts were included, 91% F e 9% M, with a mean age of 33.5 yrs for a total of 430 events evaluated. Applying the AM 3 classes of values were generated: 179 events were classified as SLE related, 29 as SLE-unrelated and the remaining as uncertain events. After exclusion of uncertain events, the result obtained by the ROC curves analysis comparing the results of the AM with the clinical judgment, yielded a sensitivity of 62% and specificity of 93% when all the NP events were considered; when the analysis was restricted to first NP event only, the sensitivity raised up to 72% and specificity was 90%. Conclusions The overall performance of a new arithmetical AM was satisfactory in terms of sensitivity and specificity and allowed a proper placement in three-quarter of the NP events deemed as related and unrelated to SLE. This model can be regarded as an easy to use tool which allows a standardized approach to the complex sphere of NP involvement in SLE. Disclosure of Interest None Declared


Under the current changing climate scenario, the development of drought mitigation strategies is the need of the hour to enhance water productivity and minimize the yield losses in the Indian mustard (Brassica juncea L.). To address the issue, a field experiment was conducted during 2018-19 to evaluate the field efficacy of the superabsorbent polymer (SAP: Pusa hydrogel) and its application rates 1.5, 2.5 and 5.0 kg ha and compared with control under moisture stress and normal moisture conditions in a randomized complete block design and replicated thrice. The values of growth, yield attributes and seed and stover yields of the Indian mustard were significantly (P=0.05) reduced due to moisture stress, but improved with the use of SAP. The maximum seed yield (2.88 t ha) and stover yield (6.84 t ha) were obtained at SAP @ 5.0 kg ha with normal moisture which were improved by 48.4 % and 20.6 % over the control, and 15.2–36.5 % and 9.1– 16.3 % over the SAP levels (1.5–5.0 kg ha) of moisture stress regime, respectively. This indicated that application of SAP (5.0 kg ha) reduced the yield penalty due to moisture stress. Seed yield with 5.0 kg SAP ha improved by 12.11% and 3.97 % under moisture stress and normal moisture regimes, respectively over the 2.5 kg SAP ha. This suggested that application of 5.0 kg SAP ha under moisture stress and 2.5 kg SAP ha under normal moisture was found beneficial in enhancing the seed yield of mustard. The water productivity (WP) was comparatively higher (~ 6.6 %) under moisture stress over 1.32–1.67 kg m recorded under normal moisture. The maximum WP under both the moisture regimes were obtained with the SAP @ 5.0 kg ha. The WP improved by 10.6, 20.4 and 26.5 % under normal moisture and by 11.2, 18.7 and 32.8 % under moisture stress with 1.5, 2.5 and 5.0 kg SAP ha, respectively over the respective controls. This signifies the beneficial role of SAP in achieving higher WP levels, particularly under moisture stress. Thus, the study recommends the use of SAP @ 2.5 kg ha under normal moisture and 5.0 kg ha under moisture stress to achieve the maximum seed yield and water productivity with concomitant saving of 16-20 % water with the later.


Bio-fertilizers form a valuable interaction tool with soil dynamics in improving crop yield despite their inferior yield compared to inorganic fertilizers. However, optimizing bio-fertilizers using carrier material and combination with inorganic fertilizer while minimizing detrimental effects associated with chemicals is not fully comprehended. Field experiment was conducted to study effects of Mycorrhizae and Trichoderma optimization using manure and biochar (carrier) in combination with Diammonium Phosphate (DAP) applied at 50 %, 75% and 100% (500 kg ha-1) the recommended rate on late blight, growth, yield and farm income. A survey was also conducted to establish fertilizer usage by potato farmers. The most widely used fertilizer was DAP. Plots without fertilizer recorded the highest late blight severity (RAUDPC of 0.45), lowest height (39.37 cm), stem count (2.81) and yield (0.29 t ha-1) followed by plots with 50% DAP. Yield observed from DAP rates differed significantly (P≤0.05). However, there was no significant difference among combinations of biofertilizer with 75% and 100% of DAP. Trichoderma and Mycorrhizae increased yield by 74%, 70% and 71% respectively relative to control. Manure on average improved Trichoderma and Mycorrhizae effects on late blight, stem count and yield by 55%, 56% and 76% respectively while biochar improved by 50%, 51% and 75% respectively. Combination of DAP (75% and 100% rates) and biofertilizer had significant increase in net farm returns. Conversely, higher marginal rate of return was observed in plots with mycorrhizae and manure as carrier. Improved yield and net income from biofertilizer plots could be attributed to their low costs and less bulky. Manure as carrier material provided additional nutrients support, stable environment and more micro-organism resulting in microbial consortium build up. The study concluded that bio-fertilizers combined with carrier material in combination with chemical fertilizers improved yield and farm net income, thereby could be an alternative to conventional


Sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum.L) is the main material in sugar industry. An effort to improve the quality of dry land for sugarcane cultivation is important. One of the effort than can be done is the additional of organic metter to the soil. The objective of this research was to determine the effect of vertical mulching techniques for soil organic matter content and soil chemistry fertility and its relationship with the vegetative growth of the ratoon sugarcane. This research was conducted at Agricultural High School Practice (STPP) Medan-Binjai KM.10 districts Sunggal Deli Serdang, North Sumatra, from May -December 2013. This study was conducted using a randomized block design non factorial with four treatments, were: horizontal mulch (M1), vertical mulch (M2), vertical mulch with Trichoderma sp. (M3), Vertical mulch mixed with cow manure (M4). The result from the research showed, that vertical mulch mixture with manure can increase the level of C-organic, N-content, and the lower of Ratio C/ N . Vertical mulching treatment mix with manure, increasing the shoot length of sugarcane 21.9%, the number of plants per clump 6.8%, the number of plants per meter 50%, wet weight 68.28% and dry weight 41.9%, compared with horizontal mulch.Key words: sugarcane ratoon, mulch vertical, horizontal mulch, soil fertility


To the Editor.— The report by de Montigny 1 that cholecystokinin-4 (CCK-4) can provoke paniclike attacks in normal subjects prompts us to report preliminary observations of responses to pentagastrin infusions in patients with panic disorder. Our interest in neuropeptides and anxiety was initially aroused by a group of endocrine clinic patients with "idiopathic flushing syndrome" who had symptoms similar to those of patients with panic disorder. Review of a previously described cohort 2 of patients with flushing syndrome revealed three who met DSM-III-R criteria for panic disorder and had abnormalities in one or more neuropeptides (substance P, vasoactive intestinal peptide, somatostatin, or gastrin). We decided to look for abnormalities in endocrine responses to pentagastrin in patients with panic disorder to search for possible neuropeptide mediators of panic symptoms. Pentagastrin stimulates the release of a number of peptides from endocrine-containing tumors and can produce paniclike symptoms in some of these patients.


Abstract Determination of the oxidation state and coordination geometry of iron in Fe-bearing minerals expands our knowledge obtained by standard mineralogical characterization. It provides information that is crucial in assessing the potential of minerals to interact with their surrounding environment and to generate reactive oxygen species, which can disrupt the normal function of living organisms. Aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy dual-electron energy-loss spectroscopy (acSTEM Dual-EELS) has only rarely been applied in environmental and medical mineralogy, but it can yield data that are essential for the description of near-surface and surface mechanisms involved in many environmental and health-related processes. In this study, we have applied the energy loss near-edge structure (ELNES) and L2,3 white-line intensity-ratio methods using both the universal curve and progressively larger integrating windows to verify their effectiveness in satisfactorily describing the valence state of iron at amosite grain boundaries, and, at the same time, to estimate thickness in the same region of interest. The average valence state obtained from acSTEM Dual-EELS and from a simplified geometrical model were in good agreement, and within the range defined by the bulk and the measured surface-valence states. In the specific case presented here, the use of the universal curve was most suitable in defining the valence state of iron at amosite grain boundaries. The study of ELNES revealed an excellent correspondence with the valence state determined by the L2,3 white-line intensity-ratio method through the use of the universal curve, and it seems that the spectra carry some information regarding the coordination geometry of Fe. The combination of visual examination, reconstruction of the grain boundaries through a simple geometrical model, and Dual-EELS investigation is a powerful tool for characterizing the grain boundaries of hazardous minerals and foreseeing their potential activity in an organism, with the possibility to describe toxic mechanisms in a stepwise fashion.


Training neural network acoustic models with sequencediscriminative criteria, such as state-level minimum Bayes risk (sMBR), been shown to produce large improvements in performance over cross-entropy. However, because they entail the processing of lattices, sequence criteria are much more computationally intensive than cross-entropy. We describe a distributed neural network training algorithm, based on Hessianfree optimization, that scales to deep networks and large data sets. For the sMBR criterion, this training algorithm is faster than stochastic gradient descent by a factor of 5.5 and yields a 4.4% relative improvement in word error rate on a 50-hour broadcast news task. Distributed Hessian-free sMBR training yields relative reductions in word error rate of 7–13% over cross-entropy training with stochastic gradient descent on two larger tasks: Switchboard and DARPA RATS noisy Levantine Arabic. Our best Switchboard DBN achieves a word error rate of 16.4% on rt03-FSH.


This article describes the early sessions of a transdiagnostic cognitive-behavioral treatment for emotional disorders that is designed to target temperamental characteristics, particularly neuroticism and resulting emotion dysregulation, underlying all anxiety, depressive, and related disorders. These sessions facilitate clinical improvement by setting realistic expectations, fostering a collaborative therapeutic alliance, and improving motivation for change. Addressing these common factors in early sessions strengthens patient engagement, which is necessary for patients to benefit most greatly from subsequent treatment elements. We begin with a brief description of the treatment protocol and theoretical model. Next, we describe how the early sessions, specifically, are used to help facilitate application of later treatment skills that target specific psychopathological mechanisms. Finally, we present a clinical case example and utilize clinical vignettes from the early sessions to illustrate the therapy process. Specific clinical exchanges are highlighted to offer advice on how therapists can most effectively implement these procedures.


In the first chapter, "Money markets and borrower transparency: Evidence from the Dodd-Frank Act stress testing policy", I investigate the effect of increased public information disclosure on lending outcomes in money markets. Introduction of the Dodd-Frank Act Stress Testing policy and its mandatory results' disclosure is used as a shock to the availability of information on banks subject to the policy. Using micro data on fund portfolio holdings, I show that funds increase their lending more to transparent relative to non-transparent banks after disclosures. Based on the relationship lending literature, I use the strength of the lending relationships to distinguish between more and less informed funds. Overall, my results are consistent with more information disclosure alleviating information asymmetries between borrowers and less informed lenders in the money markets, allowing banks to expand their borrowing. However, increase in borrowing after the disclosure is conditional on disclosure revealing positive information on the bank, which is in line with the disciplining role that disclosures are to play.
In the second chapter, "Where did the money go? Evidence from money market funds on the portfolio balance channel of QE," I aim to identify the portfolio balance channel as a transmission mechanism of Quantitative Easing (QE). I use micro data on money market fund portfolio holdings to investigate changes in MMF lending decisions and portfolio composition once the third wave of QE3 resulted in the withdrawal of Agency repo securities. My results suggest that QE3 did not induce outflows from the money market industry, but resulted in the increase in uncollateralized lending on behalf of funds with above-median QE3 exposure. My results indicate that this increase in uncollateralized lending remains concentrated within former repo issuing banks.
The third chapter, "If fail, fail less: banks decision on systematic vs. idiosyncratic risk", takes the theoretical approach to investigate the influence of bailout policy, contingent on the aggregate state and a bank's individual characteristics, on the banks' choice between systematic and idiosyncratic risk. The regulator who implements the 'fail less' bailout policy i.e. prefers to bail out the banks with higher asset values in failure is introduced in the 'too many to fail' paradigm. Results imply that once the bank's bailout probability, conditional on the regulator's intervention, depends on its value in failure, banks invest in the uncorrelated project more often. Therefore, this reduces the herding pressure of the 'too many to fail' guarantees as well as the occurence of the systemic banking crises.


Sixteen field pea (Pisum sativum L.) genotypes were evaluated using Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with four replications for evaluating genotype x environment interaction (GEI) and yield stability across 12 environments during 2004 to 2006 at south eastern Ethiopia. The objectives were to compare various statistical methods of analyzing yield stability and to determine the most suitable parametric procedure to evaluate and describe yield stability of field pea (Pisum sativum L.) genotypes performance under south eastern Ethiopian conditions. Several statistical analyses were conducted: coefficient of variation (CVi); mean (); Shukla's stability variance (); Wricke's ecovalence (Wi); regression coefficient (bi); deviation from regression (Sdi2); cultivar superiority measure (Pi); deviation from the linear response (λi) coefficient of determination (r2i) and additive main effect and multiplicative interaction. IFPI-1523 and IFPI -2711 were the most stable genotypes according to 8 out 10 stability statistics used in the study. Spearman's rank correlation coefficient between the stability parameters indicated that Shukla's stability variance (σi2), Wricke's ecovalence (Wi), Eberhart and Russell's deviation from regression (S2di), and additive main effect and multiplicative interaction stability value (ASV) had a highly significant correspondence over the three years of study. No significant rank correlation between Lin and Binns's superiority measure (Pi) and Finlay and Wilkinson's procedure (bi) with the other procedures were found. Thus, these two procedures are not recommended for use on their own as a measurement of yield stability. Conclusively, it is suggested that the use of appropriate biometrics techniques is necessary for identifying the most adapted, responsive and stable genotypes in the final phases of the plant breeding program, where the high cost and the time spent in assays are powerful justifications to search for improved methods.

 Key words: Field pea, Pisum sativum L., Genotype x Environment interactions, yield stability.


Missed or residual tumor burden results in high risk for bladder cancer relapse. However, existing fluorescent probes cannot meet the clinical needs because of inevitable photobleaching properties. Performance can be improved by maintaining intensive and sustained fluorescence signals via resistance to intraoperative saline flushing and intrinsic fluorescent decay, providing surgeons with sufficiently clear and high‐contrast surgical fields, avoiding residual tumors or missed diagnosis. This study designs and synthesizes a photostable cascade‐activatable peptide, a target reaction‐induced aggregation peptide (TRAP) system, which can construct polypeptide‐based nanofibers in situ on the cell membrane to achieve long‐term and stable imaging of bladder cancer. The probe has two parts: a target peptide (TP) targets CD44v6 to recognize bladder cancer cells, and a reaction‐induced aggregation peptide (RAP) is introduced, which effectively reacts with the TP via a click reaction to enhance the hydrophobicity of the whole molecule, assembling into nanofibers and further nanonetworks. Accordingly, probe retention on the cell membrane is prolonged, and photostability is significantly improved. Finally, the TRAP system is successfully employed in the high‐performance identification of human bladder cancer in ex vivo bladder tumor tissues. This cascade‐activatable peptide molecular probe based on the TRAP system enables efficient and stable imaging of bladder cancer.


This study deals with the influence of the anode material and the electrolyte composition on the kinetics of the electrode dissolution and on the Ferrate(VI) formation. The cast iron rich in iron carbide and the silicon rich steel are compared as perspective materials that provide the highest current efficiency of the electrochemical synthesis process. Pure NaOH, KOH solutions and their mixtures were used as an electrolyte. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy was used to quantify the influence of the individual parameters on the anode dissolution kinetics. The results were compared with the pure iron study results, in order to assess impact of the individual anode material components on the anode's behavior. The theory, derived on the basis of the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry data, was confirmed by the batch electrolysis experiments.


The paper introduces preference persistence into a dynamic discrete choice model of demand for durables. This persistence may arise, for example, when the products can be categorized into a few number of formats, which involve special knowledge, maintenance and upgrade. The standard optimal stopping problem of when to buy a new product is completed by the upgrade problem. Customers who already have a product may choose to upgrade it, but this upgrade is format specific. Hence, the expected future upgrade qualities of different formats must be taken into account already at the purchase decision of a new product. The model is estimated on a data set of low-end computer servers, where formats are represented by operating systems. For this application, the model can be considered as a proxy of a computer network building customer who cares not only about the likely future quality of the individual computers, but also about the direction of evolution of the network. That induces even stronger forward looking behavior than a simple optimal stopping problem. The results suggest that the model is better able to capture main tendencies in the segment than a static or a simple optimal stopping model.


We have already proposed DTSS (event aware Dynamic Time Step Synchronization method) for speeding up moving objects (MOs) simulation, e.g. aircraft, ships, vehicles and so on, and evaluated it on the HLA (High Level Architecture, IEEE1516) computer cluster environment. However, speeding up the simulation for a number of MOs on a single processor is required as well, when the size of the problem is increased. In this paper, we propose DTSS- RT (DTSS for Road Traffic simulation) that can speed up the simulation by reducing the simulation cost of each MO and the synchronization cost between MOs without degrading simulation accuracy. For evaluating DTSS-RT, we employed a road traffic sub-simulator of RoboCup rescue simulation. The results show that the performance of the simulation based on DTSS-RT is improved approximately 2 to 3 times over that of the conventional method except when the situation includes a heavy traffic jam.


A low-voltage triggering silicon-controlled rectifier (LVTSCR), for its high efficiency and low parasitic parameters, has many advantages in ESD protection, especially in ultra-deep sub-micron (UDSM) IC and high frequency applications. In this paper, the impact factors of the snapback characteristics of a LVTSCR and the configuring modes are analyzed and evaluated in detail. These parameters include anode series resistance, gate voltage, structure and size of devices. In addition, a double-trench LVTSCR is presented that can increase the hold-on voltage effectively and offers easy adjustment. Also, its snapback characteristics can obey the ESD design window rule very well. The strategy of ESD protection in a RFIC using a LVTSCR is discussed at the end of the paper.


A novel highly efficient method of purification of DNA‐hydrolyzing antibodies from sera of patients with lymphoproliferative diseases was developed. The method suggests purification of serum sample using Cibacron Blue 3GA, ion exchange chromatography on DEAE‐Sepharose FF, PrG affinity chromatography and selection of the DNA‐binding fraction on DNA‐Sephacryl. The application of the method allows to obtain the stable and active polyclonal preparation with increased content of DNA‐hydrolyzing antibodies characterized by specific binding constant determined using heteropolymeric oligonucleotide substrate. The unusual properties of anti‐DNA catalytic antibodies in respect to their interactions with DEAE ion exchanger are discussed.


The applications of multi air-conditioners into multiplex and high-rise buildings have been increased by replacing central air-conditioning systems. The pipe length and altitude difference between the indoor and outdoor units can be increased based on installation conditions, which may increase the possibility of flash gas generation at the expansion device inlet. The flash gas generation causes rapid reduction of refrigerant flow rate passing through the expansion device, yielding lower system efficiency. Accumulator heat exchangers have been widely used in multi air-conditioners in order to minimize flash gas generation and obtain system reliability. However, the studies on the heat transfer characteristics and pressure drops of accumulator heat exchangers are very limited in open literature. In this study, the heat transfer rates and pressure drops of accumulator heat exchangers were measured with refrigerant flow rate and operating conditions by using R-22. The heat transfer rate increased with the increase of refrigerant flow rate, while subcooling decreased. The heat transfer rate enhanced with the reduction of inlet superheat and subcooling due to the increased temperature difference between the accumulator and inner heat exchanger.


One of the ways in which Christian groups responded to the challenges of modernity was by positioning themselves differently in space. In the interest of better understanding that process, let us think for a moment about the social system, the social space to be precise, within which groups exist. As one starting point for that, it is useful to acknowledge that social groups define themselves in relation to others. Specifically, groups define themselves by saying what they are not as much as by saying what they are. If we are to believe the German social systems theorist Niklas Luhmann, a leading advocate of the notion of social system, difference is prior to identity. That is to say—and this is the core of Luhmann's "difference" theory—one distinguishes a table from other objects before one indicates what it is (Luhmann adds, paradoxically, that distinction presupposes itself). His grand theory has shortcomings, but his point is that social groups create and maintain collective identity by defining themselves in relation to other groups, and especially by saying what they are not. They push off from other groups in defining themselves. We could extend that approach by stating that groups sometimes behave as if they lack a clear collective self-understanding; that is, they lack a fully formed core identity that they can marshall in a positive fashion against a field of other groups. They accordingly define themselves in relation to other groups, define themselves via negativa, by differentiating—in some cases to a great degree—from other groups. Identity is built through such negative definition. The twentieth-century American theorist of social conflict Lewis Coser described that mode of thinking in The Functions of Social Conflict, an extended mediation on the social conflict theories of Georg Simmel, and sociologist of religion Martin Reisebrodt has observed more recently how Christianity invents itself principally by distinguishing itself from other religious practices and beliefs. The process is evident among Christian groups in modernity as it was in early modern Europe. When we focus on how it has manifested spatially, we see the modern in American church history as a broad spectrum of occurrences demonstrating complexity, multivalence, competition, and differentiation.


Abstract Over the past ten years, we have worked in a collaboration between educators and computer scientists at the University of Illinois to imagine futures for education in the context of what is loosely called "artificial intelligence." Unhappy with the first generation of digital learning environments, our agenda has been to design alternatives and research their implementation. Our starting point has been to ask, what is the nature of machine intelligence, and what are its limits and potentials in education? This paper offers some tentative answers, first conceptually, and then practically in an overview of the results of a number of experimental implementations documented in greater detail elsewhere. Our key finding is that artificial intelligence—in the context of the practices of electronic computing developing over the past three quarters of a century—will never in any sense "take over" the role of teacher, because how it works and what it does are so profoundly different from human intelligence. However, within the limits that we describe in this paper, it offers the potential to transform education in ways that—counterintuitively perhaps—make education more human, not less.


The influence of various assumptions on the modeling of cleavage fracture in the presence of residual stresses was investigated. Analyses were undertaken for modified single edge notched bend specimens, manufactured from A533B ferritic steel. The influence of residual stress fields, introduced by a method of in-plane compression, was investigated through the use of a modified J-integral, designed to retain path independence in the presence of initial stress and strain fields and nonproportional loading. Application of modified J values to predict fracture using probabilistic methods, and their use in a well-known structural integrity assessment code, showed that assumptions about levels of out-of-plane constraint, material hardening behavior, and the method of crack introduction have a significant influence on the conservatism of the resulting failure predictions. It was found that more realistic modeling of crack introduction had a major effect on the accuracy of failure predictions, with the effects of material hardening being of secondary importance.


Little has been published about the Krukenberg operation, which has been regarded as primarily indicated for the blind patient with bilateral hand amputations. Of the 35 Krukenberg cineplasty operations I have performed in the last 36 years, only two have been on blind patients. The operation provides forearm amputees with pincers which allow them to perform tasks without a prosthesis, but does not preclude the use of any type of aid. The author's operative procedure is described and the results illustrate its practical application for most patients.


In this paper, it is argued that removing restrictions on road transport will not be sufficient to encourage efficiency improvements in grain freight industry while rail authorities continue to operate as public monopolies. This is because of the structure of costs in the grain freight industry, which imply that road transport cannot compete with rail transport in areas where road is the more efficient mode. While the tendency for a regulated monopoly to cross-subsidise inefficient operations is common place, the focus in this analysis is on the nature of the cross-subsidy in the grain freight industry, and shows that it is a type of cross-subsidy that is well hidden by aggregation. A model of investment in a rail network is presented where the monopoly power afforded to the rail industry is shown to be due to economies of traffic density. A case study of the grain rail network in Western Australia is presented where it is shown that the rail authority has been able to maintain very uneconomic sections of rail line, despite the introduction of road competition and apparently competitive pricing practices.


This paper gives an overview of the kind of community development projects that the Malawi Social Action Fund (MASAF) has supported since its inception in July 1996. The MASAF has tended to subscribe to a demand-driven approach in its evaluation of projects, thereby introducing an element of competition in commu nity development. This has led to imbalances in socio-economic infrastructure, between those districts whose communities have been unable to initiate their own projects, and those where there is more sophisticated "development-conscious" leadership. Ways in which more equitable and effective grassroots development can be implemented are presented in this paper, where the author believes that non governmental development agencies in particular, have a positive role to play. Journal of Social Development in Africa Vol 15 No 1 2000, pp. 5-14


Some evidences indicate that protein kinase C-beta 1 (PRKCB1) gene may be a predisposition locus of autism. A recent study reported evidence of association between autism and two haplotypes made up of six noncoding single nucleotide polymorphisms in the PRKCB1. To attempt replication of their findings, we examined the same six single nucleotide polymorphisms of PRKCB1 in 171 Irish autism trios. The haploview program was used to calculate D′ as a measure of linkage disequilibrium. The transmission disequilibrium test for single nucleotide polymorphism markers and haplotypes was carried out using the TDTPHASE and PDTPHASE from the UNPHASED version 2.404 programs. Transmission disequilibrium test analysis showed no evidence of association for any of the six single nucleotide polymorphisms at the PRKCB1 that we studied, or any of their haplotypes. Our data do not support the finding that the PRKCB1 gene variants contribute risk for the development of autism.


It is typically proven in adaptive control that asymptotic stabilization and tracking holds, and that at best a bounded-noise bounded-state property is proven. Recently, it has been shown in both the pole-placement control and the d-step ahead control settings that if, as part of the adaptive controller, a parameter estimator based on the original projection algorithm is used and the parameter estimates are restricted to a convex set, then the closed-loop system experiences linear-like behavior: exponential stability, a bounded gain on the noise in every p-norm, and a convolution bound on the exogenous inputs; this can be leveraged to provide tolerance to unmodelled dynamics and plant parameter time-variation. In this paper, we extend the approach to the more general Model Reference Adaptive Control (MRAC) problem and demonstrate that we achieve the same desirable linear-like closed-loop properties.


The agriculture sector has experienced profound changes in recent years. Policy reforms have reduced the scale of support in agriculture, while demand side changes, in the form of increasing retailer concentration and complex patterns of consumer preferences, have required the development of sophisticated marketdriven strategies. Farmers have demonstrated uneven abilities to adapt and adjust to these ongoing changes. The ability and propensity of farmers to engage in entrepreneurial behaviours is a key explanation of the diff erent patterns of responses within the sector. The ongoing changes that have occurred within the agriculture sector have attracted research attention from a variety of diff erent disciplines. Agricultural economists and rural sociologists have documented the impact of these changes on the farming sector and their surrounding communities, while entrepreneurship scholars have focused on the abilities of some farmers to recognize and evaluate new opportunities and to use farmbased resources in the exploitation of new, often nonagricultural markets. The result has been the development of two separate disciplinary approaches, with distinctive origins, paradigms and methodologies, both of which are concerned with the role of new venture creation in rural economic restructuring, but with little evidence of any linkage between the two approaches. The aim of this edited collection is to draw together the new work of scholars – drawn from both the entrepreneurship and the agriculture research domains – that focuses on entrepreneurship in agriculture, food production and rural development. We start by exploring perhaps the most obvious question that will occur to most readers: why should we research entrepreneurship in agriculture and rural development? It is not, after all, the most typical of sectors for entrepreneurship researchers to study; their focus is conventionally trained on emerging technologybased industries that can demonstrate


Lifespan has doubled in the world in the last 200 years. In the last 50 years, this advance in health, measured by expectation of life at birth, has been shared more equally among people than the increase in income. The record of this concurrent increase in lifespan and income per capita suggests it may be important to understand how these events are interrelated. The connections between health and development are controversial, in part because the evidence on this topic comes from different scientific disciplines, answering different questions, relying on different types of data and using different analytical methods. However, hypotheses are emerging that merit much more study in Africa and elsewhere, to guide the allocation of resources for health, which will entail refinement of conceptual frameworks to isolate causal relationships through more rigorous empirical testing, and collection of new data for more decisive tests. Two types of relationships are distinguished: first, the linkages between conditions under which people live and their expected lifespan and health status, which characterise the technology of 'health production functions'; second, the relationship between an individual's stock of health and her or his economic productivity, well-being and duration of life, which characterise 'returns to health human capital'. In the last 50 years, the lifespan at birth of the relatively rich and poor converged, at least until the 1990s. There are indications that this was achieved mainly by improvements in nutrition and control of infectious diseases concentrated in childhood that were relatively cheap to disseminate. To control mortality and reduce disability among adults confronting degenerative chronic diseases has proved more costly, and the relatively poor may thus not benefit as much as the rich from the dissemination of these newer medical technologies unless subsidised. However, the prior reduction in childhood illnesses may itself contribute to improved adult health outcomes later in the life cycle. Birth cohorts which have experienced diminished infections and inflammatory illnesses in utero and early childhood and received better early nutrition may also increase their potential economic productivity as adults, as well as live longer lives free of disability.


Acori graminei Rhizoma (AGR), the dry rhizoma of Acorus gramineus Soland (Araceae), has been used as an Asian traditional herbal medicine against senile dementia, stroke, and cardiovascular disease. Previous studies have revealed neuroprotective effects of AGR on neuronal damage and learning impairment, while mostly focused on the effect of volatile oil fraction of AGR. This study aimed to investigate the neuroprotective effects of different extract fractions from AGR against Alzheimer disease-like symptoms induced by Amyloid Beta (Aß) 1-42 intra-hippocampal injection. On day 7 after intra-hippocampal injection of saline or Aβ1-42, spatial memory was assessed by the first Morris water maze, followed by 3-week intra-gastric administration of saline or water extract, volatile oil fraction, or defatted decoction fraction of AGR respectively. Mice were subsequently subjected to the second Morris water maze task. Levels of Aβ1-42 and expressions of doublecortin and nestin in the hippocampus were examined using immunohistochemistry. Our results suggested that treatment with these different extract fractions from AGR could ameliorate cognitive impairment and down-regulate expressions of doublecortin and nestin in the hippocampus of Aβ1-42 injected mice, in which water extract and volatile oil fractions were more effective in spatial memory than defatted decoction fraction.


Background: Leptin has been reported to have positive effects on cognition but has not been studied in a population-based sample or stratified by race or gender. Methods: Leptin and fat mass were measured in 2,731 subjects, including 50% African Americans. Eight years later, subjects were administered the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA). Demographic factors and baseline measures, including a deficiency in leptin or levels in excess of what was predicted by fat, were investigated to see which predicted cognitive performance. Results: There was a statistical trend for lower leptin levels to be associated with higher cognitive scores. Once stratified by race and gender, excessive leptin was associated with lower MoCA total scores and delayed recall domain score for black men, but white men demonstrated a reverse relationship. Conclusion: Excess leptin appears to have differential effects on delayed recall in black and white men.


Background There is an increasing incidence of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) for which environmental factors are suspected. Antibiotics have been associated with development of IBD in earlier generations, but their influence on IBD risk in adults is uncertain. Objective To assess the impact of antibiotic exposure, including dose–response, timing and antibiotic class, on the risk of IBD in all individuals aged ≥10 years. Design Using Denmark nationwide registries, a population-based cohort of residents aged ≥10 years was established between 2000 and 2018. Incidence rate ratios (IRRs) for IBD following antibiotic exposure were calculated using Poisson regression. Results There were a total of 6 104 245 individuals, resulting in 87 112 328 person-years of follow-up, and 52 898 new cases of IBD. Antibiotic exposure was associated with an increased risk of IBD as compared with no antibiotic exposure for all age groups, although was greatest among individuals aged 40–60 years and ≥60 years (age 10–40 years, IRR 1.28, 95% CI 1.25 to 1.32; age 40–60 years, IRR 1.48, 95% CI 1.43 to 1.54; age ≥60 years, IRR 1.47, 95% CI 1.42 to 1.53). For all age groups a positive dose–response was observed, with similar results seen for both ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. The highest risk of developing IBD was seen 1–2 years after antibiotic exposure, and after use of antibiotic classes often prescribed to treat gastrointestinal pathogens. Conclusion Antibiotic exposure is associated with an increased risk of IBD, and was highest among individuals aged 40 years and older. This risk increased with cumulative antibiotic exposure, with antibiotics targeting gastrointestinal pathogens and within 1–2 years after antibiotic exposure.


Mining data logged by intelligent tutoring systems has the potential to discover information of value to students, teachers, authors, developers, researchers, and the tutors themselves – information that could make education dramatically more efficient, effective, and responsive to individual needs. We factor this discovery process into tactics to modify tutors, map heterogeneous event streams into tabular data sets, and mine them. This model and the tactics identified mark out a roadmap for the emerging area of tutorial data mining, and may provide a useful vocabulary and framework for characterizing past, current, and future work in this area. We illustrate this framework using experiments that tested interventions by an automated reading tutor to help children decode words and comprehend stories.


We examine the complementary role of road infrastructure in determining the impact of a reduction in input tariffs on firm productivity. We combine newly constructed geo-spatial data from Ethiopia on road improvements under the Ethiopian Road Sector Development Program with detailed establishment level data on manufacturing firms. To explore the impact of roads, we construct a measure of market access capturing the intensity of possible road connections between the town in which a firm is located and other intranational markets. Road improvements under the program give us rich spatial and time variation in market access. We find strong complementarity between roads and input tariff liberalization. A reduction in the input tariff is associated with a larger increase in firm productivity in areas with better market access. Our study highlights the role of roads in shaping the effects of trade liberalization on firms.


Maintaining power system security is a technological challenge as power systems are now operated much closer to their security limits. Recent advances in the control and operation of interconnected power systems have generated the necessity to prepare young engineers for the challenges in the area of power system security. This paper presents the implementation of a direct method or power system transient stability in a personal computer environment. The design of the program allows the user to determine the security of a power system. >


In this paper the analysis of two spectral lines by using a digital correlator or a digital multichannel analyzer is studied by means of experiment and a computer simulation method. The errors involved in the simultaneous determination of the width, separation, and relative height of the lines are studied and compared.


In their struggle to restrain the destructive exercise of power of their governments, quite a big number of countries have made one constitution after another with little or no success. Some are still in a situation of perpetual quest for constitutionalism. The main argument in this article is that the process of making a constitution will have significant impact on the life and performance of a constitution. Ethiopia is one such country where a number of constitutions have been made but the quest for constitutionalism still an unanswered. With such a long history of independence and four constitutions within six decades, why has Ethiopia failed to build a stable democratic constitutional order? This article attempts to find out the possible explanations for the failure of the past Ethiopian constitutions to bring about a sustainable democratic order. But the particular focus of the article is to examine the process of making the 1995 FDRE Constitution with a view to determine the extent to which the process of making the Constitution was flawless or blemished with the birth-defects that has led to the demise of the earlier constitutions. The extent to which the defects in the process have affected the actual performances of the 1995 Constitution has been explored. In the assessment of the 1995 FDRE Constitution-making process the main requirements that are imperative for making a modern democratic constitution have been taken into account. The relevant literature has also been surveyed to show what others scholars in the area have written concerning the process of making modern democratic constitution. The finding of the assessment will help all those concerned to rectify the wrongs made during the process of making the constitution so that it may not face the fate similar to the past Ethiopian constitutions.


The monitoring of wildfire smoke is important to help mitigate impacts on people such as by sending early warnings to affected areas. Received signal levels (RSLs) from radio links have been used as an opportunistic way to accurately measure rainfall and humidity. Radio links provide integrated measurements along their paths and are an exceptional untapped resource to complement air quality stations in areas affected by smoke events, or in developing countries without air quality monitoring capability. This study analyzed radio link signal fluctuations during smoke events associated with the 2019–2020 Australian wildfires. Concurrently, the atmospheric boundary layer was characterized using atmospheric soundings and surface observations, as well as air quality proxies such as particulate matter concentrations less than 2.5 μm (10 μm), or PM2.5 (PM10). Observations showed that dry air containing large amounts of smoke within a surface layer above the ground acted as a lid, reducing dispersion, trapping and maintaining high ground‐level concentrations of smoke. These conditions also created anomalous propagation conditions for radio links and operational weather radars. Power‐law relations between signal fluctuations and PM10 and PM2.5 were derived based on the link data collected and the closest air quality station observations. While there was variability in retrieval performance across smoke events, the best performance determination coefficients exceeded 0.5, with an RMSE on the order of less than 50 μg m−3 for concentrations of more than 400 μg m−3. Mid‐range link lengths (5–20 km) provided the best results.


The aim of this study was to extract oil from the seeds of Chia (Salvia hispanica L.) using different solvents (ethyl acetate, isopropanol and n-hexane) and varying the seed to solvent ratio. The fatty acids profiles of the oils were determined and technological analysis of the defatted meal was carried out. In relation to the oil extraction, higher yields were obtained with n-hexane and ethyl acetate and it was observed that increasing the amount of solvent had little influence on the oil yield in the experimental range considered. The major components of chia oil are linolenic acid (~62%), linoleic acid (~19%), palmitic acid (~9.3%) and oleic acid (~6.2%). The fatty acids profiles of the oils obtained employing different solvents and seed to solvent ratios showed no significant differences (p>0.05). For the defatted meal, higher values for the oil-holding capacity and emulsification activity were observed with the removal of the oil; however, the nature of the solvent extracts did not affect these properties. Also, the waterholding capacity was not affected by the extraction process.


This chapter discusses UK law on the control of mergers. The chapter is organized as follows. Section 2 provides an overview of the domestic system of merger control. Section 3 explains the procedure of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) when determining whether a merger should be referred for an in-depth 'Phase 2' investigation and when deciding to accept 'undertakings in lieu' of a reference. Section 4 describes how Phase 2 investigations are conducted and Section 5 discusses the 'substantially lessening competition' ('SLC') test. Section 6 explains the enforcement powers in the Enterprise Act 2002, including the remedies that the CMA can impose in merger cases. The subsequent sections discuss various supplementary matters, such as powers of investigation and enforcement. The chapter concludes with a discussion of how the merger control provisions work in practice and a brief account of the provisions on public interest cases, other special cases and mergers in the water industry. The withdrawal by the UK from the EU means that many mergers that were subject to a 'one-stop shop' under EU law are now subject to investigation in the UK as well.


This study examines the impact of negative interest rate (NIR) regimes on corporate tax behavior. We argue that NIRs act as a de-facto tax levied by central banks and investigate how this 'tax' affects banks' corporate tax planning. Using a sample of domestic banks in OECD countries and a difference-in-difference research design, we find that banks affected by negative interest rate policies exhibit an increase in tax planning following the adoption of NIR, compared to unaffected banks. We document that the introduction of NIRs is associated with a 2.3 to 2.6 percentage point decrease in GAAP ETR and that the effects of NIRs are more pronounced in banks with a lower distance to default or lower reserves, and in countries with lower levels of tax enforcement or lower levels of trust in the government. Collectively, our results suggest that NIRs lead banks to increase tax planning as a funding source.


Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine human resource management (HRM) practices of the top 25 companies identified as "best" in India in 2011. This paper provides insights into HRM practices of a leading country in Asia that is playing a very important role in the global economy.

Design/methodology/approach

This conceptual paper will use for its research analysis the business reports of the Outlook Business Magazine and AON Hewitt. AON Hewitt is a global human resource consulting company and is an established authority in identifying "best" companies in India since 2004. A qualitative content analysis was done of the business report to identify predominant themes.

Findings

The analysis identified how the "best" 25 Indian companies offer progressive HRM practices that required careful investment and collaboration. This research showcases seven specific HRM themes that include elaborate staffing, investment in learning, work–life balance, egalitarian practices, developmental performance culture, generous benefits and engagement initiatives.

Practical implications

This paper provides preliminary guidelines for global practitioners who may be interested in doing business in India. It also provides a model of "best" HRM practices adopted by 25 companies that could help other organizations identify successful HRM practices in India. Among the 25 companies, 16 are Indian companies and 9 are subsidiaries of multinationals.

Originality/value

This paper outlines HRM "best" practices of organizations in an emerging Asian economy that has not been addressed before. This paper hopes to bridge this paucity in the extant literature by showcasing the "best" HRM practices from 25 "best" companies in India. It also provides an Indian model of "best" HRM practices that can be tested by other scholars for future studies.


Abstract The strengthening of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) during the 1990s was an unintended consequence of a series of tactical successes in U.S. antidrug policies. These included dismantling the Medellín and Cali drug cartels, interdicting coca coming into Colombian processing facilities, and using drug certification requirements to pressure the Colombian government to attack drug cartels and allow aerial fumigation of coca crops. These successes, however, merely pushed coca cultivation increasingly to FARC-dominated areas while weakening many of the FARC's political-military opponents. This provided the FARC with unprecedented opportunities to extract resources from the cocaine industry to deepen its long insurgency against the Colombian state. The Colombian experience demonstrates the importance of creating a more sophisticated understanding of how lootable wealth can exacerbate civil wars.


The aim of this study was to evaluate the shear bond strength (SBS) of polycrystalline ceramic brackets (PCB) bonded after bleaching treatment using different composite resins and enamel etching times. A total of 144 bovine incisors were randomly divided into two study groups (n = 72, each) as follows: G1, enamel bleached with 35% hydrogen peroxide, and G2 (control group), enamel unbleached. After the bleaching treatment, the samples were stored in artificial saliva for 14 days. These groups were further divided into two subgroups (n = 36, each) as follows: GA, brackets bonded with Transbond XT (3M) and GB, brackets bonded with Filtek Z250 (3M). For each resin used, three different etching times with 37% phosphoric acid (15, 30 and 60 seconds) were tested. SBS tests were performed using a universal testing machine (EMIC), and the adhesive remnant index (ARI) score was verified. Significant differences among the three experimental conditions and interactions between the groups were observed. The type of composite resin accounted for 24% of the influence on the bond strength, whereas the etching time and bleaching treatment accounted for 14.5% and 10% of the influence on bond strength, respectively. The ARI revealed that the most common area of adhesion failure was at the composite resin-bracket interface. The type of composite resin, etching time and external bleaching significantly influenced the SBS of PCB on enamel, even after 14 days of saliva storage.


The paper highlights the information needs and users' dependence for information on Community Information Centres (CIC) in Nagaland with emphasis on Medziphema block. It also focuses on the effort needed for imparting computer literacy, information literacy for preparing and powering the underprivileged rural masses through the use of ICTs in such community centres. An attempt is made to reduce the challenges faced by disadvantaged communities such as lack of suitable skill set, language barriers and low literacy in using ICTs and the Internet through a simple, consistent and easy-to-use interface that requires low level competence from users and through accessibility to the use of multiple media (textual, audio, visual)


H1‑receptor antagonists are drugs of choice to treat allergy. They work very fast as their therapeutic effect develops within 10‑15 min, have good tolerability and almost no adverse side-effects, and require no frequent instillations. Levocabastine quickly inhibits allergic reaction caused by specific allergen or histamine. Levocabastine while being a highly-selective H1‑receptor antagonist is the most perspective topical mono-drug used to treat acute allergic conjunctivitis. Levocabastine applied on a spot produces instant effect which persists for a long time so that instillations twice a day (BID) are enough. Levocabastine is more effective than other 15 antihistamines. In contrast to previous antihistamines, levocabastine blocks vasodilatation and reduces vascular permeability increase. Levocabastine eye drops have good tolerability comparable with cromoglicic acid eye drops and placebo. Levocabas tine is successfully used in allergic conjunctivitis (pollinosis, perennial, vernal, rhinoconjunctivitis) treatment in children. Its efficacy is the same or even higher than that of cromoglycate and azelastine. 20 clinical studies (more than 1200 patients) revealed that levocabastine eye drops are effective, work quickly and have good tolerability. This drug is efficient in allergic conjunctivitis treatment and acute infectious conjunctivitis complex therapy.


This is a heterodox review on macroeconomics according to the Austrian
 Economics. The Austrian business cycle theory explains the origin of
 boom-bust cycles based on the difference between natural interest rates and
 banking rates, which comes from the artificial processes of monetary and
 credit expansion. This difference is the yield curve, an instrument to
 detect the deviation of monetary policies, and a forward indicator of
 business cycles. This article studies the impact of yield curve slope on the
 requirements for access to bank credit, and the distorting effect of
 expansionary monetary policies on the capital structure. In an environment
 of artificially low interest rates, these distortions become an accumulation
 of long-term failed investments that markets cannot assume, with the
 consequent readjustment or recession. To detect these distortions and to
 control the bust, it could be useful the yield curve illustrates here.


Cut spikes have been used to hold rails directly to wood ties and thus provide lateral restraint to rails and maintain rail gage. For tightly curved and/or steeply graded wood tie tracks, particularly those undergoing heavy loads, elastic clips have been increasingly used to fasten rails securely to tie plates, which in turn are held down by cut spikes or lag screws to the crossties. However, several recent derailment accidents were attributed to the breakage of significant numbers of spikes used in association with the elastic fastening systems. A commonly observed failure mode is the development of fatigue cracking across spike surfaces located approximately 1.5 inches below the top surface of the tie. Previous Finite Element (FE) studies have shown that the presence of longitudinal force transmitted into the tie-spike interface is significant to accelerate wood damage and cause spike failure initiation as the strength of wood along the track longitudinal direction is weaker than the other directions. In the field, the magnitude of longitudinal load between a tie and fastener is very difficult to measure relying on the current sensor technology. A literature review conducted so far indicates that longitudinal-load-distribution related computational models are very limited. Therefore, the distribution mechanism of longitudinal load has not been well-established. To better understand how the longitudinal load is transferred from wheels to ties and fasteners, this paper developed an analytical model to investigate the longitudinal tie forces using the finite difference method.
 In this paper an analytical model is firstly introduced to calculate the longitudinal track response under a single static wheel load. The solution calculates diverse sets of responses such as: (1) rail axial displacements; (2) rail axial forces; (3) force distribution to the tie; and (4) tie forces. The effect of multiple axle loads from a train is then computed using superposition theory. To validate the model, a field test was performed at the Horseshoe Curve in Altoona, Pennsylvania to investigate longitudinal rail forces and longitudinal displacements of rail and ties under train passages. The model predictions were compared and validated with the test results. This model applies to all train types on various track layouts. Key factors, e.g. train braking versus train traction, fastener stiffness, etc., that have a significant effect on longitudinal force distributions are presented in the paper. The model estimates the longitudinal forces during uniform train braking and traction events, and shows that locomotives in traction lead to more significant longitudinal forces distributed to ties. The results indicate the longitudinal force was distributed over a large span (or influence zone) of over one hundred ties whereas the vertical tie load was only distributed over three to five ties. Within the influence zone of the longitudinal load, the vertical tie load ranged dramatically from maximum compressive forces (negative forces) to uplifting tensile forces (positive forces), indicating load configuration was very tie-dependent under a train passage. Significant longitudinal forces could be existing on uplifted ties. The results also show that larger longitudinal stiffness of fastener led to higher maximum forces distributed to ties and smaller influence zones.


This contribution focuses on the context of massively heterogeneous wireless communication systems and details new enabling mechanisms for guaranteeing an efficient usage of the available resources: Building on the known concept of a Cognitive Pilot Channel (CPC), the user is enabled to obtain a User Class dependent Virtual Connectivity Map (VCM) and is thus able to build on a-priori knowledge of the surrounding wireless framework for ahead planning of optimum horizontal/vertical handovers. Furthermore, it is illustrated how statistical modeling is exploited for characterizing the typical behavior of various communication systems, for example in the TV White Spaces (TVWS); the latter approach enables a statistical evaluation of the expected reliability and longevity of a radio link operated as secondary user. Finally, an Incentive Based Distributed Sensing concept is introduced which introduces a context dependent rewarding system for motivating Mobile Devices (MD) to contribute to a collaborative radio context sensing effort.


Purpose To investigate the effectiveness of modified Bu-Shen-Yi-Qi decoction (MBSYQ) in the treatment of osteoporosis associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and its underlying mechanisms of action. Methods Disease targets, active ingredients and targets were predicted by TTD, CTD, DisGeNET, HERB (BenCaoZuJian as its Chinese name), and multiple-TCM databases; In addition, the screened targets were performed via the online platforms DAVID 6.8 and Metascape for GO and KEGG pathway enrichment analysis; The relationship between the MBSYQ and core targets were verified by molecular docking technique. Then we established a COPD-associated osteoporosis rat model by passive 24-week cigarette exposure. We assessed the efficacy of MBSYQ by lung histopathology assessment and distal femur/the first lumbar vertebra (L1) microstructural assay. In addition, we performed tibial RNA sequencing, which was validated by RT-PCR and Western blot. Results Screening revealed that the 350 active compounds of MBSYQ anchored 228 therapeutic targets for COPD-related osteoporosis; KEGG pathway enrichment analysis showed that the key targets mainly regulated MAPK and PI3K/AKT signaling pathways. In vivo studies showed that MBSYQ treatment alleviated pathological alterations in lung tissue, and reversed the bone loss and microstructure damage in the femur/L1 of model rats. The RNA seq indicated that MBSYQ could upregulate genes associated with anti-oxidative stress and aerobic respiration. The GSEA analysis displayed that MAPK and PI3K/AKT pathways were inhibited by CS exposure and activated by MBSYQ. Conclusion MBSYQ is effective in the prevention and treatment of COPD-related osteoporosis, partially achieved by improving oxygen metabolism and activating MAPK and PI3K/AKT pathways.